Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!
Spring has finally sprung, and so have the kittens! We decided the time had come to allow them to go and play outside. It’s slightly nerve-wracking for us, but it clearly makes them so happy and they really did need an outlet for all that energy 😅 Our evenings have become a lot more peaceful, let me tell you😂 And our houseplants are finally left alone as well, another big bonus!
Bookwise, March was a bit of a mixed bag. I started the month with a book of my own and a DRC I was sure I would love and they both fell a little flat, which kicked off a minor reading slump, with even books I did enjoy taking me longer to finish than they usually would. Add multiple evenings and a couple of weekends of little reading, and two thirds into March, I was literally shocked at how little I’d read. I managed to kick it up a notch or two towards the end of the month, so the final numbers are more than satisfying. It helped that I read some pretty good books in that final part of March, too.
Honourable mentions to The Songbook of Benny Lament, Guillotine and The Night Guest, but these were my favourite reads of the month:
In figures March looks like this:
March
Novels: 5363 pages across 15 novels and one graphic novel
Audiobooks: 46 hours across 7 novels
And here’s what I did in March:
What I read:
Bellevue, Robin Cook
Boy With Wings, Mark Mustian
Destroy the Day, Brigid Kemmerer
Dangerous, Essie Fox
The Midnight King, Tariq Ashkanani (review to follow)
Strange Beasts, Susan J. Morris
Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth
The Circus Train, Amita Parikh
Small Fires, Ronnie Turner
Guillotine, Delilah S. Dawson
Such Sharp Teeth, Rachel Harrison
Isolation: The Horror Anthology
Shatter Creek, Rod Reynolds (review to follow)
Wytches, Volume 1, Scott Snyder
The Guests, Nikki Smith
The Lost Passenger, Frances Quinn
What I listened to:
The Songbook of Benny Lament, Amy Harmon
The Heiress, Rachel Hawkins
Salt & Broom, Sharon Lynn Fisher
The Midnight Feast, Lucy Foley
Masquerade, O.O. Sangoyomi
The Night Guest, Hildur Knútsdóttir
Want to Know a Secret?, Freida McFadden
What I read earlier but reviewed in March:
The Third Rule of Time Travel, Philip Fracassi
The Cure, Eve Smith
Let’s have a look at the books that landed on my lap in March:
One paperback:
One eBook I’d had my eye on for a while, two freebies, four 99p deals and two NetGalley widgets:
I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx
I’m glad the month ended up better than it started, and that Benny Lament got an honourable mention. What did you think of The Midnight Feast? I DNF’ed the audiobook!
I saw that! I gave it 4 stars 🫣 What didn’t you like about it?
I was too slow for me, plus I didn’t like one of the narrators.
Oh OK, that’s fair. It is quite slow, agreed, but it didn’t bother me. Narrators can make or break a story, definitely!
Those are pretty fantastic numbers if you weren’t able to read much for most of the month! There are a lot of books on your list I can’t wait to get to… And I LOVED The Songbook Of Benny Lament, but then again I love everything Amy Harmon writes. Seeing you love The Midnight King as well makes me even more determined to get a copy! Here’s to a wonderful April. xx
I know! I think I read two thirds of what I read in the final third of the month, there’s no rhyme or reason to it 😂 I think Benny was my second Amy Harmon, I need to read more by her! If you have any recs, let me know! The Midnight King is fantastic!
I’ve read and loved all of Amy Harmon’s books, so there is no going wrong there haha. I all depends on what genre you are in the mood for as her books are all so different… My favorites would probably be (apart from Benny Lament):
Historical/time travel: What The Wind Knows
Historical/dark thriller: The Unknown Beloved
Contemporary: Making Faces & The Smallest Part
Historical: The Outlaw Noble Salt
Fantasy: The First Girl Child & sequel
If that included a reading slump, I dread to think how many you’d have managed to get through – I am in awe! x
I really can’t explain it, those final 10 or so days of March were bookish magic, Jill 😂