April was my first full-time month of travelling and I was intrigued to see how this lifestyle change would impact the number of books I read.
Safe to say that I feel like I’m reading a lot less, but I’ve been able to maintain a steady month of five books.
It may have been due to reading the next instalment in the Magnolia Parks series, which was a chunky novel, but I also felt like I was only able to read five or so pages per day, with travelling taking up a lot of my time (and Married At First Sight Australia).
As always, you can keep up with my reading in realtime over on Instagram, Goodreads or on Twitter and Threads we’re I’ll also be adding my reviews this year.
Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home by Jessa Hastings
It’s been nearly a year since everything happened between Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine on the steps of the Mandarin Oriental, and since then it seems like everything has changed. Magnolia has a life in New York now and BJ appears to have finally let go and moved on. But when they both wind up back in London and are thrust together once again, they find themselves asking their age-old How many loves do you actually get in a lifetime, and, most important—are they each other’s?
My rating: ★★★★★
You probably know by now how obsessed I am with this series. And as I read further into the series, the more obsessed I become. I had started to favour Daisy Haites’ story above Magnolia’s in book two, but now I’m back to being a fan of Magnolia and BJ again. You were able to see a softer, more vulnerable side of Magnolia in The Long Way Home and there were so many times I had to put my head in the book out of frustration at these two characters doing everything they can to push the other away, when it’s so clear they belong together. The most frustratingly incredible series that you need to read!
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it. So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it. And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again. Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.
My rating: ★★★★
I’d read The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston already, so I had an inkling I knew what I was in for. If you’ve seen Just Live Heaven with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, then you’ll quickly grasp the plot of this book. It’s a little bit predictable, but enjoyable all the same. Plus I loved reading about New York and imagining the streets and places in my mind.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Michelle Zauner tells of growing up as one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
My rating: ★★★★
This had been on my ‘to-buy’ list for the longest time, and I had been hoping to pick it up in my local library in London for months, but it wasn’t meant to be. So I bit the bullet and purchased it for my travels around Asia and I’m so glad that I did. It took me a little while to get into it, but I slowly started to think about my relationship with my own mother, especially having lived away from home for the past eight years. The book was emotional, raw and heartbreaking but also gave me some insight into Korea and I even took notes ahead of my upcoming trip planned later this year.
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he’s a guaranteed good time and that’s exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is. Hannah’s in town for work, crashing in Fox’s spare bedroom. She knows he’s a notorious ladies’ man, but they’re definitely just friends. In fact, she’s nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he’s all in, she’ll choose him instead?
My rating: ★★★★
This is the second in the Bellinger Sister series, and I read the first, It Happened One Summer, late last year. I really enjoyed this, and it didn’t take long to remember the characters and storyline from the first instalment, but I think I did prefer the first book over this one.
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose
Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned. The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home. Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress. But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?
My rating: ★★★★
I had seen so many raving reviews for this online and I was really eager to read this, having struggled to find a thriller as good as The Housemaid by Freida McFadden since last year. I found it too predictable, and guessed who the murderer was very early on. The end did have a slight twist that I wasn’t expecting, and I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a character as much as I disliked Sarah’s mother-in-law, so it was still a great read. I’m still on the hunt for a thriller as good as The Housemaid though!
