Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

“The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.” July's read for #classiclitbookclub was Lord of the Flies. This was a book I'd heard of but hadn't read, and I had no idea what it was about. The BBC have recently produced a TV adaptation, so I opted to watch this before it was time to read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. 📺 I chose to listen to an audiobook version rather than physically read it, and Martin Jarvis as the narrator was brilliant - as he is with everything he puts his hand to. His portrayal of Piggy, Ralph and Jack in particular was something I loved listening to. He takes on the part of each character and really runs with it. Brilliant! 👏🏻🎧 I found Lord of the Flies a very eye-opening insight into what kids might get up to if left completely to their own devices. From the dictatorship-like Jack, as he commands a bunch of impressionable younger boys to follow his lead, to Piggy, who likes rules and can't abide anyone who isn't pre...

“I felt like I needed to throw a dish towel over his penis and wait an hour to let it rise.” 😂 I couldn't help myself with this quote - sorry, not sorry! I'm sure I'll need to censor it for some platforms! 🙈 Anyway, #thatbonkersbookclub chose  Yesteryear  for our Chiller Shelf for July and, quite honestly, I'm still unsure how I feel about it. Weird is the first word that springs to mind, with religious coming a close second. 🤔 Also, since when has the phrase 'trad wife' become a thing? It's only within the last year or so that I've even heard of it - maybe that's just me. 🤷‍♀️ As I'm sure was the author's intention, I was left wondering throughout much of the book exactly why Natalie was in 1855. Was she time-travelling? Was it a reality show? Was she ill? 🧐 You won't get any spoilers from me, so you'll need to read it or ask someone else. 😉 I have rated it quite highly on the places where a star-rating is necessary, but really...

“It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.” 📚❤️ @megbatsbooks and myself read The Historian a couple of months ago. It's a chonk at over 700 pages long 📖 and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't the easiest book to read. For me, the main issue was that there was no indication of which timeline we were reading or who was narrating. If you are a Dracula fan 🧛‍♂️ then you're definitely going to find this interesting. However, there is a lot of history and a lot of research topics in the story and, quite honestly, it would have been a lot more enjoyable (at least for me) if it was half the length with less waffle. 😂 I would have liked more from the daughter's point of view and how she followed her father across Eastern Europe, experiencing the strange phenomena that were taking place, rather than just getting a snippet here and there. 🗺️👀 I know that @megbatsbooks loved it though, and it was fun to read it with her because she picked up on way more thi...

“You are so full of rage for someone so small and cute.” 😂 Icebreaker was the second book choice for #thatbonkersbookclub for July and one I've been meaning to get around to for ages, so this was finally my chance! 📚🏒⛸️ I really enjoyed it — well, apart from Aaron, who is a narcissistic, gaslighting moron! 😤🙄 Honestly, I could have happily skated right over his arm! I loved the banter between Anastasia and Nate's teammates, once she finally realised that actually, yeah, she did like Nate just a little bit! 🥰 They opened their arms and gathered her into their little boy family with such affection, and it was so cute. 🥹💕 Icebreaker definitely focuses more on the figure skating than the hockey, which is a welcome breath of fresh air. Everything I seem to see these days is hockey, hockey, hockey! 🏒🏒🏒 Give me some figure skating! ⛸️✨ The spice — I can either take it or leave it, to be honest, but it will never not make me read a book! 😂🌶️ But yeah, it rarely leaves a l...

“In the back of his car, I could hear his kids wailing. They weren't crying because of the initial impact, which had only woken them up, but because they'd just watched, from five metres away, as Bambi got atomised by an ambulance.” 🦌💥🚑 Now, I used to work for the NHS, so I know what a s**t show it has become, but Steve's book has just opened my eyes even further. I had no idea that ambulances were queuing — for hours — with a patient on board, just waiting to get into A&E. And who knows how many more hours they would then have to wait until they actually saw a medic. 😳🚑⏰ I loved Steve's insider view. His humour is second to none 😂, and I admire him for maintaining his sometimes warped sense of humour through what must have been thousands of frustrating, and frankly scary, moments as he tried to do his job. 🚑😬 I really appreciated the raw and honest account of his career as a paramedic, and the barriers that are thrown up by the lack of funding, staff cuts a...

“The lights went out in the carriage, and when they came back on, the man was looking at me...” 👀 The Stranger at the Wedding has been sitting on my shelf for a while, so I chose to read it for the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge for June. 📚 I've been pondering this review for a while, and I'm still unsure how I feel about the book. I enjoyed it, honestly I did, but the multiple timelines and points of view were extremely confusing – and this is coming from someone who loves both of these! 😵‍💫 It would have helped if there had been some indication of whose point of view we were reading from and what year we were in! Anyway, that aside, apart from having to really concentrate on the story, I did enjoy it. It was packed with twists and turns that I just didn't see coming, and very definitely had many unlikeable, dodgy and narcissistic characters! 😬 The ending tied it all up nicely, even if it was fast and unexpected. 🔀 Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for the gift...

“There’s only so much oxygen on an airplane. I don’t want his ego to suffocate the rest of us. You know, safety and all that s**t.” #thatbonkersbookclub, for some reason, decided to read three books in July and Mile High was the first one I read. Now, I wouldn't consider myself a sports romance fanatic. I can take them or leave them, to be honest, and so I went into this one with no expectations or particular interest. It just goes to show that book clubs can open your eyes to things you wouldn't normally read! 📚 I enjoyed Mile High and listened to this rather than read it, which probably made it even more fun. The dual narration of the two main characters, Zanders and Stevie, was brilliantly portrayed and even though Zanders is initially an arrogant d**k, there's a reason for that. I guarantee that if you read the book, you'll come to love him, as of course, Stevie does. ❤️ While writing this review, I discovered that the author, Liz Tomforde, used to be a flight att...