My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up!

Howdy!! Congratulate yourselves!! You’ve made it through another week!! And we’re all still here….. just!!

Been a fairly quiet week here for me – managed to get to an Autumn Plant Fair last weekend and it isn’t only books that I have a weakness for purchasing in large quantities!! 9 new plants came home with me, and are all still sitting patiently in their pots on a garden table waiting for me to find new gaps for them in the garden!! Oops!!  I’m sure I can squeeze them in somewhere, otherwise I think the lawn will be shrinking again as I create bigger borders!!

And in the world of books my reading pace has slowed!! Shock horror!! I don’t think it’s a proper reading slump but I’ve just found that the couple of books that I’m currently reading are not making me race through them at breakneck speed, and I’m also in the process of trying to decide my ‘next reads’ and I find I always get distracted by that process so am hoping that things pick up again next week.

Book buying on the other hand, has not slowed down one jot!! Oops again!!  So this has forced another mini bookshelf declutter – the local charity shops really love me donating to them! – in the vain hope that, even for a short space of time, I can create a gap or two to fit new purchases in!

So here’s a little peek at my bookish week! Click on the book titles if you’d like to read my reviews and their blurbs courtesy of GoodReads!!

BOOKS FINISHED

Thornhill by Pam Smy  –  5 stars

Really loved this mix of graphic novel and diary entries!!

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell  –  4 stars

A fabulous and funny look at life as a bookseller in a secondhand bookshop! If you love rummaging round bookshops then you’ll love this!!

 

BOOK POST

Mostly books I’ve ‘treated myself’ to this week! We deserve it though, don’t we?!

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris —a common woodland snail.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater under standing of her own confined place in the world.

Intrigued by the snail’s molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer, providing a candid and engaging look into the curious life of this underappreciated small animal.

Told with wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence and provides an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

Snow Sisters by Carol Lovekin 

Two sisters, their grandmother’s old house and Angharad… the girl who cannot leave.

Meredith discovers a dusty sewing box in a disused attic. Once open the box releases the ghost of Angharad, a Victorian child-woman with a horrific secret she must share. Angharad slowly reveals her story to Meredith who fails to convince her more pragmatic sister of the visitations until Verity sees Angharad for herself on the eve of an unseasonal April snowstorm.

Forced by her flighty mother to abandon Gull House for London, Meredith struggles to settle, still haunted by Angharad and her little red flannel hearts. This time, Verity is not sure she will be able to save her…

Two parallel coming of age stories – one tragic, the other holding out the hope of salvation.

Eden’s Garden by Juliet Greenwood

2011

Carys’ dreams for the future are falling apart as she returns to the Snowdonia village where she was born, to look after her mother. But then a chance discovery draws her back into the story of Plas Eden, the huge, ramshackle country house where, at eighteen, she said goodbye to her childhood sweetheart, David Meredith.

1898

The last time Ann was in London she was a spoilt, aristocratic bride. Now she stands destitute on London bridge, with the Meredith charity hospital her only lifeline. But who can she trust, and will she ever escape her past?

Two women struggle with love, family duty, long-buried secrets and their own creative ambitions. But more than a hundred years ago Ann left a trail through London, Cornwall and Wales that leads Carys on a tantalising and increasingly shocking search for the truth.

What is Plas Eden’s connection with her own family history and what are the secrets of the statues in the garden?

New World Fairy Tales by Cassandra Parkin 

In contemporary America, an un-named college student sets out on an obsessive journey of discovery to collect and record the life-stories of total strangers. The interviews that follow have echoes of another, far more famous literary journey, undertaken long ago and in another world.

Drawing on the original, unexpurgated tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, six of their most famous works are re-imagined in the rich and endlessly varied landscapes of contemporary America.

