not a book, theatre

Not a Book: The Battle

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A bit of regional theatre for you this week, because for Valentine’s Day we headed to Birmingham to see a new play and it was a lot of fun with a dose of nostalgia attached.

The Battle is a play about the period in 1995 which could possibly be called Peak Britpop, where Oasis and Blur fought it out for the top spot in the singles charts. Britpop was a much larger movement than just these two bands, but the rivalry between them was fierce and really defined the era – Blur, southern and arty and Oasis, Mancunian and unfiltered. Some people will ahve it that you were either one side or the other, but there were plenty who liked both. Matthew Dunster, a former music industry A&R man, has written his first play imagining what was going on behind the scenes of the key moments that people might remember about the feud.

Anyway, this isn’t really a review, because we saw it a few days ahead of press night, and judging from the reviews a few things that we didn’t love may have changed, but is a recommendation because we had such a great time and laughed so hard so much of the time. There are some really good one liners here and some fabulous performances. The names in the cast are Matthew Horne (of Gavin and Stacey fame) as the boss of Blur’s record label, who is excellent whenever you see him but you sort of want more of him, and Louisa Lytton (Eastenders and the Bill) as Noel Gallagher’s girlfriend Meg Matthews, but I thought George Usher as Liam Gallagher (who is making his professional debut in the role) was the standout.

I’m trying not to think about the fact that the 90s are as long ago now as the 60s were back then. Because that is impossible and makes me feel a bit sick. When we saw it, the audience was wearing a lot of Oasis and Blur merch – and a report I saw on the TV earlier this week said that the bars at the theatre had reported near record sales so hopefully it’s doing well with the people who remember it when but I’m hoping it will also find an audience among people who don’t remember the original battle. And that’s because the 1990s seem to be back in fashion at the moment and going through a discovery moment for people who weren’t there at the time, which as someone who does remember particularly the second half of the decade is slightly traumatic.

Anyway, this is on at Birmingham Rep until the 7th March and then moves to Manchester Opera House for a week from 17 March. If you’re near enough by, I think it’s worth a trip.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Waterstone’s Birmingham

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We were in Birmingham last weekend, so of course I took a trip to the Big Waterstones to see what they had that was new or out of the ordinary.

But I’m going to start with the Buy One Get One Half Price table – because as you can see Murder on Line One is now in paperback but also because I wanted to ask if any of you have read Murder at the Black Cat Cafe because I keep seeing it in shops, picking up and reading the back and thinking it might be too scary for me because Japanese murder mysteries tend to be too scary for me even if in this case the author is being compared to Agatha Christie – because they also do that for the author of Murder at Mt. Fuji! Anyone able to help?

And now on to the stuff I hadn’t see elsewhere (but that is also too scary for me) a new thriller translated from Korean about a K-Pop idol who is kidnapped by a small group of his biggest. I think this for having a cover that clearly indicates that it is too scary for me, but I wish I wasn’t as terrible with scary books because this sounds like a really clever concept. And K-pop is huge at the moment so hopefully it will do well and I continue to be thrilled to see more books in translation making it to the front of bookshops, rather than just in a special section of the big university bookshops.

Lets move on to something I might actually read, and another new release: Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Dectecting by Piotr Cieplak. This came out at the end of January and is about a Polish woman who comes to London after her son disappears to try and find out what has happened to him. Zofia thinks it’s something to do with a writer called Steve and takes on jobs as a cleaner to try and fund her DIY investigation. This sounds really interesting – and the blurb promises laughter as well as a puzzle to solve so if I can just get the to-read pile down, I will try and get to it.

And finally we have the table of Heated Rivalry books – including the first one Game Changer which was on offer at half price and which I bought and had a lovely conversation with the cashier about them and the TV series. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see a romance book doing well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Book previews

Romance Series: Bluebird Basin

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With the skating over and the Winter Olympics coming to a close, I’m keeping the winter sport tangent going on for ever so slightly longer with a trilogy of romance novels set around a ski resort. Slightly tenuous, but I’m going with it and you can’t stop me!

This three novels are interconnected but not really interdependent (the last one is the question mark) romances set in the ski resort of Bluebird Basin. Come As You Are which was a BotW in 2023 and was about Madison the ex-rockstar and sober living home owner and Ashley who is fighting to keep control of her family’s ski hill. She’s in her mid 40s, he’s around a decade older and they both have baggage to overcome before they can get to their happily ever after. The second book is Lips Like Sugar which is about Mad’s bandmate Cole and Ashley’s best friend Mira who end up fake dating at Ashley and Madigan’s wedding because of Mira’s awful ex. But the fake date is the start of a real connection between the two of them even after Cole has headed back to Seattle.

