Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy #1) by Callie Hart

From Goodreads

Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.

In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.

My thoughts

Meet Saeris Fane an Alchemist and Kingfisher a Fae warrior.  When their paths inadvertently cross, it's not long before a bond is formed between them both, that will have far reaching consequences on them both as they're from different realms.  How will they learn to live together and what sort of a relationship will develop between them?

What a read!  This is the first in the Fae & Alchemy series by Callie Hart. I presume that there will be more to follow in this series, as there is so much more that can happen in this fantasy world that we have been taken into and between the two main characters and the relationship that has evolved between them in this story.

At times it was a hard read trying to get my head around what was happening and at others it was a great read to escape into.  I enjoyed the relationship that developed between Kingfisher and Saeris.  From two different forms of beings, how will they get on with the differences in their lives and the way that they live?  

Please be aware that at times the story is a little on the violent side and a little sexual, but not overly so.  

Looking forward with baited breath to read the next one in the series and see how things progress.  Please don't keep us waiting too long.

Beyond Control (Beyond Love #1) by Karice Bolton

From Goodreads

Everything in Gabby Sullivan's life is going according to plan--her father's plan. With a brilliant job in the corporate world, glamorous parties, and a beautiful condo overlooking Seattle, she is thrown into a world she doesn't want to claim. It's not until Jason crashes into her world that she realizes she's not really living.

Facing his own demons, Jason attempts to piece his life back together after a personal tragedy. Damaged by his ghosts, Jason finally begins to forgive himself whenever Gabby's around. She makes him feel--alive, something he hasn't felt for a long time.

It's only as their love grows and secrets are revealed that they realize a devastating connection from their past might actually tear them apart.

My thoughts

This was a freebie read from Amazon that had sat on my Kindle for 10 years.  The trouble for us book alcoholics is, that their are too many books to read and not enough time to read them in! 

This is the first in a series of books by this Author called Beyond Love.  This book features thee female lead character Gabby Sullivan, she appears to have a privileged life some would say.  With an over protective father, who has mapped her life out for her.  She is feeling suffocated to a certain extent and needs to break free.  When a stranger called Jason crashes into her life one day, he brings a new perspective into her life in more ways than one.  

A bond is formed between the two that as you read, hints may go deeper than you think.

I enjoyed this story and the interaction between the main characters Gabby and Jason, and how the secondary characters were involved in their lives. .  Whilst it was a sweet read, it kept me engaged when reading and I was left wanting to grab it again once I had put it down.   

The Author mentioned the following songs in the book and  I had to find the following song ~ Tidal Wave by Sub Focus, it was not a song nor a performer that I knew and I played it while I read the book.  Gabby played it as she was driving home from work one evening.  Nor had I heard ~ Love Somebody by Maroon 5, I did .know of them as a group though.

Into the Mist (Into the Mist #1) by P.C. Cast

Froom Goodreads

As men fall to the mist, the age of womankind begins to rise

Bombs strike US cities and military sites, cause fires, explosions, sonic detonations, quakes, slides, and green mist. Breathed in, the toxin melts men into puddles of bloody clothes. But women may get strange new powers.

High school science teachers leaving an Oregon mountain conference find their blood may cause plants to grow suddenly. "Warrior" Mercury 30s is now incredibly strong and fast. "Seer" Stella 40s senses future, directs them, where and when, to go or stay. "Watcher" Imani gazes toward her lost family for hours. Christian "Priestess" Karen 50+ sees their powers act, in the spirit world, as a green glow.

"Healer" Gemma 16, then three children join after losing their respective parents. They meet bad and good people in their search for The Place to build their safe perfect new world.

My thoughts

This was a book that I started back in 2024.  It was a BorrowBox read that got put to one side as other people borrowed it and I just couldn't divert the time to it that I needed to when the copy was in.my hands.

This is a dystopian horror themed story and is the first of two books in the Into the Mist series by this Author.  It piqued my interest, as these are genres that I enjoy reading and it delivered to a certain extent.  At times I felt it plodded along and didn't maintain my interest quite as much as I wanted it too.

