April 2021 Reading Wrap Up

I started out slowly in April and worried I wouldn't hit my 15-book quota, but really hit my stride during the second half of the month and met my goal! I was even thinking of going for #16, but then decided to spend some time with my other hobbies instead.

I read on 30/30 days and completed 15 books. I read 4 for the Meridian Library Challenge (MLD), 6 for the Garden City Library Challenge (GCPL), 3 for the PopSugar Challenge, and 2 for the Spells and Spaceships SFF Badge Collection Challenge. 

MLD CATEGORIES:

7. A book with "light" in the title:  All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Historical WWII fiction, French Resistance, Fate, Duty, Free Will, Technology, Disability, Family
Quick Summary: Young soldier Werner Pfennig crosses paths with Marie-Laure, a blind teenager involved in the resistance during the bombing of the German-occupied Saint Malo, France.
Thoughts: My favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of Marie Laure's impending blindness and how, with the help of her father, she learned to deal with her disability from a young age. The rest of the story fell kind of flat for me. I didn't love it as much as say, Kristin Hannah's Nightingale, which also takes place in German-occupied France and discusses the French Resistance. I found myself constantly comparing the two narrations, which I try not to do. So it's not that I didn't like this book-- it was good. I just didn't love it.

34. A book with a blue cover: What You Wish For by Katherine Center
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Romance, Chick-Lit
Quick Summary: Samantha Casey is a small-town school librarian who loves her job. When her amazing boss (and friend) dies suddenly and unexpectedly, a new principal by the name of Duncan Carpenter comes to town. Samantha knew Duncan in a previous life and he no longer resembles the fun-loving guy he used to be and Samantha must protect her school from him.
Thoughts: I wasn't sure I was going to like this at first, but it was really cute and I enjoyed it. Clean, sweet romance. Nice chemistry.

43. A book with a president: Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Urban Fantasy, Horror/Thriller, Vampires, Werewolves, Gore, Espionage
Quick Summary: Zach Barrows is an up-and-coming White House staffer given a new and permanent assignment he could never have prepared for: liaison to the presidents vampire. Nathaniel Cade, the paranormal secret agent bound by a blood to follow the orders of the president, protects blissfully unaware Americans from the shadows that lurk in the night.
Thoughts: I got this as an ARC back when I worked at Borders and hadn't gotten around to reading it, because, well, it sounds ridiculous... And it was ridiculous. However, it was also a mildly fun and gross (body gore) romp that I may or may not continue (Obligated reader here, remember?).

46. A book about the black experience in America: Kindred by Octavia Butler
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Slavery
Quick Summary: Dana, an African American woman, is inexplicable wrenched through time to antebellum Maryland where she immediately saves a young white boy from drowning before she is sucked back to her present in 1976. Over the course of the next few weeks, she is sucked back into the young man's life in the past, where she must navigate slavery.
Thoughts: I couldn't put this one down. It was fascinating. It was horrifying.

GCPL CATEGORIES:

5. A book written in verse: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction, Coming of Age, School, Rape/Abuse, Mental Health
Quick Summary: Melinda called the police to bust up a party during the summer before she entered high school, which earned her the role of "friendless outcast." Her art class offers solace, which helps her come to terms with what happened to her at the summer party-- her assault by an upperclassman. Melinda chooses to end her silence and fight back.
Thoughts: This was a quick read. I finished it in one sitting. Pretty heartbreaking and relatable.

20. A book set somewhere you'd like to visit: Dark Witch by Nora Roberts
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Paranormal Romance, Witchcraft/Magic, Historical, Irish Lore. Love/Acceptance
Quick Summary: When strange dreams begin to plague American-born Iona Sheehan, she decides to make a fresh start in County Mayo, Ireland, where her ancestors' blood and magic have flowed through generations and her destiny awaits.
Thoughts: As with many romance series, I didn't really care for the couple in the first book-- Iona and Boyle. They're fine. I just often find myself more intrigued by the supporting characters and look forward to their own books. The best part of this book was the prologue and the first couple chapters, which followed Iona's ancestors and formed the entire basis for this series. The rest was just typical romance fare, and not even particularly consuming.

