Category: Book Reviews

April Wrap Up 2020

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A month of ups and downs this time round! I read some all-time favourites and I also DNFed a bit. Let’s get into it!

  • I read 6 books this month.
  • I DNFed 2 books this month.
  • I continued with my challenges and read 1 book for my ONTD challenge, 1 book for my sequel challenge and 5 books were from my Physical TBR from the beginning of the year.
  • In terms of genre I read; 2 classics, 2 fantasy, 1 urban fantasy which was also a murder mystery and 1 contemporary drama/thriller. We had a lot of cross over this month!
  • I read 1 ARC, 4 paperbacks and 1 hardback.
  • 2 books that I read this month were a gift.

The Great Gatsby – F Scott. Fitzgerald (DNF)

I wanted to pick this book up after watching the movie and falling in love with the story. That being said the love stopped at the movie and did not pass over to the book! I found the writing really boring and slow paced and I lost interest very quickly!

The Paris Mysteries – Edgar Allan Poe (DNF)

I normally don’t do reviews of DNFs but this book was an ARC so I must give a review for this book. My main struggle was the writing style. The writing was quite flowery and I couldn’t really grasp what the characters were saying.

The Hod King – Josiah Bancroft (5 stars)

Great worldbuilding, great character development. Bancroft really champions his female characters. I can’t actually believe there is only one book left of this amazing series!!

If We Were Villains – M.L. Rio (5 stars)

A book which is a love letter to Shakespeare! This book is all about relationships and the different dynamics between characters. It was seriously a book I could not put down!

Storm Front – Jim Butcher (2 stars)

Yeah… this was not it. Normally I tend to give 2 stars to books I don’t finish as I tend to not give low ratings but this was it. Had some good elements but the overall sexist vibe just ruined the story for me.

House of Salt and Sorrows – Erin A. Craig (5 stars)

A book which restored my faith in YA fantasy! A dark re-telling of one of my favourite fairy tales, this book had me on the edge of my seat and theorizing the entire way through!

House of Salt and Sorrows Review

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Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.

Storm Front Review

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Harry is the best at what he does – and not just because he’s the only one who does it. So whenever the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they look to him for answers. But business isn’t just slow, it stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get . . . interesting.

If We Were Villains Review

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Oliver Marks has just served ten years for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day of his release, he is greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, and he wants to know what really happened a decade before. As a young actor at an elite conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same characters onstage and off – villain, hero, temptress – though he was always a supporting role. But when the teachers change the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into real life. When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless…

The Hod King Review

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Fearing an uprising, the Sphinx sends Senlin to investigate a plot that has taken hold in the ringdom of Pelphia. Alone in the city, Senlin infiltrates a bloody arena where hods battle for the public’s entertainment. But his investigation is quickly derailed by a gruesome crime and an unexpected reunion. Posing as a noble lady and her handmaid, Voleta and Iren attempt to reach Marya, who is isolated by her fame. While navigating the court, Voleta attracts the unwanted attention of a powerful prince whose pursuit of her threatens their plan. Edith, now captain of the Sphinx’s fierce flagship, joins forces with a fellow wakeman to investigate the disappearance of a beloved friend. She must decide who to trust as her desperate search brings her nearer to the Black Trail where the hods climb in darkness and whisper of the Hod King. As Senlin and his crew become further dragged in to the conspiracies of the Tower, everything falls to one question: Who is The Hod King?

The Paris Mysteries Review

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An apartment on the rue Morgue turned into a charnel house; the corpse of a shopgirl dragged from the Seine; a high-stakes game of political blackmail-three mysteries that have enthralled the whole of Paris, and baffled the city’s police. The brilliant Chevalier Auguste Dupin investigates – can he find the solution where so many others before him have failed?

March Wrap Up 2020

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I didn’t read many books this month. But I did get my first favourite and 5 star book this month which is great! I also continued my journey through the Wheel of Time series.

  • I had my first 5 star book of the year!
  • I had my first book to make it to my favourites list!
  • Continuing with my challenges, I read two of my sequels from my 2020 sequel challenge.
  • I read 3 books this month.
  • I read one high fantasy, one thriller and one historical murder mystery.
  • I read one ARC and I bought the other two earlier that month.

Rules for Perfect Murders – Peter Swanson (2 stars)

This story had a lot going for it but sadly the execution was lacking. Quite a lot of the plot just conveniently happened to the character he only starting taking control of the narrative about 3/4 into the story. Check out my more in depth review.

Closed Casket – Sophie Hannah (5 stars)

A book which managed to save the series for me. I was thinking of DNFing the series as a whole depending on this sequel and I was blown away. The strongest part of this novel is the highly layered and detailed characters! But the plot was also incredible!!!

The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (5 stars)

A book full of powerful female characters, prophecy and action packed battle scenes. Going into this book I was worried I would not enjoy it as much as the first one but, thankfully, that was not the case at all! I recommend this series to any fantasy fan!!!

The Great Hunt Review

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The Forsaken are loose, the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled – but Rand al’Thor, the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn, desperately seeks to escape his destiny. Rand cannot run for ever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives to shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an end to Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern. And the Pattern demands the Dragon.

Closed Casket Review

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Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, Co Cork, but it is no ordinary gathering. As guests arrive, Lady Playford summons her lawyer to make an urgent change to her will – one she intends to announce at dinner that night. She has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her fortune to someone who only has weeks to live, and she refuses to explain why…
Among Lady Playford’s guests are two men she has never met – the famous Belgian dectective, Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited…until Poirot starts to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murderer to strike. But why does she seem so determined to provoke, in the the presence of a possible killer? And why, when the crime is committed in spite of Poirot’s best efforts to stop it, does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?

Rules for Perfect Murders Review

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A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie resemblance to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels. The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled ‘My Eight Favourite Murders,’ and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list – which includes Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?

I had mixed feelings about this book, click the title to read more.