And finally Wish You Were is the only one I haven’t written about here beforeand is the story of Kevin and Davis, who were a couple until Kevin relapsed into drug addiction. He’s back from rehab and wants to win Davis back, but she really doesn’t know if she can trust Kev again. And the resort is so small they can’t exactly never see each other. There are themes of addiction and recovery running through the first two stories but this one has addiction and recovery much more front and centre than those two did, which is a bit less in my regular reading wheelhouse. Like the others in the series this is a second chance romance, but this time the protagonists are a lot younger, and they are looking for their second chance after Kev’s relapse into drug addiction. It’s still really well written, and it’s really emotional and builds to a satisfying resolution but I think it was a bit too high on the angst scale for me at the time that I was reading it (and to be fair, I don’t think I’ve got any more emotionally resilient since, if anything the opposite). But if you do like that, I think it’s really going to work for you. But the first two with the older protagonists were much more my thing – they’re not quite the same as the Cathy Yardley older protagonist romances that I’ve loved, but they’re not too-too far away from that.

These are all in Kindle Unlimited at the moment- along with Jess K Hardy’s two space-set romances, which I haven’t read (yet).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Book previews

Out this Week: Alexandra Vasti

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I’ve got one for the historical romance fans this week, while you wait for the second half of the latest series of Bridgerton to arrive next week! This is a paperback release of the first two books in Alexandra Vasti’s Halifax Hellions series – In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation and In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint – rather than something new-new, so serious fans may have read already. I have Vasti on my to-read-once-the-pile-goes-down list because so many people in the romance communities that I hang out in are huge fans of her books, and she’s also a really interesting interview, which is usually a good sign too. This is out in Kindle next week, but in the meantime Ladies in Hating, which came out in September is on offer on Kindle for 99p!

Happy Reading!

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Books with Sports

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We are closer to the end of the Winter Olympics than we are to the start so for today, I’ve got some novels with sports in them for you. They’re not all winter sports, but some of them are. There are also a whole bunch that I’ve read and not liked and haven’t included here – although I have included one of my more recent sports reads, because it made me cross and I needed to talk about it! And also the book that I was hoping to replace it with has also made me cross, but in a less interesting way. Anyway, I’ve also already written a Recommendsday about sports romances, so if you haven’t had enough yet, you can find that there.

The Favourites by Layne Fargo

Given that all the drama that came out of the Ice Dancing results (if you haven’t read about it yet, here are some articles), I couldn’t not start with Layne Fargo’s book about ice dance from last year. I wrote a bonus review about it around the time of Worlds last year, but it’s so much fun that it bears a repeat. This has got a scrappy wrong side of the tracks pairing taking on the world of ice dancing, and is framed through a documentary being made ten years after their final skate. It’s got lots of drama, the bits of the sport that Fargo has tinkered with are cleverly chosen and you don’t have to know anything about skating to enjoy it. I’m a huge figure skating fan – until Tuesday night I had watched every minute of competition this games, and this is one of the very few books I’ve read set in a sport that I’m a keen follower of that hasn’t managed to really annoy me in one way or another. There’s a reason why I haven’t read many/any of the figure skater (usually with a hockey player) romances that are having a resurgence at the moment. I read a few a couple of Olympics ago (Pyeongchang games I think) and they really wound me up and I haven’t been back since. But this I can really recommend.

Isn’t It Bromantic by Lyssa Kay Adams

Cover of Isn't it Bromantic

I’ve got an ice hockey-related romance for you now, and it’s not Heated Rivalry! Isn’t it Bromantic is the fourht book in the Bromance Book Club series, which have a couple of sporting heros. The first in the series had a baseball player hero who is trying to win his estranged wife back with the help of a secret romance book club for men, and the other books follow the other members of the group. Isn’t It Bromantic’s hero is Vlad aka The Russian who is a professional ice hockey player in Nashville. Years earlier back in Russia, he married one of his childhood friends to help her after her journalist father disappeared. It’s been a marriage of convenience, but Vlad has decided he wants more and is using the book club to try and work out how to win his wife’s love. This was the story in the series that I had been looking forward to maybe the most and although it didn’t quite live upto all my hopes it was still a fun read even if it did have far too many tropes all mashed in together. I found the series as a whole a bit uneven – full of great ideas but not always as good in the execution, which was a bit frustrating, but I don’t think any of them were actually bad if you know what I mean.

