Hello friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well. I can’t believe we’re wrapping April! Let’s get into how my month went!

Currently Reading:

Firestarter by: Stephen King. I’m getting closer to finishing this. This started really fast paced, then the middle really dragged, but I have high hopes that the end is going to pick up again… since the last few chapters I read have been gaining tension!

The Last Emperox by: John Scalzi. I’ve very much enjoyed his trilogy so far, so I’m excited to dive into the final book. I’m hoping to get a great ending!

What I’ve Read:

Rich Girl, Broke Girl by: Kelley Keehn. This was a good intro into the world of finances and learning how to save, invest and a bunch more. This was short and sweet and easy to read.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by: Jenny Han. My ranting on this hasn’t changed since the first time I read it. I loved it again and it was so comforting on audio. I honestly didn’t remember everything that happened in this, I thought some of things happened in the second book!

The Consuming Fire by: John Scalzi. This is the second book in this trilogy and I enjoyed how everything that was included was useful; it wasn’t filled with fluff and it sets up everything for the final novel – I can’t wait!

Driven by: Marcello di Cintio. I read this as part of the 2022 Canada Reads books. This was not what I expected it to be, but I also was happy to be surprised by it. This looked at how people became taxi drivers – it was really thought-provoking.

99 Lies by: Rachel Vincent. Okay, I didn’t hate this as much as I thought I would. I didn’t care for the first novel, but the characters definitely (most of them anyways) grew and they weren’t as unlikeable as they were; I still didn’t care for the plot, but the characters weren’t as bad.

Into the Water by: Paula Hawkins. This was a really intricate novel; I enjoyed the plot but there were waaaay too many characters to follow along and read from.

The Deepest of Secrets by: Kelley Armstrong. This is the 7th novel in the Rockton series and it didn’t wow me as much as previous novels have, but I still enjoyed this. I would like to know if this is the last novel or not though.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by: Mark Haddon. I read this in a day, it definitely piqued my interest. The first half was quite different from the second half, but I still wanted to know what was going to happen. I also enjoyed reading Christopher’s point of view and how he saw the simple things in life.

The Someday Birds by: Sally J. Pla. This was such a cute read. It was filled with hope and doing things you’re afraid of to overcome those fears. There was quite a bit going on in this, but a well worth middle grade book!

Raybearer by: Jordan Ifueko. I have such mixed feelings about this; so many people loved it, but I can’t quite say that I did too. I did love the characters and the writing, but the world building and the plot left me confused and feeling kinda lacklustre, but I am intrigued enough to read the sequel.

Once Upon an Eid edited by: S.K. Ali & Aisha Saeed. OMG! THIS WAS SO DARN CUTE! I thought this was a YA book, I didn’t realize it was middle grade and that made it even more pure and innocent and full of love. I would recommend this to everyone because it’s just full of so much joy.

What Strange Paradise by: Omar El Akkad. This was my next Canada Reads nominated book and it was good, but I didn’t really jive with it – it was emotional story, but I didn’t feel emotionally connected to it.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by: Gail Honeyman. I have to say, it took a bit to get used to Eleanor, but the more you read the more you ended up loving her. This was a rollercoaster of a novel, but I ended up really enjoying it!

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Krysta @Pages Unbound posted a lot of content for National Library week, check out her blog for all of them, here were a few of my favourites:

• How to Support Your Local Librarians
• Library Secrets Even Avid Library Users
• Why Your Local Library Weeds Books from the Collection

Amber @The Literary Phoenix posted a great piece on reading book reviews with a grain of salt – it’s some great advice.

Lisa @Bookshelf Fantasies posted a great review of The Midnight Bargain by: C.L. Polk – I loved this book and I enjoyed her review.

CW @The Quiet Pond posted a round up of everyone’s gardens for Pondathon (I forgot to submit mine!) but they all look SO good!

Kal @Reader Voracious posted a stellar post on how to use tags correctly on your blog – this was very handy!

I hope you all had a good month! 😊

Highlights of the month:

✨ I started my month by going out to dinner with my group of friends and getting to see one of them, who I haven’t seen since last September! It was such a fun evening out, good food, great drinks, awesome company!

✨ I then saw another friend that I haven’t seen since last November and we exchanged Christmas gifts (😅) and went out for a sushi lunch, yum!

✨ Not so much a ‘highlight’ but I experienced my first flat tire – I wasn’t drive, nor was it my car – but it was still a crazy experience of having to wait at the side of the road on the highway for a tow.

