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Welcome to Future Farming Technology and precision farming can often seem baffling. However our new...
It's Alright Between Us as It Is by Lindstrøm
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On Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s latest album, those northern disco lights are twinkling once more. Over...
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ClareR (5603 KP) rated The Bookbinder of Jericho in Books
Nov 5, 2023
The Bookbinder of Jericho follows the lives of Peggy, Maude and their friends during the years of the First World War. Peggy and Maude work in the bindery of the Oxford university press. Peggy has promised their now dead mother to always care for the vulnerable Maude (she has a learning disability) and isn’t capable of taking care of herself. She does work in the bindery with Peggy though, and is able to do repetitive tasks. Peggy, on the other hand, is ambitious. She has always loved reading and learning from what she reads, and she is desperate to do more with her life.
As the First World War begins, and refugees from a stricken Belgium start to arrive in Oxford, life begins to change for Peggy, and possibilities start to open up for her. She meets two people in particular: she falls in love with a wounded Belgian soldier, and she meets Gwen, a woman studying at Oxford, whilst they’re both volunteering. Life seems to be on the up for Peggy, but at the same time it becomes more complicated.
This book has a lot to say about the women’s suffrage movement, and how the war opened up more possibilities to women generally - although it certainly helped if you were in the upper classes. Maude and Peggy live on a canal boat (the Calliope), and whilst this may seem idyllic, its far from easy. It does give insight into the different ways that people lived and how people helped one another (Peggy’s boat neighbours often help out with Maude, as she can’t be left on her own).
I really liked how Peggy wasn’t prepared to give up on her dream of being accepted in the women’s college. Somerville, at Oxford. She perseveres, even if she does lose her way and has to decide what is most important to her.
This was such an enjoyable book, and I’d recommend it.
As the First World War begins, and refugees from a stricken Belgium start to arrive in Oxford, life begins to change for Peggy, and possibilities start to open up for her. She meets two people in particular: she falls in love with a wounded Belgian soldier, and she meets Gwen, a woman studying at Oxford, whilst they’re both volunteering. Life seems to be on the up for Peggy, but at the same time it becomes more complicated.
This book has a lot to say about the women’s suffrage movement, and how the war opened up more possibilities to women generally - although it certainly helped if you were in the upper classes. Maude and Peggy live on a canal boat (the Calliope), and whilst this may seem idyllic, its far from easy. It does give insight into the different ways that people lived and how people helped one another (Peggy’s boat neighbours often help out with Maude, as she can’t be left on her own).
I really liked how Peggy wasn’t prepared to give up on her dream of being accepted in the women’s college. Somerville, at Oxford. She perseveres, even if she does lose her way and has to decide what is most important to her.
This was such an enjoyable book, and I’d recommend it.
Barking Dog - Monitor & Control - Bark'n Mad
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Is your dog barking while you are out? Is the dog next door continually barking? Run monitoring...
The Fortune Hunter: A German Prince in Regency England
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The two decades after Waterloo marked the great age of foreign fortune hunters in England. Each year...
Endings and Beginnings: A Story of Healing
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Redi Tlhabi, warm-hearted, charismatic and loved throughout South Africa is as well known for her...
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
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Barbara Unkovi? is a keen and perceptive observer of the human condition, as her previous...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated More than Meets the Ink (The Bowen Boys #1) in Books
Jan 6, 2021
This review and more can be found at my blog https://aromancereadersreviews.blogspot.com
A Romance Reader's Reviews
2.5 stars
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library and has been on my "want-to-read-don't-own" shelf on Goodreads for quite a while
This starts with Tate crawling across the garden with her mother as they try to spy on their neighbour, who Tate's mum believes has taken her cat, Amy. They are interrupted by tattooed pretty boy, James, who happens to be their neighbours son. Instant attraction leads to flirting. Flirting leads to lots of hot almost-sex, almost because they keep being interrupted by the residents of the older peoples housing facility where they're visiting their respective parents. They finally do the deed before they both have to head home, only they now know they live in the same city. And of course they end up meeting again.
Before I started this I thought it was more of a new adult type thing with it's older cover but the new one (above) has made it all a bit more mysterious. I wasn't sure what the story was going to be other than a romance so its detailed sex scenes threw me off a bit and after so many, I started skipping them entirely. The romance was already starting to bloom so I wasn't really missing anything.
