Books of Amber

Top Ten Books I Was SO Excited To Get… But I Still Haven’t Read

17/05/2022 9 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I haven’t taken part in a while, but I felt I just HAD to talk about these books that have been sitting on my TBR shelf for ages because I haven’t gotten around to them. I have been so excited to read these in the past, but I’ve put them off for one reason or another. None of those reasons are good ones…

1. Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

I was BIG into the Throne of Glass fandom when the books were first coming out. I didn’t love Throne of Glass, but my close friend Judith was on the street team and she convinced me to continue on with the series. I really started to fall in love with it when I read Heir of Fire, and by the time I read Queen of Shadows I was obsessed. I preordered Empire of Storms as soon as I could, but then I just didn’t read it. I took a long break from Booktube and blogging just before its release and I got SUPER distracted by my new social life, so I never actually read the rest of the series.

I’m planning on marathoning the series sometime this year though when the feeling calls to me. I’m thinking in the next couple of months!

…

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Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes | Book Review

15/05/2022 Leave a Comment

Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes
Publication Date: 8th February 2022
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Source: Publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

What an EXCELLENT spooky read! I absolutely devoured Dead Silence, after putting it off for months because I was scared it was going to let me down. My experience showed I was being silly, though, because this book was incredible.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Literally, the ENTIRE time. As soon as I picked the book up and I read about the characters picking up on a ghost signal, then watching them as they came across an abandoned luxury liner, I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for them to step on board, but I was also dreading it because I knew it was going to go OH SO WRONG.

There is a dual timeline in this book where the main character has lost most of her memories past a certain point, and she has no idea how she got off the ship. I know dual timelines sometimes bother people, so I wanted to mention that the jump back and forth in Dead Silence is handled very subtly and is used as a tool to catch the reader up and bring them to the present when the two timelines are about to meet. I loved this aspect of the book and I thought it really added to the suspense, as we know that somehow Claire got off the ship, and we need to find out how.

Dead Silence was true sci-fi horror, and it made me crave more of both the genre and the author’s works. I can’t wait to see what S A Barnes comes out with in the future, as she has just given me a favourite book of the year!

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett | Book Review

10/05/2022 Leave a Comment

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Publication Date: 13th January 2022
Genre: Mystery
Source: Library
Goodreads
Rating: ★★★

It’s time to solve the murder of the century…

Steven Smith has just been released from prison, and he is finally free to investigate a mystery that has haunted him since childhood. Forty years ago, he found a copy of a famous children’s book, full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his remedial English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced that it was the key to solving a puzzle. That a message in secret code ran through all Edith Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared, and Steven’s memory won’t allow him to remember what happened. Did she sense her own imminent death? Was she right about the code? And is it still in use today? Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Isles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn’t the only one trying to solve it…

I feel very conflicted about The Twyford Code. On the one hand, I loved the format and the concept of this book. The story is told in transcripts of audio files from a guy called Steven Smith who is recording messages for his son as he tries to crack a code written by an author during WW2.

Having read The Appeal by this author before, I was KEEN for this one to say the least. I think the transcript format mostly worked well (although not as well as the emails and messages in The Appeal) and it was very ambitious. It was a very unique way of telling a story and I enjoyed reading along and trying to solve the mystery.

I did, unfortunately, start to get a little bored about halfway through the book. While I was hooked in the beginning, by the halfway point it was starting to drag and to feel a little bit silly. My interest picked up again towards the end when the reveals started coming through, but since I had lost interest towards already it all fell a little flat.

I think the reveals at the end were a mixture of clever and ridiculous – but that was the case for The Appeal as well, so I think that’s just the author’s style as she writes these mysteries.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what the author comes out with next. At least I know the format is going to be unique and entertaining!

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore | Book Review

04/05/2022 Leave a Comment

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
Publication Date: 22nd June 2021
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: Publisher, via NetGalley
Goodreads
Rating: ★★★

1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened – by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.

The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they’ve been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line – conveniently labeled “crazy” so their voices are ignored.

No one is willing to fight for their freedom and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose…

Book Review

The story of Elizabeth Packard is inspiring and frustrating, and, honestly, so was this book. I really admire the time that Kate Moore has put into researching Packard in order to fully tell her story. It is truly quite a feat. However, this book went on and on for absolutely ever, and I felt myself growing tired of it towards the end.

I think The Woman They Could Not Silence could – and should – have been condensed. At almost 600 pages, the book spends a lot of time going into detail of what happened to Elizabeth Packard when she was in the asylum, but not much time going into her background or the events after her release. Of course, the amount of time Packard spent in the asylum was significant, but I would have liked more focus on what came after if the book had to be this long.

