Persephone Code by Julia Golding.

Genre: Historical murder mystery

Tags: 1812, drug addiction, murder mystery, secret societies, Illuminati, forbidden love, LGBTQ+, attempted rape, surviving war, adventure

Dora’s brother leaves her a note just before he dies, with instructions to hand the note directly to her. Dr Jacob Sandys is roped in by his friend, the vicar in the area Dora’s brother died in. There are secret societies, snobbery, some chases, and a lot of questions about Dora’s brother, and the society he was involved with, which is called the Hellfire Club.

I enjoyed the adventures this book takes you on, and I wanted to know who the person was who had killed Dora’s brother. The setting was good, with Napoleon still around, so there is uncertainty about what’s going to happen, but there are jaded soldiers who have already fought battles and have survived the terrors.

I enjoyed the twists in the story, and I didn’t see them coming as we went along, which is always a good sign for a book! The characters are flawed, which adds to the realism of the story for me.

I enjoyed the story, and getting to go along with the investigation!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, One More Chapter and Julia Golding.

Just like in the Movies by Heidi Rice

My rating: ****

Genre: Romance

Tags: M/F, Forbidden love, Dysfunctional family, M/M, Films, Found family, Suicide

When Matty Devlin dies, Ruby is devastated. He wasn’t just her employer, he was her best friend, and her father-figure, and so she is determined to honour him by showing films he loved at work, which just happens to be an independent cinema that he owned.

Luke Devlin is Matty’s long lost nephew, who just so happens to look identical to his late father, a very famous actor, and when Luke shows up at the funeral, tongues are wagging.

This is quite a heart warming story, with a fiercely independent female lead in Ruby, and a pretty broody male lead in Luke!

There are a lot of references to films throughout this book, some of which shape the book.

I enjoyed the story, and found the characters to be quite diverse and believable.

I was given this book in exchange of an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, One More Chapter and Heidi Rice.

Empire of the damned by Jay Kristoff

My rating: *****

Genre: Fantasy

Tags: Vampires, Death, Dysfunctional family, Dark fantasy

This is the second book in the series, and I was given a chunk of the book to give a review, and I’m just going to say the instructions I’ve had for this are: ‘Keep the secrets. Guard the spoilers #DontRuinTheEmpire’, so my review will be with that in mind, not that I try to give spoilers normally!

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and what I’ve read of the second one hasn’t disappointed! It follows on very shortly after the previous book, so you do need to read the first one, and my suggestion would be to read them quite close together, though there is a character refresh at the beginning, which I found helpful, and I only read the last one in October!

If you haven’t read the first book, then this bit is for you! Set in a world where the sun last shone nearly 3 decades ago, and so the vampires have taken a lot of control. Gabriel de León is a silversaint of the Silver Order, and this means he’s part of a holy order that gives their lives to killing vampires. The story is set when he’s imprisoned by vampires, and is the last silversaint, and being made to tell his life’s story. It jumps between different phases of his life, so some of the times are when he’s young and doesn’t know what he is, when he’s training, and when he’s on mission.

These are quite dark books, since hope is a very fleeting thing in a world where the vampires have so much power, and humanity is desperate to find a way to release the vampires grip hold, and that’s why I would say a tag for this would be dark fantasy. I’m not sure it’s dark enough to be grimdark, but potentially it is!

As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the first book, and I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of this book at some point, but what I read was very good!

I was given this excerpt in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins and Jay Kristoff.

Bonjour, Sophie by Elizabeth Buchan

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Historical fiction

Tags: World War Two, 1950s, Paris, attempted rape, family exploration/discovery, romance, orphan, forbidden romance, self discovery, coming of age

It’s 1959, and Sophie is an orphan who, once she completes school, returns to the parsonage where she and her mother were taken on when they fled France. Her mother died when Sophie was 7, and the vicar and his wife made themselves responsible for her.

Sophie hates is there, and wants to find out about her father, whom her mother told her was a hero who died at the end of World War Two.

Sophie’s friendship with Hettie is one of the bright spots in her life.

The social pressure is very felt in this book, and Elizabeth Buchan has done a good job of evoking it. The claustrophobia of village life, where everyone knows what you’ve been up to is well portrayed.

I found sections of the book predictable, which took away some of the enjoyment.

Whilst I found this book evocative for the situations, I wasn’t as drawn into as I have been by other books by Elizabeth Buchan.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, Atlantic books and Corvus, and to Elizabeth Buchan.

The Other Half By Charlotte Vassell

My rating: ****

Genre: Murder mystery

Tags: Drug use, Murder, Dysfunctional relationships, Romance

A birthday party being black-tie gives you a sense of a classy affaire, but the fact that Rupert Beauchamp is holding it at a McDonald’s gives a different twist. His girlfriend being found murdered the following morning brings this back to earth.

