It’s April now, and spring is in full swing! But that also means that March is over. So I’m gonna go over March’s statistics on The StoryGraph!
I read waaayy more books last month than I could’ve hoped for. Especially compared to how much I was able to read in the first two months of the year. Six books! That’s two whole books more than February (and January too, now that I think about it).
Now, on with the stars…
March 2023 Reading Stats
😐 MOODS:Adventurous was once again a huge chunk of my Moods graph, but Emotional and Hopeful were the other two big ones. Which is waaayy different from February’s, which has Mysterious as one of its big chunks. (Dark is on both graphs.)
👢 PACE: Over 80% of this chart is medium-paced, so I’d say that’s still my favorite type of book to read.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The ACOTAR series mostly consists of long books, and seeing as I read over half of them in March, it’s no surprise seeing that a third of the graph is given to 500+ books. Once again, my preferred length seems to be between 300 and 500 page books.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: 100% fiction once again. I swear I have a couple of nonfiction books on my TBR. I swear.
🎭 GENRES: Fantasy was once again the frontrunner of the Genre bar graph, being featured as a genre in all of the books that I read in March. Not as much YA this past month either, but definitely more Romance than usual.
📄 FORMAT: The StoryGraph Format graph is once again wrong (I need to try to fix that… Maybe). 50% of the books that I read were digital, and the other 50% of the books I read were print.
⭐ RATING: I had two average ratings in March: 2.75 stars and 4.0 stars. I was a bit all over the map last month with how much I enjoyed the books that I read.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I was a little more consistent with my reading this past month, as opposed to February. I didn’t read nearly as much as I’d have liked during the first half of March, but I was reading a lot during the second half.
I read a lot more in March compared to the first two months of the year, so I’m pretty satisfied. Of course, I’d like to read another six books this month (April), or maybe even more! We’ll see what happens.
What books did you read in March? What did you think of them? Did we read any of the same books?
Thank you, as always, for reading, and have a marvelous day/night!
Sooo, I’m super satisfied with everything that I was able to post last week. It honestly felt a little exhilarating posting five different days again. I’m so happy with myself.
But enough of me gushing about my productivity. Let’s go over last week’s posts!
Monday 3/13: Majestic Monday #11
Last Monday, I finally got around to posting another Majestic Monday. I know that I said that I’d be posting it weekly a couple weeks before, but sometimes life happens.
I didn’t actually post anything on this day. I just like Pi Day, and believe that it deserves to be acknowledged. That is all.
Wednesday 3/15: March 2023 Birthstone Book Covers
On Wednesday, I decided to throw in my lot for Leslie from Books Are the New Black’s wonderful Birthstone Book Covers. This month is March (obviously) so the birthstone was aquamarine. So the book cover color to pick was… aquamarine. (Easy month, lol.)
Thursday is when I finally got around to posting my review for A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee. It was a perfectly fine book. I gave it ★★✫☆☆.
Friday 3/17: First Line Friday #7 / St. Patrick’s Day
On Friday, I did another First Line Friday. First Line Fridays are a weekly feature formerly hosted by Wandering Words, but is something that I saw over at One Book More.
Yesterday, I posted another retrospective book review. (It’s a thing where I go over a book I read before I started this blog and see if I still like it. Or hate it.) This time it was on Timekeeper by Tara Sim. I gave it ★★★★☆.
Once again, I don’t really have any other goal than to post at least as much as last week. So yeah, still nothing fancy, but it’s still what I’m able to do at the moment.
Annnd that should tie everything out in a nice little bow. As always, thank you so much to everyone for reading, and have a fantastic day/night
A Japanese-influenced fantasy brimming with demons, adventure, and plans gone awry.
In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.
But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.
With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.
This book was so… meh. To me at least! Don’t get me wrong – I think that it was written well enough, it simply wasn’t for me. But it wasn’t a bad book, so I didn’t rank it too low.
A Thousand Steps into Night is a Japanese-inspired fantasy novel written by Traci Chee, and published by Clarion Books on March 1, 2022. It features genres such as: fantasy, romance, and YA.
The author had a very digestible writing style, and there are definitely a few things that I liked about the novel, but it still felt really meh to me for whatever reason. But before I get into that stuff, let’s talk about the stuff that didn’t make me feel meh.
Stuff I Liked
The characters were all either somewhat entertaining or generally inoffensive. But the best of those characters was definitely Geiki. He was the highlight of the book for me, and I dearly wish he’d had more presence in the plot than just being main-character-Miuko’s tagalong buddy. Their relationship was cute and fun though.
Speaking of Miuko, our MC, she was… alright, I guess. She wasn’t the worst female protagonist I’ve ever read – not even close! – but she honestly felt a little cliche and middle of the road for an MC.
I also thought that a few of the other characters were interesting, but most of those didn’t show up until quite a ways into the book, and none of them ever stayed long. But that’s kind of all I can think of for things I really liked about this book.
Stuff I Didn’t Like
I didn’t like the plot. Let me be clear, it wasn’t necessarily a bad plot or anything – it was just probably not for me.
There also weren’t enough romantically coded moments between our two lovebirds in A Thousand Steps into Night. And I still felt like the end of the book really left their status as a couple ambiguous. (I could be wrong there though.)
And I can’t think of anything else in the book that stood out to me – stuff I didn’t like or otherwise, which is kind of telling of how meh this novel is. I also didn’t have any quotes that really stood out to me, or that I really liked, which is why there aren’t any in this review. Also, the footnotes thing got really annoying after a a while.
Final Thoughts
A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee wasn’t a good book, in my opinion. But it isn’t even close to being a bad book, and it’s all definitely influenced by the fact that this book just wasn’t for me.
I do recommend those who are interested, to give it a shot. Maybe it’ll be for you.
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I was feeling really under the weather most of the past couple of weeks, and didn’t feel like reading all that much (that’s how you know I’m feeling ill!).
But now I’m back to feeling 100% again, so I’ve gotten some reading done over the past few days! So I can participate in WWW Wednesday this week!
(Also, I’m gonna start titling my WWW Wednesday posts with the date instead of a number. Just cuz.)
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a Japanese-inspired fantasy perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli. When a girl who’s never longed for adventure is hit with a curse that begins to transform her into a demon, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life, but along the way is forced to confront her true power within.
In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.
But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.
With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.
Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
Sooo yeah, Gideon is still in TBR Hell, but I can’t help it – interesting standalones keep showing up on my radar! But I definitely still want to read it, so hopefully I’ll get to it next!
What stuff have you been reading lately? Have we read any of the same books lately? Have you been enjoying it?
