April Haul and Wrap Up

Hi everyone,

This is coming to you a little late, but I’m going to do a quick haul and wrap-up for April. April was a pretty bookish month for me, I ended up getting 18 physical books and 3 e-books to review, so it was very hectic. Most of them were sent by friends or from publishers, so I only ended up buying around 8 books in total [including my Book Box Club book]. Definitely quite a haul!

Books I Bought:

• Love, Simon [A.K.A. Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Beck Albertelli. I got this because I’d heard a lot of people getting hyped for the movie and wanted to check it out.
• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. I bought this one in preparation for YALC in July.
• The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth. This book was a signed pre-order from Waterstones.
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman. Again, I’d heard some pretty good things about this book and wanted to see what the fuss was about.
• Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman. I also bought this one for YALC.
• Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy. I bought this because I was sent an ARC of Puddin’ in the post. I’d read a copy of it before, from my local library, but I wanted to re-read it, and it was such a good book that I took the plunge and bought it.
• The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. Bought as part of an Amazon deal along with Love, Simon and Norse Mythology. I’ve already read an ARC but wanted a physical copy for YALC.
• Norse Mythology by Neal Gaiman. I’ve been coveting this one for a while, but never talked myself into purchasing it until I saw it was on the Amazon deal with other books I wanted and so I thought I’d treat myself.

Books from Book Boxes:

• Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron. It came in my April Book Box Club Box, which had a theme of ‘Fallen Angels.’

Books from Friends:

• State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury. Fairyloot edition kindly sent to me by Moon Kestrel, since she already had a signed copy from an event.
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I’ve been pretty curious about this book for a while, so when my friend Bea did an unhaul, I was excited to get this in the post.
• Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguru. My friend Maddy accidentally got two copies of each of these books for Christmas, so she offered them [and a DVD of Remains of the Day] to me.

Physical Books from Publishers:

• Charmcaster by Sebastien de Castell. Kindly sent to me by Bonnier Zaffre and Hot Key Books. I’ve been super lucky with this series. Got book one from a book box, and an e-book ARC of book two, so I was delighted when I got sent a physical finished copy of Charmcaster to review.
• Bookshop Girl by Chloe Coles. Also from Bonnier Zaffre and Hot Key Books. I was very pleased with this ARC, as it was a book I was eyeing up for YALC.
• I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman. Sent by the wonderful people at HarperCollins. This is another finished copy I was excited to receive in preparation for YALC.
• Puddin’ by Julie Murphy. The eagerly anticipated companion novel to Dumplin’ was also sent to me from HarperCollins to read and review.
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Technically, this was an ARC trade with someone on FB, rather than sent to me by the publisher, but I somehow wound up with two copies of Puddin’ so I traded one for this. I’m really pleased I did, since I found out at the end of the month that Tomi will be at YALC, so I can now get the ARC signed.

E-Book ARCs [all from Netgalley]:

• From Twinkle With Love by Sandhya Menon. I really loved When Dimple Met Rishi, so I was super-pleased when I got approved for this ARC.
• Big Bones by Laura Dockrill. This one had already been released before I was approved for it, but it’s another YALC author title, so I’m pleased to get to sample it before the convention.
• All of This is True by Lydia Day Penaflor. I heard some interesting things about this novel and how it does a lot of unconventional stuff, so it was nice to get early access for it.

April Wrap Up:

In total, I read 13 books in April. Some of them were super-long, with the Stephen King book clocking in at over 700 pages. Part of me wanted to try and clear my whole TBR pile, since there are so many new releases in May I’m dying to get my hands on, and want to be able to read as soon as I get my copies. Obviously, the pile grew pretty high this month, so even though I read quite a lot, and took part in Book Roast’s O.W.L.S. readathon too, I didn’t manage to get through aaaaalllll the books on my shelves. Although, I am trying to save some pennies by resisting the allure of new books for the moment, so it might be a good thing I still have a lot to read. Anyhow, I’m rambling, so here are my April reads:

• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Re-read for the O.W.L.S. readthon. This was my choice for Divination class.
• The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw. This was my March Book Box Club book. I read it for my Herbology O.W.L.
• The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction Edited by David Glover and Scott McCracken. This was something I had to read for my uni work, so I’m counting it as my Muggle Studies O.W.L. too.
• All of This is True by Lydia Day Penaflor. I read this for my Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.
• Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy. A re-read in preparation for Puddin’.
• Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King. This was my book choice for the Transfiguration O.W.L.
• Puddin’ by Julie Murphy. Companion book to the amazing Dumplin’.
• The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth. I read this for my Astronomy O.W.L.
• Bookshop Girl by Chloe Coles. Short little book. It was quite a nice palate cleanser book after Roth’s tedious novel.
• Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman. I read this as my Care of Magical Creatures O.W.L. book.
• State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury. I read this as my Charms O.W.L. book.
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
• Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertelli.