April Reading Wrap-Up 2019

Hello friends! Third reading wrap up this year, might it actually become a habit? Naaahh probably not.

It’s been a busy month. My grandparents visited for four weeks, they live in America so we only see them here in England once a year at most. I’ve managed to get myself back to work for the last two weeks so between that I’ve been out for family dinners, Easter celebrations and the like.

Whatever abdominal pain kept me off sick for almost 9 weeks mysteriously vanished. two weeks ago. After several blood tests, an endoscopy and an ultrasound the doctors decided this week- ‘Well, you’re better now so we’ll stop investigating and just hope it doesn’t come back’. Great huh? They eliminated all the usual suspects and dangerous conditions and pretty much told me they hadn’t found a diagnosis and it was common not to know the cause of abdominal pain. So. Fingers crossed it’s gone forever and if it does return there will be hell to pay for the NHS.

This gave me a two week head start on my reading goals for the month before I skipped back to full time work. You can expect me to drop back to my usual 7 or 8 books per month from here on. The upside of all this downtime is I’m confident in reaching my Goods Reads goal for the year:

57/100. Awesome right? So in April I managed 19 books, here’s a bit about them...

Menagerie- Rachel Vincent
Vincent weaves a world of mythical creatures into present time society by way of a carnival. Her range of cryptoids called out to my inner folklore fangirl and their fight against injustice was heart breaking.

Sacrifice Box- Martin Stewart
I love a good kids-in-summer coming of age horror. This one gives us black magic voodoo, psychotic animals and living dolls in the perfect small town setting.

Warcross- Marie Lu
This fulfills my need for virtual reality stories, I enjoyed RPO and rave about the OtherWorld series. The insta-love in this was frustrating though and whilst I liked the book it fizzled at the end so I dont think I’ll pick up Wildcard.

The Life Of Death- Lucy Booth
Review here

Scar- Alice Broadway
A wonderful ending to the Skinbook Trilogy. You can feel every ounce of love Alice Broadway pours into her writing, her character development is a thing of beauty.

Daughters Unto Devils- Amy Lukavics
Weird. Very creepy, definitely unnerving watching the MC grapple with what’s real and what’s in her mind. An atmospheric read about a family gripped by the devil.

This Is Where It Ends- Marieke Nijkamp
Beware of this book. It was fantastic but gut-wrenchingly horrifying to read. With the frequency of school shootings in our time it may be too close to the bone for some. There were some real eye openers for me here.

The Passengers – John Marrs
I thoroughly enjoyed my first Marrs read. I love fast paced multiple POV thrillers. A provocative look at the consequences social media and technology have on society. I raced (pun intended) through this book in one sitting. I hope it’ll be optioned for film!

How To Fracture A Fairytale – Jane Yolen
Review here

Two Can Keep A Secret- Karen M McManus
Visiting Echo Ridge was like reading Veronica Mars, my teen self would have been blown away. My adult self was pretty damn impressed too.

Savage Island – Bryony Pearce
Devoured whole on a sunny afternoon. A group of teens enter a million pound geocaching competition on a remote island, but this game is not quite what they expected. The main character has an excellent sub plot but the ending gets a little wacky.

The Killer You Know- S R Masters
ARC read for Random Things Tours- review on 19th May.

Awakened- James Murray & Darren Wearmouth
I heard of this book because the author is part of Impractical Jokers. Reminiscent of The Strain to begin with but branches into it’s own unique spin. There was little character development but the constant action kept me turning pages. An easy read of scifi/horror set in underground New York.

Nerve- Jeanne Ryan
I meant to watch this years ago and never did. The book wasn’t quite what I expected from the movie trailers, a little more naive than I thought it would be. Fun but perhaps a little silly. Has anyone watched it? Is it good?

The Path Keeper- N J Simmonds
As a romance in itself I probably wouldn’t have read The Path Keeper, but a Fantasy with adult themes? I’m glad I gave it a shot. A heartfelt NA with interesting concepts of life, death and religion.

House Of Skin – Jonathan Janz
Review to come for Random Things Tours on 10th May

A Patient Man- S Lynn Scott
Review to come for Random Things Tours on May 15th

Fury/ Spectacle- Rachel Vincent
I tried so hard not to buy these two, but Menagerie was so good I couldn’t stop thinking about it! A couple weeks in I caved and bought Fury, the very second I finished it I ordered Spectacle on kindle. The series is incredible, I HIGHLY recommend for fans of fantasy in NA.

So altogether in April I purchased TWO books, pretty good going for a ban I think. Of course I was lured into a May book sale as soon as the new month began so it was all for nought really!

I snagged these 9 books for just over £10, leaving my unread TBR at a total of 283.

What did you read this month? Drop me your wrap up links!

Have you read any of this months list? Do you want to?

Lets gab about it.