March Reading Wrap-Up + A TBR

Hi, everyone!! I hope you had a lovely March! The month of March was hectic for me. It was incredibly busy school wise. It was also the mark of the end of the 2018 winter guard season and it is always incredibly busy when it comes to an end. I also participated in a social media fast and you can see a daily tracker of my thoughts and pages read here.

Books Read in March:

 

the witch doesn't burn in this one by amanda lovelace - 3 stars This poetry collection follows a lot of current thoughts on feminism but places it in the context of the witch burnings. It feels very reminiscent of The Crucible. lovelace has a lot of good poems in this collection, but there were a couple where the diction rubbed me the wrong way. Check out my review here. (Netgalley ARC)

The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran - 3.75 stars This was a complete surprise and a novel that I found randomly on Netgalley. I'm so glad that I randomly decided to request this one because it was dark. Lockwood is captured and shipped to Australia and is forced into labor at a worker's camp. This HR focuses on PTSD as well as topics and themes that are generally ignored in the HR genre. I'm a huge fan of revenge plots and it always ramps up my enjoyment of the novel if it's there. Check out my review here. (Netgalley ARC)

You Know How the Story Goes by Thomas Olde Heuvelt - 4 stars This story feels like a creepypasta and I love creepypastas. So, naturally, I love this story and it's free on Tor's website. Check out my review here (link to story in review).

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 3.75 stars I listened to the audiobook of this one and I must admit if I was reading this book I would have DNFed. I absolutely can't stand Wade as a main character and his progression gets worse and worse as the story goes on. I loved the Oasis and the hunt for that these players goes on and it was hands down what made me enjoy this story instead of despise it. However, the ending sucks and I'll probably end up deducting this rating as time goes on. 

The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton - 4.25 stars I was so excited when I found out that Walton was finally coming out with another YA novel. I really loved the concept and it was fun to follow this group of witches. I really loved it, but I had so many questions that I wanted answered and it wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. Check out my review here. (Netgalley ARC)

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - 4.25 stars This was my first time reading this one and I have always wanted to read it. Since finishing Anne Frank Remembered in February, I kept thinking about the Franks and their story. I knew that I needed to finally read her story and the audiobook is absolutely stunning. The narration makes this story so personal and real. Check out my review for both The Diary of a Young Girl and Anne Frank Remembered here.

The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman - 4 stars I finished my leadership training class in March and with that came finishing the novel that was assigned for us to read independently while in the course. I really enjoyed a lot of the chapters and the messages that Coleman discusses in this one. Definitely glad that I read it!

The Merry Spinster: Tales for Everyday Horror by Mallory Ortberg - 3.75 stars This short story collection had a lot of gems that I greatly loved. My favorite was the story about the Velveteen Rabbit who begins to suck the Realness out of the little boy who owns him and as he becomes more real the little boy begins to die. However, there are also a lot of busts, but they didn't completely ruin this collection for me. Check out my review here. (Netgalley ARC)

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey - 4.25 stars I immediately bought the hardcover of this book when I finished The 5th Wave three years. I haven't touched since because I've heard how much people have hated this one. My library had the audiobook and I decided to take the plunge and finish the trilogy. I knew this wasn't going to be as good as The 5th Wave because that novel was a phenomenal novel for me. However, I don't think the flack this book gets is completely warranted. I am a huge fan of Yancey's writing style and the plot went where I wanted it to. The only problem I had was Ringer. I'm not a huge fan of her and at first, I hated her story and where it progressed to, but now it doesn't bother me as much.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - 4.5 stars This novel follows a black man and his newlywed wife and the journey that they are forced to embark on when Ray is accused of raping a woman and is sent to prison. It follows Ray's struggle through prison, Celestial's struggle with being a wife without a husband, and Andre Celestial and Ray's friend who has always been in love with her. The audiobook is amazing and I can't recommend listening to this enough! It was spectacular and as someone who is a native of Louisiana, Ray's accent was spot on. It doesn't get a full 5 from me because there was a time when these characters were making me so angry that I almost quit listening. LOL

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon - 2 stars Once upon a time, Jamie and Claire were my favorite couple in literature and their story was one that I gobbled up ravenously. However, The Fiery Cross completely decimated my love for this series. This book was too long and had no real purpose. Almost all of this book could be taken out and you would still get the full scope. Half of it wasn't important to the actual story and it was just a whole lot of exposition and crap I couldn't care less about. I will no longer be reading the Outlander books.

