Books from May 2026
Happy nearly-June, my loves!
Without doubt, May was my most volatile month of reading so far in 2026. Although I consistently read every day – and even finished six books – I either read complete gems or really terrible books. What’s worse? All of the books were highly anticipated reads of mine, and there’s nothing worse than a disappointing read. After all, a novel takes plenty of time, consideration and dedication. Our time is precious! I have more than 700 books shelved on my StoryGraph TBR profile! Yet, a ‘bad book’ serves to redirect me and helps to inform me of how my reading taste is evolving. It’s not all bad.
Let’s be bookish friends! Find me on Goodreads, The StoryGraph or Pagebound to see what I’m reading and reviewing in real-time.
May reads
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (reread; started in April)
- Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan (ARC)
- Summer Rolls by Tuyền Đỗ (DNF)
- The Final Six by Akinari Asakura (ARC)
- Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan
June to-be-read list
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Kitten by Stacey Yu (ARC)
- Shorelines by Ruth Ennis (ARC)
- Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi (ARC)
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
In review
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (reread)
Rating: 4.5 stars
This month, I finished rereading Jane Eyre. I first read this in my teens and, oddly, found it much harder to read this time around, which only motivates me further to continue reading classics and more challenging books. Perhaps I’d forgotten how latent the opening chapters are and how enormously descriptive Brontë’s scene-setting is in this book. In the eponymous Jane Eyre, we of course meet Jane, an orphaned girl being raised by her cruel aunt. Soon, she becomes governess at the Rochester’s house, and our story properly begins.
Reading it through the lens of my 35-year-old self felt special. I still think that Charlotte Brontë was brilliant at bringing Jane Eyre to life. Her vivacity leaps off the page, and I was struck by how fiercely independent Jane is and how moralistic she was even at a young age. I remember thinking this was a great love story back before – and the yearning is definitely there! – but this is really, largely, a glorious character study of a feminist heroine. (Let’s just forget about the St. John Rivers era, because that whole section annoys me every time!) A wonderful reread to add to my 2026 list.
Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Rating: 3.5 stars
I have a soft spot for the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series so, when I fell in a reading slump, I knew that picking up this cosy translated fiction could help to ease that. I ended up finishing the book in just two days!
If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it revolves around a magical café in Tokyo where customers can be transported ‘back’ in time to meet with loved ones who have also visited the café. The only catch? You must complete your conversation and finish your coffee before it gets cold. These books have become known for being a little repetitive since the concept is the same every time, yet I always find such comfort in the quiet, human stories. Who would you meet, if you could go back in time? This fifth book in the series contains four heartfelt chapters, from a child of divorced parents to a widow with her newborn child. I adored the small, human gestures, and the quiet introversion throughout.
Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan (ARC)
Thanks World Editions and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy!
Rating: 2.75 stars
I have a thing for own-voice novels and, as a British-born Chinese reader that has lived in the UK and Hong Kong, was incredibly excited to read a novel set in both London and Hong Kong with themes that always resonate with me: food and family.
Goodbye Chinatown sadly fell flat for me. It felt disjointed and lacked focus, and there wasn’t nearly enough character development across the fairly small cast of characters. We open with a heavy focus on food and learning that Amber Fan is a budding chef following in the footsteps of her restauranteur parents in London’s Chinatown – somewhere I have spent plenty of time. In the opening pages, Fan brings his world to life with zingy, beautiful descriptions of Chinatown’s atmosphere and Amber’s menus.
I fear that Fan was trying to do too much here. It felt as though conversations about culture, immigration, filial piety, food and familial relations, plus politics, were crammed into a plotline where not much actually happens. We learn a little about Amber’s world, thus Bobby’s world, and then we’re thrust into another little something about her parents, then about the political tensions between Hong Kong and China, and so on. I was taken out of the story simply trying to work out what exactly Fan was trying to accomplish. The writing is lovely line by line, but the story ultimately fell flat because it was low stakes and there were a lot of ‘things’ going on that either didn’t make sense or never went anywhere.
I also felt that this would be rather more difficult to digest for readers unaware of the political tensions and diasporic complexities across the UK, Hong Kong and China. It suddenly makes up a large part of the story, especially in the middling chapters, and felt so random when we’d just started getting somewhere with Amber in London. Also, I wanted more of Amber and Jasmin!!
Summer Rolls by Tuyền Đỗ (DNF)
DNF @ 50%
I hate to DNF a book this far in, but I’m just not gelling with the characters, their development, or the loose plot. Perhaps I’ll pick it up again at a later date!
The Final Six by Akinari Asakura (ARC)
Thanks Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy!
Rating: 2.75 stars
Following a slew of not-so-good books, I was grateful to receive an ARC of The Final Six and that it was a snappy, low-stakes mystery-thriller. I needed a book to get me back in the swing of things and The Final Six did just that… Or at least the first half did.
Hatano is a job-seeker and, having progressed to the final stage of the recruitment process, is one of six candidates. But, there’s a twist: the final six must decide who ‘wins’ the vacancy by discussing it amongst the group. When six mysterious envelopes are brought into play, the game changes completely.
The second half of the book fell flat for me. Having lost the pace and tension of the first half, I struggled to then connect to Hatano again as we followed him trying to solve the mystery of who was behind the envelopes. I half wanted to find out, and was half utterly lost in the mundanities of corporate workplace culture and criticism. I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese office life, and this book provided just the teeniest glimpse into that. From the structural hierarchy and rigidities of how companies operate to the expectations of graduates and job-seekers, it was fascinating to see this manipulated into an unconventional thriller. Yet, I found it hard to connect with any character in the book. I am not a reader that needs to relate to a novel’s protagonist, but I should at least feel invested in their story, y’know? Ultimately, the story felt less and less urgent as I read through it, and the strong first half was let down by the second.
Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan
Rating: 5 stars
Friends, we have a 5-star read! And, actually, a strong contender for my favourite read of 2026 so far! Sue Lynn Tan is one of my favourite authors and Never Ever After is her 2025 Cinderella-inspired East Asian ‘romantasy’ novel. I’m not a romance reader, but I am fairly committed to anything Tan writes, and I’m so glad that I picked Never Ever After up after months of it languishing on my shelves.
After the death of her uncle, Yining has survived life in the Iron Mountains by living as a thief, a liar and an accomplice to her step-aunt. When Yining acquires an enchanted ring that promises a hopeful future, it is stolen by her step-aunt. Yining must head to the imperial palace to seize it back. Once Yining arrives at the palace ball, Yining captivates the ruthless Prince Zixin, who tempts her with life with him in the imperial kingdom.
I love the way Tan writes her feminist heroines; tender, strong-willed, sentimental and wildly passionate. Yining is no exception. She is a smart-witted, confident, loving, loyal and human character that you easily come to love within a matter of chapters. I loved how Tan was unafraid to place Yining in multiple love interest situations, and how this brought Yining’s emotional intelligence to life. This brilliantly set the tone for the rest of the story and how Yining deals with challenging confrontations.
There’s a beautiful balance of action, Chinese mythology and ancient Chinese culture, romance, filial piety and inner strength in Never Ever After. And, of course, it’s all bestowed with Tan’s signature lyrical prose and gorgeously romantic writing style.
