Category: books

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: Duke Actually

veritywilde

Bit of a marginal choice this week, but I thought I’d do something different and throw in a rare Royal Romance read that’s also a Christmassy one – even if we’re not past Halloween yet!

Dani Martinez is a professor hoping for tenure. She’s also hoping her ex-husband will sign the divorce papers and has sworn off love completely. Trouble is, she’s about to be an attendant at a royal wedding and this involves some contact with the playboy duke the bride dumped for Dani’s friend. Max has issues of his own: his parents are awful, he’s finished his studies and doesn’t have a job, and now his engagement has been broken off, his parents are trying to find a replacement fiancée for him, stat. Dani and Max become unlikely friends, but it can never turn into anything more – can it?

This was absolutely delightful until about the 80 percent mark at which point it just didn’t quite stick the landing. I’m not quite sure what went wrong – whether it was too much to do in not enough time, if I just didn’t like the way Jenny Holiday decided to resolve the conflict/tension in the relationship or if it was a combination of the two but after an absolutely cracking unlikely friends, vanquishing the evil ex, rebuilding sibling relationships ride, it just didn’t quite end as well as I wanted it too. But it’s still pretty good – and better than a lot of the other romances I’ve tried lately, many of which haven’t even made it on to the list because I didn’t get further than 50 pages before I gave them up in a rage. And not always in a Sunday afternoon funk either!

This one is on offer on Kindle and Kobo at the moment, and it’s the second book in a trilogy of related romances which are also on offer. Enjoy!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 16 – October 22

veritywilde

I don’t know what happens to me on a Sunday at the moment where I lose the ability to pick a new book and stick to it. It’s a real puzzle to me, but it seems to happen every week at the moment. Still identifying a pattern of behaviour is the first step to breaking it right? Still I had a good week – with a lovely trip to Old Friends and then two nights in Essex. This week has a few nights in London and I might go and see another show. So we’ll see what that does to the list next Monday!

Read:

Shot with Crimson by Nicola Upson*

Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham

The Love Rematch by Kay Marie*

Duke, Actually by Jenny Holiday

The Magpie Lord by K J Charles

Sweet Mercies by Anne Booth

Started:

Tis the Damn Season by Kimi Freeman*

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa*

Still reading:

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

One ebook bought. Restrained

Bonus photo: Christmas is coming – the fancy advent calendars are starting to appear! This was in the window of Liberty on Tuesday – it’s their famous (well depending on whether you follow makeup/skincare bloggers a few years back or not) beauty one. Every year I think about treating myself and then remember the amount of lotions and potions I have kicking around that I need to clear out and give myself a stern shake.

*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 related, books

Books in the wild: Waterstones Piccadilly again…

veritywilde

Do you remember how excited I got only a few weeks ago about the romance section at Waterstones Piccadilly? Well I went in this week to try and find the new Alexis Hall in the wild and guess what… it had gone! They’ve reorganised it all already and now it’s smaller (I think) and at the back. The whole of that front section is now Crime and Thriller. I have no words but I do have a few pictures.

I say it’s smaller but I’m not actually sure, it just felt more cramped. The photo above is the main section and then on the left there is a Pride section – which is a mix of fiction and non fiction LGTBQIA+ books – including some Alexis Hall but not the one I was looking for!

Then the main romance bit is to the right. I don’t think it was properly set up – there were still gaps all over place on shelves elsewhere on the floor and trolleys of books too as you can see in the picture below.

I only had about ten minutes to wander around – so I couldn’t properly dig into what had gone awol, but I thought I should probably do an update as I’d been so excited about the old configuration…

Book of the Week, books, LGTBQIA+, romantic comedy

Book of the Week: 10 Things that Never Happened

veritywilde

Today’s Book of the Week is actually out today – so it’s very apt and I’m sort of pleased with myself for the timing of my reading. Look, it’s the small things at the moment. I’ll take positives where I can find them.

Sam is the manager of a bed and bath store. His days are spent trying to pull the rest of the staff out of whatever disaster they’ve just caused. They need the jobs and he likes them. Trouble is, Jonathan, the owner of the chain has noticed that’s Sam’s store isn’t doing as well as the others so he sends for him to visit the head office in London. The trouble is, while Sam is there, there’s a little accident involving a shower enclosure and the next thing Sam knows he’s in hospital with concussion and he’s accidentally made Jonathan think he has amnesia. With no one to call to help, Sam ends up staying at Jonathan’s house and how on earth is he going to get out of this, especially as maybe Jonathan isn’t as bad as he thought he was…

So, amnesia-related storylines are not my favourite type of romance plots, but generally I have loved Alexis Hall’s contemporary romances, so I made a rare foray in to the trope to see what he would do with it. And it’s a lot of fun. It made me surprisingly emotional at times – and obviously faked amnesia is an easier sell for me than actual amnesia – although there are some issue still around how you un-fake the amnesia. It’s a grumpy-sunshine sort of thing, although I’m not sure we really got to understand enough of why Jonathan is the way he is – especially as he’s so mean to start off with – I wanted more of him being kinder. Also I wanted to know a bit more about Sam – but then when I did, I got what was going on there, and yes I know that’s a bit cryptic but it will make sense if you read it! I don’t think I love it as much as I loved Boyfriend Material, but it’s still a really, really good read and I will happily recommend it. In fact I already have, even before this post!

My copy came from NetGalley (praise the gods of books!) but as I said at the top it’s out today in Kindle, Kobo, audiobook and paperback – which Waterstones seem to have in stock across their Central London branches so I’m optimistic that you’ll be able to get a copy if you want one!

