April, you sweet, sweet month ❤
April has been my best reading month yet, I participated in the AVAreadathon and smashed out so many arcs most of which I LOVED. I also read a fair bit of fantasy, I just love discovering new worlds and fantasy/sci fi is my favourite genre.
okay so lets start with my AVAreadathon I did deviate from my original tbr but it’s me so that was expected, check out my original TBR here
The Silent Invasion by James Bradley
I gave this 1 star, there is no plot that I could see, the characters have no descriptions and SEVERE insta-love, oh and there’s a nice bit of animal abuse thrown in there for no reason with seemingly the only description through the whole book… This book was just a mess but hey at least it’s over and I can unhaul it asap.
1/5 stars
The Inconceivable Life of Quinn
Another disappointing read to start off my month… What was that I said about this month being good X’D. This book wasn’t horrible it was just misleading, I thought it was a story of a teenage pregnancy and it ended up having magical realism and tbh I ended up skimming the last 20% just so it would be over.
2/5 stars
It Started With Goodbye by Christina June
This book was really good, the friendships were lovely, the family relationship were done really well and Tate herself is a likable character. Her frustration, her wants, her happiness, her sadness it was all really well done and I was feeling all the same things for her.
The thing that bothered me was it wasn’t all that impressive, it was cute, had a great story arc, and the cutest romance (email love stories always get me) but it’s incredibly forgettable.
3/5 stars
Stargazing for Beginners by Jenny McLachan
Meg is a teen, smart, ambitious, shy, and riddled with social anxiety when presented with groups of people. She can seem stand offish or “snobby” which rang true if you’re awkward and shy a lot of people can see you like this which sucks but hey so can people, especially high schoolers.
This book was just a perfect contemporary and I loved how smart Meg was and all the problems she had to face leading to some great character development
4/5 stars
I just… I was expecting a lot more from this book, there are extra POV’s that I just DIDN’T give a shit about and skimmed their chapters.
The action and fight scenes were still so on point and I loved them all but yeah I have absolutely no idea where this story is heading after this book.
4/5 stars
The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
We get a whole freakin cast of amazing character that had heartbreaking back stories and amazing relationships with each other.
This camp, these character, the diversity (that should be in EVERY contemporary) every character had a backstory, every character was messy and lovely, the romance was so cute, and the struggles and hardships everyone faced felt so real.
4/5 stars
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
The MOST underhyped book in hypeville seriously?! Why aren’t more people yelling about this duology, it just blows my mind.
There is time travel, pirates, mythical creatures YES MORE I NEED, mythical islands and just so many myths my myth loving heart felt so full.
Smart ass thieving character, family conflicts, a serious life crisis and a heist c’mon do you need anything more from a book, let be read here. 4/5 stars
The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig
The second and final book of this series and it’s even better than the first.
This book had the same amazing world as the first, I mean a mythological island? Surrounded by sea walls to stop it from becoming the next Atlantis and a fairy tale about the island disappearing happening in only a few days.
Nixie loves adventure and I was right along side her. Mermaids, Monsters, A Pit, A Crazed king, a foretold disaster. Bring it on! 5/5 stars
That’s all the arc’s I read (8 all up omg self highfive) some of them I received after I wrote up my AVA tbr post put I’m really happy I loved nearly all of them and knocked them off my to be read shelf so fast! Seriously I am so motivated to read lately I can’t wait to get my physical tbr right down.
Now to my other reads… yep there are more, I’m proud of me to XD
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
I love smart ass, snarky, asshole, orphan thieves and guess what this whole book is full of!
The fights, the interludes with pieces of the boys childhood that sewed itself seamlessly into the current plot, dirty gritty fights won by sheer determination and revenge.
5/5 stars
Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland
Our Chemical Hearts is such a lovely story, I don’t know if it’s just me and come country pride but I feel like all the aussie authors really put such important themes in their contemporaries. I was expecting a fluffy light book, and while this is fun and hilarious it also dealt with grief, first love, expectations of adults and society, general teenage mishaps, and growth.
3/5 stars
A Shadow’s Breath by Nicole Hayes
A Shadow’s breath has a past and present time line, alternating every chapter and the chapters are really short so I was turning these pages frantically wanting to know what led up to the car accident as well as if the characters would survive in the now timeline!
Also it’s so AUSSIE I love love love 5/5 stars
Love, and You by Gretchen Gomez
This book is by an amazing blogger that I’m pretty sure I’ve been following since I created this site and it was amazing to read this.
I’ve never read poetry really so I feel inadequate to rate it but it made me feel empowered, emotional, sad, happy if a such small book can do that to me it has to be amazing.
5/5 stars
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
Please excuse me while I yell at me for not picking this up sooner.
I listened to this on audio and it’s told in a series of case files and interviews with an AMAZING cast of narrators. If you’re a lover of sci-fi don’t sit on this book, the science in it made me have serious heart eyes.
5/5 stars
Waking Gods by Slyvain Neuvel
Do you ever just read a book and think this is so amazing and even better than the first but I gave the first 5 stars too so how am I supposed to portray how much more I loved this one OH YOU JUST DO IT BY WRITING RUN ON SENTENCES AND SHOUTING OKAY THIS WAS SO GOOD AHHHH.
I am a silly bean and didn’t realise there were more than 2 books so when this ended you better believe I was distraught the next book is going to be EPIC. 5/5 stars
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Eeeee this is The Ya Rooms book of the Month for May oops for reading it early but I couldn’t resist.
I loved the story and thought it was super cute, and the love interest? I will take 4 please.
