All Hallows Reads - Sword Catcher

This post is a long time coming. Why, I hear you ask? Because I have been reading my limited edition Advance Reader Copy of Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare for approximately FOUR MONTHS!

Ok, a bit of backstory is needed. But at the start of Summer this year, the lovely people at Black Crow PR emailed if I fancied going to a limited edition event for Cassandra Clare’s upcoming novel, Sword Catcher, her first adult fantasy novel. I replied very quickly saying yes, and thought nothing of it. I just thought it would be the publisher chatting about the book and meeting up for other bloggers who I haven’t seen in years (investigation only been to one book blogger event this year and I think that was the first time in a while due to work and COVID). And I knew Cassandra Clare would be at the event, but I thought that she was only there to say hi and have a quick chat as even well-known authors need a holiday. So, off I went after work, feeling sudden very anxious and very old (everyone at the event was SO YOUNG! I felt like a fossil in blogging) and, out of nowhere, I was gifted a beautiful, limited edition hardback proof and then, Cassandra Clare did a signing!

I knew that I was going to read this very slowly. I wasn’t going to rush. I was going to savour, but I hoped this would hold my attention. I thought this would take me a month or two. Maybe even the whole summer. Not well into autumn (though have you seen the UK weather lately?!). But, ha-ho! We’re here so let’s get chatting!

Title and Author: Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Tor/Pan MacMillan

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher and PR Company, Black Crow PR, in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In the city-state of Castellane, young orphan Kel is taken from his old life in the vibrant, lush world of royalty and peril. He becomes the young prince, Conor’s, guard and body-double: his Sword Catcher. He has one purpose: to die protecting the Prince. 

Lin Caster is an Ashkar physician, part of a community ostracised for its rare magical abilities. But soon, her path and Kel crossed and get pulled together by events outside of their control via the ruler of Castellane’s criminal underworld, the Ragpicker King. 

But things are happening in Castellane. The Ragpicker King is losing his grip on the criminal underworld, whispers of an attack on the royals and the Charter families and people are beginning to double cross each other. If everyone isn’t careful, things will spiritless out of control and will end in fire and blood…

eProof Review - Open Throat

I have no idea how am going to write this write-up for Open Throat by Henry Hoke. It’s one of those books that I only came across because I saw a tweet on Twitter - sorry, X (let’s not get into my thoughts over this AWFUL rebranding) - and I went “what is this weirdness?!” 

Title and Author: Open Throat by Henry Hoke

Publisher: Picador

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

A mountain lion roams the drought-ridden hills of Hollywood. He is hungry but watches and protects the humans at their homeless encampment. But when he is forced to leave them, he finds himself in the heart of LA, he begins to wonder: whether he wants to eat one or be one?

Audiobook April - The Murders at Fleat House

As many of you know Lucinda Riley sadly passed away in June 2021 due to cancer and was the best-selling author of the The Seven Sisters (the surprise eighth and final book in the series, Atlas: the Story of Pa Salt was started before her death and her son, Harry Whittaker, finished). But Lucinda touched into different genres and The Murders at Fleat House has an interesting history. 

Lucinda wrote this murder mystery back in 2006. Once written, she put it to one side and it's believed she would return to this once she had finished the Seven Sisters series. After her death, her family discovered the manuscript and, with the lightest of touches, edited and allowed to be published. 

I have never read a Lucinda Riley novel (I do own the first book in the series on my Audible and I would like to listen to it once Amazon figure out what the hell they did to my account!), but I have always wanted to read The Murders At Fleat House, but was saving it. And then, out of nowhere last month, my brain went "Now! I want to listen to this NOW!"

Title and Author: The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley

Publisher: PanMacmillan

Bought, Gifted or Borrowed: Audiobook Bought and Borrowed via library's audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

The death of a student at a small private boarding school of St Stephen's sends shockwaves within the school and the head teacher is desperate for it to be a tragic accident. But why would the boy take aspirin when he was deathly allergic to them?

The boy's father demands the Police to look into it and the case prompts the return of Detective Inspector Jasmine 'Jazz' Hunter to the force. Jazz has her reasons for leaving the Met and the Police as a whole but, as a favour for her old boss, she decides to look into the death. 

