Books · Monthly Tags

January 2021 – Monthly Book Wrap Up

January 2021 - Monthly Book Wrap Up

Welcome to the January Book Wrap Up!

I can’t believe that January is gone and it’s time for a January Wrap Up. To be quite honest, it doesn’t feel like 2020 is over yet. I don’t feel like we are now in a new year. However, I’m quite excited to see what February has to bring.

Rating Stats

I read 7 books in total. I ended up giving 1 5-star rating, 5 4-star ratings and 1 3-star rating.

Books I read in January:

~ To read my book reviews – click on the book titles! πŸ™‚

✨ 1. Last One to Die by Cynthia Murphy – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

A girl moves to London, and some girls she meets end up attacked and murdered. When she realises that they all look a lot like her, she knows she’s in danger as well.

If you love YA thrillers, with horror elements and supernatural moments, don’t miss this one. This trope is now on my books. It might even be my favorite genre if my next reads are good as well. Cynthia Murphy as an author is also now on my list. I will make sure to read the next book she writes! I couldn’t recommend it enough!

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 2. Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Three brothers, and one of them is now dead. Through the years they were all rivals, and now we get to know their secrets, and why one of them was murdered.

Our Little Cruelties is the perfect thriller to make you wonder how dysfunctional your family is. It is gripping and dark from the very first pages, and keeps this atmosphere until the very end. I loved it and I definitely suggest you pick it up.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 3. Keeper by Jessica Moor – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

When a body of a woman is found dead in a river, the police assumes it’s a suicide. But the women from the refuge center where she worked think it’s a murder. A thriller about a crime investigation, and domestic violence victims.

Beautiful fast-paced thriller that you can’t put down, with amazing plot twists and topics so unfortunately common and infuriating! I definitely recommend it, you won’t be able to forget Keeper easily.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 4. The Push by Ashley Audrain – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

When Blythe has her first child, she hopes history won’t repeat itself and she gives Violet all the love! But something is not right and Blythe is the only one that can notice. When even her husband doesn’t believe her, and awful things start happening, her whole life is in jeopardy. Blythe will try anything to save her marriage, and get Violet to love her…

I stayed up all night, flipping pages and I loved that! The short chapters and the many plot twists are what made The Push unputdownable for me. The Push was a very interesting and dark psychological thriller. Extremely fast-paced and full of plot twists. If you are looking for something to keep you on your toes, look no further.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 5. The Glass House by Eve Chase – β˜…β˜…β˜…

The Glass House tells a lovely tale about how secrets can connect two completely different families. And also how fate can reunite them. Written in two different timelines and different characters, we slowly uncover all the secrets people have kept over the years.

The Glass House was a very good book, and I enjoyed it a lot. However, it lacked some mystery elements, which was the main reason I picked it up. I still enjoyed the family drama and secrets element, but it lacked suspense, and I could predict all the plot twists. The writing was beautiful though, and it kept me entertained until I finished it.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 6. Badass Habits by Jen Sincero – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

If you want to form new badass habits, or replace your old bad habits, this is definitely the book you need! Through a step-by-step guide over 21 days, you will be in a completely different mindset and will be ready to tackle anything coming your way.

I only went in with the intention to start drinking water more consistently, and I managed to achieve so much more! I feel like a completely different person and a much healthier one.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

✨ 7. We Played With Fire by Catherine Barter – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Maggie has witnessed impossible things. But no one believes her, and now her family has taken her away to spend the winter upstate in a remote, freezing farmhouse.

Bored and angry, Maggie and her younger sister Kate start to play tricks: rapping on the floorboards above their parents’ bedroom, cracking their toes under the table, and telling tales about noises in the night. Then the house starts to make sounds of its own. Neither Maggie nor Kate can explain it, but it seems as though someone – or something – is trying to speak to them…

The perfect eerie book to give you the shivers and transport you to a 19th century. Imagine an old house full of candles and knocking sounds coming out of nowhere. If you love horror and ghost stories of the past, pick up We Played With Fire today!

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK | Amazon US

And that is my January Wrap up! How was your January Wrap Up? How many books did you read? Let me know! I love reading your comments! 

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Books · WWW Wednesday Tag

WWW Wednesday – 4th November 2020

WWW Wednesdays (3)

WWW Wednesday – 4th November edition. The first week of November is going well for me, and hoping for even better one next week.

WWW Wednesday is a weekly tag revived by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. It’s quite simple. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to this week’s edition – the first Wednesday in November!

The Three W’s are:
1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

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What are you currently reading?


I am currently reading Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley. This week, I am part of the TandemCollective bookstagram readalong, and it’s ending tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, I am currently enjoying it a lot – it’s very eerie and spooky, but in a very slow, but intense way. I keep having that feeling when your stomach slowly twirls. It’s amazing, and I can’t wait to see how it finally ends!

Synopsis:

The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby’s son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place.

Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree.

Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror. 

Purchase Links:
|Β Amazon UKΒ |Amazon USΒ |

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What did you recently finish reading?

I recently finished Secrets She Kept by Cathy Gohlke and wow, this book is so emotional and wholesome! My full review will be up in a few days on the blog, so keep an eye out for it. I read this book so fast, and I loved it so much!

