Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am excited to bring you my February Wrap-up. Well, I say excited – I barely read anything so not so excited about that but I accomplished a lot during February.
First of all, I handed in my first assignment for my PhD and that has taken a lot of stress away from me, I also completed the redecoration of my new room including buying seven bookcases and putting my books on them (that was a great day!). Also, I went through the next stage in the process of getting a guide dog which is both terrifying and exciting.
So, usually I would list the books I was supposed to read this month and say whether I did or not, well – I only read two books this month so I won’t be listing them I will just put them here instead.
I read:
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
Review to come shortly!
and…
The Maid by Nita Prose
So that’s what I read this month, it wasn’t a lot but considering how busy I was I am okay with the little that I managed to read, also I plan on reading Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix tonight which was on my February TBR so that might mean I read three books..
That’s it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed it! Tomorrow I will be posting my March TBR so if you’re interested in seeing what I will be reading make sure to check that out.
Happy Tuesday bookish people! I am here today to talk about Ashes of Gold by J. Elle, the second book in the duology. The first book being Wings of Ebony. I was sent an ebook copy by Chelsea Apple so thank you for that. Unfortunately, with everything that has been happening recently I wasn’t able to read the book completely in time to do this post. However, I would still love to share with you what the duology is about because I think it is an amazing fantasy duology that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy with brilliant worldbuilding and a strong, fearless female lead!
Wings of Ebony
“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.
Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.
Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.
Ashes of Gold
In the heart-pounding conclusion to the Wings of Ebony duology, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicole Yoon calls “bold, inventive, big-hearted and deeply perceptive,” Rue makes her final stand to reclaim her people’s stolen magic.
Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out.
But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart that is human as well as god, she’s not sure she’s the right person to lead the fight to reclaim a glorious past.
When a betrayal sends her into a tailspin, Rue must decide who to trust and how to be the leader that her people deserve…because if she doesn’t, it isn’t just Yiyo that will be destroyed—it will be Rue herself.
Also, here are some links where you can grab yourself a copy of Ashes of Gold:
Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am so excited to be bringing you my book review of The Maid by Nita Prose, this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I was so excited to get around to it so early in the year.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
The Maid Plot:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
The premise of this book really excited me, a murder mystery set in a hotel where you follow the POV of Molly, the maid. The first half of this book really lived up to my expectations with a lot of plot twists and intriguing mystery that kept my attention. However, the second half of the book became quite predictable and the mystery sort of fizzled out for me by the end.
The Maid Characters:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I really felt that I could relate to Molly, the maid with her friendly although a little socially awkward personality. One thing I should mention is that she is portrayed in a very similar way to an autistic character but I haven’t seen anything describing her as actually autistic. I was rooting for her character a lot, especially during the second half of the novel, she came into her bravery a lot there.
The Maid Writing and dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
The writing in this book is so clear and smooth and enjoyable. The writing drew me in from the very first page.
The Maid Overall:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I gave this book four stars overall because I really enjoyed most of the plot but I felt the ending was a little disappointing.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.
But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?
A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.
That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you all had a lovely January. If you have seen any of my recent posts here on my Instagram posts (@the_blind_scribe) you will know that my January has been full of ups and downs, honestly mostly downs. After being unwell for most of it and then my partner and I breaking up and having to move back in with my parents I barely read anything in January.
So, onto my January Wrap-up!
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte – I did not read
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik – I did not read
Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert – I did read!
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – I did not read
Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody – I did not read
Daughters of Night by Laura Shepard Robinson – I have recently started to read this, I won’t finish it by the end of the month but I am really enjoying the atmosphere and the lead female character so far.
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton – I have not read
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff – I did not get around to reading
European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss – I have read the first 20 pages or so of this book and I am enjoying it but I wasn’t in the right mood for it this month because of everything happening.
Finale by Stephanie Garber – I did not read
Furyborn by Claire Legrand – I did not read
The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah – I did read this!
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff – I did not read this
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty – I did not read this
Pages and Co Tilly and the Lost Fairytales – I did read this!
