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Short Book and Scribes

Kate Ryder

Posted on 3rd October 2019 By Nicola

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shortbookandscribes

UK book blogger (Sheffield), Bookstagrammer and lover of all things bookish.
Just one person trying to read all the books.
Physical books only.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Some of my favourite Scottish Island books🏴

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Some of my favourite Scottish Island books🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Joanne @portybelle is hosting a Reading Scotland month during November. I love Scotland and I love Scottish Island fiction so I’ve decided to join in. I've chosen ten books which I've read and enjoyed.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Ghost Story by Elisa Lodato – set on the fictional island of Finish in the Outer Hebrides

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins – set on the fictional tidal island of Eris in the Outer Hebrides

Winter’s Wishfall by Ceri Houlbrook – set on the tiny fictional island of Osk, north of the Shetlands

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke – set on Lòn Haven, off the coast of the Black Isle

Little Wing by Freya North – set on the Isle of Harris

The Island Home by Libby Page – set on the fictional island of Kip

You, Me and the Sea by Elizabeth Haynes – set on the fictional island of Must, close to the real island of May

Love, on the Rocks by Elsie McArthur – set on the fictional island of Inniscreag, close to Skye

Coming Home to Winter Island by Jo Thomas – set on the fictional Winter Island off the west coast of Scotland

Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard – set on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
I wonder if you have read any of my Scottish island choices. Or do you have any recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments.
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#ReadingScotland26 #ScottishBooks #ScottishIslandBooks #ScottishFiction #shortbookandscribes

📚October 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought📚 📖The Sh

📚October 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought📚

📖The Shooting Party by Isobel Colegate (I bought this because it has Downton Abbey vibes and I love the cover of this edition)
📖Daughter of the Titanic by Caroline Cauchi (this was sent by a blogger friend so I didn't actually buy it)
📖Autumn at Flora's House by Freya North
📖A couple more towards my collection of the Mermaid Collection: Down Among the Women by Fay Weldon and Fenny by Lettice Cooper
📖The Case of the Christmas Card by Elly Griffiths
📖Leicester Square by Louisa Scarr
📖Death on the Royal Yacht by S.J. Bennett

Have you read any of these or do you like the sound of them?
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#BookPost #historicalfiction #crimefiction #newbooks #shortbookandscribes

📚 October 2026 - Book Post - Review Books Received 📚

📖Two Hopes by Nadezda Bobyleva
📖Love from Christmas Tree Farm by Jo Thomas
📖The Christmas Tree Murders by Katie Lumsden
📖Road Kill by Sabine Durrant
📖The Silver Bones of Frances Winter by Fiona Goggin
📖Almost a Ghost Story by Emily Bullock
📖Extraordinary Correspondence by Robert Hutton
📖Sex and the Ex by Melanie Cantor
📖The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Ad/PR products with thanks to the tagged publishers and authors.

Do you like the sound of these?
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#bookpost #reviewbooks #Christmasbooks #contemporaryfiction #shortbookandscribes

I was also lucky enough to receive the first sixteen books in the DC Smith/King's Lake books by Peter Grainger. I do love a good crime/police series.

📚October 2026 Reads📚 🔸The Weight of Angels by Joh

📚October 2026 Reads📚

🔸The Weight of Angels by John Boyne - An incredible book about Oscar Wilde and an alternative life in which he lived to a great age and achieved a great deal.

🔸Adam and Eve by Jeffrey Archer - This romps along just fine but it’s cliched and unrealistic and a bit of a disappointment. It tells of Adam and Eve, both born on Armistice Day but from totally different backgrounds.

🔸Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger - An epic book about Alba, Henry and Clare’s daughter from The Time Traveler's Wife who loves two men, one who time travels just like her and one who doesn’t.

🔸The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements - Mercy Booth lives with her father at Scarcross Hall where a malevolent presence starts to make itself known. I thought this was an excellent gothic ghost story.

🔸Time’s Tyranny by Linda Gillard - Historical mysteries, richly drawn characters including a swoon-worthy hero and older heroines galore, and atmospheric settings of an Elizabethan hall and a ruined castle. A lovely read.

🔸The Tango Chain by Linda MacDonald - An engaging and relatable character driven story of Rachel, who is having an affair and Taryn, who is bored of steady Neil.

