 I actually have zero idea as to how I've read this many books in a month. Like, I feel like someone else has taken over my body this month. Friends, welcome back to my channel. It's time for our March Wrap Up! As you can see by the title, this is my best reading month ever. Now, it depends how you class best reading month ever. If we're talking ratings, if we're talking standout books, no. But in terms of the amount of books I've read, this is the most amount of books I have ever read in a month ever in the history of my life. So I've just got to take a moment. This is just amazing. If you've been here regularly watching my Wrap Ups, you'll know that we go through my reading stats first, then I go through every single book and just tell you the rating I gave them, and then we talk individually about disappointments, surprises and hits. Because I've already spoken about all of these books in my reading vlogs. So my more in-depth thoughts are somewhere else if you want them for each and every book. I will leave all the vlogs that I did this month linked down below in the bio. And we're just going to talk about kind of the standouts. Figured off for bad this month. So should we just get into the reading stats? Oh my god, how exciting. So the number of books I read this month was 17 books. Kind of gagged. 17 books was the amount of books I read this month. The previous amount I'd ever read a month was 16, and I think I'd already done that once. So this is not on the regular for me. And I was thinking like I don't really know how it's happened, but I suppose I do. I did that seven murder mystery books in seven days video, but even then I would have read maybe three books that week, rather than seven if I'd done a normal video. That's sort of been like 13, which is still pretty high. So I think I just had a good reading month. But I don't feel like I read a lot. I don't know. It's weird. I don't feel like I read way more than I usually do. So I don't know. I just put in the shift this month. In terms of number of pages read, I read 4458. That is not the highest amount I've ever read. I think it's the second highest amount of pages I ever read a month. I think there's one month where I read like 4,600. But yeah, it's the second most amount of pages I ever read a month. So listen, I was reading. I was reading. Meg with books was with books. In terms of average pages per day, that is 143 pages per day on average. In terms of average pages per book, that is 262 pages. So I did read quite a few as we'll see shorter books this month, especially for that Seven Murder Mysteries and Seven Days video because I was not about to read like seven novels. That was not happening. My average rating for the month was a 3.88, which is pretty standard, I would say. We had a mix this month of five stars and one star. If we say it quietly, it didn't happen. And the average time a book can spend on my TBR was 10 months, which is pretty high actually. What was last month's I wonder? Oh, nine. Okay, I guess that's pretty standard for me. Let me not chat shit. Okay. Right, let's get the graphs out. In terms of genre, I read one classic, one dystopian, two fantasy, one historical, one horror, two magical realism, six mystery. There was one of the books that I read for the Seven Murder Mystery that I classed as a classic rather than a mystery because I thought that was more of its prevailing genre. One nonfiction, one romance, and one sci-fi. A lovely mix of genres this month. If I do say so myself, we're all over the place. In terms of ratings, I had one, one star. We'll talk about that later. Okay. Two, three stars, three, three point fives, six, four stars. Oh my god, I didn't realize I had that many. One, four point five, and four, five stars, although one of those five stars was a reread. In terms of how I read the books, two audio books, eight were physical and seven I had the audio book and the physical book. So I think that's fairly standard for me. Oh my god. In terms of audience, 16 were adult and one was YA. Oh my god, I thought I read more YA than that. But no, wow, I'm really reading less YA these days, guys. And in terms of format, I read one graphic novel, 13 novels, and one short. Oh, hang on, that's not right. Hang on, I gotta figure out how to change this. Okay, we're all fixed. I did it, okay. In terms of the format, I read one graphic novel, 13 novels, one short story, and two anthologies. In terms of where the books I read were from, two were from Audible, two were from Book of the Month, seven were gifted, six were books I had bought myself. In terms of series stats, one book I read was partway through a series, 13 were stand-alone and three were first in a series, but I'm only continuing two of those series. Yeah, I'm not continuing one of those series. So we have started two more series this month. I have started four series so far this year, and I have yet to finish one. Interesting. And I think that is all of our stats. Yes, it is. So let's go through all of the books I read this month and their ratings. So this month I read Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, and I gave this Four Stars. Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel, and I gave this Four Stars. Several people are typing by Calvin Kalsuk, and I gave this 3.5 stars. Nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson, which I gave five stars. I reread Daisy Jones at the six. We won't talk about this in hits because obviously I read this before. I read the audio bit for this, and I gave it five stars. Wild Beauty by Annemarie Macklemore, which I gave 3.5 stars. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, which I gave four stars. Snow White Learns Which Craft by Theodora Goss, which I gave five stars. Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, which I gave 4.5 stars. Lord Edward Dies by Agatha Christie, which I gave three. Yeah, three stars. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Thurston, which I gave four stars. The Woman in the Library by Solari Gentil, which I gave four stars. The Murder Game by Tom Hindle, which I gave one star. My first one star of the year. Six Stories by Matt Weselowski, which I gave three stars. Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Craint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, which I gave five stars. And Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. This will be coming in this weekend's log, and I gave this 3.5 stars. Okay, let's talk about Disappointments, Surprises and Hits. Disappointments. I have two. The first one is the obvious one, The Murder Game by Tom Hindle. I don't even want to talk about it. So I read this in my seven Murder Mystery Books and Seven Days video. Jesus Christ, this was so boring. I gave it a one star because it is a crime to me that a book that sounded this interesting was that boring. So the pitch is that we're at a murder mystery dinner party that's 1920s themed and a murder occurs. Let me tell you, there is absolutely zilch 1920s murder mystery party going on. That it doesn't happen. Call the police. We need to call the police. It's meant to happen and then the murder stops it. And I said in the vlog, I'm outraged. Think of the fun that could have been had with that setting. You see in the distance, say, because we're by the sea, right? Stay on the shoreline. You see someone get stabbed, right? And then a character goes missing. And you don't know, has that person, have I actually just seen that person be murdered? Or are they in on like, is it part of the storyline of the murder mystery dinner party? Like, think of the possibilities. And we didn't get that. Basically a character who everyone hates is murdered and trying to figure out what's going on. It was so boring to me. Dialogue was pretty cringe. Pretty cringe. Pretty cringe dialogue. I feel bad. I don't like dunking on books, right? Especially when it's like a smaller author like Tom Hindle. Like if I were to read Sarah J Mass and hate it, like I feel no qualms, right? It's Sarah J Mass who cares. But when it's a smaller author, I do feel bad, but I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not gonna, like, I'm not about to lie about my opinions. Okay? This was just such a slog to get through. I felt like there was no tension. It was boring. Characters acted in stupid ways that weren't even fun. Stupid, just stupid, stupid. And this is it for me with Tom Hindle, which I'm sad because he's one of the main authors publishing like traditional murder mysteries in the modern era. You know, he does like, Agatha Christie kind of-esque murder mysteries. And there's not a ton of them around. You know, we have maybe like Janice Haller, Rich Osman, Lucy Foley, I guess you could put in that. But there's not a ton, although it is becoming more of a trend, which I love to see. I think I can single-handedly be praised for making murder mystery more of a thing, I guess. No, it's true. Oh, it's true. But it makes me sad when I have to leave an author behind, but I just don't think it's fair to him for me to keep reading his books because I obviously do not vibe. And then I'd say in my other disappointment this month, I didn't have any two or 2.5, so I was looking at my threes, Nelson King, you know, what was the biggest disappointment for me? And I would say it was Six Stories by Mike Wazelowski, another one from that video. I have just heard so many good things about this. I did listen to the audiobook and read along physically. And again, I felt like there wasn't a ton of tension in this. So in this, we are kind of listening to a podcast of these interviews done by these people who knew this guy who was murdered in the 1990s, ended in the 1990s like 20 years ago. And it's kind of telling the story of his murder and we're trying to figure out who did it, obviously. I felt like because the way this is structured is you have like 40 pages with one interview. It's not like another one I read this month, Daisy Jones and the Six, which is interviews where like you're taken through the