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Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my stop on the blog tour for the book Love Is What You Bake It by Effie Kammenou. Thank you to Love Book Tours for sending me a 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.

Love is What You Bake It Plot:

I don’t read many books that can be classed as part of the romance genre so I can’t say how this book sits amongst them, however, I surprised myself because I actually enjoyed my reading of this book. I thought the plot was simple enough for me to understand everything that was happening while still complicated and filled with layers of back story that gave the story the ‘will they, won’t they’ that it needed.

I enjoyed the themes of family and friendship that were one of the main features of this book, it gave it more of a story in my opinion. I also liked that there were actual recipes sprinkled throughout the book – I definitely want to make some of these!

For me the romance element felt a little rushed, it is a short book to begin with, but I like my romance (even though it’s usually only a tiny sub-plot) to be a slow burn, and when I say slow I mean a snails pace – I like it to be very dragged out.

Love Is What You Bake It Characters:

The main characters Kally and Max were interesting and complex. The way their back stories were slowly shown to the reader was good at playing with your perceptions of the characters. My favourite character in the book has to be Athena, I don’t think it’s a spoiler by saying she is Max’s daughter – if it is sorry! – and she is great. I like children generally, in life and in fiction, but she was very well written and acted her age.

The only part I didn’t enjoy about the characters was there was one, who I won’t name because that would be a spoiler, who in my opinion was coming across a bit dangerous and a bit too controlling and then at the end they almost had a redemption arc which was for a specific reason to further the plot but I did feel that wasn’t the best way to present that character at the end.

Love Is What You Bake It Writing and Dialogue:

I don’t have a lot to say about this section. I thought the writing flowed easily and kept my interest in the story well. The dialogue, although at times too much information was given at once, was well written and matched the characters and their personalities.

Love Is What You Bake It Overall:

I have given this book four stars because I was surprised how much I actually ended up enjoying the story. It was light-hearted and fun and influenced by Greek culture which was very interesting to learn about.

Blurb/synopsis:

The only love Kally Andarakis is baking is in the form of the sweet treats she whips up in her café, The Coffee Klatch.

Kally never believed herself to be a person worthy of love, but when an intoxicating man she considered out of her league pursues her, she risks everything to be with him. Later, when tragedy strikes, truths are revealed that leave Kally brokenhearted and untrusting.

Eight years later, Kally is a successful pastry chef running the café she’d always dreamed of owning. With a home of her own, a profession she’s passionate about, and the support and love of friends and family, Kally is content with the life she has carved out for herself.

Until the day Max Vardaxis walks into her café…

With arguing parents, meddling relatives, an overly energetic grandmother, a man-crazy best friend, and the long ago, mysterious disappearance of a grandfather, this new man in town is just one more complication in Kally’s life, if not the main one.

Kally must now decide whether to keep her heart safe or to once again take a ‘whisk on love.’

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Skyseed by Bill McGuire

May 9, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Sunday bookish people! I’m mixing it up a bit today and bringing you a book review on a Sunday! Today is my stop on the blog tour for Skyseed by Bill McGuire, thank you to Love Books Tours for sending me a copy of this book to 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.

Skyseed Plot:

I decided to read this book because I knew it would be out of my comfort zone and it’s a good change from the fantasies I usually read. However, I will say now it wasn’t my sort of book but reading is subjective and I can appreciate many good things about it. For example, I thought this book was very unique, I couldn’t think of any similar books to it.

There is a prologue at the beginning of the book and although I didn’t understand where in the timeline this part was, it became obvious later in the story, you are thrown straight into the action with this scene and it sets up the whole book brilliantly. The prologue, and the rest of the book, is full of well written sensory details that transport the reader into the story.

The different chapters intertwined throughout the narrative follow different characters and what happen to them both separately and in relation to other characters, these chapters are refreshing and builds tension. It is building a mystery with every chapter, each one is a completely new layer to dig through to discover what is happening. I started to think that I could start predicting what would happen and then something shocking would happen and I’d be thrown off again.