🔸Black Earth by Kate London - Set around the 1984 miners' strike, Stephen is a picketing miner whose son has gone missing whilst his brother, Ian, is a policeman investigating the murder of a friend from their childhood. How are the two linked?

🔸Orchestrated Death by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - This is the first in the DCI Bill Slider series in which Bill investigates the body of a young woman which leads him to an orchestra, hence the title.

🔸Death Watch by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Bill has another difficult case to investigate, that of a burned body in a motel. Was it accident, suicide or murder? Crime novel with humour - I haven't laughed so much in ages.

🔸Necrochip by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - This one really made me giggle too. A severed finger is found in a bag of chips and the rest of the dismembered corpse isn’t far away. The author’s quips and characterisations are just brilliant.
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#October2026Reads #monthlywrapup #crimeseries #fictionbooks #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. Book review: The Tango Chain by @li

Ad/PR product. Book review: The Tango Chain by @linda.macdonald.books. Published by Troubador and out now.
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The Tango Chain is book five of a loosely connected series which can be read as standalone stories but are interlinked by the characters. I’ve now read all five and have enjoyed them very much.
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This book is centred around two women, Rachel and Taryn. Rachel is having an affair with a much older married man. It’s the sort of toxic relationship you might expect as Rachel is besotted and ‘Sam’, as she calls him for privacy reasons, is quite clearly taking whatever he can get. Taryn is an emotionally unstable woman, almost 60, and torn between settling down with steady Neil or going back to her promiscuous and ill-advised ways. The two women live near each other and find they have more in common than they first realised, not least a burgeoning love of dancing the Argentine Tango, an intense and sexual dance.
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This is a strongly character-driven book, focusing on human flaws and foibles. The narrative is told in alternating chapters by Rachel in the first person and then from Taryn’s third-person point of view which worked well and meant each voice was distinctive. For much of the book I didn’t find either woman particularly likeable, but the reasons for their behaviour became clearer and I think on the whole, the story offers a very honest view of humanity and all its imperfections.
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It was good to meet some of the characters from the previous books again, particularly Marianne. I wonder if I’ll meet them again in a future book...I hope so as I’d love to know what happens next. The Tango Chain is an engaging and relatable story of obsession, temptation and ultimately, redemption.
👠
Thank you to the author for sending me a copy for review.
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#BookReview #TheTangoChain #characterdrivenbooks #contemporaryfiction #shortbookandscribes

Book Review: Time's Tyranny by Linda Gillard. Inde

Book Review: Time's Tyranny by Linda Gillard. Independently published and out now.
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Time’s Tyranny is the second in what is now a trilogy about the Wyngrave Women. We first encountered Wyngrave Hall in the first book, Time’s Prisoner, which focused on Jane Summers, a historical novelist who, to her surprise, inherited the hall (and an unexpected sitting tenant). Jane features in this second instalment too, but we are also treated to another old building, Howthwaite Castle, a romantic ruin that is a drain on the owners. The two buildings and therefore the two strands of the story, are linked by Jesper, an art conservator and Jane’s partner, and his assistant, Bella, who is one of the Hesketts of Howthwaite.
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As I often find with a Linda Gillard book, I could go on and say so much more about the story because there are so many aspects to it and I’m not sure how she fits so much into the pages whilst making it flow and blend so beautifully. She’s a talented author whose books I have been reading for many years now and I always enjoy them very much.
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Time’s Tyranny looks at the burden of responsibility and legacy. There is a strong artistic aspect to the storyline as Jesper is called to Howthwaite to help with conservation and identification of two paintings in particular. The characterisations are wonderful; Gillard always writes a good hero and Jesper is absolutely the sort of man you’d want by your side. She also excels at the older heroine, not just Jane in her 50s but also the next generation, feisty retired actress Sylvia and Jesper’s forthright mother Iris. I particularly enjoyed the convergence of the characters as the second Covid lockdown hits. The portrayal of the impact of the pandemic, particularly on Sylvia’s granddaughter, nurse Ros, is incredibly moving.
✨
A great plot with historical mysteries; three-dimensional, richly drawn characters; and atmospheric and immersive settings, made this a fabulous and warm read that I struggled to put down. I’m looking forward to the third book in the trilogy now, based around another Wyngrave Woman.
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#bookreview #TimesTyranny #contemporaryfiction #booklover #shortbookandscribes

