Tag: books

#Friday56 – The Flatshare

The Biblioshelf11 Comments

Happy FriYAY Bibliofriends!

This week’s Friday 56 is from The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. A really endearing story about how love finds itself in the most unconventional of ways.

Hosted by Freda’s Voice, the Friday 56 is a weekly bookish prompt. It’s quite easy to do and could cover no end of different books and genres so seems great if you’re looking for a quick snippet to discover something new!

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.
*It’s that simple.

 

IMG_1616

This book was incredibly fun and if this little sneak peek has inspired you to find out more about The Flatshare or pick up the book for yourself then feel free to check out my review of it here: Biblioshelf Musings – The Flatshare.

Have a great weekend everyone! As always, leave me your Friday 56 links or drop me a comment below to chat.

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – The Flatshare

The Biblioshelf7 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

I recently read The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. I kept hearing about this book across the blogging and social media world so when I came across it for 99p on iBooks, I decided to take a punt on it.

Synopsis [from Goodreads]
Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

Book: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
Publication Date: 10th April 2019
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 400
Rating: 📚📚📚

This read was the perfectly relaxing, light-hearted novel I needed. I really like the uniqueness of Tiffy’s and Leon’s situation – even though they share the flat (and the bed) there is a strict no-meeting clause in their arrangements as they work and use the flat at alternating times. The little notes they leave behind for each other, even though they have never met, allows the reader to discover more about each character as their stories unfold. The dual narrative also compliments this perfectly – Leon has his own way of speaking by omitting some pronouns or determiners; it really does resemble the thought processes of (some) men and their actions/reactions to events happening around them. I like how Tiffy wasn’t the standard tall, thin, beautiful heroine yet also not a token of an overweight person trying to break the mould of literature. She was real, normal and so relatable (apart from her height, she’d definitely tower over me!). Her beauty came from both inside and out, and she wasn’t afraid to show off her passion for home-altered clothing and fashion.

Beneath the heart-warming tale of two people finding each other amongst their distinctive living arrangements is the story of both the dark and light sides of love. Proving that love traverses time and generations, Leon looks after an elderly gentleman called Mr. Prior and helps him to try and track down the long-lost love of his life and fellow war comrade Johnny White. This is paralleled against Tiffy’s past relationship with ex-boyfriend Justin and the traumas that she was faced with after her perception of their relationship drastically changed and she realises what Justin was truly like.  Then there is Richie, Leon’s brother who is facing an appeal for being wrongly arrested and incriminated – he adds a humorous element to the novel and allows for the theme of justice to thread throughout the tale. Not forgetting Gerty, Mo and Rachel who all contribute and add their own fun dynamics.

Beth O’Leary created such a wonderful mix of characters which I grew to be fond of and enjoyed spending literary time with. The Flatshare brought me humour, joy and a sense that even the most painful and vulnerable memories can be overcome with the right people around you to help. It also gave me my new, perfect dieting excuse… upper arm “cake weight”, which has inspired me to also come up with forearm gin weight, upper thigh chocolate weight, lower calf Doritos weight and ankle pizza weight – albeit perhaps not the healthiest influence I’ve ever taken from a novel!

Have you read The Flatshare? Do you have the perfect dieting excuse like Tiffy’s? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

#SixForSunday – Series I’m Dying To Read

The Biblioshelf5 Comments

Happy Sunday Bibliofriends,

Well this weekend has seen a first for me – I celebrated my birthday in Lockdown on Friday! 🎉🎈🎂 It was quite strange not to be able to physically go out and spend time in the sunshine with family and friends as I normally would, but thankfully the joys of technology still enabled me to catch up with them and celebrate.

As a treat to myself and from birthday money generously gifted from family, I went on an almighty book splurging binge! I’ll be doing a haul post at a later date but let’s just say that all the space I cleared out from getting rid of the books I’ll never read again has quickly been filled!

That brings me onto this week’s Six For Sunday prompt which is ‘series that I wish I could get into’. There are loads of series I haven’t been able to getting round to starting purely because I can’t keep up with having so many different ones on the go at once. Here are the ones that I’m dying to read after I’ve finally finished the ones I’ve currently got on the go. Heading links should go to the series page on Goodreads.
For those who don’t already know, Six for Sunday is a weekly list-based meme created by Steph @ALittleButALot and has a different weekly prompt based on a monthly theme.

