Sunday, March 15, 2026

My Review for The First Witch-Mage by Isabel Campbell, read by Bridget Bordeaux

March 15, 2026  , , ,  No comments



"Books clomped off her desk and arranged themselves on a nearby shelf." ✨📚

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

I wanted to enjoy this one, I really did. It sounded so good when I chose it on Libro FM, and maybe I made the mistake of listening rather than reading, but I think I missed a lot of it because I was doing other things! Whatever it was, it didn't grab my attention. Although I did finish it, I won't be reading (or listening to) the next one.

Read the book description — sounds good, right? Especially if, like me, you love a witchy read 🧙‍♀️. Plus so many people loved it and it has such great reviews, although to be fair there are some not-so-great ones too. Maybe it's like Marmite — you either love it or hate it! Maybe I'll come back to it one day. If enough people tell me they enjoyed this one, then I might just give it another go.

Although this one didn’t quite work for me, I think readers who enjoy slower-paced, magical fantasy stories may still find a lot to love here.

Thank you to Tantor Media and Libro FM for the opportunity to listen to and review The First Witch-Mage by Isabel Campbell.

About the Book

Those who cross a Blackwood soon learn that they won't like the results.

Theadora Kathryn Blackwood's life is just the way she wants it. Thea focuses on what she wants to do, what she wants to study, and the local COVEN hierarchy leaves her the hell alone.

It took years for her to accomplish that much freedom, and now she is about to graduate college, the local coven leader has given her what she wants most.

The opportunity to be freed from the shackles of Coven Politics for the rest of her life.

The catch is that she must join the Arcane Investigations Division as an Arcane Consultant for three years.

If Thea is still employed at the end of the set time, the Coven will absolve her of all ties and responsibility to them. The downside is that NOLA AID has lost two witches in the last four years. No one expects an untrained witch without the Coven's support to survive.

Even if she is a Blackwood.

About Isabel by Isabel 

I started writing and publishing with LMBPN® Publishing in 2023 thanks to my friend, Renée Jagger.

I was born in York and grew up in England. I lived with my maternal aunt and uncle while I was in uni (that’s college to my American readers!). Being with them for more than an odd week here and there in the summer made me connect deeply with my Scottish side, and I realized that Scotland was the home of my heart.

I miss wandering the Yorkshire Moors, but the Highlands more than make up for not getting back to York as much as I should! Currently, I live in a wee Borders town with my dog Emma. I write to the music of the seagulls since I live right on the harbour in a homely flat by the sea. I quite love my town. It’s peaceful and hectic by turns.

Dogs are a part of life here. Walking around the town, you see them with their people everywhere you go. The pubs and restaurants have dog-friendly spaces in this part of the world. It makes sharing my life with my four-footed companion so much easier. Everyone in town knows Emma. We walk to the greengrocer, the butcher (he always saves her a meaty bone!), the bakery, and our lovely local coffee house. Rain or shine (mostly rain), we get outside for a little while almost every day, usually ending with a walk along the beach where I can watch Emma chasing crabs and birds. There’s a very nice shop on the prom, so popping out to buy milk and butter isn’t a hardship when I get to take a moment to listen to the waves crashing on the rocks. 

It’s largely an uneventful life (unless Renée is here), but it suits me. I regularly go for drives through the countryside, which is beautiful in any season, though in very different ways. If I need more than the beautiful winding roads and fields full of sheep, I drive north for an hour to Edinburgh or south for a bit more than an hour to Newcastle, then scurry home with my car boot full of shopping bags and tasty treats.

You can learn more about me and my adventures by reading the author notes at the end of each book. I hope you enjoy them!



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My Review for The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish

March 15, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



"2020 has a sci-fi ring to it, I feel, like it might be the year of alien landings 👽 or the one when the gamma rays get us."

