Tag: Bernard Cornwell

Monthly Wrap-Up – September 2025

Posted on October 7, 2025 by fantasyst95

I’ve had a really productive reading month. In a first for this year certainly, I have no less than ten books to discuss in today’s monthly wrap-up!

I suggest making yourself comfortable with a beverage of choice. When you’re ready, let’s take a look at the wide variant of books and genres I read in September.

Books Read

The Atlantis Covenant

I left off from my last monthly wrap-up having read 60% of The Atlantis Covenant. With an imminent blog tour at the beginning of this month, I needed to get my skates on!

I finished this book the day before my post went live. It meant drafting my review in a hotel whilst on my way abroad (which was far from ideal as it kept dropping out!), but I got there in the end. Since I went to the effort of writing that review, I’ll point you there instead of talking about the book here. What I will summarise though, is that it was a fun, action-packed read!

Sensitive

Also carried over from my August monthly wrap-up was Sensitive. With just three hours left of the audiobook, I figured I’d finish this quickly.

Admittedly, I didn’t pick this up whilst I was on holiday but when I returned. I’m in the habit of listening to audiobooks as I commute and that’s what I did.

This book is a great listen, whether you know, suspect, or wonder if you or those around you are sensitive. To clarify, this book is about advocating the benefits of sensitivity and the ways people can benefit from these traits. Granted, there are drawbacks too, as with anything. For that, Jenn and Andre offer practical advice for how to work with your sensitivity superpowers rather than considering them weaknesses.

A Witch’s Guide to Love and Poison

Our Cottagecore Fantasy Book Club read this month was A Witch’s Guide to Love and Poison.

For a change, I finished this book uncharacteristically early. In the last few months, I’ve lagged behind and been scraping finishes around the end of the month. Not very helpful when you’re supposed to be prompting and facilitating conversation, right?

However, this month I turned over a new leaf, and reading this book in advance paid dividends. It’s set a precedent I’ll be continuing now, and I’ll be starting our upcoming read very soon!

Gran Familia

In a total change of pace, I picked up Gran Familia in order to review the manga to coincide with publication with Titan Comics. I published that yesterday, which you can find here.

I read this book within 24 hours. It’s only a couple of hundred pages and mostly images, so very quick and easy to read. Gran Familia was a nice change of format, but also a quick win that helped spur on reading progress this month. Overall, I did very well for reading progress. Having these shorter reads and multiple wins definitely helped on the motivation front…

Betrayal of Mercia

Switching back to audio, I listened to Betrayal of Mercia before starting my current read of the latest book in the series.

Having read the remainder of the books in e-book format, it was nice to try this in audiobook. It was also convenient for me because I’d finish it whilst reading other physical books on my TBR. Obviously, I couldn’t start the latest book until I finished this!

Whilst I have a personal preference for reading the books, the audiobook was very good. I’m just used to reading the place names, and the old names are more recognisable to me visually. That’s entirely personal preference.

This book surprised me in that there was less travel than in previous instalments. However, this book was quite political, and the power plays between characters keep up the action and tension.

The Pagan Lord

Another historical fiction I feature in today’s monthly wrap-up is the better-known The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell. If you are fans of this book, or the Saxon Stories more widely, please also check out the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles by M. J. Porter.

I was looking forward to getting back into the series as it’s been a while. Although the book was decent, I didn’t love it as much as previous books in the series.

Part of the reason I dragged my feet with it was the way I had to borrow it from my library. I’m not a fan of reading on my phone…

Algospeak

Audiobook progress continued with Algospeak by Adam Aleksic. At just under six hours at normal speed, it wasn’t going to last long.

I enjoyed the book and its content, but the narrative voice of the author didn’t really come across as relatable. Although he acknowledges it later in the book, his use of generational language and emphasising his ‘tribe’ so to speak, he is quite condescending about earlier generations and their social media use. I’m not that old, but was kind of made to feel that way.

It was an interesting read, but I probably won’t pick up anything else by this author if he publishes again.

Among the Burning Flowers

A recent release sprung to the top of my TBR after finishing all my planned audiobooks for the month. Among the Burning Flowers came out earlier in September. Having read and enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night this year, I figured it was worth keeping up with the story.

