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Wow, this was my best month of reading ever. I am so shocked I ended up reading this many books, because this was also one of the busiest months we’ve had since the pandemic started. Hopefully that’s just a good sign that this is a lifelong hobby of mine and not a passing phase haha.
Here’s everything I finished in April 2022.
Maybe in Another Life, Taylor Jenkins Reid: 5 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Library
My friend Mariah (@bookswithmariah) has been doing a lot of TJR backlog reading, so she really inspired me to put this one on hold at the library. Even this author’s backlog is on a long-ish wait at the library, but I finally got it in audiobook format! The audiobook experience was pretty good, this narrator’s male voice is kinda cringey, but I was able to look over it.
This story is one that I can tell is going to stick with me for quite a while. Hannah has never felt at home with herself or any city she’s tried and failed to find happiness in. After much begging by her best friend to return home to LA, Hannah experiences a fateful night where she will finally see her college ex-boyfriend who always felt like the one who got away. Through alternating chapters, we see two different life scenarios that would play out based on one decision Hannah makes that night.
My favorite aspect of this was the lack of the characters’ freak out. For example, with “In a Holidaze” and “Two Lives of Lydia Bird,” we spend so much time being forced to sit through the characters’ freak outs in the mystical predicaments. This book was just for us (the readers) to see how one tiny decision can completely change the trajectory of your life. There were so many tie ins and overlaps that were really fun.
I hesitated to give this one 5 stars instead of 4, but ultimately I could tell that this one will stick with me for a while so it was worth the full five.
The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley: 3.5 Stars
Version: Physical book via BOTM
Gahhh I wanted to like this book even more than I liked “The Guest List,” but sadly it fell kinda flat for me. If you’ve already bought it, I think it’s worth the read. Otherwise, I don’t know that I would recommend anyone run out to get this book. The first 50% was SO slow. It was like watching paint dry. When you finally find out how the people in the apartment all know each other, it really picks up.
Jess has hit a wall in her life and finally decides to turn to her older, half brother with a killer apartment in Paris to crash with while she gets back on her feet. After a not-so-warm acceptance from her brother, Ben, she arrives to find him missing with no clue to where he could be. Days pass without any leads on where he might be, and Jess starts discovering more and more about her brother’s secretive life in Paris and the extremely nice (and mysterious) apartment he has found himself in.
No book should take as long as this one did to build. After the turning point that I mentioned above, I did feel like there was a slight redemption, but overall I just don’t think this one was a stand out. I’ve had such a slew of disappointing thrillers lately!
Tokyo Ever After, Emiko Jean: 5 Stars
Version: Kindle via Library
This is one of my new favorite books I’ve read! Every now and then a good YA just hits the spot, and this one scratched the exact itch that I like in a YA. Think Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians, meets American Royals. Even the mom and the hometown reminded me of Gilmore Girls. Talk about the perfect grab bag of popular content haha.
Izumi has always felt out of place. Her Japanese heritage has never really been welcomed in her tiny Northern California town, but at least she has her incredible single mom and group of girlfriends to lean on. One day, she stumbles upon a clue to her who her father really is, only to find out he’s actually the Crown Prince of Japan. In a whirlwind turn of events, she’s jets off to Japan to meet her dad, learn who she is and be criticized by the Japanese media. She has no idea how to be a Princess, manage her new expectations to her country and her dad, or truly find herself as an American in Japan.
It also doesn’t hurt that she’s been assigned a dreamy and stoic young bodyguard. We come along to find out if she crumbles under the pressure or thrives in her new world.
Once there Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy: 2.5 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Library
I had heard so many good things about this book and wanted to love it so badly, but it just feel so flat for me. I think I wouldn’t recommend the audiobook of this, I miiiiight have liked it a little better if it had been a physical read.