Synopsis:

The secret a mother was forbidden to share . . . the consequences a daughter could not redeemβ€”but will risk everything in her attempt.

All her life, Hannah Sterling longed for a close relationship with her estranged mother. Following Lieselotte’s death, Hannah unlocks secrets of her mother’s mysterious past, including the discovery of a grandfather living in Germany.

Thirty years earlier, Lieselotte’s father, ascending the ranks of the Nazi party, demands a marriage for his daughter to help advance his career. But Lieselotte is in loveβ€”and her beloved Lukas secretly works against the Reich. How far will her father go to achieve his goal?

Both Hannah’s and Lieselotte’s stories unfold as Hannah travels to Germany to meet her grandfather, who hides wartime secrets of his own. Longing for connection, yet shaken by all she uncovers, Hannah must decide if she can atone for her family’s tragic past, and how their legacy will shape her future.

Purchase Links:
|Β Amazon UKΒ |Amazon USΒ |

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What do you think you’ll read next?

I think I’ll be starting The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls next. It is a book I really want to read, and it came alongside some goodies, that I have to admit, I am very eager to open and see what they will unravel. I will be sharing this experience on my Instagram Stories, so keep an eye for that.

Purchase Links:
Β Amazon UK

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How does your WWW Wednesday looks like? Was your first Wednesday in November productive?

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Blog Tour · Book Review · Books

Q by Christina Dalcher [BLOGGER TAKEOVER]

Q by Christina Dalcher book review blogger takeover HQ HarperCollins Harper Collins dystopia dystopian mystery adventure diary of difference diaryofdifference

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I am quite happy to announce I am part of the Blogger Takeover for Q by Christina Dalcher. Many thanks to Izzy and the HQ Team, for sending me an ARC copy of this book!

Elena is a teacher at one of the most prestigious schools in America. Her daughters are just like her: ambitious, smart, beautiful and perfect.Β 

Elena is happily married to Malcolm, who is the man that is in charge in the new tier system in the country. Every month, everyone has to undergo a number of tests to determine their Q. The “Q” is a quotient that is based on every metric: genetics, IQ, social status, past history, etc. Depending on the Q number, people are split into three different tiers:Β 

SILVER

The top tier, prestigious schools, money and social status. Always first in line for everything. Privileged. The best. Perfect. The (only) humans that America wants.Β 

GREEN

The middle tier. Not the best, could be better. If they improve their scores, they could upgrade to silver again, but most statistics show that you can only go down from here.Β 

YELLOW

The bottom tier. People that hop on the yellow bus are taken to the state schools, and there are rumours about the kind of places they are taken to. These people are last in line for everything.Β 

As usual, justice boils down to how high you can keep your Q rating.

When one of Elena’s daughters fails the tests and is sent with the yellow bus, Elena makes the choice of failing the test herself on purpose, only to join her daughter. The things she is about to see and experience are worse than you could ever imagine!

My Thoughts:Β 

Q is one of those books that is based in a fictional world, but it certainly makes you see the similarities with today’s society. It dives into a dystopian world that might as well be a future one for us, if we don’t acknowledge the fact how our society works today.Β 

The story is told from Elena’s point of view, both in the present time and the past. As we move through the book we get to know Elena better as a mother, as a wife and as a person. I loved the fact that we were slowly finding out facts about her, sometimes as she did as well. Along that, we also get to see how her choices in the past played a huge impact into her present.Β 

Choices don’t matter when they’ve already been made.

But I think what matters in this book is the consequences of all these people making choices, especially Elena. And sometimes, it may be too late to fix something that has gone out of control.

Elena’s perspective as a mother was very emotional in every single way. Even though I wasn’t a mother, I could still feel what Elena was feeling. I loved the fact she cared so much about Freddie, that she chose to fail her tests and get moved to the state school too. However, I also feel that she somehow left Anne out of the picture. It was as if Elena and Freddie were one team, while Anna and Malcolm were another, even before Freddie failed her test.

On the other side, we had Malcolm.

The husband, the father and also the man in charge of the tier system. A very cold human, with no remorse, no empathy, very arrogant and extremely manipulative. Watching Elena’s relationship with him reveal and uncover scenes from the past was an interesting concept I enjoyed about this book. We also had a small opportunity to find about how the two daughters felt as well. Children are able to feel something is wrong with their parents or their lives. They have their own opinions as well, that define the actions they might made. This was beautifully shown in a few scenes in the book.Β 

It is definitely important to mention Elena’s parents and grandmother. Oma is a queen and I loved her! She made me crack up and made me cry. She made me miss my grandma a lot! Here’s to all Omas!

Christina’s writing is really admirable. She managed to tell us all the facts about life that we already know in another light. This Is something I really admired throughout the book, and here is a paragraph I really enjoyed:Β 

Any child knows time slows down in the days before Christmas; any bride knows time speeds up during a wedding reception. And any mother knows time flies in the years after she gives birth.

