On the Shelf: books to get excited about in March

By Courtney Warren
I’ve gotten back into reading Advanced Readers Copy (ARC), and it has been so fun. There is a program called NetGalley where you can request these ARCs from various publishers and can get approved based on your review percentage. Here are a few I’ve recently read that I can’t wait to purchase physical copies for.

What We Did to Survive by Megan Lally
This one really threw me for a loop. It’s a young adult (YA) thriller and, while it does have explicit language, there are not explicit scenes. The story is about a main character named Hannah, who goes on a summer vacation with her best friend Emmy and Emmy’s brother Jackson. While at a five-star resort in Mexico, Emmy meets Ben, a super cute guy who convinces them to go sailing on their last day of vacation. However, when a storm hits, another storm also brews on the boat itself, leaving Hannah and her friends stranded and searching for answers. I loved every second of this story and really enjoyed the character development. There was a plot twist at the end that had my jaw on the floor.

The Ruins Beneath Us by Sasha E Sloan
This was a breath of fresh air when it comes to the fantasy world. I feel like authors are searching for the next hot thing, or whatever is trending on social media. However, Sloan clearly took her time with this book and focused on not only the characters and magic system, but the world building, as well. 

In this story, the main character is an elf in a world where magic has been outlawed. Living on the edge of the forest with her mother, she discovers a boy on the brink of death and uses her magic to save his life. She is then thrust into the world of royalty after learning this boy is actually the crown prince. 

At court, she has to figure out if she is to stay true to herself and her people, who to trust, and what her true destiny may be. 

This story was fun from start to finish, and a part of me wants to kick myself because I’ve already read the first book, and I am already wanting the second one!

How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries by David George Haskill
I’ve gotten to really enjoy the world of nonfiction books. I feel like I close them having learned something completely new and interesting. Oftentimes, it’s something I would never have known otherwise. 
This book is all about the power of flowers. I covered the Master Gardeners for many years, and so I was drawn to this because of what I gleaned from many of their meetings. It’s an exploration of how flowers are at the center of evolution, as well as how they have transformed the world into what it is today.