Everything I Read In April 2020

There are affiliate links in here.  I get a small commission if you purchase through them at no extra cost to you

Ahh April. It went by SO MUCH faster than March. Like, March felt like ten years and April felt like ten days. I managed to read quite a bit in April, so I’m pretty proud of myself.

I finished two series, well what is available of one, and read three of seven books in another, plus a bunch of other books! Most were pretty good but a couple had me doing a little side-eyeing. Overall, it was a good month.

• If you want to listen to some of these, consider trying Audible! You can get your first month free (one free book) plus tons of others they have for free.  Get that Audible deal here.
• If you’re on more of a budget, try Scribd!  You can get your first month free there. You can read books and listen to audiobooks. It is unlimited (especially the reading) but if you listen to tons of new audiobooks you may be restricted after a few. I don’t listen to enough to confirm this, but I do use Scribd myself and like it a lot. Sign up for Scribd here!
• Shop my collection of bookish goodies on Etsy! These aren’t my shop items, but other shops I’ve curated into a book-themed collection. Shop my Etsy bookish goodies here!
• If you want to read more on your Kindle but don’t want to buy books, Kindle Unlimited is a wonderful option. It’s $9.99 a month but if you read a lot and like to read more than just new releases, it could be worth it. Get Kindle Unlimited here!
• Get $5 off of $25 from BookOutlet! This is a great place to find new books for pretty cheap. They also have sales quite a bit, so keep an eye out for those. I tend to check here for books I want if they’re more expensive other places. They don’t have everything but they do have a lot. Shop BookOutlet here!
• Thrift Books has become my go-to when I’m looking for a book and want it cheap. It’s great if you like buying used books. With this you can get a free book after spending $30!
• Shop my book lists here! You can find every book list I have on Bookshop.org (except my monthly round-ups) and I add everything I can but they occasionally won’t have some. I do occasionally add extras though. If any lists are empty, they’ll be filled in shortly! Shop my bookshop.org book lists here.
• Shopping internationally? Check out Book Depository!

Following

Final thoughts: I’ll just copy my thoughts from Goodreads right over here. THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

I read it fast and it was entertaining, but it doesn’t make sense AT ALL that the police don’t put together that this missing girl looks like the girl someone claimed was dead. Like, come on. It takes an hour to walk between Alden’s school and Alycia’s, so maybe like 4 miles? Maybe 5?

And nobody managed to realize her and Amy look alike and that it could have been her seen that day? Not even the police (even though we find out how incompetent they are later). Could have been better. Could have been worse.

War of the Cards

Final thoughts: I thought this was way better than the first two. I almost didn’t finish this series, but found it on Book Outlet this winter and decided to get it. Dinah kicks butt in this and while she still may not be the best, she has her moments. Also, Wardley sucks. So hard.

Mostly Void, Partially Stars

Final thoughts: After reading Welcome to Night Vale for my book club, I had to keep going. I got the first two books that include the episodes last year and finally read the first one. I loved getting to see more of the background of Night Vale and how the strange little town works. This isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed it. I also liked getting insight from the writers/creators.

Generation

Final thoughts: Was this the best series ever? No, but I did enjoy it. I wasn’t sure if this could be considered Dystopian since, as far as I can tell, it’s basically our world, but with clones. I thought it was a good ending but one thing that kind of confused me in the whole thing was how all the imitations out in the world knew so much about her?

It Devours

Final thoughts: I loved this. I really enjoyed the concept of the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God and the way they handled that, interweaving it with the monsters around town. I didn’t think this one was quite as depressing as Welcome to Night Vale, which was nice. Again, I know this isn’t for everyone but I’ve come to love the world of Night Vale.

Deviation

Final thoughts: I thought this book moved a lot slower than the first, but still enjoyed it. I definitely expected what happens in book three to happen in this one. I’m actually having a really hard time even remembering what happened and I just finished this a couple weeks ago. I know I enjoyed it though.

This Cruel Design

Final thoughts: I really liked this and I still don’t entirely know how I feel about Cat and everyone else. I’m very easily influenced on feelings for characters and it was constantly changing with everything in this.

Also, I get that everyone is trying to protect Cat, but they just keep lying to her and hurting her and they know she’s going to find all this out but they still just lie and it’s so frustrating. She needs to not have a boyfriend and just be on her own while she figures out who she is. Girl, you do you.

Imitation

Final thoughts: I really liked this. I think the idea of it is really interesting: wealthy and powerful people have clones hidden away so if something happens to them, they can just be replaced. I like how we get to see the greed behind this and how it really goes down versus how it’s expected to go.

Welcome to Night Vale

Final thoughts: This took me a bit to get into but I ended up really brooding it (brood is the wildcard word of the week and can mean whatever you want it to mean) and immediately started reading It Devours, then Mostly Void, Partially Stars. It was a little depressing, but the little quirks and weird things in it really made me love it.

Duplicities

Final thoughts: I liked this, for the most part. I can be pretty hit or miss when it comes to love triangles, or squares in this case, and was pretty tired of so much back and forth with all of that. I do love the premise of this though, that you can’t remember the day before and think it was done well, but the love square stuff really gets me.

Imaginations

Final thoughts: I really liked this. The idea of not remembering the day before is terrifying. The way they have to remember things is to just see or do it for like, five months, then they know it. Every night they sleep, they’re reset.

It was really confusing with this though since Tara Brown writes as A.E. Watson.. sometimes? I guess? There are like four different covers and it looks a lot like Imitations (this one at least) and I won’t lie, I get them a little confused sometimes.

Baking Bad

Final thoughts: I’ll include my thoughts right from Goodreads again. I don’t leave reviews too often, but if I have particularly strong feelings about something in a book, I will.

It was a fun easy read. I did almost DNF it pretty early, but pushed on. The dragons were a little confusing though. They were always worried about being seen but most people couldn’t see them at all? And one knows what The Cloud is but calls a tablet an “internet thingy”? Other than that I liked it for the most part. I probably wouldn’t read more of these though.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Final thoughts: Ugh. I’m so sad I’m finished with the series! It was my first read-through and I loved it. I already want to start it over. I want the illustrated versions for my birthday, so maybe if I get those I’ll start over.

Have you read any of these? Which ones? What did you think of them? What’s the best book you read in April?