Verity Reads Books (lots of them)

It’s the first Wednesday of the month and you know what that means – it’s Quick Review o’clock. So here we go with three reviews of books I read last month that I haven’t already talked about!

Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower*

It’s 1883 and Emma M Lion has just arrived back in London to take up residence at her home. But there are obstacles in her way as this first volume of her journals from Lapis Lazuli House details. This is novella length and very amusing – but leaves you with a lot of questions about Emma’s backstory, which presumably get answered in the following volumes. It’s a great way to make you read more and more, but sometimes when you’re reading it and missing great dollops of information so that you can decide what’s really going on I did find myself being a little cynical about the drip-drip of information. But the fact that I’ve gave it four stars on Goodreads shows you how much I enjoyed it despite that slight side-eye! Apologies for the terrible photo – I read it on NetGalley but I also spotted it in the wild while I was out in Bath last week!

How To Lose a Lord in Ten Days by Sophie Irwin*

This was… not what I was hoping for. I should have been more literal with the title’s equivalence to the romantic comedy of a similar name and been more prepared for the prank war that ensued between the heroine and hero for most of the book. It was too cringe-embarrassing for me and I ended up really disliking the pair of them because of it. And I’m still not sure by the end what they actually saw in each other beyond someone to play tricks on, and as that’s not what I think of as a successful relationship I didn’t really buy the ending. I liked Irwin’s first book, liked the second one less and then this one less than that. Her next book is an “official” Georgette Heyer novel (which is why I read this one now) and now I have a slightly trepidatious feeling about that – but here’s hoping it’s more like A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting than what has come since.

Broadcast Murder by J G Colgan

This is my third Colgan – and I was hoping this would be closer to The Christmas Alibi than Murder on the Bernina Express, but alas it’s the latter. The idea is good but more work is needed on several fronts. Firstly, I had the murderer spotted too early, secondly it needs a bit more research and thirdly it needs a better edit. In fact the thirdly could maybe be the firstly because if you had a good editor they’d spot some of the issues and flag them so they could be fixed. Because some of them are small (but careless) – like the white line that’s at the bottom of the cover design (that I’ve cropped off in my photo) and some of them are small but annoying like this one which I maybe the only person it annoyed but again: “The lift was old. It had the kind of brass fittings that spoke of a time when even functional objects were expected to be beautiful, and the kind of creaking, groaning movement that spoke of a mechanism that had been in constant use for longer than anyone cared to remember.” Why is it annoying? This is a book set in 1937, the lift in question is in Broadcasting House, which opened in …1932. So if you know, it lifts you out of the story and makes you read everything else more critically. So in summary: promising but needs more work before it’s released to the demanding masses (like me!) especially given the British-Library-Crime-Classic-alike cover style.

And that’s your lot for this month – a reminder of the other Recommendsdays in July which were Sports Romances 2, Summer New Releases and First in Series 2 and the Books of the Week were The Shampoo Effect, The Verdict of Twelve, American Fantasy and A Taste for Murder.

Book of the Week, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: A Wedding Planner’s Guide to Stealing the Bride

August 4, 2026August 4, 2026 veritywilde

Happy Tuesday and my pick today is back to romance and it is one of the new releases that I read last week and there’s another coming up tomorrow in the quick reviews too.

Kalpana is planning the wedding of her dreams, or at least the wedding of her fiancé’s dreams. Marcus is a literary fiction superstar and Kalpana is a romance writer. He’s from old money and she’s the third generation of her family born in the UK but they’re in Sri Lanka with their wedding planner Sampath to plan the big traditional Sri Lankan wedding that Marcus wants – even though Kalpana isn’t sure those traditions feel right for her. Sampath is a great listener – and seems to hear what Kapana wants in a way that Marcus seems not to be.

I read it across less than twenty four hours over the weekend and it was a real treat. As you can tell from the title this is a love triangle type situation, but I don’t think this is going to ping anyone’s cheating monitor for reasons that I can’t really explain without it being a spoiler. As well as the romance, Charika is exploring feelings of identity and culture and also looking at the place of romance and commercial fiction in the bookish infrastructure all of which is right up my street. It also really made me want to visit Sri Lanka – it paints such a vivid picture of the future places they visit and the potential wedding venues.