As of this monthly wrap-up, I’ve listened to around 40% of the audiobook. Again, it’s not a long one, and certainly nowhere near the length of the earlier books. I’ve enjoyed listening to this latest instalment so far. My initial concern is that the book would follow the format of the others pretty closely and feel ‘samey’. However, I don’t find that to be true at all. I’ve been pleasantly surprised and I want to wait to read on!

HR Disrupted

It’s barely worth a mention, but I have just started HR Disrupted by Lucy Adam’s before the end of the month. This book is a loan after a conversation at work with our HR lady, who calls herself an HR Disruptor.

A part of me hopes this book challenges a lot of conventional HR practices and argues what we could do better. I think it’ll be an interesting read anyway, and I’ll update you more next month.

Shield of Mercia

Another late start is my current book, Shield of Mercia. I’m publishing a blog tour post later this week, so I need to get a move on with my read of this.

As of this monthly wrap-up, I’m partway through chapter 4, at 13% (unlucky for some…?). I’m looking forward to reading on, and it’s a good job! I’ve only got a few days left before I’m reviewing this read. That’ll be available to all Patreon readers on Saturday – I hope you can join me.

Summary

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to progress ten titles this month. Yes, there were some shorter books in this monthly TBR. That definitely contributed, but also my reading motivation has been pretty high!

Have you read any of the books I feature in this monthly wrap-up? Are they on your list to read?

Sunday Summary – 28th September 2025

Posted on September 28, 2025 by fantasyst95

Welcome to today’s Sunday Summary! We’re at the end of another week already. Honestly, where are they going? It feels like a blink and we’re at the end of another week and near the end of September. Scary!

As always, in today’s Sunday Summary post, I’ll take you through my content updates, as well as the books I’ve been reading and what to expect coming up soon.

Blog

First on the list for my blog this week was a spooky book recommendation post for you and your book club. I was recently looking for some inspiration on what book to read for our next book club read. It inspired me to write a similar post based on the books I’ve read and recommend. I’m hopeful one of the recommendations I gave in my post is a book you haven’t read. Have you?

Next on the list, I featured a First Lines Friday post. As it happens, I actually featured our book club read in that post. It’s been a typical week of spooky book recs 👻

Patreon

Over on Patreon, I shared my review of The Measure by Nikki Erlick. You may recall I picked up this book as an earlier book club read earlier this year. I’m featuring much more recent book reviews on Patreon. If you want to catch up on my thoughts on books as and when I’m reading them, that’s the place to go and find them. Otherwise, backlist reviews will feature on my blog. These will ultimately make their way around to my blog as well. However, if the blacklist is anything to go by, it will take about two years for that to happen.

Also on Patreon, I shared a Shelf Control post on Friday. This post will be going live on the blog next Friday, so if you haven’t seen it already, you haven’t got quite as long to wait as for a review. I have changed my content structure so even non-book review posts will be going on Patreon first before making it to my blog.

Books Read

The Pagan Lord

Progress with The Pagan Lord wasn’t quite as quick as I’d have hoped this week. I’m not a fan of reading books on my phone, and that’s the easiest way I can borrow digitally from my library. However, I did work out that I can access these books via my laptop this week. That worked out to be preferable and so a good chunk of my progress was made by reading the book through the Libby web app.

I did finish The Pagan Lord, although I ended up binge-reading it last night because my loan was due back today.

Still, I enjoyed the book and it was great to get back into this series. I wouldn’t say I loved it as much as other books in the series. However, it was fast-paced and great to get back to well-known and loved characters!

Algospeak

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I had just 2 1/2 hours left of Algospeak by Adam Aleksic. One of my comments in last week’s Sunday Summary was that the tone of the book made me feel like a bit of a dinosaur. Unfortunately, that didn’t really change. Although the author acknowledges his use of generational language throughout the book and an intention not to cause friction by marking out generational differences and language, that didn’t really come across in practice.

Algospeak was an interesting listen, even if the author’s tone and engagement were a little lacking. Still, I’m glad I listened to this book and it gave me some interesting thoughts on linguistics and etymology changes around social media and technology.

Among the Burning Flowers

My latest audiobook listen, as of today’s Sunday Summary, is Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon. This prequel was just released earlier this month. Having enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night earlier this year, I wanted to keep on top of the series.

That’s made easier by the fact that this book is considerably shorter than its predecessors. At under 300 pages (or eight hours for listeners), it’s far more approachable and would probably be a good place to start. This book opens with the fact that the series can be started here as the books are interlinked, but not interdependent.

