I totally ditched my TBR :) // March Wrap Up

Hi, 👋

We are officially a quarter of the way through the year. Is anybody else terrified by this? Because I am, but instead of facing my fears of the future, I’m reading through the anxiety. I highly recommend this method.

Some big things happened in March 2021:

• I read 10 books.
• I got a conditional offer to four out of five universities that I applied for (*screams because the future is coming and I’m not ready*).
• I failed my driving test lol
• I became obsessed with the boat blocking the Suez Canal.

In terms of books, I planned to start/make progress in a bunch of series and I kind of accomplished that but also I got distracted by some other books and totally veered off course of my T.B.R. I did enjoy more or less everything I read this month though, so I’m not too mad about it.

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The first book I read this month was Siege & Storm and the final book I read was Ruin & Rising, both of course by Leigh Bardugo. Despite there being eight books between them I figured it makes so much more sense to talk about them together.

I’m really proud to finally have read this trilogy and knock another popular YA series off my list. I re-read the first book last month and continued on in March because I don’t know if you know (who am I kidding, of course you know) the show comes out in April. I can’t deal!!!

This is by no means the best series in the world, it’s not even Bardugo’s best work within the Grishaverse but it’s what started it all and I had a lot of fun. Despite me having problems with the pacing of each book and the repetition of plot points I enjoyed it. Alina is precious even when she’s being ruthless and badass, I don’t understand why Mal get’s so much hate, and I would die for Nikolai.

I wasn’t going to re-read Six of Crows but now I think I’m going to have to because I won’t be getting hands on King of Scars for a while and I need more!! I’ve got a whole series review coming soon.

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How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams was my first detour from my TBR. After seeing it mentioned on Goodreads and then in Booktube videos I took it as a sign and ended up reading it in one day.

This romance novel was so sweet to read. The main couple were both so dorky and adorable. You really couldn’t help but root for them. There’s really not much to say about this book. It was solid, I smiled a lot and I would highly recommend.

I will say I was kind of stressed while reading this because I had to read an ARC for a Blog Tour by a certain date and that date was fast approaching.

Protip: don’t schedule a bunch of Blog Tours during exam season. It was a stressful time!!

The ARC in question was A Better Bad Idea by Laurie Devore. I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought the way this book was told was pretty cool: dual perspective and dual timeline, and it was kind of interesting but I just wasn’t feeling it.

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And then finally my TBR went completely out the window when I read the entire Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy and then also read the first two books in the follow up companion series Briar U.

That’s six books in the span of six days!! I didn’t mean to do this. I was just going to check out the first book, The Deal, because again I saw it all over the place and when it was free on Kindle I saw it as a sign, but they were SO ADDICTIVE!!

I did a whole series review for the original series but to sum it up:

• I loved how much chemistry all the characters have with each other both romantically and platonically.
• Sure it’s a steamy series but there’s equal amounts of sweet and serious.
• I really liked how despite being companion novels (which, in my opinion, you do have to read in order) they each follow a different plotline. Not once did it feel like the same story but with different characters like some companion romances I’ve read.

I actually found out there’s another book coming out this year in which we see what these characters have been getting up to since the books. Whether it’s a full novel or just a novella I don’t know yet but either way I’ll read it.

As for Briar U, the sequel companion series: I’m not loving it as much as the OG but they’re still entertaining and I might do a series review for those too but I’m not sure yet.

And there we have my March summed up. Very proud of reading 10 books, definitly was not expecting that this month. Reading that many books means I’m now 18 books ahead in my Goodreads challenge and only have 13 books to go before meeting my goal. *pats self on back*

Like always I’d love to know what you’ve been reading this month and if you have any thoughts and feelings on the books mentioned above. Thanks for reading :))

Elli xx