April Wrap-Up
I’m finally starting to feel like I’m back in the swing of things! I’m still a little behind the pace I should be keeping in order to read 150 books this year, but I’m happy with how April went and how the first week of May has progressed! That being said there are 8 books I plan to write about today which is a little more than usual so I may keep some of my opinions brief (edit from me after writing the post: I did not keep it brief. Oops.), but if you want me to talk about anything more in-depth just let me know in the comments!
First up is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - I read MIller’s more recent novel Circe soon after its release and I felt the same way about this book as I did that one which is that I think it’s an incredibly well written story, but I don’t personally love it. This book follows Greek hero Achilles and Patroclus through childhood and then into the Trojan War. I really want to be interested in Greek Mythology, especially because its so often featured in Jeopardy clues, but I’m just not. This is a really good book and I think it’s absolutely deserving of its awards and praises it just wasn’t for me. 3.5/5 stars.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - Shadow and Bone is the first book in the Grishaverse set of books following Alina Starkov and her quest to save her home country of Ravka from being overtaken by dark forces. It’s a fantasy series that features magic, court politics, and ragtag teams facing overwhelming odds and I loved it.
Leigh Bardugo is one of my all-time favorite authors. I read her Six of Crows duology soon after it was released and Ninth House is one of my favorite books ever, but I had never read the original trilogy in the Grishaverse. I tried half-heartedly to read them at one point and gave up, but with the release of the Netflix series based on the books and Bardugo’s new series set in that world I felt like I needed to give it another go. I read the first book at the end of April and have since finished the series. I don’t think it’s quite as strong and her newer books, but a quick and page-turning read nonetheless. I give the whole trilogy 4 stars and they’re definitely a worthwhile read to set up the world for the later books.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn - This is an urban fantasy set at UNC Chapel Hill by an incredibly talented debut author. It features Arthurian Legend, secret societies, and generational power. In doing so, Deonn creates a story that finds our main character Bree learning about the magic she possesses and fighting monsters while adjusting to life at a new place and battling daily prejudices from people of power stuck in their ways and afraid of change. There’s so much happening in this book and Tracy Deonn melds it all together so thoughtfully. 4.5 stars and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala - This was my April Book of the Month pick and it follows Lila who has just returned to her hometown following a breakup. She’s working at her family’s restaurant when a notoriously horrible food critic comes by. This man seems to have it out for Tita Rosie’s restaurant and never has a nice thing to say about the food despite regularly returning and eating everything served to him. On this particular visit he collapses partway through the meal and later dies as a result of poisoning. Naturally this makes the restaurant a place of suspicion by the police and Lila in particular because the food critic also happens to be her old high school sweetheart. Lila then has to set out to clear her name with the help of some old friends and family members.
This is a murder mystery, but a cozy one. There’s suspense and intrigue and a little danger but also meddling aunties, and cute dogs, and petty drama. I liked it just fine, but I wasn’t totally obsessed. It was cute and I was satisfied with the progression of the mystery, but I wasn’t blown away. 3/5 stars
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry - Another Book of the Month pick for April (I selected two this month). I read Beach Read by Emily Henry earlier this year and really enjoyed it so this one had been on my radar ever since. Unfortunately; this one wasn’t quite as much to my taste. It features Poppy and Alex, college best friends who happen to be from the same small midwest town. Poppy is now a travel blogger in NYC and Alex is a high school English teacher back in their hometown, but they get together every year for a vacation. That is, until two years ago when everything went wrong on their annual trip and they haven’t spoken since. Poppy tries a last ditch effort to save the friendship inviting Alex on a trip to Palm Springs and he accepts thus setting off the story of their reunion and subsequent efforts to repair what was broken.
There was nothing terribly wrong with this book I just found myself really bored with the story. It’s told in present day time and also through flashbacks of the start of their friendship and previous vacations. I was really more interested with the present day drama than the trip to Italy they took five years ago. I liked Poppy and Alex well enough as characters and I liked they way they work together as friends so it wasn’t a terrible read by any means just not my favorite. The early reviews for this book are pretty overwhelmingly positive so I’m also willing to chalk this up to a me problem. I’m open to checking out future books by Emily Henry, but this one was probably a 2.75-3 star read for me.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - I found the premise of this book to be super interesting; a person on the cusp of death can visit a library at the end of the world with the ability to show them any possible life that they could have led if they had chosen even a slightly different path. Our protagonist Nora can see if she maybe would’ve been happier if she had become a professional athlete, or a rockstar, or a scientist, or even if she had just never broken up with her fiancé.
On a macro level I really loved this book. I loved the idea behind it and the overarching themes of regret and self-reflection in the face of death and a whole library of lives not lived. However; there were a couple of things that snagged my true enjoyment of the book. The main one is that when Nora visits a new potentially different life she has no memory of who she is in that world or who the people around her are and I found that to lead to a very stressful reading experience. Additionally, the amount of things Nora was potentially world class at was a little odd and by the last couple of books of her life that she visited it started to feel a little repetitive. That being said, I did enjoy this book and I feel that it’s a rewarding read for the big questions it asks of the reader and the examination of what it is that truly makes life worthwhile. 4/5 stars
Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire - This is the 6th book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. With a series this large I guess it was unlikely I’d immensely enjoy them all and this one wasn’t a favorite of mine. This series follows different youths as they find doors going from their normal life on Earth to different magical worlds (like Alice finding Wonderland) and then looking at the effect it has on them when those worlds are done with them and they’re tossed back into their old normal lives with little to no people believing or understanding what has truly occurred to them in the time they were gone. Overall, the series is really interesting and enjoyable, but this one had a lot of magical horses and that’s just not my thing. 3 stars.
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin - This is the first book in a new urban fantasy series by acclaimed Science Fiction/Fantasy author N.K. Jemisin. This series follows the city of New York as it awakens and taps 5 avatars representative of each borough who are now responsible for representing the soul of the city and battling the ancient evil forces determined bring about its demise (think the way of Atlantis now buried deep in the sea).
This book is really weird. There was a bit of an adjustment for me to really get into the story and the characters but once I was in it I couldn’t put it down. I think I would’ve loved this book a lot more if I loved New York City, but even without that connection to the setting I gave it 4/5 stars and I’m looking forward to book 2.
Did you read anything interesting in the last month? Let me know!
