What Rachael Reads

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 l...

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

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance copy. I was looking forward to this after reading The Bone Field a while ago, which was the first in the series. I love a good detective thriller, especially when it's on home soil, and some of the action in the first book took place in my beloved home of Wales. I was excited to discover it would be a series, and waited eagerly for the next instalment. I am pleased to say that it didn't disappoint and only served to remind me how much I thoroughly enjoyed the first book. The Hanged Man by Simon Kernick My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved the first instalment, The Bone Field and The Hanged Man has followed up brilliantly. Ray Mason has a character not unlike that of Mark Billingham's Thorne; a hard-nosed, experienced London cop who isn't afraid to bend the rules a little and it makes for exciting reading. The Hanged Man has a fantastic plot, expertly executed by Kernick and I am looking forward to more adventu...

Hello fellow readers. It's been a while. Over two months now, in fact. I have dearly missed blogging and reading some of the lovely feedback I get from my readers. Fear not, I am still lurking in the community and I am still reading, perhaps less ferociously than before, but reading nonetheless. A family of 5, life sometimes gets in the way! I would like to share with you some of what I have read over the last few months, which, as you will notice, is mostly non-fiction, a genre I haven't really blogged about much before. Sometimes I think non-fiction requires a certain frame of mind, or headspace. I have read lots of non-fiction over the years, particularly in the self-help and business sections and I very rarely encounter a book that I don't like. I cannot tell you how I came to read this first novel. I am a massive fan of Queen and grew up in the late eighties and early nineties so Freddie Mercury & Co. featured heavily in my childhood. I read a news piece a whil...

Hello readers! It's been a busy week here! Not managed to read as much as I would like, and been a little pre-occupied with a possible new venture! I will keep you posted on that. I have almost finished my current read, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This is another that has been on my to-read list for ages. I still don't know how it ends, but I have really enjoyed it so far. The reviews I have read have been a bit like Marmite. People seem to either love it or hate it. But one thing almost everyone agrees on is how beautifully it is written. Hoping to finish it tonight, so keep your eyes peeled for my rating and short review. Rachael xo