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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
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Read our exclusive interview with the author here SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST...
I Promise to be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud
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One of the most written-about literary figures in the past decade, Arthur Rimbaud left few traces...
Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges and Andrew Hurley
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The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges's short stories, Fictions is a wildly original and...
Kate (493 KP) rated Find Me at Willoughby Close in Books
Jun 30, 2020
This book was so really heart warming and touching. I believe this was because it happens to real people not just something that happens in books.
I saw the cover and read the blurb and knew this was one book I would definitely read. It was a feel good read. When reading it I could of been anywhere as I totally escaped into this book.
I couldn't put book the book down from the first page and I immediately felt for the main character, Harriet, which doesn't normally happen. I really felt for her especially as she took one knock after another but she took it in her stride. As she explained who she used to be I totally knew the type of person she was describing because we all know someone like this.
The character definitely changed throughout the book and became a better, nicer person and someone she wanted to be. She even explained in the book how she had changed and how she was changing back to her old self. And Kate Hewitt's writing really brought this to life. The main character didn't even need to tell the reader as we could see it.
It reminded me of similar stories I have read. All those books are what I call feel good books because they make the reader feel good and they are truly books you can lose yourself in. You can even imagine yourself sitting in the sun reading this book on holiday.
The story was so believable and could happen to read people.
I already have the other books in the series ready in my e-reader library to read and I can't wait.
I would 100% recommend this book and other by this author.
I saw the cover and read the blurb and knew this was one book I would definitely read. It was a feel good read. When reading it I could of been anywhere as I totally escaped into this book.
I couldn't put book the book down from the first page and I immediately felt for the main character, Harriet, which doesn't normally happen. I really felt for her especially as she took one knock after another but she took it in her stride. As she explained who she used to be I totally knew the type of person she was describing because we all know someone like this.
The character definitely changed throughout the book and became a better, nicer person and someone she wanted to be. She even explained in the book how she had changed and how she was changing back to her old self. And Kate Hewitt's writing really brought this to life. The main character didn't even need to tell the reader as we could see it.
It reminded me of similar stories I have read. All those books are what I call feel good books because they make the reader feel good and they are truly books you can lose yourself in. You can even imagine yourself sitting in the sun reading this book on holiday.
The story was so believable and could happen to read people.
I already have the other books in the series ready in my e-reader library to read and I can't wait.
I would 100% recommend this book and other by this author.
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated So This is Christmas (The Adrien English Mysteries, #5.5) in Books
Jan 7, 2021
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited Library.
It has been 8 years - possibly more since I joined Goodreads in 2012 - since I read books five and six in this series - and I should point out, they were the only two books I DID read in this series after getting them free one Christmas from AllRomanceeBooks before the website shut down
did fall in love with Adrien and Jake despite not knowing all the stuff they had been through in the previous books so when I saw this, I had to read it. They do rehash a lot of what happened in the past and god, I was getting emotional reading it - so in a way I'm glad I didn't - but they are such a good couple.
Well this wouldn't be an Adrien English mystery without a mystery and this one involves an old acquaintance whose boyfriend has gone missing after visiting his family for the holidays. His old fashioned, well off family. Both sides are saying the other had something to do with his disappearance and Adrien is tasked with helping to track him down, while Jake is hired by the family to do the same.
There's some other drama going on at Cloak & Dagger, the bookshop Adrien owns and we see some sweet moments and sometimes some hot moments between Jake and Adrien. It had me laughing at times with Adrien's humour.
I do like this series and quite a few of this authors other series like Holmes and Moriarity - of which Moriarity got a mention in this as an ex cop turned author and I will be reading more of his books at a later date.
It has been 8 years - possibly more since I joined Goodreads in 2012 - since I read books five and six in this series - and I should point out, they were the only two books I DID read in this series after getting them free one Christmas from AllRomanceeBooks before the website shut down
did fall in love with Adrien and Jake despite not knowing all the stuff they had been through in the previous books so when I saw this, I had to read it. They do rehash a lot of what happened in the past and god, I was getting emotional reading it - so in a way I'm glad I didn't - but they are such a good couple.
Well this wouldn't be an Adrien English mystery without a mystery and this one involves an old acquaintance whose boyfriend has gone missing after visiting his family for the holidays. His old fashioned, well off family. Both sides are saying the other had something to do with his disappearance and Adrien is tasked with helping to track him down, while Jake is hired by the family to do the same.
There's some other drama going on at Cloak & Dagger, the bookshop Adrien owns and we see some sweet moments and sometimes some hot moments between Jake and Adrien. It had me laughing at times with Adrien's humour.
I do like this series and quite a few of this authors other series like Holmes and Moriarity - of which Moriarity got a mention in this as an ex cop turned author and I will be reading more of his books at a later date.
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated The Kiss Thief in Books
Jan 8, 2021
This review and more can be found at my blog https://aromancereadersreviews.blogspot.com
A Romance Reader's Reviews
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library.
The Kiss Thief starts with a party - one almost from the 1800's, as Francesca points out - with waltzes and masquerade masks. She wants to kiss her childhood sweetheart Angelo that night but after spilling that secret during a dance with Senator Wolfe Keaton when he goads her, he steals her first kiss by wearing Angelo's mask.
What follows is a lot of political posturing and violence as Wolfe threatens to bring down Francesca's mob father unless he can marry Francesca. It's not a romantic gesture, it's a power play.
Of course, things start to change as they begin to know each other. Feelings start to change. Francesca gets a freedom she never thought she'd get while being a part of The Outfit - the mob. Wolfe is going to allow her to go to college and get a job.
I cried like a baby near the middle of this. Wolfe was a little rough with Francesca and though he instantly regretted it, I had tears pouring down my face at the scene that was playing out in front of me.
This is definitely a bit of a tit-for-tat type story both in regards to the romance, and in the political power plays going on between Wolfe and The Unit. One does something, the other retaliates.
They do finally work things out - and thank God for that! - but not without a lot of ups and downs. I do feel the story finished quite quickly, not the epilogue parts but the last chapter before.
I'm going to keep an eye out for more of the authors books.
A Romance Reader's Reviews
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library.
The Kiss Thief starts with a party - one almost from the 1800's, as Francesca points out - with waltzes and masquerade masks. She wants to kiss her childhood sweetheart Angelo that night but after spilling that secret during a dance with Senator Wolfe Keaton when he goads her, he steals her first kiss by wearing Angelo's mask.
What follows is a lot of political posturing and violence as Wolfe threatens to bring down Francesca's mob father unless he can marry Francesca. It's not a romantic gesture, it's a power play.
Of course, things start to change as they begin to know each other. Feelings start to change. Francesca gets a freedom she never thought she'd get while being a part of The Outfit - the mob. Wolfe is going to allow her to go to college and get a job.
I cried like a baby near the middle of this. Wolfe was a little rough with Francesca and though he instantly regretted it, I had tears pouring down my face at the scene that was playing out in front of me.
This is definitely a bit of a tit-for-tat type story both in regards to the romance, and in the political power plays going on between Wolfe and The Unit. One does something, the other retaliates.
They do finally work things out - and thank God for that! - but not without a lot of ups and downs. I do feel the story finished quite quickly, not the epilogue parts but the last chapter before.
I'm going to keep an eye out for more of the authors books.
ClareR (5686 KP) rated When the Lights Go Out in Books
Nov 17, 2020
When the Lights Go Out is not just about climate change and the disaster that we seem to be hurtling towards. It’s also about a marriage: Emma and Chris’ marriage. I seem to be having a really good run with books lately. This is a book where not overly much happens on the surface, but it’s packed full of action if you look at the way that it’s scrutinising Emma and Chris’ marriage. These are two people who have a lot going on. They have both been pushed to their limits, and whilst Emma seems to be dealing with the changes in her life, Chris is really struggling. He is constantly plagued by thoughts of ‘worst case scenarios’. He stockpiles food and fuel in the garage, he buys fish antibiotics just in case the human version is unobtainable. And he tests his family’s resourcefulness by turning off the electricity in their home to make sure they can cope - and leads them to believe it’s a power cut. Chris is unhappy. Work is very slow - no one needs a gardener if it rains non-stop and the garden is submerged, or if it gets so hot that nothing survives to tend to. Money is tight since Emma lost her job when the library where she worked closed, and she works part time in a school, supplementing her income with her craft work.
Everything comes to a dramatic head on Christmas Eve - and I don’t think I was capable of breathing properly for the last couple of chapters.
This sounds like a morose, depressing read, but it really wasn’t. There are some really quite funny bits interspersed with the more serious aspects - I thought it was really well balanced, and I loved reading it.
Everything comes to a dramatic head on Christmas Eve - and I don’t think I was capable of breathing properly for the last couple of chapters.
This sounds like a morose, depressing read, but it really wasn’t. There are some really quite funny bits interspersed with the more serious aspects - I thought it was really well balanced, and I loved reading it.
ClareR (5686 KP) rated Luckenbooth in Books
Feb 14, 2021
I love a book that takes me by surprise and is a bit off centre; something a bit different from books found on the bestseller lists (which is where I would hope this will end up!!), or the supermarket shelves. Luckenbooth is one of those books.
