Spring, I’m so glad to see you! Winter in my part of the world was really odd. We had almost no snow (in a state nicknamed “MinneSNOWta”) and it was just weirdly warm. So, naturally, we had a big winter storm in mid-March that finally gave us a few days to try out the new snow tube we bought with high hopes back in January. It was nice to finally see a real snowstorm, but I’m just ready for spring. Bring on the sunshine!
We read some great books in March. Check out our list and, as always, we’d love to hear from you. What did you read in March?
Becky
The Harbinger series by Jennifer L. Armentrout
I needed a new audiobook series so I started Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Harbinger series and got sucked in pretty quickly. Thanks to some extra time spent in the car (shout out to all the moms in their cars waiting for kids!), I managed to listen to the first two books, Storm and Fury and Rage and Ruin. Of course, I couldn’t get a hold of the third book yet, so I started the prequel series called The Dark Elements. And… I proceeded to listen to the short #0.5 novella Bitter Sweet Love, and the first two books White Hot Kiss and Stone Cold Touch. It’s a fun series with comedic relief and a nice departure from all things “fae” while still being a romantasy.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Never fear, I am still continuing down my Sarah J. Maas rabbit hole! In March, I finished three of the Throne of Glass novels – Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. Two notes on Throne of Glass. I read Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn together based on the reading guide put together by T.L. Branson (www.tlbranson.com) and really enjoyed this tandem adventure! Also, I dare to say that Tower of Dawn has been my favorite of this series so far. Despite the fact that I find Chaol very frustrating!
I’m closing in on the end of The Harbinger, The Dark Elements and the Throne of Glass series. Crescent City is next on my SJM list, but what else should I read??
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Cathy
Masters of Death by Olivie Blake
Vampire-slash-real estate agent, Viola, is trying to sell a haunted house and not having much luck. The poltergeist, Tom, doesn’t know how he died so can’t move on. Viola enlists the help of Death’s godson, Fox, to figure out what happened to Tom.
I was a bit unsure about this one having recently DNFed The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. I reluctantly started Masters of Death expecting a similar vibe and writing style to Blake’s other book and expecting to dislike it too. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Blake’s writing and storyline feel more mature in Masters of Death (maybe because the characters are adults rather than early twentysomethings). The characters are sympathetic and amusing and Blake has thrown some hilariously witty one-liners in too.
I’m honestly so surprised by this book and am loving it so it’ll be 4/5 stars for me. Read my full review of Masters of Death.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Summer Heat by Defne Suman, translated by Betsy Göskel
Art historian, Melike, is hired by Greek director, Petro, to show him round Byzantine churches in Istanbul. Their meeting opens up secretes and stories of love, life and loss.
Summer Heat feels like it’s part memoir (the protagonist’s) part history book (in a good way). Throughout the story, Melike reflects on her life and experiences, which feel heavily connected to her surroundings. The book is a stream-of-consciousness style of writing that Suman has written extremely well – there’s no tangents or moving too far from the plot of the story. The further into the story you get, you start to see the connections between things, reflecting real life pretty well – things you don’t think are connected somehow end up being so.
I’m really enjoying Suman’s (and by extension Göskel’s) writing style in the English translation. There’s a heat, a dryness almost, that you can feel through the words on the page that evoke a hot summer day in Istanbul.
This one will be another 4/5 for me and keep your eyes peeled for my full review on here.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Joli
March was almost a 5-star blowout for me, and a month where audiobooks dominated. I finished one audiobook that took me a couple months to get through off and on among other reads, but it was just amazing. Read on to find out which one it was.
Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan
This was an eagerly awaited hold for me, and it came in at the library in March (after it was released this past December). I read Ryan’s first book in this Monster Hunter Mystery series, A Death in Door County, back in late 2022. Born and raised in Wisconsin, I loved reading a fun mystery about a hunt for Nessie set in my home state.
Death in the Dark Woods is once again set in Wisconsin, but this time it’s up in the northwoods, which is where I went to college for a year. Part of it even takes place on Madeline Island, where I spent a few days in a cabin with no internet and no phone signal.
In short, this number 2 in the series was just what I was hoping it would be. Cryptid hunting, a little bit of love interest, a bad-ass woman cryptozoologist, and a fun mystery. I tore through it and enjoyed the whole thing.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Any time I finish an audiobook on my go-to platform (Everand), I scroll through my list of saved audiobooks to find something I’m in the mood for. This was a popular new release recently and sounded really good, so I went for it. It ended up being an absolutely fantastic choice!
