I may sound like a broken record, but we’re already in May! April has come and gone, and it has been marked by lots of lovely weather and lots of reading outside. Or rather, being outside and reading occasionally. Because to be honest, this month wasn’t off to a great start at all. My stomach still bugged me, but it seems like this problem is solved. I ended the month with a nasty cold and I’m still dealing with it. Reading really took the backburner, but I was also reading some longer books yet again. Let’s take a look at how this month treated me, shall we?

My monthly stats

In April, I ended up reading 9 books. One of these was a DNF and 2 were rereads. I will get deeper into this later. I read 4,320 pages and listened to 20.83 hours of audiobooks. However, this number is not accurate as I reread 2 books as audio but never switched them to said editions on The Storygraph. This month, I read mostly fantasy, and it was a mix of English and Dutch. Of the books I read this month, 2 were bought in April, from a total amount of 9 books. I wasn’t too lucky with my ratings this month, my average rating for April is 3.56 stars and it took me an average time of 3 days to finish a book. Although it really felt like an eternity LOL.

My read books

1. Glow of the Everflame by Penn Cole – I started this book on the first of the month and I had the feeling that this book kept dragging a bit. I still was quite under the weather, but first and foremost it felt like this one suffers from second book syndrome. Whereas the focus has shifted to the characters, which is logical when looking at the direction of the series and what I usually prefer, the plot is really slow paced and I was kind of desperate for some action. I enjoyed my time spent with it nevertheless and am curious for the next book in the series. The audiobook is a little over 20 hours, so long indeed. ⭐⭐⭐
2. Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher – This is a book I could knock off off my monthly TBR and it was okay. The romance lacked spark and I’m not the biggest fan of the forced proximity trope, but the character development has been written great. Still, it lacked chemistry for me. Not a bad book, but not that good either. ⭐⭐⭐
3. Phantasma by Kaylie Smith – Ouch, ouch, ouch. I heard so many great things about this book and I was convinced this would become one of my new favourites. I therefore put it on my April TBR. I have never been this mistaken so far this year, because I was bored out of my mind. I couldn’t care for either main character Ophelia (I keep calling her Olivia in my mind whoops), nor the plot. The romance was just meh and nothing much was happening. It totally feels like a rip-off from Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked and I couldn’t deal with it any longer. This was not the audiobook’s fault though. DNF @ 67% (Yeah, I don’t know why I kept pushing myself for this long.)
4. Al het blauw van de hemel by Mélissa Da Costa – An original French book, which I read – obviously – in Dutch. I thought this book wouldn’t be for me and even though there are indeed elements I couldn’t care a lot for, I still had an interesting time. This novel was a chonker as well, the page count is 639. ⭐⭐⭐,5
5. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata – This one has been on my TBR for so long that I put it on the possibility pile for April. I have mixed feelings about it as there were definitely some positive elements, but overall, this romance was lacking for me. My review will be up on Saturday. ⭐⭐⭐
6. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas – A reread, or rather relisten. I switched audiobook platform, and I don’t like my first book on a new-to-me platform to be a story I don’t know. This way, I can focus more on my user experience for said platform instead of the book. I was planning on rereading this fourth instalment in the ACOTAR series sometime though, so why not now? I was intrigued yet again from start to finish and I still think Nesta is a well-written character. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – Oh well, another relisten! I just felt like I wanted to relisten this book as well whilst listening to Nesta’s story. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi – I was pretty sceptical about this book when I saw the announcement for it, but the curiosity got the better of me. It addresses some present-day issues and questions, but I wasn’t too satisfied by the characters. More in my review that will be up on Sunday. ⭐⭐⭐
9. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater – Let’s end the month with another book knocked off off my monthly TBR. Whereas I enjoyed The Raven Boys after reading it the second time around, I really don’t know what to think of this sequel. I found it much more vague than the first book and I still have no idea what the aim of this story is. I still need to process my thoughts in order to be able to write a coherent review that makes any sense. I just finished it late last night, so no wonder. ⭐⭐⭐

My bookhaul

1. Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent
2. The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn
3. Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
4. Daydream by Hannah Grace
5. Al het blauw van de hemel by Mélissa Da Costa
6. The South by Tash Aw
7. The Spelshop by Sarah Beth Hurst
8. A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
9. Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi

Okay I thought that April wouldn’t be looking so great when wrapping it up, but I was wrong. How was this month for you?