The Other Passenger is my March read for @hook.me.a.book challenge – the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge 📚. It reminded me of why I enjoy a thriller, and after reading this I have decided to try and read some more this year. Let's see how that works out! 🤞

The story switches between the beginning of 2019 and the end, as we roll over into 2020, with Jamie as the most unreliable narrator I've ever heard — honestly — by the middle of the book, I wasn't trusting a word he said! 😅

I was kept guessing throughout The Other Passenger. Just when I raised my eyebrows and thought to myself, "really, that's a poor twist, I don't like that if it's the ending", Louise threw a complete curveball ⚾, turned the story on its head and went streaking off in a completely different direction, which had me hooked all over again! Even up until the very end, there were so many twists and turns 🔄, I was meeting myself coming backwards!

If I had to live my life again, one of the things that I think would be quite a cool thing to do is commute to work by riverboat 🚤, just as Jamie did. You can even have a drink at the bar 🍸 on your way home, as you wend your way down the river! I'm pleased I finally got around to this book. Now let me look at Louise's backlist 📖.

About the Book

You’re feeling pretty smug about your commute to work by riverboat. No more traffic gridlock or getting stuck on the tube in tunnels (you’re claustrophobic); now you’ve got an iconic Thames view, fresh air ?— a whole lifestyle upgrade. You’ve made new friends onboard — led by your hedonistic young neighbour, Kit ?— and just had your first ‘water rats’ Christmas drinks.

But the first day back after Christmas, Kit isn’t on the morning boat. The river landmarks are all the same, but something’s off. You disembark to find the police waiting. Kit’s wife, Melia, has reported him missing and another passenger witnessed the two of you arguing on the last boat home after your drinks. Police say you had a reason to lash out at him. To kill him.

You protest. You and Kit are friends ?— ask Melia, she’ll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your private lives? No, whatever coincidences might have occurred that night, you are innocent, totally innocent.

Aren’t you?

About Louise

Louise Candlish is the Sunday Times and internationally bestselling author of 18 novels. Her latest release A Neighbour's Guide to Murder is a slow-burn psychological thriller about an age-gap friendship between neighbours that escalates to scandal and murder. It is an instant Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and a WHSmith Travel Book Club pick. It publishes in the US July 7.

Our Holiday, set among second-home owners on the English south coast, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2025 nominee.

Louise recently celebrated her 20th anniversary as a published author with the news of two prestigious prizes for her book The Only Suspect: the Capital Crime Fingerprint Award for Thriller of the Year and the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction. The book is currently in development for TV and filming begins soon in London.
​
She is best known for Our House, winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year – Crime & Thriller and now a major four-part ITV drama starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton. A Waterstones Thriller of the Month, the book received a Nielsen Bestseller Silver Award for 250,000 copies sold.

Louise lives in a South London neighbourhood not unlike the ones featured in her books, with her husband, daughter, and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie, who is the apple of her eye. Authors who inspire her include Tom Wolfe, Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and Agatha Christie.



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My Review for Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel by Maisie Thomas

March 15, 2026  , , ,  No comments



"All I require is a letter of consent from your husband, giving his permission."

That quote! ⏫ 🤯 That was about a wife needing permission from her husband to open a bank account! Can you even imagine?! However, it was 1942 and a very different time, so I guess no one knew any different.

This is the second book in the Wartime Hotel series. Kitty and her friends are all still living at the Dunbar Hotel, now a storage business run by Kitty herself. In this book though, we see her diversify into letting people hold their wedding receptions in the old hotel 💒. The three friends are resourceful in how they manage to turn an old dining room into a space where love can be celebrated 💐.

In this book, the friends find themselves in all sorts of love tangles too 💕, some life-changing and some with difficult decisions to make. Throughout it all though, they stand by each other and support one another through those decisions—sometimes judging, but ultimately always there in the end 🤝. As with the last book, hope shines through ✨, and I found myself rooting for the girls, sharing in their home life and chatting around the kitchen table drinking tea ☕.

I already have the next book in the series ready to read 📚, so I will be diving in soon.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel.

About the Book

Manchester, 1942.

