Zoe Adams

3.75 stars. Ruth Jones' books are always extremely heart-warming, light-hearted, and engaging. There is not a huge amount of substance to them, but they are all slightly different, even if there are common themes (eg. a character struggling with weight/binging). I enjoyed this; it was nothing special, but it was a nice pick-me-up for a slow weekend.

This was readable. Just. The portrayal of autism was crude, the story predicable, and the entire thing speckled with odd sexual explicitness in random places.

This was readable. It was made more so by the excellent narration, but I found it fairly flat, predictable, and largely uninteresting.

I enjoyed the writing - there was a beautiful humour and irony in the writing that kept me interested despite what was, to be honest, a really slow and difficult story. I didn't enjoy this, even if I did appreciate the skill of the author. It just did absolutely nothing for me; I wasn't engaged; didn't care about the characters, and found myself desperate for it to finish.

3.25. This wasn't bad, it was certainly readable, and at times emotional. But I absolutely detested Autumn. She was incredibly arrogant and self-centred, and did not grow as as character. I disliked the way in which her disordered eaten was inter-woven into the story, as it was at times idealised, and normalised, while the suffering associated with eating disorders was down-played. While I could understand why some of the characters were far from perfect, I just found myself disgusted by some of their behaviour.

I was disappointed in this. I found it really hard to connect with the characters, and absolutely did not feel swept away by the love story at its heart. It was well-written, and not a bad novel, but it just didn't live up to its reviews.

This was better than I expected. I often find with these audible originals that they are a lot deeper than they appear. My only complaint with this was that it really needed to be longer to develop the characters and storyline. But by no means a bad listen.

This book confirmed that teenage boys are just horrible. I cannot understand the praise for this book. I found the whole thing shallow, and trite, and confirmed my worst suspicions about how teenage boys view the world - and women.

3.5 stars. Carley Fortune cannot write a bad novel. But this was not in the same league as her others. The problem was that this was a love story between two people in their early thirties. I thought this was great. But they were not written as if they were in their mid-thirties. They were shockingly immature, and spoke about each other - and other people - in the same way as would teenagers/people in their early twenties: ‘hot/cute guy' etc. I get that they were trying to recreate the summer from when they were seventeen, but the whole thing was just shallow. And I absolutely hate ‘bucket list' novels - it's a cheap plot device that allows an other to fit in loads of ‘exciting' scenes, with no need to try and link them together into a coherent narrative. Yes, Charlie grew on me. And yes, I did enjoy this book, and feel warm inside by the end. But it wasn't the same standard as fortune's other books, and overall, I felt disappointed.

3.5 stars. The concept behind this book was great. But it could have been (1) an exploration of identity, and how important names are to how we perceive ourselves, and how we are seen by others, and/or (2) an exploration of how apparently minor insignificant decisions, can have huge ramifications for many people. Had the book gone down the line of (1), I would have enjoyed it much more. But sadly, it went down (2), and so, ended up being less ground-breaking or original. I did still enjoy it, and for a debut, it showed amazing skill and some imagination. But I don't think it was worth the hype, as the execution did not live up to the potential of the concept.

I like this series. It's hugely derivative, and there are so so many series like this ‘i.e young female in 19th century/early 20th century Britain bucks gender norms, becomes an amateur sleuth, but happens to fall in love anyway' but it is well done, and fun. Nothing special. Not memorable. But fine.

2.5 stars.

This was a wonderful ending to what has been a fabulous quartet of novels. I applaud John Boyne for the genius behind these four novels, whose brilliance and beauty can only really be appreciated by taking in all four together. After all, none of them are ‘nice' books, and some of them are down-right disturbing and uncomfortable. But the themes they explore, and the beauty of the writing, are just breath-taking - and this final instalment really tied them all together beautifully.

This was definitely a book of two halves. The first half was a light-hearted, fun, and well-written ‘comedy/satire' that I loved. The second half was just plain bizarre, and because it turned into more of a thriller, made the first half seem, in retrospect, poor taste.

I'm not sure what to make of Sally Hepworth. Two of her books were absolutely brilliant, but more recently, they seem to be ridiculous melodrama, with completely hollow characters and stupid story-lines - and this is a case in point.

3.75 stars. I'm a huge fan of Frear's ‘Cat Kinsella' novels, and really enjoyed this stand alone. I figured out the ‘who' fairly early on, but the ‘how' and ‘why' kept me guessing throughout. While I'm not a thriller fan, I like the human element to Frear's books, and find them pleasantly well written and engaging.

This was so much fun. There was lots of historical detail here - which I loved - and I know from my own research into the history of medicine was accurate. I loved how that was just the backdrop to a character-driven novel that had humour, tension, and intrigue. Great first novel.

This was unexpectedly thought-provoking, and well-written. I do not like ‘religious' books, but this cleverly drew parallels between modern celebrity culture and the religious culture of ‘saint-hood', while also exposing well the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

This was a very different book by Emily Henry. While I was fine with that, I wish Henry, and her publishers had felt confident to be upfront with the fact it was a different type of book, rather than trying to market it as another of her rom-coms. Either way, I like that the main characters are all very different in her books - real people - and I enjoyed the mystery element to this. I'm not sure it was my favourite by her, but as always, it's a warm, reliable, read.

3.75 stars. This was well-written, and dealt with a really challenging issue. There was nothing wrong with it, but nor was it particularly memorable.

The author did an excellent job with such a difficult topic. It was the most realistic and nuanced portrayal of complex PTSD (or PTSD in general) I have read. While I do not suffer from this, there were other aspects of the book that made me feel seen. While by no means a nice read, I found this very moving and well done.

3.75/4 stars. I enjoyed this a lot, and I think my rating reflects the fact that it wasn't making the ‘point' I hoped it would make. It didn't explore the challenge of being single in a world that expects coupleness to the extent I hoped it would. It was much more about finding your sense of self after a break up. However, I did enjoy it, it was well-written, and it explored some themes about societal pressures in a nuanced way.

This was vile, pointless, outrageous - and while I stuck with it on the naive assumption that there was a deeper point to it all, there wasn't. I will never understand what motivates authors to write books like this. I do get the basic point - and the oppression of women came through very clearly, as well as the subtle ways in which it expresses itself - but I still don't think a lot of this was necessary.

3.75 stars. This series is light-hearted, well-written, and just a lot of fun. I knew it would be a cliff hanger at the end, and couldn't help smile when it was.

I appreciated this, and did find some of this beautifully written, and moving. But I don't quite get the hype.