From the glass towers of Manhattan to the remoteness of the Blue Ridge mountains; from the swamps of Louisiana to the jaded glamour of Hollywood, New World Fairy Tales reclaims the fairy tale for the modern adult audience. A haunting blend of romance and realism, these stripped-back narratives of human experience are the perfect read for anyone who has read their child a bedtime fairy story, and wondered who ever said these were stories meant for children

 And my Book Club releases from Urbane Publications all arrived together to cover August and September and they’re another fabulous batch of fascinating reads!

No Way Back by Kelly Florentia

When two eligible and attractive men are vying for your heart, it should be the perfect dilemma… Audrey Fox has been dumped by her unreliable fiancé Nick Byrne just days before the wedding. Heartbroken and confused, the last thing she expects when she jumps on a plane to convalesce in Cyprus is romance. But a chance meeting with handsome entrepreneur and father-of-one Daniel Taylor weaves her into a dating game she’s not sure she’s ready for. Audrey’s life is thrown into further turmoil when she discovers on her return to London that Nick has been involved in a serious motorcycle accident that’s left him in intensive care. Distraught yet determined to look to the future, Audrey must make a decision – follow her heart or listen to well-meaning advice from family and friends? Because sometimes, no matter what, it’s the people that we love who can hurt us the most…

Veteran Avenue by Mark Pepper

1978. On vacation from England, eight-year-old John Frears is befriended by a stranger in the Oregon wilderness and stolen away from his parents. After a bizarre hour spent in a log cabin, he is sent back with a picture of a young girl. 2013. Since leaving the military, John Frears has been drifting, unable to settle. Then he gets word that a funeral is taking place in L.A. Donnie Chester, fellow veteran of the first Gulf War, has been shot dead. He decides to head to the States to pay his respects, then go sightseeing. It is a simple plan, in keeping with his life to date. But his life is about to become more complicated than he could ever imagine. The mysterious event from his past crashes into the present, and could mean the difference between life and death.

The Premier League 25 years by Lloyd Pettiford

The 2016/17 season marks the 25th of the Premier League after its formation in 1992. After numerous discussions with football authorities, players and television broadcasters, the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League in May 1992 and the Premier League was formed with the inaugural campaign starting on Saturday 15 August of that year. The Premier League charts each of the 25 seasons with the story of how the titles were won and the players who starred. From 2011/12’s incredible finale, to Arsenal’s “Invincibles”, as well as each of Manchester United’s record 13 triumphs, find out more about the rich history of the Premier League. The book also includes fan sections for every single one of the clubs that has appeared in the League, with greatest moments and greatest players, as well as the worst!

CURRENTLY READING

September draws to an end, so that means so does my read-a-long of The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio and I am so pleased to have picked this up! Have enjoyed every mad minute of it!!

 

And my bedtime reading is still taken up by The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley .  This started off really well for me, but I’m finding it a little less enthralling as I go through! But i’ll stick with it as I’m almost two thirds of the way through!

So that wraps my week up!!  How about your week? Discovered any gems?!  Bought any bookish beauties?! Always lovely to hear what has been going on in your bookish worlds!!

HAPPY READING!!

Advertisement

THE BLURB

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.

Release Date    28th September 2017

Publisher    Profile Books Ltd

Amazon UK

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookstore

Book Depository

MY REVIEW

I thought this was a highly amusing and informative book as it steps behind the scenes at The Bookshop in Wigtown, which is a second hand bookstore in Scotland. The owner, Shaun Bythell, recollects the past year as the owner and all that entails – the highs, the lows, the weird customers, the onslaught of Amazon and its’ practices, the funny and stressful sides of a booksellers life and how he gets his revenge on those who browse his shelves and then claim they can get the book cheaper elsewhere – when he knows they can’t!!

There is a real warmth in the way that he writes and it had me chuckling on many occasions and it just sounds like my idea of heaven to visit! It has even prompted me to join the Random Book Club that the bookshop runs so can’t wait for my books to start arriving!!

For all those of us who love reading and love rummaging through old bookstores of which there are far too few nowadays! Save the secondhand bookshops!!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for a fair and honest review.

