April Wrap Up

 

Well… here we are in MAY already! I cannot even believe that 2014 is flying by this quickly and it seems that is the general consensus 😛 April was an ok month, I honestly don’t have much to say about it because it feels like it barely happened! It flew by for me as it consisted of being sick, packing, and doing things for the move. Giant bore haha. May is going to be hectic, hectic, hectic! We are moving on the 12th officially so up until then I will be around, but not as much. My mom is flying in on the 6th and she will be here until the 18th to help us with the move as well. Thankfully because I am the most anxious person ever, especially when moving. I have holidays from the 9th until the 19th but I’m not sure it will be very relaxing haha as I took it off for the move and to get unpacked and decorate. On the plus side, look forward to some bookshelf pictures posted in June 🙂

Anyhow, onto the wrap up as I can only ramble so much!!

*Click for review (Goodreads link for all unreviewed books)

        
        
Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell ★★
Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson ★★★★
Great by Sara Benincasa ★★★★
Split Second by Kasie West ★★★★
House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple ★★★★
Lamb to the Slaughter by Karen Ann Hopkins ★★★★★
Don’t Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley ★★★
Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano ★★★★
The Taking by Kimberly Derting ★★★★

Goodreads Challenge: Ugh. I have said this every month so far, but I really just want to ignore it at this point. I’m hanging on to being caught up by a thread. I’m hoping when the move is done I will be able to settle down, relax and get more reading done. I want to read like I did last year as well it’s just THERE IS NO TIME! AH!

2014 Debut Author Challenge: I’ve only read 5 out of 20 books for this so far but I’m not concerned as a lot of my upcoming review books are debuts. In April I read two: Dear Killer and Nearly Gone!

2014 TBR Pile Challenge: BAHAHA, this is terrible. I read NO books from my TBR pile in April, spare me! I know I will get caught up with this though and I will be focusing on this next month and the summer.

2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge: I read 6 review copies, so again I’m doing really well here! So far I’ve completed 22 of my 45 goal 🙂 🙂 YAYYY!!

2014 Series Challenge: Yah… I achieved nothing here 😛 This will coincide more with my TBR goal once I start getting back to reading those. Most of the series I need to complete, I already own the books!!

2014 Prequel and Sequel Challenge: Didn’t get anything accomplished here either which I’m fine with as I am also really, really far ahead with this one!

I participated in the tour for Lamb to the Slaughter by Karen Ann Hopkins which was AMAZING! I highly, highly suggest picking this one up if you like thrillers… great read. Also there is a still a fantastic giveaway happening for the tour so make sure to check it out!

I didn’t participate in all the Top Ten Tuesdays this month because some of the topics were hard or I couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to post but I did post my pics for My Gateway Books into Young Adult, The Most Unique Books I’ve Read, and The Bookish Things I’d Like to Own that aren’t books!!

I also took part in the cover reveal for Moments of Julian by Keary Taylor. This is an adult read, and I am so excited to pick it up this month. I fell head over heels in love with What I Didn’t Say by Keary Taylor so I can’t wait to read this new release from her! And the cover is awesome, just saying!

In addition to my April reads I also posted my review for Dark Lover by J.R. Ward. Ohemgee… I love this series, I am completely addicted to the Black Dagger Brotherhood after reading it!

Oh yah, and did I mention that I got way too many books? lol. It’s not really a complaint because in reality I love it… although my boyfriend and my bookshelves don’t 😛

See, it really was a pretty excitement-less month :S

Blogging & Reviews

• How Do You Review? at Boricuan Bookworms
• PDF ARCs are the Worst! at Cheap Thrills
• How Not to Criticize a Book Reviewer at The Mad Reviewer
• I’m Tired of Playing It Safe at Constellation Chronicles
• Maintaining Individual Personality on a Group Blog at Oh, The Books!
• Conquering a Reading/Blogging Slump at Pretty Little Reader
• Results from the Survey on Book Reviews! at The Book Addict’s Guide
• Succumbing to the Goodreads Blurb at The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!
• Reaching Out to Publishers at The Paper Sea
• Formatting Top Ten Tuesday Posts at The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!
• No Spoilers, Please! at Christy’s Book Addiction
• Early Reviews at The Daily Prophecy
• 21 Questions to Ask When You’re in a Book Blogging Slump at Book.Blog.Bake
• Self, Do Not Succumb to It! at The Perpetual Page-Turner
• Negative Reviews at The Reader’s Antidote
• One and Done at Belle of the Literati
• Not Too Cold But Not Hot Enough at Belle of the Literati
• Negative Reviews at Nite Lite Book Reviews
• The Comparison Game at Blue Sky Bookshelf
• What Reviews Do You Read at The Quiet Concert
• Negative Reviews at Istyria Book Blog
• Balancing Blogging with School and Work at The Mile Long Bookshelf
• Enough is Enough at The Irish Banana Review

Social Media, Commenting & Misc Blogging Related Posts

• Big Bucks or Bust – Affiliate Programs at The Paper Sea
• On Commenting at The Paper Sea
• Third-Party Help in Blogging and BookTube at Bo-ok Nerd Canada
• Comments, Replies And Socializing at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
• Responding to Comments at The Quiet Concert
• Why Engage With Book Blogs & Bloggers at Dudette Reads
• The Caffeinated Book Reviewer Reveals How She Manges to Do It ALL! at My Shelf Confessions
• When Bloggers Don’t Respond to Comments at Tempest Books
• Putting Twitter in Time Out at So Obsessed With