Queenslayer by Sebastien De Castell – I did not read this
Shadowscent by P M Freestone – I did not read this
The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman – I did not read
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi – I did not read
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley – I did not read
The Plague Letters by V L Valentine – I did not read
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – I did not read
I also read The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton which wasn’t on my TBR. So that means I read six books and I started two more so I am actually really happy with the amount that I ended up reading this month.
That’s it for this wrap up I hope you all enjoyed it!
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I am all tucked up in bed not feeling too great but with a lovely stack of books next to me just waiting to be read. Today I am bringing you a book review of Pages and Co by Anna James.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
Pages and Co Plot:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Pages and Co is a story that focuses on Tilly, a young girl who lives with her Grandparents in their bookshop, who finds that there is a lot more magic in books than she thought possible. I loved the magic in this story, it embodies the wonder that children feel when reading and living the enchantment of books. It also carries a childlike innocence throughout that gives the whole story a lighter tone despite the serious moments. The plot of this book was so unique and it drew me in from the very first chapter
Pages and Co Characters:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Tilly is the main character in this book, she is headstrong and adventurous. I loved following her as she discovers where her life is going. I felt that Tilly had a great character arc in this story but also I think her character still has a lot of room for growth in the rest of the series. Something else I loved about the characters in this book is the friendship between Tilly and Oskar.
Pages and Co Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
There’s not a lot that I can say about this other than it was clear and smooth and I felt that the writing helped to carry the plot on.
Pages and Co Overall:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I gave this book four stars overall because I really enjoyed the story and I am excited to continue reading the series (at the time of reading this I have already read the second book in the series).
Blurb/Synopsis:
A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa debut from a uniquely talented author.
Eleven year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents’ bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories.
One day Tilly realises that classic children’s characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of `book wandering’ – crossing over from the page into real life.
With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland. Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.
That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Happy Monday bookish people! Today is a very busy and exciting day for me, I am going with my sister to see her try on wedding dresses. But before that I am here to share a book review or two, starting with Murder on Christmas Eve – an anthology of short stories all set on Christmas Eve.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
Murder on Christmas Eve Plot:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I will start by saying I don’t think there was a story in this anthology that I didn’t enjoy. My favourite of them being the one about the cat, The book isn’t near me now so I can’t check the title but if you read the book then you’ll know exactly which one I mean. There isn’t much more I can say about the plot except to reiterate how much I really enjoyed it.
Murder on Christmas Eve Characters:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
This category is also hard to describe because there are so many characters throughout the stories but there is a wide range, old, young, tall, short, the villains aren’t always who you expect it to be and I loved that.
Murder on Christmas Eve Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Each of the stories are written by different authors, some of which I had read before and others that I hadn’t. It was nice to read some work by new authors and start to enjoy their texts.
Murder on Christmas Eve:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I gave this book four stars overall because it kept me very entertained while on a car journey. Each of the stories are very intriguing and contain great mmysteries.
Blurb:
Christmas Eve. While the world sleeps, snow falls gently from the sky, presents await under the tree … and murder is afoot. In this collection of ten classic murder mysteries from the best crime writers in history, death and mayhem take many festive forms, from the inventive to the unexpected.
From a Santa Claus with a grudge to a cat who knows who killed its owner on Christmas Eve, these are stories to enjoy – and be mystified by – in front of a roaring fire, mince pie to hand.
The trinity cat / Ellis Peters — The Santa Claus Club / Julian Symons — The four seasons / Michael Innes — No sanity clause / Ian Rankin — The footprint in the sky / John Dickson Carr — A wife in a million / Val McDermid — The dagger with wings / G.K. Chesterton — Cambric tea / Marjorie Bowen — As dark as Christmas gets / Lawrence Block — On Christmas day in the morning / Margery Allingham
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. It is the new year and I am getting around to putting up my first book review of the year! The book review is for Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert and it is the final book in the Brown Sisters Trilogy.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
Act Your Age Eve Brown Plot:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Okay so first I will admit that I only started this trilogy so that I could read this particular book. I thought the description of Eve was something that I could relate to and the grumpy and sunshine trope was something I hadn’t read before.
