Bonnets at Dawn is a podcast that started in 2017 and looked at the lives and works of authors Jane Austen, Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte. Over the last six years the hosts, Hannah Chapman and Lauren Burke, have brought female authors who may have not been as well known as their male counterparts or who may have been forgotten by history front and centre.
Burke and Chapman discuss the writings and lives of women writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They also do episodes on poetry, literary house tours, read alongs and ghost stories.
The hosts have a natural flow with their subjects and they have great chemistry. Each episode has a great combination of humour and facts. The podcast has lots of interesting guests who bring their knowledge and opinions to the subjects which adds a different take on the work that they are discussing.
Each episode is enjoyable and great to listen to. They are filled with interesting facts and the hosts leaves one thinking more about what they have listened to and feeling positive from the jokes and humour.
Snow White with the Red Hair is a manga series which shows the adventures of a red headed herbalist called Shirayuki, Prince Zen the second prince of the kingdom of Clarines, Zen’s aides called Kiki and Mitsuhide and Obi who is Zen’s royal messenger.
The series starts with Shirayuki running away from her home kingdom of Tanbarun because she has received the unwanted summons to become the concubine to Tanbarun’s Crown Prince Raj. She meets Prince Zen and after a failed poisoning they start their adventure together.
In some fairytale inspired stories, the heroine is rescued by a love interest. Although Snow White with the Red Hair has a romance between Shirayuki and Zen it is not the main focal point of the series. Both Shirayuki and Zen want to grow and develop as individual people before they progress with their relationship. Zen wants to become a prince that his brother Crown Prince Izana and the people of Clarines can be proud of. Shirayuki wants to develop and expand her knowledge of herbalism and to become a court herbalist. This is quite a nice refreshing look as Akiduki takes the time to flesh out the characters and doesn’t make the relationship their only character trait.
This series has a strong female lead who decided that instead of being a concubine to a pampered prince, she would leave behind the kingdom that she has known and loved to discover who she can become using her own skills and determination.
As of writing this review there are currently 25 volumes that have been released which means there are plenty of adventures to get stuck in.
Why She Wrote is a graphic history of the lives behind some of the greatest works of literature. It is just over two hundred pages long but it is not long enough. The book is split into six chapters with three female writers per chapter. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte each have their own chapters. This is refreshing as they are usually grouped together despite being individual women with their own novels which are brilliant in their own right. Why She Wrote covers well-known writers such as Jane Austen and Beatrix Potter but also covers writers that may not be more well-known such as Edith Maudie Eaton, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and Frances E.W. Harper.
The illustrations by Kaley Bales are brilliant. Each writer has their own unique characteristics. It is easy to see who is who as some writers turn up in different chapters. A good example is Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. As they show up in each other’s chapters it is easy to see who each of them is without having to look back at the previous chapters.
It is very enjoyable to read and a good way to get the reader to research more about all the amazing women in the book. It is very informative and nicely presented.
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
‘The Crowns of Croswald’ is a brilliant book. The world-building is fantastic and really makes the reader picture the different places. The main character Ivy Lovely is a funny and relatable character.
The story follows Ivy who works as a scaldrony maid in a castle looking after the dragons that heat/cook the food enjoyed by the rich family living in the castle. Ivy has a few mishaps and ends up being fired. She finds herself being accepted into the Halls of Ivy school for people who can use magic.
Ivy finds that things are not always as they appear when simple classes turn into dangerous and mysterious incidents. Ivy needs to find the scrivener Derwin Edgar Night and unlock the mysteries surrounding him.
‘The Crowns of Croswald’ has a collection of funny and interesting characters and is a great book that keeps you turning the pages.
‘So This Is Love’ is one of the twisted Disney book series. Each book takes an aspect from the Disney film, changes it slightly and shows what can happen to the characters when these changes happen.
In this novel, it is looking at Cinderella and what would happen if she didn’t have her trusty mice to help her get out of her locked room and try on the glass slipper to have the happily ever after ending. As there are no mice to help her Cinderella ends up locked in the room and when being sold, she manages to run away and finds work at the palace.
At the palace she has to avoid being found by her stepmother, stop a murderous plot and to avoid being seen by the prince.
Elizabeth Lim shows the inner workings of Cinderella’s character and to show her inner strength to take what life has given her and make the proverbial lemonade.
In recent years Cinderella has been thought of as a weak character as she is saved by her mice and then the prince. The Cinderella of Lim’s story could not be further from that idea. We see what Cinderella would do had she not been saved and had run on her own two feet (minus the glass slippers).
It’s a great story that was very difficult to put down and with relatable and funny characters. It is a treat for lovers of fairy tales.
