“A life with all of its business finished is a life too cautiously lived.”

A beautifully written historic romance which honestly left me feeling a bit emotional in the end! 

I adored the way Martha has created complex characters - particularly the characters of Death and Love. Having ditched the lazy stereotypes you may expect - she has built complex personalities, showing both part kind and cruel as well as the way they interact with one another and the other characters throughout. 

The various romances and conflicts within this book touching on themes of race and sexuality during 1970’s made it feel very well rounded rather than a one note romance as well as the sprinkle of humour just made it a great overall read. 

Sadly I think this book just isn’t for me. It feels very descriptive which is nice for setting an atmosphere but the plot is incredibly slow and as I got to 37% (4 & 1/2 hours) of the way through there wasn’t any clear goal or relationship to route for.

I personally felt a bit lost within the heavy fable/fairytale magic that without a clear plot/goal to follow along this book just lacked any real substance for me to sink my teeth into. 

Sadly my first DNF for 2024

I really enjoyed this book, which I’m super happy about as I did go in with some quite high expectations as my first Freida McFadden Book.

I loved the layers to each of the characters and how the plot lines starts to unravel and intwine. Whilst they weren’t loveable in the classic sense, I really enjoyed each of them thoroughly!

I am an absolute sucker for an unreliable narrator trope and loved how this unraveled especially as you start to see the shift in the characters as they’re darker characteristics show.

This in addition to the switching of chapters between past, present and the transcripts was very creative and felt very immersive and helped keep the plot moving at a very strong pace. 

I think this mystery/thriller was written in a way that is so clever leading you down one path and just when you think you’ve guessed it all it throws into a completely different direction which still felt in keeping with the story. 

Overall a fantastic read and I really can’t find anything I’d personally look to change about it! 

Jonathan Cranston has truly captured my heart with his exciting adventures as a travelling vet! Not only an incredibly insightful read which was incredibly interesting but such a broad range of stories from the heart wrenching to laugh out loud moments.

The exploration of animals from all over the world was diverse and insightful - I especially liked the chapter end ‘Fast Facts’. 

For a non-fiction this book captured such a range of emotions from awe struck, tension, silly laughter and pure heartbreak and will 100% be re-reading and recommending in future! 

This is a cosy & charming short read truly felt like a love letter to readers. It holds a unique take on portraying interesting and reflective perspective into modern day reading themes (speed reading, re-reading and bulk publishing) as well as undertones of processing grief.

The characters were loveable in their own way and the story was very well paced in my opinion. The plot was a balance of intrigue of challenge in the way it thinks whilst also a sense of cosiness any book lover could enjoy. 

My only critique is that  whilst writing created a very vivid sense of magic , it does feel slightly cheesy and leans more into what I feel is a YA type book. That being said this could very well be due to the translation to English. 

Overall I enjoyed this book and am glad to have listened to it. Will need to keep my eyes peeled for a bargain physical copy as I could see myself rereading as a nod to why I enjoy reading. 

Going in completely blind to this story having never watched or studied this story before I was pleasantly surprised.

Like many, I had made the common mistake of believing the books namesake to be after the monster rather than its creator. The monster is not some empty-headed zombie but actually  a tortured soul demonstrated strong emotional development eventually leading into seeking revenge upon the world from which he is not accepted.

The writing in this book is poetic and incredibly atmospheric with a plot line itself was really enjoyable and emotional. The characters of scientist Frankenstein and his monster had clear themes of obsession and loved their respective development and tale of cat and mouse within the final parts of this book. In addition the particular audio book narrator I listen to set the tone of the novel perfectly! 

That being said, whilst the writing style was beautiful, it did drag out the story and seem to lead it into tangents away from progressing the plot making it a very slow read and disengaging at times. 

Overall, I am really glad to have listen to this story and would potentially pick up a physical copy should I happen upon it in a charity shop or book swap as I do think perhaps the slow burn would be a quicker read if experienced not as an audio book. 

This was a very powerful read with powerful themes of feminism, racism, sexuality and gender identity through a range of complex and diverse characters which intertwine with each others lives throughout the book.

This was an entirely different from my usual reads and do feel that whilst I enjoyed it, it was harder to fully immerse and follow at times as their isn’t a clear plot to follow throughout and is very character orientated. Due to this character orientation also I did find some parts of the story slow for characters I didn’t really care for at the start but certainly picked up as I became more engrossed by the characters stories. 

I feel like had I been able to follow the story better and its interconnections between characters (possible by reading as a physical book over audio) I would be looking at 4 stars. Until this 3.5 stars but will be one I’ll keep an eye out for in my local charity shops. 

The plot wasn’t half bad to start with - there were a lot of twists and turns and appreciated the fast paced nature of the book which had me really intrigued for the first half.

That being said the characters did feel a bit flat and the writing could have done with some foreshadowing as some of the twists and turns of the plot just seem to come out of no-where and felt like they were thrown in for convenience.

I liked the reasons as to why Anne’s dad was involved in trying to get money via the ransom for his affair - but with no foreshadowing that there was an affair until the end - just felt a bit lazy as though it was  a last minute decision to tie things up quickly

 

Overall I felt like there was so much potential tension that could have been built up that felt missed, rushed or poorly executed which made the book just fall a bit flat.

Like the majority of readers of this series, I absolutely loved the Netflix series and was looking forward to reading more detail in the books.

I enjoy the way, the author has captured the romance and charm between Simon and Daphne. The book is very fast paced in my opinion and therefore made an easy read with the romance not feeling too overdrawn out. 

That being said, I felt like there were more layers to the story demonstrated in the Netflix series than this initial book - I assume as the book entirely pivots on the 2 MCs. 

Given the nature of the book, we do get more the thoughts of Simon and his prospective growing up which I liked by I do  wish the book delved into more detail on the relationship between Nigel and Daphne for the other drama, as it was very much brushed over at the start of the book.

Overall a lovely romance but I think in this instance the Netflix season was stronger. 

An quirky little book which played with darker themes of conforming to society norms whilst demonstrating a POV of Keiko - the MFC who demonstrates some slight sociopathic thoughts -

When she thinks that a knife to her nephew would surely quiet him quicker and throughout the book looks to emulate behaviours of her counter parts to appear ‘normal’

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alongside a antagonist Incel male who is keen to manipulate her into thinking he is doing her a favour. 

That being said I felt like the story was quite limited - even accounting for the small page count - I think the story could have been pushed a bit further as it just felt somewhat one note. Overall I enjoyed the writing style itself over the plot itself if I’m honest.