Books & Reading

• Buying Books Without Breaking the Bank at Hardcore Heroines
• Buying Copies of Books After You’ve Read Them at Lilys Book Blog
• Having A Dilemma at YA Midnight Reads
• Musings on DNF books and guilty feelings at Lisa is Busy Nerding
• Reading ‘Too Many’ Books and How It’s Changed Me at Book Badger
• Why YA? at Lit Up Review
• Adults who Read YA/Teen Books at Bo-ok Nerd Canada
• Lesser-known Contemporary YA at Respiring Thoughts
• Organizing ALL THE ARCs at Book Rock Betty
• eBooks vs. Physical Books: A Complicated War at YA Asylum
• Do the Endings of Books/Series Affect Your Overall Opinion? at The Book Addict’s Guide
• I Just Don’t Get As Excited at Oh, The Books!
• On The Importance of Pacing at There Were Books Involved
• Do You Boycott? at The Paper Sea
• My Experience with LGBT YA at Oh, The Books!
• Why Do You Read Ya? at Paper Riot
• LGBTQ in YA at Oh, The Books!
• When People Manhandle Your Books at Oh, The Books!
• I Wish You’d Stop Using That Word at Snuggly Oranges
• Oh, Those Hateful Characters at Oh, The Books!
• Authors Using Pseudonyms at Reading In Winter
• What Readers Want In a Book at Stay Bookish
• Do You need to Like the Protagonist? at Reading Is Fun Again
• When You Don’t Feel Like Reading at The Library Canary
• When You Put Down a Book for Awhile… at Effortlessly Reading
• Why I Re-Read at Between My Lines
• Finding Diamonds in the Rough at On Starships and Dragonwings
• Quality Over Quantity and Your Bookshelf at Utterly Bookish
• Don’t Judge Me at The Library Canary
• What do you do with books that you’ve read? at Reading is Fun Again
• Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater at Bookish
• The Abundance of Gender-Neutral Covers at Gypsy reviews
• Do You Take Notes While Reading? at Tempest Books
• Do You Ever Worry About Your Reading Future? at The Thousand Lives
• Reading in Public at To Another World
• Which e-reader do you prefer? at The Bawdy Book Blog
• I See You Baby Touching That Paper at Books for a Delicate Eternity
• A Book Rec Feature for Those Scared of Adult at Books With Cass
• Please Stop Comparing Books to the Hunger Games at Notebook Sisters
• When a Novel Keeps It Real at Oh, Chrys!
• Novella’s and Spin Offs at Lilybloombooks
• Reading a Series from Start to Finish at Reading Is Fun Again
• Unreliable Narrators at Books With Cass
• What It’s Like to be a Mood Reader at The Thousand Lives
• Read Widely, Read Non-Fiction at Dudette Reads
• Why I Read YA at The Library Canary

Blogging Help & Design Posts

• My Top Five Fav WP Plugins at The Bawdy Book Blog
• How to Use Font Icons on Your WordPress Blog at Nose Graze
• How to Add Graphical Quotation Marks inside Blockquotes at Nose Graze
• Using PicMonkey to Make Images Circular at Pretty Little Reader
• How I Manage My TBR With Goodreads at The Quiet Concert
• DIY: Currently Reading Gadget at These Paper Hearts
• Discovering Edelweiss 101 at Arty Musings of a Bibliophile
• I Challenge You to Clean Up Your Tags/Labels! at Nose Graze
• How to Create Dynamic Featured Images in WordPress at Nose Graze
• Some of the Restrictions of WordPress.com Blogs at Nose Graze
• Why Your WordPress Site Was Hacked at Nose Graze

Bookish Fun & Misc

• YA Authors on Instagram at YA Highway
• Which Grisha are You?
• How to Dutch: Yer a Wizard, Harry at Paper Riot
• Bookish Wreck: Let’s Get Started at Oh, The Books!
• Seven Uses for Your Harry Potter Books at The Thousand Lives
• Common Misconceptions of Bookworms at The Day Dreamer and Candy Eater
• That Scary Place Called the Library at The Day Dreamer and Candy Eater
• Organizing your Bookshelf at The Library Canary
• Favorite Change in the Book World at Reading is Fun Again
• On Full Fathom Five and Supporting Authors at Book Blog Bake

All Things BEA & Conventions!!

• Autographing Authors List! at Jenna Does Books
• It’s That Time… at The Perpetual Page-Turner
• Keeping it Cheap at a Con at Parajunkee
• What I Learned from the LA Festival of Books at The Thousand Lives
• 2014 BEA Book Blogger Picnic & Meet and Drink at Alexa Loves Books
• What You Should Bring to Javits at Book Bite Reviews
• Navigating BEA at Great Imaginations
• Preparing for the Conference at Great Imaginations

And there you have it! Tons of awesome posts in April and of course all the fun ones about BEA, that I still love to read even if I’m not going 😉 How was everyone’s April? I hope y’all have a wonderful May <3