…March book report…

March was an epic month for reading, with 8 books under my belt! Not bad for a buys month of school and work and life. It helps I made better choices with my free time of an evening, avoiding tv, and remembering to take my kindle or iPad with me to sit with Mr5 at bedtime. I also finally had a play with the BorrowBox app during March and oh. my. gosh. Game changer!! March was a mix of BorrowBox on the ipad, kindle books, three actual hard copy books, and an iBook I’d forgotten I’d purchased!!

Powder and Patch, Georgette Heyer {book depository | Amazon} – 4 stars – I grabbed this one when our local bookshop was closing down. I’ve had Heyer’s Venetia on my iPad for a while and I’ve just never gotten to it, but have heard fabulous things about her, and oh gosh, this was such a fun historical read! It was ridiculous and melodramatic and a nice light read, even if the characters needed a good shake on the regular!

The Winemakers Secret, Cynthia Ellingsen {book depository | Amazon} – 4 stars – this was a Kindle First selection, and I didn’t realise until afterwards that it was the second book in a series. I often am a bit leery of such books, as there tends to be a lot of reflection back on the first book, and side plots of characters from that first story that seem belaboured when I come to a series in a later book and are not invested in them. However this book didn’t have very much of that at all – I think there was like one paragraph that made me think “hmm, those are obviously the characters from book one”, but otherwise it worked as a standalone novel. I did not see the twist coming, even when I thought I was all over it! Lots of interesting little turns along the way.

Miracle in March, Juliet Madison {Amazon} – 3 stars – a borrowbox find, it was light and fluffy and I read it in a day. It isn’t my favourite book of the year, but taken for what it was – an easy romance that I didn’t need to engage my brain too much for – it was fine. There were various references that felt belaboured, and the pacing felt off to me. But it’s romance, not high literature. Best consigned to the holiday/beach reads pile.

The Thing About Clare, Imogen Clark {book depository | Amazon} – 4.5 stars – oh man I got SO emotionally invested in this story!! I related far too much to Miriam. I was so mad at their mother for the position she put Miriam in. Clare was another who needed a good shake. And Anna… rock and hard place, is the idea that comes to mind. It was a fascinating look at sibling dynamics, and the power of the unsaid.

The Lady Of The Rivers, Phillipa Gregory {book depository | Amazon} – 3 stars – I discovered this in my iBooks listing having completely forgotten I’d even bought it! I do enjoy Gregory’s fictionalised accounts of the War of the Roses and the Tudor era, so I was keen to get stuck into this one. I ended up only rating it three stars, however, as there were a few things that I recalled from The White Queen that were different in this version and it niggled with me and pulled me out of the story.

Little Gods, Jenny Ackland {book depository | Amazon} – 4.5 stars – oh gosh I loved this book. I loved that it was an Aussie story, that was clearly Aussie, without resorting to ockerisms or obscure cultural references. Olive was a crack-up, with that unerring certainty of a 12 year old who is convinced she is right. I have lots of thoughts about the adults and the secrets they kept, but it also fits with the era, and tragedy being something to be swept under the carpet. Then, of course, as secrets come out, they take on a life of their own, with a whole new set of repercussions.

A Reliable Wife, Robert Goolrick {book depository | Amazon} – 4 stars – I’m still not really quite sure what I think of this book. A thread of the repressed sexuality in depression era rural communities runs through-out. The story explores loneliness and how far someone will go to bring human affection into their life. How sex as a motivator can bring one’s principles into question. How isolation, both geographically and meteorologically, can inspire actions previously thought unmentionable. How our lives are shaped by our childhood and things that we can not understand without the benefit of hindsight, either due to their inherent adult nature (such as the family breakdown in the story), or because the adults are deliberately obscuring the truth to preserve their own self-image, and the image their child holds of them. It was definitely thought provoking.

On top of the books above, there was an “in a night” comfort read that I haven’t listed. I also discovered a couple of good novella sized fics in March that I devoured. April is off to a slower start, but there are seasons for all things…if I read 8+ books every month I may not get anything else done!