Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga where we share books we’ve bought or received this week. Find out more and join in here!
Hi everyone! It’s time for another stacking the shelves and I really need to slow down my book buying because there’s even more this week! I also received a couple of gifts which are lovely.
A seasonal Poirot and Marple short story collection that includes: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding; The Mystery of the Spanish Chest; The Under Dog; Four and Twenty Blackbirds; The Dream; and Greenshaw’s Folly.
When Alice Ascher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already on to the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it’s one down, twenty-five to go. There’s a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway guide beside each victim’s body. But if A is for Alice Asher, bludgeoned to death in Andover; and B is for Betty Bernard, strangled with her belt on the beach at Bexhill; then who will Victim C be?
The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…
Motives for Murder: A fortune in uncut diamonds, hidden by an eccentric old man. A woman’s love, too freely given. A business empire built on ruthlessness. Each of them may have been a motive for the brutal slaying of wealthy old Simeon Lee. Coupled with Lee’s family, each member of which hated him and wished to see him dead, they presented Hercule Poirot with a baffling challenge–one which the astute detective solved only through his uncanny ability to see “the little things.”
The only books I’ve bought this week are Agatha Christie books to complete my collection of these stunning hardback clothbound classics. I’m so happy I’ve got this whole set now!
I was sent a copy of Room to Dream by Knights Of, which is the third book in the Front Desk series, which I haven’t read yet but I really want to! Thank you to the publisher for this one.
Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. They are about to embark on the summer before senior year of high school, where each is going on a new, big adventure. Reese is attending a design school in Paris. Gabriel is going to Boston to volunteer with a environmental nonprofit. Sal is interning on Capitol Hill for a U.S. Senator. And Heath is stuck going to Daytona Beach to help out at his aunt’s beachfront arcade. What will this summer of new experiences and world-expanding travel mean for each of them—and for their friendship?
I also received a copy of Golden Boys by Phil Stamper. I still haven’t read a Phil Stamper book but I’d really like to! Thank you to the publisher for this one too!
Hi everybody! It’s time to tell you all my TBR for February, which I’m very excited for! If you didn’t know, I have a Youtube channel which I play a mini golf game to decide what I read. If you want to check out the video, I’ll leave a link below for you to give it a watch! Most of the books I’m going to talk about today were decided by this game.
Wren Greenrock has always known that one day she would steal her sister’s place in the palace. Trained from birth to return to the place of her parents’ murder and usurp the only survivor, she will do anything to rise to power and protect the community of witches she loves. Or she would, if only a certain palace guard wasn’t quite so distractingly attractive, and if her reckless magic didn’t have a habit of causing trouble… Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility. Marriage into a brutal kingdom awaits, and she will not let a small matter like waking up in the middle of the desert in the company of an extremely impertinent (and handsome) kidnapper get in the way of her royal duty. But life outside the palace walls is wilder and more beautiful than she ever imagined, and the witches she has long feared might turn out to be the family she never knew she was missing. Two sisters separated at birth and raised into entirely different worlds are about to get to know each other’s lives a whole lot better. But as coronation day looms closer and they each strive to claim their birthright, the sinister Kingsbreath, Willem Rathborne, becomes increasingly determined that neither will succeed. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown?
I’ve had a beautiful proof copy of this for a while already and I’m so excited to finally pick it up!
Remember a time before cell phones could be found in every pocket? Or when even accessing the world wide web was something only readily available in a library? Back then letters still filled up postboxes and moments just felt so much more precious when captured on Polaroid film. Now life seems to move at the speed of light. Our memories are captured and shared with the world on social media platforms. And love, which is already capricious, can feel like it is moving at terminal velocity.
I’m so happy that I picked this up in my tbr game as I’m hoping to do a themed reading vlog including this book! I’m also hoping to watch the film later this month after reading this book.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.| Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
I wasn’t necessarily planning on reading this series, but it fit some of my prompts perfectly in the game, so here we are! I’m going to be buddy reading this one with Alex which I’m excited for.
Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza’s impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again. When Fermina’s husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?