  • Nevernight – I feel like there’s so much hype surrounding this series and after loving The Illuminae Files I really want to explore this trilogy. Something tells me I may need to fully concentrate on it which is why I’ve been so hesitant at picking it up.
  • Shades of Magic – For the exact same reasons as above, the Shades of Magic series is one that I really have to pick up very soon. I’m really intrigued to see all the different versions of London and can’t wait to get into this world.
  • His Dark Materials – I read the first book Northern Lights as a child and to be honest, although I remember the gist of the story, I really want to go back to the very beginning so that I can finally read the next instalments. Especially as his newer works in this cycle have been widely praised.
  • Crescent City – This book is now finally sitting on my shelf (birthday treat!) and I know I’ve been saying that I’m holding off starting new series, I don’t think I have that much resoves when it comes to new SJM material.
  • The Daevabad Trilogy – I’ve been recommended this series so many times and there is a very exclusive set of this trilogy coming out very soon which I am keeping everything crossed that I can get my hands on!
  • Children of Blood and Bone – Yet another hyped up series that’s on my list and seems to offer something really dark and different!

There we go, what series are you waiting to buy or get started on? Do you have any anticipated series debuts coming out later this year? As always, leave your link below or drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

 

 

#Friday56 – Romanov

The BiblioshelfLeave a comment

It’s FriYAY time! Every step closer to the weekend brings yet more happiness!

This week’s Friday 56 is from Romanov by Nadine Brandes. Based on the tale of Anastasia, Romanov questions what really happened to Anastasia during the Russian Revolution of 1918.

Hosted by Freda’s Voice, the Friday 56 is a weekly bookish prompt. It’s quite easy to do and could cover no end of different books and genres so seems great if you’re looking for a quick snippet to discover something new!

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.
*It’s that simple.

Everyone woke at sunrise – not because we were rested and certainly not from the sun shining, for it couldn’t penetrate the whitewash. We woke because we were together again. It was better than any birthday or Easter morning. We also knew that rhythm was a fierce weapon against despair.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of this book. I could talk about it for ages. There are so many quotes dotted everywhere which spread lots of hopeful, poignant and meaningful messages to the reader. If you haven’t seen it already and you’re interested in finding out more about this amazing book then you can check out my Biblioshelf Musings about Romanov here. If you loved Anastasia’s tragic tale, or you’re just a history fan who likes their stories with a little side of magic and intrigue, then I strongly suggest you pick up this book!

Have a great weekend everyone! As always, leave me your Friday 56 links or drop me a comment below to chat.

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – Romanov

The Biblioshelf3 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

Happy Wednesday, I hope your week is going well.
I’ve always had a fascination with the Romanovs and the mystery of Anastasia. I think my earliest memory of this was when I saw the Bluth/Goldman animated film that was released in 1997. I even had an adorable little Pooka plush toy that I took everywhere! Fast forward to studying the Russian Revolution at school and the mystery about what happened to the Romanovs had me hooked. I was convinced that Anastasia was still alive and hadn’t really died. Diamonds sewn into a corset really did prevent her from death by firing squad and she’d somehow escaped to live out the rest of her life. Obviously these ideas had taken root in my head before Alexei’s and Anastasia’s remains were found in 2007 and it was proven conclusively that they had both died in 1918.

Nadine Brandes’ book, offered me the fictional release that Anastasia never did truly die, mix that with a touch of magic and boy did Romanov deliver!

Book: Romanov by Nadine Brandes
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Publication Date: 7th May 2019
Publisher: Thomas Nelson [Shelflove Crate Exclusive]
Pages: 337
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

‘Not even royal blood can stop bullets.’

Without actually having a part one and part two, the story divides itself into two parts: the first being the family’s move from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg and the second focusing on what happened after the fateful assassination of 16-17 July 1918. We see the tone of the story change from light to dark as history unfolds and Nastya is such a terrific narrator to navigate the reader through this.

‘Impatience was the grim reaper of all victories.’

