Another month down and the weather is decidedly more spring like, the nights are noticeably longer, and things are generally looking up. It’s been a very busy month. My other half and I took advantage of the lovely Easter weekend to go camping in Yorkshire. While the days were pleasant, it did get a little cold at night (I don’t think I’ve been camping that early in the year before!), but it was a lovely weekend and so nice to get away, particularly as it’s not all that far for us to travel.
Then my ice hockey team made it to the play offs (I’ve no idea how as they’ve been a bit rubbish all season!) and so I spent a weekend in Nottingham watching them lose, but the play offs is always a great weekend, whatever the result of the games. This last weekend was also spent in Nottingham as GB are hosting the first division of the ice hockey world championships. So far, team GB have comfortably beat South Korea, and beat Poland in overtime. This coming week will see us play Lithuania, Romania, and Italy. If we win the group, we’ll move back up to the topflight and face the likes of Canada, Sweden, and Germany 😬. I would love to see it, even though it would be challenging to say the least…
But enough about sport! It’s been a great month reading wise, helped along by taking some time away, and even squeezing in some reading between various ice hockey games. Blogging took a bit of a back seat, but I’m comfortable with that this month – there really wasn’t any time to fit in more reviews and blog posts. I’d like to say that May will be better, but I’d be lying! 😂
Books Read and Reviewed
- Read in March, reviewed in April:
- Idol by Louise O’Neill
- Read in April:
- The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
- Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
- Black Lake Manor by Guy Morpuss
- Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft
- PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
- The Cloisters by Katy Hays
- Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
- The Bewitching by Jill Dawson
- Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer
Favourite Books This Month
I also posted about the books I’m particularly looking forward to being in publishing in April, May, and June, which you can see here if you missed it!
Books Acquired
Now, this looks bad but, before you judge me, you should know that I cannot be held solely responsible for this. Pretty Girls was purchased after Eva at Novel Deelights discovered that I’ve never read anything by Karin Slaughter, and I couldn’t resist Wahala after seeing Nicki’s review at Secret Library Book Blog (do give both a follow if you aren’t already!) Additionally, Washington Black and Small Pleasures were purchased at a charity book sale, and it would have been rude not to!
TBR Watch
It’s been going well so far, although May and June are likely to see a reversal in the trend due to the Hay Festival.
- Books out = 10 read + 3 DNF* = 13
- Books in = 0 ARCs + 10 purchases = 10
- Gives a reduction of 3 in my TBR!
*I may come back to the DNFs at a later date, but for now they have been removed from my TBR.
Jo's Book Blog 
No judging here whatsoever. I’m so glad you took the plunge and purchases your first Karin Slaughter. Do so hope you like it!
And you still managed to reduce the TBR by 3! That’s seriously impressive. 😄
I’m easily led! 😂 Now I just need to find time to squeeze it in! x
Pretty Girls was my first Karin Slaughter too, and to this day my favourite. I hope you love it as much as I did!
Eva recommended that one for a stand alone – I couldn’t quite face starting a series that’s currently at 11 books! 😀
I know the feeling 😂
Sounds like a fab month Jo, fingers crossed Team GB do well in the ice hockey! 🤞 Thanks so much for the shout out. I hope you enjoy Wahala! 🤞 x
Thanks, Nicki – it’s certainly been a lot of fun x
Looks like you had a great month in reading. The weather has been different here as well but for us it’s a good different. We usually have terrible heat around this time but due to rain the weather turned pleasant and bearable.
Thank you, Yesha – and glad you’re enjoying the weather at the moment! 🙂