Happy Friday bookish People! So, it is April already and with that it comes time to share my TBR for the month with you.
Recently, I have been focusing on reading mysteries and crime fiction and they’re all blending into one now so I read some historical fiction and some non-fiction in March and then I went to Gollanczfest and now I am completely in the fantasy mood. To read it and to write it. So, as you can probably tell my April TBR is full of fantasy!
Happy Monday bookish people! March went by fast didn’t it! A lot happened this month and I didn’t get much chance to read, just in general I was feeling very mentally tired for a bunch of different reasons and that didn’t help motivate me to read.
So, on with the wrap up!
My March TBR:
Helle and Death by Oskar Jensen – I did not read this book, now the thing about this book is that I have seen a lot of people talking about it and it does sound good but I am putting off reading it because it feels like an obligation, it will be useful for my PhD as it has some of the same aspects I am writing but I’m not drawn to it at the moment. Hopefully I will get to it soon.
You’d Look Better As A Ghost by Joanna Wallace – I did not read this book but I am very excited to get around to reading this book.
Knife Skills For Beginners by Orlando Murrin – I did not read this either.
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout – I am currently reading this and seeing as it’s only the 21st of the month when I am writing this I should definitely be able to finish this book by the end of the month.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – I also read this book, it took most of the month because this book is huge but I enjoyed it and a review will be coming soon.
That’s it for my TBR but outside of it I also read Dawn French’s new memoir ‘The Tw*t Files’.
So this month I read three books, not many but pretty good considering the month I have had. What did you all read in March?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’ll all enjoy my review of the Tw*t Files by Dawn French.
Blurb/Synopsis: IF YOU LOVE DAWN, YOU’LL LOVE HEARING ABOUT ALL THE TIMES SHE’S BEEN A COMPLETE TWAT . . .
When I was younger I wanted to be an interesting, sophisticated, semi-heroic, multi-layered person.
BUT.
That kind of perfect is impossible. Being an actual twat is much more the real me. Sorry to boast, but I am a champion twat.
In The Twat Files I will tell you about all the times I’ve been a total and utter twat. The moments where I’ve misunderstood stuff and messed up. In my life these have been key because:
Mistakes tell us about ourselves. Mistakes tell us about others. Mistakes are hilarious. Mistakes expose our flaws. Mistakes show us ourselves honestly. Mistakes are gloriously human.
My hope is that these stories might fire up yer engines to remind you of just what a massive twat you also are.
Let’s celebrate and revel in this most delightful of traits together.
That would be perfectly twatty.
Review:
The Tw*t Files is a fun collection of stories of all the times that Dawn French has embarrassed herself in social situations. It was particularly fun because Dawn French comes from the same area as me so a lot of the places she mentioned from when she was younger I also recognise (and a few of the scenarios she mentioned I either also have done or could definitely see myself doing).
I particularly enjoyed her story of how she was asked to take up a position at Falmouth University in Cornwall and the thing that sold it to her was she asked for a crown – and they gave her one! That is absolutely me in a nutshell.
I enjoyed my reading of this book overall, although honestly I felt that it was a few stories too long for me and I was getting a bit bored with it but the book was still good and I would still recommend it to people who enjoy non-fiction.
Happy Friday bookish people! It’s a different kind of post today, I hope you’ll all enjoy my review of GollanczFest 2024.
On Friday 15th March my Mum and I travelled to London for this event, the train journey was an absolute nightmare but we eventually made it to our hotel. The great thing was that the hotel we were staying in was only a ten minute walk from the Leonardo Royal hotel that Gollanczfest was being held in.
I think the best thing for me to do here is to be completely honest, I paid for a VIP ticket to this event and I do think the description of the things we were meant to get was not at all like what we got. For example the VIP tickets gave you a goody bag worth £60, well there’s no way that goody bag was worth anywhere close to £60. There was a proof of un upcoming book, a pen, a pin badge, a schedule for the day, a piece of card to get authors signatures on and some bookmarks etc. It also said that we would get £40 to spend in the Gollancz shop and this was not true either – we got a ‘£40 off when you spend £80’ voucher. So, before I get into anything else about the day I will say I don’t think the VIP ticket was worth the price of it.
