Tag: bookblogger

First Lines Friday – 22/08/2025

Posted on August 22, 2025 by fantasyst95

In today’s First Lines Friday, I’m pleased to feature a book I’ll be reading as part of an upcoming reading challenge. This is a bit of a teaser post, and I hope it’ll drum up some excitement.

For that challenge, I’m reading and reviewing three books – today, I feature the most ‘mainstream’ book and author of the three chosen. The others are lesser-known but no less anticipated by me.

Let’s get into the opening lines of today’s First Lines Friday feature and then I’ll share more about the book and my upcoming reading challenge!

The blade traced a slow line of fire down his face.

He desperately tried to cry out, to jerk away, but the hand over his mouth prevented both. Steel filled his vision, gray and dirty. Warm blood trickled down the left side of his face, onto his neck, under his shirt.

There were only fragments after that.

Laughter. The hot stink of wine on his attacker’s breath.

A lessening of the pain, and screams—not his own. Voices, high-pitched with fear, begging.

Then silence. Darkness.

The Shadow of What Was Lost – James Islington

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 604

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Orbit

Publication Date: 04 Aug 2014

Goodreads – The Shadow of What Was Lost

AS DESTINY CALLS, A JOURNEY BEGINS

It has been twenty years since the god-like Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them— the Gifted— are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion’s Four Tenets, vastly limiting their own powers.

As a young Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden powers of the Augurs, he sets in motion a chain of events that will change everything.

To the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is…

And in the far north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated, begins to stir.

My Thoughts…

James Islington is an author I’m excited to try. I’ve seen this book talked about before on the likes of BookTube and in the wider book community. However, prior to planning my ChatGPT book recommendations content, I haven’t seriously considered picking up one of his books for myself.

That, of course, is changing. When I asked ChatGPT for book recommendations based on other books I’ve enjoyed (A Game of Thrones and Mistborn), The Shadow of What Was Lost was the first recommendation given to me. And it’s a great recommendation! In theory, there is plenty I should enjoy about this book, and I’m excited to give it a go very soon.

I like the sound of the book based on the synopsis. The opening lines, though, have definitely piqued my interest.

What do you make of today’s First Lines Friday feature? Do you like the sound of the book, either by the synopsis or the opening lines? Have you read The Shadow of What Was Lost? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with a High Page Count

Posted on August 19, 2025 by fantasyst95

If you’re looking for a chunky book recommendation, then today’s Top Ten Tuesday post is for you! This week’s featured topic is Books with a High Page Count. Given I read a lot of fantasy, I knew I wouldn’t struggle with the topic.

However, in the spirit of appealing to a wider reading audience, I feature books from the following genres in today’s post: –

Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Classics
Horror
Non-fiction

If you’re a fan of any of these genres, take a look below for some of my recommendations that have a high page count.

Half of this list tops 1,000 pages – have you read any of these? Are you brave enough to give them a go?

Books with a High Page Count

Classics

War and Peace

1,024 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Review – War & Peace

Lord of the Rings (bind up edition)

1,209 pages

Rating: – Book 1 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ Book 2 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/ Book 3 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My reviews: –

Review: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – J.R.R Tolkien

Review: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King – J. R. R. Tolkien

Horror

IT

1,376 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Review: IT – Stephen King

The Stand

1,348 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Audiobook Review: The Stand – Stephen King

Imaginary Friend

720 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Book Review: Imaginary Friend – Stephen Chbosky

Fantasy

The Way of Kings

1,007 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Review: The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson

The Mad Ship

906 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Book Review: The Mad Ship – Robin Hobb

Non-fiction

A Promised Land

768 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – To follow

Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

720 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Patreon

Historical fiction

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

639 pages

Rating: – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My review: – Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon

Summary

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday post hopefully features a book that appeals to everyone, regardless of the genres you read. If you are looking for your next read with a high page account, this Top Ten Tuesday can scratch the itch.

Have you read any of the books on today’s list? Are any of them on your reading list?

