Mini Book Reviews: Deep End, Draco Malfoy & the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love, Keep It In the Family & More

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood – 8/10

This was my first Ali Hazelwood, and it won’t be my last! I picked it up for an easy read after a book that was a dark and gory fantasy, so this was just what was needed and it definitely fit the brief perfectly – it was very easy to absorb and speed through, with characters that were brilliantly realistic.

The only criticism I have is that the story was a little all over the place at times – there wasn’t necessarily a straight forward beginning, middle and end. You thought it was going one way (eg. another woman storyline), but didn’t really end up that way.

I did appreciate that it was a nice rounded off story, almost a little bit unrealistically so, but you know, sometimes you’re just in it for that!

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs – 5/10

Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who is called in to investigate a series of child murders which are separated by distance and time. When they realise the team has a chance to stop the murders again, they do everything they can to track down the killer.

Unfortunately, the police procedural/crime genre is not my thing at the moment. When I requested this book all that time ago, I was very much into these. I think it’s partly due to my circumstances changing during that time – I now have my own kids, and reading books where children are the focal point of murder investigations just doesn’t sit well with me. Obviously, that’s always an upsetting topic, but right now, it just hits different and takes away from the enjoyment of the book for me. Of course, this is just on a personal level as I think this was a good story with a strong cast of characters and a fast pace – I read it in just two sittings in one day!

I also really appreciated the attention to detail in this story – finding out that the author has the same job as the main character makes it very clear why! It makes it very believable, and I’m the type of person that always like an explanation, so these were great to read.

The scenes with Tempe’s mother were interesting – I enjoyed her character, although I do think at times her discoveries were used somewhat as a plot device as they sometimes just popped in out of the blue and felt like they should have been things an official was finding out, rather than an amateur.

As I said, this is a good story, but just not one that clicked with me right now.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.

Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey – 6/10

This was a great example of a twisty police procedural, crime thriller.

I recently read another similar style book (Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs) and realised that these aren’t so much my thing at the moment. Nevertheless, I had this one on my list so I decided to read it. I actually enjoyed it more than the previous crime thriller, it was more engaging and had a more interesting cast of characters. It was well-paced and had me wanting to find out what exactly had happened – I couldn’t see how it was all going to come together until right at the end, which I love, I always want a book like this to pull the wool over my eyes!

This grips you right from the first page – Chloe arrives home, catching a lift with her neighbour Mr Norris, and finds her home covered in blood and her mother missing. Maeve Kerrigan is the investigating officer and we follow her perspective throughout, interviewing Chloe, her father and his new family (who Chloe had previously been staying with and had left early) and her neighbours, including the one who gave her the lift home and his daughter Bethany who takes Chloe under her wing. The book is rife with secrets and lies, you think you’ve figured something out then it’s flipped on its head.

An enjoyable read, I’d probably pick up another Jane Casey in future, though not immediately.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.

Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman – 7.5/10

Carol Goodman is an auto-buy author for me – I had this book on pre-order on Kindle as soon as I heard about it, and I had the date set in my reading calendar to start it!

As usual, this didn’t disappoint! It’s a classic Carol Goodman novel – a perfect comfort read for me with a blend of mystery, history (specifically classics) and a tiny bit of romance. This time we follow a writer, Maia, who travels back to a secluded Greek island after a mysterious invitation from Argos Alexander asking her to join him there, 15 years after her first stay on the island at a very exclusive writers’ retreat. She arrives to find the majority of the original group there, but no sign of Argos himself, just instructions to participate in a writing challenge. The group is fraught with tension, which escalates when they discover Argos dead, and with no way to escape the island and bring in help from the outside, they have to figure out how to work together to find the Nemesis among them.

It’s a bit meta, reading a mystery book that’s all about writing mysteries – it makes the plot fun and complex as you’re not quite sure which direction it will go. As an avid Carol Goodman reader, I’d like to think I’d be able to solve her puzzles, but I somehow never do – I love being surprised by the endings!

