April 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

A little late, I know— but it’s better late than never!

April was a pretty rough reading month for me. I was stuck in a reading slump for most of the month, so unfortunately I did not get to read as much as I would have liked to. Luckily, I didn’t set a TBR list so I was pretty much free to read whatever book I wanted to read in whatever order I felt like reading. However, I’m still glad to have read a decent amount of books this month and check off some books off of my tbr pile— small victories still count.

Hope everyone else had a good reading month this April. Let me know what your favourite book that you read this month and what you’re looking forward to reading this upcoming month.

The Things that happened in April 2021

New House, New Stove

We moved houses last month, and we still don’t know how to properly use the stove. The guest room is jam packed with boxes, clothes and spare pillows. The house was partially furnished, but did come with a place to put our clothes so we took on the challenge of assembling four (4!!) custom made wardrobes that we found on Facebook Marketplace because we were not about to pay someone 150 to build it for us. Long story short, two cuts on the forehead, a couple missing screws, and someone painfully toe bumps later— we had four wardrobes.

We adopted a rescue dog

This is probably what has been taking up majority of my time this month— and not my university classes unfortunately. We have been wanting a dog for quite some time, and now I have finally convinced my parents that it was time to welcome a dog into our home. We knew we wanted to adopt from a rescue or a shelter because; 1) The prices for puppies from breeders has soared since last year, and we’re not going to pay £2000 for a house puppy, 2) We weren’t really too fussed about what breed we wanted, and 3) Stop supporting puppy mills.

The search for the paw-fic (sorry, I had to) family member was on and our stop was the local UK rescues. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a dog that would suit our lifestyle so we decided to broaden our search and look at rescues for abroad. We stumbled on numerous groups and practically fell in love with so many dogs so we sent in our applications for adoption and waited. It seemed like we were the lucky ones as 5 our of 6 of our pre-adoption applications were accepted and thus the gruelling task of picking only one dog out of the five cuties was next.

We settled on a beautiful white, mixed breed dog named Storm from Bosnian and now we are currently waiting for his arrival.

I’m thinking of dedicating a blog post for him once he arrives so I can introduce you all to him…

As I’m writing this (May 1 2021) we are still waiting for our dog, but we are so excited for him to arrive home.

Being a Law student is hard

Being a law student is hard.

The Books I read in April 2021

Wicked Things #1 (Wicked Things #1)

by John Allison (Author), Max Sarin (Cover Art)

Reading Dates: April 6 2021 — April 6 2021

Format Read: Kindle Edition

Rating: 2/5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

The Eisner Award winning team of John Allison and Max Sarin return to the world of Giant Days for a new series about everyone’s favorite child detective; Charlotte Grote.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNHIRED

The Eisner Award winning team of John Allison and Max Sarin return to the world of Giant Days for a new series about everyone’s favorite child detective; Charlotte Grote.

Nineteen year old Charlotte Grote has her whole life ahead of her; headed straight to Oxford and a future as a real detective—until she’s framed for murder!

Given the choice between going to jail basically forever or joining the police, Lottie decides to hit the beat, all while trying to find the real murderer. Lottie may have been running rings about the police since her 9th birthday, but she’s never been on this side of the security tape. 

Could the future of law enforcement be 5’2” with an extremely strong bangs game? 

Yes. Very yes.

Collects Wicked Things #1-6.

The Summer Job

by Lizzy Dent

Reading Dates: April

Format Read: Audiobook

Reading Time: 11 hours and 13 minutes

Rating: 3/5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Beach Read meets Sweetbitter in this laugh-out-loud and ultimately heartwarming debut of a good friend’s very bad decision and the summer job that stands to ruin or make her life.

What if you could be someone else? Just for the summer…

Birdy has made a mistake. Everyone imagines running away from their life at some point. But Birdy has actually done it. And the life she’s run into is her best friend Heather’s. The only problem is, she hasn’t told Heather.

The summer job at the highland Scottish hotel that her world class wine-expert friend ditched turns out to be a lot more than Birdy bargained for. Can she survive a summer pretending to be her best friend? And can Birdy stop herself from falling for the first man she’s ever actually liked, but who thinks she’s someone else?

One good friend’s very bad decision is at the heart of this laugh-out-loud love story and unexpected tale of a woman finally finding herself in the strangest of places

My Sister, the Serial Killer

by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Reading dates: April 20 2021 — April 22 2021

Format Read: Hardback

Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Summary:

When Korede’s dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what’s expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This’ll be the third boyfriend Ayoola’s dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede’s long been in love with him, and isn’t prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other…

My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker – and more difficult to get out of the carpet – than water…

In the Heat of the Night

by John Dudley Ball, John Ridley (Introduction)

Rating: April 27 2021 — April 28 2021

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Summary:

They call me Mr Tibbs!’

A small southern town in the 1960s. A musician found dead on the highway. It’s no surprise when white detectives arrest a black man for the murder. What is a surprise is that the black man – Virgil Tibbs – is himself a skilled homicide detective from California, whom inexperienced Chief Gillespie reluctantly recruits to help with the case. Faced with mounting local hostility and a police force that seems determined to see him fail, it isn’t long before Tibbs – trained in karate and aikido – will have to fight not just for justice, but also for his own safety.

The inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film starring Sidney Poitier, this iconic crime novel is a psychologically astute examination of racial prejudice, an atmospheric depiction of the American South in the sixties, and a brilliant, suspense-filled read set in the sultry heat of the night.

If I Had Your Face

by Frances Cha

Reading Date: April 30 2021 — April 30 2021

Format: Kindle Ebook

Rating: 3/5

Goodreads Summary:

A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossibly high standards of beauty, secret room salons catering to wealthy men, strict social hierarchies, and K-pop fan mania.

“Even as a girl, I knew the only chance I had was to change my face… even before a fortune-teller told me so.”

Kyuri is a heartbreakingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a “room salon,” an exclusive bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client may come to threaten her livelihood.

Her roomate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea’s biggest companies.

Down the hall in their apartment building lives Ara, a hair stylist for whom two preoccupations sustain her: obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that is commonplace.

And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to get pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise and educate in the cutthroat economy.

Together, their stories tell a gripping tale that’s seemingly unfamiliar, yet unmistakably universal in the way that their tentative friendships may have to be their saving grace