What I Tried To Read During Reading Slump

As you know if you've follow me on here or any of my social medias, I am in the depths of a reading slump. Am hoping to get out of it by the time this post goes up (I highly doubt it, but one can hope, right?), but I thought, in the meantime, I would write a small post about some of the books/audiobooks I attempted to read to get me out of the slump. 

You all know I tried to read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and you all saw how salty I got before I quit around the half way mark (link for that post is here). But there are so many others that I tried and a few I really want to talk about as I want to read them SO BADLY!!! So, let me chat quickly over some titles!

THE KING IS DEAD by Benjamin Dean is the first book am gonna chat about. My slump made me stop around the halfway mark, as I wasn't gelling with the book's pacing. But, in theory, this is perfect for me. Black, queer, mystery and, while looks gossipy and gloss, has an undercurrent of darkness to it. James is the first black heir to the British throne, so when his father suddenly dies, James's life is turned completely upside down as he is now king. But when his secret boyfriend vanishes and secrets are beginning to leak out of the Palace, James begins to realise that someone close to him can't be trusted... 

DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr is a second book I'm going to chat about, and this one is one of the books I am desperate to get back to as I love reading Katharine and Elizabeth's writing. And here, we have a dark reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I only got a few chapters in and I know that I will enjoy myself hugely once I'm back in my reading groove. 

Another DNF I started then put down is a reread - THE DOOMSPELL by Cliff McNish. Not sure why I want to reread this trilogy, but I've been wanting to reread it on and off for the past few months. Plus, it's celebrating being published for past 20-odd years so it feels time. Rachel and Eric have been snatched to another world, like hundreds of children before by the Witch. She plans to use them to overthrown her enemies, the Wizards. But has the Witch met her match in Rachel and Eric? 

Let's do one more then I'll let you get on with your day. BLUE BLOODS by Melissa de la Cruz. Now, I have read the first three in this series YEARS ago (over ten or so years ago) and I have fond memories of these books as I read the first on my first trip to New York City. Now, I have the first five in the series (three I read and two I haven't) and I wanted to see if they stood the test of time. Imagine Gossip Girl with vampires, but I sense there's a dark overarching story (but I never got to that part so goodness know where this series is going to end up!). 

Am going to leave it there as I think, I think, I might be on the up with my reading. FINGERS CROSSED!!!

Reading Slump Audiobooking - Murder Before Evensong

Not sure how to write this one as still in slump with blogging/reading (oh, the joy of anxiety-include reading slumps), but I preordered this and decided to give it a listen as I thought this, as a cosy murder mystery, might ease me back into reading/audiobooking on a more, regular bases. 

Well, that was the plan. It took a good few weeks for me to complete it. And I would make myself listen to this either on the way to or from work. Most days, I did both to help men unwind from work, but I would try and do at least 20 minutes a day. 

So, where the heck do I start here?

Title and Author: Murder Before Evensong by Reverend Richard Coles

Publisher: Orion/W&N

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

Canon Daniel Clement is the Rector of Champton for the past eight years. He lives with his eldery spitfire of a mother, Audrey, and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda, and he had his brother, Hugo, popping in and out of his life.

Life in Champton is a typical, country village in the mid-1980s. But when Daniel suggests installing a lavatory in the church, the parish is unexpected divided. Then things take a turn when the Anthony Bowness – cousin of Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton – is found dead in the church, stabbed in the neck by a pair of secateurs, the village is close to fracturing. As the Police begin to investigate, Daniel must try to keep his community together and try and figure out who the killer is for who knows how many more will die before the truth comes out…

Reading Slump Reading - Mini Write-Up One

As I said earlier, I fell hard into a reading slump. Things happened and it's one of those things. At the time, I was mildly ok with the slump, then I went  "Enough now!" as I had to DNF two reads that I was quite excited to read - one was a proof of a book that I was kindly sent by the publisher for review which I am excited to read as I love these authors's previous books (Daughter of Darkness by Elizabeth and Katherine Corr) and I had to put it down and hope that I will return to this before its publication so can have a review or something ready. 

But this reading slump might be over. Maybe. At the time of writing this, I am unsure if am out of the reading slump woods, but am tentatively hopefully. 

The two books that, I hope, have got me out of my reading slump is Crankshaft by K. M. Neuhold and Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (this is audiobook, FYI). 

Crankshaft, the first book in the Big Bull Mechanics series (this is a spin off series of Four Bear Construction that I class as my COVID Lockdown obsession) is a MM, low angst romance, while Maskerade is a Discworld novel (the 18th in the whole series and, I think, the 5th or 6th in the Witches series), which pokes fun at opera. 

