Everything I Read in March 2025
I knew I read a lot this month, but I didn’t realize quite how much until I put this post together. Fourteen books!? I really leaned into reading to keep me from doomscrolling, and I guess this shows it was a successful endeavor. In that vein, I am definitely leaning into the rom-com kind of reads right now, as you can see from my favorites list just below. Story of My Life by Lucy Score stands out to me as a must-read because I kept sending pictures of quotes to my reader buddies. Besides that, there are plenty of great novels to add to your TBR here, whether you’re looking for light and comedic or something a little darker and more mysterious. Keep reading for my book reviews from March and join my newsletter here to get the latest and greatest book recommendations!
Of the 14 books I read this month, here are my top 5 favorites:
- Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young
- Story of My Life by Lucy Score
- The Favorites by Layne Fargo
- First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
- The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark
Table of Contents:
March 2025 In Books
Romance & Contemporary Fiction
Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young
5/5 Stars
Out of the Woods follows Sarah and Caleb, two supporting characters from Out on a Limb, which I read last month and really enjoyed. Sarah and Caleb married young and their relationship has hit a rough patch. In short, Hannah Bonam-Young does a great job writing complex characters who feel realistic and multidimensional. Outside of the relationship construct, Sarah is struggling with her sense of self, and her frustrations feel very lifelike for many of us in our thirties. Part of her struggles with her sense of self are, of course, built into her relationship, but they are also individual to her alone. Basically, I think any reader will find parts of Sarah’s struggle that feel close to home — and the author handles them beautifully. Combine that with the relationship arc of the main characters, and you’ll come away feeling refreshed and ready to handle anything life throws at you.
Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Story of My Life by Lucy Score
5/5 Stars
The number of times I was literally laughing out loud reading this book…! So good! Described as “A Gilmore Girls meets Schitt’s Creek redemption romcom“, I had high hopes for this one, and it certainly delivered. The story is funny, full of Gilmore Girl-esque townies and town meetings, which the protagonist, Hazel, has to navigate upon her arrival from NYC.
In short, Hazel, a writer’s-blocked romance author, dives head first into the tiny town of Story Lake in an effort to inspire her overdue manuscript. Right from the start, she runs into trouble — think “I got hit by a deer!” a la Gilmore Girls — and has to regain her ground in her new town. Combine that with a potential hero-inspiring-love-interest and Hazel has her hands full. There’s fake dating, there’s humor, it’s the start of a new Lucy Score series, there are barn yard animals, it’s currently free on Kindle Unlimited…. You just have to read it.
Story of My Life by Lucy Score is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
5/5 Stars
I am always hesitant to pick up sports related stories, but then I always wind up loving them! Perfect for fans of Carrie Soto is Back, The Favorites follows ice dancing’s most dramatic and formidable duo, Kat and Heath, as they go from their rural home and youthful romance to an ultra competitive arena of Olympic hopefuls. The story covers a broad period of time, with bits and pieces told as part of a documentary being made on the teammates. I listened to it as an audiobook and enjoyed the narration for these parts, especially. In the end, it is part mystery and part documentary, full of emotional turmoil, challenging relationships, and character growth.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Forever Never by Lucy Score
4/5 Stars
I’m generally a fan of Lucy Score, so when this came up on Kindle Unlimited I decided to give it a shot. It was good, but not my favorite of hers. If you’re a fan of stories where the small town is a character on its own, then this is probably a good fit. The drama that the protagonist brought with her felt a little disjointed from the story, but the writing and characters around her made up for it. Some of her relationship with the male love interest was a little iffy to me, but their banter was pretty entertaining.
Forever Never by Lucy Score is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Keep Me by Sara Cate
3/5 Stars
I was drawn to this book entirely because of the tartan on the cover. Sometimes, picking books based on covers works, and sometimes it doesn’t. This one was ok, but I’m not inspired to read more from the author. The protagonist, a rough-around-the-edges heiress cut off from her eccentric artist family’s money, has a lot of issues to work through. And — to the book’s credit — she does just that throughout the story. However, her character at the start almost turned me off of the whole thing, and the original meeting of her and the male protagonist was kind of confusing. Regardless, the character growth she and the male protagonist show kind of saved it for me.
Keep Me by Sara Cate is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter
2/5 Stars
Let’s just say…I am not this book’s targeted audience. I appreciated getting the chance to read this book as an advance copy from Netgalley, but it just wasn’t for me. The story felt formulaic and flat to me. The characters frustrated me and the nonlinear narrative felt a little disjointed, in my opinion. The main character has an accident and loses her memory and has like…no medical attention after she leaves the hospital, which felt unrealistic, and the way she and the people around her handled her injury seemed negligent. It was 304 pages of me wanting to scream at the characters “just talk to each other!”
At multiple points throughout, I thought it felt like a book that my Catholic high school religion class would assign as some convoluted way to get us talking about “healthy relationships” and…lo and behold, it is listed in Contemporary Christian Romance, which is just not for me. I’m all for books about healthy relationships, of course, but this style and the lack of communication just rubbed me the wrong way. Call it Catholic school trauma, I guess. Anyway, the setting was lovely, though, and I enjoyed the descriptions of that, along with the rescue dog’s story. But that was about it.
Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
5/5 Stars
I saw this book all over Instagram for a few days before I decided to give it a try. The premise made itself clear pretty quickly in the audiobook (great narration, by the way): Aiden Valentine, a romance hotline radio host, is in a slump, until he meets Lucie Stone through the show. Both protagonists are strong, well-developed characters and they are pretty funny throughout. I could have done without a third-act-breakup kind of drama, but the witty banter throughout balanced it out for me.
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
3.5/5 Stars
This book follows Cyrus Shams, a young Iranian man who is newly sober and grappling with the loss of his parents (his father recently, his mother as a child). Through his grief and feelings of displacement, Cyrus becomes obsessed with the idea of martyrs and decides he will write a book about them. Through this exploration, he begins to unravel some of his family’s mysterious past, his own search for meaning in life, and the story of an artist putting on a uniquely macabre final show at the Brooklyn Museum. This book was both heavy and light, featuring distinct moments of humor besides the darker materials. Kaveh Akbar has an impressive voice, but the ending left me a little confused — it probably would be a great book to discuss in a group or a class, but, on my own, I was a bit lost.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
One’s Company by Ashley Hutson
3/5 Stars
As far as contemporary fiction goes, One’s Company seems to have it all. There is a disjointed timeline, which mirrors the narrator’s disjointed story, and unique chapter structures that break up the book like scenes in a play. Protagonist Bonnie Lincoln’s favorite show is Three’s Company, and she begins to retreat to the comfort that show gives her as life throws her curveballs and tragedies left and right. The retreat begins slowly, but then escalates when Bonnie wins the lottery and decides to throw off her own identity entirely and leave civilization behind. She makes the make-believe world of her favorite show real with the money she has won and then retreats to her isolated new abode. The past doesn’t stay behind, though, and Bonnie’s traumas come back to haunt her.
One’s Company by Ashley Hutson is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Fantasy
The Songbird & the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent (Crowns of Nyaxia Book 3)
4/5 Stars
First things first, this book is part of the Crowns of Nyaxia series I’ve been talking about lately (see, e.g., my must-read fantasy book post here). However, it is not exactly a continuation of the first two books in the series. Instead, think of the series as a set of duologies, where the first two books follow Oriya and Raihn’s story, and this (and the upcoming book) cover Mische’s story after the end of The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (book 2).
In some ways, Mische’s story in this book exists in a much smaller universe than the first two books, because it takes place entirely in the nearly-deserted underworld. There are a few characters beside Mische and Asar, her would-be-savior/jailor, but nothing like books one and two. Mische is tasked by her sun god — the god she devoted herself to before being made into a vampire — to destroy the god of death. Perhaps then she will regain the sun god’s favor. But, this is no easy task, made even more difficult by the fact that it runs counter to Asar’s goals. At first, this is a problem of treachery, alone, but as Mische and Asar get to know one another, she begins to question everything.
P.S. there is a fourth book coming out soon, but I almost wish I had waited until it was out, because I need to know what happens next!
