Book Recommendations

My Faves

Books I will ALWAYS recommend.

Wuthering Heights

Am AMAZING exploration of cycles of abuse, family and power dynamics, and contemporary social issues. If you want romance, you'll have to wait until the very end, but if you want fucked-up family drama, it's perfect!

The Hunger Games

The most gut-wrenching, fury-inducing, hopeful and despair-filled series. The level of detail and political commentary involved... Sunrise on the Reaping very nearly KILLED me.

Princess Ever After

The final in a series, this book has a FANTASTIC exploration of the role of the monarchy in modern life, myth vs reality, and cult tactics. Plus, a GORGEOUS sapphic romance!

The Poppy War

The opening of what promises to be an amazing and HARROWING series about war in a fantasy setting based in Chinese culture. I have NEVER seen such a well-written enemies-to-friends arc before, nor have I ever actually rooted for them to get together having once been enemies... and the exploration of morality is beautifully gritty.

Survival Show

A book has not had me in a chokehold like this one for a LONG time. A disturbingly grounded and realistic look at a dystopia rooted in the world we're living in today, with gripping characters and an insanely twisted narrative. You'll hate the system of the survival show, and yet you can't look away... just like the audience in the book.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

My favourite genres to write... and read!

The Burning Kingdoms

This series is GORGEOUS. The worldbuilding is amazing, the politics are sharp and real, and the characters are flawed and human. The romance is beautifully complicated, and even the villains are nuanced, layered and interesting to read about.

Iron Widow

Absolutely SCORCHING as a critique of how women are treated as lesser and disposable. A brilliant exploration of power and autonomy, and who gets to have it. Also a slightly terrifying parallel to real life of war being treated as a game, of the masses being placated by entertainment and desensitised to the violence.

Cry, Voidbringer

An absolutely wonderful depiction of an empire in decline, exploring morality, corruption, humanity and prejudice. There's also a very significant plotline that, if you're not like me and actually pay attention, can tell you how the book will end before it even begins. Brought me out of my reading slump.

Witches Steeped In Gold

A beautiful exploration of differing cultures, of prejudice and hatred, with excellent worldbuilding and pirates to boot. The magic system was fascinating, the two warring sides had an in-depth history, and the characters were well-rounded and fleshed out. I knew I'd love it from the very first sentence.

Historical

ONLY the books that don't annoy the history nerd in me...

Listen To The Moon

This story is HEARTBREAKING. The narrative repeatedly highlights how innocents are harmed in war, displaying the gritty reality of the First World War through the story and understanding of children. With the extracts from the headmaster's diary, the doctor's journal, and from Lucy's perspective, the story really feels like something that could plausibly have happened, and was based on an unconfirmed fragment of a story about the Lusitania. I just hope that the real child who Lucy is based on got to safety.

The Infamous Gilberts

A surprisingly gripping story of a grand family in decline told through the smallest details of the house. I've always loved concepts like this, and it is beautifully executed. We never meet the Gilberts themselves in person - like Wuthering Heights, the story is told by their housekeeper - but they feel like such real, human characters.

The Foundling

Absolutely gut-wrenching. As an exploration of parenthood, poverty and social norms in the Victorian era, this broke my heart. Clara is such a lovely character, I genuinely adored her the whole way through, and both Bess and Alexandra are complex, nuanced characters.

The Safekeep

HEARTBREAKING. The Safekeep is both a wonderful romance, a well-built world for the characters to inhabit, and a gut-wrenching look at the fallout of the Holocaust that is rarely talked about. The mystery is compelling and steadily builds from the very beginning, and the characters are so fascinating to read about.

Retellings

I'm a sucker for retellings of old stories, especially fairytales!

Wendy, Darling

This is a horror retelling of Peter Pan about Wendy's daugter. The exploration of woman's place in society, confronting the disturbing elements of the first story, and the unsettling reveal of Peter's origins and perfectly blended with Wendy's struggles and her fight to save her daughter.

Gentlest Of The Wild Things

A sapphic retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche in a beautiful Ancient Greek setting. I genuinely wasn't expecting ANY of the twists, and the love story contrasts really well with the repulsive MMC. The setting, as I say, really stood out as being uniquely gorgeous, and the whole story had a wonderfully mythical feel to it.

The Twisted Tales Series

All of these books are wonderfully nuanced takes on traditional tales, which sparked my initial interest in retellings of fairytales. My personal favourites are Once Upon A Dream and Let It Go, based on Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Frozen respectively, although I also like Straight On 'Til Morning, which is the Peter Pan retelling (I have a bit of a fascination with Peter Pan!)

Summer Reads

Casual, quick or less intense reads for the holidays!

The Coldest Touch

I'll be honest, I saw 'lesbian' and 'vampires' and was sold. The magic is interesting, the romance is beautiful, and the cliffhanger means SEQUEL??? PLEASE????

And Then They Were None

One of the most famous murder mysteries in the world, and the hype is ABSOLUTELY worth it.

Nobody In Particular

A gentler version of The Rosewood Chronicles with more focus on the romance and the softness. No cults in this one!

Journey To The River Sea

Technically a children's book, this story is genuinely heartwarming - found-family before it was famous. The stakes are high enough to be investing, but have that comforting feel of a children's book where the mean characters will always get their comeuppance, and everything will turn out ok.