April Book Haul: A Glimpse into the Future of Reading

As I sit down to write about my April book haul, I am filled with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming months. This month saw me picking up some highly anticipated releases that have been making waves in the literary world. First on my list is "The Court Dancer Yejin" by Monica, a fantasy novel that explores themes of exoticism, assimilation, and identity. The story follows the life of Yejin, a dancer who was once the jewel of the court during the Joseon era, as she leaves Korea and moves to Paris. In this new world, she must navigate the complexities of French culture while grappling with homesickness and sorrow. I am particularly drawn to this book because it delves into what happens when countries sacrifice their identity for technological advancement.

Another book that caught my eye is "The Unbroken" by C.L. Clark, a dual perspective fantasy novel that follows two characters - Luca and Turain - whose lives become intertwined in the midst of rebellion and power struggles. I have heard great things about this book, with many reviewers praising its action-packed plot, interesting political landscape, and potential for romance. As someone who is eager to dive into new epic fantasy stories, "The Unbroken" is a must-read on my list.

Next up is "Lost in the Neverwoods" by Aiden Thomas, an author known for his charming writing style and "Cemetery Boys", which I adored last year. This new release has me intrigued with its dark whimsical take on Peter Pan and the classic tale's themes of identity, loss, and mystery. The story is set in a small Pacific Northwest town where children are disappearing once more, eerily reminiscent of five years ago when Wendy and her brothers got lost in the woods. I am drawn to this book because it seems like a perfect blend of fairy tales and modern-day mystery, with Thomas's writing no doubt weaving a spell that will captivate readers.

Lastly, I have to showcase my new hardcover edition of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which includes "The Golden Compass", "The Subtle Knife", and "The Amber Spyglass". This stunning book, wrapped in its beautiful classic-looking cover, is not just a collector's item but also an invitation to revisit one of my favorite childhood series. As I re-read the trilogy in the coming months, I am eager to recapture the magic that first drew me to Pullman's world-building and characters.

These books, among others, have joined my collection, filling it with anticipation for the stories they hold within their pages. Whether it's exploring exotic realms or revisiting beloved classics, these novels promise to transport me to new worlds and ignite a love of reading in myself once again.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone it's regan and welcome back to another video today i have my april book haul not gonna lie for the month of april i have accumulated quite a bit of books um let's just say a lot of pre-orders came in there's just so many exciting releases coming out over the next let's be real like eight months my tbr is spiraling out of control but nonetheless i'm excited about all the books i'm gonna be showing off today so without further ado let's go ahead and dive right in the first set of books i'm going to show off are of course the april selects for book of the month who is sponsoring this video and if you're not familiar book of the month is an online bookish subscription service and essentially every single month they curate a selection of five titles from a variety of different genres voices and authors within the community there are always new releases they're always hardcover and they're sent directly to your door you can select your first book for 14.99 and add up to two additional titles at 9.99 each they also have a huge backlog of titles to select from of course if you're not interested for that particular month very easy to skip and overall it's a service i have been using and loving for years i of course have an offer code for you guys if you use the code spring fun you can get your first box for only 9.99 but without further ado let's dive into the incredible titles for this month i'm so jazzed about many of them the first book i have to show off just sounds like an adorable rom-com that is perfect for the spring summer months i honestly cannot believe summer's truly right around the corner but it is people we meet on vacation by emily henry emily henry is also well known for writing beach read which is a very beloved rom-com that i personally want to get to pretty soon the story that follows our main characters alex and poppy and they have nothing in common she has insatiable wonderlust and lives in the big city he wears khakis and prefers to stay at home and read a good book but ever since a fateful car ride where they met in college they essentially go on one trip a year together these trips have always been a source of light for both of them and they consider themselves the very best of friends until two years ago when poppy messed it all up and they haven't seen or talked to each other since then but poppy decides to take it upon herself and basically convinces alex to go on one last trip and she basically views this one week as a chance to kind of make everything right this sounds like this is going to have travel and romance and friendship and hopefully just a fun light read that will put a smile on my face again i've heard excellent things about this author so this is definitely one i'm excited to add to my shelf the next book you're able to select from is the hunting wives by may cobb and this basically follows our main character sophie who has recently left a very enviable and powerful position in chicago and she has recently relocated with her husband and young son in a small texas town she was looking forward to kind of living a slower pace more rural life but now she's kind of deciding that her life maybe is a little bit too quiet and she finds herself a bit bored there she meets margot who is an alluring socialite in town and