April Reading Wrap Up: Fantasy Romance, Dark Romance & One Book That Destroyed Me (2026)

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Hi guys, it's Jess from Honest Fiction and welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I am sharing my April wrap-up.

[00:00:19]All right, guys. So, I completely failed at my April TBR. I really underestimated how much time Apolycon and BookCon were going to take up. So, I did not get a lot of reading done. Now, I will also say the reading that I did do, the readings are all over the place. April was such an odd month. One of the best months I've had all year and I am so thankful for all of the opportunities I had at April and also getting to go to BookCon and Apolon. So much fun. I actually have an entire video on my experience that I will leave in the cards and in the description. But anyway, most of these books are fantasy romance and dark romance. Like I said, I had some hits and I had some misses, and I am very excited to talk about these books with you guys. So, if you're unfamiliar with my channel, I post new videos every Wednesday and Sunday. If you haven't yet, please like and subscribe. You can also hit that notification bell to be notified whenever I post new bookish content. You can also check out my story graph, Patreon, and Instagram, all linked down below. With all that out of the way, let's talk about the books I read in April. All right, guys. So, starting off with Wicked Onyx. So, this was my Patreon fantasy romance book club book for April, and I have such mixed feelings regarding this book. So, I think I landed on a 3.75, but I'm still not sure if that is going to be my final rating. I just there were things I liked, there were things I really, really didn't like. So, if you have not read this book, it is a dark academic fantasy romance. We're following this girl named Amaya Onyx who is the last heir of a cursed bloodline. So, she ends up infiltrating this deadly academy known as Nightbridge Academy in the hopes of clearing her family name. And the thing you need to know about Amaya is she is cursed to not feel pleasure or pain, which was a really cool concept.

[00:02:11]But I had so much trouble connecting with these characters. It took me until at least the 50% point to honestly care what was going on. And there is so much happening in this book. So, there are these monsters known as horrors. And I thought that was a really cool element.

[00:02:28]But on top of that, there's all of these different kind of factions of magical communities that are all scheming. We're introduced to so many characters. It was really hard to keep them all straight.

[00:02:40]And overall, while I did really love the vibes, it's gothic. It's creepy. I love kind of the found family feel, I just really had trouble getting into the story. Also, the romance. There's not really a romance, but it does seem like it might be leaning towards either a love triangle or why choose. I will be reading the sequel, honestly, because there are a few love interests that I really, really liked. I just have no idea where this book is headed. So, let me know if you read this. What did you think? And next up, I read A Queen This Fierce and Deadly, which is the final book in the Kingdom of Lies series by Stacia Stark. And I absolutely hate to say this, but this was by far my least favorite book in the series. While it did do a very good job of concluding the series and tying up all the loose ends, I was so underwhelmed with how everything kind of finalized. So, I don't want to go into spoilers, but the way the big bad ended up being killed, I just wanted so much more. And honestly, this is one of those series where I loved the first book and every book after I lost enjoyment a little bit. So, I still would recommend this series. I think it's a really fun time. I just had really, really high hopes after book one, and I feel a little bit let down.

[00:03:59]And next up, I finally read King of Ravens. Now, this is a dark fantasy romance that is very loosely inspired by Hades and Pphanany. This was such a fun time. So, this is following Rionin, who is this girl who actually has a chronic illness and has been trying to get by without being a burden to her family.

[00:04:20]And she ends up discovering that she actually is going to be forced into a marriage with the FA, King of the Dead, because of a bargain her father had made prior to her birth. So she ends up going to the underworld essentially and in order to get out of this marriage, the king of the dead offers her a deal. If she can escape this deadly labyrinth, he will let her return to her family. So it's her trying to escape this labyrinth, but also dealing with court politics and also just wishing to return to her loved ones. It was so good. There are some side characters in this, including like a side monster that I was obsessed with. I loved the main character. I loved the overall world. I will say the ending you will either absolutely love or absolutely hate. I loved it, but I can definitely see why people would not be a fan and I need the sequel immediately. All right, and next up is my top read of the month and will definitely be one of my top reads of the year. Torment by Dylan Paige, part one and part two. This is the Mystic Box special edition. I have not been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished it. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read. That being said, it will not be for everybody. This is a very, very dark motorcycle club romance that please just check your triggers. There are so many things in this book that will make you uncomfortable and it's a very tough read, but I was completely addicted. I love this book so so much. Now, I will also say I'm kind of leerary to even call this a romance. It's more about this girl who starts off at the very beginning of this story, young and completely innocent, and how gradually because of the choices made by the people around her, she begins to become almost corrupted. And it is such an amazing amazing story. So, honestly, this is one I feel like it is better to go into somewhat blind. So, I'm going to give you not a lot of a plot synopsis.

