This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books they’ve read and share what they have got up to during the last week.
I’m not sure where this week has gone… I’ve bought the majority of my Christmas presents during the week, though we still haven’t decorated the house or tackled writing and sending out cards. Neither have I properly planned our Christmas meal, which we’ll be eating on Boxing Day. Himself had an eye test and ordered glasses with the same frames as last time – thankfully they’re available. The good news is that his eyesight hasn’t deteriorated all that much in the last two years. Ethan returned home on Thursday night for a flying visit as he had a medical appointment on Friday morning. It was great to have him home again and Amari made a huge fuss of him.
The fire in the lounge now works properly after the engineer looked at it on Tuesday. Turns out that the people installing it didn’t allow sufficient airflow around it – which is why it kept cutting out or blowing cold air. It’s lovely to have the room properly toasty when it’s either pouring with rain and blowing a hoolie outside (about half the week’s weather) or clear and a lot colder – though we haven’t had much in the way of frosts or icy weather yet.
Amari has also had a busy week. She’s taken to scuffing the carpet outside our bedroom. While we let her have free access to the room when we’re in bed, I’m not keen on her climbing the curtains and rascalling through our clothes when no one is in there. She has also very much enjoyed the various packages arriving during the week and has been diving into bags, shredding packing paper and adopted a box. Though still won’t go near the expensive and very comfortable basket we bought her… She also ended up on top of the cooker hood where she got stuck and had to be helped down before she slid onto a shelf of storage jars. And has also made a break for the garden. Twice. I’m very aware that she’s more than ready to tackle the outside world and after Christmas we’ll get her spayed and introduce her to the garden. She’ll be so much happier once she is able to spend time roaming around the neighbourhood – though she is only half-Bengal, she certainly has all the feistiness and energy of the breed. The pics are of Amari in Ethan’s arms, playing with a paper bag, climbing the clothes-peg bag and batting at potatoes in the kitchen sink.
This week I’ve read:-
Scot’s Eggs – Book 8 of the Last Ditch Mystery series by Catriona McPherson
It’s egg-hunt season, but Lexy Campbell is spending Easter hunting a killer!
Not even Cuento’s Easter bonnet parade can distract Lexy Campbell from conception woes and missing tourists Bill and Billie Miller. The Millers’ vintage Mustang has been abandoned, its interior covered in blood.
Is this a double murder, and if so, where are the bodies? Why were the Millers spending the night in their car? Did they pitch up at the Last Ditch Motel only to be turned away? Are they really dead? The Trinity for Trouble are quickly on the case!
As they start to identify the guests staying at the motel the weekend before Easter – including a Goth and a barbershop singer on stilts – disturbing evidence comes to light. Can Lexy see though all the deception to unmask the truth and save the Last Ditch?
Review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK – Druid Apprentice – Book 9 of The Junkyard Druid Boxed Set Books 9-12 by M.D. Massey
I’m Colin McCool, world-class trouble magnet and druid apprentice extraordinaire. I survived my final confrontation with the Dark Druid by the skin of my teeth. But that stunt attracted the attention of some extremely nasty gods who now consider me a threat to their very existence…
Hashtag FML, amirite?
Now, I’m in a race to master the ways of druid magic, all while staying one step ahead of the immortal assassins trying to kill me. Question is, can I wield enough power to protect the people I love from the divine wrath of the gods? Even I doubt my chances. But with a slew of angry demigods on my tail and a friend’s life in the balance, I only have one choice—fight or be damned to the dead realm of Tech Duinn, forever.
I love the world Massey has created – he’s a knack for producing truly horrible odds for poor old Colin to face, which he somehow manages to scramble away from. Though not necessarily unscathed – another aspect of the series that I enjoy. This adventure had me holding my breath as listening to it made some miserable household chores a lot more fun. 9/10
The Girl Out of Time – Book 3 of the Mine Through Time series by Kate Serzenta
England, 1912. Emmeline Marshall has seven days of freedom left before she returns home to New York with her family, and her overbearing parents—who don’t seem to get the hint she’s not a little girl anymore—stick her into an odious finishing school that will make her into a ‘proper’ lady.
