March Books

I set a goal to read 6 books in March and to not spend any money doing so. I rocked my goal and forced myself to start re-utilizing the library and their e-books. I only read 2 amazing, would recommend to anyone books but I’m also trying to branch outs and try different genres/styles so I know I might not like everything.

1. House of Gold {Natasha Solomons} – A I thought this book was fantastic. It reminded me of a couple other series I’ve read by Ken Follett (the Century Trilogy) and Penny Vincenzi (The Spoils of Time series), the only difference being House of Gold stays within the same generation and the other books follow several generations of the family. This one follows the Goldblaum family through the start of World War I. The main character has been married of to an English relative and ultimately has to choose between her new English family and her old Austrian family as they are on different sides during the war. The family itself spans all of Europe so has family members fighting for both sides. I think the author did a great job helping the reader feel the emotions of the characters and found the book really engaging!
2. Bellewether {Susanna Kearsley} – C I randomly found this book when I was looking through the e-books on the library website. It’s historical fiction split between the time frame of the French & Indian War and the present time. The book was an extremely easy afternoon read but not altogether great. There’s a ghost, and some love stories and it all cleans up very tidily in the end but TOO tidy. I vote it as bleh.
3. Scrappy Little Nobody {Anna Kendrick} – D I have always been intrigued to read this one because I like Anna Kendrick, but the book was very pointless. It felt like she just rambled on about various things and the content wasn’t full of anything of value. I would still love to be friends with Anna Kendrick though because you can still get a hint of her sarcastic, full of life nature through the book!
4. 99 Percent Mine {Sally Thorne} – B+ This was just a classic beach read rom-com. Girl loved guy since meeting him as kids but was never the right time for them. He became best friends with her twin brother so now he’s “technically” off-limits. They hook up, drama ensues. Very classic. Some parts I didn’t like – I felt the twins had a very unhealthy/dysfunctional relationship. I have a twin so I get the competitiveness and occasional bickering, but theirs was over the top and came off as just straight mean to each other. To the point that it seemed un-natural the brief times their sibling love came through. Overall, fun read though.
5. All These Beautiful Strangers {Elizabeth Klehfoth} – A+ Highly recommend!! This was the second time I actually checked this book out of the library. The first time I never got around to reading it and didn’t really feel inclined to renew it. I wound up grabbing it again and almost forced myself to check it out after seeing it mentioned a lot through the Bad on Paper podcast and I AM SO GLAD I DID. It’s a thriller about a young girl whose mom vanished when she was a kid. Now she’s in high school (prep school/boarding school) and trying to join the A’s (secret club like the Skulls). Somehow all this ties into her mom’s disappearance and she’s struggling to figure it all out and who to trust. Again, A-Mazing and definitely recommend!
6. A Spark of Light {Jodi Picoult} – C- There has only been a few Jodi Picoult books I have liked (definitely Nineteen Minutes) and this was not one of them. I hated the style of writing she used where she started with present time and counted back an hour each chapter. The book definitely would have grabbed me more if the story started from the beginning and played out. Instead I found myself skipping over sections and not caring about the plot. I was interested enough to stay for the ending but not enough to thoroughly read every word. BTW the book is about a gunman in a women’s clinic and features a lot of pro-choice vs pro-life controversy.
7. The Handmaid’s Tale {Margaret Atwood} – C I really wanted to like this book because it was made into a show and has such great reviews but the writing style just bored the hell out of me. It took me a lot longer to finish the book than it should have. It is set in a dystopian society in the future where women have lost all rights. Procreation is apparently an issue in this society and there are handmaids whose sole purpose is to get pregnant and produce a child. The whole concept is really interesting and I felt the book had great potential it just wasn’t there for me. I am going to give the show a chance (if I ever feel the urge to watch tv again) and see if that captures what the book was lacking!

By the time March ended, I had read 19 books. I’ve already knocked out 4 for the month of April (Nora Roberts trilogy sucked me in) so I’m definitely on pace to complete my goal number for this year. Score!