I've avoided Mosse for years to avoid hype induced disappointment. But after a recommendation, I decided to try one that wasn't Labyrinth.
Minou's story starts slow but Piet's arrival on the scene by comparison is explosive. Maybe Mosse should have started with him.
Mosse's characters are well developed, and you feel like you're getting a snapshot of longstanding relationships. I'm looking forward to reading the second in the series.

The final book in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone series, and I must say it is just the perfect ending for Alina.
However, the final few chapters did feel a little rushed. One minute, they're looking for the firebird. The next they have a revelation and are in the final faceoff. I think the reader would happily have had a few more chapters to flesh the sequence of events out a little. Definitely worth the read but my favourites are still The Crows

The climax of this book is still a bit of a mystery to me. This series is quirky, the characters are engaging, but there was no build-up to the climax, and it was over before I clocked it. On top of that, I spent the first 100 pages checking the character list to work out who everyone was, I don't recommend a delay after Book 2. I think this is a case of the author being more entertained writing the book than the reader reading it.

Having read The Burning Shore and the two that follow, I was pretty sure I'd also love the first in the Courtney series. I was not disappointed. You go through the emotional wringer with Sean; highs and lows, wins and losses, love, devastation and desperation. I will now precede to work my way through Smith's back catalogue.

While this book didn't grab me like Chakraborty's Daevabad Triology, it is still a fantastic read. I found it a little slow to get going but the moment a certain character, who, for the sake of having no spoilers, I will not name, enters the tale the pace picks up and the action truly starts. I have a feeling that, should there be a sequel, it won't be as slow to get going, with all the explanations already in place.

Currently reading Shannon Chakraborty's The Adventures of Amina al'Sirafi, but this is yesterday's haul to add to my already towering to read stack.

The last book of the Shardlake series and as full of the twists and turns that you'd expect. I love these characters, and Nicholas is a fine addition but I did wonder if Matthew will ever learn from past mistakes, it seems not.
This book sees Matthew return to the double crossings and manipulations of Henry VIII's Court, fraught with the ever shifting agendas, religious alliances, and Henry's ever changeable moods.
A fantastic end to the series.

This was a little bit shallow for me. The premise was good, and the dialogue was amusing, but having alluded to events in the past and complex relationships, they were not explored. It seems the only reason Simon shows up is so the protagonist can stand up to him and then he leaves with no more input. No great depth to this one, I won't be trying another by Sterling.

A wonderfully different historical romance set at a time and in a situation I didn't know all that much about, so it combined my love of learning history and romantic fiction perfectly.

I loved this book! Irwin is a modern day Austen. I cannot wait until the next one.

This has a Robin Hobb feel about it. I did enjoy it but felt like the attempts to subvert social norms were a bit strained. As a woman, I don't mind saying 'men and women' I found myself pausing to correctly read 'women and men' every time. Equally, it's absolutely riddled with spelling errors.

As a story, it was enjoyable, if a little slow. I kind of saw the end coming, but there were some surprises in there.

Having read The Lie Tree, I was really excited to read this one, and it did not disappoint. A little bizarre and completely unpredictable, which perfectly sums up Neverfell's character as well. A definite page turner, loved it.

A 'who dunnit' with a historical twist this book is worth a read, but I did spot the murderer well ahead of time. Though in some ways it's satisfying to be proved right it would have been nice to have a surprise reveal.
A little slow to get going, initially I did not warm to Adelia but once it got into the flow I was hooked. Franklin makes you care deeply about her characters and rips your heart out along the way but it's definitely worth a read.

I loved the four books preceding this one but I found this one hard to rate. Either Sansom was doing something very clever and making the reader as frustrated with Matthew as Jack is, or he pitched this was slightly wrong. I still don't know because even if it's the former, I don't really want this level of frustration when reading. It was less suspenseful and more maddening.

So, I've read Sanderson's Steelheart and didn't bother to read the rest of that series, but because of how beautifully he finished Jordan's Wheel of Time I felt I wanted to give him another chance. This was definitely more enjoyable but I still feel it could have been considerably shorter. I guess he's trying to get across how dire the characters' situations are but it got a little tedious at times, however, I will read Part 2 at least.

