Hello Readers! I think this is my last post to be caught up for the week. I had fun participating in the Trope-ical Readathon last month, but I always struggle with choosing between reading and blogging when I’m participating in a monthly challenge. Since I did read so much last month, my TBR for April is very light. It’s also Camp Nanowrimo this month, and while I’m not committing myself to a large writing goal, I am hoping to spend some time working on existing projects. No pressure, though.

If you’d like to see what I read last month, you can check out My March Wrap-Up. This month I have a couple of ARCs, a couple of backlist books, and one of my most anticipated books of the year. Since my TBR is light, I’m hoping that leaves a little room for some extra mood reading, as well.

Here’s what books I’m hoping to enjoy!

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

My current read, I needed something I didn’t have to think too hard about after my readathon last month, so I grabbed this off my shelf. I’m not surprised I’m loving it so far. It will also fulfill the Popsugar prompt: A book with just text on the cover.

Synopsis:

Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship…but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.

Goodreads

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Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah

The only ARC I have for April is a quiet little debut novel about how an unexpected friendship saves a young man’s life. This one is receiving glowing early reviews!

Synopsis:

An unexpected friendship saves a young man’s life in this moving, utterly charming debut about chosen family, the winding road to happiness, and the grace of second chances.
 
Could I one day inspire happiness in others, the same way he seemed to do in me?

It’s 2005 and Harley has dropped out of college to move home, back to rural England, where he works a dead-end job at a movie theater. Estranged from his father and finding every attempt at happiness futile, Harley is on the verge of making a devastating final decision. Fortunately for him, things don’t go according to plan, and his attempt on his own life is interrupted by his new roommate, Muddy.

Muddy is everything Harley is not: ostensibly heterosexual, freewheeling, confident in his masculinity. Despite their differences, a deep friendship blossoms between them when Muddy takes Harley under his wing and shows him everything that, in his eyes, makes life worth living: bird-watching, karaoke, rugby, and the band Oasis.

But this newfound friendship is complicated. It has enormous repercussions for the pair’s romantically entangled friend group–for Chelsea, an overbearing striver whose generosity they begrudgingly rely on; for Finlay, her raffish and uncouth boyfriend; and for Noria, who despite her simmering confidence is smarting from a series of unreturned affections. And then there’s the violent affair with an older man that Harley finds himself slipping back into . . .

As secrets and jealousies endanger all that Harley has come to depend on, he finds himself faltering once again, even though he finally has something–and someone–to live for. Soul-stirring and witty, full of hope and peopled with characters who feel like close friends, Small Joys explores a young man’s turbulent journey toward happiness and announces the arrival of an exciting voice in fiction.

Goodreads
Expected on April 11, 2023

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If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

I had been hoping to get to this classic last month, but it didn’t happen. Hopefully I can make it happen in April. It will fulfill the Popsugar prompt: A book set in the decade you were born.

Synopsis:

In this honest and stunning novel, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice.

Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope.

In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

Goodreads

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Happy Place by Emily Henry

I’ll be picking up Emily Henry’s next romance either the day it’s released or pretty soon after. I have a gift card just waiting to be used. 😍

Synopsis:

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?

Goodreads
Expected on April 25, 2023

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The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

I’ll be reading my first May ARC sometime this month, too. I enjoyed Keane’s previous book Ask Again, Yes, and this one sounds like one I’ll like even more.

Synopsis:

A magnificently told novel about the complexities of marriage, family, longing, and desire.

Malcolm Gephardt, the handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss is finally ready to retire, Malcolm is inspired to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to make it a bigger success—but quickly realizes that his customers don’t like change and that making a profit won’t be easy.

Malcolm’s wife Jess is smart, confident, and dedicated to her law career. But after years of trying to have a baby, she’s struggling to accept the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away, and while her hopes and expectations fall short of the current reality, she wonders how to reshape her life.

Taking place over the course of one tumultuous week, The Half Moon carefully explores a marriage in crisis, what it takes to make a life with another person, and the true meaning of family.

Goodreads
Expected on May 2, 2023

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Have you read any of these books yet? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!