I’m a little disappointed because I read The Radium Girls by this author a few years ago and adored it. I’ve been recommending it every time someone asks for a non-fiction rec. This one, however, while detailed and admirable, was far too long and dragged out for my liking.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley | Book Review

03/05/2022 3 Comments

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Release Date: 22nd February 2022
Genre: Thriller
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Goodreads
Rating: DNF

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

This review isn’t going to be the most in-depth, informative, or entertaining review I’ve ever posted, purely because I don’t have a lot to say about this The Paris Apartment.

The Paris Apartment was sooo boring, oh my god. I have loved previous books by Lucy Foley – The Hunting Party and The Guest List are excellent – but I was bored to tears by this one. I couldn’t tell you anything about any of the characters or the plot because by 50 pages in I had already stopped caring. I have no idea what the mystery was supposed to be, who I was supposed to be cheering for, and who I could have suspected.

I am SAD because I wanted to love this one (it was one of my most anticipated books of the year) but I feel so let down. Nothing about it was compelling. I’m hoping this was just a blip from the author because I want to read and love her future books. Her thriller settings are normally incredible, so I’m hoping this was just a one-off!

April 2022 Reading Wrap Up and May 2022 TBR

02/05/2022 3 Comments

Two wrap ups in a row? Am I ok?? I’m back to talk about the goings on in April (spoiler: there weren’t a lot of them) and to talk about the books I read. April was a pretty great month all round, and I’m excited to be able to share it with you!

Life in April

Like I said, there weren’t many goings on in April. Quill and I purposefully kept our time free because the first quarter of the year was busy and stressful. I went to dinner with a friend one evening, which was lovely, and I saw some family for Easter, but otherwise it was all very chill.

We did book our tickets to Iceland, though! All being well, we’ll be going on an eleven day trip in November for our 30’s, and also for our anniversary. We still need to book the car and some of the hotel rooms, but it’s so exciting to finally be able to plan a trip and travel again.

Work-wise… I don’t want to talk about it. It’s honestly horrible right now and I feel a bit lost about everything.

Books I Read in April

April was such a good reading month! I got back into the reading groove after the slump in March, and Dewey’s Readathon topped things off at the end of the month. I love Dewey’s, and having that to look forward to at the end of the month really spurred me on.

~highlights~

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
★★★★

I picked up The Love Hypothesis because it was on sale for £2 and I had been seeing it around everywhere, so I thought why not? It ended up being a really fun romance book that I flew through. It was a nice surprise, and an entertaining break in between some non fiction and fantasy!

I found The Castaways at the library and picked it up because I’m really into island settings at the moment. Probably because I haven’t been able to go abroad in a while. I really enjoyed this thriller book about a plane crash and an isolated island setting. It was a lot of fun!

I have had this one on my wishlist since the whole controversy happened before its release and oh my god?! I really enjoyed it! It’s a fast paced YA fantasy, based around the myth and rumours surrounding Anastasia. I’m excited to read the sequels soon, as I think I’m going to fly through those too!

I had to give a shoutout to this non fiction book! I learnt a lot about rental properties and landlords and poverty in the USA. It made me very angry, but it’s an excellent book.

Movies & TV

I’ve been watching a few things since we last spoke! Quill and I went to see The Lost City, which was a fun, mindless rom com. I was thoroughly entertained the entire time, and I thought Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum had weird, awkward chemistry that I totally think a historical romance author could have with her cover model.

Recently we decided to start doing documentary date nights, and we’ve started with Wild Wild Country, which is about a cult that used to exist in Oregon. It’s unbelievable that I’ve never heard of all of this before, and the things that these people got away with… We’re on episode 5 of 6 now, so I’m expecting to finish it in the next couple of days and then we’ll pick another documentary to watch!

I’ve also finished watching the first season of Narcos, which I loved. It was so intense. I think I need to go back and rewatch it at some point to really get a grasp on who all the characters are because there are so many of them.

Plans for May

The most exciting thing about May is that our porch is finally getting built! Our overhanging porch has been falling apart for months now, so I’m very excited for the building work to start. We’re getting a small porch extension and a downstairs w.c. built, and our builder expects the work to last about three weeks. I think it’s going to be tiring and stressful for me, but I’m excited for the end result!

We’re going to be buying Odeon Passes in May because there are lots of summer movies coming out soon and we figure we’ll save money this way. I’m hyped for Doctor Strange 2 (because of Wanda), and Jurassic World 3 is going to be AMAZING, I know it.

May TBR

I’m writing this on the 2nd of May and I’ve already finished two books, so I’m expecting May to be an incredible month for reading. I’m planning on reducing my TBR pile by a LOT, and in order to do so I’m reading the smallest books on my TBR. And mood reading, of course!

Tell me about how your April went! What will you be reading in May?

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