The true-to-history anecdotes of her pranks and the way she is nicknamed schvibzik (imp) created an idea of such a playful character. In the first part, the reader experiences all of her thoughts and feelings: the friendships and conversations struck up with Bolshevik guards, the childlike way of looking at the situation she was in and the almost naïve innocence that her family was going to be rescued out of their exile by the White Army. The way this contrasts with the second part of the story was really well-balanced. At times it felt like a rite-of-passage and you were watching Anastasia rapidly grow up in the aftermath of events. She was an indomitable force on the page. All of her insecurities, vulnerabilities, grit and determination were laid out for the reader to absorb. I felt that her characterisation was powerful and I don’t know whether it was purely the writing or the interpretation of the narration in my head, but I couldn’t help hear Anastasia talking in Jodie Comer’s accent from the Killing Eve series – the mischievousness between them was also fairly apt.

‘Because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it.’

The Russian references contained within the novel were clearly laid out and explained without being overbearing. It really helped to build the Romanov’s world inside my head. You can tell Brandes is proud of her links to Russia without it being forced into your face through every paragraph. The spell magic in the story was subtle yet effective enough to balance with the more historical elements of the tale. To make spells and become a spell-master, one must have spell ink to write the spell words. For the caster, the words hover around in the air or melt onto the tongue until they are ready to be used at the perfect moment. I really liked the way the iconic Matryoshka doll also played a role in this story and featured as a nod to its real-life creator.

‘We were always meant to be on opposite sides of a pistol’.

Themes of forgiveness and love feature strongly throughout the story. Nastya’s Papa’s belief that everyone should be forgiven no matter what they have done comes full circle in the end and drives home a poignant message; especially for anyone suffering from any emotional turmoil themselves.

‘As I lay in the grass next to the spell that could rid me of heart pain, I realised that a part of forgiveness was accepting the things someone had done – and the pain that came with that – and moving on with love. Forgiveness was a personal battle that must always be fought in my heart. Daily. And though I was tired of running and surviving and fighting… I wasn’t ready to surrender that battle yet.’

Alexei’s condition also shines a sensitive note on overcoming barriers and living your best life in spite of all the odds stacked against you – fair enough he has access to magic, but the sentiment is still there through his relentless attitude.

‘I saw a bond form – between an old spell master and a young boy who never let his illness hold him back from his dreams and duties.’

All in all, I was tremendously intrigued and fascinated by this book. I bought into the characters. I enjoyed the way the writing flowed, offering enough description and dialogue to keep the plot unfolding and the world building within my head. The way magic was paired with heritage. Russian symbology sprinkled throughout every page. It was rich in detail and history; the author’s note at the end explained exactly what was real and what was stretched which I really respect from a historical fiction writer.

Brandes’ tale was the perfect way to give me the happier ending of this tragic tale that I’d always been longing for.

‘The bond of our hearts… spans miles, memories and time.’

Are you a fellow historical fantasy nerd? Have you read Romanov? Feel free to share your ideas/comments/recommendations in the chat below! 🙂

T xx

#SixforSunday – Heart Wrenching Series Endings

The Biblioshelf4 Comments

Merry Sunday Bibliofriends!

How has your weekend been? I have spent mine reading, reading, reading! I have shocked myself into reading 3 books so far this month and we’re little over a week through May. I think I’m finally getting the hang of this lockdown malarky which is typical as we’ll probably be coming out of it soon. My mother always says that I manage to start doing something well by the time it gets to the end! 🙈😂

Anyway, this week’s Six For Sunday is based on heart-wrenching endings to a series. Obviously there were some that immediately came to mind and others which took a little more consideration. I’m also in that reading phase at the minute where I’ve stopped reading any new series because there’s so many that I haven’t finished yet! Heading links should go to the series page on Goodreads.
For those who don’t already know, Six for Sunday is a weekly list-based meme created by Steph @ALittleButALot and has a different weekly prompt based on a monthly theme.

Harry Potter

Now, a little bad habit that I tend to do when reading is that I skip to the end to see how many chapters the book has… so obviously skipping to the end of Harry Potter and seeing ‘that’ epilogue title shocked me into wanting to quit my bad habit it didn’t work. Regardless, this is still the series that has given me my biggest book-hangover to date. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it to be honest!

