I am a sucker for an interesting premise and this book certainly has one. In this series, the female leads write for a newspaper for women, by women. Specifically, young women. In this book, it is the reviewer who takes centre stage. Julia Addison works as a companion to a sort-of related aunt-in-law. On the side, she secretly pens her reviews of plays put on in London under the nom de plume Miss On Scene. … Continue reading The Lady Plays with Fire by Susanna Craig →
I sit here stunned. Yes, I have written this review twice. The first version was too overwrought because I was entirely overcome by this book. This is such a bracing, visceral story of deep thoughts and even deeper emotions that it left me wrung out. Before I go any further, I need to beg you to absolutely delete this book’s cover from your mind. It is horribly misleading. Our hero is not a smug git. … Continue reading My Season for Scandal by Julie Anne Long →
I read romance novels for a lot of different reasons. To feel less alone, to feel that surging bubble of joy in my chest, to feel connected to new and exciting lives. This book ticked all those boxes and more for me. I fell asleep reading it. Woke up, and carried on reading. I write reviews for lots of different reasons, too. In this particular case, I’m writing this review because I want to keep … Continue reading Funny Story by Emily Henry →
When I Think of You is a second chance romance that, while enjoyable, would have benefited from a 3rd person vs 1st person POV. I enjoyed the inside look into the film industry it provided, but found the storyline of the vengeful ex a little tiring and overdone. Kaliya Wilson has always dreamed of being a movie producer, but is stuck working the front desk at a studio, finding it difficult to get her foot … Continue reading When I Think of You by Myah Ariel →
Christa Liddle has led an interesting life. When the book opens, she is studying sea snails on a fictional island in the Indian Ocean. Her mom calls her frantically because her father who ‘died’ in a plane crash 25 years prior has come back to life. A complicating factor is that Christa’s dad is a Steve Irwin-type character – a famous TV conservationist. He also started a toy company called Liddle’s Liddles – a Beanie … Continue reading Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman →
I enjoyed this book. I read it cover-to-cover in almost one sitting, but as I sit here to write this review, I’m left with distinctly meh feelings about it. Is this because I had a disappointing breakfast and that’s colouring my perspective? Or was the book meh? Let’s find out together. This story is set in the Jewish community of London in the 1830s and is essentially a gender-reversed Snow White retelling. Solomon Weiss is … Continue reading Wake Me Most Wickedly by Felicia Grossman →
Warrior Girl Unearthed is thrilling, upsetting, and edifying. There are some structural problems with this book, it still delivered the squee factor, in that I was totally absorbed and emotionally invested in this story. This is a stand-alone novel set in the same community as in the book The Firekeeper’s Daughter, another excellent read. Both books tackle difficult issues that face indigenous young women in America with empathy, perception, tenderness, and grit. Neither is a … Continue reading Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley →
How can I review a book that has a plot twist in the last chapter that changes the entire book? Lore of the Wilds is a fantasy that is enjoyable but…odd. The heroine is twenty-one but the book reads as very YA despite one graphic sex scene. There’s a love triangle, but it’s difficult to write about it without revealing a spoiler that comes out of nowhere at the very end of the book. There … Continue reading Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana →
Sarah: This book is extraordinary in that the cover copy, the plot, and the characters all hinted at many potential delights, and delivered on none of them. When Lara messaged me about the book since I’d mentioned it in a recent Hide Your Wallet, we decided to review the book together. The cover copy mentions that this is a “new high concept series, The Scandalous Ladies of London, which chronicles the lives of a group of … Continue reading The Duchess by Sophie Jordan →
I’m almost hesitant to recommend The Scarlet Alchemist, not because it’s a bad book, but because it’s a fantastic book, but the sequel doesn’t come out until (it’s estimated) October. I gobbled this book up in one sitting and now I have to sit and wait pathetically to find out what happens next. The story is set in a version of historical China where alchemists have figured out the key to immortality. The wealthy eat … Continue reading The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker →
I think there is a fine art to creating cosy mystery television. It’s so easy to make the mystery predictable or even outright boring. But at the same time, you don’t want to make it so thrilling that it’s no longer cosy. In my mind, Sister Boniface Mysteries gets the balance just right. In Great Slaughter (the name of this English village) in the early 1960s, Sister Boniface, a Catholic nun, works as a scientific … Continue reading Sister Boniface Mysteries →
