Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Agency for Scandal by Laura Wood

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today. Today I am bringing you my review for the first book in Laura Wood’s series, The Agency for Scandal.

An all-female detective agency righting wrongs at the
end of the nineteenth century; infiltrating a scandalous upper class
world straight out of Bridgerton and using their wit and bravery
to unmask a villain.

Eighteen-year-old Isobel Stanhope is keeping a lot of secrets.
There’s the fact that she’s head over heels in
love with a Duke who doesn’t know she exists; there’s
the fact that her family is penniless but nobody in society
knows about it; and then there’s her job at the Aviary, an investigative
agency run by women that specializes in digging up scandal
on powerful men.

When Izzy finds herself
pulled into a case that involves gaslighting, blackmail, and
missing jewels, as well as the Duke who holds
her heart, can she and her friends untangle the web of secrets
and lies to uncover the truth and protect the innocent?
And when the stakes are so high, what happens when the crush
she’s been hiding begins to turn into so much more?

‘Incredibly charming’ Sophie Irwin, author of A Lady’s
Guide to Fortune Hunting

  • Bridgerton meets Charlie’s Angels – the most
    romantic, exciting, empowering YA of the year.
  • A smart, charming, brilliantly plotted and swooningly romantic
    story about a collective of bold women changing their world.

My Review:

First, I have to say that what I liked most about this book was its characters. A headstrong, fiercely independent female lead and a gentleman who is actually a bit of a rogue male lead. That is my kind of team. It gave great banter and chance for tension built in different encounters, I don’t want to say too much and spoilt it but there’s the only one bed trope in this and that gets so many of us every time. The plot was also interesting and full of high stakes. I loved that throughout the novel I was not sure who I could trust at any given time, it made the solving of the mystery more interesting. It looks like a long book but it flew by while reading it, so fast paced and full of adventure.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope that you’re all having a good day today.

Today, I am bringing you my book review for Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson.

Blurb/Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens comes a thrilling new YA fantasy about a teen girl with mythic abilities who must defend her world against restless spirits of the dead.

The dead of Loraille do not rest.

Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.

When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.

As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.

My Review:

The first thing I will say about this book is that it is an underrated masterpiece. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, I had read both of Margaret Rogerson’s other books: Sorcery of Thorns which I loved, and An Enchantment of Ravens which I thought was okay but ended up being my least favourite book that I read in January of this year. Having mixed feelings about her books I was shocked to enjoy this one so much. An Enchantment of Ravens is very romance heavy, very little plot, Vespertine is all plot and no romance, and Sorcery of Thorns is in the middle as a mix of both of them.

Vespertine follows Artemisia and basically it is her and the voice of the being that has supposedly ‘posessed’ her as they attempt to solve the mystery of what is happening in their land. I loved the banter between the two characters, both of them are willful and stubborn and they slowly reveal their backstories to each other as they are forced into a working relationship. You are also slowly introduced to other characters who you become both trusting and nervous about, I especially loved the Captain Enguerrand.

This novel focuses a lot on the challenge of Artemisia having the weight of all these people on her, every choice she makes has an impact and being inside her head you see how her thoughts are battling, it is deeply emotional.

The other thing I loved is that it is written in a way that Margaret Rogerson could return to this world and I hope that she does.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Book Reviews

Book Review: Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.

Today, I am bringing you my book review for Listen For the Lie by Amy Tintera. Have any of you read this book? If you have let me know what you thought of it.

Blurb/Synopsis:

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.

My Review:

I will start by saying I did not think I would like this book. I originally bought it as research for my PhD and then I continued to push it back and find reasons not to read it because I was sure I would not enjoy it. However, I can tell you now, I was completely wrong! I loved this book.
Throughout the novel, you are following Lucy who has returned to her hometown where her best friend was killed and she lost all of her memories of that night. There is a podcaster in town who is investigating the case and together they try to work out what happened. I loved that there was the vibes of an unreliable narrator going on, Lucy had no idea what happened so she was trying to piece it all together while at the same time every single person around her is telling her that she must have killed her, including her parents and the man that was her husband at the time. It added a great dimension because everyone is sure of her guilt, except her, and as a reader you root for Lucy to not be the killer and yet also she might be. It is something I haven’t read before and I really enjoyed that.
I have to say, Amy Tintera’s writing is excellent because there were characters in this I absolutely hated, I hated how they treated other people and the book really made me feel for the people in it. This was a book I read in an evening, when people say I couldn’t put it down – I honestly could not put this book down until I knew what had happened.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book Reviews

Book Review: Us In Ruins by Rachel Moore

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Happy Monday bookish people! How are you all doing today?

I am bringing you my review of Us In Ruins by Rachel Moore. Have any of you read this book? If you have, what did you think of it?

Blurb/Synopsis:

Margot is on the quest to uncover and reassemble an ancient—and cursed—vase, with the help of a boy who went missing in 1932, because it’s the only way to put back together her broken heart in this stand-alone adventure rom-com, perfect for fans of What the River Knows and The Lost City.

