Category — Book Reviews

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from May.

The Soulmate (Sally Hepworth): Hepworth books are hit-or-miss. They’re always well-written, but the plot is sometimes so farfetched that I can’t suspend disbelief. This was one where I also guessed the ending early on. It’s okay that it was forgettable because I enjoyed the act of reading it at the moment, which is a long way of saying that I’ll read her next book, too. They’re all solid four-star reads.

In the Lives of Puppets (TJ Klune): I bought his first book (first book that I read, that is) for everyone. I thought it was amazing. I recommended his second book to a bunch of people. I thought it was moving. I am on the fence about how I feel about this book. It is complicated, and as you’re laughing over the robots’ conversations, the author presents some uncomfortable answers to the questions at the heart of the book: Can we love beings who do terrible things? What if they don’t have free will and are forced to do terrible things? What if they do have a choice and make a terrible one?

A Rule Against Murder (Louise Penny): The books in this series just get better and better and better. This one was even better than book three, and I loved book three. It’s a great mystery, and while I ended the book with a few questions I’d love to discuss with someone else who read it, I leave the story super impressed with Penny. Again and again and again.

La Belle Sauvage (Philip Pullman): I listened to this as an audiobook. Michael Sheen is one of the most talented book readers on earth. I rarely have time to listen to audiobooks, but I would make time to listen to this one again.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from April.

A Flaw in the Design (Nathan Oates): I raced to finish this thriller because I wanted to know what would happen, and it definitely didn’t go where I thought it would go. The author did a really good job keeping the reader off-balance without feeling like you’re about to fall. It’s a great book if you like unreliable narrators and open questions.

The Golden Spoon (Jessa Maxwell): This book was going along so well and completely fell apart at the end. Just like a cake on the Great British Bake Show, which is the setting (a fictitious version) for this mystery. I wish she had stuck the landing, but the book was so enjoyable up until that point that I would give it a chance.

The Cruelest Month (Louise Penny): This is the third Inspector Gamache, and it’s the book where I felt Penny ease into her series. The first two books are good but not great. But the third book (and points beyond) are not only great mysteries but also fantastic world and character-building. I love Three Pines and will keep reading until the end of the series.

A Tidy Ending (Joanna Cannon): I bumped this book up to the top of my TBR list on the strength of a bookseller’s bestseller list, and it did not disappoint. It is bonkers, similar to a Samantha Downing book. It was a very clever read.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from March.

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide (Rupert Holmes): This book’s cleverness was a slow burn, so you only truly understood the brilliance of the writing in the last pages. A lot of fun, and I read somewhere that the author is working on a sequel.

The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman): ChickieNob and I listened to Lesley Manville read the audio version while we walked. This book is so so so good, and Lesley is a fantastic reader—such an enjoyable way to spend a half hour every afternoon.

The Writing Retreat (Julia Bartz): The book was like a bag of chips in both a good way and bad way. I couldn’t stop reading once I got into the story, popping page after page into my eyes, but I felt a little unsatisfied. It’s a solid debut, and I’m curious to see her next book.

A Fatal Grace (Louise Penny): It’s the second book in the Inspector Gamache series. I read these mysteries more for the characters and setting than for the mystery itself. The plot was problematic, and the fat-phobic descriptions bothered me, but the positives outweighed the negatives. On to the next book in the series.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from February.

Nine Liars (Maureen Johnson): The first three books in the series were perfection. The fourth one was fine, but this series ended well with book three and didn’t need book four. It picked up again with book five until the very end of the book. I loved the setting and characters. I didn’t care that I guessed the killer 40% of the way through. I’m focusing on how happy I was for the first 90% of the story vs. the last 10%.

Tell Me an Ending (Jo Harkin): This was such a cool set-up, and the way the stories came together was brilliant. The writing was beautiful, and the questions asked in the book were compelling. As I read it, I talked about this book a lot with people — the mark of a really good story.

The Stranger Diaries (Elly Griffiths): Despite owning several of her books, this is the first one I read. And it was fantastic. I am so happy I have her books lined up and ready to go on my shelves or e-reader. I was genuinely surprised by the ending, and every chapter was delightfully creepy.

Nick and Charlie (Alice Oseman): A novella (as opposed to a graphic novel) takes Nick and Charlie into the days before Nick leaves for college. Am I facing down the twins going? Yes. That may have played into how much I loved this. But it’s still a super sweet story about lovely characters that you want to succeed — a good way to spend an afternoon.

What did you read last month?

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from January.

Tick Tock (Simon Mayo): This was my first Simon Mayo book, and it came to me at the perfect time. End of break. Didn’t want anything too mentally taxing. It’s a fast-paced thriller set during a pandemic. Everything fits together a little too neatly, but I enjoyed reading it.

The Thing in the Snow (Sean Adams): It reminded me of the book Finna, and the television show Severance. If you like either of those, you will likely enjoy this. I read it over a weekend and snickered a lot.

The Villa (Rachel Hawkins): I was super excited about this book, so I probably felt more let down by the ending than I would have if I had gone into it without the high level of anticipation. I enjoyed the writing a lot. Five stars. And I liked how the two stories weaved together. But I didn’t believe a lot of the actions taken by the characters. And by the end, I didn’t like any of them. At all. As in, I didn’t want to spend time with them. So 5 for writing, and a 2 for plot and characters, averaging a 3.5 that I rounded up to 4 because I like her other books.

A Murder at Balmoral (Chris McGeorge): It was cute. It was fun. I wanted to like it more because the setup was amusing — a murder mystery with an alternative royal family. But you’d have to love cozy mysteries to put this on your TBR.

Heartstopper (Volumes 1 – 4) (Alice Oseman): If you don’t smile while reading these graphic novels, you don’t have a heart. They are the most delightful, wholesome teens, falling in love and navigating big feelings. The four books go to some dark places but handles the situations beautifully. The television show on Netflix is equally delightful. It’s like Schitt’s Creek — it just feels good spending time with these people in this world.

Sweet Sorrow (David Nicholls): It was perfect to read this in conjunction with Heartstopper because it’s about teens in the summer after high school, putting on a community theater performance of Romeo and Juliet. This went beyond a five-star read for me. It was gorgeous and aching and I read it at the perfect time. It will make you cry and think deeply and enjoy your old memories. A perfect perfect perfect story.

What did you read last month?