Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

This was part of my thriller challenge, where I read seven thrillers in seven days. Gone Girl is a cult classic. I’m sure I don’t need to pitch it, but the synopsis is as follows: on the morning of Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, Amy suddenly goes missing. All eyes are on Nick, and his odd behaviour. He’s laconic, bitter and doesn’t seem overtly distressed by his beautiful wife’s disappearance. Amidst a frenzied media storm and the watchful eyes of Amy’s parents, Nick finds himself playing a dangerous game – one his wife is masterminding from beyond the grave?

This is perhaps one of those very rare instances where I preferred the film adaptation over the book. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike were perfectly cast as Nick and Amy, and the tension truly never lets up. The book I found to be meandering and prone to tangents. It’s twisty and twisted, and you never really know the full extent of the treachery, of the betrayal and who the true victim is.

Overall, I’m glad to have read this! It was a solid thriller, and probably my favourite of all the ones I read this week. I’m not sure I completely gelled with the writing style – the prose being very tangentially and meandering – but the story itself was very entertaining. 

The Only One Left – Riley Sager

When she was seventeen, Lenora Hope murdered her whole family. Or at least, that’s what everyone says. Now, ailing and elderly, Lenora hasn’t left her ancestral family home Hope’s End in decades. Kit McDeere is a carer, recovering from crises in her personal life. When Kit returns to her hometown and takes a job at Hope’s End caring for Lenora. 

Something that adds another layer to this story is the fact that Lenora, having suffered a series of strokes, is now almost fully paralysed. The only way she can communicate is by tapping at an old typewriter. When Lenora agrees to tell Kit the whole story, the process is tantalisingly slow. It soon becomes clear that there is more to the story of that night, and the real killer may still be on the loose. Lenora (and Kit herself) is an unreliable narrator, and you’re never really sure who’s the villain. 

The only other Riley Sager book I’ve read is The House Across the Lake. I think I enjoyed both of these equally – they were both 3 star reads for me. Nothing overly special, but something to pass the time. I don’t think I’ll be picking up another Riley Sager book anytime soon after being slightly disappointed with both of these. This was the last book in my thriller reading challenge, and it was an underwhelming way to finish.  

The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom #1) – Danielle L. Jensen

I was fancying a good old YA fantasy romance, so I picked this one up. It definitely scratched that itch. We follow warrior princess Lara, when she’s forced to travel to the fabled Bridge Kingdom to wed her sworn enemy, Prince Aren, in an arranged marriage. But when she arrives, she begins to question to doctrines she’s been fed her whole life back in her home country of Maridrina. Of course we have the arranged marriage trope, which I eat up every time!Some of the world building names specifically were a bit cliche (a niche critique, but one I personally struggled with).

Admittedly, it’s rather derivative and not in the least original, but it is a solid YA fantasy romance and I enjoyed it. I also feel it’s mis-marketed quite a lot on BookTok – this is very much YA, not adult! Overall, I’d recommend if you’re already a YA fantasy romance fan, but this is not one that I’d particularly leap to recommend.

The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom #2) – Danielle L. Jensen

Ah, second book syndrome… my old nemesis, we meet again. Are there ANY series that don’t suffer from this, PLEASE send all the recommendations my way. I’m tired of this, grandpa!

Yeah, so this fell short for me, unfortunately. It’s been a couple of months since reading this book, when I’m now writing this review (whoops!) But I literally remembered nothing about this book besides it being painfully meh. I also own the third and fourth book in the Bridge Kingdom series, and yet I haven’t reached to pick them up, and I’m not entirely sure I ever will. 

We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This was a really good, short essay, adapted from Adichie’s TED talk by the same name. It was very powerful in so few words, and a great read for Women’s History Month. 

Wild Love (Rose Hill #1) – Elsie Silver 

Listen. Sometimes you just need a cowboy romance as a palate cleanser. Just as a little treat!

In this new series by Elsie Silver, the story starts with a sizzling new romance between Ford Grant and Rosie Belmont. When billionaire music producer Ford Grant moves to the sleepy town of Rose Hill to escape the press and build his own recording studio, he’s expecting his days to be slower and more peaceful. But when a knock sounds at his door, and he opens it to a girl claiming to be his biological daughter, his life takes a wholly new direction. And it’s complicated further when Rosie Belmont starts living next door to him. Not only do I love the romance, the central plot, but I adore the entire world that Elsie creates. The beautiful landscapes, the kids, the found family aspect, the humour. 