Telling the story of devastation in the US by many different forms, that leaves a green mist loitering behind that has dire consequences for the male of the population.  The green mist if breathed in by the males is killing them off, but is leaving the females with extra powers. 

As the females are moving across the US iin an attempt to escape what is happening and stay as safe as they can.  They find that they are banding together to form a new society and try to understand what the hell is happening, and what the powers that they are finding that they have acquired actually mean to them and the rest of the survivors.

I almost gave up on the story and it's not something that I do very often, but my curiousity got the better of me and I kept reading on until the end.  

 

Intimacy by Ita O'Brien

From Goodreads

"A vital contribution to our understanding of intimacy both on screen and in life." Gillian Anderson | An Evening Standard 'Book to Watch' for 2025

From the initial spark of attraction when your eyes first meet, to spontaneously dancing together in the kitchen and falling asleep side by side - how do we create those intimate moments of connection?

As a pioneering Intimacy Coordinator, Ita O’Brien has choreographed some of the most groundbreaking, passionate and vulnerable intimate scenes onscreen. From Normal People to I May Destroy You, and in so many more productions, she has also made these scenes safer, more joyful and more empowering to perform in. No one knows intimacy, the power of true connection, better than her.

So, what can her work teach us about our own relationships, both with ourselves and others? How can we use her tools to discover what it is that we truly want in our intimate lives? And how can all of this create environments in which intimacy can take seed, grow and even thrive?

Combining embodied wisdom, behind-the-scenes stories and exercises for connection, Intimacy offers us a field guide to discovering our desires, communicating our needs, and cultivating truly intimate relationships at every stage of our lives.

My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is not the sort of book that I usually read.  I chose it to fulfil a reading challenge ~ A book in a genre that you wouldn't normally read.  I don't tend to read many non fiction books like this as it's a self help style of book, but on reading the book it's so much more than just a self help book.

The author draws on her experiences as an Intimacy Coordinator.  She has been instrumental in working with actors both on and off screen, discussing with them what might be expected of them during intimate scenes on screen and how they might cope with it, emotionally, physically, etc.  She has helped with the choreographing of the scenes of many series, etc. 

The book is a jumbled mix that jumps between the graphic intimate sections and the personal experiences that she has had in her working life.

Whilst, I did enjoy certain aspects of the book more than others.  I feel that she could have been a little more structured in the way that it was written.  I dipped in and out of it while reading it and certain parts of the book, did make me think about the relationships that we form with one another both emotionally and intimately, and how we learn to deal with the feelings of others while in a relationship..

 Below are two quotes that spoke out to me for various reasons. 

In the quote below the author is explaining about when she worked on an adaptation by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's 2022 film adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover written by D.H. Lawrence.  The challenge was to choreograph the passion that developed between Lady Chatterley and the estate gamekeeper Mellors.

Quote 1

' This was a relationship that was so transgressive when the book  was written in 1928 that it was only published iii an unexpurgated form in England in 1960, after a famous obscenity trial. Nowadays people aren't so shocked about a love affair across the class barriers, but the relationship is still the heart of the story. Both characters find liberation because of it, so the challenge was to find ways of showing each beat of its development on screen for the audience to understand its significance. ' 

The quote below is very poignant and made me think quite deeply about our lives and the lives of our female children and female grandchildren, et al.  It's quite thought provoking really in my opinion.  

Quote 2

' I always think it is a beautiful thing that a female baby in her mother's womb contains all the eggs that she will produce in her reproductive life.  Effectively, if a woman gives birth to a girl, she is giving birth to the seed of her own grandchildren.  Once those are used , that is it!  That's one reason menopause is such a sharp process.  Ovulation ends and hormone production drops over a relatively short period of time.  It is really the end of something.'

The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner

From Goodreads

1938. Sadie travels to Europe from South Africa with dreams of becoming a ballerina – but when war breaks out, she is working at the Bal Tabarin, a lively Parisian music hall. As the Nazis march in, the city is no longer safe for Jews like Sadie – until a fellow dancer named Frederic offers her a a ballroom partnership that will allow her to hide in the spotlight. Together, Sadie and Frederic dazzle audiences across occupied Europe – and Sadie secretly uses her new cover to work with the Resistance. But when an old friend comes to her for help, Sadie begins a dangerous dance that takes her to the brink of losing everything.

