Catherine

It was a good book but didn’t live up to all the hype. It ran on about 100 pages too long and I found Scarlett harder to like as the book progressed. The characters were well written with depth and it pulled you in. It was an enjoyable read that faded towards the end.

Was waiting on it dropping (not just the plane)

Great book and really well written, it's going to take me a while to get on a plane again. (Spoiler alert) The only negative aspect was having read Dani Atkins's other books I was expecting the twist. Bracing myself from the outset it was difficult to get overly invested in the characters, especially Logan, and some of the conversations only helped to cement this. That said, I really enjoyed the ending and the final, unexpected twist.

Painful

Its not a bad premise, but it is far fetched and irritating at times. The characters are ok, mostly, but everything falls into place far too easily. It took me weeks to read but only because I opted to do anything else first. For far fetched, whimsical and enjoyable try Holly Martin instead.

An absolutely amazing book, truly fascinating. I've never had any sort of passing interest in the early years of the BBC or 1920's London but this book transports you so thoroughly it's impossible not to get drawn in. Really recommend it.

Will leave you wanting more (ice cream)

I loved the LA Liaisons series but this book felt significantly shorter than the first two books. Pity, because there was a lot that could have been fleshed out (there's not a lot of mention of Ryleigh, Shayne or Quinn). Apart from that, exactly as expected which is why I loved it.

It's not often I can't finish a book but this one bested me.

This was a sweet read. Annie's not having much luck dating so ropes bodyguard Will in to help her practice. It goes exactly as you'd expect (and exactly how you want it to). The only downside is I read this book first. There's another book in the series and I did feel like I was missing something. It's not huge but they do reference the characters in the first book enough to make me consider switching to When In Rome first. But that's a me-problem and not a book problem. I would recommend reading the series in order but I do recommend reading the series!

I don't know if I'm aging out of Karen Swan books or if Karen Swan is aging out of writing 20-something protagonists. I've spent Christmases re-reading her earlier books, but the last few have just been so flat.

Darcy's a PhD art student seconded to Copenhagen for a year to work on her thesis. She's there when they discover a hidden painting behind a classic and she's tasked with trying to figure out who the woman in the painting is. To do so she must trawl through the archives of the artist, held by the Masden family foundation who were the artist's patrons in the 1920s. Max is the corporate lawyer working for the foundation and one of the three men Darcy matched with on an exclusive dating app.

The characters were like the couple in the Christmas Lights - two dimensional and very hard to like. There were a few times I thought about DNF-ing but reading the KS Christmas book is a decade-long tradition. Unfortunately I think this is where it stops. We'll always have Christmas At Tiffany's.

Just no. This was a buddy read and the last 100 pages were read purely to get it done. There was no pleasure.

There's a part where Camille is trying to save someone who's been badly injured and yet, despite the blood, gore and peril all she can think about is Lucy. The person she's had zero chemistry with throughout but she's so ignored that she sees indifference as a challenge? I'm still trying to figure out how and why that relationship developed. I didn't like any of the characters, and the ignorance got unbearable. If only she'd believed in werewolves and connected the dots sooner we could have saved ourselves 100 pages. And to think before we started I felt sad it was such a short book.

I'm sorry it's a brutal review but I felt this was genuinely painful read.

Remy Gagnon caused an accident that nearly got his brother, Henri, killed. He's trying to make up for it by being a general dogsbody for his brothers and sister in the family logging business. Plus his fiancee left him for another man so life's not going great. Hazel is trying to complete her PhD on a shoestring budget so moves back in with her brother, Dylan (Remy's best friend). The shoestring budget doesn't stretch to health care and Hazel's gallbladder is a ticking timebomb.

So Remy does the only thing that makes sense - he offers her an office job in the family business to ensure she is covered by the generous health insurance. Of course he doesn't, like any good hero he proposes a marriage of convenience to his best friend's little sister.

Alice is working on becoming a new and improved version of herself so jumps at the chance to start a new job in Lovewell, Maine. She rents a cabin and moves in in August, ready for starting as the new school principal in September. Lovewell is a lumber town, struggling with lack of investment.

Her new landlord, Henri, lives in the house next door and owns one of the lumber companies. He rocks a beard, tattoos and suspenders and hobbies include chopping logs. He's the grumpy to Alice's sunshine. Neither want a relationship but they're both drawn to each other.

Alice starts work and finds an underfunded school crying out for someone to fight for it. So she does. In the process she meets Tucker and Goldie, siblings in the foster care system who are in a bad placement.

