Tag: books

Book Reviews

Book Review: My Haunted House – Araminta Spook by Angie Sage

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Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you a book review of one of the books in a series that I loved when I was a child. I thought I had owned the entire set but it turns out that I didn’t and two more were released after I stopped getting them. However, I recently re-read the first few books in the series and now I am uploading my review of the first book.

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.

My Haunted House Plot:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I think this book touches on a lot of important themes for children in a very interesting way that will help children, and others, to enjoy the book. The main plot is that Araminta Spook lives with her Aunt and Uncle and her Aunt decides they are going to sell the house, but Araminta doesn’t want to leave. This is something that happens to a lot of children and I think it is good to see it feature in more books. It is a great set-up for the rest of the series because it introduces the house, the characters and their personalities very well.

My Haunted House Characters:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Araminta Spook is the main character in this book. She is very strong-willed and I enjoy her character because the book is written as though from her perspective, she sees herself as the leader and that comes across. One of the characters who arrives in the first book is wanda, and she is set up to become Araminta’s friend/sidekick. She has a less strong personality and often comes across as younger than Araminta but I like their dynamic together. I also love Uncle Drac, he’s a vampire who is either sleeping or talking about his favourite bat.

My Haunted House Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

There’s not much I can say about this category, the writing was clear and although it felt a little young for me, as it is a book aimed at children, I still enjoyed it.

My Haunted House Overall:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I gave this book four stars because I enjoyed it as a child and I enjoyed it still as an adult.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Araminta Spookie lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house—Araminta “has” to stop her!

With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush that is so ghoulish, it just might work!

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Where'd I Leave It Wednesday

Where’d I Leave It Wednesday: Passagers

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Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you’re all having a good day today. My story today is about my trip to the Theatre last night. It wasn’t quite what I expected.

My mum and I decided to go and see this show called ‘Passagers’ at the Theatre after seeing a poster advertising it. On the poster the show reminded me of the circus, with the aerial acts and the acrobatics. So I went in expecting an exciting circus acrobatic performance.

The first thing I thought when I sat in my seat was thank goodness I was on a corner. Usually, because of how limited my sight is, I have to sit front row but this time I was sat in the second row and because I was on the corner there was a gap between the two chairs in front of me. There is nothing worse than being sat in the second row and having a six foot something person sat in front of you. Yes, this has happened to me before.

Then the show started.

Now, the show itself started with an interesting dance number. I knew it would be hard for me to see but there was so much going on, multiple people dancing in different parts of the stage and it felt like my eye was pacing the amount of back and forth it was doing.

When the acrobatic elements started I realised the show was going to be more difficult than I thought. The aerial acts were beautiful and I think my mouth was open the entire time I was watching their outlines. I say outlines because they were so far away I couldn’t see any more of them. It was like watching stick figures dancing in the air.

Then there was the juggler. My Mum said he was talented and with the amount of cheering the audience were doing they must have been great. The things he was juggling, they looked like bowling pins and as soon as they left his hands – poof! They disappeared in midair. Then they were suddenly in his hands again.

The music of the show was beautiful and kept me entertained as much as the parts of the show I could see.

That’s it for this post I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens

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Happy Monday bookish people! It’s time for another book review and the one I am bringing you today is for Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens. This book is a collection of short stories from the world of the Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens and I got it so that I could have a taster of the series before going out and buying them all.

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.

Once Upon A Crime Plot:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I was intrigued to see how the short stories would all be plotted and I ended up really enjoying most of them. I felt some of them were a little long for a short story but they were filled with subtle details that made the world come to life. One of my favourite short stories in the collection was May Wong and the deadly flat because it was different to the others both in character and in plot. Reading this collection made me excited to pick up the main series.

Once Upon A Crime Characters:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The two main characters in this series is Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong. I think the characters are written beautifully and are very distinct. Personally I liked Hazel more because she is the quieter intelligent type and I can relate to the quietness of her character more than I can to the character of Daisy who is a lot more outgoing.

Once Upon A Crime Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I really liked the writing in this book. Although it is a middle grade novel the writing didn’t feel too young. I felt comfortable reading it and enjoying it.

