Remember when I shared my ambitious March TBR? Yeah… about that. As usual, my vibe reader brain had other plans. I got a little distracted and didn’t stick to the list, but hey, that’s just how it goes! This month I ended up reading five books – a mix of fantasy romance, contemporary reads, and even an ARC thriller. Some were planned, some were totally spontaneous, but all of them kept me turning pages. So without further ado, let’s dive into my March Wrapped – Bookish Goblin style!
The Familiar
Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.
In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family’s social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
I was dying to get into The Familiar because, let’s be real, Leigh Bardugo is my favorite author ever. I haven’t managed to put together a full review yet, but here’s my initial take: this Spanish Inquisition-era magical journey was… unexpected.
I’m a lifelong stan of Lauren Fortgang, who, as always, absolutely killed it on Audible.
Leigh Bardugo’s writing is like a cozy bedtime story – intricate, lyrical, and completely immersive.
Honestly, I wanted to love this book. Really. But something didn’t click. The pacing was a bit slow, and the mystery felt murky, leaving me unsure of where Bardugo was trying to take the story.
If you’re a Leigh Bardugo completionist like me, go for it. But if you’re just looking for your next romantasy hit, it might not be at the top of your list.
Reign & Ruin
Description
“All magic is beautiful…and terrible. Do you not see the beauty in yours, nor the terror in mine? You can stop a heart, and I can stop your breath.”
She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy. She is order and intellect, a woman fit to rule in a man’s place. He is chaos and violence and will stop at nothing to protect his people.
His magic answers hers with shadow for light. They need each other, but the cost of balance may be too high a price. Magic is dying and the only way to save it is to enlist mages who wield the forbidden power of death, mages cast out centuries ago in a brutal and bloody war.
Now, a new war is coming. Science and machines to replace magic and old religion.
They must find a way to save their people from annihilation and balance the sacred Wheel—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion. His peace for her tempest, his restlessness for her calm.
I couldn’t wait to dive into Reign & Ruin – the first book in the Mages of the Wheel series by JD Evans – after seeing it ranked as the third most-loved romantasy on /r/fantasyromance. And let me tell you, it absolutely lived up to the hype!
Reign & Ruin follows Naime, the sole heir to a Sultanate ruled by angry, traditionalist men. Naime’s journey to overcome patriarchal demands and fix the broken Wheel to restore balance is captivating from the start.
What I loved:
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The Ottoman Empire-inspired setting: This was such a refreshing change from the usual romantasy landscape filled with fae and fairy courts. The world-building was meticulous – from the clothes and customs to the ruling class and traditions – it all felt so rich and authentic.
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The pining, yearning, and forbidden love: Imagine a man who is so pathetically down bad for the FMC that he’s completely enthralled, but circumstances keep them apart. The angst was chef’s kiss. I was fanning myself the entire time.
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The magic system: Unlike many romantasy books, this one actually takes its magic seriously. The magic system revolves around mages of different elements (water, air, fire, earth, life, and destruction), each with counterparts and harmony dynamics based on their place on the Wheel. It was complex, fascinating, and just so well done.
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The series format: Each book in the series follows a different couple, so you can jump in with the first book and take a break if you’re not looking to commit to the whole series right away.
If you’re in the mood for a fantasy romance that stands out with its unique world-building, intricate magic system, and intense romantic tension, Reign & Ruin should be at the top of your list.
Full review coming soon!
Sunrise on the Reaping
Description
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.
eating, breathing, dreaming all things Hunger Games this past month and let me tell you– I AM UNWELL.
I don’t know how a book whose ending we’ve known for 15 years could destroy me so thoroughly, but I am traumatized by a YA book in my thirties.
Haymitch’s story is my favorite installment of the Hunger Games. The parallels between the original trilogy, Lucy and Snow’s prequel, are so well thought out, and this book is everything a Hunger Games fan could’ve wanted.
There are familiar faces from the original series we get to see again, plus we learn what happened to certain characters from Songbirds, and the door to Haymitch’s past has blown wide open for us to walk through – just as this book walks through our hearts.
I cannot seem to stop talking about this book, and neither should you – This is my first 6-star read of the year, and I’m hoping it’ll be yours too.
If you finished reading this book already and managed to stop crying long enough to read this post and want more Hunger Games content, here’s what I’ve been writing up to process this devastatingly brutal story:
The Charlie Method
Description
College senior Charlotte Kingston is living two lives―and she’s nailing both of them. By day, she’s the perfect sorority girl, a STEM student in biomedical engineering, and the adopted daughter of an overachiever family. At night, she’s Charlie: a risk-taking daredevil looking for fun who finds herself chatting on a dating app with two anonymous hotties.
Will Larsen may seem like the breezy boy next door, but his congressman father is a constant thorn in his side. After a scandal hits another Division 1 hockey program, Will’s dad is determined to distance his son from it, hiring a journalist to prove how squeaky-clean Will and his team are. Which means the last thing Will wants is for anyone to find out he and his best friend Beckett Dunne―a laidback Aussie shielding secret heartache―sometimes share girls in the bedroom.
When Charlie finally meets them in person and realizes she’s been chatting with two gorgeous Briar U hockey players, things get steamy―fast. But all their messy secrets are piling up, and real life soon threatens to shatter the fantasy. With Charlie, Will, and Beckett all coming to terms with what they want and what others want for them, difficult decisions will need to be made.
Especially when lust starts to look a lot like love.
I am a longtime Elle Kennedy stan. I love her bubbly hockey romances – they make me giggle and let me escape reality. So I was super excited to dive into The Charlie Method, the latest installment of her next generation of Off-Campus series characters.
Having been a Beckett and Will fan since The Graham Effect, plus Charlie being a Type A STEM girlie, I really wanted to love this. But honestly, this one landed mixed for me.
The premise of this book is that Beckett and Will, who have been “sharing” girls for a long time, explore a relationship with Charlie, who’s trying to live up to perfection expectations placed on her.
I have a lot of feelings about this book (check out my full The Charlie Method review for the detailed breakdown), but the gist of it is that it felt like there was a lot of extra “plot” (contemporary romance books, I beg of you, please go back to being 350 pages), and it just seemed like Elle Kennedy didn’t quite know how far she wanted to go with the throuple dynamic. For me, there were a lot of spicy scenes that didn’t add much to the story – so if you love lots and lots of spice, you’ll probably enjoy this one more.
That said, the book is still full of giggles. Will, Beckett, and Charlie continue to be my favorite characters individually, and as usual, Elle Kennedy explores some important themes, like parental expectations and dealing with anxiety around living up to them.
I’m definitely going to keep reading the Off-Campus series, even though this one didn’t end up being my favorite!
Forget Me Not
Description
A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist… until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.
With the entire summer now looming ahead―a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother―Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard’s owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary’s contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister’s disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
Thank you St. Martin’s Press/NetGalley for providing and ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
I read my first ARC of the year this week! I’d never read Stacy Willingham before, but as a thriller and mystery fan, I am a sucker for fast-paced action and clever twists. Forget Me Not had a bit of both – a slower start that gradually built up the mystery, but once it picked up, it became completely addictive.
Without giving too much away – this book is perfect if you enjoy cozy southern thrillers with some pretty wild plot twists at the end. Seriously, it started slow, but once the twists started rolling in, I couldn’t put it down and practically devoured the second half.
Forget Me Not comes out in August 2025, and it would make the perfect cozy summer thriller to wrap up the season!
What was your favorite read of March? Let me know in the comments! 📖✨ And sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when I finish any of these and post my reviews!
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