Celia's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 22 Apr 2025 22:43:43 -0700 60 Celia's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Kingdoms 54680112 A time twisting alternative history that asks whether it's worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you've ever loved.

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,� but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.]]> 448 Natasha Pulley 1635576083 Celia 0 to-read 4.01 2021 The Kingdoms
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Celia
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Good Losers 228207389
Thrust into a support crew and a very silly uniform, Callie has inadvertently volunteered for a season of pre-dawn parenting, endless fundraising, and pandering to insufferable dickheads. But she also finds friendship, intrigue and lust, while her son might just find love.

Callie is torn between enchantment and repulsion, until a trail of corruption and scandal leads to deep suspicion. There’s something fishy in the rowing shed, and Callie is determined to find out what lurks behind the closed doors of this sports club. In doing so, she will rock the boat � or better still, capsize it altogether.

This novel is set in northern Tasmania. It contains profundity, profanity, heart-ache, bum chafe, terrible winners and very good losers.

Praise for Meg
‘a boisterous tale of music, friendship and women’s rights� - Books+Publishing

‘a feminist grenade disguised as a book� - Rebecca Sparrow]]> Meg Bignell 1761351214 Celia 0 to-read 3.00 The Good Losers
author: Meg Bignell
name: Celia
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Compound 222255947
All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.

You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.

Soon, ten men will arrive on foot � if they all survive the journey.

What will you have to do to win?

And what happens to the losers?

LORD OF THE FLIES meets LOVE ISLAND in this explosive, addictive debut novel, as bingeable as the best reality TV, with dark undercurrents of literary dystopia and consumerist satire. ]]> 336 Aisling Rawle 0008710104 Celia 0 to-read 3.94 2025 The Compound
author: Aisling Rawle
name: Celia
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tasmakat (Tuyo, #7) 100183616
Released from every vow he ever swore to Aras, Ryo could remain among his own people. But he can't abandon Aras to confront his king alone—especially as the struggle they endured in the land of the shades still haunts them both.

But, as they journey south, Ryo realizes that Aras may be losing control of his sorcery. Even if Ryo can persuade the summer king to judge Aras kindly, that may only be the beginning of the challenges they face. If Aras' strength of will fails, even Ugaro stubbornness may not be enough to prevent disaster…]]> 954 Rachel Neumeier Celia 4 2025-books, fantasy 4.69 2023 Tasmakat (Tuyo, #7)
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Celia
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, fantasy
review:
The final book in this series from Ryo's perspective - probably a good thing as I was wearying a little of his narrative voice. The struggle that Aras has been having in controlling his sorcerous madness comes to a head in this book - can Ryo save him from himself? (You know the answer to this question).
]]> The Wings Upon Her Back 198821102
Five gods lie mysteriously sleeping above the city of Radezhda. Five gods who once bestowed great technologies and wisdom, each inspiring the devotion of their own sect. When the gods turned away from humanity, their followers built towers to the heavens to find out why. But when no answer was given, the collective grief of the sects turned to desperation, and eventually to war.

Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.

But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out, and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.]]> 336 Samantha Mills 1616964146 Celia 4 2025-books, spec-fic, sci-fi 3.96 2024 The Wings Upon Her Back
author: Samantha Mills
name: Celia
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, spec-fic, sci-fi
review:
Zenya is a teenager when she joins the Winged, the fanatically devoted followers of the Mecha god. Winged Zemolai is older, broken, bitter, and questions whether she's devoted at all. We move back and forth, following the story of how Zenya becomes Zemolai - and in the background, on the outskirts, a war rages, their city falling apart as the hand of the Mecha sect crushes it tightly in its fist. Is Zemolai disillusioned enough to help a group of rebels fight back? [spoilers removed]
]]> Black Woods Blue Sky 213243955 An unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks, Can love save us from ourselves?

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.]]> 306 Eowyn Ivey 0593231023 Celia 4 3.69 2025 Black Woods Blue Sky
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Celia
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, mythic, spec-fic, fairytale
review:
Tragic and beautiful - gorgeously written, with such stunning descriptions of Alaskan landscapes and wilderness.
]]> The Tsarina's Daughter 56268804
As friends turn to foes in the dangerous atmosphere of the Court, the princess must fear for her freedom and her life. Fate deals her blow after blow, and even loving her becomes a crime that warrants cruel torture and capital punishment: Elizabeth matures from suffering victim to strong and savvy survivor. But only her true love and their burning passion finally help her become who she is. When the Imperial Crown is left to an infant Tsarevich, Elizabeth finds herself in mortal danger and must confront a terrible dilemma--seize the reins of power and harm an innocent child, or find herself following in the footsteps of her murdered brother.

Hidden behind a gorgeous, wildly decadent façade, the Russian Imperial Court is a viper’s den of intrigue and ambition. Only a woman possessed of boundless courage and cunning can prove herself worthy to sit on the throne of Peter the Great.

Ellen Alpsten's stunning new novel, The Tsarina's Daughter, is the dramatic story of Elizabeth, daughter of Catherine I and Peter the Great, who ruled Russia during an extraordinary life marked by love, danger, passion and scandal.]]> 512 Ellen Alpsten 1250214408 Celia 3 3.83 2021 The Tsarina's Daughter
author: Ellen Alpsten
name: Celia
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, audio-book, historical-fiction
review:
Another very dense sweeping historical saga, beginning with Tsarevna Elizabeth as a young woman, before her father's death, then continuing through many years and various upheavals until her eventual rise to power. I probably enjoyed the first book in this series more, because Elizabeth's mother's story of rags to riches was a bit more compelling than Elizabeth's riches to rags.
]]> <![CDATA[Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds, #2)]]> 177186086
Scales is the best at what she does. She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in Ashtown; a rough, climate-ravaged desert town. But that fragile peace is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed within Ash's borders, right in front of Scales's eyes. Even more incomprehensible is that there was seemingly no murderer.

When more mutilated bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause—and putting an end to it. She teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist in order to uncover the truth, delving into both worlds to track down the invisible killer. But what they find points to something biggerand more corrupt than they could've ever foreseen—and it could spell doom for the entire world.]]> 373 Micaiah Johnson 0593497503 Celia 2 4.02 2024 Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds, #2)
author: Micaiah Johnson
name: Celia
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, sci-fi, audio-book, alternate-universe
review:
I really liked the first book in this series? Duology? But this one I didn't particularly enjoy at all - to do with our viewpoint character. Perfectly well-written, and might be just the thing for other readers.
]]> Over My Dead Body 63105620
With everyone mistakenly thinking she killed herself, she's condemned to half a century in Limbo as a 'Death By Misadventure' - unless she can prove that she was murdered. Unable to communicate with anyone living, Miriam's investigative options look decidedly limited.

But she soon realises that Winnie, her elderly next-door neighbour - and mortal enemy - can see, hear and talk to her. The good news for Miriam is that the dying can interact with the dead. The bad news for Winnie is that if she can see Miriam, she hasn't got long to live. Now this unlikely detective duo must work together to solve Miriam's murder - and maybe avert Winnie's death - before time runs out for them both. And before they kill each other first...]]> 320 Maz Evans 1035402300 Celia 4 She knows she didn't kill herself, but unless she can figure out who murdered her, she'll be stuck there for years. Difficulties - only Winnie, the neighbour she loathes, can see her, and she has a limited time to investigate. Miriam is such a prickly, angry character, and yet she's so easy to warm to - the progression of her character throughout the story was excellently done. A very blackly funny story with some great twists and turns.]]> 4.27 2023 Over My Dead Body
author: Maz Evans
name: Celia
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, funny, mystery, spec-fic, ghosts
review:
Miriam Price is stuck in limbo. She knows she didn't kill herself, but unless she can figure out who murdered her, she'll be stuck there for years. Difficulties - only Winnie, the neighbour she loathes, can see her, and she has a limited time to investigate. Miriam is such a prickly, angry character, and yet she's so easy to warm to - the progression of her character throughout the story was excellently done. A very blackly funny story with some great twists and turns.
]]> The Rain Heron 50014902
But when a young soldier comes to the mountains in search of a local myth, Ren is inexorably drawn into her impossible mission. As their lives entwine, unravel and erupt—as myths merge with reality—both Ren and the soldier are forced to confront what they regret, what they love, and what they fear.

The Rain Heron is the dizzying, dazzling new novel from the author of Flames.]]> 288 Robbie Arnott 1922268771 Celia 5 3.99 2020 The Rain Heron
author: Robbie Arnott
name: Celia
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, 5-star, australian-author, spec-fic, dystopian, ecology
review:
This was stunning. Surreal, fable-like, threaded through with dark realism - very difficult to describe, so I won't other than to say I now want to read every other book Arnott has written.
]]> The Mix-up 221859548 What would you do if you found out you'd been raising another couple's child - and they've been raising yours?

Fourteen years ago, Kelsey and Raf Maccioni left hospital with their newborn daughter, Ammy. Days later, Shona and Nathan James welcomed the birth of their son, Zac.

The only thing the two couples have in common is the IVF clinic where their dreams came true. They are strangers to each other � for now.

Fast forward to April 2024 . . . Ammy has grown into a rebellious young woman, and Zac is a kind but introverted teenager.

Life may not be perfect for either family, but like everyone else they are muddling through.

Until Ammy takes a DNA test for a school project. At first the results are puzzling. Then disturbing. Then earth-shattering - when the IVF clinic admits a terrible mistake.]]> 376 Kylie Ladd 1760146439 Celia 4 (3.5 stars really but I rounded up)]]> 4.14 The Mix-up
author: Kylie Ladd
name: Celia
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-books, australian-author, families
review:
Right after I finished this book, a "first time in Australia" case hit the headlines about a woman who gave birth to another couple's baby after a mistake by an IVF lab - not quite the same situation as this novel, where the babies involved are teenagers by the time the discovery is made, but close enough! This was an enjoyable read, and I thought Ladd did a great job not just doing a "ripped from the (future) headlines" thing, but really delving thoughtfully into what happens when you discover your child isn't biologically your own. While she really brought her characters to life, my god some of those characters were SO frustrating. [spoilers removed] However despite those frustrations I thought the narrative ended really well.
(3.5 stars really but I rounded up)
]]> Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Celia 0 to-read 4.41 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Celia
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Rapture 199458188
So begins the life of John the a matchless scholar and scribe of Fulda, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes (as John) dazzles the Church hierarchy with her knowledge of the old and new languages of Europe, theology and Church law - and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful (and deadly) currency.

And when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known - and loved.]]> 234 Emily Maguire Celia 0 to-read 3.95 2024 Rapture
author: Emily Maguire
name: Celia
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mere 214567065 The mere has fingers.
Clever fingers to reach through the marsh and wrap around little ankles.
Strong arms to pull poor sinners downwards.
And a great gaping belly that can never be filled . . .

Mere by Danielle Giles is a strikingly beautiful historical novel about fear and survival, power and position, and a love that takes hold in the darkest of places.

Norfolk, 990 AD. Deep in the Fens, isolated by a vast and treacherous mere, an order of holy sisters make their home. Under the steely guidance of Abbess Sigeburg they follow God’s path, looking to their infirmarian, Hilda, to provide what comfort and cures she can.

But when the mere takes a young servant boy, Sigeburg’s grip falters and Hilda quickly realises this place holds secrets darker and more unholy than she can fathom.

