Take a photo of a barcode or cover
stuckinthebook's Reviews (248)
I really enjoyed this book and I thought the storytelling was magnificent. If you’re like me, you probably don’t have a clue of what a Fabergé egg is or how to say it properly. I loved how the book transported me into the depths of Russian culture and it was VERY obvious that the author had done her research.
A great read and now I want my own Fabergé egg too…
A great read and now I want my own Fabergé egg too…
Suffering from a heart condition myself, I was extremely interested in this one when Clink Street Publishing offered me a gifted copy in exchange for a review.
The book was certainly more informative and serious than what I normally read but I was fascinated about the progress medical research and technological advances has been made since the 1940s. A perfect read if you’re looking for something more serious.
The book was certainly more informative and serious than what I normally read but I was fascinated about the progress medical research and technological advances has been made since the 1940s. A perfect read if you’re looking for something more serious.
Why Did I Read This Book?
I was kindly gifted an ARC of this book by Victoria at Head of Zeus and I took a chance on this one because fantasy is not my usual genre. The book is out now, and I read the book last month in the lead up to its publication.
What Did I Think?
As I just mentioned, fantasy isn’t my usual sort of thing, but I decided to push the boat out and try something different as the blurb sounded too good to miss…
‘The Kendrick family have been making world-famous dolls since the early 1800s. But their dolls are not coveted for the craftmanship alone. Each one has a specific emotion laid on it by its creator. A magic that can make you feel bucolic bliss or consuming paranoia at a single touch. Though founded by sisters, now only men may know the secrets of the workshop.
Persephone Kendrick longs to break tradition and learn the family craft, and when a handsome stranger arrives claiming doll-making talent and a blood tie to the Kendricks, she sees a chance to grasp all she desires.
But then, one night, the family's most valuable doll is stolen. Only someone with knowledge of magic could have taken her.’
I really loved the concept of the book that combined doll making and magic. Doll making, in my opinion, is an old-fashioned art that isn’t done hardly as beautifully as it was in previous centuries. What Kate Mascarenhas does beautifully is take us back to a time where this art was celebrated and magically combines this with sorcery.
I loved the family history aspect to the story, and you can really tell how much thought must have gone into creating this community of doll-makers. Our main character, Persephone, is one I absolutely adored. I loved how strong-willed she was, but I also liked how the author made her naïve to her strength and the people around her, to make her growth more substantial.
A recurring theme throughout the book is women’s equality and I thought it was very clever of the author to raise awareness of gender inequality through the means of doll-making/magic. Obviously, the fact that dolls are women, but made by only men, highlights several issues that we can relate to in industries that exist today. Many of the male characters are sexist (some realising it and others not) and refuse to believe that women have the power, patience, and talent to create dolls or control magic.
“Those men don't want to look at beauty. They want to look at something made for them, to confirm their desire is the most important thing in the world; they want their dolls like they want their women, a painted smile, no internal life of her own and you can blame her for your passions.”
Instead, the female characters within the book are only allowed to hold working positions such as household duties and retail. Persephone is no stranger to these inequalities and is determined to make everyone recognise her talent. Yet with an alcoholic father, and a mother who left her to make something of herself, it’s not easy for Persephone.
There were many uneasy characters in this book, and I loved how Kate made us believe that it could be any of them who stole the valuable doll.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and liked it more than I ever thought I would. My only issue was it took me a while to get into the book at the start is very slow to set the scene and provide the relevant background information. So understandably, the action doesn’t kick in for a while. Yet when the story does get going, it’s definitely one you wish you’d read sooner.
Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism, robbery, family feuds, sexism
I was kindly gifted an ARC of this book by Victoria at Head of Zeus and I took a chance on this one because fantasy is not my usual genre. The book is out now, and I read the book last month in the lead up to its publication.
What Did I Think?
As I just mentioned, fantasy isn’t my usual sort of thing, but I decided to push the boat out and try something different as the blurb sounded too good to miss…
‘The Kendrick family have been making world-famous dolls since the early 1800s. But their dolls are not coveted for the craftmanship alone. Each one has a specific emotion laid on it by its creator. A magic that can make you feel bucolic bliss or consuming paranoia at a single touch. Though founded by sisters, now only men may know the secrets of the workshop.
Persephone Kendrick longs to break tradition and learn the family craft, and when a handsome stranger arrives claiming doll-making talent and a blood tie to the Kendricks, she sees a chance to grasp all she desires.
