What’s on my Kindle Paperwhite? Books, books and more books! ✨📚

Hello you beautiful people! 💖💖 I’m back! 😁✨ Two hearts for extra love but now I’m thinking about Doctor Who 😂. Welcome to a blog post I knew I had to write when I heard that world book day was on its way and that happened yesterday so I’m mighty close! 🤣 Before we get into the in’s and outs of all things bookish I want to start off by first saying thank you so much for the kindness that surrounded my last blog post where I announced I’d be taking a break and had a little chat about how I received a diagnosis for my chronic pain. One day I’ll talk properly about it but for now all I want to say is that it’s a connective tissue disorder and there’s also sideline conditions going with it. It was thought to be autoimmune but it’s actually genetic. I feel like not saying anything makes things look like they’re okay when I’m just so prone to being emotional and upset about it so why not add some insight by way of finally having a name towards the pain I feel? I can go on about saying my legs or my neck and my head and that might confuse some because it moves around and is a constant fixture in my life but now it ties all in together and makes sense. I can be up and down because I thought I’d be happy to finally have a diagnosis but it’s actually very overwhelming. I want to get back into one day raising awareness for chronic pain because I can’t find someone to look up to for this specific disorder and that makes me feel so low in terms of wondering how I’ll get anywhere when I get beat down but through this blog and slowly speaking out, I will find others in similar situations and whatever the barriers we face, we’ll make it through ✨.

I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know, this place has always been a magical escape for me and altho I’m still not feeling good, I wanted to come back on this promised date anyway and I’m mighty pleased to make that happen 😊✨. The next thing I wanted to mention was that I don’t want to not say anything about what is going on in Ukraine, it’s horrific and I can’t imagine what people must be going through right now. It’s all so scary. The devastation that is being cast upon innocent life’s and the fear they must feel can’t go unnoticed because it should not be happening. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone 💗.

This is a day late post and it is an on time post all at once because Fridays are my thing but like I said before, world book day was yesterday so take that as you will because it’s all I’ve got! 😅🤣 A while back (HERE to be more precise!) I wrote a bit about how I’ve had difficulties with reading for well over a year but recently I’ve been practicing again. I use that word now because I hadn’t realized how fitting it actually is when I wrote that post. It takes longer than it used to for me to even finish a page but with the help of a Christmas gift from my sister, a Kindle that I so didn’t cry over (…okay, I did 😭😂) I’ve been given the ultimate push to work on building up my capabilities so that I’m not lost in this fog without what I love to no end, books! 😗😙😘📚🤣

Today I’m gonna show you what’s at the front of my homepage, ie the books I keep on clicking into for my daily dose. Read on to see if we share any favourites and also be sure to let me know if you’ve got any recommendations! 🌟 I’m on Kindle Unlimited which offers up a lot of great reading opportunities and any that I’ve purchased have been on my TBR (to be read) for yonks so they’re probably what pulls me in the most. I’ll read anything really as I’d thought I’d be going down more of a YA fantasy route but I’ve been looking into autobiographies. At first I tried thrillers as I don’t mind them and I get recommended a lot by my family but I read a lot before I sleep so scary stuff probably isn’t the best option 🤣. There are some books out there that you just know people need to read so send your thoughts my way if a book is niggling at your mind and others need to know about 📚. For now, let’s get going with what’s on my Kindle Paperwhite!

Si King and Dave Myers, AKA the Hairy Bikers have travelled an interesting road. Born in the north of England, both Si and Dave had their childhood challenges. For Si, being bullied as the fat kid in class was part of his daily school routine. For Dave, his life changed when he became a childhood carer for his mother. But through the challenges of their early years came a love of really good food.
And it was food that brought Si and Dave together. Their eyes met over a curry and a pint on the set of a Catherine Cookson drama, and they knew they would be firm and fast friends for life.

From deserts to desserts, potholes to pot roasts, the nation’s favourite cooking duo reveals what’s made their friendship such a special and lasting one. They’ve eaten their way around the world a good few times, but have never lost sight of what matters: great friends, great family and great food.

In this heartwarming memoir of friendship and hilarious misadventure, Si and Dave take you on the ride of their lives!

