Count Down To April

April's my favourite month of the year. Okay, granted, I prefer Summer to Spring. Actually, I even prefer Autumn - hello, super cute fall attire? What girl can say no to that! But while Summer hold my heart due to fab weather, extreme sunshine, and lazy beach days, April still holds itself strong as my favourite month of the year. This isn't a tale of Seasons, but rather, a biased opinion conjured by a little girl oh-so-many years ago, who counted down anxiously for her favourite month - i.e her birthday.

While I now wistfully hold my breath in semi-anticipation for another candle topped on a birthday cake, April remains my absolute fave. Why? Well, if I were to make a list as to why it's the greatest it'd probably look a little something like:

1. The Birthstone is a Diamond - and everyone always knows diamonds are a girls best friend. 2. The Flower of the Month is a Daisy - and while this may not be anywhere near my favourite to sprout in April, there's no denying its simplistic charm and beauty. 3. On average, there are four, yes four, holidays in the month of April. April Fools, Good Friday, Easter and Earth Day - And anyone who doesn't count the first and last as holidays, well, this virtual friendship may have just ended. 4. The word April, translated from its Latin origin, aperit, means "to open". And that to me, makes all the sense in the world. C'mon, we all know April is the commencement of blossoming - I think I've already seen a new leaf sprouting on the tree in my yard (though, this may actually just be a left over stray from last year). 5. Well, I won't waste it because it is a fabulous occurrence - April IS the month of my birthday. And while I may cringe at the thought of adding another year to my eternal youth, my inner Goddess sure does love birthday cake! (She's a skinny-fat Goddess, and she does me proud!)

Lists and birthdays aside, April is shaping up to be a rather eventful month, and it has yet to even start. While we scuttle through the remaining days of March, I've been putting together my to-be-read pile for the month ahead. From Book Club Reads, to Buddy Reads, to an array of Solos, the TBR is piling up quickly, and I'm crossing fingers, toes, arms and torso that I'll get through it all between everything else life is throwing next month.

As a Realtor, April is undeniably the busiest time of year for me. All of Spring is realistically, but there's something so overwhelming about April. Sellers wanting to Sell, Buyers wanting to Buy, Renters...well, Renters never die down in the City of Toronto. Spring Market has already shaped itself into a frenzy of home owners new, old and prospective hastily looking to make and find the best deals. I feel your pain - literally, and physically.

Because of the craziness in the real world, I capital L . O . V . E my book getaways. You know, the kind where you throw yourself into a book and the story just completely steals you away from reality? Those are actually my favourite, and one of the main reasons I read as much as I do. Sometimes, we each need a little bit of me-time, and my me-time, usually surrounds itself with a book in hand, a glass of wine and more often than not a bath filled with bubbles and epson salts, surrounded by candles. Look at me, I sure now how to pull all the romantic stops on myself. I feel myself getting whisked off my feet just thinking about it. Are spouses and significant others really necessary when you can schmooze yourself this well? I can very well throw my own rose pedal walkway leading to the tub, and I'd find this quite the romantic evening alone.

Apologies to the hubbies, including my own, that may or may not take offence to this.

This part of me is pretty much real life Alice from The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer. Just as she finds her RnR lounging in the tub, it's usually my favourite way to wind down as well. I just can't help it. It's calming, and relaxing, and well...I'll usually readjust the water temperature 100 times over and get all wrinkly before I even want to get out. It's an escape. Just as reading a well written story is.

Seeing as April is a crazy time of year, it's usually also my best kept TBR. The books you just know are about to throw you from real life into that much needed reality escape. For my solo reads, I carefully and meticulously select the books that are sure to give me that much needed escape. For some reason, that usually revolves itself around rom-coms and other not-so-loving love stories - there's something about Spring that brings out the true romantic in me. While bookclub and buddy read picks are usually the fun reads that I may or may not have gotten around to on my own for that month. Though, April has got some goodies that I've been dying to get my hands on! It's probably one of my most anticipated book club and buddy read months in such a long time.

