Tag: Roots of Chaos

Sunday Summary – 19th October 2025

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It’s been an eventful seven days, so I’m glad I planned a low-content week. After a somewhat more relaxed day, I’m looking forward to sharing my latest Sunday Summary and catching you up on the news!

As always, let’s recap what I’ve shared so far before getting into the bookish updates! 

On Patreon, I shared a First Lines Friday post featuring an author I’ve not long read. I’ve enjoyed one series of hers, and she has another well-known and loved I’ve yet to try! That’s the topic of that feature! Haven’t seen it yet? Here’s a link to go check it out! 

I was also intending to share a review on Patreon this week, but it didn’t quite make it to publication. Don’t worry though, it’s on its way very soon! 

On the blog, I shared a Top Ten Tuesday post, albeit a day later than planned. I’ll explain more as to why in just a bit, but it was a fun post to share. The topic – books I wish I could read again for the first time! What’s one book you wish you could read again for the first time?

The reason things have been a little slow on content, but more hectic behind the scenes is we rescued a kitten last Sunday! This week has been busy juggling two young kittens, trying to introduce them to one another and generally figuring out how best to get our new ex-feral girl comfortable in her new home. It’s been a lot, but worth it already to see the progress she’s made! 

 

Books Read

Among the Burning Flowers 

I swore this week I’d complete Among the Burning Flowers, and I did. Thank goodness! 

This audiobook was a fun listen and I’m glad I decided to keep up with the series pretty much as it came out. It meant events were fresh in my mind so I could appreciate the timeline better. 

Among the Burning Flowers takes place just a couple of years before The Priory of the Orange Tree, but also references events in A Day of Fallen Night. It was a nice in-between, but also works well if you read the books in any order. 

Among the Burning Flowers is considerably shorter than the other books, so it’s an approachable start! Not that you’d know it for how long it took me to finish it… 

 

HR Disrupted 

Another longer read I finished this week is HR Disrupted. There isn’t any real reason why this took so long to finish either. However, I did finish this and return the book to its rightful owner on Thursday. 

I would love to see some of the suggested changes in HR practice come in. I agree that current systems don’t work and infantilise/demoralise staff. It’s a tall order though. Our HR lady is all for some of these, so hopefully we can work towards some radical change in the future… 

 

The Shadow of What Was Lost

After finishing Among the Burning Flowers, I picked up The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington. This is the first read of my ChatGPT recommendations feature. I’m looking forward to recording some of my thoughts on this book soon. 

It’s a little early yet, as I’m just a few chapters in. In terms of audiobook time, that’s 2 hours out of a total 25.5 hours. That said, it’s a really interesting start and I’m intrigued as to where the story is going to go! More on this in the next week or so! 

 

Woden’s Storm

Finally, the last book I feature on this Sunday Summary is a book I’m reading for an upcoming blog tour next week. 

Woden’s Storm is the second book in Donovan Cook’s The First Kingdom series. My review is due Thursday next week, so priority goes to this book for the next few days! 

I’ve made a great start, even pushing onwards today to get to 25% of the way through. It’s been nice and easy to get back into. With plenty of reminders of the story to date integrated in the narrative, plus action to keep us in the present timeline, it’s an engaging historical fiction read! 

Again, you’ll hear more on this one VERY soon! 

 

Books Discovered

I’ve finally broken my ‘no new books’ streak, but thankfully my bank balance remains unmolested… for now. 

I came across an upcoming future release of The Midnight Train by Matt Haig. It seems reminiscent of The Midnight Library, albeit from a different context. I loved that book so much I’ve read it twice in quick succession. My hope is The Midnight Train delivers on my hopes that it will live up to that book. 

That book comes out in May next year. There isn’t even a cover published for it yet, so plenty of time! 

Coming Up… 

Patreon 

I didn’t get to my review of House of Frank this week. However, I promise to get to it this week. You may recall I picked this up alongside the Cotteagecore Fantasy Book Club. It was a stretch out of my comfort zone, but I’m glad I tried it. 

Next Friday brings another instalment of my Shelf Control regular feature. Next on the list is  a horror/thriller about a placid character with a devastating alter-ego. Dark, with a flawed cast and described as pacey, I can’t wait to share more! 

Finally, next Sunday brings my usual Sunday Summary personal round-up of the week. How many books can I finish in the next seven days? 

