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  • Writer's pictureRandi Maguire

BLOG POST- April Wrap Up


Hey ghoulies!! As mentioned in my April TBR post, April's TBR is based off the OWLs prompts! And thankfully, your girl completed all her OWL's! So, let's wrap up:

 

Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan

Read from March 28th to April 1st

YA Fantasy

385 pages


Mini Review:

I went into this book with low expectations since there were so many conflicting reviews. I knew that Kas (@ladyofstardust) fell in love wit this book and she has never been known to steer me wrong, so I bumped it up my TBR.

Am I EVER glad I did! I love this story.

The aspect I love the most is the magical systems. I love the difference between the divine magic (praying to Gods) and blood magic. These differences cause turmoil between countries and start a century long war.

Nadya, a Kalyazi cleric, may be the last in her country with magic. Her magic requires her to use her prayer beads and communicate with the Gods, asking for permission to use their power. She is absolutely badass!

Serefin is the Prince of Tranavia. He is hell bent on destroying Nadya and ending the war. He is a strong blood mage who’s spent almost his whole life on the battlefield instead of at court.

Malachiasz, another blood made from Tranavia who has defected. Oh Malachiasz, so dreamy, so angry. He wants to help Nadya take down the king of Tranavia, he’s tired of the war.

I just can’t with these characters. They are my gold. They have so much depth to them. It’s just their names, like how did Emily A. Duncan come up with these names!?

I need Ruthless Gods like yesterday because the cliffhanger ending is driving me wild.

 

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

Read from March 21st to April 4th

Nonfiction Humour

371 pages


Mini Review:

This is not a book I would normally pick up, so hats off to my buddy Zack for picking this one for us to read. Comedy is not normally my thing.

This book was HILARIOUS. I found myself actually laughing out loud, not just scoffing and nodding my head, but crying actual laughter tears.

There are parts of this book that I could relate to so much. Why can we both just man the f up and just do the thing instead of letting it ruin our lives? Because we are lazy pieces of shit. As I shared these similarities with my fiancé, he would laugh and nod in agreement, “yep, that is exactly you”. It is validating to know that I’m not the only totally messed one out there.

 

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Read from April 1st to April 3rd

Fantasy

575 pages


Mini Review:

This series! Is just so good!

Vengeful picks up where Vicious left off, the resurrection of my bae, Victor Vale. Sydney has brought Victor back from the dead but he’s not the same, he’s broken. This sends our party of 4 into a cross-country search of an EO that can heal and save Victor.

Eli Cardale is imprisoned in a special jail made specifically for EO’s called EON. This is run by none other than Joseph Stell. Hunting down EO’s is the name of the game. Eli’s purpose can be served from inside the cell, he just doesn’t agree with the imprisonment of EO’s and believes they should all die.

We meet some new and extraordinary EO’s in this book. June and Marcella especially. Marcella is power hungry with an ability for ruin. Her power and desire to remain in the spotlight seems endless. June is a powerful shapeshifter who can take memories and faces with a single touch.

I absolutely loved Marcella’s storyline and her character. She’s definitely one of those morally grey characters that you just can’t stop thinking about.

The Eli backstory was incredible. I think this was something that was needed to relate to his character a little more. We needed to understand how he operates and that little bit of history enlightened perfectly.

The interweaving timelines and perspectives was really well done! So many aspects you think would get confusing, but Schwab just puts it together like poetry.

 

The Merciless by Danielle Vega

Read from April 3rd to April 4th

YA Horror

279 pages


Mini Review:

This book set me on a friggen ride ma dudes.

Like, yeah, I expected some weird ass shit since you know? Pentagram on the cover and what-not. What I was NOT expecting was basically anything that happened.

This reminded me of Mean Girls with a whole lot of Hostel or maybe The Exorcist?

