Books. Cats. Nonsense.
The Harwood Spellbook is a delightful series of fantasy short novels and novellas centering on the Harwood family and their peers in an alternate version of Regency England. In a rigid world in which women are politicians and men are magicians, the Harwoods are shattering gender roles and pursuing their hearts. This series is one of my absolute favourite comfort reads!
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite Publisher: Avon Publication date: 23 July 2019 Genre: Historical romance Page count: 336 pages Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars This is a spoiler-free review. Ah, romance. How I miss thee. I burnt out on romance years ago when I was interning at a literary … Continue reading Book Review: The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Happy Friday! It feels like ages since I've done a weekly wrap-up post. I've been super busy with work and with other projects like our podcast and my YouTube channel! I have, however, been reading a lot and am planning to get much more done this weekend!
I’ve been seeing these novellas, particularly Snowspelled, pop up all over my bookish social media feeds for ages. However, I was compelled to buy and read them when I found out that Emma Newman, one of my favourite authors, had been selected to narrate the audiobooks. Fully convinced, I dove into Spellswept and Snowspelled and I'm so glad I made the time to read them!
I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately and needed something totally different to help claw my way out -- enter My So-Called Bollywood Life, a debut novel I learned about at an showcase event held by the publisher earlier this year. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with Bollywood films, although I absolutely love the four or five that I have seen (and am obsessed with the soundtracks of some I haven't seen), but I was incredibly curious to pick up this because it sounded so amazing. It turns out the My So-Called Bollywood Life was exactly what I needed to rediscover the joys of reading.
Despite living in the UK now, I’m not a huge Royal Family person. However, I’ve always loved a good princess story and grew up on Disney films. The Royal Runaway sounded like my exact cup of tea -- like The Princess Diaries, but all grown up. I threw myself into Theodora’s world and drank it up.
I’ve been shouting at you all ever since reading and loving Katie Khan’s debut novel Hold Back the Stars last year. In fact, it was one of my favourite books of 2017 -- I hadn't read anything else quite like it and Katie became an auto-buy author for me. When I learned her new book was going to be about time travel and missed opportunities, I was naturally all on board. I love the way she blends science fiction and romance into an incredibly readable and accessible narrative.
I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone earlier this year and wasn’t really impressed by it. I had major issues with the main character Karou going from kickass lady to puddle of tepid water as soon as the romance was introduced. While I loved Taylor’s gorgeous writing, I really struggled with the romantic aspects of the book. However, I absolutely loved the friendship between Karou and Zuzana. So when I heard about Night of Cake and Puppets, a companion novella previously published in a digital format, I was intrigued.
The Last Namsara is the YA fantasy debut that everyone needs to be talking about. I'm a little torn on this one because there was so much that I really loved about this book, but I also had some issues.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, but they're on hiatus so I came up with my own! I absolutely love a great villain. I often prefer them over heroes because they tend to be more complex and quite frankly, more fun. I’d do a top ten, however I … Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Villainous Villains
