Number of books read: 10
Number of rereads: 2
Number of physical books: 3
Number of ebooks: 1
Number of audiobooks: 5
Number of ARCS: 1
5* reviews: 2
4.5* reviews: 0
4* reviews: 2
1* reviews: 1
February has finally come to an end, thank god! It’s been the longest month for me and I’m glad to see the back of it. My main aim for reading this month was to focus on romance and love. I read more stories about love than I think I read in 2021. Not all of my reads were successful but, thankfully, there were plenty of highs to balance that out. Here’s how my month went.
AT BERTRAM’S HOTEL BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Synopsis:
At Bertram’s Hotel the intrepid Miss Marple, on holiday in London, must solve a deadly mystery at the end of a chain of very violent events.
An old-fashioned London hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out to be.…
When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she’s looking for at Bertram’s Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service, and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly-polished veneer.
Yet, not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day.…
Read my review.
THE AMAZING EDIE ECKHART BY ROSIE JONES
Synopsis:
Edie Eckhart might be wobbly, but she’s not going to let that stop her! A sparky middle-grade series from TV comedian Rosie Jones. Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson and DORK DIARIES.
“Do you like chicken?” Oscar asked me. I nodded. “Then take a wing.” Oscar offered me his arm and we linked each other into the school hall.
Edie has Cerebral palsy, but she’s used to it because she’s spent her whole life being a bit wobbly. She can’t wait to start secondary school with her best friend Oscar and share sausage rolls with him at breaktime. But when Oscar scuppers these plans by getting his first ever girlfriend, GROSS, Edie eventually decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and find a boyfriend, so she can prove to Oscar she’s grown up too. She muses: ‘when Thor was stripped of his power and banished to Earth by Odin, did he mope around and throw his hammer out of the pram? No he got on with it, bossed around Earth and found love like an absolute legend’.
But while she’s plotting, she accidentally gets cast as the lead role in the school play. As Edie devotes her time to the performing arts, she finds a new friend, as well as talents – and feelings – she never knew she had. She soon realises that life in the spotlight might just be her thing after all…
Read my review.
Synopsis:
A FAIRY TALE FOR EVERYONE.
THE ACCLAIMED, ENCHANTING FILM ADAPTATION STARS ROBERT DE NIRO, CLAIRE DANES, RUPERT EVERETT, MICHELLE PFEIFFER AND MANY MORE FAVOURITES….
At the dawn of the Victorian era, life moves leisurely in the sleepy village of Wall.
Young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and, to win her love, vows to bring her a star they see fall from the night sky.
It is an oath that sends him over the town’s ancient wall and into the mysterious land of Faerie – a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining….
Read my review.
Synopsis:
Life is full of connections – if you know how to make them. Crushing follows two people – one determined and a bit awkward, the other unsure where to begin – longing to find out where they belong. Their intersecting and overlapping journeys reveal hidden connections and the unpredictable and unexpected ways we may find each other.
Achingly beautiful, quietly defiant, and full of subtle wit and wisdom, Crushing is a story told in silence; a story without words but bursting with life and color.
This stunning debut graphic novel from Sophie Burrows is a timely look at life in an age of distance and a story of love and understanding – a perfect book to read and to share.
Read my review.
Synopsis:
After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As we flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, we see a girl on the precipice of disaster. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to an artistic new boy, Frank, who moves in next door. The farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness. Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song “Chopsticks.”
But nothing is what it seems, and Glory’s reality is not reality at all. In this stunningly moving novel told in photographs, pictures, and words, it’s up to the reader to decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along….
Read my review.
PRAIRIE SPIRITS BY ALEXIS MARIE CHUTE
Synopsis:
Do you believe?
The Stony Plain Red Brick School and Oppertshauser House are active haunts in Alberta, Canada. Prairie Spirits presents firsthand accounts and interviews from staff and visitors who have encountered the spooky personality of the buildings. From orbs to apparitions, rearranged furniture, unexplainable music, energetic hot spots, and more. Meet the ghosts, discover tools to communicate with the supernatural, and dig into paranormal investigations.
Enjoy over forty full-colour photographic recreations of the otherworldly stories.
This is a bone-chilling read for anyone interested in the rich local history and hauntings in Stony Plain.
Read my review.
MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS BY LOUISE HARE
Synopsis:
London, 1936
Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho and her married lover has just left her. She has nothing to look forward to until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York.
After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. Until death follows her onto the ship and she realises that her greatest performance has already begun.
Because someone is making manoeuvres behind the scenes, and there’s only one thing on their mind…
MURDER
Miss Aldridge Regrets is the exquisite new novel from Louise Hare. A brilliant murder mystery, it also explores class, race and pre-WWII politics, and will leave readers reeling from the beauty and power of it.
Read my review.
THE PHONE BOX AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD BY LAURA IMAI MESSINA, LUCY RAND
Synopsis:
We all have something to tell those we have lost . . .
On a windy hill in Japan, in a garden overlooking the sea stands a disused phone box. For years, people have travelled to visit the phone box, to pick up the receiver and speak into the wind: to pass their messages to loved ones no longer with us.
When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she is plunged into despair and wonders how she will ever carry on. One day she hears of the phone box, and decides to make her own pilgrimage there, to speak once more to the people she loved the most. But when you have lost everything, the right words can be the hardest thing to find . . .
Then she meets Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking . . .
The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is an unforgettable story of the depths of grief, the lightness of love and the human longing to keep the people who are no longer with us close to our hearts.
Read my review.
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY BY HELEN FIELDING
RATING TBC
Synopsis:
Winner of the 1997 British Book of the Year, and named by the Guardian as one of the ten books which best defines the 20th Century, the book has gone on to become a multi-million copy selling international phenomenon, spawning three blockbuster movies, a whole new literary genre, a lexicon of ‘smug marrieds’, ‘singletons’, ‘emotional f***wittage’ and ‘mummy pants’, and the familiar cry of ‘I am Bridget Jones’.
This special bumper anniversary compendium also features an introduction and commentary from Helen Fielding, and over 100 pages of rare material taken from 25 years of her writing, including:
* Extracts from Helen’s early journalism
* A selection of the original Independent newspaper columns.
* Bridget Jones interviews Colin Firth
* Later columns on #MeToo, Brexit, and Bridget’s lockdown life
* A selection of hilarious restaurant reviews featuring the real life inspirations for Jude, Shazzer, Auntie Una, Mum and Daniel Cleaver
Review coming soon.
RATING TBC
Synopsis:
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.
The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
Review coming soon.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 
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