Thornhill by Pam Smy #bookreview

THE BLURB

Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as Ella unravels the mystery of the girl next door.

1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it’s shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she’s left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself.

2016: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill’s shadowy past.

Amazon UK

hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookstore

Book Depository

MY REVIEW

I would have known nothing of this book if I’d not watched the review video of Savidge Reads via BookTube, so i’m extremely grateful for this book being bought to my attention as I adored it!

Wow! Through a stunning mix of beautiful black and white illustrations, often in the form of just black pages, and diary entries from 1982, the world of Thornhill past and present is brought to life in amazing fashion by Pam Smy.  

At the heart of the story is the sad story of Mary who in 1982 was a resident of Thornhill, and was suffering an amazingly lonely life, and being bullied, but she got through every day through by making puppets and creating a safe space for herself with them, to escape the bleak world outside her door.

In the present, we get the story of Ella who moves into a house with her Dad that overlooks Thornhill which has been left as a no go zone whilst they decide what to do with the site.  Her story explores a connection that Ella feels with Mary.

This is a creepy, chilling, haunting and powerful story aimed at readers of all ages. A must read!!

#BlogTour #GuestPost Cancer Free for 20 Years by Curly Martin

 

Extremely delighted to be hosting the inspiring Curly Martin today for a guest post as the Blog Tour for this fascinating and informative book gets under way.  It is an extremely thought provoking read and full of so much comfort and guidance to those who need it, no matter what illness they are going through.  There really is something for everyone in this  honest and uplifting book. 

Museums, Mushrooms and Mind Games 

 

A 20-year cancer survivor uses convention and alternative therapies 

 

In 1992, Curly Martin was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 9 months to live. Whilst going through the conventional route of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy she decided she would try to beat the odds that were so heavily stacked against her. Her journey exploring what alternatives were on offer led her to experience some the wilder side of cancer therapies. 

 

Curly started with massage and make-up whilst in hospital. Every day she would plaster her face with false tan cream so that she looked healthy, even if underneath she was incredibly pale skinned. She took up the offer of free massage, and this was a major turning point into the alternative therapy world. 

 

Although Curly had been told by doctors that her cancer was terminal, she realised that there were things she could do to increase her odds of survival beyond the 9 months she had been given. In her mind, she was going to die anyway, so why not take a punt on therapies that aren’t scientifically proven? She launched herself into exploring everything that was on offer and found a mushroom-based Kombuca tea, which was actually more like fungi yeast that was prepared in a bucket. In her book, Achievement: Cancer Free for 20 Years she talks about the link between tea and cancer treatment, including the story of a woman who claimed to have cured herself of breast cancer through a formula she obtained from an Ojibway Indian, known as Essiac tea. Curly found the ingredients and recipe, then made and drank cups of the Essiac tea daily for over 2 years. 

 

Part of her journey was spent studying Neuro Linguistic Programming, and one of the interventions was called the Museum Of Old Beliefs. Through this technique she had to imagine entering a museum, walking up the stairs to an attic and putting her negative cancer beliefs into a large trunk, locking it and walking away. 

 

During her studies, Curly also read that mercury in dental fillings had been implicated as a possible causing factor in cancer growth. She subsequently had all of her many mercury fillings removed and replaced with composite filling, all without anaesthetic injections, instead using a powerful mind game to manage the pain. 

 

Mind games and mantras were also used by Curly to actively “attack” the cancer cells. In her mind, she would picture releasing an army of white blood cells who would attack the cancer cells, gobbling them up piece by piece. This was just one of the “videos” she would run in her mind many times a day. Another “video” was of her being declared cancer free by the oncologist, and she would regularly use these visualisations while saying an appropriate mantra, such as “I am happy, healthy, healed and whole.” 

