March Reads

Running total books/audiobooks/short stories read in 2026 by month end: 32.

With the move into Spring, this is usually when I would just be getting into my reading stride. That isn’t really how it’s gone down this year though. I’ve been busy with family, with my home nest emptying, and there has also been lots of March activity such as birthdays and celebrations. So lots of great things, but less reading time! That being said, I still had some great reads among my 8 reads.

My five-star offering for “Birthday March” was Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, which is a fantastic view through the lens of a female Victoriana killer. This book is thoroughly and brutally engaging and enjoyable, it is tremendous fun and well worth a read. While a little predictable in the second half, it does not lose its sense of play. The language in this one is a delight. The linking of everyday events to horrific imagery presents a dark viewpoint while staying poetic. This was a book club read, and it’s always brilliant to see other people’s viewpoints on the same book. Give an interactive online club a try if you have never tried it before.

Secondly, I have an honourable mention for Automatic Noodles by Annalee Newitz, a fascinating science fiction novella that was on my TBR well before its actual release. The plot sees a varied group of robots open a noodle restaurant in a futuristic world, and is simply lovely, very tech-positive, something I do not regularly see in sci-fi, and also incredibly uplifting with its identifiable metaphors for positive thinking and even feminine affirmation.

Finally, I want to talk about Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, the first prequel to the (absolutely amazing) Bridgerton series that has been adapted for Netflix in the last few years. I love this series, have done for many years, and have been familiar with this author for many years. Generally, I have liked or loved all of the Bridgerton, Smythe-Smith, and Revelstone books; I have read pretty much everything by this author in the past. This one, I just thought was an average rehash of better stories, and I did not really know which branch of the Bridgerton family I was even reading about, because it was not referred to. I therefore did not identify much with the characters. As always, there was some lovely prose in the novel, but it did stagger and break regularly in this one too. I will persevere with these prequels (as and when I feel like it), but my honest opinion from first impression is that they are very much an unnecessary afterthought to the main attraction.

As always, thanks for reading along!