Book of the Week, books, romance

Book of the Week: Next-Door Nemesis

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Ok, so this is a slight cheat because I finished it Monday, but I know you’ll let me off, it’s been a long year and I’m only making myself problems for next week by doing this.

So as I said in my release day post, this is Alexa Martin’s latest book and it’s an enemies to lovers romance. Collins is back in her childhood bedroom after her professional life fell apart. On a trip to the coffee shop she runs into Nathaniel – her nemesis for years of high school. And it seems like nothing has changed – she’s still annoying him and he’s definitely still annoying her. And that’s how Collins ends up running against him to become president of the HOA of the subdivision she swore she would never come back to. Because they really, really hate each other – right?

I’ve already told you this is a romance, so you know they’re not going to hate each other by the end, and once you get past some pranking and mean behaviour towards each other (and you know I have a problems with pranks) it’s really good. I was a little worried about what the backstory was going to turn out to be on Collins and Nate in high school and how that could lead to a satisfying resolution but it actually worked really well in the end, for reasons that I can’t explain without it being a massive plot spoiler and you know I don’t do those.

I’ve been on a big old run of enemies to lovers contemporaries recently, and this is another good one to add to the list. I’m a Brit so Home Owners Associations are really not a thing here and only know them through books and home renovation shows when they are sucking their teeth about the HOA demanding they paint the house one of three colours or have dues that might affect whether buyers will go for a property, but I did really like the community that Collins is living in and her family are fun too.

I had my copy pre-ordered, so it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo and audiobook and paperback, although the price on Amazon suggests that it may be a US import rather than a UK version.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 20 – November 26

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Given that I went out three evenings last week – and had a busy weekend, I’m surprised the list is as long as it is! Anyway a fairly mystery heavy week of what there was. There’s less theatre and more train time this week, so we’ll see what that means for next week’s list!

Read:

False Colours by Georgette Heyer

He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr

Puppies in Paradise by Kathi Daley

The Poisoning in the Pub by Simon Brett

Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallery

The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters

Started:

Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter by Simon Brett

Still reading:

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

Three ebooks bought. Restrained…

Bonus photo: Christmas is coming and I have a tiny tree that came in the post as a gift!

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

theatre

Not A Book: Another Week in Theatre

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Ok, ok, this is starting to look a little like boasting, but these were the last things I had in the ticket box before Christmas so I’m going with it!

The first show of the week was Noises Off – again! Yes I only saw it at the start of the year, but it’s back in the West End for Christmas, with a slightly tweaked cast – with Tamzin Outhwaite, Matthew Horne and James Fleet joining Felicity Kendal, Alexander Hanson and the gang. This time I booked steaks tickets on the side that Lloyd-the-Director hangs out in during the first act, so that added a little some thing – and it’s still hilarious.

Tuesdaynight was a really last minute trip to see Private Lives – not the production that I saw at the Donmar Warehouse but one that had older leads with Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge as Elyot and Amanda before it closed this weekend. I still love the play – but this was the least favourite of the three productions of it that I’ve now seen ( and it should be noted that I loved the Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens so much I went twice) but it was interesting to see it done with a different age of cast.

And finally, no photo but on Thursday night we went to see some comedy – Dave Gorman at my local theatre’s and that was so, so, so funny. I nearly cried laughing at one point. If you’ve never seen Davec and his PowerPoints I thorough recommend him. I think this is the back end of this tour, but we’ve seen him before and he’s consistently very funny.

And that’s the lot, but it spreads feel like quite a lot – have a great Sunday everyone!

bookshelfies

Bookshelfie: Reorganisation o’clock

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Well hello everyone, happy Saturday. Now you may remember a few weeks back, I posted a picture of my newest bookshelf – up on the attic mini-landing. And having move a bunch of books up to that, that means I have some space on the downstairs bookshelves and now I have to do a(nother) rearrange. So these are the gappy before photos – I don’t have an after yet, but trust me it will come!

So you may recognise these two – this is the mostly mystery shelf and the twentieth century mystery shelf, but now the Agatha Christies and the Margery Allinghams are upstairs and there’s some space… The piles of books you see are a couple of books that my dad wants to read, a few that my sister wants to read and then some books that I need to find homes for amid the reshuffle – whether that’s in here or in the back room!

Now this is one that you won’t recognise – and it’s always been a bit of chaos but not like the chaos shelves out back, because the books are mostly hardbacks and mostly really quite new. It’s next to the nice hardback pile and you may notice that some of the books formerly on that pile are now on the shelf. And you’ll also spot a bit of duplication from the first photo, because yes, I own False Value twice – in signed hardback and in paperback. The Hardback is because I went to an event for the book launch with Ben Aaronovitch and wanted it signed as a memento, but I thought I would carry on buying in paperback to match the rest of my Rivers of London collection. So that’s what I did, except I’ve kept buying the hardbacks as the new ones have come out, and I couldn’t keep buying the paperbacks as well because that would be silly. So now I have to figure out what I’m going to do longer term about getting them all in the same place. And I have a bit of the same issue with Curtis Sittenfeld – when I first read her it was a proof copy of Eligible in giant paperback, then I went back for her previous books which were all in paperback and I’ve bought all the new stuff in hardback. So they don’t match, they aren’t the same size and my organisational instincts are at war: on the one hand, I want all the books by the same author together, but on the other, the different sizes look messy and mean than they have to go on a taller shelf and the paperbacks don’t need the headroom and I have other tall books that need the shelf space.

