March 2026 Reading Wrap Up!

 It was a crazy month, March! Tons of reading happened. And tons of writing MARKETING happened. (Not actual writing of course, but the marketing of the book is WELL underway!)

Here's what I read this month:

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell: Thanks to the movie I suppose, I was suddenly hearing about this book everyone, so I found a used copy at the store one day and finally got to it this past month. And oh boy, the hype is real and this book is AMAZING! The writing is perfection... the powerful prose and beautiful descriptions and the story... the story is just so good. It's about the wife of Shakespeare, though Shakespeare is never actually named... he is just "the husband" or "the brother" or "the son" etc. So interesting. Not much is known about his wife, but this interpretation is awesome and I hope somewhat true. All surrounding the death of their son, Hamnet. An absolute ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for me!

Man of my Dreams by Jenny Rabe: My friend and I met this author at the writing conference in February and my friend bought her book and then loaned it to me. It was alright, nothing great really. The run of the mill, formulaic romance novel. This one did have a bit of a supernatural twist, but it was a bit eye rolly. I don't know. It was okay... lol. ⭐⭐⭐

Newsletter Ninja 2 by Tammi Labrecque: The second little book in this series about how to build an audience for you author newsletter. It was a frustrating read for me because they make it sound so easy and if you JUST DO IT then people will come. Not so. Not even close. People don't want another newsletter. People don't even look at email. But still they say, it's the most important marketing thing to do as an author. So I'm doing it. I have a newsletter. You can subscribe if you want. YEP! ⭐⭐⭐

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol 8 by Beth Brower: Ah, so sad to have finished the series as we know it now. Number 9 should come later this year. And I guess I'll just start BUYING this series and collect them. Whatever. Resistance if futile. I loved this last one. So good. So many back stories revealed. So many heart warming moments. So much swoon and banter. So much everything. LOVE LOVE LOVE. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: I did my fourth re-read of this book and documented the journey with a reading vlog on my channel. I tried to be entertaining. You should go watch it maybe. See what you think. But bottom line, I love this story story, even if it's very sad and disturbing. It's so compelling. I continue to think of it as a   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  book!

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden: This was the book club choice for the month. The first half was weird and the writing wasn't so great and I thought I might not make it through and that I would end up giving it a low rating. But then it really picked up in the second half and I read it so fast and then thought, well. Okay. That was a pretty good story after all. And now I'm giving it ⭐⭐⭐⭐! Crazy!

Burn the Kingdom Down by Addie Thorley: This was my ARC read for the month ( I think I'll probably have at least one or two a month this whole year, so be warned!) I got this one from NetGalley  just because it caught my attention, and guess what, I was right. It was a really good! I great YA fantasy that was so encaging and page turning and quite unique. You can scroll back a few posts and see my full thoughts on it. But I loved and it gave it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!

Betting on You by Lynn Painter: I snuck this one in at the end of the month just because I could and because I've been dying to read it for so long. It was as expected a fun YA romance with a lot of great tropes... friends to lovers, fake boyfriend, close proximity, etc. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Did you keep track? I rated FOUR books with five stars this month. Crazy! How can April hold up to that??

What did you read and love this month?

Video version of this wrap up can be found here on my channel.

West With Giraffes Readalong!

 Does anyone want to read this book with me? I'm hosting a readalong this month of April! Let me know if you are joining in!

Book Review: Burn the Kingdom Down by Addie Thorley

 Book: Burn the Kingdom Down by Addie Thorley

Genre: YA Romantasy

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this really awesome YA romantasy, we have two kingdoms with completely different magic and cultures. One lives in a cold mountain and those with magic can move the earth. The other lives in the warm earth and those with magic can cultivate plants. And they both need each other survive.

Our main character, Indira, comes from the gardener kingdom and her sister is forced to marry into the mountain kingdom in order to keep the pact going between the kingdoms. When she suspiciously dies, Indira is forced to take her place. 

And she is determined to use this opportunity to find out what really happened and make the mountain kingdom pay! 

But what she finds there is not at all what she expects. 

This story starts out with a great hook and just gets better and better. I was glued to the pages the whole time and the ending is just... WAH!! Lots of action and twists and turns, with a great magic system and world building. I really enjoyed it... all the way up to five stars! 

It has lots of action, as mentioned, and much political intrigue and all that good stuff, but it does include a romance too... enemies to lovers... but with low spice. It was perfect level for me. So good!

