Category: book round-ups

book round-ups, bookshops

Books in the Wild: Spotted in Foyles

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So I wandered into Foyles on the way to a West End theatre last week and spotted a few interesting things and so here I am.

The first was the third in Andrew Cartmel’s Paperback Sleuth series, Like a Bullet, which was out on the shelves a little early. Sidenote: I both love and hate when that happens. I love it when it’s not something I’ve pre-ordered, I hate it when it is, especially when it’s a day or two before release and I’m in London and the pre-ordered copy is going to arrive at my house while I’m away. This has happened more than once. Anyway, this was out on the shelves super early because it’s still not officially out (the publication date is Tuesday coming) and yet I still managed to resist it, despite the fact I love reading something early, because I still haven’t read book two in the series, and I like to read in order as you know.

Next up is the new book from Alicia Thompson, Never Been Shipped. And I want to say that her publishers are doing a great job with her covers because at this point I think I own three of her books and I haven’t read any of them and I had to resist buying this one hard on that front. And it’s because the covers are so gorgeous they just make you pick the books up and then the blurbs are great too. This one came out at the start of June and once again I am tempted!

I also managed to resist this Dan Jones. I hadn’t seen it before; but it looks like Summer of Blood is actually a much older book of his and possibly getting a fresh lease of life because of his successful historical fiction books. And in fact the final book in that trilogy is out at the end of July. Anyway, the fourteenth century is a bit earlier than my main areas of interest when it comes to history, but Dan Jones is so good that I do often make an exception for him. But there are huge numbers of nonfiction books on the tbr pile at the moment so I stayed strong.

As you know, I’m always looking for new mystery series to read (thank you for those recommendations last week by the way) and this was the book that stood out to me in the crime and thriller section this time. It’s got a gorgeous cover and the plot summary is also intriguing: it’s set I. The 1920s and has a bank clerk trying to solve a murder while trying not to get in trouble with the law himself because of his sexuality. The blurb says it’s perfect for fans of Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey series and given that I read the final three of those that I hadn’t read last month that is clearly me.

And finally here’s that new paperback of the first Tuga book in the flesh. It definitely feels like a tropical holiday and it’s a style I like but I also think it’s a better representation of what the vibe of the book is than the original one did, even if that was pretty too. that’s the lot for now. In some ways the bookshop trip was better than the show I went to afterwards. It was certainly cheaper!

Have a great weekend everyone.

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: June Quick Reviews

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It’s July so I’m back with the quick reviews from last month.

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

I love the way that Barbara Pym looks at slices of normal (or normal-ish) women’s lives and relationships in ways that are witty and also sad. Leonora is a middle-aged woman who is attractive and knows it. She’s got a collection of male admirers, but her latest are an antiques dealer and his nephew. She prefers the nephew, James, although the uncle (Humphrey) is more “suitable” and plays the two of them off against each other, whilst trying to detach James from his other relationships. It’s darker than some of Pym’s earlier novels, but it’s very good.

Copper Script by K J Charles

The new book from K J Charles has Aaron, a Met Police Sergeant, who is trying to figure out how Graphologist Joel is able to tell people’s lives and personalities from their handwriting. Aaron is convinced it’s a con, but Joel’s skills are very real. And soon the two of them are trying to solve some crime. I read this in single day and enjoyed it a lot. If you like K J Charles, this will probably work for you.

The Chow Maniac by Vivian Chien

I read the first two in this series a few years back (I bought the first one back when I was in Washington) and spotted this eleventh and most recent in the series in Foyles last week so took the opportunity to check in again as they’re quite hard to get hold of over here. And Lana’s life has moved on quite a bit – she’s still got the boyfriend but she’s much more established in her sleuthing. This sees her investigating whether a series of deaths among the Asian community in Cleveland might actually be murder, and connected to a secret society. Lana is still verging on too stupid to life, but I enjoyed reading it.

