1. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

4 stars. I appreciate a realistic ending over a happy ending here and there. Learned an interesting fact about why so many Black hair stores in the US and Canada are owned by Koreans.  I didn’t know this was a movie and now I need to watch it!

2. This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

3.5. I like listening to the audiobook version when a book is podcast-related and this one was recorded beautifully but it kind of fell apart for me in the second half. I think the book cover is lovely but I have no idea what it has to do with the book itself.

3. All the Little Houses by May Cobb

LOL was this a joke? Zero stars. So terrible and stupid AND LONG. I didn’t read The Hunting Wives but I watched the series and enjoyed it enough to decide to read this one. It just makes me wonder HOW DID THIS BROAD GET ANYTHING ADAPTED TO TV?! Her writing is atrocious and her characters ARE ALL THE SAME. Just trash and not even the kind that’s fun to read despite of its garbage qualities.

4. The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore

I think I should just avoid books with reality shows as a plot.

5. The Optimists by Brian Platzer

Yay finally a great book with compelling characters and an interesting storyline! I loved loved loved the narrator of this book -a retired middle school teacher telling a story of his most prized student, I can’t explain what I loved so much about this book (I actually tried explaining it to my dietician on our last call and I’m positive I did NOT sell her on it), but I felt very emotionally attached to several characters and the end of it broke me a little bit. So good. Quirky. Interesting. Unique. Unforgettable. 5 stars.

6. Creep by Emma van Straaten

2 stars, could have been so much more stalker-y but instead it was just endless pages of being trapped inside the main character’s head and her thoughts were half past interesting, more toward insufferable. If this were 2004, I bet the author would have NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS in her MySpace bio,

7. Into the Blue by Emma Brodie

Another miss for me. To the author’s credit though, I do not like sci-fi stuff and this whole book is basically a romance woven around some cult-classic sci-fi TV show. I was so tuned out for most of it.

8. So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder

This seems like a really toxic (not to mention, boring) friend group. I really liked the first chapter where we find out that someone has died and one of the friends is en route from London to NYC for the funeral. I basically just kept reading o find out who it was that died. I hadn’t connected much at all with any of the characters so when I found out who it was, I was like, “Aw. Oh well.”

Kind of interesting concept is that the book is broken up into sections with focus on one part or event over the years that brings all the friends together to one location, and then each character gets their own chapter within those sections, so see each event from multiple perspectives. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it – middle of the road 3 stars for me.

9. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Me, two seconds ago: I don’t like science fiction.

Also me: I loved Project Hail Mary! 5 stars!

Honestly, I had avoided this book for the last several years, no matter how many booktubers put it in their end of the year lists. I just felt with my whole heart that I would not like it. And honestly, I almost DNFd it at first and if I hadn’t opted for the audiobook I probably wouldn’t have made it very far into a physical copy. SO MUCH MATH! AND SCIENCE!  Like, duh Erin. Read the room. (Or a synopsis.)

But Chooch had been hounding me to read it (he made us buy him the book in March so he could read it before the movie came out) before seeing the movie. I’m glad that I did! The movie was amazing too but I think reading the book first definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for the characters but seeing the movie helped me understand WTF was happening a lot better. I need to be hand-held through certain things in life, you guys.

Amaze amaze amaze.

10. American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Oh this was bad. And to think her dad is one of my favorite authors of all time.  This apple fell off the tree, rolled down a hill, and off a fucking cliff.

11. Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

Woman desperately wants to buy a house (not just “a” house, but HER DREAM HOUSE) and goes to unhinged lengths to acquire it. Great premise, very poor execution. I was not rooting for this broad even a little.

12. Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

Nope.

13. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins

KGB agents in 1980s America. Let’s go.

There is a rotating cast characters here and they all get their own chapters. Some I could have easily done without, but I loved when it was 14-year-old Peter’s chapters, and the has-been writer Hotch and his drag sidekick Jackie Demure.

Honestly could have used more Jackie. But overall, really entertaining!

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And that’s it for April. Some doozies but also some fun stuff too!

 

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