she basically joins this hunting club of women which involves martinis and late night target practice and from there sophie begins to get drawn deeper in this group and her obsession begins to grow however when a body of a young teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the hunting wives meet she finds herself in the middle of both a murder investigation and her life begins to spiral out of control this sounds rather intense and very very interesting i'm curious about the texas setting itself i feel like it's kind of combining like rural socialite politics with murder so that definitely calls out to me a bit but this sounds like this would be a page turner and definitely a fast read the next book you're able to select from is my personal favorite of the month and that is arsenic and adobo by mia p manonsala this is the first book to a new cozy kitchen-based murder mystery whodunit series both of those things honestly call out to me in every way possible i love that this centers food and also murder and this basically follows our main character lila who has recently moved back home to recover from a terrible breakup and she feels like her life is kind of falling into classic rom-com tropes she's taking on trying to revive a family restaurant and in general she feels like her life is a bit of a stereotype however when a notoriously nasty food critic who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend drops dead shortly after eating at her family restaurant she now finds herself in the middle of an investigation and all fingers are kind of pointing at her so she decides to take this investigation on herself using her community connections to try to figure out what in the world is going on this is said to basically shift from like a classic rom-com to almost like an agatha christie style novel it sounds like it's full of family and humor and food it truly sounds like a delightful time but i'm hoping also has a big twist as well i don't know this just sounds like a really unique and original story and i cannot wait to pick this up next up is a more emotional family based read and that is what comes after by joanne tompkins and this is basically set in a small town in the pacific northwest and recently two teenage boys have tragically passed away which has kind of torn this community apart specifically we follow two families who are neighbors who are each the family of one of these two boys and at the beginning of the story they're kind of retreating internally isolated within their own grief when an unfamiliar pregnant teenage girl emerges out of the woods she kind of acts as a bridge between these two families bringing them together and their shared grief and tragedy however she appears to be hiding something herself that may actually be connected to the death of the boys this i believe is about family grief and overcoming tragedy as well as hope and forgiveness i personally love family centered literary fiction stories so this is definitely one that intrigues me it sounds like it's gonna be really really really emotional if i'm being honest but one that is really powerful as well and then the last novel i'll have to show off from book the month this month is liberty by caitlin greenage and this is said to be an unforgettable and incredible coming-of-age story following one young black girl's journey an attempt to find a place where she can fully and only be herself this follows her main character liberty who is a young freeborn black girl coming of age in reconstruction era brooklyn and is all too aware of the dreams and the future that her mother sees for her and that is to become a physician just like her however liberty kind of dreams of a different future one of music and art so when she's presented the opportunity to marry a man and move to haiti after he promises her that she can be his equal on the island but she quickly realizes that she is still subordinate to him and all the other men living there from there she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a black woman liberty struggles with where she might find it for herself and for generations to come this honestly sounds like an incredibly gripping novel the author has won so many awards for some of her previous works so i suspect that this is also incredible i also hear that this is rich with historical details also inspired by the life of one of the first black women physicians in the united states it's definitely one i've also heard really strong reviews about so i'm really happy to add this to my shelf alrighty guys those are the five titles you're able to select from for book of the month this month again i will have the discount code as well as a link to their site down below let's go ahead and dive into the rest of the titles i have picked up i have gotten i'm not kidding there's just so many books i want to read i don't know when it's going to stop so let's just go ahead and dive right in first book i have to show off is the arm of the sphinx by josiah bancroft this was a obvious pick up and buy after i read and loved the first one said lynn ascends earlier last month this definitely feels like a series i'm going to marathon throughout the year but this essentially follows our main character senlin who is a mild-mannered school teacher who essentially has always dreamed of visiting this tower of babel which is this enormous structure full of all these different floors kind of run by different political powers and governments and each floor kind of has its own distinct and sinister air about them this dream finally comes true as he travels there with his new wife on their honeymoon however once he arrives they get separated and he begins this quest to try to locate her in this tower throughout the first one we see him kind of venture through the first couple of floors and gets thrown headfirst into the perils and politics of this tower the writing is incredibly whimsical and magical and you fall in love with sunderland as well as fall in love with the romance at this story too i loved the first one it was so imaginative and