Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. It is February and that means it is time to share some of the books that are coming out in February.
Let me know, are there any books that you have your eye on this month?
The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon – 28th February
The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli – 27th February
The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith- 4th February
Cursebound by Saara El- Arifi – 18th February
The Queen Who Came In From The Cold by S J Bennett – 6th February
The Antique Hunter’s: Death on the Red Sea by C L Miller – 18th February
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. It is time for me to share my TBR with you for the month of February.
February is a month that I always think goes by really quickly compared to other months even though it only has 2/3 days less in it. I am hoping to have enough time to tackle some big fantasy books this month.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas
Murder at the Wedding by Helena Dixon
The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis
The Veiled Kingdom by Holly Renee
and finally….. Iron Flame or Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros depending on how far I get through Fourth Wing and Iron Flame at the end of January.
So that is what I am planning on reading in February, what books are you all thinking about reading?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well. It is time to bring you my January wrap up.
How was your reading in January? Any new favourite books?
I had a pretty good month, as I am writing this it’s only the 16th of January so I have some more time to read more, and there’s one book I am planning on reading by the end of the month that I think might be five stars.
From my TBR:
Way of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell – I read this FOUR STARS
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson – I read this FOUR STARS
Murder at the Belltower by Helena Dixon – I read this FOUR STARS
A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S Olson – I read this FIVE STARS
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas – I am currently reading this but I already know it is going to be FIVE STARS
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas – I did not read this one and only because I don’t want to read two Sarah J Maas books in a row so I am going to finish the ACOTAR series and then continue with the Throne of Glass series.
Outside of my TBR I have also read Murder at Elm House by Helena Dixon and… I plan on reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros before the month is over.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. Today I am bringing you my review for the christmas novel in the Three Dahlias mystery series by Katy Watson.
I was so happy I managed to get a copy of this book at the beginning of December, just in time to read it as part of my Christmas TBR. It is the fourth book in the series I believe, just to say you do need to read these books in order to fully understand the story.
Blurb/Synopsis:
FIRST COMES LOVE . . . THEN COMES MURDER
A high society Christmas Eve wedding at a remote Scottish castle sounds like the perfect winter getaway for the three Dahlias and their partners – until a snowstorm hits, cutting them off from the mainland, and civilisation. Which, of course, is when the dead body of one of the other guests turns up in the snow outside the family chapel. A dead body wearing a wedding dress and a stolen diamond necklace…
The Dahlias were ready for mulled wine, roaring fires, and romance this Christmas. Now, they’re on the hunt for another murderer. And if their suspicions are right, it looks like the wedding may be off …
My Review:
I love this series of books, three brilliant female lead sleuths of all different ages. it is quite refreshing to see them working together. I have to say that one thing I was undecided in this novel if I liked it or not is that the partners of the three main characters had bigger roles in this one, which was nice to see to a certain extent because they have been largely ignored so far, however, I felt it took away from the story and there was more of an emphasis on the couples and it took away from the main mystery. It was like being pulled out of the story when these scenes happened, they felt out of place most of the time.
Saying that, this was still a solid book in the series. It was nice to see more of Libby’s character though I wanted to see her have a bit more spine and take direction of her own life more which I didn’t see but I can forgive that. I thought the mystery aspect was good, it had plenty of twists to keep you guessing but I did find the ending a little predictable, I am still going to continue the series though.
Have you read this book? What did you think of this book?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all good today, a bit of a warning, this might be a long one.
I have been seeing these lists everywhere and I thought it would be fun to do my own. So, these are the 25 books I want to prioritize in 2025. I have chosen these books because they are either: oldest on my TBR, continuing series I have started which is one of my goals for the year or they are books I feel like I should have got to by now.
The ACOTAR series (yes, I am counting the books I have left to read – A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight and A Court of Silver Flames – as one together because I really want to finish this series in 2025)
I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan
Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco
The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V E Schwab
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Traitors Blade by Sebastien de Castell
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
City of Brass by S A Chakraborty
Where Dreams Descend by Janelle Angeles
Us in Ruins by Rachel Moore
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Painted Dragon by Katherine Woodfine
That’s the ones on my list, what books do you want to read in 2025?
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing good today. It is time for my first book review of 2025, okay, I read this book in December but still.
Today I am giving you my book review for Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan, I first heard of this book from it being in an Illumicrate Afterlight box I believe, I didn’t get the box, I actually bought the book second hand on Vinted for not that much at all, which it turns out was a good decision.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become enemies-with-benefits in this steamy romance.
Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she’s hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she’s pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival—until he tries to get her fired.
Fresh off a professional scandal, Clark Edgeware can’t allow a self-proclaimed “curse breaker” to threaten his last chance for redemption. After he fails to get Riley kicked off his survey site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even.
Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep finding themselves in close proximity. Too close. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they’re not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins.
My Review:
Scottish, isolated castle – check. Enemies to lovers – check. Tales and occurrences of ghosts – check. This is the list that attracted me to this book. I thought the idea of a woman turning up at a castle to help break a curse being thwarted at every turn by a grumpy academic man sounded like a great premise. The execution was not what I was hoping for. I will try to say as much as I can without spoiling anything but we will start with, there is a lot of miscommunication in this book from pretty early on and I know for my own reading tastes this is not something I enjoy. It kind of set the book on a bad road from the beginning for me.
Was this book a quick read, absolutely. Lovely pacing, lovely writing, the banter between the characters was nice. I felt that the way things with the curse were progressing and wrapping up was not what I wanted, it was too easy in my opinion and the characters took too long to get there. There was background conflicts that I enjoyed, from the characters own personal lives, particularly the male main character’s family/personal life is explored with great depth and emotion but I was disappointed that the main female character was not explored in the same way, there was definitely more emphasis on the man which although interesting felt too one sided to work for me.
I think overall I am happy I gave this book a go but it wasn’t one I plan on reading again.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day. Today I wanted to share some of the exciting book releases happening in January. Please note: this is not an extensive list, actually it is usually quite small, it is only a selection of the books that sound most interesting and also the dates I include are the UK release dates.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today.
It is 2025! Can you believe it? 2024 was such a long year, both in good and bad ways and I am hopeful that 2025 will see better books and better things in general. Do you have any goals for 2025? Reading or otherwise I’d love to hear about them. A goal for me is to make progress in my series’, I have a habit of reading the first book, buying the whole series and then they just sit there on my shelves waiting for me to read them while I read newer and shinier ones instead. I want to do better with that this year.
Today I am bringing you what I will be reading in January:
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. It is time for the final wrap up of the year, and what a reading year it has been. I was struggling to find time in most of the months but since October I have been enjoying my reading again, and picking up brilliant books too.
Here is what I read in December,
From my TBR:
A Lively Midwinter Murder by Katy Watson – I did read this and a review is coming on the 20th December
Everyone this Christmas Has A Secret by Benjamin Stevenson – I read this
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose – I did read this
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah – I read this
Murder on the Dance Floor by Helena Dixon – I also read this
Which means…. I completed my TBR this month! I only had five specific books that were christmas themed that I wanted to read and I am very happy that I got the chance to read them all this month. Not only that but I also got to read some books outside my TBR, which were:
Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan – review coming on the 13th December
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas – I know, I FINALLY read this book and yes, I absolutely loved it. So much so that I went and bought the complete hardback series immediately after I finished it..
Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody – At the time of writing this post I am currently reading this book and I will finish it before the end of December
Shadowscent by P M Freestone – I started this book and I have decided to soft DNF it, I still want to try it again but what I read wasn’t keeping my interest so I decided to leave it for later
So, in December I read 9 books – so far at least, as I am writing this it is the 15th December so it is likely I will read something else this month too, but right now I’m not sure what book that will be.
Happy Friday bookish people! How are you all today? I hope you are all good. This is the big one everyone. Today I will be sharing my favourite books that I have read this year.
Share with down in the comments what some of your favourite books have been this year, I could easily have done a top ten with almost all five star books that I have read this year but I decided to stick only with a top five, the best books I have read this year.
In at number five is…
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
I was torn on this decision, actually until I was writing this list down to make this post I had a different book in this spot but I have just read Powerless and I gave it a 4.5 stars to begin with and then I just could not stop thinking about it. I had to change it to a five star and put it in spot number five.
In number four is…
Murder At The Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon
This is a series I have discovered this year, this book is the first in the series, and I absolutely adore it. If you love cosy mysteries set in the 1930s then I am sure you would love these as much as I do.
In number three is…
Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco
Kerri Maniscalco is now definitely one of my favourite authors, I loved her Stalking Jack the Ripper series and then her Kingdom of the Wicked series and now this is the first in the spin off series and this one follows Prince Envy. It is a brilliant book, I loved it.
In number two is…
The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite
This novel is a follow up to her first novel, Cecily, it follows Cecily Neville – the mother of King Edward IV, his wife Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort – the mother of Henry VII as they navigate the royal court as women. It is powerful and beautiful and emotional and it will always be one of my favourite books I have ever read. Especially as I got to visit the Neville’s family Castle the day after I read this book.
And finally, in my number one spot is…..
A Study In Drowning by Ava Reid
This novel is gothic and enchanting and just everything I hoped it would be. I know some people don’t love this book but I honestly can’t think of one thing that I did not like about it.
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