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Short Book and Scribes

The Shadow Man

Posted on 30th January 2021 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.

Ad/PR product. New review: Dead Heat by @sabinedur

Ad/PR product. New review: Dead Heat by @sabinedurrant. To be published by @centurybooksuk on 12th March.
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Dead Heat is narrated by Matt Grimshaw. Down on his luck after both his relationship and his work as a journalist ended, he goes to Greece to stay with his best friend, Adam Murphy and his wife Celia. Adam is everything Matt is not. He’s a successful TV presenter, he is charming and congenial, a generous host and a fun person to be around, but tensions rise when somebody else arrives in the area who threatens to derail the summer and seriously muddy the waters.
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To say anymore about the story itself would be to risk spoilers and I think it’s better to just let it all unfold, just as it would have done for Matt. I read Dead Heat fairly slowly because I wanted to savour every detail, every exchange between Matt and the other characters, and every move he made, all expertly set up by the author so that she could draw all the strands together for the finale.
🕶️
For me, this is a masterclass in plotting and everything I want in a literary thriller. There is a languid build up, the edgy feel of a hot, claustrophobic summer full of resentment and covetousness, an unreliable narrator, and then the conclusion where it all converges to great effect. I thought several times throughout that I knew what had happened and that I’d guessed a twist, but I was wrong.
🕶️
The writing is absolutely spellbinding, the story is quietly menacing and the characters are unstable and/or untrustworthy. Put together, Dead Heat is quite simply superb.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#bookreview #DeadHeat #5starreads #thrillerfiction #shortbookandscribes

📚February Reads📚 🔹The Homecoming by Cynthia Harro

📚February Reads📚

🔹The Homecoming by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
This is book 24 of the Morland Dynasty series. Although I always love following the London contingent I did miss Morland Place action in this one.

🔹Mrs Pearcey by Lottie Moggach
A well-researched book based on a true Victorian crime but unfortunately I found it hard to engage with.

🔹The Barbecue at No. 9 by Jennie Godfrey
This is an enjoyable and authentic story set on the day of Live Aid in 1985, following different characters from the same road.

🔹Unreliable Narrator by Araminta Hall
I thought this was a first-rate story of subtle manipulation through one intense summer and its rippling effect over the following ten years.

🔹The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski
I enjoyed this story of a family’s downfall and eventual extinction as their family home is bought by a hotel chain.

🔹Six Little Words by Sally Page
A joyous story of a group of new friends embracing their creativity. Full of colour, warmth, empathy and humour.
📚
Book Post from the month and my Storygraph stats can be found on my blog post (link in bio).
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#FebruaryReads #monthlyroundup #February2026Reads #monthlywrapup #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Six Little Words by @by

Ad/PR product. New review: Six Little Words by @bysallypage. To be published by @harpercollinsuk on 12th March.
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Six little words on a café noticeboard bring together a group of people looking to embrace or rediscover their creativity. Bardy is a former English teacher who is struggling with life alone after his divorce. Kate is in a similar situation and also recovering from illness. Along with Bardy’s best friend Luigi, prickly Dane Pia, and married couple Linda and Leonard, the group provides friendship, support and encouragement, whilst bringing out their natural talents for various kinds of art.
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Sally Page has a wonderful warmth and empathy to her writing and in this book she has created such interesting, likeable yet flawed characters. I loved Linda for her caring nature (and for tackling her frustration at Leonard refusing to wear his hearing aids), Pia for her wisdom, Kate for her vulnerability, Bardy for his kindness and Luigi for his hospitality. Each and every one of these characters, along with a few others who play a role in the story, brings something special to the mix and I came away from this book thinking that it must be really nice to be in the midst of such an amazing bunch of people. I loved the trajectory that each character’s progress took and by the end of the book I felt each one had achieved something and reached a kind of peace with themselves and their lives.
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Six Little Words is a joyous read. It’s full of colour, art, love, camaraderie, inspiration, optimism and humour. Put all these attributes together and it’s quite simply a splendid read from start to finish. I loved it!
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Thank you to the publishers and Sally for the proof copy.
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#bookreview #SixLittleWords #feelgoodfiction #5starreads #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: The Infamous Gilberts b

