Book Club Choice July 2022-The Rosie Project

 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Publication Date: 2nd January 2014

Genre: Romance

Summary:

Don Tillman has got his love life planned out. He knows exactly who he wants, but is it who he needs?

Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman.

A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner.

Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos.

But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling? . . .

Review:

Ok so when this book was chosen by the ladies as our Romance book for july i have to say i wasnt looking forward to it.The blurb didnt make me want to read it and if it hadnt been a book club choice i would not have picked it up. Personally i did not enjoy it, it was an ok read but i have no desire to finish the triology or find out what happened to Rosie and Don. But it turns out i was the minority! The rest of the ladies quite enjoyed it. 

The general consesus was that it was good to see a Neurodivergent as the main character and the narrator in a book, that the persepective was good and rare to see. Some ladies thought it was laugh out loud funny and others that it was genuinly amusing but mostly because it had points that were just stupid.

It did cause alot of discussion at our meeting and some shareing of stories that were similar to some of the escapades of Rosie and Don.

In short whilst it wasnt my cup of tea (not every book will be) but it was the majorities cup of tea, and it was fairly easy to read i read it over two days whilst looking after my small human. And i will leave it at that because as i said i did not enjoy it.

Book club score - 6.5/10

Krystina xx

Daughter of Darkness

 

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Publication Date: 4th August 2022

Genre: YA

Summary:

The Underworld awaits . . .

Deina is trapped. As one of the Soul Severers serving the god Hades on earth, her future is tied to the task of shepherding the dying on from the mortal world - unless she can earn or steal enough to buy her way out.

Then the tyrant ruler Orpheus offers both fortune and freedom to whoever can retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Deina jumps at the chance. But to win, she must enter an uneasy alliance with a group of fellow Severers she neither likes nor trusts.

So begins their perilous journey into the realm of Hades. . . The prize of freedom is before her - but what will it take to reach it?

Review:

So this book caught my attention on NetGalley originally because of the cover (yes occasionally I just like the cover and read it without looking at the blurb), which is very pretty but I really enjoyed it. Now if you look back at our book club choices you'll see we have a love of books based around greek mythology so there was a fair chance this was going to be right up my street.
We get introduced to Deina and what exactly a Soul Severer is right from the off (it's pretty much what you think it is, they sever the soul from the body) and this is another book where the authors ability to describe the scene is beautiful and you can instantly picture where Deina is and what she's seeing. We get a chapter or two that just explains the setting and why Deina is a Severer, she's part of the House of Hades and there are Houses for all the main Gods each with their own purpose.
Now I know for once I'm actually giving details and I do try and avoid a lot of that so I don't spoil the book so I will stop after this next bit, promise.
Deina's travels into the realm of Hade's arent without trails and issues and there are twists thrown in just when you least expect it, admittedly I did guess the twist to do with Deina BUT I think it's because the authors did a fab job of foreshadowing it. In short, I really enjoyed this book, and it's part of a duology so I'm really looking forward to seeing the second book hopefully in the near future.

Krystina xx

Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop

 

Publisher: Canelo

Publication Date: 1st September 2022

Genre: Romance

Summary: 

Tis the season for finding love... and the perfect book

With just two weeks until Christmas, everything in Clove Lore should be perfect. But the latest holidaymaker to the Borrow a Bookshop is feeling far from festive...

Icelandic ex-bookseller Magnús Sturluson might be surrounded by love stories in the Bookshop, but he's nursing a sadness that not even fiction can fix.

When Alexandra Robinson finds herself stranded in Clove Lore, she finds a safe place to hide from heartbreak. After all, all that's waiting for her at home is a cheater boyfriend and the memories of her parents. As Alex finds herself embraced by the quirky village community, she finds her tough exterior thawing - and as she grows closer to Magnús, she finds an equally soft heart under his gruff shell.

It seems that Clove Lore is working it's magic once again - until a great flood on Christmas Eve brings devastation in its wake. It's up to Magnús and Alex to batten down the hatches and help bring the village back together again, while also introducing the locals to the Icelandic tradition of the jólabókaflóð - Yule book flood - where families and friends gather on Christmas Eve to exchange books and read together.

But can Magnús and Alex truly rescue the ruins of the village, and salvage their Christmas spirit? Or is there another complication lurking even closer than they thought?

Review:

Now anyone who knows me knows I love a good romance, down to me having some I read every year around Christmas....and I think I've just found a new one to add to that list.
I was really excited to dive into this one as soon as I got approved by NetGalley for the ARC, it involves some of my favorite things, Christmas, Books, and Nordic men!
It was well written and I could just slip back into the story every time I picked it up, Kiley Dunbar just created a place that I could so clearly see it was like going back to visit friends. I loved the fact that Magnus and Alex didn't have the usual enemies to lovers relationship and they actually just liked each other from the off and had an easy friendship where they genuinely wanted to help each other which developed into something more. 
I also really liked the little side story with Jowan and Minty, it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling that Christmas books should always create.
Normally I don't like to put comparisons to other authors in but the way that Kiley Dunbar creates her whole village, and makes a place that you wish was real and you could just visit is very like Heidi Swain's Wynbridge series, which means I will be adding Kiley to my auto-buy list because I absolutely love books that instantly sweep me away a place.
Now I didn't realise this was one of a series until id finished but now I do ill be going back to read the first in the series and I will most defiantly be on the lookout for the next in the series coming out in 2023. 


Krystina x

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

 

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Author: Sangu Mandanna

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Publication Date: 23rd August 2022

Summary:

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon has lived her life by three rules: hide your magic, keep your head down, and stay away from other witches. An orphan raised by strangers from a young age, Mika is good at being alone, and she doesn't mind it . . . mostly.

But then an unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches, and Mika jumps at the chance for a different life.

Nowhere House is nothing like she expects, and she's quickly tangled up in the lives and secrets of its quirky, caring inhabitants . . . and Jamie, the handsome, prickly librarian who would do anything to protect his charges, and who sees Mika's arrival as a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika finds her feet, the thought of belonging somewhere starts to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and soon Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect the found family she didn't know she was looking for . . .

ISBN: 978-1399709859

Review:

So I need to start by saying I absolutely loved this book! I picked it up to read a few pages before bed and ended up halfway through and hours past when I planned to sleep because I couldn't put it down. I finished it the next day and I was really disappointed that id finished because I just wanted more! 
Mika Moon is our main protagonist in this and she's just so beautifully written, a little bit quirky and unique but so utterly herself. I think we could all do with being a little bit more like Mika Moon in this life. The author has carefully crafted all the characters in this book so well that you feel like you could just bump into them on the street sometime(probably near Norfolk), there isn't one single character that didn't feel well done.

 I won't do any spoilers because you all need to give this book a read and not just take my word on it but it is the kind of book that you didn't know you needed in your life. 

It's a sweet little escape to a place a little bit more magical, and definitely a lot more irregular than normal life. Because this was a digital ARC I don't have it on my bookshelf but I will be pre-ordering it asap because its a book that I plan on making regular visits back to, and I really hope the author writes more about this madcap irregular family because I for one really want to know how life progresses for them.

Krystina xx