April Book Haul

There is a reason why this haul is split into two parts. One haul picture, the one on the left (or top if your screen is small), is the books I bought myself this last month. The second picture is the books I got for free. Overall, it's quite the haul of books I wanted to collect off my TBR. A couple of the books I snagged from the Book Swap at Edmonds SBC. Two I snagged thanks to Indie Bookstore Day freebies. Honestly, I don't know how The Fourth Wife didn't get snagged before I got the chance to look at ARCs one of the local bookstores had for customers. When I say I snagged that so fast, like the freaking wind!

Honestly, I knew I wasn't going to make it all month without buying books because of Indie Bookstore Day. Then add on Book BINGO at Nook and Cranny in UDistrict. I had to support the bookstore, letting us have BINGO in their store. I also bought some books for a friend of mine who works for a summer camp, and they have a free little library for the campers. So while I was out at a second-hand shop, I found some gems for that! But those have already been moved to their new home!

Maybe I can go all of May without buying new books! I have zero plans that take me to a bookstore, but you never know. Though I really need to think about doing a month of reading only the books I own. Which means pausing all my library holds, and maybe using next month to keep working through that current stack. 

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

       

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience.” In it is a list of rules to help campers have an enjoyable experience and hopefully survive any encounters with the campground’s…other…inhabitants.

With the land turning ancient, it is no longer just the campers who are in danger. Kate is the key and every inhuman entity is out for her blood. All the lesser creatures are making attempts on her life, but Kate isn’t willing to let her land go without a fight. If these creatures are going to hunt her, then she’ll hunt them in turn and eradicate everything from her land that cannot coexist with humanity. With the help of both her inhuman and human allies, it looks like Kate might actually have a chance at controlling the campground. But ancient land attracts ancient things, and the town has a bad history with ancient creatures.

A new entity has come to the campground, bearing an old grudge against one of the inhabitants. Its malevolent designs will put the entire land at risk—unless Kate can stop it.

HAPPY READING!!

May Spotlight

 

Be careful what you wish for. It might come true....

In 1910, on a small, remote island that boasts more sheep than people, life does not hold a lot of promise for spirited Charlotte North. Her only escape from both this insular community and a family who does not understand her seems to be through marriage—an institution she is not at all eager to join, given the unhappiness of her parents' own union. Plus, eligible suitors are few and far between, which is why Charlotte has fallen hard for one the few outsiders to join their community in recent the handsome—and likewise unhappily married—new priest.

And then an ancient tower once rumored to have imprisoned a witch—or an unfaithful wife—crumbles, and releases . . . something. A restless spirit that knocks inside the walls and sends household objects flying. A spirit that seems to have an affinity for Charlotte herself. Though many on the island are terrified of this new interloper, Charlotte sees in it potential. Power. And perhaps even a way to get everything she has most wanted out of life.

HAPPY READING!!

April Wrap Up

Happy May! Finally, the days are getting longer. Finally got a taste of some warm weather, and so I'm excited for it. I have a plan to set up my patio to be a little summer reading nook. It doesn't get a lot of sunlight, so it's perfect for reading on when it gets really warm. I'm also excited to drag out my picnic blanket and go to the park and read. And other bookish stuff that comes with the summer. And the non-bookish stuff. I'm super excited about summer baseball and movies. But before all of that, we still have to get through May, one more month of Spring.

Still, before that, here's a look at the April stats:

Books Read: 8
BINGO Books: 2

Pages Read: 1628

Hours Listened: 19.5 hours

Two more BINGOs this month! I crossed off both Published in 2026 and Read Again. I've got one BINGO last month, and I'm so close to a second one. Which would cross off one of the 2026 goals! Something I'm up on across the board, even my page count, which is a goal I seem to chase every single year. 

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

Anna, better known to superheroes as the Auditor, has carved out a name for herself. Any hero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, success should taste she has an incredible job with lots of perks, and her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated and literally ground to a pulp.

But Anna still has her sights set on a greater destroying the Draft, the organization that makes, trains, and manages the world’s most powerful superheroes. These “heroes” have shown time and time again that they do more harm than good, and now is the time to stop the damage at its source.

Yet all is not well for the Auditor and her fellow evildoers. Her employer, Leviathan—the world’s most feared supervillain—is not coping well with Supercollider’s defeat at someone else’s hands. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has vanished without a trace, leaving Anna to examine all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty fill the air, and fear that this moment of triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them.

Anna soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she’s taken on before—not another superhero, but someone like her…someone much more the Draft’s Chief Marketing Officer. This isn’t a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as the fight spirals deeper and deeper, with new foes popping up every day—she’ll need more than just her superpower—data research—to keep ascending through the supervillain ranks.

It’s guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience.” It includes a list of rules to help campers have an enjoyable experience and hopefully survive any encounters with the campgrounds other…inhabitants.

With the campground in the throes of a bad year, it will take more than a list of rules to keep everyone safe. Monsters that were previously lying dormant are starting to stir and they’re waking up hungry. Among them is the Lady in Chains, a creature feared by both human and inhuman things alike.

