April showers bring May flowers. I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard that expression before. Of course, depending on where in the world you live, the saying could be true or false. For instance, there really isn’t a whole lot of rain on the radar here in southern California but when we lived in the Pacific Northwest, we experienced a lot.
Other than rain, April brings with it some other things. My mother’s birthday, for one. Easter also falls in April this year. My introduction and first post here at InspyRomance (due the confetti!)
There are some other things that have recently entered my life that I’ve become aware of that are celebrated in April as well.
For instance, April is the Month of the Military Child. This year, we’re gearing up for another move to our third duty station, and it makes me all that more aware of the difficulties of constant transitioning my children are in. Yes, we are a military family. My husband has been serving in the United States Navy as a chaplain for the last six years. The picture is of my hero husband, myself, and our two kids after an almost 9 month deployment. Of course, there are blessings and difficulties that come with being a military family. Some that people may not even think about. Some, I may have even put in a book. Like this one…
Molly adheres to a rigid honest policy—she refuses to tell a lie no matter how small or innocent. Why? They reason might surprise you and might have something to do with growing up as a military kid and moving around a lot. Also, that honesty policy gets her into more trouble than she ever thought possible. Like being fired from her job as a preschool teacher. Thankfully her embarrassment at getting a pink-slip for simply telling the truth had a witness. The devastatingly handsome father of one of her (now former) students want to hire her as a nanny for his daughter. She’s an educational professional so how hard can taking care of a four-year-old and her over-stressed, over-worked father be?
Something even more recent that has broadened our perspective of April is a diagnosis my son received not long ago that put him on the Autism spectrum. Did you know that April is Autism Acceptance Month? I’ve seen more neurodivergent books coming out lately and I am so thrilled to see this representation in fiction! I am here for each and every one! Fiction is such a strong avenue to broaden our perspectives and deepen our empathy for one another. One of my favorite books featuring a neurdivergent main character (in this case the heroine) is Falling for Your Best Friend by Emma St. Clair. I’d love some more recommendations of books where either the hero or heroine is neurodivergent, if you have them!
Is April special to you for any specific reason? Do you know of any good books that celebrate spring, Easter, military families, or characters with autism?
April is my birthday month.
Welcome Sarah, I am one of the Aussies who visit. Mum and dad were married April 5 1947. And for Australian and New Zealand we celebrate ANZAC day on April 25. Commemorates the landing at Gallipoli in WW1 of the Australian and New Zealand Army Core.
I stayed in Spokane for a few days and also Port Orchard and loved the area. I know right up that area there is a place that has displays of tulips which I missed by a couple of weeks.
Parts of Australia have had too much rain already this month where as where I am we haven’t had much at all.
Welcome to Inspy Romance Sarah! In SW Michigan April showers, bring May flowers. Living a mile from the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan it has been a wet gloomy cold spring. Last week we received a dusting of snow. This week we finally have temperatures in the upper 50s. Lawns are greening, daffodils are blooming, sun is shining. Looking forward to be E.B. for the grandkids (Easter Bunny), especially my 5 & 8 year old granddaughters. Best wishes.
Welcome Sarah. This sounds like a fun book. April is Easter for me. I love celebrating the story of Christ. April 28 is my middle brother’s birthday. I love April because of all the new beginnings that are happening outside.
Happy Birthday!
So cool! I lived very close to Port Orchard for about three years. There is a navy base up there where my husband was stationed. I loved it! So gorgeous! Maybe on of these we’ll get to Australia and see your beautiful country.
We lived in SW Michigan for a few years while my husband attended seminary. In fact, our son was born there! Did April bring you some snow showers the other day?
Easter is great! At the college I went to, they had a huge passion play for the community that spanned the entire campus and involved hundreds of actors and volunteers. I’ll always have happy memories of that even though I was always too shy to do anything more than dress up as a crowd member.
Welcome to Inspy Romance, Sarah! It’s good to have you onboard, and I look forward to your posts.
April is special for birthdays. My dad would have been 100 this month! But he passed away many years ago now, so it’s not like he “almost” reached it. It’s also my daughter-in-law’s birthday month, and her we can definitely still celebrate… and we do :)
Welcome to Inspy!! I know Hallee Bridgeman has written a book with a character with Autism, though I haven’t read it yet. Karen Kingsbury has a book with a character with Down’s Syndrome. I’ve read one with a character in a wheelchair, and some books with characters with sight problems, and some with other disabilities. There are some April babies in my family and among my friends, too!
Sarah, yes we received snow showers. This winter/ spring we received a lot of what I call “nuisance” snow. Just to make roads slick and messy. I am a retired pastor’s wife. My husband attended Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary. Two out of 3 sons where born in Michigan. Middle son was born in a Chicago suburb. Rain showers today.
Oh! Those all sound great! I love books with representation in them! I’ll have to look up the authors and see if I can’t figure out which titles you’re talking about.
Thanks for having me! And have fun at the birthday celebrations. :)
I just like when weather starts getting warmer but lately we have been waking up to snow on Monday we had about 6 inches it’s uncommon for us to have snow in April .My brother turned 20 and my grandpa turned 70 .I have a snow cone and Cotton candy buisness so I like when it gets warmer so I can start doing it.
The Karen Kingsbury one is Unlocked. Danni Roan’s April’s Angel has the main female character in a wheelchair, Autumn MacArthur’s See Me has a main male character who is losing his sight.
