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‘The Lost Apothecary’ written by Sarah Penner

There were two timelines in this book. One is eighteenth century London and one is modern day London. I thoroughly enjoyed this book during the chapters that were set in the past and would of loved this book if it was completely set in the eighteenth century. I feel that the present day chapters kind of ruined this book for me.

You should read this if you:

💗 Like historical fiction that’s a little different

💗 Like books with two timelines

💗 Like interesting characters

💗 Like London set books

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‘Ruin and Rising’ written by Leigh Bardugo

‘Ruin and Rising’ is the third and final instalment to the ‘Shadow and Bone trilogy’.

Be warned, I can barely even call the next few sentences a review ahhaha

I kinda enjoyed this book more than the sequel and I DEFINITELY enjoyed it more than the first book. I will say though that it took me a bit to get into, I feel like the first 100 pages were fairly slow but it picked up the pace really well by page 150. I found this with the second book as well 🤷🏼 maybe that’s just me. I kept reading (obviously) and I ended up reading the a half to a third of the book in one day which isn’t something I do often.

This book sent me through the feels. I just can’t articulate how I feel about this book without spoiling it.

But read it.

NOTES:

- this was a horrible review and you’re welcome

- I actually started watching the Netflix series last night with my partner and I’m obsessed.

Shadow and Bone Trilogy

🖤Shadow and Bone

🖤Siege and Storm

🖤Ruin and Rising

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The Final Girl Support Group’ written by Grady Hendrix (2021)

#goodreadschallenge2022 01/50

Hendrix released this intriguing horror book mid last year and I saw it recommended time and time again. Which led me to start listening to the audio for this horror at the end of 2021 (borrowed from the @sclibraries with Libby) and finished it on the fifth.

The whole time I was listening to this book my head was going around in circles trying to figure it all out. Every time I felt like I had a grasp on what was happening, I’d find out I was wrong and that in itself added a great mystery aspect to this already great slasher book.

If you want to read a horror/slasher/mystery book than this is probably for you.

Positives:

✔️ strong female characters

✔️ good story concept

Negatives:

✖️bit on the long side

✖️the ending didn’t feel well suited to the rest of the book

If you feel that I missed any triggers/CWs please let me know.

Triggers/CW:

❗️blood

❗️su*cidal thoughts

❗️d*ath, mu*der and grief (multiple age groups)

❗️violence + aggression

❗️firearms (and other weapons)

❗️prisons and law enforcement

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The Mad Women’s Ball’ written by Victoria Mas

A debut novel by Victoria Mas which was originally released in France but was translated and released this year.

I (for an unknown reason) LOVE reading books set in the 1800s so it did not take me long to get onboard to read this engulfing book. The edition I read was 210 pages long so for a casual reader it’s a weekend read. Although one slight negative because of the length is that I could of happily read more and explored more characters in this story, but I’ll take what I can get.

Triggers/CW

❗️SA

❗️mental health

❗️R*pe

❗️su*cide

❗️death

❗️mental hospital [Salpêtrière Asylum] (keep in mind where and when it was set)

(There is now a movie on Amazon prime)

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‘The Boy From The Mish’ written by Gary Lonesborough

This is the first e-book that I’ve read this year that I’ve decided to post.

‘The Boy From The Mish’ is an outstanding young adult book set in a rural (NSW) Australian Community.

It is the first queer Indigenous book that I have read and heard of.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Positives:

✔️ easy read

✔️ speaks about important topics

✔️ well detailed

✔️ I did not want to put it down

✔️ great character development

✔️ Realistic

✔️ fantastic coming of age story

✔️ I got that good heartwarming feeling at the end of the book

❗️Triggers for the book❗️

- homophobia & internalised homophobia

- racial slurs

- homophobic slurs

- police violence

[if you think of anymore trigger warnings I should add please dm me or comment below and I will add them to the list as soon as I can]

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‘The Master And Margarita’ written by Mikhail Bulgakov

Book 120 for the #goodreadsreadingchallenge2021

This is one of those books that I read PURELY because someone else was reading it and recommended it. Before they posted about it I had never heard of it.

I was reading and listening to this book (mostly listening) because when I was just reading it I found myself getting lost. I will say that when I was listening to the audio I found I could follow the story better.

Did I enjoy the book? Not really

Did I enjoy the story? Yes, I really did enjoy the story

Do I recommend this book? I recommend reading part of it before setting yourself up for reading the whole book. I usually don’t read a book purely because someone else has read it but I did it anyway with this book and I feel like I wouldn’t have been affected if I chose not to read it.

Positives:

✔️interesting

✔️thorough (can be a negative)

✔️unpredictable

✔️I found it easy to imagine scenes/characters because they were described vividly

Negatives:

✖️I got confused

✖️it felt longer than it had to be

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Quotes from ‘A Slow Fire Burning’

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‘A Slow Fire Burning’ written by Paula Hawkins

This is Paula Hawkins third book. She has previously published ‘A Girl On The Train’ (2015), ‘Into The Water’ (2017) and now ‘A Slow Fire Burning’ which was released in August of this year (2021)

I have loved Hawkins work since the beginning. And before this book ‘Into The Water’ was my favourite. Now I feel as if it’s neck in neck with this new release.

Positives:

✔️easy to follow (easier in my opinion than her previous two books)

✔️literally had me changing my mind on the “whodunnit” aspect every 25 pages

✔️the epilogue FELT like an epilogue

✔️the cover 🤤

✔️good length (this edition was around the 290 pages mark

Negatives:

✖️there were times that I found myself feeling as if I had already read this book because I found parts of it the same as her previous two books BUT I will disclaim that I have read both of her other books twice or more so that COULD contribute to that feeling

I recommend looking into the triggers before reading. Below is what I noticed/remember. If you feel like I have missed some please let me know.

