I think I always knew, when Smashwords merged with Draft2Digital, that maintenance fees would be in the site’s future. Their argument is fairly reasonable – they make the money required for maintenance via their share of royalties so poor earners will need to contribute a small fee to continue using the site. My books don’t earn the required minimum so…
I’m sad, in a way. I started with Smashwords, partly because they gave such clear instructions on how to format for e-book publishing. I also wanted to give non-Amazon users a chance to see my books on a different platform. It was, in addition, an easy way to make books free, via the coupon system, for give-aways. However, all good things come to an end!
I understand Kindle has some kind of promotion system for give-aways and I must look into that. I will probably put everything into KU, something I had avoided up to now. I must also update the page in my blog that lists the availability of my books.
I rarely, nowadays, involve myself in give-away events, partly because my books are not quite the norm for any genre other than fantasy, and then they are mostly mm so not the norm for fantasy either… I seem to have backed myself into some kind of genre niche!! If I want to give free copies the easiest way is to put a pdf on my ‘free stuff’ page and maybe consider time limiting that.
So, my books are all delisted with Smashwords as of today, and I will get to the rest of the tasks in due course!
Some really good programmes and series to fill the winter evenings! But you could enjoy them at any time of the year.
The excellent:
Shetland***** Season 10 BBC Still good, and I like the new cast members.
Stranger Things Season 5 ***** Netflix Clever and thoughtful ending after such a long hiatus.
Broadchurch***** Netflix. Excellent police drama with stellar cast. (We didn’t see it when it first aired.)
Chicken Run***** BBC 3 Incredibly clever animated full length film.
The Great Pottery Throwdown S9 ***** Fascinating as usual.I love all the information about ceramics.
Death in Paradise Season 15***** I really like the new detectives. Having the entire cast with Caribbean connections improves the show to my mind.
Crime (Irvine Welch)***** itvx Thought provoking many threaded cop drama, brilliantly acted.
Small Prophets***** BBC Quirky drama set in Stockport where I live. Supernatural elements.
Dirty Business***** Channel4. Chilling docudrama about water pollution.
The good:
Cooper and Fry.**** Ch5. Supposedly set in the Peak District (our local area) but in fact filmed in Eire. Quite good though. Four long episodes and they’ve left some things open for another season.
The Tower itvx**** Competent and interesting police drama
The Great Festive Pottery Throwdown.****Ch 4. As usual, suitably festive and this year’s celebs were very clever even though they hadn’t touched clay before. Looking forward to the new season.
New Year’s Day Concert Live from Vienna BBC**** Not such a cheerful programme as usual but it’s always a visual treat
Wild London. ****BBC David Attenborough looks at the wildlife in London and suburbs. We, in Manchester, have all of these except beavers but we substitute badgers. Also, parakeeets though I believe there are now some in Manchester parks.
Death in Paradise 2025 Christmas Special**** BBC. I suspect the one hour slot suits the format better.
Blackshore**** BBC. Irish noir. Good – loose ends mean, hopefully, another series
After the Flood Season 2**** ITVX Gripping English noir!
The Sketch Artist**** Ch4. Canadian police procedural with added ‘supertalent’ of sketch artist.
How to get to Heaven from Belfast****. Netflix. Strange but gripping Irish murder mystery with a lot of hilarity. Greta might be dead…
Arctic Circle S4**** Rather too ‘supernatural’ this time but I like the characters.
Reading
Quite a lot to enjoy.
The excellent:
Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire***** Really good – surprises throughout, and it leaves it all wide open for the next: Sleep No More***** Similarly gripping. October Daye is one of my all time favourite heroines.
An Impossible Mate by Joy Lynn Fielding.***** A great start to a new shifter series. I like the way she uses and also discards various shifter ‘norms’ and her introduction of the legend of the argent shifters. Alpha Matt finds his mate, Jesse. A Liar’s Moon***** Just as good with incredible tension as Jason and Riley get together whilst keeping secrets. Red Moon Rising***** Just as good again! Tristan is captured by the hostile pack and escapes with Colby who is fleeing an abusive lover.
The Diamond in the Rough by KM Avery.***** Part of the Beyond the Veil series. Rayn, who has various abilities, was rescued from Brooke House but has a lot of trauma to deal with. Raj might help.
Survival and other scars by TJ Nichols***** Part of the spin-off from the Mytho series. Pan ends up in Wales without magic. Noah is accidentally made a selkie. The problems faced by the community, human and mytho, are many and varied and have some bearing on our attitude to migrants.
The good:
A skirl of sorcery **** by Helen Harper. The cat sidhe ex assassin needs to help a ban sidhe who is dying. Then her boyfriend is in danger too.
Tea and Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher**** Victorian supernatural thriller/mf romance set in Cornish mining area.
Sometimes there’s stars by Suki Fleet**** Her usual damaged characters – quite exciting and I was never sure if everybody was going to make it.
