March Book Round Up!

A Round Up of What I read this month!

Hi everyone, how has your March gone? As far as reading goes, mine has been pretty underwhelming. I always go through months where the reading juices just aren’t flowing, and after such a productive and successful February, it’s not surprising at all that March came with less motivation to read—just a severe lack of reading vibes.

The month started strong-ish, but the middle weeks and the end were honestly a failure. It’s interesting: when I did read, I read quickly, but I just wasn’t picking up books. Things that should have gone fast ended up taking way too long. It also doesn’t help that most of what I’ve read recently just hasn’t hit me the way I’d hoped.

Completed Books (in chronological order, Notable in italics)

Finished

1. Real’s Love by Elle Kayson
2. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
3. Red City by Marie Lu
4. Love Trials by Monae Nicole
5. For the Lover in You by Bree Wright
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
7. It Started with I Do by Amaka Azie 
8. Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee
9. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 
10. Reminders of You by Colleen Hoover (don’t judge me, I’ll explain)

Currently Reading

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Highlights

Red City was not a bad read at all—I definitely enjoyed it. The underworld themes mixed with fantasy elements were right up my street. There were a few aspects that didn’t hit as hard as I expected, namely the romance, but overall, it was an enjoyable read. This is actually book one in a series, but it was just published last year, so who knows how long I’ll have to wait for book two. That said, it didn’t end on a cliffhanger, which I really appreciated, so I’m not gagging for the next one—but I know when it comes out, I’ll definitely read it. As far as TBR picks go, it was a definite win.

As you know, I picked up Wuthering Heights this month for my book vs screen comparison for Women’s History Month. This was a story I very much enjoyed, and you can read my full thoughts on it elsewhere, so I won’t repeat myself here.

Pomegranate was another TBR pick I’d been wanting to read for a minute, but just hadn’t gotten around to. I listened to this one via audiobook, which made for a really good listening experience. I really enjoyed it—I gave it a strong four stars. It was well written with deep, strong themes around healing, forgiveness, and structural discrimination. A story very much centred on the main character, but also a representation of a very real and painful experience so many go through: tackling racism, poverty, and addiction.

I do think, though, that when stories tackle structural issues, there’s often a lack of subtlety. And while some things don’t require nuance—because we can all understand the nuance is there without it being stated plainly—it often ends up feeling like we’re being bashed over the head with discourse and talking points, rather than watching a person live through a very real experience. It doesn’t always feel real or genuinely written. Sometimes it feels like things the author has read about but never truly experienced. And that’s not to say authors can only write what they’ve lived, but because of this, we get very surface-level descriptions of these issues.

That by no means makes it a bad book—I still thoroughly enjoyed it—but it’s a constant gripe I have with stories like this, and I find it hard to look past.

TBR Overview

Red City and Pomegranate were obviously my highlights—and that was it. I didn’t touch a single other book from my TBR. We will go again next month.

Reading Challenge Update

No update here either—I haven’t read any more books from the Booker Prize list. Again, we go again next month 🙃🙃.

The Mixed Bag

The worst book of the month for me was Real’s Love by Elle Kayson. I read this for my book club and was so mightily disappointed that I can hardly believe it. Elle Kayson is the author of one of my favourite urban romances, Demon’s Dream, but she might be a one-hit wonder, which is truly a shame. The book lacked substance, the characters were annoying, and we spent 300 pages revisiting the same issue. Just a frustrating read overall.

That was followed closely behind by Private Arrangements, which was sold to me as this deeply emotional, heartfelt romance that would have me sobbing and my heart hurting. It delivered on absolutely zero of those requirements—an incredibly disappointing read. I love historical fiction, and this just didn’t deliver at all. I need to stop listening to random women on BookTok.

Now, I also read Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover this month. I want to preface this by saying I went through my Colleen Hoover phase when I was 21, like many girls did, and like many of us, I was addicted and went through as much of her catalogue as I could. Then, as I got older, I realised she thrived on trauma porn and toxic traits, was promoting ideas in her books that we really shouldn’t champion and was honestly a problematic woman herself, and to top it all, she wasn’t a particularly good writer.

So, back to why I read it, a friend of mine watched the movie and wanted to know how good an adaptation it was. I thought I had read it during my Hoover phase, but I couldn’t remember, so we decided to read it as a mini book club read (I didn’t pay for the book, don’t worry).

I read it and was quickly reminded why I stopped reading her stories. I will say I hadn’t actually read this one, but it reminded me of one I had, because Ms Hoover has been writing the same story fifty times. The writing was bad; I hated the plot. But you know what? It certainly wasn’t the worst of her books I’ve read. Also, as far as romances go? Pack it in—that was such a pathetic romance. No real love or relationship, just rubbish.

I also read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante—a story that took me much longer to get through than I would have preferred. This was the first book I’ve read that wasn’t originally published in English. It was an enjoyable read, but I simply couldn’t connect to it, and I wonder whether the translation stripped a lot of the depth from the language and narrative.

It was a great story with lots of historical commentary and much to discuss. It reminded me a lot of Nightbloom in how it explored friendship across class differences and how female friendships shape who the characters are and much of how they see the world. I think where I struggled with connecting to the story was that it was written from the perspective of young girls, despite technically being narrated by a woman in her 50s, but it just felt very juvenile. There were also so many characters involved that it felt like the focus was being pulled away from the two main characters I was supposed to care about.

The writing style—though I consumed a majority via audiobook—also felt very different, and again, I suspect the translation played a role. Overall, still an interesting book with lots to take in and absorb; it just didn’t hit me.

I am currently reading Project Hail Mary in preparation to watch the movie, and so far it’s the best book I’ve read this month—which feels blasphemous considering it’s the only book by a man I’ve read during Women’s History Month. So I’ll revisit that thought next month when I finish it.

Everything else was just ok or not worth mentioning. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this round up of my fairly underwhelming reading month. I hope you all had better months, and I would love to hear all about it.

Do make sure to follow me on GoodReads to see what I’m reading in real time! Thank you as always for being here, and see you on Friday for my TBR Update!!