Can’t Wait Wednesday: Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy #1) by Stephanie Burgis
25 September 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books, Can't Wait Wedesday, Fantasy, fiction, Queens of Villainy #1, Stephanie Burgis, Wishful Endings, Wooing the Witch Queen
“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: Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy #1) by Stephanie Burgis. I’m loving her work and highly recommend her Regency Dragons series. Anyway, here’s the cover (which is absolutely gorgeous) and the description (which is absolutely captivating):
In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion…and love turns their world upside down.
Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.
When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…
Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?
Expected publication : February 2025
Review: This Girl’s a Killer by Emma C Wells
9 September 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books, Emma C Wells, Fantasy, fiction, reviews, This Girl's a Killer
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Liked Dexter? Check This Out
I enjoyed This GIrl’s a Killer, it’s an entertaining read with suspense and drama, the writing is really good and I certainly never experienced a dull moment. I wouldn’t particularly class this as horror, well, there is of course a female out and about taking justice into her own hands and meting out punishment as she thinks fit – but the story isn’t really focused on the gore or bloodlust and there’s definitely some dark humour.
The killer in question is Cordelia Black. Cordelia has reinvented herself over the years. She’s now a successful pharmaceutical rep with a good reputation. she has her own found family (her best friend Diane and Diane’s daughter Samantha, who also happens to be Cordelia’s goddaughter). By night she’s ridding the streets of monsters, men who prey on the innocent or unsuspecting. She is always in complete control and plans everything with great care – until she doesn’t that is.
As the story starts Cordelia’s life takes a messy turn. Diane has a new boyfriend and Cordelia has a bad feeling about him. He also clearly doesn’t like Cordelia and the two soon find themselves in a competition to out fox each other whilst putting up a friendly front to keep Diane in the dark. On top of this the increased number of missing men is leading the police to suspect they may have a serial killer at large. Then couple this with the fact that Cordelia’s recent blind date was a police officer and things start to become very complicated.
What I liked about this.
I liked the friendship between Cordelia and Diane, they have a long history and Cordelia is clearly motivated to keep her BFF and her daughter safe from harm, there’s a slow reveal of Cordelia’s history in which you can discover how she became Cordelia Black.
The writing is good, very easy to get along with and the author also manages fairly quickly to create a situation that is tension packed. Within short order, this cool, sophisticated and always in control woman is making terrible mistakes and finds herself with more than one dodgy companion sharing her home.
This is almost like (Cor)Delia as opposed to Dexter. Obviously, it’s not the same story but the premise is very similar (in that Cordelia feels she is ridding the streets of dangerous predators and only acts when she’s absolutely certain of the facts), also the focus on dark humour and the fact that Cordelia seems to spend a good deal of the book living on the edge making bad choices and finding herself in an absolute pickle. Clearly, there are some very dark themes here but the majority of Cordelia’s covert operations are carried out with the minimum of sensationalism and the real drama is all the headless chicken style scurrying about that she’s having to do as a result of her impulsive decisions.
I liked the characters but I wouldn’t say at this point that I love them. In some respects I feel like I’m being told that Cordelia and Diane are best friends, there was a lot of repetitive thinking where Cordelia beats herself up about how, if she’s caught, she’s going to ruin their lives, and I totally see where’s she coming from but at the same time she takes some ridiculous risks and frankly behaves far too casually for someone who has so much to lose. Cordelia supposedly plans, meticulously, but there’s little evidence of that here – which again feels a little like I’m being told rather than shown. Everything turns into chaos within fairly short order – that being said though, even whilst this chaos feels frantic at the same time I kind of liked the crazy feel and the escalating tension it provoked.
Overall, I enjoyed this. It’s not a serious thriller or an outright horror but it’s entertaining, easy to get along with and it definitely made me want to shake the MC on more than one occasion as she flipped from one almost catastrophe to the next.