Ad/PR product. New review: The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski. To be published in hardcover on 5th March by @penguinfigtree.
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Some years ago, Angela Tomaski visited a house that had just been bought by the National Trust. She saw slippers and soap belonging to the late owner in his bedroom and by her next visit they had gone, those items so personal to him erased forever. This was the seed of a story that led her to write The Infamous Gilberts.
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The Gilberts are siblings Lydia, Hugo, Annabel, Jeremy and Rosalind and their story covers much of the 20th century. In short chapters, vignettes almost, we see the trajectory of their lives at Thornwalk, their gothic family mansion, not through their own reminiscences but through those of Maximus who walks us through life at Thornwalk in the manner of a tour guide (although he’s actually a friend of the family) before it passes into the hands of the hotel chain who have bought it.
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It becomes clear there is an element of madness running through the Gilbert siblings, a self-destructive nature that is inescapable. I got to the end and thought they literally had no redeeming features but when I thought about it more I realised that Annabel and Jeremy were at least a little more likeable. The other three didn’t have much going for them but they certainly made interesting reading.
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The writing style of The Infamous Gilberts won’t appeal to everyone. It did take a little getting into, the narration being rather matter of fact yet conversational, but I got to a point where I found it difficult to put down. The story itself, of a family’s downfall and extinction, is fascinating and I agree with the author, it’s the small things that feel so incredibly intimate, those stains and scratches, the wedding ring, the blotter by the telephone, all memories of a family and a way of life now lost. I enjoyed this unusual and poignant book.
✨
Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy and the little box of Fruits of Thornwalk strawberry jam.
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#TheInfamousGilberts #bookreview #historicalfiction #debutfiction #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Unreliable Narrator by

Ad/PR product. New review: Unreliable Narrator by @aramintahall. To be published by @panmacmillan on 5th March.
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When I read Araminta Hall’s first book, Everything and Nothing, back in 2011, I commented that I hoped the author would write more great reads like that one in the future. She certainly did, perhaps most notably her most recent book, One of the Good Guys, which I thought was brilliant. Now she’s done it again with Unreliable Narrator which drew me right into the world of Hope Jenkins and didn’t let me go until the end.
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Hope takes a job as assistant to author, Ambrose Glencourt. As an aspiring writer herself it sounds ideal and she is soon fully assimiliated into the glamorous and dazzling life at Shadowlands with Ambrose and his wife. Hope tells her story in the form of a journal, but is she an unreliable narrator?
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Hall’s skilled writing enables the reader to view events from an independent standpoint, less blinkered by the Glencourts’ allure or by Hope’s naivity. I still didn’t know the truth of the matter (although I had a good idea) but I loved every minute I spent finding it out. The second half of the book has a different style to it, leading to an ending which was poignant, ingenious and feministic, and which rounded off the story perfectly.
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I thought Unreliable Narrator was extremely well-written, a first-rate story of subtle manipulation through one intense summer and its rippling effect over the following ten years.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#UnreliableNarrator #bookreview #5starreads #psychologicalthriller #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: The Barbecue at No. 9 b

Ad/PR product. New review: The Barbecue at No. 9 by @jennie.godfrey. To be published by @hutchheinemann tomorrow!
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The Barbecue at No. 9 takes place on the day of the Live Aid concert in July 1985, an event that I think turned out to be more momentous than most people could have imagined at the time. Certainly the day is pretty momentous for the residents of Delmont Close. There is a street plan of the close at the beginning of the book which shows all the residents. The main ones featured in this book are Hanna Gordon and her family at no. 9, Steve and his mum at no. 20 and Rita at no. 15, although many of the other residents play a small role too.
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The story is broken up into the hours of the concert and who was on stage at the time. It’s such a brilliant idea to take Live Aid as a basis for the book and for the barbecue that brings everyone on the close together. Emotions are running high, especially for Hanna and Rita who have secrets that will rock the worlds of their families and their neighbours. The pacing is excellent and kept me interested all the way through, with these individual lives coming together to create a kind of pressure cooker that was bound to explode eventually.
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As with Jennie Godfrey’s first book, The List of Suspicious Things, it’s the characters that stand out, with the backdrop of a point in history to anchor them. Hanna, Steve and Rita are memorable characters who I came to care about (and I must admit to a soft spot for Prince the dog). It felt authentic to the 80s too and put me right back there (Hanna’s mum Lydia’s style icons are Princess Di and Krystle Carrington!).
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This is another great read from this author and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
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Thank you to the publishers for the amazing proof package.
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#bookreview #TheBarbecueAtNo9 #fictionbooks #contemporaryfiction #shortbookandscribes

📚January Reads📚 🛎️ Room 706 by Ellie Levenson An

📚January Reads📚

🛎️ Room 706 by Ellie Levenson
An incredible story of a woman who is in a hotel room with her lover when it comes under siege. Will be one of my favourite books of the year.

