Review: Six of Crows

I have been putting this book off since it came out. I’m a big fan of all the tropes in it – found family, street gangs, heists – but something just wasn’t speaking to me. Perhaps the fact that I DNFed the Grisha series mid-way through the second book? Still, I finally made myself sit down with Six of Crows this week, and was ultimately… kind of underwhelmed.

Review: The Girl With The Dragon Heart

When I saw there was a sequel to The Dragon With A Chocolate Heart coming out, I squeaked, immediately put it on pre-order, and requested it on NetGalley. And I’m so glad I did, because this book is just SO good.

Review: Point of Honour

I can’t remember when I picked this one up – some Kindle sale or other, probably – but in the middle of a sleepless night a few nights ago I thought I might as well get some reading done. I picked this at random, and was very pleasantly surprised!

Review: Nevermoor – The Trials of Morrigan Crow

I’ve been seeing a lot about this book and how it’s the ‘next Harry Potter’ – apart from featuring 11 year olds introduced to magic, I don’t think they have much in common. However, this doesn’t stop Nevermoor from being an absolute delight of fun, darkness, magic and mystery!

Review: Queendom of the Seven Lakes

Queendom of the Seven Lakes is an entertaining, if not wholly original, political fantasy; a quick read, which centres around the journey of the first male ruler of a Queendom, and the assassin that must protect him.

Review: The Bumblebee Flies Anyway

Since we moved into the house we currently live in, I’ve had more of an interest in gardening than ever before. I’ve got an array of kitchen herbs, pots of roses, two deeply rebellious buddleias, and thanks to my in-laws, a new row of tomato plants! As we rent, a lot of our plants are in pots on the patio, and so I was very interested to read Kate Bradbury’s book about rescuing a small paved garden. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Review: A Most Improper Magick

After so thoroughly enjoying The Dragon With A Chocolate Heart, I thought I’d pick up some more of Stephanie Burgis’ work. A Most Improper Magick, also published as Kat, Incorrigible, is a really lovely middle-grade Regency romp that is perfect for fans of feisty heroines and lovers of Austen.

Review: Ash

I honestly can’t believe I’ve never read this before. It’s sat on my shelf for absolutely ages, but I suppose I thought it was going to be a bit Twilight-y, given the cover and the sort of thing that was popular when it came out. To my delight, it’s a gorgeously spooky forest-and-fae fairy tale, with a F/F relationship!

Review: The Scent of You

Back when I was at university, I was a moderately successful beauty/fashion blogger. It gave me a chance to get excited about something when I was feeling bogged down by work. It’s also the period in my life when I read the least, because after reading around 10 books in four days, then writing 2000 words about them, every single week, the last thing I wanted was to spend my free time doing more reading! I missed out on a lot of fiction in those years.

However! That time with beauty products as my main hobby left me with two things – a great skincare routine and a deep, deep love of perfume. After leaving university, I got into indie perfume, and I now have over 500 different scents in carefully labelled boxes. I jumped at the chance to read this book when Harper360 asked for reviewers, because the tag line (“a novel in perfumes”) sounded perfect for me.

Review: Malory Towers Books 7-9

Malory Towers is my dream school, and I was always a little concerned that if I picked up the “new” stories (authorised, but written by Pamela Cox) then I’d be disappointed. It looked like a money grab to me. But I read all the St Clare’s books for the first time last time, including the new ones, and I couldn’t really tell the difference, so I thought I’d give the Malory Towers reboot a go…