Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well today. It is time to reveal what books I am hoping to get to read in July!
If you have read any of these books, let me know what you thought of them!
The Cut by Richard Armitage
I am meeting this author soon at an event so I want to read this book in preperation.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
I have read the Emily Wilde series by this author so I want to try more of her books and see if I enjoy those also, I am not usually into cosy fantasy so this will be interesting.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker
I just recieved the second book in this series so I thought July is the right time to get stuck into this fantasy world and see if I enjoy it.
The Antique Hunter’s Murder at the Castle by C L Miller
This is the third installment in this series and I am looking forward to seeing how this book goes with a focus on one of the characters who has been in the sidelines up until now.
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I have heard so many good things about this book and this series so I am excited to get into it.
I Know You Did It by Sue Wallman
Sue Wallman’s YA thrillers are enjoyable one sitting reads for me so I hope that this one is no different.
The Dreadfuls by A Rae Dunlap
This book is a new take on the Victorian era and the Jack the Ripper mystery. I am always interested in reading more of these.
Flirting With Murder by Amanda Sellett
I read one other book by this author a while ago and it was a romance book where this is a romance cross mystery so I hope that this will have a good blend of both genres and won’t focus too heavily on one or the other.
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix
This is the second book in this series. It has been a while since I read the first one but I remember loving it and I love Garth Nix’s writing so this should be a good read.
The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
This is the fifth book in the Miss Peregrine’s series and I have just read the fourth book which made me excited to continue and hopefully finish the series this month.
The Desolation of Devil’s Acre by Ransom Riggs
This is the final book in the Miss Peregrine’s series and I am really looking forward to finishing it off.
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 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 Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all doing well today. It is April and that means it is time to talk about what books I am hoping to read in April.
What are you planning to read this month?
APRIL TBR:
Pages and Co: The Last Bookwanderers by Anna James
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Wilberg
Antique Hunters Guide to Murder by C L Miller
Blackthorn by J T Geissenger
The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. It is time to share some of the books that are coming out in February. As usual, this list is not long or inclusive of every title that is being released, it is just a selection of the books I have seen.
Throne of Nightmares by Kerri Maniscalco – 10th February
A princewho prefers games of the head to those of the heart.
Prince Sloth hates leaving his enchanted library. But when a forgotten deity threatens the very fabric of the Underworld, he’s thrust into a race against time. He must find the Book of Nightmares – an ancient artifact that has the power to break worlds – before it unleashes a deadly game to free its master, the Goddess of Night. When a betrayal leaves him marked, and desperate, his path collides with a young woman who possesses the legendary Phoenix Tear – a portal stone unlike any other.
A librarian who is all sweet sunshine . . . until she burns.
Lore Brimstone has always loved getting lost in a book – but she never meant literally. Yet, after visiting a traveling caravan, she quickly finds herself transported to a terrifying but oddly familiar world – with a calculating prince at her side. Realizing they are living out her favourite novels one by one, they face off against an increasingly dark magic as they try to survive the story.
A twisted tale that means they can’t trust themselves – or their hearts.
As Lore and Sloth navigate the pages of her beloved novels gone wrong, she must channel her inner main character to defeat the Book of Nightmares before the wall between the gods and mortals comes crashing down, dooming them all.
A Dark Forgetting by Kristen Ciccerelli – 12th February
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Crimson Moth (published as Heartless Hunter in North America) weaves an epic love story of a magical girl, the boy she left behind, and a deadly curse.
‘Lush, dark, and romantic. I could have remained lost in the woods forever’ Isabel Ibañez, #1 New York Times bestselling author of What the River Knows
‘A tale comprised of deep emotion, sizzling romance, and a gripping mystery’ Tricia Levenseller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Shadows Between Us
Sing us a song of the forest, of the Wood King who rules there, and the tithe he demands…
No matter how far Emeline Lark runs, the song of the forest reaches her, luring her away from her dreams of the stage and back to her small town and its superstitions.
But every superstition is rooted in truth, and when her grandfather goes missing Emeline will be forced to return to Edgewood and the forest beyond.
There, even Hawthorne Fell, a brooding tithe collector, cannot dissuade her from her path – a path that will lead her into the court of the fabled Wood King himself – and into a bargain with the deadliest price.
A Stage Set for Villains – 13th February
The gods are dead. All that’s left are the Players . . .
The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.
When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetime – a chance for one mortal to steal a Player’s immortality – Riven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouse’s brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.
But with time running out and the Playhouse’s secrets unraveling into a disturbing picture, Riven faces a grim possibility: she might not be the hero of her story after all. In fact, she may be the villain.
Because the Playhouse doesn’t just tell stories. It rewrites them.
And Riven’s might end in blood.
I’m Not the Only Murderer in my Retirement Home – 17th February
RETIREMENT WILL HAVE TO WAIT.
