Hannah Morgan-Lewis
“Even if you were a witch, which –” he smiled a little bit at himself “– you are not, the story is coming for you. The gossip, the charges of murder. All of it. It's too damned convenient . You should be on the next ship off, Theodora. Get away like your mother did. Like your man did.”
A group of witches and their children facing persecution leave Salem and head off to find sanctuary somewhere different, ending up on a remote island. Hundreds of years later in the 1940s one of their descendents, Theodora, is in the difficult position of being pretty much the last witch, presumed widowed and suspected of murdering her husband and unable to actually do witchcraft since her husband disappeared. She is blamed as there is a severe drought and the male islanders conspire against her and her friend John Dove is in danger of being killed and the blame placed on her.
I enjoyed the world building in this novel, the island feels as if it's both a real place and a good setting for fantasy as the author uses beautiful descriptions and the invlusiin of details of island life like the fish the islanders mostly eat and the algae they use to light their homes. I thought that the characters were particularly well written too. Theodora is a great main character and grows during the storyline, but I also liked the way the writer portrayed the other women on the island who are fighting the patriarchy in their own way. Adelaide, Theodora's cousin, in particular, helps Theodora but has her own private battles to fight and grows as a result. Though the author uses magic realism, it doesn't feel like it's out of the realm of possibility of it happening. The development of the relationship between Theodora and her friend John is nicely written. I enjoyed reading this and was pleased to see that this is potentially a series, I thought that this is a hidden gem in that it's an unusual but beautiful novel.
I received an advanced copy of this book free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
A wild ride of a book with all the elements you would expect from a gothic novel. Lily returns to the house where she grew up after many years away due to a tragic accident that happened when she was a child. The house is just as it was left with secrets left to discover, but she is not the only person in Lostmor with a past. Great atmospheric descriptions of both the house and the village add to the tense plotting.
This is the kind of book that keeps you reading, but I did find parts of the plot got a little too gothic perhaps! I also thought that some of the ‘villains' had few redeeming qualities, which maybe made them a little unrealistic, however, this may have been a deliberate choice considering the genre. Otherwise, the rest of the characters are well drawn and I would definitely be interested in reading a follow up.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Don't read the kindle unlimited edition as I foolishly did, it's not the proper text, just scanned it and it's riddled with typos. Not sure how to review this, it's undoubtedly clever and I found myself drawn into the plot at times, but at the same time parts of it are extremely pretentious. I think I'd like to read the proper edition one day, but for now I am happy to digest it!
I liked this one. Not such a reliance on the old tragic backstories. Yes, they have had hard times but not to the point of harrowing the reader. Nice age difference relationship with a little bit of non bdsm dominance/submission in the bedroom, countered by the equality outside the bedroom. I thought that the death of Nathan's parents was glossed over though, I know that his father was supposed to be the villain, but it was a bit of a case of Nathan just shrugging it all off.
Equal opportunities satirical fiction where neither side is better than the other! I found this a very enjoyable read and would welcome a sequel. Though the characters are completely flawed and the anti-heroine Patty Pitypander is just that, you can't help somehow rooting for her at times, as the author managed to make her funny, vulnerable and a scheming sleazy politician at the same time. Add to this her casino owning husband, a naive young reporter and the dodgy current president and you have a winning cast of characters. Loved the scene where she attempted to speak Spanish and some of her political ideas were absolutely crazy. I thought the plotting was good too, and kept me reading. Will look out for more of the author's work.
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.
I found this to be a far too sanitised version of the life of Wallis Simpson. I get that Holden wanted to present her in a new light, but I think she did her a bit of a disservice presenting her like she did. I doubt she was as big a socialist who was a kind to the servants and considered a great influence on the Prince of Wales, I thought her second husband was a more interesting character in the book. The great friendship with Charles seemed like a cheesy plot device, and Holden was very careful to write worshipfully of any royalty still alive. The only ones who got slated were Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, presented as a cold snobby bitch, her husband, presented a stuttering useless alcoholic and the King, presented as a booming emotional abuser obsessed with rules.
