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Santa Grint (a Time Police Christmas novella) – Jodi Taylor – 29.12.22

My last read of 2022 was the annual delight which is the St Mary’s Christmas short story from Jodi Taylor. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it! As usual it was rollicking good fun. After reading these series by Jodi Taylor, I find myself saying ‘Fire Trucking this, and Fire Trucking that’ even though I neverContinue reading “Santa Grint (a Time Police Christmas novella) – Jodi Taylor – 29.12.22”

Fattypuffs and Thinifers – Andre Maurois – 28.12.22

Still on my end of year nostalgia kick, I read this book which was one of my childhood favourites. I don’t know what happened to my original copy, but I went ahead and bought a second hand paperback copy from an Amazon seller. I’m lazy about reading actual paperback books now, almost all my readingContinue reading “Fattypuffs and Thinifers – Andre Maurois – 28.12.22”

Dirk Gentle’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams (AUDIOBOOK) – 26.12.22

In the cosy time between Christmas and New Year I was treating myself to some old favourites: first Neverwhere, and then Dirk Gently. It’s so long since I read this book, that the audiobook at first seemed very chaotic and I wasn’t totally sure I was following what was going on, but it did allContinue reading “Dirk Gentle’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams (AUDIOBOOK) – 26.12.22”

Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman – 25.12.22

Sometimes you just have to cleanse your palate with an old favourite, and this lovely book by the great Neil Gaiman is just that. Gaiman wrote the screenplay of the BBC series first (in the 1990s), and then the novel is an adaptation/companion to that. I love the series and re-watch it every couple ofContinue reading “Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman – 25.12.22”

The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1 – Patrick Rothfuss (Audiobook) – 09.12.22

I remember that I bought this book (and its sequel) from Audible because I read an article about the greatest fantasy books of all time, and all the other books on the list were among my favourite ever reads. This book certainly has many great reviews on Amazon, but man, I really didn’t enjoy it.Continue reading “The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1 – Patrick Rothfuss (Audiobook) – 09.12.22”

Unraveller – Frances Hardinge – 15.12.22

I don’t read much pure fantasy these days, generally preferring Urban Fantasy or Magical realism books (or just literary fiction) but I do like Frances Hardinge books even though I would class them as pure classical fantasy. In the world of this book, strange magical spider like creatures have ‘gifted’ humans with the ability toContinue reading “Unraveller – Frances Hardinge – 15.12.22”

A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift Book 1) – Kate Griffin – 05.12.22

This is a fun introduction to a new (to me) series in the Urban Fantasy genre. It is quite action packed, which would often put me off, but I still very much enjoyed reading this book. Set in a London where various factions of people with different magical abilities co-exist not necessarily peacefully, the bookContinue reading “A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift Book 1) – Kate Griffin – 05.12.22”

What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror (John Dies at the End, Book 3) – David Wong – AUDIOBOOK – Narrator – Stephen R. Thorne – 01.12.22

At Christmas, I persuaded my son and husband to watch the movie adaptation of John Dies at The End with me (I hadn’t seen it before), and I told them that I was reading this book series and loving it (my son was familiar with the author from his podcasts). Well, I have to sayContinue reading “What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror (John Dies at the End, Book 3) – David Wong – AUDIOBOOK – Narrator – Stephen R. Thorne – 01.12.22”

Sweet Harmony – Claire North – 23.11.22

I have such a writer crush on Claire North – (I ❤ her!) and I have yet to read anything by her that I didn’t at least like and usually love. Like all her novels, Sweet Harmony takes a ‘what if’ idea as the central concept and then builds a world around it. In thisContinue reading “Sweet Harmony – Claire North – 23.11.22”

The Ghost Woods – C.J. Cooke – 21.11.11

I quite liked this book. It is a period piece, about girls sent to a mother and baby home with some unpleasant and eerie secrets. At the beginning of the book, the main character has no memory of how she came to be pregnant and the book slowly unravels her repressed memories along with theContinue reading “The Ghost Woods – C.J. Cooke – 21.11.11”