Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Goodbye May, hello June! I am so excited that Summer is almost here. I say ‘almost’ because I don’t think it’s quite arrived in the UK yet. As I sit here on Tuesday 2nd, looking out the window, all I can see is rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain. I also have a fan heater whirring away beside me as it’s also gotten a little on the chilly side. I hope this is a temporary glitch and that Summer arrives soon.

As has become custom, a little life update before I move onto the blog and the books. If you’ve been here for a while you may be aware of the whole ‘shoulder debacle’. Long story short, I’ve needed a lot of surgery on both of my shoulders over the last twelve months. The fourth and hopefully final surgery was in May. Recovery is going well (although I haven’t read half as many books as I wanted to – too busy doing physio! 😉) and hopefully, THAT.IS.IT! No more mention of shoulders, surgery or…shoulder surgery. Let’s forget it ever happened.

Let’s get to the books and #CaseClosed, my monthly wrap up post where I share the books I’ve read, the content I’ve posted on the blog, the state of my NetGalley shelf and how my Goodreads challenge is going.

During May I read the grand total of twelve books which, for me, is a very good month. However, four of those books were short stories so officially, it’s closer to eight…

Those twelve-ish books were…

➡️ Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor
➡️ The Examiner by Janice Hallett
➡️ Believe by S.M. Govett
➡️ With a Vengeance by Riley Sager
➡️ The Six Murders of Daphne St Clair by Mackenzie Common
➡️ The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner
➡️ Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
➡️ How the Other Half Die by Rachel North
➡️ Jackknife by Joe Hill
➡️ The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones
➡️ The Blanks by Grady Hendrix
➡️ Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward

I’ve already posted my review of The Examiner and How the Other Half Die, and I’m on the blog tour for Dear Future Me next week so please keep your eyes peeled for that. I recently sat down and updated my blog diary for the next few months and came to realise that I have taken on more reviews than I have physical space for over the coming weeks/months. So normally I would say ‘look out for these reviews around publication day’ but that would be misleading. Most of these reviews won’t be published around publication day. Most of these reviews will probably feature on the blog weeks after they’ve been published as I just can’t squeeze everything in at the moment. I will do my best though and try to get my reviews shared in a timely manner.

During May I posted the following reviews…

🖤 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
🖤 The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
🖤 The Serial Killer Support Group by D.B. Stephens
🖤 The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
🖤 Vengeance is Mine by Michael Wood
🖤 They Had It Coming by Nikki Smith
🖤 The Gathering by C.J. Tudor
🖤 The Examiner by Janice Hallett
🖤 The Palazzo by Kayte Nunn

I posted four Top Ten Tuesday posts during May…

⚪ Tuesday 6th May – Authors Who Live in the Same County (Oxfordshire) As Me
⚪ Tuesday 13th May – The First Ten Books I Reviewed on damppebbles
⚪ Tuesday 20th May – Ten Destination Thrillers I LOVE
⚪ Tuesday 27th May – The Longest Books I’ve Read

I also posted four WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 7th May
🟧 Wednesday 14th May
🟧 Wednesday 21st May
🟧 Wednesday 28th May

And of course, there was #CaseClosed for April and my sign-up post for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge.

My most popular review on the blog in May was The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

My most popular non-review post in May was my Top Ten Tuesday contribution from Tuesday 27th May – The Longest Books I’ve Read. Very closely followed (by a squeak!) by my 20 Books of Summer sign-up.

These ten reviews received the most views in May….

1️⃣ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
2️⃣ Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre (from November 2020)
3️⃣ The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
4️⃣ Vengeance is Mine by Michael Wood
5️⃣ All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
6️⃣ The Examiner by Janice Hallett
7️⃣ The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
8️⃣ The Serial Killer Support Group by D.B. Stephens
9️⃣ They Had It Coming by Nikki Smith
🔟 The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

My Goodreads Challenge progress is still looking positive. I decided to take the heat off in 2025 and instead of going for my usual ‘one book every four days’ (roughly 92 books a year) I’ve gone with the more sedate 60 books over 52 weeks which I see as one book a week. It’s not 52 for two reasons 1) I started two books in 2024 and finished them in 2025 so they shouldn’t count towards my total. And 2) I’ve added a number of short stories/novellas which I don’t count in my challenge total (only full length novels). Makes some kind of strange sense somewhere! So far this year I have read 45 books which puts me 20 books ahead of schedule (75% of the way there). Woohoo!!

On to my NetGalley update for this month. For anyone not familiar with NG it’s a site where you can request early copies of digital books in exchange for a review. I’ve been on NG since I first started the blog in 2016 and we’ve….had our moments…? I find it very easy to get carried away and request ALL the books, only to realise a few days later that I do actually need to find the time to read ALL of the books! One of my bookish goals for this year is to get my NetGalley shelf down to five ‘to-be-read’ books at a time. I made a pledge at the end of January to reduce the number of books to be both read AND reviewed on my shelf. I was, at the time, feeling overly positive. Then I realised that would mean cutting back and unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be something I am capable of!

So, big changes this month! My shelf is looking manageable once again (phew!) which I am DELIGHTED about. It’s great because YOU can only see the books I have to read, not the books I have read and NOW NEED TO REVIEW. THAT is pretty shameful. But the NGTBR is looking pretty sweeeeeet!

This is what I currently have to read on my NetGalley shelf.

💟 The Outback by Sara Ochs
💟 The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards
💟 The Compound by Aisling Rawle
💟 We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
💟 59 Minutes by Holly Seddon

The last two books plus one other which I recently finished reading were all added in a rush the other day to make up the numbers for my #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge! I’ve been eyeing them up for a while now but I thought having more review copies as part of my challenge would mean I would get them read and *fingers crossed* reviewed faster. That’s the plan anyway!

So in summary…..
January: 11 eARCs to be read | 14 to be reviewed
February: 14 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed
March: 12 eARCS to be read | 12 to be reviewed
April: 9 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed
May: 5 eARCs to be read 🥳 | 14 to be reviewed 🙈

Out of the twelve books I read in May, my book of the month is…

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The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner

That’s it for another month. Thanks as always for getting this far and for your continued support. You are the best! I hope you have a great June. If, like me, you’re taking part in the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge, I hope it’s a productive month and you make a good, solid start on your list. If you’re not taking part in the challenge then there’s still time to sign up 😉

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Bluesky. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are around roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.

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