The Other Half of Happiness (Sofia Khan #2) by Ayisha Malik – Book Review

Please note: The Other Half of Happiness is the sequel to Sofia Khan is Not Obliged. Therefore, parts of the blurb that follows could be construed as spoilers for the outcome of book one. My review for book one, Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged can be found by clicking here. Blurb from Goodreads Sofia Khan …

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing edited by Kevin Young – Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads Poetry serves a unique role in our lives, distilling human experience and emotion down to truths as potent as they are brief. There are two times most people turn to it: for love and loss. The Art of Losing is the first anthology of its kind, delivering poetry with a purpose. Editor …

The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block – eARC Book Review

Blurb from NetGalley Rebecca hasn't seen her father Leo since she was six. Her family never talk about him, and she has long since pushed him firmly to the back of her mind. All she knows is that, once upon a time, he was a well-loved children's TV star. But when a journalist turns up …

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers – eARC Book Review

Blurb from NetGalley In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk & Robot series gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since …

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple – Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads Written in 1953, the last book by novelist Dorothy Whipple, Someone at a Distance is a story about the destruction of a marriage. Ellen is “that unfashionable creature, a happy housewife” who loves her life in the English countryside. She tends her garden, dotes on her children, and, when she remembers, visits …

Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly – eARC Book Review

Blurb from NetGalley The insightful, audacious, and deeply romantic story of a woman whose life turns upside down on a magical holiday in Italy - perfect for fans of Beautiful Ruins or Under the Tuscan Sun. . . On the heels of a difficult break-up and a devastating diagnosis, Shakespearean scholar Lizzie Delford decides to …

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid – eARC Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads A lifetime holding it together. One party will bring it crashing down. Malibu: August, 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship …

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Series Review

Blurb from Goodreads Suppose a good friend calmly told you over a round of drinks that the world was about to end? And suppose your friend went on to confess that he wasn't from around here at all, but rather from a small planet near Betelgeuse? And what if the world really did come to …

‘Everything Everything’ by Nicola Yoon – Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one …

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis – Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads This brief but poignant book was first published in 1961 and concerns the death of C. S. Lewis' wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: "I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in …

The Sea by John Banville – Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads In this luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory, John Banville introduces us to Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child to cope with the recent loss of his wife. It is also …

Bad Choices by Lucy Vine – eARC Book Review

Blurb from Goodreads Two friends. Two decades. One big mistake... Nat and Zoe have always shared everything. Hopeless crushes, emergency tampons, messy sex stories, work triumphs, those days where you can't stop crying in the loos, those days where you can't stop dancing on the bar. They even share the same birthday, FFS. The struggle …