Month: May 2021

Orange Review (Whole Series)

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On the day that Naho begins 11th grade, she receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. At first, she writes it off as a prank, but as the letter’s predictions come true one by one, Naho realizes that the letter might be the real deal. Her future self tells Naho that a new transfer student, a boy named Kakeru, will soon join her class. The letter begs Naho to watch over him, saying that only Naho can save Kakeru from a terrible future. Who is this mystery boy, and can Naho save him from his destiny?

Read my review of the whole series here 🙂

The Mystery of Three Quarters Review

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Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him — a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy… Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger? 

The Decagon House Murders Review

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The members of a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly, unsolved multiple murder the year before. They’re looking forward to investigating the crime, putting their passion for solving mysteries to practical use, but before long there is a fresh murder, and soon the club-members realise they are being picked off one-by-one. The remaining amateur sleuths will have to use all of their murder-mystery expertise to find the killer before they end up dead too.

April 2021 Wrap Up

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A very mixed bag this month. I gave my first 1 star book of the year, some more 5 stars and another DNF. Plus some ARCs, some manga and a whole range of other things. I also have come to the conclusion that I will not be continuing the ONTD Reading Challenge as I have a whole load of books I want to prioritise more! More on that decision later next month.

  • I read 7 books this month.
  • I DNFed 1 book.
  • I didn’t complete my ONTD reading challenge this month.
  • Genre: 5 fantasy, 1 murder mystery and 1 romance.
  • Gender of authors: 4 women and 3 men.
  • Race of authors: 5 white, 1 black and 1 asian.
  • Age range: 5 adult, 1 YA and 1 middle grade.
  • Format: 3 paperback, 2 hardcover and 2 ebooks.

Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo (2 stars)

This book was a major miss for me and I had read it in preparation for the Netflix show. I had heard mixed things about this trilogy before going in but I wanted to make opinions for myself and sadly I wasn’t a fan. I think it came down to execution for me, I loved the idea but I didn’t enjoy the writing. I have heard the show is great though.

The Plague Letters – V.L. Valentine (1 star)

My first one star of the year. I don’t normally give out one stars as I tend to just DNF the books I really don’t like but I had got so far and I did want some questions answered but it ended up being that I just skimmed it until the end. I felt that the characters were really under-developed, it took ages for the mystery to actually get going and so many other things that I just can’t list here. Read my review to find out more.

Ariadne – Jennifer Saint (4 stars)

This is when things started looking up. I love a greek mythology re-telling so I was super excited to get the chance to read this. I thought the writing was beautiful and Ariadne was a great character. But it did start to lose momentum in the last quarter of the book, I will be honest.

Orange: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 – Ichigo Takano (5 stars)

So, this was a pleasant surprise. I really liked the premise of this manga series and when it was on sale I decided to give it a go and I’m glad I did. It follows a young girl called Naho who receives a letter from her future self telling her to be-friend the new boy in school as he’s going through a tough time.

The friendships in this book are just so incredibly beautiful. The characters in this book couldn’t be any more different from one another but they stick by and support each other no matter what. The plot was super fun and I thought the art was beautiful. The author managed a great balance of funny moments with the more somber moments as well.

Beasts Made of Night – Tochi Onyebuchi (DNF)

Sadly, this book didn’t work out for me. This was another case of great idea, not the best execution. I wasn’t a massive fan of the writing style and the plot structure confused me a bit.

The Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan (5 stars)

This book still maintains the title of best book in the series for me. I enjoyed the blossoming relationship between Annabeth and Percy getting stronger, I loved how you can start to feel these characters get older as the end of the series arrives, Percy was, as per, a great protagonist and the ominous elements of the novel with the Big Bad trying to gain power was done really well.

What was super satisfying to me was re-reading this after so many years and still loving it just as much!

Breach of Peace – Daniel B. Greene (2 stars)

This was disappointing sadly. I am a massive fan of the author so I really wanted to like this book. I just felt that the novella, as a whole, was really under-developed. I needed more detail about the characters, the world and the plot.