NetGalley Review - Hungerstone

I bet you saw the word hunger and thought this was going to be a Hunger Games post, didn’t ya? 

Ok, backstory time. Book blogger pal Luna’s Little Library has been pestering me to read the vampire novella, Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu for YEARS! YEARS! And though I wanted to, I’ve always held off or put it further down my reading list for a mix of reasons: vampire burnout, it’s a classic and I never feel smart enough to read classics, you get the idea. I think they’ve given up on me ever reading it. 

Why is that important, I hear you ask? Well, this book is inspired by Carmilla. Look, Luna, I’m one step closer to actually reading/audiobooking it!

Title and Author: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

Publisher: Manilla Press/Bonnier

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, though listen to audiobook via library’s audiobook app. 

Buy From (Affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org/

Lenore has been married to steel magnate Henry for ten years, but the marriage was a marriage of convenience, not love and with no child. Henry decides to move to Sheffield and host a hunt to celebrate his steelworks and its future. But Lenore remembers what happened the last time Henry attended a hunt and is shocked that he would consider hosting one. 

On the way to their Sheffield estate, they discover carriage accident and bring the injured party to their estate to rest and recover. But Carmilla isn’t who anyone expects. She is weak during the day, but vibrant at night. She doesn’t eat meals with her hosts and is unsettled by churches. She unnerves Lenore, but stirs things up with Lenore. A hunger, a desire that Lenore has ignored for so long but now refuses to be ignored any more…

NetGalley Review - The Decagon House Murders

I’m not sure, at the time of writing this, if this is going to be a post for one eProof I got from publishers via NetGalley or two. So, excuse me while I ramble and I can figure out. 

Let’s start with this Japanese crime classic, shall we? 

Title and Author: The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (Translated by Ho-Ling Wong)
Publisher: Pushkin Veritago

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction, though listened to audiobook via Audible Plus

Buy From (Affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org

In this Japanese cult classic (a loving nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None), the island of Tsunojima is the setting for strange, unsolved murders. So when a group of students from K-University Mystery Club go there for their annual trip, they think it will be great inspiration for the crime fiction magazine.

But when one of their member is murdered, the others realise that they are trapped on the island with no way to escape or call for help. And the murderer has made it clear to them that all of them won’t survive by the end of the trap. 

At the same time, back on the main land, poison pen letters have been sent, accusing the receivers of the tragic death of a young woman who died of alcohol poisoning. But how is that connected to the terror that’s unfolding on the island?

eProof Review - Ink Blood Sister Scribe

One of my bookish resolution of 2024 is to try and get my eProof backlog under control. I do have a lot of books and audiobooks gifted to me very kindly by publishers and authors, and I would like to try and tackle this backlog.

One of the titles that have been on my backlog radar is Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, It’s one of those titles that tickled my fancy for quite a while, but, for one reason or another, I’ve kept putting it off. But, with everything that has happened to my reading over the past few months, I decided to audiobook this from my local library and hope I will fly through it.

Title and Author: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Publisher: Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction & library audiobook.

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In this fantasy thriller debut, we follow estranged sisters Joanna and Esther. Joanna lives alone in Vermont, the sole protector of a collection of rare magical books. One of these books killed their father.

Esther moves every few months. Different country, different jobs, staying no longer than a year, desperate to avoid the magic that her father and stepmother warned her about. But she’s found love on a research base in Antarctica and she wants to stay… then she discovers blood on the mirrors and she knows someone on the base is using blood magic and they are coming after her and her sister’s collection.

Esther and Joanna are in danger. But from who and where? And how is this connected to a young man in London who's uncle won’t let him out of his sight?

Audiobook Review - Lord Edgware Dies

Because of the events of the last few months with my employment and, because of this, falling into a bit of a reading/audiobook slump, I had no plans to do a library audiobook for a while. I am desperate to get my TBR piles of books/audiobooks publishers have kindly gifted me (in exchange for an honest review/reaction) under some control (remember last April when my Amazon was hacked/deleted and all my proofs were wiped off my kindle? I am still affected by that!). 

