Welcome to my first Top 5 Tuesday of 2025. I have already posted my goals for 2025 but I have other little resolutions for my reading this year that are good for this topic.
If it isn’t fun it gets the big DNF. I’m really bad at pushing through a book that I’m not enjoying so this year I am making an effort to just give up the bad book.
Don’t get overwhelmed. Last year I tried to complete too many goals and I found myself reading too many books at once which meant I took forever to just finish one book and it just stressed me out. This year I will have a daily buddy read and my main book and no more.
Stop hoarding books I don’t even like. I am a terrible book hoarder and I’m quite proud of this fact but I do tend to keep books that I didn’t enjoy reading. I think I’m trying to give the books a second chance and that I will read them again and like them. This year I’m going to go through the books and get rid of the books I didn’t enjoy.
Keep my bookstagram up to date. I am really good with my blogging but terrible with my bookstagram which I want to change. I love engaging with fellow bookstagrammers so I really need to make more of an effort.
Read as much Tolkien as possible. Tolkien is my favourite author but I haven’t read any of his books for ages so I plan to remedy this.
Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Happy Monday!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have been back at school today which has been a bit of a shock to the system. I took my book to read between lessons so I did manage a little bit of reading which was nice.
My chosen book to feature this week is one that has sat on my TBR for quite a long time and I’m not sure why as I love the author.
The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse
Rooted in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany and the Languedoc, here are tales of ghosts and spirits seeking revenge, grief-stricken women and haunted men coming to terms with their destiny.
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. This week has been really good for reading and blogging but next week I am fully back teaching so I might not manage to be so productive with my reading.
Lynda and her teenage son Rust prepare for Christmas, hanging fairy lights and making decorations. The first door of the advent calendar is opened, but the chocolate inside tastes off. Rust receives his first Christmas card, it’s unsigned and the message is aggressive rather than festive.
The cards keep coming, one each day and each more sinister than the last, and a frightened Lynda recalls a seasonal TV show from her childhood that featured similar happenings, and while she remembers it vividly, there is no evidence that it was ever broadcast…
As their Christmas cheer is gradually poisoned, with real dead robins replacing plastic ones, the turkey rotting in the freezer and Rust becoming increasingly unwell, Lynda begins to wonder if her childhood Christmases were in fact as joy filled as she remembers…
A terrifying tale of seasonal dread from a master of horror.
Review
I picked this up on my last trip to Bath just before Christmas. I don’t usually read ghost stories but I was intrigued by the prospect of reading a Christmas ghost story and as the book was only small I thought it looked like a great little Christmas read.
Now I will be honest at first I really thought this book was going to be a great ghost story but then it seemed to go along the lines of Lynda and her son Rust having some sort of shared hallucination which just got stranger and stranger.
Lynda is the mother of Rust and she clearly has some mental health issues. These issues are hinted at by Rust in the book and it is clear he is used to his mother’s strange ways and moods but I do feel sorry for Rust who has had to live with this from birth. I can’t imagine Lynda being an easy mother to live with especially as Rust gets older and begins to realise his mother clearly has some problems.
Rust is also a complicated character. Rust is at that awkward stage of being a teenager but with some childish traits and tastes still lingering. He is also obsessed with the paranormal and hosts a podcast. Rust has a mixed education of being home schooled and going to school for certain times of the year and it is clear that the isolation of being home schooled by his mother is probably not good for him.
I’m not entirely sure on what I think about the outcome of the hauntings in this book. I have my theories but I don’t want to spoil anything. I really enjoyed this book, I loved the descriptions of the house and the Christmas decorations. I loved the character of Rust but I wasn’t that keen on Lynda but I suspect I wasn’t meant to really like her that much. This was a great little ghost story and one that I couldn’t put down. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
An expert on horror and sci-fi cinema (his books of film criticism include Nightmare Movies and Millennium Movies), Kim Newman’s novels draw promiscuously on the tropes of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. He is complexly and irreverently referential; the Dracula sequence–Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula, Cha Cha Cha–not only portrays an alternate world in which the Count conquers Victorian Britain for a while, is the mastermind behind Germany’s air aces in World War One and survives into a jetset 1950s of paparazzi and La Dolce Vita, but does so with endless throwaway references that range from Kipling to James Bond, from Edgar Allen Poe to Patricia Highsmith.
In horror novels such as Bad Dreams and Jago, reality turns out to be endlessly subverted by the powerfully malign. His pseudonymous novels, as Jack Yeovil, play elegant games with genre cliche–perhaps the best of these is the sword-and-sorcery novel Drachenfels which takes the prescribed formulae of the games company to whose bible it was written and make them over entirely into a Kim Newman novel.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I have had a busy teaching but in every gap I have had I have managed some reading which has been nice. I am thoroughly enjoying my chapter a day of my buddy read book and I am finding it a nice way to start my day.
What I am Currently Reading
Unleashed which is my buddy read is going really well and I am finding it really interesting so far. A Three Dog Problem is absolutely brilliant and I can’t put it down. I am already looking forward to the next book in the series.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I quite enjoyed this but it wasn’t what I was expecting. My review will be posted soon.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I have no idea what I will read next. I have so many books planned at the moment that I feel a bit overwhelmed and have no idea what to read next as I just want to read them all!