Her reappearance creates an upheaval in the balance of power in the campground by renewing an old grudge with the harvesters, who are willing to sacrifice anyone they get their hands on in order to gain an advantage. On top of all this, the man with the skull cap has started taking an unusual interest in Kate. But with the harvesters on the prowl, the Lady in Chains hunting her down, and a sinister spider infestation, Kate is going to need all the allies she can get, even if those allies aren’t actually…human.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Bait doesn't remember a time before the dungeon. Before the dragon stole her from her cot. She doesn't know what her name was before she was handed over to the monstrous denizens of the dungeon beneath the sorcerer's tower. Luckily for Bait, they decided not to eat her. And so, she grew up in the dark - the goblins her adopted family, a vengeful minotaur her protector, a sentient skull her tutor and a faithful blob of corridor slime her main source of nutrition.

But the labyrinthine dungeon, with its haunted halls, buried temples and forgotten magics, draws treasure hunters like moths to a flame. And as the outside world starts to intrude, Bait will learn what it means to be monstrous, and she will have to decide where she truly belongs.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

I'm really liking this strange little series. I like that it's set up into inter-connecting stories. So you're getting a look at this town through all the strange things happening, and characters make an appearance in the background of other stories. I also kind of like that the timeline isn't linear. I do want to know what's going on with these brothers, and I keep thinking the world might be ending. Or maybe they went back in time. Honestly, though, I could do with all the spiders that keep popping up. The body horror I can deal with, the spiders that keep getting bigger and bigger. Just, no thank you. And something tells me they're going to play a bigger part the farther into this series I get. 

This is an interesting little book I snagged on the resale shelf at my local bookstore. The cover and title caught my attention, and I'm a sucker for a fun little coffee table book. I will say that the introduction of this book put me to sleep, and was almost the reason I didn't get the actual entries. So I skipped it to jump right into the entries, which were short and sweet. Each entry has the name of the person, when they died, and why it was exemplary. I like that each entry was short, just the facts. I'm a sucker for doing my own research. The upside to this book there is a bit at the end of the book with more information on any entry you want more information on. I also really liked that I only knew a handful of names in this book. So it was filled with new names and bits of history for me. It was a quick read, but interesting. Totally working on checking out!

What a fun and weird little book. I picked this up because the author was involved in one of my favorite cartoons back in the day, Tutenstein. So I was excited to see he also had a graphic novel. This was so much fun! It was also very weird and creepy. I enjoyed and it was a gem of a library find!

I'm re-reading this series because I'm ready to jump into Drumindor. It's been three years since I jumped into this series, so I've been borrowing the audiobooks to catch up. Crown Tower is my favorite book in the series, but I do love that we get to see a bit of Duster in the Rose and the Thorn. Though I forgot just how much happened in the second book. This is my favorite fantasy series, so it's been fun to go back again.

HAPPY READING!!

Most Anticipated Part 2

 

How is it nearly May? Up until this month, it felt like this year was dragging along. Only now we're days away from May. I feel like all I did this month was go to work and do laundry. There might have been a few naps in there. Anyway, with May right around the corner. That means it's time for another round of what books I'm looking forward to reading over the next three months. Since my summer plans are pretty much to curl up in the sun and read, I have high hopes to put a dent in all my TBR piles!

Villian and Death on the Lanai are at the top of my list, the second they get released! I loved the first book in both of these series, and I've been waiting a long time to read Villain. So long, in fact, I should probably read Hench again before I jump into the second book when it comes out! Camilla Bruce is an autobuy author of mine. So, of course, she had to make the list. As for the other three, well, two of them pulled me because their covers and titles were too good to pass up. The other one, well, I'm always a sucker when Peter Pan is the villain of any story.

Seriously, my TBR for this summer is getting crazy! I have a stack already sitting on my book tree of books I want to read this summer. Some of which will have me sleeping in the living room with all the fairy lights. There's the library stack that I'm currently actually working my way through, and we're not even going to talk about the books by my bed. Now I've got this list! Books are getting released between May and July. 

So what's everyone else looking forward to reading over the next three months? What books did you read over the last three months that you gave five stars to? Because my TBR clearly isn't big enough.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

Be careful what you wish for. It might come true....

In 1910, on a small, remote island that boasts more sheep than people, life does not hold a lot of promise for spirited Charlotte North. Her only escape from both this insular community and a family who does not understand her seems to be through marriage—an institution she is not at all eager to join, given the unhappiness of her parents' own union. Plus, eligible suitors are few and far between, which is why Charlotte has fallen hard for one the few outsiders to join their community in recent the handsome—and likewise unhappily married—new priest.