Mark picked this one out for me at Christmas and I’m going to be filming a reading vlog including this one too.
As part of the same Christmas video, Mark bought me the 5th and 6th books in the Noughts and Crosses series which I’ll also be reading in the vlog! I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes.
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back – and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley, but their hopes are dashed as Lennie – struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy – becomes a victim of his own strength.
Mark also bought me this one, which I’ve actually never read and I’m excited (and nervous) to finally pick it up!
There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. It’s not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It’s the other house – the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.
I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane late last year and loved it, so Mark also bought me Coraline to carry on with Neil Gaiman books!
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga where we share books we’ve bought or received this week. Find out more and join in here!
Hi all! I’ve definitely been bad (or good) this week with my book buying. I’ve been lucky enough to have quite a few books gifted to me, but I also found some limited editions I’ve really wanted for a while!
Taking place in the years between VICIOUS and VENGEFUL, ExtraOrdinary follows the tale of a teenage girl named Charlotte Tills who following a fatal bus crash, seemingly dies only to wake up to discover she has become an EO — a person with ExtraOrdinary abilities. In Charlotte’s case, it’s the ability to see people’s deaths, but when she looks into her own future, sees her own murder at the hands of the self-proclaimed hero and notorious EO killer Eli Ever, who is currently in prison for the murder of Victor Vale. Refusing to accept her fate, Charlotte sets off to find–and change–her future–before it comes for her.
I’ve been collecting editions of Extraordinary by V.E. Schwab and I keep coming across new beautiful covers! I bought these two from Forbidden Planet.
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, one cold morning in 1945, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Julián Carax. Captivated by the novel from its very first page, Daniel reads the book in one sitting. But he is not the only one interested in Carax. As he grows up in a Barcelona still suffering the aftershocks of a violent civil war, Daniel is haunted by the story of the author, a man who seems to have disappeared without trace after a duel in Père Lachaise cemetery. Then one night, in the old streets of the city centre, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from ‘The Shadow of the wind’, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax’s works in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julián Carax, and to save those he left behind.
I visited Hay-on-Wye earlier this week and came across a first edition hardback of this book which I’ve wanted to read for so long. I felt lucky to come across this one in pretty good condition for a really good price so I couldn’t resist picking it up!
First, there were ten a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.
I also came across this Agatha Christie, which is part of the set I’ve been collecting.
There’s a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter… It’s the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fireplace with this winter-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers.
I also picked this one up to add to the set which is so pretty!
Witty, intelligent Elizabeth Bennet has no desire for a marriage of convenience. And when she meets the handsome, wealthy Mr Darcy, her opinion of him is quickly set: he is aloof, selfish and proud – the last man in the world she would ever marry. Until their paths cross again, and again, and the pair begin to realise that first impressions can be flawed… But as Elizabeth and Darcy become entangled in a dance through the strict hierarchies of society, will there be space for true love to bloom?
I was also sent quite a few proofs this week, including this Pride and Prejudice retelling by Laura Wood that’s also dyslexia friendly! Thank you to Barrington Stoke for this one!
Bailey and Vanessa shared everything: laughter, secrets, and packets of Pop Rocks to ward off bad days. But that all changed the night Vanessa left Bailey’s, headed for home, and ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions, and the only person with answers is gone. To help grieve her loss, Bailey creates a chat bot of Vanessa using years’ worth of their shared text messages and emails. The more data she uploads to the bot, the more it feels like she’s really talking to her best friend. That is, until the bot starts dropping hints that there was more going on with Vanessa than Bailey realized–a secret so big, it may have contributed to Vanessa’s death.
Harper 360 sent me a few books too, including this one which I can’t wait for as it sounds so interesting.