There's lots more going on that only seems briefly touched upon - Alice grew up with a mother who told her she wasn't deserving until she lost weight; Henri's running the family business because his dad died in a trucking accident and I get the idea this could have been developed further and probably cover a few hundred more pages (some of the themes are picked up in further books but not with these characters).

All in a sweet read that made me cry in parts but I'd have loved the book developed further.

Fae Pirates. I knew there was something missing from my life but I didn't realise it was Fae Pirates until reading this book.

Erik Bloodsinger is King of the Ever, a land plagued by a mysterious blight and locked off from the earth fae lands by the Chasm after the last Great War. Livia Ferus, daughter of Valen and Elise, blood of the Night Folk Fae, once read stories to a young boy who was held captive. Stories about a Serpent and a Songbird. As a child, she rewrote the ending. As an adult she flipped the story. “Don't let your guard down, love. Not in the Ever.”

Noelle's 28 and lost her gran six months ago. She's subsequently lost her job and moved back into her old bedroom alongside her mum's new Peloton bike. Working through her gram's belongings she finds an envelope with old photos and a love letter addressed from Paul. Her grandfather was called Joe. So she posts a TikTok trying to trace the man in the photos and Teddy replies to say it's his grandfather. Turns out they live in the same city so Noelle arranges a meeting with Paul (the grandfather) and Teddy. Except Teddy is Theo, Noelle's nemesis in high school where they kept pushing each other to be best. Paul begins telling Noelle about Kathleen and their romance, including showing her the map where Kat had planned out their honeymoon once they eloped. They never got the chance - her parents stepped in and forbid it - so Noelle decides she's going to take the journey herself. Paul joins her and Theo joins him so they set off for a two week tour of Yosemite, Vegas and surrounding areas. During the trip Noelle rekindles her passion for photography and her feelings for Theo.

It's a sweet romance. Noelle's trying to work through her grief but gets to learn more about her gran and gains Paul and Theo along the way. There's the 3rd act breakup because obviously Theo isn't opening up and didn't tell her that he was getting kicked out of the company he founded. But he's had a rough time growing up with his dad which is why he's so close with his grandfather. Mostly it's a reminder to go hug the people you love.

I Had Such Hopes

Ive seen this posted all over social media and liked the sound of the plot. Sadly the book didn't live up to the premise and I skipped through the last 10% to get to the end.

Lily works in publishing for a horrible boss. She's walked over at work and at home by her parents and sisters who keep trying to help her get a better job / boyfriend etc.
She sends an email to her favourite author and is really surprised when he replies. Over the course of a year the sporadic emails supposedly show them falling for each other until he ghosts her. She ends up moving in with her sister and meets her neighbour, Nick. He realises who she is but doesn't tell her how they've already met.

I liked the idea but there were lots of cliches and the writing just didn't bring me along with the story, which is a shame because I really liked the plot.

Athena met the man of her dreams. At her engagement party. What's worse, he's her future brother in law. Or was until he pressured her fiancé to dump her a month before the wedding. So whilst her ex Johnny goes to Hawaii on what should have been their honeymoon, Athena moves into Spite House, the 4 story 10 foot wide house she bought as a wedding present for Johnny. The catch? It's attached to Johnny's house. What's worse? The neighbour across the way is Dr Matthew Vine the Third, Johnny's older brother.

I thought the book was brilliant for the first 80% but was slightly disappointed by the ending. There's definitely some brilliant scenes and Karl just completes it with his audiobooks of choice. The ideas fantastic and the characters are likeable and (most of the time) you're rooting for them. You should definitely read this book!

I wanted to love it, I've loved all of the author's previous books and based on The No Show and The Flat Share she's an auto-buy. This just sadly fell flat for me, it didn't have the twists that the No Show had, or the depth of characters from The Flat Share, or even the comic supporting characters from The Road Trip.

Izzy and Lucas work together but hate each other, which is a great premise (The Hating Game is one of my favourite books), but I think the setting killed it. They work in a struggling hotel where the employees are like family. I dislike that idea straight off, you don't fire family members and normally when an employer says “we're like family” it means they're going to take advantage. It touched on too many cliches and I struggled to warm to the characters. It's an ok book but it lacked the spark that other Beth O'Leary books have had.

Having come from the TV show into the book I was disappoint that this was Eloise's story. The wit and banter is a bit part of the series' appeal and a big chunk of the middle of the book was Eloise sitting by herself not talking to anyone. It improved once her brother's arrived but out of the five books so far this was the hardest to read.

