Susan’s Book Blog

  It’s Pub Day for Natasha Siegel and her gorgeous historical romance debut, Solomon’s Crown.   Check out my original review here  - I gave it 5 crowns out of 5!  👑 👑 👑 👑 👑 Out now! March 14, 2023 Bantam Dell

  Glitterland (re-release) Alexis Hall 5 🪩 out of 5  My original review from Dec 2020: This book was so much more than I expected. It’s title and cover do it little justice.  The characters are written with depth and tenderness, the relationships are dynamic and engaging, but the real beauty of this book comes in the passages detailing the main character’s bouts with his mental illness. The author’s descriptions of bipolar depression display an on-the-nose, “been there” authenticity. That said, there were also many moments where I found myself laughing out loud. Alexis Hall is as adept at profound sadness and beauty as he is with lighthearted comedy and romance. He writes stunning prose and the most endearing dialogue. Is there nothing this author can’t do? ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ It was so great revisiting this one again. I had forgotten about so much of what originally made me love it. It’s truly beautiful in both content and writing. I’ve never read such a beautiful character as Da...

  📚  Fave Reads of 2022 Countdown  📚   🥁   🥁   🥁   🥁   🥁 #1   Something Fabulous   &  A Lady For a Duke  by Alexis Hall  I grouped these two together because I don’t know if one deserves to be ranked above the other. For me, these books are Alexis Hall doing the best work of his career. They’re very different books - SF is a hilarious, over-the-top love letter to Regency romances while ALFaD actually IS a Regency romance. (ALFaD is profoundly beautiful. And it has a declaration of love in it that rivals Darcy’s for Elizabeth Bennett.) But both books exhibit everything Hall excels at and in the most entertaining ways.  3️⃣  2️⃣  1️⃣  🎊 What did you think of my Top Ten (or thirteen) choices? Have you read any of them? Will they be on your TBR for 2023? What are some of your favorites this year?

  📚 Fave Reads of 2022 Countdown  📚   #3  The Scottish Boy by Alex de Campi  Ugh. I loved this so much. Everything about it was  🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 K nights, tournaments, chivalry, ethics, secrets… The angst, the longing, oh it was exquisite. It was 500 pages but I was sad when it was over because I wanted more.  My full review of The Scottish Boy can be found here . 

  Solomon’s Crown  by Natasha Siegel Scheduled to publish on March 14, 2023 // 5 👑 out of 5 // This is Richard I/Philip II fanfic and I’m so here for it. If you’re unfamiliar with these historical figures, never fear because IT DOES NOT MATTER. Siegel makes it clear in her author’s note that she plays fast and loose with historical accuracy - in that there is very little. 😂  Richard I and Philip II are one of those “were they lovers?” situations. (Historians just love telling us how two kings sleeping in the same bed was a PR move/political statement. Sure, Jan.) And frankly they lived 1000 years ago so it’s damn near impossible to get a definitive answer but who cares? They lived a THOUSAND YEARS AGO. To us, they have always been and will always be characters in a story. This author is just using them to tell her own story.  The family drama between Richard, his father the king, and his brothers was compelling and totally had me invested. I know a (small) bit abou...

It’s Pub Day for two truly EXCELLENT books that you need to run out and get right now! One is Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian (you can find my full review and more info  here ). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The other is Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade (my full review of it - and more info - is here ). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫   If you enjoy romance, you’ll love these. I enjoyed them both immensely and highly recommend them! Both are out now - 11/15/2022 

  A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, book 2) by Freya Marske Pub: Nov 1, 2022 // 3.5 stars out of 5 // tl;dr - I struggled to finish this. I needed it to be about 30% shorter. I think I just need to admit mysteries are not my genre. I found it a little tedious. But the characters are fantastic and Marske expanded on the magic mythology she began in the previous book and it was brilliant! My attention span just wasn’t totally up for this one.   Full review: The characters in this book were so great. Hawthorn and Violet both turned out to be a real highlight of the book for me. Lord Hawthorn really surprised me - I wasn’t expecting to like him! He’s the biggest grump ever to grump, he’s hilariously deadpan, feigns disinterest, and is, against his better judgment, caring (even though he’d never admit it). I enjoyed his character so much. And Violet is progressive, independent, ahead of her time and willing to push people’s buttons. She proudly refuses to be shamed or guilted fo...

