I’m still unsure how to word my feelings on this one.

It started out pretty good but I felt it got lost along the way. The ending felt disappointing, not wrapped up neatly, like most novels.

It was a book style I haven’t read before, which was good in itself, but the personalities were destructive & selfish which made me feel frustrated & it ended feeling unresolved.

I really expected to like this book a whole lot more than I actually did. It had some great ratings but unfortunately it just didn’t reach the bar for me. It felt like the author was trying too hard. The conversations between characters seemed forced in a weird way & the main character was absolutely nuts in her pursuit of getting to the bottom of the mystery. I didn’t really enjoy the author’s writing style but thought the plot of the story was still captivating enough for me to persevere.

This book was probably my least rated book of the year. And I hate admitting that!

Wow! This one was an edge-of-your-seat, can’t-put-it-down kinda deal! I read this one quickly & let me tell you thrill seekers, the reviews aren’t wrong, the twists were excellent. Which seems sort of wrong to admit when talking about a murder mystery.
There is an easy flow to the way Christian White writes, this being my second novel of his in as many weeks. He has that obvious Aussie way of writing, which I really enjoy, but he’s also really good with the weaving of these types of stories. I actually enjoyed reading his notes at the end where he explains how he tied it all together.
I feel like I’ll be keeping an eye out for this guy’s books from now on!

Book three of Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor series was well worth the wait. Four chapters in & I was already captivated by the latest installment.
I have a very real appreciation for the way Townsend threads her words together, the language she uses & the imagination involved in these novels. It’s a wild ride & one I seriously loved. Don’t be put off by the “Children’s Book” tag, this is a series that transcends age brackets! A great book to pull me out of my reading rut.

A very different genre of book for me, but it was surprisingly enjoyable. When I realised it was not a novel I wasn’t really sure whether I would finish it, poetry isn’t my usual style, but it was a really easy read.
The book itself was like being inside someone’s head & hearing their every thought... obscene, offensive, insecure & mundane... all of them. While Ana’s character wasn’t one I could relate to, it was interesting to read. I put the book down feeling confused about whether she was deranged or just pushed to the brink because of the circumstances of the relationship. Who would you be in her shoes, taking aside the moral conflicts of infidelity? I felt a bit like I should start a diary when I’d finished.

I was left slightly disappointed when I finished this one. I love historical fiction but I thought that there was some truth to this one after reading the forward, only to find that there was in fact none! Well, there would have been some, but it is a work of fiction.
The Elizabeth in this novel was something to be proud of, a woman who lived in a very different time but managed to power through the glass ceiling of her pompous husband & societal constructs. It was interesting to read about the development of early Australia, even though it was hard to swallow the way our indigenous people were treated. Probably one of the things I liked most about this book was that Grenville attempted to show the truth of that time.
Still a good read.

I had expected to experience more intense emotions whilst reading #themidnightlibrary after reading other reviews... but it wasn’t till the final chapters that it really got me! I got the exact feeling I’d been waiting for. The question all readers will be left with is; am I content with the life I’m living?
The concept of this novel was fantastic. I will be looking for more of #matthaig as his style is enjoyable & easy to read.

This was the perfect book to start my year off! I got so much gold from this book, so much so that I kept reading chunks out loud to my family, or quoting parts in my journal. It was exactly what I needed at the exact time I really needed it. It brought some calm to my internal storm, helped me reflect & even had me inspired spiritually.