Reading Round Up April 1st-10th

Hello friends and happy Monday! I am so proud of myself for actually being on time for my first round up of the month!! I read 4 books so far and I have DNF’d 1. They have all been good for the most part and my favorite of the month was my re-read of How TO Walk Away by Katherine Center. How is your month going so far? Have you read a new favorite of the year? Let me know in the comments below!

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center – 5 Stars (Re-Read) This was my first book by Katherine Center and having read a few more this one is still my favorite, I have now read this one three times. She writes such great real characters and I always enjoy her stories. In this one we have Margaret who is scared to fly but her boyfriend convinces her to go up in his plane anyways and then they end up having an accident. After waking up she realizes that she is now paralyzed in her legs and we follow her on her journey to learn to live with her new life. The cast of characters in this book are so amazing! Her parents and sister and IAN!!! I love grumpy characters and Ian is one of the best. While heartbreaking at times this is such a beautiful book and I highly recommend trying it out.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – 3 Stars I recently finished my 3rd book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow. This one was quite different than her others as it was fantasy based. One of the things I love about her books is she is opening me up to a place that I know so little about. So far all of her books have taken place in Mexico and during different time periods.  In this one we are following Casiopea who accidentally unlocks the bones of Hun-Kame who was once the God of the Mayan underworld Xibalba. What follows is a journey to restore him to his rightful place while Casiopea learns about what she truly wants from life. If you love great writing and fantasy set in 1920’s Mexico then you should check this one out!

The Girl With Stars In Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod – 4 Stars I am not going to say a ton about this one right now as I have something later this month planned for it. This is the story of Toni who gets the chance to temporarily join a new all female rock band called The Lilly’s. We follow Toni as she struggles to learn what she really wants in life and along the way meets back up with her childhood best friend and former crush Seb who is The Lilly’s manager. We also get to see some great female friendships in this book with the bad mates! I am looking forward to more from Xio Axelrod. Thank you Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for my gifted copy!

Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay – 4 Stars I finally got to read this book and I am so glad that I did. The beginning started a little slow for me but once I got a third of the way into the book it really picked up. When we start that book we learn that Matt Pine’s family was killed by a gas leak while on vacation in Mexico, leaving his only remaining family his older brother who is in jail for murder. There are multiple points of view in this book and the two main ones are from Matt Pine and FBI Agent Sarah Keller. The FBI gets involved because while they think the deaths are from a gas leak there is also some details that make them think there might be more to their deaths. There were times that I found this book difficult to read because we are getting points of view from the deceased family members and that made me pretty emotional. This was a great thriller and the ending got me and I did not see the ending coming. I can’t wait to read more from this author and I hope we get more books that follow Sarah Keller. Highly recommend this one. Thank you Minotaur and Goodreads for my copy!

The Push Ashley Audrain by – DNF I want to start this by saying that this book may not be for everyone. The subject matter was difficult for me and that is why I DNF’d at about 50%. I thought the author’s writing was great and that’s the only reason why I tried pushing my self to get more read in this one. This book follows Blythe who had a hard life growing up and when she finally has a child of her own the experience is not what she thinks it will be. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give anything away about the story. If you think you might want to read this one here are some trigger warnings: Child Birth, postpartum depression, mental health issues, death of a child, child abuse both physical and mental.