3.5 stars

This is a nice self-help book for people looking for some surface motivation to get them going. I listened to this on audiobook and it was narrated by the author as well, and while it was a nice, soothing read at times, I did find my attention wandering as well. The stories and the advice were very basic, and not completely helpful in my opinion. I would recommend for people looking for an easy listen self-help book but not for anyone looking for anything more in-depth.

3.5 stars

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

Michelle Elman has had a long road to accepting her body, and all that she’s been through with it. From the time she was a small child, Elman has had to go through a large amount of surgeries, and this continued into her early teens and again in her college years. Through it all, Elman had to struggle to accept her body, her scars and allowing herself to believe others could like her just the way she was.

This was an enjoyable read for me - most part because of Elman’s relatable writing style, and her great sense of humour that definitely shone throughout the writing. One of the weird reasons I enjoyed the first half of this book immensely is also because Elman spent a large part of her childhood in boarding school, and I lobe hearing about life in boarding schools!

Elman’s ability to tell her story despite how obviously difficult it must be for her- explaining the amount of PTSD she suffered because of the amount of trauma she had to suffer because of her ill-health - is really awe-inspiring and she seems like an amazing person.

I’m not a follower of Elman’s body positivity accounts (though I will be now) and I found this book more on the side of self-acceptance thorough health issues and scars of the body positivity sphere more so on the fat positive side - though Elman does dive into loving your fat body near the end. I felt by the time we got to the fat positive side of the story, the book was almost over and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elman eventually brings out another book about being fat and proud because I feel like she could talk a lot more about it. This book just focused more so on her health and scars, and her childhood.

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

Surviving in 1789 Paris is hard for Camille Durbonne - made harder when the smallpox epidemic kills her parents and weakens her sister. Camille is left to struggle for rent money on her own while her brother drinks and gambles the little he earns. But Camille has a trick up her sleeve - La Magie - a special form of magic that runs in her blood and allows her to glamour herself into a wealthy baronness to play cards against the aristocrats of Versailles.

I loved the rich glamour of this book. We got some glimpses into the worst part of Paris, while the French Revolution rumbled into fruition, and the aristocrats turned up their nose at the beggars but the looks at Versailles and the opulence just dazzled me. The writing in this is quite detailed and lovely, and I did for the most part really feel for Camille and her struggled. I felt hugely frustrated from the very start at her dead end brother, and the disregard and violence he showed towards his sisters.

For me, the book took a while to really take off and I did begin to wonder after a while what Camille's end goals were. Yes, she needed money to save her sister and herself from poverty but after that, what else? And then Camille seemed to hate the aristocrats so much but enjoyed playacting as one, but she never seemed to really have a solution to the issues plaguing the French people at the time, except for the odd mention of her father's pamphlets.

The romance was sweet, and I did genuinely like Lazare. They did actually spend a little bit of time together before she really seemed to fall for him, and I liked that - it felt like proper dating/courting. It was also good to see a little bit of POC representation due to Lazare being biracial, and his words about how he was often treated by the French (and the racism served to him by Seguin) are hard to hear but important as well.

I definitely think there was a trick missed hear in regards to the LGBTQIA+ community. Considering we are already in a world where magic exists, and people know that magic existed at least once, if not scarcely in the present story, I would have liked to have seen a Versailles/Paris in which queer people didn't have to hide themselves or their relationships. Considering the already flamboyant, glamorous life Camille enters within Versailles, it would have good to have a full-bodied acceptance of the queer community as well.

There were a lot of great parts in this book. I would have liked to have felt the pace quicken up a bit, and a bit more action, and a bit more solidity in Camille's plans for her future. I also would have loved more history on the the type of magic she has - rather than the brief lessons she's given. It would have been wonderful to have seen something about one of her relatives and their part in Versailles magic. Even a proper visit or something to her grandmother and a history lesson served up there.

3.5 stars

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

Jocelyn Holt has never been close to her mother, and her fondest memories of her childhood also include her old nanny Hannah, who vanished overnight when she was small. When Jocelyn is forced home to live with her aging mother and a skeleton is unearthed in the family lake, Jo begins to question whether somehow her mother was involved in Hannah's disappearance all those years ago.

The Nanny is a mystery thriller that has so many twists and turns and what ifs, it left me reeling at points but desperately eager to continue on to the next chapter and the next and the next. I flipped opinions about characters from the start to the finish, and I really liked how Gilly Mamillan was able to present them as one kind of person and transform them into another within a few chapters.

I started the book firmly on Jocelyn's side, and really disliking the grandmother in the story Virginia Holt. But by halfway through, I really felt for Virginia, and couldn't stand Jocelyn who honestly was one of the most pathetic, frustrating and selfish characters I've read in a long time. I physically threw up my hands at the book at one point because Jocelyn was being so dumb.

