In March, I read 9 books and gave up on one (did not finish). Out of these nine, three were really short romance novellas that I got for free from Prime Reading on Amazon. All three were very cute and I enjoyed them. They were all a part of The Improbable Meet-Cute series, and I read the following three out of six:
- The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- With Any Luck by Ashley Poston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and
- Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think I picked these three because I had read and enjoyed books by these authors previously. There are three more novellas by authors I am not familiar with and I will definitely try to read them soon. These short stories make a good palate cleanser between heavier reads.
My favorite reads of the month were:
- The Dead Man in the Garden by Marthe Jocelyn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this is a third installment in a middle grade mystery series that I enjoy. I have one more book left to read in the series and am really hoping to get to it in April.
- Shark Heart by Emily Habeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this was an unexpectedly heart-warming magic realism story about loss, grief, love and hope restored. It is also about the fragility and preciousness of life, a good reminder to cherish every moment we have with our loved ones.
- Bunny by Mona Awad ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I have a full review of this book.
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I honestly did not know what to expect of this book and was pleasantly surprised. This book features a cast of seemingly random characters who frequent the same quaint Tokyo cafe that is rumored to have a time traveling portal. This book made me cry, it was very bittersweet.
- Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is the first book in a romantasy series available for free on Kindle Unlimited. Even though I gave the book 4 stars, it did lay a great foundation for the series. I just finished book 2 and it was excellent.
The DNF (did not finish) this month was A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong. I really thought I would love this book. I generally love books by Kelley Armstrong and enjoy time travel romances. However, I did not like the pacing in this book. Rather than focusing on time travel and romance, the author was trying to introduce suspenseful elements into the story, parts of it read like a horror story and I just did not vibe with that.
Another disappointing read was Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I listened to it on audio, and had I read it in paper, I would have probably DNF'ed it as well. It is a literary fiction novel which follows a Georgian immigrant to England called Saba, whose dad and older brother go to their home country of Georgia and disappear there. So Saba sets out for his native Tbilisi in search of them. While I appreciated the things I learned about the regional ethnic conflicts and the turmoil the country went through after the break-up of the Soviet Union, I struggled to connect with the character. He seemed extremely immature to me, ran all over the country and in the end, we had no clear resolution.
Overall in March, I craved to read something light and entertaining. In previous two months and also early in March I read a few books with a heavier subject matter and I think I also got burned out on ARCs. I had read 5 early this year (4 of them were pretty mediocre reads), and needed to read 3 more in March. However, rather than pushing myself to read things I was not excited about, I decided to give myself permission to read what I wanted. The problem with ARCs is that because you get an advanced copy for free, I always feel guilty if I don't read and review it in time. So I should really stop requesting too many ARCs and be more realistic about my abilities to read them before the publication date. Right now, I have 7 unread ARCs, 3 of which are out in stores already.
