April TBR

Happy April everyone! I hope you are all keeping safe and well in these unprecedented times and managing to make the most of the isolation by reading all the books!

Today it's time for yet another TBR and as you may or may not know April is the month of the O.W.Ls Magical Readathon. I took part in this for the first time last year and loved it so I'm looking forward to it again this year. Along with this readathon I'm still planning on taking part in my usual month challenges and such and will structure my TBR as normal. 

Without further ado lets see what I'm hoping to read in the month of April. 

As usual I'm splitting my TBR up into the following sections...

• TBR and Beyond yearly challenge prompts (I will be choosing two of these a month)
• TBR and Beyond monthly challenge 
• Any readathons I'm planning on taking part in, for this month it will be the O.W.Ls Magical Readathon
• Review copies I have to read
• Any library books or books from my existing TBR I'm planning on reading

So here's what I plan to read in April. 

Yearly Challenge Prompts

My two challenge prompts for this month are...

• A book written in the 1990s or a classic from the 1990s - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling
• A book without a person on the cover or a book with a POC on the cover - The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman 

TBR and Beyonds Monthly Challenge

The aim of this challenge is a little bit like pairs. You choose up to two cards and read a book that matches the prompts or complete the activity on the card. You can pair cards up however you want book prompt and book prompt, activity and activity or one of each. I'm hoping to complete several pairs this month with the books I'm already planning on reading. 

O.W.Ls Magical Readathon

I have chosen the career Trader of Magical Tomes and for this I need to read four books completing the following prompts...

• Ancient Runes A heart on the cover or in the title - The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
• Charms A white cover - One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• History of Magic A book featuring witches or wizards - I have lots so I'm planning to mood read this one.
• Transfiguration A book/series that includes shapeshifters - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Other (Library/Existing TBR Books)

• Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (re-read)

I'd love to hear about what's on your April TBR.

March Wrap Up

March was another great reading month for me, I seem to be on a roll at the moment. Not only did I read 7 books again but 6 of them were 4 stars and above. Here are the books I read in March.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
Published 18th August 2020 by Hot Key Books
Star Rating - ***.5
Goodreads Challenge - 22/50
Review - Blog Review

Dispel Illusion by Mark Lawrence

Published 14th November 2019 by 47 North

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 16/50

Re-Coil by J. T. Nicholas

Published 3rd March 2020 by Titan Books

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 18/50
Review - Blog Review

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Published 6th February 2020 by Macmillan Children's Books

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 19/50



Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (re-read)
Published 17th June 2014 by Square Fish
Star Rating - **** (original rating 3.5*)
Goodreads Challenge - 20/50



The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas (audiobook)
Published 31st July 2018 by Penguin Random House
Star Rating - ****
Goodreads Challenge - 21/50

Aru-Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Published 3rd May 2018 by Scholastic 

Star Rating - *****

Goodreads Challenge - 17/50

How many books did you manage to read in March? I'd love to hear about your favourites. 

Review - Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn by Intisar Khanani 

Published 24th March 2020 by Hot Key Books

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge (2019) - 68/50

I was gifted an unsolicited ARC copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own

Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future.

When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.

But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever.

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.

My Thoughts

I had never actually heard of this book before I received it in the post neither have I read the original fairytale that this book is based on, The Goose Girl. However, after reading the synopsis I thought it sounded exactly like something I would really enjoy and I wasn't wrong. As I said, I haven't read the source material but this didn't hinder my enjoyment of this book at all and I don't think you need to have read the original fairytale to enjoy this one.

This book is beautifully written. It is descriptive but not unnecessarily so and the plot moves along at a nice steady pace that keeps you engaged throughout. The magic is weaved well throughout the story and there are points where the magic makes the story feel quite atmospheric. There were also some quite hard hitting moments within this book. The story doesn't shy away from incidents and events and at points was quite brutal and that made it feel like a true fairytale.

I loved our main character Alyrra also known as Thorn. She was quite humble and really appreciated the small things. She just wanted to be happy and carve out a life for herself where she felt like she belonged however, as we progressed through the story she begins to grow as a person and starts to fight more for what she believes in. I really liked the relationship between Alyrra and Kestrin too there was no instalovey stuff happening and I felt the story really explored how they felt about each other. Even in the end, they are still not quite there and I appreciated this lack of romance and exploration of feelings.

Overall I would recommend this one for fairytale lovers. Whether you've read the original tale of The Goose Girl or not I think this story will be enjoyed by many.

Overall Rating 

Review - Re-Coil by J. T. Nicholas

Re-Coil by J. T. Nicholas

Published 3rd March 2020 by Titan Books

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 18/50

I was kindly gifted a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Out on a salvage mission with a skeleton crew, Carter Langston is murdered by animated corpses left behind on this ship. Yet in this future, everyone’s consciousness backup can be safely downloaded into a brand-new body, and all you’d lose are the memories of what happened between your last backup and your death. But when Langston wakes up in his new body, he is immediately attacked in the medbay and has to fight once again for his life—and his immortality. Because this assassin aims to destroy his core forever.

Determined to find his shipmates and solve this evolving mystery, Langston locates their tech whiz Shay Chan, but two members are missing and perhaps permanently killed. Langston and Chan are soon running for their lives with the assassin and the corporation behind him in hot pursuit.

What Langston and Chan ultimately find would signal the end of humanity. What started as a salvage mission just might end up saving the world.

My Thoughts

I don't read much sci-fi as I tend to find much of it can be quite science heavy which isn't something I enjoy. The sci-fi I have enjoyed tends to be a little bit lighter, generally YA, however, the synopsis of this one sounded so interesting I thought I would give it a shot and I'm really glad I did.

