{Monthly Wrap Up} April 2017

This month was super difficult for me in terms of perfecting the balancing act between work, school, home, and book blogging. I knew going in that I was probably setting my goals too high as I was going into my last four weeks of a really busy semester in school, but hoped I could push through anyway.

While it did get pretty crazy there for awhile, and I think I’ve probably only slept for half the necessary amount to keep a human being functioning properly, I don’t think I did half bad this month. Lets see what blogging looked like for me during April.

I set a goal to read 8 books in April – which was probably crazy talk looking back on it. I really overestimated how much time I would have for reading and overestimated how quickly I thought I get school related stuff out of the way.

Also, what I actually read diverged a bit from the things I relayed in my {Planned Reads} April 2017 post because I ended up getting approved for a few ARCs through Netgalley unexpectedly and really wanted to bring my ratio back up closer to an 80%. I’m going to lay out my planned reads and discuss whether I actually got there or not, with my unexpected additions added below.

• The King of Average by Gary Schwartz – 3/5 stars
• {ARC Review} I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo – 3.5/5 stars
• Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes – 2/5 stars
• Malice by John Gwynne – 5/5 stars
• Valour by John Gwynne – pushed to May 2017
• The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan – pushed to May 2017
• Remember Me by Lynda Renham – 4/5 stars
• The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson – reading currently, review to come shortly!
• {ARC Review} Knights of the Borrowed Dark by Dave Rudden – 4/5 stars
• {ARC Review} The Forever Court by Dave Rudden – 2.5/5 stars
• Love You to Death by Caroline Mitchell – 4/5 stars. *this was an unexpected addition as I was approved for the sequel through Netgalley which I am currently reading.

So all in all it wasn’t a terrible month – it just didn’t go exactly to plan. I still somehow managed to read and review 8 books, so I met my goal! I’m really elated about the prospects for next month and the future though. I’m technically not quite done with school yet. I have one remaining course to take starting next month – but one class instead of the 5 I’m just finishing right now will be amazing in terms of free time for reading!

This was another fun month for me in terms of expanding the scope of my blog a bit more. There was a week in the middle of April when I was really getting bogged down by schoolwork and unable to get much reading done, so it was fabulous that I got the opportunity to conduct and post my very first author interview during that time.

• {Planned Reads} April 2017 – what I missed from this list will be added to next month’s review schedule.
• {Top 5} Sci-Fi or Fantasy TBR– Also known as the list of every fantasy series I will be reading once I graduate.
• {Book Haul} April 2017
• {Review} Vicious by V.E. Schwab – I didn’t include this in my Books read section above because technically I read this earlier this year. I cross-posted my review from Goodreads to give my blog some content in a very busy week for me.
• {Top 5} Books That Would Make Great Video Games!
• {Aside} 100 Followers – A Retrospective On Starting This Journey – This was a fun post to write, basically outlining what got me into blogging and where I hope to go next. Here’s to the next 100!
• {Top 5} LGBTQ Books I Intend to Read
• {Interview} w/ Lynda Renham – – author of Remember Me. 
• {Aside} 2017 Reading Goals – the one in which I raised my goal for 2017 from 30 to 100!
• {Top 5} Authors I NEED to Read More From!

My book haul is way less impressive this month than it was last month, but that’s okay, because my wallet was screaming and now it’s resting peacefully. Plus, I’ve built up quite a backlog that I’m working through now! 🙂

• Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo – Like Ash Ketchum, I have finally caught them all and I can begin reading this series in May!
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
• Hunted by Megan Spooner – currently reading and LOVING this! ❤
• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
• Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
• Clean Sweep by by Ilona Andrews
• The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst – I didn’t relate this on the blog, but I ended up DNFing this around mid month. The story was just not grabbing me, and was too similar to a few other books I read recently that I did not enjoy, so I had to move on to other things.
• Love You To Death by Caroline Mitchell

Thoughts

Well that’s one crazy month down! I’m seriously breathing a sigh of relief right now, I don’t even know how to relate how glad I am to have made it out alive. My motivation levels to do anything near the end there were really starting to reach critical mass. Every time I would sit to write a paper for school, I would be left thinking how much I’d rather be chatting with all my new blogging buddies.

Thankfully, it’s almost over. I haven’t talked about this at all in my blog because I keep waiting for the floor to drop out from under me, or to be crushed by safe or something – as would be my luck… But I walk in Graduation next month and this guy is going to giving the commencement address for my graduating class:

I could not possibly be more overjoyed. As a Vermont native – I absolutely adore Bernie Sanders!! For those of you who follow me from other countries and may not know, Bernie is a Vermont state senator who ran for president last year. It’s entirely likely that I will be struck completely speechless if I get anywhere within speaking distance of him. Still, I’m excited all the same.

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Catch you all later, on May 1st. 🙂

xoxo