This is volume one of the Demon Slayer manga series. The series follows the life of teenager Tanjiro who finds his family has been murdered by a demon. The only survivor is Tanjiro’s sister Nezuko who has been turned into a demon.
I enjoyed volume 1 because it shows Tanjiro’s heart breaking discovery and his resolve to save his sister and protect her against all odds.
I enjoy manga and it uses a mixture of pictures to convey the story but it still includes the characters thoughts and feelings.
I really enjoyed this book. Kimono are beautiful and the gorgeous colours and designs show how beautiful the garments are.
The book looks at the kimono collection of Katsumi Yumioka and it shows the beautiful colours and patterns of the kimono. The book has Japanese text on each description page and then the English translation underneath. Each description page is next to the kimono it is describing and goes through the history of the colours and designs.
All the similar colours are put together in a chapter. An example is the pink chapter. This chapter has coral pink, cherry pink, Cupid pink, azalea pink, very pale orchid pink, tree peony pink, fuchsia pink and rose pink in it.
It is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about Kimono and who wants to look at the beautiful colours and designs.
I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
The Duke’s Discovery is a fun book with romance, spies and intrigue all wrapped up in a regency bow during the napoleonic war.
When Lucian, the Duke of Cumbria, finds miss Hester Littleton hiding in his trunk there is nothing he can do when they are in the middle of the ocean. Lucian comes up with the plan to dress Hester as “Harry” in order to protect her. Which, as can be imagined, adds its own trouble to the reluctant protector to the hilarity of the reader.
I love both Lucian and Hester as characters. They are well rounded and their banter back and forth was something I really enjoyed. The cast of characters also include the romantic and sweet hearted Jane Parling, a disapproving brother and the long suffering (but one of my favourites) Lucian’s servant Willsly.
Rowan does an excellent job in making readers care for the characters and for the struggles they find themselves in. There were times when reading the book where I went from being sad to suddenly bursting into laughter.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for months but now I’m finally in a place where I am okay.
I made this blog so I could share my love of books and reading. Over the last two years that love started to fade. It was my depression.
I had already been diagnosed with depression and I knew with my pregnancy that the odds of getting post natal depression was even more.
What I couldn’t have planned was how wonderful, scary and terrible the last two years have been.
I had a bit of a difficult pregnancy. Morning sickness was all day every day sickness for me. My baby didn’t move much and it was a stressful time with worry.
The birth was a long one and in sparing you the details all I’ll say was when you are going in and out of consciousness and doctors/midwife’s tell you that they need to take you into emergency surgery otherwise both you and the baby won’t make it, it really hits differently.
My daughter is the best thing ever. She came into the word with all the attention and she still loves it now almost two years on.
Then I had post natal depression. A constant fear that someone was going to take my precious child away from me. I got so scared every time someone came near the door.
It became an obsession and one I was convincing myself that I was fine. While all this was going on I had started my masters degree and going back to work full time.
Then the landlord upped the rent to the point we couldn’t afford it anymore and with very little savings we had to move. We moved to family and as time progressed we felt I needed more family support so we made the hard choice of having to pack up what we can and move.
We’ve had to look for jobs, get a nursery lined up all while trying to keep sane with a changing world.
Normally during times of stress, books are my saviour but not this time. I read what I needed to for my degree and I tried reading my target amount each month. Didn’t work. By the time 2025 started I had over 20 books not finished, I had to find a job, do my degree and keep things going.
Throughout all this I had gained a lot of weight and with the depression I just felt bad about myself and compared myself to other mothers who could cope and weren’t sitting up until the early hours of the morning staring at their newborn to make sure she was okay.
My husband and family have been my rocks and I know how fortunate I am to have them. Now I’m in a better place and started writing reviews and reading for fun again.
I have received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
As always Marguerite Kaye has knocked it out of the park with her new novel Uncovering the Governess’s Secrets. It is not just a historical romance. It has themes of betrayal, dark pasts, hidden secrets and secret identities. For many authors and readers, a historical romance is a soft Jane Austenesque novel with balls and tea, but not this one. The novel follows Rory and Marianne as they navigate through what life has thrown at them in 19th Century Scotland. Marianne has escaped and is on the run while Rory is the one hired to find her.
I really enjoyed this book and it is a different type of historical romance. It hits the gritty part of living in the poorer parts of Scotland in the 19th Century. Marianne’s plight is very reminiscent of the plight of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables which is a reason why I like this book so much. I felt Marianne being a governess was a really good way of characterising her as a lonely woman who was apart from the rest. I really liked the ages of 33 and 40 which allows them to have more backstory.
