Category: Uncategorized

  • D is for … demons in Regency London

    Well, my reading challenge is making my reading matter varied, if nothing else. This week’s read, The Dark Days Club, was plucked out of my TBR pile, where it had been languishing for months. I think we got off to a bad start due to a misunderstanding. I was browsing in Waterstones when I saw…

  • C is for … Cor, I liked this one!

    Another random find this week. For my ‘C’ read I picked Madeline Freeman’s Crystal Magic from the whole of Amazon. This merged things I like with things I often don’t. It’s got magic in it – big tick from me, and unexplained eerie powers – now you’re talking! It also has a US High School…

  • B is for … barely a story

    Okay, that’s rather unkind, but there is a danger this post may turn into a slight rant. My “B” book selection was BR Paulson’s Barely Alive. Now, one thing I’m loving about this challenge is that I’m finding all kinds of new and wonderful things. Barely Alive was pitched as a zombie romance – now,…

  • My Alphabet Challenge: A is for …

    …Among Wolves. And that turned out to be a fine start to my new reading year. It’s post-apocalyptic and with a reasonably familiar premise, but the narrator was excellent, and the finale was pulse-raisingly dramatic stuff. Please watch out for my full review of Among Wolves, which will be on the Paisley Piranha site shortly. So that’s…

  • New Year, New Challenge

    Happy New year! It’s another year, so it’s time for another challenge. I’m no longer restricting myself to free books so my pool of choice is now vast. That’s great, but it can make it hard to decide what to read. So I’ve decided to try an alphabet challenge. For as long as it takes…

  • Free Reading Challenge: The book I bought this week

    Okay, so my free reading challenge is nearing its end. You would think the finish line being in sight would make me better able to stick to only reading free books. And I could stick to my rules if I wanted to. But this week I’ve bought a book that fits into none of my…

  • My free reading challenge: straying outside my genre

    I read a lot of YA fiction. Reading is a high priority in my life. I work, I’m a mum, I write books myself (45.5k words through Nanowrimo – whoop!) and I still squash in reading 2 – 3 books a week. I’d be lost without them. But I can get a bit jaded. Just to…

  • Free Reading Challenge: How much is too much?

    Finding Free I’ve spoken before about how I’ve found books to read for my free reading challenge. I’ve surfed Amazon (not a brilliant success), found books from e-mail promotion companies, and from recommendations on Facebook and Twitter and signed up to blog tours (much more successful). Just lately, I’ve also signed up to several author newsletters…

  • My free reading challenge: loopholes

    Well, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure my free reading challenge is actually going to make it to Christmas. This past week I seem to be spending a lot of energy finding exceptions and loopholes that make me able to buy books. Most obvious this week was Rebel by Joanne Macgregor (it’s fabulous, btw –…

  • This week’s challenge: writer or characters?

    This is slightly off-topic from my free reading challenge (once more: “I read some books” makes for a less than fascinating post), but my blog this week was prompted by a question on twitter about whether readers prefer standalone novels or series. It’s one of the “rules” of independent publishing that series sell vastly better than…