I received a free copy of this book from Abrams Books in exchange for an honest review.

Bygone Badass Broads is a wonderful picture book full of witty, interesting stories about amazing women that have (for some annoying reason) being left out of history books.

From the Empress who discovered silk to badass pirate queens, this book is jam-packed with women that generally make you feel powerful and capable of anything life can throw at you.

I enjoyed every single moment of this book, and loved learning about these wonderful women. I loved how diverse these stories were as well - the women chosen were from every corner of the world. African queens, Asian pirates, Indian princesses turned WW2 spies, you name it. They’re there.

I did feel really angry at times in this book due to how some of the women were treated and how often these women discovered or created something wonderful and were never credited by the men. SO infuriating.

I would 100% recommend this book to everyone, as not only are the stories amazing but the accompanying illustrations are beautiful to behold. I honest to God need a historical life-span novel about every single one of these Bygone Badass Broads, now.

I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This book centres around three different men who have all lost their way in life, and are recovering from heartbreak and loss. And how their lives are all connected in small ways.

This book was, as I predicted, beautiful written in raw, honest and sometimes disturbing ways by Donal Ryan. Ryan has a strange ability to really lay open the heart and souls of his characters, from their good bits to their flaws. This book in particular had some unlikable characters who often did or thought things that made me feel really uncomfortable. I actually felt a little bit confused about my feelings for the book until the last few pages, and the skill that Ryan was able to grab all these floating threads in the story and weave them together really quickly for an almost solved but still terribly open ending which is both genius, and infuriating.

I think Lampy may have been my favourite in the story but he’s probably who I was able to relate to the most - being a young 20-something Irish millennial with all of his future in front of him and no idea with what to do with it. I loved his sweet interactions with the people he drove around, and I felt uncomfortable with his anger issues and his actions and thoughts towards Chloe and Eleanor - the girl who broke his heart, and his rebound.

John was definitely the most unlikeable and whose story I couldn’t really understand or connect with until the very end. Some of the stuff he did in his life was really despicable but of course, we were suppose to feel that way. Ryan never pretends his characters are perfect, in fact they are perfectly imperfect and it’s one of his greatest strengths as a writing and I love it.

Farouk’s story was obviously the saddest but I definitely felt like I, as a reader, was held at a distance from him. I liked the glimpses of him at the end of the story, and it definitely made me feel better and hopeful for him.

While this book was not my favourite of Ryan’s so far, I was intrigued until the end, and I loved the journey.

I received a free copy of this book from O’Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.

Kathleen Clarke is more often known as ‘just’ the wife of Irish 1916 Easter Rising leader Thomas Clarke but she was so much more than that. In this book, a memoir written by Kathleen herself and edited by her grandniece Helen Litton, Clarke tells her story from early childhood in a Fenian family, to marrying a man and helping to change the course of Irish history.

I thought this book was just so, so interesting and I feel like I both learned about Kathleen Clarke, a truly extraordinary woman, and parts of Irish history that I had a. forgotten and b. never learned in the first place.

I loved seeing how Clarke talked about particular powerful men in Irish history and her true feelings towards them, and how they also treated her. She dropped a lot of truth bombs about how things went in the Irish Parliament at the time in the years leading up to the Treaty that caused the Irish Free State to come about, and it was really well-written.

Clarke is a really modest woman. She did so much within the Rising and the years afterwards and in the Civil War and she suffered so much, and lost a lot. But she kept going. Yet, she isn’t mentioned in the history books which is so frustrating. I loved that she made pains to mention a lot of other women that were involved at the time and again, were never mentioned in history books. I also loved her weird relationship/friendship with Countess Markievicz.

I cannot recommend this enough for Irish people and those interested in Irish history - Clarke wasn’t a suffragette though she was a wonderful female leader, so don’t go into it if you’re looking for a suffragette book.

The Bronze Key is the third book in the Magisterium series - and in this one Call, Tamara and Aaron are entering their Bronze Year in the magical school, with everyone thinking they helped defeat the Enemy of Death. But there's a spy in their midst and Call is in mortal danger until they can figure out who it is.

Audiobook narrator: Paul Boehmer 3.5/5 stars
Book: 3/5 stars

This was probably my least favourite book so far but I still really enjoyed it. I think this was seemed to be a lot faster paced than the other ones and it worked well but also I am the type of reader that when I'm reading about magic schools I always want more so I'm disappointed when we don't get so much of a focus on lessons and daily life in magic school as well as lots to do with the mystery.

I did guess a lot of what happened in this book regarding who the spy was, and the devastating thing that happened at the end (even though I knew it would happen, I was also in denial about it because just no!). I did enjoy the reveal at the very end and I think it definitely paves an exciting path into the next book which I can't wait to pick up.

4.5 Stars

3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

Harriet Campbell had two great loves in her life - her son James and her religion. When her son decides to walk away from the Presbyterian Church for the sake of love, Harriet finds herself overcome with disappointment and is unable to forgive. Over 50 years later, Harriet is left alone in a nursing home thinking about her decisions.

This book was very well written, and I definitely felt sucked into the story and the lives of the characters. However, in saying that I still felt disconnected to the story - probably because it was so alien to the type of Irish upbringing I know myself.

Ireland is a predominantly Catholic country, so reading about not just a protestant community but a Presbyterian one was a bit strange for me. I grew up with a Catholic father, went to a Catholic school and was surrounded by a Catholic community so Harriet and James’s way of life was so alien, and it didn’t fit into the Ireland I know, and even the historical Ireland I know so because of all of that the story felt distant to me.

I didn’t like any of the characters in this book. Harriet was just so wrapped up in hate and prejudice, I couldn’t understand her at all, and James was a bit of a wet blanket. I did like some of the points that Norma MacMaster’s appeared to be making in the novel however - the contradiction of living your life believing in a God who was all love but then allowing hate into your heart for something as simple as a man falling in love with the ‘wrong’ girl.

The end was a bit depressing, and not what I would have hoped for, or expected. I would have liked there to have been a sweeter moment between Harriet and James, and it was sad to see how Harriet had put a stain onto the rest of his adult life by her behaviour.