As she enters the closed world of the boarding school and the boarding house of Fleat House, she discovers that the student was a bully and not well liked. Plus, with it being common knowledge that the student was allergic to aspirin and took drugs to control his epilepsy, it would have been easy to swap his medication. 

But when one of the teachers kills himself and another student vanishes, it looks like Fleat House has a dark secrets and history and Jazz needs to figure out what is going on. And fast.

Restless Truth UK Blog Tour

AHOY AHOY, LAND LOVERS! Here we are on my stop on the UK Blog tour, celebrating the release of A Restless Truth by Freya Marske! And it's a review-based tour so let's get going! 

Title and Author: A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Publisher: Tor

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by publisher and PR company via physical and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

In the second book in the Last Binding trilogy, Maud Blythe finds herself on the RMS Lyric, returning to England from New York. Her reason for going is because of her brother, Robin, and the cause to protect magic in the British Isles. It should be an easy trip back. 

Expect when she discovers a dead body, a bad-mouthed parrot, missing silver and jewels. She, also, meets the beautiful stranger, Violet Debenham - a magician, an actress, a scandal, a siren - all the things Maud should fear and yet, desires. As the two grow closer, they have only six days to untangle a conspiracy and solve a murder, all of which started generations ago...

Audiobook Review - Marvellous Light

Ok, I am going to admit this. I have been sitting on this review/write-up for a little while now as, when I was at the near end of this, I spotted that there might be a blog tour to  celebrate this book's release and I went "Oh, can I be involved?" then released that they might ask me to post a review for tour so I went "Oh, I need to write this, BUT NOT SHARE FOR WHILE" hence that long dry spell in November's blogging. I was reading, honest! But I agreed to something then went "Oh, I don't know my next plan of action so... yeah...". And now, I saw the blog tour is happening and I think I might have missed my chance to take part. Oh well...

Anyway, WE'RE HERE NOW and talking A Marvellous Light, the first in a new fantasy series set in Edwardian England. Hang on, let me get info up and we can talk more about this! 

Title And Author: A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Publisher: Tor UK

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof and Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Robin Blyth has a lot on his plate. He's struggling being a good brother, taking over as head of the house since his parents's deaths and dealing with the mess of bills they have left and trying to find his own way in the world. So, when an admin error means he becomes civil service liaison to the hidden magical world and comes face to face with Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly magical counterpart, Robin finds himself in the deep end. 

And then he's cursed by mysterious men who think Robin's predecessor hid something of great importance. A man who has vanished off the face of the Earth. As Robin and Edwin find themselves in a plot that could very easily affect every magician in the British Isles, the two begin to realise that their first impressions of each other are wrong and there might be some connection between them...

#re3 - Carry On

Rereading Carry On by Rainbow Rowell has been high on my Reread List for the past few months. I’m not sure why but I knew that I wanted to read it over the summer. I, also, knew that I wasn’t going to read the second and third/final Simon Snow books, Wayward Son and Anyway the Wind Blows (Ok, this one I am vaguely intrigued over, but no to Wayward Son), but thought it would be nice to reread this before the third and final book comes out. 

In case you don’t know, Simon Snow started life in another Rainbow Rowell novel: Fangirl. A book about fandom, mental health and figuring out who you are (and Simon Snow is the fantasy series book that the main character loves. Very similar to Harry Potter). And Carry On is Rainbow taking the characters from the Simon Snow series and run with them, almost writing her own fanfiction with her own characters. 

Simon Snow is the Chosen One. The One who will save the World of Mages from the Insidious Humdrum. The Chosen One who can’t control his own magic and just wants to saviour his eighth and final year at Watford School of Magick. And yet, no one is going to let him. His girlfriend has broken up with him, his mentor – The Mage – wants to hide him away, his best friend is acting like a pest and his roommate/enemy is missing, which he should enjoy but can’t because he’s worried about where he is...

Boy Queen Takes It To The Runaway

Oh, come on! I might not be a RuPaul Drag Race viewer (don't give me that look!), but I couldn't resist using this gif to kickstart this post as, today, I am thrilled to be involved in the Boy Queen tour! 