But I couldn’t bring myself to start audiobooking one of my many audiobooks that I have got from publishers or bought myself. I just wasn’t in that headspace. I needed something short, something I can listen to really quickly and that would kick me out of my audiobook slump. 

Then this became available on my library’s audiobook app. And who doesn’t love a classic murder mystery? 

Title and Author: Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Publisher: HarperCollins

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed via library’s audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In Poirot’s ninth outing, after seeing an impressionist performance of Carlotta Adams, Poirot is approached by the actress Jane Wilkinson. She is currently married to Lord Edgware and, according to her, he will not give her a divorce and asks Poirot for help. Though Poirot doesn’t get involved, he agrees and visits Lord Edgware where he discovers that Lord Edgware is happy to give a divorce and wrote a letter to let Jane know. 

Poirot tells Jane Wilkinson and she is thrilled over the news, and Poirot thinks that is that. Except the following day, Poirot discovers that Lord Edgware has been murdered. Stabbed at the base of the skull, and witnesses say that they saw Jane Wilkinson at the family home at the time of the murder. But that can’t be possible as she had been at a party and there are twelve witnesses that can testify to that. 

Is it possible for a woman to be in two places at once? Who murdered Lord Edgware? How is it connected to a drugs overdose of Carlotta Adams? And how did a chance remark from a stranger help Poirot come to the truth?

Redundancy Short Reads

My NetGalley November hasn’t been as big as success as I would have hoped when I first thought of doing this, hence why I might carry this over till I go on my Christmas/New Year blog holiday (I still need to figure out when that will be and for how long? It was going to be for a month, but things have changed as I will explained below). 

Reason why? Before I went on my little sunshine/reading holiday, I was suddenly and unexpectedly made redundant. Which was fun (insert heavy sarcasm here). I was made redundant, then went on holiday and then, once I got home, sent next few days trying to find a job. 

So, as you can expect, while I did blitz some NetGalley proofs reading, there were one or two times when my brain went “Nope. I need something short and achievable!”.

The three novellas I did were The Thief by Ruth Rendell, Serpentine by Philip Pullman and The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson. 

The Thief by Ruth Rendell was a Quick Reads novella (2003?) which follows Polly who is a liar and a thief. There was her aunt, a girl in her school, a boyfriend who dumped her. But she stopped and is trying to be better for her new boyfriend. But when a man on the plane leaves her scared and humiliated, she takes his suitcase, not knowing that the things will take a dark turn…

Serpentine by Philip Pullman is set in the His Dark Materials world and is set a year after Lyra’s Oxford. Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon have left the events of The Amber Spyglass behind them, though the events still lingers… In this little snapshot of their lives, the pair return to the North, when they discovers somethings aren’t exactly as they first appear…

And, finally, The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson follows Ashley, an American who is happy to be alone at Christmas. One Christmas Day, she is cleaning her apartment and discovers her diary of 30 years ago when she was an Art student in London and she’s invited by her friend, Emma, to stay at her country home for Christmas. But when she arrives, this Christmas isn’t going to be cosy as the little country village is still recovering from the shocking murder of a woman who looks just like Ashley…

All Hallows Reads - Ghosts From the Library

My last All Hallows Reads (I did plan to read and audiobook a lot more, but got completely side-tracked. The two titles that jump out in my mind at time of writing this is Tag, You’re Dead by Kathryn Foxfield and A Taste of Darkness [Edited by Amy McCaw and Maria Kuzniar]). But not meant to be. Instead, we are wrapping up the spooky with Ghosts From the Library.

Title: Ghosts From The Library
Publisher: Collins Crime Club
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

This anthology is a collection of either unpublished or previously uncollected supernatural short stories written by authors from the Golden Age of Crime. There’s not much more I can say about the collection but the authors involved range from Josephine Tey, Daphne du Maurier, Christianna Brand, M.R James, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Arthur Conan Doyle to name but a few.

