I say this every month, but really. REALLY. WHERE IS 2014 GOING?! I can’t believe it’s already May! Four months have just zoomed by and it all seems like a blur.

So what’s new with me this month? Ohhh, lots more wedding planning, as usual! Things are coming along nicely. I actually bought my wedding dress the other day (!!!!) and booked our photographer! Of course there are TONS more things to do, but things are going well so far! I decided to finally sit down and write up some blog posts on my wedding planning experiences. They won’t get too crazy, but I’ve had a lot of general thoughts about the process so far (of course) and it’s incredible how much help my blogging & Twitter friends have been, even with the little things! It’s nice to have support and advice as well as more people to the experience with!

It was also my blogoversary! I’ve been officially blogging for over two years now and I am still so in love with it! I’m also all signed up for BEA and cannot wait to go!!

• Number of Books Read In April: 8. This was definitely a slower month AND I was reading some BIG books!
• Popular Search Terms:  “lunar chronicles character quiz” and “the lunar chronicles test” (leads you back to my Lunar Chronicles quiz!) // “books from male pov” // “beauty queens libba bray”
• More Amusing Search Terms: “does thorne love cress?” (:D 😀 :D) // “didn’t like tfios that much”// “scott lynch interview hogwart houses” (ummm YES what is this?)
• Most Referrals (non-social media): Oh, Chrys (I was the featured blogger!), The Libraran Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!, Oh, the Books!
• Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (non-internal/social media): Gone Pecan, Oh, the Books!, Books Take You Places

• Surprise, surprise! The Lunar Chronicles Quiz and the Best-Friend-to-Boyfriend-Romance are still my top two posts thanks to search engines!
• My two year blogoversary was April 10th! I had been blogging for two whole years and hosted a huge giveaway! (Now closed, winners announced)
• You guys helped me with my survey on book reviews and I posted the results!

Other Reviews Posted

• I finally read This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales and really enjoyed it!
• Love Letters to the Dead was enjoyable for me but I didn’t quite fall in love with it
• I read The Lies of Locke Lamora and just LOVED it!
• I had high hopes for Second Star but it just wasn’t as magical of a Peter Pan adaptation as I had wished for!
• I posted a min-review for Gilded Ashes, a Cruel Beauty novella
• Killer Instinct would have been more enjoyable for me had I not been as familiar with Dexter…
• I wanted to RAVE about We Were Liars like so many had, but it fell flat for me
• So glad I continued on in Susan Dennard’s current series! Took me a while but I had a blast reading A Darkness Strange and Lovely

Goodreads Reading Progress

Bloggers featured on Book and a Beverage

• 4/3/14: Gaby from Queen Ella Bee Reads
• 4/9/14: Iona from Where Is Wallis
• 4/17/14: Kelley from Oh, the Books!
• 4/24/14: Pamela from Reading Is Fun Again

Other Features & Discussions

• Wanna know what books and authors were big milestones for me? On April 1st, I did the Top Ten Tuesday topic, My Gateway Authors/Books!
• My two-year blogoversary was April 10th!! I had a blast looking back as well as getting excited for many more years of blogging!
• April 15th’s Top Ten Tuesday had me raving about all of the bookish gifts and extras I’d like to get someday (that aren’t books)!
• I had a discussion about the endings of books and series and how a conclusion may affect your overall opinion
• Check out the most unique books I’ve read thanks to April 8th’s Top Ten Tuesday!
• I shared which characters I totally relate to with April 22nd’s Top Ten Tuesday!
• On the Same Page featured Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near this month! Amy & Alyssa’s posts are not to be missed, but my post was all about dark & twisty fairy tales!
• For April 29th’s Top Ten Tuesday, I mashed up a few really great pairings of books and movies!
• The Selective Collective featured The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt. I brought the book from Page to Screen & gave you visuals for the movie that I wish this book would be someday!

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR MAY?

• Well, what I’m most excited for is BEA! I will be ALL OVER THE PLACE this year and I’m so excited for it! I’ll be rooming with Alyssa from Books Take You Places and Amy from Tripping Over Books and I can’t wait to spend some more time with them too! If you’re going, make sure we say hi!! I was so shy last year I barely said hello to anyone. If you’re a first-timer, I also wrote a post based on my first time experiences at BEA last year. Give me a shout if you have questions! I may not be an expert, but I love to help! 🙂
• I created a brand-new page for all of my Top Ten Tuesday posts, really getting into the organizing and archiving spirit!
• I decided to start writing up a few posts about my wedding planning experience. They’ll be posting on the weekends so if you’re interested in a bit more personal posts, be sure to be on the lookout for them!
• On the Same Page will be featuring The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire LeGrand! We’re so excited to be helping out with the Middle Grade Author Carnival on Saturday during BEA and working with Claire so we really wanted to read and feature one of her books!
• The Selective Collective will be featuring We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and I will be hosting the interview & giveaway! Keep your eyes out for that post coming later in May!
• I’m on the blog tour for Monument 14: Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne! Post coming at you Sunday, May 4th!
• Reviews coming for Something Like Normal, The Chapel Wars, Gameboard of the Gods, Sean Griswold’s Head, and many more!

That wraps up April! I cannot believe how quickly it went by and that it’s already MAY! How is my wedding already six months away??? This is just crazy! I’ve been doing okay with my reading progress but things have slowed down again… Oh well! Life is happening and it’s all so exciting!