Then proud Sister Wulfrun, a recent arrival to the convent, has a a curse is upon them and change must be brought. Is she saint or serpent? To Hilda, Wulfrun is a signal bolder and brighter than any fire set � one she cannot help but follow . . .]]> 384 Danielle Giles 1035051222 Celia 0 to-read 3.92 2025 Mere
author: Danielle Giles
name: Celia
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Queen of Fives 212378270 A confidence scheme, when properly executed, will follow five movements in close and inviolable order.

I. The Mark II. The Intrusion. III. The Ballyhoo. IV. The Knot. V. All In.

There may be many counterstrikes along the way, for such is the nature of the game; it contains so many turns, so many endless possibilities�

1898. Quinn le Blanc, London’s most talented con woman, has five days to pull off her most ambitious plot trap a highly eligibleduke into marriage and lift a fortune from the richest family in England.

Masquerading as the season’s most enviable debutante,Quinn puts on a brilliantact that earns her entrance into the grand drawing rooms and lavish balls of high society—and propels her straight into the inner circle of her the charismatic Kendals.Among those shemust convince are the handsome bachelor heir,the rebellious younger sister, and the esteemed duchess eager to see her son married.

But the deeper she forges into their world,the more Quinn finds herself tangled in a complicated web of love, lies, and loyalty. The Kendalsall have secrets of their own, andshe may not be the only one playing a game of high deception�

]]> 384 Alex Hay 1525809857 Celia 0 to-read 3.49 2025 The Queen of Fives
author: Alex Hay
name: Celia
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murder Your Employer (The McMasters Guide to Homicide, #1)]]> 61272658 The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts - a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to "delete" their most deserving victim.


Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League� college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A “fiendishly funny� (Booklist) mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.]]> 400 Rupert Holmes 1451648219 Celia 0 to-read 3.79 2023 Murder Your Employer (The McMasters Guide to Homicide, #1)
author: Rupert Holmes
name: Celia
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Titanium Noir (Titanium Noir #1)]]> 62052321 A virtuosic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler by way of Marvel—the story of a detective investigating the murder of a Titan, one of society's most powerful, medically-enhanced elites.

"Cross-genre brilliance from the superbly talented Nick Harkaway." —William Gibson, New York Times best-selling author of Agency.

Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he's called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he's surprised by the routineness of it all. But when he arrives on scene, Cal soon learns that the victim—Roddy Tebbit, an otherwise milquetoast techie—is well over seven feet tall. And although he doesn't look a day over thirty, he is ninety-one years old. Tebbit is a Titan—one of this dystopian, near-future society's genetically altered elites. And this case is definitely Cal's thing.

There are only a few thousand Titans worldwide, thanks to Stefan Tonfamecasca's discovery of the controversial T7 genetic therapy, which elevated his family to godlike status. T7 turns average humans into near-immortal distortions of themselves—with immense physical proportions to match their ostentatious, unreachable lifestyles. A dead Titan is big news . . . amurderedTitan is unimaginable. But these modified magnates are Cal's specialty. In fact, his own ex-girlfriend, Athena, is a Titan. And not justany—she is Stefan's daughter, heir to the massive Tonfamecasca empire.

As the murder investigation intensifies, Cal begins to unravel the complicated threads of what should have been a straightforward case, and it becomes clear he's on the trail of a crime whose roots run deep into the dark heart of the world.]]> 236 Nick Harkaway 0593535367 Celia 0 to-read 3.90 2023 Titanium Noir (Titanium Noir #1)
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Celia
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tano (Tuyo, #6) 123159496
Born to the in Tasiyo, bitter enemies of the in Gara, Tano is trying hard to behave perfectly and win acceptance among his new people. But he fears that any misstep might mean the lord of the in Gara casts him out. Tano could lose more than his place with his new tribe: he could lose Ryo’s good opinion and encouragement, his tentative new friendships, his younger brother � everything that matters to him.

He would rather die.

Then Vayu in Kera, also once in Tasiyo, brings Tano an urgent problem, asking for his help. Tano owes Vayu too great a debt to refuse � whatever the cost.]]> 458 Rachel Neumeier Celia 4 2025-books, fantasy 4.51 2023 Tano (Tuyo, #6)
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Celia
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-books, fantasy
review:
The first "side character" novel I've read in the Tuyo series, not from Ryo's perspective - another excellent installment.
]]> The Inheritance 211953338
Meet the Agarwals, who have gathered on a private, luxury island off the west coast of Scotland for a much-anticipated family reunion.

Raj, the patriarch and a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillon-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini, the fragile matriarch, is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, the golden child, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is, unbeknownst to her family, on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the son and supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, the youngest, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies.

They’ve all got secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed? One thing is certain: this family gathering will shatter more than just their illusions of unity.]]> 352 Trisha Sakhlecha 0593832566 Celia 3 3.66 2025 The Inheritance
author: Trisha Sakhlecha
name: Celia
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-books, mystery, thrillers-crime, families, audio-book
review:
The set up and build up for this - a tense family get-together on a remote island, disputes about inheritance, cultural differences - was great, but I was less satisfied with where it ended up.
]]> Death in the Arctic 211603176 A frozen wilderness.

A killer in the skies.

When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime.

But she hasn’t had long to admire the dazzling icy views before a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin.

Trapped at the top of the world, the group agrees a tragic accident has occurred. But as the hours tick by, fear turns to doubt.

It seems everyone’s a suspect.

And it isn’t long before the passengers begin to turn on each other . . .]]> 355 Tom Hindle 1804949426 Celia 2 2025-books, mystery, cozy 3.69 2025 Death in the Arctic
author: Tom Hindle
name: Celia
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-books, mystery, cozy
review:
The premise of this - closed room mystery on an airship - sounds great, but the execution wasn't for me.
]]> Dragons of Fate 69708390
With the battle raging on, Destina tries desperately to make amends and prevent disaster. Raistlin and Sturm encounter their heroes, Huma and Magius, and must reconcile the myths with the men. Meanwhile, Tasslehoff—shocked that the Knights of Solamnia have never heard of dragonlances—sets out to find the famed weapons.

But as the forces of the Dark Queen close in on the High Clerist’s Tower, Destina’s party must return to their own timeline together—or not at all.]]> 370 Margaret Weis 1984819380 Celia 3 4.14 2023 Dragons of Fate
author: Margaret Weis
name: Celia
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-books, audio-book, dragons, fantasy
review:
Enjoyed the first book enough to read the second, did not have a good enough time with the second to go on to the third.
]]> Dragons of Deceit 123004552
“I love Dragonlance and I love Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Plain and simple. Their books are my favorite fantasy seriesofall time.”—Joe Manganiello

Destina Rosethorn—as her name implies—believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan—to go back in time and prevent his death.

First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying, last known to be in the possession of the spirited kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot. But to change time, she’ll need another magical artifact—the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest takes her from the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin to the town of Solace and beyond, setting in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past, and forever change the future.]]> 400 Margaret Weis 1984819399 Celia 3 3.68 2022 Dragons of Deceit
author: Margaret Weis
name: Celia
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-books, dragons, fantasy, audio-book
review:
I enjoyed this mostly because of my fond teenage memories of reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and probably not because of anything intrinsic to this actual book.
]]> Pagans 195034827 292 James Alistair Henry 1916678017 Celia 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Pagans
author: James Alistair Henry
name: Celia
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Names 217245618 In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.]]> 336 Florence Knapp 0593833902 Celia 0 to-read 4.34 2025 The Names
author: Florence Knapp
name: Celia
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Marple: Twelve New Mysteries 58935130
This collection of a dozen original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.

Naomi Alderman
Leigh Bardugo
Alyssa Cole
Lucy Foley
Elly Griffiths
Natalie Haynes
Jean Kwok
Val McDermid
Karen M. McManus
Dreda Say Mitchell
Kate Mosse
Ruth Ware

Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Agatha Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.]]> 384 Agatha Christie 0063136058 Celia 0 to-read 3.79 2022 Marple: Twelve New Mysteries
author: Agatha Christie
name: Celia
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)]]> 28449207 The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around�and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.]]> 532 Laini Taylor 0316341681 Celia 0 to-read 4.27 2017 Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)
author: Laini Taylor
name: Celia
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tarashana (Tuyo #3) 57383307 629 Rachel Neumeier Celia 5 2025-books, fantasy 4.37 2021 Tarashana (Tuyo #3)
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Celia
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 2025-books, fantasy
review:
The second full novel in the Tuyo series. This one is set mostly in the winter land of Ryo's people, the Ugaro, as he and Aras and their companions embark on a journey to help Ryo's tribe with a woman of the Tarashana who has come to them for help. Another immensely satisfying book, featuring a lot of travelling with tents, a lot of cultural clash type stuff, and then a a satisfyingly long and tense battle against the enemies of the Tarashana to finish it off. Some of what I guess are Neumeier's little writing tics became slightly irritating in this book (a bit of a repetition she does in dialogue) but I was so engaged with the characters I didn't care.
]]> The Other Valley 176450755
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town--except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.]]> 290 Scott Alexander Howard 1668015471 Celia 4 3.85 2024 The Other Valley
author: Scott Alexander Howard
name: Celia
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 2025-books, time-travel, spec-fic
review:
There is a town in a valley. To the west is another valley with that same town, 20 years in the past. To the east, the same town 20 years in the future. The Conseils in each town tightly control travel and communication between the towns, to prevent the sort of problems that exist with time travel - in this case, literal time travel, where walking across the valley takes you to another time entirely. Odile sees the parents of a friend visiting from the town to the east, to view their son in the past - and this chance encounter changes the trajectory of her life. I love a good time travel book, and this one is excellent - it has some really interesting considerations about past decisions and how they affect our futures.
]]> Captive (Invictus #1) 135690131 Every soldier knows there are endless ways to die.
Every Ubezhishche soldier knows there are far worse fates than death.

Sevastien one zero two four, S line third modification, has survived the destruction of his own ship and an enemy station. But he was rescued by the wrong side -- by Nalyn Ila, captain of the Elysian destroyer Invictus. Now he's facing a difficult problem: How to persuade Captain Ila and her people that he is not an enemy combatant. That if there was an act of war, it was committed by her people, not his own.

Sevastien is almost certain he was an innocent bystander of disaster ... unless his own people set him up, aiming to get him aboard Invictus for reasons he can't yet understand. Maybe they did. It's just the kind of thing Ubezhishche Command might do.

