Friday Face Off: The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
14 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Alex North, Friday Face Of, The Man Made of Smoke
Today I’m returning to the Friday Face Off, originally created by Books by Proxy). I’ve missed these for the past few months and so would like to get back to comparing covers (and hopefully I will be updating this page with a new banner. This is an opportunity to look at a book of your choice and shine the spotlight on the covers. Of course this only works for those books that have alternative covers (although sometimes I use this to look at a series of books to choose a favourite). . So, if you have a book that has alternative covers, highlight them and choose your favourite. If you’re taking part it would be great if you leave a link so I can take a look at what you’ve chosen.
This week I’ve chosen a book that I’m very much looking forward to reading. The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North. Here are the covers:
My favourite this week:
I like the drama of this coverl
Have you read this book already? What did you think and which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers.
Can’t Wait Wednesday: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
12 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't Wait Wedesday, Silvia Moreno Garcia, The Bewitching, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia. It’s always a happy day when I discover there’s a new book in the pipeline by this author. Take a look at the cover and description:
Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.
In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.
Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.
Expected publication: July 2025
Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up (slightly late!)
10 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Fantasy, SPFBO, Sunday Post
Books read this week:
Being late seems to be a theme for me at the moment! I’m still reading and catching up but still keeping busy in other news and that’s set to continue for this week. So, hopefully, next week, maybe things will be a bit calmer, I’ll catch up with absolutely everything and live happily ever after – it could happen. I did manage to complete Grave Empire by Richard Swan and in fact already reviewed it. Spoiler alert – I loved it. In an attempt to get ahead a little with my SPFBO books I’ve already read another finalist which I enjoyed and I’m almost through the fourth one I picked up. I need to start writing some reviews for these in the forthcoming week. Once I complete this fourth finalist I’m going to be picking up some February review books. Definitely Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett and The Crimson Road by AG Slatter. I’m really looking forward to both of these and so I have no doubt they’ll be quick reads. Lets see if I can finish my current SPFBO book and the above two. Stranger things have happened.
Hopefully I will have finished my fourth finalist which means I can pick up one of the two books mentioned above. So excited!
Reviews Posted:
Grave Empire by Richard Swan
Outstanding Reviews
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- The House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
- SPFBO x 1
- SPFBO x 2
- SPFBO x 3
That’s it for me this week, what have you been up to, any good books to shout out about. Let me know.
Friday Face Off: Spellbound by Georgia Leighton
7 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Books, Friday Face off, Georgia Leighton, reading, Spellbound
Today I’m returning to the Friday Face Off, originally created by Books by Proxy). I’ve missed these for the past few months and so would like to get back to comparing covers (and hopefully I will be updating this page with a new banner. This is an opportunity to look at a book of your choice and shine the spotlight on the covers. Of course this only works for those books that have alternative covers (although sometimes I use this to look at a series of books to choose a favourite). . So, if you have a book that has alternative covers, highlight them and choose your favourite. If you’re taking part it would be great if you leave a link so I can take a look at what you’ve chosen.
This week I’ve chosen a book that I’m looking forward to reading. Spellbound by George Leighton. Here are the covers:
My favourite this week:
I have to confess that I’m rather fascinated by this cover.
Have you read this book already? What did you think and which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers.
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Never Flinch by Stephen King
5 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books, Can't wait Wednesday, Never Flinch, Stephen King, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: Never Flinch by Stephen King. I love the sound of this one. Check out the description and cover:
From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.
Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.
Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.
Expected publication: May 2025
Books and travelling with Lynn 