Hannah Morgan-Lewis
Why this book is drove me nuts:
Difficult to connect with characters. Laws on just seems too sappy and pathetic, Opie is an impulsive narcissist who just seems to be more obsessed with Lawson than in love with him. Opie really needed to grow up and stop putting his own needs first. I know they are supposed to be in a daddy relationship but Lawson doesn't seem to be getting that much out of it other than having some arm candy. Stop whining you want something like a Christmas tree and go get it yourself.
Lawson doesn't need to switch. Yes, it is possible in m/m for one partner not to bottom. I think the old ‘I never bottomed before but I'd do it for him', is rather overused, like Law is some virgin in a bodice ripper.
I apparently prefer daddy relationships where the sub partner actually has a job and a life but has a little time off to he taken care of, not one where the sub is pretty much useless and a complete child emotionally.
The lack of Opie's impulse control, violence towards people who he thinks have had a relationship with Law and complete lack of listening to Law should be red flags. Yes, he had a bad childhood, but it's not really addressed in that he doesn't show growth as a person or remorse. His behaviour is excused by others as the person he lashes out at ‘deserved it'.
The snow rescue scene was cheesy as hell. Followed by hypothermia recovery sex. Because cock is a well known medication for hypothermia.
They don't seem to have a relationship based on anything other than lust and mutual obsession.
I found the part where opie insisted on going to Law's father's house then swimming in the nude and having really loud sex with him really cringe. Homophobic father or not I thought it was quite disrespectful and harmed Law's relationship with his father.
I think that part of the daddy relationship that resonate with me tare the ones where there is emotional growth and the daddy helps the sub to be the best person they can. I didn't think that this book really explored that.
Set in 18th century France, this novel imagines life in the Chateau of the duc D'Amboise for his wife and five mistresses. Murdoch explores their backgrounds and shows how women had little power over their lives as they are forced to give up their previous lives for the financial support of the duc, leaving behind husbands and children. Worse still, in the plotting the duc's wife Charlotte makes against the mistresses that she dislikes, planting incriminating forged letters and humiliating her rivals. It shows how easy it is for women to fall from grace when they are at the mercy of the favour of a man who can tire of them or of his wife suddenly deciding that they should be moved and eat with the servants.
Whilst I found this a little hard to get into at first, as there are quite a few characters with similar backgrounds to get to grips with, I found that once I got into it I wanted to find out what happened next. Some intriguing characters helped, including Charlotte who feels neglected by the duc and unable to produce more children, and de Villiers, the roguish tarot reader who sets the cat amongst the pigeons! The period detail is well realised, giving a good sense without becoming overly descriptive or slowing the plot. Overall, I think this is a hidden gem that's worth persevering with.
I received a copy of this from booksirens and I am leaving a voluntary review.
A bittersweet story set in 1840s Birmingham about a ‘fallen' woman abused at a workhouse who goes to work as a servant in the household of brother-in-law of the man who abused her. I thought this really captured the sense of powerlessness that women would have felt at the period. Jane, the pianist for a theatre company, becomes pregnant after she is seduced by the lead, he abandons her with promises that he will keep in touch, but thrown out by her parents she is forced into the workhouse which is run by a brutal abuser hiding under the veneer of respectability as a clergyman and pillar of the community. Even when Jane leaves to become a servant, we are still left with the sense that she is trapped by her circumstances. Jane is a really good narrator, growing as a person and realising that she can't let men dictate her life for her. The period detail is obviously well researched and I liked how the author included letters, invoices and coroner's reports which lent it an air of authenticity. If I had any criticisms it would be that I found that it was a little lengthy at times, slowing the pace and I wasn't entirely convinced with the growing relationship between Jane and her employer, perhaps having this written in the first person means that we don't necessarily get a handle on him as a person or his feelings. I felt like we got a better picture of Edmond as a character. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this and would love to read more by the author.
I received a free copy of this book and I am voluntarily providing a review.
Was expecting slow burn, forbidden romance, this didn't have enough foreplay as it was so short! Hoping that the sequel will put some meat on the bones. Particularly maddened by the rushed sex at the end - they went from one meeting to full on penetration barely getting to know each other in the process.
A cosy short seasonal novella. Liked the characters and I enjoyed how the author integrated the magical elements. It had some wonderful Christmas descriptions of snuggling up in front of the fire, snow, massive Christmas trees and most importantly festive food and drink! If you love the forced to share a bed trope or the kind of book that makes you feel all warm and snuggly and festive you'll probably love this one!