so detailed so i picked up the second one i'll be picking up books three and four i'm sure later this year but i had to grab this because i just loved the first one so so much and i actually plan to read this rather soon next up is a new ish why a fantasy release that kind of fell off my radar i completely forgot this came out earlier this year and that is a vow so bold and deadly by bridget kemmer this of course is the third and final book to a curse so dark and lonely which is a why a fantasy angsty series that i personally have really enjoyed over the years and this follows our main character harper and the first one is basically pulled to an alternate fantasy world in an attempt to break this evil curse on the prince that presides there it's very much like a beauty in the beast retelling but because she's kind of pulled from our modern world in reality there's a lot of humor and kind of nods the fact that this is a well-known kind of fantasy space so she kind of uses references from our life to kind of inform how she should act this is full of angsty y romance some pretty solid politics and twists and turns within the plot i personally really enjoyed the first two books i found them to be very entertaining so i'm curious to see how this will wrap itself up in this third and final installment as i will say this is a series that definitely has kept me very entertained and it points guessing as well so i did grab this next up i have a new release i've actually seen a few comments about a few of you guys have been telling me that i would love this book so i bought it i'm listening and that is the mask of mirrors by m.a carrick and this is a new adult fantasy release and i have to say i love that it came out in paperback first like this style of paperback is my favorite type of book binding let it be known and this just sounds like the first installment of a new dark fantasy series i feel like i'm going to love it also kind of has this historical venetian vibe that really really calls out to me this follows our main character ren who is a con artist and she has come to the sparkling city of not azera with one goal and that is to trick her way into the noble house to secure herself and her sister a future however her masquerade is one of many as corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city she kind of finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous plot in the dark underbelly of this world this just sounds like a dark heist fantasy novel i feel like i'm going to love i love when thieves are kind of at the center and i really appreciate like thief and merchant politics within fantasy settings i feel like this book has a lot of that but we shall see i've heard really really excellent things again from you guys so i picked this guy up next up i have two sci-fi novels i've heard excellent excellent things about and i'm hoping just continues to expand my sci-fi knowledge and experience if you will the first one is a memory called empire by rkd martin this won the hugo award last year and it's a very beloved and very lotted first book to a new sci-fi series i've read a lot of earth-centered sci-fi tales recently this year and i'm really trying to expand beyond that and kind of go more into the stars if you will in a lot of ways that kind of appeals to me more as an epic fantasy reader i like the idea of like a new world a new planet with its own politics and issues kind of at play but this essentially follows our main character mahit who is an ambassador and she is traveling and very eager to take up her new post in a faraway planet but when she arrives there she quickly realizes that her predecessor has died and no one will admit that his death was not accidental or if our main character will be next so now our main character is kind of thrown into the middle of this planet's politics trying to actively solve a murder mystery and also keep herself alive this just sounds really really intriguing dark twisty and turny and again i've heard just excellent things so i picked this up i know the second one comes out later this year so i'm hoping to read this in the next couple of months but yeah i grabbed this next is a book i picked up immediately after i saw starla talk about it on their channel and that is vegabons by xinfong i'm not gonna lie the synopsis of this book is also what really sold me which is a bit ironic because it's incredibly vague but in a way that just like makes you wanna know what happens it essentially has three dates the first one is colonize mars breaks away from earth beginning another cold war one based on the iron curtain of space and then a delegation of young martians including the console of mars granddaughter is sent to live on earth for five years in an attempt for reconciliation and the last year is once these delegates return to mars they no longer belong to either mars or earth the delegates basically struggle to understand the purpose of this overall conflict itself vagabonds is a work of literary fiction that transcends the genre howe has created a novel of political intrigue and philosophical dissonance that speaks to a generation of readers who find themselves continually displaced within our current culture again i've heard incredible things about this it's already really popular internationally but was just recently translated into english so i got this and this is a book i really hope to read at some point this year again i really just want to read some sci-fi that will make me question everything about my life you know what i mean next up is a book i picked up after watching monica's channel i was very influenced about the books i wanted to buy clearly from some of my favorite channels this month that is the court dancer by kyung suk shin this is a novel that is actually based off of a true story in it the author essentially imagines the life of a dancer yejin who was the jewel of the court during the joseon era and essentially follows her life as she leaves korea and actually moves to paris there she essentially escapes the gilded cage of court life and begins