Heat’d by Vin George**** Gets four stars because it adds to the characters in the main series but as a novella it was never going to make five. Luc plans a birthday treat for Charlie. Looking forward to the next full length novel in the series.
Axe to Grind**** by Gabbi Grey. Good addition to the Rocktoberfest pantheon. Everyone has secrets and the journalist following the band has a hidden agenda.
The Widow Kiss by Claire Robyns**** Interesting magical/detective work in Stratford on Avon. Book 3 in the series.
An Embrace of Salt and Storms by Amaris and Behr**** Fallen for a Fae book 3. The bdsm nature of the sex rather distanced me (just not my thing) but the overall plot arc re fae politics is still fascinating as is the exploration of a bipolar character.
Secrets of the Eternal Flame by Harris and Stone**** The magical crimes and events in this Cornish village continue to be fascinating.
Grave Beginnings by Lissa Kasey**** Nice story with well developed characters and I will probably follow the sequels but the world building is very derivative. Take TJ Nichols’ Mytho series, mix with KM Avery’s Beyond the Veil series, add demons and gore… and then call it Beyond the Veil Mysteries.
Last year when I was in hospital after paralysing muscle spasms in my back, some of the ward staff learnt that I was a writer and asked for a story. Well, it took ages to write, and even more ages to get edited, amended, etc. It’s only a novella, but it was tailored for them. Stockport, where it’s set, is our home town, and the heroine works at the hospital where I was cared for.
I’ve put it on Amazon as a Kindle book but unfortunately Amazon don’t let you list it as free. I used the lowest price possible, but obviously didn’t want my carers to have to pay for their story so I’ve also put it here, on my website, where anyone can download and read it.
The story is set in my local world but Alex, the nurse, finds a magical world beyond a local well. She also finds a murder mystery and a slow burn romance.
Wells, in this part of the country, are usually springs, and have been regarded as special and perhaps sacred, for centuries. There’s a custom of decorating them with pictures made of flower petals, and the cover illustration shows an actual well dressing at the well Alex visits.
Yes, this really was a nail we found. Obviously I’ve played with the colour again…
I thought since it’s twelfth night or epiphany tomorrow – the end of the holiday in a sense, but the high point on the Iberian peninsula – I’d share my holiday reading and viewing recommendations. They’re a bit late for this year but you can download the ebooks (I keep mine in a folder labelled Christmas and ignore it till December) and you might be able to stream the programmes though the BBC ones are a problem, I gather, outside UK. An Australian friend tells me the BBC have taken to putting the best on Britbox which is yet another subscription, and their Australian channels don’t buy the rest.
I didn’t really watch much Christmas fare – we were happily binge watching various series, none of which had a festive theme. However, here are my favourites of what I did view:
The Great Festive Pottery Throwdown.**** Ch 4. As usual, suitably festive and this year’s celebs were very clever even though they hadn’t touched clay before. Looking forward to the new season. (Which started last night.)
New Year’s Day Concert Live from Vienna **** BBC Not such a cheerful programme as usual (apart from the much loved favourites at the end) but it’s always a visual treat with modern ballet in various Viennese locations and of course the magnificent concert hall.
Death in Paradise 2025 Christmas Special **** BBC Formulaic, yes, but it’s a formula that never fails to please me. The locations and the acting are great and the mysteries are quite complex.
I read a lot. But holiday romances pall quite quickly. They’re usually too sweet, despite being well written. I feel as if I’ve had too much chocolate, and the characters blur into each other. That’s true even of the ones, usually short stories, by authors I enjoy. I prefer my romance reading, at any time of the year, to include some kind of drama external to the main couple – crime, paranormal, family, whatever.
Anyway, here are the best:
Sentenced to Christmas by Marshall Thornton***** Highly amusing mm rom-com. Turns fake marriage trope inside out and upside down with well developed minor characters.
Christmas Kisses Solstice Sacrifices by Theo Behr and Rowan Amaris***** Shorts, set on the first Christmas each pair from their main series experienced as a couple. Lyrical, sexy and sweet.
Merry and Bright**** by NR Walker. Delightful romance between an asexual Winter and an autistic Deacon who doesn’t like to be touched.
Marylebone Monthly Illustrated Christmas Anthology**** by Small_Hobbit. More magic and mayhem set in the author’s au of a Sherlock ‘verse with talking animals. I enjoy this every year. https://archiveofourown.org/works/75081196 The author also gifted me a story in their Twelve More Days of Christmas collection – Mouselet Saves the Day – which was lovely and much appreciated. https://archiveofourown.org/works/76779366
Where the lovelight gleams by Keira Andrews **** Sweet Christmas story where actors who play gay characters on film come together.
The Vet’s Christmas Familiar by TJ Nichols**** Lovely story about an eagle shifter. Slightly too short – I wanted more and must check out the rest of the series.
Yours for the season by Uzma Jalaluddin**** Very amusing romcom (mf) that also explores culture clash, one of my favourite tropes.
The Magic of Midnight by RJ Scott **** Wesley has financial problems and Hunter is desperate for academic success. But perhaps the small town of Wishing Tree can solve things for both of them.