My copy came from NetGalley but this came out last week and I’m not sure how easy the paperback will be to find but it’s on Kindle and Kobo for £1.99 at the moment as are some of Charika’s previous novels some of which I’ve written about here like Picture Perfect and Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: July 27 – August 2

August 3, 2026August 3, 2026 veritywilde

Welcome to August everyone, all the usual start of the month stuff coming up over the next week or so. In the meantime, here’s the list from last week, which includes three of my Bristol purchases, three new releases (included one I mentioned in the Summer romance releases) and the last of the St Justs I hadn’t read which meant I could finally write that post on Friday! This week it’s meant to be hot and sticky again and I’ve got at least one theatre trip planned so we’ll see how all of that meshes with the reading list.

Read:

A Taste for Murder by Matt Baker

Dimsie Goes to School by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

The Reluctant Ballerina by Linda Graham

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 1 by Beth Brower*

Death and the Old Master by G M Malliet

The One Where They Fall in Love by Christina Wolf*

Helen, Ballet Student by Linda Graham

The Wedding Planner’s Guide to Stealing the Bride by Jeevani Charika*

Started:

The Irresistible Urge to Fall Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

Still reading:

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

We won’t talk about it – there was a stack acquired in Bath on Monday and a bunch of tempting new Kindle offers too

Bonus picture: my favourite shop name from Bath on Monday!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

book adjacent

Book Adjacent: Book Conference 2026

August 2, 2026August 1, 2026 veritywilde

In response to popular demand in the comments, here’s my look back at last weekend’s Bristol Book Conference. I’ve already posted my book haul, and told you about my sales. We did turn it into a proper outing – with stops on the way down and a day out in Bath on the Monday afterwards, so this isn’t the last you’ll see of the Bookish Odyssey of 2026!

Once again we were back at Wills Hall at the University of Bristol, which has the delightful old Quad that looks like it could have come out of a boarding school story and a new quad that comes straight from all my experience of 80s and 90s-built school and uni buildings! As ever the official name of the conference is Twentieth Century Schoolgirls and their books, but the theme this time was Fresh Air and Freedom, so books with holidays and sports were the main subject of the talks.

As ever the main series were represented – with a dedicated talk on Elsie J Oxenham and the Chalet School popping up in more than one talk. There was also a fairly large spattering of Enid Blyton this year, because holidays feature so heavily in her books as many of her series occur during school holiday time, which definitely helped me at the sale table. I had a stack of Blytons that I dithered over taking to sell because traditionally I have a lot of stuff that is too common for anyone else to buy, but took on the off chance – and I only went and sold the lot! Not for much, but a sale is a sale and given that you don’t get any money if you donate them to somewhere, it’s a total win.

Because I’m at the younger end of the attendees, often my favourite talks are about discovering a new author, often a bonkers one – we’ve had Rita Coutts and C Bernard Rutley, this time it was Dorothea Moore and the insane rate of disasters in her books. I’ve only ever read Judy, Patrol Leader of hers which I spot all the time at vintage shops which is absolutely crackers (and which I sold my copy of last weekend, sorry mum!) but it was fun to see that Judy’s exploits (starting guides at her school, foiling two burglaries, several rescues and finding emeralds stolen by an 18th century highwayman) are by no means out of the ordinary for the Moore Oeuvre!

This was my fourth time at conference and as I said back in my post about my first time, it is wonderful to be able to talk to people who love the same thing that you do. I was hesitant about going the first time because I’m basically a massive introvert and large groups of strangers make me anxious. In fact I probably wouldn’t have gone if it hadn’t been for the fact that I had another friend going (and we agreed together that we were going so she may well have been the same). But I’ve now got a little group of friends that I’ve made through conference – we have whatsapp groups and even meet up when it’s not conference – and there’s a whole group of people that know through conference, which means that I have plenty of people to talk to and if I ever fancy going to one of the other groups that’s related to these books I will know people there too. There were a bunch of first timers this year too – I chatted to loads of them – so if you’re thinking about going in two years time and worrying about being the only newbie don’t be.