Sunday Summary – 17th August 2025

Posted on August 17, 2025 by fantasyst95

Hello friends! It’s the end of another week (and weekend… again 🙄), so I’m back with today’s Sunday Summary catch-up. I have some fun books I’ve been reading, and I can’t wait to share those with you! As always though, before we get that far, let’s recap what posts I’ve shared with you in the last seven days.

The first post of the week was a Top Ten Tuesday instalment. This week, the topic was Books Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump. In this post, I feature some firm favourites I turn to when I’m in a slump and need a pick-me-up. If you ever find yourself in this position, maybe one of these books can drag you from the abyss?

On Friday, I shared an interesting dystopian novel with an extreme take on diet culture. It’s an odd topic for a dystopian to lean into, but I love the sound of it. I reckon this could make for good discussion in the context of diet culture too. As and when I get to reading it, I’ll let you know if that is truly the case!

On Patreon, I shared my review of Samantha Shannon’s A Day of Fallen Night. As prequels go, I think A Day of Fallen Night ticked all the right boxes. I also love that you can read the books pretty much standalone, or in any order. If you want to find out more of my thoughts of this book, consider subscribing to me on Patreon for early access to my reviews of recent reads!

Books Read

If We Were Villains

As planned, I finished If We Were Villains early this week. It wasn’t quite Monday – it ended up being Tuesday.

I really enjoyed how the events of the book played out and the narrative style. My only regret is that I left it so long to pick up this book! Even if you aren’t a big fan of Shakespeare (and I’m not overly – it’s hard to understand!), that doesn’t especially matter. It contributes to the narrative, but doesn’t dominate it. It can be read without understanding the full context of the plays, characters and lines. I have a suspicion those more in-the-know on Shakespeare probably got more in the way of foreshadowing and ‘easter eggs’ from the plays and characters portrayed. Even without that level of appreciation myself – I had a great time!

The House Witch

This week I’ve made a real effort to catch up on the Cottagecore Fantasy Book Club read, The House Witch. As of last week’s Sunday Summary, I’d only just started the book. This week, I’ve made an effort to catch up on where I *should* be with it. I set the schedule and yet I’m not quite keeping up with it 😅

As of this Sunday Summary, I’m nearly on track! I’ve got to chapter 17, which is only a week behind schedule. I’ve already read 120 pages or so in the last few days and I plan to read more tonight as I wind down for the evening.

So far I’m enjoying the book. I hope we get to see more of the character dynamic between Fin and his father. I feel like that’s what the book is building up to and it’ll make for an interesting dynamic.

Tyrant’s Throne

As of last week’s Sunday Summary, I’ve come on leaps and bounds from the 1.5 hours of Tyrant’s Throne I’d listened to. Over the last seven days, I’ve listened to a further 5 and a half hours. In terms of overall progress, that puts me at around 45% progress.

I’m intrigued as to where this book is going to go to round up the series. Already, the events of the book have taken a turn I didn’t expect. We’re at what I suspect to be a pivotal point in the story right now – and it could go one of two ways. As final books in a series go, this one of up there for unpredictability and for having me hooked to get to the end. I’m not even lamenting the fact that I only have 9 hours of audio of the book/series yet! Usually, I find myself in a mixture of eagerness to get to the end, but also sadness it’s about to end. For this one through, I’m that gripped my events I want to listen on!

Whilst I may not finish this audiobook next week, I hope to get as close as I can!

Books Discovered

Whilst my wallet hasn’t suffered this week, I have added a few books to my TBR. I’m lining myself up to start a new challenge after 20 Books of Summer is over. I’m not going to spoil anything on that too early, but in short, I’ll be picking up three reads that weren’t on my TBR from ChatGPT recommendations. More on that challenge to follow.

On Facebook this week, I read about a book called I Know I’m in There Somewhere: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner Voice and Living a Life of Authenticity. It’s not a super-long read, but I think it could be an interesting one to pick up.

