Today’s post covers the second half of the books I read in May 2026. I shared what I read in the first half of the month here. I shared my five star reads here. I do have a few more 5 star reads to share in this post. Plus, it’s time for the Share Your Shelf Link Up! I hope you will join Joanne and I to share what you read this month. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: The Second Life of Snap
Author: Erin Entrada Kelly
Genre: Middle Grade Dystopian
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 5/12/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
If you’re keeping count, this makes the 3rd dystopian book I read this month! This one is about Zuzu, who lives in a time after AI ruins the world, full of dust storms and segregated by class. The tech company is in charge. Zuzu’s father loses his job but is given a robot in return, who Zuzu names Snap. He is supposed to be a guardian robot but instead becomes a friend.
“Bright Valley Subsidized Camp #5 is not a perfect place to live. It’s dusty, there are no trees to provide respite from the beating sun, the trailers are falling apart, and the water supply is heavily rationed. But to twelve-year-old Zuzu Santos and her three best friends, Bright Valley is home. When Zuzu’s dad loses his job at Lockwood, the corporation that controls everything from rations to education, he isn’t given money or food or water as severance, but a dated, first-generation robot. They do not provide a working charging station. Zuzu names the robot Snap, and he soon becomes part of the Bright Valley family. But Snap’s battery is dwindling every day, and though Snap is prepared for his inevitable reset, Zuzu isn’t. She would do whatever it takes to keep Snap alive. The problem is, Snap would do the same for Zuzu and her friends, no matter the cost.”
I liked the friendships in this book and it was interesting to imagine a world taken over by AI. I thought the story ended a bit abruptly and without closure. This middle grade book would work for many kids interested in technology and climate change going into the future.
Title: Flirting With Fate
Author: JC Cervantes
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: Listening Library, 4/19/22
Source: BookSparks – Print, Library – Audio
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
From my 26 in ’26 list I listened to Flirting With Fate by JC Cervantes. This is about Ava, whose grandma dies and as is their family tradition, she gives blessings to her granddaughters from her deathbed. Because Ava is late, she misses her blessing. Ava’s grandmother’s ghost appears to Ava and tells her to reclaim her blessing from the mystery boy she met on the night her grandma died. Maybe this boy got her blessing for a reason – but Ava doesn’t believe in fate.
“Ava Granados will never forgive herself for being late to her beloved nana’s deathbed. But due to a flash flood that left Ava in a fender bender with a mysterious boy, she missed her grandmother’s mystical blessing—one that has been passed between the women of her family upon death for generations. Then Nana’s ghost appears with a challenge from beyond the grave. As it turns out, Nana did give Ava a blessing, but it missed its target, landing with the boy from the night of the storm instead. Was it fate? Ava refuses to believe so. With the help of her sisters and Nana’s rather bumbling spiritual guide, she’s determined to reclaim her share of the family magic and set Nana free. For guarded Ava, befriending some random boy is the last thing she wants to do. She’s gotten along just fine protecting her heart—keeping people at a distance is a great way to ensure no one ever hurts you. But as Ava embarks on her mission to retrieve the lost blessing, she starts to wonder if getting close to thunderstorm boy is worth the risk.”
This was a cute story and I enjoyed the relationship between Ava and her mystery boy. An additional mystery around an old photograph added interest to the story as well. The magical realism in this was fun. I also enjoyed Ava’s sisters and the relationship they all shared with their grandma.
Title: How The Story Goes
Author: Andrew Forrester
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Avon, 5/5/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
How The Story Goes by Andrew Forrester has a familiar set up – Whit’s wife Helen dies and leaves it to him to finish her book series. He recruits Merritt, an MFA drop out after a bad break up, to help him. Whit is a single dad who writes literary mysteries. Of course, Whit and Merritt fall for one another.
“Whit Longacre has a monumental task and a looming deadline. After his wife, Helen, died of cancer, she left him with their grieving eight-year-old daughter and a surprise in her will: the small task of writing the final book in her mega-popular children’s fantasy series for her legions of waiting fans. Whit is the author of moderately successful (but well-received!) literary mysteries. He doesn’t have the first idea of how to complete Helen’s beloved series, and his enigmatic wife seems to have left no clues behind on how the story is supposed to end. Writer’s block is one thing, but to fail in fulfilling his wife’s last wish? Whit is guilt-ridden and dodging calls in the school pick-up line from Helen’s publisher and agent as the deadline fast approaches. Then Whit meets Merritt Pryor, who works at the local bookstore in their small New England town. Merritt has moved back home after a disastrous affair led to her dropping out of her prestigious MFA program. When Whit realizes that Merritt is a superfan of the Greenwood Castle series, they come up with a plan to tackle the book together. For the first time in years, Merritt finds herself falling back in love with writing…and perhaps with the coauthor offering her the opportunity of a lifetime. But when Whit uncovers a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes, he questions everything about what he and Merritt have created together, endangering the tender, electrifying partnership that has transformed their lives.”
