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

Windwitch by Susan Dennard

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

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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.

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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.