Into the Storm – by Cecelia Ahern

2 11 2025

My annual Cecelia Ahern read! I’ve found she tends to write two kinds of books, all fiction, but either with or without an element of magical realism, so whenever I start a new one, it’s interesting to see which it will be! In this case, it’s just general fiction, but a story I really got invested in.

Enya is a GP, and driving home from a call out during awful weather on the shortest day of the year she comes across the scene of an accident, a teenager in the road, and a man who says he just drove up and found him there. She obviously stops to help, but where she’d been struggling mentally with approaching the age her mother died, and following this trauma, she decides it’s time for a big change.

The story continues both with her adapting to her new life, while also dealing with the fall out from that night, and gradually finding out more about what happened, so that by the end of the book, we have the full story.

The book is broken into different times of the astronomical year, her mother had an interest in pagan ideas, and there’s a rag tree involved in the story – I was a bit concerned at one point about how pagan-y it might get, but it really wasn’t much at all in the end.

I enjoyed seeing how Enya’s relationships with her son, her sister, and others she meets along the way change and develop through the book, and particularly with the woman who lives above her surgery who is going through her own struggles.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Brontë

19 10 2025

For my annual read of a classic, I went for Jane Eyre. The last six years I’ve read the main six Austens, so thought it was time for my first Brontë (Charlotte). I’d watched the Ruth Wilson adaptation before, and had a rewatch for a refresher before I got going.

In my head, I didn’t think it wouldn’t be that much different to an Austen, the books are within a few decades of each other, but it’s definitely darker and grittier, and less about society. Another massive difference is that it’s told in the first person, from Jane’s perspective, and so is much more emotive and engaging in its narrative.

The book follows Jane’s story from orphaned child living with family that don’t want her, through boarding school, to working as a governess in a house with a secret, and the fall out from that.

I was grateful that my edition had notes in the back, they were helpful to explain a few terms we no longer use, as well as when the girl she was governess for chattered away in French, it kindly gave a translation! One thing I found utterly bizarre though, is that any large place name was anonymised! So you’d get references to -shire, etc. I googled and this seems to be a thing from the time, as if the fact it’s been anonymised makes it sound like they’re real people, but it took some getting used to. Also, the number of times that a door or a box or anything was “unclosed” instead of opened – I wonder when that changed! I really enjoyed when at one point she said “thither I bent my steps” – so similar to the line in ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ which has always tickled me!

There is talk throughout the book of how Jane is not attractive, both from her and others saying it about her, and the same is said of Mr Rochester, they say it to each other, it’s really quite refreshing, and made the characters feel a lot more relateable. I also love when her refers to her as Janet, I never thought of it as a pet name for Jane, but maybe it is?!

As per usual, a few bits that made me turn down page corners:

  • “Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words.”
  • “It is not violence that best overcomes hate – nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.”
  • “We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.”
  • “I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
  • “As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects.”

In summary: Reader, I loved it.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering – by Andrew Hunter Murray

23 08 2025

Very different from his first novel (and I haven’t read his second!) – the premise of this book sounded so much fun: a guy who house sits for rich people, except they don’t know it. You might call him a squatter, he calls himself an interloper. He stays in wealthy people’s second homes when he knows they’re away, and leaves no trace – fun, yes?!

I thought the whole book was going to be based around this, and in a way it is, but really it’s more that that’s the set up for the story, which is sort of a murder mystery while on the run as suspects. I don’t think that gives too much away as it’s on the back of the book! It’s even narrated from the information suite in his prison…

I really enjoyed it, there’s a good amount of fun among the drama, and a few niche British references that would make Richard Osman proud! (eg: “I wonder fleetingly whether the police and the Bake Off crew get their marquees from the same firm.”).

There was also a wonderful anecdote about Ann Hicks, who sold apples in Hyde Park in the 1830s, built a tiny shack to sell from, gradually added to it, windows, doors, extended upwards, until she had a two storey house and a shop front in the middle of Hyde Park. Due to patchy records, she ended up being paid a weekly allowance by the Duke of Wellington to leave so they could build a bit crystal palace – a brilliant story, and clearly Hunter Murray’s QI-elf-ness hasn’t completely left him!

I think what I’d really like is a prequel, maybe a series of short stories of his escapades before this whole incident kicked off, of life as an interloper. It’s fun in this book to learn of his series of rules of interloping, but there must be stories from where some of them came from that could be a good premise.

