Book Reviews

What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett Book Review

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today!

Today I am bringing you my book review of What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett, have any of you read this book? If you have let me know I’d love to hear what you thought about it!

Blurb/Synopsis:

It’s a truth often acknowledged that when a Jane Austen fan girl ends up living next door to a cynical but handsome crime writer, romantic sparks will fly!When Maddy Shaw is told her Dear Jane column has been cancelled she has no choice but to look outside of London’s rental market. That is until she’s left an idyllic country home by the black sheep of the family, long-not-so-lost Cousin Nigel.

But of course there’s a stipulation… and not only is Maddy made chair of the committee for the annual village literary festival, she also has to put up with bestselling crime author –and romance sceptic – Cameron Massey as her new neighbour.

When Maddy challenges Cameron to write romantic fiction, which he claims is so easy to do, sparks fly both on and off the page…

My Review:

Okay, first of all I picked up this book because it mentions that he is a romance sceptic and he is a crime writer which I thought was going to be an interesting take on the romance plot. I struggle with the predictability of romance novels and admittedly this one was very predictable so it was a middle of the road read for me but I will give you some more of my thoughts.

I liked most of the plot, forced to live in a small town, the forced proximity, the bet between them all those kinds of things I enjoyed and it felt very cosy and focused a lot on developing the relationship between Maddy and Cameron but also Maddy and the people of the village she’s moved to which I liked because I have found before that some novels forget about friendships in favour of a romance. Some of the parts I didn’t like were: I would have liked more of the enemies before they became lovers if you know what I mean, they – this may be a slight spoiler – do hate each other at the beginning an this does continue but I would have lied this to go on for longer, maybe I’m just greedy like that. Also, and I am not sure this is a complaint because I am glad it wasn’t a miscommunication issue because I hate them, the tension in the relationship came from something that seemed very insignificant, like it had been put in there just because the author felt they needed something bad to happen and I didn’t like that much.

Overall, as far as romances go, this was an okay read. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it is a book I would be thinking about in a few months time. if you like romances though this is a solid book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Book Reviews

Rivals of the Ripper Book Review

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today!

Today I am bringing you my book review for Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victoria London, a non-fiction book that I bought and read recently.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Jack the Ripper is the quintessential Victorian serial killer, and the debate continues with regard to the number of his victims. But there is a profusion of unsolved murders of London women from late Victorian times, and this book presents 11 of the most gruesome and mysterious of them. Marvel at the convoluted Kingswood Mystery and the unsolved Cannon Street Murder of 1866; shudder at the Hoxton Horror and the Great Coram Street Murder of 1872; be puzzled by the West Ham Disappearances and by the unsolved railway murder of Elizabeth Camp in 1898. There are many books about the Whitechapel fiend, but this is the first one to detail the ghoulish handiwork of the Ripper’s rivals.

My Review:

Okay, so my thoughts are going to be short so here we go: I am not a big nonfiction reader, I struggle to get interested in it usually but that was not a problem with this book at all. I am fascinated with victorian crime, particularly Jack the Ripper as I know a lot of people are but this book was something I happened to find and I thought ooh, it is interesting because it tells of these stories of women who are never mentioned and yet their cases never got solved. I could see a lot of similarities between some of these murders and the Ripper as well which was also very interesting. I found some of these so intriguing that I looked them up to get further information too so if you like this period of history you will probably like this book. Also, one last thing I will mention is that in nonfiction usually you can sense the bias of the writer but I didn’t figure out the writers bias in any of the unsolved crimes which I felt made the reading experience much better.

Monthly TBRs

June TBR

Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well. We are getting into the summer months, the warm weather and longer days make it the perfect time for enjoying escaping into the worlds in our books so today I am sharing with you my June TBR!

What are you all reading this month?

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin

Love on The Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

Monthly Wrap Ups

May Wrap Up!

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well. What a month May has been. I have been almost completely locked into research mode with my PhD draft, it is getting there slowly but surely and in a way that us completely unlike me, the more I am writing it the more I am enjoying it. The worst part now is that I can see the end in sight and not only will I have to do my exam but then it will be time to start sending the novel off to agents which I didn’t think would scare me but it fills me with a mixture of excitement and dread. I have spent so long working on it, it has become very dear to me so sending it off for critiquing is terrifying!

Anyway, you’re not here to listen to me blab on about that, we are here to discuss the books I read, or did not read which is more like it.

The Trial by Robert Rinder

I am currently reading this book and loving it by the way, I am hoping to meet Rob Rinder at Crime Fest next week and I am very excited about that.

Helle and Death by Oskar Jensen

I have not read this. Unfortunately, I have to read this book for my PhD thesis and its gotten to be one of those situations where I know I have to read it so the more I think about reading it the less I want to which is unfair to the book and the author because it sounds good.

What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett

I did read this book, I thought okay you have been reading a lot of fantasy and msytery novels so you need to break it up with something a bit lighter so I decided to pick up this romance book, it has a crime writer in it as the love interest which create a nice dynamic – I will tell you more of my thoughts in a review coming soon!

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

I have not read this book but I am still very excited to get around to it soon.

I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan

Again, like Helle and Death, I have to read this for my PhD and I stayed it a while ago but I couldn’t get into it so I put it down and I haven’t managed to get back to it yet.

Murder At The Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

I did not get the chance to read this book yet.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

I have heard such good things about this book and I wished I could have gotten to it this month but unfortunately I didn’t manage it.

So, I read two books this month which isn’t great but I have been enjoying the reading I have been doing which is a good thing. I actually didn’t start my first book until halfway through the month as I was finishing Kingdom of the Wicked so two books in 15 days is quite good for me.

