My Review for I'll Miss You This Christmas by Lucy Mitchell

I cried, I laughed, and I talked aloud to the characters. I’ll Miss You This Christmas is my first seasonal read for 2023 and it’s set the bar high for the others on my TBR.

I had to shout at Emily and Rory often throughout the book. They were frustrating and neither of them was admitting to what they wanted, which was ultimately each other. Felix was adorable, and I loved how he was communicating with his Mum. Such an awesome thing to do to keep her memory alive. Baxter was a sweetie but I have to admit, I was a little worried that he’d get squished somewhere on all those long train journeys!

Lucy Mitchell writes sensitively about some heart-crushing subjects and she does so with love and compassion.

If you want a book for Christmas, then I’d definitely recommend asking Santa for this or just buy it for yourself at any time of year. Hell, I read it in 30 degree heat in the garden in September!

Thank you to Bloodhound Books for the opportunity to read and review I’ll Miss You This Christmas by Lucy Mitchell.

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My Review for The Island of Adventure (Adventure Series #1) by Enid Blyton

This weekend was hot, far too hot to do anything at all. This is unusual in September in the UK, but there you have it. I needed something easy to read that was going to require zero effort, so I reverted back to my childhood and picked up one of my Enid Blyton books. The Island of Adventure is the first in the Adventure series and one I haven’t read for aeons! I remembered the characters' names, Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann, but that’s all I remembered. I didn’t recall how they met or how their adventures started, so it was like going in as a first-time reader.

The Island of Adventure is fast-paced, exciting and, as the title suggests, adventurous. I love Enid Blyton’s writing, her sense of wit and all her old-fashioned ideals. You know the ones, where women should stay at home and do the housekeeping, the kids should probably be at boarding school and the Dad earns the money. Well, as long as you see past all this - the book was first published in 1946, so just keep that in your head - it’s a brilliant escapism for a few hours. Oh and it’s also full of bad men who lock kids in a cave when they get caught and don’t care if they get lost and starve to death in mines! What isn’t to love! I forgot how I used to read quickly to find out what was going to happen next, and this hasn’t changed. I often skimmed to the end of the page to see if the baddies were going to get away!

From what I can gather from my Bookstagram friends on the other side of the pond, Enid Blyton, although known worldwide, never quite made it across the Atlantic, and I have no idea why, but honestly, I would urge you to introduce yourselves and your children to this amazing author. I promise you won’t regret it.

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My Review for The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, read by Samara MacLaren

If you love witches, fantasy, magic and a book that can make you believe all this could be real, then I can guarantee you will love The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. Mika Moon packs up all her belongings and takes herself and her dog to a remote location in Norfolk, and very quickly finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Nowhere House.

Until I started listening to this book, I had no idea that it was set in Norfolk in the east of England. I moved here just last summer, so a book set in the same place I’m living gets a huge tick. Then I found out that the author lives just a few miles up the road in Norwich, a city in Norfolk, so I get even more excited!

Each and every character is unique and quirky and lovable. There’s excitement and magic, spells and romance, acceptance and family and love.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator, Samara MacLaren, was outstanding. She brought the characters to life and added atmosphere along the way. 

If all this sounds like your sort of thing, then I’d urge you to grab a copy for yourself ready for the witchy season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.

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My Review for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Classic Lit Book Club’s August read was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I was so excited to read this one. I chose the Wordsworth Edition just because the cover was so pretty.

I had already seen the movie, the one with Leonardo DiCaprio, but I couldn’t remember much about it apart from the parties! I gained so much more from reading the book. Gatsby very much wanted to be the life and soul of the party and thought he could buy people’s love and affection. It was sad that most of the people (in fact probably all of them apart from Nick) couldn’t have cared less about Gatsby. They turned up to his parties, had a good time at his expense, and went home again.  

I really disliked Daisy, whether it was intentional or not, she used people. In my opinion, she was selfish and didn’t think about how her actions would affect those around her.

The ending is tragic and not something I remembered from the movie. I kept going back over the same page time and again, asking myself whether I’d really just read that.

I am definitely going to re-read this when I get a gap in my schedule. I think it is the sort of book where you would discover something different the next time around. 

This is one of my favourite quotes from Nick and sums up the book nicely I think. 

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

Thank you to #classiclitbookclub for choosing The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as August's book to read. I'm looking forward to Frankenstein in September.

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My Review for The Last Word by Taylor Adams

I have never read anything like this before. Everything happened in this book really fast, and I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough and I hated most of the characters! Yes, some of was unbelievable but so what, it was the most entertaining book I have read in a long, long time and I really can’t explain why. 

Emma leaves a negative review for a book she has just read and the author contacts her...! There are some dual narratives in this, but not until later on and that’s when I got slightly confused. Just make sure that when you get to the first set of acknowledgements, you read them. I nearly didn’t and thought the book had ended.

As I was reading it I was thinking that nope, I’ll never give anyone a 1 star review ever again. They might come and find me, and torture me and my dog, but it’s a story right? That would never, ever happen! But now I’ve got you wondering what weird people are out there!

Thank you to #acrossthepondbookclub for choosing The Last Word by Taylor Adams  as August’s book to read. 

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My Review for Elodie's Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin

Give me a book that actually has books included in the story and you’ve got me hook, line and sinker! I was always going to love this one, I just knew it! A library that is on the brink of closure, in the small backwater that is Willow Grove needs someone to revive and love it, and that’s just what Elodie is hoping to do. Hating her corporate lifestyle in a family business in London, she ups and moves herself to Willow Grove and sets about making the necessary changes in order to keep the library alive.

I loved Elodie’s idea of the library lending people’s stories, rather than just a book. There are plenty of people in the local community with a story to tell and Elodie’s idea of lending these people out for 30 minutes, to tell their story is genius. I have no idea whether real libraries do this, but if not, they definitely should.

This book is not just about second chances for the library, it’s also about second chances for Elodie, Teddy, Harry and Pete, amongst others. Everyone deserves a second chance at life, love, or whatever is thrown into their path. Never judge a book (or a person) by their cover.

If you want something lovely and happy to read this summer, pick up a copy of this book and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for the opportunity to read and review Elodie’s Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin.

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My Review for The Assistant by Bonny Fawn

I’m pleased to be part of Bonny Fawn’s ARC team, and The Assistant is another brilliant book from the author of The Clients. It was quite literally full of WTF moments, fast-paced, with lots of violence.

Told from three points of view, Laney, JD and Vlad and set across different timelines, it took me longer than Laney to realise what was going on. Even then, I still couldn’t work out who was good and who was bad! Finally, though, all the pieces of this masterpiece are brought seamlessly and cleverly together. 

Bonny Fawn is a phenomenal writer and drags the reader in, keeping them locked in until the bitter end. If there are any movie directors out there, this would be so good on the big screen - just wanted to put that out there,

Thank you to the author for including me on her ARC team and for the opportunity to read and review The Assistant.

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