Tag: T.J. Klune

Sunday Summary – 17th May 2026

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Happy Sunday friends and welcome to another weekly Sunday Summary catch-up! I have some great reading progress to update you with this week. With a looming blog tour post, it was all steam ahead with reading the book for which I needed to review. After that, I’ve enjoyed another couple of finishes… so all in all, it’s been a productive one! 

Before we get into the reading updates section of this Sunday Summary, let’s recap the content I’ve shared this week. Here on the blog, I’ve posted a list of books on my TBR I can read towards completing the Goodreads 2026 Spring Reading Challenge. Then, on Thursday morning, my expected blog tour review for The Eagle Will Rise went live! 

Over on YouTube, I caught up with posting my April wrap-up and May TBR. Unfortunately, I didn’t get those out last week. However, I finally worked through a learning curve that comes with changing video editor and got them out before they were so late they were obsolete. 

 

Books Read

The Eagle Will Rise

Reading priority this week went to completing The Eagle Will Rise ahead of my blog tour obligation on Thursday. When I prepared my May TBR, I shared that I hoped finishing this book wouldn’t go down to the wire and I’d be a bit more prepared. Well… I’m sure you can imagine how it actually played out. 

Yes, I read this book in the final two days before the review was due. However, knowing M.J. Porter’s writing style and format of books, I was confident this was achievable. And sure, it was! I even had my review scheduled before the small hours of the night, so that’s a bonus! 

As much as I left things to the last minute, that’s no reflection on the book, but on me. The Eagle Will Rise was an action-packed, brand-new series opener. It was a great read, and another series from M.J. Porter I’m keeping up with. If you love historical fiction and want to find out more, take a look at my full review here. 

 

Crown of Midnight 

I’m pleased to share I finally completed Crown of Midnight today. This book has been long outstanding, given I wanted to finish this in April. 

As with the first book, the ending was really compelling and I’m curious to find out where this series is going. Events are constantly getting broader and the world-building is far more than I could have hoped for. I confess, I went into Throne of Glass not appreciating the scope of the series. Sarah J. Maas is now for romance more than anything, so that’s what I expected. Sure, that’s absolutely in here. However, the vast magical background to the narrative, hinted at character arcs and complex relationships have surprised me. 

I’m looking forward to jumping straight into Heir of Fire and continuing the series! 

 

Witch Hunt 

Over the last seven days, I’ve completed the final 75% of Witch Hunt by B.D. Spargo. Yes, as of this Sunday Summary, I’ve got a third finish to share! 

It’s been a great week, and it’s helped having some very different books and all well-received. Witch Hunt caught my attention for its ties to the Pendle Hill witchcraft history the location has. This book builds upon that history, but it doesn’t overly dominate the narrative if it’s not your cup of tea. 

I really enjoyed how this mystery unfolded. The pacing at the end especially made this compulsively readable, or in my case, I didn’t want to stop listening! And, completing this book this week means I’m AHEAD of providing my review in early June. First time for everything… right?! 

 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Finally, the last book to update you on in this Sunday Summary is one I’ve picked up towards completing the Goodreads 2026 Spring Reading Challenge. 

Unfortunately, the final books on my May TBR are ones I own already and can’t get audiobook versions of from my library. I don’t want to pay twice. Not only that, but the only book I don’t own hasn’t been made into an audiobook. So, I was stymied until I started producing my list for the Spring Challenge. 

Given I couldn’t pick up anything towards my May TBR, I might as well try to read towards completing the challenge. I’m optimistic Somewhere Beyond the Sea will contribute towards the Pride month challenge. If not, well, it’s a sequel that was on my TBR. So, it’s no loss reading this one anyway 😅

 

Books Discovered

 I added a few new books to my TBR as part of my Goodreads 2026 Spring Reading Challenge post – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. 

I’d also historically neglected to add Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe to my TBR, despite getting a physical copy of the book as part of a book subscription I enjoyed a couple of years ago. 

 

Coming Up… 

What I’m Reading… 

So, Heir of Fire is my next and only immediate priority. This book is coming up at 600 pages long. It’s getting more sizeable compared to the previous instalments of the series. I’m glad I’m getting on top of this now and not jeopardising running late for the rest of my readalong. 

Naturally, I’ll also continue on with Somewhere Beyond the Sea. It’s a library loan, so I have a couple of weeks to finish this without extending the loan. Given there’s a deadline, it doesn’t make sense to pick up anything else in tandem. 

