romance

Book Review – You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I’m slowly getting through all of my ARCs and it’s such a relief. I’m definitely going to have to take a break from requesting them because it’s too stressful. I have so many books that I haven’t read yet that I paid for, so ignoring them in favour of ones that I got free seems stupid. Especially as the ones that I’ve read recently haven’t exactly been great. Why am I wasting my time reading disappointing ARCs when I have books I’m genuinely looking forward to reading? My latest is a genre that I normally wouldn’t have picked up but the story intrigued me. Would it break my streak?

Continue reading →

Book Review – Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I loved the film adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary when I was a teenager. I don’t know why but I asked for a copy of it for Christmas one year. It’s not as if I’d seen it at the cinema or watched it anywhere else. I guess I just figured it was the kind of thing girls my age watched. In the end, I watched tht VHS over and over again. Yet, I never had any desire to pick up the book. I’ve just never read romantic comedies that often. I’m happy to watch but them never read them. As I’d bought the anniversary edition of this book last year, I decided I finally had to read it. As last month was the month of romance, it seemed like a good time.

Continue reading →

Bookish Post – February 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

books, wrap-up
Teacup on top of vintage books.

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.

Continue reading →

Book Review – Stardust by Neil Gaiman

books, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I’m don’t really read a lot of romance books. Not because I think they’re bad. It’s just not something that I’ve ever been bothered by. When I was younger, I used to say that I was too cynical for rom-coms and the like. Now, I think I’d probably say that there are just a few tropes that I don’t really get along with. Being on Instagram and TikTok, I regularly see people praising enemy-to-lovers narratives and I just don’t get it. It just all seems too ridiculous to me. Why do we need to make love this insanely difficult and life-changing thing? Surely, it’s actually quite a simple thing in reality? I know romance novels are an escape for many but they’re often a step too far for me. Although, I will occasionally make an exception.

Continue reading →

Book Review – The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

books, review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m on holiday next week, so I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a bit. Meaning, this will be my last book review for a while. It better be a good one I guess. I’d never heard of this book until Amazon suggested it to me. I know that I should use Amazon as little as possible but I’ve discovered so many novels thanks to its algorithm. This one was perfect for so many reasons but mostly because I was struggling to find shorter reads for my September reading challenge. I’ve got so many letters to cross off but the majority of the books I’d lined up were all over 300. That wouldn’t do. The Reader comes in at under 200, which means I already loved it before I’d even opened it.

Continue reading →

Book Review – Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m really happy with how all of my reading at the moment. I don’t know whether it’s just that I’m coming out of a very recent slump or that I’m just reading better books. Whatever it is, I’m very pleased with how it’s all going. I’m not necessarily as fast as I normally am but I’m definitely inspired by the novels I’m finishing. The latest one was a book club pick but also a book that I’ve wanted to read for ages. Longer than I actually realised. When I was about halfway through the paperback version, I realised that I had bought a Kindle copy of this book in 2016. So, I’ve been meaning to read this for 5 years and had forgotten all about it. My Kindle is full of books like that. Ones that I buy when they cost 99p but forget about moments later. At least I can finally cross one off the my list of unread ebooks.

READ MORE

Book Review – All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

books, reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5.

One of the positive side effects of taking part in my friend’s virtual book club is that I find out about loads of great books. Of course, most of the time we don’t end up reading the ones that I’m really interested in, so I have take it upon myself to read them. This book was my pick or February’s Valentine theme and it was one that I knew I had to buy for myself. It just sounded like such a different take on a love story. Although, I did have some fears about it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel about super heroes that I’ve enjoyed. The superhero genre is such a visual one that I think it’s really hard to translate that in words. Could you imagine trying to write a novelisation of some of the most popular graphic novels? It’d be so difficult. As this book didn’t sound quite as bothered about the superhero element, I figured that it might be a bit safer.

READ MORE

Bookish Post – Literary loves we need to stop romanticising

books, rant, rants

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which means that lists of the most romantic reads are popping up all over the internet. Now, I have a huge problem with these lists. Mostly because of the books that continually appear on them. I’ll be honest, I’m not a massive fan of the romance genre anyway. It’s just not my thing. There’s nothing wrong with it but I get bored of the waiting. I also know that romance novels aren’t as terrible as certain people try to make out. There is a pretentiousness that often comes out when talking about romance that mostly occurs because, historically, it has been a genre written for women. I could go deeper into the problematic history of the genre and the marginalisation of certain writers/subjects but I think that’s best saved for a better writer. Instead, I want to focus on problematic books that appear on lists of Valentine’s Day reads. Let’s be honest, many of the supposedly most romantic books ever written feature relationships that we shouldn’t be celebrating. Everywhere I go, I see young bookish people romanticising toxic and awful relationships and I can stay silent no longer. Here are just a view literary loves that we really need to accept aren’t #goals.

Continue reading →

TBT Review – Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

films, reviews, TBT

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Back in 2018, you couldn’t go anywhere without people talking about this film. Okay, when I say anywhere” I actually mean social media but the fact remains. Not seeing this film when it came out did set me apart from popular opinion. So why didn’t I watch it? To be honest, I just had no interest. I’m not a fan of the whole romantic-comedy thing and this sounded like every other film about two star-crossed lovers. Of course, this one had the added benefit of giving some much needed Asian representation on film. Even though didn’t actually go as smoothly as it should have. Even when we take one step forwards there is always going to be someone who complains about something. As it’s coming up to Valentine’s Day, I decided that I really should watch something of this type and it’s been staring at me every time I search through Prime. It finally felt like the time to do it.

READ MORE

Book Review – Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

On Saturday, I set out a list of reading resolutions for the year. As usual, one of the majors ones was to buy fewer books. This is something I try and fail to keep every year. The publishing industry just can’t stop bringing out more fantastic books. However, I do intend to do better this year because I’m painfully aware that I have something of storage problem. In order to stop myself from buying new books, I have set myself a second resolution of actually reading the books on my shelves. I have that classic bookish problem of having owned books for years. This is especially true of my Kindle. I tend to buy cheap ebooks on a whim and then forget about them. According to Amazon, I bought Jonathan Unleashed in December 2016. That means I’ve owned it for 4 years. It feels as though it was time to finally give it a chance.

Continue reading →