Let's Read Together: February & March Edition
February and March carried me through a wonderfully varied stretch of reading — thrillers that kept me wide awake well past a reasonable hour, and one quiet, luminous novel that I know I'll carry with me for a very long time.
This two-month span brought a mix of pulse-pounding suspense and something altogether different: a story told entirely in letters, by a woman whose wit, stubbornness, and unexpected tenderness utterly won me over. From the bayous of Louisiana to the golden hills of Ibiza, these books took me places, and some of them stayed with me long after I turned the final page.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans — ★★★★★
My absolute favorite of the stretch, and one of the most quietly moving books I've read in years. The Correspondent is an epistolary novel told through the letters of Sybil Van Antwerp, a sharp-tongued, fiercely intelligent woman in her seventies who has spent a lifetime making sense of the world through the written word. Through her correspondence — to family, to friends, to authors she admires, and to one person she has never quite been able to send a letter to — we learn everything about who she is and who she has chosen to be.
This book touched something deeply personal in me. My grandmother taught me the beauty and joy of a handwritten letter — from a pen pal to a birthday card to a simple hello. There is something so intentional and tender about sitting down to write to someone. It says, quietly and undeniably, I am thinking of you. Sybil understands this completely. So did my grandmother. And so, I think, does anyone who has ever held a handwritten note and felt the warmth of being remembered.
It is warm, funny, aching, and wise. Sybil is one of those rare literary characters who stays with you the way a real person does. This is a book I will press into people's hands.
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark — ★★★★★
A close second, and a completely different kind of read. The Ghostwriter is a taut, twisty thriller about Olivia Dumont, a ghostwriter who has spent her career hiding the fact that she is the daughter of Vincent Taylor — a legendary horror author who has long been suspected of murdering his own siblings in 1975. When Vincent, now aging and ill, asks Olivia to write his memoir and finally tell the truth about that night, what unfolds is a brilliant dual-timeline mystery filled with family secrets, unreliable narrators, and revelations I genuinely did not see coming. Julie Clark is masterful here.
Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston — ★★★★
A sharp, fast-paced thriller set in the sultry world of Louisiana high society. Two women — one wealthy and surveilled, one scrappy and haunted by an old tragedy — agree to swap places for twelve hours. The next morning, a man turns up dead, and only one of them has an alibi. Elston constructs a clever, layered puzzle of swapped identities and buried secrets, and the tension never really lets up. I loved the contrast between Camille and Aubrey, and the way the book explores how power and money tilt the scales of justice. Addictive and satisfying.
It's Not Her by Mary Kubica — ★★★★
Kubica is reliably excellent at atmosphere and misdirection, and It's Not Her is exactly the kind of thriller that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. A family vacation at a remote Wisconsin lake resort turns deadly when Courtney Gray discovers her brother and sister-in-law murdered in their cottage — and her teenage niece Reese is nowhere to be found. Is Reese a victim, or something more complicated? The emotional weight of this story is what sets it apart. This isn't just a whodunit; it's a story about grief, loyalty, and the unbearable question of whether someone you love could be capable of the unthinkable.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig — ★★★
Grace Winters is a retired schoolteacher living a quiet, grief-shrouded life in England when she unexpectedly inherits a run-down house on the island of Ibiza from a long-lost friend. What begins as a curious mystery slowly unfolds into something stranger and more magical — a story about new beginnings, the natural world, and learning to love life again after great loss. Haig writes with such gentleness and optimism, and there is real beauty here. I'll admit it required some patience — the pacing is slower and dreamier than his earlier work — but its warmth lingered.
February and March were a wonderful reminder of how varied a reading life can be. One month you're racing through a thriller at midnight, heart pounding. The next you're reading letters written by a seventy-three-year-old woman who has somehow become your favorite fictional person.
All of the books linked here are available through Bookshop.org, where your purchases support independent bookstores. It matters where we spend our dollars — and wandering into a small, beloved bookshop will always be one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon.
Have you read any of these? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Find me on Instagram and let me know what's on your nightstand.
Until next month's reads.