Triggers/Content Warnings for the book

❗️d*ath (animals, children, adults)

❗️violence

[partlybookish]

diverse and good fantasy books to read + hype up that AREN’T harry potter

since the entire hp stan community is shitting its pants over the fb3 trailer and ignoring jkr’s continued transphobia and homophobia

the shades of magic trilogy by ve schwab

queer author (uses she/they pronouns, is openly gay)

queer characters

characters of color

disabled protagonist

gorgeous prose + worldbuilding

a film adaptation is in the works!

a sequel trilogy of books is currently in the works!! it’s going to be called threads of power and it sounds amazing so far

the grishaverse by leigh bardugo

queer characters (literally so many across so many identities)

characters of color

multiple disabled protagonists (and the author is disabled too!)

IMPECCABLE worldbuilding and writing

it has a netflix series called shadow & bone that’s an absolute banger! season 2 is on the way too :))

an ember in the ashes by sabaa tahir

inspired by ancient rome

strong female protagonists who don’t hate on other women

non-toxic male love interests

absolutely heartbreaking

extremely intense (look up content warnings if you’re worried!)

many characters of color (+author is a poc too)

these violent delights by chloe gong

characters of color (+author is a poc too)

queer characters (including trans rep!)

an absolutely incredible love story (enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to it’s complicated?)

romeo and juliet retelling set in 1920s shanghai and featuring rival gangs—need i say more?

look up content warnings, especially if you’re scared of bugs!!!

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‘Deadly Vows’ (sixth book in the ‘Lizzie Grace’ series) written by Keri Arthur

This is a bit different from any other book in the Lizzy Grace series (read it to find out why) but it was just so good.

I can’t really write much about it WITHOUT giving too much away.

The only negative that I have about this book is that we didn’t get as much time as usual with certain characters that I love. (Belle and Ashworth)

I really do think it’s time to start thinking of what Keri Arthur series to read next so if you have any recommendations please let me know 💛

Side note: I’ve been busy doing a couple art pieces in time for Christmas so needed to write down sizes on my arm. I’m also realllllly liking the idea for doing some Lizzie Grace fan art so hopefully when I’m done these couple pieces)

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‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’ written by Stephanie Perkins

Triggers for the book: blood, death

This book has been on my TBR since 2017 for two sole reasons 1) the cover 2) the genre. I still love the cover and I still love the genre but I didn’t love this book.

I honestly don’t have much to say about this because I’m still low key shocked at how much I didn’t like this book.

Positives:

✔️ gory

✔️fast read

Negatives:

✖️no character development

✖️the blurb didn’t suit the book

(Please remember that some ‘positives/negatives’ for myself as a reader might be different for other readers)

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A quote from ‘Siege and Storm’

Check out the book review for it 💛

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‘Siege and Storm’ (second book in the ‘Shadow and Bone Trilogy’) written by Leigh Bardugo

I finished this book on the 25/11 and it took me ten days to read. Much longer than normal but I’ve had a fairly busy few weeks sadly.

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Siege and Storm’ more than ‘Shadow and Bone’ but that might be partly because I loved the introduction of a new character that appeared early (points if you know who) and I already had an idea of the world layout so it was easier to get into than ‘Shadow and Bone’.

‘Ruin and Rising’ (third book in the series) is DEFINITELY on my TBR for December (hopefully if I’m not too busy 😩) and I’m aiming to read more from Leigh Bardugo next year.

If you read ‘Shadow and Bone’ and you weren’t too sure about it so you don’t know if you should continue with the story or not, I recommend continuing. I already want to reread ‘Siege and Storm’ and I don’t have any interest in rereading ‘Shadow and Bone’ at this point.

Positives:

✔️ there were enough twists and turns that I felt like something was always happening and I wasn’t predicting every chapter but there wasn’t an overwhelming amount where I was always questioning everything

✔️the character development keeps on coming and it feels well thought out

✔️an enjoyable ratio of dialogue and description

✔️after I did get into it I was hooked (which made it all the harder not having time to read it)

Negatives:

✖️it took me to about p.100 for me to get into it

[partlybookish]

I’ve been busy the past couple days while I’ve been working on a couple art pieces so I haven’t been getting much reading (or writing ���) done (CR: ‘Siege and Storm’ by Leigh Bardugo)

I managed to find time to get some sunlight though and it was much needed.

I’m hoping that you’re all looking after yourselves and feeling okay 💛💛

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Quotes from ‘The Midwife Murders’ written by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

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‘The Midwife Murders’ written by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

So this is the first book I have read by James Patterson (heard his name around quiet a bit) and Richard DiLallo. I will be straight up and say I did not really enjoy this book and I don’t really know why.

I saw a fair bit of hype for this book last year and that COULD have impacted my enjoyment of it.

I do hope to try another book by this author/s

So if you have thoughts on which I should try please let me know.

Triggers in book: death, pregnancy/birth

Positives:

✔️the characters are well developed

✔️good writing

Negatives:

✖️can trigger readers

✖️first person (not a huge fan of this POV in most books)

✖️some parts of the book seem slow

✖️overhyped

✖️ I found it very predictable

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‘Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls’ - by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo

I just finished reading this to my daughter and I know that it will get reread many more times. I believe every child (no matter how they identify) deserves this book so they can hopefully feel both included and represented.

Pros:

✔️inclusivity

✔️a wide range of people no matter their ethnicity, economic status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identities, or age

✔️every illustration is unique and interesting

✔️a book filled with love with no trace of hate

And I cannot currently think of any cons :)