⭐️⭐️ Plaid and Plagiarism and I started well. Discovering the characters, they were starting new lives and opening a book shop and cafe. Then they found themselves in a crime scene. What’s not to like? Unfortunately, the chemistry was all wrong. There was so much detail and it was bogged down with information on how the bookshop was run that I started to feel quite stressed by it all. The crime seemed to be in the background, and I really felt like the characters should let the police do their job as they were often meddling.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Paris Apartment gripped my attention from start to finish. Full of mystery, the story unfolds and kept me guessing until the very end. I listened to the audiobook every night and had to pause frequently to allow myself time to process the sudden changes and twists. I really wish I could read this again for the first time!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Call of the Penguins is the second book in the series but the writer makes sure that you know the important parts from the first book. Veronica McCreedy LOVES penguins. Being in her 80s does not stop her travelling the world to be with her feathered friends. I admire her determination to achieve what she sets out to however I did feel that she interferes with others way more than she should. Still, it is a charming tale that will make you chuckle!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Bone Collector is the first in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffrey Deaver. I should warn you, it can be grim and detailed in parts as the character specialises in forensics. The character is paralysed and details of how this happened and his round the clock care are dropped into the story at different points. I am still impressed with how this was handled. The story is fast paced, intelligent with plenty edge of your seat moments! I would recommend speed reading if you are able.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 11:22:63 by Stephen King will haunt me for some time. The plot and the intertwining character stories will stay with me as I come to terms with the fact that the book is over! This is the story of a man that has found a way to travel back in time and he is using this time to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, believing that the future will be brighter if this does not happen. Once he has travelled back to the late 1950’s you learn of the differences and charm that this era has to offer compared to when he is from. He is battling with living a life in another time and getting the job done, time will not make it easy to change it. This is a huge book but worth every page!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a favourite Christmas story of mine. I fell in love with the story at a young age thanks to The Muppets but I have read the book a few times as an adult. The story follows a grumpy, selfish Ebeneezer Scrooge being visited by a deceased colleague who warns him that the after life will be cruel to him if he carries on behaving appallingly. He is then visited by three ghosts and we watch as Scrooge learns to be better and love. The book is a little darker than The Muppets version but this adds to Scrooge’s redemption. What is your favourite Christmas story?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sebastian Faulk’s book Engleby left me in two minds. The book is mostly a single narrative. It took me until I was about 40% through to decide to finish the book. The last 40% I whizzed through! If you persevere, you are rewarded. My overall thoughts are that I made it to the end and have benefited from knowing what happens, but I am unsure that that is enough.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Matt Haig has paved the way in fiction and non-fiction. He honestly shares his experiences with mental health in Reasons to Stay Alive and his fiction can overlap with this theme. The Midnight Library is one such book. I don’t want to spoil too much but I will tell you that the book has little library mementos throughout and a seemingly wise librarian but it is entirely up to the character what path to follow. She is unhappy with life and has the opportunity to choose one from possibilities created from decisions made. I believe that the book deserves five stars as I was torn between desperately wanting to know the ending, but not wanting the book to end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️The first review has to be for Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. This book accompanied me through an incredibly tough year. I had just been diagnosed with depression and I struggled to read, my favourite thing. With 720 pages, this story follows 4 young men on their journey through life. It is dark, uplifting, heartbreaking and everything I needed at the time. You intimately know each character and everything success leaves you with a feeling of pride and every hurt feels like an attack. That’s an impressive emotional response to create in a reader. The book catches my eye in bookstores and I still feel a pang of loss that started when I turned the final page.