Cora was so fun! Whenever Elsie writes kids, she does so SO WELL. First Lucas in Heartless and now Cora. She’s stubborn, sarcastic, scowling and a tiny bit goth. Elsie never misses, to be honest. This was the perfect palate cleanser to fly through. 

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty – Florence Given 

March was Women’s History Month! It’s so important to recognise these issues, so I made it my mission to challenge myself to read some books to celebrate! In this list we have an eclectic mix of memoir, self-help, journalistic explorations, and feminist manifestos.

This is marketed as a very accessible entry point for anyone looking to explore feminist fiction (me!), with a specific emphasis on themes like body dysmorphia and body image, modern beauty standards, all within the constraints of a patriarchal society.

I didn’t think it added anything new to the feminist conversation. I didn’t feel like I got anything from this beyond a reinforcing of everything I already knew, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. like I said, the concepts are easy to grasp and the writing is highly accessible. Given’s views aren’t radical, and perhaps some things are oversimplified, but it was a solid entry-point for my first book!

This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart #1) – Kalynn Bayron

I read this for a book club pick. It wouldn’t necessarily be my go-to to pick up, as it’s on the younger side of YA, something I don’t gravitate towards. This is a contemporary fantasy following Briseis, a teenager with a unique and dangerous gift. She can bloom plants wherever she walks, and the natural environment is very sensitive to her emotions. When Bri’s mysterious aunt dies and she inherits her crumbling estate in upstate New York, Bri and her parents decide to go for the summer. But the old mansion is hiding far more secrets than they think. 

This combines plants with Greek mythology in a really fascinating way, and I really enjoyed this aspect of the plot. I thought the romance was quite weak, but it was a subplot, so I’ll let it go. I liked Briseis as a main character, and I thought the Greek myths were just so damn cool, and such a cool aspect of this novel. 

One Golden Summer (Barry’s Bay #2) – Carley Fortune

This was my first of Carley Fortune’s work, so I haven’t read the first in this series, Every Summer After. This was my first venture to the world of Barry’s Bay. 

We follow photographer Alice, who, after seventeen years, is returning to the spot where she fell in love with photography. That one photo, of three teenagers in a yellow speedboat, changed the direction of her life. I loved that premise – I like reading about main characters who have interesting, creative jobs and passions. 

When Alice’s grandmother wants to return to Barry’s Bay for the summer, Alice has no choice but to accompany her as her carer. The place holds a lot of memories for the both of them, but Alice is hoping that the change of scenery will spark something creative in her burnt-out brain. When she meets Charlie Florek, the boy who she photographed on his boat all those years ago, they embark on a summer of fun, completing Alice’s bucket list one by one. 

I just thought this was… really quite boring. There was nothing outrightly wrong with it, and I can’t pinpoint exactly what didn’t float my boat about it, besides the fact that I wasn’t very invested in their characters and their romance. I know a lot of people disliked Carley Fortune’s first book in this series because it involved cheating, and this definitely didn’t have any such controversial themes. Still, I don’t think I will be reaching for any of Carley Fortune’s other books any time soon. 

One Golden Summer is out May 6th! Thanks to Michael Joseph at Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed #1) – Brigitte Knightley

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is a from a well-known Dramione fanfic writer, and this story evolved from one of those. Osric Mordaunt is a member of the Fyren Order of assasins. When he develops a serious illness, he has no choice but to turn to an enemy Order, healing. There ensues a lot of bribery, blackmail and other illicit activities in order to recruit the help of healer Aurienne Fairhaim – much to her own contempt and disdain. 

Aurienne read as quite one-dimensional to me. Aside from being uptight, neat and an unapproachable Woman in STEM, she didn’t really have much personality. However, I really enjoyed her and Osric’s banter, and their relationship (can I even call it that?) CARRIED this book. Let’s normalise the main characters hating each other for the entirety of Book One – if you’re someone who is constantly begging authors to bring back yearning, bring back slow burn, this is for you. 

The humour wasn’t personally for me, although I can definitely understand this being an attractive part of the book for a lot of people. It was definitely unusual and a breath of fresh air, to inject such humour into fantasy, a genre that typically doesn’t see a lot of it. 

