April Wrap Up

I read 13 books in April and I somehow had five stars! That is one of the best reading months I have had in a while. I will be ranking these in order from my least favourite to my favourite but it is going to be hard to do once we get to the five stars!

Song of Blood and Stone was the March book for The Book Check Out Book Club and I had never heard of it before it was chosen. I love that because the reason we started the book club in the first place is that we all have different reading tastes and we wanted to push each other out of our comfort zones. This book was marketed as an epic fantasy and it read like a fantasy romance to me and I just was not prepared for it! Also, there are three versions of this book where the author added new scenes and chapters. In the final version, she added new POV characters who were not in the other versions at all. I read the second version, so I do wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the final edition! Because the romance is such a big part of the story, I think being invested in the relationship is important. Sadly, I couldn’t connect to this love story and it honestly felt cringy to me a lot of the time, especially the steamy scenes. The world was interesting, if not a little confusing and convoluted, but I will not be continuing with the series.

How to Kill Men and Get Away With It is a mix of Killing Eve and Dexter and reads like a satire and the humour is definitely dark. I am still not sure what to make of it. The main character is an influencer but she hates it and makes fun of it but acknowledges her extreme privilege while also taking advantage of it. She ends up accidentally killing a man who was following her home and discovers that she enjoyed it so she decides to kill terrible men. These things happen on the page and let’s just say that she is VERY creative. She is never likable but you can’t help but root for her and there is also a romance I was oddly connected to. Some fun twists too!

The Fiancee Farce has some of the best communication I have ever read in a romance and that was refreshing! I love the chemistry between these two and there were some sweet and steamy moments. The thing I struggled with is that I think when it comes to fake dating there is a fine line between there being too much pining and not enough. I think this one fell into the not enough category. They agree to a marriage of convenience but decide to give it a shot for real rather quickly. I am a lover of a slow burn, so that was disappointing to me! That said, I do think that the excellent communication contributed to that so I have mixed feelings.

Ocean’s Echo is the sequel to Winter’s Orbit but it follows different characters and just happens to be set in the same world. While the first book was romance heavy, this installment largely focuses on the politics, which I appreciated because I do think that Everina Maxwell has created a compelling universe. However, there was something about the pacing that wasn’t as effective as the first book. At 464 pages, I think this was a little too long and that more of the pages could have been dedicated to the romance.

Invisible Women is the first non fiction I have read this year, which is just sad! I have normally read five or six by now but I haven’t been gravitating toward non fiction this year! I think Invisible Women was a good one to start with even if it was super infuriating and frustrating. I think we all know that the world works against women but this book was eye-opening for me personally. If you know any books that cover similar topics please let me know because I think this was a good starting point.

Rolling in the Deep is the prequel novella to Into the Drowning Deep and I am glad that I read it first! I think it helped me understand some of the science stuff that is prominent in the full-length novel. This was another win for me from Mira Grant and I continue to enjoy her short-form horror. I also need to read more books with killer mermaids!

Record of a Spaceborn Few is the third book in the Wayfarer series. This is my least favourite of the four but it was still incredible and it is quintessential Becky Chambers. I am not at all surprised that she chose to have one of the books focus on humans living in space since so much of her work is a commentary on humanity, but that just wasn’t as interesting to me as reading about the other species that she created in this world. Though it was funny to get the POV of characters who are spending time around humans for the first time and how strange they think we are! This one had a lot of heart!

Into the Drowning Deep has become one of my favourite horror novels and I can see why it has been recommended to me so many times over the years. It is an interesting blend of horror, thriller, and SciFi and it had me on the edge of my seat while also giving me space to form a connection to the characters so I cared what happened to them. There is also a surprise romance which I liked!

I am on a fantasy romance journey and I have found a new favourite in Radiance. This was just so cute while also having an intriguing fantasy world and political maneuvering. Our characters are in an arranged marriage and are from different species so they are not at all attracted to one another and they let the other one know! That said, they have great banter from the beginning and seeing them slowly fall in love was so sweet!

I finally caught up on Murderbot and it feels so good! I had been putting off the full length novel, Network Effect, because I love the novellas and was worried that it might be too much Murderbot but it turns out that I cannot get enough and this ended up being my favourite book in the series. I am now all the more excited for System Collapse, which is also a full length novel in the series and it comes out later this year.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a reread for me because I was part of a live show where we discussed this book and I am so happy I took the time to read it again. I liked it more the second time! I went into this read knowing some of the critiques that people have of it, particularly that the love interest is selfish, and I just did not see it. I love all of these characters and Heather Fawcett’s take on faeries. I cannot wait for the sequel and I will never stop recommending this book!

The Galaxy and the Ground Within is the final book in the Wayfarer series, so I have finally finished it after of all these years. This has officially become a favourite series of all time! I am having a hard time deciding whether the first book or this one is my favourite. They are both standouts! I think The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is the most heartwarming and has my favourite characters. It was the perfect end to an incredible SciFi series!

In a surprising turn of events, I have a new favourite book of the year! I had no idea if I would like Ashes of the Sun but so many of my friends loved it so I went for it. I am so happy I did because I had a blast with this book! It is the start of a fantasy series following a brother and sister who were separated as children and are on different sides of a conflict. There is the cutest sapphic romance and so many memorable side characters. I loved this so much that when I tried to read something else afterwards I was getting distracted so I read the sequel instead. I will talk about that in my May wrap up!

What was the best book you read in April?

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