My Week in Books {4/1/20}

Let’s all take a moment and kiss the garbage that was March 2020 G O O D B Y E ! 👋🏼

I was secretly hoping we’d all wake up today and realize this whole #covid19 was a horrible April Fool’s Day joke…but no such luck. (Speaking of which, anybody have a good April Fool’s Day joke?!?)

Before moving onto some #minibookreviews, here are some links to my recent posts, in case you missed them:

• March 2020 Reading Wrap-Up
• Q1: Top Reads & Recommendation Sources
• Read Alikes (Vol. 1): Evvie Drake Starts Over
• Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2020
• Libro.fm’s Bookstore Link – Allowing you to easily buy physical books from your favorite indie bookstore!

What have you been reading (and loving) this week?

Last Week’s Reads:

📖 *** The Long Flight Home by: Alan Hlad

Have you heard of Once Upon a Book Club? It’s a fun monthly subscription service that not only sends you a book, it also includes 3-5 wrapped gifts that you open on corresponding pages. It brings the book to life in such a fun and unique way! If you’d like to give it a try, use my promo code HAPPIESTWHENREADING10 and enjoy!

I read a lot of historical fiction (and specifically, those focused on the World War II era), and The Long Flight Home introduced me to an aspect I haven’t heard a lot about – the use of pigeons by the British forces to help stop Hitler and his army.

“A homing pigeon can travel distances of up to six hundred miles per day, fly at speeds of seventy miles an hour, and reach altitudes as high as thirty-five thousand feet. At that height, Ollie, the temperature would be thirty-five degrees below zero, and a pilot would need a heated suit and oxygen.”

Sadly, this was the most interesting part of the book for me. And had it not been for the pigeons and the gifts, I would have DNF’d this one. The information about the pigeons was super interesting and I’m happy to have learned more about this unusual and little known part of the war efforts. Other than that though, the characters were flat, the story was also flat, and the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.

⭐️⭐️ | Kensington Publishing Corp. | Pub Date: June 25, 2019 | 304 Pages | Hardcover | Purchase via Bookstore Link

📖 The Simple Wild (Wild, #1) by: K.A. Tucker

Though this one took quite awhile to get into, I ended up really enjoying it. (I mean…Jonah? oh la la! 😍 ). The Alaskan setting was amazing…forcing me to restrain myself from booking a flight straight to The Last Frontier (side note: The Great Alone (read my review here) also gave me similar vibes, though a much darker, grittier story). I am curious to see what happens between Jonah and Calla, but I’m not sure if I care enough to pick up the next book, Wild at Heart, which just released in February 2020.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Atria Books | Pub Date: August 7, 2018 | 390 Pages | Paperback | Purchase via Bookstore Link

Currently Reading:

🎧 *** Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by: Ronan Farrow

Holy cow…give me a second while I pick my jaw up off the ground. This book is crazy! I started yesterday afternoon and I’m already halfway through. The intricate layers of lies and coverup are shocking!

Little, Brown & Company | Pub Date: October 15, 2019 | 448 Pages | Audiobook | Purchase via Bookstore Link

📖 *** The Women’s War (Women’s War, #1) by: Jenna Glass

I like this book, I do. But it seems to be dragging on. I just got to Part II and I’m going to give it a couple chapters before making a final decision, but I’m not sure if I can read 300 more pages at this pace.

Del Rey Books | Pub Date: March 5, 2019 | 560 Pages | Hardcover | Purchase via Bookstore Link

📱 *** Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by: Mikki Kendall

This is one of those books that I know are important, but are written so well I’m not sure I’m smart enough or absorbing the key points. I’m going to keep trying, but I can’t slog through books right now.

Viking | Pub Date: March 3, 2020 | 288 Pages | E-book | Purchase via Bookstore Link

(#partner #freebooks: All books noted by asterisks (***) indicate I received the book for free from the publisher, the author, or another promotional company to review. All opinions are my own.)