Hello you! Welcome to damppebbles and to my fourth #CaseClosed post of the year. April 2025 has packed its bags and left the building. It wasn’t a bad month for me here on the blog. I read a few books, reviewed a few books and faffed about a bit! All good fun. Now May has arrived and I hope to continue with April’s antics but with added sunshine! In the South of England we’re experiencing gloriously warm weather. Currently temperatures are topping 27 degrees (that’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit) and we Brits are savouring every heat-drenched second! We’re literally giddy. Making the most of this unexpected heatwave because we’re all fully aware, this handful of days at the end of April/start of May COULD BE OUR ONLY SUMMER! This really could be it for us 😂

Before I go any further, a little life update. If you’ve been around for a while you may be aware of the ongoing shoulder debacle. I won’t recap the goings-on because it’s actually really boring! Suffice to say, my fourth (and hopefully final) operation is happening in mid-May. My plan is to get a few posts written and scheduled before the surgery. That way no one should notice that I’m not around for a few weeks. When I found out about the third surgery I had in February, it put a rocket up my backside and I had lots of lovely content scheduled in advance. This time, it’s been quite a different experience. As things stand, I have reviews scheduled until 8th May and after that…… a large, gaping hole of nothingness! However, I have some annual leave coming up plus a couple of weeks to get my act together. Keep everything crossed for me!

Anyhoo, let’s crack on with what we’re here for which is #CaseClosed. If you’re new here, you may be wondering what #CaseClosed is. It’s my monthly wrap-up post where I share the books I’ve read along with what’s been happening on the blog. And, truth be told, I’m really, really, really bad at it. I’ve been blogging for over nine years now and the most I’ve ever managed was five posts in 2018. And as you can probably guess from my comment above, they weren’t consecutive. But things can change and I’m determined to make this year the best flipping year of damppebbles yet! This is my fourth post this year so I’m well on track.

On to the books! During April I read the grand total of SIX books. Pretty embarrassed by that to be honest.

Those six books were…

➡️ The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
➡️ The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
➡️ The Palazzo by Kayte Nunn
➡️ The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland
➡️ They Had it Coming by Nikki Smith
➡️ Actually, I’m a Murderer by Terry Deary

I’m on the blog tour for The Palazzo by Kayte Nunn at the end of May so please keep your eyes peeled for that. All other reviews will be published on or around publication day (providing I get my butt into gear and write them!)

During April I posted the following reviews…

🖤 Her Two Lives by Nilesha Chauvet
🖤 Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
🖤 The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
🖤 Nobody’s Hero by M.W. Craven
🖤 Senseless by Ronald Malfi
🖤 A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
🖤 The Liar by Louise Jensen
🖤 Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey
🖤 The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper

I posted five Top Ten Tuesday posts during April…

⚪ Tuesday 1st April – Spell APRIL FOOLS’ in Books
⚪ Tuesday 8th April – Hidden Gems
⚪ Tuesday 15th April – My Unpopular Bookish Opinions
⚪ Tuesday 22nd April – Books with Single Word Titles
⚪ Tuesday 29th April – Books with the Word “DARK” in the Title

And finally, I also posted five WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 2nd April
🟧 Wednesday 9th April
🟧 Wednesday 16th April
🟧 Wednesday 23rd April
🟧 Wednesday 30th April

My most popular review on the blog in April was The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani.

My most popular non-review post in April was my Top Ten Tuesday contribution from Tuesday 15th April – My Unpopular Bookish Opinions.

These ten reviews received the most views in April….

1️⃣ The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
2️⃣ A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
3️⃣ Nobody’s Hero by M.W. Craven
4️⃣ Senseless by Ronald Malfi
5️⃣ The Liar by Louise Jensen
6️⃣ Three Days and Life by Pierre Lemaitre (from November 2020!)
7️⃣ Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey
8️⃣ Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
9️⃣ The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper
🔟 What Lies Between Us by John Marrs (from September 2022!)

Despite having a bit of a disappointing month and only reading six books, my Goodreads Challenge progress is still looking okay. I decided to take the heat off in 2025 and instead of going for my usual ‘one book every four days’ (roughly 92 books a year) I’ve gone with the more sedate 55 books over 52 weeks which I see as one book a week. It’s not 52 for two reasons 1) I started two books in 2024 and finished them in 2025 so they shouldn’t count towards my total. And 2) one of the books I read was only 184 pages long and I only count full novels (not shorter books or novellas) in my challenge total. Makes some kind of strange sense somewhere! So far this year I have read 31 books which puts me 13 books ahead of schedule (56% of the way there). Woohoo!!

On to my NetGalley update for this month. For anyone not familiar with NG it’s a site where you can request early copies of digital books in exchange for a review. I’ve been on NG since I first started the blog in 2016 and we’ve….had our moments…? I find it very easy to get carried away and request ALL the books, only to realise a few days later that I do actually need to find the time to read ALL of the books! One of my bookish goals for this year is to get my NetGalley shelf down to five ‘to-be-read’ books at a time. I made a pledge at the end of January to reduce the number of books to be both read AND reviewed on my shelf. I was, at the time, feeling overly positive. Then I realised that would mean cutting back and unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be something I am capable of!

But to be fair, not a lot has changed this month. There’s been very little movement. Plus I’ve been very reserved and not requested that many new books (truth be told, I haven’t seen anything on the site I actually fancy reading 😬)

This is what I currently have to read on my NetGalley shelf.

💟 The Outback by Sara Ochs
💟 Believe by S.M. Govett
💟 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
💟 The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards
💟 The Six Murders of Daphne St Clair by Mackenzie Common
💟 The Compound by Aisling Rawle
💟 The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner
💟 With a Vengeance by Riley Sager
💟 Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson

So in summary…..
January: 11 eARCs to be read | 14 to be reviewed
February: 14 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed
March: 12 eARCS to be read | 12 to be reviewed
April: 9 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed

Still looking for a fancy graph maker to document my lack of progress. Please get in touch if you have one you recommend.

Out of the six books I read in April, my book of the month is…

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The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland

WTAF??? Wow! This is the fourth book in the Major Crimes series and it blew me away. In this latest instalment the Major Crimes are hunting a killer who murders to order whilst filming every gory detail of the act. DCI Cara Elliot and team are against the clock as every slaughter takes place exactly 48 hours after the initial abduction. As they edge closer to discovering who is responsible for the heinous killings, things start to get very, very personal for our DCI. This latest book changes everything and I’m looking forward to seeing what Holland has in store for us next.

That’s it for this month. Thanks as always for your wonderful ongoing support. It’s always, always appreciated 🩷 I hope you have a smashing May, full to bursting with lots of lovely books.

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Bluesky. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are around roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.

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