And that’s your lot this month

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: March Quick Reviews

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So the problem with a massive binge on one author – and one series – is that it doesn’t leave a lot of other things to write about. And so here we are, with a two book children’s book review special for the quick reviews this month. Which makes it three classic middle grade books in just over a week after Juliet Overseas the other week!

Gemma by Noel Streatfeild

This was a Carlisle acquisition and is a later Streatfeild talented children story. And I love this sort of thing. There is ballet in this – but it’s not the key focus. The Gemma of the title is the daughter of an actress, who has herself been a child star. But she’s reached the awkward age and the parts have dried up. Her mother however has been offered a part in a tv series and sends Gemma to stay with her sister and her husband and their children. Gemma has never lived a normal life – but her cousins are not what she expects – they musical in various ways and are quite happy to add Gemma to their lives and try and help her adjust. It’s charming.

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

This is one of my Bristol purchases from last summer after the talk about time travel and time slip stories for children. I read Alison Utley’s Little Grey Rabbit books as a child, but never this. Traveller in Time is set in the 1930s when a group of children visit their aunt at her farm in Derbyshire and one of them, Penelope finds herself slipping back in time to the sixteenth century when the house was owned by Francis Babbington, who is at the centre of a plot to try to free Mary Queen of Scots. It’s quite a quiet novel in terms of action but it’s very evocative of the the two time periods – and you know your history, you will feel sympathy for Pen as she knows what is to come.

And that’s your lot this month. The good news is I only have a couple of Ruth Galloway books to go, so next month I should have more choices…

Happy Humpday!

Book News, Book previews, book round-ups, books

Anticipated Books 2025: Update

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Back in January I did a couple of posts about new books coming this year – the standalone stuff and the series – and now we’re a few months into the year there are a bunch more books that I’ve got on the list as coming this year I thought it was time for an update/extra post. This mostly straight up romances – with a side of a romance author writing their first contemporary fiction novel. I think that’s probably because most of the mystery authors write in straight up series which I’m better at keeping track of, so I covered those off at the start of the year. Or my brain could have just been a bit broken and I forgot about a bunch of authors I really like in January – or maybe some these books really weren’t available to preorder when I was writing that original post. Anything is possible…

Lets start with another book from Jen DeLuca that’s set in Boneyard Key, following on from Haunted Ever After last autumn. Amazon is currently claiming Ghost Business comes out in the UK in Mid August, but given that the actual author says September, I know who I’m trusting on that one. And it should also be noted that DeLuca is now writing a fifth instalment in the Ren Faire series and I cannot wait for that to arrive (presumably in 2026).

Next up, and it should be noted that this was announced last year, and I’m really not sure how it didn’t make it into either of the earlier posts, but Sarah MacLean has her fist contemporary fiction novel coming out in July. It’s called These Summer Storms and it has the children of a billionaire on the family’s private island after their father’s death only to discover that he’s left one final challenge for them to complete in order to receive their inheritance. Yes. Rich People Problems on a private island. It sounds great. I can’t wait.

Also left off that earlier list is the new Elissa Sussman, which I pre-ordered a full year ago, which was already nearly a year after Once More With Feeling Came Out. Totally and Completely Fine is due on July 8 – the same day as the Sarah MacLean – and this makes me very happy. Funny You Should Ask was a Book of the Week and Once More With Feeling would have been except that it was only a few months after I read Funny You Should Ask, and I have rules about repeats (that I sometimes stick to) so it went into a Recommendsday post for new romances instead. Anyway, the blurb for Totally and Completely Fine has the widowed younger sister of mega star Gabe (our hero from Funny You Should Ask) meeting a handsome (and also famous) actor on the set of her brother’s new movie. I am very optimistic about this one.

