A visit to her new flat leads Laura to an awkward meeting with her new landlord Callum, and even more awkwardly playing the role of his imaginary girlfriend when Callum’s parents invite them to Scotland for Christmas. This “meet-not-so-cute” leads to a proposal rife with possibility and pitfalls - Laura will pretend to be Callum’s imaginary girlfriend Caroline, and be so insufferable his family won’t want her back. With both Callum and Laura on their own separate paths in life (Callum to be a pastry Chef in Paris, Laura busy training to ... View Full Review
Magic in the Kingdom of Rennedawn is still on the fritz. The Villain’s magic is playing up and Kingsley is acting strangely. To top it off, enemies are somehow getting into Massacre Manor, who could possibly be the mole?
Building on the plot of the previous books in the series, Assistant and Apprentice to The Villain we see the cast of intrepid characters continue their search for the requirements of a prophecy to save the kingdom … for evil purposes, I’m sure. We get more time in the heads of our favourite side characters and get ... View Full Review
From the start of The Deathless One we are thrown into a realm with a deadly plague and a Princess who will do anything, even dabble in forbidden witchcraft, to protect her people. To that end, a strategic marriage barely starts as Jessamine’s throat is cut at the altar, sending her straight into the path of the Deathless One, the only god remaining, who senses how powerful she is and will do whatever it takes to be free in the world once more.
Starting with one of the most enticing first sentences I’ve read for a ... View Full Review
I picked up House Party and was immediately drawn into the story. Reading about Hattie’s tween and teen hood felt like I was reminiscing about my own: the clothes, Black Parade, Tracy Beaker references, live action Peter Pan (!). Her character brings this story joyously to life as we see her meet her best friend Sam and his gorgeous and completely off limits older brother Freddie.
In the present timeline Hattie is 28 and trying to move on from a breakup, determined to reclaim the rest of her twenties for herself, which includes being single for a whole year. First ... View Full Review
Bridget Collins has been a must-read author for me ever since I fell in love with The Binding. I love the way her narratives gradually unfurl leading you into compelling and immersive worlds. Stepping into Haltington, you can feel the insular atmosphere, the wariness of outsiders in a village that’s made smaller by the losses of the Great War. A place where superstition equals religion in importance, the supernatural features as a steady and persistent undercurrent, looming over everything through the Face, a chalk carving upon the down, steadily sliding into disrepair now its caretakers are gone.
Just ... View Full Review
A grudge baseball match pitches local players against the Boston Bearcats hockey team. Robbie’s locker room bragging is a swing and a miss with softball pitcher Skylar Paige as the two teams size each other up; which is unfortunate as he is immediately enamoured with perhaps the one woman immune to his charms. Fortunately, the opportunity arises to spend more time with Skylar at her family’s ultra competitive annual series of challenges, posing as her fake boyfriend and helping her catch the attention of her long-term crush.
We all know where this is going, and while ... View Full Review
At the start of Male, Unknown an unnamed patient is admitted to the ICU with a stark, mysterious message for young doctor Edie carved into his body. Edie is repressing memories from her childhood, and as a condition of her employment and further training is undergoing therapy for this dissociation. This medical thriller lures you in to see if this patient is connected to Edie's childhood, and what the fallout will be when the past drags the answers to these questions into the light.
There were times I felt like I understood where the story was going only ... View Full Review
Sammy experienced a number of sexual attacks throughout her childhood. First there was “The Man” when she was eight. Then “The Boy” when she was nine. When she was 12 Sammy was groomed online by a man pretending to be 18 before being assaulted in his car. Weeks later, after being summarily dismissed by officers at a police station when reporting a separate incident in a graveyard, she falls into the clutches of a Paedophile ring, directly outside the station, and was the victim of a horrific and prolonged attack by multiple men, only one of whom was ... View Full Review
We rejoin Evie and The Villain pretty much where we left off in Assistant to the Villain and I couldn’t be more thrilled to rejoin them. Magic is starting to behave strangely in the Kingdom of Rennedawn and The Villain and everyone at Massacre Manor is more vulnerable than ever to their enemies. Can Evie help protect The Villain’s lair, and maybe even the entire kingdom?
Reader, I inhaled this book. The small hours of the morning weren’t so small by the time I put this book down. Firstly, it goes without saying that ... View Full Review
When a chance encounter in the woods results in a much needed job offer Evie Sage can’t turn it down. With an ailing father and young sister at home, she needs to be able to support them. Starting work as The Villain’s assistant, diffusing office squabbles, organising paperwork and making sure that the manor runs efficiently are all mundane enough tasks, just ignore the heads mounted in the entryway and the screams from the dungeon. Plus, Evie’s crush on her new temperamental and brooding boss is less than ideal.
This is a quippy, funny ... View Full Review
Having access to magic means that you’re always capable of perfection. At least, that’s how Annie Wildwood lives her life. The magic of the Celestial Bakehouse sparkled off the pages, I yearned for my own visit to Annie's cosy cafe and Lucy Jane Woods' descriptions of sweet treats and delicious bakes were their own special kind of witchcraft. But even with magic, living your life at a million miles an hour on a quest to please others won’t end well. When Annie agrees to mentor Maeve, a bright but sarcastic teen with no one ... View Full Review
After the loss of his girlfriend, Joel gives himself three years to fall in love. There's only two weeks to go and just when he actually starts to make progress, Beth appears in his life once more from beyond the grave. In true rom-com fashion the path doesn’t run smoothly; walking around talking to your ghost ex-girlfriend and said girlfriend accompanying you on a date will have that effect.
I loved that the story allowed us to meet Beth briefly and see how full of life her character was before jumping ahead to meeting Joel almost three years ... View Full Review
