Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

The Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeleine My rating: 1 of 5 stars The premise of this book had me eager to delve into this title. It enticed you in with the promise of a secret hidden in Paris. At the famous Patisserie Clermont in Paris, 1909, a chance encounter with the owner's daughter has given one young man a glimpse into a life he never knew existed: of sweet cream and melted chocolate, golden caramel and powdered sugar, of pastry light as air. But it is not just the art of confectionery that holds him captive, and soon a forbidden love affair begins. Almost eighty years later, an academic discovers a hidden photograph of her grandfather as a young man with two people she has never seen before. Scrawled on the back of the picture are the words 'Forgive me'. Unable to resist the mystery behind it, she begins to unravel the story of two star-crossed lovers and one irrevocable betrayal. The bits of the book written and based around...

The Smoke Hunter: A gripping adventure thriller with a suffragette heroine by Jacquelyn Benson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was kindly given this book for a free and honest review from Headline publishing and is due for release on 3rd November 2015. The beginning of this book starts in 1632 in the Cayo District of New Spain and introduces us to a monk there to convert the local tribal population to Catholicism. During his time there he is distracted by a myth of great interest a possible link to the long lost location of El Dorado. Picking up from this in 1882 London we meet Eleanora (Ellie) Mallory who works as part of the civil service as an archivist and also an activist in the suffragette movement. Whilst she is waiting to speak to her boss she locates, a book amongst his papers with a mysterious pendant and a map and upon conclusion of their meeting decides he is unaware of its importance and decides to steal it away when she clears her desk. This causes a chain of e...

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a remarkably written and researched piece of non-fiction by an author until now unknown to me. The thought process behind this book is to show the number of un-reported or little reported deaths of children in America during a 24 hour period. Although a lot of assumptions could be made on the reason for this number, this book does not solely focus on the massive and undeniable involvement of the National Rifle Association in continuing to expand and promote gun ownership in the USA but also its strong political holding which makes it sadly inevitable that gun reform at the current time is continually blocked based on the Second amendment "Right to Bear Arms" and a number of cultural circumstances too. I strongly believe that these types of books surrounding our current history should be introduced into the history curriculum in schools, it is an ever growing ...

I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After by Skottie Young My rating: 4 of 5 stars This made me laugh out loud at some points as Gert adventures around Fairyland to find the key to the door back home. Each part of this volume covers stories 1-5 and each is narrated by a different source, that always seems to meet their grizzly end. The fact that Gert arrived aged 6 and is now 33 on the inside, visually she is still a child. Her attitude is that of pure anger and frustration of the cheerful world she resides in. The Queen of Fairyland has now had enough however, and so has start sending hits out to remove the destruction Gert leaves in her wake. Do not expect by the vibrant colour palette that this is suitable for younger children as there are quite a few graphic scenes with bloody imagery. Scottie Younge's colour palette and artwork are amazing and I am now at the point of deciding whether to buy the other volumes individually that have been rel...

This book opens with a quote from Officer Willard Strickland, Atlanta Police Department, Retired in a 1977 speech recalling his 1948 induction as one of the city's first eight African American officers: "I must tell you, it was not easy for me to raise my right hand and say 'I, Willard Strickland, a Negro, do solemnly swear to perform the duties of a Negro Policemen.'" This is a beautifully written book by Thomas Mullen, although it is a work of fiction at points in this book you can easily identify those things that did in fact take place to the African American communities of Atlanta and other US States. I love the design used for the cover of this book and the title Darktown infers the ethnic nature of this downtown area of Atlanta in 1948 and the segregation still in place during this time. This story is based primarily around two sets of police partners.  Boggs and Smith part of the eight newly instated African American officers.  Boggs is highly ...

There is now an ever growing and much loved community on YouTube referred to as BookTube.  This is now a diverse community not covering just Young Adult but many topics and genres.   There are far too many that I follow to mention however, some of my current haul purchases have been inspired by the following channels and so I wanted to tip my hat so to speak to these in particular and thank them not only for their amazing content but also for the range of books they have brought to my attention. Simon of SavageReads Simon is a charismatic and funny guy, he always shows such enjoyment in reading and sharing his thoughts with us and I have watched all his videos to date.  Both of these books were given 5* reviews and his enthusiasm in describing both the synopsis of the books and his thoughts were contagious creating a must have purchase instinct in me. I have to also say that this is not the first purchase I have had to have from his channel and he has become t...

This year I have really returned to my adoration of reading after a major change in my life. Unfortunately I have yet to win the lottery so have to fit it around day to day life, but I cannot wait for the change of the seasons to Autumn perfect reading weather. Drawing from this positivity I have begun to read a wider range of genres than those I have enjoyed over the last couple of years.   For this reason I have extended my selection to include more classic literature.   I could not resist adding to my reading collection with these Vintage Edition Classics, this particular series of books has been published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 2015) and was drawn to them as they are similar in style to that of vintage wallpaper designs and would therefore go well beside my Knickerbocker Classics Cloth Flexibound editions.  I will however comment that these may not be for all as the font size is extremely small.     I ha...