Inti and her twin sister Aggie have just arrived in Scotland so Inti can lead a team of biologists working feverishly to introduce a pack of wolves back into the Scottish Highlands to help jumpstart ecological growth. Inti and Aggie haven’t had an easy life, and Inti is hoping desperately for this to be a fresh start for both of them.
The community doesn’t welcome Inti with open arms, both because she’s a little prickly and because they don’t trust the wolves or the reason for their reintroduction. As the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did?
Maybe you had to be more of an animal lover to like this? I just felt like there were a lot of plot holes, the characters didn’t act authentic to themselves throughout the entire story and there were a lot of stupid mistakes on Inti’s part. It was just really frustrating more than anything!
Castles in Their Bones, Laura Sebastian: 3 Stars
Version: Kindle via Library
I was really excited for this book, but I am just not in a place where I can recommend it. This would have been a 10/10 for me if I had read it in high school, but at 500 pages it was just hard to suffer through this much YA plot. The premise was so, so good, and I actually think it would make a good TV show if it was done similarly to Reign if anyone else watched that show!
Empress Margaraux has had plans for her daughters since the day they were born. Princesses Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz will be queens. And now, age sixteen, they each must leave their homeland and marry their princes. Beautiful, smart, and demure, the triplets appear to be the perfect brides—because Margaraux knows there is one common truth: everyone underestimates a girl. Which is a grave mistake. Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz have been trained since birth in the arts of deception, seduction, and violence with a singular goal—to bring down monarchies— and their marriages are merely the first stage of their mother’s grand vision: to one day reign over the entire continent of Vesteria.
The princesses have spent their lives preparing, and now they are ready, each with her own secret skill, and each with a single wish, pulled from the stars. Only, the stars have their own plans—and their mother hasn’t told them all of hers.
It was just, ugh. Very YA! All the plot was low level scheming and painfully obvious in every way. I did guess the big twist about 60% through the book, but that honestly didn’t bother me. The ending however, PAINFUL!!!! I will not read the next in this series and honestly don’t really recommend it!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Annie Barrows: 4 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Library
I watched the movie for this in the very early days of the pandemic and felt like it was pretty snooze-y, but I will say my attention span during the early days of that was very low. Honestly, I never found myself wanting to read this one, but my mother in law recommended it, I needed a new audiobook and it was available at the library! I actually got off hold for three at the same time, but you guys voted for me to start this one out of the three by far.
Can I just say, so good and cute! I wouldn’t recommend this as a physical book, but as an audiobook it was a really good experience. It’s really unique because the entire book is told through letters, telegrams, notes and journal entries between characters. This is the first time I’ve read anything like that before, and I really enjoyed the experience and would do it again!
Europe has just come out of the harrowing years of WWII, and Juliette Ashton is ready to break out of the mold after becoming a popular writer for her war content. When she’s looking for a new book subject, she has a chance connection with a resident of the Guernsey Island who tells her about his literary society with rocky ties to the German occupation. Juliette falls in love with the people and the island, and there is just so much to love along the way.
The audiobook made it fly by, but I think if I had read it physically I would have gotten bored. I wish we had gotten more from the ending, but otherwise I was really happy with it and impressed the author managed to tell the entire story this way.
The Dinner List, Rebecca Serle: 4 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Library
This was the One More Page book club pick. It’s not something I would have picked up on my own, but I’m happy to report it was really enjoyable for me. My library had it first available as audio, but the audio quality wasn’t my absolute favorite. The voice actor sounded so flat, and the dialogue felt so weird this way?
We’ve all been asked, “If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, who would it be?” Sabrina answered that question with five important people in her life (including Audrey Hepburn) and shockingly turns up to her 30th birthday party with all members of her list in attendance.
The book follows one fateful dinner, with lots of flashbacks and realizations among all in attendance woven throughout.
I found myself so emotional during several parts of this story, and I honestly didn’t see one of the twists coming at all.
