stitchesandpages811's reviews
657 reviews

Format: Print 

This was a fun festive take on the classic locked room mystery with a big cast of characters to keep track of. I didn’t see the twist coming but looking back now can see a few hints so it would be interesting to read again. 

I flew through this one on Christmas Eve (which I would absolutely recommend for the atmosphere). It was engaging and flowed well – just a really fun time (murder aside!). I’ll be looking out for more from this author. 

Format: Print 

I am absolutely gutted not to be giving this more than 3 stars. I thought the plot was great – it was well thought out, it flowed well, and it kept a good pace. And the last 60 pages or so – fantastic! 

Unfortunately, I just had a major issue with the characters. I’m not saying every character has to be likeable but they were nearly all insufferable. 

Let’s take our main character, Imani, for instance. She was stubborn, arrogant, single-minded, unwilling to learn or change (for the most part). Every time I thought she could be redeemed she went backwards yet again, right up until we were nearly at the end of the book. It does show a significant amount of character growth and I really hope this continues into future books. 

And then we have Taha, our ‘kind of’ male love interest. I think something really important could have been said here about inequality and classism but it failed because Taha and his team were bullies. And his personality would switch depending on whether he was alone or with his friends. That ability to shift personalities is probably a good thing in his line of work but it was giving me whiplash and it just made me angry at him. 

Overall, I think this had a lot of potential and, as I’ve said, those last 60 pages or so were fantastic. I will be picking up the sequel as I could see this becoming a more enjoyable read for me as I continue with the series but it’s such a shame that I didn’t love this in the way I wanted. 

Format: Ebook 

When thirteen-year-old Misty’s dad loses his job, she’s forced to move away from the home and friends she loves to the Redbridge estate where horses roam free. Misty soon finds herself living two lives – the one with her friends at school, whom she’s determined to keep up appearances for, and her new life on the estate with the horses and the mysterious Dylan. When the horses she’s grown to love come under threat, her two lives collide and she must find a way to save the place she now calls home. 

I felt so nostalgic while reading. The author describes the book in heir acknowledgements as an ode to the pony books they read as a child, and I couldn’t agree with this more. It was so nice to immerse myself in a ‘pony story’ but not just the tried-and-tested pony story, but one that felt like more than a pony story. 

Misty was a very realistic character. Spending time with her and her friends reminded me so much of what it was like to be a thirteen-year-old girl – while my own childhood was quite different and I didn’t always agree with her choices, I could understand why she was making them and appreciated the feelings she had despite it being a long time since I was that age. 

Beyond this, I felt like the book dealt so well with a wealth of other important topics for its target age range, including friendship, grief, unemployment, poverty and so so much more. 

And of course, we can’t forget the bond between human and animal – I am a big believer in the healing power of horses and this was truly showcased in this book. 

I would completely recommend this book to a new generation of pony lovers, and an older one – I have no doubt it will be appearing on my ‘pony shelf’ too! 

With thanks to Pushkin Children's Books via NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Format: Audio 

I had a really good time listening to this. It was a fun and easy listen and I was very intrigued by the story. There was a lot to really like about it: an interesting premise (‘Sleeping Beauty’s’ twin sets out to avenge her sister against the evil sorceress), a gentle introduction to werewolf shifter stories, and a discovery of queer identity arc. There were also a lot of ‘typical’ tropes and storylines: fated mated, evil sorceress, the need to avenge a wrong. I like a straightforward and easy listen and for the most part, I think these were done well. 

But, for me, there was just something that stopped me loving it, and, as much as I did enjoy it, it felt like there was a lack of set up. I just felt like a lot of the developments in the story came out of nowhere, or weren’t as fully fleshed out as I’d have liked them to be. So, a couple of examples: 

I think even a small amount of development on these points and it would have been an easy 4-star for me. It really was an easy listen and probably could have been YA were it not for the spicy scenes (which felt like they came out of nowhere on several occasions!). I’m definitely intrigued by the next book in the series, but don’t think I’ll rushing out to pick it up on release. 

Format: Print 

The Adventures of Amina al-Sarafi was my most anticipated release of 2023 and yet it took me until December 2024 to actually pick it up because I was so worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as the Daevabad trilogy. I needn’t have been concerned and Shannon Chakraborty has firmly established herself as one of my favourite authors. 

I think the way the story is narrated is really clever. Amina is telling her story to a scribe, and there are these small interjections where you have to assume the scribe has given her a look or similar and she steps out of the story to respond to what they’re doing/saying. It felt just like being told the story in a group of friends where at least one other person has been there for some events and is jumping in (although we don’t hear the scribe’s voice during these interjections). I did listen to a few chapters of the audiobook to see how this worked and can confirm it was really clear this was happening in the audio as well. I felt this was a really realistic way of telling the story – I myself jump around so much when telling stories that I actually often lose where I am because I’ve gone off on a tangent. 

We also have a variety of other stories that are related to Amina’s sprinkled throughout the account. I liked how these were carefully inserted at appropriate moments – they made sense and reading them when I did allowed me to make the connections to what was happening in the main story. 

It’s very clear how much research Chakraborty has done and the historian in me enjoyed learning about this period through the lens of a fictional account (recognising of course that it’s not a 100% accurate portrayal – and Chakraborty takes care to state in the her author note that history is ever changing as we learn new things or re-evaluate our previously-held beliefs). Something about historical fantasy just speaks to me and having been intrigued since watching the author talk about this series at an online event a few years ago, it has been lovely seeing those hints come to life in the book. 

We do spend quite a lot of the story travelling and I know that doesn’t work for everyone. It also moved quite slowly. I was actually quite surprised how well this worked for me. The slower pace allowed me to really step back and savour what I was reading, rather than speed reading through fast-paced and tension-filled action. That’s not to say of course that there wasn’t tension, just that I appreciated the build up to that tension. 

