Tag: book

July 2024 Wrap Up

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For more information on the books click the title.

  • I read 11 books this month
  • I DNFd 0 books this month
  • Genre: 3 fantasy, 2 contemporary fiction, 2 thriller, 2 romance,1 murder mystery and 1 sci-fi
  • Gender of authors: 10 women and 1 man
  • Race of authors: 5 white authors, 4 asian authors and 1 black author
  • Age range: 6 adult and 5 ya
  • Format: 6 paperback, 4 ebook and 1 hardback
  • 4.3 stars average rating for the month

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes – Hisashi Kashiwai (3.5 stars)

Another beautiful and delicious installment to this series. This book series really feels like coming home and allowing yourself to get lost in the memories of the past. I enjoyed the shorter nature of these stories and their simplicity. This book is a great one to read when you need a break from the world and the intensity of some books out there. Truly a palette cleanser in book form!

What You Are Looking For is in the Library – Michiko Aoyama (4 stars)

Maybe it’s because I am a bookseller but I just love books about books. This is the perfect book to read when you want something uplifting but not unrealistic. If you want to read a book about hope, second chances and life without feeling like it unobtainable then read this book! There will 100% be one character in this book that you can relate to!

I See Your Face, Turned Away – Rumi Ichinohe (4 stars)

I flew through this volume wholly invested in the characters and the complicated romantic dynamics that exist in this story. I love the blossoming relationships of romance alongside the steadfast relationships of friendship we see with our 4 main characters. I found myself quickly changing the page as we uncovered more and more of Hikari’s true feelings towards her classmate Ohtani and wondered how this would change the group dynamic. I felt a strong bittersweet feeling as I want everyone to be happy but I know this is a story where heartbreak is imminent but I can’t look away. I need to know how this series ends.

Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie (4 stars)

I DNFd this years a go after I tried to read it after watching the Ustinov film and I was too confused. Gave it some time and came back hoping to love it and I did. Definitely way too many characters and slightly too many sub plots but the tension and atmosphere was great.

The Au Pair Affair – Tessa Bailey (4 stars)

Tessa Bailey is just unstoppable at the moment and The Au Pair Affair is evidence of that. Just like Fangirl Down this is a super fun, passionate and exciting romance novel in the world of hockey and penguins! Following characters from the book Fangirl Down we watch the love story of Burgess and Tallulah and this book was just so much fun. The one thing I did want to shout out is that Tessa Bailey’s characterisation is getting better and better with each book she writes and her writing Tallulah’s back story was handled with a lot of care and nuance which I thought was great. I normally associate Bailey as being the Queen of the RomCom but it was great to see her tackle more serious themes in her novels as of late!

The Maid and the Crocodile – Jordan Ifueko (4.5 stars)

Now this is set after the event of the Raybearer series but you do not need to read that series before you read this one to understand what’s happening. The world-building was great, the characters realistic and incredibly likeable, the magic so interesting. The conversations surrounding disability were great and it was great to have it be written realistically and not have toxic positivity surrounding it. The romance was EVERYTHING AND MORE!

Gentlest of Wild Things – Sarah Underwood (4.5 stars)

I had super high expectations going into this due to how much I loved Lies We Sing to the Sea and this book proves that Underwood is not a one book wonder. Smashed it yet again! The plot, the characters, the atmosphere were curated so beautifully in a very unsettling way. I loved the nods to the Eros and Psyche myth. It is so refreshing to see Greek Myth retellings done in this way rather than just making it a carbon copy. Underwood is creating something fresh and exciting without losing the appeal of the original myth.

DallerGut Dream Department Store – Lee Mi-ye (4.5 stars)

The book was just a wonder to read. I lost myself in this vibrant, bustling, and incredibly unique world that blends retail work with fantastical elements. I love how imaginative this realm of dreams is from dreams being treated like movies to Santa Claus being a literal character to the ups and downs of customer service. It was genuinely so much fun to lose myself in this story. The pacing for me moved fast with each chapter being quite short and snappy and focusing on a variety of different characters and scenarios. This book balances humour and fun with heart-felt emotional moments that had me tearing up in the staff room. If you want a short and sweet speculative novel about dreams and how they influence our lives for good. Read this.

Little White Lies and Deadly Little Scandals – (5/4.5 stars)

Rarely do I read the sequel straight after the first book. Normally I wait a year or so before reading the next one but this book was sooo good that I needed to know how it ended ASAP. Such an intricate plot, characters you love to hate, honestly you might need to draw a family tree. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!

Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor (5 stars)

Words cannot explain the mastery at work in this book. Back when it first came out it was all over BookTube but it has since become an underrated gem. This is currently in the running for my no.1 place on my Top 20 books of the year!

August 2024 TBR

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So despite my announcement of 30 volumes in 30 days I am still trying to read some novels during that time hahaha!

New Releases

  • Title: The Book Swap
  • Author: Tessa Bickers
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Romance
  • Pages: 336
  • Publication Date: 03/09


Plot: Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book—a heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without—to a local little community library, she’s devastated. But then the book turns up a week later, back in the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal. A life-changing conversation, written only in the margins of beloved classic books, begins between Erin and her Mystery Man. Following each other through the pages of their favorite novels as the book exchange continues, they both begin to open up, falling into a friendship…and maybe something more. But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past—and the one person she swore never to forgive—Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever.

  • Title: The Last Gifts of the Universe
  • Author: Riley August
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Sci-Fi
  • Pages: 204
  • Publication Date: 05/09


Plot: When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left – and whatever came for the others will one day come for them. Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals – anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.

  • Title: What A Way To Go
  • Author: Bella Mackie
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • Pages: 400
  • Publication Date: 12/09


Plot: One wealth-obsessed man – who is also dead. One status-obsessed woman – who is the perfect accessory. Their four inheritance-obsessed children – each with a killer instinct. And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all…

  • Title: Sorrow Spring
  • Author: Olivia Isaac-Henry
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Pages: 448
  • Publication Date: 12/09


Plot: 1978. When teenager Rina Pine is dumped by her hippy mother in the parochial village of Sorrow Spring, and forced to live with her aged aunt, Agatha Pine, she doesn’t think things can get any worse.
There she finds a community beholden to the past, and a village in the grip of a close-knit circle of older women who worship the local spring and its patron saint, all under the leadership of the formidable Agatha. But when a child goes missing and a young mother is killed, Rina is drawn into the dark and sinister truth flowing through the sacred waters that give the place its name. Rina is about to learn what it truly means to be a daughter of Sorrow Spring…

Backlist

  • Title: One of Us Knows
  • Author: Alyssa Cole
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Thriller


Plot: Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity. Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect. Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.

  • Title: Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise
  • Author: Lin Yi-Han
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Literary Fiction


Plot: The most influential book of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement—a heartbreaking account of sexual violence and a remarkable reinvention of the trauma plot, turning the traditional Lolita narrative upside down as it explores women’s vulnerability, victimization, and the lengths they will go to survive. One of the biggest books to come out of Taiwan in the last decade, Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise is a chilling tale of grooming and its lingering trauma, and the power structures that allow it to flourish. Insightful, unsettling, emotionally raw, it is a staggering work of literature that reverberates across cultures and forces us to confront painful truths about the vulnerability and strength of women and those who use and hurt them.

  • Title: Percy Jackson and The Chalice of the Gods
  • Author: Rick Riordan
  • Series: Percy Jackson #6
  • Format: Hardback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Fantasy


Plot: Percy Jackson, modern-day son of Poseidon, is just trying to get through high school. After saving the world multiple times by battling monsters, Titans, and giants, Percy is now settling in at Alternative High School in New York, where he hopes to finally have a normal senior year. Unfortunately, the gods aren’t quite done with him yet. Poseidon breaks the bad news that if Percy expects to get into New Rome University, he will have to fulfill three quests in order to earn the necessary three letters of recommendation from Mount Olympus. The first task is to help Ganymede, Zeus’s cupbearer, retrieve his golden goblet before it falls into the wrong hands. You see, one sip from it can turn a mortal into a god, and Zeus would not be pleased with that result. Can Percy and his friends Grover and Annabeth find the precious cup in time? And if they do, will they be able to resist its special power?

  • Title: North Woods
  • Author: Daniel Mason
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Literary Fiction


Plot: When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants . An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive. Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?

The Thief and the Wild Review

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New Alms is a city of sin and vice, populated by all manner of criminals. The ruling Cerenite priests can barely keep order; not that they—or anyone else for that matter—ever try too hard. It’s a den of cutthroats and thieves, and there ain’t many thieves out there as talented or as skilled as Jackson Balor. When Jackson’s hired by a priest to steal an old mask, he thinks it’s just another job. But that’s before he sees the blasphemous shrine it’s housed in, before he starts getting followed around by bugs and birds and three-eyed cats, before he finds out that the mask was a vessel for the Wild God Ferengris, and that by filching it, he’s invited the Enemy of Civilization to take up residence inside his head. Now to save his own mind, Jackson’s gonna have to team up with the very Wild cult he stole the mask from and take it back from the Cerenite Temple. But the priests have their own plans for the Wild God’s artifact. They have their own ambitions for New Alms—and Jackson’s about to learn that there ain’t no room in their design for no-good criminal scum like him.