When former serial killer Carol takes her place in a luxury retirement home, she begins to find her feet with a small new group of friends. If she can only keep her past hidden, maybe she has a chance at happiness.
That’s when she discovers that, absurdly, every other one of Sheldon Oaks’ residents was involved in the law somehow. It’s not long before her true identity is leaked, and when a former police commissioner resident is murdered, naturally all eyes turn to her…
Now she must solve the case to prove her innocence – just as her new friends start their own investigations into whether there is more than one killer at Sheldon Oaks.
Murder at Sea by Helena Dixon – 23rd February
A glorious ocean liner setting sail, sunset on the horizon, and champagne on deck. All seems shipshape… until Kitty discovers a body on board. Time for some sleuthing!
Devon, 1938. Kitty Underhay is enjoying a well-deserved rest when her very upset cousin Hattie suddenly bursts in. She sobs that the gentleman she had been seeing, Richard Westonholme, seems to have vanished, taking all of her jewellery with him. As Hattie describes Richard, he sounds eerily familiar, and Kitty and her husband Matt board a ship in hot pursuit – only to find him lying in a lifeboat… dead.
As they’ve set sail, the murderer has to be on board too, but there are suspects as far as the eye can see. Could Richard’s wife have something to do with the murder? What about the rich heiress and her guardian? And is the steward hiding something fishy?
Kitty and Matt are all too aware that the clock is ticking while the suspects are trapped with no escape. Can they net the killer before the ship docks? Or will one of them be dead in the water before they reach dry land?
Cleopatra by Saara El Arifi – 26th February
YOU KNOW MY NAME.
BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW ME.
Your historians call me seductress, but I was ever in love’s thrall.
Your playwrights speak of witchcraft, but my talents came from the gods themselves.
Your poets sing of my bloodlust, but I was always protecting my children.
How wilfully they refuse to concede that a woman could be powerful, strategic, divinely blessed to rule.
Death will silence me no longer.
This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett – 17th February
From Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Heather Fawcett comes a healing and heart-warming fantasy with magic shops, rescue cats and a second chance at love.
Agnes Aubert is very fond of making lists. These lists kept her afloat when she lost her husband two years ago. And now, as the founder of a cat rescue charity, her meticulous organization skills feel like the only thing standing between her beloved cats – His Majesty, Banshee and sweet elderly Thoreau, to name a few – and utter disaster.
But when Agnes is forced to move the charity, she soon discovers that her new shop is being used as a front; right under her feet is the lair of the decidedly disorganised – not to mention self-absorbed and infuriatingly handsome – Havelock Renard.
Havelock is everything Agnes doesn’t want in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue, perhaps even romance. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. .
Books and Bewitchment by Isla Jewell – 3rd February
In this warm-hearted, witchy rom-com a young woman works to create the bookstore of her dreams, only to discover a powerful magic that’s been lying dormant—and a forbidden love she can’t resist. Perfect for readers of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic.
Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, if mundane, life in small-town Alabama with her pet cockatoo, Doris. But when her estranged grandmother dies, leaving everything to her—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear never to set foot in. When she plans to turn the defunct video store she’s also inherited into a bookstore, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. It’s just too bad he’s the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn rival in witchcraft.
Yet as Rhea makes plans for the bookstore of her dreams, she learns that her grandmother made a terrible choice, one that could ruin her own chance at happiness. As she gets ever closer to solving the mystery of what exactly is happening, each clue points to Arcadia Falls’ magic hanging in the balance. To keep her new home safe, Rhea must step into her enchanted birthright and harness her newfound powers… before it’s too late.
The Sun and the Starmaker by Rachel Griffin – 17th February
There once was a village so far north that most considered it the top of the world… and in that village, the Sun fell in love with her Starmaker. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches comes a whimsical and sweeping romantic fantasy.
Nestled deep in the snowy mountains of the Lost Range, the village of Reverie is a small miracle. Beyond the reach of the Sun, Reverie is dependent upon the magic of the mysterious Starmaker: every morning, he trudges across a vast glacier and pulls in sunlight over the peaks, providing the village with the light it needs to survive.
Aurora Finch grew up on tales of the Starmaker’s magic, never imagining she’d one day meet him. But on the morning of her wedding, a fateful encounter in the frostbitten woods changes everything. The Starmaker senses a powerful magic within her and demands she come study under his guidance. With her newfound abilities tied to the survival of the village, Aurora is swept away to his ice-covered castle and far from everything she’s ever known.
The Starmaker is as cold and distant as the mountain itself, leaving Aurora to explore his enchanted castle alone. Yet the more she discovers about the sorcerer, the stronger their attraction grows, pulling her closer to the secrets he refuses to share. But a deadly frost approaches and Aurora must uncover what the Starmaker is hiding before she is left in an endless winter that even the Sun cannot touch.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today.