A couple of excellent lines:

  • “I have a faint memory that impersonating a police officer is a crime that comes with an especially long sentence. The police don’t like it when you do impressions of them. (I find this particularly unfair, because apparently they’re allowed to do impressions of normal people and that’s just ‘undercover work’.)”
  • “You may have noticed that I’ve also changed Qumar’s name, from a country you will be familiar with to a fake country they use in The West Wing when they needed somewhere for President Bartlet to bomb. If Aaron Sorkin objects to me lifting the name, he can sue me. I’m literally writing this from prison and have no fear of copyright infringement.”
  • “I do look up the price of ferry tickets, then a few property portals to see how much the average mountain chalet sets you back these days (a lot, it turns out; these ski people must be made of money and still they choose to go somewhere cold? Insane)”

Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

Four – by Veronica Roth

14 07 2025

So while the Divergent books were technically a trilogy, the author wrote a fourth book, giving a bit of backstory to the male lead (called Four), since the first two books of the trilogy were told purely from Tris’ perspective. It’s told as four short stories, and three mini chapters, though the short stories flow fairly well chronologically anyway. That said, I wouldn’t suggest reading this if you haven’t read the trilogy first, as there’s definitely some assumed knowledge! (And don’t think the films will be enough, I watched them recently and the plot seemed to veer right away from the books!)

I enjoyed the stories that were set before the trilogy starts, but once it got to those that overlap, I just felt like I was reading something I’d already read, I didn’t feel like his perspective added a tonne to it. If you’ve read the trilogy it’s worth a quick read through, but I wouldn’t rave about it.

One line though that I thought was worth sharing: “Dead people can be our heroes because they can’t disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them.”


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

We Solve Murders – by Richard Osman

5 07 2025

I really enjoy the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman, so when he wrote a book that wasn’t in that series, I was interested to see if it was as good – and I do think it was!

So the basic premise is that Amy is a close protection officer, currently looking after a world famous author Rosie on her private island, and Amy’s father-in-law Steve is a retired cop, living in the New Forest. But then various people who are trying to get other people killed get involved, there are influencers, money smugglers, all sorts of things.

And I think this is the only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars (I would have given it 4.5 if that was an option on goodreads) – there are a lot of fringe/secondary characters, and I don’t know if it was that they weren’t given enough intro to bed them into my brain, or if there were just one or two too many of them, but I did have to keep trying to remember who some of them were during the first half, and one of them even later on I was still struggling to place. But I don’t want to be too negative, that really was the only negative for me.

I think Richard Osman’s greatest strength is his characters, and their little eccentricities which really endear them to you. I particularly loved Steve and Rosie this time around, I related to Steve a lot in his desire to potter about somewhere he knows – and Rosie was just so extreme and extravagant in so many ways! The contrast between them was a lot of fun.

What was also enjoyable for me were the bits set in the New Forest, I grew up just outside the national park, and so it was fun to hear references to different places I knew!

As I often do, here are some of my favourite one liners

  • “Jeff looks over at Tony, ‘No offence.’
    ‘I never take offence,’ says Tony. ‘Saved me a lot of time over the years.'”
  • “Trouble [the cat] never stopped to ask [what flavour his dinner was]; he just loved food that he hadn’t had to catch or scavenge for himself.”
  • “What unfortunate timing. If she’d known she was going to die this morning, she would have ordered the pancakes.”
  • “‘And how did she score on your psychopath test?’
    ‘Ninety-six, same as me. That’s why she’s Head of HR'”

Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

Allegiant – by Veronica Roth

21 06 2025

This finishes the initial trilogy – there’s a separate fourth book that ties in, which I’ll get to at some point.

I was less keen on this when it started, as while the first two books are told from the perspective of the female protagonist, this one alternates between her and the male protagonist as the narrator, which was quite off putting initially, took a lot of concentration and flicking back to check who was talking to begin with.

In this book we go outside the city that’s been the setting for the first two, and there are shocking revelations about the origin of the city that’s been their home. There’s an awful lot going on with plot, which occasionally got a little confusing, but generally just kept attention, with the second half of the book being really gripping.

The only thing that annoyed me a bit about it was the relationship between the 2 main characters in that so many times it seemed if one of them was upset, it would just be resolved with a passionate kiss – there was a lot about the impact of the kissing, it was a bit grating after a while.

But it’s a trilogy I’ve enjoyed, and I’ll read Four at some point, which, I think, is a series of stories from our male lead’s perspective.

I watched the first 2 films as I reread, but having finished this, it seems the films have now disappeared from iPlayer, which is a shame. Plus this book was meant to be split into two films, but they never made the second, so it’d be left open anyway!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

Insurgent – by Veronica Roth

6 06 2025

Getting on for a decade ago, I read Divergent, and fully intended on finishing the trilogy…. fast forward and I’m finally getting around to it. I couldn’t remember much at all of the first book, so after a quick re-read of that to refresh my memory, it was time to read book two!

Picking up where the first book left off, in the wake of a vicious attack on one of the factions, where all those attacking were being controlled by a simulation, the city is no longer at peace.

Where the first book had more of a focus on Abnegation and Dauntless factions, this one spent time in the Amity, Candor and Erudite factions, so we got to know each of them a bit more, and in my mind, made them a bit easier to distinguish from each other.

