April 2024 Reading List

Overall, April was a really great month of reading for me. My favorite book? It’s a toss up between Magnolia Parks Into The Dark and Emily Henry’s Funny Story. Want to keep up with my reading? Follow me on Goodreads! Here’s my April 2024 Reading List. What did you read?

1) Funny Story by Emily Henry

“You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

4.5⭐️ / Buy the Audiobook / Buy the Book: Amazon/Bookshop.org

My Thoughts:

Thanks to Libro.fm for the advanced copy of Funny Story! As soon as I saw I could download the audiobook, I started listening. Did I abandon my current audiobook? Sure did and I regret nothing. I finished it in two days and again, Julia Whelan does no wrong when it comes to narration.

Miles is dumped by his girlfriend Petra. Daphne is dumped by Peter, the night before their wedding, because Petra and Peter have decided that they are in love. This leaves Miles and Daphne as roommates.

Emily Henry is back with her usual banter that I absolutely love. She just knows how to write characters and an epic storyline. This book has forced proximity and fake dating. It also has a side of family issues and trauma so just be ready. As someone with a VERY complicated relationship with my real father (aka no relationship) this one stung.

I LOVED that Daphne is a librarian and has a huge love of books. Miles is 100% Nick Miller vibes and I loved him, even if he did wear crocs. Miles was the ultimate golden retriever boyfriend and I’m pretty confident in saying that he’s perfect?

I’ve had time to think about this book since finishing it and the more I think back to it, the more I realize that I really did love it. NOTHING will ever top Book Lovers and that’s ok. Funny Story is an excellent book.

2) How To End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang

“It’s been a good day, spending time with my parents, letting them into my life. She spends so much of her time experiencing a low-grade resentment toward them, over a million little injustices from childhood that don’t really matter anymore, she’s forgotten this feeling—when she’s happy, and they’re happy, and they feel like what she thinks of when she thinks of a happy, loving family.”
-Yulin Kuang

4⭐️ (I’m still iffy on this) / Buy the Audiobook / Buy on: Amazon/Bookshop.org

Helen and Grant have a very traumatic bond in common. That trauma was really hard for me to wrap my head around. I just felt like it wasn’t realistic that these two would end up together? Anyways, just know that going into the story, that death and mental health is a big topic.

Helen wasn’t the nicest of characters and she had a lot of trauma to work through. Grant was an exceptionally nice guy and like Helen, he also had a lot of trauma that he was working through. I really felt for Grant.

This story has some major deep moments and while I had major issues with Helen’s character, I still enjoyed the story. I just had the hardest time with the two main characters and their backstory.

Hollywood. Fame. Enemies (?) to lovers.

3) Magnolia Parks Into The Dark by Jessa Hastings

“What do I have to show for this life? It’s her. Loving her.”
-Jessa Hastings

5⭐️/ Buy the Audiobook / Buy The Book: Amazon/Bookshop.org

This is the latest book in the Magnolia Parks series so if you haven’t read the previous ones, don’t read this one yet! Like I’ve said before, Magnolia Parks is basically a British Gossip Girl. This is one of those series where you will either love it or you will hate it. I happen to love a lot of drama and characters who drive me crazy. I also love the fashion element to these books.

This is the last story from Magnolia’s POV and I’m honestly sad about that. It’s sad (IYKYK) and it was a roller coaster, but the ending was so beautiful. This book was a tad slow in parts, but it was a lot to take in. There was so much grief to process and honestly, BJ just blew me away in this one. I don’t want to give too much away so I’m keeping this review very simple and not very detailed.

Also, I am obsessed with Julian and I sobbed during that chapter.

4) The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas

“My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered, “and I will not be afraid.”
-SJM

5⭐️ / Buy the Audiobook / Buy the Book: Amazon/Bookshop.org (If you have a Kindle, I’d suggest buying the book bundle on there. It’s so cheap!)

Well this book destroyed me. I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll only say that I love this series so much. I’m not sure what order I should have read this book, BUT I read it after finishing Heir of Fire. It was so, so good. Gave such a backstory to our girl.

5) Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

“It’s a lot of what motherhood is too. Moving from being self-centered to being other-centered.”
-Cara Bastone

4⭐️/ Buy the Audiobook / Buy the Book: Amazon/Bookshop.org

I’m not normally a big fan of the pregnancy trope so I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy this book, but the reviews made me read it and I’m glad I did. It’s an accidental pregnancy so know that going into this book. I laughed so many times reading Eve’s thoughts. I loved Shep and he’s basically perfect?!?! Like every woman deserves a Shep in their life.

Did I love everything about this book? No. I found some parts to be a bit slow and others to be kinda obvious, but I still really enjoyed the writing. Just know that if pregnancy is not your thing and it’s a trigger for you, then don’t even pick up this book.