March was a good reading month, with 28 books, which was surprising to me, considering all that I did for the Leprechaun Event at NBRC. That's behind us now ~ WHEW ~ and it's on to more good stuffs, including a NetGalley Challenge, Choose Your Own Adventure Challenges, continued work on some other challenges and much more!! If you love reading challenges, I hope you'll come join us at NBRC ~ Nothing But Reading Challenges ~ at GoodReads. It's a ton of fun! So many challenges going on and so much fun to join in!
On to my March books. It was a good mix of books and I found a new favorite time travel series! I hope the author writes a ton more because they are very very enjoyable!
Hope you enjoy my March log!
March Reading Log 2016
From ~ ImzadiRose
1 ★ 1.5 ★ 2 ★ 2.5 ★ <---Bad 3 ★ Great---> 3.5 ★ 4 ★ 4.5 ★ 5 ★
Good
March ~
65 – No One Knows by J.T. Ellison
Completed 3/2
3.5 of 5 stars
This one was picked for me for the Carpe Librum “Pick My Next Book” swap. I’ve read Ellison a lot before, so I figured I’d like it. It was good, but not great, a half star for managing to surprise me, which doesn’t happen often! In this book Aubrey’s husband is declared dead after 5 years, but she starts to have her doubts when things don’t add up and people start looking for him. It was definitely a engaging book and I saw a few of the things coming a mile away but one thing did surprise me. It was enjoyable.
66 – Blind Curve by Annie Solomon
Completed 3/3
4 of 5 stars
Danny is a cop working undercover when he loses his eyesight. He becomes very bitter about it and doesn’t want help from anyone, especially a mobility instructor. He thinks he can get by on his own but asks for help after he accidentally hurts (though not bad) his nephew. She helps him when they get attacked and have to go into hiding together. Good characters overall, good story. It was enjoyable. I read another book a while ago that was similar called InSight and enjoyed that one a lot more, the characters were better.
67 – NYPD Red 4 by Patterson and Karp
Completed 3/3
3.5 of 5 stars
I get sick of Patterson after a while, so I might be approaching that point with this series after 4 books. But I like Marshall Karp so I’m going to stick with it, for now. Zack and Kylie are NY detectives who take on the A-Lister cases. In this one, a woman is gunned down and the priceless necklace she was wearing is stolen. Plus, there are thefts going on at hospitals and Kylie’s husband has vanished, so they have their hands full. The story was good overall, though I’m tired of the stuff with the husband. I hope that is over and one with, it’s a horrible part of the storyline and it’s been dragged on to long.
68 – The Girl in 6E (Deanna Madden 01) by A.R. Torre
Completed 3/6
3 of 5 stars
An erotica? I guess? It was Meh for me. A webcam girl who likes to kill keeps herself locked in her apartment so she can’t kill and then learns of a child in danger and wants to help. It was weird and just ok.
69 – The Martian by Andy Weir (re-read)
Completed 3/7
5 of 5 stars
My 3rd read of this AWESOME book! I just listened to it at the end of December, before we watched the movie, but for a challenge I needed to read a book on a “Known planet other than Earth”, so I decided to read it again. It’s sooooooo good. If you’ve missed out on this fantastic book, it’s about a man stranded on Mars when his crew thought he had been killed. The story is all about his survival, trying to figure out how to live until the next mission got there in 4 years. It’s a wonderful book, Mark Watney is one of my all time favorite characters. The movie, of course, doesn’t do the book justice and there’s a part that was changed near the end that I flat out just don’t like.
70 – Dangerous Territory (Alpha Ops 00.5) by Emmy Curtis
Completed 3/8
3 of 5 stars
Novella in the Alpha Ops series, of which I’ve read 2 other books. In this one, a couple has a one night stand, then surprise surprise, years later he’s off to rescue a stranded reporter and it just so happens to be her. So, they talk, get to know each other, have to find their way out of a hostile territory. The typical romantic suspense stuff. Good enough, good characters, just short and predictable.
71 – Among the Living (PsyCop 01) by J Price
Completed 3/8
3 of 5 stars
The first of a M/M romance series. It’s not the Cut & Run series but it’s enjoyable enough. PsyCop is a new kind of police team. It is one psychic and one non-psychic working together to solve paranormal crimes. In the first one, a serial killer is on the loose and no one can agree on what he looks like. The main characters are likable enough, the first book was really short though.
72 – Criss Cross (PsyCop 02) by J Price
Completed 3/9
3 of 5 stars
Started off slow (this becomes a pattern) but ended really good. Vic gets a new partner and the ghosts around Vic who are usually pretty quiet are now clamoring for attention from him. Everything is, for lack of better term, amped up and spirits are acting weird. He tries to get some help, but it only gets worse. Really enjoyed the end.