The freedom in question? The voyage across the Atlantic on the newest luxury ocean liner, the Titanic, where Emmeline meets the handsome and mysterious Leon. When their fraternization leads to a falling out between Emmeline and her father, she wishes she could be anywhere else and have a different life …
And suddenly, she does.
England, 1815. It’s not a dream, but it is the fulfillment of Emmeline’s fantasies. Now she’s a rich heiress, engaged to a duke’s son, with friends to love and a library of gothic romances to get lost in. But everything is not as perfect as it seems. Unaware of her family’s involvement in time travel, Emmeline has no idea how she got to this time or why Leon—who is now Theo, an undercover French soldier—is here as well, but doesn’t recognize her.
Between untangling a mysterious treasure hunt from a book—which could lead her to understanding her powers—and navigating the glittering society of Regency London, can Emmeline learn to steer her own heart true? And can she find her way back home in time to save her family from a doomed ship?
Review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK NOVELLA – Extremity by Nicholas Binge
When once-renowned police detective Julia Torgrimsen is brought out of forced retirement to investigate the murder of Bruno Donaldson, a billionaire she worked with whilst undercover, she doesn’t expect to find two bodies. Both are Bruno–identical down to the fingerprints–and both have been shot.
As the investigation sucks her back into the macabre world of London’s rich elite, she finds herself on the hunt for a mysterious assassin who has been taking out the wealthy one by one. But when she finally catches up with her quarry, she unveils an entire world of secrets: impossible documents about future stock market crashes, photographs of dead clones, and a clandestine time-travelling conspiracy so insidious it might just mean the extinction of the entire human race.
If Julia is to have any chance of preventing this terrible future, she’ll have to revisit her own past, the terrible choices she made undercover, and the brutal act that destroyed her once legendary career.
This near-future, murder mystery, police procedural thriller manages to pack a great deal into a novella-length story – without leaving me feeling short-changed. That’s a feat, because I often find novellas a frustrating read. Binge produces a fast-paced, twisty adventure that had me sitting down to listen, instead of continuing with the chores. 9/10
KU – Centers of Gravity – Book 8 of the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos
Stranded light-years from home, Major Andrew Grayson and his crew are on a desperate mission to discover the Lankies’ secrets. They can’t let what they’ve found die with them.
Nine hundred light-years from home, Major Andrew Grayson and the crew of NACS Washington are marooned in a sunless system with limited water, reactor fuel, and food. The last hope for survival is to go where nothing human has gone before.
After embarking on a scouting mission to the only moon with surface signs of life, Andrew and his special tactics team make two startling discoveries. One is a dream: a form of protein and plant life that could save the starving humans in the rogue system. The second is a nightmare: this harvested rock is infested with Lankies. Far from the seemingly mindless aggressors Andrew has battled for years, these show a terrifying awareness, and they have surprising secrets of their own hidden away in the darkness.
When the Lankies sense an uninvited presence in their world, Andrew’s operation becomes an expedition to hell. The odds against his small crew are stacked high. Of all the mysteries of space, how to escape with their lives is the greatest unknown of all.
It wasn’t until I began the next series written by Kloos that I realised I’d somehow omitted the final book in his excellent Frontlines series. I’m so glad I tracked it down – it’s a gripping tale that brings Andrew to the end of his adventures against the lethal, gigantic aliens he’s been battling for the past thirteen years. I’m fond of good military sci fi – and Kloos doesn’t put a foot wrong in providing a thoroughly satisfying and believable conclusion for his protagonist. 9/10
Posts this week:
Castellan the Black and His Wise and Draconic Tips on Life
*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers
Can’t-Wait Wednesday featuring We Who Will Die – Book 1 of the Empire of Blood series by Stacia Stark
Sunday Post – 7th December 2025
Wishing you all a happy, healthy week😊.
Brainfluff 