I thought this one was a little too slow moving, although the end was better than the beginning. It is certainly interesting that I’ve read so many books with a similar set up this year!
Title: Who’s The Favorite?
Author: Catherine Carr
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Harper, 4/7/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4 Stars
I went into Who’s The Favorite by Catherine Carr expecting a book about sibling rivalry. It is actually more about sibling relationships and how they effect entire lives. It is about all types of siblings including step siblings, half siblings, growing up with a disabled sibling, and experiencing the death of a sibling, with not that much about favoritism.
“For many people, relationships with brothers and sisters last a lifetime, spanning decades. Sibling relationships precede friendships or romances and outlast most connections to parents. Eighty percent of us have brothers and sisters who share our DNA and are often the unique keepers of our intimate histories. Our siblings can be our allies and our competition, our tormentors and our protectors, our best friends and our enemies. Research has found that these relationships are just as influential to our development as parenting. Documentarian and celebrated podcast host Catherine Carr—herself a middle child—became convinced of the profound importance of sibling relationships. In Who’s the Favorite?, she takes us on an unprecedented journey through some of the universal themes of siblinghood: designated roles and labels, friendship and enmity, shared trauma, family language and jokes, and separation and estrangement. Drawing on over seventy conversations she has had with pairs of siblings for her podcast, new research, studies by psychologists, and fascinating depictions in popular culture, she sheds new light on these vastly underappreciated relationships that profoundly affect our lives—relationships that are formative, vital, and full of clues about how to make sense of how we get on with others. Part journalistic deep dive, part storytelling, part pop cultural critique, this conversational, illuminating, and endlessly absorbing work is a long overdue look at our sibling relationships and how they define us.”
I enjoyed the references to pop culture siblings. I would have liked more stories about siblings and interviews about the sibling experience.
Title: Breakout
Author: Christina Wyman
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Books For Young Readers, 3/10/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Breakout by Christina Wyman is the third of the author’s middle grade books about young people dealing with something that makes them feel different than their peers. This month I also read and loved Slouch by this author. Breakout is about Ellis, who is dealing with acne. Her mom makes her feel like she’s doing something to cause her breakouts, while her dad discounts her feelings and tells her she looks fine. Ellis is working on a big project for school and she decides to focus on therapy with dogs, which is something her aunt is involved with.
“Ellis Starr likes learning about active volcanoes. She does not like having acne that resembles them. But it’s not just cosplaying as a pepperoni pizza that has Ellis on the verge of erupting. Her mom’s hot-and-cold moods have the two of them butting heads nonstop―especially now that her mom is dating for the first time since her parents’ separation. Then there’s Ellis’s best friend, Aggy, whose own life―and skin―seems perfect. And who could forget that Ellis still needs to decide on a research topic for a big school project. With eighth grade proving to be every bit as pesky as a new pimple, Ellis’s only bright spot is the time she spends with her aunt Lydia, whose adorable puppy, Rocco, is a natural stress reliever. (And perhaps the perfect subject for her project.) Maybe this season of breakouts can lead to a breakthrough about what Ellis needs to truly feel good in her own skin.”
I appreciated that in this one, Ellis was not bullied, but felt self-conscious about her breakouts. Living with separated parents and dealing with money issues is also something that is addressed in this book. It wasn’t quite as touching as Wyman’s previous two books, but I definitely enjoy her stories!
Title: When We See You Again
Author: Rachel Goldberg-Polin
Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir
Publisher: Random House, 4/21/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin is about the deep grief of the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, taken hostage on October 7 and murdered by Hamas. Hersh’s mother is known for her unrelenting fight for his release and this book reveals the person behind her strong exterior.
