April Reading Round-Up

Have you read any of these?

April was a good month for reading. It always surprises me how much I have read when I do these round-ups. However, don't be too impressed, a couple of the books I had started reading in previous months.

I regularly start a book, then start another, and end up with a number of books half-read, so I made the decision to spend April finishing many of these books.

Amazing Start

The start of the month was particularly good, with me reading three five-star reads. Two were audiobooks. The first was The Family Experiment by John Marrs. Marrs is exceptionally talented at taking something we see daily and making it horrific. One of the first I read, The Passengers, was about self-driving cars that take over and lock the passengers in. In this one, families compete to bring up a virtual child in order to be allowed to have a family of their own.

The book was brilliant and kept me on the edge of my seat; dangerous when you are driving. As with all his novels, there is a killer twist at the end.

My second five-star read was The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths. I have read everything Griffiths has written, and this is the start of a new series. It also mixes my other love, Victorian England. This tells the story of a time-travelling detective and is a brilliant, quick page-turner.

The last was another audiobook, The Lost Bookshop, by Evie Woods. It tells the story of two generations and a lost bookshop. The book deals with abuse and other hard-hitting subjects and offers a bookshop we would all want to visit. I love books about bookshops, and this was no exception.

Reading With My Daughter

Every night, we go to bed and read a book. She is only five but prefers long books over many nights to quick reads. We completed Black Beauty this month, which was not as good as I remembered. As an adult, it came across as a manual for horse ownership rather than a story of any substance.

This month's second read is a sequel to one of our other favourites, The Children of Cherry Tree Farm. The Children of Willow Farm by Enid Blyton follows the four siblings as their family moves into a new farm from London. This beautiful book tells you about raising animals and how to look after them without seeming like a manual. Some of Blyton's novels do not transcend time, but this one did.

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre I am getting more and more into. As those who follow me on social media will know, I have set myself the challenge of reading all the Terry Pratchett books in order. A Colour of Magic is the first, and although sprinkled with amusing prose, it is not as good as some of the later books. I enjoyed it, but I have to agree with the critics that there are better Terry Pratchett books.

My second fantasy was Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune. As some of you will know, The House of the Cerulean Sea was my favourite book of January; this is the sequel. I always start a sequel with apprehension after I loved the first, but I didn't need it. Beyond the Sea is better than the first. It continues the tale of Arthur and Linus and their mix of children. If you have read the first, you will not be disappointed with the sequel.

Finally, Read

The other two reads I completed this month were books I started ages ago. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle is a collection of his short stories, which I have been dipping in and out of on occasion; this month, I completed it.

The second was Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which I had been reading serially on the original publication schedule. This month, I completed it, and although not my favourite Dicken's, it is an epic read. I loved some of the characters and enjoyed the story immensely, even if it did take me over a year to read it.

So these were my reads for April. Have you read any? What did you think? What was your favourite read of April?