Weekly Mews: Springing into April with a Look Back On My March Reading (Please Vote in My April TBR Poll!)

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

I am linking up Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently.  

This past week was a rollercoaster, and I am relieved the weekend is finally here.

Books Read in March

March was an exceptional reading month even if an abysmal blogging month. I was able to fit in ten books again (will I be able to keep this up?!), with only one DNF. I have had very little computer time and am behind on my reviews. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to visit and comment on the posts. I hope to be able to reciprocate more this month. 

Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews is my favorite in the Edge series yet. While I enjoyed the first two books, this one felt more like what I have come to enjoy and love about their books. Haunting and Homicide was a fun cozy paranormal mystery that was especially timely given my family's recent enjoyment of going on ghost tours--and I just love a good story involving ghosts! With the Epic musical soundtrack on repeat in our house (thanks to Mouse), it put me in the mood to pull Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths off my TBR shelf to read, my third nonfiction book of the year. I loved it!

March's TBR List Poll Winner, Spellshop, was just as good as everyone said it would be. This cozy fantasy was like a big warm hug. I want a sentient plant! I decided to go ahead and read the second place book, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love, and it was delightfully funny and charming--I need more of that in my life. 

March's book club reads were all winners. I re-read (via audio this time) The Truth According to Ember for my Diverse Romance book club--and it was just as good the second time around. Everyone in the book club enjoyed it. Since I was unable to attend the Cellar Door Book Club in March because it fell on my daughter's birthday, I decided to give the Science Fiction/Fantasy book club a try and joined them in reading Thistlefoot. We had a great discussion about Nethercott's novel, a Baba Yaga re-imagining. After a slow start, I did end up enjoying Ida, in Love and in Trouble, which I read for my Historical Fiction book club. I ended up missing the meeting unfortunately, but I am glad I was able to read the book. My Mystery book club's selection Murder by Degrees was enjoyed by all, including me. I love a good historical mystery! Although not a book club pick, I checked out the audiobook of Before I Go, after learning the second book in the series (trilogy?) will be the May selection for the Diverse Romance book club. I knew going in that the books can be read as standalones but the temptation to start with the first book was strong. When I first put it on hold through the library, there was a 30 day wait, so I was surprised when it was available only a couple days later. 

The Fate's Edge (The Edge #3) by Ilona Andrews

Ida, In Love and in Trouble by Veronica Chambers

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji

Haunting and Homicide (A Ghost Tour Mystery #1) by Amber Burke

Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic #1) by India Holton

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Before I Go (Skyland #1) by Kennedy Ryan

Format pie chart from Storygraph

Of the books I read in March, two were audiobooks and the rest were an equal mix of e-books and physical copies.

Rating Scale: 5 Paws=Outstanding; 4 Paws=Very Good; 3 Paws=Good; 2 Paws=Okay; 1 Paw=Didn't Like

Except for the one book I was unable to finish (therefore not rated), the books I read in March were all four paws and above. Two books earned my five paw rating. I may not have been sure GennaRose Nethercott's Thistlefoot would be among my top rated when I first began reading, but by the end there was no doubt it would be with the beautiful writing, clever plotting, and complex characters, many of whom I came to really care about. My other five paw book in March was Before I Go. Kennedy Ryan's novel was very much about the feelings for me, and that, along with the sensitivity and compassion with which the author approaches her characters and their story, won me completely over. 

My March 2025 Reading Moods (according to Storygraph)

Let's take a look at how I did with my March Chapter Break Bookish Bingo card. I did not manage to fill out all the spots like last month, but I think I did fairly good at filling out the card; I filled 21 spots, 22 if you count the free space! 

What was your favorite book read in March? Have you made progress with your reading challenges? Did you have a good reading month?

I finished reading A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher most recently and am now reading Steel's Edge (The Edge #4) by Ilona Andrews. I also started The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts, which my daughter recommended. She read it a couple or so years ago and it's one of her favorites--so I feel honored that she's finally letting me read it. I get it. It can be hard to let someone close to you read a book you love--what if they hate it? Speaking of Mouse, she's reading S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with her class, and I dug out my old mass market paperback copy with its yellowing pages and am tempted to read along too. I haven't read the novel since I was in high school, but I remember it fondly. 

I also really need to start this month's book club reads. I had hoped to start a couple of them earlier in the week, but it was not meant to be.

The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos by Melissa de la Cruz

All the Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

Gideon the Ninth by Tasmin Muir

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

What are you reading right now?

My TBR List is hosted by Michelle at Because Reading. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books from my TBR pile I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise).  

Please help me select my next read! I really struggled with coming up with three books for this month's poll. I am not sure what I am in the mood for. Here are three I pulled randomly from my TBR shelves. 

Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy #1) by Stephanie Burgis

In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion…and love turns their world upside down.

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other? [Publisher's Summary]

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens

After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this sweeping novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.

Thirty years before, Hana was someone Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.

Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too. [Publisher's Summary]

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever. 

[Publisher's Summary]

Thank you for voting!

New to my bookshelves:

Upcoming Book Club Books

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King

Norwegian Night (Sigrid Ødegård #1) by Derek B. Miller

This Could Be Us (Skyland #2) by Kennedy Ryan

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? 

Following in the footsteps of Deb of Readerbuzz, who shares three good things in her Sunday Salon posts, I thought I would try to do the same. With all the worries and stressors in life, I want to highlight some of the good, even the seemingly small stuff. 

1. My mom's Masquers Theatre Club put on an original melodrama play called Three Sheets to the West this weekend that had all of us in the audience laughing and cheering (and booing at the evil Mayor). All of the cast, including my mom, did a great job!

2. Waking up naturally on a Saturday morning; no alarm clock and no where to be. 

3. Hot chocolate and chocolate chip croissants--thanks to my husband for surprising me with breakfast earlier this week! 

What have you been up to this past week? 

I hope you have a great week! Let me know what you have been reading!

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