Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day. It is August and that means it is time to share the books that I hope to read this month.
Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas
The Ornithologists Field Guide to Love by India Holton
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day. How is everyone’s summer going so far? It is now the summer holidays in the UK so my family all have some time off in the next few weeks which will be nice.
How was your reading in July? Mine was one of my worst months so far this year but at the same time significantly better than I thought it would be.
This is my wrap up for the month of July.
From my TBR:
The Cut by Richard Armitage – I did read this. Well, I read some of it. I DNF’d it around 100 pages because it is told in split perspective and within 100 pages I had been in at least five different people’s heads and it is told in two different times, one present and one past. It was far too confusing.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett – I did read this and my review for this book is coming on the 20th August.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker – I did not get to this book in July. I have kept it on my TBR cart though as I would still like to read it soon, maybe even in August.
The Antique Hunter’s Murder at the Castle by C L Miller – I did read this. Another solid book in this series.
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes – I did read this and my review is coming on the 13th August.
I Know You Did It by Sue Wallman – I did read this. I thought it was quite good but not one of my favourites of her books.
The Dreadfuls by A Rae Dunlap – I did read this and loved it. It is definitely a new favourite book. It puts an interesting spin on the retelling of Jack the Ripper.
Flirting With Murder by Amanda Sellett – I did read this and my review is coming on the 17th August.
The Sinister Booksellers of bath by Garth Nix – I did read this and although it has taken me a while I am glad I have finally read another in this series.
The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs and The Desolations of Devil’s Acre by Ransom Riggs – I did read these two books. The final two books in the Miss Peregrines series and both of them I gave five stars to.
Outside of my TBR I also read: Murder on Devil’s Ridge by Irina Shapiro, The Secret Detective Agency by Helena Dixon and Death on the Lively Sea by Katy Watson.
This means I read all but one of my TBR and altogether I read 13 books this months which I am very pleased about. My favourite read of July was a toss between The Dreadfuls and Flirting With Murder. My least favourite read was obviously The Cut.
What were your favourite and least favourite reads of July?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today. It is now June and I am going to share with you some of the book releases this month. As always, this list will not be an extensive one, it will be just a few of the books that I know are coming out this month. Also, I will give the release dates but they will be the UK release dates.
The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden – 2nd June
With her country’s future and her own life at stake, an orphaned duchess must journey into a world of myth and there discover a power that may be her salvation—or her demise—in this enchanting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Winternight Trilogy and The Warm Hands of Ghosts.
Anne of Brittany was a child when her realm was invaded, her home besieged, and her royal father driven to his death.
Now her treasury is empty, her land occupied by her enemies, and she is ordered, under threat of renewed war, to become queen of her conquerors and marry the King of France.
This marriage means her country’s annexation. But Anne promised her father that Brittany would never be conquered.
Defiantly, she betroths herself in secret to France’s greatest enemy. But in a world where courts may spy on each other by magic, there is only one way to solemnize this illicit union.
Anne takes her court deep into a legendary forest, where the court diviners’ skill cannot reach. The world thinks they are only a hunting party, coursing after unicorns. But that is a lie, a trick, a feint. No one in living memory has seen a unicorn. All Anne wants is this secret wedding, which is her only hope of salvation.
But when against all hope a unicorn appears and a stranger out of legend stumbles from the trees and falls at her feet, Anne is plunged into a world of enchantment where a doomed sovereign might find the power to change her own and her country’s destiny—or be lost in the shadows forever.
This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint – 4th June
The epic, captivating tale of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who must reconcile her mind and heart when she is drawn against all odds to Ares, the god of war, from the internationally bestselling author of Ariadne and Hera.
From the moment Aphrodite emerges fully formed from the sea, she is devastatingly beautiful and imbued with ancient power. Driven by passion yet strategic in how she moves through the halls of Olympus and the earthly realm alike, the free-willed goddess wields unparalleled influence over every living being.
When fate brings her face to face with Ares, she bristles at this surly, hot-tempered warrior who’s seemingly her disliked by everyone and devoted to stirring up conflict. Yet these gods are no more immune to the dizzying highs and lows of love and loss than anyone else, and soon, they are irresistibly drawn to one another.
As their love affair spans mortal lifetimes, Aphrodite begins to question the gods’ games and her role in them. But there’s only so much room for fire and passion in Zeus’s kingdom. Before long, she must test her devotion to her own divine purpose—and to a love that can only lead to ruin.
