March felt like it was about a million years long, and I think that's partly because I ended up reading so many books during the month! There was a lot of "releasing a breath he/she didn't know he/she had been holding" for some reason, but other than that, it was a solid reading month.
Let's jump right into the recap!
Assistant to the Villain, by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
★★★
Reaction while reading: 😐 😏 😍
I wrote a review on this one, so if you want the explanation behind those emojis, go check it out!
Dear Henry, Love Edith, by Becca Kinzer
★★★
This was really cute. I did have to push the "I believe" button (as my mom says) repeatedly. One of the things that bothered me was that Edith's "allergy" to dairy was mentioned once as a setup for the meet cute (or the meet cringe) and then only mentioned again, like, twice. She buys butter pecan ice cream that she fully intends to eat (although Henry gets to it first) and doesn't ask if the cinnamon scone she gets from the bakery has butter in it. (Based on another line, I'm wondering if she just had an allergy to blue cheese. Is that a thing?) In another scene, she twists the cap off of a water bottle, and on the next page she literally "chucks" the bottle back into the cooler, but we don't get a note of water splashing everywhere. So there were little inconsistencies like that throughout the book. Also, it really annoyed me that whenever anyone poured themselves something to drink (usually coffee), they poured all the liquid down the sink after taking one sip. How wasteful! And Edith was a big culprit of "releasing a breath she didn't know she'd been holding".
Okay, even though I started this mini review off with a list of complaints, I did really enjoy the book. The author is a Christian, so it was nice to know that no clothes were going to come off. I'm planning on reading Becca Kinzer's next book, Love in Tandem, which just came out on Monday!
Fable, by Adrienne Young
★★★
I've been meaning to read this book since it came out in 2020, and I finally got around to it!
I love pirate books. This wasn't quite a pirate book, but it was close enough. There was a lot of great world building, and I enjoyed the book, but I just didn't love it. The pacing felt off to me. I kept expecting something to happen, and whatever I was braced for never happened. I'm not even sure what I was waiting for, I just know that I got all the way through the book and whatever it was had never happened. I felt like Adrienne Young spent the whole book setting us up for the sequel, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to read it.
Another thought: West was a jerk. I get that they're all messed up because of their childhood trauma, but West was way too manipulative for me to ship the OTP.
Also, what does "looking from the top of your gaze" mean? Any ideas?
This book was also guilty of the "I released a breath I didn't know I was holding" trope.
On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed
★★★
This was a super interesting look at the background of Juneteenth. I know a lot more about Texas history after reading this book!
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt, by Anonymous
★★★
My mom recommended this book to me, and while I definitely enjoyed it, I didn't find it quite as laugh-out-loud hilarious as she did.
Redeeming Vision, by Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt
★★★★
This book was written by one of my sister's college professors, who also happens to be her mentor. The book's aim is to teach us how to look at all kinds of art from a Christian perspective. As someone who's not super into art or nonfiction, I found myself reluctant to pick up the book, but I think its message is so important.
And that's it for March! Next week, I'll be back with Part 2 of "My Favorite Character Building Tool", looking at some actual character analyses I've done.
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