My anniversary and birthday are both in April!
Hi Sarah and Welcome! April is very Special for me because our first born -our daughter was born in April, and it is doubly Special for my husband our daughter was born on his moms (my MIL) birthday. Have a great day .
Thanks!!
Yum!! I’d be in danger of eating all the inventory if I were you. ;)
How fun!! Happy anniversary AND happy birthday!
How cool! All the happy birthdays around!
Welcome to IR Sarah! I’m looking forward to getting to know you here on the blog. And, I also have a couple of your paperback books (Molly & Amanda), plus I’m planning on borrowing the rest from this series through KU. I love new-to-me authors….not in a stalker kind of way though, LOL!
April celebrates a lot in my immediate family! Both my grand-girl’s & sons birthday (2nd & 22nd), she just turned 8 and my son will be 25. And my anniversary is on the 5th (25 years). So you see, April is a pretty special month :-)
I live on the Oregon coast, and most of the time the saying “April showers bring May flowers” is especially true! This whole week has been wet, rainy and a bit on the chilly side. Well really, we get our share of rain during the winter months too…lol!
One book I can think of that features a hero with ADHD is Karen Kingsbury entitled “Unlocked”. Holden is an 18 year old high school student who gets bullied a lot and the heroine (Ella) is a popular girl that stands up for him…and as you can guess, they fall in love in the end :-) My son is also on both the Autism spectrum & has ADHD and this really helped open my eyes to some of the things he deals with on an everyday basis!
We’re very blessed that our son can pretty much function “normally” with a few areas that can be sticky for him. He was diagnosed with ADHD at about 4 years old and Autism in 6th grade…so we as parents did all the research we could to understand him, plus he had a really good counselor outside the school & inside the school where they set up a great IEP and accommodations. He even went to and graduated from our local community college and did very well. We’re so proud of the young man he’s become! He loves the Lord with all his heart and strives to live the Christian life. He also understands his limitations and tries to find ways around it. We’ve always told him that his diagnosis doesn’t define who he is, God did and he can do ANYTHING through Christ :-) I have to brag on him!
Anyway, I hope you will feel right at home here on the blog soon! I love this group & enjoy the posts of the day :-)
Ooops, I just read the description of “Unlocked” and Holden is on the Autism spectrum! Though sometimes that and ADHD can seem similar, at least to me to some degree.
Welcome, Sarah, and thank you so much for your service! We’ve had some rain here just outside Washington D.C. in the last week or two, along with some beautiful, sunshiney days. Other than my oldest sister’s birthday, April is an in-between month for us. My birthday was in March and my wife and other sister have theirs in May.
The Emma St. Clair book was the one that leapt to my mind right away. Other stories with MCs with different abilities include our own Elizabeth Maddrey’s Baxter Family Bakery series where one of the brothers is deaf. That one spoke a lot to me because my wife has worked as a deaf interpreter and the character was a computer professional which was my field for many, many years.
Tamie Dearen’s “The Billionaire’s Secret Marriage” features a hero who is blind.
Though I have been more of a lurker than a writer this year, I wanted to give you a warm welcome from the guy here in the crowd :-). Your work has come highly recommended from several in this group especially Jaycee Weaver. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage of choice and feel the love of one of the friendliest conversations about Contemporary Christian Romance around.
nothing special
I was just reminded of another story from former IR blogger Melanie Snitker. The first book in the Love’s Compass series, “Finding Peace”, has a secondary character who is a neurodiverse little boy named Gideon. The heroine is a professional photographer who has a gift for working with kids with special needs. The hero of the story is the little boy’s uncle as well as the police officer who was helping the heroine deal with a stalker.
I will have to check out that book! My son was very recently diagnosed on the spectrum along with ADHD and general anxiety disorder. He’s smart as a whip just has certain quirks…but don’t we all!
Thank you so much for those book recommendations and the warm welcome. I’m heading over to Goodreads now to add these books to my “to be read” list.
Well I’m going to pray something special happens for you this month!
I have a daughter and two grandchildren born in April
Easter and watching my flowers emerge.
April 10 was my 40th wedding anniversary!
Oh wow! Huge birthday month for you! Happy birthday to all!
Happy belated anniversary!! Did you do anything special to celebrate?
Nice! Watching the early spring flowers like daffodils is so fun. Especially when the shoot through the leftover snow.
April is special to me because both of my children were born in this month (my daughter on my mom’s birthday). A nephew was born five days after my son. So, lots of reasons to celebrate.
Welcome to Inspy! It is nice to have you here. My Mom will turn 84 on the 14th of April. I am blessed that I still have her here. She has been through so much. My Dad had been in the military before I was born. He was stationed in Texas. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
So many April birthdays! Happy birthday to them all.
What a blessing to still have your mom with you. And happy birthday to her!
We’re getting together with family for Easter!! I can’t think of any books right now.
The book “The Hope of Easter”. It’s a good book.
Hi Sarah! Welcome to the blog! :) I loved your post! I also loved Molly – it was my first introduction to your writing – and the reason for her honesty policy did surprise me, but it also made sense. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. April will always be special because there are a handful of family birthdays going around. :)
Books celebrating military characters always make me think of Jess Mastorakos. And a book celebrating both Spring and Easter would be The Loophole in Lilies by Emily Dana Botrous (Free this weekend).