April Reading Round-Up

Here's a look at the books we loved, didn't love, read, rated, or DNF'd this month!

Jay's Reads (17):

        
        

What I Rated Them:
Mighty Be Our Powers - ☕☕☕.5
Get A Life, Chloe Brown - ☕☕☕☕.25
You Are Not Alone - ☕☕☕.5
The Sun Down Motel - ☕☕☕.5
The Curse Defiers - ☕☕☕.75
High Achiever - ☕☕☕.75
The Only Plane in the Sky - ☕☕☕☕☕
American Dirt - ☕☕☕.5
Oona Out of Order - ☕☕☕☕.5
Ten Big Ones - ☕☕☕☕
This is Your Destiny - ☕☕☕☕.25
Eleven on Top - ☕☕☕.75
Little Fires Everywhere - ☕☕☕
I'm Fine and Neither Are You - ☕☕☕☕
When the Bough Breaks - ☕☕☕☕☕
Twelve Sharp - ☕☕☕☕.5
Meet Cute - ☕☕☕☕.5


Favorite Read:
Absolutely The Only Plane in the Sky. It made me feel feelings that I never knew I had.

Least Favorite Read:
Mighty Be Our Powers

DNF?:
None this month!

Rolling over to next month: 
The Genius of Women
The Turn of the Key
The Unhoneymooners
The Dead Girls Club
Finding Peace

Meg's Reads (10):

   
   
 

What I Rated Them: 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ☕☕☕☕
Unicorn Untamed ☕☕☕☕☕
Where Men Win Glory ☕☕☕☕
Fix ☕☕☕☕☕
Whiskey ☕☕☕☕☕
99 Days ☕☕☕
Never Enough ☕☕☕☕☕
Always Enough ☕☕☕☕
If There's No Tomorrow ☕☕☕☕
For the Birds ☕☕☕☕

Favorite Read: Whiskey and Unicorn Untamed.

Least Favorite Read: 99 Days and Where Men Win Glory

DNF: None this month

Carrying Over to Next Month:
Just Mercy
Hell in a Handbasket

Five Star Friday - When the Bough Breaks

This week's Five Star read was read by Jay!

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: The sixth book in the Rose Gardner Investigations series.

For months, Rose has suspected her ex-brother-in-law, has a foot in the criminal world, and she’s equally sure her deceased sister had the evidence to prove it—evidence stolen days just days after Violet’s death.

Those suspicions turn concrete when a body shows up at the construction site Mike works at, and the concrete cracks open wide when her niece and nephew go missing.

Rose might be weeks away from delivering her own baby, but that doesn’t stop her and her best friend, Neely Kate, from looking for the kids. She needs answers and fast, but her search leads her to the man who betrayed her months ago… the father of her baby.

James “Skeeter” Malcolm has been playing games with her for months—refusing to relinquish her paternity but refusing to tell her why. James knows what Mike is up to—Rose is sure of it—but can she convince him to tell help before it’s too late?

Genre? Mystery. With some Romance thrown in.

Backlist? No. Published April 21, 2020. I read an ARC copy.

New to me Author? Not in the slightest.

Why I rated it 5 stars? 
From an actual text I sent Meg: "HOW?! HOW does Denise Grover Swank continue to make each Rose book better than the last?"

Seriously though, I've loved Rose Gardner since the beginning and every time I've ever thought, "Wow! It can't get any better than this," it does. In this sixth installment, Rose is at the end of her pregnancy. But even though she's thrilled for her baby, things are not all rainbows and butterflies in the town of Henryetta. Ashley and Mikey are missing and Rose is determined to figure out where they are. She's still trying to figure out what is going on with James and why he refused to sign paperwork for the baby. Should she make things official with Joe? So many decisions for one pregnant lady to make!