Nalyn Ila is almost certain Sevastien is an enemy agent, placed aboard her ship by Ubezhishche Command. But no one, not her own people nor the enemy nor Sevastien himself, can possibly guess what use she might actually have for an Ubezhishche soldier. Even if he actually is an innocent bystander, she may be able to use him in her private long-laid plans. And if he's actually an enemy agent ... that might be even better.]]> 391 Rachel Neumeier Celia 4 2025-books, space, sci-fi 4.33 2023 Captive (Invictus #1)
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Celia
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-books, space, sci-fi
review:
This is the first half of a longer story, not really a first book of a duology - so keep that in mind going in. I picked this up as I was buried in Neumeier's "Tuyo" series, and thought I'd like a sci-fi palate cleanser from the same author. I did enjoy it, it's well written, I liked the social structures she set up - but it also dragged a bit revealing where it was going, and I suspect it could have been edited into one tighter novel. I haven't gone on to the second book unfortunately although I am a bit curious where the story goes.
]]> Tuyo (Tuyo, #1) 55664038
Ryo's captor, a lord of the summer country, may be an enemy . . . but far worse enemies are moving, with the current war nothing but the opening moves in a hidden game Ryo barely glimpses, a game in which all his people may be merely pawns. Suddenly Ryo finds his convictions overturned and his loyalties uncertain. Should he support the man who holds him prisoner, the only man who may be able to defeat their greater enemy? And even if he does, can he persuade his people to do the same?]]> 412 Rachel Neumeier Celia 5 2025-books, fantasy 4.36 2020 Tuyo (Tuyo, #1)
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Celia
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-books, fantasy
review:
Look, I read this blurb and thought "this sounds a bit ridiculous - a freezing cold "winter" country and a hotter "summer" country next to each other, captured warriors, blah blah". It's bloody GREAT. Ryo, a warrior who is left as a sacrifice, but instead taken into service by the enemy, is a great character, often torn about his decisions, desperately trying to do the right thing in difficult situations. The two societies, so shaped by their environments and so different from each other, are so well crafted. I immediately started reading more of the series the minute I finished it.
]]> A Sweet Sting of Salt 186872566 Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.

When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, already drenched to the bonein the freezing cold and barely able to speak a word of English.

Although Jean is the only midwife in the village and for miles around, she’s at a loss as to who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to grow. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?]]> 352 Rose Sutherland 0593594592 Celia 4 3.84 2024 A Sweet Sting of Salt
author: Rose Sutherland
name: Celia
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-books, historical-fiction, mythological
review:
A beautiful reimagining of the Selkie Wife, which is such a great fairy tale - I love reading different versions of it. Poetic writing with vivid imagery of a gradual love story against the odds. It got a bit... practical for me at the end, when we get some more details about selkie society - but altogether a great love story with a satisfying ending.
]]> The Maiden 63106877
"In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me."

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian Nimmo is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess.

Only a year before, Christian was leading a life of privilege and respectability. So, what led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? She wasn't the only woman in Forrester's life, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead . . .]]> 384 Kate Foster Celia 4 3.99 2023 The Maiden
author: Kate Foster
name: Celia
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-books, historical-fiction
review:
This very enjoyable historical novel is based on/inspired by a real life murder trial that I knew nothing about (and I'm presuming it takes a fair few liberties with the historical record) - written from the perspective of Lady Christian Nimmo, the accused, and Violet, a witness at her trial. The two viewpoints are excellent - sympathetic in different ways to two very different characters, who are having experiences that are not so dissimilar from each other's, despite their different places in society.
]]> <![CDATA[Other People's Houses (DC Morgan, #3)]]> 211965585 From the author who brought you the jaw-dropping twist of I Let You Go, the gasp-out-loud ending of Let Me Lie, and the loveable, unpredictable Ffion Morgan in The Last Party and A Game of Lies.]]> 352 Clare Mackintosh 1408726025 Celia 0 to-read 4.46 2025 Other People's Houses (DC Morgan, #3)
author: Clare Mackintosh
name: Celia
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> That'll Teach Her 209249282 A headmistress is dead. The circumstances are suspicious.
And as every parent knows, being on the school group chat can be murder...

As educators go, Claudia Stitchwell makes Miss Hannigan look like Miss Honey.
But when the reviled headteacher drops dead in the school hall, a group of sceptical parents suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn't add up - they believe someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson.

Only four people could have killed Stitchwell: Hattie, the adored school cook; Kiera, the hard-working teaching assistant; Clive, the loathed school bursar and Ben, the popular deputy head. All of them are liars... but only one is the murderer.

Piecing together evidence from the daily drama and drudgery of the parents' group chat, local press, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip, the determined detective parents are doing their homework to crack the case.

Will you spot the clues? Can you deduce whodunnit? And for the love of all things holy, does anyone have this week's spellings?]]> 553 Maz Evans 1035413280 Celia 0 to-read 4.14 2025 That'll Teach Her
author: Maz Evans
name: Celia
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61219635 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250886088.

A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success—not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 304 Travis Baldree Celia 4 4.17 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Celia
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/25
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: audio-book, 2022-books, cozy, fantasy
review:
Supremely cozy, low-stakes novel about an orc who's starting a coffee shop in a city that's never heard of coffee. Or cinnamon buns. Or croissants. Basically it's about a city falling in love with all these things, and friends supporting each other. It's not a high excitement plot, but it's a very soothing read.
]]> The Terraformers 60784471
Centuries later, Destry's protege, Misha, is building a planetwide transit system when his worldview is turned upside-down by Sulfur, a brilliant engineer from the volcano city. Together, they uncover a dark secret about the real estate company that's buying up huge swaths of the planet―a secret that could destroy the lives of everyone who isn't Homo sapiens. Working with a team of robots, naked mole rats, and a very angry cyborg cow, they quietly sow seeds of subversion. But when they're threatened with violent diaspora, Misha and Sulfur's very unusual child faces a stark choice: deploy a planet-altering weapon, or watch their people lose everything they've built on Sask-E.]]> 338 Annalee Newitz 1250228018 Celia 0 to-read 3.26 2023 The Terraformers
author: Annalee Newitz
name: Celia
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Scarlet Throne (False Goddess, #1)]]> 198493823
Binsa is a “living goddess,� chosen by the gods to dispense both mercy and punishment from her place on the Scarlet Throne. But her reign hides a deadly secret. Rather than channeling the wisdom of an immortal deity, she harbors a demon.

But now her priests are growing suspicious. When a new girl, Medha, is selected to take over her position, Binsa and her demon strike a deal: To magnify his power and help her wrest control from the priests, she will sacrifice human lives. She’ll do anything not to end up back on the streets, forgotten and alone. But how much of her humanity is she willing to trade in her quest for power? Deals with demons are rarely so simple.]]> 432 Amy Leow 0316562483 Celia 0 to-read 3.73 2024 The Scarlet Throne (False Goddess, #1)
author: Amy Leow
name: Celia
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Followers 42171136
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss � a striving wannabe A-lister � who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss's methods are a little shady and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can't be wrong.

Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity � twelve million loyal followers � Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.

Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.]]> 380 Megan Angelo 1525836269 Celia 4 3.58 2020 Followers
author: Megan Angelo
name: Celia
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 2024-books, futuristic, near-future
review:
"Followers" is set in two times - in 2015, we follow Orla and Floss, creating Floss a career as an influencer. In 2051, Marlow is living in a government-owned reality-tv village, where her entire life is lived on camera, for her followers. A catastrophic online event caused the end of the private internet, and the government sponsored reality-tv villages are its replacement. A really fast-paced addictive read, darkly funny throughout - I really enjoyed this.
]]> Sweet Harmony 54359267 From the bestselling and award-winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K, a darkly inventive novella about the dangers of pursuing perfection.

Harmony is tired. Tired of working so hard, tired of the way she looks, tired of being average.

But all that changes when she decides to splash out and upgrade her nanos. And why not? Everyone's doing it now. With a simple in-app purchase, you can update the tech in your bloodstream to transform yourself - get enhanced brain power, the perfect body or a dazzling smile. Suddenly, everything starts going right for her. She's finally becoming the person she always wanted to be.

But as Harmony will find out, there's a limit to how many upgrades a body can take . . .]]> 124 Claire North 0316498874 Celia 4 3.67 2020 Sweet Harmony
author: Claire North
name: Celia
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 2024-books, novella, spec-fic, futuristic, dystopian, near-future
review:
This is such a dark imagining of our future - nanos to improve your looks, bodily function, health and medicine controlled by subscription nanos. Harmony's many nano subscriptions improve her life and career - until it all falls apart. Quite genuinely horrifying.
]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Celia 3 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Celia
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, romance, found-family
review:

]]> Come and Get It 127482608
It's 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie's starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardised by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks and illicit intrigue.

A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.]]> 400 Kiley Reid 0593328205 Celia 3 2024-books, general-fiction 3.32 2024 Come and Get It
author: Kiley Reid
name: Celia
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 2024-books, general-fiction
review:
I did find this book really absorbing when I was reading it, but trying to describe the plot is very difficult, as it's so slim. It's very character driven, so you're still fascinated even though you're reading about very minor interpersonal dramas happening in a college dorm.
]]> The Deep Sky 61884842 Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.

---

Content warnings are available at the author's website (see author bio).]]> 399 Yume Kitasei 1250875331 Celia 0 to-read 3.66 2023 The Deep Sky
author: Yume Kitasei
name: Celia
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Are All Ghosts in the Forest]]> 208284867
When a wordless boy finds her in the marketplace with nothing but her name in his pocket, her curiosity won’t allow her to turn him away. But haunting his arrival are rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease stirring up the ghosts, and the mood in the village starts to sour.

Accused of witchcraft, Katerina and Stefan escape into the forest, searching for his missing father and the truth behind the disease. If there is a cure, Katerina alone might find it, but first she must find the courage to trust others � because the ghosts that follow her aren’t just digital.]]> 400 Lorraine Wilson 1837861447 Celia 0 to-read 3.83 2024 We Are All Ghosts in the Forest
author: Lorraine Wilson
name: Celia
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dice 141339412
Four teenage boys invent a sex game based on rolling dice and doing what the numbers say.

They are charged with multiple sexual offences against three teenage girls.

Twelve random jurors are brought together in a trial to work out what actually happened.

Only they can say whether crimes have been committed and who should be punished.

How does the jury find?

Dice is a stunning courtroom drama told from the perspective of a diverse group of ordinary people - the jury. How will twelve women and men, aged from eighteen to seventy-two with hugely disparate backgrounds, beliefs and experience, decide whether consent was given or crimes were committed?

How can they possibly arrive at a unanimous verdict? How will justice be properly served?

In this dazzlingly accomplished and gripping debut novel, chapters are told through the point of view of each juror as the trial unfolds. The reader too becomes a jury member as the evidence is presented and information is withheld, fragmented and re-told by different witnesses. Each person must decide where the truth lies.

Will the verdict deliver justice, or just reflect the prejudices and differences in the jury?]]> 375 Claire Baylis 1761186957 Celia 5 3.83 2023 Dice
author: Claire Baylis
name: Celia
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: 2024-books, police-procedural, thrillers-crime
review:
A jury listens to a trial and then deliberates, the story moving through various juror viewpoints as it progresses. Really excellently done - all of the characters just come to life even if you only spend a brief time in their viewpoint, and the trial and deliberations are full of tension, despite the realistic progression of proceedings. It is a heavy story - you won't finish it feeling uplifted - but a pleasure to read.
]]> Cold Truth 220422629 'the Queen of tech noir'� �The Australian

When you can fake anything, how do you know what’s real?

Harlow Close has made a career as an influencer uncoveringthe secrets of Winnipeg, dubbed ‘North America's strangest city�. The region is renowned for its sub-zero temperatures, dropping to minus 40 degrees –sometimes for months at a time. Yet, it’s not just the frigid winters and geographic seclusion that render Winnipeg peculiar. When Harlow’s father mysteriously disappears amida brutal cold snap, suspicions of foul play arise. It’s not like Scott tomiss phonecalls � and he’s been even more cautious since that time hewas catfished by a romance scammer. Unhappy with the pace of the police investigation, Harlow launches her own search, enlisting her sister Blaise’s reluctant help.
As Harlow struggles to uncover what happened to her father, she’s forced to question everything and everyone around her � including herself.

PRAISE FOR COLD TRUTH:

‘WithDark Mode, Ashley Kalagian Blunt announced her arrival on the thriller scene with a bang. In this follow-up, we would expect nothing less than a smart, twisty plot, set in an unforgettable place and populated by deeply human characters � butCold Truthdoes even more than that. In bringing us into the depths of Canadian winter, Ashley takes us right into what makes us who we are. Blood ties and shady online dealings come to the fore in this enthralling novel. I adored this book � compelling crime fiction at its absolute best.�� Hayley Scrivenor, author ofDirt Town and Girl Falling

�Cold Truthis bone-chilling in every a missing father, a complicated relationship between sisters and a taut mystery in an icy Canadian winter. With twists that had me gasping, the story rocketed towards a gripping finale. I could not put it down! Another explosive thriller from the master of the cliff-hanger.� � Petronella McGovern, author ofThe Liars and The Last Trace

‘Ashley Kalagian Blunt has done it again, delivering another propulsive psychological thriller that filled me with dread from the first page to its shocking conclusion. Set in the depths of the Canadian winter, Cold Truth was truly chilling; a relentless ride that had me guessing at every turn and reading into the early hours of the morning.Kalagian Blunt has established herself as the master of terrifying, addictive thrillers that will leave you questioning your own safety.� � Shankari Chandran, author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens and Unfinished Business

‘Vivid, twisty, fast-paced and action-packed, I tore throughCold Truthin two days. It left me shivering � with both cold and the stark reminder that in this world where anything can be faked, truth is as stable as quicksand.� � Pip Drysdale, author of The Next Girl and The Close-Up

‘Atmospheric, twisty and terrifying, Cold Truth is a taut and pulse-racing thriller that left me with an icy shiver. A story of sisterhood, loss, deceit and triumph � laced with the menace (and malice) of the dark web.]]> Ashley Kalagian Blunt 176115169X Celia 4 3.99 Cold Truth
author: Ashley Kalagian Blunt
name: Celia
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024-books, better-reading-review-copy, thrillers-crime
review:
3.5 stars - a very competently plotted propulsive thriller set in Winnipeg. Harlow, who runs local tours, is searching for her missing father, helped and sometimes hindered by her sister, with whom she has a tricky relationship. I think I really enjoyed the sibling relationship parts, which were very believable and well done, more than the thriller bits (which have the usual touch of ludicrousness). A great plane read!
]]> Liberty's Daughter 192777167
To her surprise, she finds that she's the only detective that a debt slave can afford to hire to track down the woman's missing sister. When she tackles this investigation, she learns things about life on the other side of the waterline � not to mention about herself and her father � that she did not expect. And that some people will stop at nothing to keep her from talking about . . .]]> 261 Naomi Kritzer Celia 4 4.09 2023 Liberty's Daughter
author: Naomi Kritzer
name: Celia
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024-books, climate-change, futuristic, mystery
review:
Set in a "seastead", a group of linked communities living on sea platforms, separated from existing nations and experimenting with their own versions of governance. Beck works as a seeker, finding things other people need - when she's asked to find someone's sister, she unearths a lot more than she expected. Very enjoyable, I really liked the setting and how the communities worked together.
]]> <![CDATA[The Undoing of Violet Claybourne]]> 213570811
At Thornleigh, Gilly is dazzled by the family's faded grandeur, and above all by Violet's beguiling older sisters who seem to accept her as one of their own. But following a terrible accident in the house's grounds, Gilly begins to realise the Claybourne sisters aren't quite what she thought they were. And if she's to survive in their world, she may have to become just like them . . .

A captivating novel of family secrets, desperate ambition and deepest betrayal, set against the winter of 1938, The Undoing of Violet Claybourne is the irresistible new mystery from the acclaimed author of One Puzzling Afternoon.]]> 400 Emily Critchley 1728287197 Celia 4 3.90 2024 The Undoing of Violet Claybourne
author: Emily Critchley
name: Celia
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, thrillers-crime, families, historical-fiction
review:
I thought this was really well written, and engaging, and I enjoyed it - but oh my god, I think there was a lot of forgiveness and grace extended to our main character that was in no way deserved. [spoilers removed]
]]> Lola in the Mirror 167582092
'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?' A girl and her mother are on the lam. They've been running for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in the kitchen with the knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside an orange 1987 Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River � just two of the 100,000 Australians sleeping rough every night. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. Visions in black ink and living colour. A vision of a life as a groundbreaking artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy in the brown suit who's waiting for her in the middle of the bridge that stretches across a flooding and deadly river. A life far beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person's name is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can sometimes ever do. She must look in the mirror. A big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror. All of the past, all of the present, and all of our possible futures. 'Mirror, mirror, please don't lie. Tell me who you are. Tell me who am I.']]> 512 Trent Dalton 146071332X Celia 4 4.37 2023 Lola in the Mirror
author: Trent Dalton
name: Celia
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, australian-author, families, coming-of-age
review:
I was relieved that this book didn't turn out quite as darkly as I thought it was going to. Things I loved - the structure, with chapters introduced with a sketch and an explanation, as if they are displayed in a gallery. The nameless main character's internal monologue. The plot progression. Things I did not love - the main character's dialogue. There is no Queensland police officer who's sitting and nodding and smiling as a potential witness gives half a page of meandering extended metaphors. "But who you are you really, who am I really, where does the river take us". It's all very poetic and I did not enjoy it. HOWEVER, apart from that I really enjoyed this.
]]> Horn (Horn, #1) 28286559
This time things are going to get much, much worse.

Dead girls and unicorns? How warped can this get?

REVIEWS:
But be prepared, this ain’t your little sisters ( unless you have a rather odd family) book about faeries and unicorns. This is a hard boiled detective novel, dark and probably a little confronting for some. �

It’s possibly the best paranormal fiction I have read all year, possibly ever. It will be confronting, it will take some of you close to edge. But I think Ball crafts a delightfully dark little tale, revealing a more honest portrayal of the Fae, the sex, lust and double edged devious nature. - Seandblogonaut
]]> 49 Peter M. Ball Celia 4 awesome." And judging by the author's blog, there's going to be a sequel.]]> 3.73 2009 Horn (Horn, #1)
author: Peter M. Ball
name: Celia
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: thrillers-crime, fantasy, australian-author, novella
review:
This is a great novella, a brilliant and dark noir thriller, which has unfortunately completely changed my view of unicorns thanks to one particularly disturbing scene. It's one of those books you recommend to other people with "this is seriously fucked up and disturbing - but awesome." And judging by the author's blog, there's going to be a sequel.
]]> The Ice Retreat 203546459 From bestselling author Ruth Kelly, The Ice Retreat is a spine-tingling thriller set in the world of controversial wellness treatments. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Sarah Pearse.

HEALER?

Meet Hollie Jenson, presenter of the smash-hit docu-series Bad Medicine, which exposes the perils of extreme therapies. Her next a new retreat run by wellness guru Ariel Rose, who claims to have discovered the secret to healing pain through her three-day ice rebirth treatment.

LIAR?

Acting on a mother's plea to find her son, who vanished soon after his stay, Hollie ventures into the Swiss mountains where the retreat occupies a former observatory in search of the boy and to expose Ariel as the charlatan she believes her to be.

KILLER?

As the isolation of the valley sets in, she finds herself in an increasingly dangerous situation. There is much more to the retreat than meets the eye and she must confront explosive secrets from her own past if she is to ever make it out alive . . .]]> 400 Ruth Kelly 1035025396 Celia 2 3.28 The Ice Retreat
author: Ruth Kelly
name: Celia
average rating: 3.28
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, thrillers-crime
review:
I liked how this started, and the creepy ice retreat - and it rapidly lost me from there, being incredibly ludicrous and way too drawn out.
]]> The Twelve 210462181
The world has rewritten itself, leaving Kit to navigate a reality where her sister doesn't exist. Determined to unravel the enigma surrounding her sister's disappearance, Kit joins forces with a local boy named Story. Together, they journey through a world steeped in ancient folklore, on a quest fraught with danger beyond their wildest imagination. The race is on to find a sister, help heal a cosmic wound and put the world back on its proper course. This lyrical and beautiful novel explores themes of responsibility both personal and political and the importance of love and friendship to make good in the world.]]> 320 Liz Hyder 178269398X Celia 3 4.16 2024 The Twelve
author: Liz Hyder
name: Celia
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, british, mythological, fantasy, youngadult
review:
This reminded me of Susan Cooper's books - it felt strongly based in British mythological traditions, and was a nicely seasonal story with determined children at the heart of it. I felt that the major quest of the book dragged on a bit and was too often interrupted by other things, and that was a bit frustrating - plus it was a bit too young adult to really capture my heart.
]]> Don’t Look Back 221610450
It’s been seven years since she fled to the edge of the world and reinvented herself, but her spontaneous act of mercy has brought her into the public eye. Which means that, despite all of Myer’s best efforts to outrun her brutal past and disappear, he will be able to find her at last...

A chilling, high-octane thriller from the bestselling author of Tell Me Lies and Trapdoor.]]> J.P. Pomare Celia 3 3.40 Don’t Look Back
author: J.P. Pomare
name: Celia
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, thrillers-crime
review:
A fairly short book, and not one of Pomare's best - but still relatively entertaining.
]]> <![CDATA[The Christmas Appeal (The Appeal, #1.5)]]> 124949815 Run Time = 3hr 36min

A charmingly festive novella from the “modern Agatha Christie� (The Sunday Times, London): In Lower Lockwood, a Christmas theater production takes a dark turn when a body is discovered onstage. As rivalries flare and secrets unravel, lawyers Femi and Charlotte race to uncover the killer before the final curtain falls � for good. Read by a full cast of narrators!


This immersive holiday caper follows the hilarious Fairway Players theater group as they put on a Christmas play—and solve a murder that threatens their production.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.

Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production—for good.]]> 208 Janice Hallett 166803588X Celia 5 3.53 2023 The Christmas Appeal (The Appeal, #1.5)
author: Janice Hallett
name: Celia
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery, novella, epistolary
review:
A very amusing festive novella, in the style Hallett does so well with a mixture of letters, texts, and messages.
]]> The Salt Flats 209456084
Martha and Finn's marriage is hanging by a thread. Martha, crippled by paralyzing climate anxiety, finds herself at odds with Finn, who steadfastly refuses to confront the demons of his past.

In a desperate attempt to repair their relationship, they join a group of privileged tourists on a pilgrimage to The Salt Centre, a mysterious retreat nestled deep within the Bolivian salt flats.

United by a shared quest for spiritual enlightenment, the group embark on a journey guided by an elusive shaman. As a series of salt ceremonies unfold, hallucinogenic episodes force each of them to confront their own versions of reality.

When the final ceremony descends into a nightmare, Martha and Finn are met with an ultimatum. Forced to grapple with the moral implications of their trip they must ask themselves: are some wounds too deep to heal]]> 320 Rachelle Atalla 139972729X Celia 4 3.86 2024 The Salt Flats
author: Rachelle Atalla
name: Celia
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, climate-change, thrillers-crime
review:
Another dark and bleak story by Rachelle Atalla, excellently written and completely gripping as per usual.
]]> The Worst Perfect Moment 196849314 Equal parts tender and edgy, this inventive queer romance imagines what it might feel like to come of age in the afterlife.

Tegan Masters is dead.

She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the single most depressing motel in all of New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent what she remembers as the worst weekend of her life.

In the front office, she meets Zelda, a cute and sarcastic girl Tegan’s age who is, in fact, an angel (wings and all). According to Zelda, Tegan is officially in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy minigolf course, revolting breakfast buffet, broken TV, and all.

Tegan has a few complaints about this.

As Zelda takes Tegan on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s past to help her understand what mattered most to her in life, the stakes couldn’t be higher. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan that the Marybelle was the site of Tegan's perfect moment, both girls face eternal consequences too dire to consider. But if she succeeds…they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife.

Full of humor and heartbreak, The Worst Perfect Moment asks what it means to be truly happy.]]> 320 Shivaun Plozza 082345634X Celia 4 4.00 2024 The Worst Perfect Moment
author: Shivaun Plozza
name: Celia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: 2024-books, better-reading-review-copy, youngadult, romance
review:
Tegan is dead, and she's not happy with the Heaven that her angel Zelda has created for her. It's supposed to be the happiest moment in her life, but Tegan is convinced that it's one of her worst. Despite Zelda's protests, Tegan insists on lodging a complaint with management - which turns out to have very unintended consequences. A delightful read, sad yet hopeful, dark yet funny, about happiness and love.
]]> The Dead Friend Project 200262591
Things haven't been going well for Beth. Her husband has left her for one of her friends. Her fellow school mums judge her for swearing too much and not shifting the baby weight. And now she's stuck in A&E after her son fell off the climbing wall on the first day of school.

In fact, things haven't been going well for Beth since Charlotte died - her best friend, a favourite at the school pick-ups and the only person to ever run an interesting PTA meeting. But after being hit by a car while on an ill-timed evening jog, Charlotte is no longer there to help Beth pick up the pieces of her increasingly difficult life.

That is, until Beth discovers that Charlotte left her toddler alone in the house during that fatal run. The Charlotte she knew would never do something so irresponsible, and suddenly Beth is questioning whether Charlotte's death was really an accident. With a newfound purpose and a glass of wine in hand, it's time for Beth to uncover what really happened to her best friend. And what better place to start than the circle of chatty school mums, who can't be as perfect as they pretend. But which of them is hiding something? Beth's determined to find out... once she's put the kids to bed, of course.]]> 384 Joanna Wallace 1800811373 Celia 4 3.64 2024 The Dead Friend Project
author: Joanna Wallace
name: Celia
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: 2024-books, british, families, parenting, thrillers-crime
review:
Very darkly funny, we see Beth's life falling apart as she tries to figure out why her friend Charlotte dies. Wallace does a great job at balancing the black comedy with making Beth a sympathetic character.
]]> A Game for All the Family 25182683 You thought you knew who you were. A stranger knows better.

You've left the city - and the career that nearly destroyed you - for a fresh start on the coast. But soon after the move, your daughter starts to withdraw, because her new best friend, George, is unfairly expelled from school.

You beg the principal to reconsider, only to be told that George hasn't been expelled. Because there is, and was, no George.

Who is lying? Who is real? Who is in danger? Who is in control? As you search for answers, the anonymous calls begin - a stranger who insists that you and she share a traumatic past and a guilty secret. And then the caller threatens your life...

This is Justine's story. This is Justine's family. This is Justine's game. But it could be yours.

A dazzling psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, from the author whose work Tana French describes as "like watching a nightmare come to life."]]> 432 Sophie Hannah 1444776045 Celia 2 3.06 2015 A Game for All the Family
author: Sophie Hannah
name: Celia
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, british, mystery
review:
A rare miss from Sophie Hannah for me - lurched from unbelievable to ludicrous.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sequel (The Book Series, #2)]]> 203578763 The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Something has gone wrong, and someone out there knows far too much about her late brother, her late husband, and possibly about Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far and worked too hard to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.]]> 304 Jean Hanff Korelitz 1250875471 Celia 3 3.59 2024 The Sequel (The Book Series, #2)
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Celia
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery
review:
This is a briskly plotted mystery about the widow of a famous author, her own best selling novel, and the person who keeps hinting that they know all about her past. It was perfectly fine - it just didn't really grab me.
]]> The Understudy 46130379 How far would you go to protect your daughter?

Carolyn, Bronnie, Elise, and Kendall are bound together by one thing—their four daughters are best friends at the highly competitive Orla Flynn Academy for the Performing Arts. Last year the foursome exploded because of brutal bullying between the girls, but they've since forgiven each other. The mothers, however, haven’t been able to move on. When new threats surface and "accidents" begin to happen—just as a mysterious new girl enters the scene—the mothers take matters into their own hands. But they will have to risk their own secrets being exposed if they stand a chance at uncovering the truth.]]> 352 B.A. Paris 1529303931 Celia 2 3.32 2019 The Understudy
author: B.A. Paris
name: Celia
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery, thrillers-crime
review:
I like Claire Mackintosh and Sophie Hannah individually - I did not like them as part of this collective and ludicrously plotted effort, full of characters I hated.
]]> Tsarina 48764258 St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless and passionate as Peter himself.

Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life—the lavish feasts, glittering jewels, and candle-lit hours in Peter’s bedchamber—she knows the peril of her position. Peter’s attentions are fickle and his rages powerful; his first wife is condemned to a prison cell, her lover impaled alive in Red Square. And now Catherine faces the ultimate test: can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself?

From the sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy, to the incense-filled rites of the Orthodox Church and the terror of Peter’s torture chambers, the intoxicating and dangerous world of Imperial Russia is brought to vivid life. Tsarina is the story of one remarkable woman whose bid for power would transform the Russian Empire."]]> 467 Ellen Alpsten 1250214432 Celia 5 3.80 2002 Tsarina
author: Ellen Alpsten
name: Celia
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, historical-fiction
review:
Excellent historical novel about the destitute beginnings of Marta, and her gradual rise to become Catherine I of Russia. Long, dense and fascinating.
]]> The Haven 179954843 Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Family Upstairs


'A smart, fierce thriller about an unravelling family, a corrupted utopia, and the wild hearts of teenage girls. I couldn't look away� Lauren Beukes, internationally bestselling author of The Shining Girls

---

Sixteen year old Cass Sawyer wakes up in the woods with a head injury.
She has no recollection of what happened.

But she recognises where she is. The Haven. The idyllic, off-grid retreat her parents claimed would heal their broken family.

As Cass searches the now deserted buildings, memories begin to trickle through.

Her father’s erratic behaviour. Her mother’s pleas that they go back to town. The Haven’s charismatic, free-spirited leader. The strange girls that hang on his every word.

And a nagging that Cass has done something terribly wrong.

What happened at The Haven? Where is Cass’s family?
And will they ever escape?

---


'The Haven is a taut and propulsive story of a family in crisis, a shattering of innocence, and a savage fight for survival. I couldn’t put it down Sunday Times bestselling author Karen Perry

‘Wow � what a book. I could not put it down� READER REVIEW

Praise for Fiona Neill

'No one writes about modern family with more truth and authenticity than Fiona Neill� Lisa Jewell

‘Neill has a trained eye for the pressures and poignancies of modern family life� The Guardian

'Incisive, smart and at times darkly funny' Gillian McAllister

‘Neill is brilliant at capturing the wrong turns people make and the consequences that follow� Stylist
]]> 370 Fiona Neill 1405936827 Celia 4 2024-books, families, cults 3.48 The Haven
author: Fiona Neill
name: Celia
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-books, families, cults
review:
Claustrophobic and intense, we follow Cass and her family for their stay at The Haven, an off-grid community. We move between their past, as things start to slowly go wrong, and the present, where Cass is on the run, injured and afraid. I love a good cult-esque book.
]]> Hum 195791689 From the National Book Award–longlisted author of The Need comes an extraordinary novel about a wife and mother who—after losing her job to AI—undergoes a procedure that renders her undetectable to surveillance…but at what cost?

In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,� May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights� respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

Written in taut, urgent prose, Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities. As New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer says, “Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future.”]]> 262 Helen Phillips 1668008831 Celia 3 3.49 2024 Hum
author: Helen Phillips
name: Celia
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, dystopian, futuristic, spec-fic
review:
An oddly paced novel, set in our climate changed future - May is struggling in her constrained family life, with her husband and children hooked to their various tech devices, hiding from the poisonous air quality and dangers that lies outside. May pays for tickets to stay in the Botanical Garden with her family for a small escape, and the rest of the story involves both that stay, and the aftermath. It's not heavy on plot, and May's unhappiness makes it a bit of a heavy read.
]]> Joy Moody is Out of Time 196921236
For much of their lives, Joy has been telling Cassie and Andie one big, fat lie- that they are from the future, and that when they turn twenty-one they will travel back to the year 2050. What started as a colourful tale to explain how the girls came to live with her has now become a decades-long deception. Worse still, Joy has started to believe it herself.

The big lie is certainly preferable to the truth she just can’t face � about what happened to the girls� real mother, Britney, and how far Joy's gone to keep them 'safe' . . .

With the twins� twenty-first birthday fast approaching, and with Andie starting to have doubts - particularly when she discovers her ‘future� is eerily similar to one of her mother's favourite books � time is fast running out for Joy Moody. In more ways than one.

'This book is incredible, it kept me guessing til the very end! Kerryn Mayne takes us on a rollercoaster ride of motherhood in the suburbs. As uplifting as it is dark, Joy Moody Is Out Of Time will knock your socks off.' Sally Hepworth *'Utterly original. An engrossing tale of lies and secrets that will keep you guessing to the very end.' Amanda Hampson* .‘Unique and quirky, this is a charming who-done-what mystery with a cast of original characters.' Sarah Bailey* 'Mayne combines her signature dark humour with insightful observations about what it means to be a mother, to create a page turning suspense that will have readers guessing to the very last page.' Lisa Ireland *'Highly entertaining and with an incredibly unique premise, Kerryn Mayne has done it again - crafted a witty, gripping read with characters like no other.' Holly Craig]]> 362 Kerryn Mayne 1761343297 Celia 4 3.93 2024 Joy Moody is Out of Time
author: Kerryn Mayne
name: Celia
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, australian-author, mystery
review:
Another excellent mystery from Kerryn Mayne, with once again somewhat quirky protagonists - you're presented with a very out there scenario at the start of the book, and we then move backward in time to see the story unfold in a very satisfying way.
]]> Appreciation 198119002
Oli Darling is a queer artist from the country � it says so right at the top of every press release. His art has brought him fame, money, fashionable substance abuse issues and only a little imposter syndrome. But then he goes on live TV and says the one thing that can get a rich white guy cancelled.

With his reputation in tatters, nobody is buying Oli’s schtick or his art. That’s a problem for all the people who’ve invested millions in him. Powerful, dangerous people. To save his own skin, Oli will need to restore his public image. Together with a ghostwriter, he must do the most undignified thing he will have to write a memoir.

So begins a journey through the underbelly of modern celebrity that sees Oli confront the consequences of his own ruthless mythmaking � lies he’s told others, lies he’s told himself. Perhaps he was right to feel like an imposter. And maybe the only way out is to take a good hard look at himself.

Outrageous satire of the highest order, Appreciation sets its sights on the question of authenticity in a time where image trumps talent, narcissism rules, and no canvas is so tarnished it can’t be painted over.

Praise for Appreciation
‘Made me laugh gleefully, and also made me squirm. Pieper’s pen is a sharply honed blade � there’s a hell of a lot of truth in this deceptively jaunty satire. I gulped it down.� Christos Tsiolkas
‘A clever, wry and utterly hilarious impaling of Australian culture. A worthy successor to Oscar Wilde.� Kris Kneen
‘Smart and daring, witty and incisive. A work of genius.� Jessie Stephens
'A deft skewering of contemporary values � as hugely entertaining as it is piercingly relevant.� Nick Earls
'Savage and spot-on . . . For anyone even slightly involved in the industry, it’s great fun guessing who’s who; for everyone else, it’s just great fun.' Steph Harmon, The Guardian
'A literary page turner with no shortage of dramatic flair.' Georgia Phillips, The Conversation
'Never forgets the power of entertaining the reader . . . Appreciation gives the impression of something new and energised.' Jack Cameron Stanton, Sydney Morning Herald
'Achingly tender . . . funny too.' Conrad Landin, The Saturday Paper

Praise for The Toymaker
‘Hugely memorable.� Hannah Kent
‘Bold and compelling.� Peter Pierce, Weekend Australian

Praise for Sweetness and Light
‘Crackling with a tension that doesn’t let up.� Jay Daniel Thompson, Australian Book Review
‘A high-stakes, self-aware literary thriller.� Elke Power, Readings]]> 333 Liam Pieper 1760144894 Celia 0 to-read 3.78 2024 Appreciation
author: Liam Pieper
name: Celia
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl Falling 211004022 Why would my best friend want to destroy my life?

Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in a small town in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they've always had a close - sometimes too close - friendship. Now in their twenties, their lives have finally started to Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the Mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu.

Unused to sharing Finn, Daphne starts to act up in ways that will allow her to maintain the control over her best friend she's always relished. Then, one fateful day, Finn, Daphne and Magdu all go mountain climbing - and Magdu falls to her death. Is it suicide, or a terrible accident - or has something more sinister happened?]]> 272 Hayley Scrivenor 1250362172 Celia 4 3.39 2024 Girl Falling
author: Hayley Scrivenor
name: Celia
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, australian-author, mystery, thrillers-crime
review:
Set in the Blue Mountains, we start with a scene where Finn, rock climbing with her girlfriend and her childhood best friend, sees her girlfriend fall past her to her death. We then move between traumatised Finn in the present, and Finn in the past, dealing with the death of her sister, and her disturbingly close relationship with her best friend. Slow in sections, but with such a great ending that I'll forgive it.
]]> The Husbands 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actuallyliving?]]> 352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 Celia 4 3.50 2024 The Husbands
author: Holly Gramazio
name: Celia
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, spec-fic
review:
Lauren is horrified when a man climbs down from her attic, and says he's her husband. He goes back up and then - a different husband climbs down. This novel drags a bit in places, as Lauren (somewhat understandably) takes a long time trying to come to terms with the revolving cast of husbands, and trying to figure out how to get back to her original life. It's essentially a multiverse novel as Lauren moves from one version of her life to another at varying speeds - I did really like it. I thought it'd be impossible to resolve, but Gramazio does a really great job of finding a satisfying ending.
]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Celia 4 3.98 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Celia
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, australian-author, mystery
review:
I find Moriarty so reliably entertaining, and her latest was no exception - a huge cast of characters that we move between, and yet she manages to maintain the reader's interest in each of them. I was so enthralled about where this storyline was going, and was sure it couldn't be resolved in a satisfying way - and yet yes, it was.
]]> The Day Tripper 215081944
He wakes the next day to find he’s in a messy, derelict room he’s never seen before, in grimy clothes he doesn’t recognize, with no idea of how he got there. A glimpse in the mirror tells him he’s older—much older—and has been living a hard life, his features ravaged by time and poor decisions. He snatches a newspaper and finds it’s 2010—fifteen years since the fight.

After finally drifting off to sleep, Alex wakes the following morning to find it’s now 2019, another nine years later. But the next day, it’s 1999. Never knowing which day is coming, he begins to piece together what happens in his life after that fateful night by the river.

But what exactly is going on? Why does his life look nothing like he thought it would? What about Cambridge, and Holly? In this thrilling adventure, Alex must navigate his way through the years to learn that small actions have untold impact. And that might be all he needs to save the people he loves and, equally importantly, himself.]]> 368 James Goodhand 0778369641 Celia 5 3.73 2024 The Day Tripper
author: James Goodhand
name: Celia
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, british, spec-fic, time-travel
review:
A man finds himself out of time, waking up each day at a different point of his life, and gradually trying to make different decisions to alter the direction he takes. This sort of structure could be tedious but it's done so well, with so much narrative tension. I loved it, and want to read another of Goodhand's books.
]]> <![CDATA[Derring-Do for Beginners (The Red Company, #1)]]> 134754338
Jullanar is a gently-raised young woman from deep inside the Empire of Astandalas, aware that there are worlds beyond its sway but hardly daring to dream she'd ever see outside of her own country, let alone beyond the empire's borders. And yet they both dream of friendship, of adventure, of what else there might be. And it's Jullanar whose exam results turn out to matter in a way no one could expect. The first book of The Red Company, because even the greatest of folk heroes have to start somewhere.]]> 385 Victoria Goddard 1988908906 Celia 5 2024-books, fantasy 4.49 2023 Derring-Do for Beginners (The Red Company, #1)
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Celia
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, fantasy
review:
Bloody delightful, I love the books set in this world. I couldn't remember much about the Red Company, but that doesn't matter at all - this is such a lovely coming of age style story. I don't like anything else of Goddard's that I've looked at, but these books - just exactly my thing.
]]> <![CDATA[A Murder of Crows (Nell Ward, #1)]]> 60845211
In the sleepy village of Cookingdean, Dr Nell Ward is busy working in the grounds of a local manor house. Whilst inspecting an old tunnel, the last thing she expects to overhear is a murder. As the only person with any clues as to what happened, Nell soon finds herself in the middle of the investigation.

Desperate to clear her name Nell, along with her colleague Adam, set out solving the murder using their skills as ecologists to uncover details no one else would notice. But it soon becomes clear that playing Agatha Christie is much harder than it might at first appear�

The start of an exciting new cosy crime series � perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Faith Martin and Joy Ellis.]]> 368 Sarah Yarwood-Lovett Celia 2 3.80 2022 A Murder of Crows (Nell Ward, #1)
author: Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
name: Celia
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery
review:
A kind of cozy mystery? Maybe not cozy, but the murder was in a stately house, so it struck me as cozy-esque. It was not for me, every single character was so irritating, but it was competently written, and I'm sure the style would appeal to other readers.
]]> The Sleepwalkers 176442759 From “one of the UK’s most interesting authors� (Kirkus Reviews), Patricia Highsmith meets White Lotus in this surprising and suspenseful modern gothic story following a couple running from both secretive pasts and very present dangers while honeymooning on a Greek island.

Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on a tiny Greek island for their honeymoon. It’s the end of the season and a storm is imminent. Determined to make the best of it, they check into the sun-soaked doors of the Villa Rosa. Already feeling insecure after seeing the “beautiful people,� the seemingly endless number of young models and musicians lounging along the Mediterranean, Evelyn is wary of the hotel’s owner, Isabella, who seems to only have eyes for Richard.

Isabella ostensibly disapproves of every request Evelyn makes, seemingly annoyed at the fact that they are there at all. Isabella is also preoccupied with her chance to enthrall the only other guests—an American producer named Marcus and his partner Debbie—with the story of “the sleepwalkers,� a couple who had stayed at the hotel recently and drowned.

Everyone seems to want to talk about the sleepwalkers, save for Hamza, a young Turkish man Evelyn had seen with some “beautiful people,� as well as the “dapper little man”—the strange yet fashionable owner of the island’s lone antiques and gift shop she sees everywhere.

But what at first seemed eccentric, decorative, or simply ridiculous, becomes a living nightmare. Evelyn and Richard are separated the night of the storm and forced to face dark truths, but it’s their confessions around the origins of their relationship and the years leading up to their marriage that might save them.

Exhilarating, suspenseful, and also very funny, The Sleepwalkers asks urgent questions about relationships, sexuality, and the darkest elements of contemporary society—where our most terrible secrets are hidden in plain sight.]]> 304 Scarlett Thomas 1668032988 Celia 4 3.09 2024 The Sleepwalkers
author: Scarlett Thomas
name: Celia
average rating: 3.09
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, epistolary, multiple-narrators, mystery
review:
A dark and chilling epistolary tale, told in a combination journal entries, recordings, etc. Thomas does such a good job at evoking that "something here is deeply wrong" vibe which is sustained throughout the book, even as things become more clear to the reader.
]]> Every Move You Make 195340477
Alexandra, Lucy, Bridget, River and Natalie. Five friends who wish they’d never met. Because the one thing they have in common is the worst thing in their lives: they are all being stalked.

When one of their group is murdered, days after their stalker is released from prison, time stands still for them all. They know their lives could end just as brutally at any moment—all it takes is for the people they fear the most to catch up with them.

When the group receive a threat that one of them will die in ten days� time, the terror that stalks their daily lives becomes all-consuming. But they know they don’t want to be victims anymore—it’s time to turn the tables and finally get their revenge.

Because the only way to stop a stalker is to become one yourself�

Your new obsession starts here. Get hooked by C.L. Taylor’s next impossible-to-put-down thriller. The multi-million bestseller returns with her most propulsive and addictive book yet. A chilling and terrifyingly real thriller that will keep you up all night—and looking over your shoulder for days to come…]]> 422 C.L. Taylor 0008601534 Celia 3 3.85 2024 Every Move You Make
author: C.L. Taylor
name: Celia
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, thrillers-crime, british
review:
A decent thriller about a group of people who've survived experiences with stalkers, and their efforts to protect themselves from further interference in their lives, by any means.
]]> <![CDATA[The Last Princess: Daughter of the House of Dragons]]> 217415757
A female retelling of the dramatic and heart-wrenching events of the slaughter-stained year of 1066: from the ashes of her father's cursed kingdom, one woman makes a new empire emerge.

International bestselling author Ellen Alpsten creates a captivating new heroine in her new historical fiction 'The Last Princess' bridges myth and modernity.


‘Makes Game of Thrones look like a Nursery Rhyme...' - DAISY GOODWIN

‘A vivid page-turner…� - THE TIMES

'Woven with elegance and brio...' - ADRIANA TRIGIANI

‘An astonishing epic…� - THE DAILY MAIL

‘This should come with a health warning. Once you start reading, you cannot stop…� - HANNAH ROTHSCHILD]]> 442 Ellen Alpsten Celia 0 to-read 4.13 The Last Princess: Daughter of the House of Dragons
author: Ellen Alpsten
name: Celia
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ink Ribbon Red 76752200 400 Alex Pavesi 0241433584 Celia 0 to-read 3.33 Ink Ribbon Red
author: Alex Pavesi
name: Celia
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What a Way to Go 208552783 wealth-obsessed man � who is also dead.

One status-obsessed woman � who is the perfect accessory.

Their four inheritance-obsessed children � each with a killer instinct.

And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all�

Bella Mackie is back with a brilliantly funny and twisty mystery about dysfunctional families, awful rich people and true crime obsessives� and a murder or two, of course.]]> 400 Bella Mackie 0008365962 Celia 3 3.46 2024 What a Way to Go
author: Bella Mackie
name: Celia
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery, ghosts
review:
Anthony Wistern suffers a gruesome death at his elaborate birthday party, leaving behind a not-exactly-grieving wife and children who are less than thrilled to discover their wealth and privilege is the result of his extensive fraud - while Anthony looks on in distaste from the afterlife, trying to figure out how he died. Blackly comedic, plenty of horrible rich people having a generally nasty time.
]]> 17 Years Later 149116142 Is the truth sometimes best left buried?

A crime masterpiece by bestselling author J. P. Pomare

The violent slaughter of the wealthy Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation of New Zealand and scarred the small idyllic rural town of Cambridge forever.

All of the evidence pointed to their young live-in chef, Bill Ruatara, who was swiftly charged with murder and brought to justice. The brutal crime is now infamous, and Bill a figure of contempt who deserves to rot in jail for life.

Seventeen years later, prison psychologist TK Phillips is fighting for an appeal. He is convinced Bill did not receive a fair trial. When celebrity true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott takes a sudden interest, it's not long before she uncovers new evidence that could set fire to the prosecution's case.

As TK and Sloane dig deeper into the past, they become tangled in a complex web of danger and deceit. With Bill's innocence far from assured and their own lives at stake, will they risk everything to unearth the truth, or leave it buried for good?]]> 404 J.P. Pomare 0733649653 Celia 4 4.32 2024 17 Years Later
author: J.P. Pomare
name: Celia
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024-books, mystery, thrillers-crime
review:
One of Pomare's best books, I think - a true crime podcaster investigates the murder of the Primrose family 17 years earlier, and the conviction of their young live-in chef. It moves back and forth between the investigation, and the written recollections of Bill the chef, with lots of enjoyable plot bait and switch.
]]> <![CDATA[Echo of Worlds (Pandominion, #2)]]> 181031840
Two mighty empires are at war - and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes.

But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force - the Mother Mass - that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal.

Their mission will take them from the hellish prison world of Tsakom to the poisoned remains of a post-apocalyptic Earth, and finally bring them face to face with the Mother Mass itself. But can they persuade it to end eons of neutrality and help them? And is it too late to make a difference?

Because the Pandominion's doomsday machines are about to be unleashed - and not even their builders know how to control them.

Discover the conclusion to the spectacular Pandominion duology - an exhilarating science fiction series from the author of the million-copy bestseller The Girl With All the Gifts . Perfect for fans of The Space Between Worlds, The Long Earth and Children of Time.]]> 496 M.R. Carey 035651806X Celia 4 4.25 2024 Echo of Worlds (Pandominion, #2)
author: M.R. Carey
name: Celia
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024-books, sci-fi, space, portals, multiverse
review:
An excellent and satisfying conclusion to this duology - a slightly bumpy start for me remembering who was who and what was going on (as this essentially just goes on from where the first book ended), but then I got swept up again in it.
]]> Strange Sally Diamond 62606369 The internationally bestselling author of Lying in Wait returns with a wickedly dark, twisted, and brilliantly observed new novel about an enigmatic woman confronting her unknown past.

Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the center of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.

But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world, and why does he call her Mary? And why does her new neighbor seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged…]]> 317 Liz Nugent 1501189735 Celia 0 to-read 4.13 2023 Strange Sally Diamond
author: Liz Nugent
name: Celia
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey, #4)]]> 9454874
Amid the lush foothills of the Himalayas, dark deeds are buried and malicious thoughts flourish. The Brisbanes uncover secrets and scandal, illicit affairs and twisted legacies. In this remote and exotic place, exploration is perilous and discovery, deadly. The danger is palpable and, if they are not careful, Julia and Nicholas will not live to celebrate their first anniversary.]]> 392 Deanna Raybourn 1426868871 Celia 3
In this book, Julia and Brisbane join Julia's brother and sister (Plum and Portia, respectively) on a trip to India, to visit Portia's ex-girlfriend who believes her husband may have been murdered. Got that? OK. So, Julia and Brisbane busily investigate this potential murder separately, spend most of the book distrusting each other, and only really tell each other everything towards the end. This didn't bother me all that much, but I think it would have if I'd read all four books in quick succession.

The resolution to the murder is a bit convoluted - or perhaps I should say the path there is fairly convoluted - and the ending suitably tragic and heart-wrenching. I enjoyed it, but I can't say I'm anxious to rush back to the next book. They're nice fluffy weekend reads (if you like a bit of heart-wrenching tragedy in your fluff weekend reads).

]]> 4.02 2010 Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey, #4)
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Celia
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: 2011-books, british, historical-fiction, mystery
review:
I haven't read any of Raybourn's books in a while - and I think I only ever read the first two in this series. (Checks back on reviews - yep, the first two, and I enjoyed them apparently). I like Lady Julia and her family of eccentrics.

In this book, Julia and Brisbane join Julia's brother and sister (Plum and Portia, respectively) on a trip to India, to visit Portia's ex-girlfriend who believes her husband may have been murdered. Got that? OK. So, Julia and Brisbane busily investigate this potential murder separately, spend most of the book distrusting each other, and only really tell each other everything towards the end. This didn't bother me all that much, but I think it would have if I'd read all four books in quick succession.

The resolution to the murder is a bit convoluted - or perhaps I should say the path there is fairly convoluted - and the ending suitably tragic and heart-wrenching. I enjoyed it, but I can't say I'm anxious to rush back to the next book. They're nice fluffy weekend reads (if you like a bit of heart-wrenching tragedy in your fluff weekend reads).


]]> <![CDATA[The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace, #1)]]> 24885634
Greta is the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis’s strategy to keep the peace: if her country enters a war, Greta dies.

The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered.

Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elián arrives at the Precepture. He’s a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives—and is severely punished for it. Greta is furious that Elián has disrupted their quiet, structured world. But slowly, his rebellion opens her eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under, and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.

Then Elián’s country declares war on Greta’s and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious, and coming himself to mete out punishment. Which surely means that Greta and Elián will be killed...unless Greta can think of a way to save them.]]> 384 Erin Bow 1481442732 Celia 4 3.62 2015 The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace, #1)
author: Erin Bow
name: Celia
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/26
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: 2016-books, spec-fic, sci-fi, futuristic
review:
Brilliant futuristic/dystopian novel exploring morality and choice and humanity and all that good stuff.
]]> The Midnight Feast 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests� healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule� cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Celia 4 3.55 2024 The Midnight Feast
author: Lucy Foley
name: Celia
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, british, thrillers-crime, mystery
review:
3.5 stars really. A very entertaining multi-viewpoint mystery, moving between current day and the events leading up to it - but it suffers from "well that's bloody ridiculous"-itis. I had fun nonetheless!
]]> <![CDATA[The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)]]> 13597723
What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.]]> 308 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1423168232 Celia 3 4.22 2013 The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Celia
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, thrillers-crime, youngadult
review:
This was perfectly competently written, but very much not for me in so many ways - serial killers and angsty teen love triangles, dear lord.
]]> Big Time 205961298
Big Time is set in a not-too-distant future Australia, where the eastern states have become the world's newest autocracy - a place where pop music is propaganda, science is the enemy, nationalism trumps all, and moral indecency is punishable by indefinite detention.

The novel opens as Julian Ferryman, bass player for the Acceptables, returns to Melbourne after a year overseas. He reconnects with his band as they prepare to record and tour their highly anticipated second album, and is given his first taste of a new designer drug, F, a powerful synthetic hallucinogen that gives users a glimpse of their own future. Rumour says, the more you take, the further you see - maybe even to the end of time.

Big Time is an anti-fascist ode to the power of pop music and a satire about art in the face of entropy, all wrapped up in an unforgettable road trip.]]> 384 Jordan Prosser 0702268380 Celia 3 3.57 Big Time
author: Jordan Prosser
name: Celia
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 2024-books, dystopian, futuristic, australian-author
review:
This was a really surreal book - near-future dystopia, in an authoritarian Eastern Australia where music is sanitised propaganda. Part of what makes it surreal is the use of a drug that takes the users into the near future, used throughout the book - so you have these out-there time-slips happening throughout the text. I enjoyed the read and thought some of it was very cleverly done, but man, all these people are awful, and I didn't care about their fight against the authoritarian regime.
]]> Thirsty Animals 63103830
Aida is forced back home to live on the farm with her mum. For now, they are safe with enough to get by.

But Aida's life continues to change. The service station she works at grows emptier with each day, and suspicious strangers arrive on the farm who are beginning to overstay their welcome. And with the horrific scenes she witnessed at the border - between those with water and those without - she wonders how it could get any worse.

And then their taps are turned off.

Everything Aida and her disjointed family have been preparing for, and Aida thought impossible, is happening. Now they must try and survive long enough for the rain to come.]]> 368 Rachelle Atalla 1529342163 Celia 5 Thirsty Animals was a terrifyingly realistic description of Aida's life as water scarcity reaches catastrophic levels, borders close, and services begin to cut off. She and her family give assistance to a small family who move onto their property, and as things get worse, tensions between the families rise. While this is utterly bleak and dark in parts, it does end on a mildly hopeful note, which was a relief!]]> 3.96 2023 Thirsty Animals
author: Rachelle Atalla
name: Celia
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, dystopian, climate-change
review:
I love Rachelle Atalla's work (and because I listen to her novels as audiobooks, I'm not bothered by the lack of speech punctuation which would definitely bother me if I was reading them). Thirsty Animals was a terrifyingly realistic description of Aida's life as water scarcity reaches catastrophic levels, borders close, and services begin to cut off. She and her family give assistance to a small family who move onto their property, and as things get worse, tensions between the families rise. While this is utterly bleak and dark in parts, it does end on a mildly hopeful note, which was a relief!
]]> Doughnut (YouSpace, #1) 15790906
A circle of fried doughy perfection.

A source of comfort in trying times, perhaps.

For Theo Bernstein, however, it is far, far more.

Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him. And he doesn't have any money.

Before Theo has time to fully appreciate the pointlessness of his own miserable existence, news arrives that his good friend Professor Pieter van Goyen, renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, has died.

By leaving the apparently worthless contents of his safety deposit to Theo, however, the professor has set him on a quest of epic proportions. A journey that will rewrite the laws of physics. A battle to save humanity itself.

This is the tale of a man who had nothing and gave it all up to find his destiny -- and a doughnut.]]> 400 Tom Holt 0316226106 Celia 3 3.59 2013 Doughnut (YouSpace, #1)
author: Tom Holt
name: Celia
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, humour, spec-fic
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Virgin in the Ice (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #6)]]> 847860 202 Ellis Peters 0446404284 Celia 3 historical-fiction, mystery 4.13 1982 The Virgin in the Ice (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #6)
author: Ellis Peters
name: Celia
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2008/09/01
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: historical-fiction, mystery
review:
I probably liked this the least of the other Brother Cadfael books I've read - I'm not sure why. There's a civil war going on, and the focus of this book is not so much Cadfael going about his way solving a mystery, but instead a hostage situation and a band of rebels, and it's all rather dramatic. The events rather overtook what I enjoy in these books - Cadfael's thoughts, and the time he spends in the infirmary; this story was all rush, rush, rush.
]]> The Mars House 150277127 From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a queer sci-fi novel about an Earth refugee and a Mars politician who fake marry to save their reputations—and their planet.

In the wake of environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. In Tharsis, January’s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger—a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars’s lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January’s job choices, housing, and even transportation options are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse: Gale wants all Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalized, a process that can be anything from disabling to deadly.

When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, January’s life is thrown into chaos, but Gale’s political fortunes are damaged, too. Gale proposes a solution to both their problems: a five-year made-for-the-press marriage that would secure January’s financial future without naturalization and ensure Gale’s political future. But when January accepts the offer, he discovers that Gale is not at all like they appear in the press. And worse, soon, January finds himself entangled in political and personal events well beyond his imagining. Gale has an enemy, someone willing to destroy all of Tharsis to make them pay—and January may be the only person standing in the way.]]> 469 Natasha Pulley 1639732330 Celia 4 Laura's review for example, and she links to two other important reviews about the use of Chinese culture in this novel). January, a ballet dancer, leaves an increasingly uninhabitable Earth for Tharsis, a Chinese colony on Mars (the fact that Tharsis, while described as a Mandarin-speaking society, doesn't really feel Chinese is dealt with in the reviews that Laura links to), joining a society who views him and other immigrants as a threat to their society (because of his dangerous physical strength as an "Earthstronger"). One of the things that frustrated me about this novel was all the things it tries to cover (because I think it ends up doing a lot of them inadequately). It's trying to say stuff about immigration/refugees, colonisation, and environmentalism, while also containing multiple genres (romance, political thriller, mystery, hard SF) - and while I don't think it does those things successfully (hard SF being the least successful!) it does succeed in telling a very entertaining story most of the time. ]]> 3.93 2024 The Mars House
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Celia
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: 2024-books, sci-fi, climate-change
review:
This was a 3.5 star read for me. I did really enjoy the process of reading it, but there were elements that made me pause, that I've since seen elaborated in other reviews (Laura's review for example, and she links to two other important reviews about the use of Chinese culture in this novel). January, a ballet dancer, leaves an increasingly uninhabitable Earth for Tharsis, a Chinese colony on Mars (the fact that Tharsis, while described as a Mandarin-speaking society, doesn't really feel Chinese is dealt with in the reviews that Laura links to), joining a society who views him and other immigrants as a threat to their society (because of his dangerous physical strength as an "Earthstronger"). One of the things that frustrated me about this novel was all the things it tries to cover (because I think it ends up doing a lot of them inadequately). It's trying to say stuff about immigration/refugees, colonisation, and environmentalism, while also containing multiple genres (romance, political thriller, mystery, hard SF) - and while I don't think it does those things successfully (hard SF being the least successful!) it does succeed in telling a very entertaining story most of the time.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)]]> 201930181
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.

Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand � and manipulate � the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.]]> 422 James S.A. Corey 031652557X Celia 2 4.11 2024 The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Celia
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, sci-fi, space
review:
I enjoyed about the first half of this, and the second half I spent being a bit frustrated and bored with the story. I just don't care enough about any of these characters or their fates to continue on with this series.
]]> When the World Tips Over 203820262 An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids� father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls� world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.]]> 528 Jandy Nelson 0525429093 Celia 4 4.20 2024 When the World Tips Over
author: Jandy Nelson
name: Celia
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: 2024-books, magical-realism, spec-fic, families, better-reading-review-copy
review:
I felt very uncertain about this book when I started, as the first sentence was weirdly clunky - but I loved it. It was just the right mixture of magic-realist weirdness, epistolary-ish storytelling (a mixture of diary entries, letters, stories told to other people, interspersed with ordinary third person narrative), and a great collection of characters whose stories are really beautifully explored. A fantastic read. (I wouldn't specifically call this YA, even though many of the characters are young adults.)
]]> A Sorceress Comes to Call 195790847 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]> 327 T. Kingfisher 1250244072 Celia 5 4.06 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Celia
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, fantasy, fairytale
review:
Kingfisher does dark/creepy in such a perfect way, without overdoing it - this is another excellent book. I would call this vaguely referencing the Goose Girl fairytale, rather than being a retelling of it.
]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Celia 4 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Celia
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, mystery, families
review:
Excellent atmospheric mystery, slightly slow-moving at times but kept me totally absorbed nonetheless.
]]> Millies of the Chalet School 214993272 0 Sarah Wright 1847453414 Celia 3 4.30 Millies of the Chalet School
author: Sarah Wright
name: Celia
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 2024-books, chalet-school, childrens
review:
A well written (in terms of managing E B-D's style) fill-in novel, focusing on the older students at a Chalet off-shoot. I didn't find it as enjoyable as those focussing on the Chalet - I think older students are just less fun to read about.
]]> The Silence Factory 195853478 From the acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding—a captivating story of gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.

1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.

Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man’s young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward’s business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.

As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward’s charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.

With Bridget Collins’s signature, stunning prose, The Silence Factory is an equally enthralling and unsettling gothic story about complicity, desire, and corruption—a novel to lose yourself in.]]> 384 Bridget Collins 0063220016 Celia 4 3.44 2024 The Silence Factory
author: Bridget Collins
name: Celia
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: 2024-books, historical-fiction, spec-fic, netgalley
review:
A mildly speculative novel set partly in the 1820s, through the diary entries of Sophia, and then the later 1800s, with Henry, a rather frustratingly gormless young man. Sophia is on a Greek island with her (truly awful) husband, who is searching for spider specimens, and she becomes caught up in the island's culture. Henry gets a job working with one of the awful husband's descendant's, Sir Edward - first, he is trying to restore Sir Edward's daughter's hearing, and is then employed to assist Sir Edward in improving sales of his silk from his spiders. The silk has almost magical properties of complete sound suppression, along with other, more horrifying affects on the people who work around the spiders and the silk. I really enjoyed this, it has a truly creepy gothic feeling throughout. I did wish there was more of Sophia's narrative, but probably mostly because I wanted her to have a happier ending, and Henry is a much less sympathetic character (he does pull it together in the end, which is a relief).
]]> <![CDATA[Chemistry for Breakfast: The Amazing Science of Everyday Life]]> 56826239
Chemistry for Breakfast turns the ordinary into extraordinary, explaining everything from heat conduction to expiration dates, with a side of states-of-matter and biological clocks. With Mai as your guide, you’ll find something fascinating in everything around you. (You’ll also sound smarter at dinner parties.)]]> 236 Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim 1771647493 Celia 0 to-read 4.00 2019 Chemistry for Breakfast: The Amazing Science of Everyday Life
author: Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
name: Celia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Rabbit Factor 58939130 Just one spreadsheet away from chaos�

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother � its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters � and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets�

Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life.]]> 327 Antti Tuomainen 1913193861 Celia 0 to-read 4.05 2020 The Rabbit Factor
author: Antti Tuomainen
name: Celia
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mary Ellen, Craterean! (The Crater School, #3)]]> 213694602
Then, one day, a chance event changes Mary Ellen’s life. A famous author on a research trip visits her farm and spots her talent. An offer is made, a fully-paid scholarship to the famous Crater School. It seems like a dream come true. But dreams can easily turn into nightmares.
]]> 331 Chaz Brenchley 1913892751 Celia 5 4.53 Mary Ellen, Craterean! (The Crater School, #3)
author: Chaz Brenchley
name: Celia
average rating: 4.53
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: 2024-books, youngadult, sci-fi
review:
Another excellent entry in the Crater School series, a Chalet School-inspired series of novels set on Mars. I loved it just as much as the previous books of course, because a mash-up of boarding school novels and SF is everything I've ever dreamed of.
]]> <![CDATA[Tower of the King's Daughter (Outremer, #1)]]> 1146575
The Society of Ransom is the Kingdom's conscience, and its sword-arm too. In the Ransomer's remote border stronghold of Roq de Rancon, its walls echoing with ancient magic and forgotten secrets, a tale of love, duty and betrayal will unfold: for Marron, a young man newly sworn to the brotherhood; for Julianne, daughter of the King's Shadow, en route to her wedding in Elessi; and for Elisande, her mysterious companion.

All have a part to play in the coming upheaval, for their lives are intrinsically bound up with the fate of Outremer.]]> 600 Chaz Brenchley 1857236920 Celia 4 3.50 1998 Tower of the King's Daughter (Outremer, #1)
author: Chaz Brenchley
name: Celia
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: 2024-books, fantasy, alternate-history
review:
Picked up at a secondhand bookshop in Geelong while on holidays - a very dense fantasy novel which moves a bit slowly, but was otherwise very enjoyable.
]]> Chalet School Fête 1175277
Nina's closest relatives are her cousins, the Rutherfords, and when news comes from home that Sir Guy and Lady Rutherford's eldest daughter, Alix, is seriously ill, Mary-Lou helps Nina to suggest that Alix should recover at the Gornetz Platz Sanatorium.

Then a chance meeting on a trip to Lac Leman with a very Old Girl from the Tirol reveals that Nina is not as alone in the world as she thought she was.]]> 128 Elinor M. Brent-Dyer 0006904459 Celia 4 does learn to be a bit more thoughtful of other people, and there's a big build up to an epic fete. ]]> 3.74 1956 Chalet School Fête
author: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
name: Celia
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: 2024-books, childrens, chalet-school
review:
The second part of Nina's story at the Chalet School - in this half, she does learn to be a bit more thoughtful of other people, and there's a big build up to an epic fete.
]]> A Genius at the Chalet School 1175210
The first part of the original, herwith, concerns Nina Rutherford whose guardian was taking her back to England when the opportunity arose for her to join the Chalet School.

Her adventures in her first term are related here with the emphasis on her musical career because she was a genius at the piano.]]> 128 Elinor M. Brent-Dyer 0006914128 Celia 4 3.78 1956 A Genius at the Chalet School
author: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
name: Celia
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: 2024-books, chalet-school, childrens
review:
Catching up on missed Chalet School volumes - this one in paperback is half a story, with the second half being "The Chalet School Fete". As per the title, it's about Nina, a prodigy at the piano, who arrives at the Chalet School grieving her late father, and struggling with her desire to only play piano and do nothing else. The Chalet School sorts her right out, of course, and there's a lot of "oh yes Nina can't help being a thoughtless arsehole, that's what geniuses are like".
]]> <![CDATA[The Temple of Fortuna (Wolf Den Trilogy #3)]]> 61185028
Amara's journey has taken her far; from a slave in Pompeii's wolf den to a high-powered courtesan in Rome... though her story is not over yet.

While Amara plays for power in Rome's imperial palace, those dearest to her remain in Pompeii. But it is AD 79, and mighty Mount Vesuvius is about to make itself known...]]> 384 Elodie Harper 1838933611 Celia 5 4.36 2023 The Temple of Fortuna (Wolf Den Trilogy #3)
author: Elodie Harper
name: Celia
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/01
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: 2024-books, audio-book, historical-fiction
review:
When I started reading the first book of this trilogy, I thought "hang on, this is set in Pompeii, aren't all these characters going to eventually die?" In this third and final book, we have reached the point where the mountain erupts (this whole sequence, the way people react to a catastrophic natural disaster in varying ways, was so effective) - and no, everyone doesn't die, people evacuated from Pompeii in varying ways it turns out. Over the course of the book, Amara has to make a number of difficult, life altering decisions - all of which lead us eventually to a satisfying ending. A tremendously enjoyable final chapter in this trilogy.
]]>