There's also a secondary storyline involving Tate's family restaurant and someone trying to get her to close it with daily threatening emails and stuff going wrong in the restaurant. When James gets wind of what's been happening he insists on helping her deal with it.
I have to admit that I liked James, quite a lot to be honest. He was a little take-charge and bull headed at times but you could tell he did it because he cared. Tate was far too judgmental at the start and it took me quite a while to warm up to her. She seemed really argumentative at times and somewhat whiny.
I'll admit that towards the end I started skipping bits, starting to lose interest in it. I was mainly waiting for the show down with the bad guy.
Not as good as I wanted it to be.
A Romance Reader's Reviews
2.5 stars
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library and has been on my "want-to-read-don't-own" shelf on Goodreads for quite a while
This starts with Tate crawling across the garden with her mother as they try to spy on their neighbour, who Tate's mum believes has taken her cat, Amy. They are interrupted by tattooed pretty boy, James, who happens to be their neighbours son. Instant attraction leads to flirting. Flirting leads to lots of hot almost-sex, almost because they keep being interrupted by the residents of the older peoples housing facility where they're visiting their respective parents. They finally do the deed before they both have to head home, only they now know they live in the same city. And of course they end up meeting again.
Before I started this I thought it was more of a new adult type thing with it's older cover but the new one (above) has made it all a bit more mysterious. I wasn't sure what the story was going to be other than a romance so its detailed sex scenes threw me off a bit and after so many, I started skipping them entirely. The romance was already starting to bloom so I wasn't really missing anything.
There's also a secondary storyline involving Tate's family restaurant and someone trying to get her to close it with daily threatening emails and stuff going wrong in the restaurant. When James gets wind of what's been happening he insists on helping her deal with it.
I have to admit that I liked James, quite a lot to be honest. He was a little take-charge and bull headed at times but you could tell he did it because he cared. Tate was far too judgmental at the start and it took me quite a while to warm up to her. She seemed really argumentative at times and somewhat whiny.
I'll admit that towards the end I started skipping bits, starting to lose interest in it. I was mainly waiting for the show down with the bad guy.
Not as good as I wanted it to be.
Ross (3282 KP) rated Legacy of Ash in Books
Dec 21, 2020
Epic but too lengthy
A very ambitious debut novel, epic in scope, cast of characters and plot. However, I found myself struggling to pick it up too often.
The book takes place in an empire with far-from-happy constituent parts and angry neighbours. The heirs of the traitorous Southweald "phoenix" are held captive as figureheads warning off any thoughts of rebellion. Meanwhile, a cliched corrupt council tries to keep the empire safe from impending invasion.
The book is filled with interesting magical creatures and abilities, with a demon, witches, crow-themed goth assassins and ancient spirits. These were at the fore nowhere near often enough, treated as curses and cast aside in favour of political plotting and old fashioned battle.
The first third of the book was awesome: learning about the richness of the world, its history, politics and magic. It really was set up to be an epic story of political intrigue, deception, plotting and underhand nastiness.
Sadly, this all lead to a battle sequence that lasted far too long. It was really like Joe Abercrombie had taken one of the First Law books and shoved The Heroes into the middle of it. I really struggled to get past this long, fairly boring conflict.
The second half of the book then calms down and focuses once again before taking a massive left-turn and changing to something very different.
As with many books of this size, the cast was massive and a number of characters not distinct enough to remember by name. And so many had such promising abilities to offer but were largely absent when they would have been so useful. It was like having a superstar in an amateur dramatic society and leaving them out of most of the script. Having said that, I once saw a pantomime with David Van Day in the cast and it was in everyone's best interests that he was largely absent.
The book finished well, but it was an 800-page book that read like a 1200-page one, taking me 5 weeks to read.
The book takes place in an empire with far-from-happy constituent parts and angry neighbours. The heirs of the traitorous Southweald "phoenix" are held captive as figureheads warning off any thoughts of rebellion. Meanwhile, a cliched corrupt council tries to keep the empire safe from impending invasion.
The book is filled with interesting magical creatures and abilities, with a demon, witches, crow-themed goth assassins and ancient spirits. These were at the fore nowhere near often enough, treated as curses and cast aside in favour of political plotting and old fashioned battle.