Harvest Season by Brynne Weaver – 9th June
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brynne Weaver comes the second book in the devilishly steamy Seasons of Carnage trilogy where dark romantic comedy meets thrilling suspense—and where love is ripe for ruin.
It’s time to reap what you sow.
Cape Carnage is blooming with secrets, and they’re ready to harvest. But every time Nolan Rhodes digs one up, another grows in its place. Harper isn’t who he thought she was. Arthur might be more sinister than he first thought. And Sheriff Yates? The man is everywhere he turns. When true crime fanatics descend on the town looking for answers about the death of their leader, Nolan finds himself at the center of a search and rescue operation for missing people he knows are already dead. Cape Carnage teeters on the brink of chaos. And the harder Nolan tries to keep it together, the closer Harper comes to unraveling.
Harper Starling has risked everything to bury her trauma in Cape Carnage. But now that Nolan has unearthed her past, her whole life seems ready to break apart. And who can she trust? The enigmatic man she’s falling in love with? He came to kill her. The serial killer mentor she’s vowed to protect? He’s become an unpredictable menace. The woman in the mirror? She might be the most dangerous of all.
Loyalties are tested. Bonds are bent to a breaking point. And love? That might be the deadliest trap of all.
Harvest Season is a dark romance with mature themes. Please check content warnings at the beginning of the book.
Tropesick by Lauren Okie – 18th June
In this lush, slow-burning romance, two childhood neighbors, connected by a shared tragedy, unexpectedly reunite to ghostwrite a love story for a reclusive author. Spending the summer at her secluded Hamptons estate, they soon discover that dozens of classic romance tropes, including the ones they’re crafting on page, are mysteriously playing out in real life.
Katie Caruso is a completely normal twenty-five-year-old girl. At least, for the past eight years, she’s tried to be. She likes glitter and sequins and flirting with cute boys at New York City bars. She’s also a ghostwriter for Meredith Bradford, the bestselling romance novelist of all time. But then Tyler McNally walks back into Katie’s life, and that bedazzled facade crumbles at her platform-sneakered feet.
Katie and Tyler haven’t seen or spoken to each other since the overdose death of Katie’s older brother, a standout MLB pitching prospect. Tyler was her brother’s best friend, and Katie—naturally—was the girl next door. But now, Tyler is a sleeve-tattooed, Ivy League-educated aspiring literary fiction novelist, nine years sober . . . and Katie’s writing partner for the summer.
As genre conventions require, Katie and Tyler soon find themselves removed from Manhattan and instead writing their love story in “forced proximity” at Meredith’s isolated Southampton home. As the summer unfolds, the tropes Katie and Tyler have written into their novel begin to play out in their own lives. Call it destiny, fate, or magic It’s clear their love story is unfinished. This time, though, they’ll fight for their happy ending.
The Defence by Rob Rinder – 18th June
At MP-turned-wellness-guru Adrian Wells’s glitzy launch event for a bath salt that promises to reverse ageing, someone is about to turn up the heat. . .
As Adrian lowers himself into the architectural copper tub to showcase his miracle product in front of countless influencers, it soon becomes clear that something is amiss.
The bath salt has been poisoned. And now Adrian is dead. His long-suffering assistant Jules is the prime suspect.
Barrister Adam Green is tasked with Jules’s defence, and he quickly realises that there were many more people with a score to settle against Adrian.
Can Adam win the day, or is he in too deep?
The Raven at the Ash Door by K A Linde – 18th June
Can love survive an unbreakable curse?
Kierse McKenna’s magic is bound to a man she hates―one who has spent lifetimes fighting the man she loves.
To end this binding, Graves―her winter god, her monster―will stop at nothing. He discovers that the only hope of freeing Kierse is to locate a stone relic of legend, rumored to lift any curse.
The only problem? The stone has been missing for a century.
And the Oak King is on their trail.
Now Kierse is trapped at the heart of a centuries-long battle while the rest of the world comes unraveled. The Fae Killer is hunting. The peace with monsters is fracturing. And as the very rules of their myth start to shift, escaping the Oak King’s hold may demand more than stolen artifacts and clever heists.
For Kierse and Graves, it may mean risking the only thing they have left to lose.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well today. It is now June, which means it is time to talk about what I will be reading this month. I have noticed this year that I have been reading mainly mystery books and not much fantasy so I tried to make my TBR for this month a bit more fantasy heavy.
