wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

When Penny meets her dashing neighbour Gabriel, known as the 'Duke of Ruin' they don't off to the greatest start thanks to Gabe's objection to her menagerie of rescued animals. When they team up to find new homes for the animals, they grow closer and can't deny the feelings they have for one another.

This was another lovely, enjoyable read in the Girl Meets Duke series. I always like picking these books up as they have me swooning and smiling in equal measure. Penny is just a wonderful character and the this book is the epitome of the grumpy-sunshine trope. I liked all of the interactions the two characters had with one another, and they had a lot of chemistry but also a lot of love and warmth between them as well.

One of my favourite things about this series is the friendship between all the girls. We see Emma, Alex and Nicola in these books (and I would advise reading this series in order so you're not spoiled for the first two), and how they all help each other and Penny but what I loved as well was Ash and Chase adopting Gabe when they realised Penny liked him so much. The interactions between the men really had me chuckling, and the scene in which Marigold the goat gives birth was utter gold.

I'm pretty sure Nicola's story overlapped in this one so I'm really looking forward to reading it when it comes out to see what happens.

 

When Ann Stilwell leaves her family home, she's determiend never to go back. Now she's found a dream job in The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection, and joins other scholars there studying the lost art of divination. Soon Ann is caught up in the world of tarot, and living, breathing and eating everything about The Cloisters.

This wasn't bad - I haven't read too many 'dark academia' books and I think this is quite a nice book to start out with as we have a clear purpose of Ann's desires, and the overwhelming impulses of knowledge and research and how they may help her in the future. The book's atmosphere was really good - there were times I could feel the cool shadowed corridors of The Cloisters, and the brightness of the gardens in contrast, as well as smell the old books and artefacts and hear the pages rustling - or even see the flash of gold from the tarot cards.

I'm not really into tarot myself so I'd be interested to know if those who are found the book accurate in terms of readings and how tarot and divination can be used. From the outside perspective I found it interesting but couldn't quite understand the hold it took on Rachel and Ann.

Rachel and Ann's relationship is one of the main focuses on this story as well as they become more wrapped around each other, and you're not really sure if Ann can trust Rachel or if Rachel is vulnerable and lonely and therefore leaning more on Ann than she realises. I actually wouldn't have minded this taking a darker, sexy , sapphic turn as the relationship between the two of them was probably one beat away from being sexual and I think it would have worked pretty well for the story. 

When Hallie's name is picked to become the next person to run her favourite bookstore in her hometown, no-one is more surprised than her. Her luck generally runs bad from men to employment, as well as general clumsiness and embarrassing moments. But Once Upon A Page bookstore is Hallie's second chance at getting something right. But as Hallie comes up with ideas to bring life back to the struggling store, local property developers are circling and Hallie's confidence is slipping.

This was actually a very cute read that I didn't think I'd enjoy quite as much as I did. This is the perfect contemporary book for book lovers from a dream job (what book lover wouldn't want to run their own bookstore in a cute Cotswold village?), an idyllic setting, a friends to lovers romance and a bit of slapstick comedy for a bit of laughter along the way. You just don't have to think too hard about how logistically and realistically the store can be passed to random people the way it has done for years, and the one that got me was Hallie only being offered £35,000 for the store/building on the main street of a village in the Cotswold which seems like a remarkably low property price to me.

The romance in this is genuinely lovely to experience development. It's been a while since I've read a book where the main character and love interest have been so evenly and perfectly matched. The minute Dimitri literally fell into the bookstore, it was love hearts all over the shop. There were pages and pages of dialogue between the two characters and it felt like within two days they had spent so much genuine time together, and truly were getting to know each other.

This is sweet and fun, and one I'd recommend. I'd happily read more of the author's work. 

It's 1896, and Eliza Brightwater finds herself alone in Bannin Bay, Australia, when her father disappears at sea and her brother can't handle the unanswered questions. But Eliza is sure that her father is still alive and waiting for her to find him so she sets out to uncover the mystery of what happened and bring him back before it's too late.

This book was fine. I don't think I've read that much historical fiction set in Australia so it was a nice change and a different setting, and I did appreciate the fact that the author didn't hide away from and often highlighted the cruel treatment of Australian's First Nations people - and how bad the white settlers were towards these people from slavery, casual racism and mistreatment of women and children.

I think the disappearance of Eliza's father was a little weak overall and I think it lacked an excitement and an energy to make the book fun to read - it was a bit bland and it felt like some of the bigger obstacles Eliza faced sizzled out quickly.

