The first half of this month was really slow for me in terms of reading. I had a lot of proofreading to do so most of my free time went towards that. But I ended up reading and listening way more than I thought I would in the second half of the month. It was really nice. I was able to catch up on some old ARCs, listen to some new ARCs, get some competition reading done, and still have a bit of mood reading also. It was really nice.I
SPFBO
Sadly, I wasn’t able to finish out this round of SPFBO by reading every single finalist. With the completion of A Rival Most Vial, I have finished 7/10 of them though, which I’m still proud of. Thankfully our team had enough readers to make sure we always had enough scores for each book. I really enjoyed this one and it was a good way to end my first year of SPFBO.
Audiobooks
I absolutely loved being able to binge a whole series for once! Mead Mishaps by Kimberly Lemming was such a fun series. Thank you so much to Orbit again for sending me the three main audiobooks!
Find the Helpers by Fred Guttenberg and Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi were both old ARCs that I found as audiobooks on Libby. I really enjoyed both of them and definitely recommend them. Helpers made me cry with almost every single chapter. I had to limit myself on how much I could listen to it every day. Both narrators were excellent so I definitely recommend the audiobooks specifically.
Spicy Books
A Bump in Boohail by Kimberly Lemming is part of the Mead Mishaps series but was the only one that I read on my kindle instead of listening to it on audio (I don’t think it has an audiobook). For me personally, this was the weakest of the bunch, but it was still a fun addition!
Children’s Book ARCs
We read too many children’s books every month to keep up with them and feature them here but I’m going to try to show the ARCs we read at least! I got these through NetGalley and really enjoyed them all. It’s been a while since I’ve requested children’s books on there but right now is definitely a good time. There are so many good ones! I don’t include these in my reading stats though.
Buddy Reads
I was super excited about both of my buddy reads this month that I was able to get to. Bride was my first ever Ali Hazelwood book and while I did have some issues with it, overall it was still really fun and I’m eager to read more of her books.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker was a gift by a friend and a total cover addition to my wishlist at the time. I’m glad to say that it matches the awesome interior in both beauty (awesome chapter headers!) and writing. I really enjoyed the story and wish I could binge the whole series at once. Alas, we have to wait until the next one.
New Favorite
After Bride, I immediately went back to the library to grab a couple more Ali Hazelwood books. Love, Theoretically ended up being what I read next and I was not disappointed. I loved this book so much!
Blog Post Round-Up
– My April TBR.
– My February Wrap-Up.
– A list of highly anticipated Orbit books on my TBR.
– A cover reveal for The Envoys of War by Dave Lawson.
– A cover reveal for Witch in the Lighthouse by Azalea Forrest.
– A tour spotlight for Seeds of War by João Silva.
– A cover reveal for Isles of Corruption by Elyse Thomson.
– A cover reveal (with special guests) for Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa.
Mini Reviews
A Bump in Boohail by Kimberly Lemming
I read this one on KU because I don’t think there’s an audio version of it. I wasn’t super excited about the beginning of it because I thought it was going somewhere else than it actually ended up doing. Because of that, my enjoyment for much of the story was negatively affected by that setup. When I realized in the second half what was really happening though, I started to have a better time with it. It’s my least favorite of the series but I’m still glad I read it to get to know some of the other characters a little more.
Mistlefoe by Kimberly Lemming
Mistlefoe is a story with two main characters that weren’t introduced in the main series but it does have a certain sword that makes an appearance. I’m really happy the author decided to give us the backstory for that sword because it was a quite entertaining part of the main series. There were even more sexual jokes in this little story than the main series. It was a really fun audiobook to listen to and I’m glad I decided to do so right after the other books. Aside from the sword, it was cute, funny, and a little adventurous. A good short story addition to the series.
The Shaggy Shepherd 