Earl Grey Books

So it’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything—whoops! April and May turned out to be extremely busy months for me out of nowhere. Things should hopefully slow down from the middle of June, but it means that I’m pretty behind on posts, especially reviews. These are a weird mix of reads from January, April and May for a vlog in which I read the things my friend Amy picked for me, plus two vampire smut books to make up the five. So without further ado…

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

I’ve been sitting on this review since mid-January‚ I’d put it on hold, anticipating picking it up in February when it suddenly came into the library a lot earlier than anticipated so I figured I wouldn’t hold off. I’m not really a graphic novel or sci-fi reader, but I was pretty excited when Amy picked this one—I’ve wanted to read Tillie Walden for a while but just never got around to it. I really enjoyed reading this. I’d very much describe it as a character-driven, ‘vibes’ book—there’s a plot, but it’s very much about the characters and their relationships with one another. I love those kinds of books when they’re done well, and this one definitely was. There’s a really cute, found family story at the heart of this, and I absolutely loved all of them. This was already 500 pages long, but I would’ve read another 500 of them just playing games and going about their lives together. There’s a romance side to it as well, but that didn’t really grab me as much. The art is also beautiful, I love monochromatic style in graphic novels, and this plays with different colour schemes in a really interesting way. I’m really glad Amy picked this one out for me, but I’m also really sad that this is where these characters’ stories end—I really want more of them.

In the Ravenous Dark by A.M Strickland

I was really interested in this one when Amy first picked it for me, but unfortunately, I ended up DNFing it. I think I made it about 45 or 48% of the way through, but I can’t remember which. While the premise sounded really cool, I found that the execution of it didn’t work for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, I just didn’t gel that well with Strickland’s writing style—there wasn’t anything in particular; it just didn’t work for me. It felt like the story was moving incredibly slowly, and I found it hard to care about it. Some of the characters were interesting, but it felt like we were being kept at an arm’s length away from them. There were hints of things that made me think I’d like them, but I didn’t feel like we got close enough to them. With all this said, this is a reasonably soft DNF—I’d consider coming back to this one day when I’m not under a time crunch to see if it works for me better. But for now, I’m going to leave it here. As with every DNF, I won’t be giving this a star rating.

The Library by Bella Osborne

This was the last of Amy’s picks for me and probably the one I was most nervous about. This isn’t usually something I’d even consider picking up—it’s a sort of feel-good, general fiction, which is not something I usually go for. But I ended up picking it up as an audiobook, and I really, really enjoyed it. The story is split between two perspectives, with a different narrator for each of them, a teenage boy and an elderly woman. The audiobook was honestly so charming—both of the narrators were absolutely fantastic and really bought the story to life. I usually struggle with audiobooks, but I don’t think I would’ve liked this one half as much without it. The characters have a really beautiful bond between them, and it was so sweet seeing that develop. I have to say that my taste in books is very, very different to the characters’—almost everything in here is a popular title from at least five or ten years ago (Me Before You, The Fault in Our Stars, Game of Thrones etc.) and it would’ve been nice to see a little more diversity in the choices. But ultimately, it was a really sweet read and I’m glad I picked it up.

King of Battle and Blood (Adrian x Isolde #1) by Scarlett St Clair

Let’s dial down the sweetness and get into the vampire smut! I picked this up in preparation for Scarlett St Clair being at BABE. I’d honestly had very low expectations of enjoying it—I’d kind of liked St Clair’s A Touch of Darkness but gave up reading the rest of the series. This was a different story—from the beginning, I almost loved it. It was really a case of being exactly the kind of book I needed at that exact time. It was quick to get into and was so addictive that I read the whole thing in a few hours when I was definitely supposed to be doing other things. It’s pretty smutty—there’s a lot of it, but it’s not extremely spicy or intense, which is usually how I like my smut. It’s honestly just a fun read—there’s nothing new or different in here, but was a perfect little escape for an afternoon. I’m excited to get to book two after BABE (in just over a week!!)

Blood Moon by Jillian Graves

I downloaded this one off KU a few months ago after hearing about it on Instagram, I think. I’ve been meaning to try Jillian Graves since I started reading monster romance last year, and this seemed like a good way to try her. This is a reasonably short novella about a witch and a vampire. Let me tell you, the smut starts early, and it does not let up. There’s also a sweeter side to the story, which I love to see. So basically, it was a fantastic read, and I enjoyed every single page of it. There were a couple of references to some of Graves’ other books (as far as I could tell) which made me really excited to try those out. All in all, I think it was a great place to start with her books, and I’m hoping to pick up some others in the next month or so.