I have one novel left in my folder and will be reading it today but it will have to wait and join general reviews. For once, I have nothing left for next year.
A gift for New Year. It’s not exactly a Christmas story but it does start and end with New Year festivities, so it’s an appropriate time to offer it. When I started my Living Fae series it was meant to be a quartet. Then various spin-offs happened and eventually there was a further novel, Willow’s Way. Recently, a couple of minor characters were badgering me for a book of their own and I thought maybe it would be interesting to explore a human’s reactions to the fae world. I had already written about Micky, Cobweb’s human partner, and one or two visitors to the Edge, but no human had ever actually lived on the Edge permanently until Oliver moved in with Thorn, and no, you can’t count the werewolf. So I began what I thought would be a short story and it turned into a novella of 17k words. I decided not to publish it in the conventional fashion, but to put it here for any readers who are interested. I will of course cross-post to my other social media places. I hope any of you who like my fae will like it. For anyone who hasn’t read the series, this story should sort of stand alone as I think I’ve clarified anything that desperately needed clarification. However, although you can read it by itself, the events in it are concurrent with those of the main series so obviously there are spoilers for that. If you’re not bothered by spoilers, or if you just want a short (and free) taste of my fae, go straight ahead! Enjoy!
The Nabateans***** Ch 4. Fascinating look at an ancient civilisation I was only peripherally aware of.
Last Night of the Proms***** BBC iPlayer. Highlights included a new arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody with Brian May on guitar and Roger Taylor on ‘gong’. Plus a piece with Bill Bailey on typewriter.
Blue Lights***** Season 3 BBC Police drama set in Belfast. I love this.
Riot Women***** BBC. Brilliant drama (not crime or romance). Written by Sally Wainwright who wrote Happy Valley.
Calan Gaeaf Cary’s Eleri ***** iPlayer till end Feb. Fascinating and beautifully filmed exploration of Welsh legends and ways of celebrating Halloween. All in Welsh so put subtitles on.
The good
Upstart Crow**** BBC A Shakespearean follow up to things like Blackadder.
The Thursday Murder Club**** Netflix. Clever plot, well acted (well, duh, the cast is stellar…) I enjoyed it but OH wandered off to do something else.
Untamed.**** Netflix. In Yosemite, people die or disappear. FBI agent Turner investigates with the help of park rangers. Interesting characters and plot. Magnificent scenery.
Protection**** itvx Good Brit cop drama. Not keen on the ending which was a bit wishy washy but maybe they’re looking for another season.
Deep Ocean: Kingdom of the Coelacanth **** BBC Attenborough follows a team studying these fish – very slow because for long stretches of time they (the coelacanths) do very little, but fascinating!
Secrets of the Jurassic Dinosaurs. **** BBC Why did so many fossils end up in Wyoming?
The Tower**** itx. Police drama. Looking forward to the next season.
Borderline**** itx. Police drama set on the border between NI and Eire. Improves after a shaky start.
Poison Water**** BBC Chilling account of the water disaster in Cornwall in the 1980s and the aftereffects even now.
Stranger Things Season 5 First 4 eps**** Netflix – strangely distancing after such a long hiatus and just as I got invested again, it stopped, till Christmas.
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich **** Netflix. In case you wondered what all the fuss was about. Chilling.
Reading
The excellent
Acts of Faith by Jackson Marsh***** Another Delamere Files mystery, this time featuring Baxter and policeman Charlie Inning. Better than the last few because it had UST and also concurrent mystery and romance stories. I would still like to see more of the original cast. Next up was Holywell Street.**** The mysteries are as compelling but the lack of relationship development makes these less appealing than the previous series. A dentist commits suicide and leaves Jack a mysterious set of clues. Snake Hill**** is a good mystery story but still leaves us without any real UST which is so good in the earlier series.
A Changeling’s Guide to Love and Prophecy by Theo Behr and Rowan Amaris.***** Another novel in the Fallen for a Fae series and just as good as the previous ones. Reviewed for Scott.
Song of Oestend and Saviours of Oestend by Marie Sexton***** ‘Western’ set in fictional world. Paranormal elements. Three intertwined mm romances which explore various gender issues over two volumes. Also by Marie: Trailer Trash **** Well written high school romance – if that’s your jam; it isn’t mine. Also Promises **** Well written romance between closeted cop and store owner. Again, not to my taste but recommended for those who like that kind of story. And Strawberries for dessert **** Contemporary romance between Cole and Jonathan. Involves discussion of rich people supporting their partners. Well written but ultimately lacks excitement.
Fixer by Kaje Harper***** a Hidden Wolves prequel novella. I love finding out more about this author’s werewolf world. Also by Kaje: Impurrfections **** Sweet mm romance involving setting up an animal shelter. Transparent is a colour**** – quite exciting but a little too frivolous in parts. And Avocado Protection**** Bodyguard and client mm romance made exciting by kidnap attempts.
