Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: April 2024

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The warm weather has found us. And I also had ZERO two star books this month which is absolutely fabulous.

Favorite books this month:

  • Emma Lion Volume 6
  • Christa Comes Out of Her Shell
  • My Lucky Charm
  • Highcliffe House
  • Fate Breaker
  • The Prisoner’s Throne
  • Wild Wild Wolf
  • A Promise of Peridot
  • Romancing the Grump
  • Romancing Mister Bridgerton
  • Daughter of the Forest
  • Into the Fire
  • Beautifully Broken Life

Least favorite books this month:

  • The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Volume #6) by Beth Brower
  • [ALC/ARC] Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman
  • [ARC] A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive #1) by Sylvie Cathrall
  • My Lucky Charm (Holidays with Hart #2) by Courtney Walsh
  • Disciples of Chaos (Seven Faceless Saints #2) by M.K. Lobb
  • A Royal Arrangement (Royal Hearts #3) by Amanda Schimmoeller
  • Only and Forever (Bergman Brothers #7) by Chloe Liese
  • [ARC] Highcliffe House by Megan Walker
  • Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn
  • Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle #5) by Christopher Paolini
  • Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
  • Fate Breaker (Realm Breaker #3) by Victoria Aveyard
  • Simply the Best (Chicago Stars #10) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
  • [ARC] The Girl from the Forest by Hannah Linder
  • The Prisoner’s Throne (The Stolen Heir Duology #2) by Holly Black
  • Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle
  • The Sacrifice of One (Camilla Crim Series #1) by Emily Fortney
  • [ARC] The God and the Gumiho (Fate’s Threads #1) by Sophie Kim
  • Blitz (Treasure State Wildcats #2) by Devney Perry
  • The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy #2) by Mark Lawrence
  • Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch #1) by Lyla Sage
  • Wild Wild Wolf (Timber Creek #1) by B. Perkins and Aimee Vance
  • A Promise of Peridot (The Sacred Stones Trilogy #2) by Kate Golden
  • [ARC] For a Lifetime (Timeless #3) by Gabrielle Meyer
  • Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
  • [ALC] The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
  • [ARC] Romancing the Grump (Appies) by Jenny Proctor
  • Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons #3) by Julia Quinn
  • Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala
  • Enemies Don’t (Fall in Love #2) by Leah Dobrinska
  • Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters #1) by Juliet Marillier
  • [ARC] Into the Fire (Into the Churn #2) by Hayley Reese Chow
  • The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
  • Beautifully Broken Life (Sutter Lake #2) by Catherine Cowles
  • [ARC] Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
  • The Last Bloodcarver (The Last Bloodcarver #1) by Vanessa Le

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Book Review: Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 296 pages
Author: Travis Baldree
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: June 7th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

WORTH THE HYPE.

I enjoyed this quick fantasy read. I know it’s been dubbed cozy and I think that’s a great adjective for this whole read. I thought it was sweet that nobody knew what coffee was and that Viv took the chance at making her own shop to help herself and those around her do something different.

It’s a super quick audiobook (with great narration). As a heavy fantasy reader I think I was still missing that deeper plot line and overarching connection within the story. But I liked all of the nuanced characters who popped into the shop and even how they all came together when disaster struck. It was a good read, I think I’d be interested to see if there’s another book in the series. Still on I’d easily recommend to others. Legends & Lattes was a nice break and gave me those warm coffeehouse feelings.

Overall audience notes:

  • Cozy Fanasy
  • Language: some
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low

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Book Review: A Royal Arrangement (Royal Hearts #3) by Amanda Schimmoeller

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Modern Royalty Romance
Length: 300 pages
Author: Amanda Schimmoeller
Publisher: Indie Published
Release Date: March 4th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A king forced to take a new bride.
A princess determined to win him over.

Princess Rosalie is a hopeless romantic who believes in happily-ever-afters. When she discovers her country is nearing financial devastation, her parents deliver news that will change her life forever—they have secured an arranged marriage for her to King Colin of Edgemont.

It’s not the love match she hoped for, but Rosalie attempts to make the best of the situation and find her place in Colin and his daughter’s lives. When Colin remains grumpy and distant, she takes it as a challenge—she will do whatever it takes to make her husband fall in love with her.

King Colin never planned on remarrying after unexpectedly losing his first wife, but when he’s presented with an offer he can’t refuse, he finds himself with a new bride. Colin plans on living their lives separately and staying focused on raising his daughter… but Rosalie keeps inserting herself into their lives.

Not falling in love with his wife was going to be more difficult than he ever expected.

A Royal Arrangement is Book 3 in the Royal Hearts series. This is a sweet, closed-door romance and can be read as a standalone.

Thank you to the author for a gifted copy.

THIS WAS SWEET.

I loooove marriage of convenience. And this was a very sweet one. I loved the age gap relationship between Colin and Rosalie. They had a good balance of push and pull as both had some things to work through and solve. And when they found that connection with each other it was heart melting.

There were many cute scenes of that brought lots of sunshine and wholesome goodness to the pages. It’s a low stakes, comfort kind of book. I love the modern royalty aspects. And I’m always here for all things forced proximity. I enjoyed the swoony scenes and small moments where the chemistry was heating up.

Overall audience notes:

  • Modern Royalty Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a spouse (recounted), loss of a sibling (recounted)

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Book Review: Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig

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Rating: ★★
Audience: Historical Fiction
Length: 435 pages
Author: Lauren Willig
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: March 21st, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine—a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.

September 1896: As an aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into a very male-dominated field and find work at some of the world’s most famous excavation sites. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in philanthropist Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy’s archaeological sites become battlefields and she falls into the grim and heroic task of nursing the wounded. As the world around her is irrevocably changed, Betsy finds her heart pulled in multiple directions.

June 1898: As the Spanish-American war begins, an older and wiser Betsy Hayes is searching for her former best friend Ava, who she last saw in Greece during the Greco-Turkish War. She believes that Ava might be with the Red Cross headed to Cuba, so Betsy herself joins the Red Cross and follows Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting. As she enters the war zone, dark memories of her last war resurface and her need to protect old and new friends intensifies.

With an unforgettable cast of characters set against two often overlooked but dramatic periods of history, Lauren Willig spins a compelling and heartwarming story about friendship, falling in love at the most inopportune moments, and fighting for what is right.

Thank you to BiblioLifestyle and William Morrow for the gifted copy.

A LOT OF NOPE.

I was hopeful when I started this one, and then quickly things soured and I struggled to finish it. Really should have just put it down.

With a combination of cheating + surprise pregnancy (of which I HATE cheating tropes) this was never going to be redeemed afterwards. I spent most of this book angry and upset at how things were going. Stylistic wise I think many more options could have been used for a better book.

I liked some small pieces such as the male POV we got. As one of the love interests he was fine (and wasn’t cheating) and I liked his chapters. There’s some interesting historical information that I didn’t mind as well. This is a little known topic for me and I liked broadening some of that knowledge.

But I honestly wouldn’t recommend this. First and last book by this author.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical fiction + romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: vague fade to black
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: war themes, major loss of life, blood/gore depiction, pregnancy and childbirth, cheating

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