I’m not sure if this is the start of a series but I would certainly be interested in reading more.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3.5 of 5 stars (rounded to 4)
Review : A Poisoner’s Tale by Cathryn Kemp
12 August 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Poisoner's Tale, Book Review, Books, Cathryn Kemp, fiction, historical-fiction, Review
My Five Word TL:DR Review : A Small Circle of Poisoners
A Poisoner’s Tale is a story set predominantly in 17th Century Rome. As the story begins we meet Giulia Tofana, a young girl living in Palermo. She soon comes to learn that her mother’s love of herbology and her night time visits abroad have a secret and deadly purpose. Giulia’s mother has concocted a poison, lethal and untraceable that she supplies to women whose circumstances are dire due to abuse and torment. To cut to the chase Giulia’s mother suffers the consequences and her daughter is forced to flee Sicily. We then jump forward a good twenty years. Giulia is living in Rome, now a mother herself she has taught her secrets not only to her daughter but also a small number of women who similarly now help the women of Rome – that is until the net finally closes in around them.
I’m not going to say anything further about the plot, the outcome is already a foregone conclusion given that this is based on the life of a real woman and her small group of friends, plus the opening chapters make it clear that Giulia is being tried as a witch and I think we probably all know how that will end – torture and execution. It is believed that Giulia may have been responsible for the deaths of at least 600 men, maybe as many as 1,000, these deaths often going unnoticed due to other factors such as the black death, high mortality rate, etc. However, eventually, the church begins to take notice and one man in particular makes it his mission to seek out these women and thus a witch hunt begins.
What I liked about this.
The writing is beautiful and evocative. The descriptions really bring the story to life without being cumbersome and things move forward at a good clip. I loved the way the tension creeps up on you, and you feel this dread as you move forward – which is a testament to the writing when you consider you already pretty much know how things are going to pan out. Clearly the author has also done her research and this really comes across.
I loved the small group of friends that Giulia has gathered around herself. They don’t always agree about every course of action but they are a tight knit circle who stand firmly together. Giulia is a fantastic character to read about. The author does an amazing job in making her likable whilst being morally grey. You could argue that Giulia isn’t responsible for murdering anybody, she doesn’t administer the poison after all, but, at the same time she knows what the poison is being used for, is a gun seller responsible for the actions of others? These are brutal times and women have few options available to them. In that respect I would mention that this can be a very difficult read, the women in these pages suffer all sorts of abuse which in turn led them to take such desperate measures so please bear that in mind before reading this.
In terms of criticisms. Not really criticisms as such – but I couldn’t help feeling frustrated at Giulia and her friends, they became careless and they took risks which inevitably lead to their downfall. And, the book! Why on earth keep such a thing, even as a young girl Giulia was aware of the risks of keeping such a ledger and yet as a woman she continued in her mother’s footsteps. We also have another pov which I had mixed feelings about. This was a male character, a man of great standing who you could say had become obsessed with Giulia. I didn’t really enjoy these chapters but having considered it I think that they did help to really demonstrate the strength of feeling at that time towards women, particularly in their inferior status and lack of voice.
In conclusion this is a very thought provoking, at some times difficult but mostly compelling read. Well written with plenty of feeling where this small group of women are concerned.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 of 5 brutally evocative stars
Review: Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
29 July 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Middle of the Night, Mystery, Riley Sager
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Still Thinking About This One
It’s not a bad thing when a book makes you think about it long after you finished reading and yet I have slightly mixed feelings with this one that I don’t think I’ve quite unravelled. Perhaps writing this review will help.
I think that having loved The Only One Left so much I picked this one up with impossibly high expectations. To be fair to the book and author, this is a compelling read with plenty of atmosphere but it didn’t have the breakneck reveals of the last read that made my jaw clang to the floor.
That being said, I had no problems dashing through this one and practically completed it in two sittings – so what can I say.
I’ll keep this overview short to avoid spoilers.
The start is really gripping. Ethan, now an adult, has returned to his family home. Thirty years ago Ethan’s best friend disappeared from the tent they were both camping in, in Ethan’s backyard. The crime was never solved, Billy was never found, and Ethan is still haunted by events. Returning to the home of the trauma might not have been the wisest choice and when strange things start to happen Ethan feels like his long lost friend is haunting him, trying to provoke him into looking for clues about what really happened on that fateful night.
My feelings for this one
Well, firstly, it is undoubtedly a compelling read. I was so curious about what happened to Billy that I really couldn’t stop reading and as I already mentioned, the start really pulls you in.
