March 2020 | Reading Wrap Up

The world is in complete shambles right now but I'm not here to talk about the things you've been seeing all over the news/social media. I hope you're all staying as safe as you can within your limits and finding things to hold you together, like perhaps, reading.

This has definitely been what I've turn to and I'm very happy to say that March was my best reading month this year. I still started a bunch of different things because I couldn't really decide what I wanted to read, but at least I finished a lot of things as well.

Before I talk about my reading I'd like to quickly mention Scribd. I don't know why it took me so long to find out about this but I've subscribed and I love it! So many books that I want to read are in there, but I'm specially excited about all the audiobooks. I always found them so expensive in other platforms but, even though Scribd has less options than most, I keep saving audiobooks to my list and will keep making my way through them (this wasn't sponsored in any way *I wish* but thought I would mention it in case you've been sleeping on this like I have).

For the second week of March I participated in the Backlist Readathon (you can find my TBR here) and, although I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, it kicked me back into gear and showed me how much I missed participating in readathons! So, here's the books I finished during that:

1) Girl, Wash Your Face, Rachel Hollis

This book unfortunately wasn't for me. It wasn't part of my Backlist Readathon TBR but, since I had started it already, I decided to keep listening to this throughout that week because, honestly, I just wanted to get it done. I've listened to a few episodes of Rachel Hollis' podcast previously, mostly because I saw this book floating around and wanted to know more before committing to it. I do think the audiobook is probably the best way to read this since it's narrated by the author, but this was definitely not for me. When reading a self-improvement/self-help book I believe what most people want out of that is ways to improve their lives (at least that's the case for me) and this didn't provide that. I felt like I was just listening to her talking about her successes with little to no actual tips on how she got there and I was really bothered by a lot of things in this. In the same way, I'm not a mom and I'm not religious so every part of the book that she talked about either of those things (which was the biggest part of it) weren't of any interest to me. I'm sad to say this but well, you can't possibly like every book you ever read. 2/5 ⭐️

2) Obsidio, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

This, however, was everything I wanted and more. I've been reading the Illuminae Files for three years now and, although I would've loved to binge read it, I loved how I did it. Every year since 2018 I got one of these books for my birthday and read them shortly after, in a matter of a few days. I can't say much about the third one without spoiling anything but I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was an incredible end to the trilogy. These also showed me I actually like sci-fi when I always thought I didn't and are such amazing reads I flew through them even though they're huge. 4.5/5 ⭐

Now onto the books I finished during the rest of the month!

3) The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo

I did a mini review of this over on Goodreads (which you can read here) so I won't say much besides the fact that I adored this collection of Grishaverse fairytales. This made me desperate to finally read the Grisha Trilogy and reread Six of Crows because god, how I miss those characters and this world. 4/5 ⭐️

4) City of Fallen Angels, Cassandra Clare

This was actually the first book I read this month, before readathon shenanigans, and I liked it a lot, to my surprise. Because I wasn't on bookish social media whilst reading most of this series I think I should make it known that this is not my favourite. I've always known that The Mortal Instruments is Cassie's weakest series but my relationship with it is not the best. I really enjoyed book 1, but book 2 was such a drag and so so so annoying I thought about giving up altogether. However, books 3 and 4 have given me a bit of hope and at this point I'll finish it simply out of spite (specially since I know the last one was a let down). The best thing about all this though is that whenever I like these books, I'm always pleasantly surprised, and this was the case for this one. My biggest problem with this series is people's favourite thing about it, Clary and Jace's romance. I've never liked Clary and find the romance so eye-roll worthy, you can see how I'm annoyed for half of these books. But I really liked this, I love that Isabelle is more present in the story because she is one of my favourites (alongside Alec and Magnus) and I see potential in the new storyline – even though it is completely pointless and this should have been a trilogy (we all know that). 3.5/5 ⭐️

5) A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee

I feel like this was my biggest surprise of the year so far. I've seen this book floating around on the book community since it came out but it never really took my interest, even though everyone absolutely loves it. But, whilst scrolling through Scribd (this does look sponsored, but I promise it's not) to find an audiobook to listen to I decided to give this a go. Boy, how I'm thankful I did that. I got into this expecting a story about two teenage boys falling in love during a tour of Europe (and you do get that) but this book has so much more. The story is quite a lot darker that I thought it would be, with a lot more twists and turns and it's incredibly entertaining. I would start listening to this and simply couldn't stop. And besides the narrative, the characters are great and the romance is just *chef's kiss*. All in all a great book and I can't wait to read book 2 (and apparently book 3?? Never knew about it until I added this on Goodreads). Highly recommend the audio as well, the narrator did a fantastic job. 4.5/5 ⭐️

6) The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson

Do you know those books you've had on your wishlist for YEARS, that you knew you'd love but you were always too scared to pick up? That's any Brandon Sanderson for me. So I'm here to encourage the Fantasy lover out there who's just as terrified of Sanderson as I've always been and tell you READ. THIS. BOOK. Please, just read this. I can't tell you how incredible this book is but more importantly, how easy to read it is. It's an astounding world and Sanderson's the father of Fantasy for a reason: he's GOOD. He's really good (understatement of the century). The world is brilliant, the magic system is equally brilliant and you'll be sucked right in. I always thought his books would be difficult to read and add that to the length, I was too scared to pick them up. But the way he introduces the world and the magic system is spot one. As we follow Vin's story, she's also discovering everything that is to know about this incredible magic called Allomancy and the introduction feels effortless without getting boring. Besides that, the story is so so good, the characters are wonderful and the pacing of this is unlike anything else I've ever read. You know the main plot's gonna take a while to flush out but the politics of it all will suck you right in and he gives you enough action throughout to keep you entertained at all times. Favourite book of this year so far and favourite book I've read for a while. I've already ordered the rest of the trilogy and just know that his books will keep appearing on this blog as long as he keeps writing them. Simply brilliant. 5/5 ⭐️

7) A Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky, Mackenzi Lee

And on the very last day of the month I discovered that this was a thing and I listening to it all at once before going to sleep. This is a little novella that's set right after the end of A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and it follows Monty and Percy's first time. Being that I love these two so so much and can't stop a stupid grin coming to my face every time these two interact, I adored this. 2 hours of pure bliss and warm fuzzy feelings (like most of book one) and I do highly recommend this if you ship them as much as I do. Does it add anything to the story? No. But it adds to the cuteness of one of the best gay couples out there (also, Felicity is just great and I have a feeling I'll read book 2 sooner that I anticipated). 4/5 ⭐️

Told you I'd read more this month. I loved my reads, finished the month on an incredible high and can't wait to read more in April! I shall be participating in the O.W.L.s Magical Readathon for the first time this year and I cannot wait, TBR coming on Friday! Let me know what you read this month in the comments below.

Love,

N.

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