When Kitty Dunbar was forced to confront her husband’s debts and close the family hotel, she transformed Dunbar’s into a storage business for bombed-out families. But with her daughter to support, and relishing her new independence, Kitty is keen to come up with more ways to use the once prestigious hotel.

Sharing her home are former chambermaid Lily, and kind-hearted welfare worker Beatrice, both haunted by past loss. Together, the three women create a new kind of family in the heart of the Manchester one built on respect and resilience. When Kitty suggests hosting wedding receptions in the old dining room, her friends are happy and willing to lend a hand – and help to serve ‘Dunbar’s Wartime Wedding Punch’!

But when Lily meets a handsome doctor, and Beatrice comes face to face with an old flame, will hearts finally be mended, or broken once more?

While war rages around them, can these three women find the courage to keep fighting for their dreams?


About Maisie

Maisie Thomas is the author of the new Wartime Hotel series published by Boldwood. The first two titles will be published in 2025. The stories concentrate on the importance of female friendship, especially when those friendships come about unexpectedly, and the ways in which women support one another through the highs and lows of everyday life in wartime.


Maisie is also the author of the bestselling Railway Girls saga series about the brave women and girls who worked on Britain's railways in WW2. She also writes as Susanna Bavin and Polly Heron. As Polly, she writes the 1920s saga series, The Surplus Girls, about young women striving for independence in the aftermath of the First World War. As Susanna she has written four stand-alone sagas (The Deserter's Daughter, A Respectable Woman, The Sewing Room Girl and The Poor Relation) and a WW2 saga series, The Home Front Girls.

Maisie was born and brought up in Manchester, which provides the location for her novels. She now lives on the beautiful North Wales coast with her husband and their two rescue cats.



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Wednesday, March 11, 2026

My Review for The Book of Sheen, by Charlie Sheen, read by Charlie Sheen

March 11, 2026  , ,  No comments


"Don't wish your days away."

How Charlie Sheen is still alive is a mystery to many 🤯. The torture that he's put his body through is mind-blowing. Yet here he is, still here and ready to tell his story.

When I saw his memoir was out as an audiobook 🎧, I reserved it from Libby (there was a long wait ⏳), and settled down to listen to the man himself tell me about how in fact, he was still alive!

Charlie Sheen has been in the background of my life forever I think, but I really started to notice him when he was in Two and a Half Men, a sitcom that I loved 📺. But he starts his book way before that point.

The book was really sobering (pardon the pun), 🍸🚫 and I found it incredibly interesting. Charlie doesn't pull any punches, he knows he was a total a**h**e, he knows he has no right to still be with us and he doesn't blame anyone but himself. As he finally approaches sobriety, he tells us about it with positivity and hope, and as he writes, he's eight years sober. 🎉 Considering the life he's led, this is a huge achievement and let's hope it continues for his sake and his kids. ❤️

If, like me, you love the sound of Charlie's voice, then get this on audiobook 🎧 and enjoy his silver-toned voice telling his story in his own inimitable way.


About the Book

For the first time, Charlie Sheen, the star of Platoon, Wall Street, Major League, and Two and a Half Men, writes the story of his extraordinary life in an unfiltered memoir.

“We can live the stories or hear about them later from others. I choose the former.”

Charlie Sheen should not be alive to write this book.

But in The Book of Sheen, the movie and TV star, who has defied the odds, finally presents his story, in his own words.

Charlie Sheen was born the third of four children to actor Martin Sheen and his wife, Janet. He grew up on film sets—from his father’s all over the world, to his own in Malibu. There he made ambitious Super 8s, with a roster of friends who went on to become household names themselves, including his brother Emilio, Sean and Chris Penn, and the Lowe brothers.

Sheen broke into movies in the 1980s, playing a hoodlum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a young soldier in Platoon, and an ethically compromised trader in Wall Street. But somewhere along the way, despite a successful transition to TV leading man in Spin City and Two and a Half Men, Sheen descended into a vortex of extracurricular activities.

