Hi guys! It’s time for another review of the TBR in today’s Down the TBR Hole post. Down the TBR Hole is a meme created by Lia @ Lost in a Story. The idea is to review the books on your TBR to decide if you still want to read them. The rules are as follows: –
- Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
I’ve been basing this post on five books for a while in order to make them more manageable to read and easier to write. However, for the last several months I’ve only gotten around to writing one post per month. If I want to get my TBR reviewed in full, looking at five books a month isn’t going to cut it. Therefore, I am going back to reviewing ten books on the list. I hope you’re sitting comfortably.
Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb
Goodreads – Assassin’s Apprentice
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.
I have started reading this book in odd quiet moments on my phone and not gotten that far… too many times! It’s no fault of the book. I just can’t read on my phone. It’s too small and uncomfortable. I need to make time to read this properly on my kindle. Not only have I really enjoyed what I have read, but a friend of mine has read and enjoyed her books. I trust her judgement.
Verdict: Keep!
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors – Dan Jones
Goodreads – The Templars
Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights of Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. But who were they really and what actually happened?
My current knowledge of the Templars originates from playing Assassin’s Creed. I’m not going to lie. If memory serves, I found this book in Waterstones during a shopping trip away with some female friends. I decided to buy it when I got home as I had limited space in the case. No word of a lie, the e-book came up on sale on Amazon either that night, or the next morning. So, I bought it!
I think I’ll enjoy learning the foundation and history of this holy Order.
Verdict: Keep!
The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England – Ian Mortimer
Goodreads – The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England
Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the 14th century. This text sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking the reader to the Middle Ages, and showing everything from the horrors of leprosy and war to the ridiculous excesses of roasted larks and haute couture.
This is another history book (surprise surprise!) but with a different subject matter entirely. I know quite a bit about the likes of the Cold War, the economic boom and great depression in America… that sort of thing. If there was a lack in my history lessons, it was British history. By reading this book, I’m looking to rectify the gap in my knowledge.
Verdict: Keep
The Potato Factory – Bryce Courtenay
Goodreads – The Potato Factory
Ikey Solomon is very successful indeed, in the art of thieving. Ikey’s partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted and each must make the harsh journey from 19th century London to Van Diemens Land. In the backstreets and dives of Hobart Town, Mary learns the art of brewing and builds The Potato Factory, where she plans a new future. But her ambitions are threatened by Ikey’s wife, Hannah, her old enemy. The two women raise their separate families. As each woman sets out to destroy the other, the families are brought to the edge of disaster.
I think it was the criminal element of this that drew my attention to the novel. Having read the synopsis again though, I’m not so sure about it. I have too many books to be sat on the fence, so I’m going to drop this off the list.
Verdict: Go
Necronomicon – H. P. Lovecraft
Goodreads – Necronomicon
Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, H. P. Lovecraft’s astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmology that are as powerful today as they were when first published.
This tome presents original versions of many of his most harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, in order of publication.
I’ve already started reading some of these stories. They are weird and wonderful (with a side dish of creepy). It’s not a book I’ll read in one go – it’s too large for that! It’s sat on my bookshelf in the hallway though, so I’ll pick it up periodically and work my way through it!
Verdict: Keep
The Calling – Neil Cross
Goodreads – The Calling
Meet DCI John Luther.
He’s brilliant. He’s intense. He’s obsessional. He’s dangerous.
DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. But Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law.
The Calling, the first in a new series of novels featuring DCI John Luther, takes us into Luther’s past and into his mind. It is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder…
I love watching Luther on TV, so I have to see how his character translates through a narrative. I cannot imagine anyone playing Luther but Idris Elba. He’s perfect for the role!
Verdict: Keep!!
Tess of the Road – Rachel Hartman
Goodreads – Tess of the Road
In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can’t make a scene at your sister’s wedding and break a relative’s nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.
Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it’s a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl—a subspecies of dragon—who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she’s tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.
Returning to the fascinating world she created in the award-winning and New York Times bestselling Seraphina, Rachel Hartman introduces readers to a new character and a new quest, pushing the boundaries of genre once again in this wholly original fantasy.
I really enjoyed reading Seraphina and Shadow Scale; in particular, the element of music. Tess of the Road is set in the same fantasy world, but I get the impression it’s quite separate from these books too. Again, I’m on the fence, so I think I’ll set it aside.
Verdict: Go
Punishment – Scott J. Holliday
Goodreads – Punishment
Do you want to know what it’s like to die, to kill, to really fear for your life? Then get hooked…
Detroit-based homicide detective John Barnes has seen it all—literally. Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.
Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.
Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…
The premise of this novel is unique and a little unnerving… in a good way! This is a total keeper – I think the synopsis speaks for itself!
Verdict: Keep!!
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Goodreads – Jane Eyre
Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.
But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?
I want to read Jane Eyre because it’s a classic, but I’ll admit I am really dubious about the romance element of the story. I was so on the fence about it that I decided to ask my bookish friends on Twitter whether I should still read it or not.
The vast majority voted yes, commenting that there is so much more to the novel and that I should stick with the first few chapters. Thank you for your comments guys, it’s been a great help! I’ll take your advice and keep it on the list.
Verdict: Keep
India Black – Carol K. Carr
Goodreads – India Black
When Sir Archibald Latham of the War Office dies from a heart attack while visiting her brothel, Madam India Black is unexpectedly thrust into a deadly game between Russian and British agents who are seeking the military secrets Latham carried.
Blackmailed into recovering the missing documents by the British spy known as French, India finds herself dodging Russian agents-and the attraction she starts to feel for the handsome conspirator.
When I first added this book, the synopsis intrigued me. To a degree, it still does, but not as much as it did when I added it. I’m conscious of the number of books on my list, and I need to trim it down. I think this book will also be relegated for the greater good.
Verdict: Go
So, that’s three out of ten books plucked from the list!
Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with my choices?
As always, I would love to hear from you!
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Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.
stood. We don’t do cheering here at Ardua Hall, but there was some discreet clapping. I inclined my head in a nod.
Lucy V Hay is a script editor for film and an author of fiction and non-fiction. Publishing as LV Hay, Lucy’s debut crime novel, 
Jay Raven is the author of Gothic chillers and historical horror reminding readers that the past is a dangerous place to venture, full of monsters and murderous men. He blames his fascination with vampires, witches and werewolves on the Hammer Horror films he watched as a teenager, but living in a creepy old house on the edge of a 500-acre wood may have something to do with it.