I don’t know where this book came from, why I haven’t heard of it before, before it’s definitely on route to be my favourite thriller this year. It had my toes a-wigglin’ and my heart racing. I was messaging Leah (@booksandtwomeows) every chapter in all caps. She got the full on play by friggen play. And it was wild. Everything about this was wild.

If you’re into some kind of messed up shit. Read this book.

 

Night by Elie Wiesel

Read on April 4th

Historical Classic

115 pages


Mini Review:

This book absolutely broke my heart.

If you know me, you know I don’t like children. But when the phrase “they were throwing children in the air and using them for machine gun target practice” popped up, I had to stop reading... that was traumatizing for me.

I didn’t have a very good history teacher, so I feel that I never got to learn as much about the Holocaust as others did. I try to pick up books from that time period and about WWII for that reason. You can imagine my horror when I learned that they piled youth into cattle cars and dumped them into pits of fire. I think that image will be forever burnt into my brain. I cannot believe that humans have the capacity to do that to other humans...

Nearing the end of this book, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. I cried for a good 20 minutes. My heart was shattered.

Would I have had the strength to do what any of these brave souls did and survive? Probably not.

A moment of silence to honour them and to honour those who were lost.

 

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Read on April 4th

Romance

400 pages


Mini Review:

My first ever Christina Lauren book! Why have I waited so long to read her books!?

I completely understand the hype now. This enemies to lovers troped our book was amaze balls and had my name written all over it. Did I mention that I’ve become a sucker for romance books now? Send me all the recs, because dang they are good. Especially this one.

I knew right from the get-go how Ethan felt towards Olive, I just had that gut feeling yanno? But I was all in for all that cheese. I was in for all the drama. The drama that Olive most certainly created for herself.

I recommend this because it was fun and quick, I read it in one day!

 

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

Read from April 4th to April 8th

YA Fantasy

648 pages


Mini Review:

Alright, so Aelin is back in Rifthold! Shit is going to shit the fan and I wasn’t ready. Okay, I lie. I was BEYOND ready.

This book is massive, but I devoured it like it was cheesecake calling my name.

Okay, so. There is some epic scenes in this book. EPIC. Like some major plot building happens. Some battles happen. Some sneaky sneaky rafiki. It was a ride.

I just wanna talk about Lysandra and how her character development in this book was probably my favourite. How did I become team Lysandra? Well, just ask SJM cuz she’s a queen of the unexpected.

AND I CALLED IT IN HoF that there would be romance between Rowan and Aelin, and wham bam thank you ma’am, there it is. Dang happy about it too. This is what I’m talking about. Some slow ass burn romance.

I also predict Manon and Dorian, also Chaol and his guard girlie (more than they have) DON’T SPOIL I MUST READ!

I am addicted to this series.

 

The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees

Read from April 8th to April 10th

YA Fantasy

304 pages


Mini Review:

This is going to be painful to write.

This book started so strong. The two different story lines (the witch of the woods and the girl with visions) was super interesting.

I had my qualms with the the second story line—it was explained how old Rhea was but was said how old her 4 sisters were until later on... I spent a majority of the book thinking they were real young... like 4-5.

ASIDE from that, the second part of the book just went all downhill. The creatures in the woods were friggen weird. I’m all for cool and different creatures but these were just ???????? The story line became really REALLY confusing and difficult to follow. The writing was really choppy and made it hard to enjoy what I was reading.

I just wanted it to end.

 

A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer

Read from April 10th to April 13th

YA Fantasy

450 pages


Mini Review:

This book actually worried me since there were so many mixed reviews about it!

I do have to say that it definitely wasn’t as good as the first book, but it still held its own and has me super excited for the next instalment.

This book introduced two new perspectives—Grey and Lia Mara. We really got to know Grey in the previous book so I was amped to have a perspective written through his eyes! I was really iffy about Lia Mara in the beginning; she is the firstborn daughter of the invading area of Shyl Shallow. I totally forgot about that HUGE plot development in the first book so I had to backpedal a bit during this introduction. Probably should’ve reread ACSDAL before jumping into this one. Rip. ANYWAYS, her perspective ends up getting really interesting and I end up really enjoying her character!