Overachiever Luz “Lulu” Zavala has straight As, perfect attendance, and a solid ten-year plan. First up: nail her interview for a dream internship at Stanford, the last stop on her school’s cross-country collegeroad trip. The only flaw in her plan is Clara, her oldest sister, who went off to college and sparked a massive fight with their overprotective Peruvian mom, who is now convinced that out-of-state-college will destroy their family. If Lulu can’t fix whatever went wrong between them, the whole trip—and her future—will be a waste. Middle sister Milagro wants nothing to do with college, or a nerdy class field trip. Then a spot opens up on the trip just as her own Spring Break plans (Operation: Lose Your Virginity) are thwarted, and she hops on the bus with her glittery lipsticks, more concerned about getting back at her ex than she is about schools or any family drama. But the trip opens her eyes about possibilities she’d never imagined for herself. Maybe she is more than the boy-crazy girl everyone seems to think she is. On a journey from Baltimore all the way to San Francisco, Lulu and Milagro will become begrudging partners as they unpack weighty family expectations, uncover Clara’s secrets, and maybe even discover the true meaning of sisterhood.
Harper 360 also sent me a proof copy of this one, thank you!
Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one—in part because she hasn’t been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful magical family in town and casual breaker of hearts and destroyer of dreams. But when a spellcasting tournament that her family serves as arbiters for approaches, it turns out the pull of tradition (or the truly impressive parental guilt trip that comes with it) is strong enough to bring Emmy back. She’s determined to do her familial duty; spend some quality time with her best friend, Linden Thorn; and get back to her real life in Chicago. On her first night home, Emmy runs into Talia Avramov—an all-around badass adept in the darker magical arts—who is fresh off a bad breakup . . . with Gareth Blackmoore. Talia had let herself be charmed, only to discover that Gareth was also seeing Linden—unbeknownst to either of them. And now she and Linden want revenge. Only one question stands: Is Emmy in? But most concerning of all: Why can’t she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?
And last but not least, my lovely friend Amy gave me this one, which I’ve had my eye on for a while! Thank you Amy!
To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight. The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can’t put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom—and the world.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is one of those books I wanted to like so, so badly. I’ve had mixed experience with Mafi’s books – from being disappointed by Shatter Me but absolutely loving A Very Large Expanse of Sea. I decided to pick this one up due to the intriguing synopsis and some great blurbs from some of my favourite authors such as Cassandra Clare and Leigh Bardugo.
Sadly this book just ended up being okay for me. I read 400 out of the 495 pages in just one day, so I must say this one was an easy read and was compelling enough for me to continue. But I also feel like I could summarise the plot in a few sentences. What I expected to happen by a quarter of the way through the book happened three quarters of the way through, and I feel like most of the book was summarised in the synopsis itself.
I did really like Alizeh’s character and she had a strong identity which I loved, and she felt like a strong female lead. I wasn’t a big fan of Kamran and I do feel like Mafi struggles to write male characters that I have any sympathy with. Their romance felt very insta-love to me which I also struggled to enjoy reading about.
The part of the book that probably turned out to be my favourite was the world building, and I liked the fantasy elements a lot. It felt like a really unique fantasy in a lot of ways and elements such as the language felt really natural and genuine.
Overall, this one was definitely mixed but I enjoyed it, it just didn’t blow me away.
Hi all! I know it’s a bit late to set reading goals for the year now, but there’s a few that I’ve been thinking about and wanting to write down for you guys and we’re still early on enough in the year in my opinion!
Looking quickly at my 2021 resolutions, I actually managed to stay fairly on track last year. I read way over 100 books (183!), read more series on my tbr, read more classics and stayed mostly organised. I didn’t, however, stop buying books, and that one will be a goal I carry on to this year for sure! With that, let’s get onto my goals for 2022.
Read 150 books
I smashed it last year with 183, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself to read more than that as I really don’t know what this year holds. So I’m going to aim for less but still a very significant number of 150!
Finish series I’m part of the way through
I definitely want to continue reading more series on my tbr, but I’d also like to have a more focused goal of finishing series that I’m part of the way through, even if that means re-reading books earlier on in the series. Alex has been a big help in buddy reading some of these with me so we can smash them off both of our tbrs!
Read older books on my tbr
Obviously we all like to read books we’ve just bought and are excited about, but I definitely have some that have been on my tbr for years that I really need to get around to! Playing my tbr game once a month on my YouTube channel definitely helps me pick out books I wouldn’t usually.