Book review: The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

Book review: The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements. Published by @headlinebooks and out now.
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The Coffin Path leads from Scarcross Hall, a remote and now rundown house, to the nearest village, connecting the two when a death occurs and a coffin has to be carried away for burial. Mercy Booth lives at Scarcross with her father and Agnes, the cook/housekeeper, making a living by tending their flock of sheep on the Yorkshire Moors. A malevolent presence is where the book begins, a sense that Mercy is not alone (well, that and the detailed birth of a stuck lamb, showcasing Mercy’s inner strength and skill from the start). It’s at this time that a man named Ellis turns up looking for work. Mercy takes him on and from there supernatural episodes begin to change everything for the Booths.
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I thought The Coffin Path was an excellent read. It’s eerie and well-plotted, the sense of foreboding never far away. Mercy is a determined woman; unusually for the time (1674) she’s willing to go it alone, trusting herself and knowing her flock. However, things then start to unravel quite spectacularly and through it all I was rooting for Mercy.
🐑
The Coffin Path is a gothic ghost story with an atmospheric setting in Scarcross Hall and the bleak landscape of the moors. Whilst I guessed some of what eventually occurred, I thought the ending was incredibly clever, if a little rushed, and I allowed myself a wry smile at the outcome which felt strangely satisfactory. An enjoyable and absorbing story that makes a perfect addition to the spooky season/historical genre.
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#BookReview #TheCoffinPath #spookyreads #ghoststories #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. Book review: Life Out of Order by A

Ad/PR product. Book review: Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger.
🕰️
Life Out of Order is the sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife that I didn’t know I needed but which I cannot now imagine being without. It tells the story of Alba, the daughter of Henry and Clare, who is also a time traveller. Alba loves two men: Zach who offers a more conventional set up and Oliver, a fellow time traveller who understands Alba’s way of life. TTTW is a love story between Henry and Clare and Life Out of Order is also a love story, just more complicated, whilst also tackling big current issues like climate change and the rise of AI.
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There’s a lot going on in this book and it’s a weighty tome. When I started reading, it wasn’t quite what I had expected (and perhaps hoped). Teenage parties, a futuristic vibe, riots and protests on the streets made me unsure, but then I read on and I became thoroughly absorbed by Alba’s story, her travels, her loves, her family and friends. It took me quite a long time to read this book but I just didn’t want it to end.
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As well as Alba, we also get to see what the years after Henry were like for Clare, a thread that I found fulfilling and which led to some extremely intriguing technological aspects to the story. It’s so thought-provoking and I felt lump in the throat moments when I read the view of the future portrayed in this book which felt like a barren wasteland yet utterly possible. I was pleased to see Henry pop up a few times too which I suppose was inevitable given his time-travelling tendencies. Those sections felt particularly emotional and bittersweet to me.
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This is a hard book to review. I can’t pigeonhole it, it’s timeless and yet overflowing with time, beautiful and heart-rending. It’s everything all at once. I was enraptured by the time-travelling which is one of my favourite genres, and in this book it thrusts us around the past, present and future in much the same way as Alba. Brilliantly plotted and full of humanity, I absolutely loved Life Out of Order which is epic in every way.
🕰️
Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#BookReview #LifeOutOfOrder #timetravelbooks #5starreads #shortbookandscribes

📚📚New Books📚📚 Ad/PR products. Huge thanks to Isab

📚📚New Books📚📚
Ad/PR products.

Huge thanks to Isabelle Ralphs from @hutchheinemann for very kindly furnishing me with sixteen books from the DC Smith/Kings Lake Investigations series by Peter Grainger. This is a crime and police procedural series which is just my kind of thing. In fact when I checked my wishlist the first book, An Accidental Death, was on it.

The books are all in print for the first time, after being very successful in ebook and audiobook and I'm looking forward to making my way through them.

