Hello Readers! I’m running late with my TBR this month, but I’ve been struggling to catch up with all my end of the month posts. If you saw my haul post, I mentioned a major life event that’s kept me busy, but now I’m thankful to have all the blogging to keep my mind busy. 😉

My April TBR is mostly advanced reader copies. I may have said yes to too many ARCs recently… but I have said no to quite a few, as well. 😅 I’m basically only “planning” for the ARCs and my Classic Club Spin result, but I’m hoping to squeeze in some backlist titles, as well. I’m also hoping to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in April, working on the Nano project I have most complete. I’m not gonna put too much pressure on myself, though, and maybe just spend an hour working 3-4 days a week. But if I find myself totally immersed and consumed with it, that’s okay, as well!

Let’s see what I have planned for April!

The Highland Fling by Meghan Quinn

This is my current Kindle Unlimited read and my first book by Quinn! I can say I have laughed out loud several times already.

Synopsis:

In this steamy tale by USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn, an American searching for her purpose escapes to a Scottish town but finds more questions than answers when she meets a brooding yet handsome handyman.

Freshly fired from her third job in a row, Bonnie St. James has lost her way. So when she and her best friend stumble upon a “help wanted” post to run a coffee shop in the Scottish Highlands, they apply on a whim. Who knows? Maybe traveling to a new place is just what she needs to figure out her next move.

When the friends arrive in the tiny idyllic town of Corsekelly, they instantly fall for the gorgeous Highland landscape and friendly townspeople. But Bonnie finds a less-than-warm welcome in Rowan MacGregor, the rugged local handyman. Busy wrestling his own demons, Rowan’s in no mood to deal with the quirky American—even if she is a bonny lass.

As Bonnie and Rowan’s paths inevitably cross, insults—and sparks—fly. Can the pair build on their similarities to help each other find purpose and direction…and maybe romance too? Or will their passionate tempers fling them apart?

Goodreads

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This May End Badly by Samantha Markum

Having recently read Very Bad People by Kit Frick (My Review), a YA thriller set at a boarding school, it made me eager for more boarding school type settings. I’m excited for the pranks and romance in this one!

Synopsis:

Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.

To protect the school that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce, Doe puts together a plan to prove once and for all that Winfield boys and Weston girls just don’t mix, starting with a direct hit at Three, Winfield’s boy king and her nemesis. In a desperate move to win, Doe strikes a bargain with Three’s cousin, Wells: If he fake dates her to get under Three’s skin, she’ll help him get back his rightful family heirloom from Three.

As the pranks escalate, so do her feelings for her fake boyfriend, and Doe spins lie after lie to keep up her end of the deal. But when a teacher long suspected of inappropriate behavior messes with a younger Weston girl, Doe has to decide what’s more important: winning a rivalry, or joining forces to protect something far more critical than a prank war legacy.

This May End Badly is a story about friendship, falling in love, and crossing pretty much every line presented to you—and how to atone when you do. 

Goodreads
Expected April 12, 2022

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Growing Up Biden by Valerie Biden Owens

This is an unsolicited ARC from Celadon books that wasn’t even on my radar, but it’s getting great early reviews. It’s under 300 pages, so it should be a quick read, as well.

Synopsis:

A memoir from Valerie Biden Owens, longtime political strategist, one of the first female campaign managers in United States history, and younger sister of Joe Biden.

In this revelatory, engrossing memoir, Valerie Biden Owens shares stories from growing up in Delaware as the only daughter of the close-knit Biden family. Later, after the tragic accident that killed her niece and sister-in-law, Valerie moved in to help raise Beau and Hunter while then-Senator Biden commuted to Washington, DC.

But beyond their deep sibling relationship, Valerie has been in lockstep with her brother throughout both of their political careers. She has run almost all of her brother’s political campaigns—starting from his run for high school class president. From speechwriting to debate preparation, Valerie has played an integral role in shaping her brother’s message and strategy.

Growing Up Biden details Valerie’s decades-long professional career in politics, and her fundamental presence in her brother’s life as a close confidante. This memoir, full of candor and warmth, brings readers into the Biden home, watching as the siblings were raised to live with deep empathy, to work hard, and to help wherever they can.

Goodreads
Expected April 12, 2022

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Just the Two of Us by Jo Wilde

I was invited to read this one a few days ago. I don’t know if I can get to it by the publishing date, but I will try! I’m loving the sound of the second chance romance thanks to the pandemic.

Synopsis:

A couple on the brink of divorce after 35 years of marriage gets a second chance to rediscover their love now that a pandemic lockdown has forced them to spend more time together. 

Julie and Michael Marshall have stayed together through thick and thin, through better and worse — and, for the last few years, it has mostly been worse. As their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary approaches, Julie realizes something: she doesn’t want to pretend anymore.
Divorce papers at the ready, she’s just about to have The Talk with Michael when everything changes. Lockdown begins and Julie and Michael face the greatest terror they can imagine: uninterrupted time with each other. But, when stripped of all distraction and forced to meet eyes across the dinner table, could it be that Julie and Michael might find a way back to where they first began? 

