Always On My Mind - Carys Green

40%

02.02.26

An interesting premise, poorly executed. The author needed to spend less time thinking about how it would adapt for Netflix and more time improving her writing skills. 

Learning to Swim - Clare Chambers

61%

28.01.26

I could say exactly what I said about Back Trouble but this was slightly more memorable, with more vivid characters. I didn't like the anti-only-child rhetoric though!

A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering - Andrew Hunter Murray

44%

24.01.26

This couldn't be more different to the previous book I read - it's all action and gentle British humour. What it does have in common is the lack of character development and emotional engagement, making it instantly forgettable.

A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym

72%

18.12.25

I hadn't heard of this but it was by far the best Pym novel I've read. The snobbish, judgemental narrator was, oddly, especially engaging and relatable - in fact, it's surprising how much of a 1950s, middle-class, religious housewife's life is still relatable through Pym's witty and perceptive writing. Her relationships with her mother-in-law and, later, her gay friends, were surprisingly positive. Overall: delightful.

All Passion Spent - Vita Sackville-West

59%

10.12.25

Although the style and much of the subject matter is dated, you could bump into many of the characters today. Everyone was eccentric in their own way - sometimes charmingly and sometimes obnoxiously but always vividly. And the message of women's sacrificing their individuality for men and family is still, sadly, relevant.

Back Trouble - Clare Chambers

59%

23.10.25

Wry humour, sharp observation and a strong sense of place and time - yes, it's a Clare Chambers novel. I have a few to read and this was engaging and interestingly structured, if not ultimately memorable or profound.

Queen of Fives - Alex Hay

44%

14.10.25

This story made no sense.

The Examiner - Janice Hallett

57%

13.10.25

Hallett rehashes her trademark 'murder by email' style, and then rehashes it all over again halfway through, for added WTF flavour. It's probably meant to be a critique of the inherent dishonesty of e-communications but mostly it's just plain crazy.

Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough

60%

09.10.25

All talk of this book is about the twist - or rather, twists - the first of which I guessed and the second I didn't, because it was, frankly, crazy (if not, on reflection, particularly surprising or original). But maybe I should have, as it was a crazy story in general, with so much booze consumed that it's no wonder it ends up like a fever dream. Although some of the weirdness never quite works, and characters are frustratingly inconsistent, the genre-bending approach worked for me and it was, in the end, simply entertaining.

The Perfect Guest - Ruth Irons

47%

13.09.25

I think I was supposed to root for the very flawed protagonist in this domestic thriller but she was so unlikable and her actions so inexplicable that the best I can say is at least she did protag, unlike all those passive lit fic main characters. Almost as annoying were the endless detailed descriptions of every room and every outfit that kept stalling the plot. Just sum it up in a pithy sentence and move on.

The Siren of Sussex - Mimi Matthews

52%

11.07.25

Considering the author tells us in her afterword how much research she did, you'd think she'd have attempted to make the characters sound and act period appropriately, rather than being 21st-century Americans inexplicably stranded in Victorian London. Even if this was a deliberate choice, the constant Americanisms - as well as some stereotypes about mid-19th century British society that I doubt were quite true - kept taking me out of the otherwise fairly sweet and fun story.

Death and the Harlot - Georgina Clarke

64%

24.06.25

I want to describe this as a Regency romp, but it's set too late to be Regency and is too serious in places to be a romp. But it's a fun read with well-drawn characters, good world-building and no embarrassing attempts at realistic period dialogue. Yes, the identity of the villain quickly becomes obvious but it's an entertaining journey to their unveiling.

The Frozen People - Elly Griffiths

59%

13.06.25

Griffiths' depictions of North Norfolk have always been fanciful, so perhaps it's no surprise that she's gone full sci fi with her new time-travel series. It made no sense, the characters were poorly developed and the plot full of unresolved (worm)holes but it was a lot of fun - the culture-clash scenes set in Victorian London were particularly engaging.

The Theatre of Glass and Shadows - Anne Corlett

47%

11.05.25

This was promising - after all, immersive theatre is inherently ripe for endless stories. And the author obviously loves the idea of it, spending page after page describing every detail. But I'm not a visual person and all that worldbuilding didn't necessarily progress the (ultimately very confusing) plot or make the dopey main character any less annoying. As with the otherwise very different Life of Zanna, an unsympathetic protagonist needs to have something for you to root for, but this one just kept running back to trouble and spurning potential friends for no good reason. And it needed a better edit - I started playing 'the older woman' - and, later, 'the other girl' - bingo. It's so distracting not to use the character's name or 'her'.

Life of Zanna - Emily Jane Hodgkin

 45%

10.05.25

I don't mind an unsympathetic narrator if they're charismatic or intelligent or are at least interesting in some way but every single character in this story was horrible, boring and stupid so I didn't care what happened to them. Maybe that was the point, but when you hope the main character dies at the end for all her wrong choices, that's not a good sign.

The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax - Andrew Cartmel

46%

02.04.25

A nerdy guy's fantasy.

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

67%

06.03.25

Sarah Waters hasn't published a novel for more than 10 years so I was pleased to remember there was one I hadn't read. In her anniversary afterword, she's pretty critical of this, her debut novel,  but I think she's too harsh on herself. From the start, the reader is clearly in the hands of a confident and sophisticated storyteller, a late-20th-century Dickens. Yes, it was a bit messy, and the main character is self-serving to the end - and it wasn't quite as good as The Little Stranger, for example - but it's certainly a good read.

Clickbait - LC North

56%

17.02.25

Telling the story via media channels was an interesting (if hardly original) conceit but it meant that you never get into the heads of any of the characters. The ones who were supposed to be 'good' were so irritating that I expected them to turn out to be the villains. (Spoiler: they didn't. The obvious villains were the villains.) 

The Trial - Rob Rinder

44%

22.01.25

I'd never heard of Rob Rinder before this book but apparently it's a bestseller because he's famous so I'd thought I'd better read it. Well, it was no John Gresham, apart from the casual sexism in all the depictions of women. Stereotyped characters, messy and illogical plot, not really any action, not really any suspects - at least it seems he didn't use a ghostwriter.

The Truth About Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell

51%

15.01.25

This was better than Ralph's Party but it was still poorly written (can't an item of clothing be described without naming its brand?) with a lot of unquestioned assumptions about what makes a family. Lots of babies, apparently, which, well, yeah, taken literally, it is. Oddly for a novel of this type, found family, while valuable, came much further down the value chain than blood relations, even if those relations failed you.