**The ice cubes clink against the glass as I lightly drop them in my cup. Then, I grab the pitcher of lemonade I grabbed the morning before yesterday and fill it and watch as it rises to the top. I take my cold beverage and my book outside. I read for hours and watch as the sun moves across the sky, consumed in this story about a war between two kingdoms. I sit out there long after I finish my drink and get up only to replenish it.**

In the beginning of April, I was on a roll with my reading. I read three books in the first week. But then I was busy and just didn’t have time to read. Then I wasn’t thrilled with what I was picking up. So since then, I’ve been in a bit of a slump. I’m hoping to get out of it soon and try to read more, so I’m excited to see what happens in May. In the meantime, here are all my April reads.

Books Read

• Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

The first book I finished in the month of April was Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton. I feel like this one is a more popular nonfiction title, so I decided to try it out. I had wanted to read it for a while now so this was finally my chance. This is a memoir all about Dolly Alderton’s life and discusses topics like love, friendship, parties, etc. I feel like this book is always pitched as learning about love through female friendships, but I honestly didn’t feel like I got a lot of that throughout the book. I feel like the main focus was on Dolly’s need for a relationship and her partying habits, with friendship taking the backseat to this. I’m not going to go too much into this because it is a memoir, so we’ll leave it at that.

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry

This was a reread for me. Book Lovers was actually my first Emily Henry back in . . . 2023? Maybe? Anyway, I read this a few years ago but got the sudden urge to do a reread a few weeks ago, something that NEVER happens to me. So I decided to pick it up and I enjoyed it. I think in some ways I was more invested than I was the first time around now, but in some ways I think I liked it a little less. This one follows Nora who is a literary agent and her getaway with her sister Libby who tries to get her away for sister bonding and to get away from her workaholic life. While at this small town, Nora sees Charlie Lastra, an editor she briefly met and didn’t get along with. Together, the two of them work on editing a novel that Nora is representing, bringing them closer together.

I do like this book. I think the writing is good, and I like the growing relationship between Charlie and Nora. I love watching them work together and reading about their jobs in the literary world. But my one complaint is that I think this book tried to do too much. There is a bucket list aspect that gets brought up sporadically throughout the novel that doesn’t really fit in, at least in my opinion. We hear constantly that Nora is some “shark” in the literary world, without really seeing this. She is patient and kind to her authors, and we are only told that she is a powerhouse in publishing. I think we needed more time in the beginning to actually see this because I don’t fully believe it. Finally, we see Nora worrying over her sister throughout the novel. She worries because she thinks Libby and her husband are having issues, which is again something I didn’t really think fit in with the book and that it didn’t really feel resolved to me. Then I feel like Nora is blaming Libby for certain things that are really her choice. I think Nora needs to realize that her sister is a thirty-year-old who has her own family to take care of.

I probably should have just done a book review on this, but I didn’t realize I had that much to say. While I did have my problems, I did enjoy this book. I think it was well written and I love a good book with literary careers.

• InvestiGators by John Patrick Green

I had been hearing about this book and decided to give it a try. It’s a children’s graphic novel about two alligators who work as detectives and solve crimes in their crime-ridden city. I think it was cute and would really appeal to elementary schoolers who want a funny graphic novel.

• Call Me Moby by Lars Kenseth

Very random, but Call Me Moby was the last book I read in April. This is actually a picture book about a whale and how you shouldn’t change yourself for other people but to instead be yourself and let people accept you for who you are. The illustrations were absolutely adorable and I did put this towards my goal of reading genres I don’t normally read.

DNFs

• Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent’s Search for Hope and Justice by John Edward and Robert Hilland

This year, I wanted to try out more genres I don’t really read from, like nonfiction, poetry, and classics. So I have been on a bit of a nonfiction journey. I found this one online and it sounded really interesting. It’s about an FBI guy and his working relationship with a psychic. This sounds exactly like all the shows I love to watch, so I wanted to give it a try. I was actually really enjoying this one but it started to get a bit too graphic for my liking. I wasn’t sure how it would be because it is a case about a serial killer, but I just thought it was getting to be a bit too much so I decided to just give up. It was actually not too bad though from what I had read.

• Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

I read Divine Rivals earlier in the year and decided to continue on. I didn’t love book one, but I was intrigued to see what would happen next. So I checked the book out from my library and had it for two months. I think I only got to chapter four. Then I returned it and checked out the audiobook and didn’t make it any farther. I may come back to this in the future but I think for now we’re just DNFing it. There are too many other books I’d rather read and I don’t know how much I really care to get to this one.

I had totally forgotten in my last wrap-up, but I had DNF’d Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booraem in March. I totally forgot to mention it in that post so I figured I would throw it in here.

This one is coming a bit late, but things were very busy for me when I was supposed to post this on Monday, so I just decided to wait until today and use it as a weekly Friday post. I’m hoping to get more consistent again, so let’s hope for lots of good books and consistent posts.

xoxo,

Just another reader