I absolutely love watching The Hairy Bikers travel around the world and cook different dishes along the way. Their shows are just so down to earth and whatever they make looks possible compared to some other TV cooks 🤣. I’d vaguely known about the book enough to seek it out and recognize the cover and having the kindle felt like the perfect time to get + read it (I love how fast books get sent to the tablet!). I had heard a bit about Dave’s past in particular and how his mum had been unwell so reading more into that and understanding how cooking became such a fixture in his life has been really interesting. I’m actually yet to make it to Si’s part of the book but so far I’m really enjoying this one! It’s reads just as you’d imagine it to if you’re a fan of the dynamic duo with hilarious quips and stories that pull you in!

Coraline – Neil Gaiman

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring….
In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.
The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it’s different.
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

I tried out Audible for a bit and didn’t personally think it’s as good as Kindle Unlimited because there’s not much on there for the subscription when you don’t to pay extra for the audiobooks ontop of that. I did use my free credit tho of course and there was not a doubt on my mind what it would go towards, Coraline! ✨ I just love it so much and that kind of clouded over the fact that I already told you this on the post about getting back into reading 😅🤣. I’ll admit I haven’t listened to much lately on the Kindle as I need to get the hang of my wireless headphones, the last time I used them I ended up with one on and one off, they were playing with my emotions!! 😐 I’m gonna give the instructions a read again, I just need to learn to let them sit and not try to adjust for comfort because that’s when things go haywire with the sensors 😂.

Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies — humans with extraordinary abilities — who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

I may or may not have already let it slip that I’m reading this because it was actually the first book I managed to read a good bit of before zoning out (what a claim to fame 🏆🤣). Years ago I remember picking up Renegades as I’d planned to have it be a part of a haul and work my way towards it, that happened a couple of times and I’d keep finding reasons to put it back. Now I’ve finally gotten into it and if the book by The Hairy Bikers is my fav autobiography right now then Renegades has got to be my number one YA dystopian fiction novel for the moment (because you never know what’s around the corner, I’m excited by all the possibilities that keep creeping onto my Amazon homepage – they know what they’re doing!! 😅🤣). With this book I’ve found myself getting deeply lost in the plot and it’s been such a whimsical feeling that’s brought me back to how things used to be reading-wise 🤩. I can’t wait to see where the story goes!

Will – Mark Manson and Will Smith

One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.
Will Smith’s transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it’s only half the story.

This came to be a sample title on my reader after I watched Will Smith talk about a bit of the book with his family on YouTube and allowed them to have a say on whether or not they wished to leave out some stories. That short segment of what would be in the book really intrigued me and when I was given the kindle I immediately sought out the sample. I don’t know if I want it as an audiobook or not as unlike a lot of other reads where they let you purchase the written file and the audio ontop of that at a fairer price than simply buying the audio alone, this books audio can only be gotten under Audible when it comes to the Kindle where ontop of subscription fees it’d cost another tenner or so (if I were to opt out of subscription it sells for around €30…..like, why!? 😬). So this one’s being held back on because I wouldn’t use the subscription and I’m also not entirely sure what format I’d prefer it in, hopefully the half and half option does come along for it one day altho now I’m starting to wonder, do you need an audible subscription for that too? Why is it all so confusing!? 🤣

It’s 1980-something and all nine-year-old Jake Doyle wants for Christmas is a Nintendo Entertainment System. No Jose Canseco rookie card, no GI Joe hovercraft, no Teddy friggin’ Ruxpin–just Nintendo. But when a hyperactive Shih Tzu is accidentally crushed to death by a forty-two-inch television set and every parent in town blames Nintendo, it’s up to Jake to take matters into his own hands. The result is a Christmas quest of Super Mario Bros. proportions, filled with flaming wreaths, speeding minivans, lost retainers, fake Santas, hot teachers, snotty sisters, “Super Bowl Shuffles” and one very naked Cabbage Patch Kid. Told from a nostalgic adult perspective, 8-Bit Christmas is a hilarious and heartfelt look back at the kid pop culture of the 1980s.

Over the Christmas period I wrote about the movie version of this and how my sister and I are full on OBSESSED with it! Seriously if you can watch 8-Bit Christmas, even tho we’re not currently in the festive season, do it!! (You won’t regret it 🙌). It’s a funny movie set in the 80s told through the perspective of a guy trying to explain a pivotal part of his childhood to his daughter: when the first Nintendo system came to town! There’s not a scene in that film that we didn’t mind watching over and over again 🤣. But yeah, the book! You can tell why it was turned into a film, it’s told in such a compelling fashion and I can picture each scene playing out before my eyes. This one was surprisingly a Kindle Unlimited find so it went under the subscription for “free” and I’m tripping over my words with the “I like this one as my fav autobiography” and “this one because it had me getting lost” or something but honestly, this book hands down sets those two aside because it’s such an easygoing read. It’s not everyday a book matches up to its film counterpart and that’s a lot for me to say considering I haven’t even finished reading it yet 🤐😂.