Now, I read Boy Queen by George Lester earlier this year during lockdown and I had a blast reading it. It was fun, queer and everything I needed! (Link to the review is here, FYI!) So, once I had read this, I had to email the publisher to ask if there was going to be a blog tour or something to celebrate this book's release and if I could be involved in some way! 

Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart. While his friends are ready to go to uni, all he seems to be getting is rejection letters from most/all drama schools of the UK and Robin’s life seems to be spiralling. Unsure of himself and his talent, he and his best friends take him to a local gay bar on his birthday to cheer him up and, when there, they watch a local drag show. And Robin gets a strong reaction and he decides to, in the words of Mama RuPaul, Sashay away. 

But how can he get to grips with drag performing when he has a secret boyfriend who won’t acknowledge him in public, his mother can talk for England, his best friends are planning their futures and leaving him behind and the new boy at school is making Robin’s heart beat a little faster? 

Now, before I hand you over to George, I just want to say that if you want to check George out online, pop over to his youTube (youtube.com/TheGeorgeLester) or say hi to him on Twitter at @TheGeorgeLester. And if you want more info on Boy Queen, check out either PanMacmillan!

Ok, George, TAKE IT TO THE RUNWAY!

Self-Isolation Read - Boy Queen

• Title And Author: Boy Queen by George Lester
• Publisher: Macmillan
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical and eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Both gifted by publisher in exchange for an honest review/reaction
• Length: 400 Pages

I’ve followed George’s video on writing, book reviews and other stuff for quite a while. Hell, I’ve met him once and twice through book blogging events and he is lovely and fun to chat with. So, when it was announced that he had signed a publishing deal and his first book was coming out this summer, I knew I had to get my hands on it. 

So, was thrilled when I managed to get my hands on a physical copy and, because I need to learn to STAY AWAY FROM NETGALLEY (!), an eBook ARC. And, even though I have nearly 300 other books to read (review, bought, gifted, etc), I pushed everything aside and devoured this (self-isolation. What else am I going to do but read all the books that siren call my heart?) 

Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart. While his friends are ready to go to uni, all he seems to be getting is rejection letters from most/all drama schools of the UK and Robin’s life seems to be spiralling. Unsure of himself and his talent, he and his best friends take him to a local gay bar on his birthday to cheer him up and, when there, they watch a local drag show. And Robin gets a strong reaction and he should, in the words of RuPaul, Sashay away. 

But how can he get to grips with drag performing when he has a secret boyfriend who won’t acknowledge in public, his mother can talk for England, his best friends are planning their futures without him and the new boy at school is making Robin’s heart beat a little faster?

Audiobook Review - The Burning Chambers

• Title And Author: The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse
• Publisher: MacMillian
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 608 Pages or 17 Hours 12 Minutes

I’m not much of a historical fiction reader. I don’t know why, but I do tend to struggle with reading this and it makes me take longer to reading it (look at how long I’ve been reading Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare at the moment to prove my point). But the past few months (late last year), The Burning Chambers have been calling to me. So has a few other historical fiction novels. But when I saw this was on my library’s BorrowBox app, I decided to go for it and try upping the speed of the reader (something I don’t do normally, but I thought I would try as the reader, Hattie Morahan, has a slower tone to her reading so I thought me upping the speed to 1.25 and, on some occasions, 1.5 will be useful). 

The first is an epic historical saga, The Burning Chambers is set in Carcassonne 1562 where nineteen year old Minou receives a myserteous letter at her father’s bookshop: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. 

Before she has time to decipher the message, a chance encounter with Piet, a young Huguenots convert on a dangerous mission . Meeting him changes her destiny and soon, the two find themselves wound together at Toulouse several months later when religious tensions between Huguenots and Catholics react boiling point…

And all the while, the dangerous mistress of Puivert is waiting, desperate to find a missing document and her eyes are slowly turning towards Toulouse and onto Minou and her family…

Audiobook Review - The Long Call

• Title And Author: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
• Publisher: MacMillian
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook & eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof Gifted by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and Audiobook borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 384 Pages or 10 Hours 23 Minutes

This wasn’t meant to be my first review on the Pewter Wolf in 2020. I had planned to keep this back for a possible Audiobook Month later in the year, celebrating audiobooks. I still have plans for that, but I was listening to this over the Christmas/New Year period and I changed my mind. I thought this would make a nice start to 2020, trying to show off my plans for the year. 