Now sober, Sheen delivers a clear-eyed narrative of his highs and lows with humor, candor, and a vivid, captivating writing style that is uniquely his. The Book of Sheen reads like a far-fetched, overstuffed novel of Hollywood life—yet it is all true.

About Charlie

As Above 😉

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Monday, March 9, 2026

My Review for Wisteria by Adalyn Grace, read by Kristin Atherton

March 09, 2026  , , ,  No comments


“I am not trying to take you from the life that you know. All I'm trying to do is show you a world that you deserve to see". 

#thatbonkersbookclub chose Wisteria for February’s “Sequel Shelf” 📚 It’s the third and final full-length novel in the Belladonna series, which is a series I’ve really loved! ✨

Wisteria focuses on Blythe and Fate and their forced relationship — one that slowly evolves with understanding and time spent together. Blythe has never been my favourite character in the series by any stretch, but she did grow on me in Wisteria. I know lots of people loved her, but for me she was always a bit… meh! 🤷‍♀️

Fate (aka Aris) was well grumpy 😤 Quite frankly, he needed a good kick up the a**e to stop him treating Blythe the way he did. I mean, come on — did he really need to be that harsh?!

This is a difficult review to write without including spoilers, but my favourite thing had to be the front door that leads anywhere you want it to 🚪✨ Just imagine how useful that would be!

There’s still the novella Holly left to read and, although I don’t usually read novellas, I’ll definitely finish the series by picking it up 📖

One last stop in this unique world… and I’m not quite ready to leave it yet. 🌙

About the Book

#1 New York Times bestselling author Adalyn Grace delivers a sensational conclusion to the deathly and decadent Belladonna trilogy, with dramatic twists and a seductive new romance that will set listeners' hearts ablaze.

Blythe Hawthorne has never let anyone tell her what to do—not society, not her overprotective father, and certainly not the man she’s bound herself to, no matter how rude and insufferable he is. In fact, she’s determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensures that her life in his palace is anything but a fairytale. But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to let an unexpected spark ignite…and to discover the truth about who she really is.


About Adalyn

Adalyn Grace is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, IndieBound, and International bestselling author of the Belladonna series and the All the Stars and Teeth duology.

Prior to becoming an author, Adalyn spent four years working in live theatre and studied storytelling as an intern on Nickelodeon Animation’s popular series The Legend of Korra. 

Local to San Diego, Adalyn spends her non-writing days by watching too much anime, and by playing video games with her two dorky dogs.




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Wednesday, March 4, 2026

My Review for The Long Way Home by Fanny Blake

March 04, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



“Goodbyes were left unsaid, alongside a multitude of lingering regrets.” 💔

The Long Way Home is February's read for @hook.me.a.book and the #kindlecrushchallenge, and what a delightful book it was to finally read. Set between 1950s Paris 🇫🇷 and 2019 UK 🇬🇧, I loved the adventures Isla’s Mum got up to as a young girl working and living in Paris, and the investigative journey Isla and her granddaughter Charlie navigated back in the UK to finally uncover the answers she’d been searching for. 🔍✨

It’s rare to find a book with a main character in her sixties, but that’s exactly what we get here — and it was so refreshing 🤍 I especially loved watching Isla and her teenage granddaughter’s relationship grow, as Charlie slowly realises there’s more to life than her mobile phone. 📱💫

I’ll definitely be seeking out more books by Fanny Blake 📖 It was a heartwarming, easy read that I’d happily recommend.

A very belated thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for the opportunity to read and review The Long Way Home by Fanny Blake. 🙏✨

About the Book

When Isla, a 65-year-old grandmother, is left nothing but an old painting in her mother’s will, while her sisters and aunt inherit the estate, she is devastated. Close to retirement, getting ready to live on her own terms, the last thing she expects at this time of her life is such turmoil. So, to find an explanation for her mother’s rejection, she embarks on a road-trip.