Now my actual reading of this book wasn’t as enjoyable as I hoped it would be. The beginning was something I did enjoy, with the introduction of Jacob and the setting of the Inn. It felt very warm and cosy and I was looking forward to the romance of it, which is very rare for me. However, one of the things that I really don’t like in books is when drama is added for the sake of having drama and that is what it felt like at some points in this book. A good point for it though is that it has representation of autism that I felt was good.
Act Your Age Eve Brown Characters:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Eve was my second favourite of the sisters, Chloe being my favourite, and I loved her bubbly personality and how she went from being supported by her parents and having no confidence in herself to how she is at the end of the book. Jacob is the love interest in this book, he is the grumpy character at the beginning and I liked how he was represented.
Act Your Age Eve Brown Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Talia Hibbert’s writing is very enjoyable because of it’s witty dialogue and humour. It was clear and well structured.
Act Your Age Eve Brown Overall:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I am giving the book three stars overall because it didn’t quite live up to my expectations but I did really enjoy the characters and the dialogue.
In Act Your Age, Eve Brown the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally.
Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…
Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.
Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.
That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Happy Friday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 31! It is the final day of 2021 and so that means it is finally time to share with you all my book stats for 2021.
Amount of books read in 2021: 115
This is 15 over my attempted target so I am very happy with this number.
Total Amount of Pages read: 34, 200
This is an amazing amount of pages to have read this year!
According to Goodreads the average book length I’ve read this year is 306 pages and my average star rating is 3.7 so my reading has been on the better side for this year.
The book I read with the least pages was the Crime Archives with 64 pages and the book I read with the most pages is Moonflower Murders with 608 pages.
That’s it for my stats for 2021, I hope you enjoyed looking at them!
Happy Thursday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 30. We are so close to the end of December and the end of 2021, what a year it has been. I am hopeful that 2022 will be much better.
Today I am revealing which book I have chosen as my book of the year 2021! This was a difficult decision because I read a lot of great books this year. So, without further ado my book of the year 2021 is….
SERPENT AND DOVE by Shelby Mahurin!
It almost wasn’t this book but then I remembered just how much I loved the characters, the story and the whole atmosphere of the world and I had to choose it as my book of the year.
Happy Thursday everyone! Merry Bookmas day 23! Today is going to be very busy for me because it is my sister’s birthday so I will be spending most of the day with her and making her birthday cake.
But for all of you I am bringing you a book review of The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
The Christmas Murder Game Plot:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The plot of this book is basically that the Grandmother of the main character, Lily, dies and some of the family are invited to take part in a game to find twelve keys and the winner gets the deeds for the house but then there is a murder. There were so many elements to this plot that I usually like, such as locked room mysteries, isolated settings for murder mysteries, so I thought that I would love this book. It gave me the feeling of a modern take on an Agatha Christie but for me it felt almost too similar to her book – And Then There Were None, it also felt quite similar to The Inheritance Game. The other thing that wasn’t the best about this book was that I had guessed the ending within the first 100 pages. This book was okay but I don’t think I would reread it – except to use it for my PhD.
The Christmas Murder Game Characters:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
So Lily is the main character in this book, I won’t give my thoughts on any of the other characters because it could give away the story, and for most of the book I enjoyed her character. She is exceptionally good at riddles and I liked seeing her thought process behind each one. However, I was hoping for a better character arc for her. I was hoping her character would grow in confidence but this only happened a little.
The Christmas Murder Game Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The writing was one of the best parts about this book. It was clear and flowed really well and the dialogue brought out the personalities of the characters.
The Christmas Murder Game Overall:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I gave this book three stars overall because it wasn’t a bad book it just felt like I was reading something I had already read before.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But who will survive until Twelfth Night?
Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House – the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house.
Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.
So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.
As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life.
This Christmas is to die for . . . Let the game begin
That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!
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