Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
27 July 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Reviews, Booking Ahead, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, reading, Sunday Post, TBR, Weekly wrap up

Books read this week:
It’s been quiet on the blog and I’ve missed one of my weekly wrap ups so today will be a double. Basically, I’ve had hip replacement surgery and so have been a little out of action. I think everything is going well though and I’ve certainly been doing lots of reading so let’s take a look at the books I’ve picked up recently.
I completed and really enjoyed The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig – the audio book was very good. I also finished and, again, really enjoyed It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest. I read My Ex, the AntiChrist by Craig DiLouie which was another very good read that I enjoyed the style of storytelling and I completed Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan. I picked up and read about 50% of The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw – this one didn’t work for me and I’ve decided it’s a DNF. I really wanted to complete it but seriously I can’t. It’s just not my style. Finally I’ve managed to complete Fateless by Julie Kagawa – action packed and enjoyable if a little generic. This means I’ve completed my July reads and can move onto August review titles. Woot. (Although I need to press on with reviews now to catch up).
Next Week’s Reads:
I think I’ll pick up The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford and I also have the audio version of The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine.
Reviews Posted:
- The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Outstanding Reviews
- Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
- Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
- The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
- It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest
- My Ex, the AntiChrist by Craig DiLouie
- The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
- Fateless by Julie Kagawa
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: Summer of Horror
25 July 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books Bones & Buffy, Friday Face Of, Summer of Horror

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’m going in a different direction. As part of Books, Bones and Buffy’s Summer of Horror I thought I’d post a few horror covers. See what you think and if you have a favourite (all of these are selected from fairly recent(ish) reads):
My favourite this week:
Difficult to choose really but I really like the cover for The September House:
Which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers
The Friday Face Off: Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
18 July 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Danielle Valentine, Delicate Condition, Friday Face off

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 really enjoyed. Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine. Here are the covers:
My favourite this week:
(I still really like the original cover but I think this one would draw my attention)
Which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Turns of Fate (Isle of Wyrd #1) by Anne Bishop
16 July 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Anne Bishop, Can't Wait Wedesday, Isle of Wyrd #1, Turns of Fate, 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: Turns of Fate (Isle of Wyrd #1) by Anne Bishop. I’ve not read anything by this author for a while and this does sound good. Here’s the cover and description:
A young detective investigating crimes of the uncanny will learn that bargains can change your fate—for good or ill—in this darkly enthralling fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Others and the Black Jewels series.
Words have power. Intentions matter.
Most people come to Destiny Park for entertainment. They come to have their cards read to tell them a bit about their future. They come to walk through a beautiful park and to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. They come in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Arcana, the paranormal beings who rule the Isle of Wyrd.
But some people come to make a bargain with the Arcana—to change their fate. And some people come for dark purposes.
When Detective Beth Fahey is sent to Destiny Park to inquire about a “ghost gun,” she will begin a strange journey on which she must learn to navigate the Arcana’s unforgiving laws and dangerous attractions. Her search will draw her into seemingly impossible cases and the secrets of her own past as tensions rise between the Arcana and their human neighbors across the river.
For the Isle of Wyrd is a place where the dead ride trains to their final destinations, predators literally become prey, and seekers’ true natures are revealed in the ripples of destiny unknowingly stirred in their wakes.
Who will live? Who will die? And who will be lost in between?
Expected publication: November 2025
Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Honorifics in the Title
15 July 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books with Honorifics in the Title, That Artsy Reader Girl, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s prompt is:
Books with Honorifics in the Title
Not sure how well this one works but I’m thinking of roles that people become known as – so ‘the scholar, the priest, etc.
The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by HG Parry
The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose
Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis (two honorifics in this book!)
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova




































