My Virtual Bookshelf - exciting TBR additions in March

Welcome to the list of books added to my TBR (to-be-read) list this month. Somehow I keep adding more than I read which is not giving me a net reduction in my list! But these all sound so good, how could I NOT add them?

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Publish date March 2020, 384 pages

Why I added this book: recommended by Sarah's Bookshelves and it sounds nice and twisted!

Synopsis: a precocious yet naive teen girl and a manipulative teacher have an affair and years later she has to face what happened as accusations against him surface

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

Publish date March 2020, 320 pages

Why I added this book: also recommended by Sarah's Bookshelves and equally twisted

Synopsis: mother keeps her daughter sick for years, gets caught and goes to prison, then daughter gets her revenge (sounds like there are no likable characters in this one)

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Publish date March 2020, 272 pages

Why I added this book: recommended by Rachael at Booklist Queen and she made it sound intriguing

Synopsis: on the night of her engagement, a woman dreams of another man that she actually meets 5 years later; starts as a light romance but takes a serious turn

I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll

Publish date 2019, 317 pages

Why I added this book: a Goodreads pal recommended it and I like thrillers

Synopsis: a woman is being stalked and the story is told from several perspectives: hers, the stalker, the investigator

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publish date 2013, 588 pages

Why I added this book: highly recommended from online friends

Synopsis: a young couple leaves war torn Nigeria for the US and college; she gets in and faces racial struggles while he ends up in underground London until they reunite 15 years later in Nigeria

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Publish date 2018, 359 pages

Why I added this book: recommended by Anne at #ModernMrsDarcy and on sale for Kindle (and it has a great cover!)

Synopsis: a teen who has lived a nomadic life with her mom learns that her grandma, a famous author of dark fairy tales, has died. Then her mom goes missing, so she returns to Hazel Wood to try to find her mom; YA fantasy

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Publish date 1997, 333 pages

Why I added this book: saw it on a Book Riot list of "feel good fantasy" books

Synopsis: a quest story of a young man setting out to retrieve a fallen star but finds himself pulled into the power struggles of another world; filled with Gaiman's usual humor and sense of wonder

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Publish date 3/24/20, 208 pages

Why I added this book: an important story, a counterpoint to American Dirt

Synopsis: true story of an undocumented immigrant (DACA) graduates from Harvard and decides to travel around the US gathering immigrant experiences and along the way, finds clarity of her own

Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson

Published 2019, 480 pages

Why I added this book: on a Book Riot list of thrillers and sounds right up my alley

Synopsis: a woman who survived a serial killer 10 years ago now finds herself in his crosshairs again

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

Published March 2020, 336 pages

Why I added this book: saw an ad, the blurb sounds intriguing

Synopsis: YA historical fiction about Mozart and his equally talented (real) sister and how she makes a deal with a magical stranger to be the famous one and what it costs her

Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese

Published 2017, 320 pages

Why I added this book: historical fiction based on true, found on Twitter

Synopsis: story of artist Klimt and his passionate affair with Adele; decades later at the beginning of WWII, her niece is faced with saving paintings in the face of rising Nazism

I Am Sophie Tucker by Susan Lloyd Ecker

Published 2014, 416 pages

Why I added this book: to fill a reading challenge category: rags to riches story

Synopsis: the based-on-true biography of an early 1900s performer known for her bawdiness and larger-than-life stories

I'm open to input - have you read any of these and can you steer me toward or away from any of them? All input welcome! Let's Talk Books!