Okay, so moving on to the panels of the day, I went to three of the panels. I went to the Romantasy panel, ‘I would do anything for love but I won’t stay at an inn with two beds’ with Dhonielle Clayton, Lauren Dedroog, Sarah Hawley and Jennifer Delaney. Which was a very entertaining start to the day. Four very string women talking about the struggles they face working in the fantasy genre.
The second panel I went to was ‘we built this city on airtight magic systems’ with Joanne Harris, Garth Nix, Ben Aaronovitch and Oraine Johnson. This was my favourite panel of the day. I loved hearing these authors talk about how and where they can write and how the process goes from idea to novel.
The final panel event was the headliner event which was Victoria Aveyard, author of the Red Queen series and the Realm Breaker series. This was a nice gentle event to close the day with.
I didn’t go to any of the signings in between the panels because they got very busy and I struggle to manage crowds like that so I stayed away but because I had the VIP ticket I got to meet two authors of my choice at two separate times during the day. I met Garth Nix first, he was so lovely and he signed my copy of Newt’s Emerald. I got to spend 15 minutes with him and then take a polaroid with him which is now on my bookshelf. Then in the afternoon I got to meet and chat with Ben Aaronovitch for 15 minutes and I showed him my braille copy of Rivers of London which he got very excited about.
Throughout the day there were also interactive events like have a go at audiobook narration and panels about the blogging industry and getting a novel published. They also had a waterstones shop and a raffle and a few other games. Overall I feel the experience was a good one, although it was a long and tiring day.
Have you ever been to Gollanczfest? How did you find it?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
March is a good month, and I’m not just being biased because it is my birthday month, it is the month when spring starts and all the flowers come out.
These are the books I want to try and read in March:
Helle and Death by Oskar Jensen – I have seen a lot of people excited about this book and it features a lot of the elements I am discussing in my PhD so I am looking forward to reading it.
You’d Look Better As A Ghost by Joanna Wallace – I love the sound of this one just by the title
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – I love a Tudor historical fiction and I started reading this a while back but never finished it because of everything going on back then but now I am in a better place and I am excited to read it.
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout – a good fantasy to clear the palate from all the crime fiction I have been reading.
Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin – a new cosy style crime fiction book
That’s what I want to read in March, what are you all planning on reading next month?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you the wrap up for my February reading, which, spoiler alert, did not go well.
I did a lot in February. I went to a Nightcourt Ball! based on the ACOTAR books and it was a very cool experience, I got to dress up like a fantasy princess and dance for a night and they had people dressed up as the characters from the books and even a live singer, who was excellent. It was tiring but fun. Then next up in February, I went to Disneyland Paris with my Mum and my sister and my Sister’s family. This was also great but it didn’t give me much time for reading unfortunately.
So, onto what I read this month. I’ll save the list this month I had five books on my February TBR and I only read one (which I literally finished this morning.)
So, in February I read The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood, the third book in the Marlow Murder Club series. I have loved the previous two books in the series but for me this third one fell a bit flat and well, it took me a month to finish it. I’ll give my thoughts in a review later this month but for now that’s it for this post, I didn’t manage to read anything else in February. All I hope is that I get some good books read in March.
How was your reading in February? What was your favourite book that you have read recently?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
I thought it would be fun today to do the Valentine’s Day Book Tag that I found on Words About Words Blog.
What book have you been given as a gift that you loved? I was given the special edition slipcase for ACOTAR for christmas the year before last, it is so beautiful that I don’t want to read that edition though, I will just read my paperback edition.
What book would you like to give as a gift to someone else? It depends, I’ve given my Mum Elise Kova books as gifts before because I know she loves her books but for others even though I know they like reading I wouldn’t know where to start with gifting them a book.
If you could gift a random person an non-bookish item what would it be? I would say maybe an experience, something that wouldn’t end up on a shelf gathering dust.
If you could gift a random person a bookish item what would you give them? I would say probably a bookmark because everyone needs one of those.