 

Today, Curly has been cancer-free for more than 20 years, but still has her “Daily Dozen,” or twelve things she does every day, inspired by her cancer journey. These include walking, taking vitamins and minerals, “I CAN-tations”, eating fruit, restricting coffee and alcohol, self-massage, drinking lots of water, eating a pescatarian diet, reducing sugar intake, setting daily goals and finally, only using chemical-free skin creams. 

 

Curly Martin, is the author of Cancer Free for 20 Years. Given 9 months to live, Curly was homeless and dealing with a relationship break up. Twenty years on she has an exciting new career in coaching and is a best-selling author and International speaker. Her book gives guidance to others facing similar challenges. 

 

Achievement: Cancer Free for 20 Years by Curly Martin is out now, available from Amazon, priced £13.48. For more information go to www.achievementspecialists.co.uk. 

 

Thank you Curly, and thank you all for stopping by today! I hope you’ll  be checking out the other stops on the Blog Tour over the next few days for more info!!

 

My bookish weekly wrap up!

Hello all!! Another week has raced by and I hope it has treated you all kindly!  Pretty normal one here – managed to get out and about to visit a local NGS (national garden scheme) Open Garden which was lovely (tea and lemon drizzle cake was also a highlight!!), and the weather has felt less Autumnal and even managed to enjoy some sunshine!!  The spiders are out in force though in the garden so I’m having to kung-fu my way down the garden path every morning so as to not end up with a face full of cobwebs or spiders ….. aarrrgghhh!!!

So on to the bookish side of life!! And it has gone well again and there may have been more book buying going on – although they’ve not got to me yet so I’m not going to include them until they arrive! Out of sight, out of mind is my motto of the week!!  Another 3 books have been finished this week so the reading side is going well!

So time to share how my week has looked in bookish form! Click on the titles for links to my GoodReads reviews and the blurbs of new books if you so wish!!

BOOKS FINISHED

Yellow Room by Shelan Rodger – 5 stars

The Fourteenth Letter by Claire Evans  –  4 stars

My Mother’s Shadow by Nikola Scott  –  5 stars

BOOKHAUL

As I mentioned before, I have been on a little buying spree this week but won’t post up about those until I have my grubby little mitts on them!! In the meantime, I have received two books that I treated myself to and 3 books arrived thanks to publishers and authors being rather lovely in return for me reviewing them!

Thornhill by Pam Smy

 

Saw Simon Savidge of  Savidge Reads on BookTube review this and that prompted me to treat myself to this eerie looking book!

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

Bought the signed special edition from Waterstones and can’t stop staring at the gorgeous cover! Still have The Lie Tree to read so looking forward to losing myself in this world!

The Things We Learn When We’re Dead by Charlie Laidlaw

 

I was contacted by the Author on Twitter seeing if I’d like to review this, and as soon as I saw the blurb I knew it should be my kind of book so hope to get to this very soon!!

The Crow Garden by Alison Littlewood

Released in October, I was sent this after requesting it on BookBridgr, it sounds like a perfect Gothic read to devour! Perfect for Autumnal reading!!

Mischling by Affinity Konar

Read the start of this on the Readers First site and it immediately grabbed me and I think I’m going to be in for a very emotional read with this one – the tissues are on standby!!

CURRENTLY READING

Got 3 on the go at the mo – ooh i’m a poet and i didn’t know it!! – and all are keeping me really entertained in very different ways!!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley 

 

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

All things bookish wrapped up again then!!  Heading off now to settle back on the sofa and will hopefully finish The Child Finder today – why is TV so pants on a Saturday?! – and then it’s back to playing the ‘ooh what book shall I read next’ game!! 

Hope your current reads are keeping you entertained too! Any to recommend my way?! Would love to hear of new books that i MUST read!!

HAPPY READING!!!

My Mother’s Shadow by Nikola Scott #bookreview

THE BLURB

It is the year 1958 and Elizabeth Holloway has been sent away from her London home to spend the summer at Hartland, a beautiful, rambling country estate by the Sussex coast. To lovely, innocent Elizabeth, the Shaws are the height of sophistication and they treat her as one of their own, but when she falls in love, no one warns her that her dreams are dangerously naïve.

