Was March my best reading month ever?

I’ve never been a super harsh rater of books. At the end of the day, if I don’t think I would like a book, I don’t read it. I’m deep enough in the reading community to have a pretty concrete idea of what my taste is.

Even so, I sometimes find books I am surprised by — both good and bad. My two most recent DNFs (did not finish) were ones that came highly reviewed. In January, the fantasy book club at The Latest Edition Bookstore read “The Bear and the Nightengale” by Katherine Arden. I was so bored and weirded out, I stopped reading at about 30%. From Erin’s description of the rest of the book, I made the right call.

In March, I read eight books, totaling 3,552 pages. My spreadsheet says my average rating for the month was 4.5 stars. Prior to March, I had read two five-star books — “Semi-Well Adjusted” by Alyson Stoner and “Lady Tremaine” by Rachel Hochhauser.

In March, I read FIVE five-star books, and none of them were rereads. I think in 2025, I only read 11 five-star books that weren’t rereads, so that’s a pretty fantastic month.

One thing I found interesting was that each five-star read was in a different genre. I started the month out with a mystery/thriller, “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore. I had high hopes, and it turned out to be well placed.

Like with “Lady Tremaine,” I think some books hit me differently now as a mother. One of the center points of “The God of the Woods” is a beloved child who went missing years ago and the toll that has taken on his mother.

The book jumps between timelines and perspectives as the mess untangles, leaving you with the single thread of storyline to solve the mystery. My heart ached after finishing the read.

Later in the month, our fantasy book club took on “Alchemised” by SenLinYu. This monster of a book is 1,040 pages of dark wartime violence woven with two young people finding a single point of joy with each other.

This book is interesting because it was actually originally a piece of fan fiction called “Manacled,” a Draco-Hermione love story that reimagines the end of “Harry Potter” to have Voldemort and the Death Eaters win the war.

Because of how well the fan fiction took off, people wanted physical copies of the book, but that is a violation of copyright laws since the world and characters are not SenLinYu’s intellectual property. She kept most of the plot of her own tale in “Alchemised” while creating an entirely new and diverse cast of characters, a unique magic system and a vast world.

Let’s just say that I have a baby at home that still wakes up at least twice each night and I stayed up way too late to finish this book. I always found myself wanting to be back in this world and with these characters.

After “Alchemised,” I honestly felt a little lost. I had no clue what I was feeling like reading next. I watched a video of two sisters that I follow, and one of them said “The Grace Year” by Kim Liggett got her out of a reading slump years ago.

I saw it was on Kindle Unlimited and started reading it. “The Grace Year” is a young adult dystopian novel about a society where girls are sent away on their “grace year” before being married. No one knows what happens during the grace year, but the girls often come back emaciated and/or deformed. Some girls don’t come back at all.

This book was such a page turner. It felt like it was going to be predictable but still a great time. It turns out, it wasn’t predictable at all. As I was in the last 50 pages, I audibly gasped so many times as things changed course so quickly. I kept looking up to tell my husband, “Guess what just happened!” Like a trooper, he “listens” and gives the appropriate, “wow,” or “no way.”

It wasn’t a literary masterpiece or a moving story, but it was just so entertaining and I actually never knew what was coming.

On March 30, I finished not one, but two five-star books. It started with my best read of the month, “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. I have wanted to read this science fiction novel for years but have always put it off. I finally picked it up so I could read it before seeing the new movie with Ryan Gosling (swoon).

When I tell you, I had such high expectations for this book and it exceeded every expectation. I loved every minute of this story. I honestly don’t even want to tell you what it’s about. If you haven’t seen the movie trailer, don’t watch it. Just go read it and be surprised. It might end up my top book of the year.

I finished the month with “The Night we Met” by Abby Jimenez. If you know me, you know Abby Jimenez is my romance queen. I love every single book she has ever written. This one is no different. There is so much yearning in this book, and she just writes the best male characters.

There’s no way I can top this month in April, but I have been slowly chipping away at “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas, and I think it will end up being a high rating.