Coming Up…

Last week I kicked off my blog content with a Top Ten Tuesday, and the same applies this week! However, this week’s topic is books with a high page count. As you know, an epic fantasy lover like me will have plenty of those to share. Tune in on Tuesday for a list of chunky book recommendations! I promise to feature more than just fantasy books 😊

On Friday I’ll return with a First Lines Friday feature. In that post, I’ll tease one of the three books I’m reading for my aforementioned upcoming reading challenge. I hope you can take a look at what’s coming up for that reading list.

Last of all, I’ll return with another Sunday Summary post this time next week How many books will I finish next week? Hopefully a few more than this week!

What are you reading?

Shelf Control #94 – 15/08/2025

Posted on August 15, 2025 by fantasyst95

Dystopian fiction is the feature of today’s Shelf Control post. In today’s post, I’m sharing a book I added to my reading list just days after the book was published. However, over five years on I’ve yet to pick it up. That should change soon!

Before I share more, let’s take a look at what Shelf Control is about and then I’ll share why I want to read The Choice.

Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a celebration of the unread books on our shelves! The idea is to pick a book you own but haven’t read and write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up.

If you want to read more about the Shelf Control feature, check out Lisa’s introductory post.

The Choice – Claire Wade

Genre: Dystopian

Pages: 368

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Orion

Publication Date: 26 Dec 2019

Goodreads – The Choice

Imagine a world where…

Everything you ate was monitored by the government.

Every step you took was counted.

Your children were weighed every day at school.

Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement.

Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime.

Imagine if that world was here… What would you do?

Toe the line or fight for your freedom…

My Thoughts

The premise of this book is an interesting one. In modern society we are regularly told what we ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t eat’ as part of our diet culture. The Choice takes this to the extreme, mandating what food can and cannot be eaten. Personally, I think I’ll like this book. It promises to explore an interesting topic. As someone who does not have the healthiest of relationships with food, I’ll likely feel more strongly about the narrative and the restrictions imposed. I am working on it, but I also don’t care to be perfect.

I would not do very well in this world 😂 I enjoy treats and I can’t lie! My love of cake would land me in the Perspex box on many an occasion!

I’m looking forward to reading this one as it’s a debut novel. New authors (and featuring new authors) is always a pleasure. If I can, I like to share new and/or less mainstream authors.

The reviews of this book on Goodreads are a little polarised. As to what I make of this book remains to be seen. In principal, I can always get behind an #eatcake campaign, so I’m optimistic.

If you’re still here, thanks for reading today’s Shelf Control post! Have you read The Choice… or anything like it?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump

Posted on August 12, 2025 by fantasyst95

We all go through reading slumps. Even us voracious readers find ourselves unable to pick up a book now and then. Whether it’s due to a bad run killing our reading vibe, to the complete opposite – a book so good nothing can live up to it, we’ve all been there. That’s where my Books Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump can help!

Personally, when I’m struggling I tend to seek out the familiar, or favourites. Let’s take a look at some of mine ☺️

Books Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump

A Game of Thrones

If there was only one series I could read for the rest of my life, I’d choose this one! I love getting immersed in the details of the story. There are characters I love and some I love to hate. It has so much to give! I’ve reviewed this first book which you can check out if you haven’t already.

I’ve already re-read this series once and I don’t doubt I’ll do it again. Certainly I will be if we get word on the next book…

The Hunger Games

I keep threatening to re-read this series!

Having enjoyed reading A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping in more recent history, I want to return to the main trilogy. I read these books as a teenager and I’m keen to see how they stand the test of time now I am an adult.

I love the world. These books are set in a dystopian world. Fiction is always something I look forward to. For that reason, The Hunger Games series is always a safe bet if I’m looking for books guaranteed to put an end to my book slump.

Mistborn

Brandon Sanderson and his Mistborn series were very highly rated by me the first time I read them. Again, the immersive world and strong characters are easy to love and fall in with.