Once Upon A Crime Overall:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I gave this book four stars because I thought it was a great introduction to the characters and the world and I’m looking forward to starting the main series.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A thrilling new short story collection in the number-one bestselling, award-winning Murder Most Unladylike series.

Featuring six marvellous mini-mysteries, including four original, brand-new and never-seen-before stories:

The Case of the Second Scream: set aboard the ship carrying Daisy and Hazel back from Hong Kong

The Case of the Uninvited Guest: Uncle Felix and Aunt Lucy’s wedding is the target for an unlikely threat

The Hound of Weston School: the Junior Pinkertons investigate a mysterious arrival

The Case of the Deadly Flat: introducing Hazel’s little sister May, who’s determined to be the greatest spy ever

The Case of the Missing Treasure: the detectives crack fiendish codes to catch a daring thief who is targeting London’s famous museums

The Case of the Drowned Pearl: murder follows the Detective Society wherever they go, even on holiday…

The perfect book for all Detective Society fans and avid readers of the Murder Most Unladylike series.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Where'd I Leave It Wednesday

Where’d I Leave It Wednesday: Braille Lessons

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Happy Wednesday everyone! I am back with a new Where’d I Leave It Wednesday post and today it is all about the braille lessons that I’ve started taking.

So, a little bit of background might be helpful to you. I am registered as Severely Sight Impaired (Blind) but I still have a little bit of sight. Then September 2020 I was sitting in my living room and I got a pain in my left eye, a few minutes later I could only see colours out of that eye. Which is rather terrifying but I’m used to how that eye is now. As this blog is mainly a book blog I’m sure it is pretty obvious that I love to read, and I struggle sometimes with e-books because of looking at a screen for any length of time so I read physical books mainly and I have worried about if I might lose the sight in the right eye as well so I decided it was time to learn braille, just in case.

The day of the first session it absolutely poured it down with rain, the lovely British weather, I had my umbrella with me but it didn’t give me that much protection. Mainly because I’m useless with umbrellas and it was swaying above me without the help of any wind. One half of me would be under the umbrella and the next second the other side of me would be. It was a nightmare. I turned up at the place leaving a trail of raindrops on the carpet. If I’d worn white or grey I could have looked like one of those ghosts of drowned people that I’ve seen on television. But I didn’t.

I went up to the reception, trying to peer underneath my hood. My head is so small that if I wasn’t wearing my glasses the hood would cover up to the bottom of my nose. I was wearing my glasses so my hood perched precariously on the top of those. I had to wait there, rainwater still dripping off me, for the receptionist to notice me before being told to wait in one of the chairs. I sat in the chair with my cane in one hand and my umbrella in the other. This is all before I’d even started the session.

Then I did start the session and it was like I had walked into another world and growing back down a couple of years – and by a couple I mean a lot.

We started by talking about why I wanted to do braille and then she got me to trace patterns on strips of wallpaper…. I assure you it felt as strange as it sounds. And my finger got lost, or I got lost with my finger, I’m not sure which but I got confused anyway. Then the session got weirder.

The woman took out an egg carton from a box she had beside her. At this point I had no idea what was happening but I did assume it was empty. It wasn’t. It was full of ping pong balls. I had to use them to create the braille shapes for some of the letters of the alphabet. I felt like I was inside the memory game of the brain training game my sister used to have for her Nintendo. If it secretly was a game like that – I passed.

Then the real work started. I learnt I’m a left handed braille reader. The fingertips on my left hand are more sensitive than the fingertips of my right hand. Did anyone else ever realise that one hand would be more sensitive to things it touches than the other? I certainly didn’t. It’s also pretty hard to read braille with your left hand, other than the obvious learning a new language thing I also have to take my hand across a piece of paper in a line – but I’m used to using my right hand for everything because I’m right handed so it feels like retraining my own hands.

I enjoy the sessions, as I said I’ve only had two so far but they are very good and I’m learning quickly. The amount of concentration it takes though makes my head hurt. The funniest thing is the sessions are an hour long, and about halfway through that some of the dots of the braille just stop being felt. Fingertips stop feeling things if they’ve been used too long that’s what I was told and it is a very unusual feeling.

