Suzi

This was reading like a 3 star for most of it but I must admit the ending did hit for me! I liked how it all tied up, after finding parts of it slightly annoying and worthy of an eye roll.

This wasn't bad by any means but compared to the first two books it just left me disappointed. I did find the dog sledding interesting but at points it felt like info dumps, and it was so slow paced I just lost interest along the way.

DNF @ 48%

I've been a long time fan of Karin Slaughter and love everything she writes but this one just didn't work for me. It was too slow and didn't grab me enough to keep going with it.

A fun and quick return to Lockwood and the Fairways Players, and another mystery to solve.

I think given how short this is, it's definitely worth reading The Appeal first. Although there's no link in the stories/mystery, knowing a bit about the town, the characters and the history of the drama club will be useful otherwise it could feel a bit underdeveloped.

I'm actually surprised I've managed to avoid spoilers for this since it's so popular, but I only figured out the big twist just before it was revealed at the start of part 2.

This was a quick, east thriller and it was exactly what I wanted to read so was a hit for me.

Ugh this one just did not work for me at all.

I've read all of the DI Luc Callanach series and loved it, and I've also read the second book featuring Connie Woolwine and enjoyed that but I really disliked this one. The characters were unlikeable, the villain was unbelievable and I felt no compulsion to pick it back up which is a bad sign.

I'll definitely keep reading from this author as this was just an odd one out.

This one didn't work for me in the end.

The short, snappy sentences and thoughts could be effective if used every so often, but the entire books is written in that style and quickly became irritating and I struggled to connect even by the end.

4.5 stars

This was so good!!

I've read books with mixed media before but never where the book is entirely in different formats. I did wonder if it would suffer from a lack of description but it was so engrossing it didn't feel like it was affected.

I really liked the twists and how this played out at the end. I did guess some of the reveals part way through but it was still fun to see it all unfold.

My only gripe with this is how much these people emailed each other when it's absolutely not necessary. There are sections where they are messaging each other by text then will switch to email, which just doesn't make sense, why not just keep texting? Especially when it's between husband and wife. Just a bit odd.

DNF @ 42%

I've read a lot of Tessa Bailey's books and loved most of them, but this is absolutely the worst I've read from her. It doesn't even seem like it's written by the same person.

The characters are insufferable, their relationship and dialogue insanely cringe worthy and the story is nonsense.

It's also barely about Christmas so the title and cover are a stretch.

Super cute and surprisingly more emotional than I expected!

I also didn't realise this was later in a series but definitely didn't feel like I had missed anything by not reading the earlier books. In fact, I'm now looking forward to going back and starting from book 1!

After loving all of Catherine Cowles' books, I'm sad this one didn't work for me.

I always love the small town atmosphere and the family interactions, but in this one I just felt like Nash was way too overprotective, to the point of it being ridiculous, and I just felt like Maddie was a nothing character, we got nothing from her apart from feeling scared and needing Nash.

I'll still continue with the series but this one was a miss.

This was cute!!

I liked the build up and learning about the character's backstories, and I liked that they're 35-40. Their relationship felt believable and wasn't too ‘instalove' even though its a novella.

The thing I didn't like is one of my pet hates in romances and Talia did this a few times - where one character assumes something the other character says or thinks and doesn't speak to them for a while instead of just asking. Drives me mad!!

Other than that, it was an impressive debut and I'll be reading the next in the series.

So I mostly liked this, but really had some issues with how it was written.

The best parts of this are the jigsaw element of the story, which was a fun and quite unique way of revealing the mystery, and Edie herself as a character. She dislikes a lot (including Christmas) and is prickly most of the time, but it was still quite enjoyable to read from her point of view. Riga also had some great one liners.

Some of the issues I had were with the extraneous details like the near constant references to Edie's ex which added absolutely nothing to the story, the overly stereotypical characters in the police team and the odd parts which just didn't sit well in the story such as how when Sean (Edie's nephew/adopted son) was kidnapped they were just casually getting food from the buffet at a Christmas party and when the killer tries to poison Edie, but then Edie ends up giving her communion in a hooded robe? It was just so odd.

DNF @ page 146.

I just cannot bring myself to read another page of this.

Unlikable characters, very questionable relationships, meandering chapters and utterly pretentious writing.

Life is too short to read 500 page books which require constant Googling for ridiculous words used for no apparent reason.

4.5 stars rounded up

Is it even Christmas without a Sarah Morgan Christmas book?!

Aw I loved this, there's something so comforting about Sarah's books, I can just feel the cosiness of the hotel and the library being described. I always love the characters and the relationships and this was no different.

I think my top SM Christmas books are The Christmas Sisters and One More for Christmas, but this is tied after those with Snowed in for Christmas. All amazing and well worth a festive read.

This was good!!

I really liked the unique world this is set in, the different groups of people based on the different blood colours and I really enjoyed the trials and the ‘bloodwerk'.

Whilst Sylah was quite unlikable for the start of the book, Anoor made up for it with her bright and funny character and I liked the relationship between the two.

The twists towards the end of the book really setup the next one well and I'm excited to get to it soon.

An absolute must read, totally eye opening and disturbing but very important.

This was one of the oldest books on my Kindle and TBR, and it has a rubbish cover, so I didn't expect much from it but I was surprisingly good!

The writing was so compulsively readable that I just couldn't stop reading. It could be a storyline in a soap it was that ridiculous but good!

I'll be looking for more from this author after this little hidden gem!

A short, sweet second chance romance in Cuba. Very enjoyable and makes me excited to read more from this author.

After absolutely loving The Simple Wild and Wild at Heart, I knew I had to try more from K.A. Tucker and I'm happy to say I loved this, not quite as much but still definitely a massive hit for me.

I loved the characters, the side characters, the setting, the build up to the romance and I also loved that the ‘spice' just wasn't the main focus.

While I did enjoy this, for nearly the entire book I was wondering how this was going to be a 5 book series. It had a ‘middle book' feel but it's only book 2, then the ending happened. Such a good ending and massive twist for the next book.

I will say that the arguments  between Violet and Xaden became annoyingly repetitive but I do like both characters together and and apart so hopefully that doesn't continue in the next book.

Absolutely nuts and unbelievable but totally gripping and hard to stop once started! Definitely recommend the audio with January LaVoy narrating.

4.5 stars!

So twisty and so good! This was brilliant, especially on audio as the narrator does southern accents brilliantly.

4.5 stars

Not my favourite in the series but for the 19th book in a series to still be this good and for them to be so consistently good is an achievement in itself.

I've read quite a few nonfiction books about women in history and their lack of rights to literally anything, but every time I'm still absolutely baffled how much women were so completely ruled by men. By law, women were nothing and had nothing, not even the right or custody of their own children.

This is the story of Elizabeth Packard who was branded insane and put into an asylum solely on the word of her husband, who she had been married to for over 20 years and had children with, because she had the audacity to think for herself (the horror!) and have a difference of opinion about her religious beliefs. I kid you not.

The rest of the book follows her fight to get out of the asylum, make people aware of the abuse women had to endure, eventually change the law and ultimately get back to her children. She was simply amazing and I loved learning her story and what she achieved.

I actually can't believe that piece of sh*t husband had the balls to stick around after everything he put her through and she let him!! But I suppose it was a different time and it would have been another battle to get a divorce.

My only issue with the book is that it's too long, if I hadn't have been listening on audio I would have struggled with the length.