Honestly, I could have featured any number of Brandon Sanderson books on this list. I have yet to find one I haven’t loved. I have a particular fondness for Mistborn, however, as it is one of the first books I ever read. It’s also a substantial series of seven books across two timelines. The time difference between these two settings also makes a very different world. Whether I’m looking for something of a traditional fantasy, or something a little bit more western, the books in the series can appeal to either of those wants.

Harry Potter

Regardless of the controversy surrounding the author, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books both as a child growing up, and again more recently as an adult. The latest books in the series are my favourite by far, and I find them very easy to dive back into.

The earlier books are lighter and shorter. If I’m looking for a quicker, lighter fantasy read, these are ideal. But, as I said, I love the latter books. The darkest storyline and more sinister aspects of the plot are really enjoyable to me. Even if the page count is heavier, the content is what I love, and I can devour it!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

I really loved this trilogy by Laini Taylor. The main character, Karou, was one of the reasons why I experimented with dyeing my hair blue 😂

If there was one thing Laini is good at, it’s encompassing an engaging storyline with a lyrical narrative. Her books are very easy to read, and it’s for that reason I’m confident the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy makes my ‘books guaranteed to put an end to your book slump’ list.

Strange the Dreamer

It’s for the exact same reason above that I’ve got Laini Taylor‘s Strange the Dreamer duology on this list!

An added bonus is that the series is only made up of two books, so it’s not too much of a commitment to read, and I can get through it quickly!

Lord of the Rings

Although not the easiest to read, due to the long-winded and complex sentence structures, I love Lord of the Rings. For that reason, this trilogy also makes the cut.

It’s a series I couldn’t get tired of, even if I tried. Plus, it’s a classic!

The Handmaid’s Tale

I’ve already mentioned in this ‘books guaranteed to put an end to your book slump’ that dystopian fiction is a safe genre.

Another dystopian novel I could read over and over is The Handmaid’s Tale. I do enjoy feminist fiction as well as dystopia. The Handmaid’s Tale is also a book I’ve read multiple times already and no doubt will again in the future!

The Midnight Library

In the last two years, I have read this book twice. Both occasions, the experience was different.

The Midnight Library is an interesting and quite short book to read. The subject matter isn’t the easiest, but it’s engaging and thought-provoking. I strongly believe I can take away more from this book the more I read it.

Babel

Combine magic, language, and historical fiction, and you get Babel! I loved this book so much that I plan to read it again.

Babel has a number of elements I love in a book. This will be a great read to pick up if I’m in a slump and don’t know what to pick up next!

Summary

Thanks for taking the time to read my ‘books guaranteed to put an end to your book slump’ Top Ten Tuesday.

Have you read any of the books on this list? What is your go-to book when you’re in a reading slump?

Sunday Summary – 10th August 2025

Posted on August 10, 2025 by fantasyst95

Another Sunday Summary graces your screens on account of the fact that another week is over. Aren’t they flying by? In today’s post I have a great line up of current reads to update you on, as well as a couple of new books purchased.

Before that though, the first port of call is always to catch up on the content I’ve shared so far this week. That way, if you missed anything, you have a chance to catch up!

The first post of the week was my August TBR. Naturally the books I’ve been reading derive from this list and it’s been a great start to the month. I’ve made a good start so far this month, so I’m optimistic 🤞🏻 let’s hope that’s not famous last words…

On Friday I published a First Lines Friday post featuring an author I’m listening to currently. If you read my August TBR you’ll have a better chance of guessing the author. However, when it comes to books, he’s written several. Take a look and see if you can guess which it is.

I’ve reviewed another recent read on Patreon this week. If you are curious about Little Fires Everywhere – maybe to decide whether to read it for yourself, or to compare notes, please consider subscribing to gain early access to reviews for all the books I’m reading!

Books Read

Stormdancer

Stormdancer was always going to be a pretty quick finish this week. As of last week’s Sunday Summary, I only had a couple of hours of the audiobook left.

Naturally, being this close to the conclusion I rapidly picked this up at every opportunity to get to the end. I really enjoyed the book and I’m curious about how the story will continue. The good news is I already have the audiobooks!