April 2019 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Ahead to May

This month has been better for keeping up on blogging, but my writing is so far behind.  In fact, I don’t know that I’ve actually done any writing or editing for myself at all in April. 

Let’s start with the reading stats again for April.

Once, again, according to Goodreads, I’ve read 78 of the 215 books I’ve set as my goal for the year, April made up 18 of those.  I am 8 books ahead of schedule, but still debating whether to up my goal or not.

Here is a list of books I read in April, and I’ll link to my review if I’ve finished it:

1.  The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie
   
2. Smoke and Key by Kelsey Sutton
3. First Down by Michelle Sodaro
4. Tinfoil Heart by Daisy Prescott
5. The Stars in Her Eyes by C.M. Albert
6. Two for Holding by Kay Gordon
   
7. All Broke Down by Cora Carmack
8. The Hummingbird Dagger by Cindy Anstey
9. Sweet Southern Secrets by Colbie Kay and Chianti Summers
10. Baby Mine by Kennedy Fox
11. We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler
12. Lord Have Mercy by Lani Lynn Vale
13. The Perfect First by Maya Hughes
14. Romanov by Nadine Brandes
15. Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
16. Intercepted by Alexa Martin
17. Boyfriend Maintenance by Lauren Helms
18. Birthday Suit by Lauren Blakely
19. I also did a movie review for After based on the book by Anna Todd
    

 

Any that aren’t reviewed are either part of upcoming blog tours, or I just haven’t had time yet to review.

Books that I read in March but didn’t get reviewed until April are:

1. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang  (Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith is on this same post, but that book was read in February!)
2.  Riot by Jamie Shaw
3. Misadventures of a City Girl by Meredith Wild and Chelle Bliss
4. Drunk Dial by Penelope Ward
5. Forever Mine by Kennedy Fox
6. #Poser by Cambria Hebert

Only 44 posts for April, I did well with trying to cut back, I think.    Eleven of those 44 were reviews, and a couple of those posts had multiple reviews within them.  I’ve been good with my weekly posts I want to keep up with too!  My rating was a little down for the books I read in April, down to 4.2 stars.

Okay, on with my challenges.

1.  As I mentioned above, still working on my Looking Forward To posts once a week, have moved them to Wednesdays to coincide with everyone else’s Waiting on  Wednesday or Can’t Wait Wednesday posts, unless I had a ton of otherwise scheduled posts for my blog that Wednesday or maybe there was only one book that week on my list to share.
April 3rd
April 10th  – April 16th and April 23rd combined post
April 28th – April 30th and May 7th combined post

April was another bad month for getting out and commenting on blogs.  I did some of my regular blogs, as well as participating in the Wednesday posts when I could.  But I wasn’t always good about keeping track of it in my planner like I had been.  I need to get back on that this month.

Been doing well on cleaning up my Goodreads TBR with my weekly post and giveaway, as well as even my physical TBR a little.  I still only have one person joining in, but feel free to join in as well.  Here are the posts for that:
April 6th
April 13th
April 20th
April 27th – And this giveaway is still up for the next week!

2.  My Reading Goals are coming along with the Goodreads challenge.  I did read another book that a friend recommended, Intercepted by Alexa Martin.  I really enjoyed it.  Stay tuned for that review some time this month!

3. Once again my writing goals were nonexistent this  month.  I did do a lot of reading for my new critique partner, and I really kind of feel like she is an already established author because what she’s having me read is so good!  If not yet, she will be soon!

So, while I didn’t do any from my proposed list, I would say I read two that were on my TBR pile from last year:  Tinfoil Heart and Sweet Southern Secret – both reviews can be found HERE.

No new discussions this month really, unless you count my review of the movie After. 

Also, still need some kind of button for the First in the Series Challenge, although once again, didn’t do any from my list!  I could count First Down by Michelle Sodaro if I decide to go on and read the rest of that series. 

My biggest excitement of April has to do with me looking to find a new house.  One with a fenced yard for my two little dogs.  I found a few I liked.  One I put an offer on, but they took another offer instead, even though they’d at first told me they’d accepted mine.  Another decided to take another offer right before I put mine in. And then last week, I put an offer on a house and they accepted it!  Here’s a picture of the front of my new house.

It’s not much, but it’s all I need.  I will miss a tiny bit having a basement. But since I’m now just going through stuff down there and deciding what I don’t really need anyway, it’s probably better to not have a place to just stick stuff that I never look at.  Of course if there are tornadoes, I might be sorry.  But for now, I’m just excited for the fenced back yard and no stairs!  I still don’t have my male dog trained to quit hiking his leg on everything. And because I had to offer more on this house than what was being asked, and also to pay all the closing costs, etc., I will have to wait to try to pay and have one of those training sessions where they take him for a week or two to train.  So he’ll be wearing a doggie belly band for awhile.  I’m hoping though, that having a fenced yard to go play in, and I can sit outside and read and just enjoy watching him and my other dog play, will get him to stop peeing inside the house so much because he won’t be bored.  Fingers crossed on that!  But I don’t get to actually close on the house until mid-June, so for now I’m just anxiously waiting for the day I can move, getting rid of things in my current house and starting to pack I guess.  Lots of books to pack!  One cool thing is that the front room, which was probably a living room before, will be my library/office/reading room.  I’ll be sure to show pictures once I get moved in and get all my books shelved!

Looking forward to in May:
Okay, so here is my proposed TBR based on my blog tours and review requests for this month:

1. Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Lee – Reading the ARC of this one right now and really enjoying it!  Have an author interview to go along with my review, which I think I’ll be posting on Sunday.
2. Time by Penny Reid – reading it right now. Did not get it early to read like the first two since it was published early.
3. Boyfriend Bargain by Ilsa Madden-Mills – review on the 7th.
4. How (Not) to Date a Prince by Zoe May – review on the 9th
5. Things We Never Said by Samantha Young – review on the 7th? I know I have it to read, but don’t seem to have put it on my calendar for a specific review day
6. Dance With Me by Kristen Proby – review on the 10th
7. That Second Chance by Meghan Quinn – review on the 12th
8. Heartthrob by Robin Bielman – review on the 14th
9. Starfish by Lisa Becker – review on the 17th
10. Minx by Maggie Adams – review on the 19th
11. No Place Like Here by Christina June – I own the ARC, so plan to probably review on the 20th.
12. Two Like Me and You by Chad Alan Gibbs – review on the 21st
13. Baby Yours by Kennedy Fox – review on the 23rd
14. Fearless King by Maya Hughes – review on the 30th
15. The Game Changer by Jacqueline Snowe
16. Midnight Blue by L.J. Shen – currently reading

There will probably be another audiobook or two somewhere in there, just not sure what I’ll listen to next.  Because things have been so crazy this month, one again I’m going to skip the Best of the Bunch challenge today and just go ahead and wrap this post up.    One last reminder, don’t forget to enter the giveaway on my last Cleaning Up My TBR Post which I linked to up above, the prize is going to be 3 books this week instead of just 2!