Took a brief hiatus last month but I’m back with a vengeance for April!
I caved and signed back up for Kindle Unlimited. It was on a promo for 2 months for $0.99 so now I’m reading as much as I possibly can until it’s done even though I have more than enough books to read in physical copy.
So that means I’ve made up for the fact that I read nothing in March, I’ve read 20 books this month. And I still have a couple more days left in April, and one more month of Kindle Unlimited.
I’ve already hit my goal of 25 books this year, so I’ve upped my goal to 50 again. Woohoo. I did not expect to read that much in a month so this post will be a biggie. They’re all up on my Goodreads (although I need to update their reviews, I’ve just posted the star rating right now).
Shockingly, this isn’t all just trash smut and romance. There are some actual fantasy books on this list!
April’s Read List
Kiss Of Death – Alice Wilde
The book got me back into Kindle Unlimited and reading up a storm. Cinderella meets Beauty and the Beast except the Beast is DEATH. I’m loving the Gods and Monster’s take on these plotlines. Not super spicy by any means, but it moved quickly and didn’t feel rushed. It’s low enemies to lovers, but a TON of burn-the-world vibes. As one would expect from Death. It is a dual POV but mainly Hazel, I enjoyed her optimism and her slight naivety. Definitely didn’t see the plot twist at the end!!! I’m currently reading the sequel to this as well. I will let you know how it goes.
The Last Dragon King – Leia Stone
The first in a quartet, and I really am enjoying the series overall. Not high on the smut level, only one major scene but the plot twist is great. I enjoyed that Arwen was super powerful but not interested in power. There’s a vague enemies-to-lovers trope, and there is a pregnancy which usually isn’t my jam but it doesn’t affect the overall storyline. I love that he was the first to fall in love with her and has to work for it.
The Broken Elf King – Leia Stone
The 2nd in the quartet. This book gave more overall background information to pull the subplot together about why the Kings all need wives, why there’s a mortal/un-magic kingdom and the evil queen plot. This is the Elf king’s hunt to find a wife which is a ball a la Cinderella. Lots of miscommunication, her having to step in as a War Queen and earn the respect of the people, and emotionally unavailable Raife denying the fact that he’s in love with Kailani.
The third is available on KU at the end of the month, so that will be in next month’s reviews!
The Dragon’s Bride – Katee Roberts
Katee Roberts is definitely not for everyone. She’s high on the smut and definitely into the monsters. I really loved her take on the Disney villains, and Kindle Unlimited got me into monster stuff so why not? Although I am particular about my monsters, I can’t do all of it. So while this is a series, and all the characters are referenced in the beginning scenes, I’m not truly interested in all of them. There is a subplot running through the entire series but not enough to get me over my lack of interest in certain monsters. So this is fine as a stand-alone for me. Again, it was good, well-written and more just for the smut than the plot.
Trials of the Sun Queen – Nisha J Tuli
My first time reading anything by Nisha J Tuli and was not disappointed. Trials of the Sun Queen has been coming up on my Instagram for the past couple of weeks and it’s on KU so I figured, why not? Another one that’s suggested to read if you are a fan of ACOTAR so I’m ready for the main character’s romance interest to flip on me. I enjoyed the banter and also got Throne of Glass references (prisoner allowed into the competition who has secret Royal Blood). Not overly spicy in this first one, I’m looking forward to the sequel. Atlas seems too good to be true and he’s obsessive. I’m undecided about how I feel about Nadir. I love the snarky banter of Gabriel though!!!
The Ugly Step-Sister Strikes Back – Sariah Wilson
This was a super cute rom-com. It reminded me of Sydney White with her running for president but also Cinderella because she never expects to get the boy since she’s the “ugly step-sister”. I loved all the references to Sixteen Candles (Jake Ryan is the best) it was just very very enjoyable. A quick read, that moved well and quickly. There is a sequel but I really enjoyed how it ended on the HEA note that I really don’t want to ruin my high. Also, I just don’t feel like there really was a need for a sequel so I’m just not going to read it.
