Book Reviews

Book Review: Art of the Dying by Ambrose Parry

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you my review for The Art of the Dying by Ambrose Parry, the second book after The Way of all Flesh.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include any spoilers.

Art of the Dying Plot:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Art of the Dying is the second book in a series following Will Raven, an aspiring Doctor, and Sarah Fisher. In this book Raven has returned to work for Dr James Simpson and realises that there are people out there who want to blame Dr Simpson for the death of a patient, teaming up again with Sarah Fisher to uncover what happened they realise there is something more sinister going on in Edinburgh.

This book is my favourite of all the books I have read so far this year, I was pulled into the middle of the unfolding events and a readers we can see the side of the protagonists and get deeper glimpses into the backstory of the villain. There is a lot of emotion coming through this novel, it makes you question everything you know about these characters and people in general. Such as, are people truly evil? Or did something cause their actions?

Art of the Dying Characters:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The two main characters in this novel are Dr Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. Raven is a man with many secrets who owes many debts and often he is a character that does not get understood by the people around him, they believe he is stubborn and cold but in this book you can see how there are more things that soften him than first thought. Sarah Fisher is a very smart woman who stands out in the male Edinburgh society, she dreams of practising medicine but struggles against male opinions on this. I like her character because she doesn’t stand back and let lies be spread around, she starts investigating and does not stop until she gets to the truth.

Art of the Dying Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Art of the Dying Overall:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I gave this book four stars because it was may favourite read so far this year and has cemented this as one of my favourite series’

Blurb/Synopsis:

Edinburgh, 1850. Despite being at the forefront of modern medicine, hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. But it is not just the deaths that dismay the esteemed Dr James Simpson – a whispering campaign seeks to blame him for the death of a patient in suspicious circumstances.

Simpson’s protégé Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher are determined to clear their patron’s name. But with Raven battling against the dark side of his own nature, and Sarah endeavouring to expand her own medical knowledge beyond what society deems acceptable for a woman, the pair struggle to understand the cause of the deaths.

Will and Sarah must unite and plunge into Edinburgh’s deadliest streets to clear Simpson’s name. But soon they discover that the true cause of these deaths has evaded suspicion purely because it is so unthinkable.

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!