The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April

Posted April 1, 2023 by Lisa Mandina in End of the month post, giveaway / 20 Comments

I feel like March almost went by quicker than February! The weather was a roller coaster of one or two really nice spring-like days, followed by several days in a row of either freezing winter like weather or just rain, rain, rain.

It also felt like I didn’t get a lot of reading time either this month. And so my numbers were down. Only 14 compared to last month’s 16. I did start using Storygraph this month, and so I have some of those fun charts to share! Although the page numbers don’t seem right according to what I have in my actual blog planner, I think it’s because it keeps track of the actual pages read/time listened during the month instead of how I just keep track of what is finished each month. The one that shows number of pages, you can see my end of March wasn’t a lot of pages read each day, probably why I didn’t get as much read as I should have. šŸ™ Here are my stats:

I did good once again keeping my reviews and DNFs in a set up post as the month went by. Those posted earlier this week.

  • # of pages read: 4177
  • Amount of time spent listening to audiobooks ā€“ Some of the time on one of these was last month technically, but I donā€™t count them till I finish. So my time spent was 27 hours and 44 minutes for 2 audiobooks.

March Reviews

Challenge Wrap-Up

Still going strong as I am still working on books from my Reader Award committee. My goal for the year was 12, I got 4 in January, 4 in February, and I got 3 more this month! All of this month’s were for the reader award committee. The first 4 were reviewed in the January L-L-L post, second 4 were in the February L-L-L post, and this monthā€™s were reviewed in the March L-L-L post.

  1. The Hunger Between Us by Marina Scott
  2. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
  3. Lord of the Fly Fest by Goldy Moldavy
  4. Always Jane by Jenn Bennett
  5. My Second Impression Of You by Michelle I. Mason
  6. Gold Mountain by Betty G. Yee
  7. Spicy Pickle by J.J. Knight
  8. My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth
  9. Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer
  10. Rima’s Rebellion by Margarita Engle
  11. The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta
  • Blogging:
  • Reading:
    • 1. As always is my Goodreads goal of 200 books. I am right on track, maybe one ahead, maybe one behind, but Iā€™m not worrying about it.
    • 2. My TBR Challenge above.
  • Writing ā€“ Still didnā€™t get anything done this month.
  • Book Buying Ban ā€“ I made up a little bit this month after last month’s book convention debacle. I didn’t get the Book of the Month again, so that rolled over and I didn’t have to spend anything for that. So I only spent $30: my Audible credit, a pre-order e-book for 99 cents, and one book from Amazon for $13.99 with tax.

What to Expect in April

I thought I’d get so much more reading done in March than I did. April is about the same length, so we’ll see how it goes. I do also have the library conference mid-April, and I got a lot of reading done last year staying in my own room in the hotel with a nice little balcony. Fingers crossed I get a room like that again!

Here is my proposed TBR for April:
  1. Playing by the Rules by Monica Murphy – e-galley I’m behind on reading thanks to puppy sitting the last few days of my spring break, lol. Should post my review as soon as I’m finished.
  2. Throwback by Maureen Goo – An ARC I received from the publisher, thought I’d be reading during spring break, but didn’t get to it before April. Hope to read and post a review on the 1st or 2nd, but with being behind, might be a day or two later, or maybe the 2nd week of April as I don’t really have much scheduled for that week.
  3. Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker – another ARC from the publisher, hope to get read over the last weekend of spring break and post the review on the 3rd, same with being behind
  4. Wedding Games by Evie Alexander – e-galley to post a review on the 4th I hope, have to I think I’m scheduled then? Need to reach out and find out.
  5. Never Vacation with Your Ex by Emily Wibberley – another ARC for review, hoping to post on the 5th, but will probably be later!
  6. Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens – I really liked the last book I read by this author, so excited that the publisher sent me this one. Should hopefully post a revies on the 7th or 8th
  7. Better Off Wed by Portia McIntosh – an e-galley for a blog tour review on the 13th
  8. Hate Tea Love You by Annie Charme – this is for a blog tour, but a lot of the books in this series have been just promo and not review, so not sure. My blog tour date for this is the 15th
  9. Vacation Wars by Meghan Quinn – e-galley to review as part of the author’s review team hope to post my review on the pub date of the 18th
  10. How to Win the Girl by Sara Ney – I think this was postponed till the end of April, as part of the author’s review team I think I’ll be reading and posting my review on the 20th
  11. This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham – the publisher sent me an ARC. Now I don’t think I cared for this author’s last book, actually last April is when I think I gave up on that one. But this one sounds good too, so I’m going to try to read and post a review on the 24th
  12. French Holiday by Sarah Ready – I think I will be reading and reviewing for a blog tour on the 27th
  13. Beyond the Thistles by Samantha Young – another author review team I’m on, I think I will be reading and reviewing at the end of April.
  14. Dough You Love Me by Stacy Travis – this will be the first one I read for the latest SmartyPants Romance releases. I actually got the audiobook of this one! I plan to start listening after my current audiobook.
  15. We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado – another ARC from the publisher. I enjoyed the last book I read by this author, so looking forward to this one as well.
  16. Any audiobooks I listen to, Iā€™m listening to One For All by Lillie Lainoff at the moment, which also counts for the Gateway list and the TBR challenge, plus I’ll be driving to my conference mid-April, so long drive means lots of audiobook listening time!
  17. Any other books for the Gateway list that I get through
  18. And hopefully more for my TBR challenge!

