This month was a bit of a whirlwind. My husband and I both celebrated our birthdays. My husband’s family visited us during their spring break. We ran a 5k. And we’re currently moving most of our items upstairs to our downstairs in preparation to finally replace old carpet (that we inherited when we bought our house) with hardwood flooring. It’s going to be a mess for the next couple of weeks while we get everything back in order. But, in the meantime, I’ve somehow scrounged up an April 2026 book blog wrap-up post. As you can see, I didn’t post as many reviews this month, but I was busy!

I’m also behind on replying to comments on my blog. So I just want to say thank you to all who visited and left a comment. They didn’t go unnoticed and I will reply to them once I have a little more time on my hands, hopefully this weekend. Anyway, read on for my April 2026 book blog wrap-up!

Book Reviews

I posted three book reviews in April. From earliest to latest they are:

• The Demonic Inventions of Aurelie Blake by Mara Rutherford
• Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
• The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

Blog Statistics

Every month I share some statistics from Google Analytics because I think it helps put expectations into perspective for other micro-bloggers like me who are out there. These statistics are from Google Analytics 4.

My top five posts for total page views are (as of April 30):

1. April 2026 Book Releases: 2,037 views
2. STEMinist Romance Books: 1,575 views
3. Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 465 views
4. Dungeons and Dragons Romance Books: 195 views
5. Book Review: To Bleed A Crystal Bloom by Sarah A. Parker: 141 views

Jo Linsdell wrote a post about the latest Google core update, which has Google looking for new information and less sensational content. I don’t know about everyone else, but I had a big change in views this month that don’t seem to be due to bots. I was averaging over 300 views per day, which is about 100 more view per day than I usually get. This means I had over 10k views compared to my ~7k views per month. So I think this core update helps us little guys a little more. We’ll see what next month brings.

#BeattheBacklog

I finished three books I had on my TBR prior to 2026. Those books are QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas, RAISING HARE by Chloe Dalton, and A CURSE CARVED IN BONE by Danielle Jensen. I’d say this is pretty average for me. Once I get through my ARC backlog (I’m thinking of pulling back even more on requests) I hope to make even better progress on this goal.

Other Bookish Items

I finished eight books in April:

• WRAPPED UP IN YOU by Talia Hibbert (audiobook)
• THE DEMONIC INVENTIONS OF AURELIE BLAKE by Mara Rutherford (ARC)
• MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe (audiobook)
• QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas
• RAISING HARE by Chloe Dalton (audiobook)
• NOBODY’S GIRL by Virginia Giuffre
• THE INFINITE SADNESS OF SMALL APPLIANCES by Glenn Dixon (ARC)
• A CURSE CARVED IN BONE by Danielle Jensen (audiobook)

My Blackwell’s birthday purchases all showed up to my house. I love book mail!

I finally decided to cancel one of my special edition book subscriptions, the Fairyloot Romantasy one. The picks seems so lackluster this year, at least for my preferences. I’ve run out of skips and I’m not interested enough in May’s or June’s picks. Plus their regular fantasy sub leans more romantasy anyway and tends to get the bigger releases. So I hope this won’t be too bad of a decision. I could always buy a romantasy pick on Pangobooks if there’s one I really want and in the long run it’d probably save me money.

Speaking of Pangobooks, I sold 5 books there in April.

Other Media Wrap-Up

PROJECT HAIL MARY: Yep, I saw it for a second time! This time I went with my Dad to see it in IMAX.

TREVOR NOAH: JOY IN THE TRENCHES: This is Noah’s newest comedy special on Netflix. I liked this one, but not as much as his previous stuff. I think the main reason is because the first half of it is about current U.S. politics, understandably, and it all just weighs on me. Like many others, I’m just fatigued by the constant onslaught of ridiculousness that affects, unfortunately, the rest of the world, too. But it ends on an important message about finding joy amidst all of the troubling things going on–that both can exist simultaneously.

BRITAIN AND THE BLITZ: I kept pausing on this documentary on Netflix, so I finally watched it. It uses restored and colorized archival footage and firsthand accounts of WWII in Britain during the blitz. It’s obviously not a light documentary. But there’s this part of me that sometimes feels the need to be a secondhand witness to things like this to keep the memory alive. It was also interesting to see the restored footage and women in various working roles during that time.

Non-Bookish Items

I sowed a bunch of different tomato and pepper seeds, various herbs, French marigolds, and nasturtiums earlier this month. Usually I germinate everything indoors, but I’m trying something different this year. They tend to germinate fine inside, but the light situation isn’t the best and the end up gangly when it comes time to transplant. By starting them outside from the get go I hope they’ll grow stronger from the beginning.

Last winter was pretty harsh for northern Virginia, so some of my perennials actually kicked the bucket. (We had 2-3 weeks of sub-freezing temperatures as a high in January.) So I have to start over with the clary sage and various hummingbird mints. Some of the latter we’d bought from nurseries. But I’m going to see if I can start them from seed this time. We can afford to buy from nurseries, but I’m also tired of that money going down the trash when the plants die.

My husband’s family came to visit last weekend, including our nephews, so it was a whirlwind of fun. We went to the National Air and Space Museum that’s located in northern Virginia. (There are two locations, with one also in Washington, D.C.) We also ran a 5k and our sister-in-law signed up too and ran it with us. And we also played some mini golf and visited a local “safari” style zoo. They weren’t here for very long, but we squeezed in what we could!