This is a very long overdue blog post. The end of April was a true whirlwind with travel for a friend’s wedding, then travel for work, and finally a stop over in Los Angeles where I attended Yallwest. And of course, no whirlwind travel would be complete without coming home and getting horrendously sick. So, now that I’m finally feeling better, I figured I would share about Yallwest and some of the books I read in April as well.

For those of you who don’t know, Yallwest is a YA book festival that happens every Spring at SAMOHI in Los Angeles. This is a free event to attend. There are author panels, ARC giveaways at publisher booths, food trucks, a DJ spinning tunes all day, and just a bunch of nerdy bookish folks gathered together to celebrate reading. Above is my meager ARC haul. I started the day stopping by the I Read YA booth to get a few ARCs from Scholastic, and then I also got Lies Between Us from the Penguin Teen Booth. I did end up wasting some time in lines that ran out of book giveaways before I got there, but that’s okay. I’m glad I got to listen to some good panels though. Cindy Pham, from readwithcindy, was there talking about her new book The Secret World of Briar Rose, which I have an e-ARC from NetGalley and I plan to read it in May (I hope!).

Stephanie Garber, Victoria Aveyard, Tahereh Mafi, Shannon J Spann, Aiden Thomas, and Veronica Roth were some of the other authors I got to hear at panels. It’s always so interesting to hear authors talk about their writing and creative process, as well as their thoughts on where reading and stories are going, especially in such a digital/AI-first world we’re living in right now. I really enjoyed my day at Yallwest, and I’m glad it worked out that I was able to go again!

In addition to Yallwest, I somehow managed to read 8 books in the month of April! I already reviewed 2 of these (The Escape Game and The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances) which were two of my favorites from the month. The other books I finished were:

• The Shippers by Katherine Center – Releases May 19, 2026 – read an eARC from NetGalley. I really liked this one (but Katherine Center’s romances have become must reads for me). It’s about a girl who feels she has always been unlucky in love until she realizes she must have imprinted on her very first kiss. During her sister’s wedding on a cruise ship, she and her childhood best friend conspire together so she can make this guy who first kissed her fall madly in love with her, and everyone will live happily ever after. It has antics, humor, great banter, and a MMC who is just really great. 5 stars
• Rolls and Rivalry by Kristy Boyce – Releases May 5, 2026 – read an eARC from NetGalley. This is the third book in this teen “Dungeons & Dragons” series (more companion novels I suppose). I really enjoyed this one, though in some ways it was also triggering for me. I was in a very competitive marching band when I was in high school, and this story follows a color guard captain and percussion captain in their senior year of high school. They used to be friends, but now they are rivals, and there is a lot of band practice and competition – which again, I liked because I lived that, but also it was triggering because band kind of was my life in high school and I had time for nothing else, so seeing these teens be able to have marching band as just one part of their senior year kind of actually made me wish my band hadn’t been so insanely crazy. But this was cute, as are the other 2 books Kristy has released. I like how D&D was used as a way to learn more about themselves in this book, and I also liked the dynamic of the parents with the color guard captain (kind of reliving vicariously through her and the pressure that put on her, intended or not). I also liked the cameo of characters from the first two books in this one. 4 stars
• A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J Spann – released Feb 3, 2026 – I listened to an audiobook through the library. Shannon J Spann is on the Penguin Teen social media team, and she seems like a fun and vivacious person. When I heard she was releasing her first book, I got excited because it’s always cool to me when someone in the marketing/influencing side of the book industry is able to make the leap to being an author themselves. This book is VIBES!! It’s a fantasy novel in a world where gods have been relegated to the theater that travels and performs stories. There is rich world building, and clearly influence from the Broadway theater scene throughout this. Also the characters are really morally grey (hence villains) and there are lots of layers and meta moments throughout. I did listen to this on audiobook and I was kind of multitasking while listening so I think some parts I missed out on. I would read this again in physical copy (it’s a truly stunning book) and maybe that would help me understand more. But overall I gave it 4 stars.
• You with the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate – released March 3, 2026 – I listened to the audiobook through the library. I like that this is narrated by Christina Applegate herself. I’m a sucker for Hollywood memoir audiobooks, and this one was a bit unique because Applegate referenced a lot of the journals she wrote when she was young. It talks about a lot of dark things that happened to Christina – trigger warnings include molestation, eating disorder, absent parents, parents with drug/alcohol issues, abusive relationships, dynamics of the entertainment industry, and serious health conditions (cancer and MS). Though there is a lot of dark subjects in this, Christina Applegate has a humor and tell it as it is voice that is authentic, refreshing, and hopeful throughout. 4 stars.
• Heart Strings by Ivy Fairbanks – published on August 12, 2025 – I did get an eARC from NetGalley for this, but ended up listening to the audiobook through the library. I really liked Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks, so when I saw this pop up on NetGalley I wanted to read it. However, I kept putting it off, and finally when the audiobook became available, I decided to listen to it. I nearly DNF’d this book like seven times while listening, but finally made it through. I think because so much time had passed between reading the first one and the second one, and the fact that the characters in this book were very very small parts in the first book, I had a hard time getting back into it. Lo is a cancer survivor who is trying to work her way through medical residency in Galway. Aiden is the tattoo’d musician who had stolen her heart during a brief but fast romance. He becomes a music star, but returns to Galway for his friend’s wedding and they reunite/figure out why they hurt each other. I just didn’t feel the chemistry between Lo and Aiden. I also felt like there were quite a few things happening in the story that were maybe too much but also not enough? In the end we get the HEA, and it’s fine. 3 stars.
• Body Count by Codie Crowley – releases May 5, 2026 – I listened to the audiobook provided through NetGalley. Sundae Valentine encountered a phantom that lived at the bottom of a swimming pool when she was young. This phantom monster granted her 3 wishes (in the form of taffy candy) that come with a price. Years pass, and when Sundae is 18 , the phantom is ready to collect the price for those wishes. This book definitely felt YA from a writing style perspective, but the teen girls were hyper-sexualized, which honestly bothered me a bit, and felt like it should have been new adult 20 year-olds. It could have worked like that because the prom parts are glossed over. I think it would have been more believable as college kids at Spring Break instead. I did like the sapphic romance with a horror-slasher mystery. And the character of Holly Jolly and the lore of the monsters was highly imaginative and I could picture parts of this like a horror movie. But the pacing kinda stopped and started for me, and I found my mind wandering while reading more than I care to admit. The narrator is good. Overall 2.5 rounded down to 2 stars.

Anyway, so April was a good reading month. I hope May shapes up to be a good month too, but I’m a little nervous that work might get in the way (we’re down a few folks due to leaves and so I’ll be covering more than I’m used to). I’m hoping to finally start reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas (just started Assassin’s Blade last night). I also have a few arcs that come out in May that I’m hoping to finish, and plus with it finally being Spring, hope to spend some more time outside enjoying nature too. Hope you all are doing well too!