Month: November 2024

Winter Recommendations 2024

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Another season is upon us. I love winter until January 2nd. After that I want Spring to arrive straight away. Once Christmas and the hype of the new year has died away then I want Spring to sweep me up and away from the cold and the damp. But to make the winter time a bit easier here are some recommendations that I think work well with the season.

  • Title: Murder at Holly House
  • Author: Denzil Meyrick
  • Series: Inspector Frank Grasby #1
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Historical Mystery


Plot: A village of secrets. It’s December 1952, and a dead stranger has been found lodged up the chimney of Holly House in the remote town of Elderby. Is he a simple thief, or a would-be killer? Either way, he wasn’t on anyone’s Christmas wish list. A mystery that can’t be solved. Inspector Frank Grasby is ordered to investigate. The victim of some unfortunate misunderstandings, he hopes this case will help clear his name. But as is often the way for Grasby, things most certainly don’t go according to plan. A Christmas to remember. Soon blizzards hit the North York Moors, cutting off the village from help, and the local doctor’s husband is found murdered. Grasby begins to realise that everyone in Elderby is hiding something – and if he can’t uncover the truth soon, the whole country will pay a dreadful price…

  • Title: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
  • Author: Benjamin Stevenson
  • Series: Ernest Cunningham #1
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery


Plot: I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder. Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up. The thing is, us Cunninghams don’t really get along. We’ve only got one thing in common- we’ve all killed someone. My brother, my step-sister, my wife, my father, my mother, my sister-in-law, my uncle, my step-father, my aunt. Even me. When they find the first body in the snow, it’s clear that only a Cunningham could have committed the crime – and it’s up to me to prove it.

  • Title: The Bear and the Nightingale
  • Author: Katherine Arden
  • Series: The Winternight Trilogy #1
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Historical Fantasy


Plot: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind–she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent. As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed–this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

  • Title: The Christmas Swap
  • Author: Talia Samuels
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Romance


Plot: Margot Murray is a newly single, high-flying businesswoman with no interest in a cutesy seasonal romance. Ben Gibson is an unlucky-in-love sweetheart in need of a woman to bring home for the holidays. Together, they make a pact: Margot gets two blissful weeks away from London in a picture-perfect manor, in exchange for posing as Ben’s girlfriend. The story can only go one way. Margot is sure to fall in love for real. And she does. With Ben’s sister, Ellie.

October 2024 Wrap Up

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October is officially over and I must say that I actually put in the effort into reading spooky books for this month. I have spent the year trying to steer away from themes but I can’t not read spooky books in October. Anyway let’s jump into my thoughts.

  • I read 9 books this month
  • I DNFd 1 book this month
  • Genre: 2 horror, 2 non-fiction, 2 thriller, 1 fantasy, 1 sci-fi and 1 sport.
  • Gender of authors: 5 women and 4 men
  • Race of authors: 6 white authors, 2 asian author and 1 black author
  • Age range: 8 adult and 1 YA
  • Format: 5 hardback, 3 eBook and 1 paperback
  • 4.1 stars average rating for the month

Endless Night – Agatha Christie (DNF)

Now I RARELY dnf Christie books. I just tend to really enjoy her work but this book just dragged on for ages with barely plot and just a character meandering around and I hated his internal dialogue. I did google the plot and I guessed the twist so while I probably would have enjoyed the ending and the reveal it just took forever to get there. Literally, I had read 90 pages and it was no closer to a single dead body.

Graveyard Shift – M.L. Rio (3.5 stars)

This was a weird book to rate as on one hand I felt that the plot overall was interesting but I felt that the writing and the plot structure was lacklustre. I found the beginning to be really slow to get into and the ending to feel abrupt and underdeveloped. But I really enjoyed the middle and I like the characters. So it was more of a middle of the road experience.

The Woods All Black – Lee Mandelo (4 stars)

Now this was a horror book! I loved the setting of this book, rural American town where nothing happens but attending church, spooky woods, scary cult like leader. I am sat! The trans rep in this as well as the discussions of body autonomy, safe sex was a breath of fresh air compared to the oppressive environment out main character finds himself in. I like the mystery and I could easily read more books of our MC going to various backwater towns and looking after townspeople. I enjoyed the body horror element as well.

