A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin

Pages: 400

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Released: 12th of May 2022 

The season is about to begin—and there’s not a minute to lose.

Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. This is 1818 after all, and only men have the privilege of seeking their own riches.

With only twelve weeks until the bailiffs call, launching herself into London society is the only avenue open to her, and Kitty must use every ounce of cunning and ingenuity she possesses to climb the ranks.

The only one to see through her plans is the worldly Lord Radcliffe and he is determined to thwart her at any cost, especially when it comes to his own brother falling for her charms.

Can Kitty secure a fortune and save her sisters from poverty? There is not a day to lose and no one—not even a lord—will stand in her way...

What I Have to Say 

I absolutely adore Kitty Talbot. She is manipulative, conniving and absolutely wonderful. In the book, she sets out to manipulate her way into the high reaches of society and she is damn good at it. It was also obvious from every step how much she loved her sisters and I think the fact that her motivations were to save her family were what kept her from seeming cruel. It was just so refreshing to see a character who was so set on reaching up to a level that wasn't given to her at birth. 

And it was not just Kitty I loved. Cecily was also a wonderful character. I loved the richness that the two girls brought to the plot as they took the London society by storm. The way it played out was satisfying and exciting with parallels to Austen that felt right to the story, while still bringing it's own original feminist twists to the telling. 

I haven't read much regency, I'll admit, but even I could tell that this one was something else. 

My thanks go to Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

Pages: 368

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 

Released: 12th of May 2022

Chloe Green has spent the past four years dodging gossipy, classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that's kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal's perfect daughter.

But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she's not the only one Shara kissed. There's also Smith, Shara's longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara's bad boy neighbour with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara's trail of clues and find her. It'll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.

Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe - probably not, but maybe - more to Shara, too.

What I Have to Say

This is how you do enemies to lovers. It was clear from the start that Chloe's hatred of Shara Wheeler was based completely on the crush she had on her, which was so painfully obvious to absolutely everyone but Chloe herself. It was perfect, the way that the grudge was built up so beautifully that it led the reader to love Shara a little bit as well. 

On top of that, this book was so queer. I don't think a single one of the main characters was actually straight. It had representation for bi, lesbian, gay, non-binary and gender questioning characters and that's just what I remember off the top of my head. If you had any question that this book was gay (which how can you really considering the plot), let me assure you, this book was very, very gay. 

If I absolutely had to give a negative about the book, then maybe the mystery was all resolved a bit too quickly as the last half of the book is more about Shara and Chloe's relationship, but even then, I would have hated the book to end on finding Shara and the games between Shara and Chloe are just beautiful. 

All in all, this book was just perfect. A must read for anyone who loves the enemies to lovers trope. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me this copy for review. 

The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

 

Pages: 304

Publisher: Picador

Released: 12th May 2022

In Strasbourg, in the boiling hot summer of 1518, a plague strikes the women of the city. First it is just one – a lone figure, dancing in the main square – but she is joined by more and more and the city authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in. The devil will be danced out of these women.

Just beyond the city’s limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. Her best friend Ida visits regularly and Lisbet is so looking forward to sharing life and motherhood with her. And then, just as the first woman begins to dance in the city, Lisbet’s sister-in-law Nethe returns from six years’ penance in the mountains for an unknown crime. No one – not even Ida – will tell Lisbet what Nethe did all those years ago, and Nethe herself will not speak a word about it.

It is the beginning of a few weeks that will change everything for Lisbet – her understanding of what it is to love and be loved, and her determination to survive at all costs for the baby she is carrying. Lisbet and Nethe and Ida soon find themselves pushing at the boundaries of their existence – but they’re dancing to a dangerous tune . . .

What I Have to Say 

I liked this book but it didn't blow me away. It was a calm read for me. I wasn't desperate to find out what happened next, but I was interested enough in the characters and their stories to want to know how the story progressed. I really liked Nethe's character and I liked Lisbet's perspective and her relationship with the bees. 

I guessed very quickly what Nethe's "sin" was and was happy with the way it was revealed and the hints that were given along the way. I didn't feel cheated because I guessed it at all. It worked well with the theme of rebelling against the constraints of a very Christian society. 

I do wish there'd been a bit more lightness and hope at the end though. It was not a completely unhappy ending but it felt very futile and the characters seemed to have lost so much. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Picador for providing me this copy for review. 

London, With Love by Sarra Manning

Pages: 432

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 

Released:  5th of May 2022 

London. Nine million people. Two hundred and seventy tube stations. Every day, thousands of chance encounters, first dates, goodbyes and happy ever afters.

And for twenty years it's been where one man and one woman can never get their timing right.

Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers and over the next two decades, they fall in and out of love with each other. Sometimes they start kissing. Sometimes they're just friends. Sometimes they stop speaking, but they always find their way back to each other.

But after all this time, are they destined to be together or have they finally reached the end of the line? 

What I Have to Say 

I love Sarra Manning, but this book just didn't do it for me. It's a pity because Sarra Manning really helped me get back into reading and therefore reviewing, so I wish I'd liked this more and could give it a better review. It was well done and well executed, I think I just didn't like the relationship and in the end if you don't like the central relationship a romance book will always fall flat. 

I did like however the descriptions of London and the tube stations. I use the tube a lot when I'm in London so it instantly made the setting feel familiar to me even at the stations I hadn't been in and as it started in a time before I was born. 