Stop buying so many books!
As I said, this is definitely a goal I need to continue on from last year. I tracked my book buying in 2021, and it’s made me much more aware of how much I buy and how much money I spend. I’ve got to the point where I need to slow down more for space than anything, because I’m severely lacking in that! I currently have 134 books on my physical tbr, which is 27 more than this time last year. I’d like to end the year on less if I can!
Stay on top of my blog and BookTube
I love writing for this blog and making content for my more recent BookTube channel, but sometimes it’s hard to find the time for everything on top of my degree and working two jobs! But with some good organisation and list-making, I can definitely keep posting consistently.
Mirabelle has always known she is a monster. When the glamour protecting her unusual family from the human world is torn and an orphaned brother and sister stumble upon Rookhaven, Mirabelle soon discovers that friendship can be found in the outside world. But as something far more sinister comes to threaten them all, it quickly becomes clear that the true monsters aren’t necessarily the ones you can see.
This book reminded me of a younger version of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and had a lot of gothic/horror aspects that still felt applicable for the age group. This one is a middle grade book following a house known as Rookhaven, where Mirabelle lives with her family. The family are monsters, and each have something that makes them unique.
The family are exiled from the local village, looked down upon by humans and protected from the outside world by a veil. But one day, a crack in the veil allows two humans, Jem and Tom, to break through and end up staying in the house with the family.
I really liked the growing friendship between Jem and Mirabelle, who end up being some of our main characters alongside a human from the local village and Piglet, one of the monsters. The friendship between the two girls represent a growing bond and understanding between the humans and monsters, and was super interesting to read about in this fantasy landscape.
The setting was a lot of fun to read about and it definitely didn’t feel small in the way it is contained within the house and the local village. The story is complimented beautifully with illustrations from Edward Bettison and I added an extra layer of chilling atmosphere.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend this one for any ages, but it definitely has a childlike wonder alongside being deliciously dark!
THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED… The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise. WHO WILL CRUMBLE? Kell – once assumed to be the last surviving Antari – begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive? WHO WILL RISE? Lila Bard, once a commonplace – but never common – thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible. WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL? And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.
This book is the final and concluding in a 3 part series from V.E. Schwab, and one I’ve been meaning to read for a very long time. I’ve been listening to this entire series partly on audiobook and partly reading the physical copies, and I have to say the audiobooks improved drastically as the series went on. I also read these with Alex, and it was great to have the motivation to read these as the last one is particularly chunky!
I really loved how the plots varied throughout this whole series. The first one was so different it almost stood as a standalone, and the other two seemed to have a more continuous plot, but still felt separate enough to keep things interesting. It definitely meant the whole series kept a fast pace and felt interesting throughout, rather than one feeling like a bridge book between the other two.
“Love and loss,” he said, “are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose.
I loved the characters and I definitely grew closer to them as the series went on, but it was also the most disappointing part for me. I just felt like I could have had an ever so slightly closer connection to them, and I just wanted to feel more emotion towards them in parts when I really felt like I should have done. I still loved the characters, but I couldn’t help but compare them to Six of Crows, another third person point of view fantasy with a found family aspect.
This last book did feel quite long, but it was well balanced. In places it almost felt like it was a little too long, but it definitely didn’t feel like a slog or a struggle to read in any way. The writing was absolutely amazing and was probably my favourite aspect of the entire series – these books have some brilliant quotes!
But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be.”
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed reading this series but it didn’t quite reach 5 stars for me because I wanted to feel slightly more emotional than I did. However, I’d still highly recommend them!
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga where we share books we’ve bought or received this week. Find out more and join in here!
Hi everyone! After a few weeks of being pretty good with book buying, I’ve started buying some more again. I’ve realised that every January I seem to be collecting new sets – last year I collected the Wordsworth set, and this year I’ve started collecting…Agatha Christie books!
I’ve wanted to read Agatha Christie for a while and I have a few friends who love her books. I just wasn’t sure which set to start collecting, and then I spotted the absolutely beautiful HarperCollins hardback clothbound collection. I’ve managed to buy the few on this list and I’m hoping to get some more in the next few weeks.
