Book Review · Books

The Shelf by Helly Acton [BOOK REVIEW]

The Shelf by Helly Acton [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

The Shelf by Helly Acton [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 416

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher: Bonnier Books UK

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

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My Thoughts:

Reading “The Shelf” was so fun. It’s a “make you feel good” book, focusing on inner happiness, with or without a partner. 

Despite reading the synopsis, I went into this book blind. I blame this on my forgetfulness – I tend to read 10 synopsis of books, and then choose 1 book to read out of them all. I’ll be honest – I did not connect with Amy at all in the first chapters. It was hard to read about her current life and relationship. Then the surprise event happens and Amy ends up being dumped live on TV, and entering this new TV Show – The Shelf!

It was at this time when I instantly sided with her, and loved reading about her journey.

“The Shelf” show has to be the worst, most hectic, most sexist show I’ve ever come across in my years of reading fiction. Basically, you get to win the show if you can prove that you are the best “housewife material” out there. And I have nothing against housewives. My favourite person in the world – my late grandma – was a housewife, and I know her life wasn’t easy at all. It was busy and filled with manual work, house work, gardening. But it was a house that was always filled with lots of love. Some of my fondest childhood memories I have are connected with that woman.

And to see the “housewife” term used as a TV-show concept in this way was not the nicest thing to see, is all I can say. I just believe that this should be a woman’s choice of life and not a decision made on her behalf, or a mandatory tick box when finding a partner, as portrayed in this book. In this show, you could only win the game if you are the perfect housewife material. The show was full of men treating women in a way they shouldn’t ever be treated.

“We’re all so busy trying to find the right person, we aren’t trying to be the right person.”

All the other women are in the same boat with Amy (dumped and left on the shelf), competing for one million dollars and being crowned “The Keeper”. I know, the show is a huge red flag. But the contestants are here to save the day. Aside from Amy, we’ll meet Jackie, Gemma, Hattie, Lauren and Flick – all of them very different and with their own stories. And most important of all, all these women make their lives a priority, despite their environment telling them otherwise.

I devoured this book in just a few days.

It was heart-warming, fun, uplifting and powerful. It spoke to my younger-self, that it’s okay to be single and happy on your own until / if you meet your person. And it spoke to my present self that it’s okay to have your person and share experiences and work things out. And that if something suddenly goes wrong – you’ve still got your person – yourself! I can only warmly recommend “The Shelf” for you. I hope it brightens your day like it did mine.

About the Author:

The Shelf by Helly Acton [BOOK REVIEW]

Helly Acton is a copywriter from London with past lives in the Middle East, Africa and Australia. Born in Zimbabwe, Helly and her family emigrated to the East Sussex coast when she was 15 years old. Here, she finished school and spent her holidays in Saudi Arabia, where her father had been placed with work. She studied Law at King’s College London before following a more creative path into advertising.

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Book Review · Books

The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes [BOOK REVIEW]

The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 343

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Publisher: Orion Publishing

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

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Huge thanks you to the team at Random Things Tours for having me on the book tour for The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes. Make sure to check out the other stops as well and see what everyone else thinks about this book.

The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes [BOOK REVIEW]

My Thoughts:

 “The Empty Cradle” managed to really intrigue me and surprise me. I certainly didn’t expect such a level of spookiness. 

Amy finds herself moving into a new house after her husband and best friend betray her in the most upsetting way. She makes friends with a group of older women instantly and everything feels like falling into place. Until some bizarre things start happening around her that make her feel a bit unsettled. Then she finds out she is pregnant, but the dates are not adding up. And the strangest thing is that this group of women start to become a little bit too protective over her and her unborn baby. Especially her unborn baby.

The town is eerie, and so are its residents. As soon as Amy steps foot into the town, we can feel something shift. This story is a perfect pick during the Halloween season. It has enough mystery and suspense to make you wonder what the hell is going on, but also enough plot twists to keep you entertained. I coldly recommend it (pun intended).

The only part I struggled with is Amy’s gullibility. There are so many creepy things that happen to her in such a short time, and she is just oblivious to it all, which I found slightly concerning and couldn’t quite come to terms with. If it was me, I would have panicked by day three. But she decided to just shrug her shoulders to it all. That aside, it was such a lovely book! 

About the Author:

The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes [BOOK REVIEW]

Lisa Rookes is an award-winning journalist and lecturer. She spent the start of her career as a crime reporter and news editor before moving to national newspapers and women’s magazines. She is currently head of the undergraduate Journalism programme at the University of Sheffield and has won further multiple awards for her teaching. Her debut gothic thriller The Village published in 2025. She lives in Holmfirth in South Yorkshire with her husband, two sons, an arthritic Labrador and a disabled pug.

