Wednesday, February 11, 2026

My Review for This Book Made Me Think Of You by Libby Page

February 11, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



"Sometimes life calls for a pillow fort. And sometimes you just have to build that fort yourself." 🏰✨

Libby! Why am I only now just discovering you?! 📚💛 It's only February, and I think I've already found the book that is going to be in my Top Ten for 2026. This book is incredible — it made me cry proper tears 😭 (and books rarely do that to me). It's so sad, but so heartfelt, and most of all it's full of hope and promise. Hope that there will be happiness following grief, and the promise that you just need to give yourself time and allow other people to care for you. 🤍

I adored reading about Tilly and how she fell in love with reading again 📖, something she hadn't been able to do since before her beloved husband Joe passed away. It was such a gorgeous memory to have — a book from Joe for every month of a whole year 🗓️💌. Oh, and some of those books took her out of her comfort zone and pushed her to do things she would never have dreamed of doing before. 🌊✨

I will definitely be reading Libby's previous books (watch this space!) 👀📚, and I'm putting them on my wishlist (I hope my Mum is reading this!) 🎁😉

Thank you to Penguin UK and Viking Books for the gifted copy of This Book Made Me Think Of You by Libby Page. 🤍

About the Book

Twelve stories. Twelve months. Once chance to heal her heart...

When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her fiancé waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. Mainly because Joe died five months ago…

The gift is simple – twelve carefully-chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.

Tilly sets out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to vlog her journey, her story becomes more than her own. With help from Alfie, the bookshop owner, her budding new following and her friends and family, can Tilly’s year of books show her how to love again?



About Libby

Libby Page is the Sunday Times bestselling author of six novels: The Lido, The 24-Hour Café, The Island Home, The Vintage Shop, The Lifeline and This Book Made Me Think of You.

She is also a writing coach at The Novelry, where she mentors writers through the process of writing their own novels.

Before writing The Lido she worked as a journalist and in marketing. She lives in Somerset with her husband and young son.





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Tuesday, February 10, 2026

My Review for The Dad Trap by Ian Eagleton

February 10, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



“Who needs friends when you’ve got books, fabulous felt-tips and a cool notepad, right? Much safer this way. Books over besties. Pens over pals.” 📚✏️🖍️

OMG, I loved this book! 😍 There were so many moments when I actually spat out my tea 😂☕ My 11-year-old granddaughter is going to love it!

William is neurodivergent — his brain is wired differently from everyone else’s 🧠✨ — and he knows that. He’s learning how to manage it, although he does like his routines… and woe betide anyone who tries to mess with those! 😅⏰ He’s a bit like me, if I’m honest. 🙋‍♀️

William and Florence are hilarious 🤣 as they come up with idea after idea to split their dads up! 💡💥 William doesn’t want to share his dad with anyone else, and Florence is convinced that her mum and dad will get back together. 💔➡️❤️

Buy this for your son or daughter (but read it yourself too! 😉) and watch their faces as they read — I bet you anything they won’t be able to stop smiling. 😁📖

Thank you to Scholastic UK for the gifted copy of The Dad Trap by Ian Eagleton 🎁📚 which will be gifted to my eldest granddaughter next week. 💕👧

About the Book

When William and Florence meet on the first day of Year Six, they instantly dislike each other. William is impulsive, endlessly chatty and struggles in school. His home life is safe and predictable - just him and Dad, who adopted him as a solo parent - and that's how William likes it.

Florence is sullen, cold, and everything seems to come easily to her. She's moved after her parents' divorce - but she's convinced she won't be staying long because they'll definitely get back together...

But then Florence and William find out that their dads have started seeing each other. Now they must put their differences to one side. Because only if they work together might they stand a chance of splitting up their dads... Let the sabotage commence!

About Ian

Ian is 35 years old and is the director of The Reading Realm. He is also a content creator and resource writer for various educational organisations, including The Literacy Shed and Authorfy. Ian has taught in primary schools for 13 years and during this time has been a member of the senior management team, a phase leader, and literacy co-ordinator. Ian has also run staff training and writing workshops for children. He still teaches part time at a local school and especially enjoys sharing picture books, poetry and creative writing activities with the children he teaches.



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Wednesday, February 4, 2026

My Review for If You Knew...by Richard Plourde

February 04, 2026  , ,  No comments


"Are you certain of the diagnosis? Is there any chance you might be wrong?"

📖 A unique and in-depth read, this book explores the trauma the Plourde family face when they receive the devastating news that their son’s leukaemia has returned. 💔 If You Knew… is an incredibly emotional story that will tug at your heartstrings every step of the way. 😢 We live through each moment of Gabriel’s treatment plan as he prepares for a bone marrow transplant. 🏥

✨ Alongside the true-life elements of the story is a fictional take on how someone might change their life if they knew what the future held. ⏳ Do you carry on as normal, knowing what lies ahead will be traumatic, or do you try to change your path before anything bad can happen? 🤔

📚 This isn’t the type of fiction I would usually choose to read — I tend to avoid authors like Jodi Picoult because I often find the stories too sad — but I really enjoyed this one. ❤️ The time-traveller aspect is woven in nicely and adds an interesting layer to the story.

🙏 Thank you to Richard Plourde for the opportunity to read and review If You Knew…

About the Book

When their four-year-old son Gabriel’s leukaemia relapses, Richard and his wife are thrown back into the battle they thought they’d won. With time running out, they cling to each other—and to the smallest signs of hope.

Elsewhere in time, Bill, a university student reeling from heartbreak, catches a glimpse of a future that isn’t his to know. What he sees shakes him to the core… and sparks a single-minded resolve to change what’s coming.

As the two stories begin to mirror—and then collide—love, courage, and impossible choices pull them toward the same question : will what they do be enough to change what’s coming… or will fate refuse to bend?

Echoing the emotional depth of The Time Traveler’s Wife and the heart-wrenching choices in My Sister’s Keeper , this novel asks a timeless what would you do, if you knew?


About Richard

Bestselling author Richard Plourde is a retired optometrist with a genuine passion for writing captivating stories. His two novels, originally published in French, were both critically acclaimed and were finalists for the coveted France-Acadie literary prize.

Richard also published a children’s novel that was selected as a one of the top children’s book of the year by the consumer guide “Protégez-vous”.

His books have been translated and published in English.

Father of two accomplished young adults and two beloved cats, he lives in a lovely town nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains in New Brunswick, Canada.

Richard is currently working on his fourth novel and is also writing the screenplay for his first book.



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Tuesday, February 3, 2026

My Review for All This & More by Peng Shepherd, read by Helen Laser

February 03, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



"LIFE is many things - good, bad, steady, unexpected - but we can all agree that each one is UNIQUE."

I didn’t really know what I was getting into with All This & More 🤔. It’s a concept I’ve only ever experienced as a child, through the Choose Your Own Adventure stories 📚. Peng takes that idea to a whole different level, delivering it in a far more complex and lengthy way.

I’m not sure how much my experience was affected by listening rather than reading 🎧, but whenever a choice came up, I almost always selected the option that said continue listening. It was simply easier, especially as I was usually doing other things at the same time 🏃‍♀️🧹. The only exception was right at the end, when I chose to listen to all three endings 👀.

The book blends fantasy, sci-fi, and time travel 🚀✨, which—for the purposes of this story—is explained through quantum physics 🔬. That’s something I don’t understand and probably never will 😂! I’m also not sure whether we’re meant to like Marsh, the female protagonist. To me, she came across as selfish, jumping backward and forward through time countless times ⏳ in an attempt to make every single aspect of her life perfect. That said, the TV show she was starring in gave her that opportunity, so I suppose it’s no surprise that she took full advantage of it 🎬.

Despite a very confusing start 😵‍💫, I did end up enjoying the story 👍. I chose the first ending—which I won’t reveal here, as I don’t want to spoil it if you decide to read it yourself 🤐.

Thank you to Libro.fm and William Morrow for the opportunity to listen to and review All This & More 🙏✨

About the Book

From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Cartographers and The Book of M comes an inventive new novel about a woman who wins the chance to rewrite every mistake she’s ever made… and how far she’ll go to find her elusive “happily ever after.”

But there’s a twist: the reader gets to decide what she does next to change her fate.

One woman. Endless options. Every choice has consequences.

Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five, and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded, and her teenage daughter grows more distant by the day. Marsh is convinced she’s missed her chance at everything—romance, professional fulfillment, and adventure—and is desperate for a do-over.

She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to be the star of the global sensation All This and More, a show that uses quantum technology to allow contestants the chance to revise their pasts and change their present lives. It’s Marsh’s only shot to seize her dreams, and she’s determined to get it right this time.

But even as she rises to become a famous lawyer, gets back together with her high school sweetheart, and travels the world, she begins to worry that All This and More’spromises might be too good to be true. Because while the technology is amazing, something seems a bit off.…

Can Marsh really make her life everything she wants it to be? And is it worth it?


About Peng

Peng Shepherd is the nationally bestselling, award-winning author of All This and More, The Cartographers, and The Book of M.

Her novels have been acclaimed as a “Best Book of the Year” by the Washington Post, a “Best Book of the Summer” by the Today Show and NPR, and featured in the New York Times, the LA Times, The Atlantic, and on Good Morning America, as well as a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. Her work also has been translated into more than ten languages, and optioned for TV and film.

A graduate of New York University’s MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Mexico City, and New York. When not writing, she can be found planning her next trip or haunting local bookstores.



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Monday, February 2, 2026

My Review for Truth Be Told by Kia Abdullah

February 02, 2026  , , , , ,  No comments


“We’ve got to treat men like humans, even if some do inhuman things.”

My third of @hook.me.a.book challenges is the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge, which I’m using to read physical books that have been sitting on my actual shelf for far too long! 📚✨ First up is Truth Be Told by Kia Abdullah, the second book in the Zara Kaleel series. I’ve just checked and I read the first one at the end of 2022, so yes — I’m a bit behind! 😅

In my experience, male assault isn’t something that’s covered often in books, and it’s a difficult subject to write about. However, Kia handles it with sensitivity and a great deal of research, which I really appreciated. 💛

Zara has her own issues to deal with alongside her work as an assault counsellor, and then she takes on Kamran’s case — not an easy one to manage. I went through a whole range of emotions while reading this: angry, empathetic, and sad, often towards the same characters. 😡💔 The immaturity of youth is portrayed in the boys who attended Hampton School, and honestly, at times they needed their heads banging together for the way they reacted to events. 🙄

I especially enjoyed the courtroom drama and the way both the defence and prosecution challenge witnesses. ⚖️ I used to read a lot of this type of book, and I really need to pick more up because I’d forgotten just how invested I get! 😍

If legal thrillers are your jam and you’ve never read Kia’s books before, I’d thoroughly recommend them — just be sure to check the trigger warnings first. ⚠️📖

About the Book

Kamran Hadid feels invincible. He attends Hampton school, an elite all-boys boarding school in London, he comes from a wealthy family, and he has a place at Oxford next year. The world is at his feet. And then a night of revelry leads to a drunken encounter and he must ask himself a horrific question. With the help of assault counsellor, Zara Kaleel, Kamran reports the incident in the hopes that will be the end of it. But it’s only the beginning…


About Kia

Kia Abdullah is an author and journalist from London. Her novels include Take It Back (a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year), Truth Be Told (shortlisted for a Diverse Book Award), Next of Kin (longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award) and Those People Next Door (a Times Bestseller and Waterstones Thriller of the Month). Her new novel, What Happens in the Dark, is out now.

Kia has won a Diverse Book Award (2022) and a JB Priestley Award for Writers of Promise (2020). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times and the BBC among others.

Kia was born in Tower Hamlets in East London and was raised in a family of eight children. As the most stubborn of six daughters, she constantly found herself in trouble for making choices that clashed with her parents’, a habit they came to accept when she became their first and only child to graduate from university – with a first in Computer Science.

In 2007, Kia left her job in tech to pursue the one thing she had always wanted: a career as a writer, taking a 50% pay cut in the process. She worked as sub-editor and later features editor at Asian Woman Magazine where she interviewed British-Asian luminaries including Riz Ahmed, Meera Syal, Nitin Sawnhey and Anoushka Shankar. 

Kia went on to join global publisher Penguin Random House where she helped grow digital readership at Rough Guides to over a million users per month. In 2014, she quit her day job to found Atlas & Boots, an outdoor travel blog now read by 150,000 people a month.

