January Book Round Up.

A few years ago I made a new years resolution to start reading more. I have always been a book lover but during my early twenties I didn't seem to read as much. This is one of the very few resolutions I have not only kept for the year but have kept going every since. Here's a roundup of the books I have read so far in 2018...

The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown

I think its fair to say that I wasn't ready to let go of Christmas at the start of January as, I hadn't had that much time off over Christmas and worked between Christmas and New Year. So I thought I would start the new year with a Christmas book. I picked this book up ages ago at my local second-hand bookshop (my second home) and had put off reading it until the festive period. I always underestimate how much I have to cram in in December and had 4 books I wanted to read that month, which it is fair to say I didn't. With hindsight, I wish I hadn't waited so long to read this book as I couldn't put it down. It's set in Tindledale which has to be the cutest name for a village, where the main character heartbroken, jilted bride Sybil escapes to after a pretty big mess up at work. I will also add that Sybil is a huge fan of knitting and the village has a shop named Hettie's House of Haberdashery which is set to be closed as the owner cannot cope. When Sybil knits the shop a Christmas jumper things start to change.

One of the reasons I liked this book, is because the story is almost believable. With so many books like this, the main characters say things that you just think to yourself "no-one would ever say that in that situation" but this book is not like that at all. I also really like the knitted and stitched style front cover. This is such a rainy, Saturday afternoon read and I would highly recommend it if you want to escape from the real world for a while and visit Tindledale.

 Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardner by M.C Beaton

Me and my mum were again in my local second-hand bookshop back in the summer of last year and we bought the first 20 books in this series for £12.00, bargain! I might add that there are currently 28 in this series and we have been on the lookout for the last 8 ever since. We started reading them on holiday, my mum had already read the first book so she started the second and I started from the beginning.

The story centres around one character, Agatha Raisin. Agatha is middle-aged and sells her PR firm and retires from London to Carsely in the Cotswolds, which had always been her dream. But when she gets to the Cotswolds she soon becomes bored and wonders if she had made the right choice. Then a murder happens and she turns amateur sleuth to solve the mystery with some amusing events along the way.

I have really enjoyed the 3 books I have read in the series so far if you like easy to read, cosy, murder mysteries then I would definitely give these books a go.

Also in January, I read Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls which I loved and I have a blog post coming on that one separately. I've also started reading A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri. So far I am loving this book and I'm going to give my thoughts on it when I am further into the book.

I am now reading Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland which I started at the end of January and have carried over into February.

Thank you for reading

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