Another month has come and gone and still we find ourselves in deep winter. Despite a few Spring false starts, I started writing this update from the depths of a freezing rainstorm. I could not be more over the cold if I tried.

The only good thing about it still being an unbearable temperature outside is that it kept me in and reading for much of the month. This was mostly against my will, as I am endlessly keen to switch to running outdoors and am out of ways to entertain a toddler in our small living room, but today I’m choosing to focus on the positive, which is that I knocked out a couple of really excellent books. 

Here’s a quick overview of what I covered in March:

Books Read in March 2026

1. The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni: this was the second installment in The Prison Healer series and I am sad to say that for me, it didn’t match my expectations after such an explosive series start. While Noni did a lot to build out the world and slowly and methodically raise the stakes, I just couldn’t get into it. It felt extremely YA in comparison to the first book and was very plot-light. I rated this one 3 stars because the end really packed a punch, but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up the final book in the series.
2. The Compound by Aisling Rawle: for lovers of reality television with a dystopian-feeling twist, this book delivers nicely. I loved the premise of contestants on a reality show and the various sides of human nature that Rawle explored through that lens. That said, this might have been one of the more disappointing endings I’ve seen in a while. For that reason alone, this one dropped down to a 3.5 stars for me. 
3. The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen: this was the second instalment in The Bridge Kingdom series and WOW Jensen knocked it out of the park!! I loved getting to see different sides of my favourite characters and Jensen is truly the queen of the slow burn (and romantasy as a whole). This was everything I wanted it to be and more, an easy 5-star read for me with a full review to come.
4. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume II by Beth Brower: I could read a hundred novellas set in this universe and with this cast. Emma is cunning and clever and humorous. Brower continued to build on a promising premise in such a delightful way in this novel, and the more in-depth exploration of the cast had me turning pages at top speed to see the dynamics between everyone unfold. While I really enjoyed the first book in this series, this one I truly loved. Another 5-star read for me and I can’t wait to come back to this world soon.

TBR Lists

While I felt like I got a good amount of reading in this month, I didn’t do a lot of perusing of new books to add to my TBR. The lone additions for this month include:

• For A Limited Time Only by Peng Sheperd: a time travelling salesman searches for the moments that truly matter. I have thoroughly enjoyed both of the other books I’ve read by Sheperd, so this short story sounds promising.
• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi: a man named Theo arrives in a small town and begins to unfold the stories of its inhabitants through portraits that hang in a local café. I’ve seen this one recommended numerous times for those who enjoyed The Correspondent which is what drove me to add this to my TBR.

What I’m Loving Lately

Life is feeling more well-rounded lately than it has in a while. So much time as a new parent is spent in the trenches just trying to get through each day that I feel like I completely forgot about what it was like to have the room to do multiple things beyond just survival. 

I typically manage to find the time to sneak in a few pages each day, which is what made reading such a perfect hobby for the chaos that is raising a young child, but as baby girl gets older and more independent and our lives get a little more predictable, I’ve also been slowly layering in things beyond reading that have have traditionally brought me joy. 

The things that were most fulfilling this month included:

Lunchtime Runs

Up until recently, I was using most of my lunches to do strength training workouts. After giving birth, I was keen to feel strong again, and strength training for the past six months helped me achieve that nicely.

With a baseline built, I felt like I might finally have the capacity I needed to begin running again, and I’m so happy to say that I do! I’ve had a couple of false starts back into running this year where it just felt too hard on my body after a few weeks, but this time around, with a more solid foundation, I feel like I’m actually making progress. My goal is to be back into routine 5Ks by the end of May so that I can properly enjoy outdoor runs again once the weather is nice again.

Spring Planning

Something that is keeping me sane as this endless winter rages on is planning everything that we want for Spring. We did a complete overhaul of our backyard last year where we tore down our monstrosity of a deck and replaced it with a more reasonable sized one, which has left us with a huge backyard that we’ll now be able to use. The husband and I still have a lot of work to do to get the yard ready, but we’re already planning out where we want a new vegetable garden and the various places where we hope to set up place spaces for baby girl.  I am very much looking forward to us all being able to spend more time outside!

A New Yoga Practice

It has been many, many years since I made the time to consistently do yoga, but when a new studio opened up in our neighborhood, just in time for my body to be peak-sore from running, it felt like a sign that it was time to pick it up again. 

My first class back was a humbling experience. I don’t think I fully grasped how much flexibility I lost over the years of not practicing while undergoing fertility treatments, pregnancy, and post-partum, but I definitely had a good feel for it by the end of my first session. That said, it was also a bit of a wakeup call that I need to treat my body with a little more care as I try to barrel through different fitness goals. I’m looking forward to hopefully taking in a class each week to try to regain some of the flexibility I’ve lost.

Overall, March was a good month all around! Here’s hoping that April brings some better weather, some good reads, and the time to enjoy both.