April Reading Wrap-Up & 5 Book Reviews

Hey, bookworms! Welcome to my April reading wrap-up and book reviews for each book! I read a total of 5 books in April; 3 romances, 1 fantasy/horror, and 1 thriller! The lowest rating I gave this month was a 3/5 and the highest was a 5/5!

Hopefully, at least 1 of these books piques your interest so you can pick them up and read them for yourself at some point because overall this was a great reading month for me. Let’s get started!

Gallant by V.E Schwab

Genre: Fantasy/Horror | Page Count: 334 | Rating: 3/5⭐️

Gallant was a beautifully written story about a young girl named Olivia Prior who goes back to her family home after being abandoned, but she doesn’t know the dark secrets that her ancestors and the family home have.

I would consider this a middle-of-the-road rating for me! It didn’t keep me captivated the whole time, but the writing style was lovely, and I liked the haunted aspects of it! I think it would’ve helped if I didn’t listen to the beginning of this story as an audiobook, but aside from that, the story itself was somewhat predictable and slow.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this book as my first-choice fantasy/horror, but if you enjoy V.E Schwab’s writing style then definitely give this book a shot!

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

Page Count: 352 | Genre: Sapphic Romance | Rating: 4/5⭐️

This book was all kinds of smutty and entertaining😂 We follow Cassie, a college student studying Physics, and her younger friend, Parker’s….MOM, Erin, who’s a doctor! They end up hooking up one night at a bar before they realize their connection to Parker, and it’s a whirlwind of drama and emotions from there!

One of the first things I’d love to mention is that Cassie reminded me a lot of Delilah from Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, which made me enjoy this even more! While there were certain decisions in the story that were questionable, I really enjoyed the thought process of all the characters decisions, the wittiness, and of course, the spice which was SPICY!

I got the impression that the main message of this story is, “Fuck Should” and do what makes you happiest! Sometimes it might hurt people or make them uncomfortable, but it also might turn out fine and be everything you’ve ever wanted! I definitely recommend this book if you want a spicy sapphic romance with a fabulous plot line revolving around finding yourself and inner peace!

Confess by Colleen Hoover

Page Count: 306 | Genre: Romance | Rating: 5/5⭐️

I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this story! Because it’s one of Colleen’s backlist books, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to live up to my expectations of more recently published books of hers, but it did.

In this book, we follow a young woman named Auburn who lost her high school boyfriend to cancer at the age of 15. She ends up meeting a man named Owen who runs an Art Studio and sells pieces inspired by anonymous confessions people send him.

Their story is a whirlwind of emotions and a lot happened that I wasn’t expecting, but yet again, another Colleen book that discusses real-life, hard topics in people’s lives and how to stand up for yourself and overcome your fears and negative situations in your life!

I absolutely loved how this book ended and while there were sad and angering moments, the main message of this story was beautiful and beautifully written! Bravo!

You Shouldn’t Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose

Page Count: 350 | Genre: Thriller | Rating: 3.5/5⭐️

Before I start this review, I was to preface that Jeneva Rose is one of my favourite authors and I don’t want to discourage anyone from picking this up because it was still great! I was really hoping this was going to be a 5-star read like The Perfect Marriage was, but there were a few aspects that fell short for me!

We follow a woman named Grace who decides to take a random getaway trip to Wyoming and stays at Calvin’s Airbnb on a Ranch. I enjoyed reading about the different activities they did together on the Ranch, as well as the creepy incidents that occurred and worried Grace.

I also really enjoyed the romance that occurred between Grace and Calvin. I felt like Jeneva Rose did a wonderful job at dual points of view, sharing both of their opinions on each other and the flirty encounters that happened. I really did enjoy the infatuation that Calvin began to have with Grace as well, as it made the book feel even more ominous.

Lastly, I enjoyed the descriptive writing style of this book, as it gave certain scenes a horror feel to it. The only two bad things I have to say is the first 50% of the book moved quite slowly, and while the ending wasn’t something I predicted, I just felt like it could’ve been executed a little bit better! Overall, I still adore her work!

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

Page Count: 380 | Genre: Romance/Erotica | Rating: 4/5⭐️

This book was nothing as I expected, and yet everything as I expected😂

I was pleasantly surprised with how correct everyone was who told me I didn’t need to know Greek Mythology to understand the storyline. There was very little history throughout this story because it was a modern retelling and like 80% smut!

I felt like both the beginning and ending had a well-written plot, so we could understand the character’s personalities and motives, whereas the middle just felt kind of like a small town, extra spicy romance! I have never read a book so blunt with its words during spicy scenes and it was at times uncomfortable, but other times refreshing! 😂

I can’t say this is a new favourite or anything, but I can say the love and chemistry between Persephone and Hades was believable, it was very entertaining and deserves a 4/5 rating from me! I can’t wait to continue the series!

April Reading Wrap-Up & Reviews Closing Statements

There you have it friends! All 5 books I read in April and my brief reviews on my thoughts for each one! I would say I genuinely enjoyed Mistakes Were Made and Confess the most, which makes sense since Romance is my typical go-to genre right now! But I do believe Gallant has a lot of potential to be someone’s favourite book, and it was fun to discuss it in April’s book club meeting!

That’s it from me today! Be sure to follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube so we can be friends! Also, please be sure to check out previous blog posts from me here! Thank you so much for reading bookworms!