Out of the Darkness by Kate Sherwood***** Interesting exploration of the joys and problems of a threesome. Follows Dark Horse.
The Sin Eater by Liv Rancourt***** ARC for Scott. Nice addition to the Carnival of Mysteries series. Ezra and Damon work at a hospital. Ezra has secrets, just not the ones he thought he had…
Daggers, Needlers and Skites***** by Chloe Garner. Further adventures of the rat king and his crew. I don’t usually like stories based around lawbreakers but this series is great. It fills some gaps in the Queen’s Chair series and like that, it manages to insert quite complex philosophical questions into a fantasy action thriller, set, of course, in Verida. This time, some of the Black Docks boys are missing. Velvet on a black moon***** sees the culmination of the issue with Palora.
The Spell Shop***** by Sarah Beth Durst. An enchanting story about a librarian who flees a revolution-torn capital with magical books in crates, and a sentient plant assistant. Slow burn romance with a neighbour who herds merhorses and great excitement in the form of a special investigator who is not all she seems. Wonderful magic, wonderful world building, endearing characters and a happy ending.
Night after Night by Phil Rickman.***** Excellent Halloween read. A TV reality show is investigating a haunted mansion. Standalone but revisits characters from The Cold Calling. Then The Echo of Crows***** The final novel in the Merrily Watkins series, edited by Rickman’s wife after his death. Bittersweet but tied up quite a few loose ends and left a feeling of satisfaction.
The Book Keeper by Sarah Painter***** Worthy sequel to The Ward Witch. Luke and his shop are at risk on Unholy Island.
Broken Light by Joanne Harris. ***** As good as all her novels. Exploration of menopausal women. Goes well with watching Riot Women!
The good
You can save me by RL Merill**** Exciting story in the Carnival of Mysteries series. I have already downloaded the prequel from the previous year, to learn more about Kal and Ryan, but this tale’s main characters, Dane and Walter, are enchanting. You can do magic tells the story of Kal and Ryan.****
Hudson River Homicides by CS Poe**** Great detection by Larkin and Doyle as usual. A body is found in a fridge in the Hudson. I must remember her other series too.
The Crooked Tome by Claire Robyns**** Nice start to a series about witches and curses in modern Stratford on Avon. The sequel is The Avon Mirror****. Good contrast to the Spellcaster Creek series…
Reflections in a dark pool by Fiona Glass**** Nice eerie short mm romance story set in a real location near Grange over Sands. I tend not to give five stars to short stories, but this was very good.
Paralyzed by JR Loveless**** Good paranormal mm mystery. Reviewed for Scott.
The Shattered King by Charlie Holmberg**** Interesting fantasy exploration of a type of healing magic, with a slow burn mf romance too. I’m hoping there’s a sequel.
The Devil Himself by Julia Talbot **** An mm Regency romance with a family drama and crime to add excitement.
Nick Drake, the biography by Patrick Humphries**** For fans, like me, of Phil Rickman’s Merrily series, this adds immeasurably to the back story for Lol Robinson. For Nick Drake fans, there is plenty of information including a discography – most of which is available on Spotify.
Bleeding for the Prince by Rebecca Cohen****. Third in the vampire/fae detective/romantic pair series. Gwil is the link that lets them find out why a department store in London is at risk.
At the river by Kendra Elliot**** Good crime novel in the Columbia River series. A current case merges with the disappearance of five teenagers twenty years ago. The next grave**** This is a good solid crime novel in the same series. Evan and Rowan take centre stage with Thor, the search dog, of course.
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater**** Nice slow burn mf romance in Victorian setting with added fae. Slightly spoilt by an epilogue which was unnecessary and odd.
Murder in Shades of Red**** by Ripley Hayes. Charlie Rees 3 – this time in NY. Then Doggone**** which shows what happens in Wales while they’re away. And Murder in Shades of Fire and Ash**** Fires, graffiti and bodies. Including a police officer. Murder in Shades of Pink and Yellow ****Girls are dying due to diet pills. Too much head hopping tends to distance the reader from the action but it’s still good.
Dragon School 16-20**** by Sarah KL Wilson. I was almost relieved the saga was over though I found the main characters fascinating and liked the philosophical discussions. I skimmed the battle scenes.
Secrets of the Forgotten Heir by Heather G Harris and Ella Stone**** Excellent first volume in a magical crime series set in Cornwall. Secrets of the Deadly Nightshades **** is the intriguing sequel, with a vampire assassin on the loose.
Out of Sight by KC Wells**** Another cold case for the cop/psychic duo ends up as an international thriller. Line of Sight **** concludes the search for Brad’s killer. Clever but I didn’t like it as much because although I could see why the author chose to alternate the killer’s pov and the flashbacks both these tend to distance me from the story.
A Simple Mistake by Jackie Keswick**** Nicely convoluted story in the Power of Zero series. Crime and action alternate with family drama.
