Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today.

Today, I am sharing with you my book review for the first novel in the Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Enter the world of the hidden folk – and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you’ll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde. . .

Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby

But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones – the most elusive of all faeries – she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all – her own heart.

My Review:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I was unsure what I would think of this book going into it. I bought it because I love everything fairies and whimsical, I just love it. However, I then read some other cosy fantasy books and I think I have decided that cosy fantasy is not something I will usually enjoy. This book is an exception, perhaps because I read it in the car on the way to Scotland for a funeral and the light heartedness of this book was exactly what I needed at the time.

I loved the rival academics thread that underly this story, it gave their relationship an enjoyable tension which I am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here with Emily and Wendell – as you can probably guess I will definitely be continuing this series, I actually got the second book for christmas.
The isolated, wintry feeling landscape gave me the same feelings I had while reading the Bear and the Nightingale and I loved that book too.
It is hard to talk about this book without giving any spoilers but I loved its whimsical writing style and the way the plot is presented as ‘cosy’ but actually surrounds darker, higher stakes.

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Traitors Legacy by S J Parris

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

Today, I am sharing with you my thoughts on the most recent S J Parris novel – Traitors Legacy. Funny enough, my Dad wanted to read this book also and he put it on his Christmas list for my Sister and I to choose his presents from, and he had no clue I already owned it – so, after I finished reading it I gave this book over to my Dad to read also.

Blurb/Synopsis:

England, 1598. Queen Elizabeth’s successor remains unnamed. The country teeters on a knife edge.

When a young heiress is found murdered at the theatre, the Queen’s spymaster Robert Cecil calls upon former agent Sophia de Wolfe to investigate.

A cryptic note found on the dead girl’s body connects to Sophia’s previous life as a spy, and her quest soon takes her into dangerous waters. Powerful enemies emerge, among them the Earl of Essex: the Queen’s favourite courtier and a man of ruthless ambition.

This is a murder that reaches directly into the heart of the court. And Sophia is concealing a deep-buried secret of her own. She must uncover the truth before her past threatens to destroy her.

My Review:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I often enjoy historical mysteries, and I adore anything from the period of Edward IV to the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, so I thought this book would be a good one no matter what, it had all the makings of a new favourite. However, that is not what happened.
First, the good things: I did enjoy the mystery elements – working out who could be suspects, all the normal good parts of a mystery plot. Parris did well to keep your mind always turning in new directions, honestly the ending could have said anyone was the killer – they all had their suspicious activities. This, I liked. I liked not being able to guess where the mystery would go next and, though the beginning half is slow, the mystery picks up in the second half and this is what earned this book a three star rating.

Now, the not so good bits. I found this book to be boring – as I have just said, not because of the mystery, because of the characters and the writing.
Let us talk the writing first: there was too much information given in large chunks for a start, there was no space for the reader to try and work things out themselves, it was all spelled out to them in backstory and it took a lot of the tension away which I did not enjoy. Also, there was a lot of repetition – this overlaps with character – the main character we follow, Sophia, has only one driving force it seems and this is what forms her entire personality and all her choices, but the reason was repeated so often I had to keep physically putting the book down and read something else before going back to it. So, character. I like that the lead character is female, and the novel touches on how that would have been viewed in this time period and it did not skirt around the topic. However, I needed more substance to her character to be invested and actually want her to succeed. Alongside this, there were many characters introduced in this novel but they also often lacked the page space to give them substance and to actually feel any connection to any of them.

Overall, I am glad I read this book and I did keep reading until the end to find out the answers to the mystery but I do not think I will continue the series or read any other books by this author.

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.