The Very Bookish

 Aiyven Mbawa is 12 years old, from Northampton in England and is the author of Land of the Nurogons – a middle grade fantasy fiction novel published in 2020. If this sounds like something you’d like to find out more about, you can read my review on it by clicking here . As well as writing books and going to school, Kirsten, alongside her sister Aiyven, are the creators of middle grade subscription box Happier Every Chapter. I wrote a blog post about Happier Every Chapter when they first launched, which you can read by clicking here . You can purchase her book through the Mbawa Books website. *Please note: This is an affiliate link. I earn a small amount of commission from each sale made through this link* Here’s my interview with Aiyven: How difficult was it for you to come up with a fantasy universe? That’s the main reason I love the fantasy – you can make your own world. You create your own ways, your own places. But, as the quote says, with great power comes great responsibility.

Kirsten Mbawa is a 14 year old author from Northampton in England. She published her debut novel in 2020 when she was just 12 years old. Sagas of Anya is a historical fiction novel set in the Victorian era. I reviewed her book on my blog last year. If you’d like to read it then click here . If you’d like to purchase her book, click here to head to the Mbawa Books website . *Please note: This is an affiliate link. I earn a small amount of commission from each sale made through this link* As well as writing books and going to school, Kirsten, alongside her sister Aiyven, are the creators of middle grade subscription box Happier Every Chapter. I’ve also written a blog post about that, which you can read by clicking here . Here’s my author interview with Kirsten: What made you decide to create a story based in the Victorian era? At the time of writing Sagas of Anya, I was reading and watching a lot of the well-known series: Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson. It was about a girl who had no

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. I want to thank Heather at Overview Media for organising this blog tour and gifting me a copy of the book in exchange for this review and my spot on the tour. All opinions given in this review are my own.* Genre: Science Fiction | Space Opera Pages: 252 Rating:  ☆☆☆/5 Potential Trigger Warnings:  This book contains sexual content, violence, drug abuse, and physical, sexual, and mental abuse. If any of these themes are challenging for you, I would recommend not reading this book. Synopsis:  All Rebecca wants in life is to sail through space in her ship—is that too much to ask? The moment she lays eyes on her old military buddy Jonathan, Rebecca knew there was no running away from her duties. With her best friend, sometimes with benefits, Nik, she desired to return home to the Nreff Nation, one of the four government powers of the systems, to serve on one last mission. However, the problem with returning is that they all are wanted for trea

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. I received a free copy of this book from Little Tiger Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions given in this post are my own.* Genre: Children's Literature | Age 6-9  Pages: 192 Rating:  ☆☆☆☆/5 Synopsis:  When Fry’s Circus of Wonders pitches its tent opposite Betsy’s house, Betsy feels a strange sense of longing. But Grandad can’t even bear to look at it – it stirs up too many painful memories of Grandma’s days as a circus performer.As her parents rally round Grandad, Betsy slips away to see the show. But Betsy isn’t the only one enjoying the spectacle – her forty-four mice have escaped and seem intent on joining in! As the mice gatecrash the magic act, disaster strikes and Betsy finds herself facing up to the odious ringmaster with a lot of explaining to do… My Thoughts:  This is the second book in the 44 Tiny Secrets series. However, I managed to read and enjoy the entire book without having read the first. From wha

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links* Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Fantasy Pages: 288 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ /5 Synopsis:  Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live? My Thoughts:  The content of the book is a little bit deep. I’ve followed Matt Haig for some time on Twitter, but this is the first book of his that I’ve read.

With my desk, where I spent at least 12hrs a day, being right next to my bookshelf, I spend a fair amount of time staring at it whilst procrastinating. Pretty much every time I look at it I think about how I don’t like the way it looks - although the organisation of my shelf makes the most sense for me… Turns out I just own lots of books that aren’t pretty colours and I’m a sucker for bright colours like pink. I thought I’d make this blog to suggest a few different ways that you can rearrange your bookshelf. Some of these I’ve done myself, others I haven’t. I’ll let you know which I’ve done and what I thought about them! 1 . Rainbow Bookshelf Now the rainbow bookshelf is the ultimate dream for most bookworms, me included. I think everything in life looks so much better when it’s colour co-ordinated. I had my bookshelves rainbow for a good few months during 2020 (lockdown boredom got to me and I decided I NEEEEEEDED to rearrange to rainbow). The pros of a rainbow she