Secondly, we discover fairly quickly that Ethan is something of an unreliable narrator. This is a ploy that I enjoyed. Within fairly short shrift we discover that the day on which Billy disappeared was a lot more eventful than first suspected and there are many secrets being kept by a number of friends and neighbours.
I love it when everyone becomes a potential suspect and this soon becomes the case here. All the suspects know each other and there’s this close knit feel where slowly but surely one reveal leads to another, and so on.
I liked Ethan. He’s really not a bad guy at all and in fact he’s the only character that I didn’t have my beady eye on.
The setting is small in scope. We have a small, sheltered cul de sac, many of the residents the same as during Ethan’s childhood, an ominous wood that houses a secret institute and an almost claustrophobic feel with everyone watching each other warily.
I liked the way the tension and the atmosphere is built and really enjoy Sager’s writing and especially the dual timelines where we jump back and forth discovering what really happened all those summers ago whilst also trying to get a grip on what’s really taking place in the current timeframe.
What gave me pause for thought. There is some repetition. As things unfold we learn about events but replay them from a different angle. I did enjoy this aspect but at the same time it sometimes felt that the story slowed down and along with this some aspects just felt a little overstretched.
I enjoyed the reveals but at the same time I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed with the final reveal from the night in question. It felt a bit too much somehow – however, having read the incredibly dramatic and totally OTT The Last One Standing I think I should have been more prepared for all the twists and turns so that’s something I need to embrace a little more with future reads.
As it is, I enjoyed this, I had a slight twinge of feeling let down by the final reveal, but at the same time I’m not quite sure what I was expecting and really that’s more to do with me than the book.
So. I will definitely read more by this author and I would recommend this without doubt.
I received a copy through Netalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3.5 of 5 stars rounded to 4
Review: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
25 July 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, fiction, reading, Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop
My Five Word TL:DR Review: perhaps the Perfect Beach Read
Because when you’re on holiday, resting on the beach, or round the pool, you want the type of story that makes you smile. That being said perhaps this is the perfect read for whenever you want a hug from a book.
Okay, cosy and romantasy are definitely the new black at the moment and it’s a trend that I’m really enjoying. Not that I’d want to read this style all the time, but, if you want an easy on the brain, perfect confection of a book this is the one for you. But, take my word for it now, this is sugary sweet, positively dripping with sticky syrupy saccharine gooeyness (and jam) so if that doesn’t sound like your ‘thing’ then you have been warned. As it is, in a nutshell (or a sugar spun basket) this is deliciously, almost impossibly, sweet. And, I don’t know, perhaps the stars just aligned because this worked really well for me.
Kiela is our MC. An introverted librarian. She loves books to such an extent that during a revolution she thinks more about rescuing some of the more precious spellbooks than her own safety. Kiela and her companion Cas, a sentient spider plant, flee to the remote island where Kiela spent the first few years of her life with her parents before they moved on to the big city. Their little cottage, nestled at the edge of the woods and perched atop a cliff lies abandoned and a little dilapidated but it feels safe. So Kiela sets about trying to make a new life, which isn’t easy for a young woman who has no real life experience whatsoever, but she is surrounded by well intentioned people who’d like nothing more than to help (not to mention a few books that also come in rather handy).
Of course there is an adorable love interest. A handsome, irresistible guy who loves animals, cooking, gardening and making shelves (not to mention dramatic rescues). The love element here is very slowly played out and quite a gentle aspect to the story (this isn’t a bodice ripper). In fact this is such a lovely and refreshingly clean read. It has a few ups and downs but nothing that really caused me too much tension, I felt secure that this would have a happy ending and I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say this doesn’t disappoint on that score.
In terms of criticisms. I haven’t really got anything that spoiled the read for me, but, the world building is very superficial, the magic is more like baking a cake (and really anyone can do it with the right recipe – which I really kind of like), there are so many fantasy elements thrown in that’s it’s almost like a tick list was used. Is any of that a real issue? No. This is just a book that you need to pick up and go with the flow. Don’t be questioning anything or expecting detailed explanations. Simply, enjoy yourself.
A lovely read that certainly made me smile. To the author: A Hug of a Book : level unlocked.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 of 5 stars.
Books and travelling with Lynn 