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots  by Cat Sebastian  Pub date: November 15,  2022  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars out of 5 I’ve been looking forward to reading more Cabot stories since I finished the first two over a year ago, and it did not disappoint.  Daniel Cabot is a character study and a story about the gradual building of a relationship, filled with quiet moments that are both realistic and compelling. It always blows me away how Cat Sebastian can fit SO MUCH character development into so few pages. And you can always count on her to write incredibly unique, richly drawn people who you can’t help but fall in love with. There is a foundation of kindness in this story, as there has been in the previous two Cabot novellas (or, really, ALL her books I suppose) that I find so beautiful and hopeful. Daniel and Alex take care of one another and others - friends and strangers both - in so many little ways and without wanting anything in return. It’s a refreshingly uncynical displ...

Book Mail days are always exciting and this was an especially exciting delivery!  You may have seen my recent post on A Taste of Gold and Iron. It’s an amazing book and absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year. So of course I had to have a physical copy! I googled to see if there were any special editions coming out (as one does) and discovered a couple small UK companies offering one. But of course I’d missed the bus on both as they’d both been small runs and offered via presales several months earlier. So when my Booksta bestie Ditte informed me that Broken Bindings, one of the UK booksellers offering a special edition of ATOGAI, had received their stock and was putting up for sale the limited number of extra copies they had available after fulfilling the preorders, I considered it for a bit as it was slightly out of my budget but then I caved. And I was lucky enough to snag one! And I am so so glad I did. Broken Bindings’ edition is signed by the author (and a very cool ...

This is one of my favorite favorite books. According to GoodReads, I first read it back in April/May of last year. Which is crazy because it feels like it’s been in my head far longer than that.  I’d never read a shifter book before (I don’t think I’ve read any outside of the Green Creek series since, either) and had no idea if I’d even like it but boy was I unprepared for how much this book would crawl into my soul 😂  I steadily devoured the entire rest of the series, then put off the final one a bit because I didn’t want it to end. I needed more candy canes and pinecones, epic and awesome.  I am so so glad this book and series is finally getting the attention it deserves and a gorgeous hardcover release. When I saw Waterstones was offering this signed sprayed edge edition, I ran to preorder! I’m so excited to see what the rest look like! 

The Scottish Boy   by Alex de Campi  published by Unbound in May 2020 🏰 5 stars out of 5 🏰  The story starts in 1333 and I wasn’t sure what to expect from a novel that takes place that long ago. But the style is simple and straightforward. (I’ve read medieval-era stories by other authors who tried to mimic antiquated language and it was extremely distracting.) I found the story compelling from the very beginning. The MC Harry is a pretty likable guy from the start. He is 19 and fresh off missing the battle of Halidon Hill due to the death of his mother. He has been itching to go to war to prove himself and avenge his father’s death at the battle of Bannockburn. Harry learns very quickly what war is really like when he’s taken on a raid and watches his fellow knights strike down unarmed citizens, struggling to understand the pointless brutality and cruelty. Being a knight isn’t at all what he thought it would be. Where’s the chivalry? The justice? He dislikes the way the...

  A Taste of Gold and Iron   by Alexandra Rowland Pub Date: Aug 30, 2022 🪙 4.5 stars out of 5 🪙  This book really hits the ground running. It introduces the main character and his complicated situation in a blazing info dump of a first chapter. It took me a while to get the hang of things, especially who was who among the cast members.  (But I’m not very used to reading fantasy.) This is one of those books that gets better and better as it goes on - the way the plot thickens and the romance develops, it was hard to put down. I really fell in love with the characters and they definitely kept me turning pages. I was surprised to discover so much humor in the book. It’s a serious tone for most of it but some of the characters are pretty funny - one in particular was especially enjoyable. It was far more character-driven than I’d expected. And the pace was surprisingly swift for such a long book. I liked Prince Kadou from the start. He’s sweet, sensitive, dutiful, and ...