March 2026 Reads
Hey ya’ll.
I am channeling the THREE cowboy books I read this month.
Not one. Not two.
But three.
I’m done with cowboys for a while, please and thank you.
I have never picked up a cowboy romance in my life and still don’t think I’d feel called to pick one up. But I really like my book club ladies and I wanted in.
I’ve been blogging less. Which has freed me up to read a little more this month. So I’m coming at you with 9 reads. (I also begrudgingly exported all my GoodReads data to StoryGraph and am now cross-posting on both GoodReads and StoryGraph. I like the “Buddy Read” feature on StoryGraph! Add me if you’re on either!).
The Lifeguards by Amanda Eyre Ward:
Looking at this cover, you don’t expect this to be a who-dunnit mystery. Definitely picked it up thinking it was a light beach read. Told from the perspective of multiple people (moms and sons and detective), you’re kinda trying to figure out what happened when a body is found on a greenbelt trail.
There’s also excerpts from the mom chat which made me LOL several times.
Overall, it was a fun addicting read and, even though the ending felt rushed, it felt worth my while!
She Didn’t See It Coming by Shari Lapena:
She didn’t see it coming. And neither did I.
I bounced around SO MANY TIMES trying to figure out who dunnit.
Shari Lapena’s writing is great. She had me engaged the whole time. Every character did have motive, so it was fun trying to figure it out. I did feel like the ending was sort of lackluster, but overall a great read.
In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams:
I so enjoyed this small town series and this book was a perfect way to bring it all to an end.
The final sister.
The older brother’s best friend.
It was a great read.
I also loved the part where Madison shows James her texts between her and her siblings because that resonated so much. Ha. I loved getting to follow all the older characters and see what they’re all up to.
Loved this series!
I think this was my first ever cowboy-romance novel and I didn’t hate it.
It was a little descriptive for my taste. Too descriptive at times.
But, still, I loved Cash and Mollie. The enemies-turned-lovers trope took me for a ride and I loved the way they loved each other at the end. I also love a kick-ass strong female character and Mollie seemed pretty great.
So many secrets in this beautifully-written novel. The author was so descriptive and did a beautiful job developing the characters. It was a lengthy book but she covered a lot.
While secrets and stories were slowly revealed over time, there weren’t any twists or turns. It shines light on some of the ordinary struggles and real life difficulties that shape our lives.
Themes include war, grief, alcoholism, homosexuality, abandonment, love, forgiveness, parenting.
This would make a great book club book – so many things to discuss!
Okay, Wyatt was my least favorite of the three Lucky River Ranch books I’ve read thus far.
A little too arrogant for my taste. If I took a shot of tequila every time he called Sally, “sugar,” I would be hospitalized.
And.
You just gotta be prepared for the very descriptive scenes (that you don’t really need to be all that descriptive).
I think that’s about all I’ve gotta say about that.
Okay, WHAT?!
I was hooked.
The entire time. I just wanted to keep reading to find out EVERYTHING.
The story pulled me in. The writing kept me engaged. I got to the end and GASPED.
This was a solid read and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I want to say that I really wanted to rate this a 3 at first because I had read Cash and Wyatt right before this one and I was cowboy-ed out for sure.
But taken alone, I’d give it a solid 4. It was a decent read. I’m not usually a cowboy-romance girlie, but I did love the perspective of a single parent. (As a parent who isn’t even doing this solo, it’s HARD. So it was really refreshing to see some of the hard parts play out on the page).
Sawyer’s been my favorite of the three so far.
Okay, I was IN this. Very excited about the writing, very excited about the plot, very excited about the thrill of it all. And then it FELL APART FOR ME. There were so many holes in plotlines. It started out strong and then truly fell off the rails.
I got to the end and was very much like, “Um. What? I need a do-over.”
I love an Alice Feeney book for pulling me back into the story constantly. But the last quarter of the book disappointed me for sure!
That’s it!
I’m on a thriller kick right now. I’m reading this one on my Kindle and listening to this one. I’m still in the middle of Project Hail Mary too. But that’s a hard copy and it’s taking me a while because I’m a middle-of-the-night or on-the-go reader!
Tell me in the comments – have you read any of these above? What’re you currently reading?
And if you’re looking for more book recs, check out my monthly book posts by clicking this link!
