I think I may be the last person in the world to read this book 😂 I liked it but I didn‘t love it as much as I loved Under the Whispering Door. Possibly this was not the best book to read at the moment - moving house, starting a new job, finding somewhere to rent 🤯

I picked this up on a whim from the library and I‘m so glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed this Cold War thriller from start to finish. The emotional inner lives of the characters were wonderfully written and I was just immersed in the story. I need to read more by Natasha Pulley!

A fun, light-hearted and clever murder mystery - a perfect read for a busy week!

I enjoyed the first half of this witty semi-autobiographical novella in which a women seeks respite from her grumpy husband, her three young children and the stifling confines of aristocratic life through her well-intentioned if clumsy attempts to create a garden of her own. However, the second half is much more acerbic and her treatment of a young guest often veers into the cruel. A mixed bag.

Another Golden Age crime series that I am reading hopelessly out of order! I liked this. I thought it was clever and well-plotted and a little unusual in that the murderer is actually revealed well before the end… It‘s not my favourite Campion so far, but a good read.

I liked this romance between a suffragette and a roguish lord - it was charming with just the right level of more-or-less believable angst. TI also appreciated that the HEA didn‘t throw away the heroine‘s principles 😂 However, I didn‘t love it partly because I‘m not a fan of the whole ‘I‘ll give you what you want if you spend a night with me‘ trope. A soft pick.

I‘ve enjoyed other books in this series, but this one just didn‘t hold my attention so back to the library it goes!

I struggled to get into this series - probably more my fault than the book‘s as I just seemed to be getting constantly interrupted whenever I picked it up 😂 Back to the library it goes (and maybe I‘ll pick it up again and have better luck next time).

I was so absorbed in this that I almost forgot to get off the train! Written like a case file of emails, messages and other documents, it‘s an unusual way of writing a murder mystery but it works and I resented having to put it down to go to work!

A lovely feel-good fantasy romance with a big heart and just enough angst to stop it being too sugary-sweet. An easy read that made me smile 😊

I‘m so glad I spotted this series in the library - they were such an unexpectedly good read! Confident, complicated, and well written fantasy full of memorable characters, wry humour, and a lot to say about the sheer bloody pointlessness of war.

I love this series, but this fifth instalment didn‘t quite have the usual magic and it just felt a little flat. However I did like that Deanna Raybourn enjoyed The Five (the biography of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper) just as much as I did 😂 and that Veronica shared those insights in the book!

I think it‘s fair to say that February was a bust 😅 Lots of picking up books and putting them down again and then comfort-reading old favourites instead #bookspinbingo

I‘m celebrating the end of my working week with a drink in good company 🍺 📖 it has been a veeeery long week 😅

I really enjoyed this clever murder mystery set in the bleak Cambridgeshire fens! The untangling of the mystery is so well done - I didn‘t guess the ending (but neither did I feel cheated by it). I‘ve read quite a few Wimsey mysteries - one day I really should try and read them in order 😂

Celebrating the end of the working week in the best way… a fantastic book, a half of cider and a packet of crisps

Can you believe I got through 13 years of education without ever having to read Of Mice and Men?! I have mixed feelings. It‘s so well written and Steinbeck brings the hard, lonely life of the drifters to life with the lightest of touches. But I found Lennie disturbing and didn‘t like how he was presented as a sympathetic character - even though he had sexually assaulted one woman and killed another. Lots to talk about at book club tonight!

I am really enjoying this fantasy series - it‘s clever, intricately plotted, wryly humorous in places, and full of memorable characters. Each chapter zooms in on a tiny part of the story but slowly the larger picture is emerging and gosh, it‘s good!

A charming and utterly bonkers fantasy romance - there are pirates, lady assassins, etiquette, flying houses, overwrought poetry, and even Queen Victoria herself. Ridiculous but so much fun to read!

My library hold for the tagged book came in… and I came home with three more library books and a 50p charity shop bargain 🙈

I‘m so torn about this book! It was wonderfully atmospheric and I loved the characters, especially the relationship between Inspector Cutter and Bliss. However, I thought the mystery was weak and depended too much on cryptic conversations and convenient confessions.
This was my #doublespin for January @TheAromaofBooks - I don‘t think I‘ve ever been so ahead of the game in Bookspin Bingo!

At first glance, this is a clinical and narrative account of the life of Kim Jiyoung, a daughter, wife, and mother in South Korea. But as she chronicles the mundane, everyday sexism she experiences, it all builds into a howl of anger and frustration at a system that constantly insists that women are the problem. A quick read but one that will stay with me.

My #bookspin read for January @TheAromaofBooks

Look what arrived with the post this morning- thank you @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 😊 and I love the stickers! #litsylove

Thanks for the tag @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks !
1. I never actually put any up 🙈 partly because I was away for Christmas anyway but mostly because my cat is an absolute menace and would have had them down in minutes!
2. Snow! I‘ve lived in the tropics for seven years and had plenty of rain but I have really missed watching the snow come down
@TheSpineView #two4tuesday

I finished my first book of 2023! This is a clever and thought-provoking sci-fi mystery that is unlike any other time travel book I‘ve ever read. At the centre of the story is a classic locked room mystery but this book is so much more as it explores how time travel affects time travellers and what sort of culture they may develop. Original and enjoyable!