🛎️ Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel by Maisie Thomas
Book two in a trilogy about three women stepping outside their comfort zones and expected roles in wartime. A lovely read.

📖 This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
Gorgeous bookish story of Tilly who receives the gift of a book each month for a year from her late husband Joe.

😵 Vivian Dies Again by C.E. Hulse
An unusual and clever story of calamitous Viv who is stuck in a time loop and keeps being murdered over and over.

✨ The Wartime Mother by Lizzie Page
The third in the Wartime Evacuees trilogy follows Francine who is sent to live with Winnie. Both provide comfort to the other. An enjoyable wartime story.

🔸The Mirage by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Morland Dynasty book 22 continues the story of the family in Victorian times.

🔸The Cause by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Book 23 - Morland Place is being run into the ground and Lady Venetia Fleetwood continues with her plan to become a fully-fledged doctor.

📚As always, my book post for the month and my Storygraph stats can be found on my blog post (link in bio).
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#JanuaryReads #monthlyroundup #monthlywrapup #January2026Reads #shortbookandscribes

New review: The Wartime Mother by @lizziepagewrite

New review: The Wartime Mother by @lizziepagewriter. Published by @bookouture and out now.
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The Wartime Mother is the third and final book in the Wartime Evacuees trilogy by Lizzie Page. Each of the three (the others being A Child Far from Home and The Wartime Nursery) focuses on one child’s evacuation in WWII. Valerie, Lydia and Francine used to live in the same building in London with their respective families and so we follow each of their individual wartime experiences whilst also getting to know a little of what the other two are going through at the same time. The Wartime Mother is Francine’s story of being evacuated to Kettering after her mother and siblings die when their bomb shelter takes a direct hit.
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Francine is sent to live with Winnie, landlady of The Castle public house, whose husband has been killed in action. At first, Winnie doesn’t feel she can look after Francine but circumstances intervene and they end up being a balm to each other throughout the remainder of the war and beyond.
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I always love reading a Lizzie Page book and this was no exception. Francine’s story is a heartbreaking one but I felt that things worked out well for her in the end and she became such a strong character. Winnie is great too but at times I wanted to reach into the book and give her a good shake. Talk about blinkered! Part of this story covers the persecution of Jews at home as well as abroad, and I suppose it was just as hard for some people (including Winnie) to comprehend that it could happen here as it was there.
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Despite my frustrations with Winnie, it’s the characters that make this book and I found that, as with other books by this author, there is such a variety of distinctive and unique folk that it makes this book (and all of the others) such a pleasure to read. I very much enjoyed this lovely, touching and ultimately inspiring book.
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#bookreview #TheWartimeMother #historicalfiction #wartimebooks #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Vivian Dies Again by @c

Ad/PR product. New review: Vivian Dies Again by @carolinehulse1. To be published on 29th January by @viper.books.
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Viv is a nightmare. She’s the party guest that nobody wants to see, the bane of her family and friends’ lives, an utter catastrophe. At a memorial gathering for two family members she is unceremoniously tipped over a balcony to her death. Except this is no ordinary murder. Vivian is doomed to die over and over again, going back to the same moment a staggering eighty-four times. Only a waiter at the gathering knows what has happened and he seems to be stuck too, so he alone must help Viv to find her way out of the loop.
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This is such an unusual and cleverly written story. I know that if I came across Viv in real life she would do my head in, but in Vivian Dies Again she is funny and chaotic and rather likeable in her own calamitous way. I had no idea how she was going to get out of the time loop but I was along for the ride….and what a ride!
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Whilst there is an element of madness about the whole thing, C.E. Hulse’s adept writing style keeps it from descending into silliness. I thought the time loop was executed perfectly as I was hurled back and forth between the many murders and throwbacks to Viv’s behaviour in the past until the reason for her murder became clearer. Viv is a brilliant creation and the other characters are so well-drawn. This is a crime caper with a difference and I loved it.
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Thank you to the publishers for sending proof and finished copies of the book for review.
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#bookreview #VivianDiesAgain #crimecaper #crimefiction #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: This Book Made Me Think

