Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
I’m trying to get back into the habit of doing a round-up of the week just completed and also take a look at my plans for the forthcoming week. I rather got out of the habit of doing so but I would like to reinstate this type of post as I feel it keeps me on track. So, I’m linking up to The Sunday Post over at Kimberly’s Caffeinated Reviewer. Without further ado:
Books read this week:
My last Sunday post was so long ago now that I barely know where to start. I’ve been doing some catching up this week. A bit of blog hopping plus I’ve managed to post a number of reviews and I feel like I’m making good progress there.
My reading has also been good. I finished off my final SPFBO book that I already reviewed on Friday. I also managed to read Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams and I’m a good third of the way into Jennifter Saint’s Atalanta and enjoying it so far.
Next Week’s Reads:
Hopefully complete Atalanta by Jennifer Saint. I’d like to press on with my outstanding April books to see if I can maybe squeeze in a couple more which leaves me with the following choices.
- The Cleaving by Juliet E McKenna
- The Other Lives of Miss Emily White by A J Elwood
- The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
Plus – I could have a look at some of the March books I didn’t have time to pick up – so many possibilities!
Reviews Posted:
- The Vanishing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander
- Love Will Tear Us Apart by CK McDonell
- A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis
- A Touch of Light by Thiago Abdalla
- A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher
Outstanding Reviews
- The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan
- The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
- Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams
A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher
My Five Word TL: DR Review : I’m loving this author’s work
A House with Good Bones worked really well for me, it’s a Southern Gothic horror that manages to temper the creepy horror elements with a good dose of humour and brings us a wonderful central character who has a great outlook on life.
Sam is an archaeoentomologist – that’s a proper tongue twister that took me about 5 minutes to even spell correctly – the dig she is working on has been put on a temporary hold and following up on some concerns expressed by her brother about their mom’s slightly ‘off’ behaviour she decides now is as good a time as any to return to the family home and spend some quality time together. When Sam returns home though things are definitely off kilter. Her mum is behaving erratically and Sam worries about all sorts of scenarios, perhaps her mum is poorly or starting to experience dementia. What she doesn’t expect, with her straightforward, no nonsense, analytical brain, is a haunting.
There are so many unusual and quirky elements to this one and they all seemed to come together in a very pleasing way for me. The house and street where Sam’s mum lives is described with a certain charm. Her mum is a great character and the family dynamic between the two is refreshingly good. The tension is built up little by little and what starts out as slightly odd gradually becomes creepy before morphing into all out crazy.
Basically, as with many families, scratch the surface and uncover all sorts of skeletons. Sam’s gran was a strange woman, scary, intimidating, definitely not a soft and cuddly character. She made enemies out of most of her neighbours and ruled the roost with a firm hand. It seemed like Sam and her brother were only too keen to leave that particular nest that seemed to be lined with thorns rather than feathers. And, although Gran Mae has been dead for years it seems that she still has strong feelings on how things should be done.
To be honest Sam really won this particular show for me. She’s such a great character. Her determination to find reasonable explanations in the face of creepy situations, and not to resort to hysterics is such a winning element. On top of that she’s not the best at small talk or socialising and is constantly putting her foot in things which definitely made me smile more than once. She loves bugs and so isn’t freaked out by swarms of them simply handling things with calm resolve, she even takes the resident vulture population in her stride. And, she doesn’t want or need rescuing so, although there is a rather sweet friendship developing between her and the local handyman, she can stand on her own two feet thank you very much.
In terms of criticisms, I don’t really have anything, I did wonder at first why Sam’s mum didn’t try to talk to her earlier but to be honest – that conversation wouldn’t have gone well when I think about it.
Overall, I loved this in so many ways. Even the crazily twisted, over the top, nightmarish conclusion and I can’t wait to read more from this author.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher. For which my thanks. The above is my own opinion freely given.
My rating 5 of 5 stars
SPFBO 8 Finalist Friday: Review of A Touch of Light (The Ashes of Avarin #1) by Thiago Abdalla
What is SPFBO 8 Check out Mark Lawrence’s post here to look at this year’s entrants, judges and allocations list.
This year I am teaming up again with the ladies from The Critiquing Chemist. We recently announced our finalist. To check out all the Finalists simply follow this link.
Our finalist this year was Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson – if you haven’t read it – I highly recommend it – seriously, grab yourself a copy and tuck in. It’s positively delightful.
Today is our eighth finalist review for #SPFBO 8. Reviews for Scales and Sensibility, The Thirteenth Hour, Tethered Spirits, Mysterious Ways, A Song for the Void, The Umbral Storm and Fire of the Forebears can be found here , here, here, here, here, here and here. Myself and the Critiquing Chemist will be posting a finalist review every Friday for the remainder of the competition – only one more to go after today.
So, to my eighth review is for an epic fantasy including a fierce warriors, a prince plagued with politics and backstabbing and a hunter hiding a curse. Oh, and trouble is coming.
AToL is a story that pretty much hits the ground running. We have three POVs and are thrown immediately into their current situations. Let’s say that all three of them are having problems.
