This week has been all over the place. Absolutely no blogging has been done and I do feel a little bit bad but I've been feeling insanely lazy. I think I’m going to keep blogging in December very low-key after my month started with my barely looking at other blogs and not having much time to write anything for mine. I know we’re all busy so I think the smartest idea is to keep it to looking back at the year and making plans for next year instead. So expect a couple of reviews, a discussion, and a whole heap of favourites posts. I think I want to mostly keep it to wrap-ups/favourites/plans for next year.

What was keeping me busy this week, then? I went back to work after a lovely, relaxing week off and... it wasn't that bad. I mean, it started well, anyway. I had a really good first day back and felt really positive about work and was pretty happy to be back. Sadly, it didn't last into the rest of the week with higher-ups making stupid comments which only made my whole team question why they even bother coming into work. That feeling carried through to the rest of the week and then with various small dramas that happened I was mentally exhausted by Friday. I won't go into the small dramas. I told my mom about some of them and honestly felt like I was back in school. That's how ridiculous some of the things were. I was ready for the weekend and so far have been lazy, I do need to head to the shops today, though. We’re doing a work secret santa and I realise I have nothing to wrap the presents in unless I can find a gift bag.

I#m trying to think what else has happened this week and really all it was was work, Christmas shopping with a friend, and then train woes. I feel the need to start calling my rail company on their bullshit as I’m a little fed up of leaving work to another cancelled train. Where I work if a train gets cancelled it’s a full half-hour wait in the cold from when the last train was due. The train isn’t due until 15 mins after I finish work. That’s 45 mins of waiting in the cold. My alternative to waiting in the cold is to get the train going in the opposite direction and getting a train from the next station because more trains stop there. I should have to travel away from where I want to go to get home! I certainly shouldn’t have to have my train cancelled two days in a row due to a shortage of train crew and then on the third day have it running (after other trains were cancelled due to shortage of train crew) only to find they’re sending out a train with fewer carriages than usual. It infuriates me that they say they didn’t know about the shortage of crew when they made plans for the carriage set up yet when they proposed their timetable months ago they would have said how many carriages they planned to put on, they haven’t suddenly got fewer carriages, they do seem to have less staff than they need to run to their proposed timetable, though. Just, my train rants are long and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The last company who had the franchise in my area had it taken it off of them due to poor performance but this current company is actually worse. I’ve never had so many train problems.

I finished two whole books! Yes, people, I was at work and managed to read two whole books with no DNFs. This is practically unheard of, for me. First off, I read Mia Vincy’s latest and... it was slow going, but I warmed up to it by 25%. I worried I was going to have to DNF but thankfully I grew to love the MCs and was enjoying it by the end. And then I read Pride. This Pride and Prejudice retelling has been on my to-buy list forever. I had a whole drama with getting this book I won’t go into but as soon as I received it I knew I needed to read that next. It was definitely an enjoyable read and stuck to the original story in some ways but kept things exciting and had its own original take on some stuff. I won’t go in-depth but hope to review soon. I did then try to read another book last night but I just couldn’t get into that so I’m now on the search for my next book.

I haven’t bought too many books. I got Pride (which was part of a book drama as a I said above) I was meant to have had this weeks ago, possibly even months ago, and so it was a total surprise receiving that in the post. And I did a book swap for Reign of the Fallen and I admit, I hadn’t heard much about it but I couldn’t help but want to read it. Hopefully, I won’t be disappointed.

What have you been reading this week? And am I alone in wanting a low key December all about looking back at the year and getting ready for next year?

Hi guys!

We’re at the end of another month and we’re actually into the final month of the decade! Yep, that’s a scary thought, I know. I’m not totally ready for December and I’m certainly not ready for the start of a new year but what can you do?

I’ve not done a wrap-up post since August! As such I’m basically wrapping up three months and that’s cool. I’ll, first of all, put some music, I’m a firm believer in a good playlist for folks reading, and I love creating playlists (which have no cohesive theme, just putting it out there).