Ad/PR product. New review: This Book Made Me Think of You by @libbypagewrites. To be published on 29th January by @vikingbooksuk.
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Tilly is grieving the loss of her husband Joe when she receives a call from a bookshop called Book Lane and specifically a bookseller called Alfie. He tells her that she has a book to collect from the shop, one that was chosen by Joe before he died. In fact, there are twelve books in total, one for each month of the year. Tilly is shocked at first, but as the months go by she begins to heal and to enjoy new experiences (well, most of them anyway) as well as getting back the love of reading that she lost when Joe was ill.
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If you’ve ever given or received a book as a gift, you’ll know that so much thought can be put into it and it can be such a personal thing. Even more so for Tilly as each one comes with a letter from Joe telling her why he chose it. The books are well-timed and along the way Tilly makes new friends who help her to deal with her loss, Alfie being chief amongst them.
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Having read all of Libby Page’s other books and considering myself a fan, I knew I would enjoy This Book Made Me Think of You but I loved it even more than I expected. The storyline hit just the right note without ever becoming twee, and I found it just as joyous and uplifting as I did heartbreaking and emotional. Page tells Tilly’s story, and Alfie’s too, so beautifully and empathetically throughout.
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What makes this book even more special is the bookishness of it. I loved the idea of Alfie’s bookshop and the personal touch he bestowed on every single customer. I also really liked that at the beginning of each month there is a list of reading recommendations and they’re not the usual suspects. I follow the author on social media and I recognise many of the books as ones she has read and enjoyed herself and I was particularly pleased to see so many modern books on the lists too.
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This book is about grief, love and books and I found it touching and captivating.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof package.
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#bookreview #ThisBookMadeMeThinkOfYou #5starreads #bookishbooks #shortbookandscribes

Reading and Writing ✒️ I was lucky enough to be a

Reading and Writing
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I was lucky enough to be a winner in @bysallypage's recent giveaway and these were my prizes:

🖋️ One of Sally's own @ploomspens fountain pens. I chose the bright pink colour but as you can see from the postcard, there is a whole range of beautiful colours to choose from. The pen came beautifully packaged in a box and also with a matching zipped pouch to keep the pen in.

📓 The other part of the prize is #TheBookLoversJournal2026 which is a gorgeous hardback book full of Q&As with authors and space to write down all the books I'm going to read this year. I'm looking forward to reading Sally's Q&A as I love her books. This journal is @freya_north_author's brainchild.
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So I'm looking forward to reading and writing in my journal with my bright pink pen this year. Thank you so much, Sally! 🩷
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#fountainpen #bookjournal #readingandwriting #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Hopeful Hearts at the W

Ad/PR product. New review: Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel by Maisie Thomas. Published by @theboldbookclub and out now.
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Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel picks up where the first book in the trilogy, A New Home at the Wartime Hotel, left off. Kitty Dunbar is running the family hotel but as a storage facility during WWII, looking after household furniture for families who have been bombed out of their homes. She’s doing well, in fact the business is thriving, but her spendthrift husband still holds the purse strings. Then there’s Beatrice who made a sacrifice years ago only for it to come back to haunt her now and Lily whose world fell apart when she lost her baby son but now maybe there is hope on the horizon for her future.
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I very much enjoyed this second book. I love to read about women stepping outside of their comfort zones and expected roles during wartime. Kitty, Beatrice and Lily formed an unexpected friendship in the first book and now it’s fully cemented, each becoming like a member of the family to the others. Maisie Thomas portrays each character really well and makes them likeable and strong. They pull together to deal with whatever life throws at them, adapting along the way. Kitty decides to allow functions in the hotel and the creation of Dunbars Wartime Wedding Punch sends many a happy couple on their way.
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This is such a lovely series, full of warmth, hope and solidarity, and one which all saga lovers will enjoy. I’m looking forward to book three now to see how each woman’s story will end. Beatrice’s and Lily’s in particular didn’t go in the direction I thought they might in this book and so I’m keen to see what the future will hold for them. For Kitty, I wonder how on earth she will deal with her (very annoying) husband, Bill! I can’t wait to find out.
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Thank you to the author for sending me a review copy.
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#bookreview #HopefulHeartsAtTheWartimeHotel #sagabooks #wartimebooks #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Room 706 by @ellie_leve

