Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am sharing what I hope to be reading during January 2024, let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them!
Grave Expectations by Alice Bell
I am very intrigued by this book, I love a good murder mystery especially when they have something a bit different about them and this book definitely does. A traditional manor murder mystery with the twist of the investigator being a psychic, I am looking forward to reading it.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
I am very excited to read this one. It sounds like a rich adult fantasy that I could get engrossed in easily.
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James
I have wanted this book for a while, I saw lots of people talking about it a while back. It sounds slightly spook but very interesting.
The Housekeepers by Alex Hay
This is another book I have wanted for a long time and I was excited to get it for Christmas. I am actually reading it right now, I am about 40 or so pages in and I am hooked. It is about a group of women who are all connected as they are or were once staff in this particular house on Park Lane and they plan to stage a heist in that house while a ball is happening. I love a good heist plot so I have high hopes for this book.
What Would Jane Austen Do?
To be honest I don’t know a lot about this book, I know that it follows two neighbors and one is a romance writer and one is a crime fiction writer, I think? That sounds intriguing to me but it’s not a book I think I am going to love, we shall see.
Manslaughter Park by Tirzah Price
This is the third book in the Jane Austen inspired murder mystery series and this one is based on Mansfield Park, following Fanny Price. I have loved the previous two books in this series so I hope I will love this one just as much.
Happy Monday bookish people and Happy New Year! Can you believe it is 2024 already? Time is going so fast and so much happened in 2023, bad things and good things. I won’t get into the bad things, who needs negativity on the first day of the New Year, but some of the good things were having my first stall at Comic Con for my business (The Blind Scribe), and I had a play performed in the Theatre, such a strange but incredible experience, plus I met my boyfriend through the process, he was one of the actors. So, 2023 was overall a pretty good year and to top it all off, I completed my December TBR which I think is the first time I have done that since I started making them. A good end to the year.
so, the books I read in December were:
Murder in Midwinter a short story collection (3 stars)
Murder on Christmas Eve a short story collection (3 stars)
The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese (4 stars) review coming on the 22nd January
Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict (3 stars)
The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (4 stars)
The Anne Boleyn Bible by Mickey Mayhew (4 stars) review coming on the 15th January
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis (5 stars) review coming on the 8th January
as you can see my favourite read of the month was The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis, a gothic murder mystery novel I thought it was excellent. what was your favourite read in December?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day today.
I am here to share with you my top five books of the year, I have to say it was a difficult choice. I read a lot of books this year that I enjoyed, and a lot of them were books that were surprising.
Finale by Stephanie Garber
Vera Wong’s unsolicited advice for murderers
A Very Lively Murder by Katy Watson
London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
What were your favourite books you read this year?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. Today I am bringing you my book review of Gideon Green in Black and White by Katie Henry. I was kindly sent a copy of this book by Harper Voyager quite a while ago I’m embarrassed to say but I kept putting off reading it because I was interested in the plot but it leans more Young Adult to me than Adult and I haven’t been enjoying YA mysteries as much anymore. So, I kept putting it off but finally in November I read this book and I regret putting off reading it because I enjoyed it a lot.
As usual I will be giving star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible.
Gideon Green in Black and White Plot:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Gideon Green in Black and White by Katie Henry follows a boy named Gideon, he is a high school student (right now I can’t remember what exact age he is) who before the novel begins you realise something happened where he and his best friend, Lily, are no longer speaking. Gideon has an interest in everything Noir, films, books, Detectives, everything in that genre is his passion. He even wears his trench coat to school. Then suddenly Lily turns up on his doorstep and tells him she needs his help with a mystery. That’s all I am going to tell you about the plot because I highly reccomend any mystery lovers read it and I don’t want to ruin the experience for you.
I thought this plot was very intriguing, the mystery is weaved in with a lot of other things like the backstory of the characters, high school drama and a few other themes that to be honest I wasn’t expecting to appear in this book. Overall, I liked the mystery part of it more than the inclusion of the other themes but that is my personal opinion.
Gideon Green in Black and White Characters:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Gideon is the main character in this book and as I said above, his character is mainly defined by his love of old mysteries and black and white films but what I really liked about his character is the growth you see. As a character Gideon has a few flaws and the author does not shy away from the reader seeing them, the person who doesn’t see them is Gideon and that’s what I mean when I say growth, if you read this book you will see what I mean.
The other main character is Lily, Gideon’s ex-best friend. To me I think she could have had more character development, it’s there but it’s not as punchy as it is for Gideon and sometimes I actually forgot you were meant to be feeling things for Lily too.
Gideon Green in Black and White Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Gideon Green in Black and White Overall:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I gave this book four stars overall because I enjoyed my reading experience. I couldn’t give it five stars because there were a few things I would change, like I said, Lily wasn’t developed as much as I would have liked her to be and there were some themes that distracted from the mystery for me in a negative way. They made sense for the plot but weren’t to my taste.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Gideon’s short-lived run as a locally-famous boy detective ended when middle school started, and everyone else–including his best friend, Lily–moved on while Gideon kept holding on to his trench coat, fedora, and his treasured film noir collection. Now, he’s sixteen and officially retired. That is, until Lily shows up suddenly at Gideon’s door, needing his help.
He might be mad at her for cutting him off with no explanation, but Gideon can’t turn down a case. As a cover, Gideon joins Lily on the school paper. Surprisingly, he finds himself warming up to the welcoming, close-knit staff . . . especially Tess, the cute, witty editor-in-chief.
But as the case gets bigger than Gideon or Lily could have anticipated, Gideon must balance his black-and-white quest for the truth with the full colours of real-life–or risk a permanent fade to black.
happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all having a wonderful day today. Today I am doing the End of Year Book Tag, how would you answer these questions? Let me know in the comments.
Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish? At least two, but only two I can remember the names of which are A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas, which I wanted to finish but it’s a long book and I wasn’t feeling fantasy right then. The second book is Assistant to the Villain and I didn’t finish this book because I wanted to love it but there wasn’t enough plot in it to keep me captivated and for me personally romance gets boring after 100 or so pages if the plots not there.
Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year? I would have to say not really I tend to read a lot of mysteries towards the end of the year and I don’t feel they are very autumnal most of the time.
Is there a new release you are still waiting for? so many! All because I wrote my list of book early September for my mum to use as my Christmas list so I haven’t been able to buy any since then.
Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite of the year? I am going to say the Murder on the Christmas Express because I love a good murder mystery so we shall see. As I am writing this I am starting this book tonight, fingers crossed.
Have you already started making reading plans for 2023? Not really, I have my eye on a few books releasing next year and if you’d like to see what those are I am posting a top ten most anticipated releases.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all having a wonderful day today. it has reached the end of November and so it is time again to do my monthly wrap up. November was a pretty good reading month for me, I technically read four books this month which I was pleased with considering I have so much else going on.
In my November TBR I was meant to read:
The Box In The Woods by Maureen Johnson – I did not read. I was trying to prioritise books this month that I could reference within my PhD work which unfortunately was not this one.
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano- I did not read this one either, same as the box in the woods, there wasn’t anything in this book blurb I could see that would work for my thesis so I had to prioritise other books but I am very excited to get to this one still, hopefully before the next book in the series comes out.
Nothing More To Tell by Karen M McManus – I did not read this book. Honestly, when I was choosing what to read next I spooked myself reading the blurb of this book. Don’t ask me why, my mind is a strange place.
Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood – I did read this one, it was a reread for me, I knew it was one I planned on discussing in my thesis so I went through my second read, which I loved just as much as the first time I read it, and marked all the points I could use.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – same as the marlow murder club, I also read this one and it was a reread. For exactly the same reason as above.
Gideon Green in Black and White by Katie Henry – the third book I read this month. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to and I will be putting up my review of it this month so check back soon for that.
on top of my TBR books I also read the Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese, which is actually on my December TBR but I felt in a romance mood which is not like me at all. It was a good book, the romance was pretty swoon worthy and it was set in a bookshop, enemies to lovers. I enjoyed the ride and the change of reading such a short book.
have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. Seeing as it is spooky season I thought it may be fun to share with you all my top 15 murder mystery books and this is one of my favourite genres to read so this was a difficult choice. Let me know if any of your favourites are on this list or if there are any you would have put on here instead.
The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Dangerous Women by Hope Adams
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you my book review for Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens. A big thank you to Harper Collins for sending me an ARC copy of this book.
As usual I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include any spoilers but there may be parts that come across that way, if you prefer to read a book with no idea before going I would highly recommend reading this review after you have read the book instead.
Last Girl Breathing Plot: 4 stars
In Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens you follow the people of a small town who are still reeling from a tragedy that happened eight years prior to the novel beginning. When a murder is committed Lucy Michaels starts investigating.
my first thought when I started reading this book was “wow, this is darker and more intense than I thought it would be” and usually that type of book doesn’t appeal to me, I prefer the cosier mystery. However, I was surprised by this book. Yes, it is dark and yes it’s got incredible twists and a very fast pace but also it felt real and I felt completely immersed in the story. It sounds cliche to say I couldn’t put this book down but I honestly couldn’t, I read it on a car trip to wales and when I had to stop reading I couldn’t stop thinking about the book and what was happening in it. I also have to say, I did not guess the identity of the killer.
Last Girl Breathing Characters: 4 stars
The main character in this novel is Lucy Michaels, she is a young girl still struggling with the grief of losing her brother during a dam break 8 years ago. She us at the centre of this book, she knows everyone in the town and has deep connections with many of the people connected with both events. Sweat I liked most about her character was the rawness and realness behind her. She wasn’t perfect, and she didn’t pretend to be. Court Stevens wrote her as a believably flawed character and I liked that. There are many other characters in this book but I don’t want to go into discussing them here because it would definitely reveal some spoilers.
Last Girl Breathing Writing and Dialogue: 4 stars
As I said before this book fully immersed me in its story and I believe that is a testament to an excellent writer. This is the first Court Stevens book I have read but I enjoyed her balance between tension and mystery combined with building strong community connections and separating their good features from the mystery.
Last Girl Breathing Overall: 4 stars
I gave this book four stars overall because I really enjoyed this novel and it surprised me how much I enjoyed it.
Blurb/Synopsis:
When the answers to a present-day murder lie in the past, one teen girl must examine a tragic event to prevent more lives from being lost. No one expected it to rain that much. But the rain kept coming, the dam broke, and lives were lost. One was Lucy Michaels’s little brother. She was there and while she saved the lives of many young boy scouts, despite being a child herself, she couldn’t save him.
Now eight years later, Lucy is preparing to graduate from high school and compete in the air rifle competition at the Olympics when her stepbrother goes missing right before his most important football game. The search is focused on the same plot of land where her younger brother died, and she can’t help but draw parallels.
When the search for a missing person becomes a murder investigation, Lucy knows the secrets she holds about what her stepbrother was up to that day could help find the murderer. The clues quickly connect Lucy’s ex-boyfriend to the murders, but he couldn’t be guilty… could he?
Everyone involved has their own secrets and revealing hers to the wrong person could put her life—and her whole town—at risk. Last Girl Breathing is a page-turning hunt for the truth as Court Stevens once again creates nonstop suspense with characters who will break your heart.
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