So I think you’re probably getting the idea that the reason that this doesn’t have any after pictures because this has the potential to turn into something really massive on the reorganisation front. And that makes me nervous. And it would make Him Indoors nervous if I told him about it. Which I haven’t and I won’t. It could also turn into another one of those moments where I do a bit of what my mum calls a rationalisation, but what other people might call a cull, aka getting rid of some books. I already only keep stuff that I think I’m going to want to read again or that has some sort of significance for me, but every time I do a reorganise I do try to reassess the books on the shelves and whether my feelings about them have changed. And sometimes they have and so off they go to the charity shop so that someone else can love them as much as I have. I may or may not tell you which ones go, and you may not be able to tell all of the choices that I make, because as you have discovered today, although I’ve posted a lot of pictures of my bookshelves, I’ve never shown you all of them and all the pictures have been taken at slightly different times and things move and they move often! I will keep you posted though…

Have a great weekend!

Authors I love, books, Series I love

Forty Years of Discworld

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It’s forty years today (24th November) since the very first Discworld book, The Colour of Magic was picked so for today’s Friday series post returning to one of my absolute all time favourites.

So I will admit that the early books of the series aren’t my favourites . Yes, I’ve reread them all, but I haven’t gone back to the first few any where near as many times as I have say, Going Postal or Guards, Guards. And if you’ve never read them, I do of course have a post for that – go and read my Where to Start with Discworld post. But that first book does introduce Rincewind, the incompetent “wizzard”, and the most famous trunk in literature, the Luggage. And although the social satire develops over the series, it’s here in embryonic form, as Twoflower introduces in-sewer-ants to Ankh Morpork, shortly followed by the first case of insurance fraud!

Book Four, Mort, is where I think it all kicks into gear as death and his white horse ride into the picture and in book six it’s the arrival of the witches and Granny Weatherwax. I’ve said before that the city-based and later books are my favourites, but really I find it hard to chose because they’re all old friends.

Back in the day, my sister and I used to fight to be the one who bought dad the new Discworld book for his Christmas book, and then we’d often read if before he did once it was unwrapped. And although it’s eight years since Sir Terry died, we have some new Discworld content this Christmas, because his daughter Rhianna and Gabrielle Kent have written Tiffany Aching’s Guide to being a Witch, which I haven’t seen yet but which I will probably buy at some point soon because I know what I’m like! Tiffany and the Wee Free Men were one of the brilliant final gifts Athert end of the series, and I’m interested to see what Rhianna has done with it all.

But basically the message of this is go read some Discworld, please and thank you!

Have a great weekend.

books

Out next week: Ruined

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This isn’t out until next week, but I really enjoyed it when I read it a couple of months back, and next week has a couple of books out, so I’m talking about it now, when you still might have time to pre-order a copy or ask your local comic book store to get you a copy. As you know I love a regency romance and I love a graphic novel, so this was pretty much ideal for me. It’s a Regency-set graphic novel that opens with a marriage of convenience (so much my jam) between Catherine, who has reputedly lost her virtue, and Andrew, who needs to marry a woman with a dowry for money to help fix the many problems on his estate. This is a delightful way to help fill in some time before the next series of Bridgerton hits our screens – or would serve as an introduction to graphic novels for people who have enjoyed the TV show (or in fact reading historical romance novels) but who haven’t previously consumed graphic novels. There’s no high peril – just two people in less than ideal situation and are now stuck with each other, but who work out that actually they might be the right fit for each other after all. What I also liked about this was that it left space for some of the secondary characters to get a bit of prominence, although I would maybe have liked a little bit more background to the main characters instead of one of the subplots. But I really liked the art and the whole feel of this. It’s quite open door though – like Bridgerton on TV – so go in aware of that. I would happily read more!

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Books with Thanksgiving in them

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I was going to call this Thanksgiving books, but that’s actually not what this is about. It’s Thanksgiving in the US tomorrow, so today I’m talking about books that feature it somehow, somewhere. And not gonna lie, it was harder than I was expecting, but I did find some more books to read while I was writing this!

Steven Rowley’s The Editor featured in my Kennedy-adjacent books post – which means I should probably mention that today is also sixty years since JFK was assassinated in Dallas – and in it, when James is struggling to get the ending right, his editor – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis suggests needs to spend more time with his mother, and that sends him home for Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, in Casey McQuiston’s Red, White and Royal Blue, the traditional Turkey pardoning ceremony plays a key role in the early stages of the romance between first son Alex and his royal crush Prince Henry.

