Books I'm Squeeing About in March

It's March! Already! How did that happen! This month is a particularly good month for books though, with a whole host of very exciting novels hitting our shelves over the next thirty one days. Good for reading, less good for the bank balance...
I've had a bit of a reading slump over the last few weeks so I'm hoping that a few of these will jolt me out of that and into a stretch of wonderful novels that make me excited to be reading again.

1st - Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie
Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.
Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. One mistake, one small failure, will cost her own life and the lives of the few people left in the world who still trust her.
But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, her feelings easily usurped, and she sometimes can’t decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.
As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray.

One of those random books that popped up on my 'hey you might like this' Goodreads recs, and from that blurb yes, yes I think I will. It's been sitting on my 2016 wants pile for a few months now so I'm looking forward to finally seeing if it lives up to my expectations.

3rd - The Shadow Queen by C J Redwine
Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.
But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

Early reviews so far say that this is just as good as I'd hoped, which makes me even more excited to get reading. I've loved Redwine's previous work and the blurb has me thoroughly intrigued. Definitely all good things.

8th - Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…
Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Part of me has really just had enough of the Shadowhunters world at this point, but another part is craving another fix. It's like crack. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this new series yet, but I'm curious (plus that cover) and that alone is enough to have this book on my March reading list.

22nd - Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano
The city is falling out of the sky…
Morgan always thought it was just a saying. A metaphor. The words of the dying. But as they look up at the floating island that was their home, Pen and Morgan make a horrible discovery—Internment is sinking.
And it’s all Morgan’s fault.
Corrupted from the inside by one terrible king and assailed from the outside for precious resources by another, Internment could be destroyed because Morgan couldn’t keep a secret. As two wars become one, Morgan must find a way to bring her two worlds together to stop the kings that wage them…
Or face the furthest fall yet.

I haven't actually read the second book in this trilogy yet (I know, I'm terrible) but I adored the first book and I cannot wait to get stuck into the rest of this series, so waiting until the final installment is out so I can binge read my way through at the end of the month seems like an excellent idea.
If you've enjoyed DeStefano's previous novels then this series is a must read, her writing just gets better and better, and it was already pretty awesome to start with.

24th - The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.
At least, that’s what he thinks.
In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.
But no one gets what they want just by wishing.
As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Take my money now. I stormed through the first two books in this series when book two came out this time last year, and now finally,  finally, the third book is in my grasp. That cliffhanger! Basically this series is amazing, and I cannot wait to see how it ends.

29th - Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Sometimes you find love in the most unexpected of places...This is not one of those times.Everyone expects Billie Bridgerton to marry one of the Rokesby brothers. The two families have been neighbors for centuries, and as a child the tomboyish Billie ran wild with Edward and Andrew. Either one would make a perfect husband... someday.Sometimes you fall in love with exactly the person you think you should...Or not.There is only one Rokesby Billie absolutely cannot tolerate, and that is George. He may be the eldest and heir to the earldom, but he's arrogant, annoying, and she's absolutely certain he detests her. Which is perfectly convenient, as she can't stand the sight of him, either.But sometimes fate has a wicked sense of humor...Because when Billie and George are quite literally thrown together, a whole new sort of sparks begins to fly. And when these lifelong adversaries finally kiss, they just might discover that the one person they can't abide is the one person they can't live without...

I am a huge Julia Quinn fan, particularly for her Bridgerton series - that family, I adore them. So to be back with the family (admittedly a generation earlier) is a dream come true. Add in that cover (the mallet of death!) and I'm ridiculously excited to get lost in another Quinn historical romance. I need some happily ever afters right now, and no one does them better than Quinn.

So there you have the books that I cannot wait to get my hands on over the coming month. Are there any here that you're desperately waiting for too? Any that you think I've missed? Or any that you're planning on picking up after seeing them here? Let me know in the comments below!