Skyseed Characters:

There are a lot of characters in this book, and for the most part their perspectives are separated by chapter breaks but not always and I did find myself getting confused about who was speaking, where and when. Saying that I did really like the characters of Jane and Ralph who are two of the ‘main’ characters. Jane is a character who speaks her mind and I enjoyed seeing that and how other characters reacted to her.

Skyseed Writing and Dialogue:

There is a focus on technical language and politics within this book which worked very well for the story. Even though it wasn’t the sort of plot I usually enjoy the writing was smooth and made it very easy for me to read this book, I did read it in a few hours so that showed me the writing was very well done. the dialogue worked for each character, it let their personalities shine through what they were saying and it helped to drive the narrative.

Skyseed Overall Rating:

As you have probably realised by now this book wasn’t a favourite for me but there are many good things about this book. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes Dystopian stories, plot driven narratives and maybe a little science fiction as well. I can give this book a good rating of three stars.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Sometimes, when you’re in a hole, it’s best to stop digging.

This applies as much to messing with the climate as anything else, except even more so.

Jane Haliwell put her head in her hands. To tell the truth, she was still in shock. All the samples she had taken from inside and around the lab contained the enigmatic spheres in huge numbers. She had only had a brief time to think about the implications, but she was pretty sure already what was going on.

For the first time in the history of the world, it was literally raining carbon. Long before it stopped, the guilty would pay, but so would the innocent…

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

Book Tags

The 50 Bookish Questions Tag

May 7, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Friday bookish people! Today I’m posting a book tag that I saw on Adventures of a Bookish Girl’s blog – the 50 bookish questions tag! If you want to do this tag yourself, then consider yourself tagged.

What was the last book you read? This might be cheating a little but I’m about 100 pages away from finishing The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss.
Was it a good one? Yes! The first 100 pages were a bit slow but since the action picked up I’m loving it.
What made it good? Hmm.. a lot of things are good about it but I think I’ll go with the mix of characters in the story.
Would you recommend it to other people? Yes, definitely!
How often do you read? I try to read every day but with my job and University work at the moment It’s been more like three or four times a week.
Do you like to read? Um…yes.
What was the last bad book you read? What A Way To Go by Julia Forster. It isn’t a bad book and other people might love it, that’s the great thing about books, I just got no enjoyment from reading it at all.
What made you dislike it? I didn’t understand the setting or what was happening in the plot and I didn’t feel anything for the characters.
Do you wish to be a writer? Yes, hopefully…I’m just finishing up my Creative Writing Master’s degree right now.
Has any book ever influenced you greatly? Yes, although right now I’m blanking on the names of all of them.. of course.
Do you read fan fiction? Nope.
Do you write fan fiction? That’s also a no.
What’s your favourite book? Right now my favourite book is, and it has been for a while, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
What’s your least favourite book? I can think of a lot of these, most of them are books I’ve had to read for my classes like the Odyssey by Homer, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Ulysses by James Joyce.
Do you prefer physical books or read on a device? Physical books definitely, I don’t quite get into them as much if I read them on a device – plus glare from the screen.
When did you learn to read? According to my mum I learnt to read before I went to nursery, which is age 4 in the UK, so I was quite young.
What is your favourite book you had to read in school? Ooh that would either be Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck or Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
What is your favourite book series? At the moment it is Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco.
Who is your favourite author? I can’t pick one for this, I have too many!
What is your favourite genre? YA, Fantasy, Historical Ficiton, Crime/Thriller – oh wait that’s most of them…
Who is your favourite character in a book series? …I can’t choose.
Has a book ever transported you somewhere else? All the time! Every book really.
Which book do you wish had a sequel? Hm..for this I’m going to say The Left Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix, I have to know what happened to the characters after the end of that book!
Which book do you wish didn’t have a sequel? Ah, I don’t know an answer for this one – so far I don’t remember reading any sequels and thinking they would have been better leaving it at the first book.
How long does it take you to read a book? That depends on how long it is. I usually read 100 pages an hour on average so a 400 page book I will read in about four hours.
Do you like when books become movies? That’s a tough one because sometimes I like them and other times I don’t.
Which book was ruined by it’s movie adaptation? The first one that comes to mind for me is Allegiant, the last book in the Divergent series.
Which movie has done a book justice? Well, I think The Hunger Games was quite good, but the books are still better.
Do you read newspapers? Not usually, sometimes I read the local one that comes through the letterbox.
Do you read magazines? Only my monthly writing magazine and sometimes the odd history magazine if it is something I’m interested in.
Do you prefer newspapers or magazines? Magazines.
Do you read while in bed? Only if I can’t sleep and I decide to read to pass the time.
Do you read while on the toilet? Um.. no.
Do you read while in the car? Yes, especially on a long journey it makes the time fly by.
Do you read while in the bath? After an unfortunate incident definitely not.
Are you a fast reader? I’m told that I am so I guess so.
Are you a slow reader? No.
Where is your favourite place to read? It will sound strange but there’s this spot at the top of the stairs right outside the bathroom where the light is just perfect.
Is it hard for you to concentrate when you read? No, it’s very easy for me.
Do you need a room to be silent when you read? No, actually I like to have a show that I’ve seen a lot of times on in the background – but I do need people to not interrupt and try to talk to me a lot because that’s just annoying.
Who gave you your love for reading? Nobody that I know, my family don’t read that much, other than me.
What book is next on your list to read? Either Lore by Alexandra Bracken or Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.
When did you start to read chapter books? I don’t know exactly but it was early apparently.
Who is your favourite children’s book author? Tanya Landman probably, I loved her books.
What author would you most want to interview? Stephanie Garber, the author of Caraval, I love her books and from her instagram she looks so lovely!
Which author do you think you’d be friends with? All of them, I think I’m quite friendly so I’d just want to be friends with everyone.
What book have you reread the most? The lady in the Tower by Marie Louise Jenson, historical fiction. The book is in quite the state.
Which books do you consider classics? um.. classical books like pre-1800s maybe.
Which books do you think should be taught in every school? Too many to even begin mentioning them here.
Which books should be banned in all schools? I don’t really agree with banning books so I’m not going to answer this question.

