March 2021 Monthly Reading Wrap Up

[Jessica]

Springtime is officially here as another month comes to an end. I’m hoping to get some extra evening reading time on my patio soon if the weather stays nice! On to the wrap up!

This month I read…

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia- This was definitely an interesting book. I really enjoyed the very strong Get Out (the Jordan Peele movie) vibes that I was getting in the very beginning and I got just as invested in figuring out what was going on as Naomi did. The ending, while worthwhile and fun to read, just seemed a little too out there at some points that it didn’t seem to fit well with the story overall.

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater- I listened to this on audiobook. I enjoyed this one. I had never heard of the 57 bus incident before reading this book, so it was very informative for me in that way. The author does a good job telling the story and makes each of the two teenagers involved come alive in a way in which you feel like you know them. You could tell it was a non-fiction book with lots of pictures, or other things likes notes or letters, and audiobooks never as good of a job translating pieces like that over. This did leave a bit to be desired, but overall it was still a good listen.

The Siren and The Siren- by Kiera Cass- No, that’s not a typo, I did read two different books with the same title written by the same author. Backstory: We all know I was a huge Twilight fan back in the day, well did you know that Kiera Cass was a Twi-tuber(Twilight Youtuber)!?! Don’t believe me, search TwiCurls on YouTube and enjoy. Well, I was a fan of hers on Youtube back in the day as well. In 2009 she self published a little novel called The Siren and I bought a copy off Amazon and loved it. Fast forward a few years and Kiera jumps into the YA scene with The Selection Series published by HarperTeen, which I devoured. Fast forward another few years and a new reworked version of The Siren is published by HarperTeen as well. I was intrigued and still had the self published edition sitting on my bookshelf at home, so I put both on my TBR and planned to read them back to back to compare and contrast. After taking a long while to get to them I was finally able to do just that. However, I listened to the new version published by HarperTeen on audio and read the self published version with a little overlap. I really enjoyed both versions although they were a lot different than I expected. The main setting changed, Kahlen got a bit more back story from her first life (Although she had a much more fleshed out Siren life in the self published version), some characters are completely erased while others are added, and the major conflict point in the plot is completely different. I couldn’t tell you which version I liked better, but I will say the ending of the self published version hits the heart strings a little bit more, Aisling’s story in particular. I recommend either one for a cute YA romance with just the dose of fantasy.

What did you read this month? Be sure to share down below!

Happy Reading!

[Erin]

I read Mexican Gothic in January - very nice slow burn start and full of Gothic glory-ness.

For April I read:
The Library of the Unwritten - I checked the book out from the Gaston Library to read for my April book club - we get to talk about it this Sunday! First of the Hell's Library series and amazingly good. Richly detailed descriptions, layered characters, actions-adventure moments based on myth and legend but unique to themselves. The Library of the Unwritten is a dense read waiting to be loved by Urban Fantasy and eclectic readers diving into their encyclopedic knowledge of books, libraries, and written word. This book captured me in its binding, tied my heart to its heroes and villains, and trapped me within a spell of the magic of words.

A Fistful of Dust by A.G. Carpenter - This author has Voice all day long and she wields it well in this Weird-Western Sci-Fi. The voice swept me to the stars to the desolate, unforgiving frontier where woman and man would murder for water and kill for justice. If you like Weird West - this is a must-read.

[Jessica]

Jessica wrote: "Springtime is officially here as another month comes to an end. I’m hoping to get some extra evening reading time on my patio soon if the weather stays nice! On to the wrap up!

This month I read…..."

Thanks for sharing Erin! Both these reads sound wonderful!