Now we’ve got the music out of the way let’s actually talk and catch up. Or, I’ll type at you anyway.

It’s been a weird few months. I went through a blogging and reading and slump. I put an offer in on a house. I have gone through a whole bunch of stress to actually get this whole house buying process sorted. And hopefully, I’m on the way to actually buying this house. It has honestly been so stressful. And in amongst all of that, I’ve tried to get back into blogging and reading. I’ve been kind of successful but I honestly wish I was more organised and had someone to do some of the leg work for me because there is so much to blogging. I refuse to let this stress me out, though. blogging is fun and I am trying to keep it that way.

I can’t really remember what else has been happening in my day to day. I honestly feel like my time has mostly been spent playing Stardew Valley and Sims 4. I mean, I’ve basically reverted to teen me. I need to listen to angsty pop-punk and slam a couple of doors and a full reversion will have happened. I mean, actually, I do still listen to angsty pop-punk, but I am most definitely beyond door slamming so I’ve progressed in some way. I think my real life has mostly been spent stressing about all the job problems. People being made redundant, etc, so the mental break playing games was needed!

Huh, when you show all of the books like this that is a lot of books! But it’s also three months worth with several DNFs along the way. But only a couple of meh reads which is a total success. And my enjoyed and favourites list sorts of blurs together really.

Sunday Summary // 01.09.2019

Monthly Wrap Up // August 2019

Sunday Summary // 08.09.2019

Bringing Down The Duke // Powerful Feminist Read With A Swoony Romance

At What Point Do You Admit To Having a Book Buying Problem?

Sunday Summary // 15.09.2019

Call It What You Want // Another Brilliant Book From An Author Who Always Hits the Mark

Sunday Summary // 22.09.2019

I’m back… and things are about to change

This Earl of Mine // It Hit The Spot With A Woman Doing It For Herself

Blogging is the worst… let me count the ways

Sunday Summary // 03.11.2019

Island Fling With The Tycoon // Transports You to Sunnier Climes And You Fall In Love Too

Bookish home shopping… because why not?

Sunday Summary // 10.11.2019

Emergency Contact // It Was Slow But So Good

Another One Bites The Dust // Introduction & Part One

My Sister’s Grave // A Surprising Read I’d Expected to DNF

Sunday Summary // 17.11.2019

Get A Life, Chloe Brown // It Was Love At First Page

Sunday Summary // 24.11.2019

Trail of Lightning // It Was Spectacular

Show Your Appreciation // Blogs I Love (and I’m Probably Missing A Few… Sorry)

(Must remember to start adding these links throughout the month because that was killer, too many posts!)

I want to return to featuring some links from around the internet (but mostly just from your blogs) so here are a few posts I enjoyed in the past month. I must get better at saving these somewhere because I’m missing loads!

That Bitch, Imposter Syndrome @ Infinite Limits of Love

The Benefits of Reading Outside Your Comfort Zone @ Boats Against the Current

The Inequities of Ebooks @ We Live And Breathe Books

The Best Things About Book Blogging @ Boats Against the Current

Have YA Prices Gotten Out of Hand? @ Wordy and Whimsical

8 International Book Bloggers Share Their Experiences – Part I @ The Quiet Pond

Dear Authors, Pls Stop: Tropes and Stuff I Wish I Wouldn’t Have to See in Books @ Wordy and Whimsical

Tales of a Social Media Failure: Is Bloglovin’ a Thing of the Past? @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Hopefully, I’ll start featuring more links each month but I’ve found a few cool things over the past month and I’ll keep trying to browse the web and find some more cool posts for you to go check out (in case you missed them).

And I think that’s everything! I hope to feature lots of things with my monthly posts, hopefully, keep it interesting but we shall see. How was your month?

How is it December? Ugh, it’s crazy how quickly the time has flown by. I am honestly shocked. I feel like we should still be in September or something, but what can you do?