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 9 – October 15

veritywilde

Well that was quite a week. I don’t really have much to say today, except that my reading mojo is a little bit awol at the moment but I’m working on trying to get it back.

Read:

Murder on the Lusitania by Edward Marston

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall*

Worralls on the War-Path by W E Johns

New Adult by Timothy Janovsky

Started:

Shot with Crimson by Nicola Upson*

The Magpie Lord by K J Charles

Still reading:

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

Sweet Mercies by Anne Booth

One book bought and that was a pre-order of part three of the Fangirl Manga that had arrived at the comic book store and I hadn’t had time to pick up until this weekend!

Bonus photo: a London skyline on Friday 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.

book related, books

Books Incoming: Mid-October

veritywilde

Quite a restrained month to be honest, I’m fairly impressed with myself. One charity shop buy, one second hand purchase, one vintage store pick and then the two airport purchases which are on a separate photo because I lent them out to my dad as soon as I got home! Will the restraint last? Hard to tell given that there’s a lot of good stuff coming out at the moment, but I will try!

books, Children's books, series

Children’s series: Wells and Wong

veritywilde

The second book in Robin Stevens’ new series is out this week, so I’m taking the opportunity to talk about her Wells and Wong middle grade mystery series this Friday.

So Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells meet at Deepdean School for Girls in the 1930s. In the first book, Murder Most Unladylike, they’re desperate for adventure and form their own secret detective agency in the hope of excitement, but it’s all pretty boring until one of their teachers is found dead in the gym and they start to investigate. And then across the next nine books they keep stumbling across bodies and intrigue in a variety of settings inspired by the best Golden Age mysteries. It’s doing Agatha Christie crossed with Enid Blyton.

I read these as they came out – and various of them were reviewed here at the time. I think my favourites are First Class Murder (Daisy and Hazel do Murder on the Orient Express), A Spoonful of Murder (Hazel on getting home advantage over Daisy in Hong Kong) and Death in the Spotlight (Daisy and Hazel do an Inspector Alleyn theatre mystery) but the books are a lot of fun and I think if I’d read them at the right age (if you know what I mean) it would have been a delightful gateway to Agatha Christie and Peter Wimsey. As it was, I went straight to Miss Marple when I was about eleven and loved it right up until the point I scared myself! I’ve bought these as gifts for the middle graders in my life – and loaned them out to the middle graders in my work colleague’s lives (although I’m still not sure how I ended up with Jolly Foul Play in ebook *and* paperback!

By the end of the series, Daisy and Hazel are almost grownups and it gets a little bit melodramatic in the Death on the Nile Homage, but I forgave it because I had enjoyed the series so much – and it was also setting up the Ministry of Unladylike Activity series, which you can also see in the picture above, where the new main character is Hazel’s little sister May.

I’ve read both of the new series too – which are World War Two-set spy adventures. I liked the first one better than the second but I think the premise of the new series is fundamentally a little harder for an adult to get on board with than the first series is. But if you are looking for a Christmas book for an older primary age child this Christmas (and they’ve already read Wells and Wong) they would be a safe bet. And they have cameos from Daisy and Hazel too.

You should be able to get these basically anywhere with a children’s section because they’ve been hugely successful – and the ebooks go on offer from time to time too.

Have a great weekend!

Book previews, books

Out this week… Christmas Meg Langslow

veritywilde

Last week it was the Christmas memoirs starting to appear, now it’s the Christmas-themed novels. And how could I not mention that the new Meg Langslow has arrived this week. Birder, She Wrote was a great title, but I think Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! may be the best Christmas-themed pun of the year. Anyway, everyone’s favourite blacksmith, mum and super-organiser and her family are back and it’s promising actual weapon forging as well as the return of Faulk and Ragnar. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Also book 35 has a title now too – Between a Flock and a Hard Place. Honestly I don’t know who comes up with Donna Andrews’s titles – Donna or her team – but I salute whoever it is.

Enjoy!

books, books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: October Kindle Offers

veritywilde

It’s the second Wednesday of the month, so it’s Kindle offer day, but it’s also an Amazon promo event at the moment, so apologies in advance if there are a few deals in here that don’t last long.

But I’m starting this list the way I started the month – by buying Sarah MacLean’s latest book, Knockout, which is 99p on kindle. These don’t go on offer often, so grab it while you can. There are a few other historical romances on offer too – Just Like Heaven and The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn as well as Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer. In contemporary romances, there is former BotW The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood and an older Katie Fforde – Wild Designs – and Trisha Ashley – Wish Upon a Star – that are 99p

Lets move on to mysteries of various types and there is Death comes to Marlow by Robert Thoroughgood, for 99p, which is the same price as latest HM The Queen mystery Murder Most Royal. In classic crime, The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham is on offer if you want a hit of Albert Campion. The very dodgy looking Peter Wimsey editions continue, but the 99p good edition is one of my favourites – Strong Poison.

Moving on to stuff in other categories, About Time in Jodi Taylor’s Time Police series is on offer for 99p, as is The Rosie Project by Graham Simsion and The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sanchez by Patterson Joseph. There’s a couple of non fiction books worth a look – including Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie biography and Hello World by Hannah Fry

And finally it’s about to turn 20, so maybe that’s why The Wee Free Men is 99p – it’s the first of Terry Pratchett‘s four Tiffany Aching books, which are childrens books in the Discworld and I love them, even if I’ve never been able to reread the last one, which was also Terry Pratchett’s final book. As a bonus Carpe Jugulum from the adult bit is £1.99.

Happy Reading!