Month in Review: April 2024

 

April was an absolute whirlwind!  Here's what happened:

• I turned 40!  Not gonna lie, kinda been dreading that number for awhile, but so far it hasn't been too bad!
• We experienced an earthquake!  I was in a Barnes & Noble when it happened, and I was so scared that I just froze.  It wasn't a very big one, 4.8, but it was unsettling to feel the shaking.  I didn't know if something happened to the building or outside.  I was also pretty close to Henry's daycare and I was trying to calculate in my head how long it would take to run there.  Funnily, Tom was only a couple miles away and he felt nothing!
• Then, we experienced an eclipse!  Guys, I swear it felt like the apocalypse was coming - earthquakes, eclipses, turning 40 all within a few days of each other!  Anyway, we took Henry out of daycare early and he had a blast watching with his safety glasses.  He was actually really interested in it.  We were in the approximately 90% totality area and the clouds were coming in and out, so Henry was alternating yelling, "I see nothing!" and "I see the moon!"
• Tom and I went to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and it was pretty good!
• Henry got a haircut and I'm not sure what was so different this time, but he did NOT want it to happen.  He cried and squirmed the whole time!  I felt so bad for the barber.  
• My sister and I went to see Abby Jimenez in person to celebrate the launch of her new book!  A recap of the event is below.
• We took Henry to the zoo one weekend, finally taking advantage of our membership.  
• Tax season ended and our company threw a little happy hour event.  Wanting a change of pace (and to talk to some adults for awhile), I went to work in the office for the day and then attended.  The firm also gave us off the first Friday after tax season ended, so that was nice.
• We attended our nephew's birthday party at an indoor trampoline park (or a "jumping place," as Henry calls it).  
• My college roommate's mother passed away last month, so we traveled down to Maryland this month to see her and attend the celebration of life.  Although she was understandably busy, it was nice to catch up for a short time.  Henry was excited to stay in a hotel and sleep in his pack n' play (I'm not really sure why, but he did great, so I'm not going to question it!).  We stopped in Baltimore and walked around the Inner Harbor for a couple hours on our way home.
• Henry has learned to say "I love you!"  This is the cutest development ever, especially when combined with the hugs and kisses he freely gives now, too!

The Books

First Comes Love // The Gimlet Slip // It's In His Kiss // The Romanov Sisters

Daughter of the Deep // Best Served Hot // Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come // My Killer Vacation

The Posts and Reviews

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Demon of Unrest

Review: Wild Card by Staci Hart

Michele's Monday Picks #43

Little Free Library Sightings

Meeting Abby Jimenez!  Plus, A Giveaway!

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Paradise Problem

Fiction/Nonfiction Quick Reviews: The Romanov Edition

Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books on My Shelves

Quick Reviews

Michele's Monday Picks #44

How are you doing?

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Michele's Monday Picks #44

Angela is so generous to let me pop in with my little series, Michele’s Monday Picks!  I’m not a blogger or bookstagrammer, but I love getting excited about new releases with the rest of you.  Here I’ll be sharing new books I’m really looking forward to!

************************************************************

 

The Five Year Lie

By Sarina Bowen

Expected Publication: May 14, 2024

From Goodreads:

Dead men don’t send texts…

On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty's phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it's been several years since she learned he died.

Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.

Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her. 

The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew. 

For fans of Laura Dave and Julie Clark, but with a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.

I am so excited for Sarina Bowen’s foray into thrillers - do you think you’ll be picking this one up?

Quick Reviews

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins (2023) 

Emily is an author struggling to finish her current book.  When her long-time friend Chess suggests a change of scenery, she jumps at the chance to visit a historic villa in Italy.  It's the same villa where, decades earlier, a brutal murder took place, with a classic novel and hit album produced by two of the survivors.  Inspired by her setting, Emily starts digging into the murder, but her present-day situation may also be hiding some secrets. I liked the way the story played out, alternating between the two time periods.  We think we know what happened in the 1970s, but as Emily learns more, there turns out to be more to the story.  The friendship between Emily and Chess in the present day has some tension, as there seems to be some rivalry or friction between the two.  While the story does have some twists at the end that made me question a lot, I would say it's more of a mystery than a thriller, and that's not necessarily what I was expecting.  Maybe I was just eager for it to end, but it felt like some big things got glossed over, and I wanted more of a "vibe" from the story, especially considering the setting.  3.5 stars

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan (2023)

Ana is a freshman at a highly exclusive and somewhat secretive high school, which focuses on all things related to the ocean.  On the weekend of the freshman trial, though, the school is attacked, leaving Ana and her friends to figure out what happened and stop the danger that is coming their way.  This one was kind of a mixed bag for me.  I enjoyed the literary connections with Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, finding out that for Ana, the events and people in the book are very real and have a strong connection with her family.  The pacing is quite good, as the story moves along from the initial attack, to Ana and her friends regrouping, to the final big battle.  I think, however, the world-building was very lackluster.  I feel like we didn't know a lot about the fancy school Ana attends, and especially why students go there.  Some students are legacy attendees, but what about all the others? How did they know about this school? And what goes on at this school?  Which brings me to my issue with a lot of YA books, in that the teenagers seem way too smart and mature.  In less than two years, Ana learns MULTIPLE languages, other students are trained in warfare, etc.  They just seem to have all these specialized skills that, first, kids probably shouldn't be learning, and second, there's little way they would become so proficient in them.  In Riordan's other books, these things sort of make sense, since, for example in the Percy Jackson books, these children are literally the sons and daughters of gods - so the rules are completely different.  But, these are just regular kids, and it didn't make a ton of sense.  3.5 stars

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books On My Shelves

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is unread books on our shelves that we want to read soon (bonus points if we can identify how long it's been on our shelves!).  No matter how good I think I am at reading from my shelves, I always seem to have a big stack of unread books.  Lately it's gotten a little worse because of gifts, etc.  Here are just some of the unread books on my shelves that I hope to get to soon!