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. I received these books for free as part of the blog tour organised by Emma at DampPebbles. All opinions in this review are my own.* Genre: Historical Crime Pages: Book 1 - 357                Book 2 - 263                Book 3 - 232  Overall Rating: ☆☆☆☆/5   Synopsis: Book 1 - The Bowery Slugger -  When Alex Cohen arrives in 1915 America, he seizes the land of opportunity with both hands and grabs it by the throat. But success breeds distrust and Alex must choose between controlling his gang and keeping his friend alive. What would you do if the person you trusted most is setting you up to die at your enemies’ hands? Book 2 - East Side Hustler -   Alex returns from the Great War almost destroyed by the horrors he has experienced. When he is plucked from certain death by an old friend, he commits to making so much money he’ll never know that agony again. But the route to the top is filled with danger and every time he helps one of his

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. I received this book for free as part of a blog tour organised by Emma at DampPebbles. All opinions given are that of my own* Genre: Historical Fiction Pages: 129 Rating:  ☆☆☆☆/5 Synopsis:  1917: with her father in the British secret service and her brother Alfie in the trenches, under-age Poppy Loveday volunteers against her parents’ wishes to drive ambulances in France. We follow her adventures, racing to save wounded men driven to the Casualty Clearing Station, and back to the Base Hospital. During one battle she finds Élodie Proux, a French nurse, at a roadside clutching a dead soldier. Poppy rescues her. Élodie becomes her dearest girl as they fall in love. Poppy and Élodie encounter frightening adversaries at the Western Front as well as away from it during the closing weeks of World War One. My Thoughts:  Poppy Loveday is an ambulance driver on the front line in France during WW1. When she joins, she is underage and shouldn’t reall

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links* Genre: Romance Pages: 441 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ /5 Synopsis:  Following on from ‘Choices Shape, Losses Break’, eighteen-year-old Lorna Davies is doing everything she can to blend in at University, hiding the challenges of her past. As her closest friends guard the secrets of the girl they love, Lorna tentatively grasps a life less complex. Terrified of risking everything she holds dear, Lorna discovers that building a secure future is hard when the weight of the past threatens all that she has. As adulthood beckons and a life is shaped, are safe choices truly the right ones? When the secrets explode from their guarded boxes and the full extent of Lorna’s history is set free, will anyone survive the fallout? My Thoughts:  You may or may not know that the first book in this series absolutely glued itself to my heart and soul. Best book of the year? I think yes. And I really wasn’t sure how Nia Lucas would have been able to follow on from such a cor

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links* Genre: Contemporary Fiction Pages: 368 Rating:  ☆☆☆/5 Synopsis:  While Hank struggles with his lack of professional success, his wife Jenny, feeling stuck and beset by an urge to do good, becomes ensnared in a dangerous correspondence with a prison inmate called John. Letter by letter, John pinches Jenny awake from the "marshmallow numbness" of her life. The children, meanwhile, unwittingly disturb the foundations of their home life with forays into the dark net and strange geological experiments. Jenny's bid for freedom takes a sour turn when she becomes the go-between for John and his wife, and develops an unnatural obsession for the orange glue that seals his letters... Love Orange throws open the blinds of American life, showing a family facing up to the modern age, from the ascendancy of technology, the predicaments of masculinity, the pathologising of children, the epidemic of opioid addiction and the tyranny of the Wh

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. I received this book for free as part of a blog tour arranged by Emma at DampPebbles. All opinions are my own.* Genre: Thriller Pages: 268 Rating: ☆☆☆ /5 Synopsis:  Grace is living through every mother’s worst nightmare. Her student daughter Abi went away on a dream vacation - and was murdered. Overwhelmed by grief, and fighting off old demons which have resurfaced, Grace tries to make sense of it – who would want to kill her beautiful girl? But as she learns more about Abi’s life in the UK, she realises she didn’t know her own daughter very well. How did Abi acquire all those designer clothes? And what was she doing on those mysterious trips to London? Grace desperately needs to find answers. But soon it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her digging into Abi’s secret past. Someone who knows how to use Grace’s own weaknesses against her, sending her on a journey to the darkest hell… My Thoughts:  I always find reviews for suspense/

  *This post contains affiliate purchase links. This book was given to me for free as part of a blog tour arranged by Rachel's Random Resources. All opinions given are that of my own.* Genre: Romance  Pages: 494 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ /5 Synopsis:  Shunned and struggling at home and school, teenager Lorna Davies clatters into chaotic and charismatic Shay O’Driscoll and Leon Barrett at an illegal rave in 1995. As Lorna’s talent for dancing sees her unexpectedly employed in the strobe-lit heart of 90’s club culture, her world is turned on its head by her budding friendship with Shay and Leon. For the boys, their high-risk lives endanger all three of them in an association that blurs the lines between friendship and dependency. As the risks escalate, Lorna’s best friend Hannah, her brother Dan, her bully-turned-protector Nico and her unexpected friend Rosa watch with concern as she is thrust ever closer to harm in an intoxicating new landscape. When life-threatening events threaten to separate