I started Jilly Cooper's famous series with little knowledge of the story other than it involves show jumping and romance. I mainly read it because of the new Rivals show on Disney+ and despite it being a hell of a long book, I got through the audiobook pretty quickly.

Well. It's definitely a book of its time. Published in 1985, it's full of women who only want to meet men and have babies whilst being knowingly cheated on by morally screwed rich men. The constant homophobic slurs, animal abuse, cheating and references to weight, losing weight and characters describing women in terms of weight rather than personality soon got very old. None of the men were as attractive as they were meant to be because they were all so unlikeable.

This said, it was definitely a decent break from a series of heavy reads and lovely to read something that involved horses (even if they weren't really the point of the story).

Will I watch the series? Definitely. I mean, David Tennant's in it. Would I read the next book? Probably not. There were parts I really disliked and... I can't say there was a part that I loved. It became SUCH a slog towards the end too.

Only ⭐⭐ from me. It would have been one star but the horses saved it.

Thirteen year old witch Kiki leaves home, traveling to find herself a town to call home. When she arrives, she starts a delivery business, helping the locals by delivering their items by broom.

It's a sweet little book about finding your place in the world. It's cute and heartwarming. It's ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me- it's everything a book like this should be!

I read this as part of the read it, watch it challenge from 52 Books. I'd already seen the film and it was lovely to read the story that inspired it. It's such a shame that the sequels were never translated into English as I would have loved to read them too.

Bright Young Women follows the story of Pamela. When multiple girls are killed or injured by a serial killer, Pamela is the only person who sees him leave. The story follows her experience as witness and president of her sorority whilst the focus of a media frenzy. As the police muck up the investigation, choosing to ignore her testimony despite her credibility, the police craft their own narrative. Then Pamela meets Tina. An older woman whose girlfriend was killed by the same man.

It's not necessarily a fun read but a good book so ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. It can be very unsettling at times and covers a lot of the female experience of the time. I hadn't realised when reading it that it was based upon a true story. The fact that it was, makes an uneasy read even more so. The book laid everything out so there wasn't much mystery to it but perhaps that was the reason for it.

Knoll does an amazing job at keeping all the focus away from the killer which is unusual for this genre, yet exactly what is needed. I generally avoid true crime as so much of it is distasteful and disrespectful, so I'm glad that this wasn't.

It's a little disjointed at times with the jumps between different characters and timelines. It was easy to get lost whilst listening to it on audiobook so I had to switch to the ereader for parts. I found myself mixing up characters because of these jumps which was confusing.

I wouldn't read it again.

When this was suggested at book club, I really wanted to love it. I tried reading the first book and struggled until I gave up. Months later, I thought I'd try the second. I see it talked about so much and my book club loved it. It sounded right up my street.

It's the story of Patrick and his relationship with his niece and nephew. Their dad's getting remarried and he swoops into help them adjust at his request.

It's mostly a stream of references and double entendres that go over the children's heads. I can see why it's popular but I just found it dull. The plot was utterly predictable down to the every twist. It's definitely a cosy, cutesy story which I normally live but it was just a bit... Eh. It's ⭐⭐ stars for me. It's not that it's bad, but clearly it isn't the book for me.

Vesper has left her family's cult. Only they're not THAT culty. More like a super close, super religious family that lives on a compound! And once you've left, you're shunned for good! So it's totally not THAT culty right? So when she receives an invitation to the wedding of her cousin and her childhood sweetheart/ex, it makes total sense to go back to visit for the wedding right? Nothing could go wrong... Unless it turns out they're a big old cult...

A fun horror reads for a rainy day. The twists were a little obvious. I mean where else could the story go once the

supernatural

element was introduced? Maybe it was only predictable for someone who finds plots easy to predict though.

It's a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. Some parts of it were a little drawn out, others were deliciously uneasy. It was creepy and a little out there which is just what a book like this needs to be.

A gut wrenching story with a unique premise (though it did remind me a little of the film The Lobster in some ways so perhaps not that unique).

Goodness me, Lewis was was quite unlikeable in parts. I really felt for Wren though. What was that bit about

the immature shark dancing him too?

It felt so odd.

Wren ending up

being pregnant

felt super obvious as a plot point.

Her mum's tour of the facility has really stayed in my mind too but I've got your a Komodo dragon facility booked soon so it might just be that!

If I'm honest, I felt a little lost in parts, particularly when the story jumped into the past for a bit to explain Wren's Mum's story. The book has a few parts that are written differently, for example the parts written as a play. Listening to the book as an audiobook, these were a little jarring.

I'll be thinking about this book for a while.

In regards to the ending-

After entering the waves to play with her daughter in the very spot where her husband was ripped from her arms, the last few lines read

"Wren loosens her grasp. It is so hard to let go. "Go, play, be free!" Wren says, her heart hammering like rain on a metal roof. Joy summersaults into a wave, disappears for a second and emerges smiling. "It's easy, see!"

That last line just felt layered. It was the last line that really got me.

I started this without reading the blurb and loved it. It's not very scary but the characters are fabulous.  The ending

was a little simple and obvious but suited the story

. This book has made me keen to find others like it to read in the new year.