 

On the Way to the Wedding // Starring Adele Astaire

 

The Evening and the Morning // Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality

 

The Swell // A Starlet's Secret Guide to a Sensational Afterlife

 

The Big Bang Theory // The Head That Wears the Crown

 

Things We Never Got Over // The Palace

What are some unread books you've had on your shelves for a long time?

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Fiction/Nonfiction Quick Reviews: The Romanov Edition

The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull (2022)

The end of imperial Russia (and the reigning Romanov family) is told through the point of view of eldest daughter Olga, Grand Duchess.  From her sheltered childhood, to some freedom at the home of her aunt, to helping out during the war effort, to finally being confined with her family after the Bolsheviks take power, the reader experiences a critical time in Russian history through the eyes of a young woman.  The story moves back and forth between Olga's teenage years and work as a nurse during the war and the time when the Romanov family was removed from power and confined to various houses, awaiting their fate.  Olga is portrayed as someone who is somewhat naive, very sheltered, and fiercely loyal to her family, although she does speak out occasionally.  Despite their royal roles, the Romanovs come across as a very close family, and Nicholas as a particularly loving father.  Knowing what eventually happens to the Romanovs made for some tension as the book went on (and the book ends on quite a note), but overall, this is a well-written but quiet historical fiction novel.  4 stars

The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport (2015)

In The Romanov Sisters, Helen Rappaport uses extensive research in the form of letters, diaries, and documents from private collections (many before unseen) to provide a view into the lives of the last Grand Duchesses of Russia, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.  Although famous due to their positions and family, the girls lived quite sheltered lives, and Rappaport shows that despite their duties, their close-knit family was the most important thing to them.  Rappaport does spend quite a lot of time setting up the eventual births of the sisters and their longed-for brother (their mother Alexandra ends up being probably the largest figure in the book), but the use of their letters and diaries really helps us get to know the young women.  Because the family was so private, I think there is a sense that we still don't know a lot of about them, but this book does an admirable job of peering into those quiet family moments and giving us glimpses of what their day-to-day lives were like, even into such things as potential love interests and illnesses suffered.  The writing is a little long-winded at times (many paragraphs are entirely too long) but also very matter-of-fact, in that the author doesn't delve into the many conspiracy theories surrounding the tragic deaths of the Romanov family members.  4 stars

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Paradise Problem

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

The Paradise Problem

Christina Lauren

Expected publication date: May 14, 2024

Christina Lauren, returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie. - from Goodreads

Meeting Abby Jimenez! Plus, A Giveaway!

When Abby Jimenez released the tour schedule for her new book, Just for the Summer, I was excited to see that she was going to be stopping in New York City, just a short(ish) train ride away!  My sister and I snatched up tickets and on Saturday, April 6, we (escorted by her husband) made our way to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square.

The event started at 6pm on the 4th floor of the bookstore, and we chose our seats shortly before that.  Every chair was full for the sold-out event!  Originally, Abby was supposed to be in conversation with author BK Borison, but she had to back out due to illness, so Abby was interviewed by AD Jarvis, a local author who happened to already have a ticket to the event and is a big Abby fan.  For someone who had to fill in at the last minute, I think she did a great job!  She asked Abby questions about the new book (of course), her characters, and her writing process.  Although a self-proclaimed introvert, Abby is a wonderful public speaker - she’s warm, engaging, funny, and charismatic.  Her love for her books and her characters really shines through.  She seemed so happy to be there, and that’s really awesome for fans to see.  She even dropped some information about her next book!

After an hour of interviews and an audience Q&A session, the meet-and-greet portion of the evening began.  Since we were near the back of the audience, we did have to wait quite awhile, but it’s nice that Abby took the time to briefly chat with each person, sign their books, and snap a photo.  My sister met her first, and they had a good laugh about Abby almost spelling her name wrong in her personalization (my sister is one of those elusive one L Michele’s!).  Then it was my turn, and of course I can never think of anything smart to say, so I just mentioned that the previous guest was my twin sister, and she was the one who got me hooked on her books.  Abby replied that she loves meeting friend or sister pairs and hearing which one found her books first.  

LOL, yes, my eyes are open, but just barely!

It’s funny to think that when I was younger, authors were these elusive, almost anonymous figures in my life, but now, through social media and in-person events, it’s possible to get to know them and even meet them!  I’ve had the good fortune to meet a couple of my favorite authors, and I always get starstruck!  I’m glad we had the opportunity to see Abby Jimenez, and hopefully we will get to meet other authors soon!

And now for a giveaway! My sister had preordered a copy of Just for the Summer before we decided to go to this event, so she has an extra SIGNED copy that she has generously donated for this giveaway!

A few rules and notes:

• You must be at least 13 years old and a resident of the United States to enter.
• The giveaway will be open until April 22, 2024.
• The winner will be notified by email, and they will have three days to respond with their full name and mailing address.  If they don't, another winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks and good luck!