Christian Reader - Book lists, discussion, writing

Somehow I managed a book every second day for the first three weeks of the month, and then all of ONE book since then! So I'm only just on track to make my goal, and really need to step it up! But I've found a new TV-series to obsess about, so watching that and knitting is more fun :-P Audiobooks are still awesome though.

I've been very fortunate with my books so far though! So am very happy with that.
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Book of the Month: The Queen's Gambit - although The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes a close second, and will probably be reread more often.

The last books of 2022. I'll do a stats/wrap-up post one of these days, but a total of 132 books and 30,895 pages isn't too shabby :-D

Class: Welcome to the Little School by the Sea - Jane Beaton, 3/5, 336 pages
This was sold to me as "Malory Towers, but for grown-ups", and while I can definitely see the similarities, unfortunately, it just didn't have the same charm, so I haven't quite decided if I want to continue on with the series or not.

I think my main problem was that though the book introduced several different points of view along the way, at the end of the day it was one of the teachers who came across as the main character - and apparently teaching at a boarding school isn't as much fun to read about, as actually attending one? That's my theory anyway. Especially since Maggie seriously let down some of her students, which got frustrating to read about.

At the end of the day, I think Fliss was my favourite. She started out as a brat, but was certainly the one who improved the most along the course of the book.


Whisked Away at Christmas - Mahi Cheshire, 3.5/5, Audiobook ~7hrs
This book came free with my Audible subscription, so I figured, why not. And why not indeed :) It was exactly as twee and predictable as I had expected, but with a setting of a cooking competition in Vienna I greatly enjoyed it all the same. I loved reading about the different heats and how they turned out (even if most of it was given ahead of time).

The "3rd act breakup" still annoyed me, as it could so easily have been avoided with better communication, but fortunately it was fixed a lot quicker than I had feared.


The Holiday Swap - Maggie Knox, 3.5/5, 351 pages
Slightly too twee for me in places, but as a whole, I really enjoyed it. I'm not generally a fan of plots involving mistaken identities, but since Cass and Charlie totally did it on purpose here, it bothered me less than it would usually.

I kept changing my mind on which story line I liked best, but think I would have to choose Charlie's - simply because Austin was too annoying for words, and karma was waaaaay too slow in coming his way.

Mostly I loved reading about all the baking that went on. I'm not a huge fan of baking myself, but apparently I love reading about it in my books... at least the Christmas ones.

I'd seen the ending coming from a mile away, and did occasionally roll my eyes at some of it, but all in all it was a cute story. Not quite as Christmassy as I had hoped -- but pretty close.


The Christmas Bookshop - Jenny Colgan, 4.5/5, 328 pages
A lovely Christmas story that hits all the right notes for me.
- Detailing Christmas preparations? Check.
- Cute nieblings? Check.
- Spending time with (found) family? Check.
- Christmas in a (book)shop? Check.
- Grumpy person being convinced to come out of their shell? Check.
And added to that is the gorgeous setting of Edinburgh - a place that I've recently visited myself and absolutely adore.

All in all, a totally charming book that I think will be a regular reread.


Something Wilder - Christina Lauren, 4/5, Audiobook ~9hrs
A fun read, even though it turned out to have much more of a western feel to it than I had expected. I enjoyed all the puzzles though, and was very gratified that I twice figured out the code that was being used before the characters did :-D

I did find it a lot less realistic than many of their other books, but still enjoyed it greatly. I'd originally feared it would be a bit like "The Roadtrip" in style, but fortunately that turned out not to be the case, with their past being quickly and easily talked about and explained. So kudos for that!

Total
Books Read: 132
Pages Read: 30,895

( Should reach 100 books in October :-D )
Book of the Month: Undervejs
Biggest disappointment: A Little Life

Yet another very slow reading month. However, I'm slightly excused as one of the things I did read was a 1200+ page fanfic! So page-wise, I'm doing fine :-D

Gummi-Tarzan / Orla Frøsnapper - Ole Lund Kirkegaard*, 3/5, 246 pages total
Reading Albert last month made me realize that I wanted to reacquaint myself with more of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books. I remembered these two as being his best, and they were quick reads, so it was a fun revisit.


No Roses in June - Essie Summers, 4/5, 300 pages
A bit too 'twee' for me to give it the final star, but all in all I loved it :-D "The Sound of Music" (the first half, anyway) set in New Zealand with shades of "Pride and Prejudice" thrown in? What's not to like??

Well, perhaps some of the prideful part - a lot of the issues could have been sorted earlier if Fiona and Edward had just TALKED earlier, but it worked out, and apart from a minor eye-roll whenever it came out, it wasn't a big deal in the greater scope of things. I loved reading about how Fiona interacted with the kids, and how she slowly got used to life in the middle of nowhere, New Zealand.