Lease on Love, Falon Ballard: 3.75 Stars
Version: Kindle via Library
Hmmm, mixed feelings. I had been seeing this book absolutely everywhere, and I’ve been waiting for it at the library for eons. There were a lot of things I liked about this book and a lot of things I didn’t.
Sadie Green unexpectedly finds herself needing a new job and a new place to live, and on a drunken night out she thinks she schedules a date via a dating app, but it’s actually a roommate interview. After realizing her mistake, she actually does decide to take a gamble and move in with shy and nerdy Jack.
Jack’s Brooklyn Brownstone is perfect in every single way, and the cheap rent spurs Sadie on to finally attempting to start her own dream floral business. Sadie struggles with her mental health, and Jack has a really hard time opening up to people, but they just might start falling in love…
I think this book would have been a 5/5 if it had been a dual perspective of Sadie and Jack. It was hard to be in Sadie’s head the entire time, and I really did find myself getting annoyed with her. I hated how demanding she was of her friends, they kept saying that she actually wasn’t but it felt like she really was to me? It might just be because that’s not really how I am, and I don’t have that kind of friend group. The #bossbabe language here was also really odd to me? Also, a lot of cussing here, but I know that doesn’t bother everyone.
The romance here was perfect for me because Jack actually reminded me of my own husband a lot! I found myself feeling so happy with how their relationship progressed, and I actually was smiling so hard during some of their interactions. Be aware, their relationship has lots of cheese, but I’m here for that. The spice level is maybe a 2.5/5? I don’t read spicey books that often so it’s really hard for me to say sometimes.
Tokyo Dreaming, Emiko Jean: 4 Stars
Version: ARC audiobook via MacMillan Audio and NetGalley
I lucked out in the best way possible and was approved for an ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of the second installment in the Tokyo Ever After series, just after I finished and loved the first!
Princess Izumi is back and better than ever in Tokyo with her mom and hunky bodyguard boyfriend by her side. When her parents impending nuptials hit a roadblock, Izumi gets the message that she needs to shape up or ship out regarding her previous performance as princess. After her bodyguard boyfriend makes a surprising decision about their relationship, Izumi sets out to be the perfect princess for her parents and all of Tokyo. With some unlikely allies and a fake dating trope (my favorite), we watch Izumi attempt to navigate some really important choices in her new life.
This series is just one of my all time favorites. I am desperate for them to make a movie about this, I can just picture almost every scene in my head. I did rate the first one five stars and this one only four, but that was mainly because I felt like Izumi’s relationship status by the end of the book was really forced. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book almost as much as the first! Nora’s character was a big let down in this book, she started giving me Lily vibes from Princess Diaries, and we can all agree she is the true villain of that movie.
The Comeback, Ella Berman: 3 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Libby
This was Jenna Bush Hager’s book club pick sometime in 2020, and I was a little let down. As an audiobook it was fine, but the actual content of the book was oddly paced and left a lot to be desired. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one, so I don’t want to spend too much time on it.
House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1), Sarah J. Maas: 4 Stars
Version: Kindle Book via Library
WHEW. Guys, I did not know if I was going to make it on this one. This book is 800 pages, and it truly felt like 800 pages. I do have to clarify that this is my first high fantasy read, because technically ACOTAR starts more YA and builds up to high fantasy so it was a lot easier to understand what was going on.
The first 200 pages of this book are grueling. I have never been so confused in my life! This is one of the books that just vomits world building onto you for the first half and spends the last half making up for it.
That said, I really do think the last parts of this book made up for the slow start. The last 15 percent alone? Groundbreaking. I really grew to like Bryce and Hunt and the entire gang of characters, but if you have tried this one and felt uncertain in the beginning too, you’re not alone. I would recommend just forcing yourself through this one for the reward in the end, because I’m a lot more excited for book 2 now that I know what’s going on.
The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Dare: 4.5 Stars
Version: Kindle via Library
This was a book club pick for me this month, and I’m so glad because I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise – which is a common theme for me and one of the best reasons to join a book club in my opinion.
