Tag: book wrapup

Rivers of London Review

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Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

September Wrap Up 2020

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Definitely a better reading month this month. While I did have my first 1 star of the year… all the other books I read were enjoyable. I also have planned all the books I am going to read for the rest of the year plus I have planned more or less all the posts I want to post until Feb next year! December and January is planned with end of the year wrap up kind of posts so it’s quite easy to plan and definitely my fave part of the year book blogging wise!

  • I read 6 books this month.
  • I dnfed 1 book this month.
  • I read 2 books for my sequel challenge and 2 books for my ONTD challenge.
  • I completed my sequel challenge.
  • For genre: I read most fantasy. All with different subgenres; portal, high, urban etc. One book was also a murder mystery in a fantasy setting.
  • For age range: 3 were adult, 2 were young adult and 1 I am not sure of the age range (a cross between YA and adult)
  • I read 4 paperbacks (1 was a manga) and 2 ebooks

Crowning Soul by Sahira Javaid (DNF)

I was super excited to get into this book. I haven’t read many books inspired by Morocco and I was excited to read a book with a Muslim character in the center of the story. But sadly it was a slog to get through. The pacing was weird as we switched through the scenes quite quickly but it felt really slow to read. The dialogue felt very cringey and unrealistic and I just struggled to find the desire to pick up the book.

The Last Wish by Andrezj Sapkowski (4 stars)

I wanted to read this book after I watched the Netflix adaptation at the beginning of the year. I then managed to fit it into my ONTD challenge for September which was read a book with a grumpy character and there are a lot of those kinds of characters in this book. Overall, all the short stories in this collection were really strong and I loved exploring the world through these stories rather than a linear narrative!

Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold (4 stars)

I wasn’t expecting that a book I read and reviewed as an ARC in February of this year would already have a sequel before the year was out but Mr Arnold seems to be working hard! I thoroughly enjoyed this book more so than the first one and I am super excited to see what this series has to hold!

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (5 stars)

Now I was nervous going into this book. I have spent about 3 years making my way through this trilogy and the journey was a rollercoaster of emotions so knowing I was going into the last book made me very apprehensive to read it as I did not want to be disappointed. And let me tell you… I was not disappointed in the slightest! Everyone must read this trilogy!

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (3 stars)

I think that my time with Gaiman has come to an end. I have read 3 of his books now and none of them left me feeling like I wanted to read more. While this book was definitely the better of the 3, the others being Coraline and Stardust, it sadly didn’t wow me enough. I don’t think I will continue to read Gaiman’s work anymore sadly.

Fullmetal Alchemist Vol.3 (7-9) by Hiromu Arakawa (5 stars)

Just expect me to give this entire series 5 stars throughout! All the volumes were great but now the ball is really rolling in regards to the wider plotline so I am super excited to read more!

Neverwhere Review

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Under the streets of London lies a world most people could never dream of. When Richard Mayhew helps a mysterious girl he finds bleeding on the pavement, his boring life changes in an instant. Her name is Door, she’s on the run from two assassins in black suits and she comes from London Below. His act of kindness leads him to a place filled with monsters and angels, a Beast in a labyrinth and an Earl who holds Court in a Tube train. It is strangely familiar yet utterly bizarre.

August Wrap-Up 2020

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So it was my birthday month last month and I always look forward to the books that I am going to read that month. I don’t know why, August just has a special place in my heart. But let me tell you. August was disappointing!

  • I read 6 books this month.
  • I dnfed 1 book this month.
  • I read 1 book for my second chance challenge and ONTD challenge and 1 book for my sequels challenge.
  • For genre: 2 fantasy, 2 sci-fi, 1 murder mystery and 1 book which I can’t pinpoint the genre.
  • For age range: 5 adult and 1 young adult
  • I read 3 paperbacks and 3 eBooks

The Princess Bride by William Goldman (DNF)

So this book was for my ONTD and my second chance challenge and sadly I didn’t enjoy it as much as I remembered I did. I remember enjoying it a lot but never actually finishing it due to prioritizing other books so I was super excited to get back into it. It just didn’t grab my attention at all and I had no desire to keep picking it back up.