I listen a little bit faster than Audible standard speed. Even still, I have four hours and 20 minutes left of this book. In terms of progress, that puts me about 33% in. I’m enjoying what I’ve listened to so far and can’t wait to tell you more next week!

HR Disrupted

A while ago, a conversation with our HR representative at work ended with me taking away a book recommendation for HR Disrupted. She was telling me that if given the choice, there are standard practices of HR she would like to change. There is a community within HR called Disrupters. As far as I know, this book is about what these kinds of changes and people advocate for. It’s an interesting idea and I’m looking forward to reading this book. She’s loaned me her copy, so naturally I want to make sure I return it to her in good time!

So far, I’ve only made an initial start but I’m looking forward to getting stuck in over the coming days.

Books Discovered

Three weeks in a row, I have no new bookish additions to share with you. I’m fairly sure this isn’t quite a record, but it is certainly out of the norm!

I’m not complaining though! It might be I can get my TBR under 200 books again for the first time in a little while…

Coming Up…

Blog

With the end of September fast approaching, I’ve got a review for the manga graphic novel I read earlier this month, Gran Familia. That book is about to release with Titan Comics, so I’m looking forward to featuring it as part of their launch.

The Shelf Control post that went live on Patreon this Friday will make it to the blog next week. I always look forward to looking at upcoming reads on my TBR and sharing with you why? I can’t wait to read them!

A little out of character, I’m posting on Saturday with my review of Shield of Mercia by M.J. Porter. You may recall I listened to Betrayal of Mercia, so I am up-to-date with the series and ready to share my thoughts on this latest book. Naturally, I’ll be prioritising reading this in the coming days, so my official review can come to you on Saturday.

Finally, I’m back next week with another Sunday Summary and, hopefully, news that I finished my September TBR!

Patreon

On Patreon, I’m also sharing my review of Gran Familia. As a launch publicity post, that will be available to everybody.

Likewise, my review of Shield of Mercia will also be going on Patreon and made available to everybody to read. It’s a great way to get an idea of the content I share there and, for anyone who has yet to discover my content, will give them a feel for my types of reviews.

The more exclusive content I’m sharing on Patreon next week includes my monthly wrap-up post for reading progress in September, as well as a recap of my week on Sunday much like I do here.

It’s going to be a busy one, and I hope you can join me ☺️

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday summary update! What book have you read and enjoyed this September?

Sunday Summary – 21st September 2025

Posted on September 21, 2025 by fantasyst95

For the second week in a row, my recent break has paid its dividends! In today’s Sunday Summary, you’ll see I have a number of updates and books to catch you up with progress on!

Before I get into the books I’ve read over the course of this week, let’s catch up on the blog posts I’ve shared over the internet.

My first post was a book review for Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy. If you enjoy historical fiction, you’re having a field day with content right now. Not only am I talking about historical fiction in terms of these backlist reviews, but I’ve also been reading a lot of historical fiction this week. More on that in a bit!

On Friday, I returned to more modern fiction and featured a legal thriller by a big-name author I am yet to try. This author has three books currently on my TBR and I’ve still not read a single one of them yet. A few of these are featured in my Shelf Control posts now, so I imagine it won’t be long before one of them finally comes around. If you’re intrigued to know who that is, take a look at my latest post.

Books Read

Betrayal of Mercia

I finished my audiobook listen of Betrayal of Mercia earlier today!

As I mentioned in my last Sunday Summary, it’s the first time I’ve picked up a book in this series as an audiobook. It was really interesting to experience this book in this new format. Historically, I’ve kept up with the series by reading the advanced review copies before the books come out. It gives me a unique opportunity to provide a review of the books in this format.

I really enjoyed Betrayal of Mercia. The book takes on a slightly different form in that there is significantly less travel in the book than I remember from earlier instalments. However, that makes sense in the widest storyline and it was interesting to delve deeper into the allegiances of powerful characters and how that impacts other people’s actions.

I’m also glad I finished it because it means I can start reading Shield of Mercia as soon as I finish my current read. That’s also another historical fiction book, this time by the well-known Bernard Cornwell. By the time I finish all these books, I’ll definitely have read my share of historical fiction for a little while…

The Pagan Lord

I’ve enjoyed going back to Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon stories series in picking up The Pagan Lord this week. Admittedly, I didn’t read this book for the first few days of this week. The vast majority of my progress has come later in the week. However, when it started, it happened quickly!