Ad/PR product. New review: Room 706 by @ellie_levenson. To be published by @headlinebooks on 15th January.
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Kate is in a hotel room with her lover when they hear that the hotel is under siege. This is the outward premise of this novel and I was immediately enticed by it, wondering how Kate would deal with this turn of events, the life or death situation, and whether her betrayal of her husband Vic would be discovered. However, there is so so much more to this story than just the fateful day in question. The reader is taken back to when Kate and Vic first met in Italy and this thread follows their life together over the ensuing years, including two much-loved children. A third thread tells how Kate met her lover James and the progress of their affair. The three strands when woven together tell a story of love, need and desire, and of balancing stability and family life against those brief snatched moments of excitement.
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Room 706 is an incredible book. I had fairly high expectations that I would like it but it exceeded everything I could have imagined. It’s complex and authentic, and it made me ponder on those decisions we make when we think nobody will find out. The chapters in the hotel room felt so tense with Kate and James holed up in a quiet room, not knowing what’s going on and if rescue will come. The other chapters told of a long-lasting love, a solid marriage and a happy family life. Despite this, the question is not really one of why Kate made the decision to have an affair, but one of how to deal with whatever the fallout may be.
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This is a beautifully written book with a superb storyline. It’s full of heart and soul and felt completely real. It totally blew me away and oh my goodness, the ending! This is my first book of 2026 and I know for sure that it will be one of my favourites of the year.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy.
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#bookreview #Room706 #5starreads #favouritebooks #shortbookandscribes

Bookish Christmas Gifts 🎁 I don't very often ask f

Bookish Christmas Gifts
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I don't very often ask for books as gifts as I feel too guilty when they languish on my TBR pile for years. As I've already read one of the two that I got I don't feel so bad this year.

❄️Winter by Val McDermid is a lovely memoir of the author's favorite season and all the things she loves about it. There are some really lovely illustrations to accompany each special memory. It was the ideal book to end 2025 with.

⛪Love Divine by Ysenda Maxtone Graham is a beautiful Slightly Foxed novella set in a Church of England parish in London through the course of one calendar year. I'm really looking forward to reading it.
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I also got a book light which I'm really pleased with. As you can see, it's personalised and when it is opened up it's like the pages of a book. The light can be either one colour or changing colours 🤩
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Did you get any bookish Christmas gifts?
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#bookishgifts #bookishchristmasgifts #booklight #books #shortbookandscribes

Some Favourite 2025 Reads 📚 I wasn’t sure whether

Some Favourite 2025 Reads
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I wasn’t sure whether I would do a favourite reads post for 2025 but then realised I had marked a nice round ten books as standouts and they were easy to locate in my book stacks so here we are.

I’ve excluded the Morland Dynasty books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I read 21 of them in 2025 (the series runs to 36 books) and they’re absolutely in my top reads of the year but I don’t really want to list them all!

I’m very generous with my scores so I rated lots of books 4* and 5* reads but these ten have a little red * at the side of them which means they were extra special. In no particular order:

📖Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley
Highly recommended for a grown up love story, warts and all.

📖The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
This time-travel book offers mysteries to be solved in an extraordinary way.

📖Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
An epic love story that burrowed its way deep into my heart.

📖Killer Instinct by Nicola Williams
This legal thriller has a killer storyline and I loved every bit of it.

📖The Hometown Bookshop by Jenna Warren
An ideal summer read about life, love, friendship, reinvention and books.

📖A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Re-read of this epic story of a young housemaid who makes her fortune.

📖A Place in the Sun by Jo Thomas
The perfect blend of travel and food – feel-good fiction at its very best.

📖What Happened That Summer by Laura Pearson
A unique and utterly gripping podcast novel.

📖Human Remains by Jo Callaghan
Gripping story of a police officer and her AI sidekick. What a chilling ending!

