I hope everyone is having a great April so far! I know I definitely am. This month is going to be a month where I prioritize my reading over a lot of things. In the past, I have set a goal for myself that I was not able to obtain due to my own lack of consistency. Has anyone else felt this same way? Well, this month I want to make a point to myself to be more disciplined. Especially when it comes to reading.

With all the serious talk out of the way, let’s get on with something more enjoyable for you to read about. Here are the books I have set aside for my April TBR.

A Court of Thorns and Roses: by Sarah J. Maas

Goodreads Synopsis: When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

This novel is a reread from last year. I got the next novel in the series in December of last year. Since I really want to get to the other novel and couldn’t remember much that went on in the first one, I decided that it would be a great idea to start from square one again. One thing that I do remember about this novel is that I really liked the description of Prythian from Feyre’s point of view. Although she doesn’t want to be in Prythian, she still can’t deny that it’s a visually pleasing place to be. I really enjoy fantasy novels that have a romance weaved into them, so I am excited how I think this reread will go. I hope it that it is as good as I believe it was last time.

If anyone has read it and has thoughts on the series as whole, please leave a comment about!

Predicted star rating:

The next two novels on my TBR are novels that fall into genres that I usually tend to either be indifferent about, or I end up not liking at all. So, I’m sending a message to the universe to bring me some good reads this month for trying novels out of my comfort zone.

The Girls in the Garden by: Lisa Jewell

Goodreads Synopsis: You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses.

You’ve known your neighbours for years and you trust them. Implicitly.

You think your children are safe.

But are they really?

Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?

This is a borrowed novel from a friend that does not tend to have a similar reading taste to me. It’s a mystery. That’s all I have to say. On any given day that I walk into a Barnes and Noble, I will not stop at the thriller/mystery section. The closest I have gotten was the cozy mystery section, which really doesn’t count as a mystery/thriller in my book…but yeah, I’m not going to lie I think this will be one the lowest rated novels I will have read in a while. I’m going to give it my best shot because you can’t judge a book by its’ cover…I guess.

Predicted star rating:

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by: Jayne Allen

Goodreads Synopsis: Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to “have it all.”  At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place.

Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis that brings her picture-perfect life crashing down, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children. With her dreams at risk of falling through the cracks of her checklist, suddenly she is faced with an impossible choice between her career, her dream home, and a family of her own.

With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the mom jeans-wearing former “Sexy Lexi,” and the generational wisdom of her grandmother and the nonagenarian firebrand Ms. Gretchen, Tabby explores the reaches of modern medicine and tests the limits of her relationships, hoping to salvage the future she always dreamed of. But the fight is all consuming, demanding a steep price that forces an honest reckoning for nearly everyone in her life. As Tabby soon learns, her grandmother’s age-old adage just might still be true: Black girls must die exhausted. 

I got this novel for African American History month, and at first, I was a little weary of the novel. The synopsis is intriguing to me, but I have this unsettling feeling that I may get bored with it. I’m really hoping that the pace stays at a steady rate throughout the entirety of the novel. I think my motivation of wanting to read this novel is because I feel as if I can relate to Tabitha is some shape or form. It is important to realize that when you are of a minority group, you have to sometimes work twice as hard to be considered successful, educated, and sophisticated. while I don’t think that it is right, I can’t deny that I have felt that way in many aspects of my own life. The aspect of being the perfect black woman along with this unknown diagnosis the appears out of nowhere in Tabitha’s life has me feeling invested in finding out if the character is right. Black Girls Must Die Exhausted.

Predicted star rating:

If you have read the entirety of this blog post comment the word “April” and let me know what your April TBR looks like. What book are you most excited to read?