Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.

This... was a wild ride. There was darkness and light and hate and love and I adored every second I read this book.

First of all, the story is so brilliantly structured. Without wanting to spoil too much, it is fantastic how the events always relate to the part they are set in. Especially because we start out on a pirate ship and we end on a pirate ship and it just feels as thought the story has come full circle. Absolute master piece.

The different POV's are everything. I love when books offer different POV's, but often it's difficult to keep the voices apart. Even if I would have put the book down for a day in the middle of a chapter, I would have immediately known whose voice I was reading and that was phenomenal.

I immediately fell in love with the characters (well, the important ones anyway) and they were so loveable but flawed and it is everything I need from a well rounded character and story. The diversity - not only racial but also sexuality and gender wise was great and I loved seeing a non-binary/female love story in this.

I just can implore everyone to read this book. It is absolutely brilliant and if you like fantasy, you will adore this with all your heart. There are some darker moments in here but hey, it's a story about pirates. What do we expect?

This book couldn't be anything other but five stars for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with this copy of The Lamplighter .

I am always in awe when I read Jackie Kay's works. The power in them is undeniable and The Lamplighter is no exception. Technically, this is only a re-print but it comes with a brand new foreword by the playwright herself and in it, she refers directly to the times we're living in at the moment. About our COVID-19 situation, about how the topics of racism and slavery are still as important as they always were.

I was already deeply affected just by reading the foreword.

It did not prepare me at all for what I would be feeling during the play.
This play is so incredibly important, and especially in times of Black Lives Matter and where we are all educating ourselves on the past and learning how to become anti-racist.

This piece of theatre has the power to change people.

Please read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC of this book.

Adult Virgins Anonymous was fantastic! I had the very best time reading it.

It is a well rounded, wonderfully written love story that has a very powerful message: Life is not a race.

Both main characters are not exactly where they should be according to society's standards and while it irks them, it is very clear that it irks them more because other people think they're weird .

The way this book is written and the way it deals with ideals and "normality" is absolutely great. Both Kate and Freddy are highly lovable characters, who just struggle a bit... generally. And that's okay. It's not me saying it's okay, it's the book saying it's okay.

Besides that, the book has amazing LGBTQ rep including asexuality, which is also discussed at the "Adult Virgins Anonymous" meetings. The general idea of this story is that it's okay to be a little different and to have different experiences to other people and having that sentiment in a book is like a whiff of fresh air that this society desperately needs.

I love this book with all my heart and can only recommend it to everyone.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC

I was intrigued by the synopsis of Night Life . And I was not disappointed.

I expected this to be a romance, but I think it is a bit in between a romance and erotica fiction. Which I didn't mind, it just made me feel like I knew more about the character's bedroom habits than about the character's themselves. At least in the first half.

The second half I absolutely loved. The conflict and the being conflicted and the thinking about consequences was absolutely amazing and I wasn't able to put the book down for the second half, honestly. I really liked the whole set up and the relationship between Ronnie and Diana. While they were intimate right away (quelle surprise coming from that premise haha), the falling in love was drawn out and was often only visible to the reader through touches and looks when reading a scene from the other's POV but it was fantastic.

An absolutely enjoyable read.

Thank you to Marie Mackay for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

A World Through Sapphire Eyes is set in the fantasy world of Knoxen - a kingdom where noone is quite human, has special powers and where a slave network, corruption and exploitation exist.
Vasen, the prince of Knoxen, is desperately searching for his sister who has been sentenced to spend her life in slavery to free and save her from her fate. Who he finds instead, is 'the chosen one'. A girl with powers so great that she is immeasurably valuable to Vasen's mother, the queen.
But when Vasen finds out what the court is really planning to do with the girl, he can't just stand by and watch...what ensues is a fight against time, a corrupt regime and for human rights.

I really enjoyed this book. What I liked was that every chapter started with a passage from a 'textbook' that could be found in the fantasy world of Knoxen to explain supernatural abilities or power dynamics quickly and efficiently and which was always followed up by a chapter dealing with exactly what had been described at the beginning. I felt like that was a very clever way to explain this new world to the reader without taking away too much of the story.

I loved Vasen as a character and I couldn't help but root for him throughout. I didn't immediately trust anyone because the story is told in a way where it wasn't quite clear what was going to happen, who the real bad guys are until - excuse my french - shit went down. I LOVED it! I also loved several other characters whom I will not go into detail now because... spoiler. But trust, there are some proper good beans in here who you will absolutely love!

There were a couple of plot twists that I honestly didn't see coming and the fact that this book was told from different points of perspective made it even more interesting to me.

All in all, I recommend this book to everyone who likes fantasy, action and who has a thing for supernatural abilities! I can't wait to se what Marie Mackay does next :)

Don't mind me, guys. I'll just be over here crying over this book.

I am really sorry but I cannot possible give this book more than one star. I want to. Trust, I really want to. I absolutely loved the set up: four writers who have the most horrible experience with their publisher and work together to destroy him? Awesome! So I dived into this book with a smile on my face and in hopes of a fun, quirky read.

And I suppose it is a fun quirky read. But one that I almost dnf'ed on multiple occasions. The first one being the scene where one of the writers finds herself a US based agent and after meeting - what, twice? - starts kissing her. That is her mouth and her armpit. And there was even a remark to how she is astounded? surprised? Because she is sure she stinks, after her long journey. I just couldn't. I was completely appalled by this man's behaviour and this character made it clear that she wanted to keep business and pleasure separate but didn't outright refuse him. There is also a sentence in there about how she didn't want to embarrass him and then makes sure that he knows that. While in my head there were red alarm bells about how this man whom she just started a working relationship with sexually harrassed her. Because that's honestly how it read to me. And she makes sure that he's not embarrassed.

Anyway, moving on. Apart from always being bewildered of the character's opinions, I couldn't tell them apart. At all. I got constantly confused about whose storyline I was reading and also got confused with the names. There were long paragraphs of just dialogue and I never knew who was talking and apart from that I felt that the dialogue was incredibly stilted and wooden. I just can't imagine anyone talking like that naturally.

I am truly sorry about my harsh words, I know a book takes a lot of work and that but honestly? This was just a complete miss for me. There have been people who enjoyed it (since this book got some good reviews as well), so it might be just me. You will have to decide for yourself what you will make of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an utterly delightful book.
As someone who has written some short stories before and has never really thought to hard about plotting etc., this was very insightful. I am planning to write a novel because the idea is there but I wasn't sure how to start and was quite overwhelmed. This book didn't just tell me how to start, it absolutely excited me to do so.

Doing the suggested activities were so helpful to come up with lovely characters that I already care about without having written anything so far and the questions to drive the plot further and to structure a book were more fun than anything else.

I liked the easy going writing style. I felt like I was talking amongst friends without any judgement or me feeling not good enough. The writing made me feel like my idea was worth it and it made me more confident.

If you are someone who thinks about writing a novel because you have this idea that you can't shake off but don't know how to go about it: this book is for you. It even comes with helpful links and a great opportunity to indulge in even more writing exercises in an online work book.

Absolutely great!