2012. Miriam travels to New York to sort out the affairs of her great-aunt Esther – and to escape her own secrets. Lost in grief, Miriam begins to piece together from Esther's notebooks the forgotten history of the Bal Tabarin, and in particular the story of a dancer who risked her life to help others in the midst of war. With the help of a handsome young man who opens up the dance halls and nightclubs of this electric city for her, Miriam realises that Esther's story has been left for her to finish – but will she find the courage to find the answers and face the past?

My thoughts 

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for an opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review. 

This is a dual timeframe story that tells the story of Miriam and her great-aunt Esther.  Miriam has her secrets that she wants to escape from and she uses her great-aunts past as the escape that s needed.  As Miriam delves into the past and finds all that Esther was involved with during the war years and all that she did to help others and stay as safe as she could.

This was a book that I was looking forward to reading and it didn't disappoint at all.  I loved the interaction between the characters in both timeframes in the story.  

We can only imagine what people went through trying to stay alive and help others when they could.

Quote

' Perhaps I imagined it, but the hush seemed to fall on the house. Everyone looked at Belle. Not just the dancers, but the pianist, a couple of stagehands and old Bernadettte who swept the floors increasingly slowly but whom Sandrini didn't have the heart to sack. '

It's not very often that your name appears in books, when your name isn't that common.  It always makes me smile when I see it.  I just had to include this quote, for no other reason than my name is in it.

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

 
From Goodreads

The village of Chilbury in Kent is about to ring in some changes.

This is a delightful novel of wartime gumption and village spirit that will make your heart sing out.

Kent, 1940.

In the idyllic village of Chilbury change is afoot. Hearts are breaking as sons and husbands leave to fight, and when the Vicar decides to close the choir until the men return, all seems lost.

But coming together in song is just what the women of Chilbury need in these dark hours, and they are ready to sing. With a little fighting spirit and the arrival of a new musical resident, the charismatic Miss Primrose Trent, the choir is reborn.

Some see the choir as a chance to forget their troubles, others the chance to shine. Though for one villager, the choir is the perfect cover to destroy Chilbury’s new-found harmony.

Uplifting and profoundly moving, THE CHILBURY LADIES’ CHOIR explores how a village can endure the onslaught of war, how monumental history affects small lives and how survival is as much about friendship as it is about courage.

My thoughts 

This was one of my local Library Reading Group reads.  It's possibly not a book that I would have picked up to read had it not been for the reading group due to having so many books to read.  That doesn't mean to say that I wouldn't have read it though. 

This was a story set towards the beginning of World War II and a group of women all with a common love of singing.  As the original choir is brought to a close by the Vicar, due to the loss of the men not being there due to being conscripted into the forces.  The ladies are at a loss and soon decide to take matters into their own hands, it's not long before a ladies choir is born.  

I enjoyed this story and all the escapades that the ladies in the choir, their friends, relatives and neighbours got into.  It must have been a hard time to be alive, trying to keep out of danger and stay alive while helping others too. 

To Love A Liar by L.V. Matthews

From Goodreads

CHRIS FLETCHER IS A MAN WITH SECRETS . . .

One woman dead.
Nineteen years ago, policeman Chris Fletcher's lover was found dead in an abandoned house.

One woman missing.
Now, his loyal wife has disappeared without a trace.

A man with everything to lose.
There's no doubt that he's guilty, but of which crime?

My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for the invite to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story of two halves, as the past looks set to haunt this ex undercover policeman Chris Fletcher. Having had to flee the country for his safety, he now finds himself having to return.   

I enjoyed this dual timeframe story, that was set in the past and the present.  At times you didn't know who to trust or what was the truth behind the past events.      

He may not be as innocent nor as guilty as you at first think, but to find out how far he may have sunk you will have to grab a copy for yourself.  I suggest grabbing a brew, closing the curtains, getting yourself settled and be prepared to immerse yourself among the secrets and darkness contained within the covers of this book.

This author can tell a good yarn for sure.