My #bookspinbingo list for January - a mix of library books, five books I‘ve chosen for the 52 Book Club Challenge that I plan to read this month, and a selection of backlist e-books. @TheAromaofBooks

It was absolutely grotty weather here today - rain, wind, and even hail 😕 so the New Year‘s Day walk was postponed and I spent a very enjoyable day sewing and listening to the tagged audiobook which I‘m finding fascinating!

I came home after a week away to find my very first #litsylove post waiting on the doormat ☺️ thank you @Pogue ! A reply will soon be on its way

Such a shame when plans get cancelled and you have to spend the evening curled up with a book instead 😂

I‘m really enjoying this spin-off series! Just as enjoyable, irreverent and funny as the St Mary‘s books but with a fresh new set of characters.

I‘ve enjoyed every book I‘ve read by Mick Herron, and this was no exception. It was fast-paced, tightly plotted and full of twists and turns. It didn‘t quite have the same amount of black humour and oddness of his Slough House books, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hello folks - it‘s been a while! The last year has been… hard? Or just a lot of changes. Anyway, everything feels like it‘s settled down and I‘m looking forward to being back on what has to be the loveliest little corner of social media. Happy to be back 😊

It‘s finally the summer holidays 🙌 and no better way to celebrate than with a smoothie and the third installment of Murderbot in which it gets a little closer to unravelling the mystery, has inconvenient Emotions and, once again, has to rescue humans from their unwise decisions. I ❤️ Murderbot.

#TBRPile 📚 “I like to imagine there were more of us in the beginning. Not many, I suppose. But more than there are now.”

#TBRPile 📚 “There was once an inn that sat peacefully on the bank of the Thames at Radcot, a long day‘s walk from the source.”

I‘m so disappointed, y‘all - I wanted to enjoy this dark academia fantasy a lot more than I did. It just felt very unbalanced; a lot of time was spent in the characters‘ heads, some of the POVs were more developed (and so more interesting) than others, and very little time was spent on exposition so that I never had a grasp on the world it was set in or the magic system that existed within it. A generous so-so.

A dark, witty, lyrical and oddly life-affirming look at death, this charmed me at first but then lost me. Some people will love this, but I found that the story lost its way after 100 pages and dissolved into a lament about how shitty the modern world is. The author is a spoken word artist so possibly a story that‘s better on audio. Another book down for #AwesomeApril #readathon @Andrew65

First book down for #AwesomeApril 🥳 One of my favourite things about Brandon Sanderson is the original and meticulously thought-out magic systems he comes up with which have clearly defined rules that even the protagonist can‘t break. I loved the Rithmatic magic system 😘 but sadly it was the only thing I loved in this book. It wasn‘t that it was bad, just a bit meh and lacking the usual Sanderson depth of character and world building. @Andrew65

A day late to the party but the timing of the #awesomeapril #readathon is absolutely perfect! I have two weeks off with no plans 📚 bring on the books! My goals are to finish off the tagged, finish at least one of my Libby holds, and my #doublespin book, Magic For Liars. @Andrew65

#TBRPile 📚 “I have heard it said, by those that cannot possibly know, that in the final moments of a man‘s existence he sees his whole life pass before his eyes.”

#TBRPile 📚 “It sounds like a sentence: Victoria Falls. At any rate, that‘s the joke I used to make until Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria actually died in 1901, just before I landed on the continent.”

#TBRPile 📚 “This is the story of a Polish family, and of what happened to them during the Second World War and immediately afterwards.”

#TBRPile 📚 “You will fail, Teyr Amondsen. My eyes open. The truth wakes me. You will fail.”

#TBRPile 📚 “There‘s nothing fresh about this start.”

#TBRPile 📚 “The night Kate Harker decided to burn down the school chapel, she wasn‘t angry or drunk. She was desperate.”

I actually enjoyed the first three-quarters of this YA-thriller. The central mystery was intriguing and the messy, complex characters felt very realistic in how they dealt with their grief. However, the ending was a real let-down, knocking this down to a so-so.

#TBRPile 📚 “Between Logan International Airport and Spencer, Massachusetts, most of it on an old warhorse of a Greyhound bus that stank of diesel and midsummer sweat, three people eyed her olive fatigues and thanked Charlie McCabe for her service.”

#TBRPile 📚 “By the time Duane Chapman died on the Hilketa field, his head had already been torn off twice.”

#TBRPile 📚 “Only fools climbed to the surface. It was stupid to put yourself in danger like that, my mother always said.”

#TBRPile 📚 “Black circles under the eyes were not, Kaylin decided, a very attractive statement.”