BOOKS I READ IN APRIL

It’s been a while since i’ve done a reading update but you’ll have to forgive me, I was busy having a baby. When I had Teddy I didn’t read a single thing for a few months and in all honesty, it made me feel incredibly low as reading is such a huge part of my life so this time around I was determined that I would read a little every single day, even if it was just a few pages and i’m so pleased that I’ve managed to keep it up! I read quite a lot during the clusterfeeding newborn days as I was pretty much stuck under a feeding baby for 24 hours a day, and now I read during the day whilst Oliver naps & Teddy has some independent play and I always read before I go to sleep. I am really looking forward to sharing which books I read in April!

This month was also the O.W.L’S readathon, which is a Harry Potter based readathon created & hosted by G from Youtube’s Book Roast and it is the one readathon I take part in every year!

VERY NEARLY NORMAL BY HANNAH SUNDERLAND

I received this as an ARC from Avon and loved it! It follows Effie who struggles with alcohol addiction and Theo who is a happy-go-lucky but mysterious love interest and oh god, their relationship had me smiling throughout. I loved how their friendship developed and their back & forth banter had me laughing out loud. I really related to Effie as a person (alcohol dependency aside) but she was quite harsh to herself & incredibly snarky. I enjoyed watching her learn to love herself! It was just an incredibly cute & easy read. Light-hearted for thr most part but also touched upon much harder subjects.

HEARTSTOPPER VOLUME 3 BY ALICE OSEMAN

This is my favourite graphic novel series by far, the LGBT love story and the illustrations are bloody lovely. It is incredibly cheesy & it does make me roll my eyes occasionally, I just can’t help but love it. It’s so wholesome and comforting. I love how the volumes flow together really seamlessly and I love how Alice uses real life teenage problems – like open discussions about not being ready for sex & trying to find where you fit in. I can’t wait for the next volume!

WAR OF HEARTS BY S.YOUNG

I picked this up solely because it fit a prompt I needed for the OWL’s readathon and for the most part I enjoyed it! I love an enemies to lover romance and I used to be a huge fan of paranormal romance so I flew through it really quickly however I found the ending dragged on far longer than it needed to and I was skimming over the last few pages. I really enjoyed the characters in this and the initial plot was great! I love Samantha Young’s contemporary novels and would highly recommend those.

THE WICKED DEEP BY SHEA ERNSHAW

I had heard so much about this book recently via Booktube ect but never really took much notice as it didn’t sound like my sort of thing, however it was another book that fitted one of the OWL’s readathon prompts & I bought it on my kindle for less than £2 and I’m so glad I did! The writing is absolutely beautiful and I was instantly sucked into the characters, plot and atmosphere! It is described as a Hocus Pocus meets Salem witch trials and I literally couldn’t describe it any better! I would highly recommend this book! It is really magical.

OUR STOP BY LAURA JANE WILLIAMS

I picked this up for 99p after seeing it recommended EVERYWHERE over the past few months. It’s really lovely story following Nadia & Daniel who both catch the same train to work but never interact, until Daniel posts an ad about her in the local newspaper reaching out for a date and they correspond every day via the newspaper. It’s a case of he knows who she is but she doesn’t know who he is. It’s a lot of near-misses which usually annoys me but it was done so well, that I really liked it! It’s just a super cute read, even though you know how it is going to end, sometimes that is just what you need!

BLOOD ORANGE BY HARRIET TYCE

I read this as the April book pick for Beth’s Book Club and really enjoyed it!! It is a mystery/crime/thriller which are always my favourite. It was a completely addictive story that I didn’t to put down (damn kids, haha). I did find one of the twists slightly predictable and I called it within the first few chapters but I put that down to reading a lot in the genre. However one aspect of the ending had me SHOOK! I’d highly recommend this to anyone! Loved it.

ONE OF US IS NEXT BY KAREN M.McMANUS

I won’t say to much about this one as is a sequel to Karen’s first book One Of Us Is Lying, which I really enjoyed, but this one was SO much better! I loved the characters a lot more, the plot was so fast paced and intriguing! I haven’t read many young adult mystery books but these are so good and definitely appeal to an older audience! I can’t wait to see what Karen writes next…

I hope you enjoyed looking at what I read in April, I love reading wrap up and recommendations blog posts, although my bank balance really doesn’t. My lovely friend Katie shared the books she always recommends and I loved reading it and we definitely share similar reading tastes.