I DNF-ed at 37%. The book alternated between Raina and The Prince with No Name and it just felt like two completely different stories. There was none of the banter of the first book.

I was close to DNF-ing the book, it felt a bit preachy at times between the senior dog shelter and the mental health awareness. I couldn't buy into the characters, I got their issues and they were well handled but they lacked enough detail to make it convincing.

The story arc itself was pretty standard and overall it felt too long and slightly repetitive. The MMC was clearly written by a woman (granted, all the best are :D but this one felt like it was written by a woman).

I think because I'd seen so many Bookstagram posts I had higher expectations, and if I'd just picked the book off a shelf it would have been a 3* read.

Raina Bloodgood is 24 and is planning on killing the Witch Collector - the man who rides into their villages every year to bring one witch away with him. He works for the Frost King and took her sister away 8 years ago. Raina lives with her mum but lacks the magic and witchcraft her sister had which is why she's never been selected.

She's making plans to kill Alexus Thibault, the witch collector, but that's put on hold when The Prince with No Name attacks their villages and destroys everything in their way. Raina and Alexus head off together to try and save the Frost King. There's lots of snapping and brooding as Alexus explains his back story and wins Raina over.

It's an ok story - the premise is different which is refreshing, the characters are interesting but a lot of the appeal comes from the tension between Raina and Alexus. It's a bit ye olde worlde in speech and style. I liked this one but ended up DNF-ing the 2nd book in the series.

DNF at 24%

I've been curious about the social media hype around this series, but it's just not for me. It's too YA and I keep drawing comparisons to The Hunger Games. It's not badly written, it's a unique style that captures the protagonist well, but I'm not in the place to want to watch a young girl discover her power whilst being controlled by men and not getting straight answers.

This is Violet Easton's story. Having read Chestnut Creek (and loving it) I wanted to see where Violet came into it. It's a slower read, like the first book in the series. Violet is working at Gold Rush Ranch with Billie and just got her big break as a jockey on DD. Then she meets Cole, Vaughn's brother, and turns out they have history.

In an attempt to push her boundaries Violet posted a nude photo of herself online two years ago. There she met Golddigger85 and Pretty_In_Purple and he struck up a conversation. The book jumps back and forth Between their online relationship developing and the present day. During her 2nd race Violet is injured, hurts her leg and ends up having to move in with Cole whilst she heals. They reluctantly get to know each other better and Violet finally discovers why Cole never turned his web cam on. He's a military vet with PTSD and a prothetic leg. That explains why Golddigger85 ghosted Pretty_In_Purple after a year of chatting and when their relationship seemed to be moving forward.

It was slow but ok. I don't get why a girl in her early 20's would be so reclusive and why Vaughn is the right man for her.

You can't scroll through Instagram without seeing this series referenced frequently, so I wanted to see what the hype was about. It's YA, which isn't always for me and after the first book I'm not completely bought into it but I think that's more about not enjoying being inside Juliette's head. I'm off to start book two so we'll see how it goes.

I mostly liked the book but there were parts that just gave me the ick. I'm sure there's a better term for it but there were parts of the book that made me physically recoil.

I've read several Tessa Bailey books already, some I've loved (the hot and hammered series), some not so much but she has a clear talent and gift for storytelling. I loved the premise, the setting and the character backstories. Both have suffered loss, both are closed off because of it. The author made crab fishing interesting and I never thought I'd think that.

The pace threw me, it got very intense very fast and I found that harder to buy in to. I loved the way each chapter ended abruptly, the writing style completely pulled me in.

There were some elements that I just didn't get, might be me, might be cultural but the conversations between Piper and her sister just didn't seem like conversations between siblings. That's where the ick came in. But those few paragraphs aside it's a solid read and not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Well it was better than the first two in the series.

All in it was a good story, well written and paced. It jumped between characters a lot (I occasionally forgot that someone had been left on a cliff hanger because we'd had a few different jumps before getting back to them).

It didn't grip me in the same way ToG did, I felt relieved to have finished the book and not bereft that the series was over. I struggled to like Bryce and Hunt but I think it's because I'm comparing them to Nesta and Cassian. It was nice to see Nesta's story continue and it was all weaved together in a very interesting and clever way.

I didn't like ACOTAR much the first time I read it and I suspect if I were to read CC again I'd probably enjoy it more but given the sheer size of the series I probably won't do that. I will of course read CC4 though.