 

Blog

Early next week, I share my thoughts on a sequel to a series I’m reading that didn’t quite land as well as its predecessors. Wizard and Glass is the fourth book of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on this one to decompress and hopefully get myself in the headspace to continue and read Wolves of the Calla in the near future.  

On Friday, I’ll return with a First Lines Friday feature. I’m in the mood for a challenge, and I want to keep up momentum and focus on books to pick up towards completing the Goodreads Spring challenge. So, I’ll feature one of the books I featured in that post in more detail. If you weren’t inspired to pick it up after that post, perhaps the First Lines Friday feature can sway your opinion!

As always, I’ll close off the week with another Sunday Summary update. Will I have as successful a week in terms of reading progress? I can only hope so! Bearing in mind the remaining books on my TBR, mostly get longer, that may be a little optimistic. However, I didn’t set an ambitious TBR with the intention of letting it pass me by without trying to push for it.  

 

YouTube

Over on YouTube, I’ve recorded two videos to share during the week. The first video is a recorded version of my Completing the Goodreads 2026 Spring Reading Challenge post. 

The second video is an early preview of my thoughts on Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. I’ve been reviewing books I’ve read so far this year on YouTube ahead of those reviews going live here on the blog. So, if you want to catch those reviews before everyone else here, go and follow me there. 

 

Summary 

This Sunday Summary is plenty long enough, so I’ll leave you to the rest of your day. As for me, I’m off for a relaxing shower before bed. And hey, guess what? The weekend is over and the daily grind has rolled around far too quickly 😭 Bring on the late May bank holiday… 

Until then, what are you reading? 

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Sunday Summary – 9th July 2023

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Good evening all and welcome to my Sunday Summary update for this week! Get yourself a cuppa and make yourself comfortable.

Before jumping into the books I’ve been reading throughout the week, let’s recap the blog posts I’ve shared. The first post shared this week was my monthly wrap-up post, covering reading progress in June. Whilst I didn’t read as much as I was hoping to, I enjoyed the books I did finish. If you want to read my full recap, you can find that in my wrap-up post linked above.

On Friday, it was time to talk about the books I plan to pick up and read in July. This month’s reading list is no less ambitious. I have a higher number of books on the reading list, but they are also shorter than the books. Amongst those are a number of books I need to read for upcoming blog tours. In addition, I’ve set myself a stretch goal to start a book I didn’t get to in June. If you’re curious to see what’s on the reading list for the month, here is the link to my post.

 

Books Read

 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

I left off last week’s Sunday Summary post having read a third of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. I spent around the first half of this week continuing with that book, until it’s happy and heartwarming conclusion.

This is the first book I have read by the author, but I can assure you it won’t be the last! I loved the premise, the relationships and the diverse range of characters in the book. Whilst the ending of this book isn’t one I actively seek out in my reading, it worked in this book and I was routing for it!

Where I put down Children of Dune by Frank Herbert last week because it is a serious, political science-fiction, The House in the Cerulean Sea’s lighthearted charm what’s the perfect counter. It’s what I needed to read to get me out of that slump!

 

Death at the Caravan Park

The next book I picked up is the first book on my July TBR – Death at the Caravan Park by Susan Willis. So far, the book is reading okay. At about a third of the way in, we have the storyline and the titled death set up. Given that we’ve been introduced to a number of characters at this point, it will be interesting to see how the narrative unfolds so we can discover what has occurred.

It’s not something I can judge the book on in my review given that I am reading a draft, but I’m not sure the narrative style is completely polished. It initially took some getting used to, but I’ve gotten used to it enough now.

As I will be sharing my review for the book next week, this will be my priority read for the next few days!

 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

On Friday, I took a stroll down to my local library and borrowed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. And, as I’d forgotten to take my Kindle to work in order to continue with Death at the Caravan Park, I made a sneaky start on this book.

The unique character and writing style has me hooked so much that I am reading these two books in tandem. There is definitely a lot going on already, and plenty more has been alluded to, but not yet unpacked! I’m intrigued about the main character, her undisclosed past and her unusual relationship with her mother.

Since that lunchtime, I have continued reading the book over the weekend. At the point of publishing this post, I am on page 145.

I know I have to prioritise Death at the Caravan Park for my review. I suspect that my desire to return to this book will only help me through that one even faster! If that’s the case, then I should have plenty of reading updates in next week’s Sunday Summary!

 

Books Discovered

I finally broken my streak of no new books being added to the reading list.