That’s it for this book tag, I hope everyone enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

All My Lies by Sophie Flynn Book Review

May 3, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today is the first day on the blog/book tour for All My Lies by Sophie Flynn. Thank you to Anne Cater and Random T Tours for gifting me an e-copy of this 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.

All My Lies Plot:

The plot pf this book absolutely fried my brain. There were so many twists and misleading paths I didn’t know who or what to believe the whole way through. I probably read this book the fastest I have ever read through a thriller/mystery book. The plot of this book was like the driver of a car and I was the passenger forced into the front and unable to get out. It was fast paced and the mystery was the main subject of the novel, it had many layers and each one was explored thoroughly and with an intensity that kept me hooked. Some parts were confusing, however I think that was the point – the main character was confused and so was the reader. I felt the ending was extremely satisfying and I’m definitely a little smug that I managed to guess what happened.

All My Lies Characters:

It is a testament to the author that she managed to make me love a character on one page and by the end of the next page I could lose all trust in them. I loved this, for me it added to the sense of mystery because I never really knew who was telling the truth – including the main character. I felt a connection with the main character, Anna, the things she was going through with her husband is something that many people have also experienced and can connect to. I thought there was a wonderful balance between the personalities of the characters and each of them had grown by the end of the book.

All My Lies Writing and Dialogue:

Sophie Flynn’s writing is so smooth and easy to follow, it’s easy to get swept into the story simply because of this. The dialogue is something I really enjoyed about this book. Personally I felt that there was a tiny bit too much explanation in the dialogue but I still thought each line of dialogue matched the characters it belonged to.

All My Lies Overall:

Overall, I gave this book four stars because I wanted to keep reading so badly that I sped through it and enjoyed every second.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Perfectly paced, suspenseful and gripping – a real page-turner’ SOPHIE HANNAH, author of Haven’t They Grown

‘A rollercoaster ride with a cast of flawed characters – an excellent debut from Sophie Flynn’ CATHERINE COOPER, author of The Chalet

‘A twisty, intense and emotional story with suspense on every page’ TM LOGAN,author of The Holiday and Trust Me

Anna wants to escape.
She doesn’t know when her marriage to James began to feel like a trap or when he became so controlling. All she knows is that she needs to leave before it’s too late.