As usual, I just love the classical references. This one was very heavy on the Greek mythology side. It might be a little much if this isn’t an area of special interest for you as it is for me, but I really enjoyed hearing the old Greek tales, as well as different versions of their interpretations. It really added to the atmosphere for the book which was haunting and eerie.

Overall, a brilliant read. Not my favourite of all her books, but definitely an enjoyable one that reminded me of her old classics like The Night Villa and The Sonnet Lover.

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood – 7/10

Problematic Summer Romance was a cute, summery romance with a very strong setting and a group of fun characters with believable personalities and relationships. I really enjoyed it!

This was my second Ali Hazelwood read – I read Deep End a few weeks ago and really enjoyed that one too, but this one wasn’t quite as good in my opinion. I’ve bought a handful of other Ali Hazelwood books now as I loved her engaging writing style in Deep End and I know how hyped her books are, which makes her one of those “top tier” kind of authors for me – the kind I know I’ll enjoy whatever they write. As I said, I really enjoyed this book, but it didn’t feel like the work of a top tier author to me – it could have been any old romance author. I don’t mind that at all, I’m not that picky, but it didn’t make for a 5 star read for me.

I adored the setting at a wedding (gone wrong at times!) in Sicily – weirdly my friends were at a wedding in Sicily while I was reading it!

The age gap romance was a pretty new genre to me (aside from all those weird hundreds of years age gaps in romantasy…different matter entirely though!), and I wasn’t 100% sure what I thought of that, but I did like the “brother’s best friend” angle and the years and years of yearning that surfaced throughout.

It was only while reading that I realised this is technically a second book that follows up on Not In Love where you’ve already followed the relationship of the couple that are getting married – Maya’s big brother’s relationship. Considering that I hadn’t already read this one, I think Problematic Summer Romance could be read as standalone with no issue, but I now definitely want to read Not In Love for more context about the main characters in this one from a different perspective.

It was a very quick, easy read, pretty low stakes as you know where it’s all heading and what all the cliches are going to be, but it had a lot of fun moments.

Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love by Isthisselfcare (Brigitte Knightley)

I didn’t realise I was going to be as obsessed with this as it turns out that I am.

I’ve never been much of a fanfic reader – I’ve dabbled here and there, but only in short pieces as I always felt like they didn’t match the tone of the original well enough, or that they were being somehow unfaithful to the original characters.

I also never got the Dramione hype.

Well, my mind is well and truly changed.

I loved being plunged back into the Wizarding World, but now the characters were the same age as me. And this time, we’re seeing it all through a highly remorseful Draco Malfoy’s eyes – wow. I was prepared to hate this and to scoff at his thoughts, but it quickly became obvious that while the characters still had strong echoes of their teenage counterparts, they were also grown-up and very different in ways too.

Obviously it’s kind of weird to talk about these fictional characters that were written by J. K. Rowling as if this is their real future when they’re written by someone else, but I truly felt that this was the lives they might be living in the future. Harry, Ron and Draco are aurors, and Hermione is, well, everything – a healer, a professor, a muggle oncology doctor, a researcher – and there’s this weird kind of childhood celebrity fame around them, but also they’re kind of just normal people too.

I decided to read this after the author published a “real book” (not to say this isn’t, but as far as I know, they can’t profit of this one as it’s based on a pre-existing world and characters) and I loved it. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy was a witty, prickly, magic book and convinced me immediately to dig out this fanfic, and I was absolutely not disappointed. It was so fun to be back in the Wizarding World (which seemed so authentic and true to the original), but also to see it from a grown-up perspective through Malfoy’s eyes – the tone perfectly matched him and it was brilliant.

And the relationship between Malfoy and Granger – this is the way they refer to each other in the books and it just adds to the brilliance! The suspense…the suspense! The TENSION!! When they finally come together, you feel like screaming. It’s all done so well – the hatred, the hating of what they’re feeling, the attempts to quash it. And all the while, a brilliant epic plot is going on in the background that rivals those of the original books so that the romance isn’t always front and centre.