A snowy thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. I thought the plot was terrifically well executed and very clever. Adam and Will are two warring brothers, one of whom goes missing on a mountain in France in 1988. Twenty two years later a group of people meet in a Chalet for a holiday, but which guests are connected to the brothers and how? Who is looking for revenge? I thought the characters were very well written and suitably unpleasant and self-centered, both in 1988 and 2020. A very good book for a bit of escapism in a winter setting with lots of fab descriptions of ski holidays in luxurious surroundings. Would definitely read more by the author and I think this might be one of my favourite books this year.
Thanks to the Pigeonhole for allowing me to read a copy with no obligation to provide an unbiased free review.
Got very frustrated with the total lack of plot in this one. As a reader, a few sex scenes and a lot of smug fluffy bits about how lucky they felt finding each other is not enough to make a readable book, especially as I didn't find the characters particularly memorable in the first place. I didn't find that the end made me want to read further either.
Recently widowed opera singer and nightclub owner Penelope Harris has recently left Singapore to return to her family in prohibition era New York. Unfortunately, she's been followed by her husband's mistress who is hell bent on making her life as difficult as possible. With a cast of many colourful characters and filled with snappy dialogue, I found this a decent mystery. Penelope herself has hidden depths and not everything about her is as it seems. I thought she was a well written character in the way that the author gradually reveals her back story.
What let this down for me somewhat was that for a period mystery, the author focuses largely on the dialogue and doesn't spend a great deal of time on the descriptions of place and period (although I did enjoy her descriptions of the clothes at the party). Although I understand that it needed pace as well, I am a greedy reader who loves period atmosphere and I wanted some lavish descriptions of a decadent prohibition party. However, this may not bother other readers. The author had obviously done her research, particularly about Singapore and opera. I think that a prequel about her time in Singapore would be an interesting read as well as her planned sequel.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
An intriguing premise for a horror novel, the Victorian practice of taking pictures of the dead. The Gallery of Stolen Souls takes place in two time periods, the late 1880s following the life of Samuel Temple, a budding photographer who specialises in portraits of the dead; and in the present day following Louise, an anxious voice over artist who buys an old camera from a mysterious antiques shop. I thought this was really well written and gripping. The descriptions of the characters and places are vivid, particularly those of Temple's subjects. I really liked the way that Louise developed as a character from someone who is nervous and reclusive, to someone much stronger and able to survive. Great plot kept me turning the pages, and this was a creepy, atmospheric read full of little clues that the reader can pick up on. Would definitely read more of the author's work. I received a advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Billed as literary fiction, this is rather a difficult book to both categorise and review as I am not sure what effect the writer was going for. Told from the point of view of Charles, who is initially shocked when his sexually liberated wife Melody suggests that they should join a swinging club; I was under the impression that this was going to be a funny, sexy romp. However, there were some obvious issues with this. I think on reflection this was more a family drama about two parents going through a bit of a mid life crisis with some humour and swinging thrown in.
Before I start, I think I should mention that I am a fairly unshockable reader of sex scenes, especially m/m. Bisexuality, swinging and bdsm in literature are unlikely to shock me.
Firstly, I can't say that the humour in the book really did it for me, especially the subplot about an irritating toy that the son owns. Secondly, the biggest flaw for me from the point of view of a book about swinging is that I didn't find the sex scenes erotic or that well written. It almost felt like the author was a little self conscious about writing about sex and often sex scenes ended abruptly and moved to another location right in the middle. Language used is not that erotic and constantly interrupted by Charles's internal smug middle class commentary: ‘he put his penis into her vagina watching Diane licking Melody's clitorus. He was glad that Diane put out the expensive scented candles as it showed how much she cared.' The sex is not overtly explicit to me, a bit of mild bdsm and role play but not in much detail. I found that there isn't a sufficient build up to make it that erotic. Melody is keen to the point of obsession that Charles tries out bisexuality, and I found her urgings quite unpleasant at times as I think if this was written from the pov of a man wanting a woman to try out bisexuality despite her reluctance, readers would find it morally repugnant. He never really explicitly consents to it, just kind of goes with the flow and it's mostly glossed over.
I thought that Charles was quite a well drawn character and the observations about his inner life are well written as are the parts about his relationship with Melody and his family and how they are affected by the swinging well done. The characters are mostly sympathic, but can feel a bit smug at times as they swan around buying expensive champagne and admiring the beautiful bodies of the sexy people they are about to sleep with. Melody and the women who join them are continually admiring each others' shoes and jewellery. The plot drifts around as a series of incidences rather than an overarching plot, possibly to make it a bit more lifelike.
Maybe I would find this a more enjoyable book if I was interested in swinging, as it was I found it a rather frustrating read.
