Category: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Hit or Miss Reads of 2023

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

It’s the end of the year, and while 2023 was truly a bumpy ride (wedding planning will do that to ya), I am looking back on the reads I both loved and didn’t love so much that marked this year.

I may not have been blogging as much as I could have this year, and I may have some ideas for changing things up on the blog and overall next year, but I wanted to bring this post back as I did in 2021 to ring in the new year.

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose (Review)

Summary:

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J.D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tea room floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to who killed J.D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the case threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past—because long ago, she knew J.D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery post-haste. If there’s one thing Molly knows for sure, it’s that dirty secrets don’t stay buried forever…

Molly is such a unique and wonderful protagonist that just made this story fly by in a heartbeat. The mystery was also lovely, but I mostly adored entering the Regency Grand again and seeing all these familiar characters working together again to solve yet another murder.

Continue reading “Hit or Miss Reads of 2023” →
discussion, Uncategorized

Let’s Talk Bookish – Choose Your Own Adventure

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!

July 29: Choose your own adventure!

You choose what to write about this week! It can be anything you’d like. (You can also look at old topics from my archive & from Rukky’s.)

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! This week it’s—oh look, it’s choose your own adventure! I have done most of the weeks LTBs, so I’d rather not reuse a topic. Instead I guess I will take the chance to reflect on my experience reading lately; hope you all don’t mind!

Recently I have been super busy with many things happening in my life. So much so that reading has become a borderline chore, and I have to try and keep up with my reading goals. That being said though, I still have really enjoyed the books I have read recently, which is a boon. I do however look for shorter and shorter reads in order to keep up. And it’s only the summer! When September rolls around I am sure it’ll be even worse in terms of keeping up!

I definitely feel the lull again of the low-reading tides, but I think I should embrace [my own adventure]. Keeping up with reading goals is just something nice to maintain, but a reminder to everyone that there are ebbs and flows in all goals! And that’s okay. I think I am still learning to be okay with it and to not feel too “behind” on my goals. There will be periods where I will read quickly and get lots of reading down and there’ll be other weeks where I am way too busy for that. It is good to keep a broad perspective and not to scrutinize the week-to-week (or even month-to-month) too closely, I think. At least for the sake of my own mental health.

I’m glad that I still enjoy reading (even when it’s so rushed!) and I will definitely take a break if I feel it getting worse. Just a friendly reminder here to all those who are feeling a bit burnt out by their goals or their work, and to not worry too much about taking a break! If it ever becomes not fun, you can always back away for a bit, and/or re-prioritize your goals. I’m cheering for all of you!

How are you all feeling lately about reading? Are you in reading slumps or reading frenzies? Or somewhere in between? Let me know in the comments below!

3.5 star, Uncategorized

Review: A Game of Fear by Charles Todd

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Inspector Ian Rutledge #24

In this newest installment of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is faced with his most perplexing case yet: a murder with no body, and a killer who can only be a ghost.

Spring, 1921. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to the sea-battered village of Walmer on the coast of Essex, where amongst the salt flats and a military airfield lies Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house may prove his most bewildering witness yet. She claims she saw a violent murder—but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer: Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war.

Everyone in the village believes that Lady Benton’s losses have turned her mind—she is, after all, a grieving widow and mother—but the woman Rutledge interviews is rational and self-possessed. And then there is Captain Nelson: what really happened to him in the war? The more Rutledge delves into this baffling case, the more suspicious tragedies he uncovers. The Abbey and the airfield hold their secrets tightly. Until Rutledge arrives, and a new trail of death follows… 

This was my first time (randomly) picking a book from this series to read. I actually didn’t realize it was part of a series, but like many other long series, they can be read as standalones too (I think). I think I said I would pick less books up randomly, but luckily this one did not come back to bite me.

A Game of Fear revolves around our protagonist Inspector, Ian Rutledge, who investigates an interesting murder… a murder with no body. Or really any evidence at all, for that matter. Set in 1921 in the small village of Walmer, we get a historical into the look of what happened to the town during and after war, and how that all may be culminating into the current mystery. Is there really a ghost in Walmer?

Continue reading “Review: A Game of Fear by Charles Todd” →