Category: Recent Reads

Recent Reads: The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis is a fantasy novel, set in Prague, where there are creatures such as pijavice (vampires), will o’ the wisps, and other things that go bump in the night.  Domek is one of the lamplighters, those who protect humanity from these creatures.

His friend, Lady Ora Fischerová, also has things that go bump on the brain, and witnesses a pijovice go into the daylight, surely an act of suicide, but there’s rumours of a cure.

This was a good story, set in the 19th Century, with secrets being unearthed.  I would be very happy to read more of these characters.  It made me think of Gail Carriger’s Parasole Protectorate series, but without the steampunk!

The Lights of Prague was published on 25th May 2021 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Nicole Jarvis on Twitter and on her website.

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

Recent Reads: Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Bridgertons 4)

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Bridgertons 4) is about Colin, who is back in London having been on another trip abroad.  He’s still getting a lot of attention from Lady Whistledown, and is very used to people thinking of him as being charming but nothing else.  

When he sees Penelope, he’s enchanted.  He’s not seen it before, but he wants to be with her now.  Penelope has loved Colin for years, but she never thought she had a chance with him.  She also has her own issues.

I enjoyed the book, but found Colin to be annoying in places.  I’m still going to read more in the series!  I love the setting and the pace fo the stories.

Romancing Mr Bridgerton was published on 1st July 2002, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Julia Quinn on Facebook, Instagram and her website.

You can read my review for the previous Bridgertons books below:

The Duke and I – Bridgertons 1

The Viscount Who Loved Me – Bridgertons 2

An Offer From A Gentleman – Bridgertons 3

Recent Reads: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is set in the 1950s and in the 1980s as Nina Riva is getting ready for the Riva family annual party, which has become the place to be

Nina’s professional tennis playing husband has left her for another professional tennis player, and Nina is trying to work out what the point of it all is, and is dreading the party.

People who aren’t dreading it are her siblings – her professional surfer brother Jay and Hud, the professional photographer, who takes Jay’s photo, and her little sister Kit.  They are all good looking, good surfers, and their father, whilst alive, is estranged from them all.

This is a very atmospheric book, with family tensions that made you keep turning the pages so you can learn more about where they started.  Being able to see Mick Riva starting out in the 1950s makes this more poignant, as you follow the family from the start.

Malibu Rising was published on 27th May 2021 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Taylor Jenkins Reid on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and her website.  This was the first of her books that I’ve read, but I’ll be finding her others, such as Daisy Jones & The Six.

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

Recent Reads: Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is the story of a family torn apart. Mauro and Elena, with their first born, Katrina, go to the US from Colombia, on a temporary visa, but they decide to stay.  They go on to have 2 more children.  

We meet Talia, who is held in a correctional facility for adolescent girls, and she has to get home to her father, where her plane ticket to the US is waiting for her.

This is the story of how these events have happened, and the effect on the family that it has, to be separated for years.

It’s an evocative and timely story, given the immigration issues in the US, and it shows the sacrifices that are made in order to try to survive in a country when undocumented.

Infinite Country was published on 27th May 2021 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Patricia Engel on Twitter, Instagram and her website.

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

Recent Read: Mystical Stitches; Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Mystical Stitches; Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson is about exactly what it says, adding embroidery to your fabric items to empower yourself.

There is lots of inspiration here, from the patterns to what they’ve been stitched on.  There are templates, lots of clear information, and beautiful photos.

Mystical Stitches; Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson was published on 25th May 2021 and is available from Amazon and Waterstones.

You can follow Christi Johnson on Instagram and her website.

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

Recent Reads: Fit for Purpose; Your Guide to Better Health, Wellbeing and Living a Meaningful Life by Richard Pile

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

Fit for Purpose; Your Guide to Better Health, Wellbeing and Living a Meaningful Life by Richard Pile is a mix of getting fit for life, and also a big dollop of Christianity, which was a surprise for me as I was thinking he would be coming from a medical stance only as a GP.

Richard Pile looks at different aspects of health, and things like stress, and relates it to life, and what you eat, and how you move.  He gives you the background for why he’s written this book, and his experiences in life, and why he so needed help, and thought that others might benefit from his learning.

I am sure some people will find the medical Christianity slant a helpful one, but it didn’t do a lot for me.  I thought the things he was suggesting made sense, but I am not running out to buy the book.

Fit for Purpose was published on 25th May 2021 and is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

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

Recent Reads: The Dawn Chorus by Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season 3.5)

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

The Dawn Chorus by Samantha Shannon is a novella, setting up the story for book 4 when Paige and Arcturus will be taking on their next challenge, in France.

Paige was tortured in the last book, and had things said to her that have taken root, and she has to come to turns with the results of this, and her feelings for Arturus.

This is very much a book written about mental health, and you can see Paige struggling in many ways.  It is sad and you are moved for Paige.  You are taken on her journey as she tries to move past the way things like water were used in her torture, and her struggles with using water to get clean, for instance.

The Dawn Chorus was published on 9th July 2020 and is available from Amazon.

You can follow Samantha Shannon on Twitter and her blog.

You can read my review of the other books in the series below:

The Bone Season (book 1)

The Pale Dreamer (novella 0.5)

The Mime Order (book 2)

The Song Rising (book 3)

Recent Reads: Murder at the Music Factory by Lesley Kelly (The Health of Strangers 4)

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

Murder at the Music Factory by Lesley Kelly (The Health of Strangers 4) is one that you need to have read the books that come before it in the series as I did feel unsure of multiple things.

We’re following the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement team as this series is set in a world where a pandemic has happened (The Virus), and the team is making sure that people go to their monthly health checks.  This series was started in 2017, and so it wasn’t one trying to use current events!

There are ex-wives, former music stars, students and a rogue agent who is threatening to shoot a civil servant every day, so lots of action. There’s a lot of references to previous events in the series, but the characters were good, and I could see that if I had read the series from the beginning then I would enjoy this book.

Murder at the Music Factory was published on 23 April 2020 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Lesley Kelly on Twitter.

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

Recent Reads: Roar by Cecelia Ahern

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Roar by Cecelia Ahern is made up of 30 short stories, and are all stories about different women, one per story, who each have something to discover.  They are enjoyable stories, and feel like fables, as each story has a message. 

I enjoyed the surprise of the moment of revelation in each story, and trying to guess where we were going to be led. These are very much told from the point of view of these women do not value themselves sufficiently but are uplifting.

Roar was published on 1st November 2018 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Cecelia Ahern on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and her website.

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

Recent Reads: The 8th Confession by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Women’s Murder Club 8)

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

8th Confession has someone killing the rich and famous, which means Lindsay, Cindy, Claire and Yuki need to work together to find out who the killer really is.

I mostly enjoy this series except for the below. It’s got multiple story lines that weave together, there’s lots of different behind the scenes, be that at the newspaper or the law courts, and the friendship between the main characters is heart warming.

But, I found I was uncomfortable with the storyline about Doc in this book, .  Spoilers ahead for this as I think it needs to be talked about.  Doc was born with ambiguous genitalia, and so his parents made a choice and raised him as a girl, but Doc identifies as male.  This feels like great representation in a popular series, but they used the word ‘repulsed’ for how Yuki could feel about him, and that feels like such a strong word for not wanting to have sex with someone.

8th Confession was published on 27th April 2009 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow James Patterson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and his website.

I’m afraid I couldn’t find any links for Maxine Paetro for you to follow.

Women’s Murder Club books:

1st to Die   – book 1 

2nd Chance – book 2

3rd Degree – book 3

4th of July – book 4

The 5th Horseman – book 5

The 6th Target – book 6

7th Heaven – book 7