The Songbird & the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson (Dark Inheritance Series Book 1)
5/5 Stars
The first book of a new trilogy (it is unclear when the next book comes out), The Serpent and the Wolf is perfect for fans of the Crowns of Nyaxia series or really any of the books on my fantasy reading list here. Opening with a dramatic escape by a clearly badass female protagonist, this book brings the reader into its world right away. I was confused about some of the world’s details, but I think that was part of the author’s point in starting the story off so abruptly. As the book progresses, we learn more about Vaasa, the mysterious protagonist who doesn’t know everything about herself, either, and the politically powerful man she was forced to marry, Reid.
There is magic, there is drama, there is witty banter…. Really, this is a strong start to a series and I only wish I knew more about when the next book comes out!
The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde Series Book 3)
2/5 Stars
Let me start this out by saying two things: first, I really enjoyed the first two books in this series (more on that here) and, second, “cozy” themed books really aren’t for me. I like them occasionally, but those are the exception to the rule for me, and I should probably remember that going forward.
Basically, I really wanted to love this book, since I enjoyed books one and two so much, but Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales fell really flat for me. I listened to the audiobook, which may have been a contributing factor to why I didn’t like it; the narration was ok, but the many references Emily makes to different “academic writings” got to be really annoying. There were some good scenes throughout as Emily and Wendell return to his kingdom so he can reclaim his throne. Overall, though, the book felt like it was trying to pack too many dramatic events into one.
In the first two books, I generally enjoyed Emily and Wendells’ dynamic, but their relationship felt forced here. I spent a not insignificant amount of time wondering if Emily even liked her fiancé, and whether he knew her (or cared to know her) at all.
In all, others online seemed to love it, but this one just wasn’t for me. If I didn’t feel the need to review it for my full post on the series here, I probably would have DNF’ed.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Historical Fiction
Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
4/5 Stars
Surprisingly epic in scope, Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki is based on Margaret Fuller Ossoli, an American writer and women’s rights advocate who was part of the transcendentalist movement in the 19th century. I went into this book not knowing anything about her, so I enjoyed learning a bit about this early American writer.
The book starts in 1836, with Margaret meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson and, eventually, many of the other major authors of the age. Her story twists and turns as relationships (and business ventures) grow and fail. Margaret is well-read and educated, but is also poor and unmarried, so her perspective on transcendentalism and her relationship to the male authors of the age snags on the edges of reality. Multiple times, she tries to take part in literary or educational ventures with Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott), and others, only to be expected to work without pay essentially for the love of the work. Margaret’s practicality must prevail here, and her story turns towards Europe as a newspaper correspondent.
The last third of the book feels like it doesn’t match the first two thirds, but I guess that’s just because Margaret’s life looked so different at that point. I think I would have liked it more if it focused on her formative years and didn’t follow her to Italy, necessarily. I guess I wanted to know more about her earlier writing. Maybe I’ll look into a non-fiction book on her sometime.
Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Non-Fiction
The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark
5/5 Stars
For anyone fascinated with Renaissance history, The Waiting Game is a must-read. While it focuses on the Tudor queens of Henry VIII (with the bulk of the book centered on the longest reigning among them, Katherine of Aragon), it offers a fascinating glimpse into the life and times of upper class women who worked in service to the royal families. From the young women (girls, really) who came from Spain to England with Katherine of Aragon to the cousins of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard who hesitantly stepped into service of her successors, this tapestry of lives often left unseen is truly fascinating. The ways in which these women operated, how they influenced politics, and even just how their daily lives were structured is something we rarely see represented.
In short, Nicola Clark’s work is a must-read for all medieval and renaissance history lovers, whether or not the Tudors are your preferred subjects.
The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.
Curious about the Kindle Unlimited subscription? Want to know if it’s worth the monthly fee?
(Spoiler alert: yes, it certainly is!)
Check out my complete guide to the e-book subscription service here!
Shop the Books Featured In This Post
Still searching for your next favorite read?
Check out my reading journal from last month for more great titles for your TBR!
Bookish Essentials for Readers
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
*Some of the novels featured here were gifted to me as part of various book review programs in which Cats & Coffee participates.
