Hello. Welcome to another edition of Quickfire Reviews!  Quickfire Reviews is a thing I do very sporadically when there are books to talk about that I should have reviewed but haven’t. Or that I do in times like this when I'm struggling to 'properly' blog. I'll get back to the posts with some substance eventually, but until then - here we are. Today I have 3 books to talk about, all Advance Reader Copies, although this does not at all impact my opinion of them. It's a good bunch, I liked them all.  What’s it About? Just before graduation Claudine's Dad drops ..read more

So, guess what, today we all get a break from me chatting what is probably mostly nonsense about books, and instead get somebody else talking some actual sense - still about books, obvs. As part of her Blog Tour for her recent release Poisoned - a YA feminist retelling of Snow White - I've got the lovely Jennifer Donnelly here to talk about her favourite YA retellings, which obviously I am 100% here for; I love a good fairy tale retelling and there's a couple that Jennifer mentions that are going straight on my TBR. They should probs go straight on yours too - as should Po ..read more

 Oh hi hello I want to talk to you about this book I read called Fable. I want to talk to you about it because I am low key obsessed. It's an instagram book, like so many of the good ones are, these days, one that I was totally influenced into buying because people I follow - and respect the opinions of - were all out raving about it and oh my goodness if that cover doesn't lend itself to pretty pictures.  I ordered it, because that's just the person I am; it had a delivery date of min-October, which when I ordered in August seemed like forever away but which I was actually fine ..read more

Time for a little bit of a bookish catch up I think; I also think the quickest and most efficient way to do that right now is with a handful of Quickfire Reviews.  Quickfire Reviews is a thing I do very sporadically when there are books to talk about that I should have reviewed but haven’t. Sometimes there's a theme; other times, like now, there is not. What’s it About? It's about the Scottish Highlands and about Flora in 1940 when her little village becomes a Naval base and about her daughter Lexi, in the late 1970's who returns with her own daughter to try ..read more

  Oh wow but it's been a hot minute hasn't it. It seems me, and blogging, and a worldwide pandemic do not go hand in hand.  I do have plans to get this blog back in shape though, for the back end of this year and I'm kicking that off by chatting to you now about a smashing little poetry collection. I used to love poetry collections like Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble when I was a kid. 30 years ago me would have been all over this book, and I can't wait to hand the copy that was kindly sent to me by Kaleidescopic Tours for the purpose of this review off to my own small people for ..read more

I love that feeling, when you start reading a book and realise pretty quickly that it's going to be something really great. It's that exact feeling that I got when I was reading An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; that I was about to experience something really special. “I have always let you know how much I care, right? You never had to wonder. I'm not a man for words. Daddy showed me that you 'do' for a woman. Remember that time when you damn near had a nervous breakdown because it looked like the hickory-nut tree in the front yard was thinking about dying? Where I'm from, we don ..read more

Holy moly. I wanted so badly to be so much more on it this year when it came to blogging. That has not happened. Anyhow. Quickfire Reviews is a thing I do very sporadically when there are books to talk about that I should have reviewed but haven’t. This time I'm going to spotlight some books by Black authors that I've read recently. What’s it About? Told in verse, it's about Michael who is gay and Black and trying to find his place. We follow him through his life from age 6 to his university years What I liked This was beautiful. I'm getting a bit of a thing ..read more

Here we are again; that time of year where I get to sit back and look at the books I've read so far and chat about the ones I've loved the most. Grab some cake and settle in. THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR I hate this question, I am so bad at picking my favourite anything. It was easier last year because there was a stand out fave, but this year it's so tricky. I've already given 9 books 5 stars this year. I think, because it's the one that springs to mind instantly every time I think 'fave of 2020', I'm going to go with An American Marriage by Tayari Jones which t ..read more

I read a lot (a lot) of new stuff, because I am a little bit of a bookish magpie, attracted to the new and the shiny, and this means that I read quite a lot of debut work and when I'm not reading the new and the shiny, I reach for things that are familiar, that I know there's a good chance I'll like. Also, there are so many millions of books out there written very so many years by so many people, that it kind of goes without saying that there'll be so many people who have written stand out books that I have absolutely no idea about. I try not to think about that too much though as it only ..read more

There was a 50/50 chance I was going to love Holly Bourne's new adult offering Pretending.  I read one of her YA books, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting and found it to be quite problematic but I read her first adult novel How Do You Like Me Now? and though it was fantastic. Pretending could have gone either way. Pretending, published in April, is about April - nope, not a typo, just a weird looking sentence. April is looking for love, but she can't get past date 5 before whoever it is she's dating turning out to be an asshat. Turns out that guys don't want a girl like A ..read more