March is the month when the Coronavirus pandemic became real for the United States. I was finishing books at a slower rate even before California locked down on March 19th. I didn’t finish anything in the latter half of the month.
In normal times, I do a lot of my reading by listening to audiobooks. Weirdly enough, I sometimes miss my commute because it gave me two hours a day of uninterrupted listening. I could be going for walks – we live near a nice public walkway – but it just isn’t appealing. I don’t want to have to avoid a bunch of people and wear a mask. Not to mention the terrible heat as I write this in August.
I did eventually get some of my mojo back, but March was a very dry month.
Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 14 and Volume 15 by Miki Yoshikawa
I feel like I’ve said all I can about this series at this point. If you’re willing to keep reading a manga after more than a dozen volumes, it must be doing something right!
I managed to finish two more volumes at the start of the month. I’m still a little disappointed at the loss of some of the original witch powers, but it’s getting better.
The mystery of the new witches is more engrossing with every volume. Especially since some of the new witches seem more dangerous and volatile than the previous set.
REALLY LIKED IT
Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire
I plowed through most of this series in a mad rush last year, listening to the books pretty much every weekday while going for walks and driving home. I pre-ordered the newest volume well before release, and started listening almost immediately after it came out.
I wasn’t disappointed. This is the first InCryptid book to star Sarah Zellaby. She is by far the strangest Price – essentially an inter-dimensional parasitic wasp who happens to look like a pretty brunette. Sarah’s story kicks off an arc that I can’t wait to see develop in the next book.
Sarah learns more about herself and her family, finally faces up to her feelings for her cousin Artie, and has to learn how to save the day with her particular set of powers. All great things, and all thanks to the steady hand of McGuire, who knows how to build out a world and a series. She finds interesting new corners to explore in every book.
McGuire has quickly jumped high up on my list of favorite authors, and I can’t wait until I get a chance to read the next book in this series. 2021 can’t come soon enough (for a number of reasons).
LOVED IT
That Touch of Magic by Lucy March
I read the first book in this series years ago and enjoyed it well enough, so when I started up a free trial of Audible Escape (for unlimited romance novels), I thought I’d give this series another shot. Each book is a magic-tinged romance from the perspective of a different woman in the sleepy town of Nodaway Falls.
What I didn’t realize is that every book in this series has the same premise with slight variations. A dangerous villain wants to give everyone in town magic powers even though it might kill them. Our heroine has to stop the villain while she falls in love with some complex and handsome man.
If you’ve read one of these books, you’ve read them all. I read three, and it turns out I probably could have stopped after the first. Sometimes, though, it is nice to read a story about people falling in love and nobody getting hurt too badly.
LIKED IT
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