The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn’t been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that.

Drawn by the vase’s supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school’s archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it’s her first time holding a shovel, but she’s got something no one else does: lost teenage explorer Van Keane’s journal.

Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase’s missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She’s shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life.

Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He’s all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus’s death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure—and their buried pasts—before their story ends in ruins.

With a blend of humor, magic, and love, Rachel Moore crafts another stand-alone adventure rom-com full of double- and triple-crosses, hilarious shenanigans, and frustration-fueled banter, where the best treasure is true love.

My Review:

I went into this book after reading Rachel Moore’s other book, Library of Shadows, which I enjoyed but I didn’t love it so I was already hesitant about reading this one.
I will be honest, the first half was not my cup of tea. It took a while to get into the action and the main girl, Margot, isn’t that likeable. But, in the second half of the book Margot gets a lot of character growth, and so does Van – who I spent the whole novel, up to the last moment, questioning his motives and not fully trusting him which I think was the author’s intent. Overall, I liked the mystery of the book and I especially liked the atmosphere of being surrounded by classic architecture and the locations they visited, the mythology that everything centered on, that was all great. I did not love the ending, it was very sudden and I almost wish it had ended one or two chapters before it did, I think that would have been more poignant as an ending.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins (spoilers!!)

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today. I am bringing you my review for the latest Hunger Games novel, Sunrise On The Reaping. By the way this review might have spoilers in it so if you haven’t read this book yet, go read it then come back and see my review.

Blurb/Synopsis:

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

My Review:

I was unsure whether I wanted to read this book or not, because I read A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and to be honest I didn’t love the book, I did enjoy the film thought, but the book was hard for me to follow. However, I adored Sunrise on the Reaping. It was everything I wanted for Haymitch’s story – and it made me tear up which is a feat from books, I don’t usually cry at them. I loved getting to experience everything that Haymitch had been through and understanding why he became the way he did, it made me like him even more than I did before. For me the most emotional parts were Louella and Lou Lou. That was absolutely heartbreaking both times.
I have seen a lot about the sadness surrounding Lenore Dove, and yes I agree that scene at the end was awful, and it is the moment that destroyed Haymitch, but I didn’t like Lenore. So many of her actions had terrible consequences and I don’t think that she ever felt these consequences herself – not even Haymitch being forced into the games because of her. I didn’t feel her character was sorry about it, she didn’t deserve to die that way but I wish we had seen a bit more of her. I also wish we had seen more of the games and the training before the games.

Despite those few issues, this book was absolutely five stars and my favourite read of August.

Have you read this? What did you think of it?

Book Reviews

Book Review: How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a lovely day today. I am bringing you my book review for How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin, the second book in the Castle Knoll series.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Welcome back to Castle Knoll, the idyllic English village home to a surprising number of murderers.

Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune-teller Peony Lane shares a cryptic message only hours before being found dead inside the locked Gravesdown estate. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of her new countryside home in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before her brand-new life comes crashing down around her.

1967: Teenage Frances Adams, Annie’s great aunt, finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that killed most of Ford’s family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to wonder: What exactly has she gotten herself into?

As Annie and Frances investigate two new mysteries spanning decades, they’ll unlock the next level of secrets held in Castle Knoll’s dark heart.

My Review:

Okay, I went into this book not expecting much because I did not like the first book in the series, How To Solve Your Own Murder. I thought the first book in the series was too complicated just to put some extra ‘shocking’ twists in instead of focusing on what the characters would do in certain situations. Which, is not unusual for debut novels, and so I decided the second book sounded good and I thought I would give the series another go. I’m glad that I did because I actually, surprisingly, enjoyed this second book. I was more invested in the mystery side of it, I wanted to know why the victim had to die and why that day and more than that I actually thought the split timeline worked better in this second novel. As Annie figured out little bits, we the reader get a deeper snippet of the story through the diary flashbacks. The thing that most annoyed me in this book was the character of Annie’s Mum, if my Mum did any of the things she did, let alone all these things, I would probably never speak to her again.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Book Reviews

Book Review: A Deadly Night At The Theatre by Katy Watson

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I am bringing you my book review for the latest book in the Three Dahlias series by Katy Watson A Deadly Night At The Theatre.

Blurb/Synopsis:

MURDER IS WAITING IN THE WINGS . . .

Actresses Posy Starling and Caro Hooper both gained a name for themselves playing fictional detective Dahlia Lively on screen – but now they are back treading the boards in London’s theatre district, starring in two very different plays.

Their fellow Dahlia, Rosalind King, is in the city to catch their opening weeks, but she can’t help but notice some tensions between Posy and Caro. Perhaps because of Caro’s new friendship with her co-star Luke Burrows, who seems to have a history with Posy . . .

