It’s a new month, which means it’s time to look back at the biggest and buzziest books of March. This time, all five of the most-read titles are books in series! See if you can guess what they are before scrolling. Here’s a hint: three are from the same series.
But first, let’s spotlight a couple of books that came out last month that you should know about. The Goodreads Most Read list is extremely white—of the 50 books on the full list, only one to five are by authors of color. In the entire time we’ve been tracking the page, that has stayed consistent. While some responsibility lies with publishers in releasing more books by authors of color and giving them a competitive marketing budget, a lot of this also comes down to individual readers. If you’re not seeking out diverse books, you’re missing out on some of the best reads out there. Relatedly, here are a couple of new books that came out last month that should be on your TBR.
Two New Books Out in March You Should Know About
Unfortunately, the most read books on Goodreads tend not to be diverse by any definition of the word. So, here are a couple of new books that came out last month that deserve wider readership.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham JonesThis new book by Stephen Graham Jones, the author of The Only Good Indians, is one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Like Jones’s other novels, it has a definitive horror bent, following a Lutheran priest in the 1900s who’s taken up the task of transcribing the life of a vampire who haunts a Blackfeet reservation. — Rachel Brittain |
The River Has Roots by Amal El-MohtarThis is the debut solo novella from Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of the hugely popular novella This Is How You Lose the Time War! It’s about the two Hawthorn sisters, who live on the edge of Faerie, and what happens when one of them puts their lives at risk by falling for a Faerie man. Holly Black calls it “Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story.” YES, PLEASE. — Liberty Hardy |
#5:
Wild Side by Elsie SilverThis is the third book in the Rose Hill romance series, and it came out March 4th. It follows Tabitha, who marries her enemy to secure guardianship over her nephew. Rhys is secretive and infuriating, but Tabitha soon discovers a new side to her husband. It was read by almost 93,000 users in March and has a 4.3 average rating. |
#4:
Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) by Rebecca YarrosAfter the third book in the series came out, Iron Flame saw a bump in readership alongside Fourth Wing and Onyx Storm. Almost 94,000 users read it in March, and it has a 4.4 average rating. |
#3:
Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) by Rebecca YarrosUnsurprisingly, book one in the Empyrean series also appears in the top five. Somehow, there are still readers discovering this series even now. Roughly 96,000 users marked this dragon riding academy romantasy book as read last month. It has a 4.6 average rating. |
#2:
Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5) by Suzanne CollinsQuickly rising up the ranks is the new Hunger Games book! This series is still just as relevant (if not more so) than it was when it was first published more than 15 years ago. Collins’s latest, which she said was inspired by philosopher David Hume’s thoughts on implicit submission, also sold 1.5 million copies in English in its first week. It was read by 176,000 users in March and has a 4.7 average rating. |
#1:
Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) by Rebecca YarrosSunrise On the Reaping came out in the third week of March, so it didn’t quite catch up to Onyx Storm, but it’s on track to overtake it in April. The newest Empyrean novel was read by almost 81,000 Goodreads users last month and has a 4.3 average rating. |
If you’re looking for more buzzy books, check out The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