Today, she spends her time writing, boxing, mentoring adults in Newham and visiting far-flung destinations for Atlas & Boots.










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Friday, January 30, 2026

My Review for The Storm by Rachel Hawkins, read by Alex Knox, Cathi Colas, Dan Bittner, Jane Oppenheimer, Patti Murin, Petrea Burchard and Stephanie Nemeth-Parker

January 30, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



"Hurricanes aren’t just weather; they are monsters that never truly die.”

The Storm was my second January listen for another of @hook.me.a.book’s challenges, the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge 🎧📚. I’d been seeing this one everywhere on Instagram over the past few weeks, so I finally got around to listening.

It took me a while to get into it. The build-up was slow, and I found it took a minute to get to grips with all the different characters — particularly in audio format, where each character had a different narrator 🎙️. However, once I’d heard from them all, I was hooked and the pace picked up more and more. Alongside the multiple points of view, the story also uses a dual timeline — just to confuse me and intrigue me a little further ⏳🤔.

After all the twists and turns, I still couldn’t fully work out what had happened in the past or how it was going to play out in the present, especially as the latest hurricane headed towards St Medard’s Bay 🌪️. As the story peaked, I found myself listening for longer than I usually would, just so I could reach the end and uncover the tangled web of the finale 😮‍💨✨.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review The Storm by Rachel Hawkins 💙📖.


About the Book

St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.

When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.

As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive—and as deadly—as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…


About Rachel

Born in Virginia and raised in Alabama, Rachel Hawkins has been writing since Kindergarten when her first book, a tense thriller involving a unicorn, a witch, and a princess, was called, “very imaginative!” by her teacher and “a searing work of genius” by her mother.

Since then, Rachel has written over a dozen books for children and adults (sadly all unicorn-free thus far), and been published in more than twenty countries. As Rachel Hawkins, she wrote the New York Times bestselling THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, a Southern Gothic twist on JANE EYRE that the Southern Review of Books called, “a thrill ride,” and Entertainment Weekly dubbed, “a gothic thriller laced with arsenic.” Her latest thriller, RECKLESS GIRLS, also debuted on the New York Times list with Kirkus calling it, “a soapy, claustrophobic page-turner.”

When not writing modern Gothic thrillers as Rachel Hawkins, she also pens paranormal romantic comedies under the name Erin Sterling. Her debut romance, THE EX HEX, was a Book of the Month pick as well as a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

Rachel currently lives in Auburn, Alabama with her husband, son, and five cats. (Yes, five. She knows.). In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and picking up an assortment of creative hobbies she will give up on after a week or two. 




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Thursday, January 29, 2026

My Review for No One Saw It Coming by Susan Lewis, read by Helen Stern

January 29, 2026  , , , ,  No comments


"How could he have betrayed his beautiful wife like that?"

This was one of my January listens for another one of @hook.me.a.book challenges. This time it's the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge.

I'm pretty sure this is my first Susan Lewis book, and I really enjoyed it. 😊 Of course, I spent most of the story trying to second-guess what was actually happening, but apart from a few inklings, I didn’t see the twist coming at all until it was fully explained. 😲

No One Saw It Coming is told from multiple points of view, but I never felt confused. It was easy to move between perspectives, and I very quickly became invested in each character and desperate to know what would happen next. 📖💭

A great deal of research has clearly gone into the mental health aspects of this novel, and they’re portrayed both sensitively and realistically. It’s quite frightening, really, how sometimes we just can’t understand how someone else’s brain is wired. 🧠

Now that I’ve read one, I’ll definitely be picking up more Susan Lewis novels in the future. 🙌

Thank you to HarperCollins and Libro.fm for the opportunity to listen to and review No One Saw It Coming. 🎧✨

About the Book

Secrets lie at the heart of every family…

When the unthinkable happens…

Hanna’s world is crumbling.

An unimaginable crime has been committed, and everyone’s looking for someone to blame. Her loved ones are under suspicion.

Now Hanna must work out who is threatening her family – before it’s too late.

No one could have seen this coming…


About Susan

Susan Lewis is the bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s. Following periods of living in Los Angeles and the South of France, she currently lives in Gloucestershire with her husband James, stepsons Michael and Luke, and mischievous dogs Coco and Lulu.







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