Book Tags

Amy’s Tea Book Tag

Happy Friday bookish people! Today I am doing the Amy’s Book Tag which I believe was originally started by The Dusty Bookshelf on Youtube. I hope you all enjoy!

Double Bergamot Ear Grey: A robust, deep, intellectual and flavourful book

I read this book while I was in primary school and there are so many layers to the story, that build emotion within the reader.

Tim Horton’s Steeped: A book you read on the go that you came back to again and again

I will always come back to this book, it is in a very very well read condition!

Meyer Lemon: A tangy fast paced read gone before you’ve fully savoured the flavour

This was difficult but I eventually settled on

Chamomile Lavender: A relaxing, calming, late night read

To be honest I mainly read in the evening, especially before I go to bed so for this question I am cheating a little because I am choosing every book!

Lady Grey: A smooth, subtle classic book perfect for a serene winter morning

This book is the first book I think of when I think of winter

English Breakfast: A british classic

I had to choose this one, I read it for my BA degree and loved it

Canadian Breakfast: A title that tastes a little like an english breakfast but reads like the new world

Orange Petloe: a popular novel that everyone has read

Green: A healthy book that that feeds your mind

For this I am choosing a genre rather than a book, I think that historical fiction gives me this feeling.

Iced Tea: A sweet summer treat for the days of summer

Book Tags

April Showers Book Tag

Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing very well today. I am bringing you my first book tag of April, (and yes I say first because there will be a second one next Friday so check that out too!).

I found this tag on thissplendidshambles.com

Book With Water on the cover – Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

This is the very first book I thought of, it is covered in a blue/green wave pattern.

Classic Novel You’d Like To Curl Up On The Couch With – Emma by Jane Austen

Emma is my favourite Austen novel but honestly this question could also be answered with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte but that is kept for rainy days so it is very cosy.

A scary book to read in a rainstorm – none of them!

Scary books freak me out anyway, let alone reading it during a rainstorm.

A good book recommendation for rainy days – Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

This is a good question, on rainy days I usually like to read a nice fantasy and the last time this happened I was reading Sorcery of Thorns and that is the book I would recommend.

The characters you’d like to spend a rainy day with –

Hmm… difficult choice.. I think I would have to choose Kellen from Spellslinger because he could keep everybody entertained with his wit, then I would choose lou from Serpent and Dove because she could do some magic and bring some of the amazing sounding food from the books then I would be stuck because I don’t have a room big enough for all the people I would like to have over!

A book that has blue on the cover – the upside of unrequieted

Again, I had to go with the first book I thought of and the Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli is a bright blue all over cover.

A book with a rainy setting at some point

This is very difficult because I can’t think of a single one!

A book you wouldn’t mind using as an umbrella

Catching fire from the Hunger Games series, just because I lent it to a friend when I was in high school and she left it in her bag, outside in the rain so it is already all curled up from the water damage so a bit more rain can’t hurt it any worse than it is already.

A character you would like to share an umbrella with

ooh, another good question. It is very hard because I would choose a male character, but I am so short (literally I am only 4 foot 11, I am tiny) so whoever I would share an umbrella with would also need to be tiny and there aren’t many characters that small…. okay, I am going to choose Eve brown from Act Your age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert, she is so bubbly that she could make anyone feel positive even in the rain and I also think she is quite short.

A novel with a dry beginning but an amazing ending

I am going to choose Dangerous Women by Hope Adams because the beginning takes a long time to set everything up but the book as a whole is brilliant.

Monthly Wrap Ups, Uncategorized

2022 Wrap Up!

Happy Friday bookish people! My goodness the end of the year has arrived very quickly and it is time to do my yearly wrap up. For this year I am going to show a picture of the book cover of every book I have read this year all broken down into categories determined by the star rating I gave the book.

overall, this year I have only managed to read 49 books, compared to over 100 last year.

2 star

This year I read no books that I disliked so much that I gave them one star, it was close but I eventually decided the books in the two star category are:

In my 3 star category are:

4 star ratings

and finally… my two books I read this year that I rated five stars are…..

Book Reviews

Book Review: Dangerous Women by Hope Adams

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I am bringing you the book review for Dangerous Women by Hope Adams.

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.

Dangerous Women Plot

Rating: 4 out of 5.

In this book the reader is transported into the world of a Women’s convict ship on it’s many weeks travelling across the sea to Australia for a new life. Then one of the women gets murdered. Not only is this book highly atmospheric, it has layers of tension, imagery and mystery and it is one of my favourite books of 2022 so far. I have recently been loving the historical mysteries and this novel fits in that genre perfectly. There’s not a lot I can say about this plot without spoiling anything because it is full of twists but I can say that if you like mystery books I would definitely recommend this book to you.

Dangerous Women Characters

Rating: 4 out of 5.

In this book you are mainly focused on the women as the main characters, and there are quite a few of them with their own important link to the plot, you also see the captain often. By following these characters I got very attached to a few of them, in particular the group of ladies who are part of the sewing group. This book, although it has a strong plot, is very character driven which I think works very well.

Dangerous Women Writing and Dialogue

Rating: 4 out of 5.

This book is told from multiple perspectives which adds a very interesting layer to the mystery because you as the reader are learning things that the other characters might not know. I’m not usually the biggest fan of multiple perspectives but for this book it works.