All Hallows Reads - Lords And Ladies

What’s Halloween and spooky reading without some witches to cause havoc? And what witches are best suitable for havoc and mischief than the Witches of the Discworld…

Title and Author: Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett

Publisher: Transworld

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook borrowed from local library & BorrowBox app

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

After the events of Witches Aboard, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Margat have returned to Lancre from their holidays and discover that things aren’t quite right. Margat finds herself engaged and to be married to the King at Midsummer, Granny seems distracted lately and the someone has been dancing round the stone Dancers and crop circles have beginning to appear. And last time those happened, the Lords and Ladies came…

All Hallows Reads - Grishaverse Fairy Tales

Let’s start the spookiness with some fairy tales, shall we?

Well, I say fairy tales. They’re folktales from the world of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse . Now, I only done two (and not the whole collection from The Language of Thorns), which were released individually – The Too-Clever Fox and Little Knife. Both I did via audiobook from local library and both have the same feel to it so merging their write-ups together.

Companion folk tales to novels Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, The Too-Clever Fox is about a fox who has escaped traps all his life. But just because you avoid one trap, doesn’t mean you will escape the next. While Little Knife is about a young woman whose beauty causes discord in her town that her family makes plans to have her wed. But plans will go awry, like the turning of the current in a river…

Audiobook Review - Witches Aboard

I’ve been holding off reading/audio booking this Discworld novel. I wanted to do a few others before I tackled this one as this one intrigues me. I wanted to do one of the City Watch books (Guards! Guards!), a standalone (The Truth) or a Death novel (reread Reaper Man or try Soul Music). But, in the end, I had to read more of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Oog. It would be rude not to!

Title and Author: Witches Aboard by Terry Pratchett

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook borrowed via Library’s BorrowBox app  

Buy From (Affiliate): bookshop.org

Stories have powers, and we all know the fairy tales of our children: the shoe fits Cinderella, True Love’s kiss awakens the sleeping princess, the Yellow Brick Road leads to the Great City. But this is the Discworld, and stories take a life of their own. 

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Oog and Magrat Garlick are tasked to travel to the city of Genua to stop a wedding and save the kingdom. Easy, right? But stories have power and how can you fight a Happily Ever After, especially one that has a glass slipper, a ball and a Fairy Godmother who is determined to get the happy ending, even if no one else wants it?

Audiobook Review - The Witch In The Well

Title and Author: The Witch In The Well by Camilla Bruce

Publisher: Transworld

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction, though I listened to audiobook, borrowed from local library

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

Hundreds of year ago, the town of F- did something bad. Even now, the ripples of that event affects the town and Catherine Evans has been researching and writing a novel about what happened when Ilsbeth Clark drowned in the local well when the townsfolk accused her of being a witch. According to Catherine Ilsbeth wasn't a witch, but a woman who knew her own mind and who didn't fit the norm of what a woman/wife should be... 

But when her old childhood friend, Elena, comes to town, stuck for an idea to follow up her successful book, Whispers Inside: A Reawakening of the Soul. When she rediscovers the story of Ilsbeth Clark, she thinks that would be a great book idea, focusing on her natural magic, and accidentally mentions her idea in an interview, a rivalry between Catherine and Elena form. 

By the end of the summer, one woman will be dead and the other will be accused of her murder. But did she do it? And who is Ilsbeth Clark, really? An innocent, a witch or something much, much worse?

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.

Audiobook April - Mini-Reviews

Another day, another mini-review write-up on two audiobooks: one I got for review (in exchange for an honest review/reaction, of course) and the other from my local library (because why not!) 

We have (for review) One of Our Ministers Is Missing by Alan Johnson and the other (from library's audiobook app) Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie!

Murder Month 2023 - Bones Are Forever

I don’t often read the same author back-to-back. I normally like to have a little break between finishing a book by an author and starting another book by the same author. But with Kathy Reichs, I thought I would be safe as she’s one of my fave crime/thriller authors. Plus, am audiobooking. I should be ok to audiobook the same author twice in a row, right?