Today, I am sharing with you my book review for the first novel in the Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Enter the world of the hidden folk – and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you’ll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde. . .
Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby
But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones – the most elusive of all faeries – she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all – her own heart.
My Review:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I was unsure what I would think of this book going into it. I bought it because I love everything fairies and whimsical, I just love it. However, I then read some other cosy fantasy books and I think I have decided that cosy fantasy is not something I will usually enjoy. This book is an exception, perhaps because I read it in the car on the way to Scotland for a funeral and the light heartedness of this book was exactly what I needed at the time.
I loved the rival academics thread that underly this story, it gave their relationship an enjoyable tension which I am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here with Emily and Wendell – as you can probably guess I will definitely be continuing this series, I actually got the second book for christmas. The isolated, wintry feeling landscape gave me the same feelings I had while reading the Bear and the Nightingale and I loved that book too. It is hard to talk about this book without giving any spoilers but I loved its whimsical writing style and the way the plot is presented as ‘cosy’ but actually surrounds darker, higher stakes.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a lovely day. It is the end of the month and that means it is time to discuss the books that I did and did not read in November.
What books did you read this month? Did you enjoy them?
From my November TBR:
Immortality by Dana Schwartz – I did not get around to reading it this month
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – I decided, after putting two on my November TBR, not to do any rereads this month so I did not read this one
The Guest List by Lucy Foley – I did read this book. I have been putting it off for a long time but I have finally read it and I thought it was good, not amazing but good enough.
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrews – I did read this.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco – this was the second book that I put on my November TBR as a reread, so I did not read this.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies – I did read this.
Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft – I did not read this
To Steal From Thieves by M K Lobb – I did not read this.
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna – I did read this.
Agency of Scandal by Laura Wood – I did read this.
Fate of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell – I did read this.
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas – I am writing this a little early, I have a week left of November and in that time I plan on finishing Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn.
Outside of my TBR I also read The Ripper of Whitechapel by Yvette Fielding and A Quiet Life in the Country by TE Kinsey.
That means in November, I read a total of 8 books so far this month, but I might be able to add three more to this if I manage to read the three Sarah J Maas books.
Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day today. It is November and now that I am free from my PhD work (at least until January), I have a lot more time to read and that makes me very excited – so many options!
What are you all planning on reading this month?
Fate of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell
Agency of Scandal by Laura Wood
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
To Steal From Thieves by M K Lobb
Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Immortality by Dana Schwarz
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
Happy Monday bookish people! How are you all today? It is December, the final month of 2024 but before that we need to talk about how November went.
As a month in general, not the best honestly. It seemed to be a month of one bad thing after another, but hopefully we are past all of that now. Onwards and upwards. In terms of reading, it was actually one of my best months of the year. I have started doing an hour or two of reading every evening instead of watching something on TV and it has made me feel much better, not only in terms of loving what I am reading but also I just feel better within myself, most of the time. Reading has been a great escape from everything this month.
How was your reading this month? Any new favourite books?
My November TBR was:
Murder At The Playhouse by Helena Dixon – the third book in the Miss Underhay cosy mystery series – I did read this and LOVED it, it might be my favourite one in the series so far.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett – I did not get to this one, I really wanted to and still do but it wasn’t at the top of my priorities for this month.
Curtain Calls to Murder by Julian Clary – I did read this book. It looked like something i would love from the description and I didn’t hate it but it also wasn’t something I loved. If you’re interested in knowing why I will be writing a review soon.
Powerless by Lauren Roberts – I finally read this and again, I loved it. I will be putting up my review for this in December so look out for that if you are interested.
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannon – I am currently reading this book and honestly, I’m not sure at the moment if this is going to be a soft DNF and I will come back to it later or if I am going to push through and see if I like it. I am 100 pages ish in and I have no idea what is going on so we will see.
People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield – I did not read this. I just was not in the mood this month for a gothic feeling book.
The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton – I did not get to this either which was a shame because I was hoping to get a series finished and crossed off my list.
Queen B by Juno Dawson – I did read this, I love anything Anne Boleyn so I wanted to make sure that I gave this book a go.
Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis – I did not get around to this book either unfortunately.
Pandora by Susan Stokes Chapman – This was one book that I really wanted to get around to but it just didn’t happen this month.
So, from my TBR I read five books this month which I am pretty happy with but, I also read two books outside of my TBR. I finished Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco and then I also read The League of Lady Poisoners.
So, overall I read seven books this month. Which is a great amount in my opinion. I am happy with it and excited to get started on my December TBR.
Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today! Today I am sharing with you the books that I hope to get to in November. I have been a little ambitious this month, my TBR is long but I wanted to give myself a lot of choice so I could also sort of mood read at the same time.
What are you planning to read in November?
The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
People of Abandoned Character by Claire Whitfield
Queen B by Juno Dawson
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett
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