Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
23 August 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Reviews, Booking Ahead, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Fantasy, Max Doty, reading, Sunday Post, The House That Eats the Dead, Weekly wrap up
Today I’m posting my Weekly Wrap Up and I’m linking up to The Sunday Post over at Kimberly’s Caffeinated Reviewer. Without further ado:
Weekly Update
The weather has finally changed. Thankfully a little bit of rain and more forecast next week. It’s been a busy week and also a bit up and down for me for some reason, I’m in a very unusual mood which has definitely had an impact on my reading. I finished reading The House That Eats the Dead by Max Doty and found it very entertaining. Next I picked up Daggerbound by T Kingfisher – but for some reason, and very unexpectedly, I found myself unable to sink into this one and so I’ve set it aside for now. I then picked up They Say A Girl Died Here by Sarah Pinborough – and I’m also struggling with this. Two of my favourite authors and two very highly anticipated books and yet I’ve had to set them aside. It’s clearly my mood. I don’t know what’s going on with me! Anyway, it is what it is.
Next Week’s Reads
I’m going to wait for a few weeks to retry the Kingfisher and Pinborough books and see if that makes a difference. Instead I’m going to pick up a couple of September review books. Aphrodite in Pieces by Lauren JA Bear and Kiss Slay Reply by Rachel Harrison.
Reviews Posted:
- A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
- The House That Eats the Dead by Max Doty
Outstanding Reviews
- The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
- This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara
Hoping to see you round the blogosphere this forthcoming week
Books and travelling with Lynn 
Reading moods are so strange! I’m also picking up Kiss Slay Replay later this week, I can’t wait😁
Well, it seems we both loved it 😀
Rain? I think it’s rained twice since the first week of June. The moods also have affected me, as I’ve been alternating racing through books and not feeling like reading at all, no matter how good the book is. Hope you have a lovely week!
That’s exactly what my mood has been like. Fingers crossed that we both snap out of it.
Lynn 😀
I wasn’t a fan of Raven Scholar unfortunately, felt it had too much happening (if that’s possible!). But This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara is next on my reading list, so encouraging to see that it got an outstanding review from you.
It did have a lot happening but it worked for me. Curiously I had the audio version so maybe that helped, although in some ways I regretted not picking up the write version.
This Blade of Ours. I actually struggled with it. I regretted picking it up in some respects because I really liked the first. I hope you love it though 😊
This might make you feel better, but I wasn’t completely sold on Daggerbound either. It’s just a different kind of story, I guess. And to be quite honest, I preferred Swordheart so much more and I was really not feeling the characters of this followup.
That does make me feel better. I definitely preferred Swordheart, but maybe I just need to revisit and give it a little more time. Not sure though, my reading mood goes down fast when I’m not connected.
Lynn 😀
Seeing that you managed to read They Say A Girl Died Here in the end I’m hoping it means you’ve shaken off the slumpy mood 🤞 I really hope you enjoy the Kingfisher book whenever you get to it and look forward to seeinf your thoughts on your other two upcoming reads too. I adored Aphrodite In Pieces and hope you enjoy it too. And I also enjoyed the book I’ve tried by Rachel Harrison and really must try more soon.
I may very well try the Kingfisher book again, but at a later date I think. My reading is going well but it divebombs pretty quick when I’m not loving something I’m reading.
Lynn 😀
I hope it goes better for you whenever you give it another try 🤞