The Long Call is the first book in Ann Cleeves new series, Two Rivers. We know Ann Cleeves for writing the Shetland series (starting with Raven Black - which I do own, I think) and the Vera Stanhope series (starting with The Crow Trap). Both series adapted to television (Vera on ITV and Shetland on BBC) and The Long Call has already been bought for TV adaptation. So, a new series is both exciting and scary for Cleeves fans. 

In North Devon, where the river Taw meets the river Torridge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn is standing outside a church. It’s his father’s funeral, but he can’t attend. His family are members of a strict evangelical community, the Barum Brethren, and, when he was younger, he turned his back on the faith, his family disowned him and when he met and married a man… well, you can guess the rest...

But it’s on this day that Matthew is thrown into his first major case. A body has been found on the beach, very close to Matthew’s house. A man who was stabbed with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck. 

Slowly, Matthew and his team are pulled into the case, with connections not only to the family and  religious friends who turned their backs on Matthew but to the Woodyard Centre, a safe place for disabled and mentally impaired people and a community centre that provides counselling serves, classes, charity services. The centre is managed by Matthew’s husband, Jonathan, and Matthew can’t help but wonder if he’s far too close to the investigation to solve it.

eBook Review - Return To Wonderland

• Title And Author: Return to Wonderland by Various
• Publisher: Pan MacMillan 
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange from an honest review/reaction
• Length: 240 Pages

Though I have my issues with the original Alice in Wonderland, I am a sucker for it. I love the weirdness and the strangeness of it. I love the characters and how, no matter how many times you’ve read the book, seen the films, or anything related to it, it’s still just as odd as before. 

So, when Return to Wonderland was first announced, I did something I don’t normally do: I emailed the publisher, asking if I could have a copy for review. We chatted and exchanged info but nothing came from it, which is ok as I planned to buy this or get it from my library when it came out. Then I saw it on NetGalley and, though I have far too many books to read, I requested and, when I was approved, I decided to forgo my “Pick My Next Read” poll and read this as soon as I could (as well as Red Sister by Mark Lawerence, which I should be Buddy Reading with Luna’s Little Library and I am, currently, failing at!) 

In this collection of stories (written by - hang on, deep breath time! - Peter Bunzl, Pamela Butchart, Maz Evans, Swapna Haddow, Patrice Lawrence, Chris Smith, Robin Stevens, Lauren St John, Lisa Thompson, Piers Torday and Amy Wilson), we return to Wonderland and we ask, what happens in Wonderland without Alice? And the stories answer questions such as why does the Cheshire Cat grin so, has anyone barring Alice ever visited Wonderland, will the Mad Hatter ever host a sensible tea party and other questions…

An Extract For Tea?

I have an extract for you today. And it's a change in pace/genre from what I usually scare you all with!

This extract is from Elaine Everest's newest novel, The Teashop Girls.

I warned you this was a change of pace from what the Pewter Wolf normally is, but sometimes, a change is as good as a rest!

Set in 1940 at the high of the Second World War, The Teashop Girls follows three friends - Rose, Lily and Katie - who work at Lyon's Teashop Nippy in Kent. With Katie's fiancé overseas with the Navy and the war gripping the country, the three rely on their family and friends.

So, when a mysterious captain enters the teashop one day, Rose finds herself being drawn to him, much to Lyon's rule of no courting between staff and customers. But with a war on, Rose fears there might not be much time to lose in the course of true love. But is the dashing captain all he seems to be?

Before I hand you over to the intriguing extract, want to do some thank yous and point you in some directions if you want more info. My thanks goes to Bethan at ED PR for getting me involved with this tour and Sian who asked at the start if I wanted to be involved (before she left ED PR for bigger, brighter things!

Ok, now the links! If you want to say hi to Elaine, you can either say hi to her either on her Facebook (facebook.com/ElaineEverestAuthor) or her Twitter (@elaineeverest)! And if you want info on Teashop Girls, why not check out PanMacmillan!