How was your reading in the month of may? What was the best book you read?

Uncategorized

Book Tropes I Love and Hate

Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all feeling well today. I keep seeing a lot on social media about which tropes people love and hate in books and it got me thinking, what ones do I like.

To start with I didn’t think I followed tropes like that… then I took a look at the books I loved and which ones I did not and I realised there is a pattern.

Tropes I Love:

  • ‘Unbreakable’ codes
  • Talking animals
  • enemies to lovers
  • isolated mystery locations
  • reluctant heroes

Tropes I Hate:

  • The chosen one
  • Militery
  • Love triangles
  • miscommunication
  • cliffhangers
  • amnesia

So, those are my lists but I’m curious, what tropes do you love and hate?

Book Reviews

Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi Book Review

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.

Today I am sharing my book review for Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi. I have had this book for years, and it was getting to the point where I was thinking this had to be the year I would either read it or it would be time to let it go. Then I got hold of the beautiful Illumicrate edition of the first book and so I decided FINALLY I would read it – and it was worth every moment.

Blurb/Synopsis:

I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I’m more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war—and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

My Review:

What a book this was! Shatter Me follows a girl called Juliette, when the book begins you find out she has been imprisoned for a long time and her parents gave her up basically, all because she has a power that she can’t control.

I honestly thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this book because it is a bit of a dystopian and that has never been my genre but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. This book manages to get the best balance between action, friendship, loyalty, and keep the characters realistic. I liked that Juliette wasn’t created as some kind of superhero character, she had flaws and she had human emotions and I loved that. I really can’t say much about the plot without spoiling anything but I can say that this book did not go the way that I thought it would, you start to think you have everything figured out then you are immediately hit with a huge twist.

If you were on the fence about reading this book I would highly recommend it!

Uncategorized

Top 5 Stunning book Covers I Own

Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well. Today I am going to share with you some of the most beautiful covers of books that I own!

Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Barnes and Noble Edition of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Book Reviews

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout Book Review

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. Throughout March and April I tasked myself with finally reading From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout and I can tell you, after all the hype surrounding it I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it but I actually did.

THIS BOOK REVIEW WILL MOST LIKELY CONTAIN SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK, GO AWAY, READ IT AND THEN COME BACK TO MY REVIEW.

Blurb/synopsis:

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

My Review:

From Blood and Ash is a fantasy romance novel following Poppy, otherwise known as Penellophae or the Maiden. She is rarely seen, she is not allowed to talk to anyone and basically not allowed to be a person until time comes for her ascension. After a series of attacks she is assigned a new personal guard called Hawke and he makes Poppy question everything she has been taught.

Poppy was such an interesting character to follow, you are with her through every emotional rollercoaster and let me tell you there are a lot of them. The first 100 or so pages were feeling like a slow read for me, I wasn’t sure if I would finish the whole book because there was a lot of worldbuilding and introducing the characters but I pushed through and I am glad I did because the second half of the book had a lot of drama going on.

Armentrout does a great job with her characters, I loved them, I hated them, I felt for them and if I could, some of them I would have reached into the book and slapped them. Now, the ending – the betrayal! I could not believe it.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Uncategorized

May Book Releases!

Happy Friday bookish people! It is the beginning of a new month and you know what that means, plenty of new book releases.

I am going to share a few of the ones that have caught my eye. That’s not to say I want to read all of these books but for some reason, be that the blurb or the cover, I have noticed these books as I looked for May releases.

The Dixon Rule by Elle Kennedy

Diana Dixon has a lot going on this summer. She’s rehearsing for a ballroom dance competition, juggling two jobs, and dealing with an ex-boyfriend who can’t take the hint it’s over. Yet despite all that, she still has plenty of time and energy to tell Shane Lindley to screw off.

Shane just moved into her apartment building and seems dedicated to sleeping his way through her entire cheerleading squad. Sure, he’s a tall, gorgeous hockey player, but he’s messing with her turf. This calls for some ground rules: no parties in her apartment, leave her teammates alone, and—most importantly—leave her alone.

What Diana doesn’t realize is that Shane’s sick of hookups and tired of being on the rebound after his long-term girlfriend called it quits. He wants a relationship. And when his ex comes back into the picture, he pretends he has one to make her jealous…and who better to play the girlfriend role than his sassy new neighbor?

Despite Diana’s reluctance to break her rule, a fake relationship is the perfect solution for her own ex issues, and soon she can’t deny something is sizzling between her and Shane. Something hot and completely unexpected.

And it might just be getting a little too real.

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren, returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.

Honey Witch by Sydney J Sheilds

The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
 
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
 
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.

The Last Murder At The End Of The World by Stuart Turton

om the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.

Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn’t solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don’t even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

It’s the season
for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

Love at First Book by Jenn Mckinley

When a librarian moves to a quaint Irish village where her favorite novelist lives, the last thing she expects is to fall for the author’s prickly son… until their story becomes one for the books, from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading .

Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.

Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’s block—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.

When Siobhan’s health takes a bad turn, she’s more determined than ever to finish her novel, while Kieran tries every trick in the book to get his mother to rest. Thrown into the role of peacemaker, Emily begins to see that Kieran’s heart is in the right place. Torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her own growing feelings for the mercurial Irishman, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

Do you have any anticipated releases in May?

Monthly TBRs

May TBR!

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a great day.

It is now May, this year is going by so quickly, and of course, that means it is time to share what I will be reading in May!

The Trial by Rob Rinder

Helle and Death by Oskar Jenson

What Would Jane Austen Do by Linda Corbett

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

What are you all reading in May? What are you most looking forward to reading soon?