I think I might add this to my favourites shelf…

Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian – 7.5/10

This was a fascinating and heart-rending reimagining of the Persephone myth – one which, if you didn’t know the story well, you wouldn’t suspect, but the parallels are there enough to make it interesting and gripping.

The book is set in an alternate world in a pocket of renaissance Europe somewhere around France, Spain etc. At the beginning, we’re shown a few very different perspectives of something big happening in this world: a brutal battle where a warrior, after being killed, re-emerges from a frozen lake; the Infanta, a sickly child, is murdered but continues to live even after she has bled out; a grandmother hangs on to a thread of life with a neverending death rattle. Death, seeking his bride, denies the world of an ending. These stories all come together throughout the book as Percy, the granddaughter of the old dying lady, sets out on a journey to the frozen north to see if she might be the Cobweb Bride that death seeks.

I found some of the storylines and backgrounds more gripping than others – Percy’s was my favourite, I suppose probably as she’s designed as the heroine, whereas the others provide more of a backdrop.

There is a mild romantic storyline which was a little odd where a murderer and his prey begin to fall in love. I wasn’t 100% on board with this one, but maybe the development throughout the series will help with that storyline.

It was well written with lovely prose and a good absorbing plot, enough that I’d like to read to the next one but I won’t be rushing to get my hands on it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.

Feathers So Vicious by Liv Zander – 7.5/10

Honestly, I can’t really tell you if I loved this or hated it. There’s a lot to unpack here!

Galantia has lived a life unloved – her parents don’t care about her, and she never leaves her home enough to know the outside world, the only person she has is her nursemaid. But when the nursemaid is brutally killed, Galantia is kidnapped by the Ravens, people who shift into ravens and who are in the midst of a brutal war with her father who has kept some of them trapped in his prison. She is held captive, but not exactly prisoner, by Malyr who holds a deep resentment against her, the source of which is revealed throughout the book, and Sebian, his friend who (sometimes) helps and cares for her.

Galantia is an interesting character who is strong and hopeful despite the lack of love and attention she has received in her life. It’s a pretty obvious case of what will happen when she finally does get some attention, no matter in which way it’s given. So when she’s attacked, hurt and even raped by these men in scenes that are violent and graphic, she begins to thrive on it. Like I said, there are reasons to hate this book. I can’t in good faith call it a romantasy, and I’d struggle even to call it a dark fantasy romance, as there is a lot of lack of consent which makes for difficult reading.

However, it’s never as straightforward as it seems, as Malyr and Sebian have complicated backstories – not to give excuses, but to somewhat explain what’s going down in the book.

Despite these misgivings about the book, the story itself had me enthralled. The political backdrop that these characters are often just pawns in, the world itself as a whole, and the interesting way that magic and shapeshifting is used.

Then it had an excellent ending which I felt coming and means that I definitely need to read the next book now.

Keep It In The Family by John Marrs – 7/10

This was an excellent pacey thriller from an author that I definitely want to read more from.

A couple buy a property that needs a lot of renovation, and Mia, the wife, after many years of trying, unexpectedly falls pregnant. During this time, she discovers a hidden message scrawled into a skirting board: “I will save them from the attic” that leads to a gruesome discovery, a nasty accident, and some horrible truths that are slowly revealed about the family that she’s married into – some of which are not what they first seem and may be very unexpected!

This is my second John Marrs book – the first one I read was The One as an ARC when it was launched several years ago. I’ve since seen him recommended and knew I needed to read more. This was a fast paced twisty thriller that really kept you on your toes, with multiple POVs and unreliable narrators.

I only knocked a star off as I could see some of the twists or reveals coming, partly because there were some signposts where things were clearly trying to be hidden. While I really enjoyed the book and read it quickly, I do like it when an author manages to totally pull the wool over my eyes, and this one didn’t quite manage that.

