My Bookish Life

  One of my most anticipated releases this year! (But then all of Jodie's books are.) Sadly it took me quite some time due to continuing hospital visits and sickness to finish this so big shout out to the team of Valentine PR for their patience.  "Mate, don't ever do that to me again. I swear to fucking God, I'll kill you myself. You won't need vodka."  Now let's look into the synopsis before we dive into my own spoiler-free review. The Manor—the heartbeat of hedonism and pleasure, the place where Jesse Ward lost himself for years in women and alcohol, escaping his past—was his life. His everything. Until the day Ava O’Shea walked through the doors and Jesse discovered something else to live for. Her. Their love affair was passionate, intense, and all-consuming. She became his heaven. His escape. And eventually, his downfall. When Ava walked away from him, he was destroyed, even more broken than before. But she’s come back, and Jesse vows never to lose her...

The Enigma. Another book by Jodie Ellen Malpas that absolutely made me fell in love with the main characters, the story and the music in it and book two in the Unlawful Men Serie s. Never fight the bond. Here's the official synopsis: A fatal blend of revenge and desire. After leaving her fiancé at the altar and quitting her job as a Miami cop, Beau Hayley stumbles through life, feeling only resentment. Injustice. Loss. Her mom’s death was called an accident. She’s not convinced. Grieving, she becomes numb to everything except the constant, biting pain of heartbreak and hate. She can see no light. Until she meets James Kelly, a man who seems as damaged as she is, inside and out. And yet despite his twisted, cold façade, he stimulates feelings. Pleasure. He is a respite from her own flaws. A complete mystery. And impossible to resist. James Kelly has only one objective. Find the men who murdered his family and kill them all very slowly. But the web of crime and deceit leads h...

Once more this book is one I purchased ages ago in Summer, I think, and I didn't come around to read it because I got distracted by some many other beautiful and amazing books. I got physiotherapy regularly again and somehow picked this one up since I didn't want to continue ' Song of Achilles' because of the pain it inflicts right now. I started it and with going back to work after my holiday and being quite busy, I barely read it at first. But 'A Touch of Darkness' gripped me right from the first page! Then two days ago, I read until 2am and finished half the book in one sitting. I could barely put it down and go to sleep because it was so amazing, gripping and touching. Last night I finished all of it and it left me emotional, raw, in love and crying.  Here's the official synopsis to book one in a series I yet have to devour: Persephone is the Goddess of Spring by title only. The truth is, since she was a little girl, flowers have shriveled ...

I brought this book after I watched a video by Laura Thalassa who promoted it on her Instagram. I was immediately intrigued by the plot and had to get it. Then a few weeks ago, I did. I had started Song of Achilles and Empire of the Vampire by that time so I wanted to keep it for some other time but then - when I went to physiotherapy - I simply grabbed it, because it was so small and perfect for my purse. I started it while waiting for my appointment and fell in love immediately.  Well, you have magic, and I have my own superpower. It’s called anxiety. And here's the synopsis:  I never thought I'd be singing happy birthday to myself in a dungeon. And yet when a sinfully sexy demon crashes happy hour, that's exactly what happens. He’s known as the Lord of Chaos, he’s mistaken me for my succubus doppelgänger.  Happy birthday to me.  When he tastes my blood, he finally understands I’m mortal. And I realize we have something in common: we both crave revenge. So we...

Two days ago I finished this marvelous book.  Two days ago I finished Fable by Adrienne Young. “My father had always told me that seabirds were the souls of lost traders. To turn them away or not give them a place to land or nest was bad luck.” I brought this ages ago because I heard so many good things about it. Well I read something else entirely and was just sick of this and grabbed something different. My choice was Fable . And it manged to pull me out of my reading slump I was stuck in for weeks now. “Nothing was what it seemed. Every truth was twisted. Every lie carefully constructed.” The story starts at Jeval - an island with smugglers and thieves - and 17 year old Fable who stranded there four years ago. Stranded there after her father - famous trader - Saint, left here there because "she wasn't made for this life". The life at sea. But Fable does everything  to survive and go back to her father to prove him wrong. To claim a spot at his side.  She trades wit...

