Tag: Berkley Publishing Group

ARC, Books

Book 856: The Last Chance Library – Freya Sampson

Geoff W

Book cover of "The Last Chance Library" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen I saw the title of this one, it was a no brainer I was going to request a copy of it from the publisher.* I’m sure I read the blurb and thought it was a great premise, but by time I got around to reading it (months after I was approved) I had forgotten the premise of the novel.

The Last Chance Library is the story of June Jones. It’s ostensibly the story of her trying to save her local library which is threatened with closing because of council cuts, but it’s really the story of her finally getting over her mother’s death and the processing of the grief, while finding a community. There were also SOOO many books mentioned (I think I got them all in my list at the end of my post).

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Books

Book 839: Playing the Palace – Paul Rudnick

Geoff W

Book cover of "Playing the Palace" with Amazon Affiliate linkTwo in a row that I really wanted to like more than I did. After devouring Red, White & Royal Blue last year and reading various other royal MM Romance novels here and there of course I was going to seek this one out when I heard about it.

The story wasn’t bad, it was well written and would adapt to a movie easily, but where I really struggled was the characters and their voices. I’m not surprised to see it on a list with books like Jay’s Gay Agenda and Yes, Daddy, others which I felt were written more to be adapted for screens than as books themselves. (And full disclosure this did not stop me from adding The Sky Blues to my hold list at the library which is on the same list :-D)

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ARC, Books

Book 637: The Vanished Bride (A Brontë Sisters Mystery #1) – Bella Ellis

Geoff W

As I mentioned in my June recap, I sort of Twitter-shamed Berkley into granting me access to this book—and I do still feel a little guilty about it. I tweeted because I was so mad that sites like NetGalley force bloggers/reviewers and publishers into tiny little boxes.

How are you supposed to represent everything you are as a blogger/reviewer when they give you 50 words or less and that’s about it? I get they’re trying to provide a service, but it’s like come on be user friendly for all the users. Why would I include that I have dedicated Jane Austen and Brontë pages on my website when I read hundreds of other books. UGH. Either way, the kind people at Berkley took pity on me and granted me access to the review copy and here I am.*

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2012 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 102: Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

Geoff W

It has been a long time since I read a (non-young adult fiction) book in a day, but this novel certainly sucked me in. It was very easy to read and I enjoyed the characters. And it’s not like I spent the day in my room reading, I was out and about getting my haircut and running errands!

I’ve always wondered how some people are able to read 100+ books in a year (and I may be wrong), but reading novels like this where you fly through the pages could have something to do with it! I would definitely love to go back and read some more of Christie’s works, but I doubt I will unless I participate in some sort of mystery challenge. On the plus side, this book counts towards THREE challenges! It counts towards my Mount TBR Reading Challenge (9/25) and counts as the first book for both the Back to the Classics Challenge (1/9) and The Classics Club (1/85)!

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