I leave you with a slide from my friend’s presentation about unusual sports in books – mostly because the book in the picture traumatised me and my sister when we read it as children and it turns out we’re not the only ones. A true if you know you know – I won’t spoil it for you but it’s so shocking I’ve never re-read it and never wanted to – and gymnastics is one of the sports that I watch! Have a great Sunday everyone – and here’s hoping we have a tenth conference in 2028!

The pile

Books Incoming: Conference Buys 2026

August 1, 2026July 31, 2026 veritywilde

Welcome to the first of the Bristol Book Odyssey posts – the sale acquisitions. Here we have three hardback Drina books so that I can continue to compare the original text to the updated 1980s versions that I read as a child, Drina goes on Tour is probably my favourite of the whole series, it’s certainly the one that I read the most as a child, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the original tour experience of digs and exposure and the reveal of Drina’s secret went down.

There’s a strong dancing theme this conference as I also picked up three Linda books about ballet, musical comedy and television and then The Recluctant Ballerina, all by Linda Graeme. That Detestable New Girl was a recommendation and finally my quest to fill in some Dimsie gaps only resulted in the one book – but it does mean I have now read the first book and the events which are much referred to later on in the series.

And as a bonus before I go: a photo from the end of the book sale last Sunday – some much emptier boxes with and one gone entirely, and lots of loose books also gone so you can see the scale of the clearout!

mystery, series

Mystery Series: St Just Mysteries

July 31, 2026July 31, 2026 veritywilde

Happy Friday everyone and today for the series post I’m writing about G M Malliet’s St Just books. I’ve already written about her Max Tudor series, most recently back when I did a spy-themed week a couple of months back. But this week I finished the last book in the series I hadn’t read (reading severely out of order!) and so now I can tell you about then.

Our detective is Arthur St Just, a police Detective Chief Inspector and the crimes are Christie or Golden age-esque. Many of them are set around rich families, authors or Oxbridge colleges, or some combination of the above. St Just is from Cornwall but primarily based in Cambridge but Oxford also makes an appearance or two. St Just is a widower but does acquire a fiancée later in the series for some continuity of running characters as well as the fact that is it even a mystery series without a love interest?

It is very much a series of two halves as there was a decade or so gap (and a change of publishers) between book three and book four, and in fact I hadn’t realised that the series had restarted until I saw Death and the Final Cut on NetGalley last autumn. I read that then and now I’ve filled in the gaps with books four to six. And I’m pretty sure I’ve enjoyed these later ones more than I liked the earlier ones. My reviews of those on Goodreads from around a decade or so ago (I read them after having already started on the Max Tudors) are short but very much in the ok to fine sort of area.

Books three to six are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and I actually think these are a pretty good place to start or at least test out series. They all have interesting characters, but the earlier books are more in the dislikeable mode than the later ones, and three to six particularly have good pacing and interesting mysteries. Seven isn’t quite as good, but it clearly wasn’t enough to put me off going back for the rest when I got a chance or to make a note to keep an eye for any more appearing.

Have a great weekend!

Book previews

Out This Week: Magic and Mystery series

July 30, 2026July 30, 2026 veritywilde

This is another series of Amazon short stories/novellas from different authors centered around a theme and this time it’s fantasy authors turning to crime, which sound exactly up my street. There are seven authors in the series most of which I haven’t read before so I’m hoping that I will discover some new people to try because the two that I have read are Travis Baldree (Legends and Lattes) and Heather Fawcett (Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter) who I have very much enjoyed. As always with these, they’re free if you have Kindle Unlimited or £1.99 each if you’re not. I will endeavour to report back if/when I read them.

crime, detective, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: First in mystery series 2

July 29, 2026July 29, 2026 veritywilde

Happy Wednesday everyone, and I’m back today with another post of first books in mystery series, to follow on from last year’s dedicated mystery series post and to a lesser extent this post which does at least have a non mystery in it too. As you know I’m always looking for my next bingeable series to add to my lists as other series finish, which can go either way (I’ve read – or tried to read – some real dross over the years) but with all of today’s series I’ve read at least one more in the series already.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

This is the first in a (now long-running) series about Guido Brunetti, a Commisario of police in Venice. This was actually written in the early 1990s – but it doesn’t feel dated in style or the actual mystery, it’s just the lack of mobile phones and references to lire, marks and a character who may or may not have been an actual Nazi that remind you that this is thirty years old. Anyway, in this first in the series, Brunetti is investigating the death of a renowned conductor who dies in his dressing room of cyanide poisoning in the interval of a performance of an opera that he was conducting. I really loved the portrait of Venice in the book (this was written a few years before I visited Venice as a child and I loved that) and the characters are all really well drawn and developed. It’s perhaps a little bit darker than the sunny orange cover and mass market mystery size would have you believe – but not so grim that I wouldn’t read more of them if they came my way. I picked this up in Judd Books by the way, which is a total example of what I meant in that post about discovering something completely new to you.