Girl Gone Mad – Avery Bishop

They say everything is fun and games until someone gets hurt. Well, someone did—and now the game has changed…
Emily Bennett works as a therapist in Pennsylvania, helping children overcome their troubled pasts—even as she struggles to forget her own. Once upon a time, Emily was part of a middle school clique called the Harpies—six popular girls who bullied the new girl to her breaking point.

The Harpies took a blood oath: never tell a soul what they did to Grace Farmer.

Now, fourteen years later, it seems karma has caught up to them when one member of that vicious circle commits suicide. But when a second Harpy is discovered dead shortly after, also from apparent suicide, the deaths start to look suspicious. And when Emily starts seeing a woman who looks a lot like Grace Farmer lurking in the shadows, she’s forced to wonder: Is Grace back for revenge? Or is Emily’s guilt driving her mad?

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but the Harpies are about to find out just how much words can hurt you

This was one of the first audiobooks I downloaded and I was instantly hooked! 🙌 Not the type of thing to listen to at night yet I couldn’t help it. I’m actually going to revisit it when I get back on good terms with my headphones so here’s to being hopeful over that – those lil pieces of tech stand in the way of me and some fantastic reads! 🤣

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?

I’ve got this as a sample and I’m a bit indecisive over whether or not it’ll go further than that. I wanted to read it for so long that I piled up mahoosive expectations on its back that can’t be met. I’ll give it a fair chance because it’s not that it isn’t good, it’s just that I easily get distracted and drawn away from the screen whenever it’s open (….maybe that does mean it’s not the one for me 🤔). This is what happens when something’s on your wishlist for two long, my mind just isn’t open to it anymore! 🤣

The Promotion – Daniel Hurst

Imogen should be enjoying her life – she is happily married with a high-powered career that could see her rise to the very highest levels of management.

But that’s never going to happen. Because Imogen’s boss Michael has discovered she has a secret, something she has hidden from everyone, even her devoted husband. And if it’s ever revealed, her life will be destroyed.
Which means Imogen is completely and utterly in Michael’s power.
And he loves it – he works her 24/7 and takes all the credit; he invents tedious assignments to fill her weekends; he is openly dismissive and disrespectful. It seems like every week he comes up with some new way to torment her, to make her life a living hell.
And Imogen can’t see any way out – because Michael has told her if she ever tries to leave her job he’ll tell the world what she’s done and her life will be over.
As she becomes more and more desperate, Imogen begins to think the unthinkable. Maybe there is a way to solve the Michael problem – permanently.

I’m ending things on an odd note here because this book is a half and half for me. It started out great and I really connected with who I thought was not only the main character, but the only narrator until the antagonist of the story creeped in with their own chapter and things unexpectedly fell short. It feels like the two perspectives are written by entirely different authors and not in a good way that would help you to instead see things from another set of eyes. With Michael the writing gets a bit predictable yet not at all understandable. It’s how you’d on a surface level think a sociopaths mind would work but there needs to be more than that and not just a one one-dimensional character. Especially when the leading lady of the book has been allowed that basic level of what you need from a narrator, his chapters aren’t on par with how hers are told.

Maybe it’s because of the summary but I know where it’s going too and I hate when that happens because there needs to be some curveballs thrown into the mix. In saying that tho I do want to find out what her secret is so hopefully the book picks up pace a bit in Michaels chapters. I’m not sure if that’s going to happen though. I want to keep reading for the main character but the boss doesn’t interest me at all which isn’t great considering it’s about getting him out of the way so Imogen can get to where she wants to be 🤣. All in all it has the potential to be good and started out that way so I’ll give it a chance! (I hate saying negative things about books but if anything it’s totally constructive because I don’t despise it all, just half of it so far….okay despise wasn’t the nicest choice of word…I’ll just go now 😅😂).

Sooooo thanks for checking out this post! 😄 Twas a bit long but why not? It feels great to back and I can’t wait for what is ahead 😏💫. Pop into the comments and say hi 🌊. Even though there are more books on my Kindle, these are what I’m not giving up on so I wonder if we have any in common!? 📚 Let me know what you think in the comments below and whether or not you like my book recommendations! I’ll see you again in my next post ✍️. Take care, stay safe and buh-bye! ✨💖xx

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