That’s the end of this Where’d I Leave It Wednesday, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Monthly Wrap Ups

September Wrap-Up

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Happy Friday everyone! I’ll be putting up three posts today and this is the first of them. It’s a day or two late but I’m finally getting around to doing my September wrap-up.

So, the month of September was super busy for me and a lot of things happened. First, I moved in with my partner on the first of September and it has been quite the month getting used to living with someone new and learning how they are. This month I also found out that I have gotten onto the PhD that I wanted and now I’m just waiting for when I’m going to start. And finally, I found out that I got a distinction on my Master’s Dissertation.

As I said last month, I’m very surprised I read as much as I did this month, the only problem is that hardly any of the books that I read were from my TBR…. I’m sure you can guess that I didn’t finish my TBR. So, let’s get straight into what I did and didn’t read this month.

September TBR and Thoughts:

  • A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson – we are starting off well, I did read this one and I have posted my review of it.
  • All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace – I did not read
  • Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb – I did not read
  • Lore by Alexandra Bracken – I didn’t read this one either
  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I wish I had gotten around to this one but unfortunately I didn’t
  • Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty – I did not read
  • Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim – I did not read
  • Six Tudor Queens Katherine of Aragon by Alison Weir – I did not read
  • The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White – I did not read
  • The Switch by Beth O’Leary – I did not read

So… I only actually read one book from my TBR but I did read these nine other books:

  • Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain
  • The Woman in the Wood by M K Hill
  • The Crime Archives
  • The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  • The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  • The Chateau by Catherine Cooper
  • The Curry Compendium by Richard Sayce
  • Stalking Shadows by Cyla Panin
  • The Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin

That’s it for my wrap-up for September! I managed to read ten books which I am pretty happy with. I hope you all enjoyed it!

blog tours, Book Reviews

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson Book Look and Top 5 Reasons to read.

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Happy Wednesday bookish people! I am so excited to be part of the book tour for As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson, the third book in the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Series. I absolutely love this series and I am excited today to be bringing you a ‘book look’ and my Top 5 Reasons for you to read As Good As Dead!

Thank you to TbrBeyond tours for having me on this tour and sending me an e-copy of this book.

So, first let me show you my book look! I looked at the colours on the cover, black, grey and red, and I chose a red top and a pair of grey jeans.

(This photo was taken in my hallway by the way, it’s the place that had the best light)

Onto my Top 5 Reasons To Read As Good As Dead…

Top 5 Reasons To Read As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson:

  1. If you have read the first book, or the first and second book in this series you’ll already know how good it is and can’t wait to pick up the third book – I felt like this and I was not disappointed, I thought As Good As Dead was brilliant.
  2. If you like school based murder mystery books like Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson then this book series would definitely be for you!
  3. The characters have you on their side before you even know you’re on their side. It’s really that quick and the characters are some of my favourites in YA books.
  4. The book has a large focus on family and friendship which is something I particularly enjoyed, if you’re like me and you enjoy seeing this in books there is plenty of it in this series.
  5. There is mixed media – like emails and transcripts of interviews which is a unique element that adds to the story.

Blurb/Synopsis of As Good As Dead:

The highly anticipated, edge-of-your-seat conclusion to the addictive A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series that reads like your favorite true crime podcast or show. By the end, you’ll never think the same of good girls again.

Pip’s good girl days are long behind her. After solving two murder cases and garnering internet fame from her crime podcast, she’s seen a lot.

But she’s still blindsided when it starts to feel like someone is watching her. It’s small things at first. A USB stick with footage recording her and the same anonymous source always asking her: who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? It could be a harmless fan, but her gut is telling her danger is lurking.

When Pip starts to find connections between her possible stalker and a local serial killer, Pip knows that there is only one choice: find the person threatening her town including herself–or be as good as dead. Because maybe someone has been watching her all along…

You can find the rest of the tour schedule here: https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2021/08/27/tour-schedule-as-good-as-dead-a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-3-by-holly-jackson/

Author Holly Jackson:

You can buy the book here:https://www.waterstones.com/book/as-good-as-dead/holly-jackson/9781405298605

And here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/As-Good-Dead-thriller-everyone-ebook/dp/B08T6YS245

That’s it for my post today, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you the book review for one of my favorite books that I have read – Caraval by Stephanie Garber! I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you all.

