Tuesday 1 December 2020

December Reads!


Happy 1st December! The festive season is already well and truly underway at our house. Tree and lights are up, advent calendars are opened, and the naughty little elf has already made its appearance! I'm usually one to stick to tradition and start decorating around 12 days before the big event, but (and as I've heard so many say already) it's 2020! Why not? I think we all need a little Christmas joy right now.

As you may know, I've been rereading the David Raker series by the incredible Tim Weaver. I'm currently up to book number 4: Never Coming Back. As always, I am thoroughly enjoying it and can't wait to get to the remaining 6 books in the series.

I'm hoping to squeeze all of them in before the Christmas madness really gets going! I have a few others on my 'TBR' pile that I'm really looking forward to reading, so let's hope I stay organised and on track to get around to them before 2020 is out!

What are you reading? Share with us in the comments below!

Until next time, Rachael. x

Tuesday 24 November 2020

Goodreads Review - The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver

The Dead Tracks (David Raker, #2)The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this for the second time four years later. Increased my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Fantastic book and I love the series. David Raker is an incredible character - a bit like a Smartie; hard as nails on the outside but incredibly soft on the inside, driven by emotion and the events of his past.

The Dead Tracks is gripping, thrilling and creepy. Weaver has transformed modern London into a Victorian dystopia here, in a Jack the Ripper style mystery, meshed with more contemporary crimes. The Dead Tracks setting really gives you a feeling of wanting to satisfy curiosity, but also stay away from the danger. You can almost feel the tension through the pages, and I was genuinely both saddened and impressed to discover that the location described as The Dead Tracks, doesn't exist in real life. Tim has expertly brought it to life and created the perfect setting for the grisly storyline.

5 stars and on to the next in the series. 😊

View all my reviews

Monday 23 November 2020

Monday Musings

 Just a short update this Monday evening to remind any of you lovely readers that the blog is back! (And very much still under construction!) I am using my non-reading, non-reviewing, non-working, non-parenting time to learn a few skills, including web design; so watch this space! 

In the meantime, I am currently re-reading the David Raker series by Tim Weaver. I first came across the series around 4 years ago, and there may (or may not) be a previous blog post about it because I loved it! I saw a post on Twitter last week advertising the latest release in the series and having just finished the Kate Marshall series by Robert Bryndza, I thought it's probably a great time to start the Raker series all over again to really dig deep into the character. When you read (or binge watch) a series consecutively, I feel like you really get to know the characters on a deeper level and you don't have that time lapse in between where you can forget some of their quirks and flaws.

I raced through the first in the series - Chasing the Dead, and I'm almost finished book number 2, The Dead Tracks. Check out my short review of book 1 on Goodreads here, and if you're looking for a fast-paced, mystery/thriller, then I would highly recommend this series. 

If you're already a fan of the series, the latest book - No One Home is available now.


Until next time.

Rachael. x

Saturday 21 November 2020

2020 - Life update!

I can't believe it's been over two years since my last post. I feel like I'm sitting at a Confessional right now! Lol. Do people even say "lol" on blogs now? Who knows? Anyway, what a crazy two years it has been. Life has taken some pretty unexpected turns since my last post, and some pretty unexpected turns for most of the developed world in 2020 with the arrival of COVID-19. Yes, I said the c-word. Let's face it, it's pretty inevitable right now that any form of life update or even regular conversation will include at least one reference to coronavirus.

April 2018 was the last time I posted. I left you on the cusp of a new business venture, which, although short-lived, I very much enjoyed. I had endured a health scare at the beginning of that year and had begun to make some changes to my lifestyle, mainly diet-related, and had already started to lose some of the weight that I had gained over the previous 18 months or so. Thankfully this weight loss and lifestyle modification really helped me manage my fibromyalgia and life became more 'normal' again.

Around May 2018 I decided to return to a business that I had made a success of back in 2012/13. Part of my weight loss was down to using Herbalife Nutrition again, and after reconnecting with some old friends, and getting in touch with a few of my old clients, my business took off again. As a busy single Mum of 3, trying to manage a house, a social life and a business, I found myself not having very much time to read for pleasure any more. I like to read non-fiction too, mainly for self-help but had little time to review them and so, sadly the blog was left to rot.