It’s been another boring week. I had the week off of work and honestly, I’ve done very little. I did some Christmas shopping, I sold/swapped a few books and I did a bit of tidying and organising. But really, my week was spent watching way too many Youtube videos and playing a whole bunch of Sims 4 because turns out I love the University pack and I can’t wait to explore the Realm of Magic pack. Yes, I spent way too much money on these games but I don’t care, they’re bringing me joy controlling these little Sims.

I intended to spend my week off being super productive, and I kind of have. Some of you may have seen me post some books I needed to get rid of on Twitter, well I also posted them on Depop and managed to sell a few. I’ve still got more to list but honestly, it’s finding the time to take photos and that. I had a whole drama when it came to posting books out, though. All I can say is Hermes is the worst. I already knew Hermes were the worst because if you live in the UK and ever had a parcel delivered by them you know that parcel can end up anywhere. I’ve had parcels chucked over the side gate to our house. I’ve had parcels left behind plant pots. And occasionally, if we’re lucky, they get left with a neighbour. It’s ridiculous and annoying but there is little I can do to stop it. You may be questioning why I decided to use them to deliver some parcels, then. They're cheap! Like, so much cheaper than Royal Mail, but anyway, I was merrily taking them to a nearby shop for them to be collected… and then they refused my parcel. Turns out they’d not had the collection they should have done and had no space for it. Fine, but I’d just walked there with 5 heavy parcels and the next nearest shop is like a half-hour walk from me. I was getting well annoyed so I thought I’d contact Hermes to sort a collection. Oh no. Hermes has the worst customer service known to man. The only way to speak to someone is to use their online chat. Their online chat where they just told me to either cancel the delivery (and wait 3-5 days for a refund) or go to another shop. I kindly explained I can’t drive and the next nearest shop is not in a nice convenient location. It’s not on a bus route and unless I want to waste an hour getting there and back again or get a taxi it’s really not gonna work for me. I thought they would be apologetic and at least confirm they would arrange a collection from the shop so I could go back. Oh no, I had the guy saying he’s offered me a solution and I should be happy with it and that pissed me right off. And when I asked for a call from their complaints team or whatever to get this resolved… they called back three days later and basically did nothing. Luckily for me, my stepdad offered to take me to another shop to drop them off but I’ve never had such a drama just to post a parcel! Never again, guys. Never again.

So there was that. I also had a minor breakdown about my house. There’s a whole thing with an internal wall being removed and building regulation certificates and it was honestly making me feel like I didn’t even want the damn house. My solicitor was getting nowhere and I felt like pulling my hair out. I called up the estate agent… and they got it all sorted in a day. Honestly, why do they make house buying so hard? I need a cheat sheet to know who to contact in which situation to get things resolved as quickly as possible. So yeah, don’t buy a house guys. It’s the worst. Way too much stress. 100% do not recommend.

What else? Well… I bought myself a new iPad. I know, I didn’t need it and I’m probably stupid for doing so. But I don’t care. It’s brand new I’ve got 3 years protection from me breaking it (yay) and it’s so pretty! I still need to get a case for it but I’m honestly feeling few regrets about this. I’ve had an iPad Mini for so long, and I love it, but the screen is way too tiny for some things. Like waaaay too tiny. I hate online shopping on it because I can never see anything properly. The new one I bought with an Apple Pencil (I know, stop judging me and my splurging ways) so I’m hoping to take quick notes and attempt to get back into some art (you can blame the drawing urges on these art channels I keep following on Youtube). I'm also hoping to get a cute little keyboard to maybe do a bit more blogging on it. One of my main reasons for never blogging and commenting as much as I want is I cannot be bothered to lug my laptop around the house, it’s not heavy or anything, I just never normally have it fully charged.  Hopefully, having a cute iPad will remedy this… but having a cute iPad did mean I ended up downloading Dream Daddy from the app store (it was free to try, ok) and I am fully debating getting the full version but don’t know which platform would be best to play it on. I didn’t think the game would be that good… but I’m a little obsessed. I’m either getting the full iPad version or getting this on Switch.. just saying. I want to date all the Daddy’s… which sounds weird, let’s forget I said that.