I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first, largely due to Ophelia seeming to come a bit more into her own. I think in the first one she is so lacking in autonomy that it stiffled her character, here she finds her voice. And I'm intrigued by how her relationship with Thorn will pan out.

At times this one made me a little uncomfortable, which is not what you want from a romance. Her not telling him something, him knowing she was withholding, I was very aware that one honest discussion and the book could be a lot shorter. Also, the premise of the book, just seemed a bit lazy, a quick fix to make the relationship happen. There didn't seem to be any seduction or chemistry there to trigger the story Kleypas just forced the issue.

At first it was mere curiosity that kept me reading this, its an unusual concept and I wanted to see where it would go. It's a very slow burner this book and I didn't warm to Ophelia straight away but out of nowhere I loved her and had to know what was going to happen next. I love all the characters actually. However, being a translation there are a few sentences that jarred my concentration. Nevertheless, I've ordered Book 2.

This is the second book in the series and I was expecting something good but that it would suffer from second book syndrome and just be a bridge to the finale, boy was I wrong. This book, while short for fantasy, is jam packed with action and character development. I cannot wait for the third, I was questioning how on earth there would need to be a third and then BOOM! This is why! Right at the end. Massive cliffhanger. Fantastic.

I loved the All Souls trilogy but I've never read anything quite this self indulgent. Harkness obviously wanted to share her history knowledge and create something in the same world but Marcus is so one dimensional it was tedious to read. All the action is in flashbacks, so you know what happens or surmise that all will be well. And Phoebe just isn't interesting enough for me to care about. Really disappointing, I'm surprised I finished it.

This book is incredible, such a good story, I couldn't put it down. So vivid, so compelling and emotional. Fantastic characters, all with different wants, needs and personalities. Can't wait to pick up the next one.

The world created and described by Grace is a thing of beauty, the story is compelling. I did enjoy it, but for the first time since I can remember reading this felt like I was reading YA. Usually I find fantasy YA just has a young protagonist but with this I felt there was a lack of depth of character and character development that made it feel like it was for a younger audience. If she'd delved a little deeper it could have been truly stunning.

I was a little sceptical about this one, with Sigrud as the lead protagonist. A character characterised in the previous two books as a man of action and few words, I wondered how he could provide compelling dialogue to match his action. However, I was wrong. This book left me thinking the strong, scary, looming dreyling was more a persona that served his and Shara's ends well and this was a brilliant way to end the trilogy.

A great pick for fans of murder mysteries and history. I always thought I knew a reasonable amount about Henry VIII's reign but there was so much more to it and this series, of which Dissolution is the first, captures a snapshot of history and a thrilling murder mystery in one.

I'm in two minds about this one. At times I really enjoyed it, it's a great concept and a different take on the vampire genre. But, Domek is a bit boring. A bit of a bland martyr type with not much else going on. He seems to have an interesting back story so could have been interesting. Ora also has a good story but both are only hinted at. It's a bit slow...And all of a sudden, stuff happened and it was over.

I loved this! I've finally given in and embraced my love of historical romances and Kleypas does this genre brilliantly. Others seem to struggle with balancing societal norms of the time and romance but Kleypas does it beautifully and writes brilliant characters and stories to boot.

I don't like bailing but I couldn't hack this. I questioned ever picking it up at page 85 and by page 100 I couldn't take any more references to itching and scratching. I briefly rallied when Gam arrived in the scene but then NOTHING HAPPENED. The book felt a bit self indulgent. The kind of book where the writer has loads of ideas and has put them all in even if the story would have benefited without them.

While I found the romance side of this one enjoyable, I cringed at the concept. Everytime Poppy missed a chance to iron everything out just made me uncomfortable. I know that the old misunderstanding, miscommunication, wrong end of the stick mechanism is important in these types of stories but this missed the mark for me and I couldn't buy into it completely.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I did feel compelled to read it, I wanted to know how it ended but I can't say that I'd read another by this author. It took a little while to get into it and then I saw the twists coming, it could also easily be shorter and cut out a lot that slowed it up . Entertaining enough to be worth finishing but that's as far as I'd go.

I wish I had the option to rate this book higher. This blew my mind, I'm a massive fan of Kristoff but this has to be his best work to date.
I'm not a big fan of vampire fiction but this is just on a different level, written in a different way with amazing characters, a fantastic plot in a vivid world. I can't wait for the next book.