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.

Caraval Plot:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I happened to pick this book up in a WhSmith in one of those service stations on the motorway while on a long car journey because I liked the sound of a circus-y themed competition story. I didn’t know then that this book would start an obsession with all things circus, particularly books with that setting. I love the plot of this book, it is filled to the brim with magic and escapism and one of the things I always love in books – not knowing who or what you can trust. This book completely messes with your head while at the same time being joyously beautiful and whimsical, dashed with danger. I could not put this book down.

Caraval Characters:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Scarlett Dragna is one of two sisters, Scarlett and Tella, and in Caraval we follow Scarlett after Tella goes missing and Scarlett must compete in Caraval to find her. She is headstrong and fierce, especially in her loyalty to her sister. Scarlett is the character that I wish I could be (and who I will be dressing up as for YALC next year). The other character who features heavily in this book is Julian de Santos, he’s a cheeky, charming, mysterious man often described as looking like a rogue/pirate. As soon as I read that I knew I was going to love him, he’s definitely in my top five male book characters.

Caraval Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Stephanie Garber is an exceptionally good writer who has such talent that she drew me in from the very first sentence of the book and has captured my interest ever since. I have read the first and second book in the series so far and I find myself thinking on it all the time.

Caraval Overall:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I had to give this book five stars because as I said, it is one of my favourite books I have ever read.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Uncategorized

Friday First and Lasts!

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Happy Friday bookish people! and welcome to my new Friday segments!

It feels good to be back this week, I wasn’t able to post on Monday and Wednesday this week like I usually would because there has been so much going on, including: a trip to A and E because my boyfriend slipped on a bottle and injured his wrist and ankle and… I found out I got onto the Creative Writing PhD course that I wanted. Now starts three years of hard but rewarding work.

Anyway, back to the exciting, new Friday segments. I was talking to a friend and we were laughing about how sentences from different books can create all new sentences and that gave me the idea for this segment. I will take two books and put together their first and last sentences to see what I get, whether it works or whether it doesn’t!

I would love to hear from you all what happens when you put together the first and last sentences of some of your books, let me know some down in the comments!

I also have some thoughts of maybe turning this into a giveaway once a month or something like that so let me know what you think of that idea down in the comments too!

Last week on my Instagram – @the_blind_scribe – I asked everyone for two numbers between 1 and 405 and today I am going to show you the first five sets of first and last sentences from books chosen by the numbers I was given.

The / is where the two different sentences are split.

Up first is…

One Of Us Is Next by Karen M McManus and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

which gives us… My sister thinks I’m a slacker/Far above the stars are watching delighted.

This actually works! It’s not the clearest sentence but it does work which is great considering how different the two books that created it are.

The second one is…

A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer and Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie

which gives us… I miss knowing exactly what time it is/Girl found.

So, this one doesn’t work together which is a shame but of course, they won’t all work together but I’m still going to put them on here.

Next is…

Six Tudor Queens Kathryn Howard by Alison Weir and The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Which gives us.. Kathryn was seven when her Mother died/ “I am a God” I tell them “and I am your Queen”.

This could work.. with a few tweaks such as changing the tense in the sentence so they are both the same which would give us – Kathryn was seven when her Mother died and “I am a God” she tells them “and I am your Queen” which would work much nicer.

The fourth one is…

Legendborn by Tracey Deonn and One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Which gives us… The police officer’s body goes blurry and then sharp again/there is only the sea, clear and sparkling

Like the last one, this one almost works – if the ‘and then sharp again’ part was taken out it would work much better.

Finally for today’s episode of Friday First and Lasts…

Optimists Die First by Susin Nielson and Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Which gives us… The first time I saw the bionic man I was covered in sparkles/they brought us together

This one works strangely well. It alludes to the characters being brought together by those sparkles and that sounds like a lovely thing to me.

