I did not get through as many books as I had hoped in February and I savored what I was reading in March, so I decided to combine these months into one post. I did enjoy the majority of what I read and am excited to share some for you to consider adding to your TBR list this year! Keep scrolling for a synopsis of each book and my rating for each.
See my favorite reads from 2022 here, 2023 here, and check out what I’ve read here. You can see the 5 books I read in January here.
Everything I Read in February & March 2024
What I Read in February 2024
Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino
Synopsis
By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community. It was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a Fusionist government of Republicans and Populists that included black aldermen, police officers, and magistrates. There were successful black-owned businesses and an African American newspaper, The Record. But across the state–and the South–white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by former slaves and their progeny.
In 1898, in response to a speech calling for white men to rise to the defense of Southern womanhood against the supposed threat of black predators, Alexander Manly, the outspoken young Record editor, wrote that some relationships between black men and white women were consensual. His editorial ignited outrage across the South, with calls to lynch Manly.
But North Carolina’s white supremacist Democrats had a different strategy. They were plotting to take back the state legislature in November “by the ballot or bullet or both,” and then use the Manly editorial to trigger a “race riot” to overthrow Wilmington’s multi-racial government. Led by prominent citizens including Josephus Daniels, publisher of the state’s largest newspaper, and former Confederate Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, white supremacists rolled out a carefully orchestrated campaign that included raucous rallies, race-baiting editorials and newspaper cartoons, and sensational, fabricated news stories.
With intimidation and violence, the Democrats suppressed the black vote and stuffed ballot boxes (or threw them out), to win control of the state legislature on November eighth. Two days later, more than 2,000 heavily armed Red Shirts swarmed through Wilmington, torching the Record office, terrorizing women and children, and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets. The rioters forced city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with mob leaders.
Prominent blacks–and sympathetic whites–were banished.
Hundreds of terrified black families took refuge in surrounding swamps and forests.
This brutal insurrection is a rare instance of a violent overthrow of an elected government in the U.S. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another half-century. It was not a “race riot,” as the events of November 1898 came to be known, but rather a racially motivated rebellion launched by white supremacists.
In Wilmington’s Lie, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Zucchino uses contemporary newspaper accounts, diaries, letters, and official communications to create a gripping and compelling narrative that weaves together individual stories of hate, fear, and brutality. This is a dramatic and definitive account of a remarkable but forgotten chapter of American history.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- The Wilmington massacre of 1898 was a research interest of mine in undergrad. I was a freshman in college in 2006 when the apology was printed in the News & Observer and became invested in learning more. David Zucchino did a great job with his research and diving into the history of what happened after. I appreciated learning where some of those, including Alex Manley, ended up after leaving Wilmington. I listened to this on audio and at times, found it difficult to process that there could be this much hatred in the world for the cruelty to show the way it did without remorse by some participants. Despite that, it is an incredibly important read and I appreciate the epilogue tracing the history of voter suppression laws to the present day in North Carolina for contextualization.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Improbable Meet-Cute Series
Amazon Original Stories offers novellas that can be read on Kindles or through Audible. For this series, the focus is on improbable meet-cutes. What makes love stick? Is it the irresistible spark when you lock eyes across a piazza in Rome? Is it feeling the earth move under your feet? (Wait—that was an actual earthquake.) In these six serendipitous short stories, bestselling authors turn improbable first encounters into hopelessly romantic happy ever afters.
The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
Synopsis
On February 14, an accidental email to a stranger opens the door to an unexpected relationship in a captivating short story by the New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners.
One typo, and a boy and girl connect by chance. Wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day isn’t the end. In fact, it has become a friendly annual tradition—with rules: no pics, no real names, nothing too personal. As years pass, the rules for their email “dates” are breaking, and they’re sharing more than they imagined—including the urge to ask…what if we actually met?
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I needed a feel-good read after reading a very heavy non-fiction book. This was so cute and a slow burn. It’s part of the Amazon Improbable Meet-Cute series and if the rest of them are as good as this, I’ll finish by EOD today.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez
Synopsis
They’re falling in love, yet they’ve never met. Maybe fate can intervene in a heartwarming “what-if” short story about new beginnings by the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly.