Why yes, I have in fact read three books this week. And none are a DNF. This was mostly inspired by the fact that I needed to be able to read them to reply to a comment somewhere else (don’t ask). But let me tell you, I thought it was going to be slow going but I gradually got sucked in and I finished The Queen of Nothing in one sitting last night (I should probably have started reading it earlier). That series! I mean, there are issues and I’ll try and go into some of them when I review The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing, but even though I knew I shouldn’t like the characters and where their story was going I just couldn’t help myself.

Just one new book this week! And I did shift two off of my shelf… and I have a whole bunch in the get rid pile. Check me out maybe balancing out my shelves. A Beastly Kind of Earl was actually a pre-order and the book I think I will read next. I was so excited for Mia Vincy’s next release so I’ll get to that real fast. I am feeling pretty upbeat about clearing my shelves. Speak to me again in a couple of weeks when I’m behind on my ARC reading again and am in a slump.

What have you been doing this week? Anyone else as shocked by December’s arrival as me?

I had a whole bunch of ideas for what else I was going to post about this week (because I aspire to have more than one post up a week and I am so fed up of posting reviews, I love these books but it’s so hard to get a proper conversation going with folks). but then I remembered it was Thanksgiving in the US. I, obviously, do not celebrate but just take full advantage of the Black Friday sales which follow. The origins of Thanksgiving are awful, we won’t go into but come on guys, you all saw Addams Family Values, you know how that all went down, but I appreciate the sentiment of being thankful and thinking of those around us at this time of year. As such, I wanted today’s post to be all about the bloggers I love and how awesome they are. I also thought this would be a great way to celebrate things I love. I mean, I can show my appreciation for awesome games, awesome books, awesome anything really so here we go.

So Nick’s blog is both the best and the worst. She writes great reviews, she is the best at writing posts highlighting new releases and the books she’s excited about. And sometimes, she’ll have pictures of food either on her blog or Instagram which make me hungry which is totally unfair, but also great. She convinces me to spend way too much money on books because her excitement for books she loves is just contagious. Seriously, she can just give a book the nod and I’m there at the till ready to buy. She has that power. I’d like to say she uses it responsibly… but I mean, it’s questionable. I suppose she uses it for good because she is excellent about supporting the authors she loves on twitter and on her blog. She’s good people (most of the time… except when she shouts even though she lies and says I shout at her, I don’t. Honest).

I will always follow what Nick’s up to and even though my bank balance would rejoice at her taking a break… I would probably cry about it because she does what I wish I could do when it comes to blogging and on twitter and she is just the best. Also, she always seems to know what’s going down on twitter and I know I need to read up when I see a savage tweet from her on my timeline.

Sam blogs with a whole bunch of people but I honestly did not realise that at first when I first visited her blog because she is so prolific! I wish I could read as much as Sam does, each Sunday she leaves me envious with the sheer number of books she’s managed to get through in the space of a week. And it honestly feels like she is always on Twitter. I have never known a blogger so frequently like all the posts I link on Twitter (which is an auto-tweet because I am too damn lazy to set anything up to share things properly). I spend a lot of time questioning when Sam manages to sleep, it’s concerning. And finally, a blogger who gets my travel woes! If anything, I am always feeling for her because what is wrong with her trains?

I feel like Sam is the blogger who makes me want to write reviews and read more YA because she is predominantly a reader of contemporary YA and is definitely the blogger I turn to when the mood strikes for that.

If you’re looking for a blogger who is genuinely nice then stop right here (yes, all bloggers are genuinely nice but some are more obvious about it than others). I swear, every time she comments on my blog she makes me feel like I’ve had a hug from a friend and a good pep talk and gossip. She always makes me smile on both her blog and in my comments. When I realised I was quite obviously becoming a romance blogger hers was a blog I stumbled across (no idea how/when/why and no one cares about that) but I was immediately drawn in as she’s read so much romance! She also talks about new books/old books/books I’ve never heard of and she’s always talking about something new. And one thing I love is she isn’t afraid to reread and talk about a reread on her blog, that’s not something you see too often. And if you want a blogger into their sports, she’s the one. I feel like she has a team for everything and at minimum, there is one member of her family playing a sport at any one time.