 

Blog 

My first post of the week goes live tomorrow. In anticipation for an upcoming review, I share a guest feature post prepared by Vanessa Finaughty. If you’re an aspiring fantasy writer and want some fun writing prompts to play with, look no further! 

Thursday is tour day and my deadline to review Woden’s Storm by Donovan Cook. If you love historical fiction set in early British history (450AD), this will be perfect for you! Stay tuned to read up more on this story in the coming days. I promise to do my best to upsell this book to you! 

Then, last but by no means least, I’ll update you on my reading progress and other updates in my Sunday Summary going live in a week’s time. I’m hoping for a more settled week and lots of reading progress. I can only keep my fingers crossed… 

 

Thanks for reading today’s Sunday Summary! I hope you have a great week ahead? What books are you taking into next week? 

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Sunday Summary – 12th October 2025

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Happy Sunday and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary roundup of the week! 

It’s been a busy week of content. Here on the blog, I shared my monthly wrap-up for September, my October TBR, and a Shelf Control post earlier this week. 

Over on Patreon, I shared my October TBR (early access before readers of my blog), a post about my Patreon purpose, plus details of an upcoming reading challenge and a new content format I’m trialling that will be available to subscribers. 

 

Books Read

Among the Burning Flowers 

I was hoping to share completion of my audiobook listen of Among the Burning Flowers this week. Alas, not quite. 

I’ve listened most days pretty consistently, so it’s not a lack of picking up the audiobook that’s the problem. I just didn’t quite listen enough. Had I been able to hear properly, I’d have been able to finish the book whilst mowing the lawns yesterday. However, I do struggle with that, so I generally listen to familiar music instead. I listen to Alex Warren’s album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid, a lot at the moment. 

Never mind – I am DEFINITELY sharing completion next week instead. No excuses. 

 

HR Disrupted 

In last week’s Sunday Summary, I also featured HR Disrupted. I was hoping again to finish this book this week so I can return it to the owner. However, as of drafting this post, I’m not quite there either. 

Never say never, I could finish it tonight with a bit of a push. Unfortunately, that’s not in time for this post, so it’s a little disappointing. Again, next week it will be a definite! I’m worried I’m losing the reading momentum of last month. It would be great for me to get that back. Finish these two reads, and I have a fresh start, right? 

 

Books Discovered

Once again, no news is good news this week! Surely I’m getting towards a record of the longest stint without any new books or additions to my TBR by now… 

 

Coming Up… 

Patreon 

I’m not going to get to a personal Sunday Summary type post tonight on Patreon – it’s already late evening as I’m drafting this! Instead, I’ll post a catch-up tomorrow with some more personal commentary than I do here on the blog. 

Surely I’m due to post a new review this week. It’s been a few weeks, so I’ll share my thoughts on the book club read alongside the Cotteagecore Fantasy Book Club, House of Frank. 

On Friday I’ll return with my next regular Friday feature, a First Lines Friday post. I haven’t got a particular theme or challenge in mind for this post. I’ll just see what I fancy nearer the time. 

Finally, I’ll be back next Sunday for a more timely weekly update post. I won’t leave it so late to post this time… 

 

Blog 

The first post to go live on the blog next week will be a Top Ten Tuesday post. The topic – Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time!

I’ve got some reads I need to march on with, so I’m actually going to leave it here and next share my Sunday Summary update at the end of the week. I need to get my reading mojo back! 

 

Have you made better reading progress than me this week? I hope so! 

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Sunday Summary – 5th October 2025

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Happy Sunday friends! I hope you’ve had a lovely week, however you’ve spent it?! It’s been a busy week here. Quarter end is a busy period for me at work, but I’ve also had a good deal of content to share this week. Take a look at my Sunday Summary to see what the latest is!

On Patreon and here on the blog, I shared two free posts this week, both being reviews. The first of these was my review of the graphic novel Gran Familia. I’ll link to that post as usual so if you haven’t taken a look at that post yet, he is and easy place to go and find it. The second post I shared across Patreon and the blog earlier this week what’s my review of Shield of Mercia by M.J. Porter. I shared my review as part of the ongoing blog tour organised by Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources. This is the eighth book in her Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, and I had a great time reading this latest instalment. Again, if you get to take a look at that post, above is a handy link for you to do so. 

