April Reading Wrap Up!

I read a LOT in April, and not just because of Kate’s fab Easter Readathon! I also tried to read a little outside of my comfort zone (read: I tried adult books. WHAT.) and the results were actually quite surprising! Including - spoilers - possibly my book of the year. It’s been a wild ride…

This was a wonderful dose of historical magical adventure set in revolutionary France. The writing was a bit more ‘dense’ than usual for YA, but it’s because this book was so rich with gorgeous description of Paris and Versailles. Camille has to rescue her and her sister from their drunken elder brother by using her mother’s magic. Features fantastic courtly scenes in Versailles, and a stupid proud soft boy who I absolutely adore. Apparently there’s a sequel on the way, which I found odd because this works really well as a standalone for me!

I KNOW. I am so behind everyone else by reading this book. My friend Mary has been telling me to read DoSaB for ages, and I finally got to it this month. And WHAT A TREAT. My mind was blown. This is hands-down one of the best written books I’ve read in years. It follows Karou as she gets pulled in to an ages-old war - and I don’t trust myself to say anything more without accidentally spoilering. I’ve got the second one lined up, but am spacing them out because otherwise no other book will stand a chance of being thought of well because it’s not as good as DoSaB. Truly, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Then we get on to the FIVE books I read over the course of the #EasterReadathon !

This was the first middle grade book I read in April, and it was an absolute joy. I was a real fan of Rauf’s debut, THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS, and this was even better. It is all about a sister and her little brother whose mother has become a star and they are determined to make sure that the star is named for her. A beautiful and emotive depiction of really sensitive issues through a child’s eyes. I was also impressed with not only the content warnings at the start of this book, but the way they were written. Rauf really does have the perfect voice for speaking to young children, and this book was a triumph.

I was looking forward to this - a modern Beauty And The Beast retelling by Sandhya Menon, author of WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI, which I really enjoyed! However, I was quite disappointed by this book. It felt like it would have been a really cute romance if it hadn’t tried to shoehorn the Beauty and the Beast retelling in? The magical element fell flat for me, and the book would have been better without it. The elements I enjoyed in this book were the school setting, the characters (once we warmed up to them, which did take a little while) and the sibling relationship. Overall, a cute romance that was spoiled by trying to be a BATB retelling.

This was absolutely EVERYTHING I wanted this book to be. It was cute, funny, engaging, and romantic. Bollywood obsessive Winnie has just broken up with her boyfriend - which is awkward because their family’s pandit predicted she’d meet the love of her life before eighteen and, well, her ex ticked all the boxes. This book explores the aftermath of that breakup for Winnie while she tries to run the school film club (with her ex being an absolute pain the whole time) and trying to navigate her feelings for a fellow film geek. Reader, I actually laughed out loud while reading this. It was the perfect hilarious rom-com and I adored every second!

This was, unfortunately, my most underwhelming read of 2020 so far. Honestly, if I wasn’t a speedy reader and ended up reading this in one big hit, I really think I would have DNF’d this. The protagonist was interesting and I felt like her awkwardness around liking people was something that resonated. However, I felt like I spent the entire book waiting for the plot to kick in to gear. Stuff happened, but I didn’t really see how it linked together and at no point did it feel as if it raised the stakes for the characters. It felt very authentic in terms of it was what teens may well go through - but there’s a reason that books aren’t entirely the same as real life, even contemporaries. Characters need motivation and stakes and to have some kind of forward momentum, and I just felt like this book was - well, completely devoid of that. I’ll be giving away my copy of this book.

This was one of the loveliest surprises of my reading this year. I’d got a copy of this a year or so ago on the recommendation of my friend, and had somehow never got to it. But I’m so glad I finally did! This really is a sweeping epic in as much as it covers Elin’s life from when she is ten years old until she is an adult. It has a similar vibe to books like THE GIRL WHO SPEAKS BEAR, in that it feels very much steeped in the verbal storytelling tradition. Elin’s mother dies when she is ten because of her role in working with the Toda, beasts that form the army of their area. Elin escapes and is fostered and ends up at a school the other side of the border that works with Royal Beasts. Elin’s passion for animals and her care for them really does shine through and I love that this story doesn’t go in the direction expected. There’s a few moments where I expected the story to go in a certain direction in terms of characters and relationships and it didn’t - and I loved that. I definitely think I enjoyed the story more for it! I’m also really pleased because it had quite an abrupt ending for a standalone and it turns out that the next few volumes have also been translated and are scheduled to be published later this year (hopefully, if the date doesn’t change because… world.) One of my favourite discoveries of the year. Definitely add to your TBRs!

After the Easter Readathon, I got a few more books under my belt…

I’m… still not okay after this book. I spent the week before release sitting in front of my letterbox like I was staring in to a Bake-Off oven and then when it arrived, I sat myself down to inhale it all in one go. I fully gasped (and wailed) actually OUT LOUD while reading this. I need to figure out my thoughts properly about this, so for now I’ll just thank Steph for being such a gem and holding my hand the whole way through, and dealing with my yells of THAT ENDING. (But seriously, THAT ENDING).

And this is it. My final read of April, and possibly the best book I’ll read all year.

I genuinely struggle to put my thoughts in to words about this book. It is an absolute masterpiece that explores love, loss, family, and grief in ways I hadn’t even thought were possible in a book. Agnes is the star of this book: her difference from the rest of the family, her love for her husband, her determination to do what she feels is right, and her relationships with her children were overwhelming and magical and felt just so honest and true. This book made me cry (very grateful to Simon at Savidge Reads for dutifully warning readers about this in his videos) and smile and, while I know most people reading this won’t be Shakespeare mad like me, I thought the way that the play Hamlet was acknowledged in this book was very powerful, and yet so very understated.

This is not a book about Shakespeare, his plays, or his achievements. It is about a mother, in Stratford, and how she and her husband deal with the loss of their child. Everything else falls away, somehow - but that brief acknowledgement of the play at the end was so beautifully and emotively done that after I’d sat and cried some more, I immediately went to read the play again. This is honestly the best book I have read all year by a mile, possibly one of the best books I have ever read. I don’t know what more to say than that.

Have you read any of these books? What did you read in April? Leave a comment!