📖Getting Away by Kate Sawyer
A multi-generational, beautifully portrayed family story told through the holidays they take.
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#favourite2025books #favourite2025booksstack #readsoftheyear #shortbookandscribes

December 2025 Reads As always, my book post and st

December 2025 Reads
As always, my book post and stats for the month are on my blog (link in bio).
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📖A Twelfth Night Miracle by Callie Langridge
A lovely time slip/time travel novella in which Freya is transported back to another Twelfth Night ball.

📖Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas
A joyous story of community and farming in West Wales. I love everything this author writes.

📖New Beginnings for Christmas by Sally Page
This novella is a sequel to The Book of Beginnings, my favourite Sally Page book. It felt a little bit magical and is poignant and hopeful and full of festive cheer.

📖The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
Takes the real life inventors of Cluedo, Anthony and Elva Pratt, and places them in their own whodunnit as they are asked to create a murder mystery game for hotel guests to play in 1943.

📖Christmas at Flora’s House by Freya North
Gorgeous novella about Maggie who is spending Christmas on the Isle of Harris. The beauty of the island and the power of love and healing make this an emotional, yet hopeful, story.

📖The Harbour Lights Mystery by Emylia Hall
Book two in the brilliant Shell House Detectives series sees Ally and Jayden investigating the murder of a chef. I loved that it was set in Mousehole when the annual Christmas lights were up.

📖What Happened That Summer by Laura Pearson
This podcast novel follows the story of how teen singer and heartthrob, AJ Silver, died in a tragic accident at a UK theme park. I didn’t want to put this book down and thought it unique and gripping.

📖Winter by Val McDermid
The author’s memoir of her favourite season and all the things she associates with it. I thought it was a charming read with some lovely illustrations too.

📖The Winter Journey by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
20th in the series – Charlotte, Duchess of Southport sets up her own hospital and her brother Cavendish leaves to fight in the Crimean War.

📖The Outcast by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
21st in the series – Benedict Morland takes an orphaned boy to live with his daughter Mary in the American south, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
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#monthlywrapup #December2025Reads #monthlyroundup #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: What Happened That Summ

Ad/PR product. New review: What Happened That Summer by @laurapauthor. To be published tomorrow by @theboldbookclub.
🎢
What Happened That Summer is a podcast novel consisting of eight episodes. Presenter Danny Drake asks the question: what happened during the summer of 1996 that led to American teen singer and heartt hrob AJ Silver losing his life at Birmingham theme park, Wildworld?
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Wildworld was owned by the Hunter family and Danny interviews them along with AJ’s family and his manager/staff. In this way, the whole story unfolds, from how AJ shot to fame and the Hunter family’s difficulties, to the long-reaching effects of the events of that summer. Gradually the reader gets to see the whole picture of a spoiled teenage star and those who must orbit around him, and the people who believed that his visit would change their fortunes.
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A narrative structure like this, with the story told in soundbites, could have left me feeling a bit disconnected from the characters but it absolutely didn’t as each one felt so fully rounded and so real and I was completely engrossed in their stories. From early on, when AJ’s manager is tasked with finding a theme park in the UK for him to spend the summer at, right up until the conclusion, I was totally hooked and didn’t want to put it down. The soundbite style gives it a fast pace and made it easy to keep reading.
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What a book Laura Pearson has written with What Happened That Summer. I loved the podcast style, it has a tragedy and a love story, it’s a family saga and it has ‘I’m with the band’ vibes. Put all that together with the fun of the 90s theme park with rollercoasters, water rides and the good old pirate ship and this is a unique and utterly gripping read, a total triumph. In fact, it’s just crept in as one of my favourite reads of 2025.
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Thank you to the author for sending me one of her amazing proof packages.
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#bookreview #WhatHappenedThatSummer #podcastnovel #5starreads #shortbookandscribes

