What Deanna Read #115: March 2026

What is this? Two months of early What Deanna Read posts in a row? The reason? Today in Easter Sunday and I'm technically off work while Hubby recovers from knee surgery. It's been a lot of stress, wrapping up work deadlines, clearing the deck, etc., so I can focus on Hubby. Oddly, I thought I'd have a bit more downtime too, but nope. Lots of running around like a mad chook fetching and caring for Hubby. And Hubby has been wonderful. He's doing great and recovering well. It's still a slow-ish and long road, but his surgeon (if you ever need hip or knee work done, Dr Mac is your guy!) is AWESOME. Right, onto the books...

Here's what I read in the last month.

Confessions of a Trash Droid: Fatal Error 🎧Audible audiobook 📚Kindle eBook

Fated Blades 🎧Audible audiobook 📚Kindle eBook

Warbreaker (1 of 3) Dramatized Adaptation 🎧Graphic Audio Full Cast audiobook 📚Kindle eBook

Warbreaker (2 of 3) Dramatized Adaptation 🎧Graphic Audio Full Cast audiobook 📚Kindle eBook

Warbreaker (3 of 3) Dramatized Adaptation 🎧Graphic Audio Full Cast audiobook 📚Kindle eBook

Sy

Zeke

False Love

March was much better than February which will go down in Deanna Reading History as the most dismal month every of reading ever to be achieved by moi. That said, it was very audiobook heavy because the month on the work front was INSANE, so my eyeballs were like, nope, not having it. My brain would not brain the words after work, so a lot of audio. And let's just say I'm so glad I got back into audiobooks in the last few years much, much more because I am loving talent of the voice actors. And I discovered a few new favorite male audiobook narrators. Sigh... melty melty...

I know a lot of people are recommending the Trash Droid books, so I'll give it a quick mention. A friend of mine, I think it might have been Reader Gill, recced it to me cos I loved the Murderbot audiobooks in Graphic Audio. Y'all, those were fantastic. Highly recommend, but I digress (I do that often!). Confessions of a Trash Droid: Fatal Error by Michael Cheney was okay. It wasn't good enough for me to want to run out and buy the next audiobook, and for only 3-ish hours of listen time, it's not exactly affordable. Fortunately, I was able to get it in the 2-for-1 Audible sale, so that helped. I wasn't going to keep going with the series (being fully transparent here), but there's an Audible sitewide sale going on at the moment (at the time of this going up, I think it's got another 5 or 6 days left in the sale), so I could grab the audiobooks for about $2-ish each. At that price, for about a 3-hour listen, my wallet can handle it. Look, times are tough and like many people, we are similarly affected, so being frugal is not a bad thing, especially considering this is essentially entertainment.

Fated Blades by Ilona Andrews was wonderful. Listen, just take it for granted that anything coming out of the tip of Ilona Andrews' pen is going to be stellar. They can WRITE. The audiobook was included in my Kindle Unlimited subscription, so I was able to listen to it without having to shell out money or a credit, but now I'm thinking I might want to grab it while it's on sale, so I can relisten whenever I like because I am very much in love with Mattias. It also meant I discovered Aaron Shedlock as a narrator and... more melty melty...

Finally, finally, on the audiobook front, I CANNOT rave enough about Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson in the original Graphic Audio production. Don't get it mixed up with the Tenth Anniversary edition which is brand new, which I plan to listen to at some point. I picked it up in the current sale. But back to Warbreaker. This is my first exposure to Brandon Sanderson, and here's the thing. The man is a master at world-building. Even if you don't read fantasy, you want to read or listen to at least this book because you will learn many things about the craft of world-building and how to catch and hold the attention of your reader as you weave a complex systems-based magic system into a rich and textured world. Then apply it to whatever genre you're writing. And if you're a reader, well, you're in for a treat because the writing will engage you, grip you, and pull you along. The original Graphic Audio production of Warbreaker is a huge sensory load with all the sound effects and I know some people don't like it, but it was wonderful for me. I'm told the new Tenth Anniversary edition is much more nuanced. But no matter the format whether it's audio, ebook, print, Brandon Sanderson is just amazeballs. I get the hype now. It is fully deserved.

Aside from that, on the non-audiobook front, the main standout of the month was False Love by Steve Shipley (small bias since I did work on the book with him though I didn't write it) is by far his best book yet. If you love a geopolitical thriller, with techno thriller and crime elements, you're in for a treat. My favorite parts of the book was how well he captured the sensory details of Cambodia. Having lived there for a year, I can confirm that his descriptions are exceedingly accurate. Go on, take a chance on the book. It may be Book 4 in the series, but it will read as a standalone.

That's it from me. April has not started strong simply because I'm looking after Hubby and that's taking all my attention and energy.

xoxo, D.

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