lately with lila april 2026 | a month of mishaps

Hello again, dear friends! I hope you all are well, and if you aren’t then I hope brighter days head your way soon! Well, friends, this past April seemed to simultaneously last for an eternity and last for a nanosecond. I mainly spent the month doing some “life admin” tasks that I’d been putting off and losing myself in arts and crafts projects, until the end of the month wherein I experienced some relatively major events. Surprisingly, despite all the busyness, I (finally) managed to read and finish one book, as well as consume some other entertainment media too. So let’s jump right in and check out what went down in my April 2026!

• I recapped my March 2026
• I also revisited the topic of “Instapoetry”

I don’t know why I read Speak of the Devilby Sweeney Boo when I wasn’t really a fan of the first book in this series (Over My Dead Body), but here we are I guess, kicking off my 2026 reading year with a dud. I’ll give it to the author/illustrator—this graphic novel, like the first, features absolutely stunning artwork! That said, in my humble opinion the writing is still terrible. First of all, the characters still lack development, even though this is the second work in a series and by now we should have a bit of a fuller picture of said characters. Beyond the completely cardboard cutout characters, the plot was an entire mess—especially towards the end. By the end of the book, there were so many plot holes and entire plotlines had been dropped or retconned. It felt like the author was rushing to finish the story but didn’t know how to tie everything together. I wish I could say this graphic novel improved on the previous one, but, unfortunately, I think it actually just rolled the series further down the hill.

Rating:

readathin

I’ve decided to once again throw my hat in the ring again with this May’s round of Readathin. I wanted to participate in the last round, but my life kinda went to shit during that period, so I’m glad there’s another opportunity. As per usual, my TBR and activity plans are more like loose guidelines and I’m not going to be too hard on myself if I don’t hit all of those guideline goals.

tbr

• Spring Hopeful Book & Finish A Current Read: Thistlemarsh by Moorea Corrigan
  • I was so excited for this 2026 debut Adult historical fantasy featuring faeries that I preordered the audiobook and began listening to it the day it released! Faerie fantasies typically remind me of springtime (regardless of how dark and/or evil said faeries are), so this seems like the perfect pick, especially since I already started it.
• Body of Water on the Cover: The Trident and the Pearl by Sarah K.L. Wilson
  • Am I stretching this prompt a bit? Maybe. But this book does feature an underwater ocean scene in the background, so I think it counts.
• Mental Health Rep: Something More by Jackie Khalilieh
  • Last year I read and loved You Started It by Jackie Khalilieh, so I figured this prompt is the perfect opportunity to read her other YA contemporary romance novel, Something More. Khalilieh writes books about young women who are autistic and Palestinian Canadian, just like she is, so reading one of her works seems like a good fit here!
• Strong Female Main Character: Seek The Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth
  • I loved Roth’s Adult fantasy novella, When Among Crows, and felt like she’d really grown as a writer since the conclusion of the Divergent trilogy, so I was so excited to hear that she’d written an Adult science fantasy novel releasing in May 2026.
• Poll Pick Based on One Line Synopsis
  • To save a bit of time, I’m going to kick this prompt down the road a little by doing a poll in one of the book blogger Discord servers I’m a member of sometime in May.

activity goals

• Declutter or Tidy
  • I started working on cleaning and decluttering my bedroom during April, so rest assured that I will be continuing with that project!
• Summer Hopefuls List
  • I don’t typically make strict TBRs, so this list will be more like loose “guidelines”…
• Water Related Activity
  • I don’t live by the beach and here in the US we don’t have public pools anymore (and I’m not a member of a private pool, seeing as the fees are exorbitant and the waitlists are over five years long in this area—and that’s not hyperbole!), so thinking of a “water related activity” was tough for me! In the end I decided to kinda stretch the intent of this prompt and have decided that my activity will be watering my monstera plant.
• Watch Something
  • The latest season of The Law According to Lidia Poet recently dropped on Netflix, so I’ll probably be watching that. I watched the first two seasons of this Italian Netflix Original earlier this year and adored both of them. Season 2 left us with quite the cliffhanger ending, so I’m eager to see where Season 3 goes with the characters and story!
• Hobby Time
  • Lately I’ve been doing a lot of creative journaling, so I’m hoping that I’ll continue with that habit in May.
• Tell Someone You Love Them
  • This one seems pretty simple, as I always tell my friends I love them 😀
• Try Something New
  • Hmmmm…honestly, I’ll have to think a bit for this prompt, as I’m not quite sure how I’d like to fulfill it. I’m sure I’ll find something, though!

Of course, I just had to start watching XO, Kitty Season 3 the minute the season dropped on Netflix! I was so excited to see where the story would take our beloved characters this time around. Unfortunately, though, I actually ended up feeling rather “meh” about what I’ve watched from this season (Episodes 1 – 3), weirdly enough. I feel like…I don’t know, I guess it seems like the writers are running out of interesting storylines for all of the characters and because of that the series has started to feel kinda generic. In Season 2 it felt like the stakes were so high for Kitty and the crew—both emotionally and story-wise. Coming off of that, it felt like the series just dropped the bar? Like, sure, there was drama, but it wasn’t quite bringing The Drama™ (not to be confused with the recently released A24 film The Drama lol).

