Mini Book Reviews: Seriously Catching Up

Okay, so we’re going to have to make these fast. After getting back into reading in a major way mid-2024, it’s basically now all I think about. I’ve already almost surpassed the number of books I read in 2023 just in January alone. I’ve made a list of books to read. Scratch that, I’ve made a spreadsheet. It’s impressive – seriously. It has tabs for “Really want to read”, “To read”, Netgalley, Autumn books, books coming out in 2025, and a calendar. Yep, I’ve planned all the books I need to read before May.

Some might say that takes all the fun out of reading, but those people have clearly never been in my brain because I am having of the time of my life. It has formulae and everything! How many books I need to go until I reach my Netgalley goal (80% feedback – I’m at 73% currently, I got behind…by 80 books or so…after Emmy was born, better late than never I’m thinking!), how many pages per month and so on.

This is also kind of out of necessity as not only do I have the Netgalley books that I need to get through, but I also have a load I downloaded on a Stuff Your Kindle day for free, plus others I’ve bought for £0.99 (when I see a good price on a book I want to read, I buy it!), others that are from the Prime Lending Library, then series I need to finish.

I’ve put myself on a tiny bit of a book buying ban. I’m not entirely ruling out book buying, but I’m only trying to buy if they’re significantly cheaper than they were previously AND on my “really want to read” shelf, or if I can’t get hold of them at the library as a physical or eBook. That’s why it took me so long to get to Fourth Wing (but, spoiler alert, I’m OBSESSED).

So, all this is my attempt at a concise way to say, I need to get on with posting the reviews here! I’m trying to review as I go on Goodreads nowadays. I used to publish reviews here first before copying them onto Goodreads to avoid duplicating content from my Goodreads for SEO reasons, but honestly, I’m not that fussed about that nowadays as I’m not trying to get this blog to rank for those things necessarily. I just like having a record here! Where I’ve already reviewed on Goodreads, I’ll grab those reviews and post them here.

But I still have a lot to catch up on – my last mini reviews were from books read in August last year, and I think I have, ahem, 50 to publish here since then. 3 mini reviews every couple of months isn’t going to work for that, even I can do that maths! So let’s dive in with a handful (or armful, depending on how we go with my lunchbreak time!) of book reviews from mid-late 2024:

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth – 6.5/10

I saw this book recommended on a few Reddit threads, then I noticed a friend on Goodreads had given it a good rating, and finally it appeared on my library shelves, so I had to grab this one. I’ll be honest, while I enjoyed the story(ies) in this, it was a bit of a slog for me to get through.

I always enjoy a tale that threads through the decades, and this one did an excellent job of that – girls dying in strange and tragic circumstances at a boarding school, and subsequently, a film being made about the “curse” on the very site of the deaths.

I loved certain aspects and parts of this book, but it was long and I felt I was skimming certain parts to get to the heart of it. It was haunting and slightly creepy, with parts that were genuinely scary, but also a great tale. It just wasn’t 100% for me.

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman – 8.5/10

Let me preface this by saying that Carol Goodman is the author I would always tell you is my favourite if you asked, without a doubt. She wrote my favourite book of all time (Lake of Dead Languages) and I’ve read and loved every single one of her books. Whenever one is published, I’m there to read it.

Like her other books, this is a twisty, gothic thriller that mysterious and full of suspense. Having said all this, I can’t say it’s my favourite of her books. Honestly, when I went to write this review, I had to sit for a moment to remember which story this was. That’s not to say I didn’t like, because I did, I loved it, but I wouldn’t suggest this as a starting place for a Carol Goodman novel.

Cool Girl Summer by Amber Eve – 8/10

After reading Amber’s blog for many years, I’ve now moved on to reading all her books. They have that same fun and funny tone of voice as her blog, but with the addition of new stories.

Despite not being a “Swiftie”, I loved the little allusions in this book (the obvious being the title!). The gang of characters in this was brilliant – absolutely hilarious and so realistic in a caricature of real life sort of way. A very cute little “grumpy” romance that makes for the perfect summer read. If you didn’t read it last year, buy it and save it for this year’s summer holidays – you won’t regret it!

The Guest List by Lucy Foley – 6/10

I’ve skipped a few books here as I have a list of autumn books (partially from my Autumn TBR blog post) which will be a separate post.

I’ve read a Lucy Foley book before – The Hunting Party – and really enjoyed that, it got 5 stars from me. I was expecting a similar star rating for this one, but sadly it just didn’t hit for me. I’ve always felt bad about giving 3 stars, but having read so many outstanding books lately, I’ve realised I need to be a bit harder on them – 3 stars is still “okay” really! And that’s how this one was for me – okay. I liked the read, I like the mystery, and the characters were distinct and interesting. I liked the setting on an isolated island with the premise of someone turning up dead at a wedding. But the plot just didn’t entirely enthrall me.

