The Books I Read in March, 2024

 I read 10 book again this month and already have started a handful of books for April.  I'll admit that this time of year I find it harder to find time for reading since the weather is finally getting nice and I want to spend more time outside and spring cleaning the house.  But I always try to shoot for 10 books a month if I can.  This month I read some pretty great books! 

1. Random in Death (In Death #58)  by J. D. Robb-- I loved this latest installment in the series! Eve and her team are working nearly around the clock to catch a killer. When a teenager is injected with a deadly combination of drugs at a concert and drops dead within minutes Eve and her team are left with few clues but the attack seems totally random and they fear he will strike again soon.  

2. Identity by Nora Roberts-- Oh I just ended up loving this book so much! When Morgan meets Luke she's working so hard to build the perfect life for herself. She's got 2 jobs, a lovely home, a roommate that has become one of her closest friends and she's finally open to at least having a little fun.  Then her whole world is shattered and falls apart even more when the FBI tells her that Luke is really a serial killer that steals his victims identity and assets and then kills them. Morgan is his only victim that has ever survived. I was surprised that all this happened so early in the book and wasn't sure what was going to happen with the next 400 or so pages but once Morgan heads to Vermont to rebuild her life the story really takes off. I loved her new work family, getting to know her own family and knowing that at some point Luke was going to come back for her and try to finish the job he started. It was a really great story. 

3. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley-- Wow, with friends like this who needs enemies?  When a group of friends from college get together many, many years later for their annual New Year's Eve weekend one of them winds up dead and the rest are all suspects. Told in two alternating timelines from when they arrived at the lodge and after the body was discovered it was a fun and dark little whodunit. 

4. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz-- Jake is working at a writer's workshop when one of his students has the outline of an amazing and totally new plot line.  When several years later Jake realizes that the amazing story has never been written he looks up his old student and realizes the guy died before he could ever write his book. Plagued with the plot line, Jake decides to write his own version of the story following the same basic outline and it turns out to be a huge hit. At the very height of his success an email arrives claiming Jake is a thief and social media alerts start popping up accusing Jake of plagiarism.  Worried and upset Jake tries to uncover the person behind the accusations and starts researching his old students life hoping to find the story behind the plot.  It was a great story but I HATED the ending!  I mean it was a good ending but the book did not end the way I wanted it to. 

5. The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins-- I read 90% of this book in one day. I had only been reading a page or two every few days and then when the story just sucked me in and I finished the nearly the whole thing in one day! A very twisted tale about the McTavish family. After Ruby McTavish dies, arguably one of the riches women in the state of North Carolina, her adopted son Camden wants nothing to do with the house, the money and the remaining family members.  Camden gets pulled back to the family estate 10 years later after his uncle dies and brings along his wife Jules. Everyone in this book is scheming in some way, everyone has secrets, and eventually those secrets and schemes come to light. 

6. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler-- This might be one of the weirdest books I've ever listened to... I'm still not 100% sure what the point was. I kept waiting for something to happen or some plot line that tied the whole story into one cohesive idea.  It starts with the Whitshank family worrying over their college/ young adult children then fast forwards to both parents reaching old age and two of the (no longer young) adult children moving home to help them out. Then it sorts of goes back to talk about the husband's father and mother. The book kept moving forward and backwards and talking about different generations and storylines among these 3 generations but then it just sort of ended and  I was left wondering... why? Who cares? What's the point? If I hadn't been busy crafting cards and scrapbook pages while listening I might have stopped the book and made it a DNF. 

7. What is Love by Jen Comfort-- Maxine and Teddy meet at a taping of a trivia show (that sounds like a version of Jeopardy) and while they are attracted to one another let their rivalry get the best of them. Years later when the producers decide to film a tournament of champions Maxine and Teddy team up to practice together; spending an entire month together they can't help but give in to their attraction.  Definitely rated R this was a fun little story with each chapter starting with a trivia clue and answer. 

8. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close-- Not my favorite book of the month but a cute enough story to listen to in the car.  This book mostly follows the lives of Isabella, Mary, and Lauren (and a few of their girlfriends too) as they watch acquaintances and friends all pair up, get married, and start having families of their own. 

9. The Measure by Nikki Erlick-- I sort of feel like I am the last person to read this book! I really enjoyed it so much though and can see what all the hype was about. I had no idea it was a dystopian novel and I do usually enjoy those a lot! When boxes show up on all the adult's doorsteps overnight around the whole world everyone begins to speculate on what the strings inside mean. Soon it's discovered that the strings are a measure of longevity and much debate erupts between short stringers and long stringers. Told in multiple storylines (that all end up interconnecting in some way by the end) we see how the world view shifts overnight. Some people can't wait to open their boxes and see and others never want to open them at all.  Would you? I'm still not sure what I'd do... 

10. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green-- I had started listening to this book a few months back on the Libby app and had to stop because I felt like the story wasn't making sense but I had heard great things about it so I decided to get a physical copy from the library and read it myself and I am so glad that I did. I really enjoyed this story a lot.  Aza Holmes struggles with anxiety and cyclical thoughts that often spiral out of control. When her best friend Daisy convinces Aza to help  her search for a missing man because of a large reward being offered for information Daisy reluctantly agrees. Davis, the son of the missing man, went to camp with Aza years ago so Daisy works up a plan to get Aza and Davis together and talking.  However through the whole story Aza is struggling; struggling to be a good friend, a good daughter, a "normal" person, all while dealing with her intrusive thoughts.  It was so much easier to follow getting to see the thoughts (in italics) when listening to the audiobook I was kind of lost as to what was a thought and what was plot line. 

All 10 books fit into my 52 book challenge! Which means I've already finished of 30 of the 52 books. 

I've also finished 7 of the 12 books for my town library's color challenge!

Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud, Spread the Kindness,