March Reading Round-Up

Happy March! This month, I read four books and 1,316 pages. Please remember to take each review with a grain of salt, as every book has a reader, but not every reader is right for a book. All links will take you to Bookshop.org, supporting independent bookstores across the country.

“Love is a Revolution” by Renee Watson

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Rating: Three Stars

Nala is a teenage girl living with her aunt, uncle, and cousin in Harlem, about to enter her senior year of high school and wondering how she will ever find her place in this world. When she goes to an open mic night for her cousin’s activist group, Inspire Harlem, she meets her dream guy, Tye. In a quick effort to make a good first impression, Nala tells a series of white lies to try and fit in with the young activist and a young romance buds from those lies. This was a cute coming of age story with a predictable but heartwarming plot and wonderful representation. I didn’t love how so much of the story rested on Nala changing herself for a boy, but overall, it was a cute read that I could have gotten through pretty quickly if I hadn’t been in such a reading slump for the two weeks I tried to read it.

“All the Feels” by Olivia Dade

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rating: Five Stars

The sequel to “Spoiler Alert” follows Alex, the star of a “Games of Thrones” style show, and Lauren, the handler assigned to him as his self-destructive tendencies start to taint the image of the franchise. As their professional relationship blooms into friendship, we get delightful banter as Lauren and Alex push each other to stand up for themselves. Olivia Dade writes diverse experiences of fat women with expert precision, highlighting the many different ways fat women interact with the world. Lauren’s apprehension around flying and defense mechanisms around commentary on her body are things that I feel a lot of women in larger bodies can relate to. I loved how Dade wrote Lauren’s burnout, as I related completely to the feeling of losing yourself in your work and letting it consume every aspect of your life. I also appreciated Alex’s journey to finding ways to cope with his ADHD and addressing how his guilt about past decisions affected his ability to think and act rationally. Alex and Lauren compliment each other so well and as outlandish as the premise of their relationship may seem, it felt very realistic. Olivia Dade will be an insta-buy author for me from now on. Loved it!

“Sometimes I Lie” by Alice Feeney

Genre: Thriller

Rating: Four stars

I don’t read thrillers very often, but every time I finish one, I think, “Why do I not read more thrillers?” This fast-paced page turner follows Amber, who finds herself in a coma on Boxing Day with no memory of how she got there. As we read more about her past, both distant in her childhood and recent in the days leading up to her accident, more comes to light in her present while the lives of those she loves continues on as she remains sedated. As more characters are introduced, Amber becomes less and less reliable. While her husband and her sister and her ex-boyfriend visit her bedside, we learn more and more about Amber’s twisted past, all the while Amber is unknowingly rewriting her future. It took me a bit to get into this book, but I devoured the last half in one night and am still left speechless by the way Amber’s story wrapped up (or didn’t). Shoutout to my sister, Katie, for the rec!

“The Roommate” by Rosie Danan

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rating: Three Stars

Clara is a highly educated, East Coast socialite who packs up her life on a whim to rent her childhood crush’s spare bedroom. When she arrives, said childhood crush leaves her on his porch with a Craigslist roommate as he goes on tour with his band. Clara already feels out of her element, but when she finds out her new roommate is actually a rather famous adult film star, she starts to second guess her moment of impulsivity. When she decides to go into business with Josh in an effort to tackle the porn empire Black Hat, she starts to realize that she’s mixing business with pleasure. I liked the “Fight the Patriarchy” vibes and the banter between Josh and Clara was fun. But I never felt very gripped by the characters and didn’t find myself caring too much about what happened to them.

Thanks for following along! This was a bit of a reading slump month, but that’s okay! They can’t all be perfect reading months. Stay tuned for next month’s round-up. Until then, happy reading!