While the first half of this month didn’t have nearly enough reading time for me, it really picked up again in the second half and I can’t complain about the quality either as I had some really fun reads! Check them out below! You’ll also see I’ve hosted a lot of cover reveals on the blog in April! It’s quite a list!
SPSFC
I read Children of the Black and Woe to the Victor as my last two books for the semifinalist round of SPSFC. Both of them were pretty good and I would’ve been happy with either moving forward, though only Children managed to do so. Thrill Switch and Kenai are finalists from other groups. I didn’t expect to make it through both of these this month as well but both were so compelling that I just couldn’t stop reading them!
Ebooks
These are all some shorter books I managed to read this month. We’re getting ready to potty train the toddler this summer and I have no idea what I’m doing. Or had before this. Now I have some. Haha Saving Her in the Parallel is a book I saw on TikTok that sadly didn’t quite work out for me. You can read a mini review towards the end of this post. Initiation on the other hand worked out better than I expected and I’m pretty sure I’ll continue that series soon. The Re-Emergence is a novella in a series I’m currently proofreading a book for and was a fun intro to this series.
Children’s Book ARCs
I think all of these books were from Sourcebooks Kids. I really enjoyed every single one and added several to my daughter’s wishlist. It’s been fun to include her in my ARC reading again.
Audiobooks
I really enjoyed my audiobooks this month. Honey Girl turned out to be much more nuanced than I expected and while it wasn’t perfect for me, I’m still really glad to have listened to it. The Blighted Stars is book one in a favorite series of mine that I’m listening to as a refresher for the last book that’s coming out soon. I adore this book and it was just as fun this second time around because there are so many details to pick up on now that I know where the story is going. The Bookshop of Second Chances was another old ARC I got caught up on. I was able to get the audiobook through my library and am glad I chose to do it that way because I liked the narrator a lot.
Buddy Read
It took me so long to finally get to this that I’m not even sure I can still consider myself part of the original buddy read. Haha But I’m so glad I did finally read it. It was a lot of fun and felt like a true enemies-to-lovers story with high stakes. I had some small gripes with it but I’m really looking forward to the next one.
New Favorite
A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene is definitely a new favorite for me. While I had a small gripe with the ending and found a couple of details a little predictable, I still enjoyed the execution of most of those a lot. The narration by Heather O’Sullivan was amazing! I loved her voice for Irian especially! This was a really fun fantasy story with a little bit of spice and I’m excited to continue with the series whenever the next one becomes available.
Blog Post Round-Up
– My May TBR.
– My March Wrap-Up.
– The Wayward Stars’ SPSFC3 Semifinalist Scores!
– The SPSFC3 Finalist Announcement!
– I made a post with recommended books to get during the Indie April Sale by Narratess!
– A cover reveal for Way of the Wizard by Michael Michel.
– A series spotlight for Power of the Stars by Bryan Wilson.
– A cover reveal for Cosmic Widow by Jonathan Nevair.
– A cover reveal for Die Young by Morgan Shank.
– A cover reveal for Bloodwoven by G.J. Terral.
– My first ever magazine review for PARSEC, Issue #5.
– A Women on Writing tour guest post about the best national parks to visit for families by Rosanne S. McHenry, author of Tales from a Rogue Ranger.
– A cover reveal for In Midnight’s Shadow by C M Debell.
– A cover reveal for The Firetongue Heir by Elyse Thomson.
Mini Reviews
Saving Her in the Parallel by Hillary Christina
I saw this one on TikTok and wanted to give it a try since it was really short and sounded interesting. Sadly, it didn’t really work for me. It felt like there were too many things that were either plot holes or just felt like them because they stayed unexplained. I liked the differences between the realities but there wasn’t enough to really make me feel attached to the characters or anything else. The premise was intriguing but it lacked the depth of emotions and details that I would want from a story like this.
A Vexing Valentine by T. B. Wiese
A cute continuation of the series. I liked the two MCs and the power dynamics between them. Some things did feel very convenient and there is a world-building detail that I still wish would be explained further but overall I had a good time with this quick little story.
The Re-Emergence by Alan K. Dell
I really enjoyed this intro into the series! I read this novella in one day to prep for the proofread I’m currently doing and had a really good time with it. I thought it explained the history of the characters really well in such a short amount of time and gave me a good basis for the main series.
The Shaggy Shepherd 
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