#BookPost #crimeseries #crimebooks
#policeprocedural #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. Book review: Adam and Eve by Jeffre

Ad/PR product. Book review: Adam and Eve by Jeffrey Archer. Published by Harper Collins and out now.
✨
I was thrilled to bits when I heard about Adam and Eve, a book that was already planned to be Jeffrey Archer’s final book and which sadly ended up being published the day after he died. Kane and Abel, which I read many years ago, has a kind of elevated status in my memories due to how brilliant it is and Adam and Eve seemed like a return to the same kind of storyline.
✨
Adam and Eve are born on the same day, the day of the Armistice in 1918. That’s where the similarities end as Adam is a shepherd’s son and Eve is the daughter of an Earl, on whose estate Adam’s parents work. Nevertheless, the pair are brought up together and they become close. Much of the book is about their different paths through life and their relationship to each other, until WWII breaks out and then it becomes a story of espionage and derring-do.
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I’m torn on my feelings about this book. On the one hand, it romps along at a fine pace and it’s very readable, but on the other hand, it did feel quite cliched at times and I had a number of ‘oh come on’ moments when I just didn’t believe that the characters, particularly an Earl and a Dowager Countess in the 1920s and 30s, would have behaved in the way they did.
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There’s no doubting that Archer wrote a ripping yarn with this book and what an amazing legacy of a back catalogue he has left behind. Adam and Eve didn’t completely hit the spot for me but it’s still a twist-a-minute action-packed tale from a master storyteller.
✨
Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#bookreview #warfiction #fortheloveofbooks #bookish #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product: #BookReview - The Weight of Angels

Ad/PR product: #BookReview - The Weight of Angels by John Boyne. Thank you @doubledayukbooks for the proof.
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The Weight of Angels presents an alternative and much longer life of Oscar Wilde. Instead of him suing the Marquess of Queensbury for libel after being accused of being a homosexual, going to prison in 1895 and dying prematurely in 1900, he instead shrugs off the accusation and gets on with his life. Oh, what a rich and varied life John Boyne conjures up for Oscar, one of incredible achievements alongside some of the most pivotal and well-known events of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Boyne is one of my favourite authors and I think he could turn the phone book into something worth reading, but I have to admit to being tempted to give up on this book in the early pages. It felt daunting at 600 pages and I knew very little about Oscar Wilde. I didn’t know if I would take to Oscar’s voice, his florid prose and flamboyant ways. But then, as I continued to read I began to be captivated by him, his larger-than-life personality and his love of pretty young men and champagne, until his vivid and entertaining way of traversing the world completely bowled me over.
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I loved following Oscar through this version of his life, witnessing his successes and mistakes, his loves and losses, and all the people he encountered along the way, many of them very well known names indeed. There’s a chapter set in Los Angeles which is an absolute hoot and one with Virginia and Leonard Woolf which is hilariously bizarre. As with any life, there is sadness too and regrets aplenty, but whatever happened in Oscar’s life, I was engrossed and totally invested.
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This is a weighty tome but I adored it and when I got to the end I felt a bit lost, unable to imagine life without Oscar and unable to comprehend that the version Boyne created isn’t real. He’s a fully-developed character, full of vim and vigour, beloved by so many and a very talented man. The Weight of Angels is easily one of my favourite reads of the year, written by one great writer about another. It’s simply stunning.
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#TheWeightOfAngels #historicalfiction #5starreads #shortbookandscribes

📚September 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought📚 📖Answ

📚September 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought📚

📖Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton (one of the Mermaid collection)
📖The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
📖The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien (seduced by the cover)
📖The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths
📖A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale (I blame @janetemson for this)
📖In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden (seduced by the cover and intrigued after reading @jennycolganbooks' Substack piece about it)

Have you read any of these or do you like the sound of them?
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#BookPost #historicalfiction #newbooks #shortbookandscribes

📚 September 2026 - Book Post- Review Books Received 📚

📖Friends You Haven't Met Yet by Clare Pooley
📖A House in Winter by Emily Hourican
📖The Red Cross Girls by Susanna Bavin and Changing Times at Calico House by Maisie Thomas
📖Adam & Eve by Jeffrey Archer
📖Ten Pound Note by Russ Barr
📖But Mostly Mabel by Sue Clark

Ad/PR products with thanks to the tagged publishers and authors.

Do you like the sound of these?
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#BookPost #reviewbooks #historicalfiction #contemporaryfiction #shortbookandscribes

📚September 2026 Reads📚 🥂The Day Our Lives Collide

📚September 2026 Reads📚

🥂The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson - An intriguing premise about three friends who met at university, told over the course of six weddings.

