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

For a book that has such a beautiful cover, I’m so disappointed that it ended up being a tacky mess. I probably should have guessed from the title that this book is just plain bad.

Bad is a sequel to Mad, which follows Alvie Knightly visit her twin, accidentally kill her and then take her identity. You don’t need to read Mad before Bad, as at the start of Bad, the reader is given a full synopsis of the crazy shenanigans that took place in the prequel - and to be honest, that’s when I knew this book probably wasn’t for me. It was just so crazy and all over the place from the get go.

Alvie Knightly is a horrible character- probably one of the worst protagonists I’ve ever read in my life. There is literally nothing redeemable about her at all so when reading the book, I couldn’t sympathises with any silly situation she got herself in or be able to excuse the way she treated everyone around her.

Everything in this book is also highly implausible as well, I’d just like to add. It’s definitely not one of those crime thrillers that feels like it could actually happen. Nope, definitely not this one - especially with a main character who nicknamed her favourite sex toy ‘Mr Dick.’

I just can’t emphasise enough to people not to read this because it’s such a waste of time. And even when you think it’s finally over, and the book will end, it just doesn’t - it goes on and on and on. This is BAD. BAD BAD BAD.

3.5 stars

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

When a group of old Oxford friends get together for their yearly new Year’s Eve bash, one person ends up dead. Rewind two days, and it’s clear there’s a lot of cracks in the group and people don’t like each other as much as they pretend. But who is the killer, and who is the victim?

The Hunting Party was a great debut thriller, and it honestly made me excited for other books Lucy Foley will write as she has great potential for brilliant, gripping books.

I really liked this book, and the intrigue of figuring out the dynamic of the group of people. Honestly, they were all bunch of d***heads but reading their antics was kind of like watching wild animals, it was hard to pull my attention away from the crazy antics.

There were a lot of names thrown out in the beginning chapters of this book and it took me a while to figure out who was who, and I also kept forgetting whose POV I was following (Katie, Emma, Miranda or Heather) as sometimes they sounded a bit similar and one would just run into another and I’d have to flip back to remind myself who I was reading.

3.5 stars

Summer at the Dog & Duck is a perfect read for the summery months when you want to zoom through a book pretty quickly, but still be utterly absorbed by charming characters and settings.

I loved Winter at the Dog&Duck - the first installment in this series, and our first introduction to Ellie, Max and the residents of Little Leyton. Summer follows on from a lot of things that happened at the end of Winter, and we see how Ellie is getting on. I loved Ellie's character development in the Winter and this is continued in Summer as she really comes into her own as The Dog&Duck landlady. It's great seeing her taking charge, and sometimes even giving the older male customers a telling off when they need it.

I wasn't as mad on the romance between Ellie and Max in this one, maybe because for a while things seemed a bit stagnant between them and a lot of what Max was doing was really annoying me. I loved that Ellie bonded with Max's sister though, and there were some really nice scenes.

I definitely saw the reveal near the end happening pretty early on. You read enough books and it's easy to pick up on the tell-tale signs but I still enjoyed the events leading up to the twist.

Summer is just as charming, quirky and enjoyable as Winter and I definitely recommend it for any time of the year. I just hope this isn't the last we see of Little Leyton.

Alysha Gale is from a very odd sort of family in which she has a lot of aunties, a lot of cousins (one of whom she's expected to marry) and they all possess magical powers. When Alysha gets a strange letter from her grandma, who appears to have wither died or mysteriously disappeared, she ends up being put in charge of a junk shop with a few tricks up its sleeve, but also ends up embroiled with an evil sorcerer and his not-so-evil but very-handsome assassin, and some dragon lords intent on destroying the city.

This book is hard to explain. It's urban fantasy with some fantastic female characters, and a family full of feisty matriarchs, plus some sexy male love interests and a sorcerer and dragon lords thrown into the mix to spice thongs up. I feel like I shouldn't have liked this but I just became really invested in the Gale family, and I just had to keep reading to see how it all ended up. I really thought that the styructure of the Gale family was fascinating - the family had to have a male leader to anchor it to a place which made it seem like the male was head of the family but no way, the aunts are in charge and they're the ones that put everyone else in place. I loved that. I also loved how sex positive this book is (despite the fact it seems like all the cousins or 'cousins' are sleeping with one another, but you kind of get over that after a while), and it managed to do it without being too descriptive or raunchy which could put some readers off.

I think I may just have to keep reading this series. One of the only negative points I would have to say is that for some reason it took me a while to read, I think the chapters just seemed a bit long at times, and I definitely should have finished this within two days rather than four given the actual length of it.

Tomi: Tomi Reichental's Holocaust Story's is a revised version of Tomi Reichental's I Was a Boy in Belsen for children and younger YA readers, and a serious but easy way for them to understand the Holocaust and what it did to innocent families.

This was a tough read but also an easy one because it's designed for younger readers. This book is very much told through the eyes of a child, and as a reader we learn about how Tomi slowly had to experience his way of life crumbling around him, told he was wrong simply because of the religion he practised, and shunned by people who were once his friends and neighbors.

Obviously, A Boy in Belsen would have a lot more detail about the camp but I think this book would be a great starter for anyone wanting to introduce children to the history of WW2 and the Holocaust, and it might even be a good book to read with children as well. I would think this book might be a good read before children move on to harder books like Anne Frank's Diary (who is mentioned in this book as they were sent to the same concentration camp).

I also found it very interesting that Tomi Reichental eventually moved to Ireland, and made his family and home here. I'm glad he found peace in this country.

If you own a rescue dog, any dog or just love dogs in general, I think you should read this book. It's lovely.

This isn't a book about how Peter Zheutlin rescued his dog Albie, or vice versa - instead it's just a simple collection of stories told by people who welcomed rescue dogs into their lives, why they did it and why they'd do it again. I'm not 100% sure if someone who has never owned a dog, rescue or otherwise, would 100% understand everything that's said or not said in this book but I think if you have, you will gain a great meaning from it. I listened to this on audiobook, narrated by Fred Sanders, and I really enjoyed it that way BUT I have to warn anyone else that is thinking about the audio, almost every chapter will leave you with an emotional lump in your throat and possible tear pricks in your eyes.

I just really want to hug my Dezzie right now and remind him that we're his home, and we're never leaving him!