Now... ONTO THE EXTRACT (once we've brewed ourselves a nice cuppa...

eBook Review - Gilded Cage

• Title And Author: Gilded Cage by Vic James
• Publisher: PanMacMillan
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 416 pages

You can blame Olivia from That Fiction Life for this! IT'S ALL HER FAULT!

Ok, allow me to explain. For the past few months - maybe even year - Olivia has been banging on about this trilogy that she thought I would love. You might know, if you follow a few book bloggers/vloggers/podcasters/etc that we usually have one book or trilogy/series that we want to force onto other people and go "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!" and this trilogy was Olivia's. I usually trust Olivia's judgement, but for some reason, I tried to read the sampler of Gilded Cage on my kindle and my brain goes "Nope". 

But when I saw it for 99p, I knew I had to buy it and, when I bought it, I said I would read it before the end of the year. Then, after chatting to Olivia at one or two bookish events (The Twisted Tree and Time's Convert), I decided that it was going to be my next read. I felt ready to try the Cray Cray (her words, not mine).

In a frightening similar world to our, Gilded Cage follows Abi, Luke and their family as they have to serve their slavedays - ten years of labour that commoners must serve - whereas magically skilled aristocracy - Equal - rule. Somehow, Abi has managed to get the family to serve the oldest Equal family, the Jardines. But on the day they have to go, the family discover that Luke won't be going with them, but to a factory town of Millmoor... 

Separated from each other, the family must do the best they can. Abi must work with the Jardines, watching her little sister look after the Jardine's Heir's baby daughter (rumours say he killed the commoner mother), and slowly falling for the middle Jardine son, an Equal without magic. And at Millmoor, Luke gets into a club and slowly, begins to dream of rebellion... 

And all the while, the political backdrop is filled of blackmail, uprisings and backstabbing and with a possible rebellion on the horizon, things will take a dangerous turn... 

So, what do I think of this? 

Elaine Everest Talks "A Gift From Woolworths"

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

*blows raspberry at Halloween* Like I have said in the past on here and on my social media platforms, I like Halloween in theory. In practice, not so much. So, tonight, I will be hiding in a dark house, eating all the sweets I'm might to give to trick-n-treaters...

But a holiday I am excited to celebrate is Christmas so when the lovely Faye at Faye Rogers PR asked if I wanted to be involved in a Christmasy blog tour, I jumped at it (and got the Michael Bublé at the ready, much to my Other Half's annoyance!)

So today, I am thrilled to welcome back Elaine Everest who is gonna get us in the Christmas mood with a small Q&A to celebrate the release of her newest Christmasy novel, A Gift from Woolworths!

The Second World War moves to 1945, the lives of the women of Woolworths continue. Betty announces she's pregnant, her future life is Douglas is about to change more than she expects. Freda has fallen of a Scottish engineer - will it end happily? Maisie loves being a mother and adores her nieces - but when her brother returns on the scene, trouble follows. All Sarah wants is her husband's return, but Woolworths beckons.

With a wedding on the horizon and Christmas round the corner, happiness surely lies ahead for these friends... right?

Now, before I hand you over to Elaine and those tricky questions, I want to thank Elaine for taking time out to answering these questions and to Faye for asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour. Now, if you want to check out Elaine on her social media, check her out on Facebook - Elaine Everest Author - or her Twitter - @ElaineEverest. Now, let's get in the Christmas spirit!!!

Audiobook Review - Uprooted

I've been aware of this book for a while, but it took me a while before I went "Ok, I want to listen to this" I'm not sure why I decided to listen to the audiobook version over reading the book, but I thought this might be a good way to get into this as, after listening to all Deborah Harkness's All Souls trilogy, I feel that audiobooking adult fantasy is the way to go...

Agnieszka loves her valley. She loves her beautiful friend, Kasia, and she's bracing herself, for it's nearly time for the Choosing. The Choosing, where the Dragon comes and takes a girl to his tower for ten years.  It's his exchange for keeping the Wood and it's corruption. And everyone in the village knows that it's Kasia who the Dragon is going to choose - she's beautiful, clever, ready to go and have an adventure.

But when he comes to the village, it's not Kasia he chooses... it's Agnieszka.