We also have dates and titles for the new books from Katherine Center and Annabel Monaghan. Center’s new book is The Love Haters which has a video producer trying to save her job by making a profile of a coastguard rescue swimmer (another job that I didn’t know existed until I read the blurb and had to google) and Monaghan has It’s a Love Story which features a former teen sitcom star who is trying to get her career as a producer off the ground and goes too far in her quest to get her first movie greenlit. They’re out a week apart at the end of May. Also in May is Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake – which is set in New Hampshire (which is great for my 50 states challenge!) and about a small town waitress and a Hollywood star who comes to town to film a rom com – but the two of them have met before. There’s a trend going on for time travel or time skip romances and joining that club is Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau, which is coming in June.

And finally (for now) in November we have the second Harlot’s Bay book from Olivia Dade. I loved At First Spite and Second Chance Romance features Karl the Baker from that and his former high school crush, who thinks he’s dead after his obituary mistakenly appears in the local paper. It sounds utterly delightful and I wish I didn’t have to wait so long for it, but hey, it’s good that books I want to read are spaced out!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: February Quick Reviews

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It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and I’m back with the quick reviews. And for the first time in ages I actually finished all of the books I had from NetGalley that came out last month. Who knew I was even capable of that. Anyway, here we are with a quick round up of three books – two murder mysteries and a romance – I haven’t already told you about.

Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars*

This is a cozy mystery set in the world of drag performers in London. Our “detective” is Misty/Joe who discovers the body of her drag mother backstage at a club night and starts investigating because the police seem more focused on the stolen dress that Lady Lady was wearing. I really liked the setting for this – I walk around Soho quite a lot as it’s near my office, and lots of the locations were familiar to me. I liked Misty and the way you could see how her persona changed when she was Misty compared to normal life as Joe. However they were a little foolhardy/too stupid to live at times. There’s a big hanging plot thread for the next one which I’m not sure about, but overall I enjoyed this and would read more in the series if it came my way.

The Tube Train Murder by Hugh Morrison

This was another new(ish) release – that came out in early January, but that I didn’t spot straightaway. This is a new standalone mystery from the author of the Reverend Shaw mysteries, which I binged my way through last year. This sees a young woman murdered on a tube train, and the investigation taking in the residents or the boarding house where she was living while she went to secretarial college. Those residents include another student at the same college who is unhappy at the progress the police are making. The mystery is good – and the boarding house setting is well drawn. It’s in Kindle unlimited so like yesterday’s The Ten Teacups worth a look if you’re a member.

Book Boyfriend by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka*

I really, really enjoyed The Roughest Draft which I bought two years ago and was a BotW. I was then disappointed and puzzled by The Break Up tour last year – which was the husband and wife duo’s Taylor Swift inspired romance. This is set at an immersive experience based on a romantasy novel, where two work colleagues and sort-of-enemies unexpectedly encounter each other. I was hoping this would be closer to the Roughest Draft than The Break Up Tour, but sadly it’s another puzzler for me. I didn’t understand why the two leads hadn’t just had a conversation to clear the air after their initial misunderstanding, and the heroine was just really immature for how old – and established in her career – she is meant to be. Frustrating. I still have the book that came in between Roughest Draft and Break Up tour on the Kindle waiting to be read and I’m starting to worry that that first one I liked was a fluke…

And that’s the lot for this month. Given how short February is, I’m pleased with myself for even getting to free!

Happy Humpday!

book round-ups, books

Romance series: Master link post!

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Happy Friday everyone, it occurred to me that I haven’t done a round up of all the various series posts I’ve done for a while. But there’s so many of them now that I’ve actually just done the romance ones for you today because it’s February and it’s Valentine’s Day the other week. And I’ve tried to categorise them a little bit for you.

Small Town romance

Lucky Harbor

Happily, Inc

Willow Creek/Well Met

Bright Falls

Chance of a Lifetime

Blessings

Lancashire

Showbiz/showbiz adjacent

London Celebrities

Centre Stage

Cowboys of California

Sports romance

Chicago Stars

O’Neil Brothers/Snow Crystal

Paranormal

Sookie Stackhouse

Historical romance

Rule of Scoundrels

Survivors Club

Hellions of Halstead Hall

Desperate Duchesses

Bridgerton

Novella series

Under the Mistletoe

Holidays with the Wongs

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: January Quick Reviews

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The first month of 2025 is over and so I’m back with another whistle-stop tour through a couple of books that I read last month that I didn’t already tell you about.

Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths

Let’s start this month with a rule breaking mid-series book. But there’s a reason for this I promise. Vanishing Box is the fourth in Griffiths’ series set in Brighton in the early 1950s. It’s been five years since I read the third book but my mum’s book club picked the first one just before Christmas and it reminded me that I had forgotten to go and read any more of them. And this is a good instalment in the series. The general premise is that Edgar Stephens is a police detective but in World War 2 he worked in a shadowy unit with Max Mephisto who is a magician. They fall back into each other’s orbit during the first book (The Zigzag Girl) and have stayed there since. This book sees Max performing on the bill of a variety show in Brighton and Edgar investigating the death of a flower shop worker who happened to be living in the same boarding house as some of the other performers on the bill with Max. You could read this without reading the rest of the series, but it will definitely work best if you’ve got the background.

Natural Selection by Elin Hilderbrand

A short story on the list this month – this is an Amazon Original that follows Sophia, a New Yorker who has finally found a man she can see herself settling down with, but who finds herself on a couples trip alone after an emergency means he has to bail on her as they’re about to board the flight. This sends Sophia on a journey of self discovery – the holiday was his choice – so Sophia finds herself the fish out of a water on a once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos Islands – without her boyfriend, without her phone signal (most of the time) and too embarrassed to talk to anyone about what’s going on. Hildebrand packs a lot into just over 50 pages and I found it surprisingly emotional as well as satisfying.

Not in My Book by Katie Holt*

As I previewed this when it came out, I thought I ought to follow up now I’ve read it. This is an enemies to lovers romance about two writers who are forced to write a book together after they take their classroom rivalry one step too far for their professor to let slide. If New Adult was still a thing, I would say that this is squarely in that area, but it’s not really any more so I don’t really know what to call it. And I think for some people this is going to work really well. It’s being compared to Sally Thorne‘s The Hating Game in the blurb and I think that’s pretty fair, but I think these two are maybe meaner to each other than those two. And that was my problem: they’re awful to each other and although I enjoyed it once they started getting along, as soon as there is any hint of conflict they revert to saying the most hurtful things they can to each other, and that’s just not my thing. Maybe it’s the age of the main characters and I’m just too old for that now – but it ended up being the end of the trope that I find hard to get on board with.

And that’s your lot for this month – a reminder of the Books of the Week from January: White House by the Sea, Deadly Summer Nights, Dark Tort and The Paradise Problem.

Happy Reading!

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: January Blues selections

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It’s the tail end of January. It feels like a long time since Christmas. You could be forgiven for having a bit of the blues at the moment. So I’ve got a bit of a recommendsday supercut for you, of suggestions to try and help you through the gloom and towards the spring.

First of all I have a whole list of novels about fresh starts – not to be confused with the non fiction post of self help books. I’ve also got a lot of recommendations for books about house renovations- which are a sort of fresh start aren’t they? – whether it’s this recommendsday post or the Fixer Upper mysteries, the Real Estate Rescue ones or a romance with Maggie Moves On?

I find small town romances very comforting but also cheering – so how about Happily Inc or Blessings? But maybe you want to escape away to somewhere tropical. Obviously The Paradise Problem was book of the week the other week but there’s also The Unhoneymooners. And finally if you want to go completely the other way there’s ski resort action with the O’Neil Brothers.

Happy Humpday!

book round-ups, books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: US Presidents special

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As you may have noticed, the US presidency has changed hands this week, so for recommendsday this week, I have a few books – and other posts to point you at if you want a US politics fix. And I’ve even got a photo of the White House from my time in DC in 2018 to fancy it up a bit!