It was very interesting to read a book that takes on society tiers in such an extreme way. We may not be aware, but this is happening to us on daily basis. Not to the degree as described in the book, but it is definitely going in that direction.Β 

We get separated into groups since we are little kids in school. Someone is always picked first, and someone is always last. Then we grow up, and we think we’re past it. But before we know it, some of our friends have other friends and we get separated again, based on our work, neighbourhood, background, physical appearance, nowadays even social media status.Β 

Even though fiction, Q still touches home, and that it why I love this book. Because it’s as real as it is fictional.

And it will hurt you to the core.

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK |Amazon US |


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Blog Tour · Book Review · Books

The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan [BOOK BUZZ]

The Museum of Broken Promises .jpg

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I am so excited to be part of the Book Buzz for The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan. This lovely book is out on 02nd April, so don’t forget to grab your copy!

This book is quite emotional and heart-breaking from the very beginning until the very end. Based in Europe, in two timelines between now and 1985, we are witnesses to cold war, politics, fight for freedom and an extraordinary love story.Β 

Today, Laure is living in Paris and she owns The Museum of Broken Promises – a place of wonder and sadness. Every object in the museum has been donated and each represents a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. Laure also has hidden objects of her own in there, from her own youth.Β 

Back in 1985, Laure is in Prague, running away after her dad suddenly passes away. But her life here is very confusing. She is struggling to comprehend the dark politics that are taking over the city. But then she meets a young musician. And her love for him is forbidden and causes trouble and terrible consequences.Β 

It is only years after having created the museum that Laure can finally come to terms with her past and celebrate the love she is feeling!

My Thoughts:Β 

This is a very emotional book and I have learned that I need to be in a certain mood in order to be able to fully appreciate it. This is one of those books that leaves a tiny mark in your heart that you will always carry with you.Β 

The story is amazing, we are witnessing a great life full of memories and stories of love, fight for freedom, betrayals, fears, ups and downs. It is so realistic that will make you shiver at times.Β 

I have to admit, I found myself slightly confused at the beginning, trying to figure out which timeline I am currently in, but after a few chapters, I am able to make a difference and get a clearer picture of the story.Β 

I loved the idea of this Museum of Broken Promises. It made me think of what object I could maybe leave there to represent my grief.Β 

I have to admit, I didn’t truly connect with Laure as a main character. She seemed too closed in her own world and her sharing her story in the way that she did was very contradicting to me.Β 

I loved Tomas though. He was my absolute favourite, the hero of this book.

Thank you to the team at LoveReadingUK, for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.Β 

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK |Amazon US |


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Books · Monthly Tags

November 2019 – Monthly Book Wrap Up

november 2019 monthly book wrap up book books blog blogging reading goodreads netgalley diary of difference

Welcome to the November Book Wrap Up!

I can’t believe it’s December already! I am so excited for Christmas, and the New Year, and all the bright and shiny lights! Everyone is in a happy spirit, and I think that November and December are my favourite months in the year.Β 

November was busy for me. I was off for a week, but didn’t manage to read too much. Hopefully, I am going to read more books in December.

I read 5 books in total. I ended up giving two 5-star ratings and three 4-star ratings. Quite a positive month, it seems πŸ™‚

Books I read in November:

~ To read my review – click on the book titles! πŸ™‚

november 2019 monthly book wrap up book books blog blogging reading goodreads netgalley diary of difference

1. I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Abbey Clancy – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

I was so lucky to be able to be part of the blog tour for I’ll Be Home for Christmas. It is amazing for a start of the Christmas mood. Be prepared for some drama, a bit of romance and get ready to choose sides.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

2. Dear Edward by Ann NapolitanoΒ –Β β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Dear Edward byΒ Ann NapolitanoΒ is one of the few books that instantly captures your heart, then shatters it into hundred pieces and teaches you many life lessons at the same time. This is now a favorite of mine and I will keep it in my heart forever!

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

3. The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Twenty-five years ago, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher disappeared without trace…

The Temple House Vanishing left me with a tiny scar in my soul after reading it. It is intriguing and mysterious, it is real and delusional. The next time when I mention a special mystery, with a cruel end – this will be the first book that pops in my mind.

Purchase Links:
Β Amazon UKΒ 

4. Death in the Dojo by Sue Leather – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

I remember reading The Death in the Dojo a few years ago. I still remember the story and the feelings it brought me. This is a story about a mystery, about karate and the love between a daughter and her dad. I need to just say that this book has and always will have a special place in my heart.Β 

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

5. Her Crown of Fire (Molten Crown, #1) by Renee April – β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Her Crown of Fire is the first book of the Molten Crown series.

Rose Evermore is a girl trying to survive high-school. But she suddenly has dreams that can predict the future and she seems to be able to control fire.

Curious about the power she possesses, she finds herself in the fantasy realm of Lotheria with her best friend Tyson. When she arrives, she is welcomed as a fire mage at the academy, while Tyson is forced to hide in order to survive.

With a lot of plot twists and new power discoveries, Rose and Tyson are in trouble and have to find a way back home.

I enjoyed this book, and I loved the characters.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

And that is my November Wrap up! How did your November go? How many books did you read? Let me know! I love reading your comments!Β 

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