Luckenbooth piqued my interest as soon as I saw the cover photo - and then I read the synopsis. How could it possibly NOT appeal to me? I mean, the devils daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin to work for the Minister of Culture. I was hooked. It’s not all about her though. The book is split into three sections, each section revolving around three different characters, and we see glimpses in to their lives. There are people from all walks of life: strippers, spies, maids, a black human rights lawyer with a bone mermaid, drug addicts, poets, a medium. These are all people who live on the edge of society (within No. 10 Luckenbooth Close, anyway!), people who have little - and they live in a tenement that has been cursed by the devils daughter.
The stories seem not to be linked to one another, and their only link is the fact that they all live in the same tenement building. I really enjoyed these snapshots, any one of them could have been longer and I would have enjoyed them just as much. This fed my love of short stories though, and I really liked how reality was mixed with the more supernatural elements.
I will have to dig out my copies of Fagans books The Sunlight Pilgrims and The Panopticon, languishing in my Kindle library - this has really made me want to read her other books.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book through NetGalley.
Luckenbooth piqued my interest as soon as I saw the cover photo - and then I read the synopsis. How could it possibly NOT appeal to me? I mean, the devils daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin to work for the Minister of Culture. I was hooked. It’s not all about her though. The book is split into three sections, each section revolving around three different characters, and we see glimpses in to their lives. There are people from all walks of life: strippers, spies, maids, a black human rights lawyer with a bone mermaid, drug addicts, poets, a medium. These are all people who live on the edge of society (within No. 10 Luckenbooth Close, anyway!), people who have little - and they live in a tenement that has been cursed by the devils daughter.
The stories seem not to be linked to one another, and their only link is the fact that they all live in the same tenement building. I really enjoyed these snapshots, any one of them could have been longer and I would have enjoyed them just as much. This fed my love of short stories though, and I really liked how reality was mixed with the more supernatural elements.
I will have to dig out my copies of Fagans books The Sunlight Pilgrims and The Panopticon, languishing in my Kindle library - this has really made me want to read her other books.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book through NetGalley.
Erika (17788 KP) rated Phasma in Books
Jul 11, 2019 (Updated Jul 11, 2019)
I was pumped to read more about Phasma, after Rian Johnson did her character dirty (well, he did every character dirty in TLJ). Luckily for me, I had read the 4 issue comic run from Kelly Thompson. Protip: Read Thompson's Phasma run and skip this novel.
Firstly, this novel was not told from Phasma's point of view until the last chapter. The story is coming out to Cardinal, a Captain in the First Order that wears red armor (didn't know cardinals or chickens existed in the SW universe), from a Resistance spy, Vi. Basically, dude is jelly that he was technically demoted when Phasma arrived to the First Order. Vi rambles on the story of Phasma from the character Siv, who was a member of Phasma's band of warriors. Guess what? Phasma's from a backwater planet, color me shocked. All of the characters were bland, boring, and unlikable. I was done with the book when Siv revealed that she was pregnant, and kept rambling on about the baby and crap. Unless the baby was Rey, no one cares. Where was the editor? Also, the going on and on about how different the accents were between Brendol Hux/the First Order people and the warriors from the hell planet was so annoying.
The story was predictable, and boring. The option to tell the story of Phasma with 2 degrees of separation was ineffectual. This makes me leery about reading any other SW novel by this author. I was going to purchase Black Spire, but I'm definitely just going to get it at the library. So, not only did TLJ do Phasma a disservice, so did this novel. This is definitely one of the worst books in the new canon.
Firstly, this novel was not told from Phasma's point of view until the last chapter. The story is coming out to Cardinal, a Captain in the First Order that wears red armor (didn't know cardinals or chickens existed in the SW universe), from a Resistance spy, Vi. Basically, dude is jelly that he was technically demoted when Phasma arrived to the First Order. Vi rambles on the story of Phasma from the character Siv, who was a member of Phasma's band of warriors. Guess what? Phasma's from a backwater planet, color me shocked. All of the characters were bland, boring, and unlikable. I was done with the book when Siv revealed that she was pregnant, and kept rambling on about the baby and crap. Unless the baby was Rey, no one cares. Where was the editor? Also, the going on and on about how different the accents were between Brendol Hux/the First Order people and the warriors from the hell planet was so annoying.
The story was predictable, and boring. The option to tell the story of Phasma with 2 degrees of separation was ineffectual. This makes me leery about reading any other SW novel by this author. I was going to purchase Black Spire, but I'm definitely just going to get it at the library. So, not only did TLJ do Phasma a disservice, so did this novel. This is definitely one of the worst books in the new canon.
Outread – Speed Reading
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Speed-read websites, ebooks and documents. Outread improves reading effectiveness by helping you to...