I did like where Eliza ended up, there was a little bit of girl power feminism going on and the naturalist angle was nice.  I had an ARC copy of this so I'm not sure if the finished copy had any illustrations of Eliza's animals and sea creatures but that would be a fun element to the book.

It's 1861 and the American Civil War is inching its way closer to Catrina peaceful life at her family farm with her father and brother. When a young man with no memory is discovered in their field, Catrina takes a shine to him, naming him Stonefield. Immediately the two begin to fall in love, and fight the world that tries to tear them apart.

This is a Wuthering Heights retelling during the era of the American Civil War, and I liked the setting and time time period for such a retelling, it felt like it really suited the kind of relationship and story the author wanted to tell. I think there were many aspects of the retelling that were done really well in this story - particularly the characters of Catrina and Stonefield who for all intents and purposes were not particularly likeable characters due to their selfishness, and quick to anger personalities.

I think this story fell down when it came to pacing. Everything felt like it was happening very quickly and it was one thing after another. And because of that, the relationship felt a little bit over the top as they had known each other only a couple of days before they were declaring they'd kill for one another. I think there was a great opportunity here to to tell a story of a small town divided by the Civil War as well as the story of women left behind to care for everything when the menfolk went to war but it was all skipped over.

There was also a brief upsetting scene in this book when a young Black woman was taken by a group of raiders (of whom Stonefield was one of the leaders) and it's implied that she was raped by these men and Stonefield let it happen. This whole thing was again done and over with very quickly and I think it should have been given more time in the book - particularly the woman's recovering and healing from such trauma instead of it being brushed over.

I don't think I'd recommend this to people but I read it very quickly, and it was mildly entertaining for the day I read it. 

When Stella wakes up in the middle of the night to care for her crying child, she doesn't expect to witness a crime in the empty field across from her house. Shaken at the unspeakable violence she has witnessed, Stella tries to deal with the guilt she feels for not doing more. On the other side of town, another family of Métis women, come together when one of their own - the most precious and innocent - is injured.

This book is phenomenal for a debut novel - the combination of pain, violence and neglect as well as the love, kindness and care between all the characters is amazing. I was really hooked into this story and all the women we are following as they try and piece their lives together after a terrible violent act.

This book focuses on the lives of Métis women living in Winnipeg in Canada, and looks at the danger and intergenerational trauma lived by so many young girls and women in such societies where they are looked down upon, are abused and assaulted on regular basis and let down by any type of government authority that should be caring for them. I feel like Phoenix's story reflects this the most - the anger, and confusion she feels throughout the novel, despite at times presenting as a young, scared child who just wants to be cared for. And in parts we learn what her mother Elsie went through as a teenager and piece together what Phoenix's life must have been like because of this.

And Cheryl, Lou, Emily and Paul - along with Rita and Ziggy - are in such a community of love and kindness with one another, it feels like another world but that doesn't mean these women weren't hurt from abusive husbands to heartbreak, to witnessing terrible things and knowing at all times the danger they are in as women in their world.

But while this book is centered around a horrible act of sexual violence, the deeper story in it is about the love and hope between all these women, and how they hold on to each other throughout it all and never let anyone fade away. 

Winnie Wednesday is living the life of an outcast, ever since her father was proclaimed a traitor four years earlier. Now, she's sick and tired of being ignored and bullied by the others in her town, and watching her mother struggle - and decides to enter the Hunter Trials to claim back the respect her family deserve. But when Winnie enters the forest, where every night, Nightmare creatures appear to threaten humans and are killed by Winnie's townspeople called The Luminaries - she finds out that while hunting is in her blood, it's also a terrifying thing to do and maybe she's not as good as he thought.

This was a fun YA urban fantasy and once you can get past every character being named after a day of the week, I quite enjoyed the story that had a nice mystery/threat running through it as well as lots of action scenes and horrific moments with the Nightmares. I think this one falls into the YA category a lot more than Susan Dennard's The Witchland books (which I think straddle that line between YA and adult) but I still enjoyed it even though I was thinking of all the characters as something straight out of Riverdale, haha.

The pacing of the story was good, and I felt swept up in the story, especially the last half or so and I appreciated Winnie's growing friendship with Fatima and the twins, while her crush on Jay grew even bigger. I do think some things are really obvious in the story and was surprised they weren't revealed but I'm looking forward to book two to see where this all goes.