I don’t want to give too much away about this book, because I think it’s best when you go in without much context and can just absorb the story. One thing, this isn’t an “easy” read, at least not to start with anyways. Adunni is living in impoverished Nigeria, and her level of education and ability to speak English is exactly how the dialogue and internal thinking is written in this book. That can make for some difficult dialogue to figure out, so at the very beginning I felt like I was trudging through it.
It does get better and easier though, I promise! Give this one a shot. Equally triumphant and heartbreaking is how this one is described, and I couldn’t agree more.
True Biz, Sara Novic: 4 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Library
Another book club pick for me, but I might have eventually gotten to this one! This story follows students and the headmistresses of a deaf boarding school in Ohio. My roommates in college were speech pathology majors, and they took a lot of sign language classes and learned a lot about deaf culture as a result. This has left me with a huge desire to always be learning and observing how to best support and embrace members of the deaf community, so I just always have stories like this on my radar.
Unfortunately, I had to get this one as an audiobook from the library (just all that was available before I needed to have it read for the book club), and I don’t think that was the best way to absorb this content. Some of the dialogue is written as finger spelling, so at times it was weird to experience this orally. I also just think it would have more sense to absorb this in the same way a deaf person would, on the written page.
Overall, I did like this book and think it was worth it, I just wouldn’t recommend it as an audiobook necessarily.
The Inheritance Games, Jennifer Lynn Barnes: 4 Stars
Version: Physical Book
Genre: Young Adult/Mystery
I have no idea how, but I got confused when I went to read this book and thought it was fantasy or the main character had to solve some riddles/puzzles to get the inheritance? So I think I had hyped it up as high drama like fantasy would be, and my opinion is probably affected by that. I luckily still liked the book and want to recommend it though!
Avery is barely getting by. Her mom died last year, her dad was never in the picture, and her half-sister (and guardian) is dating a truly awful guy who makes Avery spend more than a few nights a week in her car behind the dinner she works at part time. She puts in just enough effort at school not to flunk, but she’s got big dreams of making a career for herself after college. Her world is turned upside down when she learns she’s been bequeathed the entire estate of one of the richest men in the world (think multi-billionaire) whom she’s never met. She’s confused and surprised to say the least and so are Tobias Hawthorne’s family and numerous grandsons who thought they would be the ones to inherit it all.
What’s the catch? To receive the inheritance, she must be in residence at Hawthorne House for at least one year, and that’s easier said that done. The mansion (putting it lightly) is full of secrets, secret passageways and secret puzzles. Her life may or may not also be in danger now that she’s set to inherit this money.
I had SO much fun following along as Avery untangles the complicated web of secrets surrounding her inheritance, laughing along has she struggles through being suddenly rich, and being just as confused as she is about the grandsons and their romantic energy. Highly recommend this one!
The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood: 5 Stars
Version: Kindle via Library
Don’t be like me and judge this book by its cover. Okay, I actually didn’t mind the cover but just knowing it was a Kylo Ren/Rey. fanfic turned bestseller made me apprehensive. How could it actually be good? Well, trust me it is! Even if you don’t know a single thing about Star Wars, this book is amazing! You really can’t even tell it’s based off of that, but I just had so much fun picturing Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley in these characters.
Olive is a struggling grad student at Stanford, and she just so happens to be really bad at dating and lying. This all leads her to trying to convince her best friend to finally go for the guy Olive had a brief (and meaningless) relationship with, culminating in Olive kissing the first guy she sees one night in a lab when her friend walks in and she was supposed to be on a date.
The first guy she sees just so happens to be Adam Carlsen, everyone’s least favorite professor and infamous jerk. Olive is shocked when he essentially brushes it off and takes it a step further by agreeing to go along with her scheme to convince her friend that she’s taken. Adam surprises Olive through every struggle and triumph by showing a surprising amount of support and overall dreaminess he never lets show otherwise.
