Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

“Instead of fearing a thing, try to understand it. Because understanding can change everything about the way that you feel.” 💙 I read this book for May's read for the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge, which I actually received as an ARC quite a while back now. I have no excuse for not reading it sooner other than life just getting in the way! 📚✨ Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I love a neurodivergent read, and I can always see little parts of myself in every character I read about. Joe is adorable, brave, and nothing but honest as he learns to navigate life and all the complications it brings — especially when you throw other people into the mix! 🥹💛 The blue and yellow notebooks that Joe’s Mum has written for him are invaluable. But how can you possibly write about every eventuality that might happen in a person’s life? You can’t — and that’s where good friends who truly understand Joe come in. I loved how his friends guide...

“Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.” 🦡📚 I love this quote — I think many, many bookish people can identify with Badger and his aversion to socialising. I definitely fall into this camp! 😅 The Wind in the Willows was our choice for May for #classiclitbookclub and I loved it. I thought I’d read it when I was a child, but I must have only read parts of it. I remembered Toad in the motor car and the riverbank, but I think there are many TV adaptations and spin-off stories too that I may be remembering. 🚗🌿 I loved the cosiness of the animals’ homes, the camaraderie as they share a meal, and the stoic way they all look out for one another when something goes wrong. The book is full of nature, and the descriptions are so powerful I felt as though I was living on the riverbank amongst Mole, Ratty, and Badger. 🍃✨ The edition I was reading was gorgeous too, with some beautiful illustrations that brought the story even more to life. 🎨📖 I loved ...

“She could see the stern schoolmistress, rows of desks, pens dipping into inkwells, tracing the script on straight lines.” It’s been a few years since I’ve read a book by Suzanne Goldring and this one has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a while, so I chose it for May’s read for #kindlecrushchallenge 📚✨ I enjoyed it immensely, just as I have done with the previous two books of hers that I’ve read. The Shut-Away Sisters is a dual timeline story, split between the Great War and the late 1990s, and it’s a real eye-opener into what was expected of women in the early 1900s. Of course, I knew they were predominantly housewives and brought their daughters up to learn how to keep house, but I don’t think I realised they weren’t supposed to go out unchaperoned unless it was to the shops. Even walks in the park were expected to be taken alongside a male member of the family! 😳 I was intrigued by Kate, in modern-day London, discovering the diaries of Florrie, one of the sisters, and learn...

“Hamish’s impression was that kindness itself was a cure, and one that was as powerful as any drug.” 💙

 The Figurine has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a while, and when @megbatsbooks suggested a buddy read, it pushed me to finally pick it up. 😊 Now while I didn't hate it, I didn't love it either. 🤷‍♀️ First off, the title is The Figurine and we see no such thing until approximately 70% into the book, which was strange. 😅 There was a lot of (for want of a better phrase) ‘world-building’ in the story. 📚 We learn about the Greek Junta — the military regime which took place from 1967–1974 — and while it was relevant to the rest of the story, there probably didn't need to be quite so much of it. 🤔

 I enjoyed Helena clearing out her grandparents’ apartment, and I was invested in what she was finding. 🏺 I loved the friends she made in Athens, and I was keen to follow along on the investigative journey to search for answers about what was happening in the archaeol...

“Maybe it's not possible to let go of who you used to be and escape old patterns.” 💭 I was lucky enough to receive  La Dolce Veto  as both a digital and audio ARC, and I chose to read it first. Although I enjoyed it so much, I’ll probably go back and listen at some point too. I always find things I missed the first time around on a second visit. 🎧✨ Pick me up and put me back down in a traditional European village with sunshine, good food, good wine and nosey locals, and I’m in heaven. ☀️🍷 This is exactly what Caitlin’s book did for me. Izzy needs to run away, and so she does — to La Musa in Italy, a place filled with fond memories for her. It’s not quite the same as she remembered, but it’s good enough to hide away from the world for a while. 🇮🇹✨ I don’t usually go for a political romance, but the politics quietly simmered away in the background, which I really enjoyed. The Italian people and countryside are the things that will stay with me most though. The descriptions ...

“She couldn’t fix herself anymore, and no one else seemed inclined to even notice she was breaking.” I had to listen to the book that everyone has been raving about for months. 📚✨ I knew it was a long one, and I had way more listening time than reading time, so I requested it on Libby, waited my turn, and jumped in a couple of weeks ago. 🎧 It’s written in three parts — present, past, and present again, ⏳ — and while I didn’t enjoy the past bit as much, it did explain why everything was happening, and it made things make sense. The story is pretty dark in a lot of places 🌑⚡ and more than once I had to stop and think,  “wtf did I just listen to?!!!” 😳 I got confused about the different “mancers” — necromancer, vivimancer, etc. — and what their abilities were. In the end, I gave up and just went with the story. I still couldn’t tell you which characters were alive or dead. 💀🫠 That being said, I enjoyed it, 👍 I just didn’t delve too deeply into the reasoning behind the war, the ...

“There’s no need to be afraid of the dead. 👻 It’s the living you have to watch out for. 😬” I first listened to Daisy Darker back in 2022 when I was on holiday in Cyprus. 🌞 We had moved out of one house and our new one wasn’t ready, so we were nomads for about a month! 🧳 Because I had so much going on, I never got around to writing a review, so when #thatbonkersbookclub decided to read it in April, it was the ideal opportunity to pick the book up again and finally write my thoughts. ✍️ Now, considering I don’t remember what I had for dinner last night, it came as no surprise that I didn’t remember much of what happened. 😅 No spoilers for those of you who haven’t read it, but I did remember all there was to know about Daisy! It was just as thrilling a read as last time around — characters I wanted to smack, others I felt like throwing in the sea 🌊, and one or two who definitely needed a huge hug. 🤗 I do enjoy a locked-room murder mystery; it often makes me think I’ll be able to wo...