What I read in March 2024

You know what I said to my boyfriend a few days ago? "With all the craziness that happened this month, I've barely had the chance to read at all." So, I'm just as surprised as you are that I got this much reading done. I really don't know how I did it, while also playing many, many hours of Stardew over the past month.

We have a lot of books to get through this month, so let's jump right into it! Here is what I read in March.

please note that anything with an asterisk (*) was an ARC I received. It didn't change my opinion of the book, but just for transparency's sake.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber - ★★★★½

When I heard all of the hype on the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy, I knew that I had to read the prequel series built in the same world. I wasn't expecting to read this right now, since I've been trying to make it a point to actually finish some of the series that I'm midway through. I honestly forgot I put a hold on this audiobook on Libby. I started listening to it one Saturday evening and I was so obsessed, I decided to pick up my hard copy, and binge the rest of the book.

I loved it.

This book follows two sisters. It is their dream to be able to join in on Caraval one year. And one day, they get an invitation to join in on the competition. And while they are told that nothing that happens during the games is real, things take a dark turn during the 5 days the games go on for.

I loved the world, the games & puzzles, the romance, and all the twists and turns along the way. It made me super excited to start Lengendary, which I also put a hold for. I won't start it til I get the audiobook to listen to (the narrator for this one is really good). Even though I know I'll read most of the book paperback, it helps me put me in the right mindset to jump back into world.

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi - ★★★½*

I once saw this meme talking about the fact that after you read fantasy, it's a little difficult to take enemies to lovers in a contemporary fiction seriously. And honestly, it's true. To be honest, I wouldn't consider this an enemies to lovers, it's more so a rivals to lovers.

This story follows Nami & Jae Lee. Nami life has taken a turn for the worst. Her fiancé has broken up their engagement and her tech company is about to lose their funding. Frustrated with her life she makes a wish on her 30th birthday to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her Jae Lee. Her high school rival. The popular kid at school who beat her out of being valedictorian.

Even now, after almost 10 years have passed, Jae is still as effortlessly cool and charming as ever. The worst of it? He's planning a hostile take-over of her startup. And again the two go head to head. As time passes, the two realize that maybe things have changed between them.

This was a super cute rom-com. Both characters were super likable, and I couldn't get enough of either POV. I had a lot of fun reading this one.

Ready Player One by Ernst Cline - ★★★★★

I listened to this book solely one audiobook, and I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. I really enjoyed the movie when it came out a few years ago. It also helped me create a picture in my mind of what the world looks like. The book is similar to the movie, only better (I know, I know, what else is new?).

The story takes place in the future where there is a virtual reality world called the Oasis, and most people spend as much time as they can in the that world. You can go to school, work your full time job, learn, watch tv, and anything else you can think of in the Oasis. It seems the only reason anyone gets off is to use the bathroom, get regular physical exercise, and eat.

A few years ago, the creator of the Oasis passed away, and leaves behind a riddle to find a giant prize he left behind. There are three keys and they gates they unlock. Of course, our main character, Wade, is one of the recover the first key. From there it's a race against the clock. While he definitely wants to be the winner, he doesn't necessarily care if he wins. What he does care about is making sure that no one in IOI gets it. They're a corporation that wants to take the Oasis and change it to something that would be inaccessible to underprivileged people.

If you love video games, 80's trivia, and scavenger hunts this book is for you. I highly recommend this one.

Til There was You by Lindsay Hameroff - ★★★½*

Now this story was a lot of fun. It's a celebrity/chef second chance romance. The story follows a 24 year old Lexi, a culinary student. Since she's started school and her mom's passed away, she's had dreams of becoming an head chef in a Michelin-star restaurant. This means no dating. But when she meets Jake at a dive bar, a musician who dreams of making it big, she decides to make an exception to her no dating rule.

After an amazing weekend together, Jake leaves to LA to record his demo, promising to keep in touch. What Lexi doesn't expect is for him to become an overnight celebrity, and to never hear from him again. Time passes and she finishes school and starts to work in a restaurant. And then a distraught Jake shows up at her doorstep. They try to navigate what this means between them, trying it as friends.

Of course feelings keep bubbling to the surface and things continue to get more complicated as Jake deals with his fame and Lexi deals with her own personal issues. I really liked this one! The cover is super cute, and I breezed through the whole story.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult - ★★★★¼

My friend lent me this book to read late last year. She warned me that it was a heavier topic, so I decided not to read this in the winter. I struggle with the winter blues, and the thought of reading a book about a school shooting was not the best idea for me. I finally was feeling in better spirits throughout the month of March. I decided to switch between reading this with the hard copy paperback and listening to it.

It was really interesting. It was a multiple POV, and it takes about the shooting and it's aftermath. From the parents of the shooter, to the judge on the case, to the lawyer defending the shooter, and the cop investigating. It's definitely a heavy read, but it's really well told, and I was not expecting the plot twist at all.

I have never read anything from Jodi Picoult before, but this book made me more interested in reading some of her other stuff.

Just Don't Call Me Yours by Heather Garvin - ★★★★¼*

This was a dual POV college romance between Margot and Jackson. Margot hopes of making it in journalism and Jackson isn't really interested in college, he wants to play guitar for a professional band. At first Jackson and Margot couldn't stand one another. But you know what they say, there's a thin line between love and hate. This book made me cackle, giggle, and I couldn't get enough of the main characters. I didn't realize this was going to be a multi-part series following the same characters, so I was so distraught when I found out I had to wait to continue reading about them!

I don't exactly know what it was that made me fall in love with this book, but I really enjoyed this one. I have never read anything by Heather Garvin, but now I want to read her entire backlog. Highly recommend if you're a fan of college rom-coms, especially ones that include hot musicians.

