Possessing Morgan by Bonnie Edwards

‘Repo woman Morgan Swan can hardly believe it. She’s been hopelessly infatuated with headline-stealing heartthrob Kingston “Mac” McRae for most of her life Now she’s in his driveway, about to repossess his fancy car. If only she could pick up the rest of him so easily… Mac can’t believe it, either. His car is being stolen…but all he can think about is getting the sexy-as-hell Morgan into the backseat. And their engines only rev hotter once she shows him how easily her Daisy Duke shorts come off.

It’s a sweaty, fast ride–the ultimate thrill. Until Morgan realizes she wants not only the fantasy but the key to Mac’s heart as well….’

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This is the second book of this genre that I have read so I didn’t go into it with expectations that were too high. I knew that I would be getting romance and sauciness when I picked up this book, and I did, I had also hoped to get some interesting characters and a good plot, and I am happy to say that I got both of these things too.

One of the things that I loved and was surprised by when reading this book was that the characters had their own personalities and voices and it felt that a lot of effort had gone into creating and then describing these characters and their flaws and behaviours rather than just focusing on their physical descriptions.

I also really enjoyed the banter and dialog between the characters. While some of it was flirtations and written and spoken for one reason only, when this wasn’t the goal of the dialog it was really fun and relatable, which is something that I hadn’t expected to get when I picked this book up.

Bonnie Edwards has done a good job with this book. It was everything I had expected it to be while also being surprising with its depth and character creation and development. On top of that, it had a well-written and entertaining plot and was a quick and easy read.

Possessing Morgan by Bonnie Edwards is well worth the read.

Mother’s Day 2024 Facts!

As I am really enjoying compiling Pointless Facts each month, I have decided to put together a Mother’s Day Facts post. I hope you all enjoy these Mother’s Day Facts.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

Mother’s Day in Australia falls on the second Sunday in May.

It was first celebrated in Australia in 1910, according to the National Library of Australia.

In Australia, we often treat our mum to breakfast in bed or take her out to lunch at a lovely restaurant. Children often make their own Mother’s Day cards to give with some flowers, or perhaps a box of chocolates.

In India, a ten-day festival called Durga Puja, which celebrates the mother goddess Durga, is often closely associated with the celebration of Mother’s Day.

In Sweden, plastic flowers are sold on Mother’s Day, with all the proceeds going towards mothers and their children who are in need.

In the former Yugoslavia, various family members are celebrated with a series of holidays, starting on Children’s Day, three days before Christmas. The following Sunday is Mother’s Day, and the next Sunday is Father’s Day.

During the 1920s and 1930s, it was suggested that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should be combined to form a Parent’s Day.

More calls are made on Mother’s Day than on any other day.

Mother’s Day was originally a protest against war.

The first Australian Mother’s Day happened after WWI.

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I hope you all enjoyed today’s Mother’s Day Facts. Let me know in the comments if these facts were new to you or if you had already come across them.

GEM

Hot Westmoreland Nights by Brenda Jackson

‘He knew better than to lust after the hired help. But Ramsey Westmoreland’s new cook was just so delectable… it was enough to make the Denver rancher rethink his rules. When temptation got the best of him, he discovered Chloe Burton was just as hot in the bedroom as she was in the kitchen.
Though their affair was growing steamier by the minute, Ramsey couldn’t help but question Chloe’s true motives. And when he discovered her ultimate betrayal, he was set to satisfy himself with cold showers.
Until he realized his fatal mistake: never underestimate the power of the human heart, especially a Westmoreland’s.’

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This is not the sort of book I would usually pick up but I was on holiday and I had run out of books to read. This book had been left at a free little library so I picked it up, and I am happy to say I am very glad that I did.

Going into this book I was not expecting much of a plot; I thought it would be all about lust and romance, so I was surprised that the story was actually really well-rounded and written. While there were a lot of saucy scenes, the story itself would have worked with or without these elements which was something that I really enjoyed about this book.

Another thing about this book that surprised me was that the characters were really well-written and relatable. Yes, a lot of time was spent describing and focusing on their appearances; which I had expected, but there was also a fair amount of focus on their backstories and personalities. Each of the main characters in this book had their own voice and feel which made for a really nice reading experience.

Brenda Jackson has done a great job with this little book. It was well-written, easy to read, and had everything you hope it will have and so much more. I am very glad that I decided to read this book and I will not hesitate to read it again in the future.