On the surface, this book sounds like it's a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast (which is my jam!), but set within a Polish or Russian fairytale, which sounds intriguing or I should read more outside UK/USA versions. But this story... For me, it's very much a story of two halves. The first half wasn't to my taste while the second half was more up my street. And I know why, and I will explain a little further down.

No, let's get into that now.

This story's pacing was the biggest problem I have. I have read and listened and watched other people's reactions to this book, and am surprised over the fact they all say the pacing was relentless. Because I don't feel that way. The first half of this audiobook was, to me, slow and a bit of a slog to go through. I get why as this half to place over a long period of times - months, maybe years. And I get why - we need world building in place, we need to understand the basic of magic (it's vague, and it works for this fairy-tale feel that this story has), events happen which are solved a chapter or two later, and we need to get understand Agnieszka's skin. But it dragged for me - I don't mind if a story is set over a long period of time, but I need something to keep me interested. I need something to keep pulling me back, and there were several points when I did consider quitting this audiobook. Around the halfway point, something happened and, though I still struggled, I liked the direction the story began to take and the promise of "This is getting better" kept me coming back. Plus, the second half of the book, took place over a much shorter time frame - a fortnight, maybe a month? - and I just prefer a faster pace.

Another problem I had was the romance. This book has romance in it, but it's more a background thing. But, I didn't see it. I kept questioning the romance. I wondered "why?" over it. Why does Agnieszka like the Dragon? When it did start for both of them? Is it because of their magic? Is it because of Stockholm Syndrome? Are we meant to like the Dragon, because he's a mean, cruel, jack***? Are we being led down the garden path with Angieszka and the Dragon, when the romance is actually Angieszka and Kasia (even though I don't want that as I really like this strong female friendship)? I kept questioning it and I didn't believe it.

I think my problem overall is there was potential and it just fell short for me. It was a bit wishy-washy. But, I did enjoy the latter half of the book - I like the pacing, I liked the action, I liked the magic and this latter half is the reason I am thinking of reading the companion novel, Spinning Silver, which is set in this world but not with these characters. Plus, it's a reimagining of Rumplestiltskin, which I have never read so this is going to be intriguing.

But Uprooted is a very mixed bag for me. It missed the bullseye for me in the first half, but on the money in latter half, but as I hate DNFing audiobooks, I wonder if I would have kept going if I was reading this...

Christmas At Woolworths Blog Tour

Today is my stop on the Christmas At Woolworths blog tour! And I have a tiny Q&A with the author, Elaine Everest!

Christmas At Woolworths is the second novel in the series (though we do have a eNovella set just before Christmas, Carols at Woolworths) went we follow Sarah, Maisie and Freda. The friends bonded together while working at Woolworths and try and bring Christmas cheer to their customers during the dark days of the Second World War.

But as Christmas creeps closer, and their loved ones on the front lines, can their friendship survive the war?

Before I hand it over to the questions and answers, I just want to thank Elaine for taking time out to answer these questions and to Faye for organising this tour (and allowing me to tag along!). Now, with that out of the way, who's ready to get into the holiday spirit...?

eBook Review - What I Know For Sure

This is a bit of a weird review to write. Normally, I would read a book/ebook/audiobook and, within 48 hours, I would have the review written and scheduled within the coming few weeks. But with this, it's been a busy few days that I have been a bit behind on writing blog posts. So, bear with me...

In this collection of articles Oprah wrote for O: The Oprah Magazine (Oprah has a magazine!?), Oprah writes articles, trying to answer one question: what does she know for sure?

Now, I have mixed feelings about this. I like Oprah. I respect her. And some of the articles she wrote I find really insightful. A few of them I read and I went "That makes sense."

However, there were times, for me, this felt a little preachy and a little heavy-handed. There was a few things I got a little annoyed over religion - she never referenced it outright, but whenever Oprah mentioned "the Creator", I felt uncomfortable. I didn't like the idea of religion being touched upon in a self-held style book. Also, there was one section when I started reading, but I had to skip as I found it a struggle and, if I didn't, I wondered if I would have finished this or not...

If you are a fan of Oprah, you will love this. If you are a fan of her articles within O Magazine, you will enjoy this as this is a collection of her best essays. But some of you might find it a bit heavy-handed on certain themes and ideas.