Trust me on this one, READ THIS!!! It’s way too good. I honestly wish I could read it again already? I might sometime this year! I was laughing out loud and squealing maniacally throughout this entire story. There are so many forced and awkward scenarios they find themselves in (I love fake dating trope). Also, Olive and everyone in the story is aware that their situation is the plot of a cheesy romance novel, and their self-awareness makes it even better
The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd: 4 Stars
Version: Physical book via BOTM
First of all, I need to pay closer attention to picking up books because I had no idea this was a fantasy book! I don’t mind at all, but there have just been way too many occurrences lately of me being completely blindsided once I get into the book and realize it wasn’t what I originally thought.
The concept of this book is INCREDIBLE. I think the delivery could have used a little bit more work and time, but overall I just have to give this book points for being so incredibly unique. Nell was banished from the world of cartography seven years ago when her dad flipped out on her for daring to argue with him on the value of a few maps she found in the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) basement. She receives notice that her dad died under mysterious circumstances while working in the map department at the NYPL. Suddenly, she’s back in the map world and quickly realizing all the dangerous reasons she was banished and secrets her dad kept hidden from her. The map she discovers and its groundbreaking possibilities change everything, but Nell’s life may in danger before she has time to discover it fully.
I do have questions about this book that border on identifying some plot holes- isn’t this discovery extremely dangerous? Not only could people use this to break in almost anywhere, but it could also have to power to hide absolutely anyone or anything. Also, this could probably solve homelessness because it sounds like you can just create anything you want, wherever you want? Even food! I think that’s slightly a plot hole. I know this is fantasy and you aren’t supposed to take it that deeply, but that just seems like something that should have been addressed.
Secondly, Bear and especially Wally just seemed so unrealistic to me. Bear’s decisions were just so utterly stupid to me, and Wally turned scary dangerous out of nowhere. It seems to me like the group would have given him a few more chances before ruling him way too dangerous to be reasoned with?
Lastly, I think this book would have been better as a “THEN” and “NOW” set up. The flashbacks were written as they were being told to Nell, our main character, by members of the original Cartographers. I didn’t like how those flashbacks were just written as they were orally told instead of them being written more like we were actually there getting to “see” everything with our own eyes. I feel like that’s hard to describe, but I’m almost positive it would have made this a lot better!
Anyways, I think this would make a fantastic book club read! There is so much to discuss here, and I think the motives of all the characters would be fun to debate.
Inheritance, Katherine McGee: 3 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Libby
It’s so tough to even rate and review a novella, I wouldn’t say I disliked anything about this, but I also just don’t think it’s necessary. I am glad that it’s so short, because there really isn’t very much riding on any of this storyline. Also, my personal preference is Beatrice ending up with Teddy, so I don’t particularly enjoy watching the early days of her and Connor, haha!
Some people asked me how I got access to this – the audiobook is already out, and my library had it to loan! I’m not exactly sure why the audiobook is coming out separately from the physical (production delays?), but I would bet that the audiobook is just as good as the physical here.
The Road Trip, Beth O’Leary: 2.5 Stars
Version: Audiobook via Libby
I absolutely loved The Flatshare by this same author, so maybe it was my bad for going into this one with too high of expectations. The main characters here had very little depth it felt like- especially Addy. I feel like we just got more time of hearing how terrible Marcus was and how spineless Dylan was and no actual explanation of why Addy and Dylan were even good together in the first place. If I’m being honest, I don’t think Addy and Dylan would actually make it as a couple in the real world or are meant to be haha.
The whole premise of Dylan not believing Addy again and again just burned me up! I honestly didn’t like any of the main characters in the slightest.
That’s all for my April 2022 reading roundup! Come back next month for even more good reading tips and recommendations, but in the mean time make sure to follow me at @lorensbooknook on Instagram.
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