One exclusive post I published on patriarch this week was my monthly wrap-up post for September. In this post, I share the books I read throughout the previous month and give you a sneak preview of my thoughts on those. Typically, this gets posted on my blog.

This will be posted on my blog next week, but I made it available to potential future subscribers first. If you want to be the 1st to see this post in future, you can subscribe to me there to hear my latest updates before anyone else!

 

Books Read

 

Among the Burning Flowers 

Listening progress with Among the Burning Flowers has been on the light side this week. There isn’t a particular reason for this in terms of the book. On a practical level, I needed to listen to the radio on Friday whilst commuting home for weather updates. We had our first storm of the season with trees down, localised flooding and road closures. Thankfully, nothing significant and got home at the usual time. 

I’ve listened to about 45minutes of the book this week. As I say, not a lot. However, there isn’t much left of the book either so I imagine I’ll share completion in next week’s Sunday Summary. 

 

Shield of Mercia

My reading priority this week was Shield of Mercia by M. J. Porter. As you know by now, I shared my review of this book yesterday as part of the ongoing blog tour. It was fun to take part and I hope M. J. Porter has great success with this latest publication. I really enjoyed seeing where events of the series took Icel next. He’s one of my favourite historical fiction characters from this time period because he is unique, likeable, and always gets stuck into the action! 

I could have done with starting this book sooner than I did as I did have to make a last minute push to finish it. However, that was hardly a drag as I really enjoyed the action, wider scope of travel compared to its predecessor and the political scheming amongst Saxons. 

Obviously, I’m not going to go too much into depth with my thoughts here as I have a dedicated post for that. 

 

HR Disrupted 

In last week’s Sunday Summary, I shared that I’d just started HR Disrupted. With Shield of Mercia suitably prioritised and now read, I went back to this non-fiction loan I have on the go. 

In the last few days, I’ve read the first 40% of the book. It’s an interesting read so far and I definitely agree with a lot of Lucy’s views. Classic HR practices don’t work and it would be interesting to see some practices change. Let’s just see if I can convince some changes to happen in my place! I’ll have to read the rest of the book first, so stay tuned and I can tell you more next week! 

 

Books Discovered

Anyone would be thinking I’m on a book buying ban the way things are going right now. Again, there’s nothing new on the reading list this week and I have zero complaints about this 😅

 

Coming Up… 

Patreon 

The first post I’m drafting and publishing for my exclusive subscribers next week is my monthly TBR for October. I have great books and reading plans lined up for this month. My only hope is that my reading success and momentum from September carries forward. It would be amazing to have another super-productive reading month! This is due to go live tomorrow. If you want to be the first to know what I’m reading, as well as find out how to take part in my book club read, subscribe and check out that post! 

Mid-week, I’m in the mood to share a more personal post. Rather than a focus on books, I want to share a bit more about why I’ve set up my Patreon, what I hope to offer on it and help a new set of potential subscribers get to know me a little better. I’ve published a couple of reviews last week, so this feels like a good balance. 

In the spirit of offering subscribers some exclusive content, I’m going to launch details of a reading challenge I’ll be taking part in very soon! I hope you can check this out. Maybe you want to take part as well? 

I write my own, more informal version of a Sunday Summary on Patreon as well. Again, it’s more personal and covers more than just the books I’ve read and featured etc.

 

Blog 

My first post of this week is the monthly wrap-up I initially published on Patreon. If you’re keen to see how reading progress came along last month, you’re in for a treat. I picked up no less than ten books over the course of the month. For the first time in a while, I ended the month on par with my reading goal for the year, if not a little ahead of schedule! Let’s hope October is just as successful! 

My Patreon subscribers are only going to see my monthly TBR a few days ahead of you all. However, with time ticking on with the month I feel bad leaving it too late to let you know my reading plans. So, this will go live on Thursday next week. 

On Friday this week, I intended to share a Shelf Control post but that didn’t make it due to finishing touches on my Shield of Mercia post. That’ll come this week instead; apologies for the delay! 

Finally, I’ll be back this time next week with another Sunday Summary recap of what reading progress has looked like! Hopefully I can share both my current reads are done, and let you know what else is coming up! 

Thank you all for sticking with me! I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Sunday Summary post. 

What are you currently reading? 

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Sunday Summary – 28th September 2025

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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?

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