I felt sad and uncomfortable at times at how easy Virginia could be overlooked and talked over by other characters, and I think it highlighted well how old age/disability erasure can happen to those who are elderly and/or infirm in any way.

The end was quite rushed for me but I liked the intensity of some moments. I feel like I would have preferred more conversations between Jo and Virginia and a few more grievances properly aired and past actions explained. I also feel like there were some loose ends just not tied up properly and left to flap in the wind a bit.

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

Chris is about to enact on his plan to kill himself to join his dead wife when his well-thought out plan is interrupted by Sarah. When Sarah stumbles across Chris on the edge of a train platform, she can't walk away and forget about him, and instead enters his life and begins an intense relationship. However, there's a mystery about the death of Chris's wife and a shadowy figure that appears to be shadowing everything he does. Is Chris who he says he is, and is Sarah safe with him?

Our Little Secret is a rather intense, fast-paced thriller that I was able to read in one day. I really enjoyed the slow reveals about Chris and his wife, and how what appeared to have happened to her wasn't at all what the reader would at first assume. His mind really begins to unravel throughout the book and it's definitely a journey trying to decide whether the reader can trust him or not.

Sarah was, to be honest, a little bit of a wet blanket and a bit surface level throughout the novel. A lot of her personality development appeared to be her penchant for loving abusive and terrible men, and we didn't get a lot into her background as to why this may be and why she is so unhappy with her life apart from the shambles of her love life. I liked the weird relationship she had with Chris, though at times the way she described their sex life could be troubling.

I will say, this book does need to be come with a trigger warning for those suffering with their mental health and who may be battling suicidal thoughts. Chris really gets into the way he planned to kill himself by jumping in front of the train, and those scenes are intense, descriptive and a bit troubling.

Ultimately Chris doesn't get the help he obviously desperately needs throughout the novel, and nothing is ever really delved into regarding his mind - was it a Dissociative Identity Disorder or something else? I would have liked to have known more but honestly, I think the author took the easy way out by having Chris jump in the end. I also didn't really like that for Chris it seemingly ended up being a peaceful death when jumping in front or under a train seems like one of the most traumatic, painful ways of dying.

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

The Woman Who Fought an Empire tells the story of 27-year-old Sarah Aaronsohn, who helped run Niki - an anti-Turkish spy ring that helped the British during the war against the Ottoman Empire during and post World War One. Aaronsohn ran the spy ring alongside her brothers and some family friends, and ultimately chose to kill herself following days of torture by Turkish military rather than give up her secrets.

This book was a good look for me on a war I knew very little about, and some aspects of World War One outside of the general European areas such as Britain, France and Germany where most tales are based out of. I am ashamed to say I know pretty much nothing regarding the Ottoman Empire, and I do feel like I learned a little bit reading this book - and I also expanded my knowledge on the Armenian Genocide which was something I knew of but never actually knew the (horrific and heartbreaking) details of.

I will say that I feel Sarah was overshadowed in this book by her brother Aaron and her best friend/potential romantic partner Avshalom, who were also the leaders of the ring. There seemed to be a lot more shared about Aaron, Avshalom and other male members of the ring than Sarah herself at times, and I honestly couldn't see why the author had to keep referring to all the men apparently in love with Sarah. There was also several references to Mata Hari, another female spy around the same time, who was executed, in derogatory and dismissive terms - seemingly because she was also an exotic dancer. I got the impression the author didn't approve of Hari's lifestyle.

Overall, I feel like I didn't get to know enough about Sarah herself, and the book overall didn't hold my interest as much as I would have liked. I do think there's some great potential for a heartbreaking, expansive WW1-era novel about Sarah, her life, her loves and her tragic death which would suit better than a fact-laden non-fiction like this one.

3.5 stars

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Harper Collins.

Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful is a collection of stories focusing on the increasing medical advancements in body modifications from both life-saving and cosmetic sides, gene sequencing and general physical enhancements.

This is an interesting read separated into several parts/short stories each focusing on different characters - each one a little bit further in the future, and we as readers get to see the extent how technology is used to change human physiology.

As with most short story collections, I liked some parts better than others but I liked that all the parts had some connection to each other - such as Reverend Tadd showing up or being mentioned in pretty much every story. I did think the writing in this book was simpler than I expected it to be but I think that's not necessarily a bad thing for readers who may not ingest so much science fiction. This is a science fiction/dystopian book that's accessible for lots of different readers. However, having read my fair bit of science fiction (though not a whole lot) - the writing was a bit too simplistic for me, and the science too surface level. I feel like we got glimpses of how the science and tech work and not enough explanation of how it all came together.

There are some parts that I feel would be fantastic full-length novels on their own. The last part, Luck and Starlock's story could easily be stretched into a YA dystopian in my eyes, and one that would probably do pretty well. I also really loved the story about the young boy living underwater with manatees.