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My April wrap up - 12 books, completed my 26 in 2026 + 2 (3 of the 31 are May finishes).

I need a shorter read so I'm picking up:

It's Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai. I'm not a huge contemporary reader which is why I wanted a box to branch out my horizons and wowee. This is stunning. Gorgeous. Colours? Divine. Art? Stupendous.

Little bummed that there's creasing in the dust jacket but I prefer that the book is okay over anything else.

Finished Shield of Sparrows this morning and am moving onto Rites of the Starling.

I really enjoyed the world building and how easily I was able to immerse myself in it. Odessa was naive but by external means and she didn't let that be the reason to stay ignorant. Her progression felt natural.

Were the big secrets obvious? Yes. But the smaller ones were interwoven so well that I didn't feel like I was being beaten over the head with plot.

I did a palate cleanse with this queer novella by Lucien Burr. It was like a delicious bite of a cake but only that. The bit that had my fork empty is where it ended and the complexity surrounding Alaric, Hal and Perrin. Blessedly, this is going to have a full novel called Second Chances later this year and I can't wait to see if this actually becomes what I hope it does.

Now, it's time.

Overall, I enjoyed Starside but with a lot of Fantasy not just Romantasy there is a lot of dead space where I'm like. Who is that? Oh never heard of again. Wow, we cared and now we're getting 2 minutes of loose end tying up. Great. Oh let's shove all the hooks for book 2 here.

I'm almost 40% of the way into this and both not a lot and a lot has happened.

Do I know about the protagonist? Sort of.

Do I know anything about the anatogist? Not really.

Do I know anything about the people she's met? Kinda.

What act are we in? Not sure.