I know I fell off the face of the earth in April, but it was for good reason. I exhibited at BookCon last month (with my husband) for the first time since they shut their doors in 2020, and let me tell you, it was a TIME. I sold out of my newest release, ALL WE KEEP HIDDEN, before noon on the second day, which was absolutely phenomenal. My husband and I arrived a day early for registration and check-in, which allowed for some much-deserved "couple time" in Central Park. We definitely did this trip justice with first class flights, upscale dinners every night, and Uber Black transportation ,which might seem over the top to some, however, this was our first trip away together in THREE YEARS. It was also our first overnight trip away from the babies. So yeah, go big or go home.

Between BookCon, my birthday, Mother's Day, teacher appreciation week, and all of the end-of-year celebrations for school, I feel like I haven't been able to come up for air. Needless to say, I haven't quite finished our April Book Club read, but I am 70% of the way through and definitely plan to finish it before the end of this month so we can start fresh with a new indie book come June! I know our first Book Club read was fantasy and we're reading a thriller right now, so I'm kind of thinking to kick off summer, we could find a cozy mystery or cozy contemporary romance. If you have any indie recommendations in either of these categories, let me know!

Our April 2026 Book Club Pick is The Perfect Neighbors by Jordan Cannon!

I've heard great things about this book circulating around BookTok, so I'm excited to dive into my first-ever indie thriller read!

P.S. It's available on Kindle Unlimited, in case you need even more of a reason to join 😊 Weekly reading updates and discussion questions to come soon!

I finally finished reading The Ascended! Let's open up the discussion here (spoiler-free!) and dive into the book club questions:

1. The book introduces a unique world and set of rules—what were your first impressions of the setting, and how quickly did you feel immersed in it?

2. Which character did you find most compelling early on, and what drew you to them?

3. Themes of power and transformation seem important—how do you interpret the idea of “ascension” based on the opening portions of the book?

4. How does the narrative voice (including perspective and tone) influence your alignment with certain ideas or characters? Do you sense any intentional bias or unreliability?

5. In what ways does the book engage with questions of identity and self-determination? After finishing the story, did those themes evolve in the way you expected?

Wow, so I probably should have checked the page count of The Ascended because it's over 700 pages long! The past couple of weeks have been a bit nightmare-ish because both babies got sick with a cold and then my husband and I caught said cold. I lost my voice on Saturday and I'm just now starting to recover but taking care of sick kiddos when you're also sick? iykyk

I digress. To be fully transparent, I don't think I've ever finished reading a book that's over 400 pages long in a single month. Books that are around 350 pages? No problem. With that being said, I'm going to extend our Book Club pick from February (which is The Ascended) into the month of March. That'll give me enough time to finish it and gather my thoughts to discuss with you all! I'm currently 50% of the way through, which (shocker) is equivalent to around 350 pages anyways. I'll have to keep that in mind for our future Book Club picks!