And she has a plan.
When Anna reconnects with her childhood sweetheart, Sam, she sees it as the answer to her problems. Finally, they’ll have a life together, like they’d always planned – the life she was meant to have.

But the lies are catching up with her . . .
On the morning of their escape, Sam goes missing. Anna knows he wouldn’t leave her, that something must have happened to him.
Her search for answers will force her to confront her past, something that she has been running from for a very long time . . .

Perfect for fans of Louise Jensen, Phoebe Morgan and K.L. Slater, this is a twisty, tense psychological thriller about one woman’s hunt for the truth and her ultimate fight to break free.

Praise for All My Lies

‘I raced through All My Lies in a single weekend . . . I barely paused for breath until the final page. A must read’ HOLLY SEDDON, author of The Hit List

‘A fantastic debut that showcases how blind love can make us. Sophie Flynn has written a brilliant book that sucks the reader in and keeps them guessing throughout’ S.V. LEONARD, author of The Islanders

‘A fresh new voice in psychological suspense . . . Great characters, evocative writing, interesting locations and a page-turning plot with plenty of twists and turns. I can’t wait to see where Flynn goes next!’ SARAH LINLEY, author of The Trip

‘An exciting debut with a poisonous love triangle at its heart. Unsettling, compelling and twisty – perfect for thriller fans!’ RUBY SPEECHLEY, author of A Mother like You

‘I raced through this book, reading well into the early hours of the morning. Original, bold and highly compelling, this is a book that will stay with readers for a long time. It heralds the arrival of an exceptionally talented voice in crime fiction. A riveting debut!’ AWAIS KHAN, author of No Honour

‘A thrilling new voice – Sophie Flynn pulls the reader in with believable, strong characters and an explosive plot’ AMANDA BRITTANY, author of The Perfect Nanny

Sophie Flynn is a Cotswolds based psychological thriller author with an MA in
Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes. Alongside writing, Sophie is the Head
of Marketing at Jericho Writers. After being awarded a place at Swanwick
Writers’ Summer School on the TopWrite scheme for young writers in 2017,
Sophie began writing short fiction. She has since had many stories published
and placed in competitions with organisations such as Writing Magazine and
The Cheltenham Literature Festival.
When not writing, Sophie can mostly be found on muddy walks with her
husband and rescue dog or disappearing to Cornwall whenever possible. She
is represented by Kate Nash of Kate Nash Literary Agency.
To find out more, visit her website or follow her on Twitter.
sophieflynn.com | @sophielflynn

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Cosmic Queries by Neil Degrasse Tyson

April 29, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Thursday bookish people! Today I am bringing you a book review for Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going by Neil Degrasse Tyson with James Trefil. Thank you to Trisha Collins and TLC Book Tours and National Geographic for kindly sending me a copy of this book to review.

This book review is going to be a little different to how I usually do them because there are no plots or characters to rate so what I am going to do is write about the really great parts of the book, what some of the chapters are about and give an overall rating for the book.

I hope you enjoy this book review!

About Cosmic Queries

• Publisher: National Geographic (March 2, 2021)
• Hardcover: 312 pages

In this thought-provoking follow-up to his acclaimed StarTalk book, uber astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles the world’s most important philosophical questions about the universe with wit, wisdom, and cutting-edge science.

For science geeks, space and physics nerds, and all who want to understand their place in the universe, this enlightening new book from Neil deGrasse Tyson offers a unique take on the mysteries and curiosities of the cosmos, building on rich material from his beloved StarTalk podcast.

In these illuminating pages, illustrated with dazzling photos and revealing graphics, Tyson and co-author James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia–How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone?–and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.

Populated with paradigm-shifting discoveries that help explain the building blocks of astrophysics, this relatable and entertaining book will engage and inspire readers of all ages, bring sophisticated concepts within reach, and offer a window into the complexities of the cosmos.

For all who loved National Geographic’s StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, and Space Atlas, this new book will take them on more journeys into the wonders of the universe and beyond.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #CosmicQueries, and tag @tlcbooktours and @startalkradio.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Waterstones

About Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, host of the hit radio and Emmy-nominated TV show StarTalk, and the New York Times best-selling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military. He lives in New York City.

Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

The Review!

Okay, so I will start by saying that this is not my usual genre but I found this book incredibly interesting to read through. The author explains philosophical conundrums and other facts about the Universe in a natural, personable and easy to understand way.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is that it includes various photographs and diagrams which break up the blocks of text and keep the pacing interesting and they also work really well for me because it gives me a visual for the facts that I am reading about. One of my favourite images in the book is of Alberta’s Abraham Lake at night with the Aurora Borealis.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book is that pictures of tweets by Neil deGrasse Tyson are spread throughout the book. For me this created a connection with the author, it gave him more of a personality which doesn’t always come through in the text itself. It helped me to understand his thinking a bit better.

In this book there is plenty of information covering lots of different topics such as: How big is the solar system?, Galaxies, naked eye astronomy, Galileo and the telescope, the radio universe, the big bang, planetary migration, the birth of chemistry and the edge of the map of time.

I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite topic or chapter from this book because there is so much information in the book and it was a very new genre to me and I enjoyed the learning experience I got from reading this book.

My overall rating of Cosmic Queries:

I would recommend this book to both those interested in the universe and those that aren’t as much because I feel there is something everyone can take from this book.

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

April 26, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! I promise this is the last book review for today. This book review is for Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco, the third book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. The cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous I can’t get over it.

As usual 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.

Escaping From Houdini Plot:

Okay I’ll say it now so that it’s out of the way – this was my least favourite book of the series. It was only because of personal preference. The book is mostly set on a ship and there is a circus type performance group there and I did enjoy this part and how the performers were entwined in the mystery of this book. Honestly I’ll pick up any book that has carnival/circus themes in it – they are very much my type of books. Mostly I did enjoy this plot however (*SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING*) there is a love triangle in this book that I felt impacted my enjoyment, simply because I don’t like love triangles in books, it’s not a trope I like reading. If you do enjoy love triangles then you will probably like this book more than I did.

Escaping From Houdini Characters:

I’m still giving the characters four stars because they are amazing characters that I would protect with my life. Audrey Rose Wadsworth I like a bit less in this book than I usually do just because she makes some decisions that I don’t think represented her character that well but these were only a few occasions and for the rest of the book she was her lovely sassy self.

And again, Thomas Cresswell shows me just how great he is. He is witty and intelligent – slightly annoying I’m sure Audrey rose would say but that is how he has been throughout the whole series, nice and consistent. I won’t go on too much I promise… seriously I could talk about him all day -ask anyone who knows me or get to know me and find out for yourself..

Escaping from Houdini Writing and Dialogue:

Kerri Maniscalco is a master, even the scenes that I didn’t enjoy I could feel myself wanting to so badly just because of how good the writing is. If I was even half as good as her I’d be happy.

Escaping From Houdini Overall:

As I said before on the Stalking Jack the Ripper book review, I rated all these books at the same time. I couldn’t give Escaping From Houdini four stars the same as Stalking Jack the Ripper when my enjoyment wasn’t on the same level. So unfortunately that means Escaping From Houdini only gets three stars.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a traveling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.

But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea.

It’s up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even more passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer’s horrifying finale?

That’s it for this book review, I hope everyone enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

April 26, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! The second book review of today is for the second book in the series. Hunting Prince Dracula is the second book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco.

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.

Hunting Prince Dracula Plot:

I think you can tell from my star rating that I absolutely LOVED this book. Before reading it I was very intrigued by it being set at Dracula’s castle and how Kerri Maniscalco was going to weave in the mythology to this story – I won’t spoil anything but she did it so well! – and I have always been interested in vampire mythology. I thought that the way the story was told was such a unique take and kept the essence of the characters throughout it as well. I don’t have the words for how much i loved this book – at the beginning of the series if you’d asked me which I would have liked the most I would have said Stalking Jack the Ripper and I would have been wrong.

