Another month that’s a blur thanks to my reading habits. 😎

Nine books read in the month of April! Not bad – though I was really trying for at least 10. Why? Because I have insane goals for my life.

Something to take away from this month? Some books make you think, some books make you want to pull your hair out and ask you why you’re reading it in the first place, others make you so shook, while others make you keep on believing in love and dreams coming true. Perhaps I got all of that this month. I guess you’ll find out.

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Almost a Bride by Jody Hedlund

I tried so hard to finish this for my March reads, but was unsuccessful! So because of that, you see it here in my April reading log.

As with pretty much all of Hedlund’s books, I loved this one too. I didn’t want to put it down, but life got in the way of my reading. Go figure.

This one finishes out the Bride Ship series and it makes me sad, because all these stories were better than I expected.

My one salty experience? THIS BOOK IS UNDER A DIFFERENT PUBLISHER AND SO THE MATERIAL OF THE BOOK IS DIFFERENT. The inconsistency in the series I own goes against everything I stand for… lol jk but my perfectionism is taking a hit when I look at this series and this one book that looks different than the others.

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Hit by Lorie Ann Grover

This was a Christian YA novel I got at Mardel April 9th and started reading right away. I haven’t read YA in a while and so I figured why not.

It was okay, but nothing spectacular by any means. Based on this one, I wouldn’t read anything else by this author.

Short book, easy read.

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Evenings by the Fire by Debbie Macomber

I LOVED… the second story. The first story was actually better than the stories of Debbie Macomber’s I’ve been reading actually, but the second story was just ALL THE HEART EYES. If this book was TWO books, I’d give the second one 5 stars. It was just adorbs and I don’t know, I guess a dream come true.

The stories included here were Bride on the Loose and My Hero.

Again, all the heart eyes.

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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

And just hours after the Debbie Macomber book… I finished this mystery that I was reading simultaneously.

If you follow me on GoodReads, you may have realized I don’t review many things and if I leave a star rating, it’s usually 5 stars – probably all of my ratings have been 5 stars. It’s so hard to rate things!!

I really want to give this five stars. I could not… easily put this down. I was reading other things before I started this and then another I read in like a day, but seriously, it was so good. I don’t know how to describe it, but talk about a page turner.

This one has mixed reviews, and I get it, but to me, it’s the story and how the further I got, the more I had to finish.

I’m glad that I finished this one late at night, but not glad at the same time. I feel like I couldn’t start another book right away after reading something so mysterious and heart wrenching. It was too late to start something anyway. In that same regard, HOW WAS I GOING TO SLEEP WITH THIS MYSTERY AND THE ENDING ALL UP IN MY HEAD!?!?

I just kept going over it in my head. Sometimes authors who write so well and can come up with all these twists and turns amaze me. Will I ever be a good writer? After reading this, I want to be.

*here lies the sleep Summer lost on April 11th*

*How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes plays softly in the background*

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A Stranger’s Game by Colleen Coble

Finished this one while waiting for my nephew to get out of school! Peep the still broken thumb nail.

I’ve finally come back to Colleen Coble. It’s been a few months now. After one page, I remember why I love her.

If you’re looking for a stand alone novel by Colleen Coble, this one is the one for you!

I’ll probably start a series soon by her… we’ll see. It’s books on my TBR bookcase lol

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Mulberry Hollow by Denise Hunter

Yep, I read it in a day. Like 8 hours of almost non stop reading.

Here’s the story –

I went to Mardel with a friend, a different Mardel location she was used to going to and one I go to every so often to find different books since this location is bigger. We were almost ready to leave the regular fiction aisle and head for the front toward the registers when I saw this book. It’s not supposed to come out til April 19th! I know this because I preordered on Amazon and it was supposed to (unfortunately) be delivered days afterward on April 25th! The audacity. Mardel had this book just casually laying on the shelf among the other Denise Hunter books with no HEY I’M NEW HERE display or signage! Ugh!

I immediately pulled my phone out, my friend ready to get out of there with her stack of books and not buy anymore. My phone was slow loading Amazon of course, but eventually I was able to confirm that I preordered and at what price the book was at there and though Amazon was cheaper by like a buck, I knew I had to consider the shipping costs. Decision easily made, I cancelled my Amazon preorder right then and bought the book, obviously.

As soon as I got home, I looked longingly at all the other books I’ve been wanting to dig into and then at the one I’ve been waiting for since I read Riverbend Gap.

I could not put it down once I started. It didn’t disappoint either. I love love love Denise Hunter’s writing. I could just melt. It was so good. When I have I ever not liked a Denise Hunter book?

Never.

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A Defense of Honor by Kristi Ann Hunter

I think that this is one of my favorite books now. I loved it so much. It was like the story and the characters and really, the middle of the story – I don’t want to give it away – but the romance that bloomed was just!! 😍😍 I love Graham lol and I love Kristi Ann Hunter’s amazing imagination for gifting the rest of us this beautifully written story!

I’ve actually read the other series by Kristi Ann Hunter that includes some of these characters – I’m actually about to finish that series soon! But now I need to also buy the rest of this series because this is the only one I have of it.

Can you imagine… I went to the store with this series on my list to look for and then I bought a stack of other books and then didn’t even look for these? lol

Did I mention how much I love this book? (And Graham 😂😂)

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Hooked On You by Kathleen Fuller

I think this was my first Kathleen Fuller book to read. It was good!! It was a typical Hallmark vibe to me – which I’m not complaining about since I feel like that’s all I read when it’s contemporary fiction anyway. Lol

I’m going to be reading the next book in the series soon since I couldn’t control myself and bought both books at the same time.

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Much Ado About a Latte by Kathleen Fuller

Ha, “soon”… here’s the next book right after I finished the other one!

Such a cute continuation of the folks in Maple Falls! It’s a sweet community of diverse people.

Kathleen Fuller makes Tanner and Anita so adorbs with so many misunderstandings throughout the book until they finally figure things out – oops 🙂 sorry!!

I hope there’s more books to follow! This series reminds me of Rachael Bloome’s Poppy Creek community.

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I tried to finish at least one more book for the month of April, but as you may have guessed, I have started too many books and could not finish one.

Unfortunately, I only finished fiction books this month. I did start a nonfiction read, but I haven’t finished or read much of it. *sigh*

Look for a lot of Colleen Coble books in the coming months… I’ve bought 10 or so recently and was given 3! Sooooo… haha 🙂