To beguile a banished lord by Fearne Hill**** nice Regency mm rom com. I didn’t like Lyndon at first having met him earlier as a villain. Possible echo of Beauty and the Beast. Reviewed for Scott.
The Black Bird Oracle**** by Deborah Harkness. Too much magic theory and too little family action – and have I missed a book in the series?
And finally
Manacled by senlinyu. Already reviewed in detail in a recent previous post. I don’t think I can give this any stars. Pain and suffering with very little else for over 300,000 words. HP fanfic which has now been turned into a novel, Alchemised, which is apparently very popular. I am clearly not the target audience. The only reason I am mentioning it here is that Alchemised was the only book I recognised in the Good Reads Choice Awards… Given the number of books I read I found this odd and almost disturbing!
An icon I use on social media – no idea where I found it but I photoshopped it quite a lot.
A friend posted about the BBC book meme – subtly altered since its inception in 2003. She tweaked it further and I thought I’d see how I did. Apparently people are considered not to have read (and finished) more than about six of the list. What schools did they go to??
Anyway, from the list I got:-
Read – 81/100
Started but not finished – 4/100 including complete Shakespeare and the bible
Intend to read – 0/100. There are too many good books turning up all the time and series to finish!
Loved – 17/100
Hated – 7/100
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read AND finished.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you started to read, and then gave up on – for whatever reasons! WordPress doesn’t approve so I’ve put them in brackets instead.
4) Highlight in purple the books you LOVE. WordPress won’t let me so I’ve given them five stars.
5) Highlight in red the books you HATE. Again, not possible so I’ve given them one star.
~~~~
1 Pride and Prejudice – JaneAusten*****
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien*****
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte * This was shoved down our necks constantly at my boarding school – the one the Bronte sisters went to.
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling I read the books with students and found them flat though I was impressed that they got teens reading long text without illustrations. I only fell for the series when I saw the films, which reminded me of my own boarding school
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee*****
6 (The Bible) Well, most of it. Probably all but maybe not the Songs of Solomon. Church of England boarding school made it unlikely any of us would escape the bible.
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte* I just got cross with the main characters. Also, it was another that was pushed at school.
8 1984 – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens –
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott –
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy Not sure whether to go for purple or red… This was a study for A level English…
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 (Complete Works of Shakespeare) Most but not all.
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien *****
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger * I dislike time travel and find it too difficult to suspend disbelief. So I am distanced from the content.
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot***** Up there in my top twenty. 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell As with Harry Potter I preferred the film.
22 (The Great Gatsby) – F. Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy* Overstuffed account of idiots and war.
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams *****
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh*****
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky Required reading at uni but I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame*****
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy* Maybe I just don’t like Tolstoy, period.
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis***** – I loved these but was vaguely disturbed when I realised they had a religious agenda.
34 Emma – Jane Austen *****
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen*****
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis***** – why is this here separately if it’s already above at 33 as the Chronicles of Narnia? Presumably because a lot of kids read this but don’t tackle the rest of the series.
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne*****
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown.* In my opinion, rubbish. I much prefer Umberto Eco’s take on the same subject.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez OK but I’m not keen on books where the place is the main character.
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery*****
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy Another one where I preferred the film.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood At the time I read it I took it as sci fi. Now, I’m not so sure! 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel * When I was teaching I used to criticise kids who wrote fascinating stories that ended with ‘and then I woke up and it was all a dream’. Likewise with this.
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth***** Up there in my top ten novels of all time.
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon The play is even better than the book.
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 (Ulysses – James Joyce)
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery*****
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams *****
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare – why is this here when the Complete Works are further up the list? Again because some people might read this and very little other Shakespeare.
This started out as a comment to a journal but got a bit too long so I’m posting it here.
A friend writing about framing fanworks asked for comments on Manacled and Alchemised, the fanfic and subsequent published novel by senlinyu. If you are in the HP fandom you might know the fic in question and if you love it – fine, you’re welcome, though I’d in turn simply love to know why you do. It’s not my jam, as will become apparent in the following critique. If you haven’t read it, and think you might, – please don’t read my critique till afterwards because there are spoilers galore. This is not a review, as such. It’s more musings on my personal reactions to the book. And it’s a hefty book: 300,000 words plus. I haven’t mentioned the actual writing, which is technically good though slightly repetitive – just the contents.
Manacled by senlinyu: a brief critique
I’m not sure where to start. Despite being a Harry Potter fan, I don’t think I was the target audience for this. I did manage to wade through to the end, but can’t imagine trying to read the novel Alchemised, because from the sample I looked at on Amazon, it’s the same – though all credit to the author for re-imagining a magical world in order to publish without breaching copyright.
