Monday 30 November 2015

November Wrap Up





After what felt like a very long month of October, November has whizzed by! I've been in my new job now for 2 months and couldn't be happier there. I definitely made the right decision in leaving my  job in London and getting a local one and in publishing! I've also started doing more exercise as before I was doing none and I was sure that wasn't good for my health. I've not gone mad, just 2-3 classes a week. At the beginning of the month I went to Transworlds 2016 Fiction Showcase thanks to Zarina from PagetoStageReviews, she has recently had a gorgeous blog make over so do go and have a look. I went to a brilliant blogger event in the middle of the month thanks to the lovely Sarah at TheProseccoDairies for organising where I got to meet Stephanie from Penguin. She told us more about the publishing industry and how they work with bloggers. It really was a brilliant day. I also went up to the lovely Hachette offices at the end of this month to be filmed as part of a marketing campaign to go with The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans which is out in February. I had such a brilliant day and was lovely to see Harriet again.

So another busy month where I only managed to read 7 books, but that's still better than none. Next month is going be 24 days of giveaways so make sure you look out for those. Now onto the books I read this month.







1. A Snow Garden by Rachel Joyce 

I was part of the blog tour for this one earlier in the month and it was such a wonderful book. It is a collection of stories leading up to Christmas and New Year. Although they are separate stories, they are linked by one element, which I thought made the stories feel even more special. I will never tire of Rachel's stories and if you are looking for a read this Christmas, then add this one to your to-be-read pile.


2. The Mince Pie Mix-Up by Jennifer Joyce.

This one is definitely up there with my favourite Christmas reads this year. If you like stories like Freaky Friday and Boy Meets Girl then you will definitely love this one. This time it is a husband a wife switch up at Christmas time. This was funny, heartwarming and very very festive. Enjoyed every second of this.


3. Forget Me Not by Luana Lewis

I am really enjoying thrillers at the moment as despite it becoming easier and easier to guess the ending, a lot of thrillers now have unreliable narrators so it is a lot harder to figure out the plot. Forget Me Not had exactly this and it was a super quick read, I actually read this in one evening. It opens with a gripping plot where a woman is dead but we are unsure of who her killer is or if she was even killed. I definitely recommend this one if you are looking for a super quick, gripping read.


4. Blood Axe by Leigh Russell

I don't usually read Detective crime novels, but I was invited to have afternoon tea for the book launch with this and it actually sounded quite good, so decided to read it. Blood Axe is such a convincing crime novel. Leigh writes with fantastic attention to detail that you can easily imagine it happening on a real crime investigation. I think this is what made the story so compelling as it felt realistic, it was also clear and understandable for those of us not privy to the inner workings of these investigations. It had a very unexpected ending as well! I would be very surprised if you figure out who the murder was before the end.


5. A Merry Mistletoe Wedding by Judy Astley

This was a follow up book to It Must Have been the Mistletoe, although can be read as a stand alone. In my original review I got my book names mixed up and was called out on it on my blog and on amazon which was very embarrassing, as it was not done deliberately and I genuinely loved the first book. I wish the author had private messaged me about it. Also in my review I said that readers should grab the first book as well meaning that it would be a great read as well, but again was called out on the fact that I hadn't said this was a stand alone novel. It was just my opinion that reading the first book would be great as well. I have since taken my review down from amazon, which is a shame as yes I got the name of the book wrong, but that could have been easily changed and I am entitled to my opinion of a book- it wasn't like I had given it two stars or something. Anyway despite all that, I did still enjoy this book, but will be wary of reading anything in future which is a shame.


6. The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans

This book isn't out until February, but I was so excited to be asked to read it to be part of a filming talking about how much we liked the book and also our reactions to the final chapter. I really enjoyed reading this. It was unlike anything I had read before and really felt like a story to really suck you in and lose yourself to the mysterious and sinister world of Keepsake and Nina's true birthright. Another unexpected ending that I personally didn't see coming. This is on my anticipated reads list for 2016.


7. A Winterfold Christmas by Harriet Evans

Harriet so very kindly sent me this book and she had signed it on the back! If you remember A Place for Us that came out at the beginning of the year, this is a short Christmas story that takes us back to Winterfold. It was a joy to get back to all the characters again and made for a great, short Christmas read.



There's my wrap up for this month. Don't forget to come back next month (tomorrow) for 24 days worth of giveaways.


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