🔎The Agatha Christie Cure by Cathy Rentzenbrink - Cathy Rentzenbrink is a fan of Agatha Christie and at a time when she was struggling in her life she decided to reread all the Christie books and write about them. I enjoyed the author's observations about her own life but this is really one for Christie fans (I'm a Rentzenbrink fan).

🎟️Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson - Set behind the scenes as the Festival of Britain is planned and staged, it took some getting into this one but I ended up enjoying it and found it really witty and full of wry observations.

💐A Curious Ending by Sally Page - Lara is trying to work out if her good friend, Lady Porter, was murdered or not, ably assisted by a 200 year old ghost. A quirky and charming cosy mystery.

🕰️Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein - Ash gets a job as a time travel agent, a kind of tour guide for trips into the past but is it really possible to travel through time and not mess up the timeline? I really liked this innovative, intelligent and thought-provoking story.

⌛The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - A reread of this classic time travel story prior to the sequel, Life Out of Order, being published. I really enjoyed it second time around.

❄️The Winter Guest by Sarah Moss - A perfectly formed tiny novella about the only two guests at an Irish hotel in a snowstorm. They decide to dine together and tell each other about the worst things they have ever done.

🏠The Gathering Storm by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - The 36th and final book in the Morland Dynasty series. I am so sad that this series has ended but I know I will read them all again at some point.
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#September2026Reads #monthlywrapup #timetravelbooks #fictionbooks #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. Book review: The Winter Guest by Sa

Ad/PR product. Book review: The Winter Guest by Sarah Moss. To be published by @picadorbooks on 1st October.
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The Winter Guest has a very small cast of characters. There are Janice, Gerry, Ryan and Donal, who all meet one winter’s night at a hotel on the west coast of Ireland. Janice and Gerry are the hotel’s only guests with a snowstorm brewing outside, Ryan is the waiter for the evening and Donal the chef. Janice and Gerry sit together, two strangers who only have each other for company and they end up sharing the worst things they have ever done over a lavish four course meal.
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This is a perfectly formed novella, a tiny book with only 128 pages but so much detail packed into them. The characters’ thoughts and feelings leap off the page and the descriptions are sumptuous, transporting me to the hotel with all its finery. I didn’t know where the story was going initially and just enjoyed the interactions between Janice, Gerry and Ryan (who, standing quietly to one side of the table, witnesses it all), until just before the end when the direction it was going in dawned on me with an ‘aha!’ moment.
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The Winter Guest is beautifully written and portrayed, the perfect short read and one that would be ideal for a winter evening in front of the fire.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy
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#BookReview #TheWinterGuest #novella #Irishbook #shortbookandscribes

Book Review: Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein. Publis

Book Review: Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein. Published by @michaeljbooks and out now.
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The Retro of the title is a company founded and ruled by Ro Temple, a powerful and pioneering man. Ash is a failed actress, one who started with much ambition and promise which slowly trickled away to nothing after letdown upon letdown. When Ash is fired from her deadbeat office admin job, an ad for Retro piques her interest. Retro is looking for agents to accompany their sight-seeing expeditions into the past, giving rich folk in the present experiences they could never have dreamt of such as visiting the Old West, or Woodstock.
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At first, Ash loves her new job. It’s all-encompassing with agents having no real life outside of Retro. It gives her the boost she needs and for the first time in ages she feels like she fits in, like she’s living the good life that she should have had. Soon, however, malfunctions start to occur and Ash’s memories become corroded. This is where things really started to hot up for me and what I realised the whole story had been leading to.
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I love time travel stories and so I was keen to give Retro a go. Reviews have been mixed but I thought it was a brilliant read. At first it’s just exciting watching Ash and her colleagues travel into past worlds with no real consequences. It’s a thrilling concept, the idea of being able to drop into the past, stay there for a short while and then return to everything you know in the present. I was enjoying all this and wondering what was going to happen next when things took a rather more sinister turn and then I couldn’t put the book down. I’m not sure what to make of the ending though. As I realised I was about to turn onto the last page I said ‘no’ aloud and then when I did turn the last page I said ‘noooooooo’ rather louder. I would have liked a different ending but at the same time I’m left wondering about the possibilities for Ash beyond the final page.
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Either way, I really really enjoyed Retro. I thought it was innovative and intelligent, fun and witty, thought-provoking and ultimately intriguing.
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#BookReview #Retro #RetroNovel #timetravelbooks #shortbookandscribes