Becky’s writing is truly fantastic and just so easy to immerse yourself into, 4/5 stars
In case you mist it: Tags, reviews and Discussion posts:
- Books that *tried* to be Unique – Top Ten Tuesday
- Things that will make me instantly buy a book – Top Ten Tuesday
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
- P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
- If I Stay By Gayle Forman
- Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor
- Stargazing for Beginners by Jenny McLachlan
- Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
- Windwitch by Susan Dennard
- A Shadow’s Breath by Nicole Hayes
Haul:
Omg I’m scared to figure out how many books I hauled this month *deep breath* okay let’s get into this
Egalleys/audios/Arcs:
Purchased/gifted Haul:
I official purchased 5 books this month the rest are either books unhauled to me or re-buys I couldn’t go past all he Goosebumps books when I spotted them at the op shop especially since all the book there are 25 cents.
As I’m doing project 5 I have now purchased a total of 9 books and read 40 which means I’m behind 5 books.
So that was my month I read a total of 15 books and hauled a bit too many XD
How was your reading month? Did you join in with the #avareadathon?
Do you ever just look at your hauls and think how did these even happen while you start stacking books on the floor and finding room on an already full bookshelves? Same.
Aha OMG Casey looks like you had such a fantastic reading month! I have HAULED a lot this month, mostly from publishers and book unhauls so I’m probably going to avoid hauling as much next month because my shelves are screaming out in pain xD
I’ve been meaning to read Our Chemical Hearts for a while now so hopefully I get to it soon!
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It was such a good month! So many arcs/ net galley books read I may have gone back and requested more.. I’m so bad at restraint on netgalley as soon as I clear my shelf if somehow ends up full again X’D
omg same! Seriously I’ve started stacking on my floor although my unhaul did help. I need another bookshelf ASAP. Hope you like it when you start it, I didn’t love it as much as everyone else seemed to but I did enjoy it 🙂
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Fantastic month! I so want to read The Name they Gave Us and The Upsued of…
I want more time to read Lol
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UGH Why don’t bookworms get more time in the day? Seriously I vote we get at least an extra 3 hours for dedicated reading time XD
I hope you love both as much as I did when you get to them 🙂
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Oh yes if you need my vote, just ask!!!
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I’m so happy you loved The Girl From Everywhere, I just bought it and I’m SO excited to read it 😀
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Eeee I hope you love it, It’s just diverse and mythical and so much fun to read 🙂 Definitely let me know what you think!
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After seeing how you’re raving about The Ship Beyond Time… I really need to read this duology, it sounds like something I’d LOVE! AWESOME WRAP UP BY THE WAY! That is so many books, I’m so proud!!!! I read 7 which is pretty good for me, too. WELL DONE US, APRIL ROCKED.
Aw yeah let’s just ignore my haul because Supanova happened lalalala. ❤
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GAH I hope I haven’t hyped it too much but I just want everyone to read it it’s so much fun 😀 I can’t believe I managed 15 but to be fair a lot were 300 page books, your 7 were bigger then mine XD YAY FOR A ROCKIN APRIL now to continue it over to May!
hahaha same XD Actually i didn’t do to bad with supanova I bought doubles and grabbed a free book so technically only 1 purchase (gotta love cheating)
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I think you won at Project 5 during Supanova!!! I am, yet again, behind. Further behind!!! But oh well. It was worth it cos it’s an awesome time. ❤
Hahahaha I will go away from this blog post thinking "Casey liked dis" so I won't buy into hype that much! I'll just expect to enjoy it. 😛
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yes yes I want everyone just to be like Casey liked dis so you don’t expect something mind blowing and then hopefully enjoy it more XD Like I want it to have all the hype so everyone reads it but I also want everyone to be surprised by it and yell… my thoughts are confusing XD
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HAHAHAHA I think I get you, cos I’m the same, especially about my favourites. XD I’m like “YOU WILL LOVE IT or actually you will enjoy it okay but I WANNA HYPE YOU but I shouldn’t, also”. Hahaha!
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Oooh, all of the pretty covers! The Girl from Everywhere duology (well, the first book- I haven’t read the second one yet) is really so good.
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So many books read and hauled! Definitely looks like you had a productive reading month. Also, I spy The Bone Season. I hope you enjoy that one, it’s one of my all time favorites. And I hope that May is a fantastic month for you!! 💕😊
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So many people love The Bone Season I’m excited to read it! I did start the audio but decided I’d rather have the physical xD
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I am so happy you liked the names they gave us. I have an ARC of it and I’m so excited to get to it. I’ve seen amazing reviews as well so I hope it lives up to my expectations! It looks like you had a great reading month though! I hope May goes well too 💖
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I hope you love it, it was so different from what I was expecting and the themes in it were just amazing it’s hard to convey how well the setting was to allow the characters to be truly fantastic, I hope you like it ❤
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Glad you had such an amazing reading month 😊
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Me to! I was so surprised with how much I read 🙂 Hope you had a great April too and even better May!
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Thanks April was a bit slow so hopefully May will be a lot better.
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Ahhh, you had such a good reading month 😍😍 I really need to read The Girl from Everywhere and of course Sleeping Giants!! Amazing haul too. The Goosebumps books are the coolest.
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Sleeping Giants was my fave, so excited you have the ebook! Although be prepared its a series I didn’t realise xD GAH more waiting for books save me! I hope you enjoy The Girl From Everywhere, the mythology was so fun to read about 🙂
Goosebumps was such a major score! I mean they’re not in the best condition but I don’t even care.
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Oh my, so many wonderful books read/bought/gifted! I liked how you put the most disappointing ones in the beginning and then went through so many awesome reads that month! Hope the books you read in May will be amazing and that you’ll read just as many or more!! Happy reading 😉
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Hahah I read so many it was easy to get the bad books out of the way and out of my mind XD Thank you! I hope you have (are having) an amazing May too 😀
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