What I read in March 2021

If you’ve been around here for a while then you’ll know I love reading. In fact a few years ago I used to write regular book reviews on here. I fell out of love with them though so I stopped. Last year I posted a few bookish posts though and I really enjoyed writing them. So I’ve decided to give monthly book round-ups a go instead. So here’s the second one with mini reviews of all the books I read in March 2021.

I will say I’m not the worlds fastest reader so unlike a lot of book bloggers who can fly through a few books a week (like, how?!) I usually average a couple of books a month. That’s fine though, it’s not a race and I’m not a book blogger I just really enjoy reading and I love talking about books!

Also you won’t find any books rated below 3 stars on here, a few years ago I decided if I just wasn’t feeling a book then I wouldn’t force myself to carry on reading it. There’s too many good books to read to waste time carrying on with bad ones!

Rebecca

Author: Daphne Du Maurier | Genre: Classic | Length: 449 pages

I can’t quite believe I’ve made it to almost 30 years old without reading Rebecca, I actually do want to read more classic novels before I hit the big 3-0 so what better place to start with than this one? I was vaguely familiar with parts of the story but I didn’t really know the full plot. I’m so glad I decided to start my little journey of reading more classics with this.

When the unnamed protagonist meets widower, Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo she is utterly swept off her feet and when he proposes marriage after just a couple of weeks she can’t turn down the offer of spending her life with a dashing older gentleman at his beautiful estate, Manderley. Once back in England life at Manderley isn’t quite what she imagined. Maxim’s late wife, Rebecca is everywhere. The estate is all to her tastes, the house keeper, Mrs Danvers constantly reminds her how wonderful Rebecca was and Maxim seems like he’ll never truly be over the love of his life. As Rebecca’s ghost threatens to destroy the marriage the young woman must step out of Rebecca’s shadow and learn the truth.

Rebecca is the owner of one of the most famous opening lines in a book. Even if you’ve never read the chances are that if you’re a book lover you’ll have heard “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” As soon as I read that I was hooked. The book instantly draws you in and the estate of Manderley almost becomes a character in itself. Du Maurier was often branded as a romance novelist but there’s so much more to this book than that. It’s dark and mysterious and not at all the happy tale you’d expect from a writer branded as a romantic novelist. Rebecca will definitely be a book I read again and it’s shot right up there amongst my favourite ever books.

The Midnight Library

Author: Matt Haig | Genre: Fantasy | Length: 304 pages

After hearing a lot of good things about this book when it was released last year I just knew I couldn’t hold off reading it any longer. How To Stop Time is a Matt Haig book that still sticks in my mind 3 years after I read it so I had high hopes for The Midnight Library.

Nora Seed has an average life but she can’t help feeling that it’s just been a bit of a disappointment. She had several chances to do great things and now she lives alone in a flat, her cat’s just died, she’s been sacked and her brother doesn’t speak to her anymore. She feels like she’s let everyone down, including herself. So Nora decides there’s just no point in living anymore. On the cusp of death she finds herself in the Midnight Library. Here is where you get the chance to live every life you could have had if you’d done things differently. You get to find the perfect life. Undoing all of her regrets, Norah lives many different lives. Sometimes she’s in and out of the life, sometimes she stays there a while. But in every life Norah finds things aren’t always as good as she’d imagined. Norah’s choices place the library and herself in danger and now she must work out the answer to the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

I absolutely adored this book. I experienced every emotion possible and the message about regretting your choices in life is just beautiful. We all experience regrets, we all go through times where we feel like we’re just not doing life quite right. But the truth is, alternative lives wouldn’t be better either. There is no perfect life, everything has its ups and downs and that’s just part of living.

The Ghost of Gosswater

Author: Lucy Strange | Genre: Historical fiction | Length: 320 pages

You know I love a good bit of historical fiction, it’s definitely my favourite genre so I’m always excited when I start a new historical novel. This is a young adult novel but if you’ve been around for my book content for a while then you’ll know I do enjoy reading young adult and children’s books too.

Lady Agatha Asquith’s life has just turned upside down. Her father, the Earl of Gosswater has just died and her cousin Clarence has just moved in. Along with his cruel remarks and his brutish dog, Clarence has brought something else with him, a family secret and the late Earl’s will that states Agatha was adopted as a baby. Agatha has no claim to her home and is cast out by Clarence to live with a stranger she is told is her biological father. Determined to not let go of her old life and discover who she really is, Agatha sets out on a quest but it would seem her identity is shrouded in secrecy and no one is willing to help. That is until the spirit of another young girl raises from the Gosswater estate and she will not rest until the Asquith secrets have been revealed.

This was a very enjoyable piece of historical fiction. I loved the mystery surround Agatha’s identity and her journey to finding out who she is. While it wasn’t particularly creepy it did have a really good story at the heart of it. It very much reminded me of an Emma Carroll novel which was a pleasant surprise as she’s one of my favourite authors.

Little Eve

Author: Catriona Ward | Genre: Horror | Length: 288 pages

I was in the mood to read something creepy and I’d just got a few Catriona Ward novels on my Kindle and the blurb for this one really stood out to me so it seemed an obvious choice to go with this one. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Eve and Dinah are inseperable. Raised together among the Children they are part of a cult ruled by the sadistic patriarch, the adder. Life on the Isle of Altnaharra is all they know, they refer to the adder as Uncle and are wrapped up in the stories of the Great Snake who lives in the ocean. But as the world goes to war Altnaharra barriers come down and Eve experiences a world she never knew. A world that will make he question everything she knows. When 7 multilated bodies are found on Altnaharra with Dinah as the sole survivor it becomes apparent that Eve has killed everyone. But Dinah and Eve’s intertwined stories contridict each other. So what really happened to the Children and why is Dinah the only one that lived?

I will start by saying that the story of the cult was great, it had real potential and was interesting to learn more about the adder and how he controlled the Children. I really enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on. However there was just something missing with this book, it didn’t flow particularly well and I didn’t really have a big connection to any of the characters. The story could have been great but it just missed the mark a little.

So March was a good reading month! I had a couple of really good reads at the start of the month but ended on a bit of a disappointing note unfortunately.

Have you read any of these books? What did you read in March? Let me know in the comments!