Final Thoughts

So how was your March? Are you getting spring weather yet? How are you doing on your reading/blogging/personal goals for 2023 so far? What are you looking forward to in April? Iā€™m looking forward to a library conference about halfway through the month as a three day getaway.

Giveaway

Below are ARCs Iā€™ve finished and also a couple of finished copies, the winner will get to pick out 3 books from the list. There may even be a few more choices by the end of the month as I go through and clean out some more bookshelves of ARCs I know I might not ever get to! I will make the giveaway international in that you can pick a book for under $10 if The Book Depository ships to you. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below the picture. My February Wrap-Up post got over 100 entries, so I picked two winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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20 responses to “The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April

  1. I feel like I did a bit less than in February but I haven’t tallied it up yet today. We are definitely getting spring weather and are already eating lettuce from the garden. How are you liking Storygraph? I haven’t even considered it but many friends are moving and so I miss seeing their reading info on Goodreads.

    • Lisa Mandina

      So far I like Storygraph, although there are some things that I like better about Goodreads still. And I’m still using both for now, because blog tours usually want Goodreads reviews and I’m just so used to it!

  2. danielle hammelef

    April is going to be a great month here if all goes to plan. My daughters will all be coming home, I have a concert to perform in, and my favorite book store is opening a location closer to me just in time for Independent Bookstore Day.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Sounds like a great month! I wish there was an independent bookstore in my part of town. I still just go to the Barnes & Noble I used to work at.

    • Lisa Mandina

      I really like the charts and the fact that I can rate a book more than just whole stars. But I am keeping Goodreads for now too! It still has so much more than Storygraph for some book stuff. Hoping we do both get better weather this month. It’s been nice the last two days!

  3. Elaine G

    March went by so fast. Read 18 books. Started the indoor garden preparing for summer. April is Easter and a couple birthdays.

  4. Leela

    March was awful. At least this month I can look forward to my wedding anniversary and starting cancer treatment.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Ah, I’m sorry your March was awful. I hope you get to enjoy a nice anniversary this month, and I hope the cancer treatment goes well.

  5. I’m a double user as well – I used Storygraph all of last year and love the extra features like tracking challenges and the charts, but it doesn’t have quite the following of GR yet so there are few reviews and I have fewer friends there to connect to. It’s a process. šŸ™‚ Looks like you had a great reading month – hope April continues the trend.
    Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
    https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/wrap-up-march-2023

    • Lisa Mandina

      I need to figure out how to connect with you over on Storygraph! Not sure if I’ve connected to anyone there. Thanks for visiting!

  6. Nice job on your goals and reading. I’m a slowish but fairly consistent reader. I usually finish 10 books – 5 or 6 in audiobook and 4 or 5 in ebook.

    So tell me about Storygraph – please! You are the second person today who mentioned it. I’m hesitant to jump into something – I went all in with Booklikes and it crashed after a year or so.

    Jen Twimom recently posted: 2023 Reading Challenges Update: March
    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, I was hesitant as well. But I saw the graphs someone else was using and decided to give it a try myself. So far I’m enjoying it. But I’m not giving up Goodreads yet! I still have too much on there to completely quit. So it’s a little bit extra. But I like that I get stats on how many pages I’ve read, hours listened, and all the nice stats it gives like that.

  7. Melissa Darrow

    March was so fast. I was so busy I didn’t get to read as much as I wanted. I look forward to retirement in 4 years when I have more time to read.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Same for me with not getting enough reading time. April is not shaping up any better, worse actually! I hope retirement will come for me soon, 5 years, although that will just be from education, I’ll still have to get another job for a while.

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