I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Planetfall is a science-fiction novel about a colony of people who have travelled to another planet to find a God prophesied by their leader. Years later, the people are settled above ‘God City’ but when a newcomer - related to others they believed lost in transit- arrives, he shakes things up in more ways than one and secrets are revealed.

This book is really intriguing, and it’s quite simply written and explained. There were a lot of things I really liked about it, such as the way the people lived in this interesting no-waste environment and how everything appeared to be 3D-printed and almost made of some kind of living, organic material.

Renata is a character who has a lot of different aspects to her, and I loved how she was slowly revealed. She’s a diverse character as well - she appears to be either gay or bisexual - and also suffers from some mental health issues such as extreme hoarding which appears to be related to anxiety and memories she wants to forget.

The mystery around Suh-Me, and how they came upon Atlas and found God City and the colony was really interesting, I just wish we got a bit more from it. I could have dealt with some more world building - I feel like I did have an idea of what God City and the colony looked like but I also felt like my imagining of it was probably wrong, and bit surreal. I also would have liked to know more about how the people came together to follow Suh-Me in the first place, how they were able to just get on a massive ship like the Atlas as well and find some random planet. It was all a bit weird.

There were parts of this that I enjoyed, but in the end it left me feeling fairly neutral and I’m not sure if I’ll read the sequel.

The Woodcutter is a fairytale focusing on, you guessed it, the woodcutter of a magical forest that links 12 kingdoms together. The Woodcutter is a part of the forest itself but when he discovers a young girl with glass slippers dead, he knows all is not right in his world. As he goes to investigate, he ends up having to use his particular brand of magic to save himself, and others, on countless occasions.

This was a surprising but enjoyable read, and I was able to fly through it in one sitting.At first, the style of writing was a bit odd - it’s slightly whimsical and fairytale-like as can be expected, and I didn’t always know exactly what was going on but I really enjoyed how all the fairytales we know were brought into this story in such a unique way. I loved that the forest itself was more or less a creature on its own, and had its own special magic that also flowed through the Woodcutter. It reminded me a little bit of the forest in Uprooted by Naomi Novik, combined with the fairytale characters from Once Upon A Time.

I really enjoyed seeing how Snow White, Rapunzel and Jack were all brought into the story but we also had mentions of high fae like Oberon and Titania, as well as some Norse gods. I really loved the rules around the pixies and how they couldn’t touch the ground.

I really enjoyed this, though it wasn’t my favourite fairytale book ever. I would recommend it for people looking for something whimsical to read with fairytale connections.

Read by Caroline Lennon

Book: 4.5/5 stars
Narration: 5/5 stars

Fields of Home is the last book in the Under the Hawthorn Trilogy and the children from the original novel are now all grown up. Peggy is still making her way as a housemaid in America but is starting to think more about her long-term future, Michael is content in the ‘Big House’ working with the horses but soon a tragedy will tear his plans to pieces, and Eily is now a mother of two and worrying about raising rent prices and being able to keep a roof over her family’s heads and food on the table.

As usual, this was a really well-told book about points in Irish history that is so accessible to children but a really worthwhile read for adults as well. I loved the different world views in this book from each member of the family, as they are all in such different places in their lives but all struggling in one way or another.

I have a massive soft spot for Peggy, and I had forgotten what became of her as it’s been a very long time since I read this book but I loved being reminded of her happy ending, which is one of the best things about this trilogy - because it’s aimed at kids, the endings are normally wrapped up really well and happy.

I loved Michael with the horses and I did enjoy seeing the relationship the English landlord had with his staff, and that it was a good one. It’s good to show that not every landlord was a bad one, and some were decent to their tenants and staff but sometimes history and bad memories still ended up punishing them.

Eily’s was probably the story that was most focused on actual historic happenings, and I feel like her despair and panic were really portrayed well in this book about their rent being raised and getting evicted (I do think, for me, she became a bit hysterical at times and it annoyed me because she had been so strong in Under the Hawthorn Tree and I didn’t like seeing her so over the top).

I really enjoyed listening to these on audiobook and really recommend Caroline Lennon as a narrator as she did an excellent job.

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Clockwork City is the sequel to Poison City, and follows supernatural detective Gideon Tau aka London, and his spiritual guide Dog as they continue to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of London’s daughter three years prior.

I really enjoyed my reading of this book, and I think I definitely enjoyed it more than the first book. I’m not sure if it’s that I just was able to adapt to the world quicker because I already knew it, though I definitely needed a few chapters to refresh my memory of the first, or that the story just worked better for me, but I few through this one.

This story was really action-packed and I honestly didn’t know where to turn because poor London just wasn’t getting a break in either direction. There were some times where I wondered if there was any hope left because there were times that it seemed like everyone was just dying but I loved how the conclusion all wrapped up. I love that this series is so dark but really humorous as well, but it also has a lot of heart to it - like the tender relationship between Armitage and London, and how even the dog shows how much he cares for London and Cally on occasion as well.

I liked the addition of characters like Winters and Mother London as well - and I think the embodiment of cities in that way like Mother London and Mother Durban is genius.

I feel like the ending was a bit fast for me, and I’m also not really decided on what I think actually happened (apart from The Raven King bit). I don’t know if there will be another book but I hope there is, as I’m done with London and the Delphic Division yet.

I received this book from Titan Books in exchange for an honest review.

Three people have gone missing during three subsequent summers in Ellery Hathaway's sleepy town but no-one will believe her in thinking it's the work of a serial killer. Ellery knows more than most about the world's most depraved, having survived a high profile serial killer 14 years before. Desperate and running out of time, Ellery calls the man who saved her as a teenager to help her again but she may have just sparked a ticking time bomb.

