March was, overall, a pretty good month for me. I caught up on some reading obligations and freed myself up to do some mood reading. I also started catching up on some blogging. I’m still a little behind but nothing I can’t deal with. 🙂
I managed to finish 15 novels, 1 novella, and 1 short story in March–9 SFF novels, 5 romance novels, 1 thriller. Both the novella and the short story were speculative fiction. I also have 2 more SFF books that I’m working on finishing up today, so if I make it that would bring my total novel count up to 17. *crosses fingers*
Favorite Reads of the Month:
I read quite a few good books in March. Here are a some that stood out to me.
- The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey. A post apocalyptic Earth with vampire overlords and other fun surprises? Check. Romance? Check. Action and adventure? Check. Interesting world-building? CHECK. This book has it all and I loved it.
- And Then There Were [N-One] by Sarah Pinsker. This is a novella and you can read it for free online at Uncanny Magazine, OR you can get it in her new collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea. This is such a good story. It’s essentially a murder mystery, but it has a lot to do with identity and our choices in life.
- The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson. I loved this one because it got WEIRD. And I like weird stuff. And the prose is beautiful.
March’s Book Reviews:
I somehow managed to get out 11 full book reviews and 2 mini-reviews in March. Yay, for starting to catch up! I still have several in my drafts folder BUT, I’m much more caught up now than I was before and I’ve been writing reviews as soon as I finish a book before I allow myself to start a new one so I don’t get behind again. Here are all of March’s reviews in case you missed them.
The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty – 5/5 stars
Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron – 4.5/5 stars
Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker – 4/5 stars
Lovestruck by Kate Watson – 3/5 stars
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson – 5/5 stars
Where Oblivion Lives by T. Frohock – 4.5/5 stars
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – 4/5 stars
Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik – 4/5 stars
Lost Stars by Claudia Gray – 3/5 stars
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer – 4.5/5 stars
The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey – 4.5/5 stars
I also did 2 Mini-Reviews:
The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black – 4.5/5 stars, 5/5 stars
Other Posts:
Another month without a ton of posts other than book reviews, but I managed more than last month! As always, you can check out my Friday Favorite Five posts here.
- The Fairy Tale Book Tag
- I shared some of my vintage Anne McCaffrey paperbacks in a Shabby Sunday post.
- I was nominated for a Liebster Award again and answered some fun questions.
- The Song of All and Dreams of the Dark Sky Special Box GIVEAWAY – This giveaway is still ongoing for about the next week so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!
Plans for April:
The beginning of the month is going to be pretty busy for me. I have a bunch of behind the scenes stuff I need to do with prize coordination for the end of the r/fantasy 2018 Bingo. It should be easier than previous years due to the way we’ve collected the cards this year, but it will still be work. 🙂 I also have DnD with friends next weekend. In other non-reading plans, my husband and I are still working on re-configuring our basement to make it the ultimate game room. Hopefully we’ll have it ready by the end of the April. It’s also Spring so I’ll have gardening to do–woohoo! And my friend and I are headed down to D.C. mid-April for the Japanese street festival at the end of the National Cherry Blossom festival.
As for reading, my plans are to continue to work on catching up on things. I have several things I need to accomplish.
- Catch up on review requests. I have 3 I am overdue on and 2 due this month.
- Catch up on my drafts folder — currently have 7 reviews I need to get to writing.
- Read and review my eARC of The Poppy War.
- Read my fancy tea book club selection – Good Omens. I’ve already read this one. A couple of times. But I should probably read it again as a refresher to discuss with my peeps — our next get together will be some time in May.
- Continue catching up with February and March new releases that I’m behind on.
- Work on my series tracker bullet journal.
- Work on updating my yearly reading tracker spreadsheet.
- Discworld at some point. (I am SOOOO behind on this…)
So, April looks to be busy but fun! What are your plans for next month? Leave me a note in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!
Way Too Fantasy 
Sounds like you had a great March! I’m pretty behind with review reading, but maybe April will be the month I get ahead. I’ve already read two April books and I plan to sneak in some May books this month if I can😁
Yeah it was pretty good book-wise, but things have been off this last week. Hoping to get things back to normal next week. 🙂
Good luck with your reading!
That’s a solid month of reading! I don’t know if I’ll have time, but I’m going to try and slip Polaris Rising in somewhere next month. I got approved for an ARC the day of publication and it’s just been hanging out in TBR limbo since (whoops). I hope you guys have a great time in DC! I’ll also be joining in the cherry blossom festivities but I have no idea when.
Thanks! Polaris Rising was a lot of fun. It’s a pretty quick read too. Hope you enjoy it!
I usually only ever go down for the Sakura Matsuri at the end of the month long festival, but they have lots of fun stuff going on from what I understand. This year we did make it down for a special Sailor Moon musical show and that was super fun!
Wow, you had a fantastic month! I’m definitely feeling a little behind on books (but then what else is new) though it is probably not as bad as it could be! I got a couple April books completed already at least!
Thanks! I’m not ahead on reading but at least I’m not as far behind as I was lol! I’ll take it! Good luck with April!
I’m not doing too bad at the moment although there are so many books due out in April. I’ve read ahead for some of them but I think I’ll still struggle to fit them all in.
You managed to read so many. Very impressive.
Lynn 😀
I had the same problem with February and am still trying to catch up there. No matter what I get ahead on there’s always something I need to catch up Haha. Good luck with your April reading!
I read And Then There Were [N-One] and I really enjoyed this story! 😀
I also read The Bird King, I didn’t have the time to write my review last month but it should go up this month. I completel missed your review so I’m going to give it a read now! 😀
And Then There Were [N-One] was so great! I feel kinda bad I put it off for so long. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Bird King!