Alison’s March Reads
After experiencing a reading dry spell in February, I’m so happy to announce that March set me back on track with my intense desire to get lost in the pages of a book. March was filled with fluffy romance (which is typical for me), but also a little stretch outside of my comfort zone as I joined a book club and leaned into recommendations of friends.
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood. (4 stars) At the beginning of the year I jumped on the social media trend where readers reached out to their bookish friends to get 12 recommendations for books to read in 2025. Check & Mate was one of my 12 books for 2025, and came recommended by a few people on my friend’s list. I have read other Ali Hazelwood books that I loved, but I won’t lie, Check & Mate was a solid OK for me. There were a couple of times I considered just DNF’ing the book, but I’m glad I held out because I actually really liked the ending.
Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez. (5 stars) I feel a little like I’m cheating on my author crush Emily Henry by saying this, but I think Abby Jimenez may be my new favorite author. You can’t go wrong with picking up any book by Abby, but I highly recommend reading the entire Friend Zone series (this is book #3) and falling in love with each one of her perfectly written male leads.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. (3 stars) This had been on my TBR for a long time and I finally read it along with three other friends for our first book club read. It’s definitely a “deeper” read than I’m used to, and the first few chapters were flat out depressing. But the book definitely spurred a lot of personal reflection and was great for group discussion.
The Buy-In by Emma St. Clair. (3 stars) This was a random book I found on Kindle Unlimited and I’ll be quite frank in saying you could probably just do without reading it. I felt like the storyline was drug out way longer than necessary, yet somehow I had to keep reading.
Petals and Plot Twists by Jenny Proctor. (4 stars) Jenny Proctor is a great author for clean, closed door romances. For this book, she teamed up with lots of other romance authors to form the Only Magic in the Building series that you can find on Kindle Unlimited. Petals and Plot Twists had one of my favorite tropes, friends to lovers, and I enjoyed the spring vibes. There wasn’t a whole lot of sustenance to the storyline, but it was an easy, quick feel-good read.
One More Wish by Lindsey Lanza. (5 stars) One More Wish is the second book in the Sugar Valley series by Lindsey Lanza, and book #1 (A Little Magic) may be one of my favorite romance books of all time. One More Wish didn’t disappoint either! There was a heavy emphasis on type 1 diabetes and the complications that come with a lupus flare up, as well as food (I love a good foodie book!) and travel. Definitely recommend this one!
The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden. (2 stars) Did I LOVE it? NO. Did I binge read it in one weekend? YES. The suspense and storyline definitely caught my attention, but I saw the twist coming early on so it was a little underwhelming when it got to that point in the plot. I will say I was very happy that there was closure to the story. With it being the first book in a series I anticipated it being a cliff-hanger, and I can emphatically say I would not have liked it had strings not tied up neatly at the end.