Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett Book Review

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

Today I am bringing you my book review of What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett, have any of you read this book? If you have let me know I’d love to hear what you thought about it!

Blurb/Synopsis:

It’s a truth often acknowledged that when a Jane Austen fan girl ends up living next door to a cynical but handsome crime writer, romantic sparks will fly!When Maddy Shaw is told her Dear Jane column has been cancelled she has no choice but to look outside of London’s rental market. That is until she’s left an idyllic country home by the black sheep of the family, long-not-so-lost Cousin Nigel.

But of course there’s a stipulation… and not only is Maddy made chair of the committee for the annual village literary festival, she also has to put up with bestselling crime author –and romance sceptic – Cameron Massey as her new neighbour.

When Maddy challenges Cameron to write romantic fiction, which he claims is so easy to do, sparks fly both on and off the page…

My Review:

Okay, first of all I picked up this book because it mentions that he is a romance sceptic and he is a crime writer which I thought was going to be an interesting take on the romance plot. I struggle with the predictability of romance novels and admittedly this one was very predictable so it was a middle of the road read for me but I will give you some more of my thoughts.

I liked most of the plot, forced to live in a small town, the forced proximity, the bet between them all those kinds of things I enjoyed and it felt very cosy and focused a lot on developing the relationship between Maddy and Cameron but also Maddy and the people of the village she’s moved to which I liked because I have found before that some novels forget about friendships in favour of a romance. Some of the parts I didn’t like were: I would have liked more of the enemies before they became lovers if you know what I mean, they – this may be a slight spoiler – do hate each other at the beginning an this does continue but I would have lied this to go on for longer, maybe I’m just greedy like that. Also, and I am not sure this is a complaint because I am glad it wasn’t a miscommunication issue because I hate them, the tension in the relationship came from something that seemed very insignificant, like it had been put in there just because the author felt they needed something bad to happen and I didn’t like that much.

Overall, as far as romances go, this was an okay read. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it is a book I would be thinking about in a few months time. if you like romances though this is a solid book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Book Reviews

Rivals of the Ripper Book Review

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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 Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victoria London, a non-fiction book that I bought and read recently.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Jack the Ripper is the quintessential Victorian serial killer, and the debate continues with regard to the number of his victims. But there is a profusion of unsolved murders of London women from late Victorian times, and this book presents 11 of the most gruesome and mysterious of them. Marvel at the convoluted Kingswood Mystery and the unsolved Cannon Street Murder of 1866; shudder at the Hoxton Horror and the Great Coram Street Murder of 1872; be puzzled by the West Ham Disappearances and by the unsolved railway murder of Elizabeth Camp in 1898. There are many books about the Whitechapel fiend, but this is the first one to detail the ghoulish handiwork of the Ripper’s rivals.

My Review:

Okay, so my thoughts are going to be short so here we go: I am not a big nonfiction reader, I struggle to get interested in it usually but that was not a problem with this book at all. I am fascinated with victorian crime, particularly Jack the Ripper as I know a lot of people are but this book was something I happened to find and I thought ooh, it is interesting because it tells of these stories of women who are never mentioned and yet their cases never got solved. I could see a lot of similarities between some of these murders and the Ripper as well which was also very interesting. I found some of these so intriguing that I looked them up to get further information too so if you like this period of history you will probably like this book. Also, one last thing I will mention is that in nonfiction usually you can sense the bias of the writer but I didn’t figure out the writers bias in any of the unsolved crimes which I felt made the reading experience much better.

Book Reviews

Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi Book Review

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

Today I am sharing my book review for Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi. I have had this book for years, and it was getting to the point where I was thinking this had to be the year I would either read it or it would be time to let it go. Then I got hold of the beautiful Illumicrate edition of the first book and so I decided FINALLY I would read it – and it was worth every moment.

Blurb/Synopsis:

I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I’m more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war—and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

My Review:

What a book this was! Shatter Me follows a girl called Juliette, when the book begins you find out she has been imprisoned for a long time and her parents gave her up basically, all because she has a power that she can’t control.

I honestly thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this book because it is a bit of a dystopian and that has never been my genre but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. This book manages to get the best balance between action, friendship, loyalty, and keep the characters realistic. I liked that Juliette wasn’t created as some kind of superhero character, she had flaws and she had human emotions and I loved that. I really can’t say much about the plot without spoiling anything but I can say that this book did not go the way that I thought it would, you start to think you have everything figured out then you are immediately hit with a huge twist.

If you were on the fence about reading this book I would highly recommend it!

