Happy start of the spring season! This month I sadly didn’t read any 5 star books, but it was still a solid reading month!

Stats

• Read: 5 books
• Zero 1 stars, zero 2 stars, two 3 stars, three 4 stars
• Favorite book of March: Anxious People

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

I was very much disappointed by this book. The premise and plot sounded interesting, but the execution was not done well in my opinion. Almost half of the book was spent just info-dumping in the form of dialogue, and the other half was an investigation which was boring to read. The romance wasn’t very engaging either for me, there was no development between the love interests that made me root for them at all; the lack of romantic scenes caused there to be no tension. Still, this was by no means super bad and I’m excited to see if the sequel will be better! Rating: 3 stars

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

This was not what I expected from Bardugo! Parts I really loved were the deep dives into Nina and Zoya’s characters and the interesting and engaging plot(s). However, I felt that Nikolai’s character did not get much attention or development considering he was the protagonist. The story was also told from 3-4 POVS, and they connected to 3 separate plots occurring; it felt very disjointed and chaotic, even though I liked the separate storylines. I thought the character relationships were not a strong suit of this book, and I never really felt much emotion in the writing or personalities (besides my girls Nina and Zoya). However, the last quarter was action-filled and had many plot twists, and I’m excited for the sequel! Rating: 4 stars

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

This was a beautiful book which discussed many important and difficult themes of gender identity, coming out, anxiety, cyberbullying, acceptance, and sexuality. The main character, Riley, was a gender fluid teen, and they felt like such a relatable character! I adored the relationships between Riley and their friends, as well as their parents. The high school setting was very realistic and not too dramatized, which I appreciated. I would suggest looking up trigger warnings before reading this. Rating: 4 stars

A Curse So Dark and Lonely

This was a very mediocre YA Beauty and the Beast retelling for me. I hate to say it, but ACOTAR did it better. I liked the main character well enough and I appreciated the disability representation with her having cerebral palsy. But, the two male leads were pretty one-dimensional and dry. The love triangle was pointless as well, since both guys had very similar personalities. I was surprised at how little humor there was in the writing, too! There was a plot twist at the end that was kind of easy to see coming, which added to my unimpressed reaction. Overall, a very “eh” read. Rating: 3 stars

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

If you like Backman’s other books, I guarantee you’ll like this as well since it discusses many of the same themes prevalent in his other work. I found this to be less emotional and raw compared to other books I’ve loved by Backman such as Beartown and A Man Called Ove, but in the end I still cried because who am I kidding? This is a signature Backman novel! I highly recommend this to anyone who’s ever not felt good enough. Rating: 4 stars