I received a free advanced review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Hazel Lavery was an American socialite who married the artist Sir John Lavery and became a supporter of Irish Independence. This novel focuses on her relationship with the Irish freedom fighter, Michael Collins. Most of the novel is split between the stories of Hazel and of Kitty Kiernan, an Irish friend of Collins who supports him and eventually becomes his girlfriend. I found the Kitty parts of the book at the beginning stronger than the Hazel parts, as her survival in an Ireland torn apart by civil war and crowded by the Black and Tans was far more interesting than Hazel's life of a spoilt socialite everybody admires who has conceived an interest in the Irish Civil War. Going into great detail about her past too slowed the narrative down somewhat. However, if you are reading this to find out about Hazel or even if you found her a more sympathetic character than I did, you might find this interesting. The novel is populated with historical people such as Lloyd George and Winston Churchill as well as the Irish freedom fighters. I thought that it seemed well researched too.
Reading the first part I wished that maybe the author would put down the thesaurus during the dialog. I thought the constant use of adjectives and adverbs got a little irritating and made the writing seem a little less polished. People are constantly smiling to themselves. However, this did seem to be a little less obvious as the book went on. I also thought the author overused the plot device of people reading letters they'd found or even leaving letters on desks for people to read, makes you wonder if they had any thought of privacy. I was not entirely convinced by Hazel's relationship with Michael either, to me it seemed to come out of the blue.
Overall, I thought the author chose a good subject for a novel and had done some good work researching the subject. I found that after a slightly shaky start, I mostly enjoyed reading it.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a voluntary review.
I absolutely loved this book. Very well researched, written in a totally accessible style and incredibly optimistic. Bregman's theory is that as a species we are programmed to be sociable and to assist each other rather than to be at war and hate each other. Along the way he disproves some classic social experiments and theories including the Stanford experiment where students pretending to be guards were sadistic to prisoners and the famous Yale experiment where people administered shocks to lab assistants getting quiz questions wrong. Absolutely fascinating and very well argued, Bregman can sometimes come across as a little bit naive, but this is a great antidote to the pessimism in the news.
Thanks to Pigeonhole for allowing me to read this early and enjoy the book alongside other readers.
Set in the 14th century during the reign of Edward iii, this book very cleverly weaves a tale around the family tree of the Capet royal family of France. However, it centers around the fight between England and Scotland. Harry de Lyon, newly knighted, is rudely awakened by a violent raid on a Scottish castle where the inhabitants are massacred and a mysterious boy taken prisoner. Manipulated by his superiors who use his lack of wealth as a leverage point, he is forced to take on the savage prisoner as his squire. Whilst it takes some time, Harry and the boy (Iain) eventually become friends and develop a growing romantic attachment to one another.
I loved the depiction of the growing relationship between the two, but this is the type of book to make grandma blush! Several pigeonhole readers found this a little too explicit in places. I thought it also required a little suspension of disbelief in places regarding the attitudes towards homosexuality at the times, but if you are into this kind of book as I am, the sex scenes are hot!
It's obvious that the author has put a great deal of research into the period and used real people and historical fact whenever possible. The plot is gripping, with lots of adventure alongside the romance, the book would stand up without the explicit scenes, but they added to the story for me.
I was sad to finish the book. I felt like I really got to know the characters in the story, not just the two protagonists, but also Harry's enemies, the servants at his home and his allies and friends. Will definitely be looking out for more from this author in future.
I loved the protagonist in this book. Although Kate is a highly accomplished agent, she's also written as being quite human and flawed and having to deal with the usual difficulties of family life alongside a job that forces her to make difficult decisions. The book is really well plotted and the author obviously has an in depth knowledge of international relations and of the different places Kate visits. An exciting read too.
Interesting but ultimately an often difficult read due to reproductions of original documents that have degraded over time or were not that clear to begin with. This forces the reader to struggle when it would have made more sense to provide transcripts in addition. Maybe this is better with the print edition. I am pretty sceptical about some of the claims in here too.
Really engaging history of propaganda focused mainly on the UK and the US. I felt like I learned a lot from this and it was written in a readable narrative style. However, I find the lack of footnotes a bit odd. I know this is probably not meant as being too academic, and maybe it's not as important in the US, but to me a history book that just has a bibliography is somehow less trustworthy as you can't check up so easily on original sources. Nevertheless, if you want to learn about the devious art of black propaganda, this is a great place to start.