Title and Author: Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook borrowed from library audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

So, here we are, with the 15^th outing of Temperance Brennan (Cold Cold Bones was the 21^st, so I jumped backwards). In Quebec, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is asked to a scene where the body of a baby is found in a vanity cabinet. While there, two more bodies of mummified babies are discovered. When it is discovered that babies didn’t died of natural causes, the hunt to find the mother is on. When all the evidence leads Brennan and the detectives to a desolate diamond-mining town on the edge of the Arctic Circle called Yellowknife, the investigation takes a sharp turn and Brennan finds that the mother of the three dead babies might be a stone cold monster like she thought…

Audiobook Review - Equal Rites

I've been dipping in and out of the Discworld books over the past few years. I plan to do more in the coming few months (mainly the novels featuring DEATH. I read Reaper Man years ago and class it as one of my favourites. One that I should reread before I dare tackle the next DEATH book, Soul Music - which is on my kindle as we speak), but I seem to have been going towards the Witches series, reading Wyrd Sisters, Maskerade and now, Equal Rites (which is classed as the first book in the Witch series, but at the same time, reads as a standalone). 

Title and Author: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Publisher: Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange of honest review/reaction though listened to audiobook via library audiobook app.

Wizards in the Discworld know when they are going to die. So, before Drum Billet does, he goes and passes his staff to the eighth son of an eighth son. But he didn't check the newborn's gender until it was much too late...

For you see, girls can't be wizards. It's the lore in the in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic. And yet, here we are with our first female wizard. And it's up to local witch Granny Weatherwax to somehow train and keep an eye on the girl as she grows into her magic...

Audiobook Review - A Murder of Crows

I'm not sure how this got on my radar. I want to say Twitter, but I think I might have got an email from the publisher's publicity department, saying "Vote for this upcoming release's cover!" and I am a sucker for a mystery poll for a new series. And this is a cosy murder mystery series so, of course, this is right up my street, people! 

Although, this wasn't what I was expecting for a cosy mystery. But more on that later... 

Title and Author: A Murder of Crows by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

Publisher: Embla Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction, though listened to audiobook via library audiobook app.

Dr Neil Ward is an ecologist, not a detective. So when she took on a job for a local Manor House in Cookingdeal, this thinks it will be an easy open-and-shut to discover the building's wildlife. When she discovers a hidden tunnel, perfect for bats, she thinks she overhears something. It's not till a day or two later that she realises that she heard the home owner being murdered...

Desperate to help, she shows all her findings to the Police. But this has the opposite effect as the Police turn their sights on Neil being the prime suspect. Trying to clear her name, Neil and her colleague Adam decide to look into the murder. But that might be easier said than done...

Audiobook Review - The Bone Garden

Tess Gerritsen is one of the first crime/thriller authors I tried when I was in my late teens/early twenties that I enjoyed (same goes for Kathy Reichs, not so much for Patricia Cornwell but THAT'S a different story!) and I have always dipped in and out of her books. I first read Body Double, then dipping in and out of her Rizzoli and Isles series.

Tess's stand-alone were very hit and miss with me. I really enjoyed Harvest when I read it YEARS ago, I DNFed Life Support & Playing with Fire and The Shape of Night was a bit meh for me (review for that is here, if you're curious on my thoughts when I first read it in 2019) 

But I have always, ALWAYS wanted to read Bone Garden. It just sounded creepy with how it looks at early medicine in Boston 1830s.

Title and Author: The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen

Publisher: Transworld

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought eBook and borrowed audiobook from library via BorrowBox app.

In the present day, Julia impulsively bought a house to get over her divorce. As she is digging up the garden, she discovers a skull. The skeleton, it seems, was buried over a hundred years ago. But who is she, and how did she die?

In 1830s Boston, an impoverished medical student and a young Irish immigrant who suddenly becomes guardian of her baby niece find their paths keep crossing as a terrifying serial killer. Something sinister is happening in Boston, and it has nothing to do with the grave robbing or body snatching...

