Everything I Read in April 2026

This month has been limited on time (for reading for pleasure), so I had to be highly selective with this months reads. The latest Finlay Donovan was a given, because I LOVE the series so much. This latest installment wrapped up one major part of the storyline. This Book Made Me Think of You was giving me PS. I Love You vibes from the synopsis, but I loved it so much more. As a booklover, I enjoyed reading a book about a fellow booklover. If this term sums you up as well, then I highly suggest adding this one to you reading list. Last of all we have the third installment in the Vacation series by Catherine Mack (I enjoyed this one just as much as the first book in the series.

So there you have it, two crime novels and a story about a book lover getting through the hardest period of her life with 12 months of books. I also have a new non-fiction release for you. I rarely read non-fiction with the exception of textbooks for nursing school, but this is definitely one you’ll want to read if you have a tumultuous relationship in your past.

Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line | Elle Cosimano

This is the first Finlay Donovan novel where no one dies… well there is someone whose fate is left in the balance at the end, but no actual deaths occur in the 6th novel in the Finlay Donovan series by author Elle Cosimano. That being said, we finally learn what really happened when Vero and the sorority that claims she stole their money and went on the run.

Now confined to her mother’s home in Maryland until her trial (with only time away for essential errands), Finlay has lost all contact with her nanny and best friend.

When Finlay decides to visit her friend to help get to the bottom of what happened (before Vero can be wrongly convicted), and Vero, of course, refuses to just sit on the sidelines while Finlay investigates what really happened in the sorority house the night the money went missing. Also along for the ride are Vero’s husband, Javi, and cousin Ramon.

While not my favorite book in the series, this book still gets an A rating from me. If you’re a fan of the series (or if you haven’t started it yet) this is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: A

Motherhood is messy. So is covering for your partner in crime.

Life hasn’t been easy for Finlay Donovan lately, but it just got a whole lot harder. Her nanny and partner-in-crime, Vero, has been extradited from Virginia to Maryland, where she’s facing criminal charges for a theft she swears she didn’t commit. A prisoner to an ankle bracelet as she awaits her trial, Vero is forced to live with her overbearing mother and nosy aunt. Threatening messages keep arriving at her mother’s door, demanding Vero “turn over the money or else.” And if she doesn’t figure out who really stole her former sorority’s treasury funds, her next home might be a prison cell.

But proving her innocence might be an impossible feat. Vero was the treasurer of her sorority when the money went missing―one of the only people who had access to the cash. And her alibi is a date who ghosted her. With her court date quickly approaching and her mysterious stalker on her tail, Vero needs to clear her name fast.

Finlay decides a trip to Maryland is in order. After all, Vero stood by her through her darkest moments, and Finlay will be damned if she lets her best friend and children’s nanny be convicted for something she didn’t do. She sets off on a mission to suss out the real thief and bring Vero home.

This Book Made Me Think of You | Libby Page

I just loved this book. It’s one of those books that you stumble upon at just the right time, and it leaves your heart feeling happy. This Book Made Me Think of You centers around Matilda ‘Tilly’ Nightingale. Five months after her husband died she received a call from a local bookshop telling her that he’s left her a birthday gift. When she goes into the bookshop she learns that her husband has not just left her one book, but 12. One for each of the next twelve months. Each book contains handwritten letters from her husband to help her get through the first year without him.

Through her books, she not only starts to get out in the world again (first to Bali with her sister Harper and then to Paris on her own, where, of course, she visits Shakespeare and Co, then to Tuscany) When she returns to the bookstore each month she finds that it has become a haven, not just because of the books, but perhaps because of the bookstore owner (Alfie) as well.

As she explores her life without her beloved husband by her side, Tilly learns to live again… and perhaps maybe even find love again.

Rating: A+

Twelve books. Twelve months. One chance to heal her heart.

When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. But mainly because Joe died five months ago….

When she goes to pick up the present, Alfie, the bookshop owner with kind eyes, explains the gift—twelve carefully chosen books with handwritten letters from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.

At first, Tilly can’t imagine sinking into a fictional world, but Joe’s tender words convince her to try, and something remarkable happens—Tilly becomes immersed in the pages, and a new chapter begins to unfold in her own life. Monthly trips to the bookstore—and heartfelt conversations with Alfie—give Tilly the comfort she craves and the courage to set out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to share her journey with others, her story—like a book—becomes more than her own.

This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone | Catherine Mack

This is the third book in the ‘Vacation Series’ by Catherine Mack. I loved the first one; the second one was good but not my favorite; and the third book—Chef’s kiss. Set in the Bahamas at a writers conference, best-selling author is in her element… and it should come as no surprise that even before Eleanor arrives on the island, the first body has already dropped… on the floor of her hotel room.

One of the things that I love most about these series is the fact that you feel like you’re having a conversation with the lead character throughout the book (she’s literally having a conversation with you, albeit one-sided), and it was interesting to see how some of the factors from the first book played out in this one. Lose ends were tied up, but the final sentences left you with another cliffhanger, making the time between now and the next book seem interminable. Not to mention the author already shares the title of the next book in the series with us.

If you enjoyed the two previous books in the series, you’re going to want to give this one a read!

Rating:A

The third in the witty and captivating series following bestselling author Eleanor Dash, who once again has to swap her sun hat for her detective hat, when a body is found at a murder mystery writing conference in the Bahamas.

Eleanor Dash can never catch a break. Not only has she had to solve two real-life murder plots in the past year, but both times it was when she was meant to be on vacation. Now she’s finally got a ticket to a relaxing weekend―an all-inclusive resort at the Bahamas where she’s speaking at a conference for murder mystery writers―but she arrives to find a body on the floor of her hotel room. Because of course she does.

With plenty of familiar faces at the resort, any one of them could have been the intended target or the culprit behind it all. Was it Oliver Forrest, Eleanor’s dashing boyfriend, who’s in danger of getting dropped by his publisher because his sales are dwindling? Or Connor Smith, Eleanor’s infuriating ex-lover-turned-bestselling-rom-com-author with a sordid past of his own? Or her sister Harper, whose own stilted writing career has been a sore point for years as Eleanor’s has soared? Perhaps it’s one of the other writers also in attendance, as friends, frenemies, and foes from Eleanor’s past all seem to be invited to the island.

Surrounded by mystery writers who know all too well the many ways to craft the perfect crime, Eleanor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and do whatever it takes to get out of this weekend alive.