I received a free copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Originally published in 1976, this is a reissue from Saper Books available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. You can tell from reading how history books have evolved over the past 44 years to a more narrative and people driven style as this is quite a serious academic book driven by meticulously researched statistics. This can be quite dry for the casual reader but would provide an invaluable resource for people looking to complete a history course or research a particular area of the country, especially as Hoskins provides a comprehensive list of all the books and articles he used along with excellent footnotes. Some fascinating points raised about the living standards of the period. Hoskins contrasts the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, finding Henry VIII very much to be a selfish profligate obsessed with building expensive palaces and fighting useless wars, driving the country into poverty and wasting the lives of the male population sent overseas to fight. I give it 4 stars overall for the research.
A beautifully written Australian novel ideal for lovers of gardening, flowers and the language of flowers. After a tragic accident, Alice is sent to live with her grandmother on a flower farm that also acts as a retreat for women. But Alice and her grandmother find that they are unable to escape the secrets of the past or their own guilt. Holly RIngland very cleverly interweave the ideas of Kierkegaard, in particular she was inspired by the quotation “life is lived forward but only understood backward”. Kierkengaard believed in the idea that we are unable to be ever completely happy as we are constantly forced to make impossible decisions. Poor Alice and her grandmother both make some difficult decisions throughout the book with mixed results. Will Alice ever find out the secrets of her past and be able to move forward? I loved this book, though it was a hard read at times due to some of the themes.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo was a worthy winner of the Booker Prize 2019. The book explores the lives of a number of interconnected women and one genderfluid character. An experimental novel that uses the medium of short chapters about each one woman followed on by another linked character. Some readers may find it a bit too experimental as Evaristo does not use traditional punctuation, although this is not a difficult book to read and is in fact, very accessible. There are a number of extremely memorable characters, including Amma who is at the centre of the novel. She puts on a play a feminist play about amazonians. The book explores the lives of black women over a century and explores their different lives and experiences of fitting in and finding a place in society. Also, highlighting how our perception of race, feminism and gender has changed. Families are always at the heart of the stories. I really enjoyed reading this book, and would give it a five star rating.
Sorcery of the Blood
For a Slash fiction romance novel, there is not a great deal of romance, mainly some minor pining. I found that there are a few too many ideas crammed into a short book - vampires, witches, dead brothers, fights with the ultimate undead but not much romance! So many characters introduced that it's hard to keep up. They probably could have managed an entire series with the world building but it's too much in one book. Could do with a bit more back story in terms of why the vampires are there and how they work, the author seems to assume we don't need to know. Also, the characters themselves, there is very little description. The baddie doesn't appear nearly enough, all his activities are reported on rather than shown. Inventing an amazing blood substitute should take more than one go! The whole book just feels a bit rushed and targeted more at a YA audience.
Interesting theory about Bram Stoker's wife and her father. I also like the different types of vampire. Good cast of diverse characters, including a genderqueer vampire and issues such as racism and homophobia tackled.
I think the author is promising, but needs to take their time with the next book.
Beautifully written and intricately plotted dual narrative novel which is told partly from the perspective of Juliet, an unhappy mother of three and from the previous generations of her family. When Juliet, an art historian inherits a house unexpectedly from her grandmother, she decides to separate from her husband and move into the dilapidated house with her disgruntled children. Domestic life is very well portrayed, almost painful to read. Juliet is related to the famous artist Ned Horner, creator of The Garden of Lost and Found, a painting of his children that has subsequently disappeared. The historical parts tell the story of Lydia, his wife, her sister Mary and their children. This begins with Lydia's dreadfully unhappy young adulthood after the death of her mother and its effect on her life. I thought the plot was gripping with both stories as the secrets of Lydia and Mary's lives unfold alongside Juliet coping with domestic tribulations and her new job with an old university adversary. Her grandmother is is a rather complicated character with secrets and the Juliet parts of the narrative are added to with her diary entries giving advice about the house and garden. Juliet finds herself renewed by working on the garden and there are lovely descriptions. Overall, a really enjoyable book that got me hooked.
In the 1970s, a bohemian family move into an old farmhouse. Shunned by the locals who consider them outsiders, the mother struggles with bringing up five children with an absent partner. This is made particularly difficult when the two adolescent daughters seemingly start attracting an otherworldly presence, especially when the press and a team of paranormal researchers become interested.
In the present day, Lucy, the younger daughter visits her mother after she experiences seeing a ghostly girl in the garden of her nursing home. Despite Lucy's reservations, she is pushed by her mother to meet with a new group of paranormal researchers who are determined to get to the bottom of what happened at the house.
The dual narrative works really well and makes this a gripping storyline. Just when you want to find out what happens next, the narrative viewpoint shifts. It also keeps you guessing until the end. The author builds up the creepy atmosphere in the house particularly during the investigations. I also thought the characters were very well written, especially the two girls who are very different. A really good spooky autumn read.