More Short Stories Read During Reading Slump

I think I said in an earlier blog post that I was out of my reading slump. I hope I'm out of my reading slump (goodness helps me if I'm not) and last week, my company went on its annual summer shutdown so my partner and I went away for a free days to Alton Towers and, while there, I decided to read some more short stories from Amazon's Black Stars collection, 

Black Stars is a collection for short sci-fi stories, written by black authors, which can be read within 30-odd minutes. (There are other short story collections on Amazon, ranging from sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary, and others. All of which I will have to investigate)

Now, in an earlier post, I read one of the stories within Black Stars - The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I did like reading this short, but it's hard to explain this. I keep thinking of it as a gender-flipped Handmaid's Tale told from the point of view of Mrs Dalloway. Plus, it did hit close to the bone as I read within weeks of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, making safe abortions illegal in certain states, so that was very much on my mind as I read this. 

After that, I wanted to go back into a novel so I tried to read another Diana Wynne Jones: The Many Lives of Christopher Chant. But I only got to chapter five. It wasn't holding my attention and though I wanted to, I knew I couldn't go on at the current moment. So, I decided to go back on my myself and read some more shorts from Black Stars collection: Clap Back by Nalo Hopkinson, The Black Pages by Nnedi Okorafor and These Alien Skies by C.T. Rwizi. 

Clap Back follows Wenda, a protest performance artist, who doesn't believe the stories about fashion designer and biochemistry, Burra, who's new clothing line will have nanotech weaved into the fabric to tell the wearer about African history and forgiveness. The Black Pages follows Issaka as he returns home to Timbouctou from his studies in the US, only for his family home to be attacked by al-Qaeda. And These Alien Skies follows Msizi as he pilots a spaceship to test a new wormhole jump that could lead to unsettled yet possible habitable planets, but when an explosion causes the ship to go off course, he and his co-pilot fear the worse... 

I'm not going to write full-blown reports on each of these, but I will touch on them in quick summaries of my thoughts. I had high hopes for Clap Back, and it didn't quite hit the right notes for me. I liked the story when it was being told in media reports. But when it switched out of that, I didn't warm to the story. It had potential, but it didn't high the sweet spot for me. 

Black Pages, out of the three, felt the strongest. Maybe because it felt more fantasy than sci-fi, but this felt like a story I could sink into. Plus, it felt like this could be the start of something: a prologue of introduction short story to a novel with these characters and I would have enjoyed seeing more of them.

And These Alien Skies. Sadly, this didn't work for me. It felt as if it was trying to tackle too many things in a short time-frame. Maybe I read this at the wrong time, but it just didn't work for me. 

But collection of short stories are going to be hit and miss. Some stories you are going to love, other stories not so much. I have a few collections that I want to read in the coming months, and we'll see where we go from there. 

But, my reading slump has ruined my reading and I have several novels that I am desperate to read (and I can't wait!). So, might take a week or two off my blog and come back swinging! Wish me luck!

Short Reads I Read During Reading Slump

After finally (hopefully) killing my reading slump with Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week, I decided that I was going to slowly ease myself back into read. I'm not going to throw self into the deep end. I wanted to take my time and, hell, maybe even read some short stories or novella. A gentle getting back to normal with my reading (not my life. Still trying to figure how to get back to normal on that one!). And, at the same time, I wanted to try something new. But ease of reading. 

So, while snooping on my Amazon's Prime Reading, I discovered some short stories as part of their Short Stories collections and, after having a quick snoop, I downloaded a few (as I have Prime, the stories were free under their Prime Reading). I downloaded a few under the Forward collection (sci-fi about the future), Trepass collection (unsettling stories about nature) and Black Stars (sci-fi stories written by black authors), I dipped my toe in. 

My first was The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the first short story in the Black Stars collection. In this, gender roles have been flipped and it shows how easy we are conditioned to see the world. Plus, this kinda hits close to current events as the law banning men from masturbating in US and in Lagos are in force with no plans to remove or change, dangerously similar to recent Roe vs Wade events in the US and certain states planning to ban abortions (which won't work. They're banning safe abortions). And while I did like this short as I found the ideas interesting, creepy and frighteningly real, I didn't warm to this. It felt like a cross over between Mrs Dalloway and The Handmaid's Tale. This could have so easily been longer. 