Manning also did a superb job at depicting the disasters of 9/11 and the tube bombings. The 9/11 chapter was harrowing and emotional, everything you'd expect from a depiction of such a tragic event and was handled sensitively and well. The tube bombing chapters focused more on the pulling together of Londoners and Nick and Jennifer's reunion and were much lighter to read, but without shying away from the events of that day. 

My only real complaint about the book was that we never found out what happened to Priya. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for providing me with this copy for review. 

Confessions of An Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney

Pages: 384

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 3rd of May 2022

Monique lives a perfect life - a preacher's daughter and the girlfriend of the town's golden boy. But it's not that simple. She's torn between her parents who want the pure virginal daughter, and her boyfriend, Dom, who wants to explore the more intimate side of their relationship.

Tired of waiting, her boyfriend breaks up with her, spurring Monique to discover she has a medical condition that makes her far from perfect and she concocts a plan to fix her body and win him back.

With the help of her frenemy, Sasha, the overly zealous church girl Monique's mum pushes her to hang out with, and Reggie, the town's not-so-good boy, Monique must go on trips to unknown and uncomfortable places to find the treatment that will help her. But in doing so, she must face some home truths: maybe she shouldn't be fixing her body to please a boy, maybe Sasha is the friend she needed all along and maybe Reggie isn't so bad at all.

What I Have to Say 

This book was so good. When I started it, I thought it might be too heavy on the teen drama for me, but it reminded me of everything I love about YA. The complex plots, the heavy emotions, the fact that everything can feel so immediate and that the parents can be a real obstacle and sometimes threat. 

What I loved most was just how easy it was to sink into the book.  The main character Mo, was easy to get to know and get into the voice of and I just loved every second of reading her story. I also felt the subject matter was important. It was handled in an honest, feminist and completely entertaining way that never felt forced or like it was pushing the issue. 

It also had a little sprinkle of LGBT rep, as two of the side characters are Sapphic! 

All in all, this book was just perfect. I loved it. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Birdcage by Eve Chase

 

Pages: 400

Publisher: Penguin

Released: 28th of April 2022 

Kat, Flossie and Lauren are half-sisters who share a famous artist father - and a terrible secret.

Each has found their way of burying it. Over the years they've grown apart, and into wildly different lives. But an invitation to Rock Point, the Cornish cliff house where they once sat for their father's most celebrated painting, Girls with Birdcage, reunites them.

Rock Point is a beautiful, windswept place, thick with secrets, electrically charged with the one subject the family daren't discuss. And there is someone in the shadows watching the house, their every move. Someone who remembers the girls in the painting. What they did.

The sisters must unlock the truth to set themselves free - and find each other again.

What I Have to Say 

This book was a bit of a flop for me. I liked the setting a lot. It really captured the windswept cliffs of Cornwall well and the weather that was backdrop to the whole book was described really well. I also liked the characters. It was easy to get to know and care for them. But what really put me off was the way the cliffhangers were handled. 

So every few chapters we'd leave the present day story and go back to see what happened to Lauren in 1999. A lovely way to drill up tension and occasionally leave the reader on a cliffhanger desperate to read on, right? Well it would have been if every single cliffhanger hadn't resolved with the characters all safe and happy and the author telling the reader how the cliffhanger had resolved. It's like every bit of action that happened was only half written. I'm not completely against telling. It can work in some circumstances. But in the case of this book, I wanted to stay in the drama and actually see how it was resolved. 

There was also a bit at the end that didn't quite make sense. Something was explained about the grandfather and it was only in one paragraph without much detail. It seems like the sort of thing they might fix before the finished copy though. 

All in all, not the best read for me. 

My thanks go to Penguin and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Pages: 352

Publisher: Doubleday Books

Released: 3rd May 2022

Learn about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons...and change the world.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950's America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex's beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn't know. It's taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new "sister" obsessed with dragons far beyond propriety. Through loss, rage, and self-discovery, this story follows Alex's journey as she deals with the events leading up to and beyond the Mass Dragoning, and her connection with the phenomenon itself.

What I Have to Say 

If there was anything the 1950s needed more of, it is definitely dragons. I loved this concept. It's an absolutely beautiful idea and the execution was fantastic. It showed the breaking down of societal boundaries as hundreds of thousands of perfect 50s housewives became big unruly creatures that society did not want. The idea of women, frustrated with their lots in life, turning into beautiful fire breathing creatures and destroying the homes, and often husbands, that kept them there was inspired. 

Alex was a great character, she was perfect to show the way society kept things quiet. As a child who witnessed everything and was kept quiet and shushed when she asked questions, she was able to tell us everything that happened at the time of the dragoning and after. I also adored Beatrice. She was an absolute gem and the perfect way to show the pressure to keep dragons from being talked about. 

I was also thrilled that the idea of trans dragons was mentioned. It was only a tiny bit and unfortunately there were no actual trans characters, but this book acknowledged and accepted that they would be involved in these events. I honestly expected the book to not mention them at all, so I was pleasantly surprised. I also felt there were parallels later in the book with transitioning and dragoning. 

It's also worth mentioning that this book is Sapphic! The main character is gay and though the romance was only a small part of the book, it was there and it made me very happy. 

My thanks go to Negalley and Bonnier Books UK for providing me with this copy for review.