Rating:

I also ended up watching Murderbot Episodes 1 – 3 with a friend in April as well. I enjoyed what I watched for the most part, with my only qualm being that I felt like the set looked like a giant soundstage, and so the story wasn’t entirely immersive to me. Other than that, though, I thought the series was quite fun and entertaining. I know Apple TV adapted the series from Martha Wells’ beloved Murderbot novella series, which I’ve never read (although it’s on my TBR!) so I can’t comment on how well it was adapted to screen. I think the acting was pretty good and the cast seemed to gel well together onscreen. All in all, I think I wouldn’t mind watching more of the series, although it’s not, like, my top priority watch.

Rating:

April brought music that made me feel like my life had a personalized soundtrack playing behind it. There were also some really great new and recent releases that landed on my April playlist, from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single “drop dead” to Paris Paloma’s latest single “Miyazaki” to RAYE’s final single “Click Clack Symphony” off her latest album THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE. (which honestly was outstanding in full as well). Aside from those releases, though, I added a lot of music that reminded me of something that would’ve played in the background of a contemporary drama TV series, like music from Dominic Fike and the songs “Treehouse” by Alex G ft. Emily Yacina and “Lucky Girl” by Faderhaze (both of which were songs by new-to-me artists). For some reason, those types of songs usually remind me of spring and summer, so the music definitely fit my seasonal vibe!

for readers

• Krysta has been reading through all of the American Girl book series, and she finally got to my favorite AG character—Josephina! (you can also check out the rest of the posts in her series here)
• Briana noted that book characters rarely engage in making restitution
• Stephanie discussed online etiquette regarding tagging authors in book reviews
• Emma highlighted sci fi books to add to your summer TBR
• Elaine spilled her bookish confessions
• Sumedha talked about 10 book titles that also describe her life
• Angela reviewed books by the Bronte sisters
• Sifa Elizabeth shared her favorite autistic reads for Autism Acceptance Month
• Louise also took a blast to the past and recapped reading some of the Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries books
• Nicole defended fanfiction
• Sarah covered the “misery memoir” boom of the 1990s and early 2000s (Video)
• Jared pondered if books are getting worse (Video)
• Eden investigated the question “why are we afraid of spicy books?” (Video)

for fun

• Elaine shared how she uses tarot for her mental health
• Kat gave her opinion as a trans woman on crossdressing and Bryon Noem’s reported kink
• Lucia explored whether authors are being extreme with their book promos
• Gabbie showed off how she sets up quarterly reflections in her journal
• Journey gave tips on finding ideas as a writer

April ended up mostly being pretty quiet, save for two things that happened to me at the end of the month. I spent a lot of the beginning of the month going to cafes and working on my creative journal while there for several hours. I made sooooooo many spreads (mainly for my 2026 Quarter 1 Recap—which I haven’t even finished yet!) and I’m really, really happy with how they turned out!

After that, not too much happened until the end of the month, which is when I woke up in the middle of the night because I was having a seizure. I’ve never had any kind of seizure before, so it was a very scary experience that I’m hoping doesn’t become a regular event for me. I spoke with several of my doctors and we think that the seizure was probably the result of me starting a certain POTS medication alongside two other certain psychiatric medications that I’ve been taking for a while which were slightly contraindicated. Needless to say, I immediately stopped taking said POTS medication. My cardiologist has actually prescribed a new medication for my POTS, but after that seizure experience, I’m definitely going to do some research to make sure it doesn’t conflict with any of my current medications. Ultimately, it was a really terrifying experience that I hope not to repeat, but I’m fortunate that I seem to be okay otherwise and didn’t fall off my bed or anything when it happened.

Unfortunately, just when I thought I was out of the woods with my medical trouble, I ended up hurting my back the weekend after I had that seizure 😭 I mean, ya girl just can’t seem to catch a break! Basically, I tried to lift a crate at work and ended up irritating a fissure in the lumbar section of my back, which led to a muscle spasm. It definitely took me out for a few days there, but I managed to recover by the final day of April, and thank god, seeing as that was the day I had a choir concert!

May means the end of the semester, so I’ll have a good chunk of free time to have fun! Luckily, I already have some exciting plans for the month! One of the girls who I met at a meetup held by a local junk journaling club invited me to meetup with her for a “cafe journaling” session. I’m really looking forward to it, as I’ve been having so much fun journaling lately, and adding a new friend to the mix would make the experience perfect! My friend Rowan and I are also going to a “craft & yap” event held by a local craft club, so I’m also really looking forward to that.

How was your April 2026? Did you read anything memorable? Is there anything you’re looking forward to coming up in May 2026? What’s on your TBR for May?

Learn more the author of this post:

Lila @ Hardcover Haven

Lila is a 30 year old anthropology student and lover of literature who's been book blogging for an eternity. Her hobbies include reading, singing, writing, arts and crafts, and snuggling her two cats, Snoopy and Clementine.