This was a high action sci-fi thriller that kept me reading until the very end. A real page turner, the writing was fast paced and engaging and the story really kept me on my toes. There were lots of twists and turns that kept me wanting more. I thought the idea of being re-coiled was a really interesting concept and that this book explored the idea of being pretty much immortal in a different way to that which is usually explored in fantasy novels. This then led to a really great discussion surrounding gender, particularly biological gender. This book freely discussed how people can be re-coiled in a body whose gender is different from that of the person themselves. This actually happened to one of our main characters and I thought explored their feelings about this well.

I enjoyed both of our main characters too. They both had really distinct personalities and I enjoyed reading about them. They both seemed to have some shady history and this definitely played a part in them doing the right thing and I liked this morally greyness about them. I also appreciated the very little romance in this book. It was hinted at a lot throughout however, at no point did it over shadow the story and I enjoyed this.

Overall a really great read and one I would recommend to both sci-fi and thriller fans alike. I will be keeping an eye out for further books from this author in the future.

Overall Rating 

March TBR

I didn't manage to get a TBR post up for February however, I did post a picture on my Twitter and I'm pleased to say that I managed to complete this TBR so that's 2/2 so far. 

March's TBR is going to be a little more free as I have a few books to read and I'm not sure which prompts they will fit into for my monthly challenge so any extras will depend on this (this should make more sense in a moment). 

As before I'm splitting my TBR up into the following four sections...

• TBR and Beyond yearly challenge prompts (I will be choosing two of these a month)
• TBR and Beyond monthly challenge 
• Any readathons I'm planning on taking part in
• Review copies I have to read
• Any library books or books from my existing TBR I'm planning on reading

So here's what I plan to read in March so far.

Yearly Challenge Prompts

My two challenge prompts for this month are...

• A book with time travel or parallel universes - Dispel Illusion by Mark Lawrence 
• A book from the Rick Riorden imprint or the Salaam Reads imprint - Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

TBR and Beyonds Monthly Challenge

This is where I need to wait to see if any of the other books on my TBR fit into any of these prompts. The aim of this challenge is to choose a chain and read a book to match each prompt on the chain. Which chain I choose will depend on if any of my other reads fit into any of the prompts (I hope that makes sense). If you would like to know which chain I choose in the end I always update my reading progress on my Twitter. 

Review Copies 

• Recoil by J.T Nicholas

Other (Library/Existing TBR Books)

• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Exsiting TBR/Reread)

Lets hope I can keep up my momentum from February and read all the books in March. 

What are you planning on reading in March? Let me know. 

February Wrap Up

Who can believe we've made it to the end of February already. With February being the shortest month of the year I thought I would have fewer books read this month however, I managed to finish 8 book which is fantastic for me!

And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness (Audiobook)

Published 4th September 2018 by Walker Books

Star Rating - **

Goodreads Challenge - 8/50



The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
Published 20th February 2020 by Tor UK
Star Rating **.5
Goodreads Challenge - 13/50
Review - Blog Review

Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade

Published 5th November 2019 by Tor Books

Star Rating - ***

Goodreads Challenge - 9/50

Review - Blog Review

 

Wardens of Eternity by Courtney Moulton

Published 21st January 2020 by Blink

Star Rating - ***

Goodreads Challenge - 10/50

Review - Blog Review



Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige 
Published 6th October 2016 by Bloomsbury Children's
Star Rating - ***
Goodreads Challenge - 14/50

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Illustrated Edition) by J K Rowling

Published October 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing 

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 11/50

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold 

Published 25th February 2020 by Balzer + Bray

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 12/50

Review - Blog Review 



A Heart so Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
Published 7th January 2020 by Bloomsbury YA
Star Rating - ****
Goodreads Challenge - 15/50

Still no 5 star reads for me yet but I definitely had some good ones this month. My favourites were A Heart so Fierce and Broken and Red Hood. 

How many books did you manage to read this month? I'd love to hear about your favourite. 

Review - Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold 

Published 25th February 2020 by Balzer + Bray

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 12/50

I was kindly gifted an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked.

And the wolf is angry.

Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She’s kept mostly to herself. She’s been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou’s past and on her hands as she stumbles home. About broken boys and vicious wolves. About girls lost in the woods—frightened, but not alone.

My Thoughts

**BEWARE POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**

I requested this one because I really enjoyed Damsel by Elana K. Arnold when I read it last year, even though it was quite a controversial book, and I was keen to see what she did next.

The thing I loved most about this book was definitely the writing style. Elana K. Arnold writes in a really fairytalesque way and the story reads like a classic fairytale, even though it's set in the modern world. It's also written in the second person POV which threw me at first but after the first chapter I really got into it and it really worked for me. As you can probably tell from the title this story is inspired by the classic Little Red Riding Hood tale and I think this worked really well. It wasn't a direct retelling and there was a lot of original content however, there were very clear nods to the classic tale and I felt that it all blended together nicely.

This story really delved into a lot of modern day issues and I think it handled them really well. There was a lot of positive commentary surrounding periods, loosing your virginity and having sex for the first time which I don't think is spoken about often enough in books so I thought this was great. There was also a lot of commentary about toxic masculinity and sexual assault and how important it is to stand up for what's right and what you believe in which was good too. I liked the main character and enjoyed watching how her friendship with two other girls grew throughout the story. I liked this depiction of friendship and how they all supported each other.

I did find the ending a little odd however, the book spent most of the duration exploring how to challenge peoples views and opinions and it seemed that the girls believed murder to be the solution to all their problems which just felt a little bit off to me. That being said I really enjoyed this one and I think it is a really important read and it covers some really important topics. I will definitely be picking up anythings else Elana K. Arnold writes in the future.

Overall Rating