Forty years later, Elizabeth’s daughter Addie finds a stranger on her doorstep, a woman claiming to be her twin sister. At first, Addie refuses to believe it — until her beloved father admits that the circumstances surrounding her birth were not what she’d been led to believe.

The discovery challenges everything Addie thought she knew about the brilliant, difficult woman that was her mother. And as their journey takes them back to Elizabeth’s past, Addie and her new sister Phoebe uncover the extraordinary story of a lost child, a mother’s secret, and one golden summer that changed a woman’s life forever.

Release Date; 21st September 2017

Publisher; Headline Review

Amazon UK – paperback £7.99

hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookstore – paperback £6.49

Book Depository  – paperback £7.99

MY REVIEW

This was such an engaging, emotional book that mixes the dual timelines so well, that once I had started reading I just couldn’t put it down.

What happens when you find out that when you thought you knew someone, it turns out you knew very little? This is what happens to Addie after her mother Elizabeths’ death. She always had a difficult relationship with her mother and never could understand why, but a year after her death another woman appears on the doorstep claiming to be Elizabeths’ daughter and has exactly the same birthdate, throwing everything the family knew up in the air and bringing back some very bad memories and bad feelings.

As we follow Addie and her journey to find the truth, we also see back in time to 1958 when Elizabeth kept a diary of her time living with her sick mother, and father, and her Summer spent at Hartland House. It is a fascinating mix of history, family secrets and self discovery and does an amazing job of pulling you in as a reader as you see at close hand the devastation that secrets can wreak on a family.

There is never a let up in the pace, and as Addie discovers more and more about her mother as she finds letters and a mobile phone, it really shows how you can never really know a person. And there’s a heartbreaking twist thrown in for good measure that took me by surprise and took my breath away.
A stunning read and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for a fair and honest review.

#CoverReveal Only One Woman by Christina Jones/Jane Risdon

It is my great pleasure to share this stunner of a cover with you today on behalf of Accent Press! So without further ado, take a look ….

 

💗💙💚💛💜

Two women, one love story. 

June 1968. Renza falls head over heels for heartthrob guitarist Scott. But after a romantic summer together they are torn apart when Renza’s family moves away. 

December 1968. On the night she believes to be her last, Stella meets Scott at a local dance. He’s the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen and if this one night is all they have, she’ll take it. 

As the final colourful year of the sixties dawns, the question is: can there be only one woman for Scott?

Ebook pub date: 23rd November 2017 

Print pub date: 24th May 2018 

Author Twitter handles: @bucolicfrolics(Christina Jones) and @Jane_Risdon (Jane Risdon) 

Accent Twitter handle: @AccentPress

Amazon link: Only One Woman

I’m sold already!!  Really excited to read this one very soon and have that gorgeous cover on my bookshelves ASAP!!

HAPPY READING!!

#bookreview The Fourteenth Letter by Claire Evans

THE BLURB

A mysterious keepsake, a murdered bride, a legacy of secrets…

One balmy June evening in 1881, Phoebe Stanbury stands before the guests at her engagement party: this is her moment, when she will join the renowned Raycraft family and ascend to polite society.

As she takes her fiancé’s hand, a stranger holding a knife steps forward and ends the poor girl’s life. Amid the chaos, he turns to her aristocratic groom and mouths: ‘I promised I would save you.’

The following morning, just a few miles away, timid young legal clerk William Lamb meets a reclusive client. He finds the old man terrified and in desperate need of aid: William must keep safe a small casket of yellowing papers, and deliver an enigmatic message: The Finder knows.

With its labyrinth of unfolding secrets, Claire Evans’ riveting debut will be adored by fans of Kate Mosse, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Jessie Burton.

