Tag Archives: bella mackie

Monthly Reading Summary – January 2024

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Top Book of the Month – ‘Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower: New Updated Edition’ by Sandra Vasoli

Book Club Book This Month – N/A

Books Read This Month:

Books Bought This Month:

  • ‘Unladylike Lessons in Love’ by Amita Murray
  • ‘The Whalebone Theatre’ by Joanna Quinn
  • ‘Must Love Books’ by Shauna Robinson
  • ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ by Holly Jackson
  • ‘Pride and Premeditation’ by Tirzah Price
  • ‘Mary I: Queen of Sorrows’ by Alison Weir
  • ‘Holbein at the Tudor Court’ by Kate Heard
  • ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’ by Mike Gayle
  • ‘Murder on the Lusitania’ by Edward Marston
  • ‘Sisters Behaving Badly’ by Maddie Please

Statistics:

  • Books Read – 6
  • Currently Reading – 1
  • TBR – 244
  • Fiction – 1 (16.67%)
  • Non-Fiction – 5 (83.33%)
  • Male Author – 0 (0.00%)
  • Female Author – 6 (100.00%)
  • Non-Binary Author – 0 (0.00%)
  • Multiple Authors – 0 (0.00%)
  • Paperback – 3 (50.00%)
  • Hardback – 0 (0.00%)
  • eBook – 3 (50.00%)
  • Audiobook – 0 (0.00%)
  • Total Pages Read – 1,910
  • Average Pages Per Book – 318.33
  • Hours Listened – 0.00
  • Average Star Rating – 4.00

‘How to Kill Your Family’ by Bella Mackie

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Genre: Adult Fiction – Crime / Mystery

Published: 2021

Format: eBook

Rating: ★★★★

I’ve wanted to read this for a while, basically since it came out! So, when I saw it was on kindle sale I couldn’t resist. I wasn’t disappointed either. The characters aren’t particularly sympathetic or likeable, but it works. And being told in the first person, part as a written memoir and part an account of time in prison, is a winning combination.

There were humorous moments and a twist at the end. I figured the end wouldn’t be as straight forward as Grace had imagined it would be, getting her hands on the Artemis fortune. But I didn’t see what happened at the end coming at all. And the end wasn’t even told from Grace’s point of view, which was a bit of a let-down. There were points when the book was just too long and rambling, and parts could have been cut down or left out altogether.

However, it was a very engaging and generally well-written book and, although the characters aren’t very likeable and don’t really elicit any sympathy, you want to know what happens to them and follow their journeys. It was funny in places, with comments about social media and the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but that wasn’t the main object. It was a satirical acknowledgement that some people get it better than others, and that from Grace’s point of view it was always those who didn’t deserve it and were horrible people, hence her murder crusade.

Some of the chapters were perhaps overly long and could have done with being split. I like to be able to stop reading at the end of a chapter but that wasn’t always possible here. However, I did enjoy the book. It’s different to other things I’ve been reading recently, and the premise engaged me straight away. I wanted to know how Grace would do it, and whether she would face any consequences at the end for the murders she did commit, rather than the one she didn’t.

Monthly Reading Summary – December 2023

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Top Book of the Month – ‘The Holiday Swap’ by Maggie Knox

Book Club Book This Month – ‘Faking Christmas’ by Kerry Winfrey

Books Read This Month:

Books Bought This Month:

  • ‘How to Kill Your Family’ by Bella Mackie
  • ‘Four Weddings and a Christmas’ by Phillipa Ashley
  • ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman
  • ‘Murder on the Christmas Express’ by Alexandra Benedict
  • ‘Faking Christmas’ by Kerry Winfrey
  • ‘1536: The Year That Changed Henry VIII’ by Suzannah Lipscomb
  • ‘The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors 500 Years of History at Hampton Court’ by Gareth Russell
  • ‘Heirs of Ambition: The Making of the Boleyns’ by Claire Martin
  • ‘The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case’ by Philippa Langley
  • ‘Kings and Queens: 1200 Years of English and British Monarchs’ by Iain Dale
  • ‘The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet’ by Benjamin Hoff
  • ‘Window Shopping’ by Tessa Bailey
  • ‘All I Want for Christmas’ by Maggie Knox
  • ‘The Christmas Bookshop’ by Jenny Colgan
  • ‘The Ballad of Never After’ by Stephanie Garber
  • ‘Love, Theoretically’ by Ali Hazelwood
  • ‘The Book Proposal’ by KJ Micciche

Statistics:

  • Books Read – 4
  • Currently Reading – 1
  • TBR – 240
  • Fiction – 3 (75.00%)
  • Non-Fiction – 1 (25.00%)
  • Male Author – 0 (0.00%)
  • Female Author – 2 (50.00%)
  • Non-Binary Author – 0 (0.00%)
  • Multiple Authors – 2 (50.00%)
  • Paperback – 2 (50.00%)
  • Hardback – 0 (0.00%)
  • eBook – 2 (50.00%)
  • Audiobook – 0 (0.00%)
  • Total Pages Read – 1,343
  • Average Pages Per Book – 335.75
  • Hours Listened – 0.00
  • Average Star Rating – 3.50