The Morland Dynasty Series by Cynthia Harrod -Eagl

The Morland Dynasty Series by Cynthia Harrod -Eagles
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Over the past 20 months I have been engrossed in the Morland Dynasty series which numbers 36 books. I’ve read them every day since January 2025 as eBooks on my phone (and I love them so much I have the full set of physical books too).
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I had been on the lookout for a series of books that followed a family, not just through a few generations but through centuries, witnessing all the changes both for the family and for the wider world. I’d considered the Morland series but was a tad put off by the starting point in the 1400s which I didn’t think was a time that particularly interested me (in this case I was wrong).
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So I embarked on the series and have been through births, deaths and marriages with the Morlands, through civil wars in America and Spain, the War of the Roses, the Napoleonic wars and the First World War, through royal upheaval from Richard III to Edward VIII, through happy times and sad times, love, friendship, betrayal, illness and disease. I’ve witnessed the fight of the Suffragettes, I’ve been to the Crimea, I’ve visited the perilous court of Henry VIII, observed the industrial revolution, sailed on Titanic and witnessed the advent of flight. Like any family, some members have stayed close to home and others have moved away, starting new branches of the family tree, but the grand fortified manor house with moat and drawbridge called Morland Place is still at the heart of the family.
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I shed a tear when I finished the final book but I know I’ll read them all again in the not too distant future. Whilst these books are beloved by fans of the Morlands, I never see them mentioned anywhere which is a shame because they are the historical fiction lover’s dream and come highly recommended by me.
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#MorlandDynasty #bookseries #historicalfiction #5starreads #shortbookandscribes

Spot the interloper 😐
The books have had several cover changes over the years. As you can see, mine all match until book 36 which is completely different.

Ad/PR product. Book review: A Curious Ending by Sa

Ad/PR product. Book review: A Curious Ending by Sally Page. Published by Harper Fiction and out now.
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A Curious Ending is Sally Page’s fifth published book but the first one she wrote. It has an unusual premise in that the main character, Lara, whilst trying to work out whether her good friend, Lady Porter, was murdered or not, is assisted by a 200 year old ghost, or kindred spirit as she dubs herself, called Abigail. Due to the circumstances of Abi’s own death, she is stuck in a sort of loop of having to help other people solve murders.
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It’s a great premise and Abi is a great character, both quirky and astute. Lara is a lovely character too, and I particularly enjoyed reading about her flower shop. Lara is fairly new to the village and is struggling to fit in but with Abi’s help she flourishes, makes new friends and begins to leave bad decisions behind. The village was described beautifully, giving picturesque and alluring vibes that made me wish I could visit, although some of the characters were ones I’d rather not run into.
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I did find that the story didn’t hold my interest quite as much as I would have hoped. It worked better for me when I read larger chunks and was able to become more absorbed in what was happening. The mystery of Lady Porter’s death itself is nicely resolved and there are a few unexpected twists to come out of it. Whilst not my favourite by this author (step forward The Book of Beginnings), there was still much that I liked about this charming cosy mystery.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#BookReview #ACuriousEnding #cosycrime #cosymystery #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Our Noble Selves by Kat

Ad/PR product. New review: Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson. Published by Doubleday and out now.
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Our Noble Selves is set around the Festival of Britain in 1951. The main character is Harry Flynn, a man who had a difficult war on the Burma Railway and has been recruited to be a part of the festival team, in the planning office. This largely involves him sitting in a dingy basement room with his quirky colleagues, sorting out an anthology of dreadful poetry, or getting out and about and running into trouble left, right and centre.
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I did struggle a bit with this book in the beginning but, I thought, this is Kate Atkinson and I love Kate Atkinson’s work so I persevered and I’m glad I did. The festival detail is plenty, much of which seems amazing and bizarre. In modern day terms it seems astonishing that people would want to see mock up parlours but this was in the post-war austerity era when I suppose folk were just glad to have something to visit and enjoy. It’s when Flynn is accused of murder that it gets really interesting. This is not the sort of book where readers are invited to try and solve the mystery, more one where the reader is invited along to witness Flynn’s hapless attempts to evade the traps that are being set for him.
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Whilst the detail is fascinating, it’s really the colourful characterisations, the witty and dry dialogue and the wry observations that stand out and where I think Atkinson excels. I really liked Flynn and the mysterious Maud Ogilvie from his office and I particularly loved Terence, aka ‘the Boy’, who runs errands and is a bit of a Cockney chancer and Veronica, Flynn’s 13 year old stepdaughter who turns up on his doorstep with Mrs Betty (the dog) and turns out to be just what he needs in his life.
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It did take me a bit of getting into Our Noble Selves but I ended up really enjoying it and I laughed out loud a lot. It also gave me an insight into life behind the festival scenes.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof package.
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#bookreview #historicalfiction #FestivalOfBrit