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Book Review · Books

Girl A by Abigail Dean [BOOK REVIEW]

Girl A by Abigail Dean [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Girl A by Abigail Dean [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 336

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Publisher: Harper Collins

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★

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Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings.

It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents–her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer.

Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings – and with the childhood they shared.

My Thoughts:

I have always been fascinated by psychological thrillers, and not sure why it took me so long to pick “Girl A”. We follow the story of Lex, who managed to escape from her parents when she was fifteen.

I struggled with the beginning of the story, due to the timeline and the way it was written. Lex is our main character and she just finds out that her mother passed away in prison and she is handed the task to sort out the inheritance and will. But that same mother, alongside her father, are the reason Lex and her siblings were held captive. Now Lex has to reunite with the remaining siblings and re-open the wounds from the past.

The more I found out about what happened to the kids, the more intrigued and curious I became. I admired Lex’s bravery and the adversity she went through. I cheered for her and was glad to see her succeed. But as is the case with all thrillers, not everything is always as it seems. The trauma Lex endured appears to come with a cost, and it was very heartbreaking to see this. That moment, that revelation really surprised me. 

“Girl A” is such a gripping read, but also utterly saddening.

To see how a person’s beliefs and wrong people’s influence can create monsters. Or is it an excuse for the failures they endured in life? It’s also heartbreaking to see how reading from Lex’s point of view, she was made to believe it is all normal and that is how things are supposed to be. On the other hand, we have a community. The teachers, the neighbours, the wider family – could it all have been prevented had they paid more attention, or cared a bit more.

There were signs – in the clothes the kids were wearing, in the things they said and how they behaved, and later on, in their absence and abrupt responses from the parents. Would it have made a difference if someone noticed? And finally – accountability, or shall I say, the lack of. How some people continued with their lives unpunished, despite everything. Or how people have partial courage, and once brave, decide to then stay quiet the next time.

The truth is, the book asks a lot of questions and doesn’t give enough answers to satiate my curiosity. I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted clarity on the last scene, and don’t like to speculate about what happened. Esentially, I wanted to know if Lex gets better and finds the happiness she deserves. I can’t help but hope she does, but we’ll never really know for sure. The part that scares me the most is that situations like these are probably happening all around the world, and we don’t know about them, because truth be told, we don’t really pay much attention to our surroundings, and if we did, we wouldn’t really do anything that changes the status quo. 

About the Author:

Girl A by Abigail Dean [BOOK REVIEW]

Abigail Dean is an author from Manchester, UK. She lives in London with her husband, children, and a very cantankerous cat. Her latest novel is THE DEATH OF US, a love story interrupted by a single, terrible act of violence. Film rights have been acquired at auction.

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Book Review · Books

Twisted Love (Twisted #1) by Ana Huang [BOOK REVIEW]

Twisted Love (Twisted #1) by Ana Huang [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Twisted Love (Twisted #1) by Ana Huang [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 343

Genre: Romance, Contemporary

Publisher: Piatkus

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★

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He has a heart of ice…but for her, he’d burn the world

A diverse new adult steamy romance from Tiktok sensation and USA Today bestselling author Ana Huang.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:

A crack.

A melt.

A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.

But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.

Her brother’s best friend.

Also her neighbor.

Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen-but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.

My Thoughts:

“Twisted Love” is a book I’ve always had my eyes on. My sister gifted me a copy, and I instantly dived in. Now, I am all for “bad boy” romances, but this one just wasn’t it. It felt like the author wanted to include all romance tropes at once, and whilst doing so, created a proper mess.

Firstly, our main male character, Alex Volkov, is a horrible person. Rich, as in, I own my grandpa’s company and no one can touch me. Stubborn, arrogant, jealous and possessive. Usually, I don’t mind this in a romance book and just go with it, enjoying the book, despite a character’s red flags. Who am I to judge, right? But Alex was way too annoying. I should request some kind of compensation for the amount of eye rolls this book gave me. Maybe I am owed some eye drops or something.

As for Ava, I really liked her, even though I thought she was a bit gullible at times. I also have to remind myself that she had a crush on Alex, and with that comes a lot of tunnel vision and her wearing her rose-tinted glasses. I liked how her trauma was presented, and it added great depth to the character.

There was one moment in the book that really made me chuckle.

It mentioned how easy it was to cross borders in Europe. And I laughed, because it is clear the author never tried to cross a Balkan border during a summer holiday. If she did, she wouldn’t have made that statement. Europe is much more than crossing the French-Italian border. 

What I found interesting about the book is that despite the unlikeable characters and cliche plot, I devoured this book in two days. Writing this down, I don’t know if that says more about the book, or me. 🙂 And that’s the main reason I haven’t given this book a 1 star. The second book in the series is the story of Bridget and Rhys, and I have to admit, I’m extremely excited about that! I think and I hope that we will see characters with way less red flags. I will still be reading the rest of the series, as I am now intrigued about the rest of the characters.