Hot Westmoreland Nights by Brenda Jackson is a quick and surprising read.

What Makes Me Pick Up A Book…

Welcome one and all to another Wacky Wednesday post. Today I am partaking in the What Makes Me Pick Up A Book tag. I hope you all enjoy this quick little tag.

So without further ado, let’s jump straight in:

DO YOU JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER?

Initially yes, but I also make sure I read the synopsis before I decide whether or not to pick up a book.

FOCUSING JUST ON THE COVER, WHAT ATTRACTS YOU TO PICK IT UP?

Anything with books, bookshops, or libraries on them. I also like creepy and old-fashioned-looking covers.

DO YOU READ THE SYNOPSIS FIRST, OR PREFER TO GO IN WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK?

If the book has been recommended to me I don’t read the synopsis, but other than that I always read the synopsis.

DO YOU HAVE ANY AUTO-BUY AUTHORS — AUTHORS WHOSE BOOKS YOU WILL ALWAYS BUY, EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THEM?

Yes, I have a few. Fiona Palmer, Kelly Rimmer, Esther Campion, David Walliams, Chris Colfer, and Graham Norton come to mind.

ARE YOU MORE LIKELY TO PICK UP A BOOK IF IT INCLUDES SPECIFIC ELEMENTS/THEMES (E.G., LGBTQ+, MENTAL HEALTH REP., DISABILITY REP.)?

Yes. I am always on the lookout for books that have a wide range of themes and representation.

DO YOU EVER READ A BOOK THAT HAS GENERALLY NEGATIVE REVIEWS JUST TO FORM YOUR OWN OPINION OF IT?

Sometimes. I won’t seek out a book that has bad reviews but I also won’t not read a book that I like the synopsis of because it has bad reviews.

DO YOU EVER BUY A BOOK JUST BECAUSE ANOTHER BOOKTUBER OR BOOK BLOGGER HAS REVIEWED IT OR TALKED ABOUT IT A LOT?

Sometimes. It depends on if the book is something I would usually look at anyway.

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Well, that’s it for me. I hope you guys enjoyed this tag. As usual, hit me up with your answers in the comment section.

Until next time…

Happy Reading… 

GEM

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

‘Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose – selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate – and not everyone will survive.’

I loved this book.

As soon as I read the synopsis for this book I knew I had to read it, but I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. I was completely engrossed in the story and the characters from the very first page to the very last, and I am sad that I can’t read it for the very first time ever again.

I am not usually a fan of books that have multiple points of view and multiple timelines, but I completely understand that this was necessary for this book to work. I also found that the characters were so well developed and had their own voices and feel that jumping from time and character didn’t bother me at all.

Sarah Penner has done a fantastic job with this book. The story was intriguing and captivating, the characters were real, flawed, and completely relatable, and her writing was stunningly beautiful; lyrical, and packed full of heart and emotion. I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this wonderful book.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is a must-read for everyone.

Painless Childbirth In Twilight Sleep – Essay!

Welcome to another Sunday Session. I recently wrote an Essay as part of a University Assessment and since I actually liked it, I decided to share it with you today.

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When we look at the history of pain we are able to not only see how medical practices developed over time but also how cultural sentiments affected the body in history. We see how gender, race, and socioeconomic standing affected how bodies were looked at and treated. By examining pain in relation to the history of the body we are able to see the changes in ideas around the human body, as well as the way in which history was focused on certain bodies. The article I have chosen as a vehicle to examine the correlation between pain and the body using a historical lens focuses on the white female body and how history dealt with the pain of childbirth.

Studying the article ‘Painless Childbirth In Twilight Sleep’, gives a glimpse into one element of the history of pain and the white female body. While the article does not mention race, the use of twilight sleep was restricted to private patients at private hospitals, which at the time were only available to upper-class white women. This article not only draws attention to the use of twilight sleep during childbirth, but it also speaks on both the opposition and support that was forming around its use. Not only were many women excited by the prospect of painless childbirth, but support was also coming for people who feared that the pain of childbirth would cause white women of good standing to have fewer children than black women and women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The use of ‘Twilight Sleep’ was seen as a way to have civilized women give birth to the same amount of children as less civilized women; such as poor or black women. Painless childbirth also faced opposition from those who were concerned both with the safety of the practice for mother and baby, as well as the ethical/religious elements who believed that painful childbirth created a stronger bond between mother and child. Pain during childbirth was seen as a truly civilized and feminine characteristic that showed how nurturing and strong a mother was going to be and the idea of civilized white women having painless childbirths like their less civilized sisters was something that critics of the practice were regularly bringing into the public forum.