 The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton - 3 stars DNF I was so excited for this one because it is a retelling of King Lear. However, the writing was too flowery and the world building wasn't as wonderful as I thought it would be. The characters were the best part of this novel, but my copy was only a sampler and the sampler that was 100+ pages and felt like 500 wasn't compelling enough for me to want to continue. Check out my review here. (Netgalley ARC)

The Last Star by Rick Yancey - 4.5 stars This one started off a little rocky, but picked up and sucked me. Y'all I loved this ending! It blew me away. Yancey went there and it made sense. I was shocked and happy that he went there because it was ballsy and freeing. So happy that I finished this trilogy. I hope to review the entire trilogy sometime this month.

2018 Goals

 -I want to finish at least three series (five doesn't seem doable). YAAAS 1/3 

*I finished The 5th Wave Trilogy with reading two novels!
-I want to read five sequels (I don't have to finish the series). 4/5 

*Flawless by Sara Shepard is book 2 in the PLL series. 

*The Infinite Sea and The Last Star by Rick Yancey are the 2nd and 3rd book in The 5th Wave series.

*The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon is the fifth book in the Outlander series.
-I also want to read four short story collections. COMPLETED 5/4 

 *Harry Potter and Philosophy. 

*Manga Classics: The Jungle Book

*Starlings

*Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

*The Merry Spinster
-I want to read three classics that are not Stephen King novels. COMPLETED 5/3 

*Manga Classics: The Jungle Book

*Anne Frank Remembered

*The ABC Murders

*Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

*The Master Plan of Evangelism (Christian Classic)

-I want to read five Stephen King novels (I've already read one in 2018). 1/5  

*The Long Walk (5 stars)

Read 2018 ARCs. Read 12/14!
Books I Posted on End of the Year Survey. YES! 1/18

*The Fiery Cross 

Overall Thoughts:

I read 13 books in March! That's a lot and is a little bit more than I usually read in a month. I didn't read any 5 star novels which is kind of sad, but I did read some novels that I enjoyed and was completely surprised by An American Marriage! It deserves all the love it has been getting. Also I finished a series and finally finished the 1443-page novel, The Fiery Cross, that I've been reading since January 4th. I also finished four novels that were on my want to finish for March which is super exciting!

Currently Reading/ Hoping to Finish in April:

     

Already Finished: I Have Lost My Way, School for Psychics, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Gerald's Game
Netgalley ARCs: School for Psychics, Love and Death in the Sunshine State
Eldweiss:
First to Read: I Have Lost My Way
Physical ARC: Song of Blood & Stone (won from GR!)
I'm still currently reading A Wilderness Station, Helter Skelter, Against Forgetting, A Darker Shade of Magic, Amity, and rereading East of Eden. I started reading Song of Blood & Stone and Love and Death in the Sunshine State. I also started listening to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Books I'm Thinking About Picking Up:
ARCs
  
For April ARCs, I have Dimension Drift and it's only 125 pages. So, I'll give it a go. The Mars Room and The Luck of the Bride release on May 1 and I'd like to get to them both, but I don't know if I'll get to both of them. Hooked on a Phoenix is an ARC from March that I'd like to pick up. Out of these I'm most excited for The Mars Room. It was already on my TBR and when I saw it on Netgalley and got approved I squealed a bit!
Audiobooks:

I'm on hold for these books at my library and I'm hoping that I get to all of them in April!
I read The Hollow when I was in middle school and it was one of my favorite novels. I've been meaning to continue with this series since the second book came out I bought it the month it was released and still haven't continued. Y'all, Neil Gaiman narrates Coraline and I'm 100% here for that. I've been on hold for what feels like forever and I can't wait for this to finally become available for me. I'm going to give the Percy Jackson series a shot, but I don't know if I'll like it or not. I've always wanted to read The Chronicles of Narnia. In fact, when I was in fourth grade I started reading Prince Caspian, but it's hard to jump into a series and I never finished it. Peter from Peter Likes Books had such high praises for The Woman in the Window and its audiobook that I knew I needed to pick it up! I'm number 23 on the waiting list, but my library has 8 copies, so I may actually get to this one. Murder in the Bayou hits close to home and when I worked in traveling sales I went to Jennings and met a man who told me about the corruption in Jennings. I was interested and did some research, turns out there is a famous true crime novel revealing the corruption in a small town overrun by drugs.
Books I Own:
 
I've been meaning to finish the Burn for Burn trilogy forever and since I bought this book during Black Friday from Book Outlet it has been staring into my soul. Ashes to Ashes is going to be my next read for sure! I really want to read You. I've had this one for a while now (probably a year) and I always want to read it, but when it comes to books I really want to read I sometimes take forever to get to. I haven't read a Vonnegut book since I was a senior in high school. What is wrong with me? My parents gifted me with God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater for Christmas and this is one that I must read soon! I'm going to say that The Shining is going to be my next King read, but if I'm honest I never know what King I'm going to pick up next and that's what makes him so much fun!

What did you read in March? Have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts on any of these books? Love it, hate it, or can't be bothered? Let me know down below in the comments!