☘️March Reads📚

March was a very productive reading month. Still so in love with my Kobo e-reader! 🥰

Last month I spontaneously decided to join a book club at my local library and this was my second book I read and will be attending a book club meeting for. This month’s book was A Family Matter and while it was a good story, the writing style was a no for me, hence the rating I gave it. Nonetheless, this is why I was excited to join the bookclub; I am getting to read books I normally wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards.

These are my March Reads 📚

1. Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father by April Balascio - This book was a memoir by April Balascio where she details her unstable childhood and her complex relationship with her father. When April discovers a cold case that coincides with when her family resided in this town, she begins to go down a rabbit hole that eventually leads to her suspicions on her father’s involvement. Memories from her childhood begin to resurface that lead April to reach out to law enforcement and there begins April’s unraveling of her father’s double life as a serial killer.

⭐️ Rating: 5 out of 5

(ngl, I’m a little biased when it comes to memoirs/autobiographies … I LOVE reading about real people’s lives from their perspective)

2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Our story begins when a young Patroclus is exiled from his home and is sent to Phthia, where he meets Achilles and soon a triendship growns. As they navigate adolescence into adulthood, their friendship grows into a relationship which will now be tested in the scope of the Trojan War. Achilles was always destined for greatness, his birth gave life to a prophecy that he would be the greatest warrior of his time. But when faced with a war that he feels is not his to conquer, Achilles is confronted with the fate of greatness that comes with a high price that ultimately both he & Patroclus will have to pay.

⭐️ Rating: 4 out of 5

3. The Wedding People by Alison Espach - Our story follows a woman named Phoebe who is struggling with depression due to the end of her marriage ending & her struggles with infertility. When her beloved cat dies, Phoebe is done and has lost her will to live so she decides to book a nice hotel where she intends to spend one last night before she kills herself. However, when she arrives at the hotel she is mistaken as a wedding guest. There, she meets the bride (Lila) and after a very bold introduction, an interesting bond is formed. Thru the course of the “wedding week” we see both Lila & Phoebe’s transformations and the women we meet at the beginning of this event, will be very different by the end of the week. While this book covers some heavy topics, it also has some good levity to it that makes this a wholesome worthwhile read.

⭐️ Rating: 3 out of 5

4. A Family Matter by Claire Lynch - Our story centers around a small family facing a divorce after the mother of the family comes to terms with her sexuality. Living in England in the 80’s, the world isn’t as progressive, so when the proceeds to their divorce begins, Heron (the father) is persuaded into a custody battle for his daughter under the guise that a lesbian mother would corrupt their daughter’s morality. This story jumps between the past (in the 80s) and present day (2022-2023) and in the present, the daughter is now a 40yr old woman with children of her own. After her father’s recent cancer diagnosis, Maggie is helping her dad organize his things and discovers the court documents from her parent’s divorce & custody battle. There she discovers the real reason her mother wasn’t in her life and she begins her search for her mother. While I am glad I read this book, something about the writing style made what should have been a short read take a bit longer to get thru.

⭐️ Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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