
It’s April. What happened in March? I’m not quite sure 😂 My days continue to be a monotonous cycle of work, eat, sleep(ish) and repeat. The only significant thing that happened was that my sister left to go to school in Japan mid-month and I took a few days off work to spend time with her and decompress. I’ve been feeling perpetually tired these days and I know that has a lot to do with my mental health, which hasn’t been in the best state. So, while March was already better and less stressful than February, I’m still hoping that April will be significantly better all around!

One thing that looked up this month was my reading because I finished 12 books! It’s still not up to my usual number and I’m still several books behind my reading schedule according to Goodreads/Storygraph, but it’s still better than February and it’s a start! Sadly, when it came to quality, there were a few duds that just didn’t work for me and left me feeling a little “eh”. I’m still battling “the slumps” which I think has contributed to most of these books being “okay” for me (and vice versa) and I’m just waiting on that ONE which will propel me out of this feeling!
If I had to choose a favourite, I think it’d be a toss-up between Tessa Ever After by Brighton Walsh (awesome brother’s best friend/forbidden/single parent romance where the MMC is a total simp) and Saint by Adrienne Young (surprisingly, Saint is also a bit of a simp, lol).

**BOOK COVERS are linked to Goodreads and the TITLE TEXT is linked to my review if available!**

4.5 pandas

(TOUR) Meesh the Bad Demon

4 pandas






(TOUR) The Next New Syrian Girl
(TOUR) I Will Find You Again
(TOUR) The Moth Keeper

3.5 pandas

(ARC) Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling

3 pandas



It’s safe to say that I have very little to update on this front. 😂
- Goodreads Reading Challenge → 30/150 → I’m still six books behind schedule!

- Project Backlist Reading Challenge → I’m aiming for the Committed Reader ❌ + ARCrasinator ✅ badges
- Committed Reader ✅: I read two backlist titles (bought before 2022)!
- ARCrasinator ✅: I read I read six ARCs!
- Magical Readathon: Choose Your Own Adventure → 1/12 → Yeah… This isn’t going well, lol. ❌
- 12 Book Challenge → 1/12 → No progress… ❌

Sadly, though perhaps at this point unsurprisingly, I didn’t read much in the community this month. I did read a few posts that I really enjoyed though!
- Nicole @Thoughts Stained in Ink → Book Review Etiquette (I really enjoyed her whole series on book reviews and would recommend checking it out!)
- Briana @Pages Unbound → Have Book Bloggers Been Deinfluencers All Along?
- Malka @Paper Procrasinators → Profiting Off Pain: Why I Dislike So Many “Sad” Books
- Jesse @Jesse On YouTube → 10+ Problematic Books Written By Black Authors | When white vs Black authors mess up
- Timy @Queen’s Book Aslyum → Stuck in the Pages – Bjorn Larssen
- 24hr.YA.BookBlog → 10+ YA Books I’d Curate for my #BookTok Table
- Elli @AceReader → Kindle Unlimited books on my radar!
- Julie @One Book More → Book Review: A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden
- Kat @The Lily Cafe → Book Highlight: The Existence of Amy by Lana Grace Riva
- Celeste @A Literary Escape → Book Review: Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
- Leslie @Books Are the New Black → Review: Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler

And that’s it for February—a month I want to leave very far behind. I hope everyone had a better month in February and read some great books, too! I’d love to know what your favourite read of the month was! Here’s to a better March full of much more reading than crying. 😂

