I’m cutting it a little close with this, but it isn’t even the last day of March yet, so I’m still in the clear. Ugh. I swore I wasn’t gonna be this late with this post anymore. Nothing for it now, I guess.
Anyway, Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.
Rules:
Mention the creater (Leslie @ Books Are the New Black) and link back to her so she can check out your post
Pick 5+ books covers that match the current month’s birthstone
HAVE FUN!
Nominate people if you want!
March has one birthstone: Aquamarine.
This means book covers with lots of aquamarine. One of my favorite hues of cyan!
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
A Time Traveler’s History of Tomorrow by Kendall Kulper
Seven Deadly Thorns by Amber Hamilton
Mistakes We Never Made by Hannah Brown
Aquamarine & Indigo by Alice Hoffman
The Shattered Castle by Jennifer A. Nielsen
What are your favorite books with aqua book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this March?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!
Okay. So I’m not on as much of a reading roll as I was last week. But that’s only cuz I’ve been anticipating a release for a bit, and for whatever stupid reason, I can really only read one book at a time. So I’ve been holding off. But now that release is here, so I’m back on the books!
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!
It’s a new week once again. And not only that, but April is also upon us. Yay for a month (possibly) filled with rain, lol.
Last week was a bit all over the place. Totally not my fault – I got sick on Thursday morning and couldn’t bring myself to do anything! Even watching something streamed on our TV was too much for me, I was that fatigued.
But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s go over the last week.
Monday 3/27: A Court of Frost and Starlight Review
Last Monday, I was finally able to post my review for A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, which I did in lieu of a Majestic Monday. I gave it ★★✫☆☆.
Wednesday 3/29: A Court of Silver Flames Review / WWW Wednesday
On Wednesday I double posted. Firstly, I posted my review for A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, finally capping off the ACOTAR series. I gave it ★★★★☆. I also participated in WWW Wednesday, a weekly feature hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.
Sunday 4/2: The House in the Cerulean Sea Review / March 2023 Reading Wrap-Up
Yesterday I was finally feeling better, so I was playing catch up. I double posted to help with the process. (It didn’t help that the weekend was the start of a new month, haha. How convenient.) I posted my review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, which I gave ★★★★✯, as well as my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for March.
I kinda wanna just keep doing what I’m doing. Aside from being sick last week, I think that it’s been working out well for me.
I definitely want to get my Most Anticipated Books for 2023’s second quarter out by tomorrow, since that’s the first Tuesday in April, and Tuesdays are when new books are released, so… yeah. Other than that, I’m not sure. More book reviews, obviously, but I’d also like to participate in my favorite book blogging features, too.
Anyway, thanks as always for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
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!
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
THIS BOOK GETS
Stuff I Liked
Almost everything. The prose was beautiful and the characters were wonderful. Found family is one of my absolute favorite tropes, and is also something in stories that I find never gets old.
“I’m afraid I don’t have magic.”
“You do, Mr. Baker. Arthur told me that there can be magic in the ordinary.”
Though he wasn’t one of my favorite protagonists ever, Linus Baker was a serviceable main character. His forming relationships with the children as a father figure, and his slow-burn romance with Arthur Parnassus were the things that pushed the story forward.
I also enjoyed how he was a so-called normal person – it gave me a sort of fish out of water sort of feeling, and made him slightly more engaging to follow.
The children were the definitive highlight of the book, though. Lucy is the cutest antichrist that I’ve ever seen in fiction; Chauncey is the greatest little bellhop ever; Talia is the coolest little gardener; Theodore was adorable; Sal was so sweet and gentle; and Phee was a very interesting character with interesting powers.
“A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with.”
Arthur was also a perfectly fine character, though I sort of got the twist with him chapters before I actually reached the scene that revealed it. I actually preferred Zoe over him – I liked her character more.
Stuff I Didn’t Like
I thought some of the dialogue was a little too on the nose. This is nothing but a personal preference for me, though: I prefer it when authors are more subtle with their commentary and the “message” that they’re attempting to incorporate.
I also didn’t really think that any of the kids actually sounded like kids. They talked like adults. And yes, I understand that a couple of them were much older than human children are (they are long-lived mythical creatures after all), but they should have still behaved equivalently to their maturity level. (Except Sal, the book implied that he was more of a teenager, so it made more sense with him.) This is probably more of a nitpick, but it did take me out of the story a bit.
Closing Thoughts
“It’s the little things, I expect. Little treasures we find without knowing their origin. And they come when we least expect them. It’s beautiful, when you think about it.”
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune was a beautiful story about found family and magic in unexpected places. It was something that I greatly enjoyed. I’ll definitely be reading more of Klune’s stuff in the future!
I definitely recommend this to those who are fantasy fans, as well as those who enjoy the found family trope and LGBTQIA+. The rep here is good, guys. And the romance is decently written.
“When something is broken, you can put it back together. It may not fit quite the same, or work like it did once before, but that doesn’t mean it’s no longer useful.”
Thank you so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night! (Sorry I haven’t posted in a of couple days – I was sick.)
I’m on a reading roll lately! I’ve already read more books than last month and I’m still going strong.
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!
It’s been, gosh, three weeks since I’ve participated in this feature. Again.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books languishing on our bookshelves created and hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a whole lotta fun, so if you’re interested in participating yourself, click the backlink above.
This week I’m highlighting a book I’ve wanted to read for a couple of years, but have never found the right time to read it: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
Why It Languishes on My Bookshelf
When I Got It: April 2021
Why I Wanted to Read It: Because I’d heard nothing but good things about it, particularly from one of my college friends. And the reviews were also glowing.
Why I Haven’t Read It Yet: I was busy with other stuff when I first got it, and then it just never seemed like the right time for whatever reason. Plus, as usual, I kept getting distracted by other books.
Will I Ever Read It?: I absolutely still want to read this. Perhaps if I enjoy In the Lives of Puppets, I’ll read it afterwards.
Thank you for reading and have a fantastic day/night!