73 – Body and Soul (PsyCop 03) by J Price
Completed 3/9
3.5 of 5 stars
New partner, again, for Vic and house hunting with Jacob and meeting Jacob’s family so Vic is going kind of nuts. Work wise, his partner is still around and they seem to work well together while they are on the hunt for a missing person. Slow to start, dragged through most of it but I enjoyed the end a lot.
74 – Secrets (PsyCop 04) by J Price
Completed 3/10
2.5 of 5 stars
My least favorite so far. Continues with the theme of starting off slow and this one was boring as well. The first 20% of the book was set over 2 days where they moved into their new place and Vic does absolutely nothing. He find out there’s no trace of him online and flips out. When his friend Lisa shows up it gets better and the ending was really great, but the rest was dull. Vic and Jacob were both asses in it.
75 – Sweet Thursday (Wild Irish 04) by Mari Carr
Completed 3/11
3.5 of 5 stars
The Wild Irish series is an erotica series, though I don’t think it’s too risqué. Some might think so. So, just a brief mention of what each is about. In this one, Lily has 2 best friends and wants to be with them both at the same time. She asks for a night, but they want more. Enjoyable with good characters.
76 – Friday I’m in Love (Wild Irish 05) by Mari Carr
Completed 3/11
4 of 5 stars
Ewan has lusted after Natalie from afar but she won’t give him the time of the day because she feels like she’s too old for him. After a birthday she realizes she’s alone and never does anything fun. He asks her to give him a week to show her what it’s like to let yourself have some fun. Sad at times, but written well.
77 – Saturday Night Special (Wild Irish 06) by Mari Carr
Completed 3/12
2.5 of 5 stars
My least favorite, even though it was set in my favorite place in the world ~ Vegas. I’m not a fan of Riley, though Aaron is a good guy and she doesn’t deserve him. She runs off to Vegas with a friend and said friend gets into some trouble and they get into some trouble trying to find him. Meh!
78 – Any Given Sunday (Wild Irish 07) by Mari Carr
Completed 3/12
4.5 of 5 stars
My favorite, or at least of these I read now, can’t remember the first 3. In this one, Lauren and Sean get a place together and their best friend Chad lives with them. But all of them want more than the arrangement they are in, and none know how to go about changing it. Lauren gets an assignment and shoves caution to the wind, asking for what she wants. She gets it, but with a price. Finally, Sean makes it all work out.
79 – Wild Irish Christmas (Wild Irish 08) by Mari Carr
Completed 3/12
4 of 5 stars
Enjoyable story about how the parents of the Wild Irish 7 siblings met and fell in love. Very very short, just a short story, but really cute and bittersweet (the mom has been dead for years) at the same time. Lovely that he’s still in love with her after all those years.
80 – The Fixer (Mort Grant 01) by T.E. Woods
Completed 3/15
4 of 5 stars
Took me QUITE a while to get into as there were a lot of characters and none of them seemed to have anything to do with the other for quite a while, but once things got going, it got much better. The Fixer is a woman who gets the job done when something needs to be taken care of, permanently. The story itself is a jumble of seemingly unrelated things all mixed together. Eventually they all sort themselves out and it becomes a good story. A part surprised me, and that’s hard to do, so yay for that!
81 – Camp Hell (PsyCop 05) by J Price
Completed 3/17
3.5 of 5 stars
Vic tries to get answers about his past and the place where he trained, which they refer to as Camp Hell. He finds an old friend there and starts to get his memories of the place unlocked. Again, with the slow and dull start. I really didn’t enjoy this one until about 75% in and then I loved the end. Vic was an idiot about one thing as well, that I saw coming a mile away. And he’s supposed to be the detective!
82 – The Wizard Returns (Dorothy Must Die 00.3) by Danielle Paige
Completed 3/19
3 of 5 stars
One of the million (ok it’s 6) prequels to the “Dorothy Must Die” series. This one is about the Wizard after he leave Dorothy to go back home, only he never makes it out of Oz. He awakens with no memory of who he is or where he is and is given some trials to go on before having his memories unlocked. It was good for what it is.
83 – Just One Damned Thing After Another (Chronicles of St Mary’s 01) by Jodi Taylor
Completed 3/20
5 of 5 stars
St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research is a FANTASTIC time traveling series. I said after the first one it would probably be my second favorite time travel series (after Timebound by Rysa Walker) and I still stand by that. The historians of St Mary’s go back in time to witness historical events but it isn’t all easy. The characters are flawed, the trips are fraught with problems and they generally are making a mess of things. It’s WONDERFUL!! It’s so nice to not have perfect characters saying and doing perfect things. I love the series! In the first one, they have gone to 11th century London, WWI, the Cretaceous Period and to the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.
