Man. What a weird, long month. March is the month that COVID-19 turned the world upside down. Even though I still go to work (essential personnel, yo) so it wasn’t as big of adjustment for me, everything still feels a little surreal! Thankfully, March treated me rather well when it came to the quality of the books I read! I read two five star books. In a row! So, even if the world felt like it was falling apart, at least I had my favorite hobby to lift my spirits.

With that said, let’s get into the wrap up!

Click on the covers to be taken to the book’s Goodreads page

1. The Deep by Rivers Solomon::★★★★::My review
2. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor::★★★★::My review
3. The Last Human by Zack Jordan::★★★★::My review
4. Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko::★★★★★::My review
5. Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie::★★★★★::Review to come!

Popsugar Challenge prompts completed: 4

1. A book by a trans or nonbinary author (The Deep)
2. A bildungsroman (The Last Human)
3. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed (The Chalk Man)
4. A book with a three-word title (Bonds of Brass)

#StartOnYouShelfathon books completed: 1

1. The Chalk Man

So this month produced not one, but two five star reads! Which leaves me in a bit of a lurch when trying to decide which one is the best book of March…

Which is why I choose both!

Both Raybearer and Bonds of Brass were transportative stories that made me forget the madness that is our world right now. They both had stories that completely wrapped me up in their worlds and characters. Raybearer is so beautifully evocative and richly written that I wanted to settle myself into Aritsar and never leave! Bonds of Brass is a high-octane ride from start to finish that had me on the edge of my seat! They both thrilled me in different ways, so they both get to hold the top spot this month.

And now for the worst book of March… and, just like last month, I really have nothing! All my other reads of the month were four stars. I thoroughly enjoyed everything I read in March. I’m on kind of a streak here, y’all!

Annnnnd, I probably just jinxed myself 😂🤣

*claps her hands together*

Listen. I am clearly terrible at year-long challenges 😅 I only checked off four from the PopSugar Challenge, one from the #StartOnYourShelfathon, and ZERO from the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge! Which is why that I’m planning on focusing on my challenges more in April and May. For April, the month of the Magical Readathon, I chose all of the books to fulfill my prompts from my TBR shelf. That will be four more books checked off for the #StartOnYourShelfathon! And I’m going to use May to try and tackle more prompts from the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I’m determined to get better at this!

Something I’m pretty proud of, though, is my continued success on keeping up with my ARCs. I’ve read all of my April ARCs and will be posting my review for the last one tomorrow (yay, Bonds of Brass!), which means I am currently caught up on my 2020 ARCs! I mean, it’s not like I have a ton, but I’m still pretty pleased. I think part of that is keeping myself from mindlessly scrolling through Netgalley and requesting anything that looks mildly interesting, lol.

I also just noticed that I read five books in both February and March. Perhaps that will be my average? I’m not a fast reader, so I’m pretty stoked with that. I think I could probably pick it up, as well. What I really need are new headphones because mine are broken and I can’t listen to audiobooks without my headphones! Audiobooks always tend to bump up my reading numbers. Of course, if I only read five books each month for the rest of the year, I’ll still be a happy camper 😊

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I hope everyone read some great books in March. Perhaps it helped you take a breather from the real world, if only for a moment. Here’s to an excellent reading month in April!

And, as always, happy reading!