What are you planning on reading in June?
Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell
How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Murder at the Palace by N R Daws
The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft
Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. It is time to go over what I managed yo read in May.
May was definitely a busy month, I’ve had some health things going on and also I was finishing up my PhD thesis – which I have now sent in, so I should officially have my Doctorate very soon. Fingers crossed. In between all of this, I was enjoying my reading for this month. So far this year I have had amazing luck, most of the books I have got to I have loved or at least liked, there have been some disappointments and a few DNF’s but overall my reading is going well. I have noticed that although fantasy is my favourite genre, out of the nearly 60 books I have read so far this year, less then 10 have been fantasy. Which is a surprise.
How was your reading in May? Did you find any new favourite books?
First I will mention the books from my May TBR:
A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith – I did read this and I enjoyed it. This is the second book in the Gabriel Ward series, following Lawyer Gabriel Ward as he ends up tasked to solve different mysteries. Gabriel as a character is very endearing to follow. I am excited to continue this series when book three comes out.
It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh – I did read this. I was recommended it while I was in a bookshop browsing and I thought the premise sounded interesting, but this was actually my least favourite read this month. As the book goes on it becomes heavily political and I did not enjoy that.
Manslaughter Park by Tirzah Price – I did read this. I am glad to finally have read the last book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series. In my opinion this was my least favourite of the trilogy but I still thought it was a nice read.
Tea and Alchemy by Sharon Lynn-Fisher – I did read this. I bought this on a bit of a whim, I loved the cover and when I read the premise I was intrigued by the idea of a tea leaf reader. I will be sharing a full review of this later in the month but I loved this book.
The Corpse Played Dead by Georgina Clarke – I am currently reading this and I plan on finishing it today so this one also counts. This is the second book in the Death and the Harlot series.
The Beast of Littleton Woods by T E Kinsey – I did read this and that brings me up to date with the Lady Hardcastle series until the next one comes out.
Traitors Blade by Sebastien de Castell – I did read this also. I had been putting off starting this series because I loved his other books and I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy this one as much but I loved the travelling/adventuring style of this novel.
So, from my TBR I read all the books I had and outside my TBR I also read three nonfiction books (a surprise for me as I don’t read much nonfiction): The Waiting Game, The Five by Hallie Rubenhold and Life Inside by Linda Calvey. I also read: An Archive of Romance by Ava Reid, and The Ending Writes Itself. This means I read 12 books this month. My favourite was Tea and Alchemy and my least favourite was It’s Not What You Think.
Have you read any of these books, what did you think of them?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well. Today I am bringing you my review for Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, the second in the Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies series by Heather Fawcett.
Blurb:
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.
She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.
My Review:
When I read the first book in this series, I remember thinking it was pretty good, I enjoyed it and I wanted to continue the series, but I didn’t absolutely love it. This second book, I loved. We got a new adventure with Emily and Wendell and their growing relationship is definitely one of my favourite parts of this series. We got to see more of them being vulnerable in this book than we did in the first novel and I really enjoyed getting to see that, in book one Emily especially was very emotionally distant as a character and it was nice to see her soften slightly. You also get two new, I’d say background characters, but they aren’t really background as they are a huge part of the plot. I liked both of the new characters, they were very complex and helped to drive points of the plot in interesting ways. Overall, I really loved this book and I consider it a new favourite. I am looking forward to getting to the final book in this series.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. It is May and that means it is time to talk about what books I hope to read this month.
What books are you all thinking of reading in May?
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. It is the first of May and that means it is time to share my wrap up for April.
How was your reading in the month of April? I personally read way more than I thought I would, I managed a reread while on a trip away and I found some new series to continue and some new favourite books.
I will start with the books that were on my April TBR:
Winterbourne by Elisabeth Wolf – I did read this. It was not at all what I thought it was going to be, I will be sharing my full review for this book on the 11th May
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – I did read this. This is absolutely one of my new favourite books and I will be sharing my full review on the 18th May
Pages and Co 6: The Last Bookwanderer by Anna James – the final book in the Pages and Co series, I did read this and I finally finished this series. For me, each book in this series got better. I enjoyed the first three books but I loved the final three books.
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Willberg – I did start reading this book but I DNF’d it around 100 pages. It started going in a really strange direction that took it away from what the synopsis had described and that put me off the book completely.