So Gen is a newer blogger on my list. I’ve not followed her blog forever, and I actually think she’s a new addition to my reading list this year, but she shoved her way on to my favourites list quite quickly.

I’m not sure what made her an instant favourite. It could be her reviews, she reads a lot of romance but still has a mix of other things, but I think it’s the fact she is fun and I love the actual look of her blog (does that make me shallow). I’m not going to lie to you, I judge your blogs as soon as I first visit them. If it’s the first time I’m stopping by I get stupid judgey and then feel bad about it later, but if a blog is pretty I’m more likely to hang around for a couple posts ( I won’t stay long if it’s pretty and has no substance, though). I think she definitely drew me in with a pretty blog and I stayed just because I liked her posts. And also she posts the best pictures on Sunday, I feel like she always something to tell folks about by Sunday and I love hearing about her family (which I want to join simply because they seem to be all about parties and food). She has a super pretty Instagram feed as well. Like so pretty! If I was better at Instagram hers would be what I want to try and be like. Instead, my Instagram is for scrolling through when bored with an occasional picture of what I’m up to… like super occasional.

If there is anyone I curse about almost as much as Nick then it’s Kelly. I don’t think she knows I do it, but she blogs about some really interesting YA and a few MG reads too. She writes these fantastic reviews that are really in-depth and analyses the book (way more mature than my flaily reviews where I just sort of word vomit at you and close with ‘buy it!’ at the end). She writes all this brilliance about these books I’ve never heard of and gets me all excited to read them… and then I learn they’re OzYA books that aren’t released in the UK (or even the US) and that the only way I can get a copy is by hoping and praying Amazon gets the book in stock or paying to fly to Australia to buy it. It actually makes me want to shout at her with every review I read from her just to ask why she would tempt me with things I can’t have but her reviews are honestly so good I can’t even hate her for it.

God, this sounds like the weirdest celebration of a bloggers’ brilliance ever. Honestly, she writes reviews I wish I could. I don’t think about books in the same way she does when reading and I certainly don’t have the memory for them, She gets so in-depth, I swear, I didn’t analyse text that closely at uni… this is probably why I didn’t do better… that and really I went to uni to delay the inevitable need to get a job.

Also, she always writes the nicest comments. I can’t say enough good things about someone who writes nice comments. They don’t have to be long but if they leave you smiling and kind of wanting to give someone a hug then they must be good and Kelly totally does that.

Tania is honestly such a nice blogger. I’ve seen her blog loads and then fall by the wayside a bit as life gets in the way. She reads such different books to me but she always reads interesting books. She reads a lot of fantasy and I always enjoy her reviews. She also does recommendation posts, like Nick, and I love a blog which mixes things up with content because I am terrible for just posting review after review interspersed with some discussions. I always enjoy stopping by and seeing her thoughts on things and reading her life updates (never forget the importance of a good life update in blogging, we all love to read them as it feels like a good catch up).

So… I don’t follow a lot of UK bloggers (if you know of any good ones I should be following please link me I will check them all out) but Laura is one I feel like I’ve followed for a while. Like way back when I was reading more YA and fantasy stuff and I got sucked into her blog. She reads a legit mix of books and I always find myself stopping by. She is also working on writing and I love her updates where we hear about her writing/life/TV etc. You get a full update and it’s great. And she's one of the few bloggers I see who writes posts to help others get ideas of what to blog about. I’ve referred to many of her posts when I’m stuck in a blogging rut to get inspiration. Also, I stopped by the other day and she was talking about Pokemon. The way to my heart is simple, books, food, Pokemon and Sims. It’s like the big 4 things I love to see on blogs. There’s other stuff, like talk about travelling and share pictures and I’ll be sucked in. Talk about clothes and makeup I’ll probably be sucked in. But outside of books, Pokemon and Sims, and gaming in general, these are the things I like to read about.