2019 went by in a blur. When I look back at my Goodreads account I can see that I hardly picked up a book. A few in January, but only 7 in total. The list makes for pretty dismal reading. The business was keeping me busy, as were the children and having a pretty active dating life, although the less said about that particular individual now, the better. Towards the end of the year, I realised that, although the business was doing ok, I needed a more stable source of income while the business was still building, so I decided to start looking for a job. The thought of working for someone else after being self-employed for so long was as daunting as it was reassuring. In December 2019 I attended an interview with a local company and the job was mine. It was perfect - part-time, during school hours so no need to worry about being there to drop off and collect the children and only a few minutes away from both the school and home. 

2020 started pretty well. It seemed like the start of a brand new chapter, starting my job on 6th January and the children going back to school after a lovely Christmas break. It took a little while to settle into my new routine juggling work, the children, the business and social life, but by the end of February things were looking great. I don't think I need to tell you what came next. By the middle of March, the schools were closed, I was working from home and life as we knew it had changed dramatically overnight. 

Lots of events took place between then and now. Thankfully I was able to keep my job and I am currently working from home, possibly permanently, which I quite like. 😊 I got to spend an incredible 6 months with the children, albeit stressful at times when trying to help them with school work and I missed them terribly when they returned to school, but saw such a difference in them when they went back. I hadn't realised the true impact that the lack of socialisation had had on them. My Herbalife Nutrition business thrived initially as more people were concerned about their nutrition and being as healthy as they could be, but things started to decline for me. I experienced the worst prolonged period of anxiety and panic attacks that I've ever had. I went from being someone who thrived on alone time, (what reader doesn't?🤣) to dreading being alone on the weekends when the children stayed with their Dad. My relationship (and I use that term very loosely) broke down and I felt thoroughly lost. I'm grateful that I managed to pull myself through a very tough few months and come out the other side better for it. 

As I write this I have now been taking "self-care" pretty seriously for the past few months. I realise that I burned myself out, physically and emotionally, trying to do everything and do it now! As a consequence of the severe stress, my fibromyalgia symptoms returned with an absolute bang. I'm taking things day by day right now and focusing on myself and the children. Mental health has been highlighted more than ever this year and is a struggle for so many. It's important to talk. I feel like this post is so much longer than I intended it to be, and a little more personal, but the point of it was to tell you how I've arrived back here today, and let you in a little bit more. Apparently, I'm a bit of a closed book. I'm sure there's a pun in there somewhere. 🤓

I'm here today because the blog is back for good! Reading has been a big part of my recovery this past few months. It started with non-fiction, personal development has been instrumental in helping me stay focused in the past and it was no different this time around. Alongside a few true-crime Netflix binges came some more non-fiction, this time on the subject of serial killers! Finally, I came back to fiction and my favourite genre - thrillers. I saw a post on Twitter that one of my favourite authors of that genre, Robert Bryndza was about to release a brand new book, so I decided to go back to the beginning and read the first book of his in a series I really enjoyed - The Girl In The Ice. I raced through that, and the rest of the series in a little over a week. I wrote short reviews on Goodreads and shared them on Twitter but the idea of getting back to my blog was growing stronger by the day. A few days ago I made the decision to bring back What Rachael Read Next. It's given me a new focus and it's something I'm excited about. During some of the downtime we had in lockdown, I started some learn-from-home courses so I'm genuinely excited to be able to put some of my new-found knowledge and skills into action!

If you've read this far, thank you. It means a lot. Over the next few months, the blog itself is going to be changed a lot. It's pretty basic in its current form and I learned some coding over the summer, among other things, so fingers crossed that 2021 will see the blog looking pretty sleek and with regular, relevant, engaging and (hopefully) enjoyable content! 

Until next time.

Rachael. x

Sunday 1 April 2018

Hello 2018!

I know, it's April. The first 3 months of this year have been somewhat of a blur. As any busy parent knows, time flies when you have so much to do! Add to that the ever-growing Fibromyalgia struggle and a hospital stay for iron-deficiency and before you know it, we have reached the second quarter of the year without a single blog post!

Fear not, I have still been glued to my Kindle (in between my business, starting a totally new business and the odd few Netflix binges!). I have read some incredible books over the last few months, some of which I will be blogging about this week, plus I have a whole host of new authors on my list to try out this month.

Happy Easter everyone! I'll be spending the rest of the weekend updating the blog and cracking on with the reading, with a cuppa and an egg of course!

Rachael
xo