April 2024 Wrap

April 30, 2024April 29, 2024 fangirlfury1 Comment

I have had SUCH a good 2024 when it comes to reading – and April might be my best reading month so far of the year. The weather is finally turning into sunshine and warmer temperatures where I am, so here’s to outdoor reading season! I may have gotten a little sunburnt reading the third Magnolia Parks book outside on Sunday.

April Reads

The seven books below are my FAVORITES of the month: The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren (out 5/14), The Women by Kristen Hannah, Forget Me Not by Julie Soto, Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle, and the first three books in the Magnolia Parks series. MY FAVORITE of the month is so, so hard to choose! The Paradise Problem is one of my top three favorite Christina Lauren novels, and I was completely enamored by Kristen Hannah’s The Women – it was so different than what I’ve been picking up lately (historical fiction following a nurse during the Vietnam War), but it was so,SO good.

Welcome Home, Caroline Kline Review

April 15, 2024April 14, 2024 fangirlfuryLeave a comment

Summary (from the publisher): In New York City, newly single Caroline Kline is stumbling her way through the recent implosion of her life. After a surprise breakup leaves her with no job, no apartment, and no backup plan, she’s unsure what to do next. That is, until her father, Leo, injures himself in a bad fall and asks her to move home to the Jersey Shore suburb she was always desperate to escape. But Leo doesn’t want his daughter to be his caretaker; he needs her to replace him as third baseman in his local men’s softball league. This isn’t just any season, he claims. This is the year they have a real shot at the World Series, the pride and joy of Glen Brook, New Jersey.

Caroline agrees to move home, concerned that Leo is hiding a more serious health condition than he’s willing to admit. As the first female player in a league full of old-school men, she’s up against more than a few challenges. And when a night gone wrong lands her in the path of her hometown crush—and first love—Caroline struggles to reconcile the life she thought she’d have with the life she might actually want.

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Courtney Preiss’s debut novel, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline, instantly caught my attention because it not only takes place in my home state, New Jersey, but also the area of the shore I’m from! Between the setting and synopsis, I knew I was in for a treat with this book following a woman whose’s forced to return to her hometown & gets a fresh start in return.

Welcome Home, Caroline Kline follows Caroline Kline, who quit her job to move across the country with her boyfriend…only for her boyfriend to break-up with her right before the move. Between these two losses, Caroline is already down when her stepmother calls her to come home after her father injures himself and needs help at home. The most important part of this role, at least according to her father? Caroline needs to take his place in his beloved men’s softball league.

January – March 2024 Favorites

April 3, 2024April 2, 2024 fangirlfuryLeave a comment

I typically have a slower start to the year when it comes to discovering some of my favorite books of the year, but there were so many new releases over the past three months and some backlist titles I loved!! Between January and March, I read 34 books and 7 novellas.

If I had to choose, House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas is its own kind of top fave because any SJM is an automatic 5/5, but I think Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey is my absolute fave.

March 2024 Wrap Up

April 1, 2024March 31, 2024 fangirlfuryLeave a comment

March was a good reading month, not just because I read 11 books and 1 novella, but because I read one of my favorite romance books of the year AND got totally captured by a very popular romance author’s series.

March Reads

My reading was overtaken by Ana Huang in March, between finishing up the Twisted series with Twisted Games, Twisted Hate, & Twisted Lies. I then transitioned to what’s been published of the spinoff series, Kings of Sins, so far (imagine my HAPPINESS when I found out that there’s going to be seven total Kings of Sins books) with King of Wrath, King of Pride, and King of Greed. I feel like what I went through with Ana Huang this book, i.e. the chokehold her books had on me, is what people similarly go through with Colleen Hoover’s books. I knew the exact set-up of each book (wealthy, morally grey male MC falls in love with their opposite female MC), but I cannot get enough. I overall had very similar feelings with each book, but Twisted Games and King of Wrath are my faves. I’m so happy that the next King of Sins book, King of Sloth, is coming out on April 30th, AND that Ana Huang has a new sports romance series coming out in the fall.

The BEST book that I read in March was Kennedy Ryan’s latest Skyland installment, This Could Be Us. This was such a well-written romance book, and had such a good balance of the romance with family and friendship amidst its drama. I read Color Me In for a grad class I’m taking right now for a free choice reading review, Ready Or Not is definitely worth checking out, and I felt medium on my other three reads this month. I knew going into reading Royal Valentine that the last Impossible Meet Cute novella had gotten mixed reviews, and I definitely agree with the side that said this one was a miss. I read Anita de Monte Laughs Last because it was the Bad on Paper Podcast Book Club pick for March and it was a miss for me because I had a lot of trouble getting into each of the perspectives and the writing style overall. I liked The Breakup Tour, but it’s not the most memorable read for me.