23. A book written by an author you've never heard of: Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Young Adult Dystopian Science Fiction, Romance, Mystery, Space, Attempted Rape
Quick Summary: Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard Godspeed, a giant spaceship embarking on a 300-year journey to a new planet. Unfortunately, Amy is woken up early and her awakening was not an accident, but an attempted murder. As other frozen passengers are found drowned in their cryo-liquid, Amy and the future ship-leader, Elder, must solve the mystery before Amy's parents become the next victims.
Thoughts: This was a quick and easy read. Chapters were very short, so I kept falling prey to "Just one more chapter." Many parts of this story were rather silly (lots of weird science that didn't really make sense, but I suspended disbelief in order to enjoy it).  And I did enjoy it. For some reason it managed to keep my attention, so I'll be continuing the trilogy.

26. A book written by an author whose name contains initials: Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Classic Historical Fiction, Miscarriage and Other Tragedies
Quick Summary:  Anne and Gilbert (who is finally a doctor) get married at the beginning of this book and then move to Four Winds Harbor, where Gilbert will take over his Uncle's medical practice. As they begin this next part of their life together, they meet new friends with new stories while they attempt to start a family.
Thoughts: I didn't enjoy this installation as much as previous books. Many of the Anne books focus a lot on the interesting people she befriends, but this one took it to a new level. Very little time is spent on Anne and Gilbert as newlyweds, because the book spends most of its time on three major side characters. And while their stories are interesting, they are not Anne, who I fell in love with instantly at Green Gables. What little focus their was on Anne and Gilbert involved mostly tragedy. I will still finish the series, but I'm in less of a hurry to do so after completing this one.

23. A book with a color in the title: Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Faeries, Magic, Demons, Loyalty, War
Quick Summary: Sabina Kane is a half breed (vampire & mage) assassin that works for the Dominae (the Vampire counsel). A mission puts her on a path of questioning her loyalties.
Thoughts: Okay, so this one drove me nuts for 1/2 - 3/4 of the book and I was pretty decided that I wouldn't continue the series. I'm tired of the angry-at-the-world assassin that kills anyone that annoys her trope. I'm not sure how Sabina Kane grew on me, but she did somehow at the end there and I'm CONSIDERING reading the next book to find out what happens to her. I also enjoyed the idea that all freckled redheads are descendants of Lilith and have vampiric ancestors somewhere in their histories, even if they aren't vampires themselves.

34. A book with a long title (5+ Word): A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout 
I actually read this in a previous month, but had to reassign. Not counting towards my monthly totals.

35. A book with a sport or a hobby in it: The Boys on the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Nonfiction, Sports Biography, Rowing/Crew Team, Olympics, World War II, Memoir
Quick Summary: This is the story behind the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics by taking the Gold medal. 
Thoughts: I'm clearly not the target audience for this book, as it has so many amazing reviews. I spent 1/3 of the book bored to tears (every chapter about the intricacies of rowing, the angle of the oars as they move in or out of the water, the angle of the crew teams backs at the start of the row vs. the end of the row, the mulling of the coaches on which team members to assign to which boats, the speculations over which schools had better rowers, blah blah blah) and then another 1/3 just neutral (German happenings leading up to the Olympics), and only 1/3 actually mildly interested (the actual memoir of one of the crew team's boys, Joe Rantz). So this was a bit painful for me and actually made me question whether or not I would finish my 15-book quota this month.

POPSUGAR CATEGORIES:

16. A book with something broken on the cover: The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Paranormal Fantasy, Hell, Angels & Demons, Family/Found Family, Pantheons
Quick Summary: Claire is the head librarian of the Unwritten Wing in Hell's Library and her job includes keeping an eye on the restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library, often to meet their authors. One such book escapes and Clair must track and capture him with the help of her muse assistant, Brevity, and a familiar demon courier, Leto.
Thoughts: This book was weird. Not bad weird, but some kind of weird. I think I liked it??? But I'll admit it's not super high on my list of series to continue in the immediate future. I did enjoy all of the different pantheons. And the battle of words was amusing.