to be immersed within parisian culture translating joson-era works into french however even in this new world homesickness and sorrow still awaits her this is said to explore themes of exoticism assimilation and identity and at its core the court dancer examines what countries lose an identity in exchange for technological advancement i've heard really great things about this monica i think is also planning to read this in the next couple of months i basically saw it again on her channel and bought it right away so yeah i grabbed this next is another fantasy pre-order that recently came out this is one of my most anticipated fantasy releases of the year and that is the unbroken by c.l clark this essentially is a dual perspective fantasy story following two characters one is luca and she is in need of a turncoat someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and order and also someone who can convince rebels to overthrow her uncle off the throne and our other main character is turain who is a soldier and i think their lives and fates begin to intertwine i've heard this is full of action and adventure and possibly romance as well i also hear this has a really interesting political landscape it's kind of a crumbling empire i believe is centered within the story again this is one i've been highly anticipating so i'm excited to have this first book to a new epic fantasy story in my hands but yeah obviously bought this next up is another pre-order that came this month and that is lost in the never woods by aiden thomas who is the author of the cemetery boys which i read last fall and loved so much just one of the sweetest most adorable stories out there but his new release really caught my eye because it's actually kind of a dark whimsical why a retelling of peter pan and all of those things really greatly appealed to me and in general i already know i love their writing so so much this is set in a small pacific northwest town and five years ago wendy and her two brothers got lost and disappeared in the woods wendy herself returned but with no memory of what happened in the woods or where her brothers are now five years later children are beginning to disappear again and this mystery is beginning to engulf this town once more i hear this as whimsical and magical and dark i also personally love kind of fairy tale or classic tale retellings in kind of an updated setting so i feel like i'm gonna really really love this i of course have already heard all of the amazing things from early reviewers and readers who have already read it as well so this was a must buy for me and then the last book i have to show off is stunning i'm not gonna lie i personally think it's one of the prettiest books i now officially own and that is this incredible bind up of his dark materials by philip pullman it has the golden compass the subtle knife and the amber spyglass all wrapped up in this beautiful very classic looking hardcover i mean look at the look at the spine of this this does not just feel like wow am i in an archive at oxford right now but it just i saw it i bought it i needed it all right but i also grabbed this because i want to begin my reread of this particular trilogy in the next month or so so i wanted to have all three on hand to be able to do so and this was my favorite edition i came across um but yeah clothing compass and his dark material series was one of my favorite growing up it absolutely blew my mind when i read it all those years ago but honestly i have forgotten quite a bit and i do feel like it's resurfacing a bit at least with some of the reviewers i follow and everyone is loving it again upon a reread so i kind of want to join the bandwagon the first one the golden compass is a classic coming-of-age story we follow our main character as she goes on a journey to try to save her lost best friend through her we battle with who to trust and who to rely on this world is also really whimsical full of magical technology and also these creatures called daemons which are sort of magical animal companions i really loved this trilogy the first time i read it so i'm excited to reintroduce myself to it because i feel like i might take even more from it as an adult just a true classic everyone's got to check this series out alrighty guys that is my april book haul let me know below some books you've picked up recently as i would love to know and i will see you guys soon with another video soon byehi everyone it's regan and welcome back to another video today i have my april book haul not gonna lie for the month of april i have accumulated quite a bit of books um let's just say a lot of pre-orders came in there's just so many exciting releases coming out over the next let's be real like eight months my tbr is spiraling out of control but nonetheless i'm excited about all the books i'm gonna be showing off today so without further ado let's go ahead and dive right in the first set of books i'm going to show off are of course the april selects for book of the month who is sponsoring this video and if you're not familiar book of the month is an online bookish subscription service and essentially every single month they curate a selection of five titles from a variety of different genres voices and authors within the community there are always new releases they're always hardcover and they're sent directly to your door you can select your first book for 14.99 and add up to two additional titles at 9.99 each they also have a huge backlog of titles to select from of course if you're not interested for that particular month very easy to skip and overall it's a service i have been using and loving for years i of course have an offer code for you guys if you use the code spring fun you can get your first box for only 9.99 but without further ado let's dive into the incredible titles for this month i'm so jazzed about many of them the first book i have to show off just sounds like an adorable rom-com that is perfect for the spring summer months i honestly cannot believe summer's truly right around the corner but it is people we meet