Heartburn is not my usual kind of book, however, I heard one of my favourite journalists Dolly Alderton raving about Nora Ephron and this book so I decided I had to give it a go. I also saw a beautiful new edition they'd released off the book and also could not resist a pretty book cover.

Heartburn is a kind of fictional memoir by Nora Ephron that uses the personal experience of breaking up with her husband to write a book. However, many of the events such as a the robbery at her therapy group and the fact she is a cookbook writer are not actually true to Nora's life. She explains this all in the forward and discusses how she has always been driven to write about events in her life. I really enjoyed however knowing how the idea formed in Ephron's head and seeing how the book was based in elements on her real life gave it a much stronger emotional punch and enabled me to connect more.

The book itself is very short and snappy. It's very easy to read in an afternoon. It follows the breakdown of Rachel and Mark's marriage after Mark is found to cheat on Rachel. The book is far from being sad, as Rachel makes lots of observant, funny quips about the relationship, about Mark and about her friends and family her support her through this time. This makes for a light-hearted and entertaining read.

I would certainly pick up another Nora Ephron book in the future and would recommend to anyone interested in women's fiction, and relationship stories.

I was lucky enough to pick The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes up an Amazon First Reads as otherwise I may not have heard of the book for a while. Admittedly, I do not tend to read my Amazon First Reads within the first month of getting them, however I was very drawn to Alya Mooro's book because the Middle East and Arab culture is a place I find myself distinctly lacking knowledge about. I understand some of the basics of the history, the foundations of Islam and specific expectations within those cultures. However, I do not have any Middle Eastern friends, and I have limited exposure to talking to people from the Middle East. Alya Mooro is British-Egyptian woman who was born in Egypt and raised in both London and Egypt. Therefore, I thought this book would be a good foray into understanding how British culture and Middle Eastern culture interact. I would reiterate the fact that this book is written by a woman who is by her own admission from a fairly liberal background, who has spent a large part of her life surrounded by Western culture. Therefore, do not expect it to be the voices of all Arab women, nor should anybody expect that from one book alone.

However, I think this book is a fantastic starting point for all women, especially white, western women who have had limited interactions with Middle Eastern women and the Middle Eastern community to enable us to be better about intersectional feminism and reduce our ignorance. I think this is particularly important at the current point in time and political climate surrounding the Middle East, driven by the likes of Donald Trump etc.

The book is largely a mix between Alya Mooro discussing her life, her childhood and growing up as a British-Egyptian and the interaction between those two cultures. She looks at how these two cultures and the clash between them impacted on her as she became and adult; she examines the impact on her relationship with her family and with the people she dated. This is interwoven into the various thematic chapters that cover themes such as: family, sexuality, feminism, marriage etc
and how those themes fit with the idea of being a Middle Eastern woman. This made the book both personal and a poignant piece of non-fiction.

I also think the really interesting part about the book is how Alya Mooro spoke about how she never really fit into either place. She didn't fit the British expectations because she had Arab parents who still expected her home earlier than her British friends, but then in Egypt she was the 'Western kid' because she wasn't Arab enough. It's an interesting issue that surrounds individuals with this dual cultural identity, and one I do not think we address enough in society. We claim to be a multi-cultural United Kingdom and cosmopolitan etc, but then we fail to accept all sides of a person's identity and culture and we do not allow them to be 'British-Egyptian' without questioning their differences.

It is clear that Mooro has spent a lot of time researching her novel, talking to her social media communities and followers to investigate and consider how Middle Eastern women conceive of themselves and how they are viewed by others. Alya Mooro made lots of interesting points about Arab culture that I just wasn't aware of and had never really thought about. She has thoroughly footnoted to articles, pieces of non-fiction and research that she quotes meaning it is easy to trace back to the source on things she was quoting, and investigate more about those specific pieces. This is also particularly handy if you wanted to read more about Middle Eastern women and Arab culture as now I have a few extra books I want to read following on from this.

I also thought that Mooro made some fantastic points that are applicable across all cultures to women, particularly around the ideas of sex and sexuality. Her chapters on sex and sexuality were perhaps the most interesting and thought provoking to me, as she spoke about the shame associated with enjoying sex. The drive in young girls and the pressure they feel they are under to have sex, whilst all of this is not necessarily true. I think she made so many important and valid points about how young women across the globe need to feel comfortable in their own bodies, need to feel that they can have sex when they want, how they want and they can enjoy sex. I think sex has been a tool of male oppression and will continue to be used against women, as women face rape, arranged marriages, genital mutilation and all kinds of sexual harassment and sexual violence. For me these themes that were discussed throughout the whole book as Alya Mooro opened up on a very personal note about her relationships and some of her sexual history (which is a pretty big thing to do, considering how many women are slandered for being open about their sexuality), made these even more poignant.

This book has left me curious for more, and I have already followed a few of the links and picked up a couple of books that Alya Mooro referenced in her book. I would recommend this book to everyone!

I liked Trick and Frankie a lot.

The Phoenix Pack series has been a completely pleasant surprise and one that I've become pretty hooked on actually. The premise of all the books is that there is one unmated wolf shifter from the Phoenix pack, starting with the Alpha Trey and following through all the unmated male members, finishing with Dominic. The male wolf shifters then either find their true mate or decide to "imprint" (which is basically forming a bond between the two shifters like that of a true mate; meaning they can have children and are connected for life). There is usually some kind of conflict that disrupts the relationship and the bond forming, but this is usually an external pack conflict/human vigilantes that are causing trouble for the pack. I liked that Suzanne Wright did not add a lot of unnecessary drama between the couples.