Prince Adrian is grieving his brother. He doesn’t get along with his father and he wants answers. Nasha is a hunter living in the clan lands where life is harsh not to mention cheap. Lynn is a warrior gone rogue who is drawn back to her former life when she notices some troubling signs. All three of these characters are going to become embroiled in a much bigger plot with the spread of a madness that seems to be sweeping across the nation.
So, I do find writing a review for this book quite difficult. On the face of it there are so many elements here that work well for me and I have to say that I enjoyed the writing and the fact that the author clearly loves this world and the characters he’s created, but, at the same time this did create some issues for me.
The writing is solid but, I found it a little over descriptive, to be fair, this isn’t an overly long book but there are too many loose descriptions that bloat the story and slow down the plot. I do understand how difficult it is though when you love the world you’re building so much and this is probably a personal thing that many other readers will be okay with but it just frustrated me a little.
In terms of the characters, I liked them but I didn’t love them. I would say that the last third of the book saw more development but in some respects by that point I didn’t have that gut clenching fear that you feel when one of your favourites is under threat.
I think the plot was well thought out and intriguing. I enjoyed the three differing point of views and being able to observe the differences between them. I think my favourite character was the warrior (absolutely a coincidence that this character is called Lynn by the way!) – this was probably helped along by events that took place later in the book where her role actually started to really stand out.
Overall, I liked this but it took me quite some time to really become invested in the story and characters. I confess myself perplexed, I expected to really like this, perhaps my expectations were too high on this occasion but I think this could work well for other readers and I certainly wouldn’t discourage others from picking this up.
Our rating 6 of 10 stars
Don’t forget to check out the Critiquing Chemist’s review which can be found here.
A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis (Bronte Sisters Mystery #4)
20 April 2023
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Bronte Sisters' Mystery, A Gift of Poison, Bella Ellis
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Fitting conclusion to mystery series
And so another good series comes to an end. I’ve really enjoyed the Bronte sisters mysteries. They’re a lovely combination of family affairs, gothic mysterious endeavours and period drama with a great injection of detail from the Bronte sisters body of work. To be fair, I love the Bronte sisters and so I’ve really enjoyed reading these dark mysteries that take inspiration from their novels. Just to be clear though, I’m certain that these can be read without any prior knowledge of the Brontes so don’t be put off if you’re not familiar with their work – these make wonderful period mysteries and the sisters are entertaining detectives who often find themselves in bother.
In this particular instalment the women are called upon by a cruel man recently acquitted of poisoning his wife. An attempt on his own life has since been made and although the sisters are reluctant to take on the case they eventually come to the conclusion that they would, indeed, be best placed to solve the mystery one way or the other.
As I mentioned above this has been a series that I’ve really enjoyed. It contains so many winning elements for me as I do love a good mystery and although you wouldn’t call these cosy mysteries the period feel, the restrictions of the time, the dialogue and the family dynamics all come together to provide a comfortable setting even when things take a darker turn.
I loved the sisters and the way they interact. This particular instalment started with the three being somewhat out of sorts due to sibling rivalry, not to mention the horrible realisation that they were all beginning to come to terms with that their brother was unlikely to recover from his malaise, but, they eventually band together and each contributes to the eventual reveal.
The mystery here is intriguing. It has a supernatural feel to it, dark in places and really quite gripping. The sisters seem to move closer and closer to danger and I was absolutely intrigued about what was really going on here. Eventually, rational explanations are found but not without a struggle.
I thought this was a really fitting end to the series. Yes, of course I would have liked more, but at the same time this feels like the appropriate place to conclude.
I definitely recommend this series to murder mystery lovers who enjoy gothic period dramas.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 of 5 stars
Love Will Tear Us Apart by CK McDonell
18 April 2023
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: CK McDonnell, Love will tear us apart, Stranger Times
My Five Word TL:DR Review: I am loving this series
Okay, let’s just cut to the chase. It’s been a while since I read this book and yet the feeling of absolute adoration for this series still feels strong. So, that being said I’m going to post up the blurb for the book before I begin That way I can focus on my feelings without going into the description too much:
“Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.
Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?
With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?
As if that wasn’t enough, one of the paper’s ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.
Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.”
So, for me this is a series that is going from strength to strength. If you love urban fantasy I strongly think you should pick this one up. I can’t deny that the connection to Manchester and all the other connotations are strong for me but I seriously don’t think that alone would be enough to make me enjoy this so much. The characters are great, I love them all and I don’t want any of them to come to harm. The setting is well done. Contemporary, ironic, sarcastic. I mean, I just love it. The plots are original, the dialogue is spot on and I can’t wait to read more.
This is a short review but that isn’t a reflection on how I feel for this book or this series. I heartily recommend this series to readers who enjoy urban fantasy, contemporary settings, batshit crazy happenings, a great cast of characters that feel like ‘found family’. I literally can’t wait to see what comes nest.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating : 5 of 5 stars
Books and travelling with Lynn 