story chronologically with people's interviews cutting in and out, right? You have one interview that takes you through the whole timeline. And I just felt like we were repeating the same scenes over and over again, which weren't even that like interesting. Like I feel like the stuff that happens in this, like the scenes if you've read it like at the graveyard or like at the cabin, it's like they're not that interesting. I'm not interested. So I felt like we were just kind of repeating these boring scenes over and over again and because it wasn't building to a certain moment all together, I felt like there wasn't much tension in this. So I just didn't love this as much as everyone else has. And I'm sad about it because I feel like this is a book that was a really, you know, a high four or five prediction for me because I've heard such wonderful things. I don't know, I just never really got into this one. Okay, time for surprises. So my first one I would say is part of your world by Abby Jimenez. This was my patron book club pick for this month. Or no, for February, but I always tend to read them in the next month. So I read them close to the live show. That's how my reading for the book club works. I loved this. This was a solid four star romance to me. We're following these two characters. The girl is from the city. She's a doctor in this hospital. And she kind of stumbled across this guy on this farm and they fall in love. And the whole book is kind of them trying to figure out how they can merge their lives, right? The whole book, they're kind of keeping each other a secret and carrying on with their lives and meeting up clandestinely. And I just really enjoyed this. I thought it was such a fun read. I read it in like a day. I really loved their chemistry. I loved seeing, she's quite a bit older than him. I loved seeing that in a romcom. There were certain scenes that were so like chick flick, like romcom-esque scenes. There's this scene where, I don't know if this is a spoiler. I'm just gonna say there's a scene with her friends and him at his B&B that's really funny. And just like the essence of that scene is so fun. I can imagine it being in a film. Yeah, I don't know. I just had so much fun reading this and talking about it with my patrons. It was a surprise to me. Like romances, you know, they're always here on this show. This was just such a lovely read. And her friend in the book is getting a romance coming out this year. So I'm definitely gonna read that. I didn't class this as starting a series though because on Goodreads it's not a series. I'll class the second book as like a companion book rather than the next in a series if that makes sense. And then I'd say my other surprise this month was An Eldie Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tersten. I really enjoyed this. I knew I was going to. I gave this four stars. But I was really shocked by the writing style and like what the book actually entails because I was not prepared for what actually goes down in this book. But I really loved the writing styles. Talking about how the writing style felt very similar to Beartown by Frederick Bachman to me and I believe both authors are Swedish and maybe I like Swedish translations because I really liked the cadence and the tone of the language used in this. And I feel like maybe it's something to do with how Swedish is translated to English. I don't know, I really enjoyed it. But in this we're following a woman, Eldie woman, she's like 88 and she has no qualms about a little murder. That's what I'm gonna say. I just wasn't expecting that. But it was so fun. I loved the audiobook for this. I'm definitely gonna read the second in the series quickly. I'll definitely finish it off this year. But I really loved it. It was just like a fun camping read. You know, it's just a bit ridiculous, a bit over the top. But I really, really enjoyed it. So if you're looking for a quick read, this was on the script. I don't know, I love murder mystery-esque stuff with elderly characters because there's something when you reach a point in your life when you kind of like, you know, I've lived my life. Let's just go for it. Let's just have a bit of fun, you know, that I really enjoy it. So yeah, I was shocked by quite how much I enjoyed this and quite how much fun I had. Okay, so Hits, we're gonna get into my five stars in a month. We're not gonna talk about Daisy Jones because, you know, everyone knows I love that. I just want to give a quick shout out to Mexican Gothic. I did get that 4.5 stars. I will leave the video I linked down below where that's in but we have a lot of five stars to talk about. So we're not going to talk about it now. So first I want to chat about Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I've actually lent this to my boyfriend's mum so she's got it. That's why I don't have it to hold up. And this, we're following these kids who spontaneously combust and our protagonist is kind of tasked with looking after them. She's best friends with their new