Tag: irina shapiro

Monthly Wrap Ups

June Wrap Up!

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you are all doing well today. How was your June? Mine was so full I barely had time to myself. Some good things happened though, I saw Iron Maiden and Halestorm play live, I saw a couple of theatre shows and I read some good books.

Did you read any good books this month, what were they?

Today I am bringing you my wrap up for the month of June!

From my TBR I read:

  • Murder At The Beauty pageant by Helena Dixon – I did read this. It’s number 11 or maybe number 12 in the Miss Underhay cosy mystery series. Each installment is a brilliant short mystery with characters you love no matter what. It’s always a delight to delve into another book in the series.
  • Murder At Traitors Gate by Irina Shapiro – I did read this. This book is the second in the Bell and Tate series, a historical mystery series set around Victorian time in London I believe. I like that this series can balance the lightness of the character’s relationships with the darkness of the crime. It has a gothic feel to the series which I love.
  • To Sway A Bard – I did read this. I thought I was going to enjoy this a lot more than I did. It had all the great parts it needed: a thief character, a sheriff who is hunting the thief, enemies to lovers, a high stakes adventure, royalty, banter. But for me it was not taken as far as it could have been, it felt a little underdeveloped. I still enjoyed it but not as much as I hoped I would.
  • A Witch’s Guide To Love And Poison – I did read this.
  • A Rivalry Of Hearts by Tessonja Odette – I read half of this book before deciding to DNF it. Not because there was anything wrong with it because there wasn’t. It was well written and well plotted, the romance was good, I liked both the main characters but I got bored and having to read another half that would have been much more of the same wasn’t appealing so for now I have DNF’d it. I might come back to it later.
  • Fall Of The Argosi by Sebastien de Castell – as I am writing this I have not started this yet, however there are twelve more days left in June so I am pretty sure I will be able to have read it by the end of the month.
  • Vera Wong’s Guide To Snooping On A Dead an by Jesse Sutanto – I did read this. I enjoyed it. The second in the vera wong mystery series following a chinese mother who owns a tea shop and keeps getting herself involved in murder investigations.

So, by the end of the month I should have managed to read all seven of the books that were on my TBR for the month AND outside of it I have also read the new Rob Rinder book, The Protest which was one of my most anticipated reads for this year.

Monthly TBRs

June TBR!

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. As I’m writing this I have to say I’m feeling the stress right now but at least picking what books I am going to read next is a fun thing to be doing. Gets me excited about my books, anybody else?

What do you guys plan on reading this month?

MY JUNE TBR:

Murder At The Beauty Pageant by Helena Dixon

Murder At Traitors Gate by Irina Shapiro

To Sway A Bard

A Witch’s Guide To Love and Poison

A Rivalry of Hearts by Tessonja Odette

Fall of the Argosi by Sebastien De Castell

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping On A Dead Man by Jessie Q Sutanto

Monthly Wrap Ups

April Wrap Up!

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. What a month April was. For me personally, there were many highs and lows to do with family and learning how to juggle those things alongside my PhD was difficult but here we are finally at the end of the month and things have settled down a bit. Anyway, in terms of reading I had a good month. I finished my TBR and I got through a couple of extra books too which was surprising alongside everything else but a nice bonus. It was also a good month for enjoying the books I was reading.

What was your favourite book that you read in April? I have started making a list of my favourite book that I read in each month of this year and then in December I’ll be able to see what my top ten books of the year could be. So far the list is: January – Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, February – Murder By Candlelight by Faith Martin, March – Finlay Donovan Jumps The Gun by Elle Cosimano and April – Capturing The Devil by Kerri Maniscalco.

What I read in April: from my TBR –

  • Finlay Donovan Jumps The Gun by Elle Cosimano – I had written my TBR for April around the middle of March and it turned out that I had time to squeeze this one into my March reading instead. I had been putting off this book for a while because I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue the series after book two, it was starting to feel a bit samey but I decided to read it and I ended up loving it and subsequently bought the next two books in the series which i am excited to get to.
  • Phantasma by Kaylie Smith – I did read this. After all the hype I was excited but apprehensive to get to this one because I had heard so many opinions, mostly positive, and I thought it probably wouldn’t live up to the hype. I will be posting my full review of this book on the 12th May.
  • The White Queen by Philippa Gregory – I did read this – there may be some historical inaccuracies within the novel but as a lover of history from the 1400s to the 1600s I still enjoyed this novel.
  • Capturing The Devil by Kerri Maniscalco – as you can see from above I did read this and it was my favourite read of April (though it was a close race between this one, unravel me and murder at highgate cemetary). This was the final book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and I will be posting my full review of it on the 19th of May.
  • Reckless by Lauren Roberts – I did read this and I did enjoy it, I see where the negative reviews are coming from with the lack of substance to the plot but I generally just enjoy being in this world with these characters and that cliffhanger was quite something. I am looking forward to reading the final book in the series and seeing what happens.
  • Murder At The Country Club by Helena Dixon – I did read this and like all the other books in the Miss Underhay series it was fantastic.
  • Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi – I did read this. This is the second book in the Shatter Me series. This series has a way of sucking you in. I had some issues with Juliette’s character in this book and how little she stood up for herself but I also recognise that she needs the time to grow into that and I have a feeling it is going to happen in the third book. Otherwise I loved this book, its nearly 500 pages and I devoured it in a day easily.

Outside of my TBR I also read: Murder On Board by Helena Dixon, Murder At Highgate Cemetary by Irina Shapiro and Graveyard Shift by M L Rio that I was gifted for my birthday. Overall this means I read 10 books in April which I am very pleased with. There was only one that was a bit of a slog to read but everything else I really enjoyed, hopefully my reading in May will be just as good!