The results | April Wrap Up

I was actually planning on writing an article a week and update you on my reading throughout each week but that didn't happen. I was so focused on the books that writing updates just slipped my mind so now I'm here with a long overdue article about my O.W.L.s results.

I passed my O.W.L.s!

April was a really good reading month for me, I ended up reading 6 books and completing all the prompts I selected for my O.W.L.s exams plus one book for the Merpeople Linguistics seminar.

First I read Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs which is the third installment in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. I put down the Miss Peregrine series a while back and I honestly have no idea why, because when I picked up the third book last month, I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was fun, filled with adventure and impossible quests, and all in all a great read.
The series follows Jacob Portman who witnesses his grandfather being killed by a monster that weirdly enough, no one else can see. A long trip to a secluded island later, Jacob finds Miss Peregrine's orphanage for peculiar children as well as all of his grandfather's childhood friends.

The story is captivating and the world is definitely one that I would love to visit, but there is one thing that makes this series truly interesting: the pictures.
Each book is filled to the brim with creepy, black and white old photos that are a major help when the description is too much to handle. For me, the description was too much, which is why I couldn't give these books the 5 star rating that I would have wanted to. I am a fan of descriptive fragments in a book, but there is only a certain amount of those that I can read before my brain refuses to focus on them anymore, thus I ended up giving this one a 4 / 5 stars.

This was my read for Defence Against the Dark Arts prompt which was to read a book set at sea / coast.

The second book that I finished completed the challenge for Ancient Runes: read a book with a heart on the cover or in the title. Surprisingly, I didn't have that many options for this prompt, but I did eventually find one that had a heart on the cover (after freaking out that I would have to change the magical career that I chose for this year, of course). For Ancient Runes I read Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie.

Now I am an Agatha Christie fan and honestly love each and every book that she wrote (that I read so far) and this one did not disappoint me either. It was a quick read and a true challenge to guess the criminal. The book is actually a mini collection of short stories, 4 to be precise, and each was a different mystery to solve for the talented detective Hercule Poirot.

I had four chances to try and guess the culprit and failed each and every one of them because Agatha Christie books are just impossible to predict.
It was a really fun read and it showed me just how much I missed reading mysteries. I gave it a 4.25 / 5 stars.

Next on the list is Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan which I was very excited to read. I really enjoyed its companion, Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods, so I had really high expectations going into this one.
I am a history nerd, so books that contain mythology are very likely to become favorites in no time.
I read this book for Transfiguration: read a book / series that includes shapeshifting and since the gods have a thing for changing their physical form on a daily basis, I thought it fit the prompt best.

I absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt, loved this book. I read the original stories about the greek gods and heroes years ago and enjoyed them very much, yet I'm sure I would have loved them so much more in this format. Unlike the original legends, Rick Riordan's stories are filled with many modern elements and a lot of funny interventions from the author. The interactions between the characters are hilarious, the descriptions are amazing and the characters are very lovable from the first pages.
I ended up giving this a 5 / 5 stars.

For the Artihmancy exam I had to read a book outside of my favorite genre and I decided to try something new while I was at it, so I picked up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid which is an adult book. I heard mixed reviews about it and was dreading the idea of a DNF because the summary sounded very intriguing.
And so I gave it a chance and holy guacamole, that book stole my heart.

Basically, the story follows a retired Hollywood actress of the 1960s and 1970s who married seven times and finally decided to share her life story.
I'll admit, all I was interested in was the drama surrounding Evelyn and I thought I could just skip the boring stuff and only read the parts involving her story. After all, those are the only ones that matter, right?

Wrong.

Guys, I cannot even begin to tell you just how much I enjoyed this book, each and every page of it. The story is captivating and it came to a point when it was a real struggle to take a break from reading it and do anything else. My mind just kept getting back to this story and I kept on wondering what would happen next. Evelyn is such a complex character and boy, did I want to slap her. I really liked her at first, sassy and ambitious but as I kept on reading, she became the most annoying character I have ever read about. She was manipulating and determined and right now, a month or so later, I still have not decided if I love her or hate her guts. I guess it's a little bit of both.

It was a great read and I'm looking forward to reading more adult books in the future. I gave it a 4 / 5 stars.

The last exam that I needed to complete my O.W.L.s requirements for the Librarian career was The Tyrant's Tomb which is the fourth installment in the Trials of Apollo series.
History of Magic and the prompt was: read a book featuring witches / wizards and for this one I read

Apollo is one of my favorites when it comes to the gods of Olympus so when I heard there was a series written for him? Yes please!
I read the first three books last year and loved them (I think it might have to do with me living for the moments when Apollo acts like a total drama queen throughout the series) and The Tyrant's Tomb was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019. The series quickly made it to my top favorites and I cannot wait for the last book in the series to finally come out later this year. I am rather sad that it's ending but I just need to know what happens next.

The series follows Apollo who is banished to the mortal world by his father, Zeus, and forced to serve a demigod while completing his trials if he ever wants to be a god again.
As I mentioned before, Apollo's character is a complete diva so you can imagine the amount of drama constantly surrounding him.
On his very first day as a mortal, Apollo meets Meg, a young but powerful demigod and let me tell you, they are quite the team. Each book features a former roman ruler, however, not mentioned from the start, which makes for quite a fun game: guess the cruel ruler before the book reveals him.

I am proud to say that I guessed right each time.

I enjoyed this book very much and once again, this was one that I could hardly put down because it was so captivating. Of course, since it's the fourth book in the series I can't really say much without giving you spoilers so I'll stop here and let you discover those adventures on your own.
I can say though that each Rick Riordan book is better than the previous one and gods, I really hope there will be more series involving the gods of Olympus in the future because I am not ready to say goodbye to this chapter yet.

The Tyrant's Tomb was my last 5 star read for the month of April.

Now because I still had some reading time left, I decided to participate in some of the seminars and I made it to one of them: The Merpeople Linguistics one. For this I had to complete the Herbology prompt, which was to read a book that starts with the letter 'M' and I picked up The Mysterious Affair at Styles, again, by Agatha Christie.

This was another quick read and I almost had it! I almost guessed the killer this time!

But then I changed my mind and got it all wrong, of course.

This is when I officially gave up ever trying to guess the culprit ever again.
I gave it a 4.25 / 5 stars.

And that concludes my O.W.L.s wrap up! I do hope that April was as good a reading month for you as it was for me. Let me know in the comments below the careers you chose and if you passed your O.W.L.s exams!