My March 2025 Reads – A Book Review

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

March, March, March. Let’s see. My son had his first baseball game of the season and has really come into his own as a reliable hitter for his team. He even hit a grand slam! His first! But aside from that, it’s been a pretty quiet month for me. Unless you count all the writing I’ve done, like everyday!

I’ve finished 21 chapters of my vampire coming-of-age novel thus far, and I’m wrapping up chapter 22 today. This story is based off a screenplay I wrote. This particular chapter I’m currently working on is taking me a while, because movie version of my character and book version of my character need to do different things. For instance, I can’t have my MMC run away because he’s scared of a vampire. That may work on film, but not in a romance novel. He’s got to man up. Not that he’s not strong in the film version, but when you’re in his inner monologue, it just doesn’t hit the same that his automatic response to a little vampire gore is to run away like some bitch. Romance girlies won’t go for that. I know I wouldn’t. So… edits, edits, edits.

As always, if you’re interested in reading my first novel, The Secrets We Keep, it’s available to read here. This book has cheating themes and plenty of spice for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Now, without further ado, I read 6 books this past month. I know, I know. Not a lot. But what can I say? I’ve been busy writing! Gotta get the vampire book done so I can get back to working on Book 2 of The Secrets We Keep series. Can’t leave my Wattpad readers hangin’ after that doozy of a cliffhanger!

Let’s get into the reviews. 🙂

Leather and Lark (Book Two of The Ruinous Love Trilogy) by Brynn Weaver

You can read my review for Book 1 here.

I listened to this on Libby. It was a duet and I just love duets! The voice actors did a really good job. Those sexy scenes? Phew! I was not ready for the bonus chapter. If you know, you know. Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in any other book, so that was a first for me.

I really liked Leather (Lachlan) and Lark together. Taking down the villain in this was super easy. Barely an inconvenience, unfortunately. Yes, he caused some strife and some drama and some tears. But the build-up to what ultimately happened was kind of a letdown for me in the end. This character, Abe, was someone we met at the end of Book 1, aka The Shadow. In this one, he liked to quote scripture with a southern accent as he’s doing his killing. Creepy.

I enjoyed watching their growing love for each other. Lachlan showing his love by having Lark go to that sleep retreat, watching the film Constantine because it’s a favorite of hers, and other Keanu films. And letting her get certain revenge against someone from her past. Love. Him being totally fine when he finds out that she’s a serial killer. Love. I also think the author portrayed Lark’s PTSD well.

I liked their honesty. I liked this one better than the first book. Lark’s aunt was a feisty one. I liked her. I don’t know why Lark felt she had to keep her extracurricular activities a secret from her best friend, Sloane. That confused me. Other than that, an enjoyable read.

4.25/5 stars

The House Across the Lake by Riley Siger

I listened to this one on Libby. Not my favorite by this author at all. I’ve never read a story from the POV of an alcoholic, so that was a first. She wasn’t likable. The main character, Casey. And then the supernatural part of it was so hokey. There were zero clues about the character who ended up being a serial killer. I can’t really talk much about the storyline because I’d give it all away.

We think we know the reason why Casey in the beginning drinks so much, but then we discover it’s for a whole ‘nother reason. 75% in, we find out weird things about this lake, and you’re asked to suspend a lot of disbelief. And there’s also a twist at the end with one of the side characters, but I just didn’t care at that point.

Hard to rate this one. It was written okay, I guess. The story was just so out there.

2.5/5 stars

Survive the Night by Riley Siger

I also listened to this one on Libby. There are so many instances in the book where I was just like, “Bitch run!” I didn’t understand why she didn’t get out of her situation countless times. There was a rest stop where she could’ve escaped and gotten out of her situation, but she just kept going, for plot purposes. Because if she got away from the guy, then where is the story? There is no story. It just felt very unrealistic in that respect and she just seemed really dumb. Her whole “I’m gonna stick it out ’cause I think that this guy killed my best friend. So just in case he killed her, I’m not gonna let him do this to someone else. I’m gonna risk my life to allow myself a chance to take this guy out, even though I don’t really have a great plan.” Just no.

I was shocked by a character we meet maybe halfway through, so that’s a good thing. She wasn’t who she seemed to be.

There’s this whole plot device of having the main character zone out and see movies in front of her and not knowing what’s real and what’s not. That got on my nerves after a while. And when this author used that plot device at the end, it felt lazy and like a copout.