One of the aspects I enjoyed the most was how each individual book built on the pack dynamic and we saw snippets of all the characters that had been introduced in the previous books. The series also runs parallel to the Mercury Pack series, which is a spin-off series. I would very much recommend reading the books in chronological order of publishing between both series as then you don't get introduced to a new mate before they've become part of the others pack etc. It's only a minor spoiler as it's fairly obvious Suzanne Wright is going to provide HEA with these kind of books.

For this particular instalment, we followed Dominic (wolf shifter) and Mila (a Pallas cat). I really loved how kick-ass Mila was (the whole series has a tonne of kick-ass, strong women, which I loved!). She's feisty and determined, but also realistic and she's not overly dramatic which I really liked. She forced Dominic to confront his fears and was very observant about him and their relationship which I really liked; this served to ground the whole relationship and made it seem more realistic. Dominic has been one of my favourite characters across the whole series as he's fun, flirty and very easy to admire. He comes across as a playboy with a wicked mouth for puny chat-up-lines that has driven every character mad across the series. I really liked how Wright crafted his character across the whole series and showed us the darker and more emotionally vulnerable side to Dominic alongside the fun and flirty attitude he had.

Suzanne Wright finished up the series with a short snippet into the future for the epilogue to round off the series. I was both sad and happy to see this series end as it felt like a natural stopping point and 8 books is more than plenty in this kind of series before they become too standard. Currently this whole series and the spin-off (for UK based readers) is available through the kindle unlimited deal on Amazon so I would fully recommend picking them up, or picking up a trial to read the whole series as they're super easy to sit and get lost in for a couple of hours!

I first read Northern Light as a child and remember enjoying it. For some reason though, I never picked up the following two books despite owning them, and with the advent of the BBC drama I wanted to immerse myself back in the world of His Dark Materials before watching the TV show.

Northern Light was everything I remember and more, it dragged me away from the woes of real life to Lyra's adventures on the rooftops of Oxford, her trekking through the cold terrain of the North and her battles against the sinister adults of the world. It has such rich and fascinating characters with armoured bears that talk, witches that barely age, men that fly hot-air balloons, gyptians that sail the canals of England, and many a bad guy. Philip Pullman crafts a very multi-dimensional world in all aspects and it's one of the reasons that it's so easy to get lost in the world he creates. The characters all have fantastic individuality, and the world is so interesting!

The main aspect that makes this world so different to our own is that all humans have a daemon; a talking animal of the opposite gender to them, that eventually settles on one form at adulthood. The book focuses on this relationship between human and their daemon, as the adults in the story investigate the 'science' and 'mystery' behind it. It's such a fascinating and fun concept and I love how Pullman has developed a very simple concept into such an enriching world.

My favourite character has to be the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear. He's very smart, very observant but also he seems a little frosty and I love how he warms to Lyra and their relationship develops over the book. I also really liked Lyra, and I think especially for younger readers it's really good to see a female heroine in a more 'classic children's book' who is brave, determined and very smart. My third favourite character would be the witch Serafina Pekkala, as she just seems so wise and I love the mystery surrounding her and the witches in this book. I hope we get more from both Iorek and Serafina in the next two books, although I fear I may be disappointed.

Overall, an enjoyable read and I'm excited to pick up the next book!

This book made me cry. Doesn't help that I'm emotionally a wreck from stress right now. The grief and the emotions were so raw.

Eveline what a kick-ass woman. So strong and smart.

I don't usually read historical-romance novels, not for any particular reason, I just haven't read many. Now I am officially hooked. This was soooooo good!

Full review to come.

This was fun and flirty, and a nice tie in with On Dublin Street. I'd recommend reading both books together as this was short and I was still immersed in the world of On Dublin Street.

Highlander Most Wanted is the follow up to Never Seduce a Scot as this was just as enjoyable, if not quite a bit darker. The novel ties in nicely with Never Seduce a Scot and therefore I'd recommend reading that one before Highlander Most Wanted, especially because it would contain spoilers for the previous book.

*Mild spoilers for Never Seduce a Scot.

Highlander Most Wanted follows the story of Bowen and Genevieve, who was Ian McHugh's captured and abused captive until his most recent demise. Genevieve is not a broken women, but she's a woman with a troubled past and hated by the members of the McHugh clan. When the Montgomerys and Armstrongs arrive and liberate the castle, it is Bowen Montgomery that she ends up being drawn to.

I have to say I admired the strength and resilience that Genevieve had after everything she had endured at the hands of Ian McHugh. I thought she was a very strong female character, who stood up for what was right, but was also very smart. Her love interest Bowen was also a pretty good character as he always had the best interests of Genevieve in his mind, and was not dissuaded by the fact she was a strong woman. However, I just didn't love him or their romance as much as the one between Graeme and Eveline in Never Seduce a Scot. I thought it was a little bit more hurried and unrealistic in places given everything Genevieve had been through for her suddenly to become enraptured with her saviour.

Again, I would have loved to have more depth and knowledge about the factions surrounding the different clans, especially as this one drew in the McInnis clan and the McHugh clans to greater degrees. I felt like we didn't really know a lot about how all the clans and the clan hierarchies in Scotland worked. Especially when Banks alluded to various factions/treaties/the king etc, I felt like she could have developed these points to develop the historical setting more.

Overall though I enjoyed Highlander Most Wanted a lot and will look forward to the third instalment in the series that comes out next year. I'm intending to binge a few more Highlander historical-romance books including Maya Banks' other series the McCabe Trilogy, so we'll see how these books compare.

Trigger warnings; rape, violence.

Another fun instalment that follows the storyline of the first Mercy Thompson novel.