Author: Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

An avid reader whose current interest lies in mysteries and thrillers. Line 'em up! Also personally love fantasies and any stories to do with magic, and a sucker for the occasional (good) romance.
4.5 star

Review: The IT Girl by Ruth Ware

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide… including a murder.

Another Ruth Ware, so of course I just had to get my hands on it. I heard some mixed reviews on this one, but I personally really enjoyed it! Overall it was quite the thriller, with all the expected literary baubles that I have grown accustomed to from Ruth Ware.

The IT girl revolves around our protagonist, Hannah, who was once friends with Oxford’s IT girl, April. Hannah came from a humble background but unexpectedly gets swept up with Oxford’s elites by virtue of being friends with April. All this comes crashing down when April is found dead and Hannah is never the same. The perpetrator is supposedly now dead, but everything changes when new facts come up suggesting that he may have been innocent. Hannah goes on a quest to discover the truth…which may lead to something she wished she didn’t know.

The characters were all excellent in this book. There were characters of all types among the friend group, and it stays as basically a closed room kind of scenario, so all the suspicious people are in sight (of course, everyone is suspicious). Most of the characters were well developed, and I felt that for the most part any or all of them could have been involved, and the plot was always thickening. I certainly enjoyed the character development and the intrigue surrounding all her friends.

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Do You Use Your Local Library?

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits will be the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

November 11:Do you use your local library? (Mikaela @ Mikaela Reads)

Prompts: Do you have a local library you go to often? Does your school/did your school have a library? What are your favorite things about libraries? Are there certain books you borrow from your local library more or less often than others?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH everyone! Today’s topic is submitted by Mikaela, and it’s all about going to your local library. Libraries are great, as they are a resource that helps keep our shelves just a little bit tidier, but I’m sure there are good and bad things about them too. Can’t wait to see how you all make use (or not) of your local libraries!

Libraries I have recently gone less often, but mainly because of the pressure to read and return a book by a certain time. That is obviously still a viable option, but in terms of library I tend to like using my library app more! However, I do wander into a lot of second-hand bookshops, that’s somewhere where I’ll try and go often just to see if anything perks my interest. I do have a couple of libraries close by though, and I don’t often pass up the chance to go inside if I do happen to be in the area.

My school did used to have a library (both in high school and university), and while I could probably often be found in both, I rarely made use of my library (student) card to really check out books. I was literally there often enough that I could finish books in 2 (maybe 3) sittings if I just go back, so I never really felt the need to check out books. But I did go and read whenever I had the spare time, because why not?

My favourite things about libraries is that they’re quiet, and they’re often just full of possibilities. You can literally go in and read anything you want, from something you were looking forward to, to something you never expected. Either way there’s no expectations on you and you can really go with your heart’s desire. And because it’s so quiet, I find that my own thoughts can be quite loud and really helps to drive my own whims. There’s something nice about not being disturbed by others too just by virtue of being in a library. It just feels…safer? than reading somewhere like a park bench (though that of course has its own advantages too).

Like I said, I don’t often borrow books physically from the library anymore, though I do do a lot of e-borrowing. If the library (or even bookstore, really) is truly local to me and I can access it any time, I almost don’t feel the need to borrow anything; I can really just read it there whenever I want! Or at least that’s how I feel about it. I’ll borrow a book if I need it for a bookclub or something, but other than that I just default to online borrowing or reading on site a lot.

What about you all? How do you all employ your local library? Or are bookstores more your jam? Let me know in the comments below!

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Personal Reading Tastes

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits will be the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

 November 4: How Do You Define Your Personal Reading Tastes? (Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: How would you define your personal reading tastes? What kinds of books do you like to read? How do you pick what books to read next? Do your reading preferences change often?

Welcome to November and a new month of LTB everyone! Today’s topic is about personal reading tastes, something I’m not sure I have really thought about that discretely, so that’s exciting. Can’t wait to see what you all define your own reading tastes like too!

I think my personal taste in books (as general as I can be) tends to be books with characters that I can either really relate to or really get into the place of. No matter the genre, if the main character(s) have this kind of quality because of the writing, I’m honestly likely to enjoy it. I find myself having trouble with books with characters I just can’t get behind.

Of course I tend to enjoy thrillers and mysteries for that puzzle element and the suspense. But I also enjoy fantasy and historical fictions, which surprised me, but also told me that it’s not just the suspense and thrill that I enjoy about reading. A really good story with character development, especially through the lens of someone I can relate to is always welcome in eyes.

I tend to read thrillers and mysteries on an ongoing basis, and will kind of read them even without anything pushing me to read. However, if someone suggests to me something they’ve read that is good then I’ll tend to pick that book up next. A good title/cover at a bookstore can also grab my attention, of course.

I don’t think my reading preferences change that often, but I am usually willing to try a book that someone says is good even if it’s not normally my cup of tea. I wouldn’t count that as preferences changing, but I can certainly be flexible with what I choose to read!

What do you all define your reading preferences as? Character-driven? Plot-driven? Genre-driven? Let me know in the comments below!