Greetings! Welcome to May, the final month of the school year-HALELUJAH!
April was sooooo emotionally exhausting! My poor husband received an incredibly removed version of me who begrudgingly crawled through most of April like an aggressively self-conscious zombie; hyper-aware of my human failings while physically resembling the undead.
My husband and I started the ‘Couch to 5k’ running plan in March and we finished the 6-week plan on the last day of April. We brought the whole plan to a close with a physically, emotionally and mentally exhausting 5 kilometer run in the 80-degree Alabama heat after a draining 9-hour workday.
I could go on and on about my woes, but that’s not why you’re here! Let’s get to these books! Last month I read the least number of books in a month this year (ya know, due to all the zombie-feelings). I was also reading the Bible a lot in April and participating in a 21-days of prayer challenge with my church that has us reading through a book (one chapter a day for 21 days). So I didn’t spend nearly as much time reading recreationally. However, I have absolutely no regrets about this necessary decision! I finished 4 books in April, two 4-stars, one 3.5-star and one 5-star.
I began the month with DNF’ing a book I began listening to at the beginning of March. “Skyward” by Brandon Sanderson was enjoyable in March but by the beginning of April, I found the female lead character absolutely insufferable. After that, I spent a week and a half reading “That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf” which is the second book in the Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming. The book was a 4-star read for me because it was an incredible love story in a world I already loved. The lead characters definitely kept it *interesting*. As a kindle girly, I had to keep my brightness all the way on low as I read this riveting and very very spicy love story.
Then I listened to “One of Us is Dead” by Jeneva Rose on Audible. It only took me 4 days to finish listening to this mystery! I absolutely loved it; it was incredibly twisty. The end was earth shattering and I did not see it coming at all! I loved Jenny and hated Monica, just like Jeneva Rose intended.
After that, I spent 8 days reading “That Time I got Drunk and Saved a Human”, which is the third and final book in the Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming. Honestly, at this point I feel like I have a personal relationship with Kimberly Lemming; she’s now my bestie in my mind even though she has no idea. I honestly didn’t love this book due to the kidnapping trope and the semi-nonconsensual bite from our protagonist Mr. Dragon-demon. This man said “say yes” without any context, while our lovely love interest was under duress and then proceeded to bite her. Shawty was under duress. No good. It was an immediate no for me, and I couldn’t get back into it for the remainder of the book. With all that being said, this book was a 3.5-star read for me.
I finished the month with a super slow read of “Throne of Glass” by Sarah J. Maas. I read this book like a snail from April 14 to April 25th, then I ate up the latter half of the book in 4 days. Honestly, I blame my kindle. I bought the “Throne of Glass” series as a bundle so all 8 books are combined to make one large document. For context, page 199 of ‘Throne of Glass’ which is the half-way point of the first book is equivalent to 4% of the entire series. Watching the percentage stay in the same place for days on end was soooo discouraging. I flew through the last 200 pages of the book because I began to read the physical book. And yes, I have both the physical copy AND the kindle version, DON’T JUDGE ME! I love a good shopertunity and the Kindle version was 50% off!
I’m currently 10 pages into the next book in the ‘Throne of Glass’ series, “Crown of Midnight” by Sarah J. Maas AND I’m halfway into “Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez.
I’m still sore all over from my 5k yesterday AND I just want to curl into a ball and sleep for 24-hours straight, BUT we made it to another month and for that I’m extremely grateful!
Happy May! I hope you have a phenomenal month with lots of naps, loads of snuggles and tons of moments to do the things you truly love. Buh-bye!
The Introvert's Escape Maneuver 