I got some amazing book post this week, for The Stardust Thief, with this fantastic pin which looks just like the medallion on the cover. Thanks Orbit Books!

Magnolias must have been in fashion when a lot of the houses were built round here as a lot of them have mature magnolia trees. They are full of majestic big blooms for a week or two, even less if the wind gets to them. It looks like this week is Magnolia Week.

There are some ornamental cherries flowering at the moment but they don’t seem that impressive this year. Maybe the actual fruit blossom will do a better show.

Last week I shared my review of Lessons in Chemistry and I also have another Twitter giveaway going for my spare copy of Until the Last of Me.

I read A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee which was peak dark academia, right down to the characters embracing the aesthetic. It was dark and mysterious and I was not expecting it to go where it did.

I also finished listening to How to Solve a Murder by Derek and Pauline Tremain, which was a bit disappointing. It’s a memoir by a couple who worked in forensics, and the aspects about forensic technique were interesting, but the memoir part didn’t really engage me. It’s probably not Pauline’s fault, but she had less to contribute to the memoir, yet they had decided to go with alternative points of view.

New books acquired:

[gifted] Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel (Penguin)
[gifted] The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (Orbit)
What Might Have Been by Holly Miller (ebook)
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (ebook)
The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (ebook)
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (ebook)
Cunning Women by Elizabeth lee (ebook)