But then, one night, the family's most valuable doll is stolen. Only someone with knowledge of magic could have taken her.’
I really loved the concept of the book that combined doll making and magic. Doll making, in my opinion, is an old-fashioned art that isn’t done hardly as beautifully as it was in previous centuries. What Kate Mascarenhas does beautifully is take us back to a time where this art was celebrated and magically combines this with sorcery.
I loved the family history aspect to the story, and you can really tell how much thought must have gone into creating this community of doll-makers. Our main character, Persephone, is one I absolutely adored. I loved how strong-willed she was, but I also liked how the author made her naïve to her strength and the people around her, to make her growth more substantial.
A recurring theme throughout the book is women’s equality and I thought it was very clever of the author to raise awareness of gender inequality through the means of doll-making/magic. Obviously, the fact that dolls are women, but made by only men, highlights several issues that we can relate to in industries that exist today. Many of the male characters are sexist (some realising it and others not) and refuse to believe that women have the power, patience, and talent to create dolls or control magic.
“Those men don't want to look at beauty. They want to look at something made for them, to confirm their desire is the most important thing in the world; they want their dolls like they want their women, a painted smile, no internal life of her own and you can blame her for your passions.”
Instead, the female characters within the book are only allowed to hold working positions such as household duties and retail. Persephone is no stranger to these inequalities and is determined to make everyone recognise her talent. Yet with an alcoholic father, and a mother who left her to make something of herself, it’s not easy for Persephone.
There were many uneasy characters in this book, and I loved how Kate made us believe that it could be any of them who stole the valuable doll.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and liked it more than I ever thought I would. My only issue was it took me a while to get into the book at the start is very slow to set the scene and provide the relevant background information. So understandably, the action doesn’t kick in for a while. Yet when the story does get going, it’s definitely one you wish you’d read sooner.
Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism, robbery, family feuds, sexism
“That’s the way with old friends. You understand each other, even when there’s not enough words out there for everything that should be said.”
Why Did I Read This Book?
After finishing 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, I was on the hunt for a light, easy read. The Switch has been on my TBR since finishing The Flatshare earlier this year. In a previous blog post (Authors I’ve Found in 2020 That I Now Love) I mentioned that Beth O’leary has easily become one of my favourite authors I’ve found this year, so of course I had to give her a second book a read.
What Did I Think?
The Switch was everything I hoped for and more. A heart-warming read that interestingly showed the importance and variance of happiness. What makes you happy, might not make another person happy and that’s OK.
The Switch follows our two protagonists and grandmother/granddaughter: Leena and Eileen Cotton. Both ladies are fed up with their lives and need something that can switch things up. Leena lives in London and has an incredibly busy and stressful life which has led to her developing unprovoked anxiety attacks and a two-month forced sabbatical. Eileen’s husband has run off with a yoga teacher and has left her lost in a world where she feels she no longer belongs.
The two decide to swap lives, with Eileen going to live in London with Leena’s young flatmates in a mission to get her love life back into action and Leena moves to a small town in the countryside and is thrown into festival planning with the local unruly pensioners.
The things I love about Beth O’Leary’s books is her comedy and ability to sum feelings and experiences up in a way that makes you question how you feel and how you react to certain events. For example, Leena is obviously punishing herself and hiding her grief after the loss of her sister to cancer by keeping herself unbelievably busy and distant.
“You were healing. You’re still healing. You’ll maybe always be healing. And that’s OK. It’ll just be part of what makes you you.”
Although I have never experienced grief myself, I could relate to the way Leena behaves when I try and escape my problems by keeping busy and aloof. There was certainly a lightbulb moment whilst reading this book where I could relate to how Leena was behaving and why.
I would definitely say though that I enjoyed Eileen’s story more because it was great to see her adapt to modern dating and the laughs she had along the way. Especially some of her horrific Tinder experiences…
The story reminded me of a non-Christmas version of The Holiday and similar to a book I read earlier this year called The Lido in the depiction of young/old relationships. It was certainly one I enjoyed and one I definitely needed to read.
Trigger Warnings: Cancer, death, work-related stress, anxiety, loneliness, divorce, family feuds
Why Did I Read This Book?
After finishing 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, I was on the hunt for a light, easy read. The Switch has been on my TBR since finishing The Flatshare earlier this year. In a previous blog post (Authors I’ve Found in 2020 That I Now Love) I mentioned that Beth O’leary has easily become one of my favourite authors I’ve found this year, so of course I had to give her a second book a read.
What Did I Think?