Dangerous Women Overall

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I gave this book four stars overall because it was a fast-paced, high stakes historical mystery and I enjoyed it.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Nearly two hundred condemned women on board a sailing ship bound for Australia. One of them is a murderer. From debut author Hope Adams comes a thrilling novel based on the 1841 voyage of the convict ship Rajah, about confinement, hope, and the terrible things we do to survive.

London, 1841. One hundred eighty Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.

They’re daughters, sisters, mothers–and convicts.

Transported for petty crimes.

Except one of them has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.

As the Rajah sails farther from land, the women forge a tenuous kinship. Until, in the middle of the cold and unforgiving sea, a young mother is mortally wounded, and the hunt is on for the assailant before he or she strikes again.

Each woman called in for question has something to fear: Will she be attacked next? Will she be believed? Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?

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

Monthly Wrap Ups

May Wrap Up!

Happy Thursday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I know this is a couple of days late but I haven’t been very well. But finally I can put up my May wrap up! I had a much better reading month, part of this was because I took part in the 48 hour readathon hosted by Becca and the Books on YouTube for which I ended up reading seven books over a weekend.

So, let’s see what I managed to read this month from my TBR:

  • The Crooked Sixpence by Jennifer Bell – I did read this! It was one of the seven books I read for the readathon, a review will be coming soon
  • The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – another book I read as part of the readathon, review coming soon
  • Graceling by Kristen Cashore – I did not read this
  • Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – I did not read this
  • Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey – I did not read this
  • Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – I did not read this
  • A Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett – I did not read this
  • The Crowns Game by Evelyn Skye – I did not read this
  • A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross – I did not read this
  • The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix – I did read this for the spooky book prompt of the readathon
  • A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske – I read this while on the drive up to Cardiff for a concert this month
  • The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown – I did not read this
  • Dangerous Women by Hope Adams – I started this book in May and I am currently finishing it now
  • A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz – I did read this
  • Cecily by Annie Garthwaite – I also read this
  • Queenslayer by Sebastien de Castell – and I read this

Outside of my TBR I also read Turtles All The Way Down by John Green, Newts Emerald by Garth Nix and Love Him To Death by Tanya Landman

I think I read 11 books this month which is really great and a lot better than the past few months.

That’s it for my May Wrap up, I hope you all had a good reading month. My reviews of the books that I read will be going up soon!

Monthly TBRs

May TBR!

Happy Sunday bookish people! Today is the 1st of May and I am very excited to share with you all my plans for May.

So this month is going to be another busy one I think, lots of meetings, lots of classes and a trip to Cardiff which will be fun – and will give me the travel time for reading! There is also the 48 hour bookopolothan hosted by becca and the books on youtube which I will be taking part in, last year it meant I read eight books in two days so that was fun and I’d love to try and do that again.

My books for May:

  • The Crooked Sixpence by Jennifer Bell – this is a very cute sounding middle grade that I am hoping to read early in the month
  • The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – I love anything witchy so this already appeals to me
  • Graceling by Kristen Cashore
  • Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
  • Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey
  • Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
  • A Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett
  • The Crowns Game
  • A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
  • The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix
  • A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske
  • The Key In The Lock by Beth Underdown – I will be reading this for the short book prompt for the 48 hour challenge
  • Dangerous Women by Hope Adams
  • A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz
  • Cecily by Annie Garthwaite – I will be using this for the gods prompt for the 48 hour challenge because of the amount of religion in historical fiction of this period
  • Queenslayer by Sebastien de Castell – I have already started reading this one and I am loving it

I am really looking forward to getting started with these books (well technically I already have). Have you read any of these books? what did you think of them?

Book Tags

Easter Time Book Tag!

Happy Friday bookish people! Today I am bringing you an Easter themed book tag that I found on My Reading Escape.wordpress.com

I hope you will all have a wonderful Easter weekend with however you will be spending it, I will probably be spending mine eating a lot of chocolate and using my new coffee maker.

1. Easter Egg: Book that feels like a hidden gem

I have to choose The Lady in the Tower by Marie Louise Jenson for this one because it is a wonderful book that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else talk about

2. Bloom: Debut Novel You Loved:

I chose The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant for this book because I received it in an Illumicrate box and I read it in one sitting. It is a retelling of Les Miserables set in a beautifully described France.

3. Chocolate Bunny: Book so good you didn’t want it to end

I chose Caraval because it is one of my favourite books and as the prompt says, I didn’t want it put it down! This series is so magical I wanted to keep reading it for as long as I could.

4. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap: Book you bought for super cheap:

I actually was given this book for free by a really lovely bookseller, I was given a few of the little world book day books and this was one of them, I have already read it.

5. Jelly bean: Book you thought was sweet:

This book has a lot of lovely, sweet themes so Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell was the first book I thought of for this prompt.

6. Easter Basket: Filled with many surprises:

For this one I am choosing the entire A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas because although I have only read the first book, I have heard that there are many surprises throughout this series and I am excited to read them.

7. Rabbits: Books you wish would multiply (have a sequel):

I chose House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A Craig because ever since finishing it I really wished there had been a sequel, I just felt there were questions left unanswered.

8. Hunt: Book that was hard to get hold of:

I had to look everywhere for this book, there was only one bookshop that had it and the drive was over an hour, then when we got there I forgot to look for this book (I know, I couldn’t believe I did this either) and so I had to order it.

So that’s the end of this Easter book tag! I hope you all enjoyed it!