Aoife's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 02:00:49 -0700 60 Aoife's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Warm Hands of Ghosts 154462576 New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.]]> 325 Katherine Arden 0593128257 Aoife 0 currently-reading 3.97 2024 The Warm Hands of Ghosts
author: Katherine Arden
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sorcerer's Edge (The Tethered Citadel #3)]]> 60309671
Deep inside the Ice wastes, Raythe's people stumbled upon Rath Argentium, the legendary Aldar city, and the long-lost Tangato people. After fighting through betrayal, treachery and powerful magic, they forged a hard-won treaty with the Tangato and their extraordinary queen, Shiazar. Now they've put aside their dreams of wealth and revenge and embraced something better: a life outside the tyrannical Bolgravian Empire.

But the Bolgravian Empire never gives up.

The empire hasn't forgotten Raythe Vyre, and his enemies know where he is. Guided by Toran Zorne, the implacable imperial assassin, they are coming to claim Rath Argentium for themselves. Raythe and Shiazar know all too well that courage and cunning won't be enough this time: they are outnumbered, out-gunned and out of time.

Faced with total annihilation, it's up to Raythe to find an edge . . .]]> 465 David Hair Aoife 4 fantasy, library 4.26 Sorcerer's Edge (The Tethered Citadel #3)
author: David Hair
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: fantasy, library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy, #2)]]> 157031755 We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other's reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she's to return to her life. While Evar's journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he's never seen, Livira's destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira's old life � friends and foe alike � back together beneath new skies.

Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.]]> 384 Mark Lawrence 0008456763 Aoife 0 currently-reading 3.99 2024 The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy, #2)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict]]> 67353385 Listening time: 10 hours and 16 minutes.

As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as � if not more � important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions.

Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health.

Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of many who were forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them � with the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not always the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she really the friend she thought she was?

Friendaholic unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn’t yet a language that can express its crucial influence on our world.

From ghosting and frenemies to social media and seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.]]> 416 Elizabeth Day 0008374902 Aoife 4 3.75 Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict
author: Elizabeth Day
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: non-fiction, femalefriendship, memoir, audiobook
review:

]]> The Woman of the House 1598508
When Ned dies suddenly, Martha puts Mossgrove up for sale in hopes that it will be bought by the neighbouring Conways, who have long coveted the Phelan farm. What she does not realize are the lengths to which Kate and the hired hand Jack will go to keep the land in the family ...]]> Alice Taylor 0863222498 Aoife 4 3.77 1997 The Woman of the House
author: Alice Taylor
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: audiobook, irish, irish-author, historical, historic
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5)]]> 12724978
Not least in the form of her charming but dodgy ex-boyfriend Jay Parker, who shows up with a missing persons case. Money is tight � so tight Helen’s had to move back in with her elderly parents � and Jay is awash with cash. The missing person is Wayne Diffney, the ‘Wacky One� from boyband Laddz. He’s vanished from his house in Mercy Close and it’s vital that he’s found � Laddz have a sell-out comeback gig in five days� time.

Things ended messily with Jay. And she’s never going back there. Besides she has a new boyfriend now, the very sexy detective Artie Devlin and it’s all going well, even though his ex-wife isn’t quite ‘ex� enough and his teenage son hates her. But the reappearance of Jay is stirring up all kinds of stuff she thought she’d left behind.

Playing by her own rules, Helen is drawn into a dark and glamorous world, where her worst enemy is her own head and where increasingly the only person she feels connected to is Wayne, a man she’s never even met.]]> 508 Marian Keyes Aoife 4 3.64 2012 The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5)
author: Marian Keyes
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: irish, irish-author, library, comedic, mental-health
review:

]]> Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Aoife 0 to-read 4.28 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mercury Pictures Presents 59109471 The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini's Italy to 1940s Los Angeles

Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father's arrest.

Fifteen years later, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won't speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese-American actor, can't escape the studio's narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria's only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.

Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father's past threatens Maria's carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father's fate--and her own.

Written with intelligence, wit, and an exhilarating sense of possibility, Mercury Pictures Presents spans many moods and tones, from the heartbreaking to the ecstatic. It is a love letter to life's bit players, a panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our own, and a tour de force.]]> 416 Anthony Marra 0451495209 Aoife 2
I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so disappointed I found it a real struggle to get through! We are following a bunch of different characters in LA during the 1940s and seeing how they come from all different backgrounds - in particular we are following Maria, who emigrated from Mussolini's Italy as a child and is now an enemy alien in the land she calls her new home. Working with Mercury Pictures, Maria has established herself as a dominant force while haunted by the father she left behind in a prison camp.

I loved the sound of this book and honestly movie land during WW2 isn't something I've read about it before and I was looking forward to discovering more and being in immersed in a world full of glamour, excitement as well as tension and fear. This is all certainly there but I found the story was very slow to get going, it jumped back and forth too much and because we are following so many different characters, I found myself losing track of where we were in timeline and story at times. Unfortunately this just wasn't one for me.]]> 3.61 2022 Mercury Pictures Presents
author: Anthony Marra
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: historic, historical, ww2, kindle, disappointing
review:
I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so disappointed I found it a real struggle to get through! We are following a bunch of different characters in LA during the 1940s and seeing how they come from all different backgrounds - in particular we are following Maria, who emigrated from Mussolini's Italy as a child and is now an enemy alien in the land she calls her new home. Working with Mercury Pictures, Maria has established herself as a dominant force while haunted by the father she left behind in a prison camp.

I loved the sound of this book and honestly movie land during WW2 isn't something I've read about it before and I was looking forward to discovering more and being in immersed in a world full of glamour, excitement as well as tension and fear. This is all certainly there but I found the story was very slow to get going, it jumped back and forth too much and because we are following so many different characters, I found myself losing track of where we were in timeline and story at times. Unfortunately this just wasn't one for me.
]]> <![CDATA[The Cutting Place (Maeve Kerrigan, #9)]]> 52850091 Everyone's heard the rumours about elite gentlemen's clubs, where the champagne flows freely,the parties arethe height of decadence . . . and the secrets are darker than you could possibly imagine.

DS Maeve Kerrigan finds herself in an unfamiliar world ofwealth, luxury and ruthless behaviour when she investigates the murder of a young journalist, Paige Hargreaves. Paige was working on a story about the Chiron Club, a private society for the richest and most privileged men inLondon. Then she disappeared.

It's clear to Maeve that the members have many secrets. But Maeve is hiding secrets of her own � even from her partner DI Josh Derwent. Will she uncover the truth about Paige’s death? Or will time run out for Maeve first?

]]> 400 Jane Casey Aoife 5 Video review (spoiler free):

I received this book from Harper Collins Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Sexual assault, violence towards women, domestic abuse

DI Maeve Kerrigan has another case on her hands and this one comes to her in pieces, literally. When discovering the gruesome murder of a young woman whose body was cut up and left in the Thames, the case leads Maeve to the Chiron Club - a private member's club only eligible for elite males. As Maeve digs deeper, she discovers more horrifying facts about the club and its member, while also ignoring a danger that is creeping closer to home.

I really enjoyed this crime detective novel and it's defintiely one of my favourites I have ever read. I felt like the whole case was spread out across the pages really well and just seemed very realistic and organised, and really well planned out by the author.

This book is actually the ninth book in the Maeve Kerrigan series but I haven't read any of the others. And I still found this book really enjoyable and didn't feel lost with any of the characters. It was obvious that there was something in the past between Maeve and Josh, and slowly throughout the book new readers discovered what that was and it was done expertly in ways that fans of the series wouldn't be bored of a rehash of things from the past. This book can definitely be read as a standalone though because I really enjoyed it, I am trying to decide if I want to read the books that came before this one or just carry on from here.

I really liked Maeve as a character. She's the type of police officer you want helping to solve any crime that you were the victim of. She's through and smart, yet is very kind as well. The one thing that did raise my eyebrows a bit was when she was able to go undercover as one of the hired girls when she was presumably in her thirties, and the girls were suppose to be young and insanely beautiful. We don't get a lot of descriptions of Maeve's looks but presumably of things said to her in different points, she is very attractive. I didn't really like that Maeve had a bit of a frenemy thing going on with Wendy - the other young, attractive female on the force (I'm not including Liz in this one as she was heavily pregnant). When Wendy appeared on the page, she always did something really dumb that doesn't make me feel great about people like her being on the force.

The case was just really good and I loved how bit by bit all these secrets about the Chiron Club came out. It was a very satisfying case to read be investigated, and when all the horrible men in it got their comeuppance.

There is a side plot in this book that does involve domestic abuse. I feel like it was very obvious from the start what was going to happen with this one, but I also feel like this was in the book as well to give a guide to readers about how easy it is to fall into an abusive relationship - physically and/or emotionally - and not quite realise. And it can happen to anyone - even people to see it happen to others on a regular basis.]]> 4.30 2020 The Cutting Place (Maeve Kerrigan, #9)
author: Jane Casey
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: adult, crime, mystery, thriller, review-books, irish-author, gryffindor
review:
4.5 stars
Video review (spoiler free):

I received this book from Harper Collins Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Sexual assault, violence towards women, domestic abuse

DI Maeve Kerrigan has another case on her hands and this one comes to her in pieces, literally. When discovering the gruesome murder of a young woman whose body was cut up and left in the Thames, the case leads Maeve to the Chiron Club - a private member's club only eligible for elite males. As Maeve digs deeper, she discovers more horrifying facts about the club and its member, while also ignoring a danger that is creeping closer to home.

I really enjoyed this crime detective novel and it's defintiely one of my favourites I have ever read. I felt like the whole case was spread out across the pages really well and just seemed very realistic and organised, and really well planned out by the author.

This book is actually the ninth book in the Maeve Kerrigan series but I haven't read any of the others. And I still found this book really enjoyable and didn't feel lost with any of the characters. It was obvious that there was something in the past between Maeve and Josh, and slowly throughout the book new readers discovered what that was and it was done expertly in ways that fans of the series wouldn't be bored of a rehash of things from the past. This book can definitely be read as a standalone though because I really enjoyed it, I am trying to decide if I want to read the books that came before this one or just carry on from here.

I really liked Maeve as a character. She's the type of police officer you want helping to solve any crime that you were the victim of. She's through and smart, yet is very kind as well. The one thing that did raise my eyebrows a bit was when she was able to go undercover as one of the hired girls when she was presumably in her thirties, and the girls were suppose to be young and insanely beautiful. We don't get a lot of descriptions of Maeve's looks but presumably of things said to her in different points, she is very attractive. I didn't really like that Maeve had a bit of a frenemy thing going on with Wendy - the other young, attractive female on the force (I'm not including Liz in this one as she was heavily pregnant). When Wendy appeared on the page, she always did something really dumb that doesn't make me feel great about people like her being on the force.

The case was just really good and I loved how bit by bit all these secrets about the Chiron Club came out. It was a very satisfying case to read be investigated, and when all the horrible men in it got their comeuppance.

There is a side plot in this book that does involve domestic abuse. I feel like it was very obvious from the start what was going to happen with this one, but I also feel like this was in the book as well to give a guide to readers about how easy it is to fall into an abusive relationship - physically and/or emotionally - and not quite realise. And it can happen to anyone - even people to see it happen to others on a regular basis.
]]> <![CDATA[Postscript (P.S. I Love You, #2)]]> 44358774
She’s proud of all the ways in which she has grown and evolved. But when a group inspired by Gerry's letters, calling themselves the PS, I Love You Club, approaches Holly asking for help, she finds herself drawn back into a world that she worked so hard to leave behind.

Reluctantly, Holly begins a relationship with the club, even as their friendship threatens to destroy the peace she believes she has achieved. As each of these people calls upon Holly to help them leave something meaningful behind for their loved ones, Holly will embark on a remarkable journey � one that will challenge her to ask whether embracing the future means betraying the past, and what it means to love someone forever…]]> 362 Cecelia Ahern 0008194882 Aoife 4
For fans of PS I Love You, this story might be a sweet yet emotional return to the life of Holly, her friends and family, and her memories of Gerry who served the ultimate romantic move by leaving behind letters for his wife, even when he was no longer around. I wasn’t sure about this at first and if the continuance of the story was a good idea, as it feels like things for Holly are still very raw, she isn’t fully healed from Gerry’s loss and then when the club approach her she’s very prickly - and I understood this as there is an element of feeling these people took something from Gerry by ‘stealing� his idea without permission from Holly, it felt like a gut punch at the start.

However, the more the story progresses and Holly explores the journey of her grief further and the person she is now compared to the Holly Gerry knew, she and the readers realize how much she needs the club and vice versa. She ends up learning more about Gerry and why he wrote the letters and understands his process more while helping others with their own letters.

The only thing I wasn’t completely sold on in this book was Holly’s relationship with Gabriel - maybe it’s because we just had to accept Gabriel from the start, we didn’t see the beginning of their relationship, just the rocky middle part. I think I wanted something bigger and more romantic for her and I felt like Gabriel just wasn’t that.

The end felt a little bit rushed and I would have liked to have seen Holly next steps take place more in the end of the middle, so the middle I guess was a bit drawn out and it took a while for a bulk of the initial club moments to happen and for Holly to make certain decisions.

But I enjoyed this. I listened to it on audiobook narrated by Amy Huberman who did a lovely job.]]> 4.02 2019 Postscript (P.S. I Love You, #2)
author: Cecelia Ahern
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: irish, irish-author, adult-contemporary, tear-jerker, audiobook
review:
It’s been 7 years since Holly Kennedy’s husband Gerry passed away and he left 10 letters for her to open every month in the year following his death to help her through her grief. Now Holly is in a new relationship, her life is back on track, kind of, until she takes part in a podcast - telling her and Gerry’s story and the magic of his letters. Now she is being contacted by a group of terminally ill people calling themselves the PS I Love You Club and they need her help but will her involvement bring her back to the darkest time in her life?

For fans of PS I Love You, this story might be a sweet yet emotional return to the life of Holly, her friends and family, and her memories of Gerry who served the ultimate romantic move by leaving behind letters for his wife, even when he was no longer around. I wasn’t sure about this at first and if the continuance of the story was a good idea, as it feels like things for Holly are still very raw, she isn’t fully healed from Gerry’s loss and then when the club approach her she’s very prickly - and I understood this as there is an element of feeling these people took something from Gerry by ‘stealing� his idea without permission from Holly, it felt like a gut punch at the start.

However, the more the story progresses and Holly explores the journey of her grief further and the person she is now compared to the Holly Gerry knew, she and the readers realize how much she needs the club and vice versa. She ends up learning more about Gerry and why he wrote the letters and understands his process more while helping others with their own letters.

The only thing I wasn’t completely sold on in this book was Holly’s relationship with Gabriel - maybe it’s because we just had to accept Gabriel from the start, we didn’t see the beginning of their relationship, just the rocky middle part. I think I wanted something bigger and more romantic for her and I felt like Gabriel just wasn’t that.

The end felt a little bit rushed and I would have liked to have seen Holly next steps take place more in the end of the middle, so the middle I guess was a bit drawn out and it took a while for a bulk of the initial club moments to happen and for Holly to make certain decisions.

But I enjoyed this. I listened to it on audiobook narrated by Amy Huberman who did a lovely job.
]]> Wild Houses 128714412 A darkly funny and deeply moving debut novel about crimes of desperation, dreams abandoned, and small-town secrets that won’t stay buried

As Ballina in the west of Ireland prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time dealer Cillian English and County Mayo's fraternal enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night, he finds Doll—Cillian's bruised, sullen, teenage brother—in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins, goaded by his dead mother's dog, and struck by spinning lights, Dev is unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy.

Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling that something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night, and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.]]> 272 Colin Barrett 0802160948 Aoife 4
Late one night, Dev opens the door of his house to see his two cousins manhandling a teenage boy out of a car - they’ve kidnapped Doll English to hold him as ransom until his brother Cillian pays a drug debt. Dev struggles with the violence while also staying silent, exploring in his own quiet way what it means to be complicit and the fine line between staying silent and living a peaceful life. At the same time we follow Nicky, Doll’s girlfriend as she thinks about her relationship, her future outside of Ballina and her own experiences with loneliness until the realisation sets in about Doll’s disappearance.

The writing in this is so quiet but impactful and I personally appreciated and loved Dev’s POV as we see this guy who is described as a ‘giant� actually be extremely soft and quiet, and full of complex feelings and emotions wrapped up in his own mental health journey, anxiety and his grief over the recent passing of his mother. There were also some lovely moments in this involving Dev’s very elderly dog and Doll - and the gentleness between dog and boy breaking up the threat and tension of violence and the kidnapping situation.

Would highly recommend this book - it’s a shorter read than most but it’s one that will stay with you and make you think about the characters long after you finish it.]]> 3.68 2024 Wild Houses
author: Colin Barrett
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: irish, irish-author, my-bookshelf, literary
review:
Set in Ballina, County Mayo and mostly following the POV of Dev and Nicky, Wild Houses is a beautifully told story sharing a snapshot of these characters lives while exploring loneliness and grief, all with a tension of violence rippling underneath the surface.

Late one night, Dev opens the door of his house to see his two cousins manhandling a teenage boy out of a car - they’ve kidnapped Doll English to hold him as ransom until his brother Cillian pays a drug debt. Dev struggles with the violence while also staying silent, exploring in his own quiet way what it means to be complicit and the fine line between staying silent and living a peaceful life. At the same time we follow Nicky, Doll’s girlfriend as she thinks about her relationship, her future outside of Ballina and her own experiences with loneliness until the realisation sets in about Doll’s disappearance.

The writing in this is so quiet but impactful and I personally appreciated and loved Dev’s POV as we see this guy who is described as a ‘giant� actually be extremely soft and quiet, and full of complex feelings and emotions wrapped up in his own mental health journey, anxiety and his grief over the recent passing of his mother. There were also some lovely moments in this involving Dev’s very elderly dog and Doll - and the gentleness between dog and boy breaking up the threat and tension of violence and the kidnapping situation.

Would highly recommend this book - it’s a shorter read than most but it’s one that will stay with you and make you think about the characters long after you finish it.
]]> <![CDATA[Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women]]> 65639984
Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, creators of the celebrated 'Bad Bridget' podcast, have unearthed a world in which Irish women actually outnumbered Irish men in prison, in which you could get locked up for 'stubbornness', and in which a serial killer called Lizzie Halliday was described by the New York Times as 'the worst woman on earth'. They reveal the social forces that bred this mayhem and dysfunction, through stories that are brilliantly strange, sometimes funny, and often moving. From sex workers and thieves to kidnappers and killers, these Bridgets are young women who have gone from the frying pan of their impoverished homeland to the fire of vast North American cities.

Bad Bridget is a masterpiece of social history and true crime, showing us a fascinating and previously unexplored world.]]> 288 Elaine Farrell 1844885828 Aoife 3 3.55 2023 Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women
author: Elaine Farrell
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: non-fiction, irish, irish-author, historic, historical, women
review:
A non fiction that follows the lives of Irish women who emigrated to North America and got into some trouble. A tremendous feat of research, the authors trawled through newspapers and court records to find out the stories of these Irish women who found themselves in trouble with the law due to alcoholism, murder, child neglect, prostitution etc. There were parts of this that were really fascinating and sad seeing how some of these women ended up living and you couldn’t help but wonder fue to the sheer amount of them as well, how different (bad and good) their lives would have been if they stayed in Ireland - would they still have led a life of crime if they stayed in a smaller, more insular environment? I didn’t love the format of every chapter and found you could lose track of the ‘main� women we were following in each part as she’d get lost amongst a bunch of other names and data but still a fascinating read.
]]> Firefly Summer 58710811 Firefly Summer is warm, humorous, sad and happy. Reading it is a joy' Irish Independent.

Kate and John Ryan have four children, of whom the eldest are Michael and Dara. Their small town is peaceful and friendly, an unchanging background for a golden childhood. In long, hot summers Michael and Dara and their friends fish and swim or play in the ivy-clad ruins of Fernscourt, the great house burned down during the Troubles...
No one in Mountfern has the slightest inkling of what it will mean when the ruins are bought by Patrick O'Neill, an Irish American with a dream in his heart and a great deal of money in his pocket. It is not until the very end of this drama, with its interlocking stories of love lost and won, ambitions nurtured and secrets betrayed, that Patrick O'Neill will understand the irony and the significance of his great dream for Mountfern.]]> 925 Maeve Binchy Aoife 4 3.5 stars 4.42 1987 Firefly Summer
author: Maeve Binchy
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: irish, irish-author, tome, audiobook
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Dinner Party: A Tragedy 56945597
Set between from the 1990s and the present day, from Carlow to Dublin, the family farmhouse to Trinity College, Dinner Party is a beautifully observed, dark and twisty novel that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy.

Haunting and unforgettable, it explores how the past informs the present, the inevitability of childhood damage resurfacing in later life - and yet how, despite everything, we can't help returning home.]]> 272 Sarah Gilmartin 1911590561 Aoife 4
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Eating disorder, emotional abuse, death

Dinner Party starts with just that as Kate hosts her family for an anniversary dinner dedicated to the memory of her twin sister. As she sits at the table with her two brothers, Kate can’t help but think of all the tensions and things left unsaid, while her own mental health dips in and out. The story then switches between past and present as we learn bout Kate’s childhood, her sister and her adult life.

This is a very character focused novel where we get a lot of slices of Kate’s life and her interactions with the important people that shaped who she was. We also learn what it’s like for her to grow up as a twin, and despite their differences, how severe that untethering is when her twin dies in a tragic accident.

A big part of this book focuses on Kate’s eating disorder and how affected a lot of her life including college and relationships, and how in her early thirties it has resurfaced as she has fallen into a toxic relationship with a married man. I think the book personally could do with a content warning at the start to make this more clear for people as I was surprised that the book focused so heavily on an ED but thankfully wouldn’t be affected by it personally. There is also a very toxic relationship between Kate’s mother and pretty much all of her family - it’s clear her mother is a narcissist and likes to bring down her family while also drawing them close. While the end of the book did see little steps made in everyone confronting this behavior, it still wasn’t quite enough for me as I felt the mother was such an awful character and I hated how she treated her children.

Once I was past the initial first chapter which for some reason was slow for me, I read the rest of the book very quickly and easily. I think Sarah Gilmartin is able to create flawed characters going through their own trauma very well, and telling a story in a pretty addicting way but I do prefer her second novel Service over this one.]]> 3.35 2021 Dinner Party: A Tragedy
author: Sarah Gilmartin
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: irish, irish-author, kindle, food, mental-health
review:
3.5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Eating disorder, emotional abuse, death

Dinner Party starts with just that as Kate hosts her family for an anniversary dinner dedicated to the memory of her twin sister. As she sits at the table with her two brothers, Kate can’t help but think of all the tensions and things left unsaid, while her own mental health dips in and out. The story then switches between past and present as we learn bout Kate’s childhood, her sister and her adult life.

This is a very character focused novel where we get a lot of slices of Kate’s life and her interactions with the important people that shaped who she was. We also learn what it’s like for her to grow up as a twin, and despite their differences, how severe that untethering is when her twin dies in a tragic accident.

A big part of this book focuses on Kate’s eating disorder and how affected a lot of her life including college and relationships, and how in her early thirties it has resurfaced as she has fallen into a toxic relationship with a married man. I think the book personally could do with a content warning at the start to make this more clear for people as I was surprised that the book focused so heavily on an ED but thankfully wouldn’t be affected by it personally. There is also a very toxic relationship between Kate’s mother and pretty much all of her family - it’s clear her mother is a narcissist and likes to bring down her family while also drawing them close. While the end of the book did see little steps made in everyone confronting this behavior, it still wasn’t quite enough for me as I felt the mother was such an awful character and I hated how she treated her children.

Once I was past the initial first chapter which for some reason was slow for me, I read the rest of the book very quickly and easily. I think Sarah Gilmartin is able to create flawed characters going through their own trauma very well, and telling a story in a pretty addicting way but I do prefer her second novel Service over this one.
]]> A Ghost in the Throat 51498568 326 Doireann Ní Ghríofa 1916434266 Aoife 5 This is a female text

I honestly don't think I have the right type of critical, analysing mind to talk about this book properly in the way it deserves but all I can say is, it's a masterpiece.

In this book Doireann Ní Ghríofa outlines her own life and identity as a young mother who becomes enthralled with the mystery of Eibhlín Dubh - the author of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. Who she was before she became the wife and widow of Art, and what became of her after his death. She disappears from history as the letters she once wrote, or on which her name appeared, were thrown away while similar notes connected to male figures attached to her lived on throughout history.

Love, your blood was spilling in cascades,
and I couldn't wipe it away, couldn't clean it up, no,
no, my palms turned cups and oh, I gulped."

There is so much to love about this story - both Doireann's intense attachment and growing obsession with Eibhlín, and the way she uses her story to tell her own from failed medical student to passionate teacher and onward to loving mother who not only uses her own body to nurture the children of her flesh, but to nurture other babies in need of mother's milk.

"In choosing to carry a pregnancy, a woman gives of her body with a selflessness so ordinary it goes unnoticed, even by herself. Her body becomes bound to altruism as instinctively as to hunger. If she cannot consume sufficient calcium, for example, that mineral will rise up from deep within her bones and donate itself to her infant on her behalf, leaving her own system in deficiency. Sometimes a female body serves another by effecting a theft upon itself."

I thought the structure and flow of this story was perfect. I felt equally attached whether Doireann was talking about her hospital stay, Eibhlín's early life with her twin Mary or the years after when Doireann and her family finally moved to a permanent home and Doireann attempted to pay homage to the woman who came before her and spilled her love into the house and garden (I really loved this chapter about remembering the lady who once lived in their new home, it was so lovely and if everyone could remember others/perfect strangers in the same way, what special moments they would be).

In this book, Doireann paints a picture of Eibhlín Dubh and brings her to life in a glorious way. In writing what she knows down, she finally gives to Eibhlín her own caoineadh that she rightly deserves. Forgotten in history behind the shadows of sons, husbands and brothers, a young mother finally uses her own power of language to pull Eibhlín back into the light and take her rightful place in Ireland's memories.

"In every page there are undrawn women, each waiting in her own particular silence."

This book just really hit me where it was meant to, and I loved every bit of it. I'm excited to reread it again in the future and I feel like every time I do I will feel different emotions and react to different parts even more strongly than I already did the first time around.]]> 4.04 2020 A Ghost in the Throat
author: Doireann Ní Ghríofa
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: beautiful-covers, brilliant, historic, historical, irish-author, irish, literary, non-fiction, ravenclaw, pretty-damn-good, favorites
review:
This is a female text

I honestly don't think I have the right type of critical, analysing mind to talk about this book properly in the way it deserves but all I can say is, it's a masterpiece.

In this book Doireann Ní Ghríofa outlines her own life and identity as a young mother who becomes enthralled with the mystery of Eibhlín Dubh - the author of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. Who she was before she became the wife and widow of Art, and what became of her after his death. She disappears from history as the letters she once wrote, or on which her name appeared, were thrown away while similar notes connected to male figures attached to her lived on throughout history.

Love, your blood was spilling in cascades,
and I couldn't wipe it away, couldn't clean it up, no,
no, my palms turned cups and oh, I gulped."

There is so much to love about this story - both Doireann's intense attachment and growing obsession with Eibhlín, and the way she uses her story to tell her own from failed medical student to passionate teacher and onward to loving mother who not only uses her own body to nurture the children of her flesh, but to nurture other babies in need of mother's milk.

"In choosing to carry a pregnancy, a woman gives of her body with a selflessness so ordinary it goes unnoticed, even by herself. Her body becomes bound to altruism as instinctively as to hunger. If she cannot consume sufficient calcium, for example, that mineral will rise up from deep within her bones and donate itself to her infant on her behalf, leaving her own system in deficiency. Sometimes a female body serves another by effecting a theft upon itself."

I thought the structure and flow of this story was perfect. I felt equally attached whether Doireann was talking about her hospital stay, Eibhlín's early life with her twin Mary or the years after when Doireann and her family finally moved to a permanent home and Doireann attempted to pay homage to the woman who came before her and spilled her love into the house and garden (I really loved this chapter about remembering the lady who once lived in their new home, it was so lovely and if everyone could remember others/perfect strangers in the same way, what special moments they would be).

In this book, Doireann paints a picture of Eibhlín Dubh and brings her to life in a glorious way. In writing what she knows down, she finally gives to Eibhlín her own caoineadh that she rightly deserves. Forgotten in history behind the shadows of sons, husbands and brothers, a young mother finally uses her own power of language to pull Eibhlín back into the light and take her rightful place in Ireland's memories.

"In every page there are undrawn women, each waiting in her own particular silence."

This book just really hit me where it was meant to, and I loved every bit of it. I'm excited to reread it again in the future and I feel like every time I do I will feel different emotions and react to different parts even more strongly than I already did the first time around.
]]> <![CDATA[Long Live Evil (Time of Iron #1)]]> 201626991
She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain's shoes, for an adventure that is both 'brilliant' (Holly Black) and 'supremely satisfying' (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue's gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.]]> 435 Sarah Rees Brennan 0316568716 Aoife 5 3.87 2024 Long Live Evil (Time of Iron #1)
author: Sarah Rees Brennan
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: favorites, favourite-author, irish, irish-author, fantasy, magic-spells
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Australian Gospel: A Family Saga]]> 213891410 Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians � especially their 'foul language, reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.


Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, rugby-league-obsessed home.


There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.


Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other � heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.


'One of the best writers of his generation.' Benjamin Law


'Blaine's native tongue, an ocker irreverence, gives his writing an amiable charm and reflects the styles of artists such as Tim Winton, Stella Franklin and Helen Garner.' Australian Book Review ]]> 385 Lech Blaine 174382386X Aoife 0 to-read 4.49 Australian Gospel: A Family Saga
author: Lech Blaine
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Dove White Raven 20454599 A story of survival, subterfuge, espionage, and identity.

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes—in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?

In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit.]]> 368 Elizabeth Wein 142318310X Aoife 0 to-read 3.70 2015 Black Dove White Raven
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stateless 61398928 A murder mystery set in 1937 Europe with intrigue, glamour, secrets, and betrayal.

When Stella North is chosen to represent Britain in Europe’s first air race for young people, she knows all too well how high the stakes are. As the only participating female pilot, it’ll be a constant challenge to prove she’s a worthy competitor. But promoting peace in Europe feels empty to Stella when civil war is raging in Spain and the Nazis are gaining power—and when, right from the start, someone resorts to cutthroat sabotage to get ahead of the competition.

The world is looking for inspiration in what’s meant to be a friendly sporting event. But each of the racers is hiding a turbulent and violent past, and any one of them might be capable of murder…including Stella herself.]]> 400 Elizabeth Wein 0316591246 Aoife 0 to-read 3.90 2023 Stateless
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Braids Take a Day 213698654 Uncovering secrets is like undoing braids, one at a time�

Abidemi can't wait for summer, her last one at home in Ennistymon before she heads off to college. She's ready to say goodbye to school, spend some time learning new braids and hairstyles � and see where things go with her friend Jack.

But when she meets an intriguing woman from Nigeria, secrets start to unravel. Suddenly Abi's life and family are changing and she needs to think hard about who she wants to be …]]> 188 Zainab Boladale 1788495373 Aoife 4
This was a very sweet story about a sweet girl and there's so much in it that I think would really resonate with another teen reader from Abi's journey with learning more about her Afro hair texture and styling, make-up for her skin and her loneliness at not having a lot of Black female role models in her life and how much she yearns for one. There's also just the normal teen dilemmas from first crushes, uncertainty about the future and friendship that everyone can relate to as well.

I do think some of the writing is very simple and there were times I felt the characters, particularly Abi, read a lot younger - 15 more so than 18 - but I actually found the story as a whole so heartwarming I didn't mind and at the end of the day I'm also not the target audience for this story anyway so I think teen readers won't mind this.]]> 3.88 Braids Take a Day
author: Zainab Boladale
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: irish, irish-author, black-author, diverse, ya, ya-contemporary
review:
Abi has just finished her school exams and is now entering that summer between secondary school and college life - and with dad working away for three weeks, she has the house to herself and the freedom to make some choices to step out of her sheltered upbringing like going to the local underage disco, and finally talking to the cute local boy who works in the chipper.

This was a very sweet story about a sweet girl and there's so much in it that I think would really resonate with another teen reader from Abi's journey with learning more about her Afro hair texture and styling, make-up for her skin and her loneliness at not having a lot of Black female role models in her life and how much she yearns for one. There's also just the normal teen dilemmas from first crushes, uncertainty about the future and friendship that everyone can relate to as well.

I do think some of the writing is very simple and there were times I felt the characters, particularly Abi, read a lot younger - 15 more so than 18 - but I actually found the story as a whole so heartwarming I didn't mind and at the end of the day I'm also not the target audience for this story anyway so I think teen readers won't mind this.
]]> Thirst Trap 221188099 Sometimes friends hold you together.
Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart.

Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up. Their crumbling Belfast houseshare has been witness to their roaring twenties, filled with questionable one-night stands and ruthless hangovers. But now fault-lines are beginning to show.

The three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched. Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident. And now they are all beginning to unravel.

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare is a blazing, bittersweet, bitingly funny, and painfully relatable story about the friendships that endure through the very best and the very worst of times.]]> 288 Grainne O'Hare 1035046229 Aoife 4
Róise, Maggie and Harley are all celebrating their big 3-0’s and still living life as if they are college students in a moldy, falling-down house share, shared custody of a turtle called Barnaby and a lot of romantic exploits and dramas still following them around. All three also still mourning the death of their friend Lydia, whose death was sudden and happened before an argument could be resolved.

This book is chaotic and heartwarming showing female friendship at its finest and its worst, and a combination of sad girl/messy girl. Perfect for fans of Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident or Ghosts by Dolly Alderton.

The pacing and the style of the writing is easy to fly through and you almost feel hungover yourself as you travel along on the girls� nights out from pub to nightclub to…museum. Grief is a big element in this book as the ghost of Lydia is with them all the time from her room which still holds her vibrator (and yes, Harley thinking about using it was a bit of a step too far), as well as the echoes of their last argument with her and the forgiveness that can never be shared.

Each girl is going through their own stuff - Róise is still reeling a bit from her past relationship but ends up entering a sexual relationship with her boss Adam (who is actually a pretty decent guy) and her issues may end up stalling it before it’s really begun. Maggie, the lesbian of the group, is in a toxic relationship with her ‘friend� Cate who keeps her at arm’s length but also pulls her in every chance she gets. And then Harley definitely takes too much drugs, likes her landlord/dealer a little bit too much and could probably do with making better, healthier decisions with her sex life.

The book feels more character focused than plot as we follow the girls from one exploit to another, or one mistake to another. TW for some descriptions of disordered eating (stemming from anxiety rather than body image), abortion, and heavy drug and sexual content. I would have liked to have seen a bit more character growth throughout rather than a lot of it being shoehorned in at the end in the last chapter even though it was nice seeing the girls all a bit healthier and happier.]]> 4.16 2025 Thirst Trap
author: Grainne O'Hare
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: irish, irish-author, sad-girl-books, sapphic, kindle
review:
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Róise, Maggie and Harley are all celebrating their big 3-0’s and still living life as if they are college students in a moldy, falling-down house share, shared custody of a turtle called Barnaby and a lot of romantic exploits and dramas still following them around. All three also still mourning the death of their friend Lydia, whose death was sudden and happened before an argument could be resolved.

This book is chaotic and heartwarming showing female friendship at its finest and its worst, and a combination of sad girl/messy girl. Perfect for fans of Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident or Ghosts by Dolly Alderton.

The pacing and the style of the writing is easy to fly through and you almost feel hungover yourself as you travel along on the girls� nights out from pub to nightclub to…museum. Grief is a big element in this book as the ghost of Lydia is with them all the time from her room which still holds her vibrator (and yes, Harley thinking about using it was a bit of a step too far), as well as the echoes of their last argument with her and the forgiveness that can never be shared.

Each girl is going through their own stuff - Róise is still reeling a bit from her past relationship but ends up entering a sexual relationship with her boss Adam (who is actually a pretty decent guy) and her issues may end up stalling it before it’s really begun. Maggie, the lesbian of the group, is in a toxic relationship with her ‘friend� Cate who keeps her at arm’s length but also pulls her in every chance she gets. And then Harley definitely takes too much drugs, likes her landlord/dealer a little bit too much and could probably do with making better, healthier decisions with her sex life.

The book feels more character focused than plot as we follow the girls from one exploit to another, or one mistake to another. TW for some descriptions of disordered eating (stemming from anxiety rather than body image), abortion, and heavy drug and sexual content. I would have liked to have seen a bit more character growth throughout rather than a lot of it being shoehorned in at the end in the last chapter even though it was nice seeing the girls all a bit healthier and happier.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 Aoife 4
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is one of those magical, fantastical stories that you really have to stick with till the end to feel the true majesty of how it all came together. In this story, we follow Livira, a young girl brought up in the ‘dust� who is brought to the city after her entire village is slaughtered by a terrifying enemy creature called a Saba. We also follow Evar, a young man who has grown up in the vast and endless library of which Livira has now been brought into as an assistant. As eventually their paths cross, their past and futures become clearer as does the threat of the waiting Sabas outside the city walls.

Magical libraries, time manipulation, animal guardians - there’s not much more I could ask for in a fantasy book. There’s so much in this, I find it hard to review as it’s magical, vicious and heartwarming all at the same time but also the story and world are so complex that you really just need to give the book a chance to the very end to reveal how everything fits together. As a reader, you can’t think too much about how this magical library with portals, endless rows of books and magical animal guardians plus animate stone assistants works, it just does! I saw some reviews refer to Piranesi when talking about this book, and the comparison is very apt - if you liked the magical, mysterious puzzle that was Piranesi and his endless corridors, you would like Evar, Livira and the stacks.

One of the things I love about Mark Lawrence’s writing is that he somehow creates different characters and worlds but then hints at how actually all his stories are taking place in the same world - and that is also our world just years and years and years in the future (Prince of Thorns OGs know this). I liked how the books quoted at the start of each chapter, presumably taken from the library, included quotes from Prince of Thorns but also C.S Lewis and the likes.

One of the nicest things about this book that despite us following the journey of a librarian assistant to librarian, a girl from the dust to a scholar, and a man with no answers to too many - at the end of the day this book is actually a love story.

I listened to this on audiobook and while I don’t listen to a lot of fantasy on audiobook as sometimes I’m afraid of missing things, I really enjoyed it and I think I will also read the second book on audiobook as well.]]> 3.94 2023 The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: fantasy, favourite-author, audiobook
review:
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is one of those magical, fantastical stories that you really have to stick with till the end to feel the true majesty of how it all came together. In this story, we follow Livira, a young girl brought up in the ‘dust� who is brought to the city after her entire village is slaughtered by a terrifying enemy creature called a Saba. We also follow Evar, a young man who has grown up in the vast and endless library of which Livira has now been brought into as an assistant. As eventually their paths cross, their past and futures become clearer as does the threat of the waiting Sabas outside the city walls.

Magical libraries, time manipulation, animal guardians - there’s not much more I could ask for in a fantasy book. There’s so much in this, I find it hard to review as it’s magical, vicious and heartwarming all at the same time but also the story and world are so complex that you really just need to give the book a chance to the very end to reveal how everything fits together. As a reader, you can’t think too much about how this magical library with portals, endless rows of books and magical animal guardians plus animate stone assistants works, it just does! I saw some reviews refer to Piranesi when talking about this book, and the comparison is very apt - if you liked the magical, mysterious puzzle that was Piranesi and his endless corridors, you would like Evar, Livira and the stacks.

One of the things I love about Mark Lawrence’s writing is that he somehow creates different characters and worlds but then hints at how actually all his stories are taking place in the same world - and that is also our world just years and years and years in the future (Prince of Thorns OGs know this). I liked how the books quoted at the start of each chapter, presumably taken from the library, included quotes from Prince of Thorns but also C.S Lewis and the likes.

One of the nicest things about this book that despite us following the journey of a librarian assistant to librarian, a girl from the dust to a scholar, and a man with no answers to too many - at the end of the day this book is actually a love story.

I listened to this on audiobook and while I don’t listen to a lot of fantasy on audiobook as sometimes I’m afraid of missing things, I really enjoyed it and I think I will also read the second book on audiobook as well.
]]> Crooked Seeds 191746392 A woman in post-apartheid South Africa confronts her family's troubling past in this taut and daring novel about national trauma and collective guilt--from the Booker Prize-longlisted author of An Island.

Cape Town, 2028. The land cracks from a years-long drought, the nearby mountains threaten to burn, and the queue for the water trucks grows ever longer.

In her crumbling corner of a public housing complex, Deidre van Deventer receives a call from the South African police. Her family home, recently reclaimed by the government, has become the scene of a criminal investigation. The remains of several bodies have just been unearthed from her land, after decades underground. Detectives pepper Deidre with Was your brother a member of a pro-apartheid group in the 1990s? Is it true that he was building bombs as part of a terrorist plot?

Deidre doesn't know the answers to the detectives' questions. All she knows is that she was denied - repeatedly - the life she felt she deserved. Overshadowed by her brother, then left behind by her daughter after she emigrated, Deidre must watch over her aging mother and make do with government help and the fading generosity of her neighbors while the landscape around her grows more and more combustible. As alarming evidence from the investigation continues to surface, and detectives pressure her to share what she knows of her family's disturbing past, Deidre must finally face her own shattered memories so that something better might emerge for her and her country.

In exquisitely spare prose, Karen Jennings weaves a singularly powerful novel about post-apartheid South Africa. It is an unforgettable, propulsive story of fractured families, collective guilt, the ways we become trapped in prisons of our own making, and how we can begin to break free.]]> 240 Karen Jennings 0593597125 Aoife 0 to-read 3.56 2024 Crooked Seeds
author: Karen Jennings
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Good Girl 195644142
A girl can get in almost anywhere, even if she can’t get out.

In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist.

Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of personal and artistic freedom. But as Nila finds herself pulled further into Marlowe’s controlling orbit, ugly, barely submerged racial tensions begin to roil Germany—and Nila’s family and community. After a year of running from her future, Nila stops to ask herself the most important question: Who does she want to be?

A story of love and family, raves and Kafka, staying up all night and surviving the mistakes of youth, Good Girl is the virtuosic debut novel by a celebrated young poet and, now, a major new voice in fiction.]]> 368 Aria Aber Aoife 0 to-read 3.72 2025 Good Girl
author: Aria Aber
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Safekeep 197149018 An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement.

It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season�

In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.]]> 262 Yael van der Wouden 0241999782 Aoife 0 to-read 4.21 2024 The Safekeep
author: Yael van der Wouden
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Aoife 0 to-read 3.52 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)]]> 17910078 The Tropic of Serpents . . .

Attentive readers of Lady Trent’s earlier memoir, A Natural History of Dragons, are already familiar with how a bookish and determined young woman named Isabella first set out on the historic course that would one day lead her to becoming the world’s premier dragon naturalist. Now, in this remarkably candid second volume, Lady Trent looks back at the next stage of her illustrious (and occasionally scandalous) career.

Three years after her fateful journeys through the forbidding mountains of Vystrana,Mrs. Camherst defies family and convention to embark on an expedition to thewar-torn continent of Eriga, home of such exotic draconian species as the grass-dwelling snakes of the savannah, arboreal tree snakes, and, most elusive of all, the legendary swamp-wyrms of the tropics.

The expedition is not an easy one. Accompanied by both an old associate and a runaway heiress, Isabella must brave oppressive heat, merciless fevers, palace intrigues, gossip, and other hazards in order to satisfy her boundless fascination with all things draconian, even if it means venturing deep into the forbidden jungle known as the Green Hell . . . where her courage, resourcefulness, and scientific curiosity will be tested as never before.]]> 331 Marie Brennan 0765331977 Aoife 4 4.02 2014 The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)
author: Marie Brennan
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: historic-fantasy, fantasy, my-bookshelf, dragons
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Heart Principle (The Kiss Quotient, #3)]]> 50056075 A woman struggling with burnout learns to embrace the unexpected—and the man she enlists to help her—in this new New York Times bestselling romance by Helen Hoang.

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.]]> 339 Helen Hoang 0451490843 Aoife 3
Quan is struggling with regaining his confidence after an illness and surgery. When he decides to jump back into the world of dating, he doesn’t expect to connect with nature documentary-loving Anna, who is herself dealing with some anxiety in her own life. As Anna gets to grips with a recent autism diagnosis, as well as a family illness, Quan supports and loves her in any way she allows him to while also dealing with facing up to his own struggles.

I felt a bit disappointed in this one. I think I thought I would love this more because in the previous books, Quan was a chatacter I really loved so I was excited for his book. But I felt like the chemistry between Anna and Quan just wasn’t really there, and there wasn’t enough time given to Quan’s post-illness journey as well as Anna’s.

While I emphasized with Anna a lot with everything she was going through, I found her a hard character to connect with. The way she allowed everyone to steamroll over her about everything was very frustrating - and even the way she didn’t speak up for her dad. I did also find the heavy topic of her father’s end of life care combined with the physical romance side of Anna and Quan just a bit weird (even though I appreciate what the author was trying to do in writing about carer burnout). ]]> 3.91 2021 The Heart Principle (The Kiss Quotient, #3)
author: Helen Hoang
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: disappointing, kindle, romance, smut, autism, asian
review:
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via netGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quan is struggling with regaining his confidence after an illness and surgery. When he decides to jump back into the world of dating, he doesn’t expect to connect with nature documentary-loving Anna, who is herself dealing with some anxiety in her own life. As Anna gets to grips with a recent autism diagnosis, as well as a family illness, Quan supports and loves her in any way she allows him to while also dealing with facing up to his own struggles.

I felt a bit disappointed in this one. I think I thought I would love this more because in the previous books, Quan was a chatacter I really loved so I was excited for his book. But I felt like the chemistry between Anna and Quan just wasn’t really there, and there wasn’t enough time given to Quan’s post-illness journey as well as Anna’s.

While I emphasized with Anna a lot with everything she was going through, I found her a hard character to connect with. The way she allowed everyone to steamroll over her about everything was very frustrating - and even the way she didn’t speak up for her dad. I did also find the heavy topic of her father’s end of life care combined with the physical romance side of Anna and Quan just a bit weird (even though I appreciate what the author was trying to do in writing about carer burnout).
]]> <![CDATA[This Mortal Coil (This Mortal Coil, #1)]]> 35072280
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.

When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?]]> 454 Emily Suvada 0141379278 Aoife 4
Wow, oh wow. What a fantastically written book. This was a post-apocalyptic book/zombie book that was so original but still tied in all the things everyone loves about this genre of writing.

Cat was a fantastic main character and i loved her voice, and oh she was so clever. Like SO clever - I was just marvelling at her the entire book. After about a quarter of the book i flipped to the back to see the author bio, and wasn’t surprised in the least to see that Suvada is basically a genius herself. All the science in this book sounds very real and plausible and not just some words mashed together to sound science like can definitely happen in similar-style books.

Cole was just, a lovely human being in general, and I definitely fell in love with him before I’d even gotten halfway through. I didn’t question slightly how quickly his attentions did turn away from Jun Bei to Cat but I was just happy they were doing some naked snuggling so I didn’t question it too much.

I loved how action-packed this was - the characters could hardly stop for a moment. The science fiction element in this with all the tech implants in everyone’s body was also genius. Again, it all sounded very plausible and realistic.

I love how Cat was able to have moments in the book where her emotions overcame her, like when she saw what the bunkers actually looked like and how she could have been living in comfort for two years. I really felt for her with her confusion and sense of betrayal.

The twist at the end was very good, both in terms of the new enemy that arose and the reveal. I’m dying for the next book now.

Also: I love the cover of this book but once I realised it’s basically an explosion of bits, I found it hard to look at, haha!


]]> 4.11 2017 This Mortal Coil (This Mortal Coil, #1)
author: Emily Suvada
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: ya, ya-dystopian, survivor-story, science-fiction, apocalypse, library
review:
When a virus outbreak forces Cat’s father to leave her in a cabin alone for two years while he works with a questionable organisation to come up with a cure, she needs to fight for survival. Then, a lone soldier shows up to tell her that her dad’s dead and she is humanity’s last hope to find the cure.

Wow, oh wow. What a fantastically written book. This was a post-apocalyptic book/zombie book that was so original but still tied in all the things everyone loves about this genre of writing.

Cat was a fantastic main character and i loved her voice, and oh she was so clever. Like SO clever - I was just marvelling at her the entire book. After about a quarter of the book i flipped to the back to see the author bio, and wasn’t surprised in the least to see that Suvada is basically a genius herself. All the science in this book sounds very real and plausible and not just some words mashed together to sound science like can definitely happen in similar-style books.

Cole was just, a lovely human being in general, and I definitely fell in love with him before I’d even gotten halfway through. I didn’t question slightly how quickly his attentions did turn away from Jun Bei to Cat but I was just happy they were doing some naked snuggling so I didn’t question it too much.

I loved how action-packed this was - the characters could hardly stop for a moment. The science fiction element in this with all the tech implants in everyone’s body was also genius. Again, it all sounded very plausible and realistic.

I love how Cat was able to have moments in the book where her emotions overcame her, like when she saw what the bunkers actually looked like and how she could have been living in comfort for two years. I really felt for her with her confusion and sense of betrayal.

The twist at the end was very good, both in terms of the new enemy that arose and the reveal. I’m dying for the next book now.

Also: I love the cover of this book but once I realised it’s basically an explosion of bits, I found it hard to look at, haha!



]]> Catalina 202907408 A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom

When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world with no place for the undocumented. Her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties, and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: She is both fascinated and repulsed.

Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?]]> 224 Karla Cornejo Villavicencio 0593449096 Aoife 0 to-read 3.57 2024 Catalina
author: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Favourites 210141949 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER � An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 464 Layne Fargo 152992734X Aoife 0 to-read 4.14 2025 The Favourites
author: Layne Fargo
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Martyr! 139400713 Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Aoife 0 to-read 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Feet of Clay (Discworld, #19) 218237910 'Sorry?' said Carrot. If it's just a thing, how can it commit murder? A sword is a thing' - he drew his own sword; it made an almost silken sound - 'and of course you can't blame a sword if someone thrust it at you, sir.'

For Commander Vimes, Head of Ankh-Morpork City Watch, life consists of troubling times, linked together by…well, more troubling times.

Right now, it’s the latter. There’s a werewolf with pre-lunar tension in the city, and a dwarf with attitude and a golem who’s begun to think for itself, but that’s just ordinary trouble. The real problem is more puzzling - people are being murdered, but there's no trace of anything alive having been at the crime scene.

So Vimes not only has to find out whodunit, but howdunit too. He's not even sure what they dun. But soon as he knows what the questions are, he's going to want some answers.]]> 402 Terry Pratchett Aoife 5 4.72 1996 Feet of Clay (Discworld, #19)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.72
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: fantasy, comedic, magic-spells, favorites, favourite-author, library
review:

]]> Moon Dust in My Hairnet 204231783 Moon Dust in My Hairnet is a fresh, hopeful, and diverse sci-fi romp following an autistic lunar lunch lady as she juggles relationships and threatening corporate overlords, all while adjusting to life on Lunar Trust One.

20-year-old Lane was perfectly happy living in her big sister's shadow. The great Faraday Tanner, who invented the gravdrive and inspired the movement to found the moon's first independent colony, was the unequaled voice of the post-melt generation. That is, until an unimaginable tragedy cut Faraday’s legacy short.

Wracked with survivor's guilt and desperate for her sister's utopian dream to succeed, Lane embraces her job on the moon: lunch lady—which is more than her parents think she can handle. Her boyfriend's supportive at least, when he's not drooling over one of the new recruits. Lane tries to put the past behind her, committed to enjoying her kitchen work and dating her boyfriend and his new crushes. She even participates in planning Faraday's memorial, forcing herself to grapple with monumental loss.

But when colony goods go missing and vital equipment gets tampered with, Lane can't accept the events as mere pranks, banding together with new and old friends to save their home.]]> 340 J.R. Creaden 1738125408 Aoife 3
Lane Tanner is the youngest person currently living on the moon - recently arrived, and grieving the loss of her big sister - whose invention and leadership led to Lunar Trust One even existing - Lane throws herself into her work as a lunch lady and ignoring her crush on mean girl V. But the threat of enemy forces makes Lane look up from her work to face her sister’s legacy and save it from being destroyed, along with the help of her friends.

This is a sci-fi book for those that might find others in the genre a little bit too action packed - it’s a nice blend between The Expanse series and Becky Chambers� Wayfarers series if you ask me. I’m all here for a cosy sci-fi genre if you ask me. The range of diversity and representation in this book was wonderful, particularly for autistic/neurodivergent rep - we see numerous different representation of autism as well as characters triggers, relaxation methods, communication skills, stimming and masking/unmasking. There’s also characters with prothesis’s , disabilities and color. I also loved the poly rep as we see Lane and her boyfriend Andrea be open to dating different people, and look at becoming a ‘hand� when they find their perfect matches in three other people already in relationships with one another, and more or less becoming a lovely family.

The book is also big on therapy and mental health - even when there is an end of the world crisis going on, therapy appointments are upheld! I loved the inclusion of a sensory bath for those who needed it as well in the doctor’s office.

The only thing I felt was a bit lacking was the military side of things. I think because the book erred on the cosier side of things, the information about who the RC was and why everyone needed to be so scared of them when they seemed to be some kind of militia led by a narcissistic man (what’s new) kind of passed me by. I would have liked more information on the technical sides of Lunar Trust One and how exactly Faraday went to inventing a gravdrive to helping build a base on the moon for hundreds of people but I guess that is her story and this one is Lane’s.

Overall, this was enjoyable and cosy and I loved all the representation. I’m not 100% sure how much it will all stick with me in terms of being super memorable but I’m glad I read it! ]]> 3.70 2024 Moon Dust in My Hairnet
author: J.R. Creaden
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: science-fiction, autism, diverse, gay, sapphic, space, kindle
review:
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via netGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lane Tanner is the youngest person currently living on the moon - recently arrived, and grieving the loss of her big sister - whose invention and leadership led to Lunar Trust One even existing - Lane throws herself into her work as a lunch lady and ignoring her crush on mean girl V. But the threat of enemy forces makes Lane look up from her work to face her sister’s legacy and save it from being destroyed, along with the help of her friends.

This is a sci-fi book for those that might find others in the genre a little bit too action packed - it’s a nice blend between The Expanse series and Becky Chambers� Wayfarers series if you ask me. I’m all here for a cosy sci-fi genre if you ask me. The range of diversity and representation in this book was wonderful, particularly for autistic/neurodivergent rep - we see numerous different representation of autism as well as characters triggers, relaxation methods, communication skills, stimming and masking/unmasking. There’s also characters with prothesis’s , disabilities and color. I also loved the poly rep as we see Lane and her boyfriend Andrea be open to dating different people, and look at becoming a ‘hand� when they find their perfect matches in three other people already in relationships with one another, and more or less becoming a lovely family.

The book is also big on therapy and mental health - even when there is an end of the world crisis going on, therapy appointments are upheld! I loved the inclusion of a sensory bath for those who needed it as well in the doctor’s office.

The only thing I felt was a bit lacking was the military side of things. I think because the book erred on the cosier side of things, the information about who the RC was and why everyone needed to be so scared of them when they seemed to be some kind of militia led by a narcissistic man (what’s new) kind of passed me by. I would have liked more information on the technical sides of Lunar Trust One and how exactly Faraday went to inventing a gravdrive to helping build a base on the moon for hundreds of people but I guess that is her story and this one is Lane’s.

Overall, this was enjoyable and cosy and I loved all the representation. I’m not 100% sure how much it will all stick with me in terms of being super memorable but I’m glad I read it!
]]> Deep End 212808709 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]> 464 Ali Hazelwood Aoife 0 to-read 3.94 2025 Deep End
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Unromance 212924099 not a meet-cute but a chance encounter with a charming man whom she will sleep with exactly onceand go on her way. Easy enough...until she runs into him again at a Christmas market straight out of a Hallmark holiday movie.]]> 343 Erin Connor 153875942X Aoife 0 to-read 3.78 2025 Unromance
author: Erin Connor
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Body of Truth 165053623 IN THE HUNT FOR A KILLER THE SCARS OF DEATH DON'T LIE

FROM IRELAND'S FORMER STATE PATHOLOGIST MARIE CASSIDY COMES A GRIPPING THRILLER WHERE THE SECRETS OF THE MORTUARY ARE UNCOVERED WITH SCALPEL-LIKE PRECISION.

Dr Terry O'Brien has recently arrived in Ireland from Scotland to take up a position as State Pathologist when a high-profile murder occurs. The victim is Rachel Reece, host of a popular true crime podcast on unsolved murders of Irish women and niece of a prominent politician.

As Terry gathers evidence to help with the police investigation, she becomes convinced that they are following the wrong line of inquiry and begins her own research. She soon finds herself in the thick of cold cases of murdered Irish women, with questions mounting.

What did Rachel Reece find out about the unsolved murder of Eileen McCarthy before she died? Who is sending ominous messages to Terry and what do they mean? And why is she increasingly at odds with her superiors?

Terry knows that the pathology never lies. But when her forensic skills reveal something that might hold the key to the case, little does she know the deadly risk of revealing the truth . . .]]> 396 Marie Cassidy Aoife 3
This was...okay? Due to the author's experience being a real pathologist, these areas of the book were well written and very informative. I also liked how you could see that even though Terry was investigating the murder, it wasn't really her job and she was warning away from stepping on too many toes unlike other books where the pathologist or coroner is immediately brought in to help every step of the way.

I think the characters felt a bit wooden too me, and not totally like real people. There were elements of the mystery where it felt like Terry and the story was going around in circles and becoming repetitive. I also thought the mushroom angle was a bit out of left field.

Not the worst crime book I've read but not the best. ]]> 3.84 2023 Body of Truth
author: Marie Cassidy
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: irish, irish-author, crime, my-bookshelf
review:
Dr Terry O'Brien has moved from Glasgow to Dublin to become the new state pathologist and things take a turn when the body of a young woman is brought in. It's obvious the woman was murdered and once she's identified, things start to become more interesting as her case is linked to the death of other young women. But Terry's words about a serial killer are falling among deaf ears at the Garda HQ, and she starts investigating on her own.

This was...okay? Due to the author's experience being a real pathologist, these areas of the book were well written and very informative. I also liked how you could see that even though Terry was investigating the murder, it wasn't really her job and she was warning away from stepping on too many toes unlike other books where the pathologist or coroner is immediately brought in to help every step of the way.

I think the characters felt a bit wooden too me, and not totally like real people. There were elements of the mystery where it felt like Terry and the story was going around in circles and becoming repetitive. I also thought the mushroom angle was a bit out of left field.

Not the worst crime book I've read but not the best.
]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Aoife 0 to-read 3.67 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What We Carry: A Memoir 52575641
How much can you judge another woman's choices? What if that woman is your mother?

Maya Shanbhag Lang grew up idolizing her brilliant mother, an accomplished physician who immigrated to the United States from India and completed her residency, all while raising her children and keeping a traditional Indian home. She had always been a source of support--until Maya became a mother herself. Then, the parent who had once been so capable and attentive turned unavailable and distant. Struggling to understand this abrupt change while raising her own young child, Maya searches for answers and soon learns that her mother is living with Alzheimer's

When Maya steps in to care for her, she comes to realize that despite their closeness, she never really knew her mother. Were her cherished stories--about life in India, about what it means to be an immigrant, about motherhood itself--even true? Affecting, raw, and poetic, What We Carry is the story of a daughter and her mother, of lies and truths, of receiving and giving care--and how we cannot grow up until we fully understand the people who raised us.

Advance praise for What We Carry

"A dazzling, courageous memoir about the weight we carry as women, daughters, and mothers--and what happens when we let go. Lang takes us deep into the heart of her relationship with her mother, a brilliant psychiatrist and Indian immigrant with long-buried secrets. After a health crisis brings mother and daughter under the same roof for the first time since childhood, Lang grapples with new information about the parent she'd idolized, and realizes it's time to tell the story of her own life. What We Carry is a love letter to everyone who has swum through turbulent water before reaching the shores of selfhood."--Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists]]> 288 Maya Shanbhag Lang 052551239X Aoife 3 4.30 2020 What We Carry: A Memoir
author: Maya Shanbhag Lang
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: audiobook, memoir, non-fiction, library
review:

]]> The Glimpses of the Moon 344230 272 Edith Wharton 0451526686 Aoife 0 to-read 3.85 1922 The Glimpses of the Moon
author: Edith Wharton
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glassmaker 202167720
It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.

Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.

Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.]]> 416 Tracy Chevalier 0525558276 Aoife 4
Orsola Rosso was born into glass. Living in Murano, an island off Venice, her father and brothers are work everyday blowing and shaping glass, and she is the girl looking in, trying to find a place for herself within the art. Her chances comes in the form of beads, her heart in the shape of a Venetian man, and as centuries pass, the Rossos and their glass change along with it.

This was a beautifully told story that will make you want to stand in the bustling streets of Venice, smell the canal water, hear the shouts and singing of the gondoliers and maybe even take the water taxi over to Murano and study the beautiful glassware shining in the windows.

Orsola is a character built of fortitude - made to feel lesser then by her bully of a brother, and forced to do household labour by her mother and sister-in-law, she stills finds ways to make her own art and also have her own moments of joy. She constantly fights for her family, even when they have given up on themselves and the only gripe I would have is she is never truly given the credit she deserves for saving them many times over. As the world changes, Orsola experiences many things but is never in the center of them - I liked this as a way of examining the changes in the world, the affect this had on a trade city like Venice and in turn Murano, while not pushing the character too much into something that would have felt too much for her.

The choice of the author to add the slight magical realism element of having the Rossos and their friends and acquaintances age normally but let the world fast forward around them sometimes skipping almost 100 years was interesting and hard to really understand at first. But I liked seeing how the Rossos dealt with plague, war, Napoleon and then the modern age - we even see the Covid pandemic referenced. I think the story would have worked just as well being stuck in a certain era as I was entranced by Orsola and her personality, her love and her art on its own.]]> 3.86 2024 The Glassmaker
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: historic, historical, women, kindle
review:
I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Orsola Rosso was born into glass. Living in Murano, an island off Venice, her father and brothers are work everyday blowing and shaping glass, and she is the girl looking in, trying to find a place for herself within the art. Her chances comes in the form of beads, her heart in the shape of a Venetian man, and as centuries pass, the Rossos and their glass change along with it.

This was a beautifully told story that will make you want to stand in the bustling streets of Venice, smell the canal water, hear the shouts and singing of the gondoliers and maybe even take the water taxi over to Murano and study the beautiful glassware shining in the windows.

Orsola is a character built of fortitude - made to feel lesser then by her bully of a brother, and forced to do household labour by her mother and sister-in-law, she stills finds ways to make her own art and also have her own moments of joy. She constantly fights for her family, even when they have given up on themselves and the only gripe I would have is she is never truly given the credit she deserves for saving them many times over. As the world changes, Orsola experiences many things but is never in the center of them - I liked this as a way of examining the changes in the world, the affect this had on a trade city like Venice and in turn Murano, while not pushing the character too much into something that would have felt too much for her.

The choice of the author to add the slight magical realism element of having the Rossos and their friends and acquaintances age normally but let the world fast forward around them sometimes skipping almost 100 years was interesting and hard to really understand at first. But I liked seeing how the Rossos dealt with plague, war, Napoleon and then the modern age - we even see the Covid pandemic referenced. I think the story would have worked just as well being stuck in a certain era as I was entranced by Orsola and her personality, her love and her art on its own.
]]> <![CDATA[Revelation (Matthew Shardlake, #4)]]> 820480 550 C.J. Sansom 1405092726 Aoife 4 4.34 2008 Revelation (Matthew Shardlake, #4)
author: C.J. Sansom
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: historic, historical, library, crime, mystery
review:

]]> Aisling Ever After 197614447 368 Emer McLysaght 1804580368 Aoife 4
I was skeptic about this book as I was really unhappy about the return of that character in the last book - I hadn't enjoyed the storyline of them getting back in touch and it borderline felt like emotional cheating. It's very obvious what decisions Aisling is going to make and yes, it was hard to see her leave NYC behind for a return to BGB. Now Aisling is Aisling - she was never going to live in New York for the rest of her life but I would have liked to have seen her make a bit more of a go of it, and stay a bit longer.

In saying all of that, there is something about all of these characters from Aisling, John, mammy, Majella, Sadhb and even Una Hatton that is so lovely and heartwarming and I loved when Aisling back in the heart of things while still being able to balance her corporate life in Dublin. I was worried about what would happen with the relationship because surely it's been tried and failed (twice) before but the character growth and maturity was really there this time and it did feel like a new start for them, and in many ways it was a new John and for the first time ever, I actually liked him!

The pregnancy storyline has Majella gets another big blowout bash for her baby shower and Aisling's own struggles with her own journey really hit me this time - [spoilers removed].

I feel sad leaving this gang behind as I enjoy reading about everything going on in BGB!]]> 4.31 2023 Aisling Ever After
author: Emer McLysaght
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: irish, irish-author, audiobook, comedic, pregnancy
review:
We are back for another, and final, Aisling book and retuning to New York where Aisling has just answered her door to an unlikely guest. This book sees Aisling mke some big decisions about her future, and as always support her friends as they go through their own milestones.

I was skeptic about this book as I was really unhappy about the return of that character in the last book - I hadn't enjoyed the storyline of them getting back in touch and it borderline felt like emotional cheating. It's very obvious what decisions Aisling is going to make and yes, it was hard to see her leave NYC behind for a return to BGB. Now Aisling is Aisling - she was never going to live in New York for the rest of her life but I would have liked to have seen her make a bit more of a go of it, and stay a bit longer.

In saying all of that, there is something about all of these characters from Aisling, John, mammy, Majella, Sadhb and even Una Hatton that is so lovely and heartwarming and I loved when Aisling back in the heart of things while still being able to balance her corporate life in Dublin. I was worried about what would happen with the relationship because surely it's been tried and failed (twice) before but the character growth and maturity was really there this time and it did feel like a new start for them, and in many ways it was a new John and for the first time ever, I actually liked him!

The pregnancy storyline has Majella gets another big blowout bash for her baby shower and Aisling's own struggles with her own journey really hit me this time - [spoilers removed].

I feel sad leaving this gang behind as I enjoy reading about everything going on in BGB!
]]> Diary of a Void 59629744 A prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about a woman in Japan who avoids harassment at work by perpetuating, for nine months and beyond, the lie that she's pregnant

When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job in Tokyo to escape sexual harassment at her old one, she finds that, as the only woman at her new workplace--a company that manufactures cardboard tubes--she is expected to do all the menial tasks. One day she announces that she can't clear away her colleagues' dirty cups--because she's pregnant and the smell nauseates her. The only thing is . . . Ms. Shibata is not pregnant.

Pregnant Ms. Shibata doesn't have to serve coffee to anyone. Pregnant Ms. Shibata isn't forced to work overtime. Pregnant Ms. Shibata rests, watches TV, takes long baths, and even joins an aerobics class for expectant mothers. But pregnant Ms. Shibata also has a nine-month ruse to keep up. Helped along by towel-stuffed shirts and a diary app on which she can log every stage of her "pregnancy," she feels prepared to play the game for the long haul. Before long, though, the hoax becomes all-absorbing, and the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve.

A surreal and wryly humorous cultural critique, Diary of a Void is bound to become a landmark in feminist world literature.]]> 213 Emi Yagi 0143136879 Aoife 4
This is how Shibata feels in her boring office with majority male coworkers who never know how to collect their own coffee cups from the meeting room, and expect her to do everything and look after everyone, despite having her own work to do. One day Shibata has had enough and announces that she’s pregnant and suddenly the demands and expectations stop - the problem is though that Shibata is not pregnant, she’s a liar.

This was a short, fascinating read as we follow Shibata as she takes a step back from his hectic, work-focused life she has been leading and finally finds the time to leave her desk at a normal hour, eat proper meals and even do some extra curricular activities. Shibata has been led to this because she reached a breaking point but there’s a great lesson in this book about not letting life rush past you and really think about what’s worth your time.

Shibata’s state of mind as her ‘pregnancy� progresses is also fascinating as she gains weight and really even starts to believe her own lies. The ending of the book is great - leaving you guessing while also proving all the answers at the same time.]]> 3.51 2020 Diary of a Void
author: Emi Yagi
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: translated, comedic, kindle, asian, pregnancy
review:
For all the people who feel like they are just walking through life, repeating the same day in the office over again, unappreciated for all you do and man, you just need a break!

This is how Shibata feels in her boring office with majority male coworkers who never know how to collect their own coffee cups from the meeting room, and expect her to do everything and look after everyone, despite having her own work to do. One day Shibata has had enough and announces that she’s pregnant and suddenly the demands and expectations stop - the problem is though that Shibata is not pregnant, she’s a liar.

This was a short, fascinating read as we follow Shibata as she takes a step back from his hectic, work-focused life she has been leading and finally finds the time to leave her desk at a normal hour, eat proper meals and even do some extra curricular activities. Shibata has been led to this because she reached a breaking point but there’s a great lesson in this book about not letting life rush past you and really think about what’s worth your time.

Shibata’s state of mind as her ‘pregnancy� progresses is also fascinating as she gains weight and really even starts to believe her own lies. The ending of the book is great - leaving you guessing while also proving all the answers at the same time.
]]> Reality Check 195607662
On the other hand, it's all drama with her mother, Dessie, Kerry-born queen bee of hit reality show, Ladies of Los Angeles, and sisters, Vinnie, a supermodel-turned-Insta-guru and Ariel, a Tik-Tok teen sensation.

When Jason drops a bombshell that leaves her life in tatters, Portia flees to be with her family. Her timing could not be worse though as scandal engulfs Vinnie's empire and Ariel bratty behaviour gets out of hand. As for Dessie, she is clearly hiding something. It seems like the glamour and gossip on which Dessie built her empire might just be its downfall.

But maybe Portia has been fooling herself about living a 'real' life? She might be about to get as big a wake-up call as her mother and sisters.

From the bright lights of LA to the rugged charm of west Kerry, Reality Check is a delicious look behind the scenes of what really goes down in Tinseltown.]]> 422 Vicki Notaro 1844886581 Aoife 4
I listened to this on audiobook and genuinely had a fun time with this! It’s fun, dramatic, glamorous and sexy all at the same time while also tackling topics such as aging, motherhood and sister/mother relationships. The family dynamic in this was one of my favourite things in this - they all truly love each other and are there to support one another. Dessie may be a Real Housewife but she’s also a terrific Momager and very inspired by Kris Kardashian and who doesn’t love a ‘you’re doing great honey� moment.

I’m not a viewer of Real Housewives (more so because I’m afraid of delving into the vast world and getting hooked and I don’t know where to start) but I could still appreciate the inspiration and nods to the reality show empire.

Portia clearly comes from a very privileged background. Not everyone can afford to skip off to their mom’s mansion for months on end and hang out by a pool, rebound with celebrities and go get a colonic to reset. But I didn’t mind this, it was part of the fun of the book.

I do think there was an issue with pacing in the middle of this book and the story lagged a bit but not unexpected considering this is the author’s first book, and overall it was pretty good! Despite this, I’m really looking forward to reading Vicki Notaro’s next book. I really hope her books are all set in the same world as I would love a Dessie Daniels mention in her future books. ]]> 3.58 2024 Reality Check
author: Vicki Notaro
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: audiobook, irish, irish-author, adult-contemporary, adult
review:
Perfect for fans of reality TV and a bit of Hollywood glamour (and drama), Reality Check follows Portia Daniels, a TV writer and the daughter of reality TV housewife star Dessie Daniels, and sister to model turned influencer Vinnie. Portia prefers life out of the limelight and is totally loved up with Irish man Jason when he drops a bombshell on her and she has to figure out what to do.

I listened to this on audiobook and genuinely had a fun time with this! It’s fun, dramatic, glamorous and sexy all at the same time while also tackling topics such as aging, motherhood and sister/mother relationships. The family dynamic in this was one of my favourite things in this - they all truly love each other and are there to support one another. Dessie may be a Real Housewife but she’s also a terrific Momager and very inspired by Kris Kardashian and who doesn’t love a ‘you’re doing great honey� moment.

I’m not a viewer of Real Housewives (more so because I’m afraid of delving into the vast world and getting hooked and I don’t know where to start) but I could still appreciate the inspiration and nods to the reality show empire.

Portia clearly comes from a very privileged background. Not everyone can afford to skip off to their mom’s mansion for months on end and hang out by a pool, rebound with celebrities and go get a colonic to reset. But I didn’t mind this, it was part of the fun of the book.

I do think there was an issue with pacing in the middle of this book and the story lagged a bit but not unexpected considering this is the author’s first book, and overall it was pretty good! Despite this, I’m really looking forward to reading Vicki Notaro’s next book. I really hope her books are all set in the same world as I would love a Dessie Daniels mention in her future books.
]]> <![CDATA[Anybody Out There? (Walsh Family, #4)]]> 165030
But nothing in Anna's life is that simple anymore... Not only is her return to Manhattan complicated by her physical and emotional scars � but Aidan seems to have vanished. Is it time for Anna to move on? Is it even possible for her to move on? A motley group of misfits, an earth-shattering revelation, two births and one very weird wedding might help Anna find some answers � and change her life forever.]]> 456 Marian Keyes 0061240850 Aoife 5
This is the fourth book in the Walsh series and so far, it’s my favorite one. Anna has always been a bit of a kooky sister, along with Helen, but we see a tamed back version of her here a few years after Angel, with a job in beauty PR, a husband and a successful life in New York.

Now we see how Anna is shattered and needing to build herself back up with a new reality and while this book is quite heartbreaking at times, it’s also laugh out loud funny. I genuinely think I will be using the term ‘feathery stroker� for a certain kind of man for the rest of my life now and now love to identify feathery strokers in real life or books. I also really enjoyed seeing Rachel in this book and how far she has come since her own book Rachel’s Holiday. I’m already looking forward to reuniting with Anna in My Favorite Mistake.]]> 3.94 2006 Anybody Out There? (Walsh Family, #4)
author: Marian Keyes
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: favorites, favourite-author, irish, irish-author, library, adult-contemporary
review:
Anna Walsh is back in her parent’s house in Dublin, recovering from a terrible accident and thinking about her return to New York and reuniting with her husband Aidan.

This is the fourth book in the Walsh series and so far, it’s my favorite one. Anna has always been a bit of a kooky sister, along with Helen, but we see a tamed back version of her here a few years after Angel, with a job in beauty PR, a husband and a successful life in New York.

Now we see how Anna is shattered and needing to build herself back up with a new reality and while this book is quite heartbreaking at times, it’s also laugh out loud funny. I genuinely think I will be using the term ‘feathery stroker� for a certain kind of man for the rest of my life now and now love to identify feathery strokers in real life or books. I also really enjoyed seeing Rachel in this book and how far she has come since her own book Rachel’s Holiday. I’m already looking forward to reuniting with Anna in My Favorite Mistake.
]]> <![CDATA[The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone, #2)]]> 50208350 The Friend Zone.

Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe still can't seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a "take me home" look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker's owner reaches out. He's a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: He wants Tucker back.

Well, Sloan's not about to give up her dog without a fight. As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can't deny a connection. There's no telling what could happen when they meet in person. The question is: With his music career on the rise, how long will Jason really stick around? And is it possible for Sloan to survive another heartbreak?]]> 401 Abby Jimenez Aoife 3
I’ve heard a lot of hype over this author so I was looking forward to finally reading this book. I listened to this on audiobook and I think books like this are just not for me on audio as I really didn’t like how the narrators would put on deep or high voices for the other character of a different gender, especially the female narrator. She also used the same deep voice for every male character so everyone sounded identical to Jason.

Jason and Sloan just weren’t my favorite to read about either. I would have preferred more of a slow burn between them but they were both so into each other straight away and everything Jason did was just so perfect, it was slightly nauseating and borderline unrealistic. I think my final straw with them snapped when they were on tour and everything was so terrible - guys, you are on tour having everything catered to you. You can figure out a way to make a balance! I know there is a romanticized idea of tour life, and I’m sure it is hard and boring but please, come on.

The big romantic gesture at the end was not my thing, it was very cheesy and my worst nightmare but also fitting with the story and the characters.

I think Tucker the dog was my favorite in this. I will read the next book though as I liked the character of Adrian from the little bit we got of him so I’m hoping I prefer his romance more!]]> 4.14 2020 The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: romance, audiobook, disappointing
review:
When a dog jumps through Sloan’s sunroof one day, she has no idea that he’s about to lead her to a texting relationship with his owner Jason which quickly turns from harmless flirting to a more meaningful relationship. Sloan is still grieving her fiancee who died two years ago and taking a step in a new relationship means a lot but musician Jason’s hectic tour life is more than they both bargained for and things begin to strain.

I’ve heard a lot of hype over this author so I was looking forward to finally reading this book. I listened to this on audiobook and I think books like this are just not for me on audio as I really didn’t like how the narrators would put on deep or high voices for the other character of a different gender, especially the female narrator. She also used the same deep voice for every male character so everyone sounded identical to Jason.

Jason and Sloan just weren’t my favorite to read about either. I would have preferred more of a slow burn between them but they were both so into each other straight away and everything Jason did was just so perfect, it was slightly nauseating and borderline unrealistic. I think my final straw with them snapped when they were on tour and everything was so terrible - guys, you are on tour having everything catered to you. You can figure out a way to make a balance! I know there is a romanticized idea of tour life, and I’m sure it is hard and boring but please, come on.

The big romantic gesture at the end was not my thing, it was very cheesy and my worst nightmare but also fitting with the story and the characters.

I think Tucker the dog was my favorite in this. I will read the next book though as I liked the character of Adrian from the little bit we got of him so I’m hoping I prefer his romance more!
]]> <![CDATA[Dog Days: A Year with Olive and Mabel]]> 58420789 Dog Days: A Year with Olive & Mabel, join Andrew Cotter as he takes you behind the scenes and into the pages of his diary to reveal just how extraordinary the year has been, and what really happened after his lockdown superstar Labradors chewed up the internet and found it was quite tasty.

For Olive, Mabel and Andrew, the last year has been like no other. With normal work cancelled or scaled back for so long, it has been a time to take stock and share experiences � both the everyday and the decidedly odd. Here Andrew takes a sharply observed and often hilarious walk through the strangest of days for all of us, reflecting on how precious our time really is, especially the time we have with our dogs.

Beautiful, comical, endlessly optimistic and eternally hungry Olive, Mabel (and Andrew) have padded around from the Cheltenham Literary Festival to 60 Minutes Australia, from their living room studio with ABC News Breakfast to an appearance on Good Morning America, and from obscurity to excited whispers of “Is that really Olive & Mabel?� wherever they go. Not to mention the lucrative merchandise and advertising deals that were turned down by the dozen, and the odd phone call from Hollywood.

Through it all, Olive and Mabel have always done exactly what they do best, being themselves and being there for Andrew � and for all of us who have loved watching their brilliant videos and following their progress online. If you’re a fan of Olive, Mabel and Andrew, this funny, touching and extraordinary account of a year like no other is an unmissable treat.]]> 304 Andrew Cotter 1922458287 Aoife 4 dog, non-fiction, memoir 3.5 stars 4.15 2021 Dog Days: A Year with Olive and Mabel
author: Andrew Cotter
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: dog, non-fiction, memoir
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)]]> 157062582
When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.]]> 293 Nita Prose 0593356187 Aoife 4 3.75 2023 The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)
author: Nita Prose
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: mystery, audiobook, autism, crime, cosy
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Aoife 0 to-read 4.45 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Intermezzo 215366091 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 448 Sally Rooney 0571365477 Aoife 4 4.03 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: irish, irish-author, my-bookshelf, literary
review:

]]> Kiss Me at Christmas 204466320 White Christmas meets Nora Ephron in Jenny Bayliss� latest wholehearted, ensemble-cast holiday extravaganza.

Christmas can officially get stuffed because Harriet Smith is not feeling bright and merry this year. She hasn’t for a while. So when her college-aged daughter opts for Manhattan’s winter wonderland instead of Christmas at home, Harriet finds herself seeking solace in a wine-soaked one-night stand.

But how Harriet will spend the holidays is swiftly decided for her after she takes the fall for some students who break into the town’s old Winter Theater. To get the students off the hook, the theater’s elderly owner requests that Harriet direct the washed-out stage’s final Christmas performance. And Harriet will do anything to help the kids . . . even work with the owner’s lawyer who, as it turns out, is her less than impressed one-night stand.

Directing the play with him won't exactly change her life. But it might just reignite the Christmas spirit andremind her what makes life merry and bright again.]]> 397 Jenny Bayliss 0593717910 Aoife 0 to-read 3.58 2024 Kiss Me at Christmas
author: Jenny Bayliss
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Human Rites (Her Majesty's Royal Coven, #3)]]> 214648400 Pre-order now!]]> 0 Juno Dawson 0008478627 Aoife 0 to-read 4.40 2025 Human Rites (Her Majesty's Royal Coven, #3)
author: Juno Dawson
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Eye For An Eye 124935264 Only nine criminals in the UK have been granted lifelong anonymity.
Their crimes so heinous that their identities are permanently changed for their own safety.

CRIMINAL OR VICTIM?
Upon release, they're given a second chance: new identities and new homes with new neighbours who have no idea. Because, by law, they cannot be named as who they are - or were...

REDEMPTION OR REVENGE?
But what if someone started systematically exposing their true identities? Not to the press, or the public, but to the families of their victims.

Who deserves justice? And who gets to decide?]]> 534 M.J. Arlidge Aoife 4
This was a very good audiobook listen - it’s very dark at times with some descriptions of horrible past crimes towards vulnerable people, as well as current depictions of violence or other bad behavior that is stomach-turning. However, I thought this book was really good at posing the question of what does justice really mean, especially for people who lost loved ones and feel the perpetrators got away too easily. It also highlights the incredible train that probation services are under trying to look after these people, who often make that job very hard, and how men and women are put in unsafe situations during a duty of care and potentially not treated very well by there employers if something goes wrong. Not to mention that for so many young criminals, failure of care in the home (and the failure of government authorities to step in ) is such a big factor into why they turn to crime or violence in the first place.

I enjoyed this and I did like the inclusion of Emily (and potentially Courtney?) as an example of a person who really has changed their life around and out of all the criminals we read from, deserved that chance the most.

One of my only gripes with this book is that I definitely think it was too long, gripping as it was things did begin to wane for a me a little bit near the end and I was ready for the story to hurry up and get to the conclusion. ]]> 4.13 2023 Eye For An Eye
author: M.J. Arlidge
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: thriller, crime, mystery, audiobook
review:
In this gripping thriller, we follow the lives of several people who were high profile criminals - convicted of horrific crimes as children or teens - and now after serving their sentence, are living as free people again under new names and the watchful eye of the strained probation services. But someone is leaking information to the victims� families and one by one, the criminals are being hunted down and made to pay for their crimes.

This was a very good audiobook listen - it’s very dark at times with some descriptions of horrible past crimes towards vulnerable people, as well as current depictions of violence or other bad behavior that is stomach-turning. However, I thought this book was really good at posing the question of what does justice really mean, especially for people who lost loved ones and feel the perpetrators got away too easily. It also highlights the incredible train that probation services are under trying to look after these people, who often make that job very hard, and how men and women are put in unsafe situations during a duty of care and potentially not treated very well by there employers if something goes wrong. Not to mention that for so many young criminals, failure of care in the home (and the failure of government authorities to step in ) is such a big factor into why they turn to crime or violence in the first place.

I enjoyed this and I did like the inclusion of Emily (and potentially Courtney?) as an example of a person who really has changed their life around and out of all the criminals we read from, deserved that chance the most.

One of my only gripes with this book is that I definitely think it was too long, gripping as it was things did begin to wane for a me a little bit near the end and I was ready for the story to hurry up and get to the conclusion.
]]> <![CDATA[Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns, #3)]]> 39947809 One Crowned, Two Exiled, A Revolution Rising.

The battle has been fought, blood has been spilt and a queen has been crowned, but not all are happy with the outcome.

Katharine, the poisoner queen, has been crowned and is trying to ignore the whispers that call her illegitimate, undead, cursed.

Mirabella and Arsinoe have escaped the island of Fennbirn, but how long before the island calls them back?

Jules is returning to Fennbirn and has become the unlikely figurehead of a revolution threatening to topple Katharine's already unsteady rule.

But what good is a revolution if something is wrong with the island itself?]]> 447 Kendare Blake 1509876499 Aoife 4
Two Dark Reigns is the third book in the Three Dark Crowns quartet following queens and triplets Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katherine as they continue to contend to become true Queen Consort of the island of Fennbirn. But there is a twist when the magical mist that has always protected the island suddenly turns against its inhabitants, and a new Legion Queen appears and is set on a rebellion.

This book was fantastic - it was really fast-paced and all the twists and turns in it kept me hooked. I've always enjoyed the sisterly bond in these books, between Mirabella and Arsinoe at least, and I really liked seeing their relationship develop and deeper in this book, while at the same time we're seeing Katherine begin to slowly unravel, and really see the affect of her relationship with the Dead Queens.

I thought Jules' storyline in this book was extremely interesting, and I can't wait to see it develop further and I can't help but wonder what the author's plans for Jules are. The more i find out about her, and particularly the prophecies surrounding her, the more likely it is I feel like she's going to be a major catalyst in the ending of the story.

One of my favourite parts of this book was finding out about the Blue Queen and Daphne. I'm definitely going to pick up the novella The Queens of Fennbirn, and honestly I could probably read a book of short stories about the past queens. Delving into the history of the queens and the bloodlines over 500 years earlier was fantastic, and it's nice to see how different yet how similar our Queens' time is.

This book was dark in all the right places, and it had a touch of power and enough gore to jeep me hooked and disgusted, and a little bit afraid and awed, all at the same time. I really cannot wait for the fourth and final book.]]> 3.88 2018 Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns, #3)
author: Kendare Blake
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: brilliant, fantasy, femalefriendship, girl-power, magic-spells, ya-fantasy, ya, review-books
review:
I received this book from Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

Two Dark Reigns is the third book in the Three Dark Crowns quartet following queens and triplets Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katherine as they continue to contend to become true Queen Consort of the island of Fennbirn. But there is a twist when the magical mist that has always protected the island suddenly turns against its inhabitants, and a new Legion Queen appears and is set on a rebellion.

This book was fantastic - it was really fast-paced and all the twists and turns in it kept me hooked. I've always enjoyed the sisterly bond in these books, between Mirabella and Arsinoe at least, and I really liked seeing their relationship develop and deeper in this book, while at the same time we're seeing Katherine begin to slowly unravel, and really see the affect of her relationship with the Dead Queens.

I thought Jules' storyline in this book was extremely interesting, and I can't wait to see it develop further and I can't help but wonder what the author's plans for Jules are. The more i find out about her, and particularly the prophecies surrounding her, the more likely it is I feel like she's going to be a major catalyst in the ending of the story.

One of my favourite parts of this book was finding out about the Blue Queen and Daphne. I'm definitely going to pick up the novella The Queens of Fennbirn, and honestly I could probably read a book of short stories about the past queens. Delving into the history of the queens and the bloodlines over 500 years earlier was fantastic, and it's nice to see how different yet how similar our Queens' time is.

This book was dark in all the right places, and it had a touch of power and enough gore to jeep me hooked and disgusted, and a little bit afraid and awed, all at the same time. I really cannot wait for the fourth and final book.
]]> <![CDATA[She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History]]> 36597129 The companion to She Persisted.

Women around the world have long dreamed big, even when they've been told their dreams didn't matter. They've spoken out, risen up and fought for what's right, even when they've been told to be quiet. Whether in science, the arts, sports or activism, women and girls throughout history have been determined to break barriers and change the status quo. They haven't let anyone get in their way and have helped us better understand our world and what's possible. In this book, Chelsea Clinton introduces readers to a group of thirteen incredible women who have shaped history all across the globe.]]> 32 Chelsea Clinton 0525517014 Aoife 5 4.37 2018 She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History
author: Chelsea Clinton
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Snowed In (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #2)]]> 195487194
Christian’s fed up of being on his own every Christmas. He doesn’t mind being alone , but he hates his family’s sad eyes and soft tones as they sit around coupled up. Because he’s actually, totally, fine.

So when Megan literally bumps into Christian in a Dublin pub, they come up with a pact to see them through the holiday season. They’re going to be the very best fake dates for each other, ever .

Rules are drawn up, a contract is signed on a wine-stained napkin. They will sit through each other’s family gatherings and be outrageously in love until freed from their annual obligations. After all, it’s only for a few weeks.

But with everyone home for the holidays, two big families to deal with alongside old friends, old flames and old feelings, things are bound to get messy. And when a snowed-in cabin and a little Christmas magic are added to the mix, anything could happen�

A swoonworthy and utterly gorgeous romantic comedy that will make you laugh out loud and fall completely in love. Fans of Emily Henry, Sophie Kinsella and Abby Jimenez won’t be able to put this down!]]> 384 Catherine Walsh 1837906653 Aoife 5 4.08 2023 Snowed In (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #2)
author: Catherine Walsh
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: irish, irish-author, romance, christmas, pretty-damn-good, brilliant, favorites
review:

]]> Brotherless Night 60324341 In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.

Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K's invitation to work as a medic at the field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.

Set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.]]> 348 V.V. Ganeshananthan 0812997158 Aoife 4 literary, kindle, womensprize 4.45 2023 Brotherless Night
author: V.V. Ganeshananthan
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: literary, kindle, womensprize
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Land of the Living and the Dead (Gael Song, #3)]]> 203578961 The old world will die in flames�

Ireland, 1011 AD. Brian Boru is now High King of Ireland. His queen, Gormflaith, instructs their young son in his heritage - but only on his mother's side. For Gormflaith, an immortal Fomorian skilled in fire-magic, intends to finally defeat the Fomorians' hated foes, the Descendants, and establish control over Ireland. And if King Brian stands in her way, so much the worse for him�

Fódla, the Descendants' spy in King Brian's camp, treads a wary path. She must protect her magically powerful young nephew from their leader, Tomas, who will do anything to achieve his aim of the Descendants returning to the mortal world and ruling Ireland. And Fódla is on dangerous ground, for she has broken one of the sacred rules of the she has fallen in love with a mortal.

As the schemes of Gormflaith and Tomas come to fruition, the only possible outcome is war. Ireland has bled red and often� but the coming clash will be a battle for the ages. Strange alliances will form, old defences will fail, and the land will never be the same again.

Reviewers on Shauna Lawless' Gael Song series

'Lawless blends fantasy with historical fiction to great effect.' SFX
'Lawless's writing is absolutely luminous.' Irish Independent
'Swept me along and refused to be put down.' H.M. Long]]> 576 Shauna Lawless 180328272X Aoife 4 4.50 2024 The Land of the Living and the Dead (Gael Song, #3)
author: Shauna Lawless
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: tome, historic-fantasy, irish, irish-author, historical, historic, library
review:

]]> Over the Top: My Story 50212025
The truth is, it hasn’t always been gorgeous for this beacon of positivity and joy.

Before he stole our hearts as the grooming and self-care expert on Netflix’s hit show Queer Eye, Jonathan was growing up in a small Midwestern town that didn’t understand why he was so…over the top. From choreographed carpet figure skating routines to the unavoidable fact that he was Just. So. Gay., Jonathan was an easy target and endured years of judgement, ridicule and trauma—yet none of it crushed his uniquely effervescent spirit.

Over the Top uncovers the pain and passion it took to end up becoming the model of self-love and acceptance that Jonathan is today. In this revelatory, raw, and rambunctious memoir, Jonathan shares never-before-told secrets and reveals sides of himself that the public has never seen. JVN fans may think they know the man behind the stiletto heels, the crop tops, and the iconic sayings, but there’s much more to him than meets the Queer Eye.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll come away knowing that no matter how broken or lost you may be, you’re a Kelly Clarkson song, you’re strong, and you’ve got this.]]> 288 Jonathan Van Ness 0062906380 Aoife 5 4.16 2019 Over the Top: My Story
author: Jonathan Van Ness
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: memoir, non-fiction, diverse, trans-characters, gay
review:

]]> Before She Was Found 42551409
For twelve-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover � movies and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences�

Later that night, Cora Landry is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted � not even those closest to her. But who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora � and why?

A shocking, unputdownable thriller, perfect for fans of Claire Douglas, Lucy Clarke, Nuala Ellwood and Paula Daly.

Praise for Heather ‘This gripping tale will keep you up all night� Heat

‘An action packed thriller�. Gudenkauf's best book yet!� Mary Kubica

‘Fans of Jodi Picoult will devour this great thriller� Red Magazine

‘This tense tale keeps you hooked right up to the last page� My Weekly

‘A great thriller� Radio Times

‘A real page-turner� Woman’s Own

‘Tension builds as family secrets tumble from the closet� Woman & Home

‘A gripping thriller� Inside Soap

‘Deeply moving and lyrical…it will haunt you all summer� Company

‘A powerhouse of a debut novel� Tess Gerritsen

‘Totally gripping� Marie Claire

‘Heart-pounding and compelling� Diane Chamberlain]]> 350 Heather Gudenkauf 1474083137 Aoife 3 4.08 2019 Before She Was Found
author: Heather Gudenkauf
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: audiobook, mystery, crime, thriller, pop-sugar-2016
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns, #2)]]> 34567771
With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.

In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.]]> 450 Kendare Blake 150980773X Aoife 5
I love that this book had a whole different dynamic on first approach that Three Dark Crowns did because as a reader, I already knew the sisters pretty well at this stage and had followed them on the first part of their Ascension Year and their battles with each other, and all the different emotions that came with them.

I love the emotions in this book, particularly with Mirabella and Arsinoe and their complex feelings about having to kill one another while still obviously loving each other and caring deeply for one another. I also feel like some of my previous issues with the story were very much resolved in this one -I had;t liked the pitting of Jules against Mirabella because of a guy and I liked that Joseph made a very clear choice in this book and didn’t let it drag on and made it clear where he stood, that Mirabella and Jules both got what was going on and understood. I also like that Joseph was very much clear that he knew Jules would have continued trust issues and he knew she couldn’t forgive him clear cut and it would take a while.

I can’t wait for the third book, mostly to see where Jules goes with her War ability - it will be so interesting to see where things now and I’m also all there for Arsinoe and Mirabella’s sisterhood now and for them to rule the world together once they kill that snake Katherine, what a bish.]]> 4.03 2017 One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns, #2)
author: Kendare Blake
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: brilliant, girl-power, library, ya, ya-fantasy
review:
One Dark Throne is the second book in the Three Dark Crowns trilogy. This book trilogy follows three sister queens, Katherine, Arsinoe and Mirabella as they are pitted against each other to fight to the death for the throne.

I love that this book had a whole different dynamic on first approach that Three Dark Crowns did because as a reader, I already knew the sisters pretty well at this stage and had followed them on the first part of their Ascension Year and their battles with each other, and all the different emotions that came with them.

I love the emotions in this book, particularly with Mirabella and Arsinoe and their complex feelings about having to kill one another while still obviously loving each other and caring deeply for one another. I also feel like some of my previous issues with the story were very much resolved in this one -I had;t liked the pitting of Jules against Mirabella because of a guy and I liked that Joseph made a very clear choice in this book and didn’t let it drag on and made it clear where he stood, that Mirabella and Jules both got what was going on and understood. I also like that Joseph was very much clear that he knew Jules would have continued trust issues and he knew she couldn’t forgive him clear cut and it would take a while.

I can’t wait for the third book, mostly to see where Jules goes with her War ability - it will be so interesting to see where things now and I’m also all there for Arsinoe and Mirabella’s sisterhood now and for them to rule the world together once they kill that snake Katherine, what a bish.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of Bradley Reed (Seasons of Revenge, #3)]]> 195885046
When Olivia Anderson gets left at the altar, she decides to do what all modern women do—hit up Google. When a couple of searches land her in a support group for jilted brides, she immediately takes the reins and decides they all deserve revenge on their exes.

Andre Valenti is tired of watching spoiled rich Olivia Anderson's every move, but his career depends on putting her ex behind bars. He's managed to stay off her radar until one day he realizes her search history is peppered with revenge that will land her in prison and ruin her status as a reliable witness.
As Andre gets more involved in Olivia's schemes, will he be able to keep it professional? Or will the subject of his work assignment become....something more.]]> 412 Morgan Elizabeth Aoife 4 3.76 2023 The Fall of Bradley Reed (Seasons of Revenge, #3)
author: Morgan Elizabeth
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: romance, fake-dating, smut, kindle-unlimited
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Celestial Monsters (The Sunbearer Duology, #2)]]> 200982268 New York Times-bestselling author Aiden Thomas returns to the beloved world of The Sunbearer Trials in Celestial Monsters, a heart-stopping duology finale, in which three young semidioses travel through a dark monster-infested world, facing down chaotic Obsidian gods, in a quest to save their friends and return the sun to the sky.

Teo never thought he could be a Hero. Now, he doesn’t have a choice.

The sun is gone, the Obsidian gods have been released from their prison, and chaos and destruction are wreaking havoc on Reino del Sol. All because Teo refused to sacrifice a fellow semidiós during the Sunbearer Trials.

With the world plunged into perpetual night, Teo, his crush Aurelio, and his best friend Niya must journey to the dark wilderness of Los Restos, battling vicious monsters while dealing with guilt, trauma, and a (very distracting) burgeoning romance between Teo and Aurelio. Determined to rescue the captured semidioses and retrieve the Sol Stone, the trio races against the clock to return Sol and their protective light. With it, order can be restored.

The future of the whole world is in their hands.]]> 416 Aiden Thomas 1250822084 Aoife 4 4.18 2024 Celestial Monsters (The Sunbearer Duology, #2)
author: Aiden Thomas
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: fantasy, ya-fantasy, gay, trans-characters, diverse
review:

]]> Leap of Faith 25080679 The highly anticipated new novel from beloved Australian writer Fiona McCallum.

Jessica Harrington is a promising horse-rider who dreams of representing her country. But the recent death of her father � her coach and mentor � has left her doubting her ability to continue in the sport. When she fails at the Adelaide International Horse Trials her fears are confirmed � and her world begins to fall apart.

Unable to bear seeing her well-bred, highly trained horses languishing in the paddock, she makes the snap decision to sell. She’s broken her own heart, but can’t see any other way � now she will just have to focus on a life without them. Her husband Steve and best friend Tiffany, however, can see through her bravado.

Jessica is dismayed when Steve brings home a horse from a clearing sale, a horse so skinny and forlorn he just couldn’t leave it behind. Unwilling to be drawn back into the world of horses, she's reluctant to get involved. But when a summer thunderstorm brings on a life-or-death emergency, she finds she underestimated the heart of one little horse. Can Jessica put her trust in Faith?]]> 220 Fiona McCallum 0857996177 Aoife 2 audiobook, horses 3.68 2015 Leap of Faith
author: Fiona McCallum
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: audiobook, horses
review:
The main character is insufferable with her 'poor me' mentality.
]]> <![CDATA[The Rise of the Hotel Dumort (The Bane Chronicles, #5)]]> 17334064
The immortal Magnus Bane is making the most of his time in the Roaring Twenties: He's settled into New York society and is thriving among the fashionable jazz set. And there is nowhere better to see and be seen than the glamorous Hotel Dumort, a glittering new addition to the Manhattan landscape. But a different type of glamour may be at play...]]> 61 Cassandra Clare 144249560X Aoife 3 3.79 The Rise of the Hotel Dumort (The Bane Chronicles, #5)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2016/02/13
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: novella, kindle, ya, ya-paranormal
review:
I liked the era this was set in and how Magnus kept being warned about the Wall Street crash. I also love his secret bar..SO Magnus! It was also interesting to see Magnus play around with altering and erasing memories for the first time in the books.
]]> <![CDATA[Left for Dead (Maeve Kerrigan, #0.5)]]> 18073669 'Two women died every week in the UK at the hands of a partner or ex-partner. On average, women endured thirty-five incidents of domestic abuse before contacting the police.

And then I showed up the thirty-sixth time and stumbled through my arguments for why the victim should trust us. As if we could save them.

It had been two months, and so far I remembered all of their faces. So far, none of them had turned up on the daily briefing as the borough's latest homicide. '

A violent rapist is attacking women, leaving them for dead on south London streets. Then young police woman Maeve Kerrigan responds to a domestic disturbance and stumbles across the latest victim. But as a new recruit - and a female to boot - she must battle sexism from her colleagues in her bid to be taken seriously enough to even assist on the case...

Jane Casey's bestselling D.C. Kerrigan books have earned her many fans. This exclusive digital short story takes Maeve back to her early days as a rookie police woman. ]]> 109 Jane Casey 1448177979 Aoife 4 3.83 2013 Left for Dead (Maeve Kerrigan, #0.5)
author: Jane Casey
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: crime, library, novella, irish-author, irish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre]]> 52454426
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.

In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.

Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before.]]> 286 Max Brooks 1984826786 Aoife 4 horror, kindle, thriller
I didn’t know what to expect from a ‘Bigfoot� horror novel but I ended up really enjoying this and flying through it. This was very fast paced and engaging - and each new journal entry of Katie’s brought another rather terrifying Sasquatch encounter into reality.

I did find it slightly fast-paced at times in terms of it didn’t take a long time at all between Mr Rainier’s eruption and the Sasquatch horror to rein down on Greenloop though I understand that this also was due to incorporating the reality of real help finding Greenloop, as well as experimenting with the amount of time it can take to really change a person’s psyche from hunted to hunter.

I also agree with some other reviews I’ve seen that I would have liked more character exploration or deep dive into Tony and Yvette as it felt like they were going to have a bigger part to play as antagonists when things went south as I was a bit disappointed that they just went a bit mad in the end instead. I loved Mostar and how her background was revealed as well as her encouragement of Katie and Dan - and how Dan’s mojo came back as he suddenly had a purpose again and seemed to find out who he really was as did Katie.

So I really enjoyed this - it was fast paced and punchy with just another gore and violence to make your stomach flip but unable to take your eyes away from the page!]]> 3.88 2020 Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
author: Max Brooks
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: horror, kindle, thriller
review:
In the same vein as Max Brooks� World War Z, Devolution tells us the story from another near apocalypse and close monster encounter from a first-hand perspective. We follow the journal of Katie, who has recently moved to a sustainable eco-community called Greenloop near Mt Rainier. The rather cult like feel of her new community actually soothes Katie but soon things get crazy when Mt Rainier erupts, the small group are cut off from the normal world and they end up preyed upon by man-like beasts from the nearby forest.

I didn’t know what to expect from a ‘Bigfoot� horror novel but I ended up really enjoying this and flying through it. This was very fast paced and engaging - and each new journal entry of Katie’s brought another rather terrifying Sasquatch encounter into reality.

I did find it slightly fast-paced at times in terms of it didn’t take a long time at all between Mr Rainier’s eruption and the Sasquatch horror to rein down on Greenloop though I understand that this also was due to incorporating the reality of real help finding Greenloop, as well as experimenting with the amount of time it can take to really change a person’s psyche from hunted to hunter.

I also agree with some other reviews I’ve seen that I would have liked more character exploration or deep dive into Tony and Yvette as it felt like they were going to have a bigger part to play as antagonists when things went south as I was a bit disappointed that they just went a bit mad in the end instead. I loved Mostar and how her background was revealed as well as her encouragement of Katie and Dan - and how Dan’s mojo came back as he suddenly had a purpose again and seemed to find out who he really was as did Katie.

So I really enjoyed this - it was fast paced and punchy with just another gore and violence to make your stomach flip but unable to take your eyes away from the page!
]]> The Old Woman with the Knife 57938998 The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career--this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author

At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age--that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.

Double-crossers, corporate enemies, cheating spouses--for the past four decades, Hornclaw has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end.

A sensation in South Korea, and now translated into English for the first time by Chi-Young Kim, The Old Woman with the Knife is an electrifying, singular, mordantly funny novel about the expectations imposed on aging bodies and the dramatic ways in which one woman chooses to reclaim her agency.]]> 288 Gu Byeong-mo 1335425764 Aoife 4
I didn’t know what I was going to think of this book going into it but I found it very paced, fun and I really loved getting to know Hornclaw’s background. She was a fascinating character with a personality of steel but also someone you would want to have on your side. I enjoyed seeing the moments when a peek of humanity would come through such as her thoughts about the young doctor, his daughter and also her past relationship with her mentor. Not to mention her relationship with her dog who she comes home to every night but also makes sure to leave a window open for in case she never comes home.

This book also highlights quite well some of the feelings and experiences of being an aging person in a world and society that overlook the old in favor of the young. We see Hornclaw traded roughly and rudely by her younger counterparts and even going around on her day to day business she is almost invisible (which of course can come in handy in her line of work).

I enjoyed this a lot - there is some violence in it as can be expected but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Hornclaw during this book.]]> 3.49 2013 The Old Woman with the Knife
author: Gu Byeong-mo
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: translated, asian, mystery, crime, kindle
review:
In this book translated from Korean, we follow Hornclaw - an elderly lady who is coming up to the twilight years of her career as an assassin. As Hornclaw thinks back on her life and the decisions that she made to lead her up to now, someone close to her begins a revenge plan to bring her down.

I didn’t know what I was going to think of this book going into it but I found it very paced, fun and I really loved getting to know Hornclaw’s background. She was a fascinating character with a personality of steel but also someone you would want to have on your side. I enjoyed seeing the moments when a peek of humanity would come through such as her thoughts about the young doctor, his daughter and also her past relationship with her mentor. Not to mention her relationship with her dog who she comes home to every night but also makes sure to leave a window open for in case she never comes home.

This book also highlights quite well some of the feelings and experiences of being an aging person in a world and society that overlook the old in favor of the young. We see Hornclaw traded roughly and rudely by her younger counterparts and even going around on her day to day business she is almost invisible (which of course can come in handy in her line of work).

I enjoyed this a lot - there is some violence in it as can be expected but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Hornclaw during this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Haunted Ever After (Boneyard Key, #1)]]> 202102032 It's love at first haunting in a seaside town that raises everyone’s spirits from USA Today bestselling author Jen DeLuca.

Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning.

Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG� and “MY HOUSE� when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she's catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order.

As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don't get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing. But Cassie's worried she’s in too deep with this whole (haunted) home ownership thing� and Nick's afraid to get too close in case Cassie gets scared away for good.]]> 325 Jen DeLuca 0593641213 Aoife 4
I really liked this sweet Autumnal romance - I actually enjoyed that it was in a warmer setting as I feel like one can forget that not everyone’s Autumn is cooler evenings and crunchy leaves underfoot. There’s a real Gilmore Girls in Florida feel to this book which I was more than happy with and Nick definitely gives a lot of Luke energy. I really loved the attraction between Cassie and Nick and that the first date/kiss came kind of early on but didn’t feel like insta-love - however the rest of their relationship was taken kind of slowly (and we had a first act break up instead of a third act break up).

I loved the supernatural elements in this and how the author incorporated different ways ghosts could interact with people from text messages, footprints in the sand and fridge magnets. I really felt for Sarah Hawkins as she tried to tell her story to Cassie (and loved the idea of this friendly, misunderstood lady giving Cassie her blessing with the house). I feel like we have been introduced to some characters (and relationships) that could be explored in future books and I’m excited to read more set in this town!]]> 3.66 2024 Haunted Ever After (Boneyard Key, #1)
author: Jen DeLuca
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: romance, kindle, adult-contemporary, urban-fantasy
review:
When Cassie buys a house in a small beachtown in Florida, she’s happy to trade fast paced city life for something more comforting. However, she soon finds out that the ghostly tourist trade in Boneyard Keys isn’t just for tourists but that ghosts are something very real for the residents of her new hometown - and she may have just bought a haunted house. Luckily for Cassie, she quickly befriends Nick, the local coffee shop owner who is ready to help Cassie out with any ghost questions - and show her just how nice Boneyard Key can be if given the chance.

I really liked this sweet Autumnal romance - I actually enjoyed that it was in a warmer setting as I feel like one can forget that not everyone’s Autumn is cooler evenings and crunchy leaves underfoot. There’s a real Gilmore Girls in Florida feel to this book which I was more than happy with and Nick definitely gives a lot of Luke energy. I really loved the attraction between Cassie and Nick and that the first date/kiss came kind of early on but didn’t feel like insta-love - however the rest of their relationship was taken kind of slowly (and we had a first act break up instead of a third act break up).

I loved the supernatural elements in this and how the author incorporated different ways ghosts could interact with people from text messages, footprints in the sand and fridge magnets. I really felt for Sarah Hawkins as she tried to tell her story to Cassie (and loved the idea of this friendly, misunderstood lady giving Cassie her blessing with the house). I feel like we have been introduced to some characters (and relationships) that could be explored in future books and I’m excited to read more set in this town!
]]> Lazy City 196760200
Lazy City explores coming of age in a place where everyone is picking up the pieces and belongs to a generation that, at the precipice of climate crisis, isn't going to get the future it was expecting. A startlingly fresh and original voice - jarringly funny, sometimes cranky, often hungover - Rachel Connolly sharply depicts the strange, meandering aftermath that follows disaster.]]> 282 Rachel Connolly 1838859675 Aoife 3
This kind of a coming of a age novel - there’s not a lot a plot but very character focused on Erin’s decisions from what she’s going to do with herself as well as how she actually treats herself from drink and drugs, as well as casual sex with two different men. Her relationship/sanctuary with religion is a touching part of the novel and I liked at one point when she’s talking to Matt about how in Belfast (or Ireland in general) you don’t have to necessarily be religious to go to a church to light a candle for someone.

I think I would have liked to have seen more happen between Erin and her mam as there were definitely a lot of things still unresolved by the end of the novel, and it’s a relationship that started the novel and is obviously a very hurtful one in Erin’s life.

I wish I would have liked this a little bit more. It was fine but it didn’t blow me away the way I thought it was going to be. I think people who like books like Snowflake by Louise Nealon or The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue might like this one as it follows the same vein of ‘messy gal trying to figure out where she’s going� vibes.]]> 3.42 2023 Lazy City
author: Rachel Connolly
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: audiobook, irish, irish-author, literary
review:
Erin is a young woman living in Belfast with a spiky relationship with her mother, and trying to deal with her grief after the death of her best friend. Waling away from her college degree, and drinking with friends while working as a nanny, Erin is trying to put the past behind her while hooking up with on again, off again love interest Mikey as well as developing a relationship with American professor Matt.

This kind of a coming of a age novel - there’s not a lot a plot but very character focused on Erin’s decisions from what she’s going to do with herself as well as how she actually treats herself from drink and drugs, as well as casual sex with two different men. Her relationship/sanctuary with religion is a touching part of the novel and I liked at one point when she’s talking to Matt about how in Belfast (or Ireland in general) you don’t have to necessarily be religious to go to a church to light a candle for someone.

I think I would have liked to have seen more happen between Erin and her mam as there were definitely a lot of things still unresolved by the end of the novel, and it’s a relationship that started the novel and is obviously a very hurtful one in Erin’s life.

I wish I would have liked this a little bit more. It was fine but it didn’t blow me away the way I thought it was going to be. I think people who like books like Snowflake by Louise Nealon or The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue might like this one as it follows the same vein of ‘messy gal trying to figure out where she’s going� vibes.
]]> Fifty-Fifty (Eddie Flynn, #5) 50805422 Alexandra Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body, and needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed him, and that she is still in the house with a knife.

Sofia Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body and needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom.

Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury.

But one of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be.

You'd be wrong.

]]> 349 Steve Cavanagh Aoife 3
I have only read one other Eddie Flynn book which was Thirteen and I really loved this one so I was disappointed that Fifty Fifty was just okay for me. I do like getting a crime from the side of the lawyers rather than detectives like we normally do in these kind of books but there was a level of over the top with this crime and particularly the killer that I didn’t like.

I thought the killer’s POV was just too ‘mwhahah I’m so evil and bad and pyscho. Look at all the bad things I did and will do� and because of this the book felt too black and white.

I also felt very removed from Eddie as a character in this book too like he was at a distance from the reader even though we see him go through something very emotional in the book. It might be because of the timeline of the book which was very quick - months go by in the matter of a couple of chapters as trials are decided and then arrive - but I feel like I would have preferred more time with him really understanding him again.

I will continue on with the series but I hope we get back to the quality of Thirteen with the next book.]]> 4.31 2020 Fifty-Fifty (Eddie Flynn, #5)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: irish-author, crime, mystery, thriller, library
review:
In the fifth book in the Eddie Flynn series, Eddie takes on the case of a young woman who has been accused of killing her father - as has her sister - and the both of them are saying the other one did it. As Eddie gets to know the frightened young woman, he strongly believes she is the victim of a larger plan and the real killer begin to circle those they love.

I have only read one other Eddie Flynn book which was Thirteen and I really loved this one so I was disappointed that Fifty Fifty was just okay for me. I do like getting a crime from the side of the lawyers rather than detectives like we normally do in these kind of books but there was a level of over the top with this crime and particularly the killer that I didn’t like.

I thought the killer’s POV was just too ‘mwhahah I’m so evil and bad and pyscho. Look at all the bad things I did and will do� and because of this the book felt too black and white.

I also felt very removed from Eddie as a character in this book too like he was at a distance from the reader even though we see him go through something very emotional in the book. It might be because of the timeline of the book which was very quick - months go by in the matter of a couple of chapters as trials are decided and then arrive - but I feel like I would have preferred more time with him really understanding him again.

I will continue on with the series but I hope we get back to the quality of Thirteen with the next book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Silent Wife (Will Trent #10)]]> 51953692 The New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her and The Last Widow returns with another electrifying Will Trent thriller.

Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there—a serial killer who has systematically been preying on women across the state for years. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder.

Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose?

As Will Trent digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the cold case in order to find the answer. Yet nearly a decade has passed—time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear, and lies to become truth. But Will can’t crack either mystery without the help of the one person he doesn’t want involved: his girlfriend and Jeffrey Tolliver’s widow, medical examiner Sara Linton.

When the past and present begin to collide, Will realizes that everything he values is at stake . . .]]> 489 Karin Slaughter Aoife 5
Karin Slaughter is brilliant and what she does, but I think in The Silent Wife her storytelling kicks up a notch as for fans of her series and characters, this one is a gut punch and exciting all at the same time. Similar to Sara, readers are still grieving the loss of someone they loved, so suddenly going back in time to read from his POV again was so odd, familiar yet tragic at the same time - especially as in the time period, things were really bad between Sara and Jeffrey so we are seeing them at odds, while in the present timeline seeing Will deal with how all of this affects his relationship.

The details in this book are very, very graphic - even for a Karin Slaughter book, the details of the assaults these women go through and the damage done to their body, the sheer level of violence and hate was almost too much. I have to say the reveal didn’t surprise me (though if you had told me this during the GC series, I would have been) as I feel like it was obviously set up but I am surprised that Karin Slaughter decided to reveal something so horrific about a character that readers knew fairly well and had trusted in the past.

And even though this book was very dark, the ending of this book literally made me squeal with happiness and kick my feet like a little girl. ]]> 4.43 2020 The Silent Wife (Will Trent #10)
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: crime, mystery, library, favourite-author
review:
For fans of Karin Slaughter’s Grant county series, The Silent Wife combines a past investigation in Grant County with Chief Jeffrey Tolliver in the lead with a current investigation into the same case by Will Trent and his team, that could implicate Jeffrey or damage his reputation - something that Will, and Sara, do not want to happen.

Karin Slaughter is brilliant and what she does, but I think in The Silent Wife her storytelling kicks up a notch as for fans of her series and characters, this one is a gut punch and exciting all at the same time. Similar to Sara, readers are still grieving the loss of someone they loved, so suddenly going back in time to read from his POV again was so odd, familiar yet tragic at the same time - especially as in the time period, things were really bad between Sara and Jeffrey so we are seeing them at odds, while in the present timeline seeing Will deal with how all of this affects his relationship.

The details in this book are very, very graphic - even for a Karin Slaughter book, the details of the assaults these women go through and the damage done to their body, the sheer level of violence and hate was almost too much. I have to say the reveal didn’t surprise me (though if you had told me this during the GC series, I would have been) as I feel like it was obviously set up but I am surprised that Karin Slaughter decided to reveal something so horrific about a character that readers knew fairly well and had trusted in the past.

And even though this book was very dark, the ending of this book literally made me squeal with happiness and kick my feet like a little girl.
]]> Cell 10431822
Clayton Riddell, a young artist, knows he has to reach his son before the young boy switches on his phone. And time is running out...]]> 473 Stephen King Aoife 4 3.50 2006 Cell
author: Stephen King
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: horror, dystopian-wonder, apocalypse, library
review:

]]> Scarlet Feather 41951 Scarlet Feather is the story of Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, their spouses, families, and friends, and the struggling new catering business that transforms their lives in ways big and small.]]> 549 Maeve Binchy 0451203771 Aoife 5 3.97 2000 Scarlet Feather
author: Maeve Binchy
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: audiobook, irish, irish-author, adult-contemporary, adult
review:

]]> Out 25365
The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Out and as one of the shrewdest, most clear-eyed creations in recent fiction. Masako's own search for a way out of the straitjacket of a dead-end life leads her, too, to take drastic action.

The complex yet riveting narrative seamlessly combines a convincing glimpse into the grimy world of Japan's yakuza with a brilliant portrayal of the psychology of a violent crime and the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse between seasoned detectives and a group of determined but inexperienced criminals. Kirino has mastered a Thelma and Louise kind of graveyard humor that illuminates her stunning evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds and the friendship that bolsters them in the aftermath.]]> 400 Natsuo Kirino 1400078377 Aoife 4 3.95 1997 Out
author: Natsuo Kirino
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: crime, horror, asian, translated, library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Words of Kings and Prophets (Gael Song, #2)]]> 62847701
Ireland, 1000 AD. Gormflaith is unhappily married to Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and although a queen she struggles with her limited position. As an immortal Fomorian with the secret gift of magic, Gormflaith has a burning desire: to find and destroy the hidden fortress of her sworn enemies, the Descendants, who seek to kill her kind at all costs. She begins to use her magical powers, and discovers she is more skilled than she ever realised... but can she control what she will become?

Meanwhile Fódla, the Descendants' healer, mourns her banished sister but clings to life as the guardian of her young nephew. She seeks a place of safety for them both, but he has secrets of his own that could threaten everything � and Fódla must do all in her power to keep him hidden away from those who would use him for evil.

When a mysterious man comes to King Brian's court, his presence could spell disaster or deliverance for both Gormflaith and Fódla � and for Ireland herself. For he is Tomas, an ambitious immortal with few scruples � and he will do anything to see his plans become reality.

Soon, mortals and immortals alike are drawn towards a bitter conflict that could decide the future of Ireland and all her people.]]> 476 Shauna Lawless Aoife 4
This book/trilogy is just really well written and researched and I throughly enjoyed this next foray into the lives of two incredibly different but compelling women. Where Fódla is gentle, Gormflaith is hard and when Gormflaith makes the selfish decisions, Fódla will always be self sacrificing. Yet while Gormflaith does so many bad things, you can’t hate her as much as you want to as you can see how she has been stepped down and crushed by those around her and she screams to be independent and free.

I love Fódla's character growth in this story as she realizes the abuse and manipulation she has received from Tomas - and I also really enjoyed the chapters in other POVs set in the Descendants camp and seeing how not all is well with Tomas’s exacting rule.

I do feel like declarations of love between Fódla and a male character in the book came quite suddenly even though it had been building for a while - I think I would have liked a kiss or more subtle touches and moments before the love and marriage declarations.

This is a character-focused story with some action and history thrown in that gives the fantastical side a deeper feeling and I love it. I’m so excited to read the third book and see what happens and good god, I hope Tomas gets thrown off a building or something! Especially now we know the truth behind the crows!!!]]> 4.46 2023 The Words of Kings and Prophets (Gael Song, #2)
author: Shauna Lawless
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/12
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: historic, historic-fantasy, historical, irish, irish-author, magic-spells, library
review:
The sequel to The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, The Words of Kings and Prophets brings us back to the land of Celtic Ireland and the reign of Brian Born. After the battle of Clontarf, Gormflaith is now Brian’s wife and isn’t very happy about it - seething at the betrayal of her son, and her brother, and lamenting her role as woman in a world where even someone has powerful as she is has to hide their strength. As Gormflaith’s bitterness grows, Fódla is also struggling both with her guilt over her friend who died to save her, as well as her split loyalties between the Descendants, her abusive ex-husband Tomas and her new love for the humans of Brian Boru’s fort.

This book/trilogy is just really well written and researched and I throughly enjoyed this next foray into the lives of two incredibly different but compelling women. Where Fódla is gentle, Gormflaith is hard and when Gormflaith makes the selfish decisions, Fódla will always be self sacrificing. Yet while Gormflaith does so many bad things, you can’t hate her as much as you want to as you can see how she has been stepped down and crushed by those around her and she screams to be independent and free.

I love Fódla's character growth in this story as she realizes the abuse and manipulation she has received from Tomas - and I also really enjoyed the chapters in other POVs set in the Descendants camp and seeing how not all is well with Tomas’s exacting rule.

I do feel like declarations of love between Fódla and a male character in the book came quite suddenly even though it had been building for a while - I think I would have liked a kiss or more subtle touches and moments before the love and marriage declarations.

This is a character-focused story with some action and history thrown in that gives the fantastical side a deeper feeling and I love it. I’m so excited to read the third book and see what happens and good god, I hope Tomas gets thrown off a building or something! Especially now we know the truth behind the crows!!!
]]> <![CDATA[Hector and the Search for Happiness (Hector's Journeys)]]> 6709438 From Book 1: Now a major motion picture starring Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, and Christopher Plummer

The international bestseller with more than two million copies sold

“Once upon a time there was a young psychiatrist called Hector who was not very satisfied with himself. . . . And so he decided to take a trip around the world, and everywhere he went he would try to understand what made people happy or unhappy.�

Hector travels from Paris to China to Africa to the United States, and along the way he keeps a list of observations about the people he meets. Combining the winsome appeal ofThe Little Princewith the inspiring philosophy ofThe Alchemist, Hector’s journey around the world and into the human soul is entertaining, empowering, and smile-inducing—as winning in its optimism as it is wise in its simplicity.]]> 320 François Lelord 1906040230 Aoife 3 translated, my-bookshelf
This book is very cutesy and Hector appears to be a slightly bumbling yet charming person who manages to make friends wherever he goes. The writing and the story is slightly simplistic and there’s nothing Hector discovers about happiness and what it is that’s mind-blowing or would be new to any reader. Unfortunately Hector is also a womanizer in a way that’s worse than actively doing it because he seems to just fall into bed with random women accidentally and then loves a woman for who he thinks she is rather than who she actually is.

This was fine but I won’t be reading any of the sequels with Hector.]]> 3.39 2002 Hector and the Search for Happiness (Hector's Journeys)
author: François Lelord
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: translated, my-bookshelf
review:
Hector is a psychiatrist and feels happy with his life until one day he’s starts pondering the meaning of happiness. Feeling like he can’t help his patients without answering this question for himself, he embarks on a world tour to discover what happiness means in different places.

This book is very cutesy and Hector appears to be a slightly bumbling yet charming person who manages to make friends wherever he goes. The writing and the story is slightly simplistic and there’s nothing Hector discovers about happiness and what it is that’s mind-blowing or would be new to any reader. Unfortunately Hector is also a womanizer in a way that’s worse than actively doing it because he seems to just fall into bed with random women accidentally and then loves a woman for who he thinks she is rather than who she actually is.

This was fine but I won’t be reading any of the sequels with Hector.
]]> Constellations 36508441
How do you tell the story of life that is no one thing? How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? And how do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In these powerful and daring essays, Sinead Gleeson does that very thing. In doing so she delves into a range of subjects: art, illness, ghosts, grief, and our very ways of seeing. In writing that is in tradition of some of our finest writers such as Olivia Laing, Maggie O'Farrell, and Maggie Nelson, and yet still in her own spirited, warm voice, Gleeson takes us on a journey that is both personal and yet universal in its resonance.]]> 304 Sinéad Gleeson 1509892753 Aoife 3 4.18 2019 Constellations
author: Sinéad Gleeson
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: irish, irish-author, my-bookshelf, non-fiction, memoir
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns, #1)]]> 31841420 When kingdom come, there will be one.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.

The last queen standing gets the crown.]]> 407 Kendare Blake 1785173111 Aoife 4
I was exivted to read this and I'm so glad I got around to it cause I really enjoyed it. First things first - the map in this book is INCREDIBLE. I think it might be one of my favourite maps to ever appear in a book, just absolutely gorgeous.

This book is pretty cool because we have three main protagonists, all of which we know are on limited time. We know with a certainty that all of them are going to become murders most likely, and two of them will definitely die. But all the girls are likable in their own way and they are all so different to one another. I did feel for Katherine the most [spoilers removed] as she definitely seemed to have had the worst childhood being a poisoner. Arsinoe and Mirabella definitely had a more idyllic childhood compared to hers and I think received a lot more love as well. So I found it interesting how the other started growing weaker in different ways as Katherine began to grow stronger within herself and her confidence soared.

I enjoyed the side characters in this, mainly Jules (I also really liked Luke even though he isn't in it a lot).I think Jules seems to be a great character and I love how strong a naturalist she is - however, I do think everything with Joseph lets her down a bit and I don't like her seeing her become all about him when she's a pretty cool badass woman by herself.

I did like Mirabella and as with all of the girls, I love that they all had some kind of female friendship around them. Katherine's main relationship was with Petyr (who was basically Draco Malfoy to me) but she did have a tentative friendship with her maid and her guardian.

The end of this book was just so crazy and thrilling and felt like everything happened at once. I loved it. I really enjoy the revelations and can't wait to see what happens next. The next book is going to be pretty epic!]]> 3.72 2016 Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns, #1)
author: Kendare Blake
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves: brilliant, fantasy, library, ya, ya-fantasy
review:
On the island of Fennbirn there are three queens but only one of them can eventually be the true leader. Mirabella, Katherine and Arsinoe are triplets and were split up as children and taught to hate each other - because eventually they will have to kill each other until only one is left standing to rule. As their 16th year approaches, the girls have to start dealing with the reality they are about to face while also dealing with the powers they were born with and some untimely romances.

I was exivted to read this and I'm so glad I got around to it cause I really enjoyed it. First things first - the map in this book is INCREDIBLE. I think it might be one of my favourite maps to ever appear in a book, just absolutely gorgeous.

This book is pretty cool because we have three main protagonists, all of which we know are on limited time. We know with a certainty that all of them are going to become murders most likely, and two of them will definitely die. But all the girls are likable in their own way and they are all so different to one another. I did feel for Katherine the most [spoilers removed] as she definitely seemed to have had the worst childhood being a poisoner. Arsinoe and Mirabella definitely had a more idyllic childhood compared to hers and I think received a lot more love as well. So I found it interesting how the other started growing weaker in different ways as Katherine began to grow stronger within herself and her confidence soared.

I enjoyed the side characters in this, mainly Jules (I also really liked Luke even though he isn't in it a lot).I think Jules seems to be a great character and I love how strong a naturalist she is - however, I do think everything with Joseph lets her down a bit and I don't like her seeing her become all about him when she's a pretty cool badass woman by herself.

I did like Mirabella and as with all of the girls, I love that they all had some kind of female friendship around them. Katherine's main relationship was with Petyr (who was basically Draco Malfoy to me) but she did have a tentative friendship with her maid and her guardian.

The end of this book was just so crazy and thrilling and felt like everything happened at once. I loved it. I really enjoy the revelations and can't wait to see what happens next. The next book is going to be pretty epic!
]]> <![CDATA[World's Edge (The Tethered Citadel, #2)]]> 58638818 Renegade sorcerer Raythe Vyre went off the edge of the map, seeking riches and redemption . . . but he has found the impossible: a vanished civilization - and the threat of eternal damnation!

Chasing a dream of wealth and freedom, Raythe Vyre's ragtag caravan of refugees from imperial oppression went off the map, into the frozen wastes of the north. What they found there was beyond all their expectations: Rath Argentium, the legendary city of the long-vanished Aldar, complete with its fabled floating citadel.


Even more unexpectedly, they encountered the Tangato, the remnants of the people who served the Aldar, who are shocked to learn that they're not alone in the world - and hostile to Raythe's interlopers.

What awaits Raythe's people in the haunted castle that floats above them, the lair of the last Aldar King? Everlasting wealth - or eternal damnation?]]> 468 David Hair Aoife 4 fantasy, library 4.11 2021 World's Edge (The Tethered Citadel, #2)
author: David Hair
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves: fantasy, library
review:

]]> Merry Mary 26232519 92 Ashley Farley 0986167223 Aoife 3 adult, kindle, novella I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Scottie doesn't know what to do when she discovers the body of a dead homeless woman early one morning while on a photography project. All she does now is that she has to get the woman's crying infant to safety.Soon Scottie finds herself in predicament, does she hand over the baby to the police to be put in a care home, or does she secretly keep the baby for herself?

I'm not sure if I liked this. I felt it jumped into Scottie finding the baby super quickly and all of her decisions were just really stupid to me and they annoyed me. Considering she found a dead body you'd think she would ring the police as soon as she was able.

I did like the family dynamic and how her family came together to support and help her through it. I didn't like how Scottie kept throwing her baby being born in prison into the mix every conversation when things started to get heated. I think she used the phrase about five times in a few pages. Her husband was a piece of work too. Overall, a slightly depressing but not a bad read.


Merged review:

2.5 stars
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Scottie doesn't know what to do when she discovers the body of a dead homeless woman early one morning while on a photography project. All she does now is that she has to get the woman's crying infant to safety.Soon Scottie finds herself in predicament, does she hand over the baby to the police to be put in a care home, or does she secretly keep the baby for herself?

I'm not sure if I liked this. I felt it jumped into Scottie finding the baby super quickly and all of her decisions were just really stupid to me and they annoyed me. Considering she found a dead body you'd think she would ring the police as soon as she was able.

I did like the family dynamic and how her family came together to support and help her through it. I didn't like how Scottie kept throwing her baby being born in prison into the mix every conversation when things started to get heated. I think she used the phrase about five times in a few pages. Her husband was a piece of work too. Overall, a slightly depressing but not a bad read.]]> 3.98 2015 Merry Mary
author: Ashley Farley
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2015/12/22
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: adult, kindle, novella
review:
2.5 stars
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Scottie doesn't know what to do when she discovers the body of a dead homeless woman early one morning while on a photography project. All she does now is that she has to get the woman's crying infant to safety.Soon Scottie finds herself in predicament, does she hand over the baby to the police to be put in a care home, or does she secretly keep the baby for herself?

I'm not sure if I liked this. I felt it jumped into Scottie finding the baby super quickly and all of her decisions were just really stupid to me and they annoyed me. Considering she found a dead body you'd think she would ring the police as soon as she was able.

I did like the family dynamic and how her family came together to support and help her through it. I didn't like how Scottie kept throwing her baby being born in prison into the mix every conversation when things started to get heated. I think she used the phrase about five times in a few pages. Her husband was a piece of work too. Overall, a slightly depressing but not a bad read.


Merged review:

2.5 stars
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Scottie doesn't know what to do when she discovers the body of a dead homeless woman early one morning while on a photography project. All she does now is that she has to get the woman's crying infant to safety.Soon Scottie finds herself in predicament, does she hand over the baby to the police to be put in a care home, or does she secretly keep the baby for herself?

I'm not sure if I liked this. I felt it jumped into Scottie finding the baby super quickly and all of her decisions were just really stupid to me and they annoyed me. Considering she found a dead body you'd think she would ring the police as soon as she was able.

I did like the family dynamic and how her family came together to support and help her through it. I didn't like how Scottie kept throwing her baby being born in prison into the mix every conversation when things started to get heated. I think she used the phrase about five times in a few pages. Her husband was a piece of work too. Overall, a slightly depressing but not a bad read.
]]> The Color of our Sky 25688922 **5 STAR RATING READER'S FAVORITE** "an extremely well written and engaging novel..the writing style is very lyrical, almost poetic at times, with vivid descriptions of people and places. This is the kind of book where the quality of writing shines through and makes it an enjoyable read in itself, and at the same time sends out a strong, positive social message. This is definitely a must-read book." - Gisela Dixon, reader's favorite reviewer

"This is a beautifully written book, with a very believable, hard hitting storyline and well rounded, emotive characters. The pace of the story is just right, swinging between narrators seamlessly and portraying both young women's perspectives. It reminded me very much of Khaled Hosseinis work, with a similar amount of depth to issues being portrayed. Extremely moving read" - Beverly Crofts, Netgalley reviewer

Kirkus reviews:
A haunting debut novel about two young women in Mumbai that brings the brutal realities of modern India into focus....The descriptions and dialogue are rich and believable, particularly when Trasi writes from a child’s perspective (“my thoughts would race along with the wind, crossing our village, whistling through mountains, between boulders and rocks, ruffling the leaves on trees, flying with the birds�). The story also takes on difficult subject matter, such as child abuse, HIV, and early mortality, with unflinching seriousness. Even Tara’s interactions with the police demonstrate how chronic disorganization plagues Indian society, allowing countless youths to vanish into bordellos. The two main characters serve as symbols of the entire caste system, and Mukta’s memory of her dreary village consistently reminds readers how rigid and prosaic many ancient traditions can be. Although both main characters must contend with destiny—a recurring concept—the story makes clear that there may still be hope for their children....A sad, soulful, and revelatory story about a deeply troubled nation in transition."--Kirkus reviews

BOOK DESCRIPTION : A sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends—one struggling to survive the human slave trade and the other on a mission to save her—two girls whose lives converge only to change one fateful night in 1993.
India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old girl from the lower caste Yellamma cult of temple prostitutes has come of age to fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute. In an attempt to escape this legacy that binds her, Mukta is transported to a foster family in Bombay. There she discovers a friend in the high spirited eight-year-old Tara, the tomboyish daughter of the family, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to a different world—ice cream and sweets, poems and stories, and a friendship the likes of which she has never experienced before. In 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s room.
Eleven years later, Tara who blames herself for what happened, embarks on an emotional journey to search for the kidnapped Mukta only to uncover long buried secrets in her own family.
Moving from a remote village in India to the bustling metropolis of Bombay, to Los Angeles and back again, amidst the brutal world of human trafficking, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and redemption—which ultimately withstands the true test of time.
]]> 318 Amita Trasi 0986155616 Aoife 4
Mukta did not have a great start to life, and has experienced traumatic events that no-one should ever have to go to. With her sparkling green eyes, fair skin and glossy hair, Mukta is desired by many but the only thing Mukta wants is for her father to come and take her away.

Tara immediately befriends Mukta when the orphaned girl is brought to stay with her and rehabilitate. before long, a couple of weeks becomes several years and the girls are as inseparable as sisters. Until one night, Mukta is stolen in the night.

Now an adult Tara has returned to Bombay to search for Mukta and relieve the guilt that she has felt that night. For Tara knows the real reason that Mukta disappeared.

This story is a poignant tale of a female friendship that spans decades and never leaves hearts. A tale that shows the gritty, ugly side of the kind of human trafficking that still exists in backstreet India and highlights the people who will do anything to try and save those affected by it.

While Mukta and Tara, in theory, should have led similar lives, they are separated by a huge bridge due to their different upbringings. Tara was spoiled as the child of a father who was well respected within his new city community and a mother who doted on both husband and daughter. While Mukta was the daughter of the temple prostitute, and treated like dirt by most people she came into contact with. However, while the girls came together and should have progressed in education and their future, they were both held back, in different ways, by cultural superstitions.

While Mukta's story was, at times, difficult to read, it really highlighted the importance of trying to stop the human trafficking problem in India. I never knew about the temple prostitutes and how it is still considered a norm in today's society to initiate girls as young as eight into this kind of society.

I definitely preferred Mukta's story rather than Tara's as the latter became rather whiney and repetitive at times, feeling sorry for herself and embroiled in her own guilt for what happened to her friend. Mukta, on the other hand, despite her horrid circumstances seemed to be able to put on a braver face.

The best way to describe this book is a female, Indian version of The Kite Runner. It contains the same strength of friendship spanning over years, the same search to relieve a guilty soul and the same kind of inside look at a culture and country far from your own. Overall, this is a well-rounded book that, despite hitting heavy topics, is an extremely engrossing and enjoyable read.

Also, I have to mention how beautiful the cover is. Absolutely breathtaking. ]]> 4.09 2015 The Color of our Sky
author: Amita Trasi
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/30
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: diverse, beautiful-covers, kindle
review:
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Mukta did not have a great start to life, and has experienced traumatic events that no-one should ever have to go to. With her sparkling green eyes, fair skin and glossy hair, Mukta is desired by many but the only thing Mukta wants is for her father to come and take her away.

Tara immediately befriends Mukta when the orphaned girl is brought to stay with her and rehabilitate. before long, a couple of weeks becomes several years and the girls are as inseparable as sisters. Until one night, Mukta is stolen in the night.

Now an adult Tara has returned to Bombay to search for Mukta and relieve the guilt that she has felt that night. For Tara knows the real reason that Mukta disappeared.

This story is a poignant tale of a female friendship that spans decades and never leaves hearts. A tale that shows the gritty, ugly side of the kind of human trafficking that still exists in backstreet India and highlights the people who will do anything to try and save those affected by it.

While Mukta and Tara, in theory, should have led similar lives, they are separated by a huge bridge due to their different upbringings. Tara was spoiled as the child of a father who was well respected within his new city community and a mother who doted on both husband and daughter. While Mukta was the daughter of the temple prostitute, and treated like dirt by most people she came into contact with. However, while the girls came together and should have progressed in education and their future, they were both held back, in different ways, by cultural superstitions.

While Mukta's story was, at times, difficult to read, it really highlighted the importance of trying to stop the human trafficking problem in India. I never knew about the temple prostitutes and how it is still considered a norm in today's society to initiate girls as young as eight into this kind of society.

I definitely preferred Mukta's story rather than Tara's as the latter became rather whiney and repetitive at times, feeling sorry for herself and embroiled in her own guilt for what happened to her friend. Mukta, on the other hand, despite her horrid circumstances seemed to be able to put on a braver face.

The best way to describe this book is a female, Indian version of The Kite Runner. It contains the same strength of friendship spanning over years, the same search to relieve a guilty soul and the same kind of inside look at a culture and country far from your own. Overall, this is a well-rounded book that, despite hitting heavy topics, is an extremely engrossing and enjoyable read.

Also, I have to mention how beautiful the cover is. Absolutely breathtaking.
]]> Persephone Station 54355072 Hugo award–nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.

Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.

Rosie--owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner, caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.

Angel--ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will effect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try.]]> 512 Stina Leicht 1534414606 Aoife 0 to-read 3.74 2021 Persephone Station
author: Stina Leicht
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Riders (Riders, #1) 25611217 Riders. A new fantasy adventure from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Veronica Rossi.

For eighteen-year-old Gideon Blake, nothing but death can keep him from achieving his goal of becoming a U.S. Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

Recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can't remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen--Conquest, Famine, and Death--are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now--bound, bloodied, and drugged--Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he's fallen for--not to mention all of humankind--he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger.

But will anyone believe him?]]> 384 Veronica Rossi 1466887796 Aoife 0 3.70 2016 Riders (Riders, #1)
author: Veronica Rossi
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: anticipated-reads-2016, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Island of the Red Mangroves (Caribbean Islands Saga, #2)]]> 25363978
-- Jamaica, 1753: Deirdre, daughter of Englishwoman, Nora Fortnam and slave Akwasi, lives a sheltered life on her family's plantation. Her stepfather, Doug, has welcomed her into his life as his own. Despite Deirdre's scandalous origin, the men of the island flock to the young beauty, but she shows no interest. That is, until she is charmed by young doctor Victor Dufresne, who asks for her hand in marriage.

-- After their lavish wedding ceremony, Victor and Deirdre embark to Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, where Deirdre can live without the burden of her mixed background. But what happens there changes everything ...

-- Best-selling international author Sarah Lark delivers a gripping historical account of the social upheaval of the time set against the romantic Caribbean. For fans of Kathleen Grissom,THE KITCHEN HOUSE, Alex Haley, ROOTS: THE SAGA OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY, and Sue Monk Kidd, THE INVENTION OF WINGS.]]> 589 Sarah Lark 3732503488 Aoife 2
DNF - 50%

I eventually put this book down as I felt it was just a bit boring for me, I wasn't glued into the story and I didn't care about the characters. I found the romance between Deidre and Jefe way too sudden and far fetched - also totally gross seeing as they are half-siblings (even though they didn't know). I just couldn't really bring myself to care about the rest of the story.]]> 4.12 2012 Island of the Red Mangroves (Caribbean Islands Saga, #2)
author: Sarah Lark
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves:
review:
I received a digital copy of this book from the author/publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF - 50%

I eventually put this book down as I felt it was just a bit boring for me, I wasn't glued into the story and I didn't care about the characters. I found the romance between Deidre and Jefe way too sudden and far fetched - also totally gross seeing as they are half-siblings (even though they didn't know). I just couldn't really bring myself to care about the rest of the story.
]]> Allow Me to Introduce Myself 198385439 320 Onyi Nwabineli 1525896032 Aoife 0 to-read 3.72 2024 Allow Me to Introduce Myself
author: Onyi Nwabineli
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Legend of the Blue Eyes (Blue Eyes Trilogy #1)]]> 19093247
On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she changes into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather.

There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate.]]> 252 B. Kristin McMichael 0989121801 Aoife 1
At sixteen years old, Arianna discovers she's a vampire. Or, to put it correctly, half dearg-dul and half baku (two different species of 'Night Humans', a name I can't take seriously). While the premise of the different species and their war was interesting, the actually story telling really let it down.

From the get go, Arianna was pushed as being an absolute pleasure whom everyone loved and wanted to take care of. Despite being a teenager, she never ever complained about the fact that she had no living family and that she was kind of poor - something extremely unrealistic if you ask me, a little but of grumbling is perfectly natural. Ariana is just too sickly sweet. She was small in stature and constantly reminded of it. She was far too much of a prim and perfect Mary-Sue for my taste. Her characteristics were far too perfect for me, and they made her very hard to relate to. I found her pretty pathetic.

I felt like there were a lot of inconsistencies with this book. I also felt like every new chapter was basically a rehash of the one before it with a few more details, the same story was played out again and again as Arianna found one more guy that miraculously had loved her since she was a child. It became really boring. I also thought it really convenient that not of the score of men she had trailing after her portrayed no jealousy whatsoever at the fact they had to share her with four other guys because that's just how it is. I honestly felt like nothing happened in this entire book except Arianna feeding and sleeping, that's it. Oh, and her being mollycoddled by pretty much every single person she met. There was zero action, and pretty much zero of anything of any worth....

Whatever it was about this book, it just didn't work for me at all. The only thing it resulted in doing was to put me in a bad mood and want me to take a big leap back from fantasy for a while. I have never ever been tempted to put down a book more than when I reading this...and this is coming from someone who managed to make it through Fifty Shades of Grey.]]> 4.00 2013 The Legend of the Blue Eyes (Blue Eyes Trilogy #1)
author: B. Kristin McMichael
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2015/07/08
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: awful, poorly-written, what-is-going-on, ya-paranormal, ya, kindle
review:
Can I give this zero stars? This was so painful to read. The only reason I didn't make it a DNF is because I always finish a book. I kept hoping for this to get better and it just didn't happen.

At sixteen years old, Arianna discovers she's a vampire. Or, to put it correctly, half dearg-dul and half baku (two different species of 'Night Humans', a name I can't take seriously). While the premise of the different species and their war was interesting, the actually story telling really let it down.

From the get go, Arianna was pushed as being an absolute pleasure whom everyone loved and wanted to take care of. Despite being a teenager, she never ever complained about the fact that she had no living family and that she was kind of poor - something extremely unrealistic if you ask me, a little but of grumbling is perfectly natural. Ariana is just too sickly sweet. She was small in stature and constantly reminded of it. She was far too much of a prim and perfect Mary-Sue for my taste. Her characteristics were far too perfect for me, and they made her very hard to relate to. I found her pretty pathetic.

I felt like there were a lot of inconsistencies with this book. I also felt like every new chapter was basically a rehash of the one before it with a few more details, the same story was played out again and again as Arianna found one more guy that miraculously had loved her since she was a child. It became really boring. I also thought it really convenient that not of the score of men she had trailing after her portrayed no jealousy whatsoever at the fact they had to share her with four other guys because that's just how it is. I honestly felt like nothing happened in this entire book except Arianna feeding and sleeping, that's it. Oh, and her being mollycoddled by pretty much every single person she met. There was zero action, and pretty much zero of anything of any worth....

Whatever it was about this book, it just didn't work for me at all. The only thing it resulted in doing was to put me in a bad mood and want me to take a big leap back from fantasy for a while. I have never ever been tempted to put down a book more than when I reading this...and this is coming from someone who managed to make it through Fifty Shades of Grey.
]]> The Thing About Jellyfish 25851270 This stunning debut novel about grief and wonder was an instant New York Times bestseller and captured widespread critical acclaim, including selection as a 2015 National Book Award finalist! After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door. Oddlot Entertainment has acquired the screen rights to The Thing About Jellyfish, with Gigi Pritzker set to produce with Bruna Papandrea and Reese Witherspoon.]]> 352 Ali Benjamin 0316380830 Aoife 5
Suzy is 13 years old and dealing with the death of her best friend who drowned during the summer. When Suzy discovers the vast world of the jellyfish, she decides that a jellyfish sting must be why Franny died and sets out to prove it to the world.

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did but I absolutely adored it. It was much faster-paced than I expected too. I think because I knew there were a lot of jellyfish facts in it, I thought i would get a bit bogged down in them and it would slow down my reading but nope. I finished this book in one sitting.

Ultimately this is a book about a girl who has just started her teenage years and discovering that the world is a much vaster and confusing place than she originally thought. And with Franny's death, Suzy has to confront the fact that dying is something that happens to young people, and that sometimes things like that just happen for no reason at all.

I really found myself identifying with Suzy. Particularly her issues with friends and everyone growing up that bit faster than her. Her confusion over the sudden gap between her and Franny and why she was suddenly left behind while the girls did their make-up and flirted with the boys. I think a lot of people could feel for Suzy in this one, as she's not the only person who's ever felt left behind.

I loved Suzy's relationships as well. Her family were all amazing. Yes, they did bring her to a therapist to talk about the not talking situation but they never pushed her, or grew frustrated with her. They were there waiting, ready for when she was ready to accept everything and be there for her when she did. Her brother and his boyfriend, yes. I love how there was no big deal about Aaron being gay. There was no in depth story about him coming out or any controversy in the family because of it. Her parents were divorced but still on talking terms, and seemed to still be on pretty good terms considering they were separated. I also loved Mrs Thurton and her quiet observations and suggestions. It's always great to see a good teacher/mentor-student relationship and a teacher really offering that safe haven for a student who just needs that time and space. Ans Justin was just lovely. I really loved his explanations of ADHD and how his medication helped.

This book was such a pleasant surprise and I would really urge everyone to read it, just to see if it will surprise you too. And who knew there were so many interesting facts about jellyfish!

]]> 4.17 2015 The Thing About Jellyfish
author: Ali Benjamin
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2016/02/21
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: better-than-expected, middle-grade, kindle, best-2016, 2016-favourites
review:
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Suzy is 13 years old and dealing with the death of her best friend who drowned during the summer. When Suzy discovers the vast world of the jellyfish, she decides that a jellyfish sting must be why Franny died and sets out to prove it to the world.

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did but I absolutely adored it. It was much faster-paced than I expected too. I think because I knew there were a lot of jellyfish facts in it, I thought i would get a bit bogged down in them and it would slow down my reading but nope. I finished this book in one sitting.

Ultimately this is a book about a girl who has just started her teenage years and discovering that the world is a much vaster and confusing place than she originally thought. And with Franny's death, Suzy has to confront the fact that dying is something that happens to young people, and that sometimes things like that just happen for no reason at all.

I really found myself identifying with Suzy. Particularly her issues with friends and everyone growing up that bit faster than her. Her confusion over the sudden gap between her and Franny and why she was suddenly left behind while the girls did their make-up and flirted with the boys. I think a lot of people could feel for Suzy in this one, as she's not the only person who's ever felt left behind.

I loved Suzy's relationships as well. Her family were all amazing. Yes, they did bring her to a therapist to talk about the not talking situation but they never pushed her, or grew frustrated with her. They were there waiting, ready for when she was ready to accept everything and be there for her when she did. Her brother and his boyfriend, yes. I love how there was no big deal about Aaron being gay. There was no in depth story about him coming out or any controversy in the family because of it. Her parents were divorced but still on talking terms, and seemed to still be on pretty good terms considering they were separated. I also loved Mrs Thurton and her quiet observations and suggestions. It's always great to see a good teacher/mentor-student relationship and a teacher really offering that safe haven for a student who just needs that time and space. Ans Justin was just lovely. I really loved his explanations of ADHD and how his medication helped.

This book was such a pleasant surprise and I would really urge everyone to read it, just to see if it will surprise you too. And who knew there were so many interesting facts about jellyfish!


]]> <![CDATA[Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle, #5)]]> 123206298 Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini returns to the World of Eragon in this stunning epic fantasy set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy!

The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society.

Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems.

In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return.]]> 688 Christopher Paolini 1774882965 Aoife 4 4.10 2023 Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle, #5)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: fantasy, dragons, my-bookshelf, tome
review:

]]> Echoes 60402463 Clare and David--divided as children by a rigid social code that branded her as shanty Irish and him as gentry...brought together as adults by a desire that knew no class, no barriers, only the urgent hunger of two people destined to love--and ready to defy a world determined to keep them apart.

Even at fifteen, David Power knew the echo would answer eleven-year-old Clare O'Brien's dearest wish, to win a school prize. But it was years before Dr. Power's cherished only son saw in the huckster's daughter the answer to his own heart's desire.

Here in Castlebay, perched precariously on the seaside cliffs, the lines between them were clearly drawn. Clare's only hope is to leave the town where time stopped, propelled by scholarships to Dublin, fueled by her own drive and brilliance, far from the insular, gossipy world of Castlebay and those in its thrall... Angela O'Hara, beautiful, isolated, a teacher trapped in the convent school, who risks everything to help Clare escape... Gerry Doyle, the town charmer who finds in Clare the woman he vows to have at any price... Caroline Nolan, the beautiful, rich outsider who comes to plunder...

For Clare, that was before the wild freedom of Dublin, and love. And David.Before fate drove them back to Castlebay, and the past...]]> 754 Maeve Binchy Aoife 4 4.44 1985 Echoes
author: Maeve Binchy
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: irish-author, irish, tome, audiobook
review:

]]> Yr Dead 195450005
Told in lyric fragments that span both lifetimes and geography, Yr Dead is a queer, Jewish, diasporic coming of age story that questions how our historical memory shapes our political and emotional present. Visceral, propulsive, and at turns fluorescently beautiful and fluorescently tragic, Yr Dead is the electric debut novel from award-winning writer Sam Sax, one of our most dynamic and imaginative writers.]]> 281 Sam Sax 1952119995 Aoife 0 to-read 3.90 2024 Yr Dead
author: Sam Sax
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sawkill Girls 38186306 Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight� until now.]]> 458 Claire Legrand 0062696629 Aoife 3 3.69 2018 Sawkill Girls
author: Claire Legrand
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/13
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Arrowood (Arrowood, #1) 34665525
London Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood.

1895: London’s scared. A killer haunts the city’s streets. The poor are hungry; crime bosses are taking control; the police force stretched to breaking point.

While the rich turn to Sherlock Holmes, the celebrated private detective rarely visits the densely populated streets of South London, where the crimes are sleazier and the people are poorer.

In a dark corner of Southwark, victims turn to a man who despises Holmes, his wealthy clientele and his showy forensic approach to Arrowood � self-taught psychologist, occasional drunkard and private investigator.

When a man mysteriously disappears and Arrowood’s best lead is viciously stabbed before his eyes, he and his sidekick Barnett face their toughest quest to capture the head of the most notorious gang in London�

In the bestselling tradition of Anthony Horowitz and Andrew Taylor, this gloriously dark crime debut will haunt readers long after the final page has been turned.]]> 400 Mick Finlay 0008203202 Aoife 3
I received a free copy of this book from Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.

It’s London 1894 and while Sherlock Holmes� cases fill the headlines, another private investigator called Arrowood helps the people who can’t pay for the likes of Holmes. When Arrowood and his assistant Mr Barnett are put o the case of a missing Frenchman, they end up embroiled in something a lot more dangerous than it seems.

This is a fun, historic mystery novel set in the grimy streets of London and the world inhabited by the famous Sherlock Holmes. There’s lots of mentions of Holmes and Watson, and of their many solved cases which Arrowood likes to discredit, so I think people who loved Holmes will loves this book. I am not a fan of Sherlock Holmes and don’t know the stories so I’m sure there’s lots of little easter eggs in this novel that I missed but Holmes fans will find and enjoy.

While I enjoyed the mystery and the historic London setting, I was disappointed that the book was not in Arrowood’s POV but in Mr Barett - it threw me off at first for a bit and not only that but Arrowood himself was not really what I expected either. He didn’t seem, to me, that amazing of a detective at first though I gradually saw how he put to use his study of Darwin and human body language and reactions and I did enjoy that. I didn’t find any character in this book I overly liked (with the exception of Neddy) and I did find myself frustrated at times, particularly with the men’s continuous belief of everything the French woman told them even though they kept realising she was lying to them.

I did like how everything came about eventually and i did enjoy the book on a whole. I’m not surfier i would pick up the next one, if there is going to be more books focusing on Arrowood in the shops, but I would probably picket up in the library if i saw it.

]]> 3.78 2017 Arrowood (Arrowood, #1)
author: Mick Finlay
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2017/03/15
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: historical, review-books, mystery
review:
3-3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.

It’s London 1894 and while Sherlock Holmes� cases fill the headlines, another private investigator called Arrowood helps the people who can’t pay for the likes of Holmes. When Arrowood and his assistant Mr Barnett are put o the case of a missing Frenchman, they end up embroiled in something a lot more dangerous than it seems.

This is a fun, historic mystery novel set in the grimy streets of London and the world inhabited by the famous Sherlock Holmes. There’s lots of mentions of Holmes and Watson, and of their many solved cases which Arrowood likes to discredit, so I think people who loved Holmes will loves this book. I am not a fan of Sherlock Holmes and don’t know the stories so I’m sure there’s lots of little easter eggs in this novel that I missed but Holmes fans will find and enjoy.

While I enjoyed the mystery and the historic London setting, I was disappointed that the book was not in Arrowood’s POV but in Mr Barett - it threw me off at first for a bit and not only that but Arrowood himself was not really what I expected either. He didn’t seem, to me, that amazing of a detective at first though I gradually saw how he put to use his study of Darwin and human body language and reactions and I did enjoy that. I didn’t find any character in this book I overly liked (with the exception of Neddy) and I did find myself frustrated at times, particularly with the men’s continuous belief of everything the French woman told them even though they kept realising she was lying to them.

I did like how everything came about eventually and i did enjoy the book on a whole. I’m not surfier i would pick up the next one, if there is going to be more books focusing on Arrowood in the shops, but I would probably picket up in the library if i saw it.


]]> The Queue 30186905 Set against the backdrop of a failed political uprising, The Queue is a chilling debut that evokes Orwellian dystopia, Kafkaesque surrealism, and a very real vision of life after the Arab Spring.

In a surreal, but familiar, vision of modern day Egypt, a centralized authority known as ‘the Gate� has risen to power in the aftermath of the ‘Disgraceful Events,� a failed popular uprising. Citizens are required to obtain permission from the Gate in order to take care of even the most basic of their daily affairs, yet the Gate never opens, and the queue in front of it grows longer.

Citizens from all walks of life mix and wait in the sun: a revolutionary journalist, a sheikh, a poor woman concerned for her daughter’s health, and even the brother of a security officer killed in clashes with protestors. Among them is Yehia, a man who was shot during the Events and is waiting for permission from the Gate to remove a bullet that remains lodged in his pelvis. Yehia’s health steadily declines, yet at every turn, officials refuse to assist him, actively denying the very existence of the bullet.

Ultimately it is Tarek, the principled doctor tending to Yehia’s case, who must decide whether to follow protocol as he has always done, or to disobey the law and risk his career to operate on Yehia and save his life.

Written with dark, subtle humor, The Queue describes the sinister nature of authoritarianism, and illuminates the way that absolute authority manipulates information, mobilizes others in service to it, and fails to uphold the rights of even those faithful to it.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 209 Basma Abdel Aziz Aoife 0 to-read 3.57 2012 The Queue
author: Basma Abdel Aziz
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Palace of Eros 199797883
When Eros, nonbinary deity of desire, sees Psyche, she cannot fulfill her promise to her mother Aphrodite to destroy the mortal young woman. Instead, Eros devises a plan to sweep Psyche away to an idyllic palace, hidden from the prying eyes of Aphrodite, Zeus, and the outside world. There, against the dire dictates of Olympus, Eros and Psyche fall in love. Each night, Eros visits Psyche under the cover of impenetrable darkness, where they both experience untold passion and love. But each morning, Eros flies away before light comes to break the spell of the palace that keeps them safe.

Before long, Psyche’s nights spent in pleasure turn to days filled with doubts, as she grapples with the cost of secrecy and the complexities of freedom and desire. Restless and spurred by her sisters to reveal Eros’s true nature, she breaks her trust and forces a reckoning that tests them both—and transforms the very heavens.

Told in bold and sparkling prose, The Palace of Eros transports us to a magical world imbued by divine forces as well as everyday realities, where palaces glitter with magic even as ordinary people fight for freedom in a society that fears the unknown.]]> 320 Carolina De Robertis 1668035235 Aoife 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Palace of Eros
author: Carolina De Robertis
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Truth According to Ember 201752567
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative� listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).

Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.]]> 358 Danica Nava 0593642600 Aoife 0 to-read 3.68 2024 The Truth According to Ember
author: Danica Nava
name: Aoife
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nuclear War: A Scenario 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Aoife 0 to-read 4.37 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Aoife
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>