This book surprised me. I didn't think I would like it quite as much as I did and I think that's just because I went into it with not many expectations. I was in the mood for a thriller so that's what I picked up but this book really did deliver for me. Even though the chapters in this book are a lot longer than normal thrillers I read, this was still very fast-paced and one of those books that you just get completely sucked into.

I thought the idea behind the two serial killers was really clever, and there is definitely some research evident in how a lot of the investigations panned out, both past and present. I definitely got the urge to watch some Criminal Minds after this book too as it does have some FBI profiling in it.

The relationships Ellery has in the story were interesting to follow - particularly between her and Reed. I didn't know if there was chemistry between them and I also didn't know if I actually wanted something to happen between them (I think I did) considering their past. I did find some aspects of Ellery a bit unbelievable - she was only 28 but some of her actions as a police officer were debatable and at times she seemed really, really green. She also was looked after a lot and even though she resented it, she also kind of let it happen at times.

I thought the ending was great. It was so obvious, I had thought about it and then dismissed it because I thought it was too obvious. I did wonder a bit about the complete personality switch but I guess these people do know how to do that.

A thriller that kept me entertained and hooked throughout, and definitely one that deserves a couple of Criminal Minds episodes!

I received this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth-Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man's World is a non-fiction novel that is a collection of life stories about different women who made a difference despite living in a generation that believed women were only good in the home.

I was pretty excited to read this. I've read similar types of books in the recent past to do with collections of pretty cool women who I had never heard of before and I was looking forward to expanding my knowledge but this book unfortunately fell completely flat for me.

I think, for me, this book was lacking in personality - there was no sense of fun or wonder in the writing which I have enjoyed with previous collections. Everything was told very matter of fact but almost too matter of fact. I don't think the author helped himself by starting out the book with a really boring chapter about the law at the times regarding women, their freedom and the restrictions they were under regarding property, marriage and business. I feel like anyone going into a book about the Georgian era would have a basic knowledge of this already and I don't think such an extensive chapter was needed. It immediately put me off.

I also didn't understand why there was so much mention of the men in these women's lives? I understand that obviously for some women they needed help from their menfolk because of the restrictions in their lives but there were times when the woman's tale would completely tail off and the author would start updating us about the man and I didn't care one bit. If I wanted to be reading about these men, I wouldn't have picked up a book about trailblazing women.

I do think some of my problems with this book also stem from the fact that I generally prefer books written about women BY women. I feel like if a female author had sat down to the same as what Mike Rendell tried to do with this one, it would have been a lot more engaging and a deeper understanding of these women would have come across. And there would have been less emphasize on the men.

I received a free copy of this book from HQ Stories/Harper Collins exchange for an honest review.

DI Maya Rahman is still dealing with the death of her beloved brother when she’s called in to investigate the suspicious death of the head teacher of her old school. When a second body shows up, it’s obvious they are connected, and they need to find the killer before it’s too late for the next person on the list.

Turn a Blind Eye was a really quick read which was great because it was what I wanted, and was lovely for a day out enjoying the sun. This is going to be an ongoing detective series following Maya Rahman so we immediately get a lot of glimpses into her personal life from the prologue where she is attending her brother’s burial (one we could have skipped in my opinion as I don’t think it added anything).

This book is not own voices but really represents how multi-cultural the UK, and particularly London is, and it contained a huge amount of characters of colours with different backgrounds and belief systems. Many of these beliefs come into play in the novel from arranged marriages, Muslim clothing, societal expectations within different cultures and religions, and then we also see a lot of sexism and misogyny - some of it stemming from archaic cultural beliefs - aimed at Rahman and other women in the book. There are characters in this book that definitely drove me mad because of how they acted to Rahman but also just in general like Asad Farnam who was just a horrible person and shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near children, or people, in general.

There are a lot of POVs in this book - we have Maya’s chapters, her assisting detective Dan and then we also saw chapters in the POV of a teacher called Steve who found the original body. While I liked Steve, I don’t think his chapters were altogether necessary bar the first one. It may have even heightened the suspense if we didn’t have some of his chapters and suspected him as the killer.

I definitely didn’t guess who the killer was but this book had such a large cast of characters, it was always going to be a hard one but that’s a good thing. I will most likely pick up the next book in this series to follow along with Rahman, and see what she has to investigate next.

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Salt Path is a non-fiction novel about how Raynor Winn and her husband Moth lose their home and pretty much the entirety of their income and with nowhere to go, decide to start walking the South West Coast Path.

This should have been a refreshing but emotional read for me but unfortunately it just completely fell flat for me. I’m not sure if it was that I was just not in the right frame of mind when reading this but I definitely felt like I would have a stronger emotional connection to the story and I just didn’t.

I did like the parts in this story that really struck me, normally when Raynor and Mort were treated differently when people realised they were actually homeless and not people who had sold their home to go out on the road. The attitudes they met really made me think about how maybe I would act in the same situation and how I would treat people. I also really felt for Raynor and Mort in the way they really had to count every penny - they were surviving on nothing and even thinking about being in that situation is terrifying.

Unfortunately by the time I reached halfway through this book, my interest and concentration in the story just completely panned out and I ended up skim reading the last chunk of it because I just wanted it to be over. It may have been some of the over descriptive passages about the coast trail they were following, and some of the historical bits that I don’t think we needed to know but none of that was particularly gripping unless the reader is someone planning to make the same trip/has made that trip.

A great one for people who love walking, especially those walking the English and Welsh coastlines.