What I Read in April : Dinah

I read a TON in April - I’m honestly looking back at this list and trying to figure out where I found the time? A bunch of these were from the January-March new book release list, so I was excited to make more of a dent in that. These books also skewed a little bit towards the fantasy side of my tastes (surprise, surprise) with two real world stories slipping in that I loved!

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What I Read in April : Dinah

You Have a Match

I was so excited to read this book, especially since I enjoyed Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute so much in January. The story is about 16-year-old Abby, who takes a DNA test for a school project and discovers that she has a sister she never knew about. She ends up at summer camp with her newly found sister Savannah (who she couldn’t be more different from and who is an Instagram wellness influencer) and her best guy friend, Leo, who she just so happens to have a crush on. From there, things get really complicated and interesting while she also makes camp friends and takes advantage of a summer away from her controlling parents.

This was such a cute, light read. The stakes were very low, and you knew everyone was going to get a happy ending, but it was fun to see how they got there. I loved the summer camp setting and the way that Emma Lord integrates social media into the story. It’s definitely YA, and safe for younger teens to read.

A Court of Silver Flames

I was excited enough to read this book that I re-read the first three in the series last month. One of my favorite fantasy romance series, the book pivots away from the previous main characters, Feyre and Rhysand, who are now happily together, and on the other side of the big war from their series, and instead focus on Feyre’s sister Nesta and Rhysand’s General Cassian. These books are very much fantasy - all of the main characters are faeries, there is a lot of magic and mythical creatures. The characters are well developed though, the sex is very hot and the world is masterfully built.

This genre is definitely not for everyone, but if it’s your thing and you haven’t read this series, I strongly recommend it.

The Project

Eloise and I both read this book, and it actually inspired our post about cult books and shows earlier this month! Lo, an assistant at an online media outlet is estranged from her sister, who, after their parents died in a car accident, became deeply involved with a religious group called The Unity Project that Lo believes is a cult. As Lo tries to make contact with her sister and make her name as a journalist in the process, she gets drawn closer to the cult and to the truth about what happened to her family in the past.

I loved this book, especially since I recently watched The Vow and went down a whole NXVIM rabbit hole. This felt very true to explaining how people get drawn into a cult, and how an organization can often be doing good while also hurting people in the process. I loved the ending - and I was genuinely surprised at certain points!

The Gilded Ones

This YA fantasy took me by surprise - while I saw some of the twists coming, there were others that were really original and unexpected.

The book centered on Deka, who is 16 and living in a very patriarchal society, about to undergo a ritual that all young women go through to determine if their blood is “pure.” After a horrible incident exposes Deka as having golden blood, she is recruited to join an army of young women just like her, to fight the enemy that terrorizes the country. As she becomes close with her fellow “cursed ones” and learns to fight, it’s very clear that she isn’t like everyone else and the world isn’t all that it seems.

I read this in about three days - it moved quickly, the characters were interesting and the world building was nuanced without being overly descriptive. I loved that it all centered around a group of female warriors and their role in society. I would recommend this to my adult women friends, but also to teenage readers!

The Charmed Wife

Okay, so I know that this book sounds bonkers, and to be honest, it kind of was, but in the best way possible. Basically, Cinderella is in her late 30’s, hates her husband the Prince, is pretty sure that he’s cheating on her, and wants out. She goes to a witch to get her revenge on him, but her fairy godmother shows up, and as the two argue over her choices, we see flashbacks that reveal key turning points in her life. There is also a hilarious and bizarre subplot that involves Cinderella’s two mouse friends that come with her to the palace, and crazy palace mouse politics. It really took me by surprise, but I was so entertained by the little world they were living in that Cinderella never even noticed.

This book definitely took some twists and turns I didn’t expect, and examined the “reality” of a fairy tale world in a way that was really interesting. I didn’t love the ending, but I enjoyed the journey getting there.

Winter’s Orbit

I was very excited to read this book - it was about an arranged marriage between two men from different planets for political reasons, with some kind of wild space drama tying it all together. In a very uncharacteristic move, I got about halfway through this and decided not to finish it. The two main characters were seemingly unable to have a conversation, because one was too fun, and the other had been in a previously abusive political marriage I think, but honestly I didn’t read enough to find out. The space drama was about mining? and embezzlement? maybe? I honestly couldn’t see where it was going and didn’t really care after a point. I wanted to like it, but I just could not get there.