I figured it out maybe three quarters of the way through who the killer was. I knew it had to be someone we knew. There was no way it was gonna be some random stranger. But again, there were no clues that killer was who the killer turned out to be. I just did a process of elimination thing. The killer’s reasoning for killing was weak. He/she didn’t like certain people, so he/she just offed them.

I liked who she ended up with, but the ending was disappointing. There are things I liked and things I didn’t, so I guess overall…

2.5/5 stars

Lock Every Door by Riley Siger

Okay, so I guess I went on a Riley Sager binge. I listened to this on, you guessed it, Libby!

This one kept me guessing. I enjoyed the ending. I really hated the villain at the end. I wanted to see him die.

This author, he typically makes the guy that you think is good, bad. So I did think about halfway through that the bad guy was the bad guy, even though he/she was charming throughout. I was thinking, oh man he/she’s gonna be the bad guy. And then yes, he/she was the bad guy. So in that respect, it was predictable. But they still threw me for a loop with the plot. I don’t want to get into specifics because it’ll ruin it.

But it was good. It kept me interested. I really enjoyed the story. The only reason I gave it four stars is because there’s a whole lot of telling you what’s happening and there are a lot of characters to keep track of and some characters, I was like who is that again?

All the bad things that went down in this book enraged me and was like a mirror up to society. So much evil and people aiding and abetting that evil. They all needed to go down. It was the selfishness of mankind on display. It was just really good. They didn’t solve the mystery of the missing sister Jane, though. Boo! But still a good read.

4/5 stars

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

I read this through Libby on my kindle. I started this one a while back and never finished it. But I checked it out again and finally got through it. This is basically a family saga that spans decades, loosely based on Little Women.

Very distinct characters. I wish there was more of Cecilia and Emmelyne. I identified with Cecilia the most. She was strong and honest. And followed her dreams. She raised Izzy on her own.

I liked when Alice finally got to meet Izzy and how Izzy just welcomed her home with big open arms. It was slow and not necessarily exciting to read. I didn’t necessarily like the author’s writing style either, and I’m not sure I’d read another book of hers.

The ending was anticlimactic. No big blowout at the end, which is what I wanted. There definitely felt like something was brewing between this broken family, and I so wanted to see a fight between Alice and Julia, or between Alice and William. But nope. William never apologized for what he did. I had to go back and reread the end to make sure and yeah, he never uttered those words.

I wanted more. I was surprised when one of the characters died early on. And I was surprised when that drama happened between Sylvie and Julia. That part, I enjoyed. But the cost? Julia moving to New York and losing touch with her family for decades. Telling Alice her dad was dead. All of it was sad.

I’m not sure why Kent, a side character, had to get divorced. We never got a reason why, so why put that in the story?

I honestly don’t know if I liked it. I enjoyed how the sisters and their relationship to one another was portrayed and written. It also felt like these characters had so much more life to be lived, but the author was like, I’m tired. I guess I’ll end it here.

3.5/5 stars

Daughter of No Worlds (Book One of The War of Lost Hearts series) by Carissa Broadbent

I listened to this on audible. This was an epic story and a lot happened in it. I enjoyed the character of Tisannah. She was strong. She knew who she was. She didn’t let anybody else define her, ’cause there were so many people who wanted to put her in her place. She stood up for herself, which I loved.

She had this magic inside her that she was able to wield and wow! I was surprised when she killed that guy in the beginning, her master, who was whipping her to death. And I really liked how her friend, a fellow slave, helped her cover it up. He was a true friend.

She and Max, the MMC, they made each other better. You don’t really understand why Max feels the way that he does about The Orders, the group she wants to join so she can learn how to fight and free her slave friends. But when we find out why he doesn’t like The Orders, whoa! It’s a lot. And so sad, yet horrifying at the same time.

There’s this dark magic that they put into people, so they can then possess these special powers and fight the war. That dark magic said some pretty awful things to our heroine. It was actually pretty haunting, but very well written.

Sometimes it was hard to understand the voice actors with their heavy accents, but they did a very good job. The sole sex scene was very romantic. It didn’t give me all the goods, but I guess, for the time that it’s set in, sort of old times with swords and that sort of thing, I kind of get it.

Overall, it was enjoyable. It was slow at times, and I’m not really into fantasy that much, but the fantasy that was done here, the magic, the shape shifting. It wasn’t bad. It was interesting to see these characters come into their own.

When she was putting together that contract between her and Max’s old lover, Nura, and Zeryth, the guy who could’ve, but didn’t save her in the beginning from slavery, she got everything written out, covering all loopholes. Well done! It was very long, and it took me a little over a week to get through, but overall, it was a good read.

4/5 stars

Thank you for reading!