Amber is another newer addition to my reading list but she earned a place for all the romance she reads. I feel like since I started following her blog has slowed down some… but she is expecting a baby (which is a dumb phrase, what else would she be expecting?) so she has been hella busy and she’s been stuck in a bit of a reading rut. But even so, she gets me excited to read and she tells folks about her travels with work, her family, etc. Her blog is always fun to visit, though.

I’m back with another blogger who is genuinely nice and always makes me smile when she comments. Veronika is honestly the nicest and she writes some excellent posts. Her reviews are good, but her discussions and that are excellent. So she did Dear Authors, Pls Stop and that post was so on point with the things we need to stop seeing in fiction. She wrote a kickass post which really hit the nail on the head about why I hate Mal in the Shadow & Bone series. She just gets it! I mean, she is not as super on the romance train as me yet I still feel like our tastes are so similar. I read her reviews and her posts about books and I’m like, I need to read that. She’s a quieter influence on my reading than Nick but she still has me piling books onto my TBR.

And one final blogger I almost forgot (sorry!). I have been following Kristen for a good long while now and I’ve seen her ups and downs but hers is a blog I will always return to (even if she isn’t getting to blog as much lately). I know I’ve featured some bloggers with very different tastes to me on here already but Kristen’s usual books don’t usually even fly across my radar. She reads a lot of fantasy/sci-fi and she has long been a champion of indie published books. She loves a good supernatural creature in her reading and honestly, she has added a whole bunch of weird and wonderful books to my TBR over the years. I just love her blog. She is open and honest on there about health problems she’s having and I always want to go give her a big hug and shout at a few doctors when she’s giving us an update but although she feels like she’s being super negative I’m always impressed she’s managed to stay pretty positive about things. She posts her own artwork (they are really good) and she plays the Sims! Like I said, gaming is always going to bring me back to your blog. She hasn’t been able to do any in a while but I loved her little sims updates and the stories she creates for them.

***

I feel like I’ve missed people! I’m certain there are at least ten other blogs I wanted to talk about and I’m willing to bet I’ll post this and be like, why the hell did I forget you? And then be sorely tempted to go edit this post. I will resist and commit to my selection but feel free to shout at me in the comments and say ‘I thought we were friends’. I mean, there are plenty more blogs which should probably have been featured and I forgot but this post has been slowly developing over weeks! It’s been slow progress but I wanted to talk about the blogs I enjoy and who I visit regularly because it’s always good to show a little appreciation for everyone’s hard work.

Also, whilst putting this post together I realise how useful a blog button is for folks having something to feature and link back to. How did I not realise this? Why did no one tell me of the usefulness of blog buttons? I’d say I’m off to create one but let’s not make me a liar. Ask me about it again in six months and I may have gotten around to it.

Which blogs do you love? Give me all the blog recommendations below of blogs I should know about already and if you have a favourite UK blogger please let me know some because why don’t I follow more?

Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) – Rebecca Roanhorse

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book was spectacular.

I could not get enough of this book, but it did take me a little while to get into it. In fact, I was not in the mood for this book when I first started it but it was an ARC due for the end of November and I knew that I needed to get to reading it. When I started it, I knew the writing was good, I got the vibe from the book, but I still felt a little meh about it as I wasn’t in the mood and wasn’t sucked in to the story. By Thursday/Friday I did a mega 180 attitude change and I was hooked.

I started this after DNFing To Kill A Queen. I was so excited about reading that book, I had hyped it up in my mind and it fell totally flat. I’m saying this because I was in a negative mood starting this book so I did need to work to get out of that mood and it may have influenced my initial thoughts on this one. Once I gave this book a proper chance and stopped dipping in and out of it, I was hooked and it was so good. I’d been excited to read it before, ever since it was released in the US, in fact. It has been on my radar and I’m so glad I braved it and requested this because this was so worth it and I’m just glad I got approved!