Cross The Line by Simone Soltani

Cover of Cross the Line

Dev is a Formula One driver who may have blown up his career prospects with a social media disaster Willow is his best friend’s little sister who is full of ideas but struggling to get a job out of college. Dev hires Willow to help with his image problem, but the two of them struggle to keep it professional as their feelings threaten to get the better of them. I am a massive Formula One fan, and have been for as long as I can remember and really I think this may make me a bad candidate for reading F1-set romances, because I will pick at the sporting detail. All that aside, this one has a massive plot device that it uses towards the end but then leaves unresolved that really, really wound me up. In fact it annoyed me to the point that I went back and read the final chapter and the epilogue again the day after I read it, because I had finished it late at night and I wanted to make sure that I hadn’t missed something. I hadn’t. So, all in all frustrating. And as I said at the top, it made me cross and I wanted to talk about it, but also people who know I read romance and like F1 often ask me if I’ve read any of the booming trend for F1 romances and so now I’m reporting back!

Happy Humpday!

Book of the Week, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

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I may not have read much last week (Winter Olympics!!!) but at least one of the books I did read – and also really enjoyed – is out today so once again I’m managing to be timely. Even if it is a sort of accident.

In 1920s Montreal, Agnes is looking for a new home for her cat shelter. The previous one is collateral damage in a fight between two magicians so they can’t stay there, but no one is keen to rent a shop to a charity dedicated to rescuing street cats. And that is how the shelter ends up being a front for a mysterious magic shop. As the cats make themselves at home upstairs, downstairs Havelock Renard, the world’s most famous magician and possible Dark Lord is selling magic from the basement. Agnes isn’t happy about being connected with magic – she’s dedicated to the cats – but when one of Havelock’s enemies starts threatening him, she’s drawn into the world of the magicians and may end up having to help Havelock in order to save the world.

The first thing to say about this, is that this is incredibly Howl’s Moving Castle coded – but with more romance. And given that the thing I wanted from the movie of Howl was more romance, that was exactly my jam. Yes, it’s also looking at loss and grief, but it’s got a grumpy, misunderstood magician and an efficient non-magical person who isn’t taking any of his nonsense. I really loved the world building and the way that it was woven into the story and revealed as the plot unfolded rather than info-dumped on the reader, and the denouement at the end was so moving that I ended up crying on a train, which hasn’t happened in a very long time! I could absolutely have spent another 100 pages in the world at the end – and if there’s a sequel I will be first in line!

I’ve used the UK cover for the image at the top, because that’s what you’ll see in the shops, although I have to say that I’m not sure I would have picked it up in a shop if I’d seen it although I can’t quite put my finger on why. The version that I got from Netgalley had the US cover – which I’ve included a screenshot of below – because it’s so pretty but it’s also so 1920s and such a different vibe. Anyway. I have learned my lesson and I will be off to have a look at Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series which I’ve seen around but haven’t really picked up.

My copy came from NetGalley as I mentioned, but this is out today in hardback, Kindle and Kobo. I’ll be checking the shops for it so I will report back if/when I see it about how likely it is for you to be able to find this one in the wild. Also, while I have your attention. Hattie Brings the House Down, which is the first book featuring Hattie from Hattie Steals the Show (one of my favourite new books last year) is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment – so if you haven’t managed to read any either of those yet, this may be your chance!

Happy Reading!

books, stats, week in books, The pile

The Week in Books: February 9 – February 15

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As expected, I’m too busy watching the Winter Olympics (as well as a weekend away!) to get a lot of reading done, so this is a bit of a list dominated by novellas – although I did get two books finished. It could have been a lot worse. This week I have the Winter Olympics *and* a theatre trip so who knows if the situation will be any better come next Monday. I’m really enjoying the Games though and it will soon be over, so I’m not complaining at all.

Read:

The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters

A Play for Love by Trilina Pucci

Death to Valentine’s Day by Catherine Cowles

The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood*

Valentines Slay by Navessa Allen

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett*

Buried Blooms by Patti Benning

Started:

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Still reading:

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

One book bought, no ebooks

Bonus picture: A photo of a very young Kenneth Branaugh in Hamlet at the Birmingham Rep on Saturday night.

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

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: H M S Pinafore

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Happy Sunday everyone! Today I’m talking about last week’s theatre trip, but it’s less a review than some thoughts, because this run of the show has now finished – although as it was a re-staging and got excellent reviews, hopefully it’ll be back again in a couple of years.

H M S Pinafore is a comic opera in two acts by Gilbert and Sullivan, and on its debut in 1878 was their first big international success. It tells the story of Captain Corcoran and his daughter Josephine – he wants to marry her off to the First Lord of the Admiralty, she wants to marry a (very) lowly sailor on her father’s ship. Hilarity ensues. And it really does, because this is directed by Cal McCrystal and its original production in 2021 was nominated for the Best Opera Olivier. I’ve popped the trailer in below, because although the footage is from that prior production, it is at least the same actor playing Captain Corcoran and the sets are the same too.