Jackie Wong’s A Match Made for Thanksgiving is set at Canadian Thanksgiving which was a couple of weeks ago, but I’m not letting that stop me including it here! Any way our hero is Nick, whose parents and grandparents have invited blind dates for him and his siblings, and his brother’s date turns to be Nick’s latest one-night stand, Lily, who he just can’t get out of his head… I loved the nicking meddling family in this and, total bonus, it’s the first in a series of linked novellas.

Now I was convinced that I’d read loads of Thanksgiving-set cozy crimes, but when it came down to it, I really struggled to find them in my book lists but there is a Thanksgiving book in Kathi Daley’s Tj Jenson series. I haven’t read Thanksgiving in Paradise, which is the tenth and final book in the series, but I have read seven of the others, so I’m going to take a chance in it! Daley also has Thanksgiving books in her other series, but I haven’t read any of them to vouch for the series or the specific books! Likewise Leslie Meier also has a couple of thanksgiving books in her Lucy Stone series, but I’ve had a patchy record with them.

And that’s your lot! There isn’t a Thanksgiving Meg Langslow (yet!) – no matter how convinced I was that there was, but maybe I can wish it into being? I leave you with my favourite ever Thanksgiving content from the brilliant Addams Family Values:

Book of the Week, Book previews, books, books on offer, historical, new releases

Book of the Week: Silver Lady

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Back to historical romance this week – and this one isn’t actually out until next week, but I’ve already finished it, so I’m going with it today – sorry and all but you can at least preorder it if you like the sound of it.

Silver Lady is the first in a new series from Mary Jo Putney and is set in a lightly magical version of Regency Britain where some people are “gifted” – which means they have special skills that border on magic. Bran Tremayne is one of this – his powers of perception have made him an excellent investigator for the Home Office. But he finds himself drawn to Cornwall, where he was born before he was abandoned by his birth parents. When he is there he meets a mysterious woman who has had her memories suppressed. As she recovers her memories in his care, Bran discovers that Merryn is at the centre of a dangerous plot – can they survive the danger to get to a happy ending?

I mean it’s a romance novel, so I think you know the answer to that, but this is a fun read – it’s got some peril and adventure and the world building is pretty good – the “dangerous gifts” of the title are explained very well and naturally as part of the plot of the book . I’m not usually a lover of amnesia storylines, but this one makes sense within the framework that you’re given for the world and Merryn is less of a damsel in distress than I was expecting her to be. I’ve had a bit of a mixed record with Putney before, but I enjoyed this and will look out for the sequels when they come along.

Silver Lady is out next week – you can preorder it on Kindle and Kobo and if you’re in the US you should be able to get a paperback too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 13 – November 19

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Well, two nights at the theatre meant less time for reading, but I did finish a couple of things off and there’s an audiobook on there too as well as a comic, but actually it all worked out ok and I even think I have something to write about tomorrow!

Read:

Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth

Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh

Silver Lady by Mary Jo Putney*

The Stage Kiss by Amelia Jones*

Rare Flavours taster by Ram V et al

Fangirl: the Manga, vol 3 by Rainbow Rowell et al

Murder on the Caronia by Edward Marston

Started:

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin

Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallery

Still reading:

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

Two books and two ebooks and one ebook preorder

Bonus photo: Christmas decorations going up in Fitzroy square. What would Maisie Dobbs think I wonder.

*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: My Week in Theatre

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A bit of a change this week because I had two nights out at the theatre, both of which were great and both of which were sort of one off things. So I’m bundling them together today because I wanted to talk about them anyway!

So I started the week with a night out at the Jinkx and Dela Christmas show – I went last year and it was fab, and it was equally brilliant this year. BenDeLaCreme is my all time favourite from Drag Race and she and Jinkx Monsoon are a brilliant pair. This years show is a bit meta – they decide they don’t want to do a holiday show, but get trapped by the show and have to do it anyway to try and escape and it’s really a lot of fun. The UK dates are over now, but there’s nearly two dozen across the US before Christmas – and if they’re coming near to you it’s definitely worth the trip.

Tuesday night was Mandy Patinkin, doing a solo concert run in the West End for just under two weeks. I went because he’s a bit of a Broadway legend – Tony award for originating Che in Evita, original George from Sunday in the Park with George – and I like to see the big names from across the pond when they come over here if I possibly can, but I wasn’t expecting him to manage to make me cry – twice! It’s a really well put together show, with loads of songs, some you’ll have heard of, some you won’t (or at least I hadn’t) and it’s just him and his pianist and a chair (and a towel). That’s it. And yet his singing – even at seventy years old – can make you feel so much emotion. Really worth it, even though there is very little legroom in the side of the circle at the Lyric. So very little. I think it must have been where I saw Avenue Q with Him Indoors years ago where we were nearly late and the seats were so cramped that Him Indoors never managed to get into the spirit of the show. I won’t forget again…

I have two more trips planned this week – I’m making the most of the run in to Christmas while I can!

Have a great Sunday everyone.