April Recap: Aka OWLs Readathon Fail

If I’m being completely honest I didn’t have the best reading month. I essentially completely ignored my TBR, which means that I didn’t complete the majority of the books that I had listed as by OWL books. Which is great. Love that. I literally only finished one of the books I said I would read and I’m halfway through another. Also, most of the books I completed were audiobooks. The other two that weren’t audiobooks were e-books. I genuinely don’t know why I have this sudden aversion to physical books. Wtf is up with me????

Here’s what I thought was going to happen this month:

Here’s what I actually read in April:

Since I pretty much completely failed at that, I thought I would look and see what OWLs the books I actually read fit into. I don’t really remember the rules so I’m using one book for multiple prompts. If I can’t do that well I don’t care because I need to make myself feel slightly better about this readathon.

OWLs I actually did:

Care of Magical Creatures

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t expecting to like this book. This was my second time reading it, the first time I DNF’d it because I couldn’t stand Blue. I decided to pick it up again because I really wanted to like it. I really wanted to know why everyone else loves this series so much. After I second time reading it, I get it. While I would have preferred more female characters that were Blue and the boy’s age, I really enjoyed their dynamic as a group. I also am learning that I love books that are whimsical in a dark way and that have magic that’s slightly more based in reality, like the ley lines and the powers Blue’s Mom and Aunt’s had.

Charms

Becoming – Michelle Obama

It’s taking me forever to read this book. Not because I don’t like it. I’m actually really enjoying it! I’m just really bad at reading memoirs as fast as I read other genres. I seriously love this book though and I’ve teared up several times while reading it just thinking about how much I love the Obamas.

Defense Against the Dark Arts

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

Birds meet stone.

Divination

Wildcard – Marie Lu (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

This is the sequel and the final book in the Warcross duology. This book took me all over the place. While the first book was semi-predictable, I figured out who Zero was before the big reveal, this book wasn’t predictable at all! I really enjoyed the new characters introduced in this book as well as the moral grey-ness of the villain. Marie Lu did a great job.

Herbology

The Everlasting Rose – Dhonielle Clayton ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

It says rose and there kinda are vines, I’m counting it. This is another sequel and final to a duology, though this ending wasn’t as strong as Wildcard was. I feel like the ending of this book was a bit rushed and this series really could have been a trilogy. I enjoyed the read but I felt it deserved more than what it delivered.

Potions

Shadowcaster – Cinda Williams Chima ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m essentially binging this series and I’m LOVING IT. I’m so excited to see how all the characters and their separate arcs come to meet at the end!

Wildcard – Marie Lu

Stormcaster – Cinda Williams Chima ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Same sentiment as Shadowcaster. Love. Love. Love.

Everlasting Rose – Dhonielle Clayton

(basically I’m potions master)

Transfiguration

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

There’s some red on the cover… idk maybe that’s pushing it a bit too much haha.

So… here are some careers I could have:

Auror (if I count transfiguration)

Herbologist

Magizoologist

Definitely not what I would have chosen if I were to actually live in the Wizarding World, but I feel like Auror would suit me the best out of all of these. That’s only if I decide to count Transfiguration because while the cover has some red on it it’s not completely covered in red.

I did manage to read one book that didn’t fit into any of the prompts interestingly enough. That book was The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross. I ended up giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It actually reminded me quite a bit of The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton.

I FORGOT! I completely forgot that I read two mangas this month!

Queen’s Quality – Kyousuke Motomi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The mangaka of this series also did Dengeki Daisy, which is one of my favorite manga series ever. I think this book was a pretty good start to a new series, and I’m excited to read it all. Usually her stories get better the further you get into it.

Anonymous Noise – Ryoko Fukuyama ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed the art. But the story was pretty generic as far as romance manga goes. I may continue this series just to see what happens.

I’m trying to think of what else happened to me this April and now that I’m thinking back I didn’t do a lot. I was actually very social this past month, which in turn lent to me not reading or posting, on my blog or Instagram, as much. I really do want to try to have a good schedule. Senioritis is seriously hitting me HARD though, especially now that it’s nice and sunny outside. I have absolutely zero motivation to do anything. Which isn’t good. But whateva.

Also, I want to try something different for next month so I won’t be posting a normal TBR. This is mostly because I absolutely suck at following any type of plan. So I just won’t do that for next month and see what happens.

How was your reading month? Hopefully better than mine!