What do you say when a person gives you a gift you don’t like? I have to be polite and say thank you but also watch my face, because I know I am quite expressive and give it away so I have to be careful.
Mention a book based around valentine’s day? I don’t know any specifically for Valentine’s but Plus One by Kelsey Rodkey is excellent
Mention a film you love to watch on Valentine’s Day? Again not on the actual day but my favourite romcom is either Dirty Dancing or Pretty Woman.
mention a few of your favourite OTPs. Where to start? Scarlet and Julian from Caraval, Elisabeth and Nathaniel from Sorcery of Thorns, Wrath and Emilia from Kingdom of the Wicked and Thomas Cresswell and Audrey Rose Wadsworth from Stalking Jack The Ripper
Which fictional character would you love to see at your door with a bouquet of roses? Kellen from Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell (and Reichis of course!)
How would you answer these questions? let me know in the comments.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you my book review for The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by L T Shearer. I read this on a car journey up to London.
Blurb/Synopsis:
The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by L T Shearer is a charming cosy crime read for fans of Richard Osman and S. J. Bennett.
Retired police detective Lulu Lewis’s life changed forever when she met a street cat named Conrad. There’s something very special about Conrad, but it’s a secret she has to keep to herself.
When Lulu takes her narrowboat to Oxford, she is planning nothing more stressful than attending a friend’s birthday party. And drinking a few glasses of Chardonnay.
But a brutal murder and a daring art theft means her plans are shattered – instead she and Conrad find themselves on the trail of a killer.
A killer who may well strike again
My review:
Okay, first of all I should have read the blurb more carefully because I didn’t realise that this book was the second one in a series although after reading it I would say it works well enough as a standalone because I could understand it all fine without the set up from the first novel.
This novel follows Lulu as she attends an event at an old friend’s house, accompanied by her cat Conrad – who by the way, can talk. Once there she finds out before her arrival there had already been a break in and a murder.
I honestly thought I was going to love this book, a good cosy mystery with some intricately woven threads of a story but in my opinion that’s not what I got. I felt that a lot of this book was very slow in pace, that does work sometimes in books but for me not in this one. It felt like there wasn’t enough going on in the plot to keep my attention. I did enjoy the premise and the middle section of the book because it picked up a bit and I did like how some of plot points linked together in surprising ways. For me, what I disliked the most was the ending of this novel, now I’m not going to spoil anything in case you want to read this book, it used one of the devices I absolutely hate in novels and it made what was going to be a maybe 4 star read a lot lower in my rating.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am giving you my book review on The Housekeepers by Alex Hay.
Blurb/synopsis:
On the night of London’s grandest ball, a bold group of women launches a daring revenge heist against Mayfair society.
Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets lurk in the shadows. When Mrs. King is suddenly dismissed from her position, she recruits an eclectic group of women to join her in revenge: A black-market queen out to settle her scores; an actress desperate for a magnificent part; a seamstress dreaming of a better life; and Mrs. King’s predecessor, with her own desire for vengeance.
My review:
This was my first book of 2024, and it was gifted to me by my Parents for Christmas and I had been highly anticipating this book since it came out. This book follows Mrs King, a housekeeper for a wealthy family, who is fired from her job by the daughter after the Father dies. She recruits a bunch of people with different skills to infiltrate the house and plan a heist for the night of the grand ball. I love a heist, I really love that plot in pretty much all of the books I have read it in so far. This novel took a lot of time to set up each of the characters and get you to root for them individually and a s a group which is something that I liked because it gave each of them their time to shine. Mrs King was a stand out character for me, you never truly know her motives but you know that she is desperate for something and will do anything to get it. There was one character, I won’t name them, who I felt got built up and then one plot decision ruined all of their character development for me. I did think that the actual heist could have been done better, no offense to the author here but they took the time to introduce the characters and that meant all of the culmination happened in a short amount of pages and it wasn’t explored enough for me.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am sharing with you what books I hope to read in February, I am trying to prioritise books that I can use as references in my PhD thesis so mostly I am reading murder mystery novels at the moment but sometimes I do need a break from that.
The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
The Dog Sitter Detective Takes The Lead by Antony Johnston
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