Before Rosalind can get to the bottom of what’s going on, Luke is found dead. Worse, his body is found in Posy’s dressing room – with Posy standing over him, covered in his blood.

The West End is in uproar, but the cast of the two plays have closed ranks. Posy needs her fellow Dahlias to prove her innocence – but first she has to convince them that she didn’t do it.

The play’s the thing… but when all their suspects are actors, how can the Dahlias tell what’s real, and what’s just theatre?

Whether you’ve read the whole series, or are discovering the Three Dahlias novels for the first time, this is the perfect murder mystery to escape into if you love Agatha Christie, Jessica Fellowes and Janice Hallett.

My Review:

This series follows Rosalind, Caro and Posy, three women of various ages who have at one time in their lives played the character of Dahlia Lively, all three of them are actresses. In the first book they get off to a rocky start at a Dahlia Lively convention where their host is murdered, and they have to work together to find out who the murderer is. As the series has progressed they have formed a friendship that has been fun to explore as they solve different cases together.

This next adventure is a little different. As the novel opens you become aware of tension between the three of them. I enjoyed this new element because I felt that it made the characters more believable, more real, and more human. After many books where their relationship is so strong it was interesting to see a few cracks appearing. I also liked the setting of two different stage plays and exploring how the different casts are separate and yet also linked to each other in different ways. I especially enjoyed the twists in this novel, if I had concentrated harder I probably could have guessed them before they happened but with the fast paced excitement of it all I was swept along and got to be surprised by them as they happened.

Have you read this book or any of the books in this series? What did you think of them?

Book Reviews

Book Review: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping On A Dead Man by Jesse Sutanto

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. Today I am bringing you my book review for Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man by Jesse Sutanto. This is the second book in the Vera Wong series about a chinese mother who gets herself involved in murder investigations.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.…

Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly…bored.

Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena’s, Vera finds a treasure Selena’s briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.

Online, Xander had it all, a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can’t seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.

Vera is determined to solve Xander’s murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, and there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her future daughter-in-law.

My Review:

This being the second book in a series there’s always the chance that the second book is not as good as the first but I definitely enjoyed this one as much as Vera Wong’s unsolicited advice for murderers. I like the character of Vera Wong because although she can be abrasive and difficult sometimes but she is loyal and lends her strength to other characters who need it. She just wants to help and that’s a nice thing to see in a character. I enjoy the mystery portions of these books too because they are just complicated enough, not too overcomplicated but intriguing and there is definitely breadcrumbs left for the reader to find along the way. I will be awaiting the third novel.

Book Reviews

Crown Of Midnight by Sarah J Maas Book Review

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today. I am bringing you my book review for Crown Of Midnight, the second (or maybe third if you include The Assassin’s Blade) in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas.

Blurb/Synopsis:

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

My book review:

Okay, it has taken my years to get around to this book. I read Throne of Glass a while ago and I never carried on, for good reason really because I was trying to get hold of hardback copies of the books so it would be easier for me to read and now I have got the whole series in hardback. I’ll be reading them around one a month until the end of the year.

I remember thinking that Throne of Glass was good, I liked the trials element of it, not as keen on the love triangle but it was tolerable. But this book was better. I did think that the first half of the novel dragged a little bit, it felt half like a recap of the first book and half a set up for this one but once the action got started there was so much going on that I had to keep reading. I liked the way that Caelena didn’t just immediately start on her destiny, she fought against it a little bit and I liked that. I felt sorry for Chaol in this book, with how he is battling against what he wants and his loyalty to the crown – i think that is going to be an intriguing plot to develop throughout the next books.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Book Reviews

Library Of Shadows by Rachel Moore book review

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re having a lovely day today. Today, I am bringing you my book review for Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore.

I hadn’t heard much, or anything actually, about this book before I got it, but I had seen the cover on a couple of people’s bookshelves and well, it had the word library in the title so I was intrigued about this book.

Blurb/synopsis:

Radcliffe Prep. The third most haunted school in the country, where a student disappearance isn’t uncommon and no one dares stay in the library after dark. And Este Logano enrolls with the hopes of finding her dead father.

Not literally, of course. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. Going to her dad’s school just seems like her best hope at figuring out who he was.

But then Este meets Mateo, who is maybe—probably—definitely—a real ghost. And an annoying one at that.

When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library’s secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did.

Except following her father’s footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren’t just myth. And if she isn’t careful, she’ll be next.

My review:

A book about a library and a ghost. What more could you want.

I will say that this book is YA and it feels geared towards the younger end of the YA spectrum, it felt a little bit too young for me while reading it however, the story itself was very interesting. There was a complex, developed plot that does keep you gripped even if the twists are a bit predictable. I enjoyed the characters, both the two main characters Mateo and Este and the secondary characters held their own against them. I think this book was a quick, enjoyable read, I’m not sure it’s a book I will read again but I am glad that I read it.