Book Reviews

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout Book Review

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. Throughout March and April I tasked myself with finally reading From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout and I can tell you, after all the hype surrounding it I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it but I actually did.

THIS BOOK REVIEW WILL MOST LIKELY CONTAIN SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK, GO AWAY, READ IT AND THEN COME BACK TO MY REVIEW.

Blurb/synopsis:

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

My Review:

From Blood and Ash is a fantasy romance novel following Poppy, otherwise known as Penellophae or the Maiden. She is rarely seen, she is not allowed to talk to anyone and basically not allowed to be a person until time comes for her ascension. After a series of attacks she is assigned a new personal guard called Hawke and he makes Poppy question everything she has been taught.

Poppy was such an interesting character to follow, you are with her through every emotional rollercoaster and let me tell you there are a lot of them. The first 100 or so pages were feeling like a slow read for me, I wasn’t sure if I would finish the whole book because there was a lot of worldbuilding and introducing the characters but I pushed through and I am glad I did because the second half of the book had a lot of drama going on.

Armentrout does a great job with her characters, I loved them, I hated them, I felt for them and if I could, some of them I would have reached into the book and slapped them. Now, the ending – the betrayal! I could not believe it.

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

Book Reviews

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Book Review

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well and today I am back with a new book review. Today’s book review is for Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. As a huge fan of anything Tudor period this book had been calling to me for a long time so I’m happy that I finally read it.

Before we get into the actual review, I wanted to say there will almost definitely be some spoilers in this review so if you haven’t read the book yet and you don’t want to be spoiled I would suggest reading my review after you’ve read the book.

Okay, onto the review!

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

My Review:

Wolf Hall is the first book in a trilogy of novels set in the Tudor court at the time of Henry VIII, they are told from Thomas Cromwell’s point of view. This was one of the things that drew me to this book, most of the Tudor historical fiction I have read previously has been told from the point of view of women so I was interested to see a different perspective.

It surprised me because in the books I have read before and all the adaptations of TV, Cromwell is an interesting figure, not many of them paint him in the best light – he is cunning and ambitious etc but this book is very sympathetic to wards him and I learned a lot about the things he did for the kingdom and for his family, which may have been exaggerated for the book but I think were still things he did. It changed my perception of him.

I found this book hard to get into to begin with, it is a huge book for one thing so quite intimidating, the writing felt a bit like an essay rather than the historical fiction I usually read however once we get into the story properly I loved it. This book follows Thomas Cromwell during his childhood, with his Father who didn’t treat him very well, all the way into his service of Henry VIII, how he worked alongside Wolsey and then gained Henry’s trust and this book ends as Henry marries Anne Boleyn and they have had baby Elizabeth. I am definitely looking forward to getting stuck into the second book soon!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Have you read Wolf Hall? What did you think of it?

Book Reviews

The Tw*t Files by Dawn French Book Review

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’ll all enjoy my review of the Tw*t Files by Dawn French.

Blurb/Synopsis:
IF YOU LOVE DAWN, YOU’LL LOVE HEARING ABOUT ALL THE TIMES SHE’S BEEN A COMPLETE TWAT . . .

When I was younger I wanted to be an interesting, sophisticated, semi-heroic, multi-layered person.

BUT.

That kind of perfect is impossible. Being an actual twat is much more the real me. Sorry to boast, but I am a champion twat.

In The Twat Files I will tell you about all the times I’ve been a total and utter twat. The moments where I’ve misunderstood stuff and messed up. In my life these have been key because:

Mistakes tell us about ourselves.
Mistakes tell us about others.
Mistakes are hilarious.
Mistakes expose our flaws.
Mistakes show us ourselves honestly.
Mistakes are gloriously human.

My hope is that these stories might fire up yer engines to remind you of just what a massive twat you also are.

Let’s celebrate and revel in this most delightful of traits together.

That would be perfectly twatty.

Review:

The Tw*t Files is a fun collection of stories of all the times that Dawn French has embarrassed herself in social situations. It was particularly fun because Dawn French comes from the same area as me so a lot of the places she mentioned from when she was younger I also recognise (and a few of the scenarios she mentioned I either also have done or could definitely see myself doing).

I particularly enjoyed her story of how she was asked to take up a position at Falmouth University in Cornwall and the thing that sold it to her was she asked for a crown – and they gave her one! That is absolutely me in a nutshell.

I enjoyed my reading of this book overall, although honestly I felt that it was a few stories too long for me and I was getting a bit bored with it but the book was still good and I would still recommend it to people who enjoy non-fiction.

Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Thanks for reading!

Book Reviews

The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by L T Shearer Book Review

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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 The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by L T Shearer. I read this on a car journey up to London.

Blurb/Synopsis:

The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by L T Shearer is a charming cosy crime read for fans of Richard Osman and S. J. Bennett.

Retired police detective Lulu Lewis’s life changed forever when she met a street cat named Conrad. There’s something very special about Conrad, but it’s a secret she has to keep to herself.

When Lulu takes her narrowboat to Oxford, she is planning nothing more stressful than attending a friend’s birthday party. And drinking a few glasses of Chardonnay.

But a brutal murder and a daring art theft means her plans are shattered – instead she and Conrad find themselves on the trail of a killer.

A killer who may well strike again

My review:

Okay, first of all I should have read the blurb more carefully because I didn’t realise that this book was the second one in a series although after reading it I would say it works well enough as a standalone because I could understand it all fine without the set up from the first novel.

This novel follows Lulu as she attends an event at an old friend’s house, accompanied by her cat Conrad – who by the way, can talk. Once there she finds out before her arrival there had already been a break in and a murder.

I honestly thought I was going to love this book, a good cosy mystery with some intricately woven threads of a story but in my opinion that’s not what I got.
I felt that a lot of this book was very slow in pace, that does work sometimes in books but for me not in this one. It felt like there wasn’t enough going on in the plot to keep my attention. I did enjoy the premise and the middle section of the book because it picked up a bit and I did like how some of plot points linked together in surprising ways.
For me, what I disliked the most was the ending of this novel, now I’m not going to spoil anything in case you want to read this book, it used one of the devices I absolutely hate in novels and it made what was going to be a maybe 4 star read a lot lower in my rating.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Book Reviews

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay Book Review

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

Today I am giving you my book review on The Housekeepers by Alex Hay.

Blurb/synopsis:

On the night of London’s grandest ball, a bold group of women launches a daring revenge heist against Mayfair society.

Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets lurk in the shadows. When Mrs. King is suddenly dismissed from her position, she recruits an eclectic group of women to join her in revenge: A black-market queen out to settle her scores; an actress desperate for a magnificent part; a seamstress dreaming of a better life; and Mrs. King’s predecessor, with her own desire for vengeance.

My review:

This was my first book of 2024, and it was gifted to me by my Parents for Christmas and I had been highly anticipating this book since it came out.
This book follows Mrs King, a housekeeper for a wealthy family, who is fired from her job by the daughter after the Father dies. She recruits a bunch of people with different skills to infiltrate the house and plan a heist for the night of the grand ball.
I love a heist, I really love that plot in pretty much all of the books I have read it in so far. This novel took a lot of time to set up each of the characters and get you to root for them individually and a s a group which is something that I liked because it gave each of them their time to shine. Mrs King was a stand out character for me, you never truly know her motives but you know that she is desperate for something and will do anything to get it. There was one character, I won’t name them, who I felt got built up and then one plot decision ruined all of their character development for me.
I did think that the actual heist could have been done better, no offense to the author here but they took the time to introduce the characters and that meant all of the culmination happened in a short amount of pages and it wasn’t explored enough for me.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book Reviews

Book Review: The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

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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 The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese, a very short romance novel that I read at the beginning of December.

He loathes the holidays. She loves them. She’s full of festive cheer. He’s brimming with Bah, Humbugs. Besides unreasonably seasonable names, the only thing Jonathan Frost and Gabriella Di Natale have in common is a healthy dose of mutual contempt. Well, that and the same place of employment at the city’s most beloved independent bookstore, Bailey’s Bookshop. But when the store’s owners confess its dire financial state, Jonathan and Gabby discover another unfortunate commonality: the imminent threat of unemployment.

With the Baileys’ requests to minimize expenses, win new customers, and make record sales dancing in their heads, Jonathan and Gabby conclude—barring a financial Christmas miracle—one of them will soon be cut from the payroll. Neither are willing to step down from their position, so they strike a bargain: whoever has more sales in December gets to stay on in the new year; the loser will resign. With a lifetime’s worth of festive tricks up her sleeve, Gabby should easily outsell her nemesis, except the unreadable Mr. Frost’s every move seems purely designed to throw her off her game.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gabby’s deceptive ex won’t quit pursuing her, and her anonymous online friend suggests they take a break. Worst of all, as the pressure mounts to save the bookshop and her job, Gabby meets a new, tender side of Jonathan. Is this the same man she’s called her cold-hearted enemy?

