April Wrap-Up

April was a very productive reading  month with 11 books read, 6 of which were audiobooks.  I was all over the place  this month, a few books, I very much enjoyed. but there were a few that got lower ratings and others that were just good or slightly above o.k..

I am really debating on whether to give this 2 stars (OK) or 3 stars (good). I wish we could give it half stars and just rate it 2.5 stars. I was expecting to like this better than I did. Sonia Sotomayor was the 1st Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice. It was interesting at times, but other times, my mind wandered too much as I listened to this and I had to reply parts of it. Some parts were discussed for longer than necessary, but the ending seemed rushed.

This was a nice story, but it was not my favorite memoir about a dog or more specifically dogs from the author's life, but it wasn't the worst either. I am glad I read it or actually listened to it on audio. It was enjoyable, but not out of this world or anything. It's great what dogs can help people accomplish. I do think the book was a little on the long side and could have been edited better.

2 stars

I listened to 5 hours out of the 7 hours of this book; then I had to stop for the day. I dead not care for it at all and I just could not get myself to listen to the remaining 2 hours. There was nothing short of divine intervention that would have me give this book more than 1 star. It was definitely not for me and those were 5 hours that I will never get back. To make matters worse later the next day after listening to another book, my earbuds decided to go kaplooey, so now I have to get a new pair this weekend.

1 star

During the first half of listening to this, the book was good to ok, but after a few plot twists it changed to being so much better. Originally, I had doubts about whether I'd continue with this series, but before the book ended, I knew I wanted to read or listen to the following book in the series.

3.5 stars.

This is the 2nd book in The Land of Stories series and it is just as good as the first. It was good to catch up with the twins, their (Fairy Godmother) grandmother, and all the fairy tale characters. The 6th and final book in this series is suppose to be out later this summer, so since I've only finished book 2, there ill be lots more adventures to share with them. This is such a fun series; it is written for middle grades, but was the Harry Potter series and many of the series by Rick Riordan, This is the 2nd book in The Land of Stories series and it is just as good as the first. It was good to catch up with the twins, their (Fairy Godmother) grandmother, and all the fairy tale characters. The 6th and final book in this series is suppose to be out later this summer, so since I've only finished book 2, there ill be lots more adventures to share with them. This is such a fun series; it is written for middle grades, but was the Harry Potter series and many of the series by Rick Riordan, This one can also be enjoyed by all ages, especially since almost all of us grew up hearing fairy tales as children, hearing Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and watching Disney movies. I definitely recommend this book and series. 5 stars I really liked this author's first series, Hero's Welcome and have been looking forward to her new series, Blushing Bay.  Fans of Annie Rains will not be disappointed.  Although this may not have been my favorite of her books, it is a good story and I look eagerly to hearing the stories of the other Sawyer siblings in the future. Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. I am participating on April 20, 2017 in the blog tour put on by tastybooktours.com at my b I really liked this author's first series, Hero's Welcome and have been looking forward to her new series, Blushing Bay.  Fans of Annie Rains will not be disappointed.  Although this may not have been my favorite of her books, it is a good story and I look eagerly to hearing the stories of the other Sawyer siblings in the future. Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. I participated in the blog tour for this book; you can check out my post! 3 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley as a Read Now selection. I'm not quite sure what I was exactly expecting. It is a short book of less than 100 pages. It was a decent book and relatively fast read. It is a commentary of the entire Dirty Dancing movie. Parts of it were interesting and other parts not so much. I don't think I've seen the movie in at least 20-25 years. I loved the music and really liked Patrick Swayze as most girls in the 80s did. I would like to eventually see the movie again and I received this ARC from NetGalley as a Read Now selection. I'm not quite sure what I was exactly expecting. It is a short book of less than 100 pages. It was a decent book and relatively fast read. It is a commentary of the entire Dirty Dancing movie. Parts of it were interesting and other parts not so much. I don't think I've seen the movie in at least 20-25 years. I loved the music and really liked Patrick Swayze as most girls in the 80s did. I would like to eventually see the movie again and see if I notice this time around much of the social commentary that could have been taken from the movie. 3 stars

I received this 3 chapter sneak peak from NetGalley and the publisher. When I first requested this , I did not realize it was only a few chapters and I was thinking of not even reading this, but I am glad that I did and find this very much grabs my attention and I look forward to reading more. There was a school shooting at the senior prom and this book begins twelve years later when several of the survivors are back in their hometown to do a documentary. This has started out very promising. Whe I received this 3 chapter sneak peak from NetGalley and the publisher. When I first requested this , I did not realize it was only a few chapters and I was thinking of not even reading this, but I am glad that I did and find this very much grabs my attention and I look forward to reading more. There was a school shooting at the senior prom and this book begins twelve years later when several of the survivors are back in their hometown to do a documentary. This has started out very promising. When I look up the author's previous work, some of it shows up categorized as erotica, I hope this book does not turn out to be erotica, because I will then not be continuing on with it at a later date.

4 stars

I listened to this book over a 2 week period. I don't know if it was that it took too long for me to get back to finishing it or if these books just don't lend themselves well to audio but I wasn't crazy about it. I had started the series at #7, Miracle Road and really enjoyed each of the books I read. I really need to only read and not listen to these books; I really think this may be the problem. They aren't good for listening; actually when I think of it, I'm not a fan of the narrator. A new book comes out in this series in June and I look forward to reading it. 

2 stars

Very inspiring. I felt a vast array of emotions through out the book as I'm sure the author wanted to elicit. The writing itself may not be deep, but he didn't learn English until he was 16 and he's only in his mid-to-late 20s now, I think. This is the true story of one of Sudan's Lost Boys, who was kidnapped by rebel soldiers and would himself become a child soldier had he not been only six. Along with some older boys, he was able to escape the prison camp and for 3 days, more or less ran to fr Very inspiring. I felt a vast array of emotions through out the book as I'm sure the author wanted to elicit. The writing itself may not be deep, but he didn't learn English until he was 16 and he's only in his mid-to-late 20s now, I think. This is the true story of one of Sudan's Lost Boys, who was kidnapped by rebel soldiers and would himself become a child soldier had he not been only six. Along with some older boys, he was able to escape the prison camp and for 3 days, more or less ran to freedom, which ended up being a refugee camp in Kenya, where he stayed for 10 years, until he got the opportunity to go to America and later on to represent the USA in the Olympics. I listened to this book on audio, so some of the complaints that readers of this book had I did not pick up on. In my eyes, this book although a true story and sad in parts, is also very inspiring in that he found ways to keep hope alive and always kept his faith in God. 4.5 stars

I got this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. It sounded like a great summer/beach read and basically, it is! Although, the plot is engaging along with some surprises thrown in, I did not really connect with the characters and therefore could not get into the story 100%. Although, I enjoyed parts of the story, I just can't help feeling disappointed. I'm torn between giving it 2 or 3 stars and really wish I could give it 2.5 stars

My favorite book this month was Book 2 of The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns followed closely by Running For My Life.