The first third of the book was awesome: learning about the richness of the world, its history, politics and magic. It really was set up to be an epic story of political intrigue, deception, plotting and underhand nastiness.
Sadly, this all lead to a battle sequence that lasted far too long. It was really like Joe Abercrombie had taken one of the First Law books and shoved The Heroes into the middle of it. I really struggled to get past this long, fairly boring conflict.
The second half of the book then calms down and focuses once again before taking a massive left-turn and changing to something very different.
As with many books of this size, the cast was massive and a number of characters not distinct enough to remember by name. And so many had such promising abilities to offer but were largely absent when they would have been so useful. It was like having a superstar in an amateur dramatic society and leaving them out of most of the script. Having said that, I once saw a pantomime with David Van Day in the cast and it was in everyone's best interests that he was largely absent.
The book finished well, but it was an 800-page book that read like a 1200-page one, taking me 5 weeks to read.
Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated The Curse of Crow Hollow in Books
Jun 24, 2019
Read the original review on my blog: https://bookmarkedreading.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/book-review-the-curse-of-crow-hollow/
The Curse of Crow Hollow is a story of a town fighting for survival, trying so desperately to maintain their perfect society while tearing it apart themselves. It's written to sound as though you are being spoken to (and I can't help but wonder how anyone would have the time to tell a story this long) and in a rather unique way, as well. The writing style made me think of old-fashioned towns or something, at least until phones and flat-screen TVs are mentioned.
Crow Hollow is home to a witch. Yep, a witch. After her husband was found dead at the roadside, Alvaretta Graves shut herself away in a tiny little cabin in the woods. No one dared to go up there; the whole town knew to stay away from Alvaretta.
But the reader is told of a story that begins with a group of teenagers - Cordelia, Scarlett, Naomi and Hays - who go where nobody has gone for a long, long time. And when an incident involving Cordelia's mother's bracelet, the kids are led right to clearing where Alvaretta settled all those years ago.
After meeting the witch, those kids' lives will never be the same. Nor will any of the lives of their friends, families and neighbours. The witches curse spreads through the town, leaving everyone in panic.
Will they be able to fix their mistakes? Rid the town of evil and return to their normal lives? The chances are slim at best. Despite this, they are determined to try their hardest. The plot was definitely exciting, and there were more than a few elements of surprise in this book. Nothing better than a good old plot twist. But I did find it a little hard to follow, as I got caught up in the details and numerous characters a fair few times. (Who's Landis again? Which one is the doctor?) But like I said, I loved the whole idea of the book and the writing style, despite it being rather different for me. So I'm going to give The Curse of Crow Hollow 3.5 stars out of 5.
The Curse of Crow Hollow is a story of a town fighting for survival, trying so desperately to maintain their perfect society while tearing it apart themselves. It's written to sound as though you are being spoken to (and I can't help but wonder how anyone would have the time to tell a story this long) and in a rather unique way, as well. The writing style made me think of old-fashioned towns or something, at least until phones and flat-screen TVs are mentioned.
Crow Hollow is home to a witch. Yep, a witch. After her husband was found dead at the roadside, Alvaretta Graves shut herself away in a tiny little cabin in the woods. No one dared to go up there; the whole town knew to stay away from Alvaretta.
But the reader is told of a story that begins with a group of teenagers - Cordelia, Scarlett, Naomi and Hays - who go where nobody has gone for a long, long time. And when an incident involving Cordelia's mother's bracelet, the kids are led right to clearing where Alvaretta settled all those years ago.
After meeting the witch, those kids' lives will never be the same. Nor will any of the lives of their friends, families and neighbours. The witches curse spreads through the town, leaving everyone in panic.
Will they be able to fix their mistakes? Rid the town of evil and return to their normal lives? The chances are slim at best. Despite this, they are determined to try their hardest. The plot was definitely exciting, and there were more than a few elements of surprise in this book. Nothing better than a good old plot twist. But I did find it a little hard to follow, as I got caught up in the details and numerous characters a fair few times. (Who's Landis again? Which one is the doctor?) But like I said, I loved the whole idea of the book and the writing style, despite it being rather different for me. So I'm going to give The Curse of Crow Hollow 3.5 stars out of 5.