The Switch was everything I hoped for and more. A heart-warming read that interestingly showed the importance and variance of happiness. What makes you happy, might not make another person happy and that’s OK.
The Switch follows our two protagonists and grandmother/granddaughter: Leena and Eileen Cotton. Both ladies are fed up with their lives and need something that can switch things up. Leena lives in London and has an incredibly busy and stressful life which has led to her developing unprovoked anxiety attacks and a two-month forced sabbatical. Eileen’s husband has run off with a yoga teacher and has left her lost in a world where she feels she no longer belongs.
The two decide to swap lives, with Eileen going to live in London with Leena’s young flatmates in a mission to get her love life back into action and Leena moves to a small town in the countryside and is thrown into festival planning with the local unruly pensioners.
The things I love about Beth O’Leary’s books is her comedy and ability to sum feelings and experiences up in a way that makes you question how you feel and how you react to certain events. For example, Leena is obviously punishing herself and hiding her grief after the loss of her sister to cancer by keeping herself unbelievably busy and distant.
“You were healing. You’re still healing. You’ll maybe always be healing. And that’s OK. It’ll just be part of what makes you you.”
Although I have never experienced grief myself, I could relate to the way Leena behaves when I try and escape my problems by keeping busy and aloof. There was certainly a lightbulb moment whilst reading this book where I could relate to how Leena was behaving and why.
I would definitely say though that I enjoyed Eileen’s story more because it was great to see her adapt to modern dating and the laughs she had along the way. Especially some of her horrific Tinder experiences…
The story reminded me of a non-Christmas version of The Holiday and similar to a book I read earlier this year called The Lido in the depiction of young/old relationships. It was certainly one I enjoyed and one I definitely needed to read.
Trigger Warnings: Cancer, death, work-related stress, anxiety, loneliness, divorce, family feuds
The sky remained heavy and grey, and the air felt raw. James wondered if this was the calm before the storm."
Why Did I Read This Book?
This was chosen as my local book club read and as someone who hasn’t really ever read any Christmassy books, I was excited to experience my first one.
What Did I Think?
However, this book was not for me and I eventually made the hard decision to DNF the book after about 100 pages. I was recently listening to a new podcast called Off the Shelf by Phoebe at Pause Books where she interviewed a friend and she had this great commitment to giving a book 100 pages to impress you and if it doesn’t and you’re not enjoying it, then to just DNF.
I’m a strong advocate for DNF-ing books that just aren’t doing it for you and sadly The Christmas Killer was that for me. But I cannot stress enough that although I really didn’t enjoy this book, that is my opinion, and you may find that you love it so please still give it a try if it’s one you’re considering reading.
The reason I chose to DNF the book was that it was just too incredibly cheesy for me and included a lot of one-dimensional and ‘simple’ characters that I just found difficult to imagine. One thing I disliked most about it was the relationship between our protagonist and his wife. I thought to myself that marriages are surely NOT this easy and plain-sailing, especially when there is a mass murderer on the loose. The wife just seemed to ‘keep herself busy’ and when she couldn’t, she would sit at home endlessly pining for her husband. I’m sorry but have we gone back to the 19th Century?
There were other reasons why this book didn’t do it for me but instead of droning on about all the reasons I didn’t like it, I’ll stop here.
Not for me but I’ll definitely still try to read the other Christmas books I have planned for this month to see if they are any better.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, blood, death, murder, stereotypes, abuse, knife crime
Why Did I Read This Book?
This was chosen as my local book club read and as someone who hasn’t really ever read any Christmassy books, I was excited to experience my first one.
What Did I Think?
However, this book was not for me and I eventually made the hard decision to DNF the book after about 100 pages. I was recently listening to a new podcast called Off the Shelf by Phoebe at Pause Books where she interviewed a friend and she had this great commitment to giving a book 100 pages to impress you and if it doesn’t and you’re not enjoying it, then to just DNF.
I’m a strong advocate for DNF-ing books that just aren’t doing it for you and sadly The Christmas Killer was that for me. But I cannot stress enough that although I really didn’t enjoy this book, that is my opinion, and you may find that you love it so please still give it a try if it’s one you’re considering reading.
The reason I chose to DNF the book was that it was just too incredibly cheesy for me and included a lot of one-dimensional and ‘simple’ characters that I just found difficult to imagine. One thing I disliked most about it was the relationship between our protagonist and his wife. I thought to myself that marriages are surely NOT this easy and plain-sailing, especially when there is a mass murderer on the loose. The wife just seemed to ‘keep herself busy’ and when she couldn’t, she would sit at home endlessly pining for her husband. I’m sorry but have we gone back to the 19th Century?