Something that bugged me was the world building, or the lack thereof. It seemed to be set in some alternate universe of London, judging from the vernacular, but little else would ever be explained. Had there been slightly less page-time spent on the humour and the banter and a bit more on the worldbuilding, I don’t think this would have been an issue. 

Overall, I had a few complaints, but I will still be continuing the series, because I am invested in Osric and Aurienne. I feel like I could very easily be swayed if perhaps the worldbuilding is stronger and dwelled upon further in the sequel.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is out July 8th Thanks to Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Tusk Love – Thea Guanzon

I was a massive fan of the Hurricane Wars so of course, as soon as I saw that Thea Guanzon’s new book, Tusk Love, was available to request on NetGalley, I ran! I am not a video game girlie, so forgive me if I say something blunderingly stupid, but this is an adaptation of the video game Critical Role. I have never played it and have absolutely no knowledge of this, so I went into this book very blindly and a bit apprehensively that it would mention a ton of world building I don’t know about because I haven’t played the game! 

However, let me set your minds to rest. I loved this, and never once did I feel lost or as though I was on the outside of an inside joke. Instead, it read as a wonderful standalone. We follow Guinevere, a wealthy merchant’s daughter. When her carriage is looted by bandits on her way to marry a man she’s never met, she finds herself with no other choice but to ally herself with Oskar, who rescued her from the bandits (he also happens to be half-orc). This had a strangely vintage feel to it; it was a good old-fashioned quest fantasy, while also having a banging romance plot. It was low stakes, bordering on cosy fantasy which I don’t normally like but, what can I say? This one hit the spot. The romance is sweet and tender and I loved both Oskar and Guinevere so very much. The world building isn’t extensive, with the romance taking centre-stage but I didn’t mind this one bit. We got enough to carry the story and that was enough for me. 

If you’re looking for a delightful, low-stakes, quest-vibes romantasy this summer, let me just gently push this into your open hands. 

Tusk Love is out July 1st! Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Summer in the City – Alex Aster

I LOVED reading it outside on the first sunny day of the year. This is a really fun summer romance read, perfect for reading by the beach or in the sun. (Sun is basically a prerequisite for this book, you need the summer vibe). It’s lighthearted, perfectly unrealistic in the vein of all my favourite romcoms, and I sped through it. 

We follow Elle, a successful screenwriting, who has written some of the biggest movies of the past decade under an alias. But when she gets hit with crippling writers block, and is offered one last chance to write the next big hit, can she overcome her hatred of the city she’s based in? 

I really liked Elle as a main character. I have to admit, she was a bit pick-me and cliched at certain times – wears exclusively sweats and a messy, coffee-fuelled writer… sound familiar? But honestly I don’t have an issue with this and can’t complain too much because it was really fun to be in her head, and I definitely saw some of Alex Aster’s personality shining through.

I also loved the screenwriting element – a niche interest of mine is reading books about writers. I liked how Elle’s profession took centre-stage in her own story. Speaking of their respective professions… I’m not a fan of the billionaire trope that this book contains. I don’t necessarily like the power imbalance and dynamics that automatically come along with that trope, and the extravagant gifts and acts of service really make me cringe. This book was no different, which is probably why it’s three rather than four stars. That may definitely be more personal taste – it’s just not something that floats my boat! 

If you’re a fan of any of those classic 90s to early-2000s romcoms set in New York City (When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days), I’d recommend this as it has the same flavour. I love stories where the setting feels almost like a character and this was definitely one of those.

Summer in the City is out June 5th! Thanks to Bloomsbury UK and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) – Suzanne Collins

I’ve been quite literally dreading writing this review, and have left it to last. Oh, what to say? Suzanne, you cruel, cruel woman. Sick and twisted. 

I cried. I cried so hard. 

I was an emotional mess for days after finishing. 

From the minute I saw this book announcement (screaming, crying, throwing my phone across the room and running to tell everybody I knew), to getting the movie annoucement in the same day (see previous), to the books release, to the cast announcements in later weeks, this entire experience has been so special, and never more poignant than in the world right now. 