Sorry for the shortness of the review. This is why, for me, making notes and writing these reviews quickly are so important. I can schedule them whenever but I need to write them quickly. Because of this shortness, please have this gif.

Book Review - Too Good To Be True

In a few days's time, it will be World Book Day here in the UK. So, to celebrate, the next few reads will be short reads that will be published for either this year's World Book Day or as part of the Quick Reads range for this year.

So, let's start with one story from the Quick Reads 2016 range: Ann Cleeves's To Good To Be True. 

When Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez visits the small Scottish town of Stonebridge after getting a call from his ex-wife, he didn't imagine that Sarah would ask him for his help. Sarah asks Perez to look into a recent suicide of Anna Blackwell. The gossip running wild round the small town is that Sarah's new GP husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna and it's his fault that she killed herself.

But that doesn't make sense. Anna is a single mother who loved kids - she was a teacher at the local school. Why kill herself when no one could look after her daughter? And she seemed to be happier in the recent few weeks. To Perez, this doesn't suggest a suicide. This suggests murder...

I have never read Ann Cleeves before and when I saw this on my kindle for 59p, I couldn't resist. And I am really pleased that I did as I enjoyed myself while reading this.

While this is a quick read, I enjoyed the story and I liked the main character, Jimmy Perez. There's not much I can say without spoiling it due to the story's length, but I like this. It's been a while since I read something with a crime element and I forgot how much I enjoy reading this genre.

If you are a fan of Ann Cleeves's Shetland series, this might fall a bit short as this is a novella and takes place over a very short period of time - 2 days. But for someone who only has just discovered the series (aka myself), this is a good introduction and I plan to read another book by Ann Cleeves (Twitter suggests I read the first book in the Shetland series, Raven Black, so I will trying that) in the near future...

GoodRead - The Guest Cat

I was meant to have this week off. This was meant to be a tiny RSM - my "radio silence" blog break. But I read this very quickly. Within 3 to 4 days so I thought I would quickly type this review up and then do the horror of "Picking My Next Read" (I shall ask Twitter to pick!).

In this translation, we follow a couple who rent a small cottage in the quiet side of Tokyo, who work as freelance writers. One day, a cat walks into their garden. After spending most of the day there, the cat's leave but returns the next day. And the following day. And the day after that. Soon, tiny joys that this cat brings towards this couple, and bring this couple closer together. And then something happens that changes all that. 

Now, because I read this on holiday, I can only really see this as a holiday read. I found this an easy read and the language used was simple yet there were times the writing was very beautiful. You can tell that Takashi Hiraide is a poet. His use of language is simple yet effective. You know he took time writing this story. 

However, because I read this while on holiday, it was an easy read and there was a few times I did wonder about the couple and the cat (I had cats in my life so I know that cats, while loving creatures, are only loyal to the person who feeds them. I know some cats that have food from several "owners"... don't ask), and there were paragraphs where it did feel like I was reading a translation because it felt "jarring" to read. 

It was a nice holiday read that I liked, so I sense some of you guys will love and some of you will hate. 

Cover Reveal - Come Back To Me

I know. I know I am meant to be on my RSM break. So I shouldn't be blogging. However, the lovely author Mila Gray (aka Sarah Alderson) is releasing a New Adult novel and asked if I wanted to be part of the cover reveal. And as I am slowly reading an e-ARC (I shall be chatting about it when I'm back in blogging mode!).

So, who wants to see the cover? Well, here's the cover, the blurb of the book [I took this from Amazon.co.uk]and I shall see you in June (unless something exciting pops in the meantime)!

Come back to me. That was the very last thing I said to him.

Always. The very last thing he said to me.

Home on leave in sunny California, Marine and local lothario Kit Ryan finds himself dangerously drawn to his best friend's sister, Jessa - the one girl he can't have.

But Kit's not about to let a few obstacles stand in his way, and soon Jessa's falling for his irresistible charms.

What starts out as a summer romance of secret hook-ups and magical first-times quickly develops into a passionate love affair that turns both their worlds upside down.

When summer's over and it's time for Kit to redeploy, neither Kit nor Jessa are ready to say goodbye. Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for.

Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart, they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.