I am so excited to say that I will be going on a trip this month! I have been getting the travel bug since I haven’t traveled anywhere since our trip to Europe last year. I have a note on my phone listing all the places I want to visit. I chose to do a road trip to New Mexico! I am not a stranger to road trips and I find driving to be relaxing. To help get into the mindset, I picked books that I felt resembled where I was going or books that I thought would be quick reads to bring on vacation.

To recap last month, I ended up reading two books in March. The first book was Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree. It was lovely and cozy which is what I anticipated the book to be. It took a little bit longer to read Bookshops and Bonedust, so I only ended up having a week left in March to finish another book. I decided to swap out Vox Machina Kith & Kin and read The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling. This is the second book in the The Ex Hex series. The Kiss Curse was only 306 pages which I thought was more doable to read at the end of the month. While I ended up changing things last minute, I still felt that last month was a successful reading month. With that being said, I’m excited to share the books that I picked out to read this month.

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Kate Thompson is out for blood. Her father is murdered and the journal that he found is missing. The journal revealed the location of a hidden gold mine that many people are after. Kate goes off on her own and in her quest, she meets several unsavory people who stop at nothing to get their hands on the gold.

I have had Vengeance Road on my Goodreads TBR since March 23rd, 2015. I thought the concept was neat, it feels as if Mulan and True Grit were in a book, and that’s what I expect Vengeance Road to be. I thought this book felt fitting since I’m driving out west.

Dead Space by Kali Wallace

Hester Marley works at a security company based in the Asteroid Belt. She spends her days investigating crimes which in turn helps her company profit. One of Hester’s friends reaches out to her with information about an event that occurred in Hester’s past. Before she can learn more, her friend is murdered. Hester is motivated to figure out what happened to her friend and goes to a mining station to investigate. Secrets are buried and now Hester is stuck in the depths of space with nowhere else to go.

Okay so technically this book is labeled as SciFi / Fantasy according to the library, but based on the premise, this seems more like horror. Being stranded on a space station knowing that someone killed your friend, talk about terrifying. I picked Dead Space for this TBR since there’s a lot of history with New Mexico and potential extra-terrestrial life. I think it adds to the TBR theme that I’m going for.

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

Rachel Krall is the host of a popular true-crime podcast that helped free an innocent man. Fresh off her popularity, Rachel is looking for the next case to cover. Rachel is drawn to a small town where a young boy is accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. While investigating, Rachel is harassed with mysterious letters that seem to point Rachel in the direction of another case. Rachel is investigating both crimes and feels that she’s asking questions without getting straight answers. Are both cases related and will Rachel get caught in the balance of revealing secrets that have long been buried?

In picking the books I read on vacation, I usually lean towards Thrillers or Romance. The Night Swim might feel like an outlier on this TBR, instead, I figured it would be an easy book to read whenever I have downtime.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks

Alix plays hockey and finds that she is the target of bullies. Alix gets into a physical fight with Lindsay which could hinder Alix’s invitation to a Hockey Summar Camp. Alix meets Ezra, one of the local theater kids at their school. Alix asks for Ezra’s help to control her anger. Alix and Ezra get closer and their feelings for each other develop into something deeper.

I wanted to start tackling my graphic novel TBR on Goodreads, so when I pick out my books for the month from the library, I see if my library has any copies of the graphic novels that I want to read. I am the first one to admit that I purchase most of my comics and graphic novels brand new, but the issue with that (no pun intended) is that I might read something I’m not a fan of and end up donating it. I’m trying to stick to a budget and I think it would be beneficial for me to rent more graphic novels and manga from my local library.

As a side note, all of the books in this TBR came from the library! I have a few books from my shelf that I plan on reading later in the year, so I wanted to exclusively read books that I rented from the library. I am looking forward to reading everything I picked out and I hope that with being on vacation, I will read everything on this TBR this month.