Suzi

This was great!! A funny, quick and quirky account of England's monarchs.

David Mitchell narrates it himself which is even better!

I was hesitant to pick up books by this author as the hype was SO high, however I eventually caved and I'm so glad I did.

I absolutely loved this from start to finish!

I'm a sucker for a small town romance, and this had all the things I love about them - friends, found family, cute animals, and a history to the place. And Daniel?! Is he just the most perfect man? 💕

I also really loved the inclusion of the heavier, more serious topics of domestic abuse, escaping abuse cycles, familial expectation and finding your own purpose in life.

Definitely one of my favourites of the year and I'd already bought the next 2 books before I'd finished this one! 😊

I wasn't sure if this was going to live up to the first series for me but I'm happy to report that it did!!

I loved the relationship between Gigi and Ryder, as well as the drama and tension with other elements of the story.

Moving onto The Dixon Rule very soon!

It's very rare I physically read non-fiction but I couldn't find this on audio anywhere and was so interested in the case I just had to buy it.

The murder-suicide case of the two white mothers and their 6 adopted Black and bi-racial children is obviously the big pull of this book, it's unfathomable as a parent that people would actually go through the process of adopting children and then kill them and themselves.

That said, the case takes up less than half of the book with the rest being focused on the failings of the US CPS and foster system for these children and others.

This is very readable and, whilst I can't really comment on a legal system I don't have any experience of, it was still an interesting read overall.

I see there are reviews from people much more familiar with the CPS and foster system so worth checking their reviews out.

DNF @ 38%

This was just not for me at all.

I'm not a big fan of "vibes over plot" books and this seemed to be one of them.

The narrator was also very one note which made this seem even more boring.

There is no reason in any universe that this needed to be over 700 pages.

It could have been halved and still have been effective. It was just so repetitive and dragged out, I was honestly bored out of my mind for the middle 300 pages that I put it down for a few weeks.

The start was good and the end was good, and I'm glad we finally got the happy ending but I'm disappointed with not liking this as much as the first 2 MP books. 😕

That said, I can't wait for the next Daisy book!

With how much people rave about this author's books, I honestly expected more.

This felt like watching a movie where you started it half an hour in - there was so little setup I felt like I'd missed something and felt completely detached from the characters.

It was easy enough to get through but felt a bit flat and predictable. I also felt like the end was weird and like it was stuck on to try and appease people who sympathise with terrorists, it just felt odd and out of place.

Also, must there be a grown man called 'Big Daddy'? No.

This was definitely a sloooooow burn, so slow it did feel like it was dragging at times.

I will say I didn't see the final reveal coming so that was an improvement, but it was a bit of a slog to get there.