Hiya bookworms!

First wrap-up of the year and gosh what a month it’s been. I wish I read more books than I did, but for the first month I’m still on track to reach my year reading goal of 150 books. This month I read a total of 10 books and 2 audiobooks. My favourite reads were definitely all the ones from my personal library! I also took part in @readwithsam’s Spark Joy Readathon and it was lots of fun! I can’t wait until the next one in May 😊

My Library

One of the Good Ones by Maika and Maritza Moulite

Review:

Thank you Harper Collins and HCCFrenzy for the ARC! This was an amazing book. Definitely one of the best books I have read all year! This book made me think about many things related to racism and the BLM movement that I never would have though about before last year. I have learned a lot from this book and it was a real eye-opener. This book was a highly emotional read and my eyeballs were definitely leaking at multiple points throughout the story so be sure to grab some tissues if you read this book. The ending was not what I expected at all and had a pretty big plot twist that I did not see coming. The characters in this book were all beautifully written and the story was very inspiring. One thing I really enjoyed was how all the characters were somehow connected. Overall this was an amazing book and I am so glad I read this! I highly recommend this!

6/5🌟

Heartstoppers by Alice Oseman

Review:

TW: Mental health, self-harm, homophobia. I read this on the Tapas comic app. My friend recommended this graphic novel to me and I’M IN LOVE. This is honestly one of the BEST romance graphic novels I have ever read and I think that the way Oseman discusses mental health in her story is one of the best examples I’ve seen in my reading life. I also really loved how Charlie and Nick talk to each other in their relationship because even though they have problems, they never have a toxic type of fight and always communicate in a very mature and healthy way. I feel like this story really stresses the importance of healthy communication which is very important in all types of relationships. Also Oseman has the best written trigger warnings I’ve seen and her trigger warnings are always in a very clear spot in the story so you can’t miss them. Now onto the story. I LOVED Nick and Charlie and their relationship and Charlie’s sister Tori is such a mood. I also know why this story is called ‘Heartstoppers’ because y’all my heart stopped from the freaking cuteness of Nick and Charlie’s relationship!!!!

6/5🌟

Netgalley eARCs

The Cat Proposed by Dento Hayane

Review:

Thank you Independent Publishers Group! I absolutely loved this manga and thought it was a beautiful story about finding hope and love while struggling with mental health and suicidal thoughts due to overworking and fatigue. I loved Souta and Kihachi's relationship and thought they were so freaking cute! I loved the expressions and reactions of the characters especially when their cat forms came into play 😂 Also the Ryokan Cat is just like a more bubbly version of the Suriel from ACOTAR. Finally, that ending was spicyyyyyy and definitely had me blushing 😅 (it's not super R-rated content tho). Overall this is a great story with awesome characters and I highly recommend it 😊

4.8/5🌟

Kink Stories by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell

Review:

I was so excited to read this because I am so here for kink positive content, but it fell a bit short for me. Mostly because the writing style of most of the anthologies were like English literature class level with lots of metaphors and more artistic writing. There were 4 stories out of 14 that really resonated with me and that I actually understood. These were: The Cure, Safeword, Impact Play, and Scissors. I also enjoyed reading the story by Carmen Maria Machado. There is a lot of variety of content within the anthology stories, so most people can find a story that they relate to. There should probably also be some content warnings though because there are some bits about incest and rape. Overall this was an interesting anthology to read but I only liked about half of the stories in it.

3/5🌟

Fired Up About Consent by Sarah Ratchford

Review:

I thought this was a really good book about rape culture, consent, and how to deal with sexualized violence depending on who you are in the scenario (rapist, victim/survivor, or just know either person). This book was filled with so much information and I got some great notes while reading it. I think it could have been organized a bit better though because there was so much information per chapter that sometimes I lost track of what the authour was talking about in the first place or what the point of that section was. There were also some parts that I felt were repeated multiple times throughout the book. One thing I liked was how Ratchford explained why they used certain phrases such as "womxn" and "sexualized violence." There was also a lot of focus on intersectionality and sexualized violence. Overall this was a really interesting book and I learned a lot from it!

3.5/5🌟

Gudetama: Mindfulness for the Lazy by Wook-Jin Clark

Review:

This manga was a super fast read and I think it did a decent job covering the basics of how to be more mindful of yourself and others. This story basically just teaches people about basic human decency and how to cope with stress and other situations that they will most likely encounter in their lives. This story did a good job putting everything in the simplest of terms so practically everybody can understand what they are trying to say. There were also some funny and dry humour bits which I enjoyed. I also liked the loose continued storyline that carried throughout the book even though multiple different topics were covered. Overall this is an interesting manga and I think this would be pretty great as an intro for older children to learn about mindfulness in an entertaining way.