By looking at how pain was treated, seen, and supposedly felt in the past we see the differences in how people and their pain were treated based on their gender, race, and socioeconomic status. When we remove race from the discussion and we examine pain in the history of women we see that white women were seen as experiencing pain differently from each other depending on their class. White women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were unable to afford private Doctors and private hospitals which kept the use of pain relief; such as the Twilight Sleep, during childbirth from them. It also meant that many white women from the lower classes were used as guinea pigs for extremely painful medical trials. While white women of the upper classes were seen as delicate and more likely to suffer terribly from pain during childbirth due to their privileged upbringing, white women from the lower classes were expected to be more used to the pain and suffering that comes with childbirth as they were not only less civilized and delicate as the upper-class women but they were more use to pain and suffering as they had experienced various forms of it throughout their daily lives.

While economic standing may have influenced how pain was treated by white women in history, race played an even larger role in determining how history viewed pain and the body. The option for pain relief or ‘Twilight Sleep’ during childbirth was not an option for black women. In fact, many Doctors, and white people, in general, believed that women of colour did not need pain relief in childbirth as they were still savages and did not feel pain like their white counterparts did in general as well as during labor. The belief that laboring black women did not experience pain in the same way that white women did comes from beliefs that black children had smaller heads than white children; because black people were deemed to have smaller brains than white people, as well as the size and shape of black women’s pelvises. These racist ideas about the differences between Black and White bodies and how they feel pain were not isolated to women and their experiences during childbirth, they extended to men. When the English colonized Australia and came across Aboriginal men they found that many of them had scarring from tribal practices. The idea that Black and White bodies feel pain differently was used in order to explain how these aboriginal men had made it through these tribal trials where they received the scars they now had. The belief that White men would not have been able to sustain such injuries as the Aboriginals had came down to the fact that the savage Black men were not civilized and as such they did not feel or understand pain in the same way that White men did.

The history of the body when viewed in relation to pain shows us that there is not just one history. There is a history of pain and the body for different classes, sexes, and races. We can see how women were treated differently based on class and race during childbirth as just one element of the history of pain and the body. The fact that racist and classist ideas permeated the natural and universal act of childbirth; how it was viewed and how it was experienced is just the starting point of how history viewed and treated different types of bodies. This brief study that began with looking at the use of ‘Twilight Sleep’ during childbirth illustrates that when we look at the history of the body we must ensure we are looking at various bodies and the different histories that emerged depending on race, sex, and class.

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That’s it from me today. I hope you enjoyed my Essay. I will catch you all next week for another Sunday Session.

Until next time…

Gem

Hamlet by Timothy Knapman

‘Hamlet is miserable after the death of his father, but when the ghost of his father appears and reveals that he was murdered, Hamlet decides to seek his revenge… Will he succeed? A tragic tale of deceit and revenge. Combining modern-day English with stunning illustrations, QEB’s Tales from Shakespeare bring the Bard’s popular plays to life. Lively and easy-to-read, they are sure to capture your imagination!’

I loved this book.

This modern English retelling of Hamlet is part of the Tales From Shakespeare series. I found this book easy to read and I wished it had been around when I was younger as I can easily see this book being a starting place for young readers to discover and fall in love with Shakespeare in a way that is more accessible than trying to jump right into a Shakespeare play.

This is the second Tales From Shakespeare book that I have read and as this play is in modern English, it was a fast and enjoyable read for me. I truly loved the addition of the illustrations and I also loved the fact that important quotes from the original version were kept in this version as I felt like these quotes added to the magic of this book.

Speaking of magic, the bright and bold illustrations by Yaniv Shimony fill the pages of this book; highlighting important scenes and characters, and perfectly compliment Timothy Knapman’s writing. This is one of those books that work because the writing and illustrations combine to make a truly wonderful reading experience.

Timothy Knapman has done a fantastic job with this book. I was astounded by how he was able to keep the magic of Shakespeare’s play while changing the language element. This book is a perfect example of Shakepeare’s brilliance, while also being a stunning display of Timothy Knapman’s amazing talent. I know for a fact that I will be re-reading this book many times in the future.