Anything Holden thought would present Wallis in a less flattering light was ignored or explained away, so what you ended up with was a fluffy romance.
It had promise but I found it difficult to get to know the characters as it was so short. I wanted more build up and tension, whereas the characters got together straight away. I liked the idea of the community though, especially the Welsh name.
A short, but very informative read. This is an accessible account of how Andrew Wakefield sparked the MMR vaccine panic through various nefarious means such as inventing evidence and performing unnecessary, unethical tests on young children with autism in an attempt to prove his theories. Absolutely shocking how he is still making money from this, especially at the moment. Some meticulous research went into this.
Although this was not the book for me, I think that other readers would really enjoy it if you are after historical romance. I did think that the heroine Vaughn was well written and spirited, and I liked how she interacted with other characters. The set up of the novel was really good, a woman working as a lawyer in a mysterious house.
I think my main problem was that to my taste, there was far more romance and pottering about in the library than gothic elements, it almost felt like the spooky parts of the story were an afterthought. Towards the end, the pace slowed down then rapidly sped up towards the conclusion, and I found the mystery element a bit bizarre, again like it was tagged on as an afterthought. In fact, I think the story would have succeeded better if the whole Curse bit was left out.
However, rated as purely a love story, I thought it worked well and I enjoyed it. I got the reference to A Secret Garden too.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The scene setting in the book was good, and gave a good flavour of the period, however, I found this difficult to read as someone who loves historical fiction as I didn't feel as if Georgia was being treated as a woman of her time and class. She seemed to be able to wander about at will without people questioning her, even to pubs and other places women wouldn't be able to go into without arousing suspicion. I found her an interesting main character with potential, but requiring an element of disbelief. I get that she needed to be a strong character, but it wasn't to my taste. I wasn't keen on the ending either.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Very sweet and cosy, with lovely touches of humour. I liked both the main characters and the sense of the community, it made a nice change reading a book of this genre set in the UK, especially as the descriptions of the village traditions are very prominent. It's not too saucy, but has a nice amount of romance.
A cute, short novella about two teenagers facing persecution over their sexuality and falling in love. I had a few issues with Austin being only 16 thought, although the sex is minimal, I still felt a bit uncomfortable reading about an eighteen year old making out with boy who is pretty much below the age of consent and described as small and delicate in contrast to Jace being bigger. I think it would have worked better if Austin was 18, and it was set in college.
What a cute couple! I loved the humour and the Britishness of this book, and loved the dynamic between Elliot and Freddie, both the romance and how well they got on together and enjoyed each other's company. The bits at the wedding when Freddie was pretended to be arm candy made me grin from ear to ear. Will definitely be reading the next two in the series.
I thought this was an entertaining if slightly drawn out Regency romance. The well drawn characters gave it an authentic period feel, both the main characters and the other characters in the novel and the author created a good setting with plenty of characters and a nicely woven plot. The author does use Regency style language well, but a few Americanisms were present. This would be suitable for YA readers as well as adults as there are no saucy bits! I liked the main characters, Clara is a nicely practical heroine who doesn't show off her wealth or take herself too seriously and Brantford is kind to almost everyone he meets. I thought their interactions with Angelina were a nice touch.
I really enjoyed the story of Jenny Hill in the novel and thought it was a bit like the plot of a Thomas Hardy novel (I love Hardy).
The author drew attention to the plight of women in the period where they are at the whims of men remarrying, leaving them and uprooting them from their homes without thinking about them.
This is a very slow burn romance and occasionally frustrating for the reader as we don't know what Brantford is thinking and I think that a little bit of editing towards the end would have given the story better pacing. I would definitely read other books by the author though.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I felt this was a book that didn't quite know what it wanted to be. Hailed on the cover as having ‘an edge of Gothic' it wasn't Gothic enough for me. It's called Wrecker but seemed to be more about a religious revival in Cornwall than about Wreckers, but I'm not sure it could fall into Christian fic either. It had elements of historical romance to it but it wasn't romantic. I thought the caption on the front about her life being in danger was rather misleading, it never feels as if she is in any actual peril. I also found the constant use of the word ‘ass' (to mean rear end) a bit odd, as well as a sentence blanking out a swear word - either use it or cut it, we all know what you mean!
