Monthly Wrap Up: April 2019

Where the heck did April go?! I swear I didn’t realize it was ending until like two days before the end of the month. Literally just a few days before I had looked at all the books I’d read so far in the month and patted myself on the back and thinking what a great reading month it would be since we still had half a month to go. Clearly I did not have my life together in April.

Reading

I read eleven books last month, which for me isn’t a lot, but there was a ton going on life wise. There were two books that also gave me pretty big book hangovers (How to Make Friends with the Dark and How it Feels to Float) and it took be about a week each to completely get over them and back to where I could finish a book. Out of the eleven books I read in April, here are the ones that got either 4 or 5 stars:

• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
• We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler
• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
• I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
• How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox

Events

The only event I really went to was at my local indie, Magic City Books, on Independent Bookstore Day. They did a special Sesame Street story time with an exclusive Little Golden Book about Elmo getting a puppy. My one and a half year old son, Elliott, adores Elmo so I knew as soon as I saw the event that we had to go. He had so much fun waving his Elmo sign around and eating cookies.

I’m also going to go ahead and throw Taylor Swift Day in here as well, because while it wasn’t an actual go somewhere event it was very much an event in my heart and in my apartment. In case you don’t know, Taylor released her new single, ME!, on April 26 and I’m so obsessed with it. I love her music so much that I made a Taylor Swift book tag. Of course I had to tune it to watch the world premier of the new music video (it’s incredible!) and I’ve already listened to the song over 230 times. Honestly, I was skeptical at first when I officially found out it was going to feature Brendon Urie. I don’t have anything against him or Panic! at the Disco, I actually like them, but I just kind of wished her first new single didn’t feature somebody. Thankfully I had no reason to doubt the queen that is Taylor Swift and the song is absolute perfection.

Blogging

Y’all helped me make April my most successful month so far! I had a post go up every single day, which I’m very proud of because you’ll see down in the life section why this was difficult this month. Over 1,000 of you visited my little corner of the internet which more than doubled the amount of visitors from March. In April, I also gained just under 100 WordPress followers which put me up to 230! I’ve been having such a great time creating content for all of you to read, and the fact that you keep coming back, keep reading my posts, and keep supporting me fills me with so much emotion and motivates me to keep going.

My three most popular posts from April were Author Guest Post: Zack Smedley On the Use of Profanity in YA Books (Including My Own), Ten Outrageous Things I’ve Done for the Love of Books, and Musings and Ramblings on Trigger Warnings. If you missed any of my other posts from April, I’ve linked them below for easy access. Some of my favorite content happened this month, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed it too!

Reviews

• Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
• How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow
• Whatever Life Throws at You by Julie Cross
• Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough
• How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox (plus a short playlist I made inspired by the book)
• I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
• Hilda and the Hidden People by Luke Pearson

Top Ten Tuesdays

• Top Ten Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book
• Ten Outrageous Things I’ve Done for the Love of Books
• Ten Books with Rain on the Cover for a Rainy Day
• First Ten Books I Ever Reviewed
• Ten of My Favorite Book Quotes

Waiting on Wednesdays

• This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
• When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis
• The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante

Miscellaneous

• Monthly Wrap Up: March 2019
• Friday Jams Week Seven (Feat. My First Music Review)
• Milton the Book Doggo
• Author Interview: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
• Books at the End of the Rainbow: Blue Edition
• The A to Z Book Tag (My 50th Post!)
• Taylor Swift Book Tag
• Sunday Stacks Week Four
• Author Interview: Heather Hepler
• Ten Books Set on Islands
• Shelf Awareness: What to Do When You’re Out of Shelf Space
• Introducing Noodle

Life

April was such a crazy whirlwind. As I’ve said before, my son Elliott is chronically ill, and it seemed like he had way more doctor appointments this month. Part of that was because he had eye surgery at the end of the month, so we were traveling back and forth from our home to where his specialists are located about two hours away more than normal in preparation for that. This was his eighth surgery and the first one we’ve been able to have done and go home the same day!

One of the really really exciting things that happened in April was that I got a kitten! I searched for the perfect cat for about five years and it finally happened. I actually do have Taylor Swift to thank a little for it because my husband couldn’t resist the magic of Taylor Swift Day and her reveal of her newest cat. Noodle is two months old and the absolute perfect addition to our family! She is so cuddly and I honestly already can’t imagine life without her.

So there you have a snapshot of my April! How was your month? Were you super busy or did you manage to keep things pretty calm? Let me know in the comments!