Hello and the warmest of welcomes to damppebbles and the second #CaseClosed post of the year (of several years if truth be told – for context please see February’s post where I admit to being quite dismal at maintaining a monthly wrap-up feature!). March felt a long old month, didn’t it? Perhaps after the ‘always abrupt’ end to February (even with the extra day), March doesn’t ever stand a chance and will always feel like a long, old month. Easter was early. That was strange. The children are now off school for the next two weeks and I can’t use the excuse of ‘the Easter bunny arriving soon’ to convince them to be on their best behaviour! Personally, March was a month full of colds and being poorly – perhaps flu based on my slow recovery and the total havoc it played with my T1D. But it did mean I was able to catch up on my reading and let’s face it, that’s what we’re all here for, right?!

For those of you who missed my February #CaseClosed here’s a short recap. I used to write a monthly wrap up post called #CaseClosed but I was really quite bad at remembering to post at the end of EVERY month. damppebbles.com has been in existence for over eight years now which is many a missed opportunity. This is only the fifteenth time I’ve managed put a post together on time! I’ve got a heck of a lot of catching up to 😂. It’s called #CaseClosed because I mainly read crime and my husband is very good at coming up with clever names and blog features (he’s responsible for #R3COMM3ND3D too!). He suggested I call it #CaseClosed. I couldn’t think of anything better 😐

Anyhoo, back to the books. Tell me, dear reader, how is your 2024 reading going? I’m doing OK. I was hoping to read nine books in March but I fell short by one (which is fine, I am such a slow reader so I should be happy with eight). If I’m completely honest with you, I only just managed to squeak in with eight, finishing that last book at 11:50pm on Sunday 31st March! It was worth it though.

➡️ Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood
➡️ Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
➡️ Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen
➡️ Murder Road by Simone St. James
➡️ The Mind of a Murderer by Michael Wood
➡️ The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell
➡️ The Intruders by Louise Jensen
➡️ Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear

Five of those books have already been reviewed on the blog (click the link to read the review) and three are still to come so keep your eyes peeled!

I reviewed two books on the blog in March which were actually read in February :

🖤 What We Did in the Storm by Tina Baker
🖤 Original Sins by Erin Young

And my guest reviewer (that’s the husband again!) shared one of his reviews too:

✳️ Relight My Fire by C.K. McDonnell

I also posted four WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 6th March 2024
🟧 Wednesday 13th March 2024
🟧 Wednesday 20th March 2024
🟧 Wednesday 27th March 2024

And finally, there were my ‘going to be occasional – definitely NOT every week’ Top Ten Tuesday posts (which I managed to post on every single Tuesday throughout March — they’re occasional, I tell you!)

⚪ Tuesday 5th March 2024 – Weird or Funny Things I’ve Googled Thanks to a Book
⚪ Tuesday 12th March 2024 – New-to-me Authors I Discovered in 2023
⚪ Tuesday 19th March 2024 – Books On My Spring 2024 TBR
⚪ Tuesday 26th March 2024 – Books Which Would Have Made Amazing TV Shows/Movies

My most popular post on the blog for March was once again my review of The Watchers by A.M. Shine which is due to be released as a movie in the Summer. I hope this is an indication that everyone wants to read the book first before they see the movie!

My most popular new review of the month was Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood, but that actually came in third place. My second most popular post of the month was my Top Ten Tuesday from 19th March 2024 – Books On My Spring 2024 TBR. I’m delighted that all three of these posts received the love they did. I enjoyed writing them all (and reading the two books, of course!).

I spent a small amount of time recently pondering on what I could add to #CaseClosed to make it a little more interesting. I thought about what I find interesting when other bloggers talk about their reading schedules/progress and came up with two things. The first being a Goodreads Challenge check-in. The second being a NetGalley check-in. I don’t know about you but I love to see what’s on everyone else’s NetGalley shelf, and, in particular, what their feedback ratio is 🤭

So let’s start with the Goodreads Challenge. If you’re also on Goodreads then do send me a friend request, we can cheer each other on. My goal this year (and for the last couple of years) has been 92 books which, if my maths is correct, works out to be one book every four days. At the moment I’m on track having read 23 books so far and I should (*should* 🤞) complete the challenge at the end of the year. Fingers crossed it stays that way for the foreseeable. Although things do tend to go a little ‘off kilter’ over the Summer.

Moving on to my NetGalley shelf. For anyone not familiar with NG it’s a site where you can request early copies of digital books in exchange for a review. For me, when I first started blogging, I got a little carried away and ended up with over 80 books on my shelf. Over lockdown I worked on reducing that to a handful of books and I’ve managed, since then, to keep my numbers low. My current feedback ratio is 97% and these are the books I still have to read and review as things currently stand.

💟 How to Kill with Kindness by S.R. Masters
💟 The Puppet Master by Sam Holland
💟 The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry
💟 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I look forward to seeing how this list changes over the course of April (and what else is added in the coming weeks!).

Out of the eight books I read in March I’ve given three of them a five star rating which I think makes my next decision REALLY tough. Which one is going to be my book of the month…..? Scroll down to find out.

So without further ado, my book of March 2024 is……

Murder Road by Simone St. James

I loved Murder Road. I’ve been ridiculously keen to read a book by Simone St. James and this was a perfect mix of crime thriller with an eerie supernatural edge. Well worth picking up if you get the chance.

Cover of the month goes to…

The Intruders by Louise Jensen (review to follow)

Having read The Intruders it’s a perfect fit for the story. So creepy and puts you on edge. I’m a huge fan of Louise’s books and as always, The Intruders has an absolutely killer twist. It then takes a very dark path indeed! Five star review to follow around publication day later this month.

So that was March on damppebbles. I hope you have a wonderful bookish April full to the brim of the best books and I will see you very soon.

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Twitter / X. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are around roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.