I highly recommend The Berry Pickers. This was a gorgeous story that was quiet in a way, but not at all boring. In short, a native child is stolen when she’s 3 years old and is raised by a white family in a suburb. They explain away her darker skin with an Italian grandfather and keep her close, basically smothering her.
The story follows both her story and her family’s after she disappears, and it’s just a beautiful story of family, heritage, belonging, and grief. The audiobook was excellent, and I loved both narrators.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This is the one, folks — the audiobook that I savored over the course of several months. Nonfiction audiobooks read by their authors have been my jam for the past year or so (like These Precious Days, I Miss You When I Blink, Bomb Shelter, and The River You Touch, to name a few), and Braiding Sweetgrass fit that bill perfectly. It’s just the most beautiful book about the land, our relationship to it, what indigenous stories can teach us about reciprocity with the land, and what happens when we ignore it all and destroy instead.
This is a long book, and I kept listening to and reading other books between sessions of it. It just felt right to savor it that way, and take in everything Kimmerer was saying. Just a beautiful book through and through, and Kimmerer’s steady voice was the perfect way to take it in.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene
This is a read that’s close to my heart. It’s not a book that everyone would enjoy, as it’s about a ridiculously sad story. Jayson lost his 2-year-old daughter in a random, absolutely heartbreaking accident. His memoir is all about his daughter, the accident, the aftermath, and how it changed him, his wife, their lives, and their relationship. It’s a deep, intimate portrayal of grief that I loved. If you’ve been through a really hard loss, this book is grief catharsis ❤️.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Between the Mountain and the Sky by Maggie Doyne
This (audiobook) memoir was recommended to me on Everand, and as another memoir read by the author, the app clearly knows me. Maggie Doyne started a children’s home and school in Nepal when she was fresh out of high school, and the memoir is all about her experience creating it, building it, setting up a foundation, and mothering a large number of children. Life in Nepal is pretty hard, so she learns some very hard lessons. There’s also a pretty difficult loss in this book that I wasn’t really expecting, but Doyne does a fantastic job of describing her grief and love. Another 5-star listen to round out my March.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Molly
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas
Like many people, I was pretty disappointed in this book. The pacing was off, and it lacked the oomph you expect from the final book in a major fantasy trilogy. I still liked it better than the second book, House of Sky and Breath, as I felt it was at least less meandering and more focused plot-wise.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
I was pleasantly surprised by this compact high fantasy. It features many elements of traditional fantasy stories — a quest, a ragtag group of adventurers, found family, a Chosen One — but with a unique magic system and some of the most loveable characters I’ve ever read.
I’ve seen some reviewers that complain of slow pacing, but I enjoyed every minute of this book and have already eagerly started the sequel.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna
A literary fantasy based on Middle Eastern mythology and folklore. See my full review of The Jinn Daughter for all my thoughts on this one.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Renee
The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda [audiobook]
Abby Lovett works at an inn just off the Appalachian Trail in NC. The town is infamous for being the place where numerous hikers have gone missing in the woods, their bodies never found. But when the brother of one of the vanished shows up, the story starts unwinding, and we learn more about Abby’s connection to this place.
The audiobook narrator was great and kept my attention.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
What Have We Done? by Alex Finlay [audiobook]
I’m not sure if it was the audiobook format/narrator here, but there were so many characters and interwoven plot lines. I couldn’t keep everything straight, and I’m still not fully sure I understand what it was all for. It’s about a group of former foster children who are suddenly being hunted as adults for something that happened when they were children. Not my favorite.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross
I love a good biography about tragic musicians. There’s an entry in my diary from early 1992 (I was 9) about hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and loving it. I remember a few years later, watching MTV and Kurt Loder coming on to say that Kurt Cobain, the larger-than-life lead singer of Nirvana.
This book changed my perception of Cobain’s death. It taught me a lot more about what happened to him in his formative years that shaped so much of who he would become and what would fuel his anger. He was a truly tragic figure, at once sensitive and deeply troubled. The book also gave me more empathy for those who suffer from addiction.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
This was a lot of fun to read. A murder’s taken place within a community theater group. There are 15 suspects and you, as the reader, are reading all of the communications recovered as part of the case files. The book is told pretty much entirely through emails and text messages. Through those, you learn (along with the legal assistants) about who the people are and why they may have had a motive.
It was a little confusing at the end when it was explained, but going back, you could see the clues that were there. I liked this format and would read another one like it again.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
That’s our list! What did you read in March?
