March 2016 Wrap Up!

Hello you brilliant bookworms! It’s the last day of the month and to many people that would just mean it’s the last day of the month but to us book bloggers it means monthly wrap up post! and OH MY GAWD SO MANY WRAP UP AND HAUL POSTS AND SO LITTLE TIME! . By the way this is going to be a long post so I suggest you get some popcorn!

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I read a total of 9 books which isn’t bad and it’s 3 more then February which is very weird as I was in a reading slump for around a week. I guess I can thank the two short stories and manga I read this month! Anyway, onto the books I somehow read.

I managed to read all of the books on my TBR except for two, which I think is pretty great and I managed to read some books that I was suppose to get to in February.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald– 4/5 (My Review)

I read The Great Gatsby for my Classics Challenge 2016. Another solid classic and I enjoyed being transported into the glittering (if not dark) world of 1920’s America. As I said in my review so more character arcs would of been great and I think some of the characters needed to be ‘alive more’ but I did really enjoy it!

The Opening Bell by J.B Garner– 3.75 (My Review)

The Opening Bell is about a rookie boxer Leilana as she navigates the action packed, but dangerous, world of boxing. I was given this book from the author and this was a very nice read and I loved all of the different character storylines and how they all joined up. Though it wasn’t perfect, it was still an enjoyable read.

Tokyo Ghoul- Volume 1 by Sui Ishida– 5/5 (My Review)

I finished the anime early this month so I decided to start on the manga straight away. The manga is making me love it even more! The artwork is so awesome and so of the lines in the manga are just so beautifully tragic. I think everyone should read it!

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell– 4.5/5 (My Review)

I really enjoyed Kindred Spirits even though it was such a short novel! I could really relate to the main characters as she is a major fangirl and this story isn’t about loving Star Wars. but about being fandom and that mixed with Rowell’s cozy writing, it is a lovely, quick read.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton– 4/5 (My Review)

I did really like this book, but I think I was being a bit cynical while reading it and being more sharp eyed to some problems I had with the novel. The protagonist was sometimes annoying but on the whole I did like her and though this book could of been wrapped up into one, I am excited for the next book to come out.

Me Before You by Jojo MoyesMe Before You by Jojo Moyes– 4.75/5 (My Review)

I didn’t cry while reading Me Before You but it did break my heart. Lou and Will were so lovely to read about and even though I am normally meh about love stories, this one was more then a love story which is why I liked it so much. I do recommend this book to everybody and I just cannot wait for the movie to come out-the trailer already looks so heartbreaking.

Harper and the Sea of Secrets by Cerrie Burnell– 3.5/5 (My Review)

This book definitely wasn’t for a person of my age, but I did enjoy this fantastical story of a girl who is trying to save The Songs of the Sea festival.  Harper and her friends were curious and enjoyable to read about and the illustrations in the short book were lovely and detailed.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer– 4.5/5 (My Review)

This book was a huge step up from Cinder for me and really anchored me into the fantasy world Marissa Meyer created. Though I believe that the character Scarlet could of been developed more and the pacing was slightly off sometimes, the plot was seriously engaging and I need Cress right now!

Heir of Fire by Sarah.J Maas– 4.25 (My Review)

This book was my least favourite out of the first three books of the series. Though I did like the plot, characters and the writing was as top notch as always, the pacing was so slooooow. Everything just took too long in my opinion and at least 100 pages could of been cut out. The ending really saved because DAMN that was some ending.

All done! Those are all of the books I managed to read during March!

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All of the reviews I written up are up above so here are the rest of my posts for March!

Top Ten Tuesday:

– Books To Read If You Are In The Mood For Epic Stories

– Spring TBR

– Top 5 Recent Roarin’ Reads!

Discussion Posts:

– How Do You Rate?

– No Time For Reading? My Hobbies Are Taking Over!

– The Quickly Vanishing YA Standalone

– Why I Love…Fantasy!

I’m Wittier In Writing:

–Chapter 2: Poems and Plagarism

–Chapter 3: Fifteen Minutes of Not Procrastinating

Fem (+me) Friday:

– FF Book Tag!

– Naya @ NayaReadsandSmiles

Tags:

– The Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag!

– Playlist Shuffle Tag!

– Soundtrack To My Life Book Tag!

– Myself In Five Characters Tag!

Other:

– World Book Day Books!

– YA Releases April 2016- Part 1

– YA Releases April 2016- Part 2

– Cover Reveal: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Illustrated Edition

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My two favourite novels of the month will have too be…

I think rating wise and feeling wise Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida just knocked it out of the ball park. Both of these novels made me feel something and while one is a ‘proper’ book and the other is a graphic novel they both translated the story very well and I love their main protagonists!

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Guess who’s actually posting regularly on Instagram? This guy! My consistency on instagram has always been quite dodgy but I think by the end of March I kind of curbed that habit. Here are some of my favourite pictures from my account anyway!

  

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It is always nice to know a bit about the blogger behind the blog so I’m just going to ramble on about my life now!

So you guys- I totally suck at French. I’m not joking. I have a speaking assessment soon and I honestly think I’m going to fail. French just isn’t my thing and I can’t do the accent or anything. My teacher recorded herself reading out what I need to memorise but it’s so hard. I think I just need to spend a day just listening to that recording over and over again to get it. If you have any tips about remembering long passages of text then please tell me because I’m dying!

Also I am very active on Twitter now! I think I’ve just fallen in love with the social media again along with Instagram. I guess I just love knowing what everyone is thinking right there and then. My twitter is @astrangersguide if you want to follow me! Some YA authors on twitter can be so funny as well and I participate in a thing called #ukyachat which happens every Friday on twitter and you can talk to other bookworms about the specific topic it’s really fun and I encourage everyone, especially any British bookworms, to join in too!

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That is all! Gosh that was a long post! Sorry if it was too long, but I just wanted the monthly wrap-ups to be more about reading now.

What books did you read in March? What do you think of the books I read in March? What were your favourite books in March? Comment below and let’s chat!

I’ll write soon!

-Astra

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