So, that’s it for the first episode of this new segment. As I said above, comment down below with what you thought of it, any great ones you come across in your books and what you think of he giveaway idea and I’ll be back next week with some more!

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Curry Compendium by Richard Sayce

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Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my spot on the book tour for The Curry Compendium by Richard Sayce. Thank you to Literally PR for sending me a copy of this book to review.

This review will be different to my usual ones as a Curry Compendium doesn’t have a plot or characters to rate but I will give the book an overall rating and tell you some of my thoughts about it.

Curry Compendium: My thoughts:

So, I myself am not a lover of curries. Okay, admittedly I’ve only ever tried one and I think pepper (as in salt and pepper) is too spicy. That tells you a little something about my culinary palette. It barely exists. However, my partner loves curries and spicy food. He was very happy I received this book.

This book contains many recipes split down into clear and organised sections, each one is easy to find and easy to read through. We haven’t had the chance to make any of the recipes yet, although I’m pretty sure he is eyeing up a few of them to try and get me to taste them. The book itself is very well presented, I think the cover stands out and all the pictures are enticing.

I’d give this book a rating of

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Four stars because I know my partner is going to get a lot of enjoyment out of experimenting with the recipes and making them for his family who also enjoy eating curries.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Introducing the definitive guide to recreating British Indian Restaurant favourites from the comfort of your own home!

Lockdown saw a surge in people trying to recreate restaurant flavours at home – and now Brits want more inspiration as they get bolder in the kitchen.

In Curry Compendium, Richard Sayce expertly combines both volumes of his best-selling, Gourmand award-winning Indian Restaurant Curry at Home books, with a sprinkling of new recipes, to create the ultimate guide to cooking excellent British Indian Restaurant food in your own kitchen.

Richard Sayce, the man behind Misty Ricardo’s Curry Kitchen, is renowned by his many fans for quality recipes, attention to detail and his affable style. Having sold more than 50,000 copies of his first books, and amassing over six million views of his recipes on YouTube, there is a huge appetite for this new magnus opus packed with mouth-watering, easy-to-follow recipes.

Curry Compendium includes starters, side dishes, curries, rice and bread, along with a generous portion of vegetarian, traditional and street food style recipes. Readers benefit from supporting YouTube tutorials for the majority of recipes, each with a QR code to scan with a smartphone/tablet to watch online instantly.

Research from Bray Leino points to lockdown leading to an overwhelming rise in home cooking: 55% said they are ‘cooking more from scratch as I’m spending more time at home.’ Interestingly, the group most likely to agree with this statement was 18-34 year olds. Their 2019 report identified this group as most likely to eat fast food and use ready meals, so we’re seeing a huge behaviour shift that will impact for years to come.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin

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Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my stop on the book tour for The Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin. Thank you to Tara McEvoy for sending me a physical copy of this book to read and review.

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 Dinner Party Plot:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

For most of this book I wasn’t sure there was much of a plot, but I realised this was because the author was showing us glimpses of the past intertwined with events of the present and the relationships of the characters. I liked that this book didn’t shy away from difficult topics and instead presented them in the right way.

The Dinner Party Characters:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

To me this book was very character centred. Most of the tension and the mystery was because of the relationships between the characters and I liked getting to know each of them on a deeper level than books sometimes show their characters.

The Dinner Party Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The writing in this book is lovely, clear and smooth. It also has this ominous tone to it throughout which I think added a whole other level to the story.

The Dinner Party Overall:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I gave this book three stars overall because although it was an enjoyable read, I didn’t feel all the tension in my self, I wasn’t that connected to any of the characters.

Blurb/Synopsis:

To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, Kate meticulously plans a dinner party – from the fancy table setting to the perfect baked alaska waiting in the freezer. But by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests are gone, and Kate is spinning out of control.

Set between from the 1990s and the present day, from Carlow to Dublin, the family farmhouse to Trinity College, Dinner Party is a beautifully observed, dark and twisty novel that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy.

Haunting and unforgettable, it explores how the past informs the present, the inevitability of childhood damage resurfacing in later life – and yet how, despite everything, we can’t help returning home.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!