Hunting Prince Dracula Characters:

As I said on my book review for Stalking Jack the Ripper Audrey Rose Wadsworth is the type of female protagonist I love to see in books. Strong willed, determined and always in the thick of trouble. She just gets even better in Hunting Prince Dracula, I didn’t think it was possible but she does. She’s out of her comfort zone, away from her family and making new friends who may or may not be people you should trust and it was enjoyable to see how she reacted to everything thrown at her in this book.

And Thomas Cresswell. What can I say, he is very dear to me. That’s probably weird because he’s fictional but never mind. In this book more secrets of his past are revealed and I was completely hooked on finding out what they were. There’s also another side to him that didn’t show very much in Stalking Jack the Ripper, his caring side. I love a character that has layers.

Hunting Prince Dracula Writing and Dialogue:

Same as the first book in the series Kerri Maniscalco’s writing is excellent. I’d even go as far as saying it’s almost the perfect writing style for me. There’s not much more I can say here other than the dialogue really makes this book – it’s one of the many, many, many things I love about Thomas Cresswell!

Hunting Prince Dracula Overall:

I couldn’t give this book anything but five stars. It was amazing, I basically blocked out everyone trying to talk to me until I’d finished it and yeah – read this book! It’s so good.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper’s true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe’s best schools of forensic medicine… and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend.

But her life’s dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school’s forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.

In this New York Times bestselling sequel to Kerri Maniscalco’s haunting #1 debut Stalking Jack the Ripper, bizarre murders are discovered in the castle of Prince Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula. Could it be a copycat killer…or has the depraved prince been brought back to life?

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

April 26, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! It’s time for another book review, well… three book reviews of which this is the first! Really it should be four because there’s four books in this series but I haven’t finished processing the last book yet so once I do I’ll do a book review for it.

Anyway, today’s review is for Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco! I loved this book, I read it while I was on the train travelling to YALC in London about two years ago and I was so annoyed about having to put it down to get off the train – obviously I finished it in the hotel room that night.

As usual 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.

Stalking Jack the Ripper Plot:

Where do I even start? I have a fascination with Jack the Ripper – not in a weird way I promise – and as soon as I saw the synopsis for this book I knew I had to have it. Instantly the plot intrigued me, a girl in Victorian London wanting to work on autopsies of corpses.. sounds like something I’d love. Throw in a distracting, charming, mysterious Thomas Cresswell and the book had me completely.

I enjoyed how the investigation was played out throughout the novel. Twists and turns, characters being accused left and right. If a book can confuse me even for part of it then I think it’s done brilliantly, I’m not bragging or anything I just do usually figure out books endings quite easily, and yes I did think the ending of the mystery was a bit predictable but it didn’t stop me enjoying every second of it. I liked that Kerri Maniscalco didn’t shy away from the details of the Jack the Ripper investigation and the autopsies and everything else – I could tell there was a lot of research put in.

Stalking Jack the Ripper Characters:

Okay I’ll try not to get too excited over these characters but I bring them up a lot in everyday conversation…

Audrey Rose Wadsworth. First off I really like the name.. that doesn’t have any bearing on the book I just wanted to say it. She’s daring, she’s brave (maybe a little hardheaded sometimes.. but then I’ve also been described as that many times) and she’s intelligent. She’s a girl who wants to break out of society’s mould and I am all for that in my protagonists.

Thomas Cresswell… ooh I really love him. If you ask my boyfriend he’d probably say that Thomas Cresswell is his biggest competition.. and he’d be right but yes, unfortunately Thomas is ficitonal and I don’t live in Jack the Ripper Victorian London. He’s sarcastic and witty, very mysterious and charming and I could go on but I won’t. All I’ll say is his introductory scene is one of my favourite scenes in this book.

Stalking Jack the Ripper Writing and Dialogue:

I have to give Kerri Maniscalco five stars for her writing. It’s so smooth and fluid. I actually forgot I was reading a book at one point. If you’ve read some of my other book reviews you will know that dialogue is one of the things I look closely at in a book, and in Stalking Jack the Ripper the dialogue is excellent. It feels like the characters are actually there in front of me, none of the lines felt out of place for them to say. I have nothing else I can say here.