✨ We were able to celebrate Easter with family this year so we had a very big lunch with lots of food and good company! 😊

✨ I baked for the first time since like January or February! I made a lemon loaf and I’m very happy with how it came out (photo below).

✨ Got together with one of my best friends to put together a map of independent bookstores we planned to go to in a day – so much fun! Just as much fun as actually going out and doing it 😂

✨ Went to 13 bookstores in the span of one day with one of my best friends’ for Independent Bookstore Day on April 30. Did I buy a ton of books? You bet I did!

What I’ve watched:

Atypical; season 3. This season really made me fall in love with the show. For a bit now, we’ve gotten to see other characters more and this season really opened that up. It was good to see more of Casey’s life and I actually stopped hating Elsa and Doug and started to like them. They had so much to work through and to see them trying is what really hits me. Even when Casey and her mom have that one break through moment, woof that had me in tears. Then don’t even get me started with Sam and Zahid; those two! I love their relationship SO much and having to watch them fight was heartbreaking. Plus, of course Sam going to college was fun to see too. I can’t wait to watch the final season, even though I’m sad it’ll be the end.

Jane the Virgin; season 3. I finished this up the first of the month and this season was ALL over the place. The beginning was pretty intense and had my attention. I couldn’t stand Rafael’s plots – they bored me. Then mid-season they kill off a major character and I went WHAT?!? I still can’t believe they did that. THEN they jumped 3 years into the future and I have NO idea why they decided to take this approach. So now we’re led to believe Jane is to find love in an old fling? I don’t know how there are 2 more seasons of this.

I also re-watched a few movies this month. I re-watched Freaky Friday (2004), this movie is my life, hands down my favourite movie ever; I can quote the whole thing… and I just want to be in the movie. 😅 then Tarzan which I still love; Back to the Future the trilogy was on TV one Saturday afternoon and so I caught the last 2, which are funny to watch; lastly I re-watched Dumplin’ and I actually forgot how much I love that movie, ugh!

What I’m watching:

Star Trek: The Original Series season 1. I’m making my way through this season, it’s 30 epiosdes long so it’s taking time to get through. For the most part, I’m enjoying this part of my Star Trek journey, but the epiosdes feel like they’re long for no reason and I have a hard time staying focused during the episode. What I really like though, is Spock, he’s hilarious! His facial expressions and just his comebacks make me laugh every single episode.

Jane the Virgin; season 4. So I’m very close to finishing this season and what another roller coaster. I don’t know where to start because the first half of the season felt different from the last half. I was kinda feeling Adam – Jane’s first love… but of course he didn’t last. Then I got really bored with Petra… that is until JR showed up – seeing the vulnerable side of Petra was different, but in a good way. Then we had Jane’s parents and I was getting bored with their trials and tribulations too… until they sprung the cancer card and now I’m fully 100% invested again – this show!! It does these dips and dives, but I’m in it for the long haul now.

This Is Us; season 6. We’ve really gotten to see a lot of Kate and Toby. As sad as that story has been, it’s also good to see the happy that came out of it too. So now I’m curious, with the last few episodes are we staying in the future for the rest of the show? I’m very curious to see how this show is going to end.

Grey’s Anatomy; season 18. This has been on hiatus for a few weeks and the way they ended it with Meredith deciding to leave Grey Sloan was big! So now I’m very curious to see where the last few episodes are going to go and if they’re going to continue the show without her. Also, I’d like to say that I like seeing Levi jump out of his depression when his mum gets hurt.

Station 19; season 5. This has also been on hiatus, but they left this show on such a big, not cliff hanger per se, but Andy was attacked and when she fought back the man ended up dying so a lot is going to go down when this show comes back.

The Good Doctor; season 5. With every passing episode, it feels like we see a new aspect to Shaun and Lea’s relationship as they prepare for marriage. I feel like I talk crap about this show a lot, but in the end I always go back to it because I find the character dynamics extremely intriguing. I am curious to see if they actually will get married in the end.

Superstore; season 2. At first, I thought that they weren’t going to continue where season 1 ended because the first episode was super random, but episode 2 did continue. I feel like I felt the same way as I did with season 1, some epiosdes are a hit, some are a miss. I like seeing the characters more fleshed out and learning more about them. Although I can’t really stand Glen – I know he’s supposed to be over the top, but gosh he annoys me to no end.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your April? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know!