I would definitely read another Lucy Foley book, but I wouldn’t run for it.

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas – 7.5/10

I have to admit something that I haven’t actually said to the internet world yet – the Throne of Glass series just isn’t hitting for me. Or at least, not yet! This is the second book (I think I accidentally skipped the review of the first), and it has just scraped a 5 star rating from me on Goodreads, despite getting a 7.5 here – it’s how my brain works, don’t question it. Throne of Glass got 4 stars though, as did Assassin’s Blade which I’ve just read as the third in the series for me (debate over that!).

Honestly, considering how much I was obsessed with ACOTAR and how people said this would blow your mind, I just have connected with the characters or the world yet. I’m still pushing through it as it’s not that I didn’t like it – maybe it’s just because of the high expectations and the fact that it’s SJM. If it was another author, I would just think “cool, I like this series but it’s not fantastic”. And maybe it’s going to hit me in a book or two, because apparently a couple more books down the line is where it breaks you entirely. This one beat the others thanks to a little revelation at the end, so I’m hoping I’ll be coming back to these reviews in a few books time and saying how wrong I was!!

The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden – 8.5/10

I was seeing this book EVERYWHERE last summer – it was a bit of the Fifty Shades phenomenon where every person sat in a cafe or shouting about a book on Instagram was reading this series, so I had to add it to my list. It was my first foray into the iconic Frieda McFadden, and it definitely won’t be my last – in fact, I’ve already proved that statement true by reading two more of her books since.

I loved the sharp, snappy chapters, the mystery, the twist, and the characters. I read this in less than 24 hours, despite being on a busy Disney trip, as it was so addictive. I haven’t yet read the rest of the series, but you can bet I will be once I get my hands on them! It’s worth the hype – almost Gone Girl level in my experience!

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young – 7/10

I saw a lot of hype around this book too, and the hype still continues. It’s a bit of a lovely foray into slight fantasy, a bit of romance, and maybe even magic realism. I do have a slight issue with the time travel aspect of it – only in that I have never been one to wrap my head around that kind of paradox, it always gets to me!

In spite of this, the characters were gorgeous, the North Carolina setting was wonderful, and the twisting tale kept me gripped. I’d recommend it, but it hasn’t made it to among my favourites.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross – 8.5/10

After my new found love of new fantasy, I came across this YA novel being recommended as one of must reads of the genre. I didn’t actually realise it was a YA one at first, but as I’ve said before, I kind of love YAs.

This was an excellent example of one done well. It has romance without being anything explicit – Roman, the love interest, literally crawls to Iris. Set in a time of war, the two are journalists fighting for a place to report on the frontline. It also has magical typewriters – what’s not to love about that?!

It’s harrowing in places, has plenty of action, but also has the slow burn of enemies to lovers – don’t we love that trope! I have the next book, Ruthless Vows, on my TBR for 2025 now – although maybe after May as I haven’t found a copy yet!

Also, this is one that made me think I need to stop using covers to judge books all the time, as it didn’t give me the impression of the story inside all that well at all!

When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker – 8.5/10

Wow, this was an intense read! If you’re not into fantasy already, I’d say to give a few milder ones a go first before you dive into this, but it’s incredible! It’s still part of the romantasy genre, with a bit of spice thrown in for good measure, but it’s much more high fantasy. It’s a must to check out the index, and maybe bookmark it if you’re on Kindle as there are a lot of names and terms that won’t all make sense unless you refer back to them.

But the story was fantastic. Some excellent twists, dragons, worldbuilding, and plenty of magic. I feel it may need a reread before the next in the series comes out later this year as there was a LOT in it, but highly recommend.

Rush by Saskia Roy – 6.5/10

Honestly, I didn’t hate this!

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley earlier this year after reading the description where it is described as NOT a romance, but a heady mix of desire and obsession. That sounded fun and toxic – a weird combination, but we all know we love that in a book! I also loved that it was set in a world I knew nothing about – Formula 1 racing. I have this strange thing where I love to read about worlds that are so completely different from my own, but are still real – not like fantasy (although I do currently love that!), but like video games (like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) and cave diving (like Windwalker).

I didn’t pick it up immediately though, then when I came back to it right after it was published, the reviews were less than favourable, so I put it off further. I’m not going to claim it was my favourite, groundbreaking or amazing. But it wasn’t bad! It was a fun ride, a little bit Fifty Shades of Grey without going too far. It explores some themes of toxic (non-)relationships which I know many will absolutely not like reading about, but the way it’s portrayed seems pretty realistic to me.

I’d put this down as a quick read that’s pretty lightweight, although with a few heavier parts thrown in for good measure.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

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