  First of all I'd like to thank Annabe Fielding herself, for contacting me on my booktwt and asking me to read her new book. Thank you so much, it made me incredibly happy to get my first ARC!  And it was a brilliant read!  CAREFUL! If you want  to receive no spoilers for this story, skip to the next quote and read from there!  "Still waters are deep."    The book is set in Edwardian England and starts with a young girl - Agnes Ashford - who's working for Lord and Lady Bryant as archivist. The story is mostly set in Hartfell Hall in Leicestershire and in London. The books beginn with her wandering through the deep tunnels under the castle and looking through old documents and letters to archive them chronologically. We see her uncover the mystery of the death of the second youngest child Gregory. With this she comes closer to Lady Helen Bryant. But things all change for the whole family when Lord Bryant is poisoned.  Agnes soon rises to a secreta...

I brought The Poppy War  by R.F. Kuang last year in autumn. I saw it on Instagram and did some research on it and thought "this sounds interesting, let's order it". Only to read it over the last three weeks and to finish it on Monday. I've one word for it: brilliant! “If there is a divine creator, some ultimate moral authority, then why do bad things happen to good people? And why would this deity create people at all, since people are such imperfect beings?”  The story starts with a young girl, Rin, who's living in the south of Nikan with abusive foster parents. She's a war orphan and supposed to marry an opium dealer. She's out of the way with this and the Fangs - her foster parents, who are also dealers - will have full control over their opium business in their village with this arranged marriage. But Rin has own plans. She manages to convince the Fangs to try taking part in the Keju to study at one of the Academies in the country to get away. Her goal...

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? I started this book on a late evening during work after I finished another one. I haven't read anything from Matt Haig before but heard so many good things about this one and the synopsis sounded really interesting. So I started it, not knowing what I would get and immediately was hooked... It starts with Nora, a young woman who works in a music store where she teaches the piano. The day starts with her, sitting in the school library as a young girl, playing chess with the librarian, Mrs Elm. They talk about glaciers and what she wants to become, when she gets some terrible news. Then we're at the present. A day like everyone else it seems. But it's the day Nora deci...

  “The stars incline us, they do not bind us.” I finished this book about an hour ago and I'm once more ruined. My feelings are ruined by a book. Probably my fav so far this year.  Definitely 5/5 stars!  But let me tell you how it came to this...  I brought this book last November for myself as a birthday present (yes I do that). It sat in my shelve for ages, never coming around to read it, although I just heard good things and the cover is just stunning, it sat there and waited. Waited for the moment I'd pick it up. The moment was this Tuesday, shortly before my parents arrived for lunch. I didn't really get around to read it that day, only the prologue and it intrigued me. Since I had a massive headache on Wednesday, I didn't even picked it up for two days an the madness started on Friday when I finally picked it up again. And I couldn't put it down! It took me a few chapters to get into Chloe Gong's writing style but I absolutely loved it! She's really go...

Welcome to my first official BookTwitter Blog post! Well or more Book Tag post.  I had no idea that Book Tag's are a thing but here we are. Thanks for the tag to Haadiya for the tag on Twitter. Pls go and follow her here and check out her brilliant blog here . Thank you also to Moi at Bookish Blunders for starting this tag and making the wonderful artwork to it :)   Here are the rules :  - Post the rules in your post.  - Answer all the questions and if you’ve never heard any of the songs, listen to them before you answer the questions.  - Link the creator and the person who nominated you (see above). - Nominate 8 people. Only 8. (Why? There’s no Symphony no. 9, so)  - Use the featured image I’ve posted on this tag. (artwork by Moi from Bookish Blunders) Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata: A book you read that had an unexpected plot twist near the end This is a hard question... I guess it'll be a German book here called Gut gegen Nordwind  by Daniel Gla...

Why not think that sometimes—just sometimes—you can overcome evil with silence? And let people hear their hatefulness in their own ears, without distraction. Maybe goodness is enough to expose evil for what it really is, sometimes. Today I want to talk about a book, that made me fall deeply in love with reading again. A book I read in a day. A book that's full of love, thoughts about life and one of the most wonderful love stories I have ever read. Today I'm talking about "Gabriel's Inferno" by Sylvain Reynard. I first read it in March 2020. I found it due to Twitter. A trailer on the movie was released by a wonderful site called Passionflix. I was immediately hooked and went to check out the book. I found it, ordered book 1 & 4 and started as soon as it arrived. Damn, what a good read! I had some time off on my second job by that time so I had the whole weekend to read. Managed in a day though.  I’m going to be thrown out of Paradise tomorrow, Beatrice. Our ...