I think it was originally published as a Harlequin romance? But definitely find the quality is better than many of those. Will definitely be checking out more novels by this author.


The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel*, 4.5/5, 546 pages
No longer my favourite in the series - I actually liked the first one a tad more. I found that I didn't care all that much about the chapters focusing on Jondalar and his brother, and kept looking forward to the ones that focused on Ayla instead.

I still really enjoyed it though, and finished it in just a few days.


Manacled - senlinyu, 4/5, 1235 pages
The aforementioned fanfic. It's not every week I finish a 1000+ page chunkster in just one week, but this one captivated my attention completely and didn't let it go again. It's dark AU HP fanfic, and one of the best HP fanfics I've read in a long time. Incredibly well written and well edited.

I didn't find it quite as emotionally devastating as most other readers seem to, but my guess is that this is precisely because it was AU. I kept thinking, "Well, that's not the way it actually happened, so XYZ didn't really die."... which of course makes no sense whatsoever when we're talking about fictional characters anyway X-D

I couldn't put it down, and read it at any chance I got. The flashback chapters bothered me a bit at first (I wanted to get back to the 'main' plot), until I realized what the author was actually doing - after which I enjoyed them just as much as the original story line.

This fanfic is definitely going to be added to my list of regular rereads... although perhaps not too regular, considering its length ;-P


Where There's a Will - Beth Corby, 4/5, 336 pages
A light and funny read. Not very realistic, but charming enough that I found myself not really minding, as it stayed true to its own universe. It's nothing special, but exactly what I needed, and I finished it in two days.

I wish Hannah and Alex could have communicated better, but they managed after awhile, and I loved Jane, Donald and Mrs. C.!

Lighthearted escapism that kept me nicely distracted :-)


Books Read: 76

Legacy - Nora Roberts, 4/5, ~15hrs
Nora Roberts writes ridiculously readable books. They're very formulaic, but I know that going into them, so it doesn't really bother me, and they pretty much always turn out to be proper page turners (or whatever the audible equivalent would be).

This was no exception and I breezed through it, enjoying every minute. It's not her best work, but definitely not her worst either, and I liked all the characters. I loved reading about Adrian's life in Traveler's Creek and that Nora Roberts subscribes to the theory that generally speaking - people are nice! (with a few blatant exceptions, obviously). It makes for a very comfortable read.


The Ex-Husband - Karen Hamilton, 3/5, 352 pages
Basically I'll read anything that takes place on a cruise ship ;-) Fortunately, that wasn't all it had going for it, and I did end up really enjoying it, and read the second half in just one day! The beginning is told in two timelines (past and present) which seldom works for me, as I by far preferred the "present" to the "past", so I was glad when the "past" caught up with the beginning of the book, and the rest could just be told in real-time.

It's definitely NOT realistic, but I knew that going into the story, so didn't have any problems suspending my disbelief for it, and I did love reading about life onboard the yacht. The ending came a bit too easy for me, but worked with the characters, so it didn't bother me too much.

All in all I understand the fairly average rating - it's a fairly average book. An enjoyable read, but nothing out of the ordinary.


The Damning Stone - T.J. Klune, 4/5, ~17hrs
Okay, I'll state my bias right away - I'm simply just more fond of Sam that I am of Justin, and that alone made me adore this slightly less than the other books in the series.

But that said, it was still really, really good! I loved having all the characters back, I loved Dylan and can't wait to meet Digger (because the end definitely paved the way for another book - which I'm all for!). The humour was the same as always, the friendships were as awesome as always (I loved the kids!!! So sweet :-D ), and it had some interesting twists along the way that I hadn't seen coming.

I read this as an audiobook, and as always Michael Lesley did an amazing job :-D


Amorangi and Millie's Trip Through Time - Lauren Keenan, 3.5/5, 260 pages
A fun children's book involving time travel and just a tad of a history lesson - but so subtly delivered that the kids will never realize it ;-) I really enjoyed reading about how Taranaki changed throughout the years, and was once again saddened to be reminded just how badly colonizers tend to treat the original people :-( This one was extra poignant as I have been to Parihaka Marae, and it therefore seemed less abstract than such reminders often do (which is bad enough in and of itself...)

But I digress. Please don't get me wrong - the book is not depressing at all! This is the take-away my adult self took from it. Kids will focus more on the time travelling aspect and the siblings' adventure through time.