“On the morning of October 7th, 2023, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s beloved twenty-three-year-old son, Hersh, was stolen from a music festival billed as a celebration of unity and love—and, in that moment, her life was forever separated into The Before and The After. Over the next eleven months, she and her husband, Jon, would work tirelessly—in public and behind the scenes—to secure the hostages’ release, to breathe some humanity into the situation while they were experiencing relentless emotional and psychological torment. The power of her raw and fervent pleas soon made her the face of the hostage crisis. And when Hersh and five other captives were executed after surviving 328 days of violence and cruelty, she would also become the face of its ultimate cost. In When We See You Again, Rachel pours her pain, love, and longing onto paper, giving voice to the broken among us, and reminding us that even when the world feels choked with darkness, light exists in a different way. How do we find it? Her own experience has been extreme, but at its essence, this is a universal story of trying to live with grief. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.”
I found Rachel to be extremely inspiring, with her spirituality and faith something to admire. She has a reliance on mantras, and it seems Hersh adopted that practice when he encouraged fellow hostages to find their “why” for staying alive. Now, his parents are looking for their why. While some of this book felt a bit disjointed, it is very raw and honest – a must read memoir for sure. May Hersh’s memory be a revolution for good.
Title: We Dream of Space
Author: Erin Entrada Kelly
Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 5/5/20
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
While it pains me to call We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly historical fiction, as it covers something in my own lifetime, we have to face that 1986 was 40 years ago! This book is about siblings Bird, Fitch, and Cash, middle schoolers learning about the Challenger launch. Those of us who were in elementary school at the time may recall watching the disaster live on TV and will empathize with Bird, who wants to be an astronaut, Fitch, who is dealing with anger issues, and Cash, who plays basketball but needs to find what he is really good at.
“Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn’t
understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA’s first female shuttle commander, but feels like she’s disappearing. The Nelson Thomas
children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project—they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.”
I really appreciated the sibling relationships in this book, showing how each dealt with the difficult home life they experienced. I also loved their teacher, Ms. Salonga. Setting this book around the Challenger launch was both interesting and heartbreaking. This is my favorite book by this author so far.
Title: Good Joy, Bad Joy
Author: Mikki Brammer
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 5/5/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Good Joy, Bad Joy by Mikki Brammer was a highly anticipated read for me as I loved her previous book. This one wasn’t quite as amazing for me, but I did enjoy this story about Joy, who is 89 when she finds out her best friend Hazel is dying. This causes her to look back at her life and become a little bit rebellious.
“For over eighty years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules: she’s been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town. But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live. Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their duo, and she seems at peace with all that she’s squeezed out of her long life. Yet Joy realizes she can’t say the same. Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left together, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone―and into a bit of trouble. But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there’s a way for her to embrace the liberation that ‘Bad Joy’ offers without losing all that she holds dear.”
While some of Joy’s bad behavior was amusing, the real story here is about Joy’s relationship with her daughter, as well as her personal history. Joy is an admirable character who accepts people as they are and tries to demonstrate generosity and kindness. I did think this could have used a bit more emotional depth to enhance the overall story.
Title: False Witness
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing, 7/20/21
Source: Publisher – Print, Library – Audio
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
While False Witness by Karin Slaughter was definitely my favorite I’ve read from this author, like her other books it was gory, violent, and dealt with difficult subjects. I listened to this from my 26 in ’26 list. It is about siblings Leigh and Callie. Leigh is a defense attorney who is brought in to defend a rapist who she realizes she knows from her own past.
“Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She’s an up-and-coming defense attorney at a prestigious law firm in Atlanta, would do anything for her sixteen-year-old daughter Maddy, and is managing to successfully coparent through a pandemic after an amicable separation from her husband Walter. But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure … a childhood tarnished by dark family secrets, broken by betrayal, and ultimately destroyed by a brutal act of violence. On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the firm’s partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. Though wary of the case, it becomes apparent she doesn’t have much choice if she wants to keep her job. They’re scheduled to go to trial in one week. When she meets the accused face-to-face, she realizes in a moment of chilling suspense that it’s no coincidence that he’s specifically asked for her to represent him. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he may know what happened over twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades avoiding her past. Suddenly she has a lot more to lose than this case as she’s pulled into a dangerous game of blackmail. The only person who can help is her younger, estranged sister Callie―the last person Leigh would ever want to drag into this after all they’ve been through. But with the life-shattering truth in danger of being revealed, she has no choice…”
While disturbing in content, if you can deal with the goriness, this was not a bad thriller. It takes place in the Covid time period. I liked the vet character who Callie worked for a lot.
This post includes nine of the books I read this month. Seven were print books and two were audio. Five of these were adult books, one was YA, and three were Middle Grade. Genres included dystopian, rom com, non fiction, contemporary, historical fiction, and thriller.
If you wrote about books this month, you can link up with us here:
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
