2015 READING CHALLENGE: APRIL ROUND-UP

April was a very slow month for me, I enjoyed everything I read, but I read them all very slowly (which is not normal for me). I was very busy during April with college work, and I found some of the books I read to actually be very slow reads regardless.

In April I read a total of 3 books. I have read 23 books so far in 2015, and I'm 77% of the way through my reading challenge. I also started reading 'A Darker Shade of Magic' by V.E. Schwab' for LittleBookOwl (on Youtube) 'Little Book Club', which I am 31% of the way through- I'm finding it a very slow read.

After reading 'Doon' right at the end of March, I was in a massive reading slump. There was nothing I wanted to read, what I was really in the mood for was basically another book exactly like 'Doon' (I'm holding off reading the second book, 'Destined for Doon', until it's out in paperback, and then it'll be closer to the date of the third book coming out). I ended up taking a four day break from reading, which is not at all like me, and annoyed me to no end; the reading slump also meant that I read 'Throne of Glass' fairly slowly (it took me about a week, but it felt much slower).

At the moment I'm big on historical fiction, books set in royal courts (one of my all-time favourite settings for a book), and fantasy, which I had never properly read much of before, and never thought was my kind of thing until recently.

Books Read:

1. 'Throne of Glass'- Sarah J. Maas
Throne of Glass. Oh, Throne of Glass. The following in America behind this book is incredible, I have never heard so many people rave about one book like this (bare in mind all the raving comes from America, this book is basically unheard of in the UK). Many people have said that this is quite a slow read, and I completely agreed, I've also heard it's the least popular book of the series, though I haven't read any others so I can't compare. I like Celaena as a character, I liked how she's a realistic female character, such as by getting period pains, which never normally happens in other books like 'Throne of Glass'. A main problem I had with this book is that I found the descriptions containing magical events quite confusing, which I find to be a problem in quite a few books, but I wasn't entirely sure what was happening and the writing of these sections felt confused and slightly rushed. I didn't think I'd like this book, but I actually really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the books that have been released so far (it's going to be a six book series, the fourth book is coming out later this year).

2. 'The Queen of the Tearling'- Erika Johansen 
I read this for the 'Bookspolsion Book of the Month' for April and, yet again, I found it to be a very slow read, despite enjoying it a lot. I read a hardback version of this book that was so tall, it was bigger than my head, which I found quite entertaining. Unlike some books (looking at you 'Throne of Glass' and 'Doon'), I didn't find the descriptions of the magical elements of this book confusing at all, and the magic did actually seem to make sense here. I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy when it's released.

3. 'The Selection'- Kiera Cass
The selection was everything I was looking for in a book at this moment in time. It's fun, slightly trashy, has princesses, a castle, a beauty pageant theme, princesses dresses, romance, everything I was in the mood for right now. It wasn't a literary masterpiece, and I wasn't expecting it to be, but I just really loved this book, it's like 'Miss Congeniality' in a book. I'm currently marathoning the other two, and there's another coming out in May.