It isn’t that I love the HP books. I read them with and for my students when I was teaching, and although I was impressed at the way JKR got teenagers to read long texts with no illustrations, I found the writing style rather flat and most of the characters two-dimensional. However, I liked the concept of the wizarding school and thought JKR did a better job with it than numerous other authors. Then I watched the films and fell in love, perhaps not least because the interior of Hogwarts reminded me of my own boarding school and also I was very familiar with the English education system. I am not at all keen on JKR’s current ‘political’ activities but am able somehow to separate the films from the books, knowing that many of the actors also disapprove of her position on trans women. I can understand not paying anything that will go towards funding her anti-trans stance but I don’t really see why the reputations and royalties of the film cast should suffer. And of course fanfic is not for anyone’s profit even though it may help to advertise the original author.
So anyway, I embarked on Manacled expecting a type of slave fic with Draco and Hermione as the main protagonists.
I usually enjoy slave fic because it is interesting to explore the power dynamics. I also read rape fic when it results in hurt/comfort (including fics where the comforter is the original rapist). I will read war stories, too, though I’m not keen on the ones that focus on fighting and death.
I really don’t like fics, whether fanfic or original, where the author is clearly anxious to share their obsession with pain and suffering with readers, with very little action, character development, etc. I can only think I’m in a minority here, because so many readers seem to like Manacled.
Manacled fall into three sections: the first has Hermione manacled and enslaved, in a state of amnesia, with Draco as her ‘keeper’; the second recounts the events that led up to the situation; the third takes the reader through the aftermath when Hermione has recovered her memories.
The first section is unremittingly miserable. Hermione and others are at the mercy of the death eaters. We learn that pregnancy might shake Hermione’s memories loose. The sex scenes are cold and clinical. Draco as rapist doesn’t appear to be getting much pleasure, either physical or psychological, from his actions. The memories Hermione does have are dreadful, telling us that many loved characters experienced awful deaths though it isn’t clear yet whether all these are true. It becomes obvious that Draco is protecting Hermione but not why. I wasn’t totally sure I wanted the walls of Hermione’s occlumency to shatter because what she did recall was bad enough. Her pregnancy ends the first section.
The second section is all ‘flashback’ and we see Hermione manipulated into a relationship with Draco who wants to help the Order to avenge his mother. He remains high in Voldemort’s regard and this gives him access to information. He also kills, usually humanely, which is not the norm for death eaters. The way Hermione’s friends and colleagues interact with her is almost as bad as enslavement. Needless to say, Hermione and Draco form a bond, though it is never really clear whether this is a kind of mutual Stockholm syndrome or a genuine growing feeling for each other. The section ends when Hermione, in order to protect Draco, puts herself in a position where she is captured. There are a couple of short sex scenes, both taking place in Muggle hotels, where we might see an actual link between the two characters if we squint but they are over too quickly to affect the general ambience. Knowing that enslavement is coming adds to the sense of doom whilst reading this section.
The final part of the book sees Hermione recovering her memories. Now they have to get rid of her manacles which enable Voldemort to track her. Draco does his best to protect her at great risk to himself. Eventually, Hermione works out how to remove Draco’s dark mark (also a tracking device) and to that end, amputates his lower arm. For some reason the author warns us about the details of the amputation and puts them between sets of asterisks so that readers can skim. I found this very strange given the enormous amount of detail about other medical issues. The author delights in creating worse and worse curses and then inventing some cures but not before dwelling on excruciating deaths and suffering.
Naturally, Hermione and Draco escape, Hermione creates a useful prosthetic arm for Draco with a built-in wand, and the baby is born successfully. The final chapters are told in almost journalese style, telling us what happened but not going into any detail. The book ends with Aurore Rose, suddenly grown up, coming back to a Britain that has been rescued from Voldemort.
As I said, I wasn’t convinced by any hints of romance. I thought both main characters were more in need of therapists than each other, both during the flashbacks and afterwards. Hermione is apparently able to forgive and forget everything that Draco did, and the reader is expected to excuse him on the grounds of a difficult childhood.
Whilst I can admire the author’s creativity in regard to curses, I really didn’t need to know about things like the flaying curse at length, in detail, and more than once.
Why is the book so popular? Do people really enjoy vicarious pain so much? I suppose they must. It would explain some of the popular films with torture, explosions, death and very little else. It would, I suppose, also explain why people seem to accept the idea of war, famine, etc. until it affects them personally. It might also explain the popularity of other fanfics turned pro, like 50 Shades.
I felt almost violated by the end of the book. It is very long, but has a plot that would at most take a couple of chapters. The rest is simply a hymn to misery. As such, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I was discussing this with a friend who objected that I love Game of Thrones which has more than its fair share of violence and suffering. Well, yes, but in between it has complex politics, three dimensional characters who evolve in reaction to events, lots of interesting action and great world building. The author of Manacled has kept JKR’s two dimensional characters and wizarding world and has not added any complex plot arcs.