There is also a lot of mystery to the story. I spent a lot of time asking questions based on what I was reading, and the desire to find out the answers to those questions really kept me engaged in what was happening. I was constantly making connections in my head based on the snippets I were learning from our very cagey cast of characters. 

In terms of the characters, I really liked the different personalities we had, and it was refreshing to have a slightly older cast. In Amina you could really see the struggle between her longing for a life of adventure and her commitment and love for her daughter. I thought it was really interesting to see this play out and I’m intrigued to see how this continues in later books. I liked the friendship between Amina and her immediate crew and seeing how well they worked together – the result of their years of friendship – but also the things they hid from each other and the ‘break down’ of their relationships as a result. It was a small circle of friends, but a realistic portrayal of friendship as you get older, or at least the types of friendships I have now. 

I’m so glad I finally got up the courage to give this a go – and it was nice to see some small hints of connection to the Daevabad trilogy. I am really interested to see where it goes next as, while there are a few questions from the end of this book, I do think this would have worked perfectly well as a standalone. Definitely one of my favourites of this year – and my second 5 star set at sea, maybe a new niche for my reading? 

Format: Ebook 

ARC provided by Boldwood Books via Netgalley. 

In the third instalment of the ‘Bad Girls Detective Agency’ series, Amber, Clio and Jeanie have won a trip to a luxury castle retreat on a remote island. The perfect opportunity to relax, right? But when world-famous chef and retreat owner Valerie la Fontaine turns up dead, it doesn’t take long for the Bad Girls to launch a new investigation to find the killer before they strike again… 

I’ve read the first two books in this series and really enjoyed them so was looking forward to reading this. While I do think the earlier books offer some useful context to the characters and their backgrounds (a few references will seem out of place without having read them), I don’t think it’s necessary to enjoy this book. 

Straight from the first page we were thrown into the action. I was hooked from the start and was really intrigued to see how the tension built to that point. There are quite a few suspects but not in a confusing way and the author did a great job of keeping me guessing throughout so I didn’t see the twists coming. While still serious, the book was sprinkled with humour and a really entertaining read. 

The thing that makes these books for me is the characters: Amber, Clio and Jeanie. We spend time with each of them giving us a well-rounded picture of what’s going on, and we learn what is happening alongside them. Amber is arguably our main character in this book, but Clio and Jeanie are still very fleshed out. They have a strong friendship and it feels like you’re a part of that when reading. 

Overall, this was a great addition to the series and one I’d definitely recommend for an entertaining murder mystery that keeps you on your toes, particularly if you’re a fan of non-detective detective stories. 

Format: Ebook 

Starting with the caveat that my star rating is based on my own enjoyment and shouldn’t necessarily be read as a comment on the quality of the book. 

This book was great in that it reflected the impression it gave of the gods: chaotic. However, this wasn’t what I wanted. There was so much jumping around between characters and locations that I never truly settled into the story. There were so many characters and while there was a list at the front of the book, when reading on the Kindle, it’s not so easy to flick back to the start and work out who someone is. Half the time I spent entire chapters trying to remember who someone was and work out what their relation was to the story. And they were short chapters, so not a lot of time to waste doing that. 

This is billed as Medusa’s story. It’s right there on the cover – Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story. And yet, Medusa felt like a sidenote. She was a character who had things happen to her, rather than a character doing things in her own right. We got chapters from the perspective of an olive tree and the snakes, neither of which I particularly loved but at least these stuck with me – Medusa herself did not. 

I just didn’t care enough to get truly invested in the story. I respect what it was trying to do but it’s another book club read I’d have put down if not for needing to talk about it. 

Format: Ebook 

Firstly, I should preface this review by stating that my star rating is very much based on feeling and enjoyment while reading so take it with a pinch of salt. 

This just didn’t work for me. It feels like a book I’ve read and didn’t enjoy already this year but in a different setting. I completely understand what the author was trying to do here (or at least what I assume they were trying to do) but frankly, it was all a bit ridiculous at times. And yet, it almost wasn’t ridiculous enough. It either needed to go completely into the humour so that it could be read as such, or it needed to be a more serious portrayal. I’m not saying I would like falling down on the side on humour any more than I liked it currently, but I don’t think the mix particularly worked. We’d be considering a very serious point – injustices faced by women in India, particularly in their marriages – and then all of a sudden there would be a joke or some other cringey moment. I just couldn’t reconcile the two. 

I didn’t love any of the characters. Our main character Geeta is prickly, and that’s ok, but the way the women behaved towards each other generally was very off putting. I wouldn’t necessarily say this was inaccurate from my own experiences of female friendships (although I will say the way they behaved felt much younger than into their 30s, which to clarify is not ‘old’) but it felt quite immature. Perhaps strangely then, the development of the friendships, both with the other women and with Karem, also felt like the highlight of the novel. It felt like a good commentary on friendship between women, and the risk of romantic relationships to those friendships, even if they were quite juvenile in character. 

Overall, I felt this had promise but honestly, I wouldn’t have continued reading it had it not been a book club book. I enjoyed elements but it really wasn’t for me. 

Format: Print 

This was a quick and engaging read. It’s quite spicy but there is a solid plot as well and I enjoyed seeing the relationship between CeCe and Nash develop. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next – I am expecting this to be a fun and solid new romance series for me. 

Format: Audio 

This book picks up immediately where we left off in the previous so we are thrown straight into the action. The tension was high immediately and I was there for the drama. 

I will say I didn’t love this quite so much as the first, but all of the things I enjoyed about Assistant were still there in Apprentice: 

Overall, this is just a really fun series. It’s another solid 5-star and I can’t believe I need to wait for the next one.