What I Read In April 2025
April was a great reading month with a ton of good books I’m excited to share! I read/listened to 8 books in total spanning historical fiction, romance and dystopian stories. I also read a great short story collection - something about me is I love short stories, but I think really great collections are few and far between. This past month I satisfied that craving a bit!
Check out everything I read below!
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This is one of those books I think every white person should read. It explores the history of medical experimentation on poor Black and brown communities in the United States. I was so angry and heartbroken while reading it, but it was a powerful story that had me hooked from the beginning. This was my first book by Dolen Perkins-Valdez but certainly not my last - she’s officially an auto-read author for me!
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I’d see the hype for this cowboy romance series before but wasn’t sure it would be up my alley. With the release of the final book, I decided to give it a shot. The first book follows a young woman as she returns home after a horseback riding accident that’s left her shaken. There waiting for her is her older brother’s annoying best friend, and you can probably guess how it goes from there. It’s a super cute story with just a little spice and an ADHD rep, which I really enjoyed!
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This was our April Oh, You’re Reading Again Book Club pick and it was such a great story. The writing was phenomenal. The main character was messy and human and fallible. The story was so sad but also full of hope and love. I can already tell this will be one of my top reads for the year. I highly recommend it, particularly for those wanting to learn more about the Palestinian experience.
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This book was quiet and unassuming but a beautiful look at familial history and how our ancestors continue to impact us today. It follows a family decades after the death of their son/brother during a home invasion as they continue on in life. They’re still healing when the daughter in the family is left at the altar of her wedding. It’s tough to give a full synopsis here, but it’s one of those stories where all the threads eventually weave together in a perfect way.
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This book came as a recommendation during the book crawl - I swear, when you guys suggest books for me to read, they really do go on a list and I really do give them a shot! This was a very fun, very spicy why-choose romance following a hockey team and their team doctor who ends up falling in love with three of them. They grow closer and have to navigate a public, polyamorous relationship. I didn’t find the story itself groundbreaking, but I enjoyed the heck out of reading this one.
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I’ve been re-reading the original Hunger Games trilogy before I get ready to read the two prequels. I am so happy to say that this series totally holds up from when I read it in high school. I was just as enthralled with the story reading it the second time. Catching Fire remains my favorite of the three, and I dislike the “love triangle” more this time, but overall I loved reading these books again and I can’t wait to start on the prequels!
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This was a short story collection that I’ve been meaning to pick up forever. I love short stories but only a few collections have ever really wow’d me (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer is one of my all time favorites). Someone suggested this collection and I have to say I really liked it! It’s set in different areas of Florida and follows characters whose normal lives are upended due to extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. I’d definitely recommend this to others who love a good short story collection.
Need other recommendations? Ask me for some ideas!