Murder at the Fitzwilliam by Jim Eldridge

This is the first in a mystery series set in the 1890s, where our detective is former Detective Inspector Daniel Wilson, who helped investigate the Jack the Ripper murders when he was a police officer. Now retired, he’s working as a private enquiry agent and is called in to investigate after a body is found in the Egyptian collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. As well as a hostile police officer, he also has to content with Abigail Fenton, an archaeologist who cataloguing the museum’s collection and found the body. This is a pretty easy read, there are a few twists to the mystery as the body count rises although I had the culprit worked out relatively early on. I would read more of these if they were in Kindle Unlimited – but at the moment only this one is.

Scot Free by Catriona McPherson

This is the first in a contemporary, American-set murder mystery series from Catriona McPherson, of Dandy Gilver fame. Our heroine is Lexy Campbell, a fish out of water transplant from Scotland to California. She made the move because she’d fallen in love but now, mere months later, she’s divorced and heading back home, just as soon as she clears one of her counselling clients of murdering her husband. This has a lighter and more humorous tone than her historical series – I think it’s aiming for Steph Plum sort of vibes. I’m not sure Lexy is a great counsellor, as she seems pretty clueless about her own personal life but it was fun enough that I’ve read the second one since reading this. How many more I read may depend on whether they turn up in Kindle Unlimited though!

Happy Humpday!

books

Book of the Week: A Taste for Murder

July 28, 2026July 28, 2026 veritywilde

Happy Tuesday everyone. And before you ask, yes, for the second week in a row I’m cheating and writing about a book I finished after Sunday. But as previously discussed: Book Conference. Excitement. Short list last week. And this one has been on the long runners for a few weeks, so it’s not quite as cheaty as it could have been. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. And here’s hoping I’m not causing myself another problem for this time next week…

Recently widowed police detective Joe Mottram and his daughter Angelica are spending the summer in Capri. They’re returning to the childhood home of Joe’s late wife to spend the summer with Angelica’s grandparents as they struggle to recover from the loss of Sofia. Joe’s expecting to spend the summer as a spare wheel at his in-laws’ resturant, but soon after their arrival a British tourist is found dead at the foot of a local beauty spot and Joe is drawn into the investigation when local detective Lara turns up at the restaurant.

I thought this was a really well put together and readable mystery – there’s lots going on and plenty of plot strands to follow and a twisty mystery at the heart of it. Plus Capri makes for a great setting – I haven’t been there, but it was already on my list of places to go, but if it hadn’t been, it probably would be now, although here’s hoping that the unsavoury elements that are in the book are purely fiction. I would say the ending is ripe for a sequel, but I haven’t seen any sign of a second book yet.

This has already been adapted for TV – it’s on ITVX – and some of the locations they used to film are places that we’ve been to on holiday in Croatia which is fun. And in case you’re wondering, it’s not Blue Peter-Countryfile Matt Baker, it’s a different one!

This came out at the start of the year and I’ve seen it all over in the shops. My copy was a hardback, but the paperback is out now and it should be fairly easy to get hold of. And of course it’s in Kindle and Kobo too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: July 20 – July 26

July 27, 2026July 27, 2026 veritywilde

I’m exhausted. I’ve had a fabulous time at book conference, but I’ve spent a lot of time talking about reading, listening to talks about reading and buying books to read rather than actually reading. So this list is short and I’ve already caused myself a major problem for tomorrow by writing about American Fantasy last week. Past Verity causing problems for Future Verity once more.

Read:

American Fantasy by Emma Straub*

Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh

A Murder at the Mansion by Ellie Alexander*

The Spoilt Kill by Mary Kelly

Death in White Pyjamas by John Bude

Death Knows No Calendar by John Bude