First of all, let me point you at my JFK adjacent post – which has got a whole lot of fiction and non fiction about the Kennedy family – and I’m currently reading even more on top of that with the White Hiuse by the Sea nearly finished and also Ask Not waiting on the pile. There’s also post I wrote for the first Trump Inauguration eight years ago, which has a bit of cross over too.

Then there’s Kate Anderson Brower who has written a lot about The White House and what it’s like to live there. There’s First Women, First in Line and Team of Five – about the wives of presidents, the vice presidents and the club of former presidents respectively – there’s a bit over overlap between them so maybe just pick the topic that interests you most.

And if you want a bit of lesser spotted presidential scandal, there’s also Rachel Maddow’s Bag Man about Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s disgraced VP.

Happy Humpday!

book round-ups

Recommendsday: December Quick Reviews

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A month very much dominated by the mad dash to complete my self-imposed Read Across the USA challenge for another year and listening to Phryne Fisher audiobooks on the commute. I’ve written plenty about Phryne before, and I didn’t like a lot of the desperation picks for the reading challenge and I still had Books of the Week to pick, but I’ve still managed three for you. Check me. I wasn’t sure that I would for a while, but the last week and a bit of the month really helped.

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N Holmberg

It’s 1846 and Merrit has just inherited a remote estate in the Narrangasett Bay. It comes a a good time for the struggling writer – somewhere free to live would ease his money woes. He’s pretty handy so he’s confident that even if no one has lived there for a century he can turn it into home. Except the house has other ideas – locking him in when he arrives and refusing to let him out. Enter Hulda Larkin from the Boston Institute of Keeping Enchanted Rooms who is trained in taming magical structures. As the two of them work together to discover the house’s secrets, what they don’t realise is that there is a threat to the house – and them – from the outside too. This was actually the book that ticked off my very last state (Rhode Island) and I was really glad that it was one I enjoyed. This is more historical fantasy than anything else, although it does have romantic elements. It’s the first in a series – with four books already published and a fifth coming this year and I would happily read more of them. And I have several other books by Holmberg (in one of her other series) on the Kindle waiting to be read – and maybe this was the push I needed to finally get around to reading them.

Picture Perfect Frame by Lynn Cahoon

This is a rare book in the month in that it was not a missing state – it’s set in Calfornia. But this is a cozy crime series that I read when they cross my path. The detective is Jill, former lawyer and current book store owner. She’s supported by a fairly typical cozy crime miscellany of supporting characters – an aunt, a friend, her employees at the shop, a neighbour who says she’s a psychic and her boyfriend who is a local police officer. This instalment sees her supporting another local small business by going to a paint and sip event (which is something I had never heard of but is apparently a thing) at a local art studio. When one of the other participants is found dead in the studio the next morning, Jill can’t help but investigate as the dead woman’s spouse is claiming her neighbour (the fortune teller) is responsible. Not a difficult read, but a fun one.

Open Season by C J Box

I started with a 50 states book and I’m ending with one too. Joe Pickett is a game warden in Wyoming. He’s underpaid, under-resourced and unpopular in his new community – not just because he’s not local but because he won’t take bribes. When a local hunting outfitter is found dead on his property, he takes it personally and when more bodies are found he continues to investigate despite the police closing the case. Soon he’s caught up in a dangerous situation involving the murders, an endangered species and a company that wants to build a gas pipeline. This is a bit darker than the mysteries that I usually read – but I could cope with it because I was so interested in the mystery. It’s the first in a 25 (!) book series and the teaser for the next one had me intrigued so it looks like I might be covered for Wyoming in future challenges!

That’s it for the December bonus reviews – it was a bumper month in reading all in and I have written about a lot of the others too, although there was a lot of Christmas content in there which you may be over by that point. But here are the links anyway. The books of the week were Christmas is All Around, Cure for the Common Break-up and The Divorce Colony; and there were posts about Christmas novellas, the Under the Mistletoe and Busybodies collections, as well as the Best Books of the year posts for non-fiction and new fiction.

Happy Humpday!