About the Author:

Twisted Love (Twisted #1) by Ana Huang [BOOK REVIEW]

Ana Huang is a #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today, #1 Sunday Times, and #1 Amazon bestselling author. Best known for her Twisted series, she writes New Adult and contemporary romance with deliciously alpha heroes, strong heroines, and plenty of steam, angst, and swoon.

Her books have been translated in thirty languages and featured in outlets such as Good Morning America, The Today Show, NPR, Cosmopolitan, and PEOPLE magazine.

A self-professed travel enthusiast, she loves incorporating beautiful destinations into her stories and will never say no to a good chai latte.

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Book Review · Books

Loving Romeo (Magnolia Falls #1) by Laura Pavlov [BOOK REVIEW]

Loving Romeo (Magnolia Falls #1) by Laura Pavlov [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Loving Romeo (Magnolia Falls #1) by Laura Pavlov [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 352

Genre: Romance, Contemporary

Publisher: HQ Stories

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★

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Demi Crawford was Magnolia Falls royalty.
I was the boxer from the wrong side of the tracks.
She was the epitome of everything good, while I was broody and rebellious.
We couldn’t be more different.
Her family was enemy number one which made her guilty by association.
I despised her before I even knew her.
It was easier that way.
But now she’d moved in next door to me, and she was everywhere I turned.
I couldn’t avoid her no matter how hard I tried.
She was beautiful and honest and sweet.
Everything I knew I shouldn’t want.
Shouldn’t need.
They say there’s a fine line between love and hate—and I don’t know when I crossed over.
I was so wrapped up in this girl I couldn’t see straight.
She was the right hook I never saw coming.
Hating her was supposed to be my end game.
Loving her… well, that was just the beginning.
But the secrets that lived between us threatened to tear us apart.
Lucky for her—I was a born fighter.
And she was definitely worth the fight.

My Thoughts:

“Loving Romeo” was a cute love story. A bad boy meets the rich girl in a small town, and catches feelings for her, despite hating her family. I have to be honest, I did not like Demi at all and couldn’t relate to her or connect with her. She obviously comes from a rich family, and she’s quite fast to say to everyone that everything she has, she worked hard for. And yet, she has this to say about her owning a coffee shop and an apartment on top of it:

“I’ve been away at school for four years. I came home and opened a business, one that I’m working at every day. I’m living in a small apartment above the coffeehouse and trying to do things on my own. But I’m hated anyway because my family has money?”

Umm, sorry, Demi, darling, but you sound entitled. How exactly did you manage to open a business right after finishing school? With what and whose money? Not all mortals can just spawn a business right after finishing school, unless they have some kind of support.

With Romeo, I could understand where he was coming from. I could understand his hatred towards Demi’s family. In the book, we later find out more about why he holds such hatred, and it ends up being the reason that actually brings the two together. But it still felt exaggerated at times when he would judge and be rude to Demi, saying he hates her by association, only to 20 pages later ignore his opinion and want to rip her clothes off.

Once we get past this and they start catching feelings for each other, I enjoyed the story more. Although I have to say, it lacked action and adventure. The most exciting part was the actual boxing match – I really enjoyed that part. I am still curious though – did Johnny Cane got his autographs for letting the girls in?

Overall, it’s a cute romance. Nothing too special and I probably won’t remember the book in too much detail in a few years. But it’s a great book to take on a holiday with you, or pick it up when in need of a bit of small town romance. That being said, I will still be reading the rest of the series, as I am now intrigued about the rest of the characters.

Favourite Quotes:

“It ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” Rocky Balboa

“Don’t ask me how, but standing in this cold space, where most of the people who worked out here smelled like dirty socks and were covered in sweat, still somehow managed to be the most romantic moment I’d ever experienced.
Because I felt a connection to him that was foreign to me.
Something I’d never felt before.”

“It doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. When you love someone, you love all of them.”

“I don’t hold love over people’s heads. I’m careful about who I love, and when I love someone, it’s forever. I can’t just turn it on and off, and I don’t think you can either.”

“I’d never felt this connected to another person, yet at the same time, it felt like the world I’d known was crumbling around me.”

“If nothing good ever happens to me again, I’d still be the luckiest guy in the fucking world.”

“There was something about the way that he looked at me. Like I was the only girl in the whole world. Like he’d move heaven and earth for me if I asked him to.”

About the Author:

Laura Pavlov is a USA Today and Amazon top 10 Bestselling author. She writes sweet and sexy small town romance that will make you both laugh and cry. Laura is happily married to her college sweetheart, mom to two awesome kids who are currently adulting, one temperamental yorkie and one wild bernedoodle. She’s living her own happily ever after in Las Vegas. Be sure to sign up for updates on new releases. Laura loves hearing from readers!

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