Hey everyone, and Happy Tuesday! I’m here participating in another Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025. There are a lot of options with this one: new-to-you authors, new genres, new bookish resources you found, new general bookish stuff, etc. I’m going with: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2025.
Anyway, in order from earliest discovery in the year to latest, here we go!
Christine Calella (via Liar’s Kingdom)
Max Gladstone (via This is How You Lose the Time War)
Amal El-Mohtar (via This is How You Lose the Time War and The River Has Roots)
L.R. Lam (via Dragonfall)
Katherine Rundell (via Impossible Creatures)
M. Stevenson (via Behooved)
Nicole Jarvis (via A Spell for Change)
Andrew Rowe (via How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps)
Brittany Cavallaro (via A Study in Charlotte)
Lois McMaster Bujold (via Penric’s Demon and Penric and the Shaman)
What authors were new to you in 2025? How did you like their books? Will you be reading things written by them again, or was their work not for you?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
Well this is late. I don’t even have a good excuse for it either; I’m just late with this post. Anyway, here’s my reading wrap-up for March 2025.
I’m happier with my reading last month than I was with my reading in February. Sure it was two books read instead of one, but it was still better. I think my activity on the blog was also higher than the month before last, but I’m not quite sure about that.
Since this is already super late, I don’t really want to keep the rest of the post any longer. Let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!
March Reading 2025
I read 2 books and 621 pages
😐 MOODS: I had four Moods in March. That’s an extra Mood from February, which is cool. The Moods from this past month were: Adventurous, Mysterious, Dark and Emotional.
👢 PACE: The books I read last month were both fast and medium-paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novels I read last month were between 133 and 407 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. As usual.
🎭 GENRES: There were two Genres in the books I read in March. They were Fantasy and LGBT+.
📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was once again incorrect – both of the books I read last month were digital. Whatever.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.5, as I rated both novels I read 3.5 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading for March basically sucked for the first half. It spiked some on the 16th, but then dipped for the next week or so. Then, during the last week of the month, I read on and off, peaking on the 30th and the 31st.
So yeah, even though my reading for March could’ve been better, it was still better than February, so I’m counting it as a win. I’m also generally happy with most of the blog posting I did, too.
April has at least one new book I’m definitely playing reading, and I’m also hoping to get to one or two of my anticipated new releases from March that I have gotten around to reading yet. We’ll see. At the very least, I’m hoping to read more books throughout this month than I did during the last one.
Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my March reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
Ugh, late again with this one. Oh well. Anyway, hi everyone!
So I’m mostly happy with everything I did last week. I would’ve liked to do one more blog post, and I almost did before I lost track of time on Thursday and Friday last week. I also would’ve liked to have read more books, but well… I’ll explain that a little later.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Monday 3/17: St. Patrick’s Day / The River Has Roots Review
Last Monday was St. Patrick’s Day!! ☘️🍻🍀🪙 Yay! We didn’t really do anything to celebrate, though. Except eat some St. Pat’s themed donuts, I guess.
I also posted my review for The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. It’s a new fantasy novella that came out a couple weeks ago. I ended up giving it ★★★✯☆.
On Tuesday, I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday for the first time in a few weeks. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. The prompt for last week was Spring TBR.
Last Friday was the First Day of Spring!! 🌸🌱🌼🌿 Woohoo! Goodbye winter! I was kind of getting tired of the cold – not to mention March has been really nice so far where I live.
I was also planning on posting something on this day as well, but the time got away during part of last week. I’m a little disappointed about that, but it’s honestly fine.
Saturday 3/22: Birthstone Book Covers
On Saturday, I finally got around to joining in on my favorite Monthly post, Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a fun little post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.
Each month, for the post, you feature book covers that are either the same color of the month’s birthstone or include the color in the title. This month was March, and its birthstone is aquamarine. So the colors are aquamarine and light blue.
So yeah, I’m a bit disappointed with my posting for last week. But only a little – I’m actually pretty okay with the stuff I was able to do on the blog overall. Novel reading on the other hand… yeah that definitely could’ve gone way better. And it already is for this week! I’m making my way through another book, finally!
I’m hoping to at least start another book before the end of the week as well. Not necessarily finish another book, just start one. I’m also hoping to do four blog posts this week in addition to this weekly wrap-up. Fingers crossed.
Also, regarding the reading thing from last week… I was actually stressing myself out a little with trying to finish The Dragon Heir. I just didn’t feel like reading that book and trying to force it was getting me all anxious. I guess it’s still not time for me to read it – at this point, I’m not sure when that time is gonna come. Oh well. A similar thing also sort of happened with The Shattered Realms. I just didn’t want to read that major character death again (I actually DNF-ed Flamecaster about nine years ago, about halfway through). I also know that there’s like eight POVs by the last book in this series and that there’s several loose ends… and I don’t think I’m up for that, honestly. So yeah, that’s why I didn’t read anything last week.
Last week I also did some spring cleaning. The third Wednesday of the month is usually Cleaning Day, and that was also the case with March, so that’s what went on. It was pretty productive this time as well – I cleared out a couple of things I’d been meaning to get to, as well.
