April Wrap Up (2021)

 Hey guys, this is Abi here, 

I'm back! I'll be the first one to admit that I haven't been exactly active on here this past month- but I'm back with my wrap up. 

I hope you enjoy it. 

1. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4), by Rick Riordan 

2. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5), by Rick Riordan 

The last two books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I loved both of these, and I am excited to continue on with my Percy Jackson catch up with the Heroes of Olympus series, which I will be getting to very soon. At the end of book three, I could definitely feel some sort of solid plot going on, and the last two books in the series was exactly what I was looking for. Although everyone seemed to love Battle of the Labyrinth, I did have a bit of trouble getting through it. Nevertheless, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The Last Olympian was my favourite of the entire series. Having marathoned the series all in one go, I had grown to love these characters so much, I didn't want anything bad to happen to them. (Of course I knew most of them would survive, because a lot of them are featured in the next series, but I was still worried about who wouldn't make it.) A phenomenal ending to such a wonderful series. 

3. The Authenticity Project, by Clare Pooley 

The Authenticity Project was the type of book that goes snail pace at the start, then all at once, the bottom drops, and you realise that you care about these characters after all. The Authenticity Project is purely a notebook, forcing six people to stop pretending, and to tell the truth. To write down their tuth and see what happens. I doubt this would happen in real life, but it's so endearing to see what one little notebook will do for six people, just because they took a chance to write down their true thoughts and feelings. Such a simple consept, but it was a pleasure to see all these characters grow to realise what they can do, if they were to just take a chance. 

4. Instant Karma, by Marissa Meyer 

I picked this from my box of anticipated releases that I wanted to read last month, and I never got around to it. Naturally it was rolled over to this month. Honestly, this was a solid four stars. I was very happy with what Marissa Meyer (who you might know from her Lunar Chronicles series, Renegades trilogy etc- so, her sci-fi/fantasy) produced, in a contemporary romance novel. Basically, Instant Karma follows Prudence, who after an accident on a night out with her friends, wakes up with the power to grant instant karma to those that are lazy, or caught in a bad deed. Everyone except, Quint, her slacker, disaster lab partner. After they get a bad grade on an assignment, Pru is determined to get a better grade- so she signs up to volunteer at the Sea-life Centre- that Quint's mum happens to run. But as the summer goes on, Pru begins to find out that Quint might not be the slacker that she always thought he was. 

Although this book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, I still thoroughly enjoyed this. It was a nice change, to see Marissa Meyer try a different genre to the one we all know she can do well in. I look forward to see what she can produce in the future. 

5. Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give #0), by Angie Thomas 

This brought a whole other level to The Hate U Give. I'm genuinely sat here, wondering if I should re-read THUG for the upteenth time, just to see what more I can get from it, having now read Concrete Rose. It was both surreal and wonderful to get to read from Maverick's POV, because 1) he was so young! 2) He was still a child, literally when all this happened. It was strange to see him as a gangly teenager who'd just had this world turned upside down, against the role model he is for Starr in THUG. No doubt I'll be reading both this and the second book sometime soon, because I thoroughly enjoyed this. (Out of all the books I've read this month, this one has stuck with me the most.)  

6. Roam, by C.H. Armstrong

I plucked this from my "Want to read" shelf from Goodreads, because it had been on there for so long, enough was enough. Time to read or get rid. 

Honestly, it was decent. Another solid four stars. I didn't dislike any of the characters (except the ones I was meant to hate), I wasn't bored either. And now I can say I've actually read something about homelessness. If there are any books about people living on the streets that anyone has enjoyed, let me know down below, because I'd love to read more about this topic. 

I liked the characters and the premise, but what I liked most was that the less than glamorous parts weren't glossed over. It's no easy feat to be homeless and still be at school, having to keep up appearances, even when every fibre in your being is telling you to come clean- but you can't because of your loyalty to your family. That's just one of the things that Abby has to deal with in this, not to mention trying to survive sickness in a car in October, depression, epilepsy and anger, to name a few. This book surprised me. A decent novel. 

7. Seasons of War (Skuldduggery Pleasant #13), by Derek Landy

The last book on this wrap up was meant to be Dead or Alive, the most recently released Skulduggery Pleasant book, which was released at the start of April. But to tell the truth, I couldn't remember much from this, about what kind of state the world was in after the events of this book- couldn't remember much of anything- so I decided to give myself a bit of a refresher with a re-read. I can't disclose much about the plot- with it being the 13th book and all- but this felt like Skulduggery Pleasant was going back to it's roots- a specific task with a team of unique skills- setting off to kill a bad guy. Along with the usual classic Derek Landy humour and kick-ass fight scenes. Can't get better than this. 

I'm now officially refreshed and starting Dead or Alive after I post this. 

Okay! That's my April Wrap Up (2021)! I hope you enjoyed it. 

By the way, I know I've been away a while, but I hope I redeemed myself with this. I want to thank everyone of you for sticking with me, whether you've been here from the start, or just joined in following me, and the crazy workings of my brain. 

I will be back soon with my TBR for the month of May. 

See you all soon.

I love you guys. 

-Abi xxxxxx