on vacation by emily henry emily henry is also well known for writing beach read which is a very beloved rom-com that i personally want to get to pretty soon the story that follows our main characters alex and poppy and they have nothing in common she has insatiable wonderlust and lives in the big city he wears khakis and prefers to stay at home and read a good book but ever since a fateful car ride where they met in college they essentially go on one trip a year together these trips have always been a source of light for both of them and they consider themselves the very best of friends until two years ago when poppy messed it all up and they haven't seen or talked to each other since then but poppy decides to take it upon herself and basically convinces alex to go on one last trip and she basically views this one week as a chance to kind of make everything right this sounds like this is going to have travel and romance and friendship and hopefully just a fun light read that will put a smile on my face again i've heard excellent things about this author so this is definitely one i'm excited to add to my shelf the next book you're able to select from is the hunting wives by may cobb and this basically follows our main character sophie who has recently left a very enviable and powerful position in chicago and she has recently relocated with her husband and young son in a small texas town she was looking forward to kind of living a slower pace more rural life but now she's kind of deciding that her life maybe is a little bit too quiet and she finds herself a bit bored there she meets margot who is an alluring socialite in town and she basically joins this hunting club of women which involves martinis and late night target practice and from there sophie begins to get drawn deeper in this group and her obsession begins to grow however when a body of a young teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the hunting wives meet she finds herself in the middle of both a murder investigation and her life begins to spiral out of control this sounds rather intense and very very interesting i'm curious about the texas setting itself i feel like it's kind of combining like rural socialite politics with murder so that definitely calls out to me a bit but this sounds like this would be a page turner and definitely a fast read the next book you're able to select from is my personal favorite of the month and that is arsenic and adobo by mia p manonsala this is the first book to a new cozy kitchen-based murder mystery whodunit series both of those things honestly call out to me in every way possible i love that this centers food and also murder and this basically follows our main character lila who has recently moved back home to recover from a terrible breakup and she feels like her life is kind of falling into classic rom-com tropes she's taking on trying to revive a family restaurant and in general she feels like her life is a bit of a stereotype however when a notoriously nasty food critic who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend drops dead shortly after eating at her family restaurant she now finds herself in the middle of an investigation and all fingers are kind of pointing at her so she decides to take this investigation on herself using her community connections to try to figure out what in the world is going on this is said to basically shift from like a classic rom-com to almost like an agatha christie style novel it sounds like it's full of family and humor and food it truly sounds like a delightful time but i'm hoping also has a big twist as well i don't know this just sounds like a really unique and original story and i cannot wait to pick this up next up is a more emotional family based read and that is what comes after by joanne tompkins and this is basically set in a small town in the pacific northwest and recently two teenage boys have tragically passed away which has kind of torn this community apart specifically we follow two families who are neighbors who are each the family of one of these two boys and at the beginning of the story they're kind of retreating internally isolated within their own grief when an unfamiliar pregnant teenage girl emerges out of the woods she kind of acts as a bridge between these two families bringing them together and their shared grief and tragedy however she appears to be hiding something herself that may actually be connected to the death of the boys this i believe is about family grief and overcoming tragedy as well as hope and forgiveness i personally love family centered literary fiction stories so this is definitely one that intrigues me it sounds like it's gonna be really really really emotional if i'm being honest but one that is really powerful as well and then the last novel i'll have to show off from book the month this month is liberty by caitlin greenage and this is said to be an unforgettable and incredible coming-of-age story following one young black girl's journey an attempt to find a place where she can fully and only be herself this follows her main character liberty who is a young freeborn black girl coming of age in reconstruction era brooklyn and is all too aware of the dreams and the future that her mother sees for her and that is to become a physician just like her however liberty kind of dreams of a different future one of music and art so when she's presented the opportunity to marry a man and move to haiti after he promises her that she can be his equal on the island but she quickly realizes that she is still subordinate to him and all the other men living there from there she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a black woman liberty struggles with where she might find it for herself and for generations to come this honestly sounds like an incredibly gripping novel the author has won so many awards for some of her previous works so i suspect that this is also incredible i also hear that this is rich with historical details also inspired by the life of one of the first black women physicians in the united states it's