My Goings On in March:
- I edited a paranormal novella by Kate Thomas called Resounding Truth (you can win a copy of it HERE) and started editing Baited by Ali Parker.
- I attended a Richelle Mead author event – such fun!
- My daughter finished out the gymnastics season. She still trains just as much, but competitions are over! Yay for more free time!
Most Popular Posts:
Google Analytics seemed to go a little crazy sometime this month (I didn’t notice it as soon as I should have) and suddenly said I have basically no visitors. After freaking out for a few minutes that pretty much all of my followers had abandoned me, I finally realized that there was a problem. (It was saying I had zero visitors on days that I had comments, so I knew something was wrong.) I think I fixed the problem. We shall see! Anyway, my stats for this month aren’t as reliable as they should be, but here’s what Google Analytics says are my top posts anyway –
Top Ten Favorite Books of All-Time
Let’s Discuss – Based on a True Story
Let’s Discuss – Fact or Fiction
My most popular post (by far) in March was actually posted at the end of February because it got featured on StumbleUpon (I assume – I don’t know how that works, really, I have to confess. If you know, tell me in the comments!) – my review of Mortal Heart.
Other Features & Discussions:
Top Ten Books from My Childhood I Want to Revisit
Why I’m Not Reviewing Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Top Ten Spring Releases on my TBR
Top Twelve Indie Books for Readers Who Like Dystopians/Fantasy/Paranormal
My Favorite March Discussions on Other Blogs:
Once again, this was hard to choose since there were almost 100 discussion posts linked up to our 2015 Discussion Challenge (not to mention all those awesome discussions happening elsewhere around the blogosphere). SO many great discussions out there!
Shay over at The Story Goes discusses discussions.
Tabitha admits that she’s a bit hypocritical in her post: I Get Upset at How Much TV my Family Watches.
Jennifer over at The Book Nympho interviews a few different authors about Author Pen Names.
Carmel at Rabid Reads asks What Do You Do With Your ‘Read’ Books?
Ardelia at The Unplumbed Sea asks How Do You Find Awesome Blogs?
Shannon at It Starts at Midnight talks about The Art of Over-ARCing.
Cynthia at Afterwritten talks about How Break-Ups Affect Your Reading.
Best of the Bunch used to be a book blog hop hosted over at Always Lost in Stories on the last day of each month, but it seems that Sally’s stopped blogging, so this hop is now pretty much defunct. Guess I’ll have to start my own month-end hop! (Which I had talked about doing anyway, but the discussion challenge ended up taking pretty much all of my attention for a while there). Anyway, for now I’m just continuing Best of the Bunch, where we can look back over the books we have read over this past month and give a Best of the Bunch award to our favorite book of that month.
March 2015 Reviews
I’m kind of shocked at how few books I’ve been reviewing lately. It seems crazy to me that I reviewed less than three per week (which used to be low for me). I just haven’t had as much time for reading OR reviewing lately, which makes me sad – but I do feel like my blog is still really thriving with the discussions and other things that have been going on around here, so I AM happy about that. Still, I would like to step-up my reading and reviewing. We’ll just have to see if I can manage it.
I did read some awesome books this month, though!
- When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- Seed by Lisa Heathfield | Review | Rating: 4/5
- All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven | Review | Rating: 5/5
- Before He Was a Secret by Becky Wicks | Review | Rating: 4/5
- I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- Walled by Anne Tibbets | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
And March’s Best of the Bunch winner is:
All the Bright Places blew my mind and made me sob (on my birthday, no less!). There were a few books that almost got up to that five star status, but AtBP was the only one that quite made the cut!
The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.
So many great reads in March, I love it!
Congrats on getting so much read! 😀
Thanks!
*raises her hand* You can blame me for Stumbleupon… *laughs* I ‘liked’ that post, and then *checks* 25 other people ‘liked’ the post. And that’s how it exploded. The more people who give thumbs ups (likes) on a post, the more times Stumbleupon will show it to other people.