I absolutely devoured this book! Denise Grover Swank does such a fantastic job of writing in a way that allows me to visualize exactly what is going on every step of the way. I felt as if I was truly there for every conversation with Joe, every kick of the baby, everything. Rose Gardner is such a strong character and I felt her strength radiating through Denise's words. I'll be so sad to see this series end. Luckily, it's not ending here because there is still SO MUCH I want to know.

Five Star Friday - A Nearly Normal Family

This week's Five Star read was read by Jay!

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: M.T. Edvardsson’s A Nearly Normal Family is a gripping legal thriller that forces the reader to consider: How far would you go to protect the ones you love? In this twisted narrative of love and murder, a horrific crime makes a seemingly normal family question everything they thought they knew about their life—and one another.

Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?

Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?

Genre? Mystery. Some would call it Thriller or Legal Thriller.

Backlist? Yes. Published June 25th, 2019.

New to me Author? Yes

Why I rated it 5 stars? I don't know why I was so hesitant to read this and why it took me so long to start (I got it in my June 2019 Book of the Month box). It was AMAZING. Told in three parts, we hear about the time between a murder and the trial as told through the viewpoints of Stella's dad, Stella, and Stella's mom. After each part, I thought I had a pretty solid grip on whether Stella was guilty or not and if not - who was. But time and time again I would read about a new part of the timeline and find out I was wrong. This was a quick read and I wanted to keep turning the pages to figure out what really happened to Chris.

Five Star Friday - The Other Woman

This week's Five Star read was read by Meg!

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: A deliciously disturbing, compulsively readable debut domestic suspense—prepare to meet The Other Woman: there’s nothing she won’t do to keep you away from her son...

Emily thinks Adam’s perfect; the man she thought she’d never meet. But lurking in the shadows is a rival; a woman who shares a deep bond with the man she loves.

Emily chose Adam, but she didn’t choose his mother Pammie. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants: Emily gone forever.

The Other Woman is an addictive, fast-paced psychological thriller about the destructive relationship between Emily, her boyfriend Adam, and his manipulative mother Pammie.

Genre? Thriller

Backlist? Yes. Published August 21, 2018.

New to me Author? Yep!

Why I rated it 5 stars?  Short answer? That twist! Long answer? Well, because that twist came out of nowhere for me.  I loved Emily, loved to hate Pammie & thought that Adam needed to step up or get out.  Reading thrillers aren't my M.O. but I've got to admit that they are the ones that I've been rating 5 stars, can't wait to see what what my next thriller holds!

May your coffee be strong and your Kindle be fully charged!

What You Wish For - Katherine Center

Thank you NetGalley for my free eARC! All opinions are my own.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Samantha Casey loves everything about her job as an elementary school librarian on the sunny, historic island of Galveston, Texas—the goofy kids, the stately Victorian building, the butterfly garden. But when the school suddenly loses its beloved principal, it turns out his replacement will be none other than Duncan Carpenter—a former, unrequited crush of Sam’s from many years before.

When Duncan shows up as her new boss, though, he’s nothing like the sweet teacher she once swooned over. He’s become stiff, and humorless, and obsessed with school safety. Now, with Duncan determined to destroy everything Sam loves about her school in the name of security—and turn it into nothing short of a prison—Sam has to stand up for everyone she cares about before the school that’s become her home is gone for good.

Genre? Contemporary Fiction/Romance.

Backlist? No. This will be published July 14, 2020.

New to me Author? No

What did I think? What You Wish For was the third Katherine Center book I read (following How To Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire). Of the three, this was my least favorite. However, it was still a great book!

Sam is a school librarian who loves fun, color, and her job. When her principal suddenly dies, the school board brings in Duncan as the new principal. Sam knew Duncan from her previous school and was super excited about this prospect. Until she realizes how much he's changed...

This is a novel about growing up, finding yourself, learning to lean on other people, learning to love and be loved, and knowing when to give up on something. It was a very sweet novel and as a teacher, I could relate to many different parts of Sam. Overall, I would give a 3.75 rating.