March and April 2026's Tops and Bottoms

Another few months has passed so it is time for a reading wrap up. I will admit that I am surprised that, over the past 2 months, how many rereads I have done (4), how many reads I have quit (too many to count) and how most of my reads throughout March and April have been audiobooks. 

Now, in case you don’t know what Tops and Bottoms are, I “borrowed” this idea from Winn from Literary Diversions where you chat about the best books you read and the worst (I say worst, but it mght just be "meh" read). You can be a vague or detailed as you like and any “meh” or DNFs (did not finish) reads you can ignore. Let me pop a video here and then, we can start. 

Oh, I will try and put affiliate links to Bookshop.org, so you can see the books yourselves… I will put a * next to the titles for ease and transparency.

Seeing as the last few months, I went HARD on the rereads, it would be wrong not to start with Garth Nix's Old Kingdom as a Top read. I just had an itch to reread these, plus I went through a quitting reads stage for a few weeks so I wanted something comforting. The plan was to only do Sabriel* as that's my normal Go-To when I want a reread, but Lirael* and Abhorsen* couldn't be denied. On this reread (ok, relisten - I audiobooked these), I fell more in love with Lirael. I will always love Sabriel but with every reread, Lirael claims my heart a little more. I am considering reread the next two books in the series - Clariel* and Goldenhand*, but we shall see... 

Ah, a Bottom read. The Fly-Half by Charlie Novak. This isn't a bad because it's an awful read. It's not. It's an easy, MM romance with a touch of angst. But oh my, I had huge issues/anger towards this the more I read. Once the our leads got together, I found them so frustrating. The one character became newly-out (Gay For You troupe, maybe...) became so possessiveness while the other lead became bland and a tad spineless. I think the author wanted this character to fit in the submissive brat, but it just didn't work. And, what's worse is that, because of my reaction to this, I'm wary on trying other books in the series, though they focus on characters I'm intrigued to read and see where their romances go... 

You know what's such a good idea when the world is burning due to politics? Rereading The Hunger Games*. Now, I reread this because I saw the stage version (which is a very unsettling experience). And I was shocked about how much I forgot or misremembered. I'm not even sure if I ever reread this (I must have done when the final book in the trilogy, Mockingjay, came out), but am correcting myself. I am planning to do Catching Fire*. Not sure if I will do Mockingjay* as not my fave out of the trilogy. I am not going to reread Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes*, unless you want a huge rant-filled post/Goodreads & Storygraph updates. 

Like The Fly-Half, this isn't a bad book, but it didn't click with me. Dead In The Water* by Dana Stabenow. There's nothing wrong with it, but I think because I blitz the first few books in the Kate Shugak series so quickly, I think I needed a break and couldn't enjoy the fact that this book was trying something different to a character I grew to really enjoy pending time with. And I sense this is the case as when I read the fourth book in series, I quit about the 60% mark. But am giving self a break and am going to try a random title later int he series that is available on the Kindle Unlimited range (I am thinking either the sixth book or eighth in the series...)

Am going to leave that here, but you can stay up to date with all my reads on my Goodreads & StoryGraph. If not, you can snoop on my affiliate Bookshop.org page. I have two shelves that might be up your street - Currently Reading and Read in 2026. 

I am hoping to be more up to date with my reading on here in the next few months. And am going to try a few out-of-my-comfort-zone reads (something I enjoyed doing at the start of my blogging adventure and seeing as this is my last year of blogging...) and a ton more rereads... STAY TUNED, MY LOVELIES!