June 2024 – Page 2 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: Boys Who Hurt, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, Translated by Victoria Cribb

PUBLICATION DATE: 20th JUNE 2024
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £9.99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Dark secrets from the past threaten everything …

Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.

At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until a chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?

Once again, the team at West Iceland CID has to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light.

And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.

Book Review: The British Bloke Decoded, by Geoff Norcott

Publication date Thursday, June 06,
2024
Price £10.99
EAN\ISBN-13 9781800961302
BIC 2.1 Humour (WH) Popular culture (JFCA) United Kingdom, Great Britain (1DBK) Jokes & riddles (WHJ) Literary essays

Description

If you see a man drinking a pint in an airport pub alone, that’s a bloke.
If you see a man driving to the tip on a Saturday morning with a smile on his face, that’s a bloke.
And if you see a man heading back from the tip and on the way to the pub,
that’s a very happy bloke.

The British Bloke appears simple and straightforward. He loves football, cricket, beer and sheds. But beneath that simple exterior lies a mysterious and complex being…

In The British Bloke Decoded, writer, comedian and regular bloke, Geoff Norcott, peels back the layers of blokedom, revealing the truth behind the behaviour of Britain’s husbands, dads, brothers and friends. He dives into the value of banter, the roots of mansplaining, the near impossibility of getting blokes to send birthday cards, and whether there could be a medal system for vacuuming.

Based on 46 years of intensive field research and semi-scientific insights, this book is a celebration of the simple British bloke in all his splendour.

Blog Tour Calendar: The British Bloke Decoded, by Geoff Norcott

Blog tour calendar: Boys Who Hurt, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, Translated by Victoria Cribb

TBR Pile Review: Dragon Rider, by Taran Matharu

Format: 565 pages, Paperback
Published: April 25, 2024 by HarperVoyager
ISBN: 9780008517649 (ISBN10: 0008517649)
Language: English

From the ashes of an empire, a hero will rise…

Jai has spent his life forced to serve the cruel empire that killed his family and now rules his people.

To grow ever more powerful, the emperor’s young son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom. An unconquerable realm, where ancient beasts roam. The princess brings with her a priceless gift: dragons. Only Dansk Royalty can bond with these magical beasts to draw on their power and strength. Until now.

When the betrothal goes wrong, a bloody coup leads to chaos at court. Finally, Jai has a chance to escape. He flees with a fierce Dansk warrior, Frida, but not before stealing a dragon egg.

To vanquish the empire, he must do the impossible: bond with a dragon. Only then he can seize his destiny, and seek his revenge …

An epic new fantasy, where dragons fly and empires fall.

My Review

I really need to get better at writing these summaries. I have three different editions of this book. Two are special editions, one each from Goldsboro Books and The Broken Binding, and the third is an ARC I won in a competition the publisher held in February. I’ve had it since March. I wanted to finish it long before now, but blog tours kept getting in the way. In the last few days, I’ve had time to read about two thirds of this chonker of a novel. So, read on of you don’t mind an outline of the first four hundred pages and some background, before you get to my opinions.

Spoilers below! Scroll quickly down to the separator if you don’t want to see them. I don’t spoil the ending or any of the real details.