Dear Readers, April was a great month for reading I read 7 books this month. I read all the books on my TBR and one extra.  My ratings for this month were really mixed I had 3 books that were five star and 4 that were three star. This month I did read my favorite novel I have read so far this year. In the over three years of running this book blog I have never had such a mix with no four star reviews. I read 2 science fiction, and 2 horror this month 2 young adult, I read 1 books in an existing series and 3 first books in a proposed series, 1 advance reader copy (thanks to Netgalley).  I did post one non-book blog post, which was very personal to me, selling my first short story Séance for Dummies to the online magazine Theme of Absence.

Five Star Reviews:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir puts the “science” in science fiction. This book was fantastic easily my favorite book that I have read so far this year It services as both a compelling story and a lesson in science that is fascinating and not boring. This book is filled with twists and discovery. The story is told from the perspective of Grace Ryland a man with no memory waking in space, we get his back story as his brain slowly starts to remember. The narrative really works and leads to a lot of discovery about science and his character. There’s no love interest and I give props because there could have been one but it is a character that had devoted his life to science and in the end that’s what he does. My lack of science could fill a library full of book shelves, but I came away learning a lot about measurements and the scientific method. This book had a surprising amont of humor that were layered throughout the novel. For a novel about one character this story is very compelling.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is historical fiction taking place in the 1950. This is a wonderful story about life and the many ways it can change either by standing up to change or being caught in the wave of it.The theme of the book is redemption, all the characters are trying to redeem themselves of either something they did or their family did. What I love is that all don’t succeed or have a very messed up view about redemption. I though this book was going to be a road book, where the characters get thrown off course to the California destination but eventually make it, but the opposite happens where the character by happenstance go backwards away form California. The narrative is the thing that really sticks out to me and what the writer Amor Towles is known for. The Narrative is told using 8-9 character perspectives, every character is unique and interesting, they do not just provide the narrative but a flashback to their own story and the redemption they seek. Other reviews have said that this story was slow but I was pretty hooked from the beginning and I felt a connection to the character immediately and wanted to know more about them.

Harley Quinn: Reckoning by Rachael Allen is an original take on Harley Quinn’s origin, a rocking feminist revenge plot and a mystery all rolled up into one. Was not expecting to like this book as much as I did, but was pleasantly surprised. Harley Quinn: Reckoning is part of the DC Icons series which tells origin stories for the young adult audience before the hero or villain has became a super hero or super villain. Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters and represented pretty well here it was a little shaky at the beginning but at the end I fell she was nailed. The narrative starts with a flash forward then goes back 8 months and catches up to flash forward a little bit after the halfway point. A big part of this book was the mystery, and I was really compelled to find out who done it. There’s a couple of really clever plot twist and there is some twist that lead to the mystery that is Harley Quinn. The book really dives in to the bisexual aspect of Harley.  I read this book early thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s. Harley Quinn: Reckoning is published on April 26 2022.

Three Star Reviews:

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes is a horror novel that takes place in a science fiction setting. This novel reminded me very heavily of the Science Fiction film starring Lawerence Fishburn and Sam Neil called Event Horizon. They both have space ghosts, a character Just wanting to see love one that are separated, and eye gouging. This novel had all that I could want but it took me a really long time to connect with these characters. I started really enjoying myself 50% in. The pace drastically picks up and the novel gets good. There’s a couple of good twists that I did not see coming. The climax is the saving grace of this book it is full of gore, action, and some good twists. The highlight of this book is the madness and the horror that comes with it, it made me look around my dark room once or twice and felt my chest pounding. This is a rare three star that I did recommend based on the ending.

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow is feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty. A Spindle Splintered is a novella and the 1st book in a series called Fractured Fables. This story is not you typical retelling, this book starts off in the real world and calls out how creepy the Disney version is and how the story hurts women, then the main character goes into the fairy tale, which reminded me of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, where some of the events in the story happened but are changed. The story is brutal in it’s knocking of the damsel in distress. The story cleverly ties the story of sleeping beauty to real word event, and telling the heartbreaking truth of where the fairy tale originated from. The story is fast paced for a book that is 128 pages. The story is clever at times but goes a bit bonkers at certain points. The ending was okay, I wanted better.

My Hairiest Adventure by R.L. Stine is Goosebumps book 26 in the original series. This book is an obvious reference to puberty and growing hair in strange places which Stine has a lot of fun with. I think the premise of my group of friends suddenly disappearing and leaving with no trace, then resembling something hairy is terrifying but the way the book is set up it doesn’t impact us the way that it should. This book was made into an episode for the Goosebumps TV show that was terrifying, but the book didn’t do the greatest job. The nightmare where hair consumes the main character and starts eating his own hair was the only scary part of the book. The story starts fast and is pretty focused on the hair growing out of control plot

Life Flight by Lynette Eason is a thriller with a hint of romance. This is the first book of a new series called Extreme Measures focusing on a different character in a connected universe, I guess like Bridgerton. Life Flight focus on two characters Penny, a helicopter rescue pilot and Holt a FBI agent with the narrative bouncing back and forth. Penny is the stand out character where I really enjoyed her scenes and the way she thinks. Holt had a couple of nice scenes but Penny steals the show. The plot of this story is pretty crazy, it reminded me of early James Patterson. The story was really easy to read and had a really good pace. There was a bad side plot that involved Holt’s sister which felt like it belonged in another book all together. I had fun with the plot even though it was such a stretch at times. The dialogue was really bad in some places that took be out of the story.