I blame this as a result of joining Threads earlier this week. If you’re unfamiliar, Threads is a new social media network run by Meta and is an alternative to Twitter. Whilst I’ve been using Twitter for the entirety of my blogging “career” (for want of a better word), I confess I’ve never really liked it. I’ve decided to give Threads a try to see if it’s any more approachable. It’s proving to be so far, but time will tell.

It is through that social network that I have discovered new people and my new addition. It is a relatively new publication – The Housekeepers by Alex Hay. I really like the sound of this book as it touches on power, gender and class. It involves a heist, which I think will make for an exciting read. I enjoyed a similar topic when reading Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.

 

Coming Up…

As we are now over halfway through the year, I want to take the opportunity to review my progress towards my reading goals for the year in a mid-year review post. I tend to do this post every year as it helps me understand where I’m at in relation to my goals, what I need to do to continue to make progress with them, and/or add or change them accordingly. With this in mind, I’m planning to make this my first post which will go live on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Later in the week, I’ll resume my Friday feature schedule with a Shelf Control post. This week’s featured book is a standalone novel by an author I have read several books by. The books I’ve been reading so far are all part of the same series. I purchased a paperback copy of this book years ago after reading the first few of the series and really enjoying it. I’m sure I’ve also featured this book in the First Lines Friday post, and I enjoyed the introduction immensely! I hope I’ll be getting to it before too long…

On Saturday, I will be sharing my review of Death at the Caravan Park as part of the upcoming blog tour. Naturally, I’ll be prioritising finishing this book in the week so I’m ready to share my thoughts with you this weekend. I hope you can join me for that post!

Then, to conclude the week, I’ll be back with another Sunday Summary update. You know me and what to expect by now! If I have as much reading progress to share with you next week, I will be very happy (and confidence that I’ve got an over the small slump I had at the end of last month).

 

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary update post.

What are you reading currently? Have you purchased or borrowed any books from your local library lately?

 

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Sunday Summary – 2nd July 2023

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Good evening folks and welcome to this week’s update post – aka my Sunday Summary!

I kicked off this week’s blogging schedule with a review of Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. If you are unfamiliar with the book, it is a non-fiction self help about women in the workplace, and why we need more women to have senior roles. The book is full of good personal advice for women to take on board for themselves. However, it also doesn’t shy away from the fact that there are external factors that can hinder a woman’s career… and goes someway to addressing how we can get around that.

Later in the week, I published the next instalment of my Well, I Didn’t Know That! series. In at post, I took the opportunity to explore some of the content available under the Kindle Unlimited subscription.

 

Books Read

 

Children of Dune

I’ve not had a very good week in terms of reading, if I’m completely honest. As I mentioned below, I have struggled with one of the reads I have been picking up (and putting down). But, it’s also fair to say that I have been doing more extracurricular things than usual this week. On Tuesday night, for example, I baked no less than three cakes for a coffee morning we were having a work the following day. I was also out for tea on Thursday with friends.

I didn’t get off to the best of starts with this book last week, as I struggled to get into it. There was one good evening in which I found my way and made some progress into this book last week – as of my last Sunday Summary, I was about 100 pages in.

As of this week’s post, I have only managed to read a further 50 pages, despite picking up this book several times throughout the week. I’ve just not been in the mood for it. There’s nothing wrong with the book. It’s quite a dense and hard science fiction plot, with a lot of politics thrown in for good measure. I have enjoyed the previous two books of the series, but I think it’s one you have to be in the mood for to get on with it.

I can’t really say I’ve been that this week.

 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

After picking up and putting down Children of Dune several times, and coming to the realisation that it wasn’t working for me, I then resumed my read of The House in the Cerulean Sea.

I only really decided to make the switch towards the end of the week, so I’ve only picked this up a couple of times. Even so, I have read about a third of the book in those two sittings. It’s not the most progress in the world, but it’s more than I’ve made with Children of Dune all week. I’ll take it!

Given that I’ve been struggling with Children of Dune, I have made the decision to put this down for now and come back to it later. Therefore, The House in the Cerulean Sea is my main current read and it’s the book I will be taking to bed with me tonight.

 

Books Discovered

It has to be a record, but once again, no news is good news!

 

Coming Up…

Next week, I will be putting my usual blogging schedule on pause as I will be taking the time to publish my monthly wrap-up for the month of June, and also to set out my planned TBR for July!

At the end of the week, I’ll be back with another Sunday Summary post to give you the details of my reading progress in the week. I sincerely hope I have more to report that I have in this post!

What have you been reading?

 

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Sunday Summary – 25th June 2023

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Happy Sunday friends – you know what time it is… I’m back with another Sunday Summary update!