Throne of Glass

Whereas the Harry Potter ending was like the soul-shattering end of a world/era… Kingdom of Ash rendered me utterly distraught in a completely different way. I’m surprised the pages of my book didn’t disintegrate due to me crying through nearly the entire 900+ pages. The chapter with the Thirteen 😭, the bit with the ACOTAR link 😉,  and then just the sheer scope of that ending with my most beloved characters and the journey that they endured… I am definitely going to do a reread of this whole series in the very near future!

ACOTAR

Chapter 55 of Court of Wings and Ruin I remember distinctly. I had to shut the book, wait for everyone else to leave my house and then I had to be alone with that finale. Now I know SJM isn’t for everyone, but there’s just something about the worlds and characters that she creates which keeps my little bookish heart hanging on every last letter.

Six of Crows Duology

It’s almost impossible to say why I found this so heart wrenching without using any spoilers but for one of my favourite ships in this book, the thing that happened to them left me in denial right until I closed the last page. I then had to check the Grishaverse Wikia just to confirm it in my brain. They’d fought against all the odds and I’d been championing them the whole way through the series… devastated!

The Illuminae Files

This series is so wonderful and unique, I’ve never read anything like it before. I included it in this list as it felt that there was so much that became resolved at the end of the third book. What with all of the memos, video transcripts, email messages and all of the different mediums through which this story is told, I really shared in the victory of the characters. And then the ending with the bit in the restaurant Vitalys and then the very very final twist… it was just a brilliant ending to the series!

Ok so my 6th choice I had noted down The Languedoc series by Kate Mosse purely because it was a really meaty series and I felt a sense of achievement at reaching the end… but now I’m here I just can’t explain why I would have found it heart wrenching – therefore, I’m going to sub it for a non-series novel (don’t tell that I cheated)!

One Day by David Nicholls

I can’t quite remember what exact assignment it was but I definitely had a piece of work that was desperately due in, but I’d made the coincidental mistake of reading One Day at the exact same time and it came to the part where I just could not put the book down! I remember sitting at my laptop (essay open on screen) and just bawling my eyes out at what happened. It was such a sorrowful and almost cruel ending to the story but then I guess that’s what Nicholls was going for. The film never did quite convey that scene as well as the novel. A definite ‘heart wrenching’ pick despite not being a series!

Any surprise choices here for you? Drop me a comment, leave me your link and let me know what books ripped your heart out or made you bawl into the pages. Happy Sunday team!

T xx

 

Biblioshelf Musings – The Carpet Cipher

The Biblioshelf1 Comment

Hey Biblioshelf Friends!

Ever since I started reading more books in Lockdown and getting involved with BookTwitter, that little need to start requesting books on Netgalley resurfaced again! Being approved for a more popular arc still seems like a distant dream, however after scrolling through the Read Now section I came across The Carpet Cipher by Jane Thornley which sang out to my inner historical-mystery soul. Big thanks to Netgalley and the publishers BooksGoSocial / Riverflow Press for my free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Book: The Carpet Cipher by Jane Thornley
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publication Date: 12th March 2020
Publisher: BooksGoSocial / Riverflow Press
Pages: 258 (from paperback edition)
Rating: 📚📚

Synopsis

Can a painting hold a secret safe in plain sight across seven centuries? The murder of the last member of an old Venetian family peels back the rug on a shocking truth that draws art historian and textile expert Phoebe McCabe into the fray. 

What she sees in the missing Renaissance symbology will shake the foundations of religious and cultural assumptions across two continents and point the way to a priceless hoard. It’s a secret potent enough to pitch rival factions against Phoebe and her team while destroying history as collateral damage along the way.

By the time Phoebe tracks down the truth to its final destination, she’ll need to face her greatest enemy armed with nothing but wry wit, an indomitable spirit, and what’s left of a broken heart. But nothing will stop this warrior of the ancient lost and found.

From the dark misty canals of Venice to the vivid souks of Marrakech, Phoebe and her friends are pitched against the desperate and the entitled. Who owns a treasure buried on foreign soil? Can the poor ever win against the rich? And most importantly, can love conquer religious persecution and even time itself?

If you love twisty, action-packed mysteries driven by engaging characters set in vividly drawn locales rich in historical detail, then you’ll love this first book in the Ancient Lost and Found series. Think Robert Langdon meets Lara Croft with a side of textiles.

Why Did I Want To Read This Book?