And then an ancient tower once rumored to have imprisoned a witch—or an unfaithful wife—crumbles, and releases . . . something. A restless spirit that knocks inside the walls and sends household objects flying. A spirit that seems to have an affinity for Charlotte herself. Though many on the island are terrified of this new interloper, Charlotte sees in it potential. Power. And perhaps even a way to get everything she has most wanted out of life.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Jack Griffin has always been invisible to the people around him—at least in his own mind. But when an experimental breakthrough presents a path to make his dreams of invisibility a reality, no one—not even the woman he loves—will stand in his way.
Witness Griffin's legendary descent into madness as his humanity fades away and the monster inside is revealed, leaving only...THE INVISIBLE MAN!
The horror dream team of JAMES TYNION IV (SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN, EXQUISITE CORPSES) and DANI (The Low, Low Woods) reveal their vision for one of the most horrific monsters in cinematic history!

HAPPY READING!!

A Veritable Household Pet - Review

Author: Viggy Parr Hampton

Genre: Fiction

Format: Library Book

Pages: 336

I cannot tell a lie, I checked this book out a hundred percent because of the cover. It was labeled as horror, and there were lobotomy tools on the cover. So, this book had my attention. Add to the fact that another reader, Mother of Horror, gave this book a good rating. It was enough to push this book to the top of the pile. The very top of the pile. It added to the positive that this was written in two different voices: the sister who had the lobotomy and the sister who had taken care of the other.

The biggest downside of this book is feel like it was marketed as something it isn't. Which isn't the author's fault. It might even be my fault. Because I was sold a book that was a claustrophobic horror story about a young woman trapped in her own head, and her sister was forced to take care of her. It was a little of that, but not really. Which maybe that was a good thing because if I'd have known what I was getting into, I might not have picked up this book. Because it's not my usual type of read.

Is it horror? Yeah, kinda, not the scare your socks off or gross you out kind of horror. It's the quiet kind when you know exactly what's going to happen, just when or how. You know how Darla's story will end, but not if that's how the book is going to end. It's also probably the saddest book I'll read this year. Because both Darla's and Elle's stories broke my heart. For two entirely different reasons. Darla's story is about being sick with parents and a world that didn't know how to help her. So she was the victim of bad medicine. And Elle is a victim of her circumstances. It's not hard to understand why she wanted to get away, or why she did the things she did.

This book is quiet. That's the best way I can think to describe it. Nothing jumps out of you because Darla cannot have big emotions. She can just give facts about everything that happened to her because she lost the ability to have any kind of large emotions, and Elle... Well, some of her parts are loud but also full of emotions that pull at your heart. 

The entire book is sad, and there's not really a happy moment for three hundred plus pages. It made it hard to read because it just broke my heart. After about fifty pages, I needed break, but I kept coming back to this book. Even now, I don't know if I'm doing this book any justice because it is a beautiful, heartbreaking story. I just don't know if I'm doing the job of selling it as such. But it is a book I feel a lot of people would like to read. I think horror readers would find it interesting, and so would historical fiction. Even people who read books on the history of medicine might find it interesting. 

It's such a strange little book, but it was really good. Different from what I usually read, but I'm glad I gave this one a chance.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sundays

     

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

One isolated cabin. One cheating boyfriend. One plan to get even.

When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they've each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain.

Only what was meant to be harmless payback soon takes a chilling turn when their not-so-adoring boyfriend is found dead in the cabin. 

Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one of them is the killer, or if something else lurks in the freezing wilderness, waiting to pick them off one by one. 

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

 

April Theme: Foul Play

It's at Night Worms day! Well, it was several days ago, but I'm behind on my posting. So, that means it's at Night Worms day, again! Eric Larocca is one of those authors whom I keep meaning to read, and now I have no reason not to. Because I own his newest book! I'm not sure if I'll like Spoiled Milk. I've never been a huge fan of the Dark Academia genre. However, there have been a few outliers, and if Night Worms is sending it out, then I'll give it a proper go. (Plus some of the reviews I've seen about it have been really good!)

My roommate was excited to see the hot chocolate in the package. Because I am not a fan of the Golden Milk. Which means it goes into her stash for later. However, both of these stickers are amazing! They're both tucked away until I can find somewhere brilliant to put them! 

A huge thank you to both Ashley and Sadie! Another amazing box, with two great books. Now just to find time to read them all! My Night Worms cart is overflowing!

HAPPY READING!!

May Edmonds SBC

 

Huge thank you to everyone who came out to read with us yesterday! I know the weather was weird, but we had a great turnout. And the book swap basket was overflowing. I hope everyone found some treasures to take home. If you weren't able to join us yesterday, don't worry. We'll be back working on our TBR's next month, on May 20th 7pm at Leftcraft in Edmonds! Sadly, I will not be there to read with you, but Michelle will be there! So come read with her, and I'll se everyone else in June!

   HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

Jack Chandler is the sole survivor of the zombie apocalypse in his rural farming community, but rather than eliminate them, he has chosen to continue living alongside the undead — including the husband and adopted daughter he fought so hard to have. But when his town is discovered by outsiders, Jack suddenly becomes the one thing standing in the way of his family and those who hope to kill them for good.

Eisner Award-nominated creators Tate Brombal (Barbalien, Batgirl) and Jacob Phillips (That Texas Blood, Newburn) team up for this unforgettable original story.

HAPPY READING!!