For this coming week, I’m planning on finishing the book I’m currently reading – Dragonfall by R.L. Lam – unless I decide it’s not for me and DNF it (though I don’t anticipate that happening). I’m hoping to at least start another book after that as well; right now I’m thinking either The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson or A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand. We’ll see what happens.
Anyway, I’ve talked more than enough here. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.
The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations.
“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.
There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.
But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
My Review
What is a river but an open throat, what is water but a voice?
Nevermind what I said in my last weekly wrap-up, I’ve decided to do a book review today instead! And before I get into it, I just wanted to say to everyone: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! ☘️🍻 It was a nice day today where I live. Spring really feels like it’s on its way.
The River Has Roots was a pretty good read. The cover is honestly what first caught my eye (it’s gorgeous). But as someone who recently read and loved This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar having written it also contributed to me wanting to read it. And, like I said, it wasn’t a bad read at all.
Ysabel said, fiercely for all that her voice was muffled into Esther’s shoulder: “Promise?”
“I promise,” said Esther, and meant it with her whole heart.
I really liked the focus on the two main characters: 🎵 Esther Hawthorne 🦢 and her younger sister 🎶 Ysabel Hawthorne 🔔 . I haven’t read any sibling-focused books lately, but I always enjoy a good sibling dynamic. And these sisters have one. They do it without having either being exactly the same, or exact opposites. This was refreshing, because siblings in media are usually one or the other.
💍 Rin 🌊 was also an interesting character. I tend to like characters who are fae creatures – mostly when they’re fae creatures written correctly – and Rin is not the exception here. I found their romance with Esther to be sweet, and I was rooting for them as a couple right away. The witch, 🪄 Agnes Crow 🐦⬛ , was also pretty awesome – I think she was the most interesting character to me, honestly.
I enjoyed 🖋️ the plot 📄 well enough, as well. I really appreciated the nods to other fairy stories (like Tam Lin) and some of the references therein. There’s a pretty strong story here too, despite it all being only about 100 pages or so. I will say that the book is noticably shorter than it appears to be. This is because literally a quarter of this book is just a sneak peak for El-Mohtar’s upcoming short story collection. So that’s what the last 30 pages are, if you were curious.
What is magic but a change in the world? What is conjugation but a transformation, one thing into another? She runs; she ran; she will run again.
My favorite thing about The River Has Roots, however, is the way that ✨ magic ✨ interacts with the 🗺️ world 🗺️ and the way it’s described. I loved the way the author used the word grammar, as well as the usage of conjugation. I also adored the singing sisters, and their singing ancestors, and how music framed so much of the novella and its magic. And the puns – the puns were also cool.
And before I close out this review, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the absolutely 🖌️ beautiful artwork 🎨 featured here. Yes, as I mentioned above, the cover art is very pretty, but the interior illustrations are also amazing. Essentially, in addition to being a pretty good novella, this book also has pretty pictures to look at, too.
But that is the nature of grammar-it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will.
So yeah, this was a pretty good book, and I enjoyed it well enough. I definitely recommend it to those who are big fans of This is How You Lose the Time War, and to a slightly lesser extent, those who like faerie stories and LGBT+ stuff in fantasy. Novella fans will probably also find something to like about this book.
As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an awesome day/night!
So… I didn’t post as much last week as I’d planned to – I had wanted to do at least one more post. But what can you do. This weekend kind of got a little busy, so I wasn’t able to squeeze another post or two out.
I have started reading books again! Or, at least, a book. It’s a novella too, but I’m feeling in the mood to read books again, which is so awesome. The past two or three months have been really rough in that regard, unfortunately. I’m really hoping that March will end up differently.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Wednesday 3/12: Can’t-Wait Wednesday
Last Wednesday, I did another Can’t-Wait Wednesday for the first time in a couple of weeks. There’s a good chance it’s the first of some in a row. There are just a bunch of books coming out lately that look interesting.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. It focuses on books you’re looking forward to reading, usually new releases.
On Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays for the first time in a few weeks. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
This past Friday was also Pi Day – 3/14. We forgot to get a pie to celebrate last week before Pi Day, and then the weather sucked too much to go out and grab one, so we didn’t do anything for it this year. Oh well. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to do it.
So yeah, last week wasn’t what I was planning regarding posting and it wasn’t as much as I normally would’ve wanted, but I’m actually okay with how stuff turned out. And hey, I’m not only reading novels again, but I’m in the mood to be reading novels again. So I’m counting that as a win.
In relation to books and reading, the things I’m gonna read next are a couple of fantasy series from the ’00s and from the ’10s. Well, the one from the ’10s is actually a sequel series to another quadrilogy that I read and absolutely loved that I’ve never read, but they’re by the same author, so I’m kind of grouping them together because of that.
It’s been about ten years since I read that series – The Seven Realms – and I’m feeling nostalgic. Which is why I think I’m finally ready to read its sequel quadrilogy, The Shattered Realms. I also want to read The Dragon Heir, the third book (and possibly the original final novel) in The Heir Chronicles, before the author added more books several years later. I read the first two books about five and a half years ago, and I want to finish the original trilogy. So March might be Cinda Williams Chima for me this year.