Puck Me Secretly – Odette Stone
This is book 1 in the Vancouver Wolves hockey romance and I did read them in order. This was the secret relationship and these are HEAVY on the smut. I am a huge sucker for hockey romance, and based in Canada? Yes, please. I enjoyed Rory (Boss Bitch Sunshine) and Max (Grumpy). Their chemistry was believable and it had really good tension and keeping of secrets (on all sides!). Absolutely devoured these books!
Home Game – Odette Stone
This one was probably the least favourite just because I’m not a fan of friends to lovers (as much) even though I did really enjoy this one too. I liked the tension between Ryan and Zoey. Her life was pretty unbelievably terrible and he was just a nice guy. It was less believable (and I can understand Zoey’s reluctance with everything). The angst just didn’t hit it for me and it was good but not really the trope I love.
The Penalty Box – Odette Stone
The third one though. This one!!!!!! Hit ALLLLL the tropes for me. Stalker hockey romance with Russian Mafia vibes PLUS fake dating to fake marriage!!!! Hallelujah. This was *chef’s kiss* for me. She has a crush on him but never thought she’d have a chance so ignored it, he had trauma from his parents who hated each other so was very against commitment and marriage. There’s a super shady neighbour but it has all the Russian Mafia protective vibes, where he gets her this amazing guard dog. *Cue girly squealing* This one I would probably purchase in hard copy. I loved this one.
The Seat Filler – Sariah Wilson
This was almost a DNF. I got to about 80% and then kind of lost interest. I did make it back to finish that last 20% but it was a little bit silly. The author used Adam Driver as her inspiration for this one (a normal girl meets an amazing hot movie star and they fall in love) but I saw Noah as more of a Chris Evans. I also got a little bit of The Holiday when they live next door to each other. I’d say that this was low angst (there is a little but didn’t make me cry) and a very Happy Ever After.
Court of Blood & Bindings – Lisette Marshall
I got ACOTAR vibes from this one, and it’s made me WARY of falling for the first love interest in a fantasy novel!!!! Enemies to lovers with Fae and Half Fae, plus the good old Evil Queen.
The main male character and love interest (so far) is the Queen’s son, who is morally grey and pretty much her executioner. He doesn’t speak and obviously has the WINGSPAN because he can fly. Emelin, is half-fae but raised by humans and has no idea other than the fact that she can do very basic magic. Creon finds her and is determined to use her to overthrow the Queen. It’s got a lot of undercurrents that will probably play out in the 2nd and 3rd book, plus a decent dose of Faerie politics that Emelin doesn’t quite understand. She has to figure out how to hone her magic and gets impatient when it seems to take forever. I like Creon but I obviously don’t want to get too attached in case the author does a Tamlin switch on me again. But the sequel is on the TBR now.
Kiss of Darkness – Taylor Astin White
This one was a quick read in-between some of the more serious fantasy, just a little paranormal romance with a touch of smut. It was steamy, even with not many scenes. This was a Black Witch vs Shifter, I did find it difficult to keep up with the sheer number of different supernatural, but I also wasn’t trying really hard either. I enjoyed her writing but not lasting overall.
The Cursed & the Broken – Chloe Hodge
This book gave me Shadow & Bone, Bear & the Nightingale vibes. This featured an arranged marriage, she’s adopted but doesn’t know it, so has no idea who her bloodline is actually from. The Only One Bed trope!! Which I love. Definitely Enemies to Lovers going on in this book. It’s obvious from the beginning that she will be a descendant of the Dark Queen but there are definite twists that I did NOT see coming. I did find the Hungarian references interesting regarding folklore. I enjoyed the fact that she definitely lived a sheltered, all-female lifestyle and then was thrust into a new world. With murder, cultists, and plots galore this one definitely kept me on my toes and I was very much about diving into the sequel! (Although I’ve stalled on starting it). A solid 3.
