March Wrap Up

I have talked about The Storygraph in the past, but the website keeps getting better and better! They have now included more monthly stats, so I thought it would be fun to start sharing those in my wrap ups. Let me know what you think!

March was a great reading month for me! I managed to read over 4000 pages and found a couple new favourite books. I tend to read a lot of emotional books every month, and March was no different. I was surprised to see that I read five mysterious novels as that is unusual for me!

I read a few more slower paced books in March than normal, which is interesting!

I failed at reading a 500+ page book in March! Hopefully I can make up for it in April!

I read one nonfiction book in March, but I have a few I would like to get to in April.

A lot of YA in March and four fantasy novels. I really have been on a fantasy kick lately!

I had a great reading month in terms of ratings! Of the twelve books I read, I rated ten of them four stars or above!

Akemi Dawn Bowman wrote Starfish, which is one of my favourite books. I keep meaning to read more from her, so I was thrilled when I was sent an eARC of The Infinity Courts. This book is SciFi and unlike anything else she has written. I love the worldbuilding and our main character, Nami. This was a great start to a series and I think the found family trope in here is only going to get better as the series continues. I really appreciated the topics that Bowman takes on in here, and while the messaging was sometimes a little heavy-handed, it got me thinking a lot about ethical questions surrounding AI. The last quarter of this book caught me by complete surprise and I need the sequel ASAP!

I didn’t think that I could love the Brown Sisters series anymore, but then I read Act Your Age, Eve Brown. Eve quickly became my favourite character in this series and I think that is because I relate to her the most. I think all of us have the potential to see ourselves in either Chloe, Dani, or Eve. That is part of what makes this series so amazing! I really loved Jacon, Eve’s love interest, and thought they had great chemistry. There are some hilarious moments in this book! There is also wonderful autism rep and I appreciated the discussion on how people with autism are not a monolith. I am so sad that this series is over!

I absolutely loved Sadie, as I know so many of us did! I have been anticipating The Project for awhile now, and while it wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be, I did enjoy it. I have seen so many mixed reviews for this one, but I think it is important to separate it from Sadie– though they both follow sisters, they are very different books. If you are familiar with the cult NXIVM, I think you will see the parallels between it and The Unity Project. I thought that Courtney Summer’s did a good job at showing how cults target vulnerable people and how someone who is at their lowest point can be manipulated in this way. This book gets very dark!

Cemetery Boys was one of my favourite books of 2020, so I was thrilled to receive an ALC of Lost in the Never Woods thanks to Libro.fm. I adore Peter Pan retellings, and I really appreciated the mystery in this story. I think it is important to go into this book knowing that Aiden Thomas has classified this as Peter Pan fanfiction and not a retelling. I would say it is more inspired by Peter Pan! Just know that there is no Neverland in here. Some of the whimsy that makes Peter Pan interesting is lost in this story. That said, I did enjoy this one and will read anything that Aiden Thomas writes!

I read The Gilded Ones for a buddy read on bookstagram and ended up really loving this one! I have really been into YA fantasy lately. I was so captivating by the magic and the world in this one, but it is the characters and female empowerment that really stood out for me. The Gilded Ones was an intriguing first book in a series and the ending left me with so many questions that I hope will be answered in future books. I want to know more about this world!

Honey Girl took me by complete surprise! I think that this book is being marketed incorrectly- go into this knowing that it is not primarily a romance. While there is a cute romance, it is really a coming of age story and a book about Grace finding what makes her happy. I thought that the writing was stunning in this and there were so many quotes that I tabbed. There are also some important conversations throughout the book and I loved the discussion about therapy. The found family trope in Honey Girl is also incredible!

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up The Empress of Salt and Fortune and it ended up blowing me away. Although I didn’t quite understand what was going on all the time and it is one I will have to reread, I thought it was so beautiful and atmospheric. This is a novella and it always surprises me how much emotion some authors are able to evoke in so few words! Tor novellas rarely let me down!

Punching the Air is a hard-hitting contemporary written in verse, which usually ends up being something I adore. That was certainly the case for this book and it is one of the best books written in verse that I have ever read. I love that the main character is a painter and a poet and how important that was to his survival in juvie. This was such a powerful book and the fact that Yusef Salaam is one of the Exonerated Five tells you how deeply personal this book is.

Unfortunately, Echo North was the most disappointing book I read in March. I am starting to think that Beauty and the Beast retellings do not work for me. I thought that Joanna Ruth Meyer’s writing was great and I was intrigued by the world, but the relationship was where I had some issues. It made me uncomfortable more than anything, which I think probably comes with a retelling like this one. I also wasn’t as attached to the main character that I needed to be in order to become invested in what happens to her!

I finally read Monday’s Not Coming and am now caught up on Tiffany D Jackson’s backlist. If you forced me to chose a favourite book of hers, I think I would say this one. That says a lot when you consider how much I love all of her work. There is something about Monday’s Not Coming that hit me in a different way and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

If you have read any of Jenny Lawson’s other memoirs, you know what you are in for with her latest release, Broken. She has a special way of talking about difficult subjects. She will have you laughing out loud! That said, there are more serious moments. I particularly appreciated the chapters where she spoke directly to her insurance company. I also liked the epilogue where she touches on her experience with quarantine. I recommend all of her books on audio, as she narrates them and is hysterical!

I thought that The Good Sister was going to be a fun thriller that wouldn’t have a huge effect on me and I would be able to move on from Monday’s Not Coming by reading it. That is not what happened. I became so completely attached to one of the sisters, Fern, and I almost forgot that this was considered a thriller. I will say that there is some predictability to this one but there was a lot of great tension and a sweet love story. It is one of my favourite thrillers of all time!

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