What I read in April 2021
April was a long and quite weird month for me - my mental health really nosedived, but I still read lots of books, and they did make me feel comforted/at least distracted for a bit.
Writing reviews also helped, as doing it reminds me that there is more to me than what’s going on in my head, and it feels good to make authors feel appreciated and hopefully give their books a bit of promotion.
Folk Springs Eternal, by Andy Beck - 4*
Find You First, by Linwood Barclay - 4.5*
Things Can Only Get Better, by David M. Barnett - 4*
Failosophy, by Elizabeth Day - 4*
Notes on a Nervous Planet, by Matt Haig - 4*
Your Friend Forever, by Zena Barrie - review coming soon! 4*
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health, by Nathan Filer - 5*
The Metal Heart, by Caroline Lea - 4*
Charity, by Madeline Dewhurst - 5*
Blank, by Giles Paley-Phillips and Jim Daly - 4*
Whatever You Are is Beautiful, by Richard Blandford - 4.5*
The Dream Weavers, by Barbara Erskine - 4.5*
The Absent Prince, by Una Suseli O’Connell - 4.5*
Stories to Make You Smile, by Fanny Blake (ed.) - 4*
The Queen of Romance, by Liz Jones - review coming soon! 4*
The Emperor’s Babe, by Bernadine Evaristo - 4*
Looking ahead…
Got a few more blog tours in May! I’m particularly looking forward to A Wild and Precious Life, edited by Lily Dunn and Zoe Gilbert. It’s an anthology of stories of recovering from various circumstances including mental health issues, and it looks like it will be relateable, comforting and inspiring.
Everything Happens for a Reason, by Katie Allen, has a really intriguing premise while, if Silent Graves and Kill Shot are anything to go by, I’m going to like Web of Lies, by Sally Rigby.
The Starlings of Bucharest, by Sarah Armstrong, is my pick for May’s Book Shelf Raiders - this month’s theme is ‘a book in a series’ so it fits the bill nicely there, but I also want to read it because I enjoyed The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt and I know Sarah from my writing group! I went to Red Lion Books’ online launch and it was so interesting to hear all about her new book.