I also love how more of the supporting characters get some more attention in this book! Getting to know Jake and Noah better was definitely great.

Like any great sequel, there were more character introductions that were amaze balls. Can I talk about how much I love the Scraver? Legit my all time favourite character. Here is me in love with the creature again. Nothing wrong with me, I swear.

So, what didn’t I like? Rhen. What the heck dude? Why did he become a total Tamlin in ACOMAF? Nuh uh. No bueno. I’m hoping for a redemption arc in the next book otherwise I’ll be disappointed. He was such a solid character. Not all beasts should be bad throughout. Thats just cliché.

 

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Read from April 14th to April 16th

YA Fantasy

408 pages


Mini Review:

I feel like this one may have been a little over-hyped! But, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I just didn’t LOVE it.

I loved the premise of these totally troubled Raven Boys. I am all for that shit. Gansey, who basically collects all these other troubled dudes believes in this weird conspiracy theory (???????) about some guy that died and... you know what? I don’t even really know. It was totally weird.

Well, he goes to these psychics okay? Cue our other protagonist, Blue. She’s the daughter of a psychic but doesn’t really have any cool powers. She just amplifies other people’s abilities. I would feel as though I had been screweddddddd if I was her. Blue is totally going to help him on his conspiracy journey. Cool cool cool cool.

What’s not cool? The forbidden love tropeeeeeeeeeeee. Ever since Blue was getting her cards read and her future told, it’s been said that she will find the one she loves, kiss him, and then he dies. Wham bam NO thank you ma’am? Turns out, Gansey is that person! So cool girl. Hard avoid. Why start fraternizing with him and risk his balls? Like girllllllllllll.

With the amount of people who love this series, I will see it through until the end! But I just want to say that I am not happy with this series opener.

 

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

Read from April 17th to April 20th

Retellings

368 pages


Mini Review:

This is another book that I went into blind, like most of my other books—a total cover buy. So, before I get into this review just know that I had no idea that this was any sort of retelling.

The book is—I use this loosely—kind of about 3 friends: Nik (a prince), Anna (another form of either richness or royalty), and Evie (a fisherman’s daughter and witch).

I struggled to find my footing with this book. It took me a really long time to actually get into the groove and enjoy it. Maybe that’s because I was always questioning whether this was a Little Mermaid retelling or not, lol. Or, maybe it’s because of my lack of Danish knowledge.

Kudos to the author for including such rich history. This includes witch history: the hanging and burning of witches for the fear of overpowering, and the Danish royals.

I don’t really have many thoughts about this book. I just didn’t really stand out to me. I’m not really sure if I will continue on with the series.

 

Circe by Madeline Miller

Read on April 21st

Fantasy

393 pages


Mini Review:

All my friggen stars. That’s right. Take them all. If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would! I knew it was going to be good because The Song of Achilles was literal gold so there was no way that this could be anything less. And it delivered. Oh boy did it deliver.

I swear I must’ve screamed when there were references made about Patroclus and Achilles. But that’s not all that was referenced. So many other titans, Gods, Goddesses and even other myths such as the Minotaur were in this book.

I was captivated from start to finish and I didn’t want it to end! Just like I said when finished The Song of Achilles, I will say it again, I need more Greek stories from Madeline like tomorrow!

 

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Read on April 25th

YA Mystery

272 pages


Mini Review:

This is one of the first YA mystery books I’ve read. It was an interesting change from the regular mystery/thriller books I read.

This book had me questioning the end outcome the entire time. The plot twist was massive and one that I definitely did not expect.

There wasn’t THAT much mystery really though. Maybe that was because it was YA? I’m not sure but maybe I expected a little more out of it. But, meh. I still really enjoyed the story.

The ending made me sob uncontrollably. I love stories that end me and hurt me and this did that so bravo!

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