Hamlet by Timothy Knapman is a must-read for all Shakespeare fans and all readers looking to dip their toes in the world of Shakespeare.

May TBR…

It’s that time again… TBR… I had a good reading month in April, reading 7 books (1 book from my TBR). I hope to have another good reading month in May. I am aiming to read 4 or 5 books in May.

As usual, this TBR is bound to change but this is just what my TBR looks like at the moment.

The Ministry Of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams

The Archive Of The Forgotten by A.J. Hackwith

The God Of Lost Words by A.J. Hackwith

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

The Bookseller’s Apprentice by Amelia Mellor

So This Is Love by Elizabeth Lim

The Desolations Of Devil’s Acre by Ransom Riggs

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That’s it. I guess we will see how I did in my May Wrap-Up. I hope you all have a great reading month. As usual, keep your eye out for reviews.

Until next time…

Happy Reading!

GEM

April Wrap Up…

Welcome to my April Wrap-Up. I had a good reading month in April, finishing 7 books (1 book off my TBR). I also received ARCs this month. I have reviews up or coming up for these books so as usual this is just going to be a brief rundown on the books I read.

Without further ado, let’s get into my April Wrap Up:

Tell Her She’s Dreamin’ by Simone Amelia Jordan: This book was really interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Simone Amelia Jordan’s journey and all of the amazing things she achieved through hard work and passion. I also loved reading about places that I know and love through her eyes at a slightly different time than I experienced these places and events. This book is well worth the read.

Twelfth Night by Timothy Knapman: This modern English retelling of Twelfth Night is part of the Tales From Shakespeare series. I found this book easy to read and I wished it had been around when I was younger as I can easily see this book being a starting place for young readers to discover and fall in love with Shakespeare in a way that is more accessible than trying to jump right into a Shakespeare play.

Easter Re-reads:

As I have read these books before and have reviews for them, I will just include the links to the reviews if you would like to check them out.

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown:

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown

Little Wombat’s Easter Surprise by Charles Fuge:

Little Wombat’s Easter Surprise by Charles Fuge

Easter Hunt In The Hundred-Acre Wood:

Easter Hunt In The Hundred Acre Wood by Amy Freund

The Great Aussie Easter Egg-and-Spoon Race by Sophie Sayle:

The Great Aussie Easter Egg-and-Spoon Race by Sophie Sayle

Aussie Easter Hat Parade by Colin Buchanan:

Aussie Easter Hat Parade by Colin Buchanan

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That’s it for my April Wrap Up. I hope you all had a great reading month. Let me know what you guys read this month in the comments section.

Happy Reading…

GEM

Twelfth Night by Timothy Knapman

‘Twins, Viola, and Sebastian become separated after a shipwreck in Illyria and soon confusion and mischief unfolds! Packed with funny mix-ups, mistaken identities, and muddled love, this humorous tale will make you laugh aloud. Combining modern-day English with stunning illustrations, QEB’s Tales from Shakespeare bring the Bard’s popular plays to life. Lively and easy to read, they are sure to capture your imagination!’

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This is a re-read for me and I actually enjoyed it more the second time around. I think the reason I found my second reading of the book better than the first is that I have recently read the original Twelfth Night so I was able to appreciate how much work went into this book.

This modern English retelling of the Twelfth Night is part of the Tales From Shakespeare series. I found this book easy to read and I wished it had been around when I was younger as I can easily see this book being a starting place for young readers to discover and fall in love with Shakespeare in a way that is more accessible than trying to jump right into a Shakespeare play.

I loved that even though this was a modern English retelling, important and sentimental quotes from the original Shakespeare version of this play were included in this version. By adding these elements you get a direct link to Shakespeare without being overwhelmed by the use of old English.

Adding to the magic of this book are the brilliant and bold illustrations by Yaniv Shimony. The illustrations in this book colour every page perfectly complimenting the story being told while also taking this book to a whole new and unexpected level.

Timothy Knapman has done a fantastic job with this book. The way in which he was able to modernize Shakespeare’s words without losing any of the magic of the original play was utterly stunning. This is one of those books that I will be returning to many times in the future.

Twelfth Night by Timothy Knapman is a must-read for all Shakespeare fans and all readers looking to dip their toes in the world of Shakespeare.