New review: The Harbour Lights Mystery by @emyliah

New review: The Harbour Lights Mystery by @emyliahall_author. Published by Thomas & Mercer and out now.
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I read The Shell House Detectives a few months ago and had book two, The Harbour Lights Mystery on my TBR pile ready to read. When I saw a post on Instagram by the author, Emylia Hall, saying that it was set in December and featured the Christmas lights that go up annually in Mousehole, it seemed the perfect book to add to my Christmas reading pile.
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It really was ideal and I enjoyed it so much. The Shell House Detectives consist of Ally Bright, whose late and much missed husband Bill was the local sergeant, and Jayden Weston, an ex-constable from Leeds who now lives in Cornwall with his wife and baby daughter. After inadvertently becoming amateur detectives and solving their first case in book one, in this book they get involved in the case of the murder of a local chef, JP Sharpe, a man with a few foes and an unexpected link to one of their friends, local beach/surf cafe owner, Saffron.
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I loved how the story unfolded and it was as much about Saffron as about solving the murder. The case itself offers a twisty storyline but I think what stands out most for me are the regular characters and the Cornish settings. Both are so vividly drawn by Hall to the point that I felt a bit lost when I finished the book. It’s abundantly clear how much the author loves Cornwall and the way of life there of fishing, surfing and community.
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The Harbour Lights Mystery is a wonderful book and I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and the characters’ lives in Porthpella and Mousehole. I’ve now lined up book three, The Rockpool Murder, and I’m looking forward to another Cornish escapade.
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#TheHarbourLightsMystery #bookreview #crimeseries #cornwallfiction #shortbookandscribes

New review: Christmas at Flora's House by @freya_n

New review: Christmas at Flora's House by @freya_north_author. Independently published and out now.
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Christmas at Flora’s House is the first in four planned novellas from Freya North. If you’ve read Little Wing then some of the characters and settings will be familiar but if not then this works perfectly well as a standalone, although I highly recommend reading Little Wing too.
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Maggie Birch and her husband Roger will be spending Christmas at Flora’s House, a holiday rental on the Isle of Harris. It’s a big change for them as all their previous Christmases have been spent at home in Alderley Edge, but they’ve brought their own Christmas decorations with them to make them feel more comfortable. Maggie soon finds the community run shop and stocks up with all manner of gorgeous-sounding items but Roger is a bit more distant and keeps taking himself off for walks on his own.
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To say anymore about the story itself might mean spoilers but what I can say is that this is a beautifully written and poignant story of community spirit, especially at Christmas, and the power of love and healing. As with Little Wing, this is a love letter to Harris and its windswept and wild beauty and I now want to go and stay at Flora’s House and visit Shona at the shop to buy Scottish tablet and Talisker whiskey from across the water on Skye, both buildings feeling so real to me.
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Emotional yet hopeful, Christmas at Flora’s House is an absolute delight to read and I can’t wait for the next novella to see who the inhabitants spending Spring at Flora’s House will be.
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#bookreview #ChristmasAtFlorasHouse #festivereads #festivenovella #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: The Christmas Clue by @

Ad/PR product. New review: The Christmas Clue by @nicolaupson. Published by @faberbooks and out now.
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The Christmas Clue takes the real life inventors of Cluedo, Anthony and Elva Pratt, and places them in their own whodunnit. It’s Christmas 1943 and the Pratts return to the hotel where Anthony played the piano pre-war. They’ve been asked to run a murder mystery game for the guests but from the moment they arrive in the village they are thrust into their own murder mystery when they discover the body of the owner of the local sweet shop. Can the Pratts find out who did it and why?
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I think Nicola Upson has hit upon a genius idea with this book. I’ve never given any thought to the inventors of Cluedo, despite playing it many times over the years. This story blends real life and fiction really well and it’s interesting to think about how the inspiration for the game may have come about. I’m not sure the Pratts were involved in any real life sleuthing but certainly the first subtitle of the game was Murder at Tudor Close, being the hotel the couple had visited before the war and the hotel they visit in the book.
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The Christmas Clue will appeal to all fans of classic crime. It’s a well-written crime mystery and I was fascinated by the hints as to what would one day make up one of the best-known board games of all time (did you know one of the original weapons was to be a syringe?).
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Thank you to the publishers who kindly sent me a proof copy as part of a Harrogate at Home goodie box.
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#bookreview #TheChristmasClue #festivenovella #festivereads #murdermystery #crimenovella #crimefiction #fortheloveofbooks #christmasbooks #ilovereading #bookish #reader #reviewer #reviewbooks #bookblogger #booksread #shortbookandscribes

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