First tick: Anything set in Italy, especially with reference to the Renaissance immediately grabs my attention and makes me read the blurb.
Second tick: Symbology, secrets, mysteries, histories and my little nerdish senses get really tingly.
Third tick: “Think Robert Langdon meets Lara Croft with a side of textiles.” Are you kidding me? To me, this would be one of the greatest pairings since Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers sang Islands in the Stream! This is the bit that made me hit that ‘read now’ button! I was expecting BIG things from this pairing/strapline and reader… I was fooled.

Am I Missing Something…?

To start with, there’s the usual murder in the prologue. This I can cope with – it happens. Except here, we get told exactly what time and place the murder happens, then all of a sudden in chapter one, we are left wondering whether we are still in the same time and place of the aforementioned murder. Turns out…we weren’t – cue: head scratching.

We are also rapidly introduced to a whole bank of characters (including the protagonist Phoebe McCabe) and what feels like an entire spider web of backstories and events at how all of these people seem to know each other. For what is supposedly the first book in this new Agency of the Ancient Lost and Found Series, I feel like I’ve stumbled in halfway through. As it turns out, I actually did – cue: more head scratching.

Going back to do a quick Goodreads search and it turns out that Phoebe McCabe & Co. have been in 5-book series before which is why I felt like there was a bit of reliance on my prior knowledge of these characters’ escapades and a lot of info-dumping in the first few chapters. Whilst this awareness of the characters’ histories is not essential to the plot of The Carpet Cipher, the continuous references to past events from a different time/series made my reading experience feel a little disjointed, as if I couldn’t fully invest myself in all of the characters.

Phoebe McCabe & Co.

Phoebe herself, has a remarkable passion for textiles which bounces off the page. The references to carpets and clothing throughout the book is well-researched and clearly evident of the writer’s enthusiasm for this subject.

When I was still trying to work out what nationality Phoebe is (she works at a gallery in the UK), some of the vocabulary she used only sought to make me think she was American. Phrases like, “stuck in my craw”, “Crud, Phoebe, stop it.” and talk of ‘phyllo’ instead of filo didn’t marry up with what I would expect a British person to be saying, so is she British or is she American? Cue: even more head scratching.

She also has an over-reliance on calling the bad-guys ‘bastards’ which did grate on me towards the end. This very male-bashing attitude that radiates through her narration felt quite passive aggressive as if she has a chip on her shoulder and I found it difficult to warm to her as a character overall [from further text deduction, previous boyfriend from previous series ‘Noel’ definitely has something to do with this].

There are a whole host of other characters who feature in this story (Max, Evan, Serena, Noel, Nicolina, Seraphina, Zara, Agent Walker, Foxy, the ‘bastards’, June & Joe) but a special mention must go to Peaches. Her comedic quips and zesty attitude breathed some much-needed humour into the dialogue towards the end of the novel. I loved her Jamaicanese speech and all-around eccentricity. “Muscle Man’s coming here with Hottie on the roof?” was one of her defining moments.

The History Behind the Mystery

The plot behind this story is based around two real-life pieces of artwork; the main piece by Bartolo becoming a painting for the purposes of this story, rather than the fresco that it really is. Having looked into the real representations of these pieces of art, the author admits to taking artistic liberties with some of the elements and symbology within the pictures. The passionate historian in me was left slightly longing. Nevertheless, the conspiracy and mystery at the heart of The Carpet Cipher and the puzzle which needed to be unlocked was engaging enough to just about keep my attention span going to the end.

Notes Whilst Reading

Lastly, my e-book notes are crammed with 39(!) highlights containing grammatical/spelling errors, alongside my own utterances of questions, queries and all of the head-scratching moments that made me shout ‘huh?’ or ‘why would you do that?’ so often that I had to check whether there was a bald-patch forming on the back of my head. Here are some of my favourites:

  • “That alone was enough to induce conniptions.” – I had to use a dictionary for the word conniptions.
  • At 37% of the book it’s finally carpet time!
  • “I changed into my only non-jeans pants – leather,” – Why does everyone wear leather ‘pant-suits’ in this book?
  • “Let’s assume that everybody is innocent until proven guilty and discuss what we know together.” – Phoebe McCabe channels her inner Poirot.
  • “Seemed like a bad time to mention my mold allergy so I just coughed for effect.” – Are you kidding me, someone who works with mouldy old textiles is allergic to mould?!