I’m glad that March was slightly better for you and I hope that April is much better!! I think the 2ish star reads didn’t help the mood either! Thanks for linking my review for Adelaide!! ❤
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The lower rated reads definitely didn’t help the mood but I’m hoping that April will look up 🙂 I hope you have an awesome April, Leslie!
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Your sister is studying in Japan – that’s so cool!! Thank you for the mention aswell :))
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Yeah, it’s pretty awesome! 😃 Can’t wait to visit her, lol
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Thank you so much for sharing my post, Dini (and your kind words). I really hope April has started off super kind to you!
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Of course! I always thoroughly enjoy your posts 🙂 I hope you have an awesome April as well, Nicole! 💜
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I hope your year continues to improve for you as time goes on, Dini. I checked out some of your linked posts and found them quite interesting. Happy April.
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Thanks, Carla! I hope so too 😃 I hope you have an amazing April!
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I’m glad things are going a little better and hope they continue to improve in April. 🙂
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Thanks, Chris! I hope you have an awesome April too 🙂
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I’m so glad March was a little bit better than February, Dini. Hopefully, April with be even better! It definitely started with a great buddy read! 🙂
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Yah! I hope so too, Julie. And I definitely think it’s a great sign that we started it off with an awesome buddy read 😃 Can’t wait for our next one!
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I hope April is a better month for you and the upswing continues.
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Thanks, Sam! I hope you have an awesome April as well 🙂
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I hope April is even better than March for you! I had to DNF a book already this month because I could sense it was gonna drag me into a slump. It’s such a slippery slope, isn’t it?! I’m happy to see you enjoyed Saint. I need to get caught up on that series. I’ve just still read the first book. Oops. Happy Reading, Dini!
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Thanks, Dedra! I hope it will be too 🙂 I’m sorry to hear that you already had to DNF a book and it’s just the end of the first week of April! I hope you have find an amazing read that will pull you right out of the slumpy feeling—it really is a slippery slope! Happy reading to you as well and I hope your April goes up from here!
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I’ve felt tired a lot lately as well. It’s no fun. Hopefully April will be more exciting.
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It is definitely not fun. Hope April is better for both of us too, Deanna. Happy reading!
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Thanks for linking to my review! 🙂
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I really enjoyed it 🙂
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Glad to hear you’re feeling a bit better – I hope April brings you a lot of rest! 🌺💕 The Moth Keeper looks cute, I had no idea that O’Neill had a new graphic novel coming out! 😊
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Thanks, Caro! Yessss, if you enjoy O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society books then I think you’ll definitely enjoy Moth Keeper. It’s less cutesy but still wonderful storytelling 💜 I hope April is a great month for you as well 😃
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Meesh the Bad Demon looks so cute! I’m glad March was a better month for you, I hope things will continue to look up in April! 😀
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It is ADORABLE! I loved it and the art style so so much! 😍 I hope you have an amazing April as well, Tasya! 💜
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I’m glad that March treated you better than February, and I hope that April treats you even better! March was a bit of a struggle for me, and April is starting the same, but I am taking it one day at a time and trying not to beat myself up for not getting things done and instead playing games on my tablet or watching YouTube. Because I need to let my brain decompress, and reading isn’t always the way to do it.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
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Taking it one day at a time and not beating myself up when things don’t go as expected is something that I also need to be better at. It’s so important to treat ourselves with kindness! I’m sorry to hear that March was rough and that April is also starting in the same way but I do hope the month looks up for you, Pam! You do what you gotta do to feel better—even if that’s not reading. Sending lots of good energy your way! 💜
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[…] Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2023 […]
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That’s so sweet that you took off to spend time with your sister before she left! I’m glad you had the chance to do that! But also, now you have an excuse to visit Japan!
I totally hear you with these past few months being rough. I have had so many ups and downs this year already that I can’t believe there have been only 3 full months. My reading has suffered because of it, but then again, I don’t expect my reading to be prolific for the next little while anyways, because all of the things I’m busy with right now.
Also, while you may not have had a chance to blog hop as much as you’d like, you still managed to get a fair amount in! And even better, you shared some posts with people like me who sometimes forget to blog hop until they come across list of amazing blog posts, like the one you curated! Thank you for including my post in the line up! I’m glad you found it worthy of sharing!
Here’s to hoping that April is an amazing mental health month for you, filled with lots of happy surprises, and great books!
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