definitely one i've also heard really strong reviews about so i'm really happy to add this to my shelf alrighty guys those are the five titles you're able to select from for book of the month this month again i will have the discount code as well as a link to their site down below let's go ahead and dive into the rest of the titles i have picked up i have gotten i'm not kidding there's just so many books i want to read i don't know when it's going to stop so let's just go ahead and dive right in first book i have to show off is the arm of the sphinx by josiah bancroft this was a obvious pick up and buy after i read and loved the first one said lynn ascends earlier last month this definitely feels like a series i'm going to marathon throughout the year but this essentially follows our main character senlin who is a mild-mannered school teacher who essentially has always dreamed of visiting this tower of babel which is this enormous structure full of all these different floors kind of run by different political powers and governments and each floor kind of has its own distinct and sinister air about them this dream finally comes true as he travels there with his new wife on their honeymoon however once he arrives they get separated and he begins this quest to try to locate her in this tower throughout the first one we see him kind of venture through the first couple of floors and gets thrown headfirst into the perils and politics of this tower the writing is incredibly whimsical and magical and you fall in love with sunderland as well as fall in love with the romance at this story too i loved the first one it was so imaginative and so detailed so i picked up the second one i'll be picking up books three and four i'm sure later this year but i had to grab this because i just loved the first one so so much and i actually plan to read this rather soon next up is a new ish why a fantasy release that kind of fell off my radar i completely forgot this came out earlier this year and that is a vow so bold and deadly by bridget kemmer this of course is the third and final book to a curse so dark and lonely which is a why a fantasy angsty series that i personally have really enjoyed over the years and this follows our main character harper and the first one is basically pulled to an alternate fantasy world in an attempt to break this evil curse on the prince that presides there it's very much like a beauty in the beast retelling but because she's kind of pulled from our modern world in reality there's a lot of humor and kind of nods the fact that this is a well-known kind of fantasy space so she kind of uses references from our life to kind of inform how she should act this is full of angsty y romance some pretty solid politics and twists and turns within the plot i personally really enjoyed the first two books i found them to be very entertaining so i'm curious to see how this will wrap itself up in this third and final installment as i will say this is a series that definitely has kept me very entertained and it points guessing as well so i did grab this next up i have a new release i've actually seen a few comments about a few of you guys have been telling me that i would love this book so i bought it i'm listening and that is the mask of mirrors by m.a carrick and this is a new adult fantasy release and i have to say i love that it came out in paperback first like this style of paperback is my favorite type of book binding let it be known and this just sounds like the first installment of a new dark fantasy series i feel like i'm going to love it also kind of has this historical venetian vibe that really really calls out to me this follows our main character ren who is a con artist and she has come to the sparkling city of not azera with one goal and that is to trick her way into the noble house to secure herself and her sister a future however her masquerade is one of many as corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city she kind of finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous plot in the dark underbelly of this world this just sounds like a dark heist fantasy novel i feel like i'm going to love i love when thieves are kind of at the center and i really appreciate like thief and merchant politics within fantasy settings i feel like this book has a lot of that but we shall see i've heard really really excellent things again from you guys so i picked this guy up next up i have two sci-fi novels i've heard excellent excellent things about and i'm hoping just continues to expand my sci-fi knowledge and experience if you will the first one is a memory called empire by rkd martin this won the hugo award last year and it's a very beloved and very lotted first book to a new sci-fi series i've read a lot of earth-centered sci-fi tales recently this year and i'm really trying to expand beyond that and kind of go more into the stars if you will in a lot of ways that kind of appeals to me more as an epic fantasy reader i like the idea of like a new world a new planet with its own politics and issues kind of at play but this essentially follows our main character mahit who is an ambassador and she is traveling and very eager to take up her new post in a faraway planet but when she arrives there she quickly realizes that her predecessor has died and no one will admit that his death was not accidental or if our main character will be next so now our main character is kind of thrown into the middle of this planet's politics trying to actively solve a murder mystery and also keep herself alive this just sounds really really intriguing dark twisty and turny and again i've heard just excellent things so i picked this up i know the second one comes out later this year so i'm hoping to read this in the next couple of months but yeah i grabbed this next is a book i picked up immediately after i saw starla talk about it on their channel and that is vegabons by xinfong i'm not gonna lie the synopsis of this book is also what really sold me which is a bit ironic because it's incredibly vague but in a way that just like makes