Here's what's topping my reading pile for the month ahead

Book Clubs

Biffles Book Club: Love By The Book - Melissa Pimentel Love by the Book charts a year in the life of Lauren Cunningham, a beautiful, intelligent, and unlucky-in-love twenty-eight-year-old American. Feeling old before her time, Lauren moves to London in search of the fab single life replete with sexy Englishmen. But why can’t she convince the men she’s seeing that she really isn’t after anything more serious than seriously good sex? Determined to break the curse, Lauren turns her love life into an experiment: each month she will follow a different dating guide until she discovers the science behind being a siren. Lauren will follow The Rules, she’ll play The Game, and along the way she’ll journal her (mis)adventures and maybe even find someone worth holding on to. Witty, gritty, and very true to life, Love by the Book will have you in stitches.

CDK Book Club: Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her. And then she was gone. Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away. Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?

Killer Crime Club: Beautiful Bad - Annie Ward

Things that make me scared: When Charlie cries. Hospitals and lakes. When Ian drinks vodka in the basement. ISIS. When Ian gets angry. . . . That something is really, really wrong with me.

Maddie and Ian’s romance began with a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was serving in the British army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in middle America. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD, her concerns for the safety of their young son, Charlie, and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.

From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, 16 years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 9-1-1 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime.

But what in this beautiful home has gone so terribly bad?

Girly Book Club: Fight or Flight - Samantha Young

The universe is conspiring against Ava Breevort. As if flying back to Phoenix to bury a childhood friend wasn't hell enough, a cloud of volcanic ash traveling from overseas delayed her flight back home to Boston. Her last ditch attempt to salvage the trip was thwarted by an arrogant Scotsman, Caleb Scott, who steals a first class seat out from under her. Then over the course of their journey home, their antagonism somehow lands them in bed for the steamiest layover Ava's ever had. And that's all it was--until Caleb shows up on her doorstep. When pure chance pulls Ava back into Caleb's orbit, he proposes they enjoy their physical connection while he's stranded in Boston. Ava agrees, knowing her heart's in no danger since a) she barely likes Caleb and b) his existence in her life is temporary. Not long thereafter Ava realizes she's made a terrible error because as it turns out Caleb Scott isn't quite so unlikeable after all. When his stay in Boston becomes permanent, Ava must decide whether to fight her feelings for him or give into them. But even if she does decide to risk her heart on Caleb, there is no guarantee her stubborn Scot will want to risk his heart on her...

Book & Wine Club: Daisy Jones And The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones is a beautiful, broken girl growing up in L.A. with rich parents who barely know she exists. . . . But when she sings in a crowded, smoky club, you can hear a pin drop. All she wants is to write her own songs, but the record studio has its own ideas. It's the early 1970s and free love and drugs are everywhere, and Daisy wants to experience it all. Billy Dunne and his brother have a band called The Six that won't be playing weddings for long. They are ambitious, hard-rocking, hard-partying. When they land a record deal, Billy's girlfriend follows them to the west coast and life begins. But she finds out she's pregnant on the eve of their first tour, and the pressure of fatherhood and incipient fame make Billy go a little crazy on the road. Daisy and Billy's paths cross when a manager realizes that the key to skyrocketing success is to put them together. But oil and water don't even begin to describe how they mix. . . . And what happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Buddy Reads

The Mister - E.L. James

London, 2019. Life has been easy for Maxim Trevelyan. With his good looks, aristocratic connections, and money, he’s never had to work and he’s rarely slept alone. But all that changes when tragedy strikes and Maxim inherits his family’s noble title, wealth, and estates, and all the responsibility that entails. It’s a role he’s not prepared for and one that he struggles to face. But his biggest challenge is fighting his desire for an unexpected, enigmatic young woman who’s recently arrived in England, possessing little more than a dangerous and troublesome past.  Reticent, beautiful, and musically gifted, she’s an alluring mystery, and Maxim’s longing for her deepens into a passion that he’s never experienced and dares not name. Just who is Alessia Demachi? Can Maxim protect her from the malevolence that threatens her? And what will she do when she learns that he’s been hiding secrets of his own? From the heart of London through wild, rural Cornwall to the bleak, forbidding beauty of the Balkans, The Mister is a roller-coaster ride of danger and desire that leaves the reader breathless to the very last page.