84 – Rope Enough (Romney & Marsh 01) by Oliver Tidy
Completed 3/21
2 of 5 stars
I needed this book for a challenge needing the word Rope in the title and another challenge needed an O for a spell-it-out. It bored me and the characters are very unlikable. The story is that 2 women are raped and the detectives Romney and Marsh are trying to figure out what happened. Then the one woman turns up dead in a possible suicide and they have all kinds of questions. I figured out most of what was going on and just didn’t like the characters. Won’t read more.
85 – A Symphony of Echoes (St Mary’s 02) by Jodi Taylor
Completed 3/22
5 of 5 stars
Another fantastic tale of the time traveling historians. This time they chased by Jack the Ripper and witness a murder of an Archbishop. They find that there’s trouble with a St Mary’s in the future and some go to help them out for a while. Leon got on my nerves (he did in the first one as well). He can be quite the jerk when he wants to be.
86 – A Second Chance (St Mary’s 03) by Jodi Taylor
Completed 3/23
5 of 5 stars
So much is packed into these books. With everything that has happened so far it feels like it’s more like book 7, not book 3! I was NOT pleased with Max this time around, her time to be a horrible horrible person. I had intended to rate a 4 for most of the book, then the end was so good, I had to give it a 5. I knew that the end was coming but I didn’t expect it in the way it happened, so it was a bit of a surprise and really enjoyable.
87 – Follow Your Fantasy: Deeper by Nicola Jane
Completed 3/23
1.5 of 5 stars
An erotica, though a dull one. It was a “choose your own adventure” book, which seemed neat to me. But the stories were to short and definitely too dull. Boring all around.
88 – Forestium (Portallas 01) by Christopher Morgan
Completed 3/27
3 of 5 stars
A teen, Joshua, is on a quest to find his father who he’s been told is dead but because of a series of dreams, he believes to be alive. He’s joined by 3 others and goes across their land in search of 3 orbs. When he finds the orbs he will be able to open Portallas and his father along with others trapped there will be set free. I received this book from the author and it was OK. The MCs were supposedly 16 and to me it read more like they were 11, which made the romance and the “insta-love” really really creepy. Even at 16, the “I’ll die for you” love was over the top. The quest itself was good, wish he’d done without the romance.
89 – A Trail through Time (St Mary’s 04) by Jodi Taylor
Completed 3/27
4.5 of 5 stars
Everything changed in this St Mary’s and it’s definitely different. While I wish it hadn’t happened the way it did, it was an interesting way of making it happen so it worked. In this one, the St Mary’s crew is being hunted down by Time Police as they scramble around time. They go to Pompeii and Ancient Egypt and a huge batter happens at the end. I still loved it overall.
90 – No Time Like the Past (St Mary’s 05) by Jodi Taylor
Completed 3/29
4.5 of 5 stars
Things are settling down a bit in this one and things seem to be more “normal”. As much as is normal for them. They go back in time to before St Mary’s was St Mary’s to figure out a mystery there. They also travel to the Great Fire of London to recover some things and meet some old enemies. Not sure why it wasn’t the full 5 stars for me. I think just too many in a row. Maybe I’ll read some other stuff before getting back to the last one that is out (well, minus the short stories).
91 – The Straw King (Dorothy Must Die 00.5) by Danielle Paige
Completed 3/30
2 of 5 stars
Dull and boring. The other side of the invasion we saw in one of the other books, can’t even remember which one it was now, they all run together. Just wasn’t an enjoyable story but at least it was short. Straw gets dethroned and they get Ozma to take the throne back.
92 – Ruler of Beasts (Dorothy Must Die 00.6) by Danielle Paige
Completed 3/31
3 of 5 stars
This one was enjoyable as this one had parts of the movie Return to Oz (which I enjoyed) in it. Another one did as well, this one had the Gnome King in it, mentioned the Wheelies and the heads. It had some life to it and was a mostly enjoyable one to read, especially towards the end.
93 – A Fistful of Evil (Madison Fox 01) by Rebecca Chastain
Completed 3/31
4 of 5 stars
Madison has always had “soul-sight”. She can see in a different spectrum and it shows her if people are basically good or bad, by the color of their soul. She thinks she’s the only one that can do this so when she answers an advertisement for a job she’s surprised to find out that the guy interviewing her knows that she answered it because the ad was glowing. She then finds out there are actual evil creatures and people around and others like her, Illuminant Enforcers, keep their areas clean of the evil. She has no idea what she is doing when she takes the job. It was a better book than I was expecting, and the MC was enjoyable. Different but good.
The amount of books you read in a month amazes me. Great job! I am going to be reading The Martian soon. Nice to see it's good enough for a reread. Happy April!
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