In fact: the characters never develop – the ones who were teens in the book remain as they were, simply older and so allowed to have sex and babies, while the ones who were adults are still stereotypes; the world building never happens – the wizarding world remains set in its ways, and can be good/light or evil/dark but nothing else, and action is limited to a small group of countries; the action is predictable and lacks any genuine thrills of surprise. In another of my fandoms, LotR and The Hobbit, fans got upset with Tolkien’s ideas and wrote a lot of fic generally classed as ‘everybody lives; nobody dies’. I have written a couple of those myself. In Manacled, the order of the day seems to be ‘everybody dies; nobody lives’. Most of the characters we care about from the books and films are killed in ingenious ways, then Lucius partially redeems himself by dying in his efforts to aid Draco’s escape, and even Severus is conveniently murdered by ‘dark creatures’ who are Romanian rebels. The only survivors so far as we know are Hermione, Draco, Ginny and perhaps Parvarti. I am not at all sure how to feel about this brave new world or even whether to care about it at all.
I was intrigued enough to struggle through, but then wished I hadn’t. If I want long fanfic in this fandom I prefer things like Wind that Shakes the Seas and Stars, which is more creative (apart from the Manacled curse creations) and takes the entire cast in different directions. I don’t want pain and suffering in fiction I read for escape (there’s enough in non-fiction and the news) but accept it for plot development. Clearly, as I have said, I’m in a minority.
Basically, I disliked it, and am still wondering why so many people disagree with me.
I have no idea where I found this image but I like it.
So this is about a month late. Two reasons – 1. I’ve been out of action (see previous post) and 2. I’ve been waiting for my FB problems to resolve themselves but have just about given up and will create a new account. Meanwhile I’ll just crosspost to Dreamwidth and LiveJournal as usual.
Viewing
The excellent:
The One that got away***** BBC Welsh crime drama starring Richard Harrington who was also the lead detective in Hinterland. This was better.
Panda Season 1 ***** Ch4 Entertaining French comic cop drama. Looking forward to the sequel.
Dept Q ***** Netflix Quirky and exciting. Brilliantly filmed.
Arctic Circle***** Ch 4 Excellent Finnish noir
The very good:
The Black Forest Murders**** BBC German police procedural that is very realistic in the use of a huge team and a lot of detailed work over a long period. Original title in German is Spuren (Traces).
Why Cities Flood**** BBC Chilling… mostly centred on the Spanish disaster earlier this year.
Glastonbury BBC and YouTube.**** Mixed, of course, because it all depends on your tastes. I liked Lewis Capaldi and Olivia Rodrigo. I enjoyed Rod Stewart’s songs but felt faintly embarrassed watching him and Ronny Wood cavorting like teenagers even though Rod’s voice has deserted him.
I Robot**** Again.
Memento Mori.**** Ch4 Spanish noir. Grisly but gripping. Confusing end.
Freezing Embrace**** Ch 4 Good Finnish noir
Reading
The excellent:
This is not a love story by Suki Fleet***** Amazing writing. Reader catapulted into the head of someone ‘other’ – mute Russian immigrant street boy. Not sure about reading the sequel/prequel ones. I enjoyed Wild Summer***** but was not so keen on This is not the beginning of a love story**** which I felt would have been better as the first book in the trilogy.
Anywhere but here by Nicola Kelly***** A journalist follows various migrants. Chilling and gripping although I didn’t actually learn much. However, I don’t think I was the target audience.
The Ward Witch by Sarah Painter***** Excellent paranormal set on Unholy Island which is a mirror for Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland. I shall get the sequel because I need to know whether Luke and Esme get together.
Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch ***** (ARC for Scott) Fanfic style novella based on characters from Pride and Prejudice. Delightful.
To Defend a Damaged Duke by Fearne Hill***** (ARC for Scott) Action packed mm Regency romance. I must look for the rest of the Rossingley series.
The Past in the Present by KM Avery***** In the Beyond the Veil series. (Bk9)Seth’s mother has died. Was it murder?
The very good:
KC Wells, RJ Scott and KJ Charles are FB friends who get honourable mentions but I can’t tag them on FB so if anyone knows them, tell them!
The Cold Calling by Phil Rickman**** Intriguing plot but it lacked a main character for reader identification.
In his sights by KC Wells**** Good competent mm detective story with a profiler brought in to help. Will definitely read next in series. In plain sight **** Another case for the detective/psychic duo (mm). A body is found in a tunnel collapse and the local mafia may be involved. Dan and Gary are now a cold case team, and Dan is making progress re the murder of Gary’s brother so long ago.
Beach Hut 512 by Dorothy Koomson**** Surprisingly good short story with a crime at the centre. An Amazon first read – I didn’t expect so much of it!
Fire on the Island by Timothy Jay Smith**** (ARC for Scott )Not as good as Istanbul Crossing but deals with current affairs in the eastern Mediterranean competently in an intriguing arson mystery.
The First Death by Kendra Elliot**** Columbia River 4. Kidnappers like to exert control. Rowan, a search and rescue dog handler, still seeks her brother who did not escape.
Dragon School by Sarah KL Wilson Vols 11-15 **** More terror and flight for the lightbringers and purple dragons. Amel attracts trouble as usual. Should be irritating but the characters are interesting and the writing is good. Must get the final box set.