you wanna know what happens it essentially has three dates the first one is colonize mars breaks away from earth beginning another cold war one based on the iron curtain of space and then a delegation of young martians including the console of mars granddaughter is sent to live on earth for five years in an attempt for reconciliation and the last year is once these delegates return to mars they no longer belong to either mars or earth the delegates basically struggle to understand the purpose of this overall conflict itself vagabonds is a work of literary fiction that transcends the genre howe has created a novel of political intrigue and philosophical dissonance that speaks to a generation of readers who find themselves continually displaced within our current culture again i've heard incredible things about this it's already really popular internationally but was just recently translated into english so i got this and this is a book i really hope to read at some point this year again i really just want to read some sci-fi that will make me question everything about my life you know what i mean next up is a book i picked up after watching monica's channel i was very influenced about the books i wanted to buy clearly from some of my favorite channels this month that is the court dancer by kyung suk shin this is a novel that is actually based off of a true story in it the author essentially imagines the life of a dancer yejin who was the jewel of the court during the joseon era and essentially follows her life as she leaves korea and actually moves to paris there she essentially escapes the gilded cage of court life and begins to be immersed within parisian culture translating joson-era works into french however even in this new world homesickness and sorrow still awaits her this is said to explore themes of exoticism assimilation and identity and at its core the court dancer examines what countries lose an identity in exchange for technological advancement i've heard really great things about this monica i think is also planning to read this in the next couple of months i basically saw it again on her channel and bought it right away so yeah i grabbed this next is another fantasy pre-order that recently came out this is one of my most anticipated fantasy releases of the year and that is the unbroken by c.l clark this essentially is a dual perspective fantasy story following two characters one is luca and she is in need of a turncoat someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and order and also someone who can convince rebels to overthrow her uncle off the throne and our other main character is turain who is a soldier and i think their lives and fates begin to intertwine i've heard this is full of action and adventure and possibly romance as well i also hear this has a really interesting political landscape it's kind of a crumbling empire i believe is centered within the story again this is one i've been highly anticipating so i'm excited to have this first book to a new epic fantasy story in my hands but yeah obviously bought this next up is another pre-order that came this month and that is lost in the never woods by aiden thomas who is the author of the cemetery boys which i read last fall and loved so much just one of the sweetest most adorable stories out there but his new release really caught my eye because it's actually kind of a dark whimsical why a retelling of peter pan and all of those things really greatly appealed to me and in general i already know i love their writing so so much this is set in a small pacific northwest town and five years ago wendy and her two brothers got lost and disappeared in the woods wendy herself returned but with no memory of what happened in the woods or where her brothers are now five years later children are beginning to disappear again and this mystery is beginning to engulf this town once more i hear this as whimsical and magical and dark i also personally love kind of fairy tale or classic tale retellings in kind of an updated setting so i feel like i'm gonna really really love this i of course have already heard all of the amazing things from early reviewers and readers who have already read it as well so this was a must buy for me and then the last book i have to show off is stunning i'm not gonna lie i personally think it's one of the prettiest books i now officially own and that is this incredible bind up of his dark materials by philip pullman it has the golden compass the subtle knife and the amber spyglass all wrapped up in this beautiful very classic looking hardcover i mean look at the look at the spine of this this does not just feel like wow am i in an archive at oxford right now but it just i saw it i bought it i needed it all right but i also grabbed this because i want to begin my reread of this particular trilogy in the next month or so so i wanted to have all three on hand to be able to do so and this was my favorite edition i came across um but yeah clothing compass and his dark material series was one of my favorite growing up it absolutely blew my mind when i read it all those years ago but honestly i have forgotten quite a bit and i do feel like it's resurfacing a bit at least with some of the reviewers i follow and everyone is loving it again upon a reread so i kind of want to join the bandwagon the first one the golden compass is a classic coming-of-age story we follow our main character as she goes on a journey to try to save her lost best friend through her we battle with who to trust and who to rely on this world is also really whimsical full of magical technology and also these creatures called daemons which are sort of magical animal companions i really loved this trilogy the first time i read it so i'm excited to reintroduce myself to it because i feel like i might take even more from it as an adult just a true classic everyone's got to check this series out alrighty guys that is my april book haul let me know below some books you've picked up recently as i would love to know and i will see you guys soon with another video soon bye\n"