While this was interesting in that she built a world with a complex history, mulitple belief systems and strong characters, I don't feel compelled to read the next one. I think because I'm not all that bothered what happens to the characters. Priya is likeable enough but a bit bland, Ashok is the best written out of all of them but I doubt I'll seek out the next one to find out what happens next, because I have no investment in the story.

By anyone else's standard as a conclusion to a first series this would be pretty good but you can definitely see the growth of Kristoff as a writer when compared to his later series The Nevernight Chronicles (one of my favourite series in the last few years). A good conclusion to the trilogy but I did find myself wishing it would get a move on, not a sensation I'm used to with Kristoff. Still a pick and worth reading, glad I finished the series.

This is the series that keeps on giving, though I am left wondering how much more Paige's body could physically take. She is such a badass, I love her as the heroine of the series, I only hope that she'll finally get a chance to catch her breath at some point .

What a fantastic end to the trilogy, I couldn't put this down. For me this was a brilliant climax to the story and a satisfactory conclusion to the characters' arcs. Here's hoping that she writes more in this world.

I was nervous about this one, I'd heard a lot of hype, and to begin with I found it very slow and did question whether to continue. Having done so I can safely say, stick with it. It is slow and little seems to happen at first, the pace does not increase but the story does become more engrossing, enchanting and engaging as it goes on.
Morgenstern has managed to encapsulate a dream in the pages of this book, this is a circus I'd love to visit.

I wasn't sure I would like Hart but I thought this book was fantastic. This series balances a good story with the predictable happy ending of romances and has characters who's emotional baggage isn't just fixed by falling in love, it accepts that relationships take work and recovery takes time. With a little bit of steam to help the story along the Mackenzies are hard to put down.

Compared to some of her other more famous works , Northanger Abbey is something completely different in style , likely because it was one of her first, though not published first . Her satire of her gothic contemparies is entertaining and demonstrates the humour we see throughout her other books. Miss Austen never disappoints.

I do think this suffered slightly from the hype surrounding it but it is a good read. A clever spin on a murder mystery, brilliant characterisation, great story, wonderfully told. I'll be reading book 2.

A great spin on the tale of King Lear. Fantastically complex and developed characters. There's certain characters I'd have liked different endings for but it made it no difference to my enjoyment of the book .

I tried, I really did but just couldn't get into this. I dont particularly like Temperance and unusually the level of detail put me off. Despite having a scientific background myself, think I'd prefer more focus of characters than the science, it was all very dry.

I just got bored. He kept introducing new characters chapter by chapter, Martin style, but I couldn't remember who was who and 100 pages in I didnt care either. I had far too many books to be read to waste time on this.

Amazing.
I have love every moment of this series and the last book is incredible. It never let's up, there's never a lull, it's fantastic. I'm a massive fan of Jay Kristoff and this book epitomises why.

Such a pick I wish there was another option to pick for epic.

I love Jay Kristoff but in some ways was a little disappointed with this one. At times I just wanted it to move on. Some sections could be shortened or left out completely. But on the other hand, Michi, what an absolute legend. Worth reading for her alone. Still looking forward to the next one, I think this suffered from second-book-in-a series syndrome.

I love everything Laini Taylor does and this is her best yet. The world is so vivid, the characters so rounded, this is just perfection.

I loved the first two of this series but I found that too much of this one was spent with the characters stuck not doing much. Trying not to give anything away so forgive the vagueness. I felt that more could have been made of this book but a good ending to the story, when it got there.

Fantastic sequel to Assassins Apprentice. If you like simething a bit less predictable this is for you.

A great example of classic high fantasy, superbly written and crazily detailed. Went on to read books 2 and 3 in quick succession. As with many epic fantasies the books do get long. If you like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, you'll like this.

I picked this up because I was waiting for the third book in Kristoff's Nevernight Chronicles and wanted to see what else he had written. And I love it, possibly more than the Nevernight Chronicles, I struggled to put it down. I'm a sucker for a bit of steampunk and this is a fantastic example. Bring on the next one.

At first I wasn't sure about this one, it seemed a little reminiscent of a certain tv series in places but as it developed it brought a new approach to a well explored storyline. Worth a read.

A thoroughly entertaining take on greek mythology. Really looking forward to the next one in the series.