I started off this week by sharing a Top Ten Tuesday post. The topic of that post was my top ten reads making up my Summer TBR. The list has a wide range of books and genres on it. They are the books I really want to prioritise reading over the next few months, and I can’t wait to get to each and every one.

Later in the week, it was time to share my next Friday feature with you. This week’s post was a First Lines Friday. I decided to set myself a challenge to feature the introduction to one of the books that made it onto Tuesday’s Summer TBR. You’ll be able to guess the book from the introduction, as it gives it away entirely!

 

Books Read

 

The Lost Metal

I left off last week’s Sunday Summary update with around 100 pages left to complete The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. I kind of knew that I was going to push through and finish that book last Sunday. By the time I taken the book to bed to read some, I would then be so close to the end that I just wanted to power through and finish it. That’s exactly what I did! I can tell you now that I simultaneously loved the book, but it also made me very mad. If you know, you know.

I’m glad that I have read and finally finished the book. Although I will admit to being a little bit sad that second era Mistborn is now done. I really loved the characters in this series and how the world was developed to build upon the first era. I can only hope that a third era follows in future, and that we can expect even bigger and better things.

 

The Midnight Library

Moving on from The Lost Metal, I then decided to pick up a quick read, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Having heard a lot of great things about Matt Haig and several of the books he has written and published, I went into this book with high hopes. I’m always wary of hyped books or authors, because it’s so easy to be disappointed. That is not the case with Matt Haig and The Midnight Library. When I bought my copy of this book, the seller in Waterstones told me that it was a book that changed his outlook on life completely. And I can see why. For such a small book, it has a big message to get readers to think about.

The book explores mental health and the impact events can have on our outlook. At a point where Nora is fed up of her current life, she decides to end it. However, in between life and death, she finds herself in an infinite library. A prominent character from her past reappears and gives Nora other chances at life – each encapsulated in a book. At every point where a decision was made, a new life branches off into infinite possibilities. And Nora tries plenty of them!

Ultimately, Nora comes to learn a lot about who she is and what she values. I really enjoyed the book and its message.

 

Children of Dune

Next, I started Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, and as of this Sunday Summary post, this is my main current read.

The Dune series by Frank Herbert is dense science-fiction, and it’s quite political as well. Initially I struggled to get back into this book. However, I think that’s because I tried to start it quite late one evening when I was tired. So, I didn’t quite get off to the best of starts with it. I ended up picking up another book very briefly that night in order to explore that one instead. More on that below.

I went back to Children of Dune the following day and found reading much easier. I’m definitely back into the narrative now that I really given myself the opportunity to do so. As of this Sunday Summary post, I am just over 100 pages into the book.

 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

I briefly dipped my toes into The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. This book is one that has been on my reading list for a little while, and I pulled it out of my TBR jar to read in June.

For now, I’ve only made the briefest of introductions to the book. As I mentioned above, I started it as a trial when considering whether or not to put Children of Dune aside. As it happens, I am continuing with that book as my main read. However, first impressions of The House in the Cerulean Sea are very good.

I like the set up so far. It also proved easy enough to read whilst I was tired! I may end up reading this in tandem with Children of Dune, depending on my reading moods and/or abilities.

 

Books Discovered

With a few reads ticked off my TBR this week, in combination with no new books added, I can say that the reading list is going in the right direction!

For now…

 

Coming Up…

Next week, I want to share another book review with you. Having taken a look at my list of books pending review, I have decided to review Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. Whilst this is definitely a book about women and for women in the workplace, I would recommend it to anybody. You can find out exactly why in my review next week!

Later on in the week, I will be sharing another instalment of my series, Well, I Didn’t Know That! Up until recently, I had been using an app called Readly in order to access magazines from different providers for a monthly subscription fee. It was only when I discovered that I could access a similar range using Kindle Unlimited, for a fractionally smaller price, that I decided to make the switch.

In addition to magazines, I can also access books through Kindle Unlimited. Overall, I think it will be a better deal accessing both via this platform. However, I am going to explore some of the content available through Kindle Unlimited with you to make my decision. That way, if you don’t already subscribe, you can find out what kind of magazines are out there… And I’ve got a good reason to explore the range for myself!

Next Sunday, I will be back with another Sunday Summary update post. I’m hoping to have plenty of reading progress to share with you, and I’ll be sharing how I’ll be gearing up for a busy blogging week.

That’s all for today’s Sunday Summary update. What have you read recently?

 

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