March & April Wrap-Up: Reviews, Reading Challenges, etc.

So y’all know how I had really awesome reading months in January and February? Well, needless to say that that put me in a bit of a reading slump this spring. I mean, it was really bad. Instead of reading books, I was playing The Witcher 3 and binge-watching tv shows (Peaky Blinders, anyone?!) like nobody’s business. Luckily, I think I’m finally coming out of my slump so cheers to tons of reading this summer and playing catch up!

Due to my less-than-stellar reading and blogging habits, I’ve combined my wrap-ups for March and April. You’re welcome! 😉


Books Read

  • Starflight (Starflight, #1) by Melissa Landers – Underrated Book Club March BOTM, 4/5 stars
  • Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi – 3/5 stars
  • A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3) by V.E. Schwab – 5/5 stars, REVIEW

That’s right, I only read 3 books in 2 months. I’m not proud of myself at all – more like ashamed…

I also read about 60 pages of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk since it was the pick for my book club but I’m pretty close to DNFing it. It’s just not for me and I even enjoy literary fiction, I swear! I really think that Lillian just believes herself to be so much better than everyone else and it makes me want to punch her in the face.

Total Books Read: 3

Overall in 2017: 19

Reading Challenge Updates

POPSUGAR

  • A Book by an Author Who Uses a Pseudonym – A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)

Previous Month

  • A Book of Letters – We Are Still Tornadoes
  • A Book by a Person of Color – A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)
  • A Bestseller from a Genre You Don’t Normally Read – Big Little Lies
  • A Book Published in 2017 – Caraval (Caraval, #1)
  • The First Book in a Series You Haven’t Read Before – Truthwitch (The Witchlands, #1)
  • A book by or about a person who has a disability – The Architect of Song
  • A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too longRed Queen (Red Queen, #1)

Beat The Backlist

  • Furthermore
  • Starflight (Starflight, #1)

Goodreads Reading Challenge

  • Total: 19/100
  • Previous Total: 16/100

Blog Posts

Teaser Tuesday

WWW Wednesday

Discussions/Misc.

As I’m sure you can guess, these were not my best months. However, I can only hope that I don’t go into another slump for the rest of the year or I will never complete any of my reading challenges. Fingers crossed!


How was your spring reading? Did you read a lot of books during March and April? What were you favorite and least favorite reads? Have you read any of the books that I read?

WWW Wednesday – May 3rd, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

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Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

This book has definitely changed my view a little on the fantastical place that is Neverland. I’m starting to see it in a more realistic (maybe even depressing) light. While I will always be obsessed with the tales of Peter Pan, Hook is now looking like the more appealing character. WHAT?!

“Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It’s my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy.”

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan’s rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella’s knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook’s last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.

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Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

So this was last month’s pick for my book club, that I am still trying to finish. I really do enjoy good literary fiction every now and then, but nothing about this book appealed to me when it was first released at the beginning of the year. And it still doesn’t. Which is why I have yet to finish it or even made myself pick it up in almost two weeks. Blahhhhhhh….

It’s the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk.

As she traverses a grittier Manhattan, a city anxious after an attack by a still-at-large subway vigilante, she encounters bartenders, bodega clerks, chauffeurs, security guards, bohemians, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be—in surprising moments of generosity and grace. While she strolls, Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest-paid advertising woman in America—a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.

A love letter to city life—however shiny or sleazy—Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.

What did you recently finish reading?

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A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3) by V.E. Schwab

Killer finale, for real. You can read my full review HERE.

Witness the fate of beloved heroes – and enemies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED…
The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.

WHO WILL CRUMBLE?
Kell – once assumed to be the last surviving Antari – begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?

WHO WILL RISE?
Lila Bard, once a commonplace – but never common – thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.

WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL?
And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.

What do you think you’ll read next?


What are you currently reading? Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think of them? Leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments below!