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Death Comes at Christmas edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane
Blurb
The award-winning Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane invite you to a festive gathering of bestselling, critically acclaimed and award-winning writers in tribute to classic, British period crime stories. From locked room mysteries on Christmas eve to devilish whodunits and tales of simmering rivalries unfolding at the dinner table, these thirteen original seasonal tales will delight and shock at every twist and turn. So, unwrap the presents, pour a mug of mulled wine and follow the bloodstained footprints through the freshly fallen snow as winter descends and darkness lurks in the shadows.
Review
I’m not a huge short story fan but at Christmas I always make an exception and buy some short story books because you can’t beat a good Christmas murder mystery.
I will be honest I wasn’t overly enthralled with this book. There were some stories that really caught my interest but most just lacked the lustre that I usually enjoy in a short story about a Christmas murder mystery. I won’t go into every story but here are the ones which have stayed with me for good and bad reasons.
One of the stories that I really enjoyed was one of the first stories in the book. How to Commit Murder in a Bookshop. I thought this story was very clever and I really had no idea what was going on till the very end. It was beautifully written and I loved the characters, especially the bookshop staff.
The Red Angel was also a good story and was very surprising. I loved the ending and really didn’t see it coming.
Christmas Yet to Come was a piggy back on the classic A Christmas Carol and to be honest I thought it was rather an insult to Dickens. I could see what the author was trying to do but I didn’t enjoy the story and didn’t find that it flowed very well. It was also rather predictable.
Icarus was probably my least favourite story of the collection as it felt unfinished and it was also the shortest story in the book. It just felt like the author had forgotten the storyline and then not bothered to finish it.
Overall, I could take or leave this book as it just felt a bit ‘meh’. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I am back teaching tomorrow and I must admit I will miss my extra reading time. Blogging has been back on track this week but I still have a few book reviews to catch up with.
Unleashed by Boris Johnson is my current buddy read with my best friend. We are reading a chapter today and really enjoying it so far. I have also recently started A Three Dog Problem and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far.
I have been doing quite a bit of thought regarding my Bookish Goals for 2025. My 2024 goals did not go exactly to plan. I had to lower my book goal, I didn’t finish the Shardlake series, I didn’t manage to read my planned 24 books of 2024. However, I did keep up with my book reviews and I did make progress with The Wheel of Time series so it wasn’t all bad.
Do more buddy reads (if you are interested please drop me a message)
Try to finish at least one series I have started.
Explore different genres.
I managed 45 books in 2024 but a lot of those books were huge. In fact 2024 was the year of big books so I’m planning some shorter reads for 2025.
I haven’t really done much on my Classics Club Challenge recently and I am missing my classics. I really want to read more classics this year as my deadline is 2027.
As my challenge to keep up with book reviews kept me well on track last year I am hoping to do the same this year. I have also been planning my blogging content more which has been a big help in pushing me to do my book reviews. I just need to be as organised for my Bookstagram!
This year I want to do more buddy reads. I have already started my first buddy read this year with my best friend and I am really enjoying it. Each day we read a chapter and then chat about it and it is lovely.
I currently have the Wheel of Time series, The Expanse series and the Shardlake series to finish! I am determined that this year I will finish one of these series. I really don’t want to start another series whilst I still have these series sat making me feel guilty.
I also hope to read some different genres this year. I have certain genres that I tend to avoid and other genres I cling to like a security blanket. This year I want to try some of the genres I avoid. I’ve already started by reading a ghost story and I’m currently reading a biography, neither of which I would usually touch but both that I’m thoroughly enjoying so far.
So there are my goals for 2025. I really hope I do better than I did in 2024. Good luck with your bookish goals!
I hope everyone is all ready for Christmas. I have been wrapping Christmas presents today but I’m still rather behind on the Christmas prep. However, the blogging and the reading has been going well this week.
Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.
One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever.
From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the Strange universe. Featuring an introduction by Susanna Clarke and gorgeous illustrations from Victoria Sawdon truly worthy of the magic of this story, this is a mesmerising, must-have addition to any fantasy reader’s bookshelf.
Review
I bought this short little book for my husband who is a huge fan of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but I fancied a short wintery read so I picked it up at the beginning of December for a quick read.
I loved the illustrations in this book and for me the illustrations were the best thing because I just thought the story itself was really lacking. Sadly for me the book was just too short. I needed a bit more character development, I wanted to know more about the Merowdis and her sister. I definitely think this would have been better as a full novel.
My opinion of this book is that it is rather forgettable. To be honest if it wasn’t for the blurb I wouldn’t have remembered the main character’s name and I definitely can’t remember the sister’s name. The main thing I remember is the pet pig called Apple because how can you forget a pet pig called Apple?
The story felt like Clarke was aiming for a Grimm’s fairytale feeling but for me it just missed the mark. I was quite excited for this book but sadly it just was a bit beige. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Susanna Clarke (1959) is an English author who has published novels and short stories. Her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and her set of short stories The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories are all set in a magical England.
Lady Book Dragon 