March is over and we’re now through the beginning of April! I had an excellent week of reading this past week. I read through two books that both earned five stars from me. Two in a row almost never happens. I then started an advance reader copy (ARC) of a third that I’m also really enjoying. Could I possibly have picked up three five-star books in a row? Here’s the full recap.

1. Water Moon – Samantha Sotto Yambao

CW: Loss of Parent, Grief, Abandonment, Graphic Depictions of Violence & Injuries, Body Horror, Abortion, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual Content, Alcohol, Drugging

At the time of last week’s update, I had barely begun this one. Even so, I was already falling in love with its characters and the world that it’s set in. Falling into the pages of this book is like entering a dream you won’t want to wake up from. Even when it’s sad or at its most frightening, you’re unwilling to take the risk of being unable to return. In every moment, you need to know what comes next, even if you’re not convinced you’ll want to.

It’s impossible not to fall in love with the characters while following their adventure through this fantastical world. You want to root for them even when they’ve done wrong. They will break your heart, and you’ll let them make it up to you. Part of the reason you’ll wait will be to have more time to explore the surreal other world they’re traversing. It’s a strange place where everything you encounter makes no sense and yet perfect sense at the same time. In that way it reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth without the tongue-in-cheek attitude.

The writing style has such a beautiful flourish to it as well. There are so many lines where I found myself needing to pause and process them before I could keep reading. One of my favorites is the following. “We had told ourselves a lie for so long that we made it real. We trapped ourselves in a myth that we forgot we created.”

This book was utterly hypnotic, and it was absolutely worth the wait at the library for it.

2. The Last Heir to Blackwood Library – Hester Fox

CW: War, Grief, Dementia/Memory Loss, Loss of Parent, Domestic Violence, Gaslighting, Forced Isolation, Sexism, Drugging, Alcohol, Forced Experimentation, Religious Bigotry, Shellshock

WWI has ended. Not everyone came home, and many of those who did returned differently. Ivy lost both her father and her brother and has been making it almost entirely on her own since then. She’s only been able to depend on the support of her best friend as they both try to scrape up what they can of a life. So she’s very surprised to find out she’s received a large inheritance from a wealthy relative. As the only surviving member of the family, that makes her the heir of his estate. Ivy doesn’t believe the rumors that the place is haunted, and she’s sure the staff will warm up to her eventually.

I loved this one. It was so perfect to curl up with on a rainy day. That may have contributed to making the setting feel so immersive, but I felt as though I were standing beside her the whole time. Reading through reviews from others, a number of people would have preferred it written in first person, but I felt the lens was still kept extremely close for third person. I also felt like it kept better clarity that way as Ivy proves to be an unreliable narrator. If you’ve been following for a while, you know how much I love a good unreliable narrator! In fact, there’s no one in this story you can trust until the very final pages. I really enjoy when a book keeps me guessing.

There was some nice diversity in the book too. Ivy’s best friend is a brown-skinned woman, and there was good disability representation too. One character has permanent physical war injuries, and several have mental wounds they won’t recover from. The depiction of memory loss was also very artfully done. The author did a phenomenal job of capturing both the terror and the grief of it. It was absolutely a book that pulled at my emotions that way, evoking both tears and nightmares. More than one character deals with inaccuracies in their memory, and for different reasons. I was impressed by the portrayal of both. In between all of it, there was also an achingly sweet (no-spice) romance fit in. I cried for them.

Hester Fox is the author of several other books already. I now need all of them.

3. Beneath the Cursed Veil – Kel Carpenter & Aurelia Jane

CW: Kidnapping, Torture, Sexual Content, Alcohol (Check next week’s update for accurate list)

I want to give a very big thank you to The Nerd Fam for the ARC of Beneath the Cursed Veil. It’s coming out on April 25th, and is currently available for pre-order.

Since I first read the synopsis, I have been very excited for this one. While I have no strong feelings one way or the other for the “fated mates” trope, the specific premise of this one fascinated me. These two have been dreaming about one another for years, but only one believed that the other existed. Of course, when Meera finally does meet the man she thought was only a dream, it happens in the worst way possible. He also turns out to have a rather cruel reputation.

I’m almost halfway through now and having a lot of fun with it. There are some great side characters including one very punchy sister and a sardonic talking cat with magical powers. I expect that I’ll enjoy seeing where this goes. I’ll give my final update on it next week!

Past the Beginning of April

The beginning of April has now passed. I suspect it will continue to be a great month of reading. I have so many books queued up that I already know are going to be wonderful. I’ve got another few ARCs that had me squealing with joy to receive and an absolutely towering physical TBR pile. It’s just going to keep growing as my partner and I continue visiting all the independent bookstores in Massachusetts! You can join in along with us in our explorations – we have a whole playlist of bookstore videos for you to check out!

Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel or the main updates page here to follow along on all our bookish adventures. My reading recaps go out on Mondays and our bookstore adventures go out on Thursdays. As always, I want to hear from you! What have you been reading lately? Are you having fun with it? Have you read any of these titles, and if so, what did you think of them? Tell me everything, and follow along for more!