May 1, 2016 – My Tiny Obsessions

april_wrapup

Hey people. I can’t believe that another month is gone – where is 2016 going?! Well, after an awesome reading month in March, I set up to read 12 books in the month of April, as you can see in my TBR. I ended up not managing to read Ugly Love and The Year We Fell Down, but those will be read pretty soon. I did managed to fully read 21 books and I DNFed one other. Yep… I wasn’t expecting to that that well reading wise this past month, mostly because I had a huge book to read – Lady Midnight – and I was going home, and I always read way less while I’m home.

The prospect got a little worse when I had to anticipate my trip to Portugal, and ended up staying there 2 weeks instead of one, during which time my cell phone decided he needed repairs… damn! Juggling my recovering dad, work, family and friends was not easy. I ended up reading more that I was expecting though, which was somewhat awesome.

This Month I Read:

april_wrapup_1

Books Reviewed:

In Your Dreams by Ginger Scott
Eight Ways to Ecstasy by Jeanette Grey
Changing his Game by Justine Elvira
Once Upon a Dream (A Twisted Tale #2) by Liz Braswell
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
This is Falling by Ginger Scott
Roommates by Erin Leigh
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Catch You by M.H. Soars
Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance by Shellee Roberts
PUCKED by Helena Hunting
Pieces of You and Me by Erin Fletcher
Him by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Us by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
The One That Got Away by A.J. Pine
You and Everything After by Ginger Scott
That Thing Between Eli & Gwen by J.J. McAvoy
Anything You Want by Geoff Herbach
The Girl I Was Before by Ginger Scott
Love on the Ledge by Zoraida Córdova
Waking Olivia by Elizabeth O’Roark
Tone Deaf by Olivia Rivers

Musical Mondays:

Top Ten Tuesday:

Book Traveling Thursdays:

Other Stuff:

So, tell me. How was your month of April? 🙂

hickvilleconfessions

New town. New look. New beginning. High school junior Ryan Quinn has a past. She will do just about anything to keep it hidden, even if means joining the ultra-conservative, no fun allowed, Purity Club. But secrets are hard to keep in a small town and when the Purity Club girls discover the truth, they viciously attack Ryan.

Justin is the kind of guy who can make Ryan forget her vow to change. He’s the kind of guy she should avoid at all costs. But he knows her soul secrets. He understands her and it is torture when she is away from him. But as she deals with the outward scars on her face and the inward shame of her past and Justin’s home life continues to spiral out of control, their relationship becomes as convoluted as their home life. Will they find the courage to open their hearts to each other in spite of their family drama?

I’ve had this ARC sitting on my kindle for months! MONTHS! But as April came to an end, I thought it was the perfect timing to finally get to it. I wasn’t expecting this book to deal with such serious and deeps subjects, but I’m glad it did.

The writing was OK, but I felt that it was a bit repetitive, and this lead me to appreciate it a bit less. I really liked the themes in this book though, it deals with important and difficult subjects, such as dating violence, rape, bullying, PTSD, depression, suicide, …, but ultimately not all the subjects were handled well, and neither was tackled full on – because if you have so many hard subjects, it’s almost impossible to do them all properly.

I did like both main characters, and that made the book enjoyable. Ryan was such a strong young girl, I really appreciated how she managed to keep strong, facing those who had done such a vile thing to her, as well as trying to help other people not to go through what she did. Justin was such a great character too, I think his side of the “drama” was better done, and my heart broke for him, when he trying to deal with his anger issues, while trying to be there for his mother and Ryan.

The character development is great, especially for Justin, but I think that everything was wrapped up quite fast and super nicely, when the subjects begged for a messier ending, because those kind of problems don’t fade that fast. The romance was a bit fast for my liking, but I really liked the support and care that they brought into each other’s lives.

In the end, it was an enjoyable read, but it didn’t leave super curious to read the rest of the series.