My negative mood was not the only thing stopping me from getting totally into this book. This is book is set in the Dinetah (the former Navajo reservation) and most of the characters are Native Americans from various clans and it is written by Rebecca Roanhorse who is a Native American author. I admit, I know nothing about Native American culture and so I need a whole education, but I was thrown by the various words and terms in the book which were Navajo but I didn’t know them or understand them and I hope that the finished book has some kind of glossary of terms which can be used for reference when reading because I kind of needed that. I will be going to the shop to try and get a physical copy so I will check that out in the final copy. My arc didn’t and it would have been nice… it wasn’t a deal-breaker, though. I mean, I figured it out, I’m a smart cookie, but it relied on my ability to remember words. It wasn’t a must-have but it would have been nice.

Now I’ve gone on about the background a little maybe I should talk about the character and the actual book. The book focuses on Maggie, a monster hunter. She defined herself as a hunter and a killer, especially a killer. She was a bit of a recluse and was hurting after her mentor (and the man she loved) abandoned her with no word almost a year ago. She had a whole heap of emotional scars from her past and was quite happy being left alone. She was dragged into a monster mystery when a clan called upon her for help when a girl was kidnapped from her bed by a monster and they wanted Maggie to rescue her. Once she got dragged into this mystery she needed to follow it through and find out who started all of this. Especially when she found the monster and didn't recognise what kind of monster it was so turns to Tah, the one man who she thinks may have an idea of what monster she found. That's when it got good. She goes to Tah who introduced her to his grandson who he thought could help unravel the mystery. Especially as he had skills (the full extent of said skills to be revealed later in the book and I will not spoil it for you).

Kai was a total babe who was both good-looking, a nice guy and a broody mystery (yes he can be all of those things at once stop with your judgey judgey faces). Once he started helping Maggie well I was hooked. I didn't actually like him at first, like Mags I was wary of this slick-talking good-looking man and why he was being so genial with her but he won me over fast. He was just a genuinely good guy and me and Mags weren't used to such things. I mean, the man had secrets but I totally didn't guess those and I was shocked as Maggie when we found them out. But even after the secrets were revealed, looking back he was still a good guy who wanted to support Maggie in seeing better things about herself because she was so negative about herself and this was due to past trauma and the terrible influence of her mentor on her mindset and self beliefs.

The book follows Maggie trying to find out where this monster she killed came from and who is behind those who keep coming. I admit I was surprised by the whodunnit… but also not because it made more sense than who Maggie originally thought did it. This book also looked at Maggie examine her past a little more and some of the many emotional scars that have been left behind and with the answers which came at the end of the book you just know there'll be more exploration of that to come because there were even more emotional wounds revealed by the whodunnit and that ending! Hot damn. I need more answers because I have a lot of questions. Luckily the second book is out in the UK on Thursday alongside the first so guess who's headed to Waterstones for a little shopping!

Look, this is probably a terrible review but your girl here has realised she's a shoddy reviewer sometimes but this book was good and I am so ready to return to this world. I adored the Native American history intertwined with this story and I really feel like the world of this book with The Big Water and the lead up to the creation of this world is realistic and relevant to today.

And writing that paragraph all set to wrap up this review I realise I haven't even mentioned worldbuilding (see, shoddy reviewer) the world of this book was basically a post-apocalyptic world where the sea levels have risen (sound familiar) and the US has shrunk. There was a large native reserve which had walls around it (inspired by the US building a wall to the south…yes, seriously) and this land had the Dine people living within. Look, I can't remember the specifics and I'm thinking maybe I've missed chunks of history which either weren't revealed yet or I just full-on forgot but the things is the world flooded, the US shrunk and the map got all kinds of rewritten because of it. For some reason water is a scarce resource there was something about fuel being hoarded and that's all I remember. God, I'm the worst.

I think I loved this book so much because apart from the good story and awesome characters the world just felt real. This felt like a future which could happen and it was scary. I mean, I’m less certain the magic and monsters are likely to happen in the future (but never say never) but this bleak future is possible.

Have you read this book or this series? And if not have I convinced you to give it a shot?