Goodreads
Expected April 12, 2022

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Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

This is my Classic Club Spin result. I need to read it by April 30th, and while I’m excited to finally pick it up, I’m nervous about the intensity. I haven’t been in the right frame of mind for more serious novels lately. Send me your words of encouragement if you’ve read and enjoyed this one! 🙂

Synopsis:

In this celebrated novel, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison created a new way of rendering the contradictory nuances of black life in America. Its earthy poetic language and striking use of folklore and myth established Morrison as a major voice in contemporary fiction. 

“Song of Solomon” begins with one of the most arresting scenes in our century’s literature: a dreamlike tableau depicting a man poised on a roof, about to fly into the air, while cloth rose petals swirl above the snow-covered ground and, in the astonished crowd below, one woman sings as another enters premature labor. The child born of that labor, Macon (Milkman) Dead, will eventually come to discover, through his complicated progress to maturity, the meaning of the drama that marked his birth.

Toni Morrison’s novel is at once a romance of self-discovery, a retelling of the black experience in America that uncovers the inalienable poetry of that experience, and a family saga luminous in its depth, imaginative generosity, and universality. It is also a tribute to the ways in which, in the hands of a master, the ancient art of storytelling can be used to make the mysterious and invisible aspects of human life apparent, real, and firm to the touch.

Goodreads

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Blame it on the Brontes by Annie Sereno

This is another title I was invited to read a few days ago. I’m loving bookish romances right now!

Synopsis:

She’s going to write her own happy ending.

English professor Athena Murphy is an authority on the novels of the Brontë sisters. But as they say in academia, publish or perish. To save her job, Athena decides to write a biography of C.L. Garland, the author heating up bestseller lists with spicy retellings of classic literature. Tracking down the reclusive writer and uncovering her secret identity, though, means Athena must return to her small midwestern hometown where Garland—and her ex-boyfriend, Thorne Kent—live.

Seeing Thorne again reminds Athena that real life never lives up to fiction. He was the Heathcliff to her Catherine, the Mr. Rochester to her Jane. Not only did their college breakup shatter that illusion, but they also broke each other’s hearts again a second time. Now she has to see him nearly every…single…day.

The only solution is to find C.L. Garland as quickly as possible, write the book, and get the heck out of town. As her deadline looms and the list of potential C.L. Garlands dwindles, Athena and Thorne bicker and banter their way back to friendship. Could it really be true that the third time’s a charm?

Athena and Thorne have a love story only a Brontë could write, and the chance for their own happily-ever-after, but first, they’ll need to forgive the mistakes of the past.

Goodreads
Expected May 3, 2022

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Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

I’ve been watching this title creep closer to the top of my tbr all year—and wishing I could pick it up sooner. But I also wanted to save it for warmer weather. I have high hopes for this one.

Synopsis:

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past. 

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Goodreads
Expected May 10, 2022

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First Time for Everything by Henry Fry

Hopefully I can squeeze this one in, as well, but if not, it’ll be at the top of my May TBR!

Synopsis:

An unflinchingly honest, wickedly funny, and heartfelt debut about a down-on-his-luck gay man working out how he fits into the world, making up for lost time, and opening himself up to life’s possibilities 

“Hilarious, tender, raw, and heart-stoppingly moving . . . I adored this powerful, wonderful book.”–Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

Danny Scudd is absolutely fine. He always dreamed of escaping the small-town life of his parents’ fish-and-chip shop, moving to London, and becoming a journalist. And, after five years in the city, his career isn’t exactly awful, and his relationship with pretentious Tobbs isn’t exactly unfulfilling. Certainly his limited-edition Dolly Parton vinyls and many (maybe too many) house plants are hitting the spot. But his world is flipped upside down when a visit to the local clinic reveals that Tobbs might not have been exactly faithful. In fact, Tobbs claims they were never operating under the “heteronormative paradigm” of monogamy to begin with. Oh, and Danny’s flatmates are unceremoniously evicting him because they want to start a family. It’s all going quite well.

Newly single and with nowhere to live, Danny is forced to move in with his best friend, Jacob, a flamboyant nonbinary artist whom he’s known since childhood, and their eccentric group of friends living in an East London “commune.” What follows is a colorful voyage of discovery through modern queer life, dating, work, and lots of therapy–all places Danny has always been too afraid to fully explore. Upon realizing just how little he knows about himself and his sexuality, he careens from one questionable decision (and man) to another, relying on his inscrutable new therapist and housemates to help him face the demons he’s spent his entire life trying to repress. Is he really fine, after all? 

Goodreads
Expected May 10, 2022

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What are you most excited to read this month? Have you read any of these books yet? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!