Layover by Emily Henry (Bonus Beach Read Chapter) - ★★★★★

I rated this one 5 stars, not necessarily because it was the best thing Emily Henry has written, but mainly because this was supposed to be a bonus chapter to Beach Read. It shows you little snippets of all the couples from her past books, which is super cute! I honestly can't get enough of any of them. I do wish she showed Wyn & Harriet, but she probably wrote this before they were fully fledged out. You can find this bonus content on her website!

Ready Player Two by Ernst Cline - ★★★½

While I can rave about Ready Player One for ages, I don't know if I can say the same thing about this book. While this book had a lot of elements that could have made it a great book, I also felt like he repeated too much world building information he gave in the first book. I feel like this book was written after the success of the first movie, and in order to not alienate the people who came from only watching the first movie he repeated key information. As someone who read the book, it was too repetitive, and made the first half of the book drag on too much.

If he took out all of those extra world building pages, I think the book could have been a lot better. Nonetheless, I really like it, and while I don't think there will be a "Ready Player Three", the way that this world is build allows it to continue on for a while. I would recommend this to anyone who read the first book, because you need to know how it ends, but it's not even close to being as good as the first one unfortunately.

Behind the Camera by Chelsea Curto - ★★★★¾*

Anyone who's been following my page for a while or knows anything about me knows I hate single parent trope. I don't like books that tend to have children as a focus, and I don't necessarily care too much about the nanny being the romance interest. After falling in love with Camera Chemistry & Caught on Camera, I didn't think this one was going to be as good as those two.

How many ways can I tell you I was completely wrong?

I think I may have been reading all the wrong books, because when it's done well, it's obvious it's great. Chelsea made me rethink everything I ever thought of these tropes. The book was a slow burn. Maven's Dallas' Nanny, but they also become true close friends. I feel like a lot of Nanny romances are too insta-love-y (another thing I despise). So the build up for this relationship was perfect. These two characters have so much depth, that you're just grinning, giggling, and kicking your feet throughout the whole story. It was spicy, but the build up to the spice was perfect. If the buildup isn't just right, then sometimes I find myself skipping the spicy scenes. I didn't feel that way at all with this book (or any of her books if I'm being completely honest)

I don't know how Chelsea wrote a book that includes some of my least favorite tropes and turned it into not only one of my favorite romances of 2024, but for sure my current favorite book she's ever written. Every book she writes gets better and better, and I can't wait to read what she comes out with next. 100% recommend you check her out! This indie author is going to get discovered, and I promise you that you'll find her at your latest Barnes & Noble very soon.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle - ★★★★¼*

This is my first time reading anything by Rebecca Serle, and this book did not disappoint. What made this whole situation even better was that I received an ARC for this one! I felt so blessed to have been chosen. I didn't necessarily know what to expect going into this, and I actually didn't read the summary before starting it. I went in completely blind.

Like I said before, I didn't know what to expect from her, but this book read a bit like an Emily Henry book. Or even like an adult version of a Sarah Dessen book. It was a romance book with depth. But it also had a bit of whimsical light magic that's never explained, similar to something Ashley Posten would right, so take that for what you will.

The story follows Daphne, who for as long as she could remember, would get these slips of paper telling her how long her relationship was going to last. Sometimes it was before she met the person and sometimes it was after she met them. And because of that she believes the universe has a plan for her. Finally she receives a piece of paper with no expiration date, Jake. As Jake and Daphne's story unfolds, she finds herself doubting the paper's prediction, and has to wrestle with what it means to be committed and truthful.

This story was so quick to read. I feel like every chapter unlocked a bit more of the truth, and when I got to the end I found myself shocked, but also so so happy. There were two major plot points, one went exactly as I wanted it to, and the other one caught me completely off guard. From reading this book, I already know that I'll be checking out all of her other books! Highly recommend.

Don't Look For Me by Wendy Walker - ★★★★

It always takes me a second to set the scene for a thriller, but once I was able to set the scene in my head, I breezed through this story. When Molly Clarke goes missing, her family believes she ran out on them. Well, all of them except her daughter. After Molly's been missing about two weeks, Nicole goes looking for her mother in the spot her car was found.

This is a Dual-POV between Molly & Nicole. You find out where exactly is Molly & Nicole's journey while looking for her. I really enjoyed it. As always, I can't say too much without giving anything away. But can I say, the way I audibly gasped at the end of the book. I've been reading a lot of thrillers lately, and not all of them get me to react out loud like this one has.

Tentative TBR for April:

• Tandem Read (have to finish it, about 30% through both of them)
• A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn
• The Final Offer by Lauren Asher
• Daisy Haites by Jenna Hastings (started in March, but am only about 200 pages in)
• Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
• That First Flight by Jenn McMahon* (only ARC I have to read in April, but it is book 3 in a series, so I'm hoping to read the other two as well)
• That First Night by Jenn McMahon
• That First Date by Jenn McMahon
• Hypnotized by Love by Sariah Wilson* (I lied, there are only two ARCs to read in April, but I loved her short story in the meet-cute series, so I'm looking forward to this one!)
• Don't Let Me Fall by Kelsie Rae (currently reading this one, so hope to finish soon)

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I added this new tentative TBR list this month! I think it would be cool to hold myself a little more accountable and see how closely I stick to my TBR. I have a few ARCs, a few physical TBR books, and a few books to continue/finish some series I've been midway through for a while. Let's see how well I do!

Now tell me, how much did you read in March? What was your favorite book of the month? As you know, I'm always looking to add more books to my endless TBR. Chat soon xx