[00:06:24]Like I said, we're following this very young girl who at the start has a pretty happy life. Her father ends up passing away and her mother ends up meeting somebody and gets married only to discover the person she married is not exactly who she thought at the beginning. So slowly both the mother and the daughter are pulled into the world of this motorcycle club and all of the participants within the motorcycle club including our main character's new stepbrother. So, it does have some taboo kind of romance going on. So, once again, please check trigger warnings, but oh my gosh, I absolutely loved this book. And next up, we have The Auction by Satie Concincaid. This is a dark mafia romance that is loosely inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Batman. So in this we are following Imigen who has been raised in isolation and is being prepared to be sold at a secret criminal auction where she is going to be given to the highest bidder as his property.

[00:07:28]Then we're also following the masked billionaire who ends up buying Imagigen and it's their romance. So I'm going to be honest, I read this book about eight times. So, I've mentioned this before on all of my social medias, but I was given the opportunity to actually interview Satie Concincaid at Barnes & Noble. This was my first ever live author interview.

[00:07:50]So, to say I was nervous is an understatement. And I just wanted to make sure I knew all the ins and outs of this book. So, I'm at the point I can probably quote passages of this. But overall, it is a very, very fun time. I will never look at butter the same way again. My one critique about this is, and this is a very minor spoiler, the MMC is very much a softy, and I kind of went into this expecting a much darker romance given the premise, but it ended up being honestly kind of cute at certain parts, but overall, I cannot wait for the sequel. And also to prep for that interview, I read Broken by Satie Concincaid, which is the first book in her Manhattan Ruthless series.

[00:08:35]Now, when I first picked this up, I thought it was mafia, but it's actually billionaire romance. So, in this, we're following this guy who ends up being pressured by his father to marry. So, his father ends up finding a suitable match, and he is very surprised when he actually really likes the girl that his father has hooked him up with. The only downside is she has made a rule that they cannot have sex before marriage.

[00:08:58]And he really, really, really wants to have sex before marriage. So, it's their romance. This is incredibly spicy. I will say some of the spicy were not my favorite. There are certain words I just I don't love in spice and I feel like almost all of them were used in this book. But overall, the story was really fun. So, if you're looking for a billionaire romance, I would definitely check it out. And that brings us to Bad Bishop. So, this is a dark mafia romance that I read in the very beginning of the month. It features arranged marriage and on paper, I thought I would love this book. However, the plot synopsis was missing a very key detail. And I will say this is a slight spoiler because while some plot synopsis actually do mention this, others do not. And I think the back of the book does not mention uh this little trope. So anyway, had I known this book featured a woman that is pretending to have a developmental disability, I never would have picked this book up. I just think because of my background, um for those of you who don't know, I used to work in special education. I just something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. I did not enjoy this book. Um I really couldn't get into the book after I realized that that was going to be a prominent point of this book. And I understand that there are historical romances that do the same thing. And look, if you like this book, that is great. Personally for me, I know I don't have a lot of triggers. That is one of them. I didn't even know it was a trigger. I didn't know books had this.

[00:10:28]Uh but yeah, I just it's I'm not not a fan. So, the overall story, once again, I just feel like I was having so much trouble connecting to it because I just couldn't get that out of my mind and I didn't love the character. So, overall, I was not a fan of this book if you cannot tell. But, I do think if you like arranged marriage romances that are darker and you're okay with reading that kind of thing, then go for it.

[00:10:55]Personally, just not for me. Last up, I read Caught by Convicts by Jessica Kaine. Now, this is the first book I ever read by Jessica Kane, and it definitely will not be my last. This was just a fun, spicy time. We're following this girl who ends up going to prison to visit her abusive father. And while she's there, there ends up being a riot and then like a lockdown in the prison and these two inmates end up capturing her and have a little bit of an intimate moment and become completely obsessed with her after that. So, it's their romance and it was just fun and good.

[00:11:30]Highly recommend the audio book. The narrators were excellent. But anyway, I definitely want to read more Jessica.

[00:11:36]All right, guys. Those are all the books I read in April. Please let me know if you read any of the books I mentioned.

[00:11:41]And I'd like to say a very special thank you to my Paladin Protectors, Amanda, Sarah, Leslie, Christy, Cat, Lada, Kelly, Nerdy, Lisa Lynn, and Catherine.

[00:11:52]Thank you guys so much for supporting my channel. And I said this already, I post new videos every Wednesday and Sunday.

[00:11:58]And if you haven't yet, please like and subscribe. I will see you all next week.

[00:12:02]Bye.