Holly is dealing with the impending death of her grandmother and still reeling from a bad breakup. One bright spot: a Valentine’s Day card on Holly’s windshield—even if it wasn’t meant for her. An amusing mistake soon turns into a lovely exchange of anonymous notes, little acts of kindness, and a growing affection between two strangers. What happens when one of them has to say goodbye?
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- This was a cute little meet-cute novella! I loved the connection with the dog and the familial stories as well!
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne
Synopsis
For a hopeful and hopeless romantic, it’s love at first sight—with a little twist—in a hilarious short story about finding Mr. Right by the USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game.
Rosie Whittaker and her sister are up for some Galentine’s pampering at a day spa. Getting locked inside a flotation tank is so Rosie. Enter a firefighter hero determined to pry this luckless pearl out of her high-tech shell. All Rosie has to go on is a dreamy voice and a flirty sense of humor. Remain calm, Rosie. This could be what you’ve been waiting for. Is this the man she’s waited for her whole life?
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- My least favorite of the series so far. The banter was weird.
- ⭐️⭐️
Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory
Synopsis
It takes nothing less than a fateful natural disaster to throw two opposites together in a ground-shakingly charming short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Drunk on Love.
This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I generally adore Jasmine Guillory’s books and there were some cute parts in here for me, but the ending was weird.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
With Any Luck by Ashley Poston
Synopsis
Every person she kisses finds their true love, and it’s never her—until now, in this funny and magically romantic short story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.
Audrey Love is cursed to be the person before you find your soulmate, the girl you dump for your true love. So when her best friend disappears hours before his Valentine’s Day wedding, Audrey fears that she did the unthinkable and kissed him at last night’s bachelor party. With help from the best man, she retraces her steps to find the missing groom and, with any luck, a true love of her own.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I thought this was a cute little read though I have already forgotten the ending……
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Royal Valentine by Sariah Wilson
Synopsis
Valentine’s Day becomes a Roman holiday for a princess in disguise in a dizzyingly romantic short story about making wishes come true by the USA Today bestselling author of The Chemistry of Love.
Princess Ilaria has had it up to her tiara with the paparazzi, her own wild reputation, and the public eye. Trading places with her assistant, Ilaria wants just one blissfully ordinary weekend. Then a handsome photographer with a sexy Scottish burr offers to be her guide. Sparks fly, but how long can they last? Ilaria’s secret has to come out—and it could ruin a perfectly serendipitous romance.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- This was sort of a classic storyline for me with a twist of a royal wanting to be out of the spotlight for the day. I think the content is a great little novella but the accents in the audiobook were super distracting.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 Books I Read in March 2024
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Synopsis
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community–heaven and earth–that sustain us.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- When I tell you I savored this book, I mean it. I enjoyed the story as it unfolded around these unique character storylines. This was my first book by James McBride and it did not disappoint! It’s a good read, slow at first and then picks up in parts 2 & 3.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Synopsis
Fourteen years ago, the Palmer sisters–Emma, Juliette, and Daphne–left their home in Arden Hills and never returned. But when Emma discovers she’s pregnant and her husband loses his job, she has no option but to return to the house that she and her estranged sisters still own . . . and where their parents were murdered.
Emma has never told anyone what she saw the night her parents died, even when she became the prime suspect. But her presence in the house threatens to uncover secrets that have stayed hidden for years, and the sisters are drawn together once again. As they face their memories of the past, rivalries restart, connections are forged, and, for the first time, Emma starts to ask questions about what really happened that night.
The more Emma learns, the more riddles emerge. Emma begins to wonder just what her siblings will do to keep the past buried, and whether she did the right thing staying quiet about what was whispered that night: “No one can know.”
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I needed a palette cleanser after reading some heavier topics recently and I really enjoyed this one. It is told across three different perspectives in the past and present but is easy to follow. It does end nice & tidy with a somewhat happy ending.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Synopsis
Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can’t work out why she stopped.
Now he is. . .
Without a home
Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
Wondering why everyone else around him seemed to have grown up while he wasn’t looking
Set adrift in the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story…
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- This will easily be one of my favorite books of 2024. Easily! It was incredibly well-written and genuinely wonderful. The way I love Jen’s perspective at the end and the way I related to it… I can’t stop thinking or talking about it. Amazing. Add it to your TBR.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shop Everything I Read in February & March 2024
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