My second was The Tiger Came To The Mountain by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the first short in the Trepass collection. Set in Mexico 1917, at the height of the revolution, two children hide in a cave to stay safe. But a threat is close to them, prowling, waiting... Now, I have tried to read one of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novel, Mexican Gothic, and I didn't like it. But this shirt fitted my mood wonderfully. I just clicked with this story and it felt delicious to read in almost one sitting. I might need to try this author again in future...

I audiobooked a short audiobook from may local library - Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Now, I'm not going to write a review about this as it feels wrong to that, but this is a short collection of essays about Chimamanda processing her grief over the death of her father in the high of the COVID pandemic. Now, grief is a complex creature and no two people's grief is the same. But oh, there were moments in this collection that hurt. The last essay/chapter is short and kicks you in the feels (I think every person who has lost someone will get what I mean when you read/hear it!) 

Audiobook Mini-Review - Beating About The Bush

Mini Review Time! And seeing as I blitzed through this audiobook with such speed, a mini-review seems about right. Hang on, let's get some details up so you know what's going on... 

Title and Author: Agatha Raisin: Beating Round The Bush by M.C. Beaton

Publisher: Constable

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction, though borrowed audiobook via library's BorrowBox app. 

My first Agatha Raisin was Down the Hatch and, while this was a nice cosy-mystery, it didn't ball me over. I have heard that the characters were a little spiky. Especially the series lead, Agatha, who I knew was a chain-smoker, G&T drinking, hot tempered, vain, spiteful and has no filter. But in Down the Hatch, the characters were... well... nice. They were nice and a little soft. 

But here... here I felt was more what I was promised and I was much happier to read/audiobook this (the UK audiobook is narrated by Penelope Keith, which was a dream!). Agatha, while a little mellowed compared to her earlier adventures (yes, I'm going to back track the series as I enjoyed myself with these characters), still has no filtered, drinks and smokes too much and is on the lookout for romance. Plus, she surprised everyone with her unknown affections for donkeys - where did that come from!?

Ok, let's touch on the story. Agatha is driving from a possible private detective job, looking into shrubs by the side of the road and goes "Nice place to dump a body". Only to find a severed leg in said bush. Yes, it's fake, but there's something unnerving about it. And, not long after Agatha takes said job and wonders why someone who dump a fake leg, a murder takes place and elderly Mrs. Dunwiddy is murdered - by a donkey? 

Agatha's doesn't believe that. There's something shady going on at the factory who's hired her. Something very shady. And she's not careful, she might not hear the news of her friend and sometimes lover... 

This was fun. I enjoyed myself with this and the fact this was a cosy murder mystery with a lead that doesn't exactly fit the cosy murder mystery lead is quite refreshing. 

I can't really write more than this was fun. It was outlandish, funny and I do think I'm going to visit one of Agatha's earlier adventures (I keep eyeing Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House and . Not sure which one yet...

Christmas 2021 Audiobook - She Who Became The Sun

I finished this a few days before Christmas (hence why I classed this as a Christmas review). I wanted to get a few titles (two or three) read before Christmas and New Year's Eve that I have promised publishers I would do. As you all know, if you follow me on my socials (mainly Goodreads and Twitter), I am useless at requesting a story in any form and then making a prompt review. They are always late, but I hoped that, over the Christmas period, I could at least attempt to have a few titles - bought, borrowed or requested - ready for 2022, hence why I decided to have a slightly longer blog break over the Christmas period. 

And so, here we are. 

Title And Author: She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Publisher: Mantle

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction while Audiobook’s borrowed from local library via BorrowBox app. 

I'm not sure how to write a blurb for this title so, bear with me. Set in 14th century China, two children's futures have been revealed. The boy is promised greatness, the girl nothing. But when the boy dies, the girl makes a snap decision to survive: she takes her brother's identity and joins a monastery as a young male novice. Her need to survive burns deep within her and she is willing to do anything to keep herself hidden and to live. 

But when the monastery is destroyed, she makes another decision. She decides to not only claim her dead brother's identity but his abandoned, foretold greatness as well.