So for blog posts this week: I want to do more of them than last week. I want to do a couple of my usual weekly posts of course, a book review and the monthly post that I usually like to do. I had intended to do this one this weekend actually, but time got away from me – I think I might double post today because of that, actually.
Anyway, I’ve talked more than enough here. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
Hey there everybody! Another month, another bunch of new books that are coming out! Yep, it’s The Most Intriguing New Books of March 2025.
This used to be a quarterly post, but I’ve recently decided to do it monthly instead. Also, even though this post is about new releases, it’s primarily focused on fantasy and science fiction, as those are the genres I tend to prefer to read. (Not to say other genres won’t ever appear on these lists – it just isn’t super likely; it’s likely to be a very rare occurrence if it happens at all.)
If you’ve seen this post by me before, you know the drill; I’m only interested in these books – there’s no guarantee that I’m gonna read all of them. There’s not even a guarantee that I’m gonna read even half of them. We shall see. Anyway, let’s get going!
RELEASING: March 4th
The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.
The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations.
“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.
There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.
But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
RELEASING: March 4th
From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic
In the small town of Gold Springs, Calliope Petridi and her two sisters carefully guard the secret of their magic and the price they must pay to practise it: memories. Luckily, all Calliope wants to do is forget: the mother who left without a trace, the sisters from whom she feels increasingly distant, and most of all, the way the love of her life shattered her heart two years ago.
But when an ancient evil awakens, the fragile thread that holds the sisters together breaks. As their magic slowly begins to fade, Calliope accidentally binds herself to the handsome leader of a rival coven infamous for their ruthless pursuit of power. Battling the sizzling chemistry with a man she can’t trust, Calliope must confront painful memories of her past, dark family secrets, and ancient magic in order to protect the town and all she loves.
But will she have anything left of herself?
A witchy, modern day Pride and Prejudice meets Charmed, SPELLS, STRINGS, AND FORGOTTEN THINGS is a thrilling tale of romance, magic and sisterhood.
RELEASING: March 11th
A highly anticipated, sweeping debut set in a unified Korea that tells the story of three estranged siblings—two human, one robot—as they collide against the backdrop of a murder investigation to settle old scores and make sense of their shattered childhood, perfect for fans of Klara and the Sun and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
In a reunified Korea of the future, robots have been integrated into society as surrogates, servants, children, and even lovers. Though boundaries between bionic and organic frequently blur, these robots are decidedly second-class citizens. Jun and Morgan, two siblings estranged for many years, are haunted by the memory of their lost brother, Yoyo, who was warm, sensitive, and very nearly human.
Jun, a war veteran turned detective of the lowly Robot Crimes Unit in Seoul, becomes consumed by an investigation that reconnects him with his sister Morgan, now a prominent robot designer working for a top firm, who is, embarrassingly, dating one of her creations in secret.
On the other side of Seoul in a junkyard filled with abandoned robots, eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scraps looking for robotic parts that might support her failing body. When she discovers a robot boy named Yoyo among the piles of trash, an unlikely bond is formed since Yoyo is so lifelike, he’s unlike anything she’s seen before.
While Morgan prepares to launch the most advanced robot-boy of her career, Jun’s investigation sparks a journey through the underbelly of Seoul, unearthing deeper mysteries about the history of their country and their family. The three siblings must find their way back to each other to reckon with their pasts and the future ahead of them in this poignant and remarkable exploration of what it really means to be human.
RELEASING: March 18th
The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series!
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
RELEASING: March 25th
In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.
Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.
Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.
But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.
As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.
RELEASING: March 25th
A fun, sci-fi romp where custodian – or space broom – Johnny Gomez teams up with smugglers and is thrust into an unforgettable adventure. Great read for fans of Stringers by Chris Panatier.
Everyone aboard Kilgore Station is living their best life. Everyone except for Johnny Gomez.
While humans, the augmented, and aliens of all shapes and sizes enjoy exotic cuisine on the dining deck, or gamble away their credits on the entertainment deck, Johnny is elbow-deep in oily, black, alien excrement. A ‘space broom’ custodian for the entire station.
This was obviously not the life Johnny dreamt of. Ten years ago, he travelled to Kilgore, the farthest space station in our solar system, in search of fortune like everyone else. Some people are just luckier than others.
Yet his meaningless, uneventful existence is immediately turned upside down when he happens upon a tiny glass data-chit, hidden amongst the alien poop he must clean up. Unbeknownst to him, every nefarious creature in the solar system will soon be after him to claim it for their own.
With the help of his augmented roommate, a pair of smugglers and a mysterious and beautiful stranger, Johnny fights off thugs and sails as fast as possible to earth’s moon, Luna, in effort to sell the chit to the Obinna Crime Syndicate. But with assassins and mobsters on their tail, the trip is anything but a cakewalk. And Luna itself proves to be nothing like a safe haven, when Johnny’s painful past finally catches up to him…
So yeah, these are all of the books releasing in the in March 2025 that I’m at least a little interested in. What books are coming out soon that you’re looking forward to? Do we share some of the same ones?
As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
