stitchesandpages811's reviews
657 reviews

Format: Audio 

This was the first book in the series with a much smaller connection to our MCs’ old school, and I will say that I think this lessened the enjoyment slightly, although it was lovely to be back with them and learn more about their separate lives as well as their friendship. I think the mystery element did take a bit of a back seat to their personal stories in this one, but I still really enjoyed it. 

Format: Ebook 

It was really enjoyable to be back in this world. This is a fun series with likeable characters. I don’t think I enjoyed it quite as much as the first but I’m so pleased I spotted that there was a sequel. Hoping that more in this series is coming!

Format: Audio 

I really wanted to love this and, as is usual with Holly Jackson’s books, I was hooked straight away. Unfortunately, this just didn’t hold my interest as much as previous books have and I felt myself switching off about halfway through. It started to get a bit repetitive in the middle and it was a struggle to get behind the FMC. Overall, I did enjoy it but sadly it wasn’t my favourite. 

Format: Audio/Print 

I switched to the audio partway through this and I am really glad I did because what started out as quite a slow read really picked up with Kitty Kelly’s expert narration. Adding to my ever-expanding cosy crime series, here we follow a group of 30-something expectant mums. This was a fun mystery that had me laughing out loud one minute and rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of a situation the next. 

Format: Print 

I am so disappointed by this one because I really wanted to love it, but so much of the book just went over my head. I think if you asked me, I could probably give you a general summary of what happened, but it was so overly complex that most of the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I nearly dnfed multiple times, but each time something would hook me enough to continue, it just didn’t hook me enough to be able to give it any more than this. 

Format: Audio 

I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into this – it was a bit of a wild card for the vote for April’s work book club – but I actually really enjoyed it. 

Marcellus was by far the best bit of this book – I’d read a full book from his perspective – and it’s a shame actually that his sections were comparatively quite short compared to Tova and Cameron’s. I ended up listening to the audio after struggling to start the print book, and really liked that Marcellus’ perspective had a different narrator. This worked incredibly well. 

I did find the aquarium setting a bit difficult. I don’t want to give spoilers away so I won’t comment further beyond stating the ending pleased me (to a degree), and I was on the verge of tears while listening. I do think I felt the most for Marcellus as a character and his storyline was both so difficult, but also heartwarming. 

I liked Tova generally but Cameron was frustrating. Did we have to keep repeating that he didn’t look 30 to justify the fact that he regularly acted like a child throwing a tantrum? And yet, there were moments when he seemed really mature and I was impressed by him. The contradictions were difficult to swallow. Despite this frustration, I do think the growth of all the characters was done really well – you genuinely could see a difference in them from the start of the book to the end. 

There were maybe a few plot points that could have been fleshed out a bit more as well but overall, this was an enjoyable read and I had a good time with it. 

Format: Print

It’s been quite a while since a book made me feel as emotional as In Memoriam did. Wow, just wow. I kept putting this book off thinking it wasn’t going to be for me and I’m so annoyed at myself now for not picking it up earlier.

The book is clearly so well researched. Reading it took me back to learning about WW1 at school (and writing trench diaries – although clearly Alice Winn’s writing is far far superior to a 13-year-old Zoe’s) and I could picture everything that the author described so vividly. There were numerous points where I was having to hold back my tears – the action at the Somme in particular was so hard hitting. And I was right there with the characters feeling the relief at being injured and therefore not at the front, while being guilty for not being there, and at the same time struggling to adapt to life not at the front. I genuinely do not know how people coped because reading about it was so hard, I can’t even begin to imagine living it.

I was drawn in by the characters, and particularly Gaunt and Ellwood’s relationship, and I think this is a real mark of how good Alice Winn’s writing is. On the face of it, I have absolutely nothing in common with any of the characters – I haven’t lived war to the same degree, I didn’t go to a private school etc. – and yet I truly felt for all of them. The bonds between all the characters, and the way that the relationship between them was just casually accepted was so heartwarming to read.

In Memoriam is a remarkable story. Harrowing and raw, and yet uplifting and romantic (in its own way). This is going to stay with me for a very long time

Format: Audio 

Having ended the previous book on a cliffhanger and jumping right into the next, I was a bit disappointed to learn that A Fatal Secret actually picked up several months after the events of A Fatal Flaw (and as a side note: is it weird that Clement and Trudy don’t seem to have seen each other at all during this time?). 

Again, I enjoyed this – it’s a fun, cosy mystery series that I like listening to. I also liked that we got more of Trudy’s inner thoughts on being a WPC in the 1960s in this book, although I do think her character has shifted a bit across the series so far. 

A bit of a shame we had less of them deducing things and more conveniences in this book though! 

Format: Audio 

This was another enjoyable story in the Ryder and Loveday series. We had more cute moments between Clement and Trudy and I truly do enjoy their relationship. 

I do think the mystery took a slight back seat in this story, as we saw some progression in the storyline that is running throughout the series but it was nice to see movement on this – and that cliffhanger ending made me need to pick up the next book straight away! 

Format: Print 

I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I do think it starts off in quite a complicated way. There are a lot of characters and alliances and it was quite difficult to get my head round all of these initially. There is a helpful list of characters at the start of the book but this didn’t stop it from feeling so confusing when it didn’t need to be. None of the characters were particularly likeable either, although I think that was very deliberate. Even when characters were very clearly being manipulated, it was hard to feel sorry for them because they also had secrets. I don’t always enjoy books with unlikeable characters, and I did spend a lot of this book wanting to shake certain characters and tell them to ‘open their eyes’, but actually, because there was no stand out ‘good’ character, this didn’t bother me at all and I found it quite interesting trying to work out who the villains were and what the different alliances were. 

I didn’t love the moments when characters broke the fourth wall, saying ‘let me tell you a story’ or ‘let me tell you what happened’. Every time this happened, I expected the narrative structure to change slightly, for this new story to be told in a different way. And this never happened. That phrase fell within the middle of the body of text and then the narrative continued in exactly the same style. I don’t think the phrase was needed at all. If you’re going to break that fourth wall, at least distinguish it in some way. 

In a similar vein, I wasn’t a massive fan of the changing POVs within chapters. The book is told by Celine and Magali, and we’d have chapters that started with Celine, then we’d have a small perspective from Magali, switch back to Celine briefly, and then return to Magali for a longer section. I found this quite jarring too. I think I’d have preferred shorter chapters told by a single character, but this really is just personal preference. 

Despite having these frustrations, once I’d gotten through the initial confusion, I actually really enjoyed this. I didn’t love it and I’m not currently planning to pick up the rest of the series

– if I ignore the last chapter which sets up the cliffhanger for book 2 and gives indications that there are bigger forces at work than our core characters –

I am very happy where this left off and will treat it as a standalone, but it was a solid 3 stars for me.