And my personal favourite:

IMG_1603

Final Thoughts

Overall, it is abundantly clear through the writing that The Carpet Cipher is a work of fiction. References to real historical facts and attitudes are minimally skimmed across the surface of the text. If you’re looking for a thrill-ride full of the common tropes found in historical mystery/thrillers then this could very well be the book for you; however, if you’re looking for a narrative that is so deeply entrenched with historical accuracy that you could genuinely believe that the conspiracy is real, then perhaps this may not quite capture your imagination for long enough.

Are you a fan of historical mysteries and thrillers or a carpet addict à la Phoebe McCabe? Feel free to recommend me a conspiracy novel that is so damned good I’ll believe it’s real!  

T xx

#Friday56 – The Carpet Cipher

The Biblioshelf11 Comments

Happy VE Day / Bank Holiday / Friday Bibliofriends!

I hope you have been having a good week. I am looking forward to spending the Bank Holiday by catching up on some reading and blog-hopping. Drop me a comment if you want me to stop by your posts.

This week’s Friday 56 comes from my most recent Netgalley read, The Carpet Cipher by Jane Thornely.

Hosted by Freda’s Voice, the Friday 56 is a weekly bookish prompt. It’s quite easy to do and could cover no end of different books and genres so seems great if you’re looking for a quick snippet to discover something new!

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.
*It’s that simple.

I admit that knowing he was watching my back was fortifying. Forget that it was unlikely he could get to me quickly, anyway. Right then, I was focused on being inside a weaving studio alone. It was like standing inside a cathedral, hushed and hallowed with all that I revered. But I had to get to work.

The Carpet Cipher is a historical mystery thriller which sees textile and carpet lover Phoebe McCabe get entangling in a murder investigation and treasure hunt spanning Venice and Marrakech. The plot features on the use of carpets and textiles depicted in two notable artworks and the deeper meanings/symbology which they convey.

I received a free copy of this e-book thanks to Netgalley and the publishers BooksGoSocial / Riverflow Press in exchange for an honest review. Full review up tomorrow!

Are you into your historical mystery thrillers and conspiracies? What would be your top picks? How are you spending the Bank Holiday weekend? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – Wolf Hall

The Biblioshelf1 Comment

Hello my bookish friends,

The typical Bibliophile that I am, as soon as social distancing and lockdown began to start, my bookish mind went straight into TBR compilation mode to try and put together the reads I wanted to get through now that I had slightly more headspace to do it.

With the recent release of The Mirror and The Light, the final instalment in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall was one of the books that went straight on the list.

Writing this review and looking back on it has perhaps made me rethink my initial grading of 4 stars and uplift it to 5/5. It really is a literary masterpiece and I can see now why it won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. Humour, despair, power, philosophy just drips from every single page.

Book: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: 30th April 2009
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 653
Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis from Goodreads:
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

Over the city lies the sweet, rotting odour of yesterday’s unrecollected sins.

The Tudors have always been my favourite period of British history. I love the drama, pageantry and wife-swapping nature of the whole dynasty. Mantel did a superb job of bringing this to life and making it jump right off the page. From the descriptions of food, to the stench of the Thames, every sense was catered for as she rebuilt her own idea of the lush and extravagant world of Henry VIII’s England. I kind of wish Austin Friars was still standing today just to glimpse Cromwell’s world physically with my own eyes. I understand that lots of description is a bit of a Goldilocks situation for most readers but for me, Mantel got this spot on!

He thinks, I remembered you, Thomas More, but you didn’t remember me. You never even saw me coming.

I have to admit, it took me a little while to get to grips with the narration. We see the story through the perspective of Cromwell who is referred to as ‘He’, but then sometimes I’d get a little lost as to which ‘he’ we were talking about because there seemed to be lots of ‘he-s’ walking round the palaces and streets of Tudor London that I didn’t really know which He was thinking or which he was speaking or whether it was Him narrating… you get my point?! Nevertheless, I quickly got into the rhythm of the writing style and what seemed like Thames mud at first rapidly became the clear prose of Cromwell’s narrative. It really enabled you to see the world through his eyes, almost video-game style. Thinking back upon it now, I can really appreciate how clever Mantel’s writing actually is.

Mercy comes in and says, a fever, it could be any fever, we don’t have to admit to the sweat…If we all stayed at home, London would come to a standstill.