But, right at the last moment, she’s forced to take her sullen – and, in her view, impossible – 14-year-old granddaughter Charlie with her. Cramped together in Isla’s car with her smelly old dog, these ill-assorted travelling companions set off to uncover some shattering and life-changing family truths at the same time as learning to love each other…


About Fanny - by Fanny

I was brought up in Nottinghamshire, then went to Edinburgh university to study French and Spanish. I left there certain that I wanted to be a publisher’s editor. I hadn’t a clue what editors did. I loved reading: that was enough.

After a short stint in Glasgow, working in the university bookshop (the closest I could get to the world of books), I left Scotland and came to London in search of a job. I answered an advertisement from Corgi Books and was appointed as an editorial assistant. From there I went to Star Books, Granada Books and then was appointed senior fiction editor at Penguin where I stayed for fourteen years, interrupted by a three year interlude during which I was publishing director of Heinemann then editorial director of Macmillan. So I spent many happy years, acquiring, editing and publishing fiction and general non-fiction.

Eventually, I crossed to the other side of the fence. Instead of reading for my living, I began to write. After cutting my teeth with various interiors magazines, I was asked to collaborate on books that tied in with TV programmes such as Grand Designs, House Doctor and Place in the Sun. At about the same time, I was asked to be books editor of Woman & Home magazine, a job that to this day keeps me in touch with the world of books and publishing. Since then I have ghosted a number of celebrity autobiographies before turning my hand to fiction, where my heart has always lain.

Over the years, I’ve also enjoyed judging a number of literary awards, including the Betty Trask Award, the Desmond Elliott Award, the Romantic novelists’ Association Award, the Costa First Novel Award and the Costa Short Story Award



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Sunday, March 1, 2026

My Review for The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin

March 01, 2026  , , , ,  No comments



“It's accepting the value of things – an old pot, an old person – and understanding that those things have wisdom, that they have seen things. They have value in being.”

The Little Teashop in Tokyo has been on my shelf for a couple of years after I found it in a charity shop one day. It was February’s choice for #thatbonkersbookclub, so I finally had the opportunity to dust it off (literally) and dive into cherry blossom season in Japan.

It was a quick, cute read, and I loved hanging out with Fiona as she enjoyed her prize-winning trip to Japan. The family she stays with are instantly loveable characters, and I found it fascinating to discover their way of life — the simplicity of their home and the warm welcome Fiona receives the moment she steps over the threshold.

I was intrigued by the many tourist spots that Fiona and her mentor, Gabe, visited. I’m not sure whether I’ll ever visit Japan, but if I do, I’d definitely want to go during cherry blossom season!

About the Book

Grab your passport and escape to the land of dazzling skycrapers, steaming bowls of comforting noodles, and a page-turning love story that will make you swoon!

For travel blogger Fiona, Japan has always been top of her bucket list so when she wins an all-expenses paid trip, it looks like her dreams of the Far East are coming true.

Until she arrives in vibrant, neon-drenched Tokyo and comes face-to-face with the man who broke her heart ten years ago, gorgeous photographer Gabe.

Fiona can’t help but remember the heartache of their last meeting but it’s not long before the Japanese art of contentment and a special, traditional tea ceremony work their magic…

Amidst the temples and clouds of soft pink cherry blossoms, Fiona and Gabe start to see life – and each other – differently.

About Julie

Julie Caplin also writes contemporary romance as Jules Wake. 

Julie Caplin is addicted to travel and good food. She’s on a constant hunt for the perfect gin and is obsessively picky about glasses, tonic and garnishes. Between regular gin tastings, she’s been writing her debut novel which is set in just one of the many cities she’s explored over the years.

Formerly a PR director, for many years she swanned around Europe taking top food and drink writers on press trips (junkets) sampling the gastronomic delights of various cities in Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Copenhagen and Switzerland. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. These trips have provided the inspiration and settings for the trilogy, The Little Cafe in Copenhagen, The Little Brooklyn Bakery and the The Little Paris Patisserie.




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