Publication Date 21st September 2017

Publisher Sphere Publishing

Amazon UK  paperback £7.99

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support a local bookstore  paperback £6.49

Book Depository  paperback £7.89

MY REVIEW

I’m always drawn to stories set in Victorian England and this was  a fabulous read that keeps you on your toes from start to finish!  An engaging and complex mystery that combines history, murder, secrets and lies into the gothic world that was evolving at a fast pace.

From the opening brutal chapter, the reader is left in no doubt that there are those who are willing to go to extreme lengths to keep certain secrets, and how does a shy young legal clark called William Lamb get mixed up in it all?!  

Each character we meet along the way has their own fascinating story to tell – from Savannah, the brash American watching over others and always looking over her shoulder, to Harry Treadway, the detective who ends up investigating the society murder – and how it all may be linked. Just when you think you may have an inkling of the meaning of it all, you are thrown another curve ball and the mystery is wide open again!

I loved how well paced the story was! It is sometimes the case for msyteries to drag a little and be bogged down with too much detail, or too many characters, but this zipped along so well and I often found myself reading on ‘just one more chapter’ as I couldn’t bear not knowing what was just around the corner!

The story flows seamlessly from character to character as they all add to the underlying current of what are some so hellbent on keeping secret, while others try to unravel the secret world they knew nothing of. 

Thankyou to the publishers and author for the advanced reading copy in return for a fair and honest review.

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up!

Hello and Happy Weekend!!  Hope all is well in your worlds – been struck down with the sniffles here on and off this week so am dosing up on extra Vitamin C, echinacea and chocolate (I’m sure I read somewhere that it helps… or I could be making it up!) in the hope that it stops a full on invasion of germs!!  Definitely a chill in the air though now so the winter coat is back out in action!!

And Autumn and Winter means one things to Bookworms – long dark nights perfect for curling up with a good book or two!!  And so it has been! Although it hasn’t been as productive reading wise for me this week – 3 finished books – it has been an extremely productive Book Post week.. oh dear!!  New ideas for book storage always welcome!!  So here’s a little looksie at what has been keeping my Booky brain amused this week!!  Please click on the book title for a link to my GoodReads review / and/or book blurbs!

BOOKS FINISHED!

Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford  –  4 stars

31 Days of Wonder by Tom Winter    –  4 stars

The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo   –  4 stars

A solid week of books to see me through the week!!  And all very different too!

BOOKPOST

I think my postman may be cursing me this week! It has been a steady stream of bookish shaped parcels arriving! And that’s with me behaving myself on the buying front too!!  I do have my eyes on a couple of books at the moment but can’t really justify buying them just yet until I get the reviewing pile down a little!  So, time to share some gorgeous covers with you all!

The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

Published by Headline Review

Release Date 8th February 2018

This might have to be read this Halloween!! Just hoping it isn’t too scary!! 

Dead Lands by Lloyd Otis

Published by Urbane Publications

Release Date 12th October 2017

Received this ARC ahead of the Blog Tour I’ll be taking part in during November so watch this space for more news nearer the date!

Happy Days of the Grump by Tuomas Kyro

Published by Bonnier Zaffre

Release Date 21st September 2017

Love the sound of this black comedy and who doesn’t love a grumpy character in books?!

Blood’s Game by Angus Donald

Publised by Bonnier Zaffre

Expected release date 5th October 2017

After reading the first impression of this on the fabulous Readers First site this historical story really caught my eye so am looking forward to starting this soon.

The Ornatrix by Kate Howard

Published by Duckworth Books

Out now!

The stunning cover sold me when I was contacted by the Publisher about this one, and the story sounds rather fabulously dark too!!

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Release Date 11th January 2018

Any cover with trees on the front immediately has my attention, and the blurb for this too sounds rather haunting and thrilling so another read perfect for the coming months!

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

Published by RiverRun 

Release Date 5th October 2017

The more I read, the more I want to learn about the book world and all the Authors I haven’t discovered yet, so this book will hopefully lead me to some new favourites and the amazing stories behind them!