Elspeth McGillicuddy is not given to hallucinations. Until she witnesses a murder at Paddington Station. But did she? No victim, no suspect, no other witnesses. In fact no one believes it really happened at all. Except her friend Miss Jane Marple, and she’s returning to the scene of the crime to discover just exactly what Mrs. McGillicuddy saw.
When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again – for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board…
An all-new collection of summer-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the holiday season. Summertime – as the temperature rises, so does the potential for evil. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, whether against a background of Delphic temples or English country houses, Agatha Christie’s most famous characters solve even the most devilish of conundrums as the summer sun beats down. Pull up a deckchair and enjoy plot twists and red herrings galore from the bestselling fiction writer of all time.
Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again.
The original weekday murder club. ‘Well,’ said Joyce, ‘it seems to me we are a pretty representative gathering. How would it be if we formed a Club? What is today? Tuesday? We will call it The Tuesday Night Club. It is to meet every week, and each member in turn has to propound a problem. Some mystery of which they have personal knowledge, and to which, of course, they know the answer.’ Two years before The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie first introduced the world to Jane Marple and the stories of murder and intrigue told by each member of the Tuesday Night Club. Time and time again, crimes so wicked they have confounded even Scotland Yard’s finest are solved by St Mary Mead’s sharpest mind and everyone’s favourite armchair detective.
This is no ordinary apocalypse… Hannah Ashton wakes up to silence. The entire city around her is empty, except for one other person: Leo Sterling. Leo might be hottest boy ever (and not just because he’s the only one left), but he’s also too charming, too selfish, and too devastating for his own good, let alone Hannah’s. Stuck with only each other, they explore a world with no parents, no friends, and no school and realize that they can be themselves instead of playing the parts everyone expects of them. Hannah doesn’t have to be just an overachieving, music-box-perfect ballerina, and Leo can be more than a slacker, 80s-glam-metal-obsessed guitarist. Leo is a burst of honesty and fun that draws Hannah out, and Hannah’s got Leo thinking about someone other than himself for the first time. Together, they search for answers amid crushing isolation, but while their empty world may appear harmless . . . it’s not. Because nothing is quite as it seems, and if Hannah and Leo don’t figure out what’s going on, they might just be torn apart forever.
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was a little hesitant going into this one as it sounded a little cliche, and I wasn’t wrong. This book felt very teen to me, and was definitely something I would have enjoyed more if I was younger, so I would definitely recommend this one for a pre-teen/young teen audience.
This book is told in alternate points of view and flicks between our two main characters, Hannah and Leo. Both of the characters have awoken in a world where they are the only two people left, and they have no idea why. 5 days later, at the start of this book, they stumble across one another and find they’re not alone in the world.
Sometimes it’s easier to be strong
One of my major concerns going into this story was that Hannah and Leo would be overly characterised, and they definitely were. Hannah was very much a ‘Ballet Chick’ (and was literally referred to as this by Leo on multiple occasions) and whenever Leo was shocked by something Hannah said or did, I almost rolled my eyes. Leo was the classic ‘Bad Boy’ with softer undertones that Hannah wasn’t expecting. As I said, this was something I would have probably looked over as a younger reader but did slightly annoy me as an adult.
The most intriguing part of this book was definitely the whole apocalypse. I was so intrigued to find out why Hannah and Leo had been left as the last people on earth, and this book kept pulling me in by teasing what could be happening. Without spoiling any of the book, I was a little concerned about where this could have been going but I actually quite liked the ending and felt like it was done quite well.
if someone else is showing cracks.
Overall, this was definitely mixed but I did enjoy reading it and I liked it, I just didn’t fall head over heels for it. If it sounds like something you’d like, I would definitely recommend it, just be aware that it does read a little younger in my opinion!
Hi everyone! I’m a little late in posting this but it’s time for my December Wrap-Up. I read 18 books in December which I’m super proud of as it was a super busy month for me as usual with a lot of work and assignments. You can also watch this as a video, which I’ll link below.