When you’re in strange times like these, do you ever seem to focus on some things or interpret comments and thoughts in a particular way that you may not have done previously? It seemed so ironic that parts of Wolf Hall seemed to echo real life and poignantly link to Covid-19. There was an almost philosophical sense to the novel and one particular line metaphorically slapped me in the face:

We are always dying – I while I write, you while you read, and others while they listen or block their ears; they are all dying.

It was a real ‘The Power of Now’ moment, that whilst in my little Cromwellian hole I’d almost forgotten the passing of time going on and on. The book is littered with little sentiments like this; they’re not all doom and gloom like the one above, but they stick out in your brain and really make you think. It’s one of the things I admired most about the writing in Wolf Hall.

‘Call her Elizabeth. Cancel the jousts.’

‘We are young enough, he says, and next time it will be a boy. One day we will make a great marriage for her.’

The tone of this entire scene, upon the birth of Elizabeth, was just so melancholic – you could feel Henry’s despair through the quietness of his actions and words. I think it’s such a shame that Henry VIII will never have the hindsight or awareness to recognise the magnanimity of his daughter. I wonder how he would feel if he actually knew of her achievements and that she was one of the defining and longest standing rulers of our entire history. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but maybe he wouldn’t have written her off just because of her gender.

All in all, Mantel has created such a fantastic work of fiction. I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it. Don’t get me wrong, trying to keep up with what was going on was like running a marathon for my brain, but the story, characters and writing is just so encapsulating that I needed to drag myself back into the 21st century after closing the final page. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has even an ounce of interest in the Tudors or historical fiction. Bring Up The Bodies, is currently sitting on my shelf waiting to be picked up… but not until I’m finally ready and in the right headspace to train my mind into reading Cromwell-speak again!

Have you read Wolf Hall? Should I watch the follow-on TV series? What’s your favourite time period in history? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

Six For Sunday – Favourite Book 1 in a Series

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Hello Biblioshelf Friends,

I hope you have been having a good week. I have felt incredibly productive with work this week as well as finally getting round to finishing my OWLs exams for the Magical Readathon. I’ll be posting a Readathon Wrap soon so watch out for that one!

As we are now into May, we are kicking off a brand new Six For Sunday theme which is all about ‘showing some series love’. For those who don’t already know, Six for Sunday is a weekly list-based meme created by Steph @ALittleButALot and has a different weekly prompt based on a monthly theme.

This week’s S4S is based on Favourite Book 1s in a series – initially I thought this was going to be really hard as it’s becoming a bit of an ongoing affliction that I start a series and then never get around to buying any of the sequels. I just can’t seem to shake off! Anyway, a quick scroll through the bible that is Goodreads helped me to come up with these. All heading titles link to Goodreads!

S4S 03.05.20

  1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
    I totally devoured this book and loved it a smudge more than the sequel Crooked Kingdom. I was a little apprehensive going into this duology as I couldn’t really understand the hype surrounding the Shadow and Bone series but I am so glad I read them that way round.
  2. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao
    This Evil Queen retelling was just something else. I was gripped to every last word on every page. The sequel definitely had a different feel to me as the perspective changed from Xifeng in the first novel to Jade in the second. I think that’s why I preferred the first novel more.
  3. Everless by Sara Holland
    Another fantasy where I was blown away by the first one then slightly disappointed by the sequel. I could not put Everless down, yet Evermore felt like it had lost all of the things which I had loved so much about the first one.
  4. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
    For me this introduction to the world of Caraval was by far my favourite. It was filled with so much magic and wonder. In that first book none of us quite knew the character traits and how the game worked so everything was just that little bit more mysterious.
  5. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
    How on earth could the original tear-jerking starter be outdone by it’s sequels? For me, it just couldn’t. As much as I adored Lou, there just seemed to be something so final after this first book that I think I would have been happy had it just been a standalone.
  6. From Notting Hill With Love… Actually by Ali McNamara
    The set-up of this novel was so brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed it however when I read the others in the series, they just seemed to become slightly formulaic.

There we go, my Six For Sunday favourite firsts in the series! What have you read? What firsts in a series were your absolute favourites. Drop me a comment or leave me your link to your own Six For Sunday below!

T xx