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant (2 stars)

This was also disappointing. I couldn’t really pinpoint the genre for this book but it was sort-of a re-telling of Les Mis or an alternate history of the French Revolution where the revolution failed and she is just chucking in Les Mis characters. But it wasn’t a great, there needed to be more world-building, it felt very rushed and the romance was not set up that well.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (3 stars)

This was disappointing to me despite the star rating due to the amount of hype I saw around the book. I felt that there was a big message that I was just not smart enough to realise so I just couldn’t connect to the story. It was really slow-paced and I am not the biggest fan of character focused stories so I struggled to get through it.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (4 stars)

The beacon of hope after a dreary month, I really enjoyed this book and it’s eclectic characters. This was just a really fun and easy read that had me fully engaged from the beginning! I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (4 stars)

Thank god for this book. I was losing hope in this series after the last couple of books I had read had been disappointing to say the least. There is no review for this book as apart from me saying how I’m happy its better than the other books I had read, there was nothing to new to say about this book. Great characters, world-building and very funny!

The Phlebotomist by Chris Panatier (3 stars)

This was an enjoyable book but had of a lot of potential to be better. I enjoyed the main character and the plot as a whole but around the 60% mark I started to lose interest. I did like the book as a whole I just think there needed to be some structuring in terms of how early you reveal big information.

The Thursday Murder Club Review

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In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings. But when a local property developer shows up dead, ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ find themselves in the middle of their first live case. The four friends, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?

The Court of Miracles Review

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Liberty, 1828 and the citizens of Paris still mourn in the wake of their failed revolution. Among them, in the dark alleys and crumbling cathedrals of the city, the most wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, assassins – and worse. Together they are known as The Court of Miracles. Family, Eponine has lost more than most. When her father, Thénardier, sells her sister to the Guild of Flesh she makes a promise to do anything she can to get her sister back, even if that means joining the Court of Miracles, the very people keeping her sister a slave. Treachery, Eponine becomes perhaps the greatest thief the Court has ever known, finding a place among them and gaining another sister, Cosette. But she has never forgotten the promise she made, and if she’s to have any hope of saving one sister, she will have to betray the other.

July Wrap Up 2020

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I had a very varied month this time round with some high highs and some pretty low lows. What I did learn last month was to not binge read a series as I lose interest very quick!

  • I read 4 books this month. Technically one book at 3 stories in it as it was a bind up but I read the first 2 in June.
  • I read 3 books for my ONTD challenge, 1 book for my sequels challenge and 1 book for my Second Chance Challenge.
  • For genre: 1 murder mystery, 2 fantasy and 1 science fiction.
  • For the age range: All were adult.
  • All the books this month were physical paperbacks.

Introducing the Honourable Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood (3 stars)

So this book was a bind up of the first 3 novels in the Phryne Fisher series.

  • Cocaine Blues
  • Flying Too High
  • Murder on the Ballarat Train

I read the first two books in June and the final book in July. I personally count these books as individual books towards my goal. One thing I did take away from this was that I cannot binge read series as I lose interest fast. So much to the point that I don’t plan on continuing this series going forward. I felt like I read enough.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (4 stars)

This was an amazing book. I read this a couple of years ago and DNFed it early on because I couldn’t connect to the story. I think this was mainly due to the fact that I wasn’t ready to be tackling adult fantasy yet. I was so happy that I re-read this, great characters, great relationships. My only criticism was the lack of major female characters.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (5 stars)

Another amazing story. I was worried that this book was not going to match how great the first book was but I was proven wrong. I have to do a disclaimer though… normally my reviews are concise and easy to follow but my review for this book was all over the place because the book left me mind blown! I couldn’t think straight! That ending was powerful!

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry (2 stars)

What must come up, must inevitably come down and that is how the month went for me. Sadly, I was disappointed again by Christina Henry. I was hoping after reading her book The Mermaid and not enjoying it that things would suddenly work out. But no! This story felt very flat to me and there was way to much walking!