June 2024 Wrap Up

IndiaReadsALotLeave a comment

For more information on the books click the title.

  • I read 10 books this month
  • I DNFd 1 books this month
  • Genre: 6 fantasy, 2 non-fiction,1 romance,1 murder mystery and 1 historical fiction
  • Gender of authors: 10 women and 1 man
  • Race of authors: 7 white authors and 4 asian authors
  • Age range:10 adult and 1 middle grade
  • Format: 7 paperback, 3 ebook and 1 hardback
  • 4.3 stars average rating for the month

A Letter to the Luminous Deep – Sylvie Cathrall (DNF)

This was actually super embarrassing as I said that this was going to be MY romantasy of 2024. I had posted it all over TikTok and then I got 50% of the way through the book and the pacing got so slow that I DNFd it. On paper this is my kind of book but as I said the pacing was super slow, the author focused on a lot of extra character lore/backstory but to the detriment of the plot. The writing was also super flowery which didn’t help the pacing issue.

Beyond the Clouds, Vol.1 – Nicke (3 stars)

The illustrations in this volume are absolutely stunning. Genuinely I was blown away by how beautiful this volume is. That being said the story at times felt a bit lacking and I didn’t feel a big pull to continue the series.

Quarterlife – Satya Nicole Byock (4 stars)

I am not always sure on whether self-help books are for me but I did enjoy this book explaining other peoples experiences of Quarterlife crises and what might cause them. I related to a lot of what was in this book and I thought it was a good starting point to handle questioning your life choices.

The Thief and the Wild – Seann Barbour (4 stars)

Review coming on Thursday.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1 – Ryoko Kui (4 stars)

This book came at the perfect time for me as I just got back into playing D&D! This was a super fun and inventive series that perfectly sets up the characters and the plot. I am intrigued by the mystery of the dungeon and I am excited to see what new food will get created.

Holy Island – L.J. Ross (4 stars)

This book has everything I want in murder mysteries. Small tight-knit community, cult themes, plot twists I can’t see coming and great setting. I have been wanting to read this series for ages and I was very happy that after years of waiting it did in fact meet the hype. I will say though that the romance element should have been expanded on or just had more development it felt too rushed for me.

The Game of Hearts – Felicity Day (5 stars)

A super accessible and informative book all about real lives and experiences of marriages in Regency Britain. A great book for fans of Bridgerton who was to learn more about the time period and the reality of the lives their favourite characters lead. I was immersed in this book and while there were things I expected, I was amazed by some of the exciting facts and tidbits the author gives us. We really follow these characters from debuting in the ton until after their marriage when kids are involved and war arrives. Sometimes it did feel that I was reading the gossip scandal sheet myself with all the juicy details compiled.

Fangirl Down – Tessa Bailey (5 stars)

This book is probably my favourite Tessa Bailey story to date. I found the plot devices and structure to be super fast-paced and incredibly engaging. I love a good competition/tournament for a foundation of a story. I enjoyed our main characters both together and separately. Josephine’s search for body autonomy and to be scene as capable and independent in a world that reduces her to just her diabetes was incredibly poignant and I loved how Bailey maintained her independence throughout the novel even with the love interest seeking to help. Wells story about letting people in after a series of betrayals was done so well and handled in a way that perfectly fits the character that Bailey had created. All these personal storylines just made them getting together so much for fulfilling and satisfying to read.

Babylonia – Costanza Casati (5 stars)

If you love complicated female characters, complicated male friendship dynamics, and political storylines similar to Game of Thrones and Ancient Civilisations/Mythology this book is for you! I never considered myself a character-focused reader or a reader who enjoys political storylines but Miss Casati had me eating my hat. I loved being nervous every time there was a council meeting or any time Semiramis didn’t honestly literally everything. I was on the edge of my seat for this entire book and despite this book being nearly 500 pages – you don’t feel it. Every word, every paragraph, every page is intentional and time flies by as you get lost in this gory, powerful, and intense world of Assyria. The characters in this story are so dynamic, tortured, and complicated. Not one interaction in this book is without intention, emotion, or poignancy. The power dynamics shift and change on a six pence and when you think you have figured these characters out Casati will through you a massive curveball that has you questioning the last 100 pages you have read. I could not put this book down. I was enveloped in it and had book blues after finishing it.

Other Books I Read:

  • Children of the Whales, Vol. 2 – Abi Umeda
  • Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 1 – Kanehito Yamada (Re Read)