Audiobook Reread - A Discovery of Witches

I am going to be honest: this was meant to be one of the series I wanted to reread this year. And I wanted to do it before the release of the newest installation of the All Souls world, The Black Bird Oracle, which is coming out in mid-July. Now, I don’t think I’m going to be able to binge-reread the rest of the All Souls trilogy (Shadow of Night and Book of Life) as well as the companion novel, Time’s Convert, before it’s release. 

But I am going to try and reread (all via audio) before the end of the year. I do think I am going to attempt Time’s Convert next month (I read this originally and was very middle of the road about it, but I got the audiobook on sale so am doing to attempt it this way as see if my opinion changes as I really like the leads in this). 

Anyway, like I said, I really wanted to reread this, which means I needed to start from the beginning. 

Title and Author: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Publisher: Headline

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook Bought

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Diana Bishop is a scholar and descendant of a line of powerful witches, though she tries very hard not to use her magic. When she discovered a strange manuscript at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, she returns it to its archives due to the strange enchantments around it. But this manuscript - Ashmole 782 - was thought long lost and deeply enchanted and now, vampires, witches and daemons, are coming to Oxford, watching Diana. In the hopes she recalls it. 

For this book has its own secrets and it looks like Diana is right in the middle of it…

eProof Review - Missing White Woman

Sometimes, you crave a book as soon as you seen the cover online. It’s almost a physical reaction. This is what happened when I saw Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett. I saw someone tweet about it with the UK cover and I became obsessed with it. I mean, LOOK AT IT! And 24 hours later, it appeared on NetGalley so, of course, I had to request and hope that I would be approved. 

Which I was (hooray!) and once I finished Kate Atkinson’s Normal Rules Don’t Apply, I jumped straight into this. 

Title and Author: Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett

Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK

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

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

It was meant to be a romantic getaway in New York City. Just Breanna and her new boyfriend, Ty. They hired out an airbnb four-story house with a beautiful view of the skyline. Until Bree wakes up one morning to discover a dead woman in her foyer and Ty’s missing. Is the dead woman Janelle Becker, a recently missing dog walker that the media is reporting on and social media is a buzz over? 

A Black woman stranded in a strange city, Bree is scared. A black person involved in the white person’s disappearance/murder isn’t a good look. And she knows how the Police sees her. And until she can find Ty, the only person who can help her is an ex-best friend, a lawyer who Bree shares a complicated history with. 

But as the Police and the social media mob close in, Bree realises that the only way to stay out of jail is to discover what happened that night. But is she going to like what she finds…?

Audiobook Review - The Familiar

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it, dear reader? I didn’t plan to be away for so long. Real life kept getting in the way and the last thing I read (Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson), I left it so long to write a full-on review on the blog, I wanted to try and see if I could write a review/mini-write up on Instagram.

 
Note to self: if I do this again, MAKE NOTES while you reading using Goodreads and StoryGraph. 
But we’re not here to talk about that, are we? We’re here to talk about The Familiar.

Title and Author: The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Viking/Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook Bought

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Set in Spanish Golden Age, we follow Luzia, a scullion. She tries not to be seen, but she uses scraps of magic to make life a little easier. But when her mistress discovers that Luzia can perform  little miracles, she demands that Luzia uses them to better the family’s social position. But what begins as simple amusements for the bored nobility takes a dark turn when  disgraced secretary of the Spanish King, Antonio Pérez, and his familiar, Guillén Santángel, sees her and takes a dark interest in her. 

Luzia seizes the chance to better her self, but as her notoriety grows, the danger of her Jewish blood grows as, if she gets found out, the Inquisition’s wrath will be unspeakable. She has to stay several steps ahead. But the rules are always changing in the Spanish court and not everyone gets out alive.

Who Watches This Extract…

FEAR THIS POST FOR IT WILL GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT (only there are differing opinions of when the witching hour is as that’s when I wanted to schedule this. The hour after midnight [12am to 1am] or the time between 3am to 4am. There’s some that say it’s between 2am till 4am!)

ANYWAY (let’s get off that random trail of thought!), I have an extract for you guys and it’s a good’un!

Who Watches This Place by Amy Clarkin is the ghostly sequel to What Walks These Halls and we are back with the Paranormal Surveyance Ireland as they are offered a new job. Strange and disturbing happenings are happening at a new start up, hence why the new owners asked Arthur, his sister Raven and other members to investigate. 

But when a startling disappearance reveals tensions within the group, one has the wonder whether they can overcome them, especially when one of their friends is in danger of suffering a horrific fate? 

Now, I am surprise intrigued about this as I really liked the queer and disability representation elements of What Walks These Halls as well as found family and the spooky Irishness so very excited to sink my teeth into the sequel once I get my grubby little hands on it. 

Now, before I hand you over to the extract, I just want to say a quick thank you to Chloe at The O’Brien Press who remembered I read the first and asked if I wanted to share the love over the sequel (I nearly bit her email-hand off!) and for replying to my last minute queries. And, if the extract below wets your appetite and you want to get more details, you can check out The O’Brien Press website or uk.bookshop.org (if you want to click on an affiliate link, of course). Or, you can check out the author’s social and you can find Amy at either @amyclarkin on Twitter/X or @amyclarkinwrites on Instagram. 

Now, onto the spooOOOOOOooooky extract!