There were other reasons why this book didn’t do it for me but instead of droning on about all the reasons I didn’t like it, I’ll stop here.
Not for me but I’ll definitely still try to read the other Christmas books I have planned for this month to see if they are any better.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, blood, death, murder, stereotypes, abuse, knife crime
Fantastic collection and worthy winner.
Such a classic. The last chapter makes me feel all warm inside and made me wonder why I don’t read this charming book every Christmas!
“A man is like an optional extra: you should only take one on when it’s beneficial to do so. It’s like refraining for the fourth plate at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you have to have it.”
Why Did I Read This?
I was accepted to read an ARC of this book by NetGalley and I was thrilled because I had seen this book being posted about all over bookstagram so I knew I’d picked a good one. I requested this because as I’ve said in previous blog posts, Christmas-themed books are something I’ve never really read, and I wanted to try that out this year.
What Did I Think?
Well first things first, let me say if you’re wanting a great romantic, cheese-filled story…then The Twelve Dates of Christmas is one for you.
Love Actually. The Holiday. Who doesn’t love a good rom-com around Christmas time? The Twelve Dates of Christmas follows a young woman named Kate who has moved back to her hometown of Blexford, England from London. Following a recent break-up with a guy she had been with for over five years, Kate’s friend decides to sign her up to a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. With twenty-three days until Christmas and twelve dates with twelve different men to go on, we follow Kate in her mission to find Mr. Right.
I told you it was cheesy! What I loved about this book was I warmed to Kate almost instantly and that allowed me to just sit back and relax into the story, enjoying and getting the chance to go on each date with her and imagine how cute and Christmassy it must have been. Without spoiling it for you, each date is…unique…in its own way and I loved watching every date unfold.
One thing that’s great when your single is the sheer amount of different dating experiences you get to ‘enjoy’ but now I’m in a committed, loving relationship, I could not imagine anything worse than having to go back out into the dating scene and deal with all the crap that comes with it. Fun as it may be, none of it compares to going on a date night with your partner.
I also loved Kate’s friendships and her amusing family. I loved how even though Kate had moved away from Blexford for quite some years, she was able to rekindle her old friendships and make them better than they ever were.
Although the storyline is completely obvious from reading about 30% of the book, I loved that it panned out the way it did, and it had such a cute and heart-warming end. Just what you need at Christmas time. A truly up-lifting read that has significantly improved my opinion of Christmas-related novels.
Why Did I Read This?
I was accepted to read an ARC of this book by NetGalley and I was thrilled because I had seen this book being posted about all over bookstagram so I knew I’d picked a good one. I requested this because as I’ve said in previous blog posts, Christmas-themed books are something I’ve never really read, and I wanted to try that out this year.
What Did I Think?
Well first things first, let me say if you’re wanting a great romantic, cheese-filled story…then The Twelve Dates of Christmas is one for you.
Love Actually. The Holiday. Who doesn’t love a good rom-com around Christmas time? The Twelve Dates of Christmas follows a young woman named Kate who has moved back to her hometown of Blexford, England from London. Following a recent break-up with a guy she had been with for over five years, Kate’s friend decides to sign her up to a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. With twenty-three days until Christmas and twelve dates with twelve different men to go on, we follow Kate in her mission to find Mr. Right.
I told you it was cheesy! What I loved about this book was I warmed to Kate almost instantly and that allowed me to just sit back and relax into the story, enjoying and getting the chance to go on each date with her and imagine how cute and Christmassy it must have been. Without spoiling it for you, each date is…unique…in its own way and I loved watching every date unfold.
One thing that’s great when your single is the sheer amount of different dating experiences you get to ‘enjoy’ but now I’m in a committed, loving relationship, I could not imagine anything worse than having to go back out into the dating scene and deal with all the crap that comes with it. Fun as it may be, none of it compares to going on a date night with your partner.
I also loved Kate’s friendships and her amusing family. I loved how even though Kate had moved away from Blexford for quite some years, she was able to rekindle her old friendships and make them better than they ever were.
Although the storyline is completely obvious from reading about 30% of the book, I loved that it panned out the way it did, and it had such a cute and heart-warming end. Just what you need at Christmas time. A truly up-lifting read that has significantly improved my opinion of Christmas-related novels.
Weird but wonderful in its own way. Would have loved to have studied it.