I love when posts explode like that, it usually means more followers/comments for me or whomever the site belongs to.
Well, then I guess a thank you is in order! I sometimes feel so behind the times when it comes to social media. I just don’t know how some of it works. Pretty sad, I know!
Looks like you had had a great month. 🙂 I’m still recovering from the convention I attended over the weekend. So much to catch up on!!
What convention was that? Hope you had fun!!
Mini-Con 50 in Bloomington, MN. It was fun.
Man, you have read a lot of great books this month. I loved Seed, I’ll Give You The Sun and All The Bright Places. I haven’t read the others, but I can agree that All The Bright Places is the best. 🙂
So glad you got your Google problem fixed. Yeah, zero visitors has to be a mistake. I visit all the time! 🙂
Ha! Yes, thank you Cynthia – I know you’ve definitely been around!!
I really want to read All the Bright Places. I finally read I’ll Give You the Sun which was amazing – I believe the review is up later this month. I’m doing well with scheduling at the moment, but I need to keep up with it. That’s always the hardest part!
-Lauren
I’m horrible at scheduling – I don’t even bother if it’s not for a tour because I know I won’t stick to it. LOL!
Looks like you had a great March! I like how you’ve showcased things you did during the month as well as the books read and reviewed. I need to expand my monthly wrap-ups, as they’re a little boring. Hope you have a great April, and enjoy your extra free time!
Yeah, I think it’s fun to see other details about people’s lives on their monthly wrap-ups too!
I actually got quite a lot of reading done last month… granted, I was binge reading a series but it was just so good I could not put it down!
Looks like you have a great month as well! And I can totally see why your discussion posts are the most popular, they’re my favorite as well!
Glad you love the discussions! They’re so much fun!
It looks like you had a busy March to me! Your review pace may have been slow for you, but it did produce some nice output! Sounds like it’ll be an easier April now, too, that you don’t have to do the gymnastics competitions. Something to look forward to 🙂
Yes, I was definitely kept busy – I hate it when my reading and reviewing slows down though (especially my reading, because the reading is my favorite part!!!)
Bloglovin may be hurting your visits.
Happy April reading!
Now I’m curious what you mean by that? Do you mean that Bloglovin’ visits aren’t counted? I did notice that since I have more email subscribers, that’s hurting me a bit as far as actual visits counted because people read the posts via email sometimes without clicking through.
Ooh, I’ve just started All The Bright Places, so glad to see you have given it 5/5! Thanks for visiting my blog! 🙂
Hope you’re loving it!!
All the Bright Places sounds like such a powerful read, but I don’t think I could handle it. D: The Fault in Our Stars is, like, my one and only exception for sad books.
I hope you have another excellent reading month, girl!
Yes, and it’s definitely sad.
Jealous you went to see Richelle Mead! I love her work!
You have had a good month, busy reading and editing… you go girl!
Naomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
Richelle was awesome – loved her!!
I really need to read All The Bright Places. Everybody seems to love it!
It was a really amazing book!
I’m so glad you have more free time! I hope some of it remains free. 😉 I had the same problem with Google Analytics, too. It said I had no visitors for about a week, even on days I had comments. I think I fixed the problem, too, but I’m not so sure now. Maybe it was a system problem, knowing that someone else besides me was affected.
Interesting – I definitely have seen my numbers go back up since I did the fix (I basically just re-did the code for Analytics). Hope your problem is fixed too!
I love how you feature posts from other blogs on your monthly wrap-up. It’s a great idea that I should start doing (if you don’t mind me borrowing your idea).
It looks like you had a very busy month. Congrats on getting so much accomplished!
Sounds like you had a very busy but good month! How did you start editing? I’m interested in starting a little bit of it, but just don’t know where to start! (:
Tina @ Pages of Comfort
[…] March Wrap-Up and Best of the Bunch – Find out what my favorite March read was! […]