Tag: book review

Monthly Wrap Ups

July Wrap Up!

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

July is at an end and I think it is safe to say that it was my best month for reading so far this year, both in the amount of books and my enjoyment of those books.

So, my July TBR, technically I didn’t finish it because I didn’t read the exact books I put on it BUT I did read a bunch of books so I read more books than I put on my TBR so I am going to count that as finishing it.

This was my TBR:

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

I did not read this book, it was actually in the pile for me to read next, to break up some of the mysteries I have been reading like a palate cleanser, but I didn’t get around to it.

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

I am currently reading this book and I have three days left of the month so I am optimistic that I will finish this book by the end of July.

A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene

I did not read this book, I didn’t even think about it this month so hopefully I will get to it soon but that time is not yet.

The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrews

I was excited about this book but as with A Feather So Black I haven’t been drawn to fantasy at the moment so I didn’t get around to it.

The Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine

I did read this book, it is the second in the series and actually I enjoyed it more than the first book.

Outside of my TBR I have also read: I finished Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood, The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite (the best book I have read so far this year!), The Suspect by Rob Rinder, The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz, Queen Macbeth by Val Mcdermid, and I started Seven Likely Suspects by Katy Watson as well.

So in July I read 8 books this month! I am very happy with that amount. How has your reading been this month? Any great books?

Book Reviews

Book Review: How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

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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 How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. Have any of you read this book? What did you think of it?

Blurb/Synopsis:

For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club , an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate… Now it’s up to her great-niece to catch the killer. 

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.

My Review:

Well, what to say about this book. As I am writing this I have literally just finished reading it. For me it was one of those books that are okay, they are easy to read but I couldn’t fall into the book and become absorbed by the story. It was an average read.

In this book we follow Annie, who has been called to her Great Aunt Frances’ house, she has never met her but the meeting is to discuss changes to her will and then when they get there it turns out that Frances has been murdered, just as a fortune teller told her she would be when she was a teenager.

I loved the premise of this book, I thought it was very interesting how you could live your life afraid of the fortune you received as a teenager and there was a competition to do with the inheritance but the execution wasn’t what I was hoping it would be.

I thought Annie was a fun character to follow, she was thrown into the deep end head first and you could feel that in her POV and that was nice because it felt like you were learning along side her instead of her knowing things that you as the reader didn’t. Overall, there were parts I enjoyed to the book but I was starting to become bored with the story towards the end.

Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead by Antony Johnson

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Happy Monday Bookish people! How are you all doing today? I hope you are doing well.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Gwinny Tuffel is preparing for her first acting role in a decade in the West End, but she is dog-sitting on the side to keep the wolf from the door. So, when ageing rock star Crash Double needs help with his Border Collie, she jumps at the chance. After all, looking after the charming Ace on Crash’s Little Venice houseboat shouldn’t be an onerous task. But that’s before the singer’s dead body surfaces during the annual Canal Carnival festivities.

While the police dismiss the death as an accident, Gwinny suspects murder most foul. With a medley of suspects and some far-fetched motives to make heads or tails of, it is up to Gwinny, with Ace’s on-the-ground knowledge, to make sure the killer faces the music.

My Review:

Okay, so first off, I didn’t realise that this book was the second in a series and I did not read the first one before reading this one. I have since bought it but I haven’t read it yet. I am looking forward to reading it.

In this book we follow Gwinny, she is an actress who has returned to performing but is passed over because of her age. In her spare time she looks after dogs for people and in this novel she ends up looking after the dog of a singer from a band while he goes on tour. Except, he didn’t go on tour because his body appears in the middle of a festival in Little Venice London, with all the canal boats.

I liked the unique set up of the canal boats and the rock star being murdered. I did think the dog kept being forgotten about, Gwinny goes about investigating but its not said where she leaves the dog while doing this. It was a nice, simple, cosy mystery and I enjoyed it. Gwinny is a good character, she takes no rubbish from anyone and I liked that. Her partner in crime though, I can’t remember his name off the top of my head, I didn’t warm to, I would have had a few choice words for him if I had met him. However, it was a good time and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series, starting with book number one!

Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book Tags

Mid Year Freak Out Tag

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

I have been seeing lots of people doing this tag and it looks fun so I wanted to share my answers as well.

Best book you have read so far in 2024?

Best sequel you have read so far in 2024?

New release you haven’t read yet but want to?

Most anticipated release for the second half of 2024?

Biggest disappointment?

Biggest surprise?

New favourite author?

Rob Rinder, I like him on TV anyway and I met him at the end of May which was a great experience but I wasn’t sure how I would find his writing but I loved it.

Newest fictional crush?

This was a difficult one but in the end I chose Detective Rowan Crane from How to Solve your own murder, which was a surprise even to myself because the book itself was only a three star, but I did love his character.

Newest favourite character?

This would be Juliet from Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi, because of her strength with everything she goes through in the book.

A book that made you cry?

A book that made you happy?

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year?