Every so often the chapters jump back in time so the reader can see the events leading up to the time Rory and Marianne meet and see what happened to them. I liked because it made Marianne’s backstory more impactful as the reader can understand what she has done and what she has gone through. This is further shown in the first person narration which is a change to Kaye’s other works I’ve read but a welcome change as I like how the characters feel more real.
I loved the description of all the little places they visit throughout Scotland including the little fishing village. Theres a bit of something for everyone and will be one that I would read again and again.
I came across The Remarried Empress purely by chance and have loved it from the beginning. The artwork for each of the pages is brilliantly done and the storyline is gripping. The front covers are so beautiful.
The Remarried Empress started off as a Korean Webtoon and was later translated into English (and possibly other languages although not sure) and published into volumes. It is a graphic novel set in a fictional kingdom which follows the rules of a 19thCentury court from European kingdoms. The rule of male primogeniture is still in force and the Empress must provide an heir (preferably male). Mistresses have been a thing for the previous Emperors and is the catalyst for the beginning of the story.
Empress Navier has known her husband the Emperor since they were children, and she was groomed to become his wife. She was taught everything an Empress of the kingdom needed to know but the only thing she has been unable to do is to get pregnant. Her husband, Sovieshu is considered a kind and brilliant Emperor and husband. That all changes when a slave girl called Rashta enters the kingdom. Sovieshu becomes enamoured with her and takes her as his mistress (the only mistress Sovieshu has had throughout his reign and marriage). As the course of the series progresses Navier is put into increasingly more awkward interactions with the Emperor and Rashta. Once Rashta finds out she’s pregnant Sovieshu knows his only way of legitimising the heir is to divorce Navier and to marry Rashta.
The first graphic novel opens to Navier agreeing to the divorce but her only stipulation is that she gets to choose who she will marry next. This shocks the court and further adds surprise when her intended has turned up to watch the proceedings. Her choice, the Emperor to a neighbouring kingdom called Heinrey. The next following volumes are told as a flashback so the reader is aware of the events preceding the divorce.
The Remarried Empress is a great series to read. It can be read quite quickly as with most graphic novels. The character development is very good, and it makes you root for some and despise others. There is magic, love and backstabbing betrayals that come with courtly life.
The age old saying of history is written by the victors comes as no surprise to the extent it is seen in George Orwell’s novel 1984. The novel follows Winston Smith as he lives and works through the age of Big Brother. Big Brother is an organisation that has total control over what the people read and absorb throughout their day to day lives. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, a place where he and others like him change the “truth” to a more favourable viewing of Big Brother to society and the people. Newspapers and records are retroactively changed to reflect the importance of Big Brother. Posters with the eyes of Big Brother are watching everyone’s every move and the thought police are ready for any mistake that is made. People disappear, not just from their homes but from all records. When Winston starts to question the party he truly realises how in danger he is and how that can harm not only himself but anyone he cares about.
Orwell’s writing can still send shivers down your spine despite 1984 being published decades ago. When I finished it I just sat in silence for a few minutes to process what I had read.
What is felt by characters really comes through the page so the reader can feel the danger and the fear. It is very well written and gripping to the last word. Winston’s struggle between giving in to the regime and fighting for some semblance of freedom really hits to the core of any and every one. The fact that he seems to remember the family he lost so many years ago really hits home as he is the only one that will remember them and when he is gone there will be no one and nothing left to remember his family and what freedom they had.
Full Dark, No Stars is a series of short stories by author Stephen King. This review is about the first two stories.
Each short story is thrilling and tense making you want to keep reading.
1922
1922 has a very “true crime” vibe that you would get from a podcast. It is set as a confession from farmer Wilfred Leland James. The reader goes back to the moment where Wilfred’s life goes wrong. 1922 has a supernatural feel to it as we have the dead “haunting” the living. Although it is only around 150 pages in length it really keeps you gripping wondering how Wilfred will cope with murdering his wife and how the escalation of events starting from the murder will come back and affect the lives of everyone around him.
Big Driver
Big Driver is a revenge fantasy story. It follows author Tess in the space of only a few days. Tess is raped and almost murdered coming back from an event. The reader sees Tess deciding to get revenge on those she feels caused her to get attacked. It makes the reader empathise with Tess as we question what we would do in her situation and the dark side of the reader that wonders if they would do the same.
Both stories follow the narrator after an event happens which takes them down a path that makes it a very dark and thrilling read. The rape in Big Driver can be hard to read so a warning if that is something that you would really have an issue with.
The other stories in the book are: Fair Extension and A Good Marriage. My copy also has the short story Under The Weather that was added to subsequent publications after the original editions were published which I will add to the next part of my review.
A Geeky Love of Books 