In terms of technicality, I’ve had a bit of time to stew on this and here is my one criticism: the character development. I felt like we didn’t really get to know any of the side characters beyond Haymitch and the other District 12 tributes, and Suzanne relied on the nostalgia and the character-building she had done in the original trilogy and TBOSAS. For example, I would’ve loved to see more of Lenore Dove, or Wyatt Callow, or even Drusilla and some of the stylists. It was very much plot focused, which I enjoyed too. Not a criticism, so much as an observation.

Because, at the end of the day, this was perfect. It felt like the clicking together of all the jigsaw, the missing piece of the puzzle. 

The Second Chance Cinema – Thea Weiss

I was so lucky to be given the opportunity to read and review this debut. In the vein of Ashley Poston, with magical realism mingling with romance, the titular Second Chance Cinema is a vintage movie theatre that appears to couples mysteriously and at random. What shows on the big screen is the story of their lives. 

We follow Ellie, a writer who blogs about vintage places fallen on hard times, and Drake, a construction worker. But when they stumble upon a vintage cinema one night, and decide to attend the showing, they quickly realise that the movie that plays is no normal feature film. In The Story of You, Ellie and Drake watch their own memories, from birth to childhood to adulthood to, eventually, their own meet-cute. 

It probes a really intriguing question of ‘can we ever fundamentally know each other?’ Weiss explores reconciling with the fact that you can never know the ins and outs of another persons life before it intersected with your own, and how past experiences shape the people we become. Whether that’s something to be grateful for or to be mourned, and whether a persons past actions can determine how we love them. 

Weiss skilfully conducts a post-mortem of a relationship that isn’t quite dead, but isn’t wholly alive either. Nostalgic, personal and painfully realistic, Weiss doesn’t shy away from writing her characters with flaws, which challenge the reader’s ability to like the characters at times. These unsavoury moments are essential to the story and to the progression of Drake and Ellie’s relationship, both with each other and themselves. Weiss helps us understand why the characters are the way that they are through their memories playing out on a film roll.

It was a really interesting look at what happens after The End of most traditional romances. I’d hesitate to call this book a romance, certainly not in the typical way. It’s more of a genre-blending tale of marriage, relationships, family and a love letter to the Golden Age of cinema.

The Second Chance Cinema is out Thanks to @hqstories and NetGalley for the ARC!

Educated – Tara Westover

Educated is something I’ve been meaning to read for ages. A memoir by Tara Westover, she details her childhood born into a devout Mormon family, who spent their days preparing for the end of the world. She recounts how she, nor any of her six siblings, ever saw a doctor and how she was 17 before she ever set foot in a classroom. We go on a journey with her, from the remote plains of Idaho to sitting in a lecture hall at BYU, to Harvard and Cambridge.

The only thing that I would have liked to seen is if Tara had dwelled a bit more on the process of her gaining her education, and how she got her degree and especially her higher education and time at Cambridge, which all felt rather rushed at the end.

‘I am not the child my father raised, but he is the father who raised her.’

It was such an enlightening and inspiring story, one that I would truly recommend to everyone. It may have converted me to the genre of memoirs, so if anybody has any good recommendations similar, please send them my way! (Although I doubt you’ll beat this.)

In Defence of Witches – Mona Chollet

I LOVED this one. Mona Chollet is a French journalist. She explores in great depth the historical repercussions of the widespread witch trials. It really opened my eyes to the horror of these witch hunts. When I think of witch hunts, I, like most people, think of the Salem Witch Trials, based in and around Boston and Massachusetts in the late 17th Century. Little did I know, the witch trials were so much more widespread and vicious than that one craze. It’s estimated that over a million women died – and yet people still throw the term ‘witch hunt’ around jovially?

It has viscerally altered my perception, both harrowing and information. Highly, HIGHLY, recommend for anyone, especially if you have an interest in history like I do!

All In Her Head – Dr Elizabeth Comen

This was a particularly emotional read. Dr Elizabeth Comen had worked in an oncology ward, specialising in breast cancer, for years. In the introductory chapter, she details her experience with this. Something sticks out – how apologetic all these women are, for inconveniencing other people with their suffering. The inciting incident, the moment that resolved Dr Comen to write this book, was when a terminal patient apologised for sweating profusely (a symptom of the illness). Thus Dr Comen embarks on a mission to take her readers through each of the eleven discrete organ systems, and how historical mistreatment, abuse and gaslighting of women have influenced medical practices and stigma today.

Total books read comes to 17 in March, which equates to a very good reading month for me!