April Wrap-up – 2021

Click to listen! Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Hello Hello! How are you?

It’s the first Monday of May and I can’t actually believe it but it’s time for me to get my April Wrap-up posted!

I really struggled with pain and fatigue in April but after submitting my final assignment for my first year of master’s on Friday, I was able to have a nice relaxing weekend ready for getting on with my thesis starting today. I’m really looking forward to it, so this month is going to be filled with thesis reading and research!

If you know me, you know that even though I’m super busy, I have once again decided on a really ambitious TBR. It doesn’t look ambitious when counting individual books, but it is when you see the size of some… help aha! If you want to find out what I’ll read in May, head over to my TBR post here.

In April, I was able to read a total of 10 books, which isn’t the biggest number so far this year, but considering how bad I’ve felt recently, I still think it’s fairly good. Keep on reading to find out what books they were!

BOOKS READ

Favourite Book of the Month

The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz – 4.5 stars

This is the Algonquin Young Readers book I read for one of their blog tours this month and it was definitely one of my favourite books because it was so good. You know I love middle-grade books and this was such a great one. It had humour, but also a great setting, great characters and some really tough choices to make. I had a great time reading it, and you can find my full review here!

April Books

The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King – 4 stars

The first book I read in April was for the final BBNYA 2020 blog tour organised by Dave from @The_WriteReads. This book won the competition last year and I can definitely see why. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting or what I wanted, but the writing style was amazing, and I did enjoy my time reading it. You can find my full review here.

Carnages by Maxime Chattam – 3.5 stars

I was able to squeeze in more French literature into my month and this was a book I read in under an hour. I hadn’t ever seen such a small thriller before, but it was good. This is categorised as a thriller in France, but it is a mystery for sure. This was interesting, but because of how short it was, I couldn’t get to know the characters well. It did entertain me though and I definitely want to read more by this author.

L’Adversaire by Emmanuel Carrère – 4 stars

The other French book I read in April was for an assignment and this was definitely my favourite of the two. It’s been ages since I’ve read French books, but I had no trouble getting immersed in the story. This is a true crime book and although there was a bit of emphasis on religion that I didn’t enjoy reading about, the actual crimes and culprit were really interesting to read about. And now I want to go on a true-crime binge aha!

Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli – 4 stars

The next #UltimateBlogTour organised by Dave from @The_WriteReads that I participated in was for a book that I did enjoy a lot because of the theatre play they were putting on. I had a few issues with this book, mainly the swearing. I swear like a sailor myself, but the constant “f-boys” really annoyed me. But if you read my full review, you’ll see what else I have to say about it.

Shadow Service Volume 1 (#1-5) by Cavan Scott – 4 stars

This was another super quick read that I also really enjoyed. I’ve been trying to get into more graphic novels and comics lately so I jumped on the chance to read this one when it appeared in my inbox. I’m glad I did give it a go because I loved it. I loved the witchy vibes and how dark this graphic novel is. It’s really violent and gory, but the artwork is so good and you can find out more in my review.

Things To Do Before the End of the World by Emily Barr – 2.5 stars

The book that flopped this month was one that I personally didn’t like for a few reasons but I know a lot of other readers enjoyed it a lot. I loved the writing style, but the book was just not what I expected and I disliked a whole part of the book that I found to be mocking spirituality and I just wasn’t okay with that or how flat and naïve the characters were. Just not a book for me and it didn’t really go into the “end of the world” topic at all.

Poirot Investigates (#3 Hercule Poirot) by Agatha Christie – 3.5 stars

We finally got around to finishing and discussing the next instalment in the Hercule Poirot series and I think for all of us, this wasn’t our favourite book. I found some of these short stories a little boring if I’m honest and the general consensus is that the stories weren’t long enough for us to get fully invested in them or the cases and characters. But it was still an enjoyable reading experience for me and my favourite stories were The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb and The Case of the Missing Will.

Among the Beasts & Briars by Ashley Poston – 4.5 stars

The TWR Gang book club pick for April was definitely my favourite out of all the books we have read so far. This was not what I was expecting but I loved it a lot. It was very dark and very atmospheric, the writing style is beautiful and I was thoroughly immersed in this world, I didn’t want it to stop. There were a few eye-roll moments and some things I’m still really confused over, but I can’t help but love this book so much. I will get my review up soon.

Whispers Under Ground (#3 Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch – 4 stars

And the final book I managed to cram into my April reading was of course the third book in the Rivers of London series which has now become one of my all-time favourites. So far, this is my least favourite of the series, but still a really solid and really enjoyable book. I loved that so many things that happened made sense only at the end, really good foreshadowing! The writing style is just so good, I love the conversational tone and the characters are just amazing. This is really a great book and I’ll get my review up soon.

April Reading Stats

Number of books: 10 books

Number of pages: 3,192 pages

Star ratings:

2.5 stars: 1 book

3.5 stars: 2 books = 7

4 stars: 5 books = 20

4.5 stars: 2 books = 9

Average rating: 3.85⭐

Genres: 1 urban fantasy, 1 thriller/mystery, 1 nonfiction true crime, 1 YA contemporary romance, 1 fantasy graphic novel, 1 middle-grade fantasy, 1 YA thriller, 1 classic mystery short story collection, 1 YA fantasy and 1 urban fantasy mystery.

Physical Book left for Ellie’s TBR Game: 694 books.

I feel like that was another successful month with only one flop but that was an “it’s me not you” case because I think thrillers are really just not for me. I’m looking forward to May and getting a tonne of books read and off my physical TBR because it has grown a little, oops.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safer,

Ellie xx