3.5/5🌟

To Drink and To Eat Volume 2 by Guillaume Long

Review:

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this graphic novel as much as I thought I would. The main thing that ruined this book for me was the font. It was so small and the parts that were in cursive were almost impossible to read. The font was already so difficult to read and it didn't make it easier that there was just so much of it. I ended up skimming through parts of this book because there was so much reading with the illegible font. The recipes in the book were a bit more on the fancier end with fancier ingredients that I wouldn't normally buy so there were probably only around 5 recipes I would like to try. There was quite a bit of dry humour throughout the book though which made reading it not such a pain. Also this made me crave oysters like no other LOL. I also liked the bit at the end that suggests great kitchen gadgets to own if you're a foodie. Overall this book just wasn't my thing but if you like cooking and have a great set of eyeballs then you'll probably enjoy it more than I did :)

2.5\5🌟

Revenge of the Sluts by Natalie Walton

Review:

I loved this book! There's a content warning included which is great but it's in super tiny font in the front of the book with the publication info so not as noticeable. I think this was a very inspiring book and it covered a lot of issues regarding slut shaming, revenge porn, and how institutions do very little to address this problem. I thought the relationship between Eden and Atticus was totally unnecessary. Friendship sure, but I felt like the romantic angle took away from the story. I loved Sloane's character though, and I like how she helped all the other girls cope with getting their nudes leaked to the entire school. This is a great book to raise awareness on these topics and I highly recommend this. I also really enjoyed the journalism angle on the story. I literally could not stop reading because I wanted to know who did it. Overall a great book!

4/5🌟

Other eARCs

Of Goblins and Gold by Emma Hamm

Review:

Thank you Emma and Booksprouts for the eARC! I loved this book! I loved the characters, the plot, and the details. This book was really well written and I can't wait to read the next book! The imagery was absolutely stunning and I loved the descriptions of the seasonal Courts. The world-building was really well done and I loved the creativity that went into this book. Arrow was such a great character and he was just so precious. I also loved the idea about who the goblin peddlers really were. Also Freya and the Goblin King's interactions with each other were so fun to read. I also did not see that ending coming so BOOK 2 ASAP PLEASE!

5/5🌟

Chu Volume 1: First Course by John Layman and Dan Boultwood

Review:

Thank you Edelweiss and Image Comics for the free eARC! I didn't know this was a kind of spinoff from the other comic series 'Chew' but you can totally read this without reading the previous series. Anyhoo, I loved the graphics and art style and how gory it was 😂 I thought the concept was pretty cool with powers being attached to food. Character-wise, I thought Saffron's brother was a bit of a self righteous butt. Also her bf Eddie is so lame I really hope she leaves him in the next volume 😅 She's such a strong woman and is totally brought down by having to deal with Eddie. I love the ending though and can't wait to see what happens in the next volume!

3.5/5🌟

Audiobooks (Netgalley and Audible)

Hazel and Gray (Faraway #2) by Nic Stone

Review:

I listened to this on Audible. First of all this book should definitely come with a trigger warning. It deals with very heavy topics such as child sex trafficking and pedophilic characters. This was definitely a dark story so it’s not for everybody and I would recommend it to an older audience because of the subject matter. I think this story did a decent job of shedding some light on child sex trafficking. I was not expecting that ending though and I think it was a neat way to tie all the characters together.

4/5🌟

My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Review:

Thank you Netgalley for the free audiobook copy to review! This audiobook had a synthetic voice robot narrator so it's not the final version yet. I kind of liked the robot voice though because it made all the sarcastic humour in the book so much better. There were so many little quips and jokes that made the story very entertaining to listen to. However, for some reason it felt like the audiobook dragged on forever so I ended up listening to it at 1.5X the speed. The plot seemed a little bit like a slice-of-life manga with lots of big events happening throughout. It fit together well but felt so long and dragged out. There was a ton of plotting and intrigue though which is typical of the location and time period. I wasn't a huge fan of Mary, Francis, and Ari but I guess they all went through some character growth and redeemed themselves by the end? My favourite character was definitely Flem though. Overall this was a pretty interesting story but just felt really long.

3.5/5🌟

Which book would you be most likely to read from this list? Have you read any? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading 😊