As books go, The Pagan Lord isn’t actually that long. I read decent-sized chunks of the book per sitting as opposed to chipping away at it. The only reason I would say progress is a little slower than usual is that I borrowed this book via Libby from my library. That means I’m reading the book on my phone, which is probably my least favourite way to do so. However, my eagerness to return to the series and getting into the book has enabled me to get past that.

Algospeak

After finishing Betrayal of Mercia earlier today, I started listening to the British short Algospeak by Adam Aleksic.

I downloaded an Audible copy of this book a few months ago now as I was interested in the subject. I had a place to study linguistics at university but ultimately made the decision not to go. That said, I still have an interest in the subject and particularly how social media has had its influence on language in more recent years.

My only gripe with this book so far is that although I’m not uninvolved with social media and technology, it made me feel a little bit like a dinosaur. If you are from Gen Z, you’ll probably find some of the topics and commentary a bit more relatable. However, from an educational standpoint, I’m enjoying the book so far.

As of this Sunday Summary, I’ve already listened to a couple of hours’ worth of the audiobook and I have around 2 1/2 hours left. Needless to say, I’m optimistic. I’ll be able to polish this off early next week and start another audiobook before the end of the month! Will I get to finish it though? That’s the million-dollar question!

Books Discovered

For the second week in a row, I haven’t added any new books to my reading list and I’ve managed to tick some off via completions!

Is this the start of a run on getting my TBR below 200 books? Place your bets now 😂

Coming Up…

Blog

I was looking around online for some inspiration for a spooky book club read for our work book club. I’ve now chosen the book we’re gathering to discuss in October. However, that sparked a content idea though. I want to share my book recommendations for spooky book club reads. That’s going live on Wednesday.

On Friday I’m back with a First Lines Friday feature. My most recent First Lines Friday features have all had a theme. As of drifting this Sunday Summary, I have no particular theme in mind for this post. Perhaps I’ll share a book coming up on my October TBR? I won’t commit myself, but we’ll see.

Finally, you know what’s coming last. This time next week I’m back with another Sunday Summary update and fingers crossed, I’ll be much closer to the end of my monthly TBR. I’ve already surpassed my reading list in some ways. However, we’re just a couple of books left, I can’t get lazy. Check out next week’s Sunday Summary to see if I keep up the pace.

Patreon

On Patreon, I’m planning to step up the content and post as regularly there as I do here. Next week will be a bit crazy as I’m posting two sets of content. Going forward though, my blog content will broadly be historic Patreon content. So, if you want to see my posts exclusively before everyone else, please subscribe to me there. I’m also launching my book club Discord chat for subscribers, so there are plenty of perks to enjoy!

As a sneak preview, I’m posting my review of Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff, a Shelf Control post, and a more in-depth and personal Sunday Summary there.

That’s all for me and today’s Sunday Summary update, though!

What have you been reading?

Sunday Summary – 14th September 2025

Posted on September 14, 2025 by fantasyst95

Another week has come and gone! I can’t believe how fast this week has flown. So yes, I’m back here again with another Sunday Summary update, and it’s a good one! I hope you’ve had a good one too?

It’s mostly been a return to normal this week. After our trip to Iceland last week, we had Monday off to relax and catch up with the usual house admin. Washing… it’s always there for you, no?

Otherwise though, it’s been a case of getting and into routine. Work and home, books and blogging. So, what’s been on the agenda this week?

My first post went live on Monday. No rest for the wicked here! With us being nearly a third of the way through the month, I figured it was time to share my September 2025 monthly TBR. And, I’m in a really good place with that reading list! Although it looked ambitious, I’m ahead of where I need to be to complete it by the end of the month. More on that below 😌 Who knows, I may even get some extra in. Let’s not get ahead though!

On Friday, I shared the final book I’m reading towards my ChatGPT book recommendations challenge/post. I’m planning to pick these books up in October, so ahead of that timeline I’ve teased the final book in my First Lines Friday. If you’ve yet to take a look and fancy a dark, gritty fantasy where delusions shape reality, go take a look at that feature.

On Patreon, I shared my review of The Anxious Generation. This is a non-fiction I recommend everyone read. It’s really informative and backed up by science, but in an interesting and engaging way.