Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier // It Needs A Revival

Posted on by Ashleigh
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier - review image. Read for the book club Myth-Take Reads, The Six Swans retelling and Irish folklore

Goodreads

A retelling of the fairy tale The Six Swans (alternatively known as The Twelve Brothers or other titles), Daughter of the Forest follows Sorcha and her six brothers. As close-knit as siblings can be, their lives are infused with a deep undercurrent of magic, and the small oddities of their childhood seem natural as anything. But things soon change when an enchantress enters their lives, and Sorcha’s brothers are transformed into swans. To break the curse, Sorcha must undertake a seemingly impossible task…and stay silent the entire time. make one noise, and all her work will be for nothing; the curse shall remain…

kEEP READING!
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The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson // Deliciously Dark

Posted on by Ashleigh
The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson

Goodreads | Book Depository

*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. This in no way affects my opinion.

Based on Irish mythology, The Wren Hunt follows Wren Silke as she’s chased through the woods every year as part of a warped game. If the people chasing her found out that she is an augur – someone who can read things in patterns – then the chase would become a lot more deadly. But Wren isn’t just being chased – she ends up on a hunt of her own as she sets out to find the answer to an ancient secret in or to save her family.

Keep reading!

Announcing Myth-Take!

Posted on by Ashleigh
myth-take banner

Soooo this announcement is coming late. And if you have me on any other social media platform then you’ve probably heard about it already, so apologies for the bombardment. But in case some of you folks missed out on it or haven’t seen a full run down of what it is…let me introduce to you, Myth-Take!

Keep reading!

March Favourites & Wrap Up

Posted on by Ashleigh
march favourites banner - aesthetic coffee in background

March was…a lot. A lot of deadlines. A lot of plans. A lot of anxiety and stress. And apparently, a lot of new favourites too. So at least something good came out of all the excess, right?

Keep reading!

In Defense of Audiobooks (And A Story of Anxiety…)

Posted on by Ashleigh
collection of books - the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon, the dead house by dawn kurtagich, the graces by laure eve, the harm tree by rose edwards, state of sorrow and song of sorrow by melinda salisbury, oh my gods by alexandra sheppard

Ahhh, the audiobook argument. It comes up time and time again. “You’re not really reading if you’re listening” or “audiobooks aren’t real books!”

Yawn.

Well ladies and gentlemen (and all those between), here’s my defense.

Keep reading!

Amazing Women Characters By Women Authors // Book Recommendations for International Women’s Day

Posted on by Ashleigh
Open pages of books - female fantasy authors - includes The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, Song of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury, How Long Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin, Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan, Cassandra by Christa Wolf

It’s International Women’s Day! And I was so unprepared. But I wanted to celebrate here on this li’l blog of mine, so what better way to shout about amazing women than by recommending some amazing women characters, written by amazing women authors?

Can I say “amazing women” any more times?

Keep reading!

First Chapters – Deciding My Holiday TBR

Posted on by Ashleigh
Book spines - The Magicians by Lev Grossman, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood, Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, And I Darken by Kiersten White and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Way back in January, I was shocked to find myself part of a family-holiday-booking process, something I’ve never done before. And as of right now – the very day this blog post goes up, in fact – I will be on my first holiday abroad. Who’d have thought?

So of course my biggest dilemma for the past couple of months has been trying to decide which books to take with me.** I very rarely read the “typical” holiday reads – contemporaries, romances, crime novels etc – and so there wasn’t a particular mood to go for when plucking books off my shelves. So I decided to follow Hannah’s idea (A Cup of Wonderland), and decided my reads based on the first chapters. I vastly underestimated how long it would take me to read the first chapters of 10 books and started cheating a little by not reading the entire first chapter of some (I mean, some book chapters can be a solid 50 pages long! No thanks), but either way I eventually whittled it down to 6 books, which is hugely ambitious considering I’m a slow reader and will only be there 10 days. But better to be prepared, right?

Continue reading First Chapters – Deciding My Holiday TBR

February Wrap Up & Favourites | Things slowing down in the shortest month…but also my birthday!

Posted on by Ashleigh

february-favourites

February. The shortest month of the year. And the month filled with love? While Valentine’s day might not be a hit for everyone, it’s not just all about romance. There’s an overall sense of gratefulness come the occasion, an appreciation for friends and family too.

Though the month is only missing two or three days, those missing days can feel like they make all the difference. We don’t quite make it to day 30 before starting again. But still, the months roll on.

❤ ❤ ❤

Let’s see what February brought…

Continue reading February Wrap Up & Favourites | Things slowing down in the shortest month…but also my birthday!

Sunday Status: Because December is the month where my reading and blogging life gets busy

Posted on by Ashleigh

sunday-status

Now what do we have here? 

Oh yes, it’s that new feature I brought in months ago…and then completely forgot about. How did that even happen? Either way, I’ve brought it back now. Let it rise from the ashes like a phoenix and heal you with it’s medicinal bird tears.

10 points to your Hogwarts house if you got the Fawkes reference. 

Since the first (and only) one of these features happened a long time ago, here’s a quick summary of what a Sunday Status post is. Basically, it’s just a post where I update you on anything reading related – what I’m currently reading, future plans for my blog and booktube, anything remotely interesting I might have to mention.

So…what’s my Sunday Status?

Continue reading Sunday Status: Because December is the month where my reading and blogging life gets busy

August Wrap Up – The result of a month doing absolutely nothing

Posted on by Ashleigh

August wrap up

Okayy, this month did actually speed by for once. That’s not happened for a while. But this time it feels like I literally only just wrote my July Wrap Up…so strange.

I had a bit of a weird reading month. I felt like I didn’t read anything? But I very obviously did. I don’t know what August did to me.

As always, this is going to be a long post, so get comfy and enjoy!

August

Continue reading August Wrap Up – The result of a month doing absolutely nothing