So, not gonna write full-on reviews (these were fun! Perfect for getting out of reading slumps), but these were fun. I knew I would love Crankshaft as this is the first book in a spinoff series that I devoured during COVID, Four Bear Constructions. And I knew this would be light, fun and angst-free (or very low angst). 

Maskerade, on the other hand, was a bit of a risk. I'm not 100% sure about Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series, though I seem to have gained a few titles on my kindle. But Maskerade has been one that I've had my eye on for a while for some unknown reason, and while I did warm to the story and the characters (mainly Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg - it did some time for me to like them, and I audiobooked Wyrd Sisters, and I found the lack of Magrat in this story a nice bonus). It seems that I like Discworld novels, but the latter half of the novels when things are beginning to go off the rails. I can't seem to warm to the set-up of the first half of the novel... 

But, like I said, am in the depths of a reading slump and slowly, oh-so-slowly, am trying to crawl out of it, so I'm not exactly going to rush my next few reads/audiobooks. Am nearly finished one and it's a "meh", but I can't decide if that's because am still in slump or if the story just didn't work... we shall see...  

Reading Slump

I wrote this over the Bank Holiday weekend, but I decided to not to post it. Not then, but I feel more ok posting it now and happier to talk. 

If you've followed me on my socials - mainly Twitter or Goodreads - you might have noticed that I didn't read much over the course of May. I suffered/am suffering (I'm slowly crawling out of it) a HUGE reading slump in May. Things happened and, because of that, it affected my reading and my enjoyment. 

Yes, I know I had a blog break over the Easter break due to me feeling a little burnout with reading and blogging, but this slump is annoying as heck as I want to read. BADLY! This is affecting both my reading and my audiobooking so feeling very meh of late with stories (though I listen to podcasts of people reading, such as Goblet of Wine). Same with blogging and general life stuff. 

However, life has just... I don't really known how to describe it. Let's say the last few years have been hard with COVID and other issues. Yeah, shall we say that and move on? 

So, just giving you a tiny heads-up that reading and blogging over the next few months might be a little more hit and miss than normal (for example, I was trying to write this while podcast-listening to random episode of Her Dark Materials & Unbitten - oh, I'm thinking of rereading a book within His Dark Materials and the Twilight Saga. Not Twilight or Northern Lights, as I have reread them quite often, but am leaning towards New Moon [strangely, a fave of mine in the series] or The Amber Spyglass. Thoughts? - and I couldn't write this post and listen to podcast. Believe me, random lines would have popped up in this post). I need to ease self back into this and find the joy again - which might mean 

Hopefully, will be back to my reading self in a few weeks so stay with me! If not, I will be listening to random podcasts and TV shows so that should be fun! 

Best Reads/Audiobooks Of The Past Two Months...

As you probably noted, I haven't really talked about what I read/audiobooked via the past few months. July was a surprise blog break and then, to ease self back into blogging this month, I took on a bunch of blog tours (which were fun as this made look into books and series, some of which I wouldn't have noticed till I was asked and now am going "I need to put this on my radar, if I have time/space on my TBR") to help me ease back into blogging.

But that didn't mean I have stopped reading. Oh no. I have still been reading. And, for the most part, I have been reviewing them on my Goodreads (goodreads.com/pewterwolf). But there were a few I wanted to reference on here as they were SO GOOD, that I wanted to share with you guys. I hope you don't mind...

eBook Review - Hard Truths

• Title And Author: Hard Truth by Alex Whitehall
• Publisher: Riptide Publishing
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook 
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by publisher via NetGalley
• Length: 212 Pages

Like I said in my write-up of Mysterious Mr Quin, I went through a bit of a spell with the blog, real life and reading in general. So, I decided that I wanted to read something fast, fluffy and something that didn’t involve much thinking. 

Sometimes, we all need a candy-floss, beach read. 

It was going to be one of two NetGalley eProofs: either this or Tight Quarters by Annabeth Albert. I  leaned this way more as I believe this is shorter out of the two stories. 

Isaac didn’t expect to fancy his sister’s date at the Christmas dinner at his parents. But when her date hits on him, Isaac decides to tell her what happened at once - only to find out that her date is a fake date. They aren’t dating and that Logan is gay as well, and wants to see him again. 

As the two begin to date, Isaac has to find a way to come out to his “unworldly” parents. Coming out to them could mean losing his family. Unfortunately, he can’t see his real family who are right beside him and, if Isaac isn’t carefully, he could lose everyone around him… 

Ok, where do I start with this adult gay romance? 

Book Review - The Mysterious Mr Quin

• Title And Author: The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical 
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from Library
• Length: 336 Pages
• Buy From: Book Depository - Foyles - Audible

Well… that was unexpected. 

Ok, in the words of Craig David, re-e-wind! 