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

There aren’t any specific books I need to read but I would like to make more progress in series’ I have started because what I tend to do is read the first one, buy all of the series and then not get around to reading them.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

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Happy Monday bookish people! How are you all feeling today? I hope you are all good. Today I am bringing you my book review for The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino.

The Devil Makes Three

Blurb/Synopsis:

Tess Matheson only wants three things: time to practice her cello, for her sister to be happy, and for everyone else to leave her alone.

Instead, Tess finds herself working all summer at her boarding school library, shelving books and dealing with the intolerable patrons. The worst of them is Eliot Birch: snide, privileged, and constantly requesting forbidden grimoires. After a bargain with Eliot leads to the discovery of an ancient book in the library’s grimoire collection, the pair accidentally unleash a book-bound demon.

The demon will stop at nothing to stay free, manipulating ink to threaten those Tess loves and dismantling Eliot’s strange magic. Tess is plagued by terrible dreams of the devil and haunting memories of a boy who wears Eliot’s face. All she knows is to stay free, the demon needs her… and he’ll have her, dead or alive.

My Review:

In The Devil Makes Three we are following two main characters. The first is Tess Matheson, a music prodigy who has upended her own life to make sure her sister Nat gets the best chance she can. Tess works in the Library with a woman who I believe was her Aunt but I’m not 100% certain on that and while working in the Library she ends up meeting Elliott Birch, who is the second main character we follow.

Elliott and Tess start off on the wrong foot but they end up having to work together when they find a hidden passage under the library where a grimoire is hidden.

I can’t say a lot about this book without giving spoilers away but I can tell you that for the first half of the book I enjoyed getting to know the characters but I felt that Elliott was being used to further Tess’s character rather than defining him as a 3D character himself. This did get better in the second half of the book though and I liked that you could see the flaws in the characters.

The other main thought that I had on this book was that it was very creepy, much too creepy for me even though I read it through to the end, which is good because that is what the author intended so it is very well written but for me that creepiness was off-putting. I liked the characters and I liked the setting although it felt like a YA book to me and I am reading more adult books than YA now. I don’t think I will keep my copy of the book but I am glad I gave it a go.

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

Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Monthly TBRs

July TBR!

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Happy Friday bookish people! How are you all today? I hope you are all doing well.

July is a busy, busy month for me so I am hoping that I will be able to get a lot of reading done. I am having an operation on the 15th which means that I will not be able to do much for at least a week or so other than read which sounds perfect to me. Then at the end of July I am going to Carlisle for the weekend and in the back of the car I will be able to read as well so hopefully I read some great books, fingers crossed for some five star reads!

What are you excited to read in July?

My July TBR:

Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrews

A Feather so Black by Lyra Selene

The Jeweled Moth by Katharine Woodfine

On top of this though I have a list of books I would like to read while recovering and travelling because I am optimistic that I will get lots of reading done in July:

  • The Murder Game by Tom Hindle
  • The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite
  • Seven Lively Suspects by Katy Watson
  • The Suspect by Rob Rinder
  • The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
  • Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
  • The Five by Haille Rubenhold
  • Hex Appeal by Kate Johnson
Monthly Wrap Ups

June Wrap Up!

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. It is nearly halfway through the year and June is coming to an end.

What a month it has been! I have spent most of my time buried under edits of my novel, I have been working on it almost non-stop this month and I have just sent off a query to an agent, so fingers crossed for that. Because of that the month has gone by very quickly, and I have got some reading done which has been nice, no stand out reads, they were all average and one DNF which was a surprise, I thought that book was going to be a five star.

How has your reading been this month? Did you read any books you would recommend?

My Wrap up:

  • Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – I did not read this book this month
  • These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan – I was hoping to get around to this book this month but I didn’t, I had to prioritise books that will help with my PhD so most fantasy books aren’t getting read at the moment.
  • The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber – Same as above, another fantasy book I did not get around to reading
  • Belladonna by Adalyn Grace – This is a book I am very excited to get around to reading but I didn’t read it this month.
  • Tempest of Tea – I did not read this book this month
  • The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young – I did not read this
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik – I started to read this book but I ended up DNF’ing it after 115 pages, it was dragging for me. I might pick it up again in the future and try and read it but not right now.
  • The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino – I did read this book, it was good but very creepy – I will give more of my thoughts in my review coming in July
  • How to Survive Your Own Murder – I am currently readying this book, I should be finished and have started another book by the end of this month
  • Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood – currently I have not read this book but I should have a few days at the end of this month where I start this book

Outside of my TBR I also read the second in the Dog Sitter Detective series. So, overall I read three books (four if I get to Love on the Brain), and I DNF’d one book which is quite a productive reading month foe me. I can only hope July will be just as good or even better.

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.

Monthly TBRs

June TBR

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well. We are getting into the summer months, the warm weather and longer days make it the perfect time for enjoying escaping into the worlds in our books so today I am sharing with you my June TBR!

What are you all reading this month?

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin

Love on The Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino