en-US Sat, 10 May 2025 11:06:14 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 212923993 A mother and son, estranged but yearning for reunion, reckon at last with the secret that has kept them apart for decades in this highly anticipated novel by "one of the country's most talented writers" (Wall Street Journal�)

At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of his clients only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.

Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago banished from her mind the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter’s case plunges him further into the memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life forever, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.

With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and what might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts� (New York Times).]]> 336 Adam Haslett 0316574716 Daniel 0 3.79 2025
author: Adam Haslett
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/10
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring, currently-reading
review:

]]> 216522629 A stunning debut novel from the acclaimed young Irish poet Seán Hewitt, reminiscent of Garth Greenwell and Douglas Stuart in the intensity of its evocation of sexual awakening.

Set in a remote village in the North of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two sixteen year old boys meet and transform each other’s lives.

James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents—his father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man—Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle at their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him, like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre, drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke’s bravado is a deep wound—a longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.

Open, Heaven is a novel about desire, yearning, and the terror of first love. With the striking economy and lyricism that animate his work as a poet, Hewitt has written a mesmerizing hymn to boyhood, sensuality, and love in all its forms. A truly exceptional debut.]]> 224 Seán Hewitt 0593802845 Daniel 4
Luke and James' story was a wonderful window for me to reminisce about those halcyon days when being queer was a new and odd feeling.

Beautifully written.]]> 4.12 2025
author: Seán Hewitt
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/10
date added: 2025/05/10
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
A poetic story around first loves, friendships, and the desperate need to be yourself (and your trueself)

Luke and James' story was a wonderful window for me to reminisce about those halcyon days when being queer was a new and odd feeling.

Beautifully written.
]]> 8874743 When God was a Rabbit is an incredibly exciting debut from an extraordinary new voice in fiction.

Spanning four decades, from 1968 onwards, this is the story of a fabulous but flawed family and the slew of ordinary and extraordinary incidents that shape their everyday lives. It is a story about childhood and growing up, loss of innocence, eccentricity, familial ties and friendships, love and life. Stripped down to its bare bones, it’s about the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.]]> 325 Sarah Winman 0755379284 Daniel 5
I truly am in love with Sarah Winman's works. She is a true storyteller who writes the most marvellous human tales filled with loss and joy but always with that wonderful golden thread of hope through it.

Here, we meet Elly and her 'normal' friends and family, and we get to follow them through decades of change.

I laughed out loud at Elly's nativity audition (and also the play itself), and I cried at the frailty and cruelty of life.

An incredible book by an exceptional writer.]]> 3.74 2011
author: Sarah Winman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
Well! What a phenomenal story.

I truly am in love with Sarah Winman's works. She is a true storyteller who writes the most marvellous human tales filled with loss and joy but always with that wonderful golden thread of hope through it.

Here, we meet Elly and her 'normal' friends and family, and we get to follow them through decades of change.

I laughed out loud at Elly's nativity audition (and also the play itself), and I cried at the frailty and cruelty of life.

An incredible book by an exceptional writer.
]]> 57630900 For six decades the Penguin Modern Classics series has been an era-defining, ever-evolving series of books, encompassing works by modernist pioneers, avant-garde iconoclasts, radical visionaries and timeless storytellers.
This reader's companion showcases every title published in the series so far, with more than 1,800 books and 600 authors, from Achebe and Adonis to Zamyatin and Zweig. It is the essential guide to twentieth-century literature around the world, and the companion volume to The Penguin Classics Book. Bursting with lively descriptions, surprising reading lists, key literary movements and over two thousand cover images, The Penguin Modern Classics Book is an invitation to dive in and explore the greatest literature of the last hundred years.]]> 604 Henry Eliot 0241441609 Daniel 5
A beautiful compendium of beautiful book covers.]]> 4.59 2021
author: Henry Eliot
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
I'm not sure you can ever say you've read this book, but you can say you've browsed and admired it.

A beautiful compendium of beautiful book covers.
]]> 211004776 Heartstopper meets Derry Girls in this wonderfully hilarious rom-com about finding your first love when your personality might be too big for the world around you.

Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it's goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world!

Unfortunately, the only other "out" boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn't going to be easy... Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who’s just moved from New York (very chic) and his best friend, Sam.

Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend. So armed with his single mum’s outdated self-help books, his over-supportive best friend Jean and an alarming level of self-confidence, Patch is confident that this mission will be a complete success. Whether or not they actually like boys or him is a problem for later.

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King is a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud comedy from rising star Harry Trevaldwyn, a story about boldly being yourself, going for what you want, but never losing sight of who truly has your back.]]> 352 Harry Trevaldwyn 125036678X Daniel 0 3.97 2025
author: Harry Trevaldwyn
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring, currently-reading
review:

]]> 15075 471 Donald Spoto 0385418132 Daniel 5
I also took full advantage of being able to order books for free at my local library and would take this book out monthly along with other epic tomes all about the master of suspense. (I would also then cycle the 30 mins home. It was no wonder I was so fit then. These books were heavy).

So when I discovered a job lot of Hitchcock books and posters free on Freecycle, I snapped up THE LOT!

Anyway, I have spent time reading and rereading all about Hitchcock's films, his director style, and his choices of lead actors many times and from many books! But this one is the best and most definitive one to cover his works.

For the record, my top 5 Hitchcock films are: Vertigo, Family Plot, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest, and Rebecca. (I'm not saying they are the greatest, but I love them)]]> 4.07 1976
author: Donald Spoto
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
As a teenager, I was obsessed with Hitchcock films, I recorded them late at night off of the TV, I had a Vertigo poster on my bedroom wall, and I felt as if I could spot a MacGuffin a mile off.

I also took full advantage of being able to order books for free at my local library and would take this book out monthly along with other epic tomes all about the master of suspense. (I would also then cycle the 30 mins home. It was no wonder I was so fit then. These books were heavy).

So when I discovered a job lot of Hitchcock books and posters free on Freecycle, I snapped up THE LOT!

Anyway, I have spent time reading and rereading all about Hitchcock's films, his director style, and his choices of lead actors many times and from many books! But this one is the best and most definitive one to cover his works.

For the record, my top 5 Hitchcock films are: Vertigo, Family Plot, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest, and Rebecca. (I'm not saying they are the greatest, but I love them)
]]> 215509877
John has to figure out why he's a hunted man, and why Francie is acting suspiciously. Digging deeper, he discovers a spy ring with evil intent. As John works unofficially to gather evidence, a question begins to haunt him -- could Francie Stevens be a spy? With his enemies closing in, John turns to his cat burglar skills to try to save his life and expose the traitors. To survive, he has to catch the spies before they catch--and kill--a retired thief!]]> 368 Mark ONeill 146422501X Daniel 5
I'm always sceptical about sequels, especially those written by a different author, BUT this one had me hooked.

I love To Catch A Thief (book and film). I think it's absolutely one of my top ten reads, and here, Mark O'Neill has encapsulated everything that made the first book magical for me.

He's captured the essence of the South of France and its glamorous people and updated John and Francie's story to add depth and more personality to the characters.

I was worried he'd have ruined my favourite character, Mother, but no, he even manages to make her even wittier and sharp than David Dodge AND Hitchcock did.

The plot is exciting, and we find out that jewels are not the only thing worth stealing in the French Riviera as secrets hold value as do loyalties.

This was an excellent read and perfect for a blue sky day (with a martini and some Ella Fitzgerald playing in the background).

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my copy.]]> 4.05
author: Mark ONeill
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
Wow!

I'm always sceptical about sequels, especially those written by a different author, BUT this one had me hooked.

I love To Catch A Thief (book and film). I think it's absolutely one of my top ten reads, and here, Mark O'Neill has encapsulated everything that made the first book magical for me.

He's captured the essence of the South of France and its glamorous people and updated John and Francie's story to add depth and more personality to the characters.

I was worried he'd have ruined my favourite character, Mother, but no, he even manages to make her even wittier and sharp than David Dodge AND Hitchcock did.

The plot is exciting, and we find out that jewels are not the only thing worth stealing in the French Riviera as secrets hold value as do loyalties.

This was an excellent read and perfect for a blue sky day (with a martini and some Ella Fitzgerald playing in the background).

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my copy.
]]> 145622990
In Men at War , Turner looks beyond the increasingly retrogressive and jingoistic ideal of a Britain that never was to recognise men of war as creatures of love, fear, hope and desire. From writers, filmmakers, artists and ordinary men - including those in his own family - Turner assembles a broad cast of characters to bring the war to life. There are conscientious objectors, a bisexual Commando, a pacifist poet who flew for Bomber Command, a transgender RAF pilot, a soldier who suffered in Japanese POW camps and later in life became an LGBT+ activist, and those who simply did what they could just to survive and return home to a complicated peace.

As the conflict moves beyond living memory and the last veterans leave us, we are in danger of missing the opportunity to gain a true understanding of this rich history. By exploring a wartime experience that embraces sex, lust and the body as much as tactics and weaponry, Turner argues that the only way we can really understand the Second World War is to get to grips with the complexity of the lives and identities of those who fought and endured it.]]> 352 Luke Turner Daniel 3
I loved the passion and the knowledge, but it just got a bit lost in the book, and it sadly became a bit of a slog to finish.]]> 3.67
author: Luke Turner
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
I absolutely think this should have been edited differently, so if we'd have alternating chapters (C1 - authors story, C2 - WW2 story etc.) this book would have been a whole lot better.

I loved the passion and the knowledge, but it just got a bit lost in the book, and it sadly became a bit of a slog to finish.
]]> 216848487
It’s a tale from the past, with a message for today. A stunningly poignant, devastating, and ultimately beautiful tour-de-force - Simon James Green

At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds. Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he's fighting for. Then he meets Private Danny McCormick, a smart, talented young recruit. From their first meeting, there's something undeniable between them � something forbidden by both society and the army. Determined to protect Danny, Stephen must face down the prejudices and ignorance of his superiors as well as the onslaught of German shells and sniper fire.
As the summer of 1916 ticks down to one big push on the Somme, can Stephen and Danny stay together � and will their love save them � or condemn them?]]> 282 William Hussey Daniel 3
Stephen and Danny meet on a train, shipping them out to the front. They meet, they fall in love, and attempt to survive the horrors of WW1.

I felt the character of Danny was far too outspoken with his senior officers, and I honestly suspect he would have been horse whipped or shot for the way he answered back and spoke to his seniors.

This book very much felt like a YA romance novel that had been forced into a WW1 setting... it just didn't work for me.

I don't want to compare it to In Memorium or Strange Meeting, but go read those books and let's then meet up and talk about same sex relationships in WW1!

2.5 rounded up for me.]]> 4.20 2025
author: William Hussey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
I liked the ending (epilogue), best of all. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I'll be honest it just lacked bite, and there were too many historical flaws for me to really get behind it and enjoy it fully.

Stephen and Danny meet on a train, shipping them out to the front. They meet, they fall in love, and attempt to survive the horrors of WW1.

I felt the character of Danny was far too outspoken with his senior officers, and I honestly suspect he would have been horse whipped or shot for the way he answered back and spoke to his seniors.

This book very much felt like a YA romance novel that had been forced into a WW1 setting... it just didn't work for me.

I don't want to compare it to In Memorium or Strange Meeting, but go read those books and let's then meet up and talk about same sex relationships in WW1!

2.5 rounded up for me.
]]> 216524168 The first novel in the all-new Golden Girls Cozy Mystery Series!

When Dorothy’s obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf–themed wedding Rose is hosting.

Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can't balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!

Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.

As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy’s date is found dead—face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!]]> 336 Rachel Ekstrom Courage 1368102980 Daniel 3
I listened to the story, and the narrator did a great job with the voices of the 'girls' but should avoid Scandi accents in the future...

Rose's younger cousin is coming to Miami to get married, and it's all hands to the pumps to ensure that the St Olaf traditions are upheld and the town elders are happy but when Dorothy's date ends up dead (face down in a cheesecake, at the Grooms parents fancy hotel) it's up to the Golden Girls to clear Dorothy's name and find out who the killer was all whilst sourcing herring, donkeys and a goats horn.

It was fun, silly, but I really felt like I was listening to a piece of amateur fan fiction rather than a book.]]> 3.68 2025
author: Rachel Ekstrom Courage
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
It is a fun piece of cosy crime that brings the Golden Girls (Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia) to life and straight into the middle of their own crime adventure.

I listened to the story, and the narrator did a great job with the voices of the 'girls' but should avoid Scandi accents in the future...

Rose's younger cousin is coming to Miami to get married, and it's all hands to the pumps to ensure that the St Olaf traditions are upheld and the town elders are happy but when Dorothy's date ends up dead (face down in a cheesecake, at the Grooms parents fancy hotel) it's up to the Golden Girls to clear Dorothy's name and find out who the killer was all whilst sourcing herring, donkeys and a goats horn.

It was fun, silly, but I really felt like I was listening to a piece of amateur fan fiction rather than a book.
]]> 23521853 310 Sarah Winman 0755390911 Daniel 5
This time, our story is set in France, London, and Cornwall and, as previously, is filled with unique and wonderful characters, and honestly, the web that weaves them altogether is so complex and mysterious that you can't help but feel joy when it's all revealed.

Amazing!]]> 3.79 2015
author: Sarah Winman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
There is something quite wonderful about Sarah Winman's books. Something truly happens to me when I read (or listen to them), and I'm left afterwards with an absolute new love of the world and of life.

This time, our story is set in France, London, and Cornwall and, as previously, is filled with unique and wonderful characters, and honestly, the web that weaves them altogether is so complex and mysterious that you can't help but feel joy when it's all revealed.

Amazing!
]]> 54738255
On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?]]> 404 Sophie Gonzales 1250805805 Daniel 2
The premise was great, and the potential was there it just dragged on and on, plus a lot of the plot felt far too convenient to have any impact.

Basically, a boy band goes through troubles and isn't managed fairly or rightly by their company, and it comes as a shock to the parents when the boys speak out...

Bit boring if I'm honest.]]> 3.92 2021
author: Sophie Gonzales
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
I'll be honest it was just too long and repetitive to really enjoy.

The premise was great, and the potential was there it just dragged on and on, plus a lot of the plot felt far too convenient to have any impact.

Basically, a boy band goes through troubles and isn't managed fairly or rightly by their company, and it comes as a shock to the parents when the boys speak out...

Bit boring if I'm honest.
]]> 61215351 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.]]> 432 J.R.R. Tolkien Daniel 5
I wish I hadn't waited 40 years to read this! but my first reading of this incredible book was simply perfect!

I want a best friend like Sam!]]> 4.52 1954
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
What can I say that hasn't been said already.

I wish I hadn't waited 40 years to read this! but my first reading of this incredible book was simply perfect!

I want a best friend like Sam!
]]> 227280761 384 Andrew Taylor 0008494231 Daniel 4
Miss Warnock is missing. She's upped sticks and left Monkshill School without a mistress, but what the school doesn't know is that Miss Warnock is dead, pushed from The Gothick Walk to her doom....

Annabel / Miss Warnock's ghost, though, remains at Monkshill, and she guides us around the school, introducing us to the characters and discovers not all is as it seems in this dilapidated country estate.

Nobody can hear her, she can't tell people what happened to her! Until a new teacher arrives, and then the game is afoot, but there are more mysteries than Annabels murder to solve...

A very clever country house mystery that has a supernatural spin added to it by a very clever author (who seems able to turn his hand to any genre)

A brilliant update on the period classic country house mystery!

Also, in true Golden Age Crime books, we are treated to a delightful map of the estate at the start of the book! It's an absolute winner for me!!

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my advance copy! I loved this.]]> 4.00
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
Well, this was a brilliant read! I rarely like a first-person narrative, but this book had me hooked from the start.

Miss Warnock is missing. She's upped sticks and left Monkshill School without a mistress, but what the school doesn't know is that Miss Warnock is dead, pushed from The Gothick Walk to her doom....

Annabel / Miss Warnock's ghost, though, remains at Monkshill, and she guides us around the school, introducing us to the characters and discovers not all is as it seems in this dilapidated country estate.

Nobody can hear her, she can't tell people what happened to her! Until a new teacher arrives, and then the game is afoot, but there are more mysteries than Annabels murder to solve...

A very clever country house mystery that has a supernatural spin added to it by a very clever author (who seems able to turn his hand to any genre)

A brilliant update on the period classic country house mystery!

Also, in true Golden Age Crime books, we are treated to a delightful map of the estate at the start of the book! It's an absolute winner for me!!

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my advance copy! I loved this.
]]> 217287828 LOVE CAN BE A STEAL . . .

Phil, never Philippa, is getting to breaking point with her dad and their mounting debts from his gambling problem. But when best friend and bad-influence Chaz offers a brazen solution � a heist of a rare orchid due to bloom for the first time in captivity � she obviously thinks he’s joking.

Phil’s mission is clear: infiltrate the renowned Felborough Botanic Gardens as a volunteer, befriend the employees for intel, and on the big day make it out with the orchid.

But falling head over heels for Lily, the grumpy head gardener’s assistant, was not part of the plan, and as the heist approaches, Phil is faced with a dilemma: steal the orchid and break Lily’s heart or risk losing everything . . .

THE FIRST RULE OF THE HEIST . . . DON’T FALL IN LOVE ]]> 398 Eleanor Vendrell 1035423464 Daniel 4
A crime caper, filled with wit, a country house, plants, obnoxious rich guys, dogs, more plants, and romance! I mean what's not to enjoy.

Phil bounces through life, not really finding her feet in jobs nor love until she walks into the pub one night and gets the offer of all offers from Miles and also meets Lily! Are the two connected? Of course not, but fate weaves a complex web, and it's not long until Phil is working at the grand Felborough Hall, alongside Lily and plotting the botanical heist of the century.

I loved the pace of the book and also the tone. It dealt with issues carefully and wittily but didn't make you feel like you were being lectured!

Thanks to Netgalley and ‎Mountain Leopard Press for my free copy, I LOVED IT!]]> 4.27 2025
author: Eleanor Vendrell
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
I absolutely loved this fun (with serious tones) read!

A crime caper, filled with wit, a country house, plants, obnoxious rich guys, dogs, more plants, and romance! I mean what's not to enjoy.

Phil bounces through life, not really finding her feet in jobs nor love until she walks into the pub one night and gets the offer of all offers from Miles and also meets Lily! Are the two connected? Of course not, but fate weaves a complex web, and it's not long until Phil is working at the grand Felborough Hall, alongside Lily and plotting the botanical heist of the century.

I loved the pace of the book and also the tone. It dealt with issues carefully and wittily but didn't make you feel like you were being lectured!

Thanks to Netgalley and ‎Mountain Leopard Press for my free copy, I LOVED IT!
]]> 217399260
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

But Lord Christopher Eden is no ordinary man �

Lord Eden has always preferred the comfortable company of his staff to the prying eyes of the debutantes at the ton’s latest soirée. So, when he receives word that he must find a wife by the end of the Season, or lose his fortune, Christopher knows that he can’t do it alone.

Enter the distractingly dashing � if rather stoic � James Harding. As Lord Eden’s mysterious new valet, James must ensure Christopher’s reputation appears as faultless as his cravat. But as sparks fly, and Christopher’s deadline to find love looms, will James find himself vying for the position instead?

Don't miss the brand-new trans regency romance from the beloved author of Chef's Kiss!



🏳️‍�Trans romance

đź’�·ˇ˛Ô±đłľľ±±đ˛ő-łŮ´Ç-±ô´Ç±ą±đ°ů˛ő

❌Forbidden romance

👨‍❤️‍👨Forced proximity

*Published in the USA as A Gentleman's Gentleman* ]]> 324 T.J. Alexander 000871634X Daniel 4
Christopher is careful to ensure nobody knows his secret. He lives at Eden Abbey, with limited staff and never ventures far, but now he has to find a wife to fulfil his father's will....

To help prepare for Christopher's trip to London, he's forced to hire a valet, and that's when James Harding comes into his life and the adventures begin.

A really enjoyable update to the period novel that takes issues that we knew existed in Regency England but are never usually addressed or mentioned.

You'll find no real surprises around Christopher and his life, but you will find a well written and delightful read (listen)

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my free copy. This was a lovely book!]]> 3.91 2025
author: T.J. Alexander
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
This was an absolute delight to listen to, I found it refreshing and a change to the usual period samesex dramas.

Christopher is careful to ensure nobody knows his secret. He lives at Eden Abbey, with limited staff and never ventures far, but now he has to find a wife to fulfil his father's will....

To help prepare for Christopher's trip to London, he's forced to hire a valet, and that's when James Harding comes into his life and the adventures begin.

A really enjoyable update to the period novel that takes issues that we knew existed in Regency England but are never usually addressed or mentioned.

You'll find no real surprises around Christopher and his life, but you will find a well written and delightful read (listen)

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my free copy. This was a lovely book!
]]> 62955857 'Twelve months' worth of smart self-help from someone you'd want on your team in a crisis ... genuinely useful, charming, comforting' - Guardian


'Compelling, warm and authoritative' - Viv Groskop, bestselling author of Lift As You Climb
'A compassionate book filled with useful tips to help us through life' - Claudia Hammond, bestselling author of The Key to Kindness
Help yourself to live a better life in 2023

Psychology underpins everything we do, determining the decisions we make, the relationships we build, the roles we play and the places we live, and our behaviour is further influenced by the changing seasons, encouraging many of us to fall into unhelpful patterns again and again each year.

In A YEAR TO CHANGE YOUR MIND, consultant clinical psychologist Dr Lucy Maddox explains how psychological processes thread through our lives, pinpointing those issues most frequently encountered in each month, and shows us how by reflecting upon past experiences, both joyful and painful, and considering evidence-based ideas from the realm of psychology, we can learn to live a more thoughtful, positive life that better prepares us for the future.

From the tendency to lack motivation in January and to experience red-hot anger in the heat of August, to the weight of expectation associated with that back-to-school feeling in September and the pressure to enjoy the December holiday season, we're shown recognisable features of behaviour over the course of the year. In sharing with us the most useful psychology ideas the author has learned in her 15 years as a clinical psychologist - ones she uses in her own life, and returns to time and time again with people who have come to see her for therapy - she provides plenty to think about that we too can put into practice to improve our own lives.
'Compassionate and easy to read, this book can lead us to better ways of living. It is filled with unpretentious wisdom' - Henry Mance
'A fantastic book crammed full of practical - and evidence-based - tips to shift your thinking' - Sonia Sodha
'Warm, assuring' - Independent]]> 286 Lucy Maddox 1838956298 Daniel 5
Broken down into bite-size segments and focusing on a month by month, the author really helped me focus on what I wanted and reminded me that I am doing good things and it's okay to not be okay!

Informative, insightful, and a genius piece of writing.]]> 3.67 2022
author: Lucy Maddox
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
This is actually one of the best self empowerment books I've read!

Broken down into bite-size segments and focusing on a month by month, the author really helped me focus on what I wanted and reminded me that I am doing good things and it's okay to not be okay!

Informative, insightful, and a genius piece of writing.
]]> 212219355
'A wonderfully original and atmospheric crime novel� [a] beautifully modulated tale of forgery, gambling, ballroom dancing and star-crossed love' � Mail on Sunday

'A page-turner: morally complex and beautifully written' Leonora Nattrass, bestselling author of Blue Water

In post-war Flanders, Adelais de Wolf's family is slowly, inexplicably, falling apart: her mother evermore lost to religious devotion, her father to alcohol. But with the death of a beloved uncle, Adelais finds herself in receipt of an unexpected legacy: a shuttered house in a rundown district and its contents � contents that hold the promise of independence and wealth. All that is required is application, nerve, and a willingness to break the law.

Adelais stifles her doubts and her fortunes are transformed. But with her rise come complications: her victimless crimes may not be as victimless as she supposed. Nor has she counted on the singular fanaticism of Major de Smet of the Federal Gendarmerie, a brutal detective who never forgives and never forgets.

Caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, will Adelais find that her new life comes at too high a price?

Cinematic and seductive, The House with Nine Locks is a compelling and sweeping historical novel with characters you won’t soon forget.]]> 402 Philip Gray 152992295X Daniel 4
I had no idea what would happen to these characters and found myself drawn into their web of lies, love, and survival.

I did find the first third my favourite part as you got to learn about life in post-WW2 Flanders and just what difficulties Adelais de Wolf faced as her mother decides to follow God and abandon the family, as her father decides to drown in booze and her uncle disappears...

I was not expecting all the twists and turns, and towards the end, I just hoped for a happy ending for Adelais and frantically read page after page to see if she got it.

Excellent and a wonderful period read, thanks to Netgalley and Random House for my copy.]]> 4.47
author: Philip Gray
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
This book proves you should never judge a book by its cover! I expected a paint by numbers murder mystery and instead was gifted a complex character driven drama that hooked me from start to finish.

I had no idea what would happen to these characters and found myself drawn into their web of lies, love, and survival.

I did find the first third my favourite part as you got to learn about life in post-WW2 Flanders and just what difficulties Adelais de Wolf faced as her mother decides to follow God and abandon the family, as her father decides to drown in booze and her uncle disappears...

I was not expecting all the twists and turns, and towards the end, I just hoped for a happy ending for Adelais and frantically read page after page to see if she got it.

Excellent and a wonderful period read, thanks to Netgalley and Random House for my copy.
]]> 213126697 When dead enemies rise, grave matters of the heart, mind, and body clash in the fantastical fourth Whimbrel House novel by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

Whimbrel House is changing. Merritt and Hulda are raising a family. Owein has signed a marriage contract with the magically compatible Lady Cora, a heavyweight of British nobility who’s an ocean away. And the lovely shape-shifting druid Fallon makes a distractingly fetching friend for Owein. But another change is in the air, and this time it’s something wicked.

The greatest wizard of the millennium, Silas Hogwood, is back—after five years dead. New body, same foul scent, and driven by madness and revenge. Owein, fearing he isn’t strong enough to fend him off, seeks Cora’s help and influence in England. Alarms ringing, Queen Victoria dispatches her League of Magicians, including her personal necromancer, to aid in Owein’s defense.

As magic, both good and evil, converges on Blaugdone Island, Owein realizes how harrowing the forces against them are. Combating them will require some digging—literally—for half-formed secrets of magic Hulda doesn’t want him to have. But no promise, lock, or government red tape will keep Owein from doing what’s necessary to protect those he loves; one way or another, Silas will only take Whimbrel House over Owein’s third dead body.]]> 269 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662516819 Daniel 4
But whilst life is good, we find Owain pining for Lady Cora yet spending his days with Fallon! He appears to have a tough decision to make in his future... AND all this is before Silas Hogwood returns, seeking revenge!

Excellent as always, very enjoyable and a blooming cliffhanger of an ending (although a mild one), so I'm hoping there's a book 5 planned!]]> 4.33 2025
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
We jump forward a few years in this part of the story and we find live on Blaugdone Island serene and peaceful (aside from the children that have now arrived in Hulda and Merritt's life and also Beth and Baptiste's)

But whilst life is good, we find Owain pining for Lady Cora yet spending his days with Fallon! He appears to have a tough decision to make in his future... AND all this is before Silas Hogwood returns, seeking revenge!

Excellent as always, very enjoyable and a blooming cliffhanger of an ending (although a mild one), so I'm hoping there's a book 5 planned!
]]> 55688789 397 Mary Roberts Rinehart 1613162111 Daniel 4
Summer on the island isn't all parties and golf as the bodies start to stack up, friends begin to suspect friends and odd things start to happen at Sunset House.

Brilliant! Definitely a classic and almost (not quite) better then The Circular Staircase.]]> 3.91 1938
author: Mary Roberts Rinehart
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/19
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: 2022-reading-challenge, spring
review:
An absolute cracker of a whodunit that had me guessing right up to the last 20 pages.

Summer on the island isn't all parties and golf as the bodies start to stack up, friends begin to suspect friends and odd things start to happen at Sunset House.

Brilliant! Definitely a classic and almost (not quite) better then The Circular Staircase.
]]> 3481582 192 Roy Strong 0500240949 Daniel 5 2025-reading-challenge
This aside, the book still was a fascinating read and interesting catalogue of lost country houses.]]> 4.50 1974
author: Roy Strong
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge
review:
Annoyingly, it was on this reading of the book that I realised 8 pages had been cut out of my copy!!

This aside, the book still was a fascinating read and interesting catalogue of lost country houses.
]]> 11624586
From Uffington House, Lincolnshire, a fine Restoration house burnt in 1904, to the Rococo magnificence of Nuthall temple, Nottinghamshire, its site now buried under the M1 motorway, this book provides a moving testimony to one of the saddest chapters in English 20th century history.

Giles Worsley’s incisive text makes this more than just an elegy for lost glories. By studying the circumstances behind one hundred houses that have gone, he is able to explain why such a large number were destroyed in the last century. He explains how many houses were lost as great landowners, responding to economic and political changes, sold off secondary estates and demolished palatial houses of the nineteenth century. He also examines how chance played its part, with fire emerging as one of the chief causes of destruction.

As the twentieth century recedes into history the story of the country house over the past hundred years becomes increasingly fascinating. England’s Lost Houses is essential reading for all those seeking to understand what really happened.]]> 192 Giles Worsley 1845136144 Daniel 5
I've taken a stroll around the ruins or remaining grounds of some of the houses mentioned in this book since last reading it and it's difficult to imagine the sheer size of the job of demolishing something as big as a country house! (those that were destroyed by fire obviously went quicker than by wrecking ball)

Country Life Magazine really does have a wonderful archive, and their books offer a wonderful glimpse into the past.

Nov 2020 - This book is like looking through a family photograph album where your great aunts and uncles are no longer with us, but you know their names and remember their stories.

Interesting and informative but equally heartbreaking at what is gone and can't be bought back!]]> 4.44 2002
author: Giles Worsley
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: 2020-reading-challenge, autumn, 2025-reading-challenge, spring
review:
Mar 2025 - An informative read about some of England's lost historic gems.

I've taken a stroll around the ruins or remaining grounds of some of the houses mentioned in this book since last reading it and it's difficult to imagine the sheer size of the job of demolishing something as big as a country house! (those that were destroyed by fire obviously went quicker than by wrecking ball)

Country Life Magazine really does have a wonderful archive, and their books offer a wonderful glimpse into the past.

Nov 2020 - This book is like looking through a family photograph album where your great aunts and uncles are no longer with us, but you know their names and remember their stories.

Interesting and informative but equally heartbreaking at what is gone and can't be bought back!
]]> 217587350 PRE-ORDER THE NEXT GRIPPING MYSTERY FROM 'NEXT-GEN NORDIC STAR' (LA TIMES) AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, RAGNAR JONASSON

'ONE OF THE FINEST CRIME WRITERS IN THE WORLD TODAY' DAILY MAIL

�Jónasson is an automatic must-read for me . . . possibly the best Scandi writer working today� LEE CHILD

�A master of the Icelandic thriller� NEW YORK POST

----

One winter evening bestselling crime author, ElĂ­n S. JĂłnsdĂłttir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press.

As he interviews the people closest to her � a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge � he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of a very unexpected life . . .]]> Ragnar JĂłnasson 1405968982 Daniel 4
A missing crime writer, a close-knit group of friends, and some wonderful timeline jumping gives us another atmospheric 5 x star read.

I loved how Helgi deals with life with a book in his pocket and an attitude to methodically solve crime.

Thank you to NetGallery and Penguin for my advanced copy.]]> 3.45
author: Ragnar JĂłnasson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Again, we find ourselves investigating a crime with Helgi, and this time, it seems more impossible (a lot like those golden age detective novels he loves) than ever!!

A missing crime writer, a close-knit group of friends, and some wonderful timeline jumping gives us another atmospheric 5 x star read.

I loved how Helgi deals with life with a book in his pocket and an attitude to methodically solve crime.

Thank you to NetGallery and Penguin for my advanced copy.
]]> 123432980
Daniel’s mother Mirjam Wiener was the youngest of three daughters born in Germany to Alfred and Margarete Wiener. Alfred, a decorated hero from the Great War, is now widely acknowledged to have been the first person to recognise the existential danger Hitler posed to the Jews and began, in 1933, to catalogue in detail Nazi crimes. After moving his family to Amsterdam, he relocated his library to London and was preparing to bring over his wife and children when Germany invaded the Netherlands. Before long, the family was rounded up, robbed and sent to starve in Bergen-Belsen.

Daniel’s father Ludwik was born in Lwów, the only child of a prosperous Jewish family. In 1939, after Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland, Ludwik’s father was arrested and sentenced to hard labour in the Gulag. Meanwhile, deported to Siberia and working as a slave labourer on a collective farm, Ludwik survived the freezing winters in a tiny house he built from cow dung.

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a deeply moving, personal and at times horrifying memoir about Finkelstein’s parents� experiences at the hands of the two genocidal dictators of the twentieth century. It is a story of persecution; survival; and the consequences of totalitarianism told with the almost unimaginable bravery of two ordinary families shining through.]]> 512 Daniel Finkelstein 0008483868 Daniel 5
I'll be honest I knew of the Polish plight in WW2, but I had no real understanding of it nor how awful it was. The author makes a very valid point about how it's been 'glossed' over / forgotten as the Nazi crimes were being dealt with at Nuremberg.

The writing style it made the "story" very readable (or listenable in my case!)

I really am looking forward to my Bookclub next week to hear the groups views...]]> 4.65 2023
author: Daniel Finkelstein
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
This is an exceptional story and must have taken the author some time to complete as it's such a tragic and traumatic story.

I'll be honest I knew of the Polish plight in WW2, but I had no real understanding of it nor how awful it was. The author makes a very valid point about how it's been 'glossed' over / forgotten as the Nazi crimes were being dealt with at Nuremberg.

The writing style it made the "story" very readable (or listenable in my case!)

I really am looking forward to my Bookclub next week to hear the groups views...
]]> 59763893 229 E.C.R. Lorac 1774644932 Daniel 4
There is no rush to introduce the detective nor the crime (although the first crime occurs fairly quickly in this book) in her books and that gives us time to survey the characters and make our assumptions on who the murderer is and this book is no different!

A family bought back under the same roof, tensions are high, and fractures are made bigger by having a cast of servants, local farmers, and friends all added into the dynamic!

Then the murders begin! Classic Lorac, no surprises, and MacDonald strolls in uses his friendly, calm manner to solve the lot!]]> 4.22 1951
author: E.C.R. Lorac
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I love that ECR Lorac spends time setting the scene (as does George Bellairs, another classic crime writer I love).

There is no rush to introduce the detective nor the crime (although the first crime occurs fairly quickly in this book) in her books and that gives us time to survey the characters and make our assumptions on who the murderer is and this book is no different!

A family bought back under the same roof, tensions are high, and fractures are made bigger by having a cast of servants, local farmers, and friends all added into the dynamic!

Then the murders begin! Classic Lorac, no surprises, and MacDonald strolls in uses his friendly, calm manner to solve the lot!
]]> 57001545
As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot -- a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics -- he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.

With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a richly drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.]]> 464 Sarah Winman 0593330757 Daniel 5
Beautiful and thought-provoking, a truly exquisite experience (I listened to the book and loved it so much more than when I read it!)]]> 4.08 2021
author: Sarah Winman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Perfection in a book.

Beautiful and thought-provoking, a truly exquisite experience (I listened to the book and loved it so much more than when I read it!)
]]> 25384693 17 Daphne du Maurier Daniel 4
Atmospheric and a great read to read when out by the dark, stormy North Sea.]]> 3.30 1945
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A short tale of the sea and its perils during WW2 and also of its heroes.

Atmospheric and a great read to read when out by the dark, stormy North Sea.
]]> 17897777 "A bang-up ghost-murder-detective story with a background of bleak Northumberland moors, an old house full of haunts, [and] a Roman Centurion who appears . . . with death in his wake." - "Scribner's Magazine"
"A well nigh perfect admixture of eerie horror, romance and good detecting." - "Saturday Review"
"Truly a little masterpiece of a book. Reminiscent of Christie at the height of her powers in its brilliant use of misdirection. . . . Really a classic of its kind." - J. F. Norris, "Mystery File"
From the moment William Mertoun arrives to catalogue the library at Colonel Barr's old mansion on the desolate Northumbrian moors, he senses something is terribly wrong. Barr's brother Ian has just died, mysteriously and violently, and the Colonel himself is hidden away in a locked room, to which his sinister nurse denies all access. As strange and supernatural events begin to unfold, Mertoun learns the local legend of a ghostly Roman centurion, slain on the site sixteen centuries earlier, who is said to haunt the estate. Mertoun is sceptical at first, but after another murder, a harrowing seance, and an actual sighting of the spirit one lonely night on the moor, he realizes that he and everyone at Barr's mansion are in mortal danger. What does the ghost want, and can it be stopped? This first-ever reprinting of "He Arrived at Dusk" (1933), R. C. Ashby's classic tale of mystery and the supernatural, features a new introduction by Mark Valentine and a reproduction of the original jacket art.]]> 228 R.C. Ashby 1939140447 Daniel 4
A fun, three parter of a book, and I loved how the story unfolds through the different segments and how each segment is told from a different characters point of view.

Clever and enjoyable! I would recommend reading it in a Northumberland cottage, on a moor, in the dark....]]> 3.97 1933
author: R.C. Ashby
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1933
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A brilliant ghost, mystery story set in the wilds of Northumberland (where I'm staying currently), I could imagine the desolate moors, the black North Sea, and the gothic house standing forlorn as the ghostly harbinger of doom stalks closer and closer...

A fun, three parter of a book, and I loved how the story unfolds through the different segments and how each segment is told from a different characters point of view.

Clever and enjoyable! I would recommend reading it in a Northumberland cottage, on a moor, in the dark....
]]> 280865 The art of detection gets clouded by desire.

It was a bizarre pose for beautiful model Sonia Gluck-and her last. For in the draperies of her couch lay a fatal dagger, and behind her murder lies all the intrigue and acid-etched temperament of an artist's colony. Called in to investigate, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn finds his own passions unexpectedly stirred by the feisty painter Agatha Troy-brilliant artist and suspected murderess.
]]> 316 Ngaio Marsh 1579125786 Daniel 4
Excellent classic crime read, and so much more enjoyable than Vintage Murder! It's absolutely of its time, but I can read past that.

It's good to have my literary crush Inspector Alleyn back. ]]> 4.01 1938
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A group of bohemian artists all with their own quirks and foibles, come together at Agatha Troy's retreat to create their next masterpiece, but soon Sonia (the moaning model) will be dead and it's up to Roderick Alleyn to solve the case.

Excellent classic crime read, and so much more enjoyable than Vintage Murder! It's absolutely of its time, but I can read past that.

It's good to have my literary crush Inspector Alleyn back.
]]> 209456115 A spirited history of the English country house in its golden age  For generations, the great palaces of Britain were home to living histories, noble families that had reigned for centuries. But by the end of the nineteenth century, members of elite society found themselves, for the first time, in the company of arrivistes. Their new neighbors—from chorus girls to millionaire greengrocers to guano impresarios—lacked lineage and were unencumbered by the weight of tradition.    In The Power and the Glory, historian Adrian Tinniswood reconstructs life in the country house during its golden age before the Great War, when Britain ruled over a quarter of the earth’s population and its stately homes were at their most opulent. But change was on the the landed classes were being forced to grapple not only with new neighbors, but also with new social norms and expectations.     An exuberant story, The Power and the Glory offers a delicious, captivating, and often scandalous history of the British country house. ]]> 448 Adrian Tinniswood 154160279X Daniel 5
I found it a little more filled with facts and figures rather than gossip and details (does that make sense) and I found the houses detailed are often the same ones in each chapter where as before these books have opened up whole new country house names to me chapter after chapter.

It is still a wonderfully detailed account of life above and below stairs in Victorian Britain.]]> 3.86
author: Adrian Tinniswood
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
It is a very enjoyable read but less enthralling than the other two country house history I've read from this author.

I found it a little more filled with facts and figures rather than gossip and details (does that make sense) and I found the houses detailed are often the same ones in each chapter where as before these books have opened up whole new country house names to me chapter after chapter.

It is still a wonderfully detailed account of life above and below stairs in Victorian Britain.
]]> 162693947 A snowstorm. A country house. Old friends reunited. It's going to be murder...

Torben Helle - art historian, Danish expat and owner of several excellent Scandinavian jumpers - has been dragged to a remote snowbound Northumbrian mansion for a ten-year reunion with old university friends. Things start to go sideways when their host, a reclusive and irritating tech entrepreneur, makes some shocking revelations at the dinner table. And when these are followed by an apparent suicide, the group faces a test of their wits... and their trust.

Snowed in and cut off, surrounded by enigmatic housekeepers and off-duty police inspectors, not to mention a peculiar last will and testament, suspicion and sarcasm quickly turn to panic. As the temperature drops and the tension mounts, Torben decides to draw upon all the tricks of Golden Age detectives past in order to solve the how much money would it take to turn one of his old friends into a murderer? But he'd better be quick, or someone else might end up dead...

This witty murder mystery puts a modern spin on the classic country house whodunnit. A must-read for fans of Agatha Christie, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.]]> 334 Oskar Jensen 1800811756 Daniel 2
A fun setup, let down by a really plodding and slow plot.

A group of friends stuck in a country house due to a snowstorm, tensions are high, and their host is then discovered dead in his bed, it makes for a long weekend.

Sadly, the book plodded on, and I just didn't really feel anything for any of the characters.]]> 3.43 2024
author: Oskar Jensen
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
It's a bit of a boring read, if I'm honest!

A fun setup, let down by a really plodding and slow plot.

A group of friends stuck in a country house due to a snowstorm, tensions are high, and their host is then discovered dead in his bed, it makes for a long weekend.

Sadly, the book plodded on, and I just didn't really feel anything for any of the characters.
]]> 219181135 New from Waterstones Prize-shortlisted author-illustrator team, Lucy Strange and Pam a spirited series of “cosy gothic� mysteries, starring supernatural sleuths, Lockett & Wilde.

“This book has more shadowy mysteries than twelve graveyards and more delicious twists than my favourite pretzel. All hail Lockett & Wilde!� Lemony Snicket

"Wildly funny." Ben Miller

Matilda Lockett is used to playing the role of Poor Dead Edna on stage with her spirit-medium aunt, Signora Valentina, and theatrical uncle Barnabus � but when they all decamp to Beauchamp Manor to deal with a most dreadful haunting, she discovers she really can see ghosts! There she meets ghost boy, Edgar Wilde, who shares her love of supernatural snooping, and together they set about unravelling the case of The Ghosts of the Manor.

Classic spooky mystery reimagined for fans of cosy crime by the Waterstones Prize and Carnegie-shortlisted creators, Lucy Strange and Pam Smy. You'd have to be DEAD not to love it...

Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Robin Stevens

Stunning colour-illustrated storytelling

"A stunningly spooky mystery." Maz Evans, author of Who Let the Gods Out?
"Funny, spooky and cosy - I loved it!" Andy Stanton, author of Mr Gum]]> 224 Lucy Strange 1529516005 Daniel 4
Ghosts, Country Houses, a Chatty Parrot, ]]> 4.10 2024
author: Lucy Strange
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A very fun and light-hearted read!

Ghosts, Country Houses, a Chatty Parrot,
]]> 181350367 For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 358 Kristen Perrin 0593474015 Daniel 4
Very enjoyable dual timeline murder mystery that has me hooked and entertained.

Annie has the right amount of gumption and grit to become an awesome amateur detective, and I'd love to read more about her mysteries.]]> 3.76 2024
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
As is the norm in the quiet villages of England, all is not as it seems, and in Castle Knoll, if you scratch the surface, you'll find everyone's secrets and all those skeletons in closets...

Very enjoyable dual timeline murder mystery that has me hooked and entertained.

Annie has the right amount of gumption and grit to become an awesome amateur detective, and I'd love to read more about her mysteries.
]]> 161219731
Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history.

The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air.

Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?

See what early readers are saying about The �A classic locked room mystery� �����

�I was so wrapped up in the drama that I didn’t guess the killer until the end� �����

�Heart-pounding� pay attention, discount no detail and don’t read it in the dark� �����

�Kept me guessing� �����

�Good twists, an amazing location and good storytelling� ����

�Tremendous fun� ����]]> 270 Carissa Ann Lynch 0008643938 Daniel 3
This book holds no surprises, and you'll be saying 'yes of course, run down that dark, spooky corridor! That's a great idea!!' Many times over.

Slaughter, finger-pointing, and secrets galore in this solid three star read.]]> 3.50 2024
author: Carissa Ann Lynch
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A dark spooky house with a dark history, a group of 'random' strangers drawn together to spend the night and a bloody unsolved murder (and potentially murderer) to deal with.

This book holds no surprises, and you'll be saying 'yes of course, run down that dark, spooky corridor! That's a great idea!!' Many times over.

Slaughter, finger-pointing, and secrets galore in this solid three star read.
]]> 217388378 Knives Out meets Saltburn in this wickedly plotted thriller where a group of friends play a deadly game that unwraps a motive for murder, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Alex Michaelides.

Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention: Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: everyone chooses two players at random and imagines a scenario where one kills the other, then writes it down as a short story.

Points are given for making the murders feel real, as Anatol explains to the group. Of course, when given this assignment, it’s only natural to use what you know. Secrets. Grudges. Affairs. But once you’ve put it in a story, that secret is out. It’s not long before the game has reawakened old resentments and brought private matters into the light of day. So with each fictional murder, someone new gets a very real motive.

Ink Ribbon Red ultimately asks: When a real murder is headed your way, will you be able to spot it in time?]]> 320 Alex Pavesi 1250755956 Daniel 2
There might be actual murders there might not be, and they might all be works of fiction (but I'll be honest, I didn't care!)

It's a plodding and really boring book, if I'm honest. A short story dragged out. ]]> 2.98
author: Alex Pavesi
name: Daniel
average rating: 2.98
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A group of horrible friends come together to celebrate a death and a birthday and to pass the time write murder stories and are vile to each other.

There might be actual murders there might not be, and they might all be works of fiction (but I'll be honest, I didn't care!)

It's a plodding and really boring book, if I'm honest. A short story dragged out.
]]> 159218137
It's been almost a year since Logan 'The Bear' Theaker hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into a world he thought he'd left behind.

Logan quickly discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan sets out to rescue his husband.

But the further the quest takes him, the more secrets Logan uncovers. He'll need all his strength to rescue his husband - but can he save their marriage?]]> 365 Rose Black 1399724703 Daniel 3
This book has it all, positive gay role models, redemption, necromancers, unicorns, heroes, ghosts, danger, many quests, and some living skeletons (is that a contradiction?) So what's not to enjoy? ]]> 3.51 2023
author: Rose Black
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
This is a good, solid 3 stars!

This book has it all, positive gay role models, redemption, necromancers, unicorns, heroes, ghosts, danger, many quests, and some living skeletons (is that a contradiction?) So what's not to enjoy?
]]> 211003842
In this peerless memoir, the 85-year-old “paterfamilias of queer literature� (New York Times) recounts the sixty-plus years of sexual escapades that have inspired his many masterpieces. He explores the sex he had with other closeted boys in 50s Midwest, with women as a young man trying to be straight, the sex he's paid for and been paid for, sex during the Stonewall and HIV eras, and in the age of the apps. Through stories of transactional sex, mutual admiration, open relationships, domination, submission, love, and loss, he paints an indelible portrait of queer history in America and abroad in a way only someone who has lived through it can.

Written with White's signature honesty, irreverence, and wit, The Loves of My Life is the culmination of this legend's life and work, a delightful and moving tour of over seventy years of being unabashedly gay and in love with love in all its forms.]]> 256 Edmund White 1639733728 Daniel 3
I'm all for being sex positive and have no problem listening to sexual adventures but I honestly was hoping for more of a social history rather then lists of men Edmund White went with, and also I'm pretty sure poetic licence is being taken here as I dont think all the men he went with had dicks like pythons ]]> 3.66 2025
author: Edmund White
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Meh, once you'd heard one sex anecdote, you'd heard all of them and this book had MANY!

I'm all for being sex positive and have no problem listening to sexual adventures but I honestly was hoping for more of a social history rather then lists of men Edmund White went with, and also I'm pretty sure poetic licence is being taken here as I dont think all the men he went with had dicks like pythons
]]> 125373512
Merritt Fernsby’s life has changed considerably since he inherited Whimbrel House. He’s engaged to Hulda Larkin, who opened his eyes to the uncanny. And he’s grown quite protective of his uncle Owein—several generations, and iterations, removed. Owein is presently inhabiting the body of a mixed-breed terrier when Merritt receives a missive from none other than Alexandrina Victoria, the Queen of England: I am interested in your dog.

It’s the queen’s duty to the peerage to keep British wizardry empowered. Her offer: England will find a human vessel for Owein, marry him into the royal family, and add this remarkable soul-shifter to its lineage. For Owein, a boy trapped in the body of a pup, it’s a dream come true. How can Merritt refuse? However, once they are in London and in consortium with a necromancer, the situation doesn’t feel right, both with their hosts and the house they inhabit. Owein is having nightmares. And Hulda’s premonitions warn of danger in Merritt’s future. Clearly, someone doesn’t want them in town.

But after two hundred years of being cursed to drift, Owein is determined to chart his own destiny. He’s ready to defy whatever chaos is coming. After all, Owein is the master of chaos, and with Merritt and Hulda’s love and magical support, he can overcome anything.]]> 299 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508727 Daniel 4
Fun packed with danger and intrigue. I think this is my favourite book in the series yet.

Merritt, as always, the gung ho hero and Hulda, the sensible hero, make an awesome team.]]> 4.31 2024
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Another adventure with Hulda, Merritt, and Owein this time far from home and in Great Britain at the request of Queen Victoria.

Fun packed with danger and intrigue. I think this is my favourite book in the series yet.

Merritt, as always, the gung ho hero and Hulda, the sensible hero, make an awesome team.
]]> 50150786 In the Autumn of 1941, the war is going badly for Britain and its allies. If the tide is going to be turned against Hitler, a new weapon is desperately needed.

In Cambridge, brilliant history professor Tom Wilde is asked by an American intelligence officer to help smuggle a mysterious package out of Nazi Germany - something so secret, even Hitler himself doesn't know of its existence.

Posing as a German-American industrialist, Wilde soon discovers the shocking truth about the 'package', and why the Nazis will stop at nothing to prevent it leaving Germany. With ruthless killers loyal to Martin Bormann hunting him down, Wilde makes a desperate gamble on an unlikely escape route.
But even if he reaches England alive, that will not be the end of his ordeal. Wilde is now convinced that the truth he has discovered must remain hidden, even if it means betraying the country he loves . . .

]]> 432 Rory Clements 1838770313 Daniel 4
I love these thrillers and have taken a break from them as I read them so quickly, and I don't want them to end, Clements is an excellent writer whose attention to detail is second to none.

Tom Wilde is whisked away to WW2 Berlin to take delivery of a package and return it to the UK, little does he know a lot rides on the success of his mission and a lot of people don't want him to succeed.

As always, a ripping adventure, filled with danger, double crosses and intrigue!]]> 4.14 2020
author: Rory Clements
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
An excellent cat and mouse thriller set in WW2 Germany and Cambridge.

I love these thrillers and have taken a break from them as I read them so quickly, and I don't want them to end, Clements is an excellent writer whose attention to detail is second to none.

Tom Wilde is whisked away to WW2 Berlin to take delivery of a package and return it to the UK, little does he know a lot rides on the success of his mission and a lot of people don't want him to succeed.

As always, a ripping adventure, filled with danger, double crosses and intrigue!
]]> 58667493
Swallow it down—what a jagged little pill . . .

Jagged Little Pill: The Novel follows the intertwining lives of five teens whose world is changed forever after the events at a party.

Adopted Frankie struggles to see eye-to-eye with her mother—who would rather ignore a problem and preserve their "perfect" life than stand up for what's right. Jo just wants her mom to accept her queer identity—and is totally crushed when Frankie, the only person who really gets her, finds herself infatuated with someone new. Phoenix tries to find his place at the new school and balance wanting to spend time with Frankie but knowing he also has to help out with his sick sister at home. Bella wants to enjoy the end of high school and just head off to college without a hitch. Everyone expects Frankie's brother Nick to be the golden boy, but even though he just got into his dream school, he's not even sure he's a good person. Each of their stories intersects when Bella is sexually assaulted at a party, and it looks like the perpetrator might get away with it.

Moving, heartfelt, and raw, Jagged Little Pill: The Novel draws on the musical's story and gives readers deeper glimpses of the characters. It's a story about the power of voicing your pain, standing up for what's right, and finding healing and connection.]]> 304 Eric Smith 1419757989 Daniel 3
I love Alanis, her music was the soundtrack to my 90's and my teen years but this book failed to express the emotion that she puts into her songs.

I personally think there were too many characters with their own flaws and secrets to keep the plot active enough.]]> 3.70 2022
author: Eric Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I was bored for half this book and enthralled by the other half. It was such a weird read and I've no idea how I even came to own this book..

I love Alanis, her music was the soundtrack to my 90's and my teen years but this book failed to express the emotion that she puts into her songs.

I personally think there were too many characters with their own flaws and secrets to keep the plot active enough.
]]> 63912246 About the Author

Madeline Miller is an American novelist, whose debut novel was The Song of Achilles.
Miller spent ten years writing the book while she worked as a Latin and Greek teacher. The novel, set in Greece, tells the story of the love between Achilles and Patroclus.
The Song of Achilles won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize.]]> 10 Madeline Miller Daniel 4
Philoctetes was a companion to Heracles, and now alone, he is the keeper of Heracles' bow.

Called to take back Helen from Paris and to topple Troy, Philoctetes joins ranks but isn't like the other men, he's quiet and a bit of a loner which can be his downfall or his salvation.

Short, but thought provoking story.]]> 3.19 2012
author: Madeline Miller
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
These ancient Greeks and their M/M romances....

Philoctetes was a companion to Heracles, and now alone, he is the keeper of Heracles' bow.

Called to take back Helen from Paris and to topple Troy, Philoctetes joins ranks but isn't like the other men, he's quiet and a bit of a loner which can be his downfall or his salvation.

Short, but thought provoking story.
]]> 207851815
Chris has been following the careers of a group of students, all present at Cambridge University in the 1980s, now members of a think-tank which has been quietly pushing the British government towards extremism. And now, after years in the political wilderness, they might be in a position to put their ideas into action.

As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a mysterious conference taking place deep in the Cotswolds. When Phyl hears that one of the delegates has been murdered, she begins to wonder if real life is starting to merge with the novel she’s been trying to write. But does the explanation really lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

Darting between decades and genres, THE PROOF OF MY INNOCENCE reimagines the coming-of-age story, the cosy crime caper and the state-of-the-nation novel with Coe’s trademark humour and warmth. From one of Britain’s finest living novelists, this is a witty, razor-sharp novel which explores how the key to understanding the present can often be found in the murkiest corners of the past.]]> 327 Jonathan Coe 1405962429 Daniel 4
It is clever, witty, and a bit confusing but worth sticking with.

I loved the variety of the book, the complex plot intertwined with dark humour, and also having the different genres was a clever touch.

Phyl and Rash are exceptional characters, and I'd love to see them solving crimes with the help of DI Freeborne.]]> 3.89 2024
author: Jonathan Coe
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Think of this book like an onion - layers and layers and layers!

It is clever, witty, and a bit confusing but worth sticking with.

I loved the variety of the book, the complex plot intertwined with dark humour, and also having the different genres was a clever touch.

Phyl and Rash are exceptional characters, and I'd love to see them solving crimes with the help of DI Freeborne.
]]> 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Daniel 5
A beautiful read.

2022 - This book was the perfect tonic to a stressful week at work.

It helped me escape to an ancient place, where God's mocked Men and Men believed themselves immortal.

The wonderful story telling of this book had me hooked from the very start, I have never seen Troy, or read any classic Greek so I had no idea of the characters nor the fate that awaited them.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus had me engrossed from the start and yes, I cried at the end, but then I am a sucker for a love story!]]> 4.30 2011
author: Madeline Miller
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: 2022-reading-challenge, summer, 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
2025 - Still as tragic and as beautiful as the first read! I felt a deeper connection with the couple this time and I don't know why, I also felt sorry more empathy for Thetis as it must have been difficult to know what would happen and be powerless to stop it!

A beautiful read.

2022 - This book was the perfect tonic to a stressful week at work.

It helped me escape to an ancient place, where God's mocked Men and Men believed themselves immortal.

The wonderful story telling of this book had me hooked from the very start, I have never seen Troy, or read any classic Greek so I had no idea of the characters nor the fate that awaited them.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus had me engrossed from the start and yes, I cried at the end, but then I am a sucker for a love story!
]]> 61252380
Thanks to house tamer Hulda Larkin, the mischief infesting Whimbrel House has calmed. But if Hulda’s job is done, what does that mean for Merritt Fernsby, inheritor of the remote Narragansett Bay estate, who’s only now coming to terms with his enchanted place in the world?]]> 300 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508689 Daniel 4
We return to our heroes just a few days after the exciting adventures of Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, Hulda feels life could return to some kind of normal with Sirus Hogwood now no longer a threat! But little does she know trouble is on the horizon, and it comes in the form of the London Insitute for the Keeping of Magical Rooms


Maybe Sirus isn't going to leave them in peace just yet....

I loved Owain's role in this book! His new body means he's much more part of the adventure!!]]> 4.17 2023
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I rarely go straight into a sequel as I've had too many disappointments where book 2 has not lived up to book 1! BUT this is not the case.

We return to our heroes just a few days after the exciting adventures of Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, Hulda feels life could return to some kind of normal with Sirus Hogwood now no longer a threat! But little does she know trouble is on the horizon, and it comes in the form of the London Insitute for the Keeping of Magical Rooms


Maybe Sirus isn't going to leave them in peace just yet....

I loved Owain's role in this book! His new body means he's much more part of the adventure!!
]]> 199372731
“The book is a classic summer beach read...Eruption will revive the art of speed-reading...told with a singular voice that is a compelling amalgam of the two writers.”—USA Today

“Eruption is an epic thriller…fast-paced and deeply considered…a cinematic story rooted in science and infused with plenty of heart, tackling big themes like love and loss.�
–Tľ±łľ±đ

The master of the techno-blockbuster joins forces with the master of the modern thriller to create the most anticipated mega bestseller in years.

Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world’s most popular storyteller.

“Red-hot storytelling... The action scenes will make readers� eyes pop as the tension continues to build." –Kirkus, starred review

“Explosive…the summer’s ultimate literary mashup.� —Washington Post

"Takes readers on a thrilling journey." —BBC

"Beachbag-ready." —Boston Globe

“A seismic publishing event…all the elements of a summer blockbuster…it’s a thrill and the pages practically turn themselves.� —Associated Press

“Eruption is this summer’s literary version of a blockbuster action movie.� –Los Angeles Times

"Breakneck and plausible." —Publishers Weekly]]> 423 Michael Crichton 0316565083 Daniel 5
I love a Michael Crichton novel and read everything and anything that had his name on in my teens and early 20s, and this delivered everything I loved about his work back then.

Heavy on the build-up, we know an eruption is coming, we know it's going to be bad! Buy when it comes, it's dramatic and disastrous in breathtaking measures.

Excellent reading, and I think this in paperback will be scores of people's summer, beach read!]]> 3.79 2024
author: Michael Crichton
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I could not put this book down!

I love a Michael Crichton novel and read everything and anything that had his name on in my teens and early 20s, and this delivered everything I loved about his work back then.

Heavy on the build-up, we know an eruption is coming, we know it's going to be bad! Buy when it comes, it's dramatic and disastrous in breathtaking measures.

Excellent reading, and I think this in paperback will be scores of people's summer, beach read!
]]> 59349100 From the author of the acclaimed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife comes a pitch-black thriller about a woman determined to destroy a powerful cult and avenge the deaths of the women taken in by it, no matter the cost.

While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tiny Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death—delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader—she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it—both inside the cult and outside of it—is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?]]> 385 Ashley Winstead 172822991X Daniel 4
'What the heck am I reading here' and almost game up, but boy am I glad I carried on, I love a twist and whilst yes I saw some of them coming I never saw the end twist popping up.

It's an excellent thriller that ticks all the right boxes if you love a true crime podcast, books about cults, and some really messed up humans (not all of them are messed up, some - like the old couple towards the end are good people!)]]> 3.68 2022
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I'll be honest, there were times when I thought,

'What the heck am I reading here' and almost game up, but boy am I glad I carried on, I love a twist and whilst yes I saw some of them coming I never saw the end twist popping up.

It's an excellent thriller that ticks all the right boxes if you love a true crime podcast, books about cults, and some really messed up humans (not all of them are messed up, some - like the old couple towards the end are good people!)
]]> 60772255
Huge cliffs of ice loom up to the sky.
The sun never sets over the sparkling sea.
And there's a killer on board...

Unable to sleep in the endless eerie daylight, Olivia has no idea who she can trust. And if she can't figure it out soon, she won't make it back alive...]]> Amy McCulloch 0241534925 Daniel 3
Olivia is in a funk, burning out at work and an ill mother to support. she's in need of a break.

When a trip on an art auction on an expedition cruise to Antarctica is organised by her new boyfriend, she's ready to set sail, but then he misses the boat, and she's alone and something doesn't feel right, and then the deaths begin.

Like I said, this book will pass the time but won't have you gasping in amazement.]]> 3.29 2023
author: Amy McCulloch
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Yes, it's a page turner, but nothing is truly original or mind-blowing here.

Olivia is in a funk, burning out at work and an ill mother to support. she's in need of a break.

When a trip on an art auction on an expedition cruise to Antarctica is organised by her new boyfriend, she's ready to set sail, but then he misses the boat, and she's alone and something doesn't feel right, and then the deaths begin.

Like I said, this book will pass the time but won't have you gasping in amazement.
]]> 60596112
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.]]> 347 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662500335 Daniel 5
This book had everything for me and kept me very entertained!

Merritt is surprised to inherit an old house from his grandmother, especially as he's been in exile from his family for some time! He decides to go visit his windfall property only to find that once through the door, he can't leave...

Hulda is used to cheeky houses and arrives to support Merritt with his wayward house! She comes armed with wards and magic of her own but isn't prepared for what lies ahead of her.

Filled with great characters, a good adventure, and a thrilling back story, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for more Whimbrel House stories.]]> 4.14 2022
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Magic, drama, romance, and a mischievous house that is haunted by who knows what!

This book had everything for me and kept me very entertained!

Merritt is surprised to inherit an old house from his grandmother, especially as he's been in exile from his family for some time! He decides to go visit his windfall property only to find that once through the door, he can't leave...

Hulda is used to cheeky houses and arrives to support Merritt with his wayward house! She comes armed with wards and magic of her own but isn't prepared for what lies ahead of her.

Filled with great characters, a good adventure, and a thrilling back story, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for more Whimbrel House stories.
]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Daniel 5
Still a 5* read!

2022 - I loved this book!

It is totally not my genre of book, but I just couldn't stop reading it. I loved the characters so much and they felt like real people I knew.

I know nothing about gaming or the work that goes into them so the plot details acted like an education for me too.

And to be honest I think by the end of the book even I had fallen for Marx.]]> 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: 2022-reading-challenge, summer, 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
2025 - This was a bookclub book choice, and I chose to listen to the story this time and I had completely forgotten the emotional rollercoster that this book was. I still think that the Pioneers section is the most moving piece of fiction I've ever read and that Marx remains one of the loveliest characters ever.

Still a 5* read!

2022 - I loved this book!

It is totally not my genre of book, but I just couldn't stop reading it. I loved the characters so much and they felt like real people I knew.

I know nothing about gaming or the work that goes into them so the plot details acted like an education for me too.

And to be honest I think by the end of the book even I had fallen for Marx.
]]> 219324736
As much as Ben tries to resist, Avery keeps finding new ways to weave himself into Ben’s life, challenging everything he thought he knew about love, business, and himself. In this modern, queer twist on Pride and Prejudice, sparks fly and hearts collide in a story that’s as cozy as it is unpredictable—a perfect exploration of love in a world that doesn’t always make room for it.]]> 272 Samantha Ryan 1955826625 Daniel 4
It held no real surprises, and whilst it's billed as a Pride and Prejudice retelling, I just enjoyed it for what it was; a sweet romantic story that made me laugh and made me happy.

Oh, and thank you, NetGallery, for my free copy ]]> 3.72
author: Samantha Ryan
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I really enjoyed this book, I loved how Avery and Ben's random first meeting created a friendship that developed as they learnt more about each other and spent time together.

It held no real surprises, and whilst it's billed as a Pride and Prejudice retelling, I just enjoyed it for what it was; a sweet romantic story that made me laugh and made me happy.

Oh, and thank you, NetGallery, for my free copy
]]> 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> 338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Daniel 4
I loved her development when she realised that her colleagues were actually human and not the monsters she thought they were (well, except Caitlyn, but even she evolves at the end).

A clever concept and a captivating read! Perfect for January and for people who want to make positive changes in their life!]]> 3.74 2024
author: Natalie Sue
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
I loved Jolene! I have been here too in a soulless job where you hate it and everyone around you.

I loved her development when she realised that her colleagues were actually human and not the monsters she thought they were (well, except Caitlyn, but even she evolves at the end).

A clever concept and a captivating read! Perfect for January and for people who want to make positive changes in their life!
]]> 217970946
WELCOME TO THE SANATORIUM

High up in the mountains stands a sanatorium. Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, it now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past.

One wing of the hospital remains open and houses six employees: the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant.

Despite the wards closing decades ago, they remain at the hospital to conduct research. But the cold corridors, draughty windows and echoey halls are constant reminders of the building’s dark history.

When one of the nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, they discover that death has never left this place � and neither did its secrets. None can escape this terrifying legacy.

Despite just five suspects the case is never solved and remains open for two decades. Until a young criminologist named Helgi Reykdal attempts to finally lay the ghosts of the hospital's past to rest . . .]]> 320 Ragnar JĂłnasson 0241493633 Daniel 5
I loved this book.

The story is reminiscent of a classic golden age crime story, and you can tell that the author is a fan of them and their plots.

1983 - An old TB sanatorium, haunted by its past, is about to become home to two more bodies

2012 - Helgi, a criminologist, is writing a piece on the murders and nor only does it rake up the past for those involved. It rakes up a whole heap of feelings for him around his future.

A superb read.]]> 3.72 2019
author: Ragnar JĂłnasson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Wow!

I loved this book.

The story is reminiscent of a classic golden age crime story, and you can tell that the author is a fan of them and their plots.

1983 - An old TB sanatorium, haunted by its past, is about to become home to two more bodies

2012 - Helgi, a criminologist, is writing a piece on the murders and nor only does it rake up the past for those involved. It rakes up a whole heap of feelings for him around his future.

A superb read.
]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 Daniel 4
I've seen the films and watched S1 of the TV series, but I don't know why I've not read the books (until now!)

Of course, you can make comparisons to Harry Potter, but I found this first book to be better than HP and much more engaging adventure.

I won't bother giving a quick plot outline as I must be the last person in the world to read this book ]]> 4.31 2005
author: Rick Riordan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A very fun read!

I've seen the films and watched S1 of the TV series, but I don't know why I've not read the books (until now!)

Of course, you can make comparisons to Harry Potter, but I found this first book to be better than HP and much more engaging adventure.

I won't bother giving a quick plot outline as I must be the last person in the world to read this book
]]> 1756531 75 Robin Maugham 1853753890 Daniel 4
Barrett is too good to be true. He cooks, cleans, mixes a great cocktail, and knows exactly how to manipulate people to get exactly what he wants...]]> 3.74 1948
author: Robin Maugham
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1948
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A dark and brooding short story of a servant who turns the tables on his employer.

Barrett is too good to be true. He cooks, cleans, mixes a great cocktail, and knows exactly how to manipulate people to get exactly what he wants...
]]> 214628216 32 T.J. Klune Daniel 5
Tasting 1 week of life for 9 years and 51 weeks of hard work opens the eyes of one android, and things will never be the same again!]]> 4.35 2024
author: T.J. Klune
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
For such a short story, it impacted hard.

Tasting 1 week of life for 9 years and 51 weeks of hard work opens the eyes of one android, and things will never be the same again!
]]> 59208826 Lord Rafe Stanmore didn’t just lose his leg in the war; he lost his charming outlook and all his athletic prowess. His best friend, James St. George, brought him through the worst times with his cheerful letters. Rafe can’t bear to face James now he’s so altered, but to placate his sister he agrees to a quick visit. His secret longing for James and the nightly re-lived trauma of the war should be able to stay hidden for a few days.
During the war, James tried to declare his love for Rafe with careful words and extravagant gifts, and never had any indication of his affection being reciprocated. How could gorgeous, athletic, and aristocratic Rafe be interested in polio scarred James? But when Rafe arrives at the farm unexpectedly, James can’t resist giving him all the Christmases he missed. It’s his last chance to show Rafe exactly how he feels.
Four Christmases to reveal a passion that can’t be denied. One last chance to admit the love they’ve been hiding all along.]]> 110 Renée Dahlia Daniel 4
Little does Rafe know that James is very much in love with him and wants nothing more than to spend his years with him.

A delightful read that packs no surprises...]]> 3.58 2021
author: Renée Dahlia
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2025-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Returning from war, damaged both mentally and physically, Rafe goes to stay with his childhood friend James.

Little does Rafe know that James is very much in love with him and wants nothing more than to spend his years with him.

A delightful read that packs no surprises...
]]> 129602
By looking back at seventy years of Penguin paperbacks, Phil Baines charts the development of British publishing, book-cover design and the role of artists and designers in creating and defining the Penguin look. Coupling in-depth analysis of designers - from Jan Tschichold to Romek Marber - with a broad survey of the range of series and titles published - from early Penguins and Pelicans, to wartime and 1960s Specials, Classics, fiction and reference - this is a distinctive picture of how Penguin has consistently established its identity through its covers, influenced by - and influencing - the wider development of graphic design and the changing fashions in typography, photography, illustration and printing techniques.

Filled with inspiring images, 'Penguin By Design' demonstrates just how difficult it is not to judge a book by its cover.]]> 256 Phil Baines 0141024232 Daniel 4
Fascinating and detailed!]]> 4.15 2005
author: Phil Baines
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A lovely pictorial history of Penguin Books and their covers.

Fascinating and detailed!
]]> 20949594 Selected for the inaugural Fence Modern Prize in Prose by Rivka Galchen.

Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue is in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of name or situation or orientation—he may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. Intolerable memory accompanies sobriety. A-sail on the high seas of literary tradition, Ottessa Moshfegh gives us a nasty heartless blackguard on a knife-sharp voyage through the fogs of recollection.

They said I've done something wrong? . . . And they've just left me down here to starve. They'll see this inanition and be so damned they'll fall to my feet and pass up hot cross buns slathered in fresh butter and beg I forgive them. All of them . . . : the entire world one by one. Like a good priest I'll pat their heads and nod. I'll dunk my skull into a barrel of gin.

Ottessa Moshfegh was awarded the 2013 Plimpton Discovery Prize for her stories in the Paris Review and a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford, and lives in Oakland, California.
]]> 118 Ottessa Moshfegh 1934200859 Daniel 4
Beautifully written and with characters you both love and detest in equal measure.]]> 3.33 2014
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
It is a beautiful and depressing tale filled with love and drink, but mostly depression.

Beautifully written and with characters you both love and detest in equal measure.
]]> 60375290
Here are ten classic crime stories for the winter months, from the greatest minds of the mystery genre. So bundle up, grab a glass of mulled wine, and get ready to be puzzled, astonished and entertained by these festive stories of murder and mayhem.]]> 192 Cecily Gayford 1800812450 Daniel 3
Dorothy L. Sayers probably wrote the best short story, and to be honest, Gladys Mitchell, the worst!]]> 3.19
author: Cecily Gayford
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.19
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
A real mix here of the terrible to the 'ha, that was okay,' but not one of these short stories stood out for me as excellent.

Dorothy L. Sayers probably wrote the best short story, and to be honest, Gladys Mitchell, the worst!
]]> 128117005
When, on Christmas Eve, Andrew’s unpopular, blackmailing curate gets himself murdered, things all get a bit (hilariously) overwhelming for poor out-of-her-depth Lady "Who was in your sitting room during that interval? Say four-thirty on Tuesday, and ten or eleven yesterday morning?" "If you had ever lived in a vicarage you wouldn't ask questions like that; people just walk in and out all day long. When Andrew asked me to marry him, he said he was afraid I should find it very quiet here, and what he meant I can't imagine! If I wanted quiet I'd rather retire to the Tower of Babel with a saxophone."

Lupin enlists old society pals Duds and Tommy Lethbridge, as well as Andrew’s nephew, a British secret service agent, to get at the truth. Lupin refuses to believe that Diana Lloyd, 38-year-old author of the children’s detective stories, could’ve done the deed and casts her net over the other parishioners. But all the suspects seem so nice - very much more so than the victim.]]> 228 Joan Coggin 191553013X Daniel 4
This book was equal parts Wodehouse (P G) and Heyer (Georgette) with a good dash of Christie (Agatha), and I loved it.

Lady Lupin marries for love, and her husband is vicar to the 'quiet' village of Glansville only from the moment she arrives she's inundated with unexpected visitors and requests to join the local societies! Then that curate dies, and all hopes of a quiet Christmas are off...

Silly, fun and filled with wit.]]> 3.45 1944
author: Joan Coggin
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1944
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
It's a lovely way to end the Christmas season - with a murder and a village filled with suspects...

This book was equal parts Wodehouse (P G) and Heyer (Georgette) with a good dash of Christie (Agatha), and I loved it.

Lady Lupin marries for love, and her husband is vicar to the 'quiet' village of Glansville only from the moment she arrives she's inundated with unexpected visitors and requests to join the local societies! Then that curate dies, and all hopes of a quiet Christmas are off...

Silly, fun and filled with wit.
]]> 690146
First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding� then the discovery of a corpse in a chest� next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder� the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits� and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide.

What links these five baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot!]]> 304 Agatha Christie 0007121083 Daniel 5
You can get a sense of the changing world here with men in tight trousers and girls taking flats in Chelsea ]]> 3.79 1960
author: Agatha Christie
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: 2020-reading-challenge, autumn, 2023-reading-challenge, 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
2024 - A reread of The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (again) I love the history in the story, the tales of Christmas past mixing with the modern day.

You can get a sense of the changing world here with men in tight trousers and girls taking flats in Chelsea
]]> 59650329 Will friends become lovers this Christmas?

Sam
People joke that Etienne and I are boyfriends, but whatever.

Sure, I think about him all the time—he's my best friend. If I've missed him way more than I expected when he left to train with a new skating coach, that’s because he’s so easy to hang with. And yeah, he’s gay, but he’s not into me. Why would he be? I’m straight.

We're not boyfriends.

But now Etienne needs me, so I’m rushing to the mountain village where he's skating in a holiday show. That’s what best friends do.

Etienne
I know Sam will never like me the way I like him.

Never love me the way I love him.

But now that my competitive skating career might be suddenly ending, I need my best friend by my side. Thank god Sam’s spending the holidays with me.

It's okay that he'll never love me back.

It’s okay that there's only one bed in this cozy little cabin.

We’re best friends. Nothing’s going to happen.

Only One Bed is a gay Christmas story from Keira Andrews featuring friends to lovers, forced proximity, bisexual awakening, first times, snowy holiday vibes, and of course a happy ending.]]> 121 Keira Andrews 198826068X Daniel 3
Sam is in love with Etienne he just doesn't know it, and Etienne is VERY much in love with Sam... Who can guess what happens next?

(This was based around figure skating, not ice hockey, so I'm definitely moving away from my typical genre ]]> 3.76 2021
author: Keira Andrews
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
Sweet, predicatable, and with a hint of Christmas...

Sam is in love with Etienne he just doesn't know it, and Etienne is VERY much in love with Sam... Who can guess what happens next?

(This was based around figure skating, not ice hockey, so I'm definitely moving away from my typical genre
]]> 204360011 I've been low-key obsessed with my brother's best friend, Luke Alexander, I walked in on him hooking up. With a guy. We've never talked about it. That worked for years, but I've been traded and Luke is now my captain. We need to discuss what happened, and how it made me feel. Because we're on the same team —maybe in more ways than one� and I want Luke to help me figure that out.

Luke
I've worked very hard at ignoring Noah Prince since he walked in on me in the most compromising situation possible. I don't care what he thinks, even though he turned out to be a pro hockey player, just like me. Even though he ended up on my team. Even though he has pierced nipples now and it's hot AF. But my tough guy attitude gets blown to smithereens when Noah tells me he wants to know what it's like to be with a man. Not just any man, but me. Can I let him experiment with me and not catch feelings?]]> Victoria Denault 9781739002 Daniel 3
It delivers exactly what you'd expect - enemies (barely) to friends to lovers with some steamy sex scenes...

I seem to have read A LOT of these sports based MM stories this year, and I blame Kindle and their cheap deals ]]> 3.54
author: Victoria Denault
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, winter
review:
It is a very tenuous festive link here as the bulk of it is set around the holiday season.

It delivers exactly what you'd expect - enemies (barely) to friends to lovers with some steamy sex scenes...

I seem to have read A LOT of these sports based MM stories this year, and I blame Kindle and their cheap deals
]]> 2750728
No one could understand, that is, except young Noah Kubichek, who loved the museum with its dusty odor of animal skins, camphor , and pressed leaves and went there to visit Uncle Willie as often as he could.

On this particular day in November he was sent to ask for Uncle Willie's help at the store - it was something about the Christmas decorations, he explained - "Don't you remember, Uncle Willie? The birds. The Twelve Days of Christmas theme. Remember?" Uncle Willie did remember, but even he didn't foresee just how hopelessly (and riotously) entangled biology and merchandising could become.

Though The Christmas Bower is an allegory in a a way, all the science part of the book is real. It is the only known work of ornithological science fiction, full of quips and quibbles, and is especially recommended for reading aloud by the whole family.]]> 192 Polly Redford 0525278478 Daniel 4
Luckily, Uncle Willie and Noah are on hand to bring peace and harmony back to the departments and all with the help and support of the array of characters that make up the staff at Hartman's.

Fun and so very, very chaotic]]> 3.62 1967
author: Polly Redford
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Christmas chaos reigns after it's decided to use real birds in the Christmas displays at Hartman & Company department store.

Luckily, Uncle Willie and Noah are on hand to bring peace and harmony back to the departments and all with the help and support of the array of characters that make up the staff at Hartman's.

Fun and so very, very chaotic
]]> 60778947 From the creators of The Haunting Season comes a dazzling collection of never-before-seen ghostly tales.

The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries. These twelve stories, authored by some of today's most loved and lauded writers of historical and gothic fiction, are all centered on Christmas or Advent, boldly and playfully re-imagining a beloved tradition for a modern audience. Taking you from a haunted Tuscan villa to a remote Scottish island with a dark secret, these stories are your ultimate companion for frosty nights.

Featuring new and original stories from Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Natasha Pulley, Elizabeth Macneal, Laura Purcell, Susan Stokes Chapman, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Stuart Turton, and Catriona Ward.]]> 464 Bridget Collins Daniel 4
HOWEVER, this was a very good collection of stories all set to entertain when the night is darkest and the wind is loudest.

As always, Laura Purcell wrote a wonderfully gothic and spooky story, and this stood out as the top one for me.

But every single one was good, and I hope there will be a 3rd collection next year.]]> 3.97 2023
author: Bridget Collins
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
I am always wary of collections of short stories as they are bit like a Christmas buffet where you have the amazing mixed in with the average...

HOWEVER, this was a very good collection of stories all set to entertain when the night is darkest and the wind is loudest.

As always, Laura Purcell wrote a wonderfully gothic and spooky story, and this stood out as the top one for me.

But every single one was good, and I hope there will be a 3rd collection next year.
]]> 60127385 Cat Sebastian Daniel 2
I'll stick to the books they're pretty awesome.]]> 4.29 2021
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
I'll be honest I only came for the Cabots and that was okay, not that festive, really...

I'll stick to the books they're pretty awesome.
]]> 205560348 Quinn wants to save his bookshop, the last thing he needs is to fall in love�

Hay-on-Wye’s only queer bookshop is always a hive of activity. So when it’s threatened with closure, its owner Quinn Oxford is determined to do whatever it takes to save his beloved shop.

That is until romantic novelist Noah Sage arrives in town. Gorgeous, brooding and clearly unhappy to be there, Noah is the distraction Quinn doesn’t need. Noah has a history with Hay and it’s one he’d rather not face. But when the snow leaves him stranded, he’s left with no choice.

Hay is a small town, meaning Quinn can’t help but bump into Noah wherever he goes. And as the two grow closer together, is it possible that Noah’s feelings towards Hay will thaw? Can Quinn have a real-life romance and save his beloved bookshop? Or will he need a Christmas miracle�

The perfect festive romcom for fans of Casey McQuiston and Alexis Hall!

Tropes:
- Small Town
- Forced Proximity
- Grumpy x Sunshine]]> 405 Jack Strange 0008659575 Daniel 4
Quinn runs the only queer bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, and it's a pivotal part of the wonderful bookish town, but he's hiding from the truth that it might all get pulled away from him!!

Adding to the drama is Noah, the handsome writer back in town and catching Quinn's eye.

We honestly all knew this book would have a happy ending, but that didn't spoil the fun.]]> 3.77
author: Jack Strange
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A lovely sentimental festive read.

Quinn runs the only queer bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, and it's a pivotal part of the wonderful bookish town, but he's hiding from the truth that it might all get pulled away from him!!

Adding to the drama is Noah, the handsome writer back in town and catching Quinn's eye.

We honestly all knew this book would have a happy ending, but that didn't spoil the fun.
]]> 60108675 Jess Lourey 0738731889 Daniel 4
Mira heads home for the holidays and trouble, death, murder and mystery follows her. Luckily, her trusty sidekick and pets are on hand to help but will they help enough before the Candy Cane Killer strikes again....]]> 4.04 2012
author: Jess Lourey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
I enjoyed this mystery even though the killer is very easy to spot!

Mira heads home for the holidays and trouble, death, murder and mystery follows her. Luckily, her trusty sidekick and pets are on hand to help but will they help enough before the Candy Cane Killer strikes again....
]]> 221403538 From Canadian Screen Award winner Ken Cuperus, with Ginny & Georgia’s Raymond Ablack, plus a stellar ensemble cast featuring Anna Cathcart (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before), Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars), Alex Mallari Jr (Ginny and Georgia) and Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience), this new season of the Audible Original will help you prepare for yet another cozy (and criminal) holiday season.

When Emily Lane isn’t busy running her charming Christmas-themed store, �’Under the Mistletoe,�� located in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove, she finds herself compelled to investigate not so quaint local murders. On the surface, Emily is a perfectly lovely, good-natured puzzle-solver and mystery lover. But she is hiding a secret past that has finally begun to catch up with her, as an old acquaintance arrives to throw a wedge between Emily and Sam’s burgeoning relationship, and worse, threatens to destroy the new life Emily has built for herself.]]> 4 Ken Cuperus Daniel 3 Story 2. 4 stars
Story 3. 2 stars

So I went for a 3 star over all.

There was too much secret ops talk and not really enough small town detective work in this return to Fletcher's Grove.]]> 4.12
author: Ken Cuperus
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Story 1. 3 stars
Story 2. 4 stars
Story 3. 2 stars

So I went for a 3 star over all.

There was too much secret ops talk and not really enough small town detective work in this return to Fletcher's Grove.
]]> 220389465 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 59 Tessa Bailey 1662528736 Daniel 1 What utter dross... 2.79 2024
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Daniel
average rating: 2.79
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
What utter dross...
]]> 220389458 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 73 Ali Hazelwood 1662528396 Daniel 4
A holiday romance this is not (well, not until the end), this is a reflective piece on why you should follow your heart and maybe listen to your head less!

An excellent December read.]]> 3.68 2024
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
By the end of this book, I was in love with Mark!!!

A holiday romance this is not (well, not until the end), this is a reflective piece on why you should follow your heart and maybe listen to your head less!

An excellent December read.
]]> 112975144
Escaping to NYU for college didn’t turn out the way Cameron planned—he’s flunking his theater classes, about to lose his scholarship, and he still hasn’t found anyone he can call his “people.� When he gets home for winter break, he’s so desperate to avoid a Conversation with his dad that he takes the first acting job he can get—as a mall elf. Despite how Scroogey he feels, the plus side is that there’s a cash prize for the most festive of Santa’s helpers.

But the competition is fierce—especially from fellow elf Marco. Christmas spirit oozes out of his veins. At first Cam is determined to see him as nothing but a rival, but as they spend more time together, Cam starts to second-guess himself. What if he’s finally found his people here—in the fakest consumerist nightmare place on Earth, where he least expected it?]]> 256 David Valdes 0063288885 Daniel 3
Clichéd to the max...

Cam returns home about to drop out of college and gets a job as a Mall Elf to earn some money, and then he can escape the town that he wants to leave behind....]]> 3.50 2023
author: David Valdes
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A very predictable story whose main character was really too self-centred to be redeemed (in my opinion).

Clichéd to the max...

Cam returns home about to drop out of college and gets a job as a Mall Elf to earn some money, and then he can escape the town that he wants to leave behind....
]]> 210040063 Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.]]> 112 Nita Prose 0593875443 Daniel 4
Molly, however, is delightful as ever and not letting Christmas get in the way of her busy life! We get to meet all the characters we know and love from the first books, and it's nice to see them not having to solve a death and enjoy some festive cheer.

A 3.5 (but rounded up as it's nearly Chriatmas)]]> 3.41 2024
author: Nita Prose
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
It's not my favourite story with Molly as its less of a mystery and more of a romantic story.

Molly, however, is delightful as ever and not letting Christmas get in the way of her busy life! We get to meet all the characters we know and love from the first books, and it's nice to see them not having to solve a death and enjoy some festive cheer.

A 3.5 (but rounded up as it's nearly Chriatmas)
]]> 59993984
Caleb

I couldn't admit I loved Blake in high school. He's prickly as a porcupine, and I don't blame him one bit after the way I ghosted him. I want him now more than ever. Will he give us a second chance? I'm willing to beg.

Blake

My first love is the last man I expect to show up to help me chop down Christmas trees. I’ve downsized for van life, and I was enjoying the peace and quiet in the middle of nowhere.

Then a blizzard strikes. We’re stuck together in my van, and I won’t give in to temptation. But I can’t stop wanting him even though he broke my heart�

This M/M romance by Keira Andrews features forced proximity, lonely men with a second chance at romance, steamy snowed-in shenanigans, and of course a happy ending.]]> 87 Keira Andrews Daniel 3
Friends, enemies, friends, lovers... (oh and a hint of Snow and Christmas)

The End]]> 3.53 2022
author: Keira Andrews
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Very much a paint by numbers raunchy romance..

Friends, enemies, friends, lovers... (oh and a hint of Snow and Christmas)

The End
]]> 59480058 34 Ben Shattuck Daniel 5
A beautiful short story of love, found and love lost.]]> 4.12 2024
author: Ben Shattuck
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, spring
review:
Wow! I read with tears in my eyes.

A beautiful short story of love, found and love lost.
]]> 43263680
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]> 461 Leigh Bardugo 1250313074 Daniel 4
Fitting in at university is always difficult, but Alex has more problems than most to deal with as not only does she have the living to deal with, but she also has the dead. That paired with her side job of keeping the secret societies in line and keeping her grades up becomes much more difficult when a local girl turns up dead on campus.

Wonderfully dark, complex and thrilling.]]> 4.00 2019
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A brilliant mystery, filled with secret societies and dark magic!

Fitting in at university is always difficult, but Alex has more problems than most to deal with as not only does she have the living to deal with, but she also has the dead. That paired with her side job of keeping the secret societies in line and keeping her grades up becomes much more difficult when a local girl turns up dead on campus.

Wonderfully dark, complex and thrilling.
]]> 219210458
With sole custody of her brother, Kennedy has more to worry about than the antics of his favorite YouTube creators. But when one called Kidd launches an absurd challenge—with a large payday—to celebrate ten million subscribers, she winds up playing high-stakes hide-and-seek in the mall. After the game gets dangerous, she has to wonder: Is someone really out for the ultimate unsubscribe?

Kellye Garrett’s One Lucky Subscriber is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 39 Kellye Garrett 1662525478 Daniel 3
BUT the writing was good, and I'd read longer, more of her longer books.]]> 2.77 2024
author: Kellye Garrett
name: Daniel
average rating: 2.77
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
It's my least favourite in this series! I disliked the characters, and the concept of hide and seek for likes just didn't entertain me. Plus, I thought the crime was weak.

BUT the writing was good, and I'd read longer, more of her longer books.
]]> 60108670 280 Jess Lourey 0738731366 Daniel 4
I liked the quirky small town setting and the murder she wrote style of story, but it wasn't afraid to gloss over the darker aspects of small town life either.

When asked to investigate an accidental shooting, town librarian Mira finds there's a lot going on in the under belly of Battle Lake and, worst of all, a big old snow storm is on its way...]]> 3.88 2012
author: Jess Lourey
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
I know I started this series midway through, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment!

I liked the quirky small town setting and the murder she wrote style of story, but it wasn't afraid to gloss over the darker aspects of small town life either.

When asked to investigate an accidental shooting, town librarian Mira finds there's a lot going on in the under belly of Battle Lake and, worst of all, a big old snow storm is on its way...
]]> 16333
When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's: traditional décor and impeccable service. But she senses an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. Not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric hotel guest makes his way to the airport one day late!

Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel, "At Bertram's Hotel." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."]]> 223 Agatha Christie Daniel 4
The Start - I loved it, a glimpse into the social history of people and their needs between that pre and post war era to the developing world of the 1960's all seen through the eyes of Miss Marple.

The Middle - Seriously! What the heck, it was a riot of drama, crime and the oddest storyline!!

The End - A hangover of an ending! Some of the chaos of the middle came through (like the escape scene) but also some brilliant writing sewing up all the ends of all the Mysteries and Miss Marple certainly not letting them get away.

A good read, that kept me turning pages just so I could find out what the hell was going on! ]]> 3.72 1965
author: Agatha Christie
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/28
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: 2020-reading-challenge, summer
review:
This book was a complete three parter for me.

The Start - I loved it, a glimpse into the social history of people and their needs between that pre and post war era to the developing world of the 1960's all seen through the eyes of Miss Marple.

The Middle - Seriously! What the heck, it was a riot of drama, crime and the oddest storyline!!

The End - A hangover of an ending! Some of the chaos of the middle came through (like the escape scene) but also some brilliant writing sewing up all the ends of all the Mysteries and Miss Marple certainly not letting them get away.

A good read, that kept me turning pages just so I could find out what the hell was going on!
]]> 219197882
A million problems arise when trying to flip a crumbling old Victorian. But Lyda, a newbie seller, and Dani, a TikTok-trained home stager, are fixated on one: the dead landscaper in the bedroom. The notorious lothario was one of many last-minute contractors swarming around, and now every jilted lover and business competitor is a suspect. It’s up to Lyda and Dani to close the case before the open house.

Elle Cosimano’s Staged is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 43 Elle Cosimano 1662525117 Daniel 4
A perfect house for sale and the perfect location for a murder!

Lyda needs to sell this perfect Victorian house, and now she's landed the help of Dani, whose a Tik Tok trained house setter she knows she's going to do it this time! That is until they find their landsacper dead in the master suite....]]> 3.23 2024
author: Elle Cosimano
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
My favourite so far!

A perfect house for sale and the perfect location for a murder!

Lyda needs to sell this perfect Victorian house, and now she's landed the help of Dani, whose a Tik Tok trained house setter she knows she's going to do it this time! That is until they find their landsacper dead in the master suite....
]]> 219210456 Very Bad Company and former executive editor at Elle.

When a $3 million Bulgari diamond necklace disappears into thin air during a locked photo shoot, the suspects are all on set. There’s the magazine’s new editor-in-chief with much to prove, the tarnished photographer she’s indebted to, the fallen star who swooped in when her young rival got sick, and the grandiose stylist. But it’s the lowly assistant who must solve the case—and find the gems before taking the blame.

Emma Rosenblum’s Crime of Fashion is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 40 Emma Rosenblum 1662526865 Daniel 4
Fun and fashionable.]]> 3.06 2024
author: Emma Rosenblum
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
The Devil Wears Prada meets Murder She Wrote (aka fashion and some sleuthing)

Fun and fashionable.
]]> 219210461 USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.

Time rewinds at the video store—the clerk is always hot and grumpy, and kindly retiree Mr. Hoffman rents the same thing every week. Audrey hangs around for both these reasons. But when her fellow film buff fails to appear, she goes to his house over the protests of her flannelly video store crush, who knows more than he lets on. It’s just like a movie. And she’s worried about the twist.

Alicia Thompson’s A Classic Case is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 45 Alicia Thompson 1662524978 Daniel 4
I really enjoyed this short story. It was the perfect amount of screwball comedy, murder mystery, and a hint of romance.]]> 3.52 2024
author: Alicia Thompson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A delightful mystery just like in the movies that Audrey likes to rent from Grant's vintage film rental shop.

I really enjoyed this short story. It was the perfect amount of screwball comedy, murder mystery, and a hint of romance.
]]> 219210462
Josephine Ying longs to overthrow Big Uncle as the best host, and after his roast duck incident, she’s finally getting her chance this Chinese New Year. Even better, her son is bringing a surprise. Unfortunately, the surprise turns out to be a gold-digging fiancée—who dies at the dinner table. Her problems just got a lot bigger than hosting the perfect meal. Certain there’s a killer at the table, Josephine sharpens her questions to find them out.

Jesse Q. Sutanto’s The Reunion Dinner is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 35 Jesse Q. Sutanto 1662526199 Daniel 4
That is until Josephine's son arrives with his new fiancee, a woman who has more enemies at the dinner than friends.

And then she has the audacity to get murdered....

It's a brilliant short story!]]> 3.37 2024
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
The perfect dinner, the perfect setting, and the perfect host all add up to the perfect Chinese New Year.

That is until Josephine's son arrives with his new fiancee, a woman who has more enemies at the dinner than friends.

And then she has the audacity to get murdered....

It's a brilliant short story!
]]> 219210405
Meddlesome Marge keeps too close a watch on her neighbor’s house across the street in this twisty short story from Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

For decades, Marge has been spying on her neighbors Doris and Bob, reporting every sordid thing she sees to her husband, Harold. Flamboyant Doris and boring Bob are an odd couple, but as Marge watches their comings and goings, she starts to wonder if there’s more than meets the eye. Is Doris’s latest hobby—flamenco dancing, of all things—an attempt to spice things up, or is there something more sinister going on in the house across the street? Soon enough, Marge learns that digging into her suspicions means digging herself into a very deep hole.

Nita Prose’s The Nosy Neighbor is part of Busybodies, a collection of quirky mysteries featuring amateur gumshoes who stumble upon peculiar cases. Calling all snoops! Read or listen to each arresting story in a single sitting.]]> 29 Nita Prose 1662525192 Daniel 4
What Marge doesn't realise is that all her "help" isn't appreciated and certainly not by her frienemy Doris...]]> 3.36 2024
author: Nita Prose
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Neighbours really should keep themselves to themselves, but no, there's always one who likes to keep an eye out on the comings and goings....

What Marge doesn't realise is that all her "help" isn't appreciated and certainly not by her frienemy Doris...
]]> 16346 241 Charles Osborne 0002261987 Daniel 4
I absolutely picked up more on the comedy on this listen, too.

Clarissa is a bored Whitehall wife, and she longs for drama and excitement, but I think this is a case of being careful what you wish for...

2022 - A fun mystery that you could tell was not a Christie novel but a play.

It cluncked along, at rather an odd pace, filled with odd characters but with a great mystery threaded through it.

I'd love to see it on stage, but I was left disappointed by the book.

3 stars.]]> 3.99 2000
author: Charles Osborne
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: 2022-reading-challenge, spring, 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
2024 - I think I might have listened to a different version this time as I really didn't find the story clunky at all.

I absolutely picked up more on the comedy on this listen, too.

Clarissa is a bored Whitehall wife, and she longs for drama and excitement, but I think this is a case of being careful what you wish for...

2022 - A fun mystery that you could tell was not a Christie novel but a play.

It cluncked along, at rather an odd pace, filled with odd characters but with a great mystery threaded through it.

I'd love to see it on stage, but I was left disappointed by the book.

3 stars.
]]> 210495899
Zeke Cassidy needs a place to live. When he answers an advertisement for a roommate, he’s not sure what he is expecting except that it isn’t Carter Morgan III. Carter is unfriendly, aloof, and they have nothing in common; even so, the pair hit it off immediately and become friends.

Carter knows Zeke isn’t interested in being anything beyond friends and roommates. Unfortunately, knowing this doesn’t stop him from hoping for more, no matter how much he tries to convince himself it’s impossible.]]> 320 J.J. Mulder 1967245150 Daniel 4
Filled with joy and hope, it doesn't matter. it's predictable and that we knew there was only one type of ending going to happen here (happy, by the way).

I thought that the author did a great job of the dual narrators and bought their personalities off the page.

Great read.]]> 3.86 2024
author: J.J. Mulder
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
This book was the perfect antidote to my current glum mood.

Filled with joy and hope, it doesn't matter. it's predictable and that we knew there was only one type of ending going to happen here (happy, by the way).

I thought that the author did a great job of the dual narrators and bought their personalities off the page.

Great read.
]]> 61127933 With David’s movie camera, they set up a secret film studio, capturing incriminating reels of the rich and powerful committing all manner of compromising acts. As Paris falls to Hitler and the occupation takes hold, senior Nazis commandeer David’s mansion as their personal brothel. Anders and David begin secretly filming the Nazis� trysts, scattering the evidence across Paris. Anders’s old flame, Eilas, returns as an SS officer. Jean hatches a plot with the Resistance to assassinate Eilas’s superior, the head of the SS in Paris, where blackmail and betrayal, love and survival are all part of the answer to the question, Why in Paris?]]> 339 Harry F. Rey 1645993639 Daniel 2
I really found the characters flat, and I didn't have any empathy for them, sadly.

I wanted Anders to be more three-dimensional as the book progressed, but he just stayed the same throughout.]]> 4.61
author: Harry F. Rey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Meh, a plodding and quite boring 'romp' around WW2 Paris.

I really found the characters flat, and I didn't have any empathy for them, sadly.

I wanted Anders to be more three-dimensional as the book progressed, but he just stayed the same throughout.
]]> 204923277 352 Anita Frank 0008702934 Daniel 4
The ending didn't come as much of a surprise, but I still found myself needing to know what would happen next.

Equally as gripping and as mysterious as The Lost Ones.]]> 3.81 2023
author: Anita Frank
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A country house in need of a servant and a family hiding something all spells trouble, mystery, and drama in this atmospheric story.

The ending didn't come as much of a surprise, but I still found myself needing to know what would happen next.

Equally as gripping and as mysterious as The Lost Ones.
]]> 1015950 192 Giles Worsley 1854108204 Daniel 5 2024-reading-challenge 4.26 2002
author: Giles Worsley
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge
review:
Exquisite and as always an incredible eye opener to the houses lost to history.
]]> 65213896 The Bell in the Fog, a dazzling historical mystery by Lev AC Rosen, asks―once you have finally found a family, how far would you go to prove yourself to them?