23. A book set somewhere you'd like to visit in 2021: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Rom Com, First Impressions, Luck, Honesty, Infidelity,
Quick Summary: Olive's unusually lucky twin sister and her husband get food poisoning on their wedding night, sending usually unlucky Olive and her nemesis (groom's brother, Ethan) on the all-expenses-paid honeymoon trip to Maui, where they realize they like each other a little more than they previously thought.
Thoughts: This was a fun romance with some great one-liners. I was a little annoyed that their "hate" for each other stemmed from some silly misunderstandings. I also didn't like that when Olive told Ethan that her brother hit on her, he didn't believe her and thought she was reading the situation incorrectly.

43. The book on your TBR list with the prettiest cover: Ink by Amanda Sun
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Young Adult Fantasy, Japanese Culture
Quick Summary: 16-year-old Katie Greene's mother passes away and she's sent to live with her aunt in Japan, where she gets involved with a magical boy that can bring drawings to life.
Thoughts: I picked this one up for the cover, which is so beautiful, and I feel so deceived. I did enjoy the very carefully researched Japanese culture. The romance was not credible. The characters were flat and has zero chemistry. This girl cannot take a hint. Seriously. She doesn't like this boy (because clearly he has a secret), so she is rude to him and she stalks him and follows him everywhere and joins all his clubs... If a boy did that to a young girl, people would be freaking out. The premise had such promise and it tempts me to continue the series, but this book was not good.

S&S SFF BADGE CATEGORIES:

		1. A book featuring Artificial Intelligence or A.I.: The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole Genre/Tropes/Themes:  Quick Summary: Trinity Jordan is recovering from an accident that also happened to suppress her memories. When she meets the neighbor's strange nephew, she feels an odd attraction. He also is recovering from an accident that has caused memory loss. When she finds out he is also A.I., she volunteers to help him learn to be more human. The more time they spend together, the more they fall for each other. Thoughts: This had a couple of amusing lines and scenes because one of the characters isn't human, so misunderstandings make for comedy. However, the story was pretty lame. It was only okay for me.

		13. A book that is more than 600 pages: From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout I actually read this in a previous month, but had to reassign. Not counting towards my monthly totals.

			16. A book with a dragon: The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout Genre/Tropes/Themes: New Adult Fantasy Romance, Vampires, Betrayal  Quick Summary: Casteel and Poppy's saga wraps up in this book as they fight back against the Blood Empire. Thoughts: Well, when I started this series earlier this year, it was a trilogy. The author has since decided to extend the series into 6 books, which made me question whether I could include it in the MLD 3-part prompt for a trilogy and I had to do some shuffling (Ugh). Okay, I like mindless, sexy fantasy romance books, but often find some of the tropes to be tiring. In this case, Poppy just keeps getting more and more badass. It's like in silly shonen anime where whenever a character gets into a situation he/she can't handle, he/she magically discovers an entire skill set hidden within that is just the thing he/she needs to overcome the newest conflict. With no training, she is automatically able to do just about anything she dreams up. She's just so special. And then she's more special. And even more special. And then the most special. We get it, she's amazing. Casteel worships her to a level where it's just annoying. I mean, I want my man to worship me on some level, but I don't need to be up on this kind of pedestal. My next complaint is that it is long and repetitive and a good chunk of the story could have been scrapped to make it a little more palatable. And lastly, the sex scenes were SOOO abundant that they just got tedious. I was so over it my the end... What did I like? I like the epic adventure and world building, even while some of it was confusing. I like that Poppy is a redhead, because represent! And okay, some of the sex scenes were entertaining *cough*. Okay, this was a bit ranty, but umm, yeah. I'll still read the rest of them.

Here's how I did on Bookish First Bingo: 3 bingos!-- I almost went for 4 again, but the book I wanted to use wasn't available from the library in time and I decided to take a break... for one day. Lol.