Maybe he’s got a motive she just can’t figure out—or maybe Jonathan Frost isn’t as chilly as she once thought. Maybe Jonathan and Gabby already know—and love—each other in ways they never thought possible.

This is an #OwnVoices story for its portrayal of autism by an autistic author.

My Review

If you have seen most of the reviews on this blog you will know that I don’t usually pick up a romance by choice and if I do, it is unlikely I am going to enjoy it. Not because of any bad reason, just because I find them quite predictable and yes, you can say that about this book too. After all it follows the romance plot that they all do really, BUT I did enjoy this book. It was short which I think was a big help in making me enjoy it, it had a lot of plot but didn’t feel too drawn out because it was short.

I love an enemies to lovers, if I am going to read a book with romance in it then that is what I want. Give me some tension. This book had a ton of that, which I very much enjoyed. Plus it was set in a bookstore and I can relate to both the characters being desperate to keep their jobs working in the bookshop. I really can’t say much about this book without spoiling anything but if you are looking for a short, festive romance then I would recommend this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book Reviews

Book Review: The Anne Boleyn Bible by Mickey Mayhew

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

Today I am bringing you my review for The Anne Boleyn Bible by Mickey Mayhew. As with all reviews from now on I will not be splitting the review into categories anymore, I will be giving my overall thoughts in a few paragraphs and then I will be giving one final star ratings.

Anne Boleyn sells, but she sells in segments; a biography here, a study over there on her guilt and something else yonder concerned with where she lived or what she liked to wear. This book, covering not just her life but her life onscreen, in theater, on TV and also the impact of the first black actress to play her, is the definitive, all-encompassing story of Anne Boleyn from 1501 (or thereabouts) to 2023. Having examined the ardent fandom of Anne Boleyn for his doctorate, Dr Mickey Mayhew is in a unique position to offer something new to say on this much-discussed ‘tragic’ Tudor queen and is not afraid to tackle some of the less palatable aspects of her life.

Also, this book is the first to examine with authenticity the reality of Anne’s relationship with the most important man in her life, the man whose name she repeated in comfort while facing the Swordsman of Calais on the scaffold, having spent her life promulgating his doctrine; Jesus Christ himself. As for the aforementioned executioner, Dr Mayhew’s research in Calais and Saint-Omer can now lift a lid on a few of the particulars of this elusive and yet essential figure of Anne Boleyn mythos; and yes, now he even has a name as well.

The Anne Boleyn Bible also offers a straightforward retelling of Anne’s actual historical life, albeit one that outlines an entirely fresh and empowering perspective on her rise to prominence; this is followed by a series of considered arguments on the ‘for’ and ‘against’ in regard to her guilt & execution; then her entry into popular culture, firstly in plays and masques, before she went on to headline movies, TV series, cosplay, and now, with the first black woman to portray her, model and actress Jodie Turner-Smith. This book is simply what it says on the cover – The Anne Boleyn Bible – leaving no depiction, no religious aspect, no appearance in popular culture, from The Simpsons to the West End musical ‘Six’, overlooked; likewise, Dr Mayhew also turns his trademark brand of rather wry commentary toward the vast plethora of Anne Boleyn merchandising, tourist spots, rubber ducks, beanies and the wrangling question of who was the ultimate onscreen Anne; Geneviève Bujold or Natalie Dormer?!

My Review:

Okay, where to start with this one. I have wanted this book for so long, months, and I couldn’t get my hands on it where I live until finally I got it for Christmas from my Parents. Of course, I forgot everything else I was doing and I read this book straightaway. My overall thoughts after reading was that I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was because I had hyped it up in my mind or just because I have read a lot around Anne Boleyn already, I don’t know but it was not as engaging or interesting as I thought it would be.

I found the biographical chapters, such as information about Anne’s childhood and particularly the chapters about religion and the ways she engaged with it, quite good. I thought they were interesting, there wasn’t anything really new in the chapters which was the start of the disappointment for me. Everything about the book was sold as having this new information, about her life, about her relationship with Jesus and particularly about the swordsman of Calais. I saw a lot of tweets by the author about this topic and how he had this information about the identity of the swordsman of Calais and had travelled and seen the actual sword. This is described in the book, his visit to see the sword and it details how he felt in that moment and all of that, but it covers about two pages of the book and that was it. He doesn’t go into detail about any of it.

If you are interested in reading an overview of Anne Boleyn’s life and death and you haven’t read around the subject much then you may enjoy this but as a book to add something new to the subject, I don’t think this book does that.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.