Blind Reader, Writer, Life
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well.
Seeing as it is the month of Halloween, I thought it might be fun to share a book for each genre that I can think of that has the spooky vibes we all look for during this time of the year.
Just a note – I say one for every genre but by that I mean a couple of genres which were the only ones that I could think of.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
It is time to share what books I will be reading in October, What are you all going to be reading in October? Let me know down in the comments.
October TBR!!
Then these books are ones I am hoping to read for my PhD work but I am excited about:
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today.
It is October already, the skies are getting darker and it is time to talk about what I read in the month of September.
That means I definitely read 4 books, and two depending on how quickly I can read for the rest of the month. So 4 – 6 books read this month is pretty good.
What books did you read this month? Which one was your favourite? My favourite read this month was Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. The most recent book I have read is Helle and Death by Oskar Jenson and today I am bringing you my review for it. This review will probably include spoilers so if you haven’t read Helle and Death and still want to, I’d suggest reading my review after not before.
With all that said, on with the review!
Blurb/Synopsis:
A snowstorm. A country house. Old friends reunited. It’s going to be murder…
Torben Helle – art historian, Danish expat and owner of several excellent Scandinavian jumpers – has been dragged to a remote snowbound Northumbrian mansion for a ten-year reunion with old university friends. Things start to go sideways when their host, a reclusive and irritating tech entrepreneur, makes some shocking revelations at the dinner table. And when these are followed by an apparent suicide, the group faces a test of their wits… and their trust.
Snowed in and cut off, surrounded by enigmatic housekeepers and off-duty police inspectors, not to mention a peculiar last will and testament, suspicion and sarcasm quickly turn to panic. As the temperature drops and the tension mounts, Torben decides to draw upon all the tricks of Golden Age detectives past in order to solve the how much money would it take to turn one of his old friends into a murderer? But he’d better be quick, or someone else might end up dead…
This witty murder mystery puts a modern spin on the classic country house whodunnit. A must-read for fans of Agatha Christie, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.
My Review:
Helle and Death is a book that, on paper, has all the ingredients to make a great murder mystery novel. However, in my opinion, I don’t think all of these things worked. A snowstorm keeping all the suspects locked inside, great. A group of old friends with buried secrets, amazing. An old manor house where a murder takes place, perfect. Execution – missed the mark.
In terms of the characters, I thought for the most part they were well-developed and intricate. Their secrets well hidden as well. However, the main character you spend time with is Torben Helle and I did not click with him at all. Whether this was because of the third person, distant way it was written in his perspective or not I mainly saw him as just another suspect and it irked me how the main role of his personality was to state that he was Danish over and over. By the end of the novel that was really the only thing I knew about him.
Now, even with that I would have found the book okay and probably have given it three stars if not for the ending. Again I say if you haven’t read the book this is going to be a huge spoiler. I HATE when a book is listed as a murder mystery but it turns out to not include murder at all. Honestly, there were so many twists that could have been used to give this book a good ending but instead the author chose that ending. It was a big disappointment.
Star Rating:
If you have read this book, what did you think of it?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.
It is a new month and that means a new bunch of books coming out which I will be sharing with you today.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you my book review of The Suspect by Rob Rinder, the second book in his Adam Green series.
Blurb/Synopsis:
**THE GRIPPING SECOND NOVEL FROM ROB RINDER AND FOLLOW-UP TO NO. 1 BESTSELLER THE TRIAL**When Hannah Holby, darling of UK morning TV, dies live on screen in front of millions of viewers, the nation is devastated.More devastated still when it becomes clear that her death was not an accident.The evidence points to one celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks. But junior barrister Adam Green is about to discover that the case is not as open-and-shut as it first seemed.And although Hannah’s angelic persona would suggest otherwise, she was not short of enemies in the glittery TV world . . .Can Adam uncover the truth?
My Review:
I read the first book in this series, The Trial, a while ago and I liked it but I found Adam’s character a little unlikeable to begin with but after reading the second book I like him a lot more now. This book drew me in straightaway, it was a complicated web of secrets and lies. I enjoyed how Adam was being dragged into a case he wasn’t really interested in being part of. It was a fun ride because it is different to any other murder mystery I have read.
star rating:
If you have read this book, let me know in the comments what you thought of it!
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
September is a busy busy month for me. I start my final year of my PhD and I am writing a second novel alongside it, I am also rearranging and redecorating my house so everything is all over the place at the moment but I am hopeful that I will still get some reading done.
These are the books on my September TBR:
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. It is the end of August already and time to talk about what I read this month.
I will tell you that I shocked myself with how well my reading went this month, what with a trip to London and back I got a lot of reading in.
So, for the first time since I started this blog I have completed a TBR and I’m quite proud of that. Not all of the books I read this month were ones I enjoyed but some of them I did which made it a successful month in my opinion.
How was your reading this month? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I found this tag on Confessions of a Serial Reader but they said the first person who did it was Deana @thecomfyreader
Onto the tag!
I chose Love Him To Death by Tanya Landman. Amateur sleuths poppy and graham end up with Poppy’s Mum at a celebrity wedding on an island and things start going wrong…
The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead by Anthony Johnston, the main character Ginny is hired by a rockstar musician to look after his dog while he goes away on tour and then they all get caught up in the murder
Most of the books I read have juicy secrets but the one that jumped to mind was Last Girl Breathing, it was an intense thriller filled with secrets, honestly you wouldn’t see the twist coming.
A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle, I haven’t read it yet but I know it is a murder mystery set on a boat so that works for water.
I chose romance as a whole genre because it is not something I read much so when I do it feels a bit like a guilty pleasure read
I chose The Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine because the main group is four characters and I love reading about their friendship
What else could I pick but the Lord of the Rings, the ultimate adventure.
I chose The Cat Who Caught A Killer, one of the worst books I have read, I did not enjoy it at all and I could not suspend my disbelief enough for a talking cat helping her solve mysteries I just couldn’t.
Plus One by Kelsey Rodkey, it is a sweet romance, I liked it a lot
This might be controversial but I had to choose Mal from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you my book review for The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine.
Blurb/Synopsis:
The honour of your company is requested at lord beaucastle’s fancy dress ball. Wonder at the puzzling disappearance of the Jewelled Moth! Marvel as our heroines, Sophie and Lil, don cunning disguises, mingle in high society and munch many cucumber sandwiches to solve this curious case! Applaud their bravery as they follow a trail of terrible secrets that leads straight to London’s most dangerous criminal mastermind, and could put their own lives at risk…It will be the most thrilling event of the season! This is a fast-paced and compelling mystery adventure with gorgeous Edwardian period detail, this is Mr Selfridge meets Nancy Drew!
My Review:
I read the first book in this series, The mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, a while ago and I enjoyed it, I did but I haven’t really been thinking about it since then so I was almost at the point of unhauling this series because I didn’t think I was going to pick up the second one but then I did, and I loved it. This book I was hooked form the beginning, there are balls and disguises and a great group of protagonists and overall it was a fun time reading it.
This book is a middle grade but I didn’t think that the mystery felt young, it felt like it was well thought out and planned and it was just complicated enough to be fun and shocking.
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