Want – Gillian Anderson and Anonymous (4 stars)

I am not sure really how to review this book as it’s very subjective to each individual but I had a great time getting into the mind of these women. Some of them made me laugh, cry or just sit and contemplate my life!

Rewitched – Lucy Jane Wood (5 stars)

I had the absolute honour to interview Lucy Jane Wood at my bookstore’s final event for 2024. It was a great way to end the year and I had an amazing time. Thankfully, I loved this book with my entire heart. I loved the cosiness of it, the characters, the relationships, the way magic system was super fun, the plot went down a road I actually didn’t expect which was great. I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

Ring Shout – P Djèlí Clark (5 stars)

Mr Clark is up there with authors that just don’t disappoint! Every single book he has written has been incredible and this book was no exception. Amazing characters, tear-jerking moments, action-packed and twisty plot. I just love a good P Djèlí Clark book!

Ancillary Justice – Ann Leslie (5 stars)

Now, I love reading a book that gets the cogs turning. I like feeling that my brain is getting a work out. My goal next year is to read more fantasy and sci-fi books that really get me thinking and this book was one of those inspirations. The plot, the characters, the world-building, the way gender is used and how different cultures are represented, discussions of colonialism made for an incredibly interesting read!

November 2024 TBR

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This month has weirdly become the month of sequels!!

  • Title: Murder at Holly House
  • Author: Denzil Meyrick
  • Series: Frank Grasby Mystery #1
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • Publish Date: 09/11/24


Plot: A village of secrets. It’s December 1952, and a dead stranger has been found lodged up the chimney of Holly House in the remote town of Elderby. Is he a simple thief, or a would-be killer? Either way, he wasn’t on anyone’s Christmas wish list. A mystery that can’t be solved. Inspector Frank Grasby is ordered to investigate. The victim of some unfortunate misunderstandings, he hopes this case will help clear his name. But as is often the way for Grasby, things most certainly don’t go according to plan. A Christmas to remember. Soon blizzards hit the North York Moors, cutting off the village from help, and the local doctor’s husband is found murdered. Grasby begins to realise that everyone in Elderby is hiding something – and if he can’t uncover the truth soon, the whole country will pay a dreadful price…

  • Title: A Very Lively Murder
  • Author: Katy Watson
  • Series: Three Dahlia Mysteries #2
  • Format: eBook
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • Publish Date: Out Now!


Plot: Ex-child star Posy Starling is finally filming her dream role – Dahlia Lively in The Lady Detective movie. But things take a nightmare turn when a prop weapon is replaced with the real thing – with almost fatal consequences for her fellow Dahlia, Rosalind King. There’s something very wrong on the set of The Lady Detective – which means it’s time to call in Caro Hooper, so the three Dahlias can investigate. In between filming scenes, signing autographs for locals, photoshoots in London, talk show appearances and jetting off to France for an impromptu party, the three Dahlias do what they do best – surrupticiously sleuth. And very soon the evidence starts to point towards one particular co-star… But before they can prove it, another murder rocks the production. And this time, with a storm raging, the river flooded and the bridge washed out, there are no police to rely on so it’s up to the three Dahlias to stop a murderer in their tracks… before another victim is claimed.

  • Title: Catching Fire
  • Author: Suzanne Collins
  • Series: The Hunger Games #2
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Dystopian
  • Publish Date: Out Now!


Plot: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

  • Title: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect
  • Author: Benjamin Stevenson
  • Series: Ernest Cunningham #2
  • Format: Hardback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • Publish Date: Out Now!


Plot: When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

  • the debut writer (me!)
  • the forensic science writer
  • the blockbuster writer
  • the legal thriller writer
  • the literary writer
  • the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime. Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

  • Title: Bloodmarked
  • Author: Tracey Deonn
  • Series: The Legendborn Cycle #2
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Urban Fantasy
  • Publish Date: Out Now!


Plot: All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new: A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion. But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped. Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected. When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death. If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.

  • Title: One For My Enemy
  • Author: Olivie Blake
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Urban Fantasy
  • Publish Date: Out Now!


Plot: On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out. If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.