The Gown - Jennifer Robson

London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation despite their nation’s recent victory. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their nascent hopes for a brighter future are tested when they are chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime honor: taking part in the creation of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown. Toronto, 2016: More than half a century later, Heather Mackenzie seeks to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers, a legacy from her late grandmother. How did her beloved Nan, a woman who never spoke of her old life in Britain, come to possess the priceless embroideries that so closely resemble the motifs on the stunning gown worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her wedding almost seventy years before? And what was her Nan’s connection to the celebrated textile artist and holocaust survivor Miriam Dassin?   With The Gown, Jennifer Robson takes us inside the workrooms where one of the most famous wedding gowns in history was created. Balancing behind-the-scenes details with a sweeping portrait of a society left reeling by the calamitous costs of victory, she introduces readers to three unforgettable heroines, their points of view alternating and intersecting throughout its pages, whose lives are woven together by the pain of survival, the bonds of friendship, and the redemptive power of love.

The Huntress - Kate Quinn

In the aftermath of war, the hunter becomes the hunted…

Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family . . . secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth. 

Eleanor Oliphant Is Perfectly Fine - Gail Honeyman

Smart, warm, uplifting, the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open her heart.

No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

     Eleanor Oliphant is, well, a bit of an oddball--albeit a loveable one. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking . . . and that, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, a tendency to wear the same clothes year after year), means that Eleanor has become a bit of a loner. But for Eleanor, nothing really important is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding perplexing social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, Glen's Vodka, and phone chats with "Mummy."       But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and sweet IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kind of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repairing her own damaged one.     Smart, warm, and uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story of a quirky yet lonely woman whose social misunderstandings and deeply ingrained routines could be changed forever--if she can bear to confront the secrets she has avoided all her life. But if she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship--and even love--after all, if only she can learn to open her heart.

Solo Reads

When We Left Cuba - Chanel Cleeton

In 1960s Florida, a young Cuban exile will risk her life—and heart—to take back her country in this exhilarating historical novel from the author of Next Year in Havana, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Beautiful. Daring. Deadly. The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez—her family, her people, her country. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro's inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire to reclaim the life she lost.

As the Cold War swells like a hurricane over the shores of the Florida Strait, Beatriz is caught between the clash of Cuban American politics and the perils of a forbidden affair with a powerful man driven by ambitions of his own. When the ever-changing tides of history threaten everything she has fought for, she must make a choice between her past and future—but the wrong move could cost Beatriz everything—not just the island she loves, but also the man who has stolen her heart...

Meet Cute - Helena Hunting

Kailyn Flowers was always calm, rational, and controlled-until she ended up sprawled all over Daxton Hughes, the former actor she totally crushed on as a teenager. Then she did the unthinkable: She became a mortifying fangirl in five seconds flat, which may or may not have included professing her undying love. And oddly, he didn't run away. In fact, their meet cute led to a friendship she never saw coming. Of course, she never saw his betrayal coming, either...

Now Dax needs her help. As guardian to his thirteen-year-old sister, he's in way over his head. And though Kailyn hasn't forgiven Dax, she isn't heartless enough to make him fend for himself, either. Soon their friendly meetings turn into flirty dinner dates, and Kailyn can feel their chemistry is as explosive as ever. But how can she possibly let down her guard again to a guy who has heartbreak written all over him?

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - Therese Anne Fowler

I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer.and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed. When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel-and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera-where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous-sometimes infamous-husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler's New York Times bestseller brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.

While I'm sure I'll likely find myself throwing in a couple audio books into the mix throughout the month as well, I'm looking forward to keeping this pile as a top priority between holidays, work loads, and birthday shenanigans. Wish me luck that I don't add any more into the mix and overwhelm myself next month.

I'll be postponing the Spring Cleaning this year until May, and instead, focus on a great reading escape in April. Happy Spring Reading, ladies and gents!

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What's on your to-be-read list for April? Let's see those book pics! 📚📸