Stalking Jack the Ripper Overall:

Now, I gave this book four stars. And yes I loved it and yes I really wish the characters were real, but I rated the books in this series all at the same times and this wasn’t my favourite book in this series… so I only gave it four stars but that could definitely change after a reread. (I’ll be rereading very soon!)

Blurb/Synopsis:

Presented by James Patterson’s new children’s imprint, this deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion…

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.

So that’s the end of this book review, I hope you enjoyed it and I really reccommend this book to everyone!

Book Reviews

Book Review: An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

April 19, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! The fourth book review today is for An Unwanted Guest. I’ve recently gotten into reading the mystery/thriller genre and so far I am loving it.

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 the book review!

An Unwanted Guest Plot:

The plot of this novel gave me classic crime, Agatha Christie’s Poirot style vibes. With the remote Inn where all the guests get snowed in and then a murder happens. This is the style of murder mystery I truly enjoy. The whole time my brain was whirring trying to figure out who the murderer was and why they did it. I will admit now, I did not guess it correctly. There are so many twists in this book, secrets hidden by all of the guests and none of them can be trusted. I read this book in an afternoon and loved every second of it. I felt that the changing between the scenes could have been smoother because sometimes I did get confused about where I was but this didn’t impact much on my enjoyment.

An Unwanted Guest Characters:

You get an introduction to almost all of the characters and all of them have mystery surrounding them. Some have marital problems, some have jealousy and some have even worse secrets. I found each character to be engaging and interesting however, I didn’t feel that I liked any of them and I certainly didn’t trust any of them.

Writing and Dialogue:

The dialogue in this book worked brilliantly with the atmosphere. It gave the characters personalities and their interactions with each other spoke volumes with minimal words. The writing style was clever, dynamic and creative. It was smooth to read and I barely remembered that I was not in the story myself because of this.

An Unwanted Guest Overall Rating:

I gave this book four stars because I really enjoyed the mystery, the atmosphere and how everything came together. I felt that some parts of the book needed a tiny bit more explaining and some things weren’t fully resolved at the end but overall I loved the book.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.

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

Uncategorized

Book Review: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A Craig

April 19, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Still me, with another book review. The third review of today is for House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A Craig. This is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses i believe and I was highly anticipating it so I’m glad I managed to read it in January.

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!

House of Salt and Sorrows Plot:

The plot of this novel is dark and enchanting. It has the feeling of a fairytale that is slowly merging with a nightmare. There are so many twists throughout this book I could not put it down. I made myself a cup of tea thinking it would be lovely to drink while reading but I was so hooked on the story that I forgot about my tea, anyone that knows me knows that me forgetting about a cup of tea is pretty much impossible. The dark atmosphere mixed beautifully with the whimsical elements of balls and new gowns and the churning sea. The story opens after a tragic event and the reader gets thrown into the middle of a story which is something I personally love. The slight hints of romance aren’t overwhelming to the plot but they add a nice layer to the plot. I enjoyed how as the story progressed it gradually got darker. I did feel that the ending was tied up too easily, there were a few elements at the end that I think were just used to make the ending the way it was however I still enjoyed it.

House of Salt and Sorrows Characters:

Annaleigh, the main character that you follow, is headstrong and determined to figure out what is happening to her and her sisters which gave her motivation and made me really feel that I wanted the character to succeed. I felt that each of the sisters, including the ones deceased at the start of the novel, are fleshed out well and given strong and unique personalities. None of the sisters were forgotten about and each had an important part to play within the story. I enjoyed the sibling dynamic this gave the story. As I mentioned there is a slight romance subplot which created different atmospheres for the characters.

Writing and Dialogue:

I loved the dialogue in this book. It felt natural and developed between the characters as the novel went on. It didn’t show the reader too much but gave all the information it needed to for the reader to realise what was going on, although I didn’t before the end which to me makes this book brilliant. The writing style was clear and easy to follow. It swept me along with the story.

House of Salt and Sorrows Overall Rating:

I had to give this book four stars. For me the ending, although still good, let it down slightly. This book did put me into a reading slump for a week and a half but I enjoyed every minute, the story, the sisters, the romance, all of it.

Blurb/Synopsis:

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.

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