After a relatively successful March month for
reading, I thought I’d push my luck a little bit and challenge myself to read
even more. After working a fair few overtime hours last month, this month’s pay
check was quite generous so I treated myself to a range of new books. I only have
a few books left on my TBR pile so buying more was all the more justified. It’s
the Easter holidays commencing Friday at 2pm so I’ll have a little more time to
sit back, relax and fill up my reading schedule. I have a VERY ambitious list
here- it’s more the books I’ve purchased prior to the month of April than a
definitive, I MUST read these books in April, kind of post. But, of course, I
will give it my best shot.
The first book on my list was recommended to me
by Sarah – The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I don’t know
much about it, other than the title and the general tale about the Romanovs but
I’ve heard so many good things about it the last few months. I plan on reading Date With Death by Julia Chapman, a book which was part of an authors tour on my blog last
month. Getting around to reading this one has been on my to-do list as it’s
stood out to me as being my cup of tea ever since I hosted a chapter myself! I
was also quite lucky to receive an advance copy of Blood Sisters by Jane Corry in
the post from Penguin Random House (along with a little bottle of the good
stuff – white wine!) last week. I loved Jane Corry’s debut book, My Husband’s
Wife, so to be treated to her newest prior to its publication has excited me
beyond measure!
I picked up a copy of There May Be A Castle by Piers
Torday to trial for my classroom – it’s a children’s book, middle school
age, I believe which focuses itself on some pretty sensitive issues. I thought
I’d give it a read and see if it’s appropriate to use as a guided read or as
part of a PSHE lesson at some point- I’ll be sure to feed back on this one for
any other teachers reading here. Lisa
Williamson is another favourite of mine- I read the Art of Being Normal last year and thought it was a cracking read (I
gave it 5/5 stars here).
I’m so excited to read All About Mia,
at some point this month. I have heard nothing but amazing, wonderful things
about Caraval by Stephanie Garber so I am so excited to
jump on the bandwagon and see what that has to offer me. I absolutely LOVE the
cover of this one as well, although carting a hardback around might not suit me
and my reading all that much! Seas of
Snow by Kerensa Jennings is
another ARC, very kindly sent to me by Usbourne and one I know absolutely
nothing about other than the cover is GREAT.
A third ARC sent to me by Hodder and Stoughton
is Dark made Dawn by JP Smyth. I believe that this book is
the third in a trilogy, which is a little problematic considering how I haven’t
read the first two books in the story. I might purchase the first at some point
and see how it goes. One of my favourite books of all time is Julian Barnes’ A Sense of an Ending and
I am absolutely over the moon to hear that it has recently been adapted to the
screen and a movie is being released. I thought I’d purchase a paperback copy-
I have a kindle copy and initially read it on that- so that I could reread the
book before seeing it at the cinema. As I made incredibly obvious in my Why I
read… War Fiction post, I have a love for all things War related- particularly
when it involves France and the French – so picking up But You Did Not Come Back by Marceline
Loridan-Ivens, whilst browsing in Waterstones was quite an easy decision to
make. I’ve actually started this one- hallelujah- and so far I’ve found that it
is beautifully, intricately written. I just KNOW that I’m not going to make it
out tear free. The Struggle by Jennifer L. Armentrout is another ARC
that I don’t know a lot about, but the raunchy cover makes me think it might
not be quite my cup of tea. We’ll have to see. My last book on my list is the
newest B.A. Paris contribution- if you read my March wrap up you’ll have seen
that I read Behind Closed Doors last
month so I’m so excited to get back into the swing of things and read another
one of her books. We’ll have to see how I get on with this VERY ambitious pile
of books.
Have you got any suggestions for what to read
next month? Have you read any of the books I’ve included? Let me know!
