The grand total of books read for March is 18. I read a lot of these during our Spring break since it was very cold and dreary in early March. I had a couple of days of staying in pajamas all day and only getting up for more coffee. I won’t get those days again until summer so I soaked up every spare moment with books.
This month, I also got my book review blog pages up and running. I have different views and sidebars for that page and I updated my profiles in several book review sites and subscriptions. I have a too-be-read stack that’s quite high and a Kindle queue with several books. April looks to be a busy month!
For March, I stayed busy with mysteries and thrillers. Some of these, I have linked to separate detailed posts.
- Not That I Could Tell is a soon-to-be-summer hit.
The book begins with the ladies enjoying a kid-free night around a backyard fire pit and freely flowing wine. Some of these friendships are new and developing and this night is a great start to growing those connections. The next day, Kristin is gone. Her twins are gone. And nobody has any information. In fact, none of the women remember much about the previous night. The rest of the book is focused on solving the mystery surrounding Kristen while exploring the dynamics of friendships with neighbors. It was a fascinating read!
2. The Broken Girls
In Vermont 2014, Fiona is a reporter and she stumbles into an investigation into an abandoned boarding school Idelwild Hall from the 50’s. This is a school for the unwanted girls, for various reasons. Katie, CeCe, Sonia, and Roberta are close friends and their stories are heartbreaking. It just so happens that Fiona’s sister was found murdered on the grounds of Idelwild Hall and now someone wants to restore the buildings and open it back up. Throw in dual POV between the girls who lived there and the current events circling Fiona and her own personal struggles and this book was so hard to put down. The questions just kept building and I was desperate to find the answers.
3. The Next Girl
Detective Gina Harte is leading the case on an abandoned baby left in plain sight for someone to find. The DNA results lead to a woman who has been missing for 4 years. While her husband and children are just beginning to move on with their lives, the missing woman is very much alive. The rest of the book is about solving this mystery while introducing us to some truly unforgettable plot twists and characters. Knowing this book is a #1 means there will hopefully be a follow up or even better, a series. This story does have darker elements so it’s not all sprinkles and rainbows. This books does NOT end in a cliffhanger and I reviewed it fully here.
4. Sometimes I Lie
This book was amazing! If people are talking about it on message boards and in review groups and having long discussions about the ending, then that’s a great book. Alice is in a coma, but she can hear and feel everything. She weaves a tale of years before and reporting on the present. The alternating chapters offer past and present from Alice’s POV and both time zones have truly engrossing events. The ending will smack you around like a Tilt-a-Whirl. Be prepared to reread a few times to figure it all out. Read my full review here.
5. Shattered Mirror
If you’ve been reading along for many years in the Eve Duncan series, this one is a must-read. I have missed the last few of this series by Iris Johansen and I was able to catch up on the major events with Shattered Mirror. We find Eve as fierce as ever and her loyal Joe working with her to solve a skull case that hits VERY close to home. I began this series several years ago and lost track when life kicked in and my reading took a back burner. I want to go back to where I left off and soak in more Eve and Joe.
6. Red Sparrow
I bought this one because the movie was released in March and I always try to read the book first. I’m glad I did although this is not a 5-star book for me. It is the first in a series and I will definitely finish the series because I want to see how it works out for Dominika. She had a whirlwind first book and I’m invested in her continued story.
This first book involves her rise to the Russian intelligence agency, through her extraordinary hard work to get there. Unfortunately, she’s forced to be trained as a Sparrow—women and men trained to use seduction to gain spy secrets through any means necessary. She is given the task of spying on Nathaniel Nash, as US spy working with a Russian mole. The dual POV and the weird addition of recipes at the end of the chapter made this a disjointed read. There is the overboard US is good/Russia is bad theme. There is also graphic violence and, obviously, sexual content. This is book 1 of 3.
Switching over to the romance shelf, I began a series from Megan March that I LOVED and will finish. I’ll review the series as a whole later. And Jessica Gadziala continues to knock my bunny socks off. The Fixer was a stand-alone novel that had all the things I love in romance. She just gets better and better.
Now I need to get back to my TBR pile which is growing weekly!
Happy Reading!