And then there was a treat to myself! I pre-ordered these from Goldsboro Books a couple of months ago.  They are a wonderful bookshop in London that specialise in first editions and signed copies too, so a definite must if you are a collector!

The Worm & The Bird by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

Phew!! See, I told you my postman hates me this week!!  Ooh and there was another treat in the post for me today as my monthly Bookishly Tea and Book parcel arrived!! My Penguin book collection is coming along rather nicely thanks to this treat to myself each month! And I’m discovering some fabulous new tea flavours as well, along with some fab stationery items and bookmarks!!

And I wonder why I’ve run out of spaces on my bookshelves!! Oops!!  I regret NOTHING!! 

CURRENTLY READING

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

Still reading this as part of the #Decamorama September readalong hosted by @MementoMoriAdam and enjoying this a lot more than I thought I was going to! Always a pleasant surprise when something turns out better than you expected!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Was looking for something light to read in bed and have had this on my shelves for a while. And so far so good! Really enjoying the pace of it and liking the characters so let’s hope it all continues in a positive way!!

And there we have it!!  I think this week has been rather exceptional on the Book Post front, so hopefully things will calm down again next week and I can get back to powering through a few books to lessen the daunting TBR pile!!  Hope you’ve had a good reading week?! Any recommendations?! Or ones to avoid?! LOL!!

HAPPY READING!!

#bookreview 31 Days of Wonder by Tom Winter

THE BLURB

‘And in that instant, he knows in his heart that today is a momentous day; come what may, he and Alice will meet again, and life will never be the same.’

Alice is stuck in an internship she loathes and a body she is forever trying to change.

Ben, also in his early twenties, is still trying to find his place in the world.

By chance they meet one day in a London park.

Day 1
Ben spots Alice sitting on a bench and feels compelled to speak to her. To his surprise, their connection is instant. But before numbers are exchanged, Alice is whisked off by her demanding boss.

20 minutes later
Alone in her office toilets, Alice looks at herself in the mirror and desperately searches for the beauty Ben could see in her.

Meanwhile, having misunderstood a parting remark, Ben is already planning a trip to Glasgow where he believes Alice lives, not realising that they actually live barely ten miles apart.

Over the next 31 days, Alice and Ben will discover that even if they never manage to find each other again, they have sparked a change in each other that will last a lifetime. In 31 Days of Wonder, Tom Winter shows us the magic of chance encounters and how one brief moment on a Thursday afternoon can change the rest of your life.

Published; August 2017

Publisher; Corsair Books

Amazon UK   £14.99 hardback

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookshop   £11.79 hardback

MY REVIEW

Sometimes the simplest of stories make for the most enjoyable books, and this is definitely what happens when you are transported into this world!

I found this to be a really interesting, fun and quirky read as we follow the stories of Ben and Alice over a total of 31 days since they meet on a bench in a London park. The story flits between the two as they both deal with their own issues over the month, and it is a really fascinating story as they both discover things about themselves after their chance meeting.

Ben goes on the bigger journey as he becomes obsessed with Alice and all that she makes him feel. His quest to go to Glasgow to see her again takes over his life, but also makes him reconnect with his grandparents, and their story is quite a touching one as you delve further back into Ben and his past and you get to understand the way he is as you find out what he has been through.

Alice is dealing with life in an office where she seems to be the butt of everyones jokes, and has very low self esteem. But the words of Ben on that day make her start believing in herself more and just that boost to her confidence helps her deal with some awkward moments. Her parents are a cause for many of these awkward moments for her and their behaviour explains a lot!!

This is a book that features 2 socially awkward characters with hearts of gold, and how the impact of others can help or hinder their progress in their lives. There are many fun moments mixed in with more heartbreaking times and I loved how refreshing and endearing both characters were. Their stories are perfectly captured by the author and I have found myself thinking of them even after finishing the book a couple of days ago!

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the early arc in return for a fair and honest review.