Angie’s April Wrap-Up
As my first reading wrap-up of any kind on this blog, I must warn you that my reading taste is very varied, and that is always evident in the books that I choose to read. My reading philosophy is that if I’m not having fun, what’s the point? In terms of romance, I read anything from contemporary to dark to monster to alien. I genuinely like everything, which is great, but unfortunately that means that my TBR is every book to ever exist.
I also have the memory of a goldfish, so if I’m ever vague in describing a book, it’s probably because I can barely remember what happened.
I read 10 books in the month of April. I am very aware that that is a lot of books to the average person, but to someone with a reading goal of 150 books in 2023, this was a pretty slow reading month. I’m definitely still very content with the month. I read a lot of good books and made headway with some series.
The first book I read in the month of April was Zoey Draven’s Broken by the Horde King. So it’s safe to say that it was a strong start to the month. Broken by the Horde King is the fourth book in the Horde Kings of Dakkar, a series I began in December of last year. An alien romance series at its core, but unique in that it reads like fantasy. While each book has its own contained story, there is an overarching plot that progresses with each book which expands the politics and lore of the world.
With every book that I read in this series, I am astonished that it gets better each and every time. So naturally, this book is my favorite in the series so far. Broken by the Horde King is a second chance romance between Maeva, who grew up as the only human in a Dakkari village, and Kiran, who is essentially royalty of said village and destined to become a Horde King. I’m sorry if none of these things are making sense, but basically she’s a human and he’s not, but he is a pretty big deal. Maeva always loved Kiran, and Kiran broke her heart right as he was starting his own Horde (another big deal). Several years post-heartbreak, Maeva has become a healer’s apprentice, and coincidentally, Kiran’s Horde is looking to fill the position of healer. Maeva joins Kiran in his Horde after some serious inner conflict and the story progresses from there.
I recommend every Zoey Draven book that I’ve read. So, if you’re looking to pick up some alien romance, or if you’re wanting to read something that gives you the same feeling as reading a fantasy book, but you’re not wanting the commitment of a long, winding series, try the Horde Kings of Dakkar or her newer series, Brides of the Kylorr.
I am historically bad at finishing series. As a mood reader, I like to jump around all over the place. I tried to remedy this by planning to start and finish a series within one month. Spoiler alert, I failed. I have grand plans to write a masterlist of cowboy romance recommendations. This, of course, is inspired by Elsie Silver’s Chestnut Spring series - a gem of cowboy literature. For my challenge, I decided to jump into Silver’s debut series, Gold Rush Ranch. Which unfortunately, turned out to be less cowboy and more horse girl. Fortunately, the books are amazing..
Gold Rush Ranch follows the trainers, jockeys, owners, and other characters you might find at a ranch in Canada. I read the first two books in the series which are Off to the Races and A Photo Finish. Off to the Races is your standard workplace, enemies-to-lovers situation just with more horses. It was good. A Photo Finish was incredible. I loved how the second chance element was implemented and Cole is the blueprint for your typical guarded, grumpy male main character. It was absolutely amazing. Elsie Silver can do no wrong.
I apparently cried during both books. Though, according to my reading tracker, apparently I had cried for five books in a row at this point.
I thought I’d take a little break from Gold Rush Ranch, but surely I would come back. (I didn’t.) During my break, I decided to start Melanie Harlow’s Cloverleigh Farms series. The first book is Ignite, a single dad, neighbor, firefighter romance. I don’t know if I need to say much more about it. It was fun! But I had better success with other Harlow books, Frenched being the one that comes to mind. I’ll still be completing Cloverleigh Farms, as well as the rest of Melanie Harlow’s backlist because I am a completionist to a fault.
Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre is a shifter book set in Alaska. There are wolves and vampires and it’s cold and dark. It reminded me of another book with wolves and vampires, but really just because of those two elements. I had heard great things about Heather Guerre, and Cold Hearted did not disappoint. The story was easy to get into and the characters were interesting, not much more you could ask for.
I then read The Only One by Daisy Jane and it was fun. It’s the third book in a series of interconnected standalones that revolve around the mechanics of an auto shop. The Only One follows the story of Delane and Miller - two friends who make a deal to help each other out. Miller teaches Delane some car mechanic-y stuff and Delane teaches Miller about… other things. In an effort to stay PG, I won’t go into too much detail, but you’re free to look it up.
I had been waiting to really jump into Nikki Sloane’s Nashville Neighborhood series, and there was no better time than on a work trip to Nashville. I did start to listen to The Doctor a few weeks back, but I have a very bad attention span. So, I actually dove into the series with The Architect which has been living on my kindle for a while now. The book is an MFM with a lot of plot points that are usually right up my alley, but it didn’t hit like I thought it would. I’m still having fun though.
Good Deeds by Kathryn Moon is about Nötcha, a scavenger and pilot who collects her own why choose of androids. Yes, androids. Kathryn Moon is probably my favorite author, but this was far from my favorite from her. Maybe because Good Deeds is a shorter book, and therefore pretty fast-paced, but it was missing the cozy writing that I’m usually looking for in a Moon book. This doesn’t really affect my opinion of Kathryn Moon’s writing or catalog at all - I mean, she’s incredible. It just wasn’t my favorite, and that’s okay.
At this point, I’m accepting that April will shape up to be my worst reading month since 2021, but then something incredible happened. I developed strep throat and an ear infection. Now, yes, this was in general extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable and annoying. But it also caused me to read three Ice Planet Barbarians books back to back. I read Barbarian’s Hope, Barbarian’s Choice, and Barbarian’s Redemption - books 10, 11, and 12 in the series respectively.
Barbarian’s Hope follows Hemalo and Asha, a previously mated couple who have fallen out after a tragedy. I wasn’t expecting to like this, but it was fantastic. I think I cried. (CW for loss of a child). Barbarian’s Choice is our first glimpse into what the galaxies surrounding Not Hoth are actually like when Mardok lands on the planet with his crew after some mechanical difficulties. Farli stumbles upon their ship and she immediately resonates with him. Barbarian’s Redemption follows Bek, who does some pretty bad stuff, but he still ends up resonating with Elly. I want to say this barbarian is redeemed, but my memory is fuzzy.
Barbarian’s Redemption was my 48th book of the year, so we’re making some progress towards that elusive 150. At this point, there’s no way I’ll hit it, but that’s okay. This year is shaping up to be a busier year than I ever could have imagined, so it’s okay that goals change and numbers aren’t hit. I’m not saying that it’s not frustrating, because it is. I love to read and I wish I had more time to do, but if I held myself to some rigid number of books that I had to read, I wouldn’t be having fun, which obviously goes against my philosophy.
Oh, and please ignore that it’s half-way through May right now. See you next month, where I will try to make an effort to not be so long-winded.