stepmom and she's tasked with kind of looking after them and helping them deal. Their mother has just died so they're coming to live with their father but he is like a hotshot politician and so they're kind of just hiding the kids away. I loved this. I thought it was such a hot woman book about a found family and, you know, kids who have been through trauma and helping kids like that hill. I just thought it was so beautiful. I loved it. But it's funny. It's funny as well. Actually, I need to go and look at some of Kevin Wilson's other books and see what I'd like to read next because I just thought it was such a lovely little book. There's like a little bit of weirdness to the book where like obviously kids are spontaneously combusting but like in terms of the logical like conclusions that characters make and the way characters think and act it's just a little bit weird. It's just a little bit off kilter. If you're interested in this I would just 100% recommend picking up. And I said in the vlog, I feel like it's a book that I can recommend to a lot of people. Hence me ending it to my boyfriend's mom. Like I feel like although it's a little bit weird it's the kind of book that a lot of people could enjoy. So people in your family might enjoy it as well. I don't know. I just loved it. I thought it was beautiful. Then I gave five stars to Snow White Lones Richcraft by Theodora Gass. This is a short story and poetry collection by probably one of my favorite authors ever to exist Theodora Gass author of The Strange Case with the Alchemist's Daughter series. This is like one of the only books that is still faced out on my bookshelves because I've like, you know, got rid of the rest of them to save space. But I can't let go of it. And yeah, this is her short story collection. It's very much based on fairy tales. It's like a lot of fairy tales with a new added twist in it. And almost all of the short stories in this were five stars to me. The poetry, like I found difficult to rate individually because I felt like poetry to just like take it as a whole. But the short stories in this were just, oh, they were so good. Like modern fairy tales with a feminist twist that we're really saying something. There's one that tells the story of sleeping beauty from 12 different perspectives. And like, we have the perspective of the castle of the rose. Like, I just, I just thought it was so cool. And I loved what so many of these short stories had to say. Theodora, can we get another novel, please? I'm on my knees begging. I would love another novel. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. But anyways, yeah, this was amazing. The audiobook for this was on the script as well. And I really enjoyed the audiobook for it. So I cannot recommend it enough. I just thought it was such imaginative ways of remixing the fairy tales that we all know. And then finally, my final five star was your guide to not getting murdered in a quaint English village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper. This is a little graphic novel-esque situation. Kind of taking the mick out of the murder mystery genre, particularly that kind of idea of like a quaint English village being the murder hotspot of the world. You know, Ike, the Christie has that. Lady Hardcastle Mysteries has that. Like it's a common trope in the genre. And I loved this. This was so much fun. Oh, I love it. There's quizzes, you guys. There's freaking quizzes. There's two sections, really. There's the village and the manor. And there's quizzes at the end of them to like how much have you learned about like how to survive in a quaint English village. I just thought it was so fun. It took like 20 minutes to read, but it was amazing. I knew it was going to be amazing. I knew I was going to love it. I've put it off for like a year, which is not okay. But I finally read it. And I mean, there's not much to say because I don't want to spoil a lot of the humor and like the jokes for you. But it's just so funny like seeing all the people you're going to meet in the village or the ways you could die and all of that stuff. So much fun, so much fun. So there we have it. That was my wrap up for March. And yeah, I hope you enjoyed this. I had a pretty good reading month. Like I said, I read a lot of books. I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep that up in April, but we shall see. Imagine if I read this many books like every month for the rest of the year. Crazy. I mean, I think my goal on Goodreads is 100, but I'm secretly aiming for 150. And I think I'm already like 16 books ahead of schedule for 100. So I'm like, hmm, can we get to 150? Anyways, thank you guys so much for watching. Please let me know down below how your March reading went, how many books you read, disappointments, surprises and hits, any of those I would love to know. If you got to the end of the video, comment a heart emoji, which is the mood for a heart emoji, guys. Okay, I love you guys so much and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.