March was a pretty decent month for reading!
I kept busy with wildfire academy for work, multiple weekend trips to the Valley, a long-awaited Taylor Swift concert and a few other things, like knitting and hiking, but I still found time for five books.
We had an early March snowstorm that coincided with a few sick days at work. That snowstorm dumped literally two full feet of snow overnight, so it was nice to stay home, rest, and knock out several hundred pages of reading.
Then… it kept snowing all throughout March. So it’s been really nice to have a lot of cozy snowy reading days this month.
I’m definitely going to miss reading by our little faux fireplace once spring rolls around, but I am excited for (eventual) summer reading, once the chaos of fire season subsides.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
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“PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION” BY EMILY HENRY
Poppy and Alex have an unexpected, but genuine, friendship. After meeting in college, the two have taken an annual summer vacation together, every summer, for 10 years. But, after something happened during a summer trip to Croatia, Poppy and Alex completely fell out of touch. One day, Poppy realizes that she isn’t happy, and she decides to try to fix her relationship with Alex by planning one more summer vacation together.
I didn’t love this book as much as I loved “Book Lovers” or “Beach Read,” but I still adored it. The romance between Poppy and Alex is a slow build-up, and you spend the entire book waiting to find out what, exactly, happened in Croatia that ruined the relationship between the two. Man oh man, Henry excels at writing chemistry between two characters! And, while I did still adore this book, it’s starting to feel like all of Henry’s characters are the same: bubbly, gorgeous-but-bad-at-dating, career-oriented blonde girl meets mysterious, brooding, hunched-over, sensitive-on-the-inside artist boy.
“THE PARIS APARTMENT” BY LUCY FOLEY
After a toxic night at her dead-end bar job in England, Jess buys a one-way ticket to Paris, in hopes of staying with her brother for a fresh start while he works as a journalist. But, when Jess arrives at the Paris apartment her brother is staying at, she finds that her brother has gone missing without a trace, and every other inhabitant of Ben’s apartment building is shady and full of secrets.
Every single character in this book was deeply unlikeable. If I was supposed to cheer for Jess, I couldn’t, because she spent most of the book bumbling around, stealing things and making poor decisions. Regardless, this book was very captivating. Even though I hated all the characters, the plot was very good. Just a classic, easy-to-read thriller! I’m excited to see this in movie form because I think it’ll make an excellent movie.
“SPARE” BY PRINCE HARRY
In Prince Harry’s long-awaited memoir, the royal “spare” to his older brother Prince William’s “heir” writes about his childhood following the death of his beloved mother, Princess Diana. He delves deep into his family dynamics (including his feud with his brother), his life-long love of African conservation, his life-long hatred of both paparazzi and the British tabloids, his military career, his search for love and why he finally decided to step away from his royal duties after marrying his wife, Meghan Markle.
I know there are two sides to every story — and we likely won’t ever hear anything from the British royal family to counter this memoir — but it just made me feel really sad for a boy who unwillingly grew up in the public eye and never had a choice in regards to the kind of life he was expected to lead. This book was a really interesting read.
“DAISY DARKER” BY ALICE FEENEY
Daisy Darker’s entire family has spent years avoiding each other. But now, on Daisy’s grandmother’s Nana’s 80th birthday, the entire family has assembled at the family house: A coast-side mansion called Seaglass, which cuts off from the outside world every time the tide comes in. During her birthday dinner, Nana reads her will out loud to her family. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Nana is found dead. One by one, the remaining Darker family members start dying off. Can the remaining family members make it until low tide when they can escape?
POTENTIAL SPOILERS: I usually really love a typical “And Then There Were None” plot… but this one fell short in so many ways. The start of the book is so slow. Daisy narrates the book — told in both the present situation and in past flashbacks — and so much of her narration is just winding and rambling with weird philosophical one-liners tossed in. It takes forever to get into the murder mystery itself, and even then, Daisy continues to narrate long irrelevant side stories that add nothing to either the plot or the character development. At the end, the book leans several ridiculous plot twists. One is a copout paranormal plot twist which leaves the entire book riddled with gaping plot holes, and another is just completely absurd and unbelievable. This book has a good premise, but it just falls flat.
“YOU’D BE HOME NOW” BY KATHLEEN GLASGOW
After affluent teenage Emory is involved in a car accident that left her friend dead and her brother Joey revealed to be an addict, Emory’s life is turned upside down. Four months after the accident, Emory’s junior year of high school is starting. Joey is home from rehab and Emory is trying to cope with her brother’s addiction and figure out who she is, and how the person she wants to be differs from the person she’s been told she must me.
This book took my heart and tore it apart. It hit so very close to home. I grew up in a town with a major heroin problem that left several of my childhood friends dead before they made it out of their 20s. This coming of age story, which revolved mostly around the relationship between Joey and Emory, shows how hard addiction is for everyone. It was beautifully written and haunting and I devoured the entire thing in less than 12 hours.
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And there you go! The best book of the month was definitely “You’d Be Home Now,” and the worst read was “Daisy Darker.” I’m glad I spontaneously picked up “You’d Be Home Now,” because it’s been so long since I’ve had a good five-star read. Hoping for a few more of them next month!