San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy� Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective―but his business hasn’t exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help.

When James, an old flame from the war who had mysteriously disappeared, arrives in his offices above the Ruby, Andy wants to kick him out. But the job seems to be a simple case of blackmail, and Andy’s debts are piling up. He agrees to investigate, despite everything it stirs up.

The case will take him back to the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, and then out into the gay bars of the city, where the past rises up to meet him, like the swell of the ocean under a warship. Missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos that could destroy lives are a whirlpool around him, and Andy better make sense of it all before someone pulls him under for good.]]> 261 Lev A.C. Rosen 1250834252 Daniel 4
I love the noir writing and the atmospheric settings. This book reminded me of a Dorothy B Hughes book with its fog and mist!

I'm looking forward to book 3.]]> 4.14 2023
author: Lev A.C. Rosen
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Andy returns to solve another mystery in queer California, and this time, it's darker and more personal.

I love the noir writing and the atmospheric settings. This book reminded me of a Dorothy B Hughes book with its fog and mist!

I'm looking forward to book 3.
]]> 75668283 A Lesson in VengeanceĚýłľ±đ±đłŮ˛ő The Taking of Jake Livingston in this page-turning YA horror/fantasy set in dark academia about a queer Black teen who discovers the sinister history of his boarding school and the corrupt powers behind it all.

Regent Academy has a long and storied history in Winslow, Vermont, as does the forest that surrounds it. The school is known for molding teens into leaders, but its history is far more nefarious.

Seventeen-year-old Douglas Jones wants nothing to do with Regent's king-making; he’s just trying to survive. But then a student is murdered and, for some reason, by the next day no one remembers him having ever existed, except for Douglas and the groundskeeper's son, Everett Everley. In his determination to uncover the truth, Douglas awakens a horror hidden within the forest, unearthing secrets that have been buried for centuries. A vengeful creature wants blood as payment for a debt more than 300 years in the making—or it will swallow all of Winslow in darkness.

And for the first time in his life, Douglas might have a chance to grasp the one thing he’s always felt was power. But if he’s not careful, he will find out that power has a tendency to corrupt absolutely everything.

A high-octane mystery of murder and magic for fans of Ace of Spades, House of Hollow, and Get Out!]]> 432 Kosoko Jackson 0063260794 Daniel 4
I did find Douglas very childish at the start of the story, but as his journey progresses, he goes from a young teen with nothing but attitude to a more mature teen who understands more about himself and his world.

This was a perfect read to end October, and my run of reading all things spooky, witchy, and horrifying.]]> 3.49 2023
author: Kosoko Jackson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A really good YA, queer horror novel. I loved the dark academia vibes that run through this story, too!

I did find Douglas very childish at the start of the story, but as his journey progresses, he goes from a young teen with nothing but attitude to a more mature teen who understands more about himself and his world.

This was a perfect read to end October, and my run of reading all things spooky, witchy, and horrifying.
]]> 58890948
The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.]]> 240 Kiersten White 0593359232 Daniel 4
Fast-paced adventure, thriller, and horror combined!

I loved the characters and their backstories, but I was left heartbroken the moment you hear Brandon's backstory, and you realise the whole reason for his existence, and then he realises it too!

Excellent Halloween read ]]> 3.30 2022
author: Kiersten White
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
A clever retelling of the legend of the Minotaur.

Fast-paced adventure, thriller, and horror combined!

I loved the characters and their backstories, but I was left heartbroken the moment you hear Brandon's backstory, and you realise the whole reason for his existence, and then he realises it too!

Excellent Halloween read
]]> 201102396 Willow’s worst nightmare was being cancelled. But the woods of Camp Castaway might destroy more than her reputation.After sitcom star Willow tweeted herself into infamy and had to be dragged blind-drunk out of a swimming pool, her agent shipped her off to the woodsy and wonderfully anonymous confines of Camp Castaway. Tucked away in the trees of upstate New York, Castaway is a summer camp for adults in desperate need of leaving behind their mistakes, their social media accounts, their lives. No real names, no phones…no way to call for help.Willow is relieved to find that her fellow campers seem okay. To her shock, her own favorite actress is here, sitting by the campfire and roasting a s’more. And did that jaded writer, Dani, just wink at her? But the peaceful vibe is shattered when a terrifying woman pops shrieking from the wardrobe in Willow’s room. Soon after, one of the campers vanishes. Is Willow about to get cancelled all over again, this time for good?Soon, terror grips the group, campers begin to lose their heads—literally!—and Willow and her new friends are on the run. As paranoia grows and disturbing past deeds come to light, this escape from their shallow lifestyles might just lead to a set of shallow graves.]]> 314 Josh Winning 0593544692 Daniel 4
And this book is a great murderous urban legend stalks a summer camp looking for their next victim! But this time the victims aren't horny teens looking for summer fun, it's a group of adults who've all been "cancelled" in the real world or who need a break from the rat race.

"Willow" was a perfect final girl, and I loved how she knew all the tropes and didn't fall for them (almost).

Witty and good fun (well, except for those poor campers....)]]> 3.51 2024
author: Josh Winning
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
We all know Summer Camps are good for two things....

And this book is a great murderous urban legend stalks a summer camp looking for their next victim! But this time the victims aren't horny teens looking for summer fun, it's a group of adults who've all been "cancelled" in the real world or who need a break from the rat race.

"Willow" was a perfect final girl, and I loved how she knew all the tropes and didn't fall for them (almost).

Witty and good fun (well, except for those poor campers....)
]]> 210847437 Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while, either.

Balancing work at her beloved Lunar Books with protecting it from her toxic boss, who’s running it into the ground, and all the while concealing her witchcraft from the non-wicches around her � Belle is burnt out. Perfecting the potential of her magic is the last thing on her mind.

But when her 30th birthday brings a summons from her coven, and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle risks losing her magic forever. With the month of October to fix things, and signs that dark forces may be working against her, Belle will need all the help she can get � from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure, and even an (infuriatingly handsome) watchman who’s sworn to protect her . . .

With found family, slow burn romance and an uplifting message about self-love, this is the cosy, autumnal read that you've been waiting for.]]> 384 Lucy Jane Wood 059382007X Daniel 5
Bella is a witch, not a good one, as she mainly uses her magic for tidying up and staring tea! But on her 30th birthday, things take an unexpected and dramatic turn that prompts her to up her game and start casting some spells that really matter....

A very witty and jam-packed read! I loved it.]]> 3.81 2024
author: Lucy Jane Wood
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Filled with friendship, bookshops, mystery, and magic, this book has everything for an October read, although I listened to it and loved the narrator.

Bella is a witch, not a good one, as she mainly uses her magic for tidying up and staring tea! But on her 30th birthday, things take an unexpected and dramatic turn that prompts her to up her game and start casting some spells that really matter....

A very witty and jam-packed read! I loved it.
]]> 7807091
Written when the author was a 20-year-old student at Michigan State University, No Transfer (1967) earned stellar reviews from the nation's leading critics and remains a gripping horror story like no other you have ever read.]]> 240 Stephen Walton 0441586201 Daniel 4
A clever and dark spin on the age-old academia tale! One that very much reminded me of a Shirley Jackson story - dark things happen in everyday places.]]> 3.50 1967
author: Stephen Walton
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
Modern University is a place where you get the opportunity to shine, excel, and become a grown-up! But don't let your grades drop or turn your attention from your studies. Otherwise, you might find yourself victim to the self-discipline plan....

A clever and dark spin on the age-old academia tale! One that very much reminded me of a Shirley Jackson story - dark things happen in everyday places.
]]> 761381
Eight costumed boys running to meet their friend Pipkin at the haunted house outside town encounter instead the huge and cadaverous Mr. Moundshroud. As Pipkin scrambles to join them, he is swept away by a dark Something, and Moundshroud leads the boys on the tail of a kite through time and space to search the past for their friend and the meaning of Halloween.]]> 145 Ray Bradbury 0375803017 Daniel 5
Eight boys, all dressed for Halloween, encounter the mysterious Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud and are taken on an adventure through time to try and save their friend Pipkin.

Wonderfully atmospheric and perfect for an Autumnal weekend read.]]> 3.81 1972
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
What an incredible short story about the history of Halloween!

Eight boys, all dressed for Halloween, encounter the mysterious Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud and are taken on an adventure through time to try and save their friend Pipkin.

Wonderfully atmospheric and perfect for an Autumnal weekend read.
]]> 66087026
Almost-authentic medium Claire and her best friend, Sophie, agree to take on a seemingly simple job at a crumbling old manor in the English performing a seance for the family matriarch's 80th birthday. The pair have been friends since before Sophie went missing when they were seventeen. Everyone else is convinced Sophie simply ran away, but Claire knows the truth. Claire knows Sophie was murdered because Sophie has been haunting her ever since.

Despite this traumatic past, Claire and Sophie are still unprepared for what they encounter when they arrive: a ghost, tragic and unrecognizable, and clearly the spirit of someone killed in a rage at the previous year's party. Given her obsession with crime shows—not to mention Sophie's ability to walk through walls—Claire decides they're the best people to solve the case. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host family—sexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alex—they launch an investigation into which of last year's guests never escaped the manor's grounds.

What follows is somewhat irregular detective work involving stealing a priest's cassock, getting too drunk to remember to question your suspect, and of course, Chekhov's sparkly purple dildo. As Claire desperately tries to keep a lid on the shameful secret that would definitely alienate her new friends, the gang must race against their own incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them.]]> 340 Alice Bell 059347063X Daniel 4 3.49 2023
author: Alice Bell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
There was an exceptionally huge amount of swearing in this book
]]> 204316914 A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.

Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she's concerned by just how many killers she's had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count...but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town's new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the "Demon-Hunting Society," Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.

Never mess with a librarian.]]> 339 C.M. Waggoner 1984805886 Daniel 4
Sherry Pinkwhistle is plodding on, busy being a small town librarian, dating the easy-going Alan and solving the extraordinary high number of murders that occur in here town.

Then it hits her, something is not right, and that's all before her cat starts talking to her ]]> 3.39 2024
author: C.M. Waggoner
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
This is a fun and lite read.

Sherry Pinkwhistle is plodding on, busy being a small town librarian, dating the easy-going Alan and solving the extraordinary high number of murders that occur in here town.

Then it hits her, something is not right, and that's all before her cat starts talking to her
]]> 181919782 Hell is empty and all the demons are at Ravenswood Academy . . .

Mourning the sudden death of her sister, Andy Emmerson knows she must come to terms with a life without Violet. But on the day of the funeral Andy is shocked to discover one thing: the person in that casket is not her sister.

Violet is alive.

Convinced her sister's elite boarding school is covering up the truth, Andy enrols at Ravenswood Academy to discover what really happened and find Violet.

The school is as beautiful and haunting as the students within it and Andy learns that it's not just good grades that drives these pupils. Something much darker is at play.

After discovering a cryptic note from her sister, Andy must follow a set of clues to unlock the truth. This will bring her into contact with secret societies, ancient magic, demons and monsters. And a charming senior named Jae Han who has his own reasons for finding out what happened to Violet . . .

Soon Andy realizes the price she must pay to bring her sister home is darker and more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.]]> 384 Catelyn Wilson 0241683947 Daniel 3
I loved the secret societies, the spooky goings on, and the introduction of the variety of ancient gods (from all religious aspects and beliefs)

What I didn't love was the continuous repetitive narrative, yes Andy you're angst driven and on a mission, but we could do without being reminded of this for the whole first half of the book. This paired with the repetitive use of terms and phrases annoyed me (trust me in this book, "nobodies smile reaches their eyes," and we are told this A LOT)

The ending was a little weak for me, I expected a little more, but this is obviously the start of a series....

Good solid 3 stars, but nothing more.]]> 3.43 2024
author: Catelyn Wilson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
I've totally got a mixed opinion on this one! A great and clever idea (and I'm pretty sure my first dive into dark academia).

I loved the secret societies, the spooky goings on, and the introduction of the variety of ancient gods (from all religious aspects and beliefs)

What I didn't love was the continuous repetitive narrative, yes Andy you're angst driven and on a mission, but we could do without being reminded of this for the whole first half of the book. This paired with the repetitive use of terms and phrases annoyed me (trust me in this book, "nobodies smile reaches their eyes," and we are told this A LOT)

The ending was a little weak for me, I expected a little more, but this is obviously the start of a series....

Good solid 3 stars, but nothing more.
]]> 57971662 She escaped servitude for a worse fate. Now she wants everyone to know what happened.

Simone Doucet is searching for a meaningful life. As a travel writer, she’s searched but hasn’t found a purpose yet. She accepts an assignment that takes her to Magnolia Sunrise, a historical bed-and-breakfast on the bluffs of Natchez, Mississippi. Soon, frightful images of a young slave girl, Delphine Randolph, haunt her every evening. Are the dreams related to the assignment? Will she find answers in Natchez?

The first night at the B&B, a ghostly visitation transports Simone to 1863, antebellum Natchez. Through spectral eyes, Simone sees Delphine’s history. Her servitude as a wet nurse to her master’s wife, rape, and forced pregnancies, her daring escape, and early demise inside a Civil War contraband camp known as the Devil’s Punchbowl. Delphine wants everyone to know what happened to her at Magnolia Sunrise and inside the Union soldier’s encampment. She won’t stop haunting Simone until she TELLS HER STORY.

But why has Delphine chosen Simone? Will this awakening bring a new purpose to Simone’s life? Or more untold mysteries to be discovered?]]> 179 E. Denise Billups Daniel 4
I loved how atmospheric it was in Simone's timeline, and I think the hardship of Delphine's life came across very well, too.

What I did find a bit grating was Simone's quick to judge attitude when she arrived at Magnolia Sunrise. She didn't really come across as someone who had independent journalist views...

But still a cracking October read...]]> 4.31
author: E. Denise Billups
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, autumn
review:
This is a very interesting historical supernatural story that kept me reading late into the night.

I loved how atmospheric it was in Simone's timeline, and I think the hardship of Delphine's life came across very well, too.

What I did find a bit grating was Simone's quick to judge attitude when she arrived at Magnolia Sunrise. She didn't really come across as someone who had independent journalist views...

But still a cracking October read...
]]>