I have The Family Experiment on my shelf to read soon, and I’m looking forward to picking up another John Marrs book.

Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood – 7/10

A lovely witchy novel, with excellent vibes, but just missing a little something.

Belle is a witch, but one who lives and operates in the “real” world – living with a non-Wicche housemate and working in a bookshop. She does inject little bits of magic into her everyday life, but she doesn’t have that magical spark any more. That is until she is summoned on her 30th birthday to stand in front of her coven and prove that she is worthy of her magic. When they determine that they’ll give her one month to show that she can fix what’s missing, she embarks on a series of magical trials with a selection of helpers that she gets closer to over time.

I picked up this copy as my first sprayed edge book from The Works after my sister told me about it – she doesn’t read, but she’s followed the author for a while and thought it sounded right up my street. Which it absolutely does. But somehow it just didn’t fit 100% for me.

I think this book definitely felt like a debut, as in, it could have been better. I can feel the author’s potential, especially with putting gorgeous imagery into words that you can picture so easily and with the overall plot.

The start had me hooked – a witch using little everyday spells around her home and bookshop, who ends up facing a trial to keep her magic. What could go wrong with that? It didn’t exactly go wrong, but the middle of the book felt like it could have been cut in half. There was a lot of nothing that I seemed to stall on, so it took me about a week longer than usual to finish the book – I’d normally have this type of book finished in 2 to 3 days.

The end sped up again and I finished the last 100 pages in one sitting, so I think it was something about the pacing that was just a little off for me and didn’t have me as hooked as I could be throughout the middle of the book. Obviously I have no experience in book writing, editing or publishing, but it felt like the author was holding on to the hard work and writing that they loved and it hadn’t been edited enough – and I can understand that, it would break my heart if I’d written such a lovely novel to get rid of parts!

The romance also seemed a little off to me, in that it didn’t really develop all that much. It was almost trying to be enemies to lovers, or maybe just grumpy/sunshine, but the grumpy stage didn’t last long enough for that to ring true, and they just kind of seemed to suddenly be in love with each other, but not in an epic kind of way. I guess that wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the book, but it just didn’t ring true as a relationship to me – it could have been removed and not harmed the story in any way.

Nevertheless, it was still a good autumnal read, and I knew while reading that I’d read more from the author in future. I have in fact already started on the second book as an ARC and am already feeling more in tune with that one – maybe the debut novel vibes have been edited out of that one, or experience has helped with writing it. It was pretty low stakes – I mean, her magic was at stake and sometimes you worried about her friends and family, but it felt like nothing bad was really ever going to happen – which made it a more lightweight read than an epic romantasy.

Overall, I’d recommend it if you’re into witchy romances, but I wouldn’t shout about it.

I’ve now read her second book, Uncharmed, and have to confess, I like that one better! See the full review of Uncharmed here.

The Dose Effect by TJ Power – 8/10

This was a fascinating book with a good summary and easy to read format on how to do the best you can for the happy hormones in your brain and body.

Honestly, it wasn’t anything revolutionary and had very little information in it that I didn’t already know, but it served as an excellent reminder of the things I knew were important. It had a good mix of scientific evidence without getting too sciencey – which I don’t mind sometimes, but in this type of challenge-based book, it was nice to have scientific evidence but not in depth explanations, I feel these can be explored elsewhere – and anecdotal evidence that had worked for the author. I liked knowing the challenges the author himself had faced and hearing how revolutionary these tactics had been for him.

It was also formatted in a way that works very well for my brain – it had short, easy to read chapters with challenges, summaries and challenges. Honestly, I haven’t followed every challenge as I read the book too fast – I considered slowing it down and trying to do the challenges in real time, but I think I would get bored! Instead, I started dose stacking (which is explained towards the end of the book) almost immediately, implementing small changes in my life like phone fasting, cold showers (and I am the type of person who HATES this!), making the bed and so on.

I feel it’s a book we can all benefit from in different ways, whether that’s making small changes or big. I’ve already recommended it to my office!