The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C L Miller – I did read this and I will be sharing my review on the 15th May
The Key in the Lock – I did start reading this but unfortunately this was another DNF. I did not get along well with this story, the pacing, the writing and the story itself being a little boring were things that made it not very enjoyable.
Rotten to the Core by T E Kinsey – I did read this and I love the Lady Hardcastle series.
Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry – I did not read this. This is the fourth book in the series and there were some things that happened in the third book that I didn’t like so much, especially with the way the synopsis suggested they play out in this book so I am putting it off for a little bit longer.
Blackthorn – I did not read this. I still want to but I haven’t been seeing the best things from others who are reading it. If you have read it and loved it then let me know!
From my TBR I managed to read: 7 books which is great on its own but I also managed to read books that were not in my TBR: The Carnival Murders by Irina Shapiro, A Fire at the Exhibition and An Assassination on the Agenda by T E Kinsey, The Enchanted Wood and the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and I reread Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Mnaicalco. This means I managed to read 13 books in April.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I am bringing you my book review for the book A Grave Inheritance by Felicity Epps. Have any of you read this book? If you have, let me know what you thought of it.
Blurb/Synopsis:
A Waterstones YA Book of the Month! Perfect for fans of Bridgerton and Laura Wood.
Mysterious deaths in the family. A young woman left to inherit a fortune. Was it ghostly intervention… or murder? The Society of Free Spirits invites you to investigate, in this YA crime series with a supernatural twist.
After her father and older sister both die suddenly, Dolores is left with the family’s inheritance, and a large house she’s sure is haunted. Teaming up with her occult-obsessed neighbour, Ada, and the mysterious spiritual medium, Violet, the three girls plan to dispel the bad spirits from Dolores’ home.
But when Dolores uncovers a clue that suggests her sister Edith’s death wasn’t due to natural causes, what starts as an investigation into ghostly apparitions develops into the unravelling of something far more sinister. . .
Ghosts. Murder. The patriarchy. One should never underestimate what a trio of free-spirited young women can handle.
My Review: 4.5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Now, this book. This book was brilliant. It is listed as YA, which I guess fits with the age of the characters within the book – the main group of girls anyway – but it does not feel like YA. The writing is mature and gripping. I was hooked as soon as I saw the description for this book, murder, possible ghosts, seances. Yes, that is just the type of thing I like. I have developed a great love for books that have a gothic tone to them and this book provides that from the very first line. In this book you follow Delilah. As a main character she is interesting. At the beginning, as in the first few chapters, you wonder why she is the focus of the novel as she seems to be struggling and it is hard to see how she gets herself into a position to lead the story, but that was the great thing about this book. As a reader we get to watch as Dolores takes back her life and the strength she musters. You also get to see her developing relationships outside her natural set up – a little bit of a found family element which I loved. This was my favourite book that I read in March and I would honestly recommend it to everyone.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day today. I am bringing you my review of the first in the Gabriel Ward mystery series, the first book being called A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith.
Blurb/Synopsis:
The first in a delightful new mystery series set in the hidden heart of London’s legal world, introducing a wonderfully unwilling sleuth, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Nita Prose.
When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms at exactly two minutes to seven on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case—the disputed authorship of bestselling children’s book Millie the Temple Church Mouse—that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.
But even he cannot fail to notice the judge’s dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest. In the shaded courtyards and ancient buildings of the Inner Temple, the hidden heart of London’s legal world, murder has spent centuries confined firmly to the casebooks. Until now . . .
The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn’t answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple’s heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he’d ever imagined . . .
My Review: 4.5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I was not sure about this book to begin with. I was intrigued by the blurb but in general books that featured lawyers heavily haven’t been my favourites although those have all been thrillers, except for the series by Rob Rinder which I do love. So I was worried that the main character in this novel would be off-putting and a bit info-dumpy. However, I was proven wrong. I like Gabriel Ward, he is very logical and organised both in his character and his mindset and therefore, the way the crime and the subsequent investigation is presented is also very logical and organised. I don’t think that will work for everyone but it did work for me and it was his personality that drew me in very quickly. I thought the murder itself was very unique and intriguing. Each lead took me in a different direction and I couldn’t predict where the story was going to go next which was something I loved about this book.
Have any of you read this book? What did you think of it?
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