Happy publication day to these three books which o

Happy publication day to these three books which once again just happen to make up my #lastnownextreads. All this proves is that I'm always reading at the last minute.

🔸Last - The Agatha Christie Cure by Cathy Rentzenbrink
This is definitely one for Christie fans but there's still plenty of Cathy's beautiful and honest writing too.

🔸Now - Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson
This book is set around The Festival of Britain and you can't beat this author for wry observations and colourful characterisations.

🔸A Curious Ending by Sally Page
I enjoy Sally's writing and I'm looking forward to this mystery story.

Ad/PR products with thanks to the publishers for the proof copies.
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#LastNowNext #memoir #historicalfiction #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR Product. The Agatha Christie Cure by Cathy R

Ad/PR Product. The Agatha Christie Cure by Cathy Rentzenbrink. To be published on 10th September by @canongatebooks
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Unlike Jennie Godfrey, who is quoted on my proof copy of The Agatha Christie Cure as saying ‘Come for the greatest crime writer in history and stay for Cathy’s beautiful writing’, I actually came for Cathy’s writing, not being (shhh, don’t tell anyone) much of a Christie fan.
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Rentzenbrink most definitely is a fan of Christie and at a time in her life when she was struggling with several things that threatened to overwhelm her, she decided to undertake a reread of the detective novels, including the very well-known ones like the Poirot and Miss Marple stories. I particularly enjoyed the sections about the author’s own life and her relatable trials and tribulations, which are interspersed with some fairly in-depth descriptions of the plots of Christie’s books and details of her life and how parallels can be found between what she was writing and what was going on behind the scenes.
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I think this is a book that will appeal massively to Agatha Christie aficionados who share an obsession with her life and her books. For me, I just enjoyed the beauty and honesty of Rentzenbrink’s writing and observations over the duration of the project. She’s an author whose work I will always want to read.
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My thanks to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#BookReview #TheAgathaChristieCure #memoir
#nonfictionbooks #shortbookandscribes

📚 August 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought 📚 📖The G

📚 August 2026 - Book Post - Books Bought 📚

📖The Girl Who Took Flight by Lizzie Page
📖For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie
📖If I Were You by Helen Matthews
📖The Derbyshire Detective by Peter Yates
📖Swept Away by Beth O'Leary
📖May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
📖The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland
📖Island Calling by Francesca Segal
📖Unseen by Heather Critchlow
📖Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis

Have you read any of these or do you like the sound of them?
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#BookPost #historicalfiction #crimefiction #contemporaryfiction #shortbookandscribes

And I took a fancy to the Mermaid Collection, books published by @michaeljbooks to champion forgotten voices. I picked these two up from Vinted and have another on the way.

📖Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
📖 Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy
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#BookPost #MermaidCollectuon #historicalfiction
#forgottenbooks #shortbookandscribes

📚 August 2026 - Book Post - Review Books Received 📚

📖Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson
📖The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson
📖The Domino Man by Helen Jones
📖On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love by Louise Doughty
📖In Her Defence by Philippa Malicka
📖The High Island by Lin Anderson
📖The Tango Chain by Linda MacDonald
📖The Ruins by Becky Docton
📖A Fatal Love by Louisa Treger
📖Under Story by Chloe Benjamin
📖Outside by Charlotte Levin

Unusually for me, I've already read two of these and am reading a third. Who even am I? 🤔

Ad/PR products with thanks to the tagged publishers and authors.

Do you like the sound of these?
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#BookPost #reviewbooks #reviewer #booklover #shortbookandscribes

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