Thank you to Netgalley for the early review copy. This book will be released on April 7! Look for it!

Book Review: We Are Never Getting Together by Janette Rallison

Book: We Are Never Getting Together by Janette Rallison

Genre: YA Romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story is filled with tropes and banter and angst and antics, so you know I totally enjoyed it! We have our girl (who has lots of money) and our boy (who does not have money) who basically hate each other for some reason (enemies to lovers because...spoiler...lol!) so the book starts out with them "fighting" by doing crazy pranks on each other.  And then, as the story goes we of course learn that it was all due to some silly misunderstandings. 

But then when their single parents appear to be hitting it off, they decide to team up to make sure that does not happen! (I'm seeing it being called a reverse Parent Trap story... assuming everyone knows what The Parent Trap movie is!) So our girl (a drama queen) and our boy (a football quarterback star) decided to pretend THEY are together in order to discourage their parents from continuing a relationship... so yes, at the core of all the tropes, we have the fake relationship going on. Which of course means that eventually they will learn the truth about each other and change their minds. I love it when that happens.

It's delightful as expected. I love this author and all the witty fun situations that she creates. I always end up becoming totally invested and immersed because this type light-hearted fun story is my favorite. If it's your favorite style of story too, add this one to your list to read! 

This book will be released on April 7 and thank you to Netgalley for the advanced review copy. 

February 2026 Monthly Wrap Up!

 

The books I read in February!

I did a beta read for an online writing friend. It's a YA fantasy about dryads bringing their conflict into the human world. It was pretty good! If it gets officially published I'll be sure to mention it and pump it up!

Emma M. Lion Vol 7 by Beth Brower: I continued my love for this series this past month and this one might be my favorite? I don't know! I can't choose a favorite, it all melts into one story and just builds on itself until you can't separate out these volumes at all! I'm currently reading Vol 8 and loving and will be so sad to run out of having another one waiting. Vol 9 should be published later this year and I guess I'm just along for this crazy journey now!  The author came and did an event at the library in February and I was scheduled to actually work the event.. and might have perhaps met her and etc... BUT I got sick and had to stay home! I was so so so disappointed!

We Are Never Getting Together by Janette Rallison: This is a fun YA romcom that I read through NetGalley. It will be released on April 7, so look for my official review as it gets closer. It has some fun tropes like enemies to lovers, fake boyfriend, reverse Parent Trap (they are trying to keep their parents apart!) and football jock with the drama queen. So fun. I love all this stuff! If you love it too, keep your eye open for this one!

Ninja Newsletter by Tammi Labrecque: This is a book all the people at the writing conferences say to read... because having an author newsletter is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! How to get people to come and read it.. now that's a big huge question! She claims to have all the answers and in the second book, which I just finished, she talks about exactly how to do it. And she makes it sound SO EASY and just do this thing and people will come FLOCKING to your newsletter. HA! It makes me crazy, can you tell? Flocking... lol. Anyway, I've started a newsletter on Substack, which is very similar to this blog only... more... authory... and more writing focused and etc... so if you are interested.. you'll all flock there now, right? 

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis: This was the book club book of the month. The premise was cool... all about the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and the experience our character has becoming one of them for a few months. It's tied into another historical event... some pipe bomber during the late 50s terrorizing New York. So these two stories are combined and also, a character is introduced who started criminal profiling, which helped to find the bomber. It's all interesting, but the writing was so dry and cardboard-y for me and I just didn't love it. It was okay!

If you are interested in a video version of my monthly wrap up, you know you can click on over to the channel! I have a ton of plans for March (some I'm actually accomplishing!) so look to see how that ends up next month! 

What's the best book you read this best month? 

Want to be an ARC Reader?

 Hey friends!

It's time for me to gather some ARC readers for Always Best Buds! I'm going to assume you all know what that means! (If not there is more info on the sign up form!)

I'll be taking sign ups until the end of March, and then you have until the release date, May 12, 2026 to post a review an Amazon/Goodreads and/or your socials. 

So if this book that I've been promoting (see previous posts for a description and a book trailer!) sounds interesting to you, or you just think it would be fun to be part of the journey, go ahead and sign up!

CLICK HERE FOR THE SIGN UP FORM!

I hope to see a bunch of you join me! Thanks so much!

Always Best Buds Book Trailer!

 I made a book trailer for Always Best Buds! Hopefully this will give you a feel for what this book is like: sweet YA romance, boy crazy girls, 80s nostalgia, told through letters. Let me know what you think!