Sorry, no idea why I wrote that but anyway, back story. As you might remember from a blog post from months back when I chatted about Agatha Christie, this was one of the titles I’ve wanted to read for a while. Ever since I heard of the general bases of this, I wanted to read this. I mean, a mysterious man (who appears as if by magic. A bit like the shop keeper from Mr Benn! Anyone remember that?) who solves crimes. Sold! But I didn’t know when I was going to read this. Plus, I wasn’t sure if this was best place to start with reading Agatha Christie. 

Then I went “Sod it!”, requested it at my library (this was at the height of my last reading slump and real life drama of buying a house, trying to get a handle on work and general “Am I good enough to continue book blogging? Or should I quit?” - you know, the good stuff in life) and, before I had time to get myself ready, my library said “We got it and the other two books you requested for you!” (the other two books were Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs and Want to Play? by PJ Tracy [and why I haven’t read them will be made clear in the coming paragraphs]) so I decided to read this. 

The Mysterious Mr Quin is a collection of twelve short stories that follow Mr Satterthwaite as he gets himself involved in mysteries - some from the past, some present - and his mysterious acquaintance, Mr Quin, who seems to be the catalyst for the truth to come to light… 

Audiobook Review - Forever And A Day

A few years back, I listened to the audiobook of Anthony Horowitz's Trigger Mortis (write-up for that is here!) and I wrote "I hope Anthony Horowitz writes another Bond book". Well, the Fleming estate decided that they did want him to write another and, finding material Ian Fleming for a possible idea of turning James Bond into a TV serial (this was before the film rights were bought, to my knowledge), they give him the material and let him run with it.

007 is dead. He was shot in the French Rivera and MI5 wants to find out who and why he was killed. They promote a new recruit to the number and send him out to find out the truth. The new recruit's name? James Bond.

That's right, this is a "prequel" of Bond's first mission. And oooh... ooooh, I had problems. So many problems.

Ok, before I sink my teeth into the problems and issues I had, let's get into the positives. There are a few that I can talk about. Now, I have never read a Bond book, so bear with me, but the second half of the story had really good pacing. It moved faster. Plus, some of you guys will like reading this as this is Bond's first mission so you get to see what happened to make him tick.

My biggest positive is the "Bond Girl" (I loathe that term!) - the character of Sixteen. I found her fascinating, and she was, possibly, the only character I felt was fleshed out. She had a history, motivations, character traits and flaws. I wanted to read more about her. Possible spinoff prequel, anyone?

Now, onto the problems and issues. I have a long list! I didn't like the narrator for a good chunk of the audiobook (sorry!) , the first half of the story was slow in pace and it was a struggle to get to the heart of the story, not much was fleshed out, the idea of another prequel story coming out (I'm intrigued over Solo: A Star Wars Story but I know a lot of you don't want it). But the main thing that happened was, for the good amount of the audiobook, I frankly didn't care.

I know I am going through a bit of a reading slump, but I didn't care for the story. I never felt any true moment of danger for Bond and, because of that, I didn't care what happened because I thought "He'll be fine...". I just didn't really care about the story until the very end.

Now, I'm not sure if I feel like this because I'm in a weird reading slump, and I've only begun to crawl out of my reading slump but... yeah... this wasn't for me. I wonder if I had read a collection of James Bond stories, each story written by a different author, if my opinion was have been more favourable.

Two eNovella Reviews

After reading Noah Could Never (write-up for that is here), I fell into a bit of a reading slump. For several days, I kept picking books up, reading a chapter or two, then putting it down and going "Nope". So, when Katharine Corr (co-author of the Witch's Kiss trilogy) suggested I try reading a novella or flash fiction or a reread (something I am currently doing now as real life is going to get a little nuts for next few weeks), I went "I do have one or two I could try..."

And I read them both. It was a slow trek - a week prior novella, which is bad for me as I could usually hammer a novella or flash fiction out in a day or two. But I think I need the time to break the water's surface, so to speak, with my reading of late.

One novella is The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles by Kij Johnson and the other was Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn. The prior I bought several years back and the other I was given for review via NetGalley a week or two back and both are very different from each other.

The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles is set in Ancient Japan and follows Small Cat, who after her garden burns in a fire and the colony scatters, decides to find the home of her ancestor, the Cat from the North, and try and make a name for herself along the way...

Whereas Bottled Goods is set in communist Romania in the 1970s, and it follows Alina who, after her brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her new husband become people of interest to the secret services. As this strain takes root in their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for support, not her mother...

So why, I hear you ask, have I decided to put these two very different novellas together in one review? Is it because I am a lazy so&so? Is it because I am going through a slump with reading and blogging? Is it because real life, like I have previous mentioned, is going to go crazy the next few weeks? Is it because both stories have very similar pros and cons? You decide...

