April wrap-up

April is over! I don't know what it was like for you, but my April consisted of a lot of rain, new Taylor Swift songs, fun bookish events, and of course some great fantasy reads. I only read three books last month, but given that one of those was 800 pages, I think it can be forgiven! This was an absolutely great month of reading, including my FIRST 5 STAR READ of the year!!! So without further ado, join me as I take you through what I read in April...

House of Earth and Blood

Sarah J Maas

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Bryce Quinlan loves her life. But when a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, Bryce's world comes crashing down. Two years later, the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can't forget any longer."

My first 5 star read of 2024!!! I'll be brief about this one, since I already posted a full review on the blog, but I absolutely adored it. This book is really long (799 pages) but let me tell you it was worth it! The excellent world-building, thrilling mystery and loveable characters with great relationship dynamics really made it an absolute joy to read. And the last 100 pages was one of the most epic finales I've ever read - and it's only book 1 in the series! I've never read any Sarah J Maas books before, but now I can't wait to read more. A truly epic fantasy!

Ruthless Vows

Rebecca Ross

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

"As the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together...the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war."

The sequel to Divine Rivals (which I talked about last month), this book continued where we left off with Iris and Roman. I did really enjoy this sequel - the magic system and writing is truly gorgeous in these books, and the romance between the two leads is swoonworthy (Roman Kitt, the man that you are) - but I just enjoyed it slightly less than the first book. The memory-loss plotline was a fun twist and a sweet callback to the origins of their love story, but I felt it ended slightly too quickly. The ever-growing tension was extremely well written though, and I constantly felt fear for our main characters' safety. However despite the massive build up to the war and the prospect of defeating Dacre, I just didn't feel like the resolution quite paid off. Maybe I had high expectations from recently finishing House of Earth and Blood, but the ending to this duology was a little underwhelming. It was still a great series though, and one I would recommend to fantasy and romance fans alike! I'll certainly be reading more from Rebecca Ross in the future.

Lore Olympus: Volume Three

Rachel Smythe

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Gathering together episodes 50 -75 of the phenomenally popular webcomic, the third volume of Lore Olympus finds the distinctly difficult romance between Persephone and Hades reach a whole new level of awkward."

Continuing my "reading one volume of LO a month" agenda, I finished off April with the third installment of this graphic novel series. As always, I enjoyed the beautiful art, blossoming romance and witty banter, but this was probably my least favourite of the series so far. Honestly, I couldn't tell you why, perhaps I just didn't enjoy the plotlines as much in this one? But overall it was still a really enjoyable read and I look forward to reading Volume 4 next month.

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And that's a wrap on this wrap-up! Honestly it was a great month of reading and I'm just so happy to finally have a 5-star read. I was previously in a bit of a slump but the last few weeks have renewed my love of reading! I have some great books planned for May, and I look forward to telling you all about them next month. <3