Mary had promise as a main character, yes she's gutsy and flawed, but as a reader I got mad at her for not being a good narrator; even when major things are happening to her you don't get much of a sense of how she actually feels.
I liked the depiction of Cornwall and the residents of the village, there are some good descriptive passages and some quite funny bits, but I found the main characters frustrating, particularly the illusive Gideon, who isn't really described and has no clear motives throughout the story, he doesn't even have a good reason to build the Chapel, he just sort of falls into it ‘because'. Mary falls for him, but there doesn't seem to be any reason why, she just seems to decide he's someone new to fixate on. Most of the women just felt like snobby stereotypes to me, particularly Gideon's wife. Not a big fan of the ending either. I think maybe I just got a bit cross as I was expecting a different book!
An entertaining murder mystery with lots of cooking thrown in. I found it a little bit over the top and the main character Prudence especially so, she's quite flamboyant and tends to spend a lot of the book ordering her granddaughter around in a rather annoying way and not listening to her. The descriptions of food were good though, and whilst it wasn't my cup of tea, if you are a fan of cozy murder mysteries with a bit of humour thrown in it would make a good holiday read.
The first thing that really put me off was David taking advantage of Joe, his younger employee, when Joe was drunk by luring him to his room and trying to have sex with him (totally out of the blue as well). The dialogue was pretty cheesy and I found the characters and the plot not very well developed. It was quite hard to tell them apart, I had to keep referring to the chapter titles. It was also quite annoying how they just thought everything was a total joke during the later half of the book. This guy is supposed to be a congressman but is totally incapable of acting professionally or keeping his dick in his pants. The dialogue and weird lack of boundaries of consent also made the sex scenes rather...ahem...interesting. Not sure I've come across “F the shit out of me” before.
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.
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.
Liked it, didn't love it. For some reason I found it dragged a little and I missed the build up between the characters as the romance geared up a little too soon in the book, I would have appreciated a little more angst at times. I found some of the characters that popped infrequently a little difficult to keep straight in my head at times, particularly the podcast buddies. Not in a rush to continue the series, but might pick it up in the future.
Christmas is all about proving ourselves as wives and mothers. It's like an A level in showing we can do it all, and failure is not an option. Show me a woman who hasn't obsessed about it.'
Following the stories of Beth, a university lecturer recently married to an older widower and Carol, a magazine editor and single mother, this is a slightly outdated festive novel about women trying to do everything at Christmas including reviving an ailing magazine and organising a mammoth Christmas Village party on Christmas eve. Whilst both women are highly competent, they both feel the guilt of not having enough time and the pressure of being surrounded by people who continually need them in some way and wanting to make everything absolutely perfect.
I found it quite frustrating to read at times as I just wanted the characters to stop what they were doing and talk about how they felt. Lost count of the number of meals Carol skipped and the lists Beth made. Even when they attempted to delegate it didn't work, and Beth's stepdaughter Holly actively sabotaged everything, but I think this and the ‘helpful' tips at the beginning quoted from women's magazines gave a sense of the pressure. I also got a bit cheesed with the mocking the politically correct nativity play. Thankfully, most of this was addressed by the end and overall I enjoyed reading it.
I very much enjoyed this well written historical fiction set in Spain. I don't know a great deal about the Spanish Civil war, but Hayes brought the two periods she was writing about to life, and gave a real sense of the tragedy and danger of the situations that the characters were in. You could tell how much research and attention to detail the author paid. I loved how the story of Sophia and her lover gradually unfolded and the characters were well drawn and true to life. The romance was beautifully written too. I will be looking out for more of this author's work.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review. Thanks to Netgalley.
Far from a badly written book, just not what you would expect from something with ‘Gothic' & ‘ghost' plastered over it, as it is more of a psychological haunting. It's a bit Gothic, but suffers from a bit of a pacing problem towards the middle where nothing mysterious seems to happen. A bit of a frustrating read at times, but I did think that the relationship between the two characters was well written.