Happy May!

‘May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.’ ~ Fennel Hudson

‘You are as welcome as the flowers in May.’ ~ Charles Macklin

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

Last day of the month! I feel like I blinked and missed most of April!!!

It’s been a busy week with working, a teachers strike, still running round after my parents because of the old ‘vid and I also had my booster yesterday (and feel like death today!!!)

I’m still gearing up for the coronation and the menu is set (after a family vote!) Chicken skewers (chilli, cajun and normal) with waffle fries followed by cheesecake (homemade). We are also making scones to eat at lunch!!!!

---

What I’ve Read

Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Torzs
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy Place by Emily Henry
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

---

New arrivals

Swordcatcher by Cassandra Clare
(I actually screamed!)

---

You might have missed…..

Review – In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
Review – Reputation by Lex Croucher
Review – Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton

---

What have you read lately?

Title: Beyond the Wand

Author: Tom Felton

From Borrower to wizard, Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame saw him catapulted into the limelight aged just twelve when he landed the iconic role of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

Speaking with candour and his own trademark humour, Tom shares his experience of growing up on screen and as part of the wizarding world for the very first time. He tells all about his big break, what filming was really like and the lasting friendships he made during ten years as part of the franchise, as well as the highs and lows of fame and the reality of navigating adult life after filming finished.

Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.

What an incredibly nice, down to earth guy Tom Felton is! I feel like I could meet him and have a decent, humorous conversation with him!

I loved listening to this, the honesty, his time before and during Harry Potter, the actors, his home life and the friends he made.

It was completely honest, unbiased and a delight to listen to.

Title: Reputation

Author: Lex Croucher

Abandoned by her parents, middle-class Georgiana Ellers has moved to a new town to live with her dreary aunt and uncle. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who lives a life Georgiana couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams.

Lonely and vulnerable, Georgiana falls in with Frances and her unfathomably rich, deeply improper friends. Georgiana is introduced to a new world: drunken debauchery, mysterious young men with strangely arresting hands, and the upper echelons of Regency society.

But the price of entry to high society might just be higher than Georgiana is willing to pay …

This had a total mean girls vibe and I was here for it!

Georgiana, left by her loveless parents with her Aunty, desperate for friends, falls in with a bad crowd, Frances, Jane, Christopher, Cecily (although she wasn’t too bad!)

However her eye is immediately captured by Thomas Hawksley…..and he has a story……

This was really quite a dark read for the time period it was meant to be in and was full of drunken parties and debauchery!

I listened to this in one day, really enjoyed it so will be getting the authors other books now!

Title: Happy Place

Author: Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?

Oh this was delish!

Wyn and Harriet go to their annual meet up/holiday with their friends……but no one knows they have broken up…..and it’s……awkward!

But what it also is, is glorious! I ate this book up in 1 sitting because I couldn’t put it down!

This book has it all, unbreakable friendships, happiness, angst, personal growth and, of course, a true love that’s a bit broken.

If you are a romance lover then this book is for you!

One thing about me is that I love a reread. I fell in love with this author and now Happy Place is my reread happy place!

Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic: Favourite Audiobook Narrators

I rarely know who is narrating an audiobook (yes, I’m rubbish!), so I am just saying my favourite audiobooks!

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim
Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Extraordinaires by TJ Klune
Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Who would you have picked?

Title: In the Lives of Puppets

Author: TJ Klune

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots–fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

‘What do you do if you’ve forgotten all you know?’

So here we have what this author writes superbly….our found family: Gio (Dad), Nurse Ratched (hilarious), Rambo (the vacuum!!) Victor – human and Hap – warrior!

They all live in a house in the woods built high in the trees. All is well until one day bad guys turn up and take Gio away and the rest of the gang go off in search to find him.

They journey through the forest, to a curiosity shop, to the City of Electric Dreams, to the Blue Fairy and to the Benevolent Tower and what they find (and find out) blows their minds!

‘Stick together
Run if we have to
No dallying.
No drilling.
And above all else, be brave.’

This was so sweet! It was heart-achingly beautiful! There were so many quotes I highlighted and I found myself so immersed I could’ve lent in and hugged Victor on many occasions!

Nurse Ratched was my utter favourite though. She is sassy, rude, inappropriate and totally hilarious!

‘Though you seem to be suffering from an intense anxiety disorder . But that is fine. We are all unique. Victor is asexual. Giovanni is old. And I have sociopathic tendencies that manifest themselves in dangerous situations.’

Another hit from this author and I’m finding myself humming ‘heaven, I’m in heaven’ all the time!

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

Happy St George’s day!!

This week has dragged by for me. It always happens the first week my son goes back to school. I think it’s all the rushing about!

My Mum also came down with covid and she’s been pretty poorly so I’ve been making sure my Dad (and my Mum) eat as he is useless in the kitchen and I mean can’t even work the microwave!

I’ve also started our menu for the King’s Coronation! For now, scones and cheesecake, both homemade!

---

What I’ve Read

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Wicked in Me by Suzanne Wright
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

---

New arrivals

None! Look how I’m growing 🤣

---

You might have missed…..

Review – The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Review – Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Review – Liars Crown by Abigail Owen
Review – Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

---

What have you read lately?

Title: Violet Made of Thorns

Series: Violet Made of Thorns #1

Author: Gina Chen

Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.

But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.

Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all.

All the stars!

I absolutely loved this, was totally hooked and gorged it in a day!

Violet is a Seer for the King and deals in half truths and lies. Her childhood friend turned nemesis, Prince Cyrus, sees through these lies and there is tension, a lot of tension!

So when cursed Cyrus announces his engagement to some random, it all goes off and the prophecy comes to pass…..and Violet has to work out what side she is on.

As I said above, this was such a great read! I was so taken with the story and characters that I couldn’t put it down!

One character really stood out for me and that was Cyrus’s twin, Camilla! She is everything!!!

I think this is a series so can’t wait to see what happens next!