Murder in Shades of Wood and Stone by Ripley Hayes**** Nice sequel with DC Rees still with Tom and investigating murders in a hotel car park.
Vengeance on a slow boil by Chloe Garner**** Another good spinoff from the main Stasia books. Someone is threatening the Rat King’s wife.
The Dark Hiss of Magic by Helen Harper**** Good second book about the cat shifting ex assassin.
Wizard of most wicked ways by Charlie N Holmberg**** Eagerly awaited fourth in series set on an island off NE USA.
Holding Hans by Tara Lain**** Another twisted modern fairy tale, this time based on Hansel and Gretel.
Magic Collapse by TJ Nichols**** Another in the mytho series. Pan ends up on earth without his usual magic.
Dark Horse by Kate Sherwood.**** Exciting horse training mm romance. I might even follow the sequels.
Team Orders by RJ Scott**** Well written mm romance in the F1 world of motor racing.
CopperScript by KJ Charles**** Edwardian policing meets graphology in an mm romance with hints of the fantastic. Exciting and well written.
I apologise for my recent absence from most social media.
The first reason is that I have been incapacitated – first in hospital then at home. I’m now gradually recovering. This is the short version. Anyone who happens to be interested can read the long version below but you can just ignore it!
The second reason is that I have not been able to post to FB. Still can’t. I can read other people’s posts, leave emojis, comments, etc. and in theory I can post photos to my timeline. I shall try doing a photo of this post and we shall see. I did manage one post to my ‘story’ which of course disappears after 24 hours, but when I tried again FB had got wise to my trick and would not oblige… I did seek help. FB ignored me. I tried a so-called FB help group but they wanted $85 to rescue my account and I just refused on principle. I think I’ve DM’ed most of the people who might be actually concerned but if you aren’t among them, well, now you know!! The only way round the situation is, I think, to scrap my account and start again. So if you read this and find yourself getting a friend request from me, it really is me, not a hacker. I think I’ll use the ‘Author Jay Mountney’ name and leave the present account with (hopefully) this link, and then just cross my fingers. I should have posted to e.g. here or Dreamwidth but till this week didn’t have the energy, either physical or mental.
Watch out for my summer reviews which I hope to post soon, and to news about my writing.
Long version of my tale of woe (stop reading at this point if you like!!)
I was already feeling fragile. 2025 started with a severe cold snap which coincided with our boiler breaking down and our immersion heater thermostat also dying. Result – ten day of being mostly frozen apart from time spent beside the wood fire, and occasionally boiled when we forgot to add cold water to the bathroom and kitchen sinks.
February arrived and that began the cataract saga involving visits to the optometrist, pre-op investigation, first op, a month of eye drops and no stooping, then an optometrist’s assessment followed by the second op and following drops etc. then the final signing off and the prescription of new glasses. All very successful but it seemed to take for ever, and meanwhile a close friend had a less successful experience and still can’t drive. So I have to be thankful.
A month later… I have had a ‘bad back’ for years, ever since helping to nurse my mother. One day in July I stood up and had to sit again and let husband apply ice packs, massage and painkillers. Eventually I was able to stand and I staggered through the next week or so, with a visit to my usual physiotherapist. All seemed to be well then one morning I woke up totally unable to stand… Also, apparently I screamed if anyone touched me. An ambulance was duly dispatched and after some time in A&E being assessed I ended up in a ward. They did a lot of investigations but ended up with my own diagnosis – muscular spasm in my lower back. Imagine a ball of fire behind your right hip and the pain radiating from there. No fractures, no slipped discs, nothing wrong with e.g. bladder, kidneys, etc. So I spent a fortnight on a cocktail of painkillers including morphine until they were able to get me standing and walking a few steps, after which they said there was nothing more they could do medically and they needed the bed… I came home with a new cocktail which only really left out the morphine. At this point the side effects from the various meds were almost as bad as the pain. Husband rose to the occasion and one of a team of carers arrived in the mornings to help me wash and dress. A bed was moved down to the lounge where I am still confined though I do walk up and down with a walking frame and sit in a chair. There are steps to the rest of the house and I have managed to negotiate them with a rail but going upstairs is beyond me. I’m improving – I can walk with the frame and can wash and dress provided everything is put close to hand. We do have a downstairs loo accessed via the lounge, but the basin only has cold water so someone needs to bring me the heated kind. I have also abandoned the drug cocktail and just take ibuprofen from time to time. The pain has died down but lurks as a kind of ghost of itself.
The carers stopped coming – they were only really handing me things. Husband said he could cope.
Then this week has been a nightmare. Husband is suffering a severe allergic reaction – investigations are still ongoing – and is really quite poorly himself. Daughter has been a rock but has fibromyalgia and asthma herself so I can see her collapsing next. Then her husband was rushed into hospital with a badly infected abscess and high blood pressure. He has had an operation and a diagnosis of diabetes.
I am taking heart from the fact that every day I can do a little more. I am able to use the laptop though at first I could only concentrate for a short while.
Jay's World 