It’s an easy read, and very engaging, more gripping towards the end, and left on a pretty big cliffhanger!

I think these books could have been way more successful if they weren’t coming out in the shadow of The Hunger Games trilogy, but they are good, even if they are another YA dystopian future trilogy, the premise is very different, and I’m not at all sure where the third book will go onto, so I’m starting that with anticipation!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

The Boleyn Inheritance – by Philippa Gregory

13 05 2025

Continuing my read through the Tudor and Plantagenet series of Philippa Gregory books, this year’s read covers wives 4 and 5 of Henry VIII. It’s told by three narrators:

  • Anne of Cleves (wife #4, chosen by Henry as his next wife from a drawing, but then he doesn’t like her when she arrives)
  • Katherine Howard (wife #5, bratty, spoilt, stupid, fifteen year old girl – but Henry, while old enough to nearly be her grandfather, is besotted)
  • Jane Boleyn (sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn, and lady-in-waiting to most of Henry’s wives over the years, also related in some way to Katherine Howard)

I really liked Anne, I felt sorry for her, she was just in an awful situation. Katherine, as you may have gathered from my description above, was just irritating. Jane, comes across as likeable, but is so tied up in the Boleyn/Howard world. And yes, of course, loads of people are related to each other.

That’s one thing this book really lacked, that others of hers have had, and that’s a family tree, to help understand how various families are related, and within the families too, I kept wanting to flick back to check things, but there was nowhere to flick back to. The end of the book says there’s one on the website, but it doesn’t seem to be there anymore sadly, plus what good is telling me at the end?!

By this stage Henry is around 50 years old and has a permanent infection in his leg leaving him in constant pain, but he is accruing more and more power to do whatever he wants, however he wants, to change laws at whim, etc. One thing that struck me was how Trumpian some of Henry’s rants sounded, for example: “No-one could beat me, Ever. Not one knight. I was the greatest jouster in England, perhaps in the world. I was unbeatable and I could ride all day and dance all night, and be up the next day at dawn to go hunting. […] There was none like me! I was the greatest knight since those of the round table! I was a legend.” Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t, but you could hear Trump saying it couldn’t you? That said, Katherine makes similarly arrogant comments about her looks throughout, and constantly lists how many dresses and jewels she has – maybe they weren’t that dissimilar in some ways.

While reading this, I heard that Philippa Gregory is publishing another book called the Boleyn Traitor, which I understand will be fully about Jane, but be set before this one, so I might have to jump backwards a step next year!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

The Wake-Up Call – by Beth O’Leary

11 04 2025

My annual Beth O’Leary read, this time it’s based around two staff members at a hotel who get on so badly that they intentionally never put them on the same shift. You already know what’s going to happen, classic enemies to lovers.

I enjoyed the non-romantic parts of the storyline, the hotel in trouble, trying to find owners of 5 rings in lost property, coping when friends move away, but the romance side of it felt quite drawn out, even though I read the book in 4 days! It got steamier than I remember some of her other books getting too, but managed to avoid anything too graphic. I think my issue comes down to the fact that there was just a bit too much yearning…. that said, I still gave it 4 stars on goodreads, because I liked the rest of it!

I feel like I’m coming off quite negative, but the side characters were a lot of fun, and I grew to like the main characters as the book went on, other than when they were fawning over each other (they alternate narrating each chapter between them).

It’s an incredibly easy read, as evidenced by my reading speed, and if you liked her other stuff, you’d like this too.

A couple of funny lines to finish:
“I’ve always been partial to an exclamation mark, Full stops just seem so… grown-up. When I stop wanting pick-and-mix for dinner, that’s when I’ll start using full stops. That’s real adulthood.”
“When I first moved to the New Forest, I was astonished to find myself caught in a traffic jam caused by a gaggle of unfazed ponies, but I’m used to them now. They roam wild around here – it’s no stranger than seeing a pigeon.”


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

Sunrise on the Reaping – by Suzanne Collins

27 03 2025

As a devoted fan of the Hunger Games, I grabbed this as soon as I had a chance, and devoured it in a week! (I know some people read multiple books in a week, but for me this is pretty much the fastest I go).

This prequel tells us the story of Haymitch, who was one of the mentors from the original trilogy. The book is set 24 years earlier, at the 50th Hunger Games, and twice as many children as normal are sent into the arena to mark the occasion – from District 12, one of the boys is 16 year old Haymitch.

I did wonder how much tension the book would have when we know from the original books that Haymitch a) survives, and b) wins, but there is so much going on, and it becomes about so much more than that, that there’s plenty to keep you engaged and guessing.

It’s so weird after you’ve been introduced to a character, to picture them a different age, when their personality was really quite different. But what it’s really doing is giving so much depth and background to the guy we later meet in his 40s. I want to go back to the first books now and reread them with this context!

If you liked the other books, this is definitely worth a read!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Books I've Read

« Previous Entries