Chained/Claimed/Changed – Raven Storm and Kacey Lee
This is an Alpha/Werewolf romance trilogy and if I didn’t read this as an omnibus I probably wouldn’t have finished the series. Chained and Claimed were amazing and definitely bring up the overall average. Changed, I had to work to get through even though I wanted to know how it finished. I loved Bailey’s journey from suppressing her Alpha nature to owning it and finding a man that nurtured that as well. Bailey and Derrick’s chemistry is just *chef’s kiss* so it’s definitely worth the read from a romance/smut angle. I did enjoy that there was enough of a plot and mystery to span the 3 books and while certain things obviously wrapped up in 1 and 2 there was the final showdown in book 3. This incorporates vampires, witches, werewolves, and humans. The whole gamut. There are almost True Blood vibes but from the werewolf perspective.
I really loved the secondary characters and the fact that they gave the lead female rival a pivotal redemption arc and role in the following books. Bex coming into her own and really stepping up, going from BITCH to BETA. The vampire storyline is great.
The 3rd book kind of dragged but then there were torture scenes and I guess that’s where my ick is? Because something about those scenes really makes it hard for me to finish a book. I did it, I got through it because I really wanted to know the ending, and I’m glad that I did. The first 2 books are solid 3s. The 3rd is probably a 2, so brings the average to 2.5 for me.
Frost – C.N. Crawford
This typically is not my type of fantasy. I’m not really a modern fantasy setting, the odd exception here and there. This one was well done. I enjoyed it, and the whole premise that the Fae “came out” to the modern world and they just go about their business as usual but they don’t generally interact with humans. There’s the Seelie/Unseelie concept, and the twist at the end, I feel like I figured it out about halfway through. It was an interesting concept of turning the tournament for the King of the Fae to find his wife into a reality show for the humans to watch especially after binging Love Is Blind. I would totally watch a show like that.
I liked the secondary characters, which brought a nice balance to the banter and otherwise enemies-to-lovers dynamic. Overall I gave this a 2.5 because while it was good and enjoyable, it didn’t quite stand out amongst all the books I’ve been reading this month. I also have been trying to get into the sequel, and that’s been a bit harder to sit through. I’m about 30% through it and keep getting distracted by other books.
Twisted Hate – Ana Huang
OK ANA HUANG. I feel like she’s a Queen of Angst. This one is part of the Twisted series that I feel like is all over the Booktok/Bookstagram world. Might be a little late to the game, but it’s definitely a good one. I did read the 4th book first (Twisted Lies) and this is the 3rd, so I’m just reading them backwards. They obviously can be read as stand-alone but the characters do intertwine and there is quite a bit of reference to the first book. This was enemies to lovers and I just really enjoyed everything about it. The main characters had good banter (even when it was mean) and actual chemistry. This was longer than I expected but felt like it moved at a really good pace. Overall I gave this one 4 stars out of 5. This would definitely make my recommend list.
Dirty English – Ilsa Madden-Mills
I really enjoy Ilsa Madden-Mills’s works. I’ve read a couple of them before (in 2022) and really enjoyed Beauty and the Baller. This was a little different from her sports romance, although still a sports romance. She’s always great for a HEA with a dash of angst. She has a good plot with this one, he’s an illegal MMA fighter wanting to earn money for his gym, and she’s focused on not falling in love or letting anyone get too close. She has a lot of trauma and her past comes back to haunt her (obviously). Overall a good read. Enough angst and definitely a good twist at the end!! Definitely check out the trigger warnings because it does have sensitive topics.
The Beast – Jenika Snow
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling but also a PWP, so it’s got a lot of smut, and a little bit of plot and overall it was enjoyable. I’ve always enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast story, so any rework of that I am there for. Add a little bit of the fact that the Beast doesn’t turn back into a Prince. I’m down for that ride. I gave this one 2 stars because it was enjoyable but not memorable or life-changing. A great dirty read for a break and escape.
What a huge book load in April!
I’m currently reading the sequel to Kiss of Death, Touch of Death right now and will probably finish that before the end of April. Honestly, this post is way longer than expected so I’ll save it for next month. Check out January and February‘s list of books read with their reviews! I will eventually update my Goodreads but you can see what I rated them and what’s next on my list.