This is a murder mystery with a lot of references to the class system, and a cast of characters that are mostly unpleasant and I had no connection to, but you aren’t meant to!

Detective Caius Beauchamp (no relation to Rupert!) is the detective investigating the case, and so gets dragged a little into this world.

Reading a book where characters do a lot of sneering and belittling of each other is never pleasant, but as I mentioned, you’re not meant to like most of these characters. The cast of characters are all quite entangled, as they would be if you have a big group of friends for years. I hadn’t predicted the solution, so I enjoyed when that was revealed!

This is one of those books that I think if you know you’re only going to like a couple of the characters, then you worry on their behalf that they’re going to be guilty of something along the way, so that was a good way of ensuring I was gripped by the story!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, Faber and Faber, and Charlotte Vassell!

Just for the summer by Abby Jimenez

My rating: *****

Genre: Romance, Relationships

Tags: Child neglect, PTSD, Dysfunctional family, Foster care, Prison, Mental Health, Romance, Dual perspectives, M/F, Attachment issues

Justin and Emma both have a curse – if they date someone and break up, then that person will meet their soulmate next, so they decide to date each other to break the curse, and meet their soul mates.

Like other Abby Jimenez books, whilst this is a romance, it also deals with big issues. This one has PTSD, complicated relationships with mothers, foster care and more (I mean, just look at all the tags for this book!) It will put you through the wringer, just the same as Abby Jimenez’s books, but it also has it’s high moments.

Abby Jimenez is one of those authors that is an automatic ‘I NEED to read this’ for me now – I’ve read all of her books, and they have all been 5 star reads. This might read like a love letter to the author, but that love has been earned with her books (and also her Tik Toks!).

Abby Jimenez sets a high standard for her lead men with ‘If he wanted to, he would’ vibes. Jimenez says the leading men in her books are based on her husband, which is just adorable!

My recommendation is to read Abby Jimenez’s books in publication order, if only so you too can have a heart warming moment when someone from a previous book is referenced or pops up, but if you want dip your toe in to see what you think, then yes, start with this one, then you too can read the rest of the books, and look forward to each April, as this is when Abby Jimenez’s books come out! Although, be warned, if you do this, you meet people from previous books, so will know their outcomes!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group and Abby Jimenez.

City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

My rating: ****

Genre: Fantasy

Tags (I’m just starting to do this, and doing it from memory when I read the books, so this might not cover them all!) Dysfunctional family, Magic, Romance.

Violet Everly is raised by one of her uncles after her mother leaves her when she’s young, to go and break the family curse. When Violet grows up, she also wants to find her mother, and also break the curse.

Aleksander is the assistant to Penelope, a powerful person in the world of Scholars, which Violet is on the very fringes of.

I was cheering Violet on as she uncovered secrets and works at trying to break the curse.

I found the story to be interesting and unexpected, with a wide cast of characters, some of whom are just background, but others are more solid.

I found this jumps around a bit, so it makes it hard to know what characters were up to some times. So overall, I found it to be good but not marvellous!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.

My review:⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is set in 1586 in England. Queen Elizabeth I is on the throne and there are Catholic conspirators planning to kill Queen Elizabeth and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. 

Our main character is Giordano Bruno, an Italian who is a spy, and is going undercover to learn more.

This is a book that a series that I haven’t read. It follows Bruno, and so there are characters and other references to the series that I’m not familiar with but I didn’t find it detracted from the story. 

It’s a fast paced spy story, with the betrayals that go with it.

I found the settings to be very evocative and I was interested in how this was going to be resolved. 

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins.

My review:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Set in an dystopian future, where global warming has had it’s effect, this is told from multiple points of view.

There are the rich, who have things at their finger tips, and those who don’t.

With the setting of the after effects of global warning, it’s an interesting look at how society would react, and I found it fascinating the idea of the rich having a floating island, so they can watch the ocean, versus the rest who are dealing with very high temperatures and all of the change that comes with that.

There is a lot of mystery in this book and I found that the reveals worked as they went along, and it pulls you deeper into the story.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to John Murray Press.

My review:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I’ve been hearing about Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff a lot, and then I spotted that the second book in the series is due out early next year, and so I decided to read this one!

It’s a pretty big book, set in a world where there are vampires, and the Order that hunts them!

Gabriel is one of the Order, and this is his life that he’s telling the story of.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book! I found the characters to be believable and I wanted to know what was going to happen next, so I kept turning the page!

I am going to be getting the next book in the series!