As I was compiling my Favourite-reads of 2025 list, I was once again reminded of how much my favourites are personal to me, and don’t always correspond to the books I recommend the broadest. In honour of all those books that I feel would have the potential to be favourites for other readers, but just didn’t make my personal list, I bring you this list of Rapid-Fire Recommendations. These are all recent releases (within the past 3 years); some of them just  missed the favourit

As part of my 2025 reading-resolutions, I DNF-ed more books that I wasn’t enjoying than I might have done in previous years. I’m happy to say that that significantly lowered the number of truly awful/harmful/boring books I read, that would qualify for this list. Most of these therefore, were more so disappointing than objectively bad. That being said, there were inevitably going to be a few stinkers that snuck through my defenses. This list is all about them. Unlike my favour

It took me longer than any other year before to compile my end-of-year-lists, and even so, they ended up looking a little different from previous years. 2025 has not been a good year for me. Apart from couple of significant changes in my personal- and professional life that posed challenges, I was visited by the Black Dog again about halfway through the year. If you’re unfamiliar with that metaphor, please feel free to google it… Where this beasty has been a small and well-be

There's always something truly exciting to me about browsing publishers catalogues and Goodreads' release-dates for upcoming novels to add to my TBR. 2026 has a great line-up in store for us all, and I've selected 26 of them to share with you. Split into 13 books from authors I've read from before (including some of my all-time favourites), and 13 books that sold me on their synopsis: let's get excited for the new year together. As always, release-dates might be subject to ch

The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop book 2) - Sarah Beth Durst Genre: cozy fantasy Pagecount: 374 pages Comfort-factor: cottagecore cozy fantasy with a snowy setting Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet, one

In honour of Halloween, today's Suspiciously-Specific micro-trope that I love is all about books inspired by Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I've talked about this classic multiple times on here, as I have a strange relationship with the novel itself. Although I don't particularly love the original text, I adore everything it stands for as a part of the literary canon. I love the themes, the histy behind its creation and the legacy it inspired. It's not a surprise then, that I'

Echoes - Evie Wyld Genre : literary fiction Pagecount : 304 pages The haunted house is a modern-day appartment... Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him. Rose/House - Arkady Martine Genre : sci-fi novella Pagecount : 115 pages The haunted house is a fully-automated futuri

A reading-blog in which I attempt to beat my readingslump by reading recently released horror-novella's until I find a 5-star...

Lanny – Max Porter Genre: literary fiction, magical realism Pagecount: 210 pages A literary novel that reads almost like an extended poem about a young boy who disappears into the local English woods, and the mythological figure of Dead Papa Toothwort - essentially a spirit of the forest, akin to the Green Man - who watches the following events unfold from the shadows of the trees. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater Genre: Young Adult, magical realism Pagecount: 409 pages The

We've reached the halfway point of the year, which means it's time for a Mid-Year check-in. I will stick to my trialed and true format of...

October Releases The Leaving Room - Amber McBride Synopsis: Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room—a place all young people must phase through when they die. The young are never ready to leave; they need a moment to remember and a Keeper to help their wispy souls along. Gospel assumes that there are countless other Leaving Rooms because many children pass, but she suspects they are not like her Leaving Room which is small (like a walk in closet)with shelves full of tiny jar

The start of April brings Q1 of my reading-year to a close, making it time for a little check-in. My quarterly wrap-ups have taken many...

My top 25 priority reads for the new year

2024 has been a great reading-year for me. So much so that, rather than giving a shout out to some honourable mentions here, there’s a...

2024 has been a fantastic year for me, both on the pages of the books I read, as well as in my actual real-life. It’s been a year of...

Despite feeling like an overall good reading year, 2024 still brought some duds my way. There’s a strange katharsis in spilling a...

My 5-part Year-In-Review Series has become a treasured staple for me to wrap up my year ever since the dawn of this blog. Usually the...

I’m switching things up a little bit this year, and kicking off my year in review looking forward rather than back . One of my favourite...

2024 was the year where I fully embraced my novella-era, learning to appreciate the art and power of shorter books instead of only the...

July Releases The Bewitching - Silvia Moreno Garcia Synopsis: Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this...