april – A Bookworm's Paradise

Hey guys! What’s up?

Today I am here to introduce a new blog series!! ~~(never saw that coming, did you?)~~ It is a collaborative project with our very own April @Booked Till Midnight *applause please* and I am so pumped for it!

Okayy…so. Those of you who have come here after reading April’s post probably already know what this is about (to the rest I’d advise you to please read her post first before coming here!) but here’s the gist – basically we are going to read some hyped up books and through reviews and alike, are going to give our opinion on whether or not they deserve the hype! (wow that makes me feel so important)

Most of the basics have been covered in April’s post and everything else that you need to know has been organized into a Q & A format below.

#1 Uhhh what even is this?

Very good question, love the eloquence of it. Rachel and April are going to be reading six popular books and deciding if they are worth the hype. To do this, we will be posting a review or alike that basically compares the book to the criteria of what we fondly call the Hype-o-Meter.

#2 Hype-o-Meter??? Is that a made up word??

Yes, indeed it is (name credits to April!). We created the Hype-o-Meter to gauge to what degree the book is worth the hype. We will be using certain criteria to measure it against the said meter. Rather than a definitive yes or no, we will be balancing all of the components on a wider scale (from 1-10, to be exact) that accommodates for disclaimers or so-so responses.

#3 When is this happening?

If everything goes according to plan, this starts in August and goes on till mid September.

#4 Do I have to do anything?

Nope! Just sit back, grab some snacks, watch the ultimate showdown of books everyone loves, and possibly add (or subtract, though we hope you don’t have to do that) books to your tbr!! (And also…umm…maybe fill that suggestion form at the end? Pretty please?)

#5 Why should I care?

Well, both Rachel and April are all knowing bookish goddesses whose words are straight up sunshine, so there’s that. Kidding.

We can’t really make you care, but let’s try framing it this way… (read this in the same sort of voice you’d hear in a commercial, please and thank you)… Are you tired of bookish disappointment? Have expectations let you down far too many times?? Well never fear, the Hype-o-Meter is here! Scientifically proven to balance the overwhelming weight of expectations vs reality, this nifty tool will help you pick up your next (non-disappointing) read!

Aaand that’s it! Yes, that’s all you need to know (at the moment, at least) and we’ll definitely keep you updated if anything changes. Before you leave, click on the link below and suggest us some popular books to read and review besides the ones we have already chosen!

https://forms.gle/WeggR41nTqVwd2Fs6

Does this seem like something you’d be interested in reading? Which popular books, according to you, are worth the hype? Which are not? Chat with me in the comments!!

So another month gone by! Let’s take a look at my reading, blogging, blog-hopping and other highlights of the month.

April has been, by far, the best reading month this year! I read a total of 7 books, which is pretty impressive considering that I have been trying to level up from my boring 5 books per month since the beginning of this year.

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer [4 stars] Eh, this was one of those books where I was totally lost after the end. I had no idea whether to rate it 3 stars or 4 stars or 5 stars. But finally I settled with 4. At this point of time, I am like – Just tell everyone who Nightmare and Sentinel is!! And if you wanted to keep it secret forever, maybe it could have been unknown to the readers as well? Because it is getting kinda annoying now, to be honest.

The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury [3 stars] My first audiobook! But what a disappointment the story was. It was too repetitive, to the point that so many things got downright irritating. And the beginning was nice enough, I don’t know what happened after that.

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception [4 stars] Actually I don’t remember much about this, but I do enjoy a good heist, so that was one of the reasons I gave this 4 stars.

A Wilder Magic by Juliana Brandt [4 stars] This was my first ever ARC!! I got this as a part of a book promo tour I did this month. It was such a beautiful middle grade with amazing platonic relationships. Read my full review HERE.

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman [4.5 stars] This was easily my favourite book of April. It definitely deserves a lot more hype, I have rarely heard bloggers mention this. There were equal parts mystery, friendship and adventure in Book Scavenger. To read my full review, see my journal spread and play a small bookish game inspired by Book Scavenger, click HERE.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman [1.5 stars] Well. I am still debating whether to put up a review for this on my blog or not, since I haven’t really posted a negative review here before, and this is also a very new release. But I did post a review on Goodreads, you can read it HERE.

Misfit (Asura Chronicles #1) by Jo Zaida [3 stars] Another ARC!! So I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected to, but it was worth reading anyways. Review to come!

I am proud to report that I carefully followed the posting schedule I had set up for myself last month (except for last week, when I had a blog tour post out of schedule, on a Sunday) throughout the month of April! When I started, I didn’t think I would be able to follow it throughout, to be honest, but turns out I was wrong!

I am not going to link all my posts from this month here, only specific ones. If you would like to see all my posts in April, click HERE.

I have included the links to my posts in their featured images below, so all you have to do is click on the ones that catch your attention!

A discussion post all about book titles! I am quite proud of this one actually, so do check it out if you missed it earlier!

I created a quiz for you to find some great recs!!

I tried to be really active on all of your posts this month, and I think I succeeded to a great extent. I interacted with your blogs wherever I could, and came across some interesting posts in the process.

Amy @A Fangirl’s Opinion wrote about some funny books and characters on April Fools day!

April @Booked Till Midnight shared her recipe for a 5 star read!

Alice @Love For Words related Pride and Prejudice quotes to her everyday life! I have not read Pride and Prejudice completely (I’ve read only short excerpts) but this humorous post had me chuckling out aloud!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading Netflix’s Shadow And Bone and her thoughts are SO similar to mine!!

Ashmita @the fictional journal made a list of characters who are likely to jump-scare people!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading gives us some great sci-fi recs and also shares her sci-fi tbr!

Other updates and highlights of the month

We hit 100 followers in early April!! This is my first big blogging milestone, so thank you so much for that guys🥰 It means a lot to have you enjoy and appreciate my content.
The Home page of my blog now has a brand new look! I have changed the header image, put in a sidebar and stuff like that.
My blog now has a Review Policy page.
I received my first ARCs and took part in my first blog tour this month!
April was Shadow and Bone month!!!! (oops sorry for all the exclamations, this just shows how much I loved the show) By now, you all know how much the Six Of Crows duology means to me. If you don’t, IT’S MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF ALL TIME!! So naturally I was excited for the S&B show on Netflix. Though I started watching it only for the Crows, the Alina-Darkling storyline also got me hooked and made me wonder why I didn’t read the Shadow and bone trilogy earlier (I am not going to read it now, I want to know the story only from the show). I finished watching all 8 episodes of S&B in four days, and wow I loved seeing my favourite characters brought to life. The casting was just perfect. Freddy Carter is going to be stuck in my mind’s eye as Kaz forever, and same with the others. I didn’t think it was possible to love and admire Kaz more than I did after reading the books, but this show proved me wrong…my heart went out for him even more!! The ‘No mourners, no funerals’ line was also so perfect when it happened. Jesper and Milo were absolute showstealers!! Okay, not gonna ramble any more, but seriously, go watch it!!