I have not watched a lot of opera, and I went to see this almost entirely because of Cal McCrystal. he directed Spymonkey‘s Cooped, which remains one of of the hardest times I’ve ever laughed, as well as One Man, Two Gu’vnors and the last opera that I saw – my first Gilbert and Sullivan – Iolanthe. And the two G&S productions have some things in common – namely lots of physical comedy, plenty of innuendo and some fun updating to make the references work as topical today (the way they did when it was first put on). This has also got Mel Giedroyc in it, playing two parts and breaking the fourth wall at every available opportunity.

I’m obviously not familiar enough with the original material to tell you exactly how much tinkering has been done, but I liked it and from what I could tell all the people around me did too, and my section seemed to include lots of G&S fans and amateur performers! The orchestra (conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren) sounded incredible and the singing was beautiful. Add in some clever choreography, really well executed and a flock of enormous crinolines and I had a ball. My standout performer was John Savournin as Captain Corcoran – he’s a Gilbert and Sullivan specialist (I saw him in Iolanthe as well) who is clearly having a ball as he delivers the material absolutely beautifully. I would happily have gone back to see it again, and will be watching out for the next Gilbert and Sullivan production – having seen two done by McCrystal, I feel like I should see one that he’s not involved in for contrast if nothing else!

I leave you with a dash of Spymonkey, because this clip never fails to make me laugh. If it wasn’t the Winter Olympics, I’d be getting my Cooped DVD out to watch it again about now, but there’s figure skating tonight (Pairs short programme!) and I’ve got a lot of jobs to do first…

Happy Sunday!

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid February 2026 edition

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I mean this is almost restraint. For me anyway. And two months in a row too. Sort of. Because I did put the Christmas books in a special post or January would have looked different. But anyway, just the two books added to the pile – and I think I’ve read three from the pile since the last post, so that’s a net reduction really. If we only count that one month. So Edward VIII was my purchase in Waterstone’s Trafalgar Square and Box Office Poison has been on the want to read list for ages and came down in price. And that’s it! All I need to do more is read some more physical books. Except what I’ve actually been doing is trying to read down the NetGalley list. I really can only do one thing at a time!

romance, series

Romance Series: Improbable Meet-Cute Second Chances

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It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and after 2024’s Improbable Meet-Cute series of Originals, Amazon are back with a second set themed around the idea of a second chance after a meet cute. nd I have read them all so you don’t have to. I was really optimistic after the first three, because I really liked all of them, but then it went downhill a little. So I’m going to focus on the ones that I really liked.

The Christina Lauren has a marketing consultant who ends up in the wrong zoom meeting and then gives a brutal critique of the presentation she sees. This leads the company boss to offer her a job, but their emails turn flirty and soon she’s torn between him and her hot but mysterious neighbour. This is a a wild premise, but the banter is good and I raced through it. I’ve mentioned before that Christina Lauren can sometimes come down the wrong side of my tastes when it comes to workplaces and professionalism, but this navigates the workplace romance dynamic neatly and has an actually competent heroine who is good at her job and flirting on the side. It also has just the right amount of plot for the length, which cannot be said for some of the others in the series!

Time Will Tell has a heroine who gets a letter from her deceased grandmother revealing a long held secret – and leading her to a time capsule and a lost love affair. This starts an email conversation with the grandson of her grandmother’s lost love all the way over in England. This is also just the right amount of plot for the length, and the main characters felt really three dimensional. It was my first time reading Hannah Bonam-Young, and I would definitely give something full length a chance on the basis of this.

In Second Act Romance, an emergency replacement is drafted in to play Bex’s leading man when the cast of the musical that she’s in comes down with food poisoning. But it turns out that he’s the same guy she shared some onstage fireworks with years before. Now they’re working together again, and can they work out the misunderstanding that stopped their first encounter going any further. I’m a bit mixed on Julie Soto, but her entry in this series is probably my favourite thing I’ve read of hers. It’s a bit bonkers, but I went with it.

Of the other three, Death to Valentines Day has far too much plot for the length that it is – a murder and and romance in less than 100 pages! – and that means that there’s not a lot of time for characterisation so everyone feels quite caricaturish and over drawn. Valentine’s Slay is (thankfully) not actually a vampire story, but it is the most outlandish in terms of plot. On the other hand, it’s also the spiciest so some may like it best because of that – although for me I’m not sure I’d be up for sex about an hour after waking up buried alive, but hey danger boner is a staple of romance novels so what do I know. Anyway, although I have some reservations, they’re all short and as they were in KU I didn’t have to pay for them, so all in all a nice way to read some romance before Valentines day and try out some new authors as four of the six were new to me.

Have a great weekend!