Do you dare read this collection of terrifyingly gruesome tales? In this gripping volume, author Jen Campbell offers young readers an edgy, contemporary, and inclusive take on classic fairy tales, taking them back to their gory beginnings while updating them for a modern audience with queer and disabled characters and positive representation of disfigurement. Featuring fourteen short stories from China, India, Ireland, and across the globe, The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers is an international collection of the creepiest folk tales. Illustrated with Adam de Souza’s brooding art, this book’s style is a totally original blend of nineteenth-century Gothic engravings meets moody film noir graphic novels. Headlined by the Korean tale of a carnivorous child, The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers is a truly thrilling gift for brave young readers.
Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. So, when Cal pulls into campus late for class, and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch school and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Why did they stop hanging out, anyway? As soon as they pull out of the parking lot Cal knows why. Ivy’s already freaking out about missing class, and heartthrob Mateo is asleep in the backseat, too cool to even pretend like he wants to be there. The truth is they have nothing in common anymore. At least they don’t until they run into the fourth student ditching school that day. Brian “Boney” Mahoney is supposed to be accepting his newly won office of class president. Which is why Ivy follows him into an empty building, only to walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They’re all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all.
When three very different siblings, Fern, Rowan and Willow, go home for a Christmas reunion at their family home in Edinburgh, it’s not long before some VERY BIG SECRETS threaten their cosy holiday … The McAllister house on Arboretum Road has seen 120 Christmases since its completion. This year, FERN is bringing her gorgeous boyfriend home and she wants everything to be perfect. But her twin brother ROWAN would rather go on the pull than pull crackers with the family. And their younger sister WILLOW is terrified of Christmas Day. With FOUR sleeps till Christmas, THREE secretive siblings, TWO hot houseguests, And ONE juicy secret … This Christmas, there will be some BIG surprises under the tree. Sometimes at Christmas, you don’t get what you want, you get what you need…
Adam Stillwater is in over his head. At least, that’s what his best friend would say. And his mom. And the guy who runs the hardware store down the street. But this pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he’s determined to protect it from Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés. Whitney Mitchell doesn’t know how she got here. Her parents split up. She lost all her friends. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she’s spending her senior year running social media for her dad’s chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town. But when a huge snowstorm hits, Adam and Whitney suddenly find themselves trapped inside the arcade. Cut off from their families, their worlds, and their responsibilities, the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place. But what happens when the storm stops?
Love, literature, friendship, music, carnival, travel, dance, work, nature, food – Black Joy can be found in so many places. Edited by award-winning journalist Charlie Brinkhust-Cuff and up-and-coming talent Timi Sotire, join twenty-eight inspirational voices in this uplifting and empowering anthology as they come together to celebrate being Black British, sharing their experiences of joy and what it means to them.
An unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band–and meeting the man who would become her husband–her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
Taken from the poverty of her parents’ home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle’s absence in Antigua, the Crawford’s arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen’s first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.
North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. Black people have begun building a community of their own, a refuge from the shadow of the old life. It is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters: Meg, a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own. Jo, a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained. Beth, a talented seamstress searching for a higher purpose. Amy, a dancer eager to explore life outside her family’s home. As the four March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons. But they will face it all together.
In an Italian city ravaged by plague, Sofia’s mother carves beautiful mementos from the bones of loved ones. But one day, she doesn’t return home. Did her work lead her into danger? Sofia and her little brother Ermin are sent to the convent orphanage but soon escape, led by an enigmatic new friend and their pet crow, Corvith. Together they cross the city underground, following clues in bones up to the towers of Siena, where – circled by magpies – the children find the terrible truth …
Julia has followed her mum and dad to live on a remote island for the summer – her dad, for work; her mother, on a determined mission to find the elusive Greenland shark. But when her mother’s obsession threatens to submerge them all, Julia finds herself on an adventure with dark depths and a lighthouse full of hope… A beautiful, lyrical, uplifting story about a mother, a daughter, and love – with timely themes of the importance of science and the environment.
Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown – Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving, with twisting corridors and roaring fires, and all set in a beautiful, rural town by the edge of the sea. A book-lover’s paradise? Well, almost … In these wry and hilarious diaries, Shaun provides an inside look at the trials and tribulations of life in the book trade, from struggles with eccentric customers to wrangles with his own staff, who include the ski-suit-wearing, bin-foraging Nicky. He takes us with him on buying trips to old estates and auction houses, recommends books (both lost classics and new discoveries), introduces us to the thrill of the unexpected find, and evokes the rhythms and charms of small-town life, always with a sharp and sympathetic eye.
Join your favorite villagers from Animal Crossing: New Horizons on new adventures! What do the villagers of Animal Crossing: New Horizons get up to when you’re not around? Find out all about their antics in this hilarious manga filled with goofy gags and silly stories! Plus, read comics that highlight each villager, as well as get tips and tricks for playing the game in a special bonus section.
There’s nothing Marietta Stelle loves more than ballet, but after Christmas, her dreams will be over as she is obligated to take her place in Edwardian society. While she is chafing against such suffocating traditions, a mysterious man purchases the neighbouring townhouse. Dr Drosselmeier is a charming but calculating figure who wins over the rest of the Stelle family with his enchanting toys and wondrous mechanisms. When Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate set for Marietta’s final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own. On the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, she is transported to a snowy forest, where she encounters danger at every turn: ice giants, shadow goblins and the shrieking mist all lurk amidst the firs and frozen waterfalls and ice cliffs. After being rescued by the butterscotch-eyed captain of the king’s guard, she is escorted to the frozen sugar palace. At once, Marietta is enchanted by this glittering world of glamorous gowns, gingerbread houses, miniature reindeer and the most delicious confectionary. But all is not as it seems and Marietta is soon trapped in the sumptuous palace by the sadistic King Gelum, who claims her as his own. She is confined to a gilded prison with his other pets; Dellara, whose words are as sharp as her teeth, and Pirlipata, a princess from another land. Marietta must forge an alliance with the two women to carve a way free from this sugar-coated but treacherous world and back home to follow her dreams. Yet in a hedonistic world brimming with rebellion and a forbidden romance that risks everything, such a path will never be easy.
The Little Princeis a modern fable, and for readers far and wide both the title and the work have exerted a pull far in excess of the book’s brevity. Written and published first by Antoine de St-Exupury in 1943, only a year before his plane disappeared on a reconnaissance flight, it is one of the world’s most widely translated books, enjoyed by adults and children alike. In the meeting of the narrator who has ditched his plane in the Sahara desert, and the little prince, who has dropped there through time and space from his tiny asteroid, comes an intersection of two worlds, the one governed by the laws of nature, and the other determined only by the limits of imagination. The world of the imagination wins hands down, with the concerns of the adult world often shown to be lamentably silly as seen through the eyes of the little prince. While adult readers can find deep meanings in his various encounters, they can also be charmed back to childhood by this wise but innocent infant.
Way out in the furthest part of the known world, a tiny stronghold exists all on its own, cut off from the rest of human-kin by monsters that lurk beneath the Snow Sea. There, a little boy called Ash waits for the return of his parents, singing a forbidden lullaby to remind him of them… and doing his best to avoid his very, VERY grumpy yeti guardian, Tobu. But life is about to get a whole lot more crazy-adventurous for Ash. When a brave rescue attempt reveals he has amazing magical powers, he’s whisked aboard the Frostheart, a sleigh packed full of daring explorers who could use his help. But can they help him find his family . . . ?
Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of mythology’s most well-known stories from creator Rachel Smythe. Featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story, Smythe’s original Eisner-nominated web-comic Lore Olympus brings the Greek Pantheon into the modern age with this sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.
★★★★ 4 out of 5 stars
Although I had a run of 3 star reads at the end, I had some great reads in December and my favourite was definitely So Many Beginnings. I’ve recently found out it’s part of a set of remixed classics, which I definitely want to read more from! Unfortunately, my least favourite and definitely most disappointing book in the month was the Animal Crossing manga.
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The Books are Everywhere 