Midlife Magic - Victoria Danann, 4.5/5, 500 pages
This has got to be the shortest 500 page book I've ever read.

it didn't take me long to fall in love with Rita and the inhabitants of Hallow Hill. Sure, Rita is a huge Mary Sue, but that seldom bothers me much, and it certainly didn't in this case. I loved reading about her introduction to her job and to the other villagers, and how she found her footing in the community.

There's hardly any plot in the book, but the characters are so engaging and enjoyable to read about that I didn't mind at all. I felt like part of the village - getting to know them at the same speed as Rita did. That said, I was VERY keen to read about the first trials by the time I got to the end, and immediately went to amazon to purchase the next book in the series.


Midlife Blues - Victoria Danann, 4/5, 260 pages
A lot shorter than the first book in the series (about half the length in fact) which was quite the surprise, but still very enjoyable. This book covers the first trials Rita presides over - some in a LOT of detail, others less so. Again the Mary Sue aspect is strong in this one, but the outcomes of the trials are so very satisfying that I don't even care :-P

I don't quite buy the relationship between Rita and Keir - the friendship is obvious, the romance seems to be more tell than show. I love seeing John David coming a bit further out of his shell though!

Quick read that was easily devoured in a day.


Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey*, 5/5, 240 pages
One of my all-time favourite books. I've read this more times than I can count.


Heartstopper Vol 1-4, 4/5, 1366 pages
I wanted to read these before I watched the Netflix series. I liked the books, I LOVED the series! One of the few times the adaption is better than the source material, but it isn't really a fair comparison, as the plot is basically a 1:1 transformation from the book (layout, lines and everything), and the actors are just PERFECT as the characters. You would not believe the number of times I swooned while watching it. ♥

A bit late this time around, but I finally got around to finishing it :-D

Across the Green Grass Fields - Seanan McGuire, 4/5, 174 pages
While I've (so far) enjoyed all the books in this series, this is definitely one of my favourites. It is very much a companion novel, as we don't get to meet the other Wayward Children at all, but I'm certain that we'll hear more about Regan in future books. She's adorable, and I loved her way of showing trust to and making friends of pretty much everybody she met.

As always, it ended very abruptly, but that seems to be par for the course in this series.


On the Island - Tracey Garvis Graves, 4.5/5, 328 pages
It's been a long time since I dove into a book and got so thoroughly hooked that I finished it in a day! But though I can see its flaws, this book just worked for me, and I couldn't put it down.

The writing style took a bit of getting used to. It seemed almost diary-like in style, and occasionally glossed over things, without going into depth with them. But to be fair, that was necessary for this kind of book! The plot took place over the course of 4-5 YEARS, and it would have been way, way too long (not to mention tedious) to be detailed about everything. Some parts were somewhat unbelievable, but they worked within the scope of the book, so I'll allow it ;)

The relationship really worked for me. I know some people will have reservations about the age difference going into the book, but trust me - it works. It's tastefully done, and faced head on.

I tend to love Robinson Crusoe-type stories, and this was no exception. That it also had shades of two of my other favourite books (a Danish one, and one that is still unpublished) only improved my reading experience.

This might just have to go on my wish list for books to add to my physical library.


Still Life - Louise Penny, 3/5, Audiobook ~11hrs
Not my usual fare (I tend to stay away from detective novels), but it came highly recommended and I liked it. It was such a relief to read a crime novel where the emphasis was on solving the case, and not on how much blood and gore was encountered along the way.

I liked inspector Gamache and the citizens of Three Pines. There was a thread or two left hanging, but they might be picked up in a later book.


Stay Close - Harlan Coben, 2.5/5, 399 pages
The third book I've read by Harlan Coben and unfortunately the weakest. Can't put my finger on why exactly, but part of it is definitely that it came across as a lot less realistic than the others... especially when it came to 'Ken' and 'Barbie'.

I'm glad this isn't the first book I've read by him, or I probably wouldn't have continued with any of the others. Now I'm more inclined to give him another chance.


Lock Every Door - Riley Sager, 2.5/5, 381 pages
Very readable, but I ended up being less than impressed with the plot. It was just.... WAY too far-fetched. I walked away from the grand reveal thinking, "What? Really?"


Tell Me It's Real - T.J. Klune*, 4/5, 350 pages
The Queen & the Homo Jock King - T.J. Klune*, 4/5, 350 pages
Seeing "Kinky Boots" on stage made me want to reread this series. I could definitely see Sandy/Helena Handbasket as Simon/Lola :-D


Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor*, 4/5, Audiobook ~11hrs
Just as good as the first time around - and the foreshadowing is just as annoying as the first time around :-P I really loved it otherwise though. The book had great characters, twists and turns galore, lots of lovely snark and a visit to the Cretaceous Period to boot - what's not to like?



Books Read Total: 36