Both stories held my attention, even though am going through a reading funk. I really liked the writing styles in both, which is the main reason why I kept reading (though I do have faults with both). In Bottled Goods, each chapter's writing style is different from the previous - first person, third person, diary entry, list, first person of one chapter, first person of a second chapter, third person. Both stories, also, always had something happening. Each chapter ended with a cliffhanger of sorts so, of course, I had to keep clicking on my kindle to find out what happened next.

Plus, the chapter art of The Cat is wonderful. Shame my kindle is black and white, as I'm intrigued to see these in colour.

But because am in this reading funk, I did have problems. Problems I would normally get over very quickly, but in this mindset, all I could see were these problems. As I mentioned earlier on, the writing styles of both novellas were good, but both had problems. At times, The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles felt... off. I can't really explain it. There was something that held me back from being full invested within the story. This is the same with Bottled Goods, but with this, I do think it's the style of writing, how each chapter changed how it was written. I liked this, but it does take a little while for you to get use to. Plus, when there were two chapters told in first person but from two different chapter and you have no indicator of who it is in the chapter title, it's throws you out a little bit.

Plus, both have an element of magic, but I kinda wanted more. With Cat, the animals do speak to each other but I wanted something more. As for Bottled Goods, the magic element comes quite late in the story, and with the story's blurb hinting that it's there from the start, it got annoying waiting for it to come and, when it did, it was a side step. I do wonder on if the magical element was completely removed from Bottled Goods, if the story would have still worked (barring one element, I think it might have).

I did like both of these, don't get me wrong, I did. But because of my reading frame-of-mind at the moment, am super nit-picky. Maybe if I reread these in the future, these won't bother me so much, but it was nice to read something not over 300 pages long and yet still packed a punch, which both still did.

Genre Reading Slump

You know that plan I had at the start of the month? The one where you guys would pick my next read via polls on Twitter and other social media sites. Well... that kinda hasn't happened.

I know, I know, I do this all the time. I have a really cool idea for the blog and a interesting way to interact with you guys and then it all falls flat! Why, I hear you ask. Well... I seem to have hit a reading slump.

But not any reading slump. Oh no, dear reader. It's waste than a reading slump where I don't want to pick up any book. No. I'm in a reading slump against one genre. I can happily read other genres bar this one and this one genre is my bread and butter reading. If you look at my TBR (both physical and Kindle), you'll see that this genre is a huge part of my reading so hitting this reading wall is painful and really problematic for me!

That genre is fantasy.

I love fantasy. I adore it and I have plans to widen my reading scope of fantasy, going to more adult and more longer in length - You guys saw I audiobooked The Discovery of Witches trilogy and I read The Queen of the Tearling trilogy last year - so I'm ready for this challenge. Am ready to try and reread Eragon by Christopher Paolini, and try new fantasy books such as Trudi Canavan, the Earthsea series by Ursula K Le Guin, more Discworld by Terry Pratchett and get round to Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman.

But it looks like I need to take a read or two (or seven - who knows?!) away from fantasy and read different genres. No idea what I will read (The Book Thief? Americanah? The Clan of the Cave Bear? Who knows?!) but bear with me while I run a little loopy on "What's on my TBR that isn't fantasy?" blitz. Normal reading schedules will return hopefully soon, but hopefully, trying new things is going to be fun! ... right?

Maybe it is a good thing that I'm planning a tiny blog break over Easter... Hopefully, this is will get my reading back on track!

Reading Slumps Are a *****!

It's happened. I fear this would happen for quite some time, but it's happened. I have fallen into a reading slump...

I don't know how this happened, dear readers to my blog. One day a few weeks ago, I was fine. I was reading. I was happy. I was like this, dear readers. 

And then, it hit. I was trying to avoid it, but not this time. Not this time... 

I have tried several things over the past few weeks. I have taken this as a book holiday. I have tried to read books that call to me. I have tried to read sample chapters from NetGalley. I have even tried reading Harry Potter. And all of them aren't working! 

So... not exactly sure when am going to recover from this horror! I apologise in advance if my blog goes quiet the next few weeks. I am planning a small blog break over Christmas and New Year but I was going to keep blogging till just before. But now... now not so sure what the plan of action is. 

But, dear readers, I hopefully will kick this reading slump up the rear and will back in my swing in the next few weeks. If not, the New Year. I am plotting stuff.

I am taking time my reading slump break to scare that thing in the corner of the room that is called a television, that red thing called a 3DS and my blue iPod that use to hold my audiobooks but not anymore (and those things called a partner, family and a kitten!). But soon, I will return to the beauty of books. Because, dear readers...