March 2025 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my March 2025 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. I wonder if this will help me reduce the number of books on my TBR. Who am I kidding? I’m a reader; of course, I will forever add books. In February 2025, I had 611 books. Today, I have 605. It’s not too shabby, as I’ve added a few books to my TBR in the past month. Will my March 2025 Goodreads TBR shelf clean-up help drop that number?

I saw this Goodreads TBR Clean-Up post at Megan’s Book Stacks and knew I had to try it. Megan found it over at MegaBunnyReads.

Click the titles to go to Goodreads.

How It Works:

• Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
• Use a random number generator to pick a number between 1 and however many books are on the list.
• Go to that book and look at the four after it for a total of 5.
• Read the synopses of the books.
• Decide: keep it or delete it?
• Discuss here.

Books To Be Read: 605

Starting Number: 56. It looks like I’m going through the books I added in March 2021.

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

Let’s get this March 2025 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up underway!

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency by Bea Koch

Regency England is a world immortalized by Jane Austen and Lord Byron in their beloved novels and poems. The popular image of the Regency continues to be mythologized by the hundreds of romance novels set in the period, which focus almost exclusively on wealthy, white, Christian members of the upper classes.

But there are hundreds of fascinating women who don’t fit history books limited perception of what was historically accurate for early 19th century England. Women like Dido Elizabeth Belle, whose mother was a slave but was raised by her white father’s family in England, Caroline Herschel, who acted as her brother’s assistant as he hunted the heavens for comets, and ended up discovering eight on her own, Anne Lister, who lived on her own terms with her common-law wife at Shibden Hall, and Judith Montefiore, a Jewish woman who wrote the first English language Kosher cookbook.

As one of the owners of the successful romance-only bookstore The Ripped Bodice, Bea Koch has had a front row seat to controversies surrounding what is accepted as “historically accurate” for the wildly popular Regency period. Following in the popular footsteps of books like Ann Shen’s Bad Girls Throughout History, Koch takes the Regency, one of the most loved and idealized historical time periods and a huge inspiration for American pop culture, and reveals the independent-minded, standard-breaking real historical women who lived life on their terms. She also examines broader questions of culture in chapters that focus on the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, the lives of women of color in the Regency, and women who broke barriers in fields like astronomy and paleontology. In Mad and Bad, we look beyond popular perception of the Regency into the even more vibrant, diverse, and fascinating historical truth.

My Thoughts

I can’t tell you where I first learned about this book. But I do love the idea of learning more about our ancestors and their lives. Why wouldn’t I want to give this a try?

KEEP

Can’t Take That Away by Steven Salvatore

Carey Parker dreams of being a diva and bringing the house down with song. But despite their talent, emotional scars from an incident with a homophobic classmate and their ggrandmother’sspiraling dementia make it harder and harder for Carey to find their voice.

Then Carey meets Cris, a singer/guitarist who makes Carey feel seen for the first time in their life. With the rush of a promising new romantic relationship, Carey finds the confidence to audition for the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the school musical, setting off a chain reaction of prejudice by CCarey’stormentor and others in the school. IIt’sup to Carey, Cris, and their friends to defend their rights–and they refuse to be silenced.

My Thoughts

Again, II’mnot sure where I first learned about this book. I believe I added it because iit’san LGBTQ book, and I want to read books from different perspectives. That said, II’mnot sure this is a book II’minterested in reading anymore.

DELETE

The Wedding Game by Meghan Quinn

Luna Rossi is a veritable crafting genius—she can bedazzle and bead so hard her Etsy site is one of the hottest in the world. So iit’sonly natural that Luna would convince her brother and his husband-to-be to compete on The Wedding Game, a “”o-it-yourself””TV show, for the title of Top DIY Wedding Expert.

As a jaded divorce lawyer, Alec Baxter scoffs at weddings and romance. But when his recently engaged brother begs him to participate in The Wedding Game, Alec grudgingly picks up a glue gun and prepares for some family bonding.

Both fierce competitors, Luna and Alec, clash on national TV as harsh words and glitter fly with abandon. But as they bicker over color swatches and mood boards, they find themselves fighting something else: their growing mutual attraction. While Luna is torn between family loyalty and her own feelings, Alec wonders if he might have been wrong about love and marriage all along…

My Thoughts

A book featuring a reality TV show setting? And it’s a DIY show? Add in an enemies-to-lovers romance? Sign me up!

KEEP

It Had to Be You by Georgia Clark

For the past twenty years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, Brooklyn’s beloved wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah. Liv and Savannah are not a match made in heaven, to say the least. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something even savvy, cynical Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine.

My Thoughts

I want to say that the way the book is classified on Goodreads doesn’t match the synopsis. The book is also considered perfect for Christina Lauren and Casey McQuiston fans. Both are authors I’ve I’ve That said, this does sound like a good read, and I own the book.

KEEP

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

Kara SulliSullivan’s is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist and influential bookstagrammer, she’sshe’s with getting her happily-ever-after fix between the covers of a book.

But right now? Not only is Kara’Kara’s friend getting married next week—which means big wedding stress—but the deadline for her next novel is looming, and she hasn’hasn’tten a single word. The last thing she needs is for her infuriating first love, Ryan Thompson, to suddenly appear in the wedding party. But Ryan’Ryan’spected arrival sparks a creative awakening in Kara that inspires the steamy historical romance she desperately needs to deliver.

With her wedding duties intensifying, her deadline getting closer by the second and her bills not paying themselves, Kara knows therethere’s one way for her to finish her book and to give her characters the ever-after they deserve. But can she embrace the unlikely, ruggedly handsome muse—who pushes every one of her buttons—to save the wedding, her career and, just maybe, write her own happy ending?

My Thoughts

Reading the synopsis reminds me of a different book I read earlier this year. While I didn’didn’ty that book, I am still curious about this one.

KEEP

Wrap Up

That is my March 2025 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It doesn’t look likdoesn’taned my shelf much, because I’m keeping fourI’m the five books. LOL!

This was fun. I may do it now and then to help keep my shelf realistic. In the past, I just added books without really thinking about it. Will I stop doing that? Of course not! What kind of animal do you think I am?

What do you think? Have you tried doing something like this to see if you can manage your TBR?

Are you looking for some more ideas to read? Check out my monthly reading wrap-ups.