Today I’m doing the Afternoon Tea book tag which is a fun and short tag filled with lots of delicious questions about afternoon tea (and of course books).  A big thank you to Danni from _ForBooksSake for tagging me.  It’s been a while since I’ve done a tag so I hope you enjoy my answers to this.   As usual, if you’d like to do the tag please go ahead but do let me know where your answers are as I’d love to see what you say for these questions 🙂 …

Finger Sandwiches – A book you savoured every minute of

There a lots of books I’ve enjoyed recently but one that sticks in my mind as being a book I just loved every moment of is Equinox by David Towsey.  Lots of books have slower moments where you might not enjoy it as much, but every single moment of Equinox, for me, was brilliant!  This fantasy novel is about Christphor, a night-brother, who is a special inspector and must investigate what has happened at the city prison after one of the prisoners seems to have torn out his eyes from their sockets.  While he heads to a town called Drekenford to see what witchcraft has caused this to happen his day-brother Alexsander, who has no choice but to go with him, ends up meeting certain people and doing certain things which hinder more than help Christophor’s investigation.  I loved this book because it’s about both a night-brother and day-brother, two souls sharing the same body, one at night, one during the day, and there isn’t a moment that isn’t interesting, exciting, engrossing and quite eerie too! 😀

Scones – A book everyone should own

I’m not sure if it’s a book that everyone should own, but a recent book that really interested me, and made me want to get as many people to read it is Spy Artist Prisoner by George Tomaziu.  This is a memoir written before the author’s death and translated and published in English quite recently.  The book cover design is clever but what made me really enjoy this book and think everyone should give it a read is what the author encounters through his experiences both during and after WWII in Romania.  We don’t hear enough about what people went through in the Eastern parts of Europe, how they suffered both from the Germans during the war and later from Soviet occupation.  The harsh conditions the author suffered, especially after the soviets took control of Romania (and other parts of eastern europe) is difficult reading but neccessary to know just how harsh our world was even decades after WWII was finished.  It’s definitely worth a read, espeically further into the book when you see what happens near the end of the war.

Biscuits – A book that can be finished in one sitting

I recently enjoyed reading the third book in the Monster Doughnuts series.  Monster Doughnuts: Beastly Breakout by Gianna Pollero & Sarah Horne is absolutely hilarious and the perfect sequel to Monster Doughnuts: Cyclops on a Mission (book two) and Monster Dougnuts (book one).  Mr Harris, the cyclops is back, although this time he’s busy trying to reunite with his mother, while Grace and the other monster hunters are busy trying to capture a bunch of monsters who have escaped from Monster World Prison, a task that seems easy at first but can’t be finished without Mr Harris’s help.  The whole series is filled with such brilliant humour, such funny illustrations adding to it, and you just feel so good after reading it.  And each book can be read in one go (you can probably read all three in one day!) 🙂

Patisserie – A book that is light and easy to read

Marriage Unarranged by Ritu Bhathal is quite a good, light and easy read.  Aashi thought things couldn’t get any better after being engaged to Ravi.  Taking holiday brochures to his house one morning, to arrange where they’ll go on their honeymoon, Aashi is distraught when she finds Ravi not alone in his house, his female work friend is there, and worse, he has an open condom box by his bed.  Knowing Ravi has cheated on her Aashi leaves, both his house and him, much to the worry of her Sikh family, but with a pre-wedding trip to India still arranged Aashi decides to leave the UK and recover from everything that’s happened to her on the trip away.  I did enjoy this story, especially when the tale moves to India and we see Aashi getting to know the culture and a new character she met on the plane called Arjun.  Though there are some deeper more difficult moments, the story on the whole is so light and fun.  I just love many of the characters and what they all get up to while in India.  It’s also fun to see what happens to Ravi after his break up from Aashi, and how his life really doesn’t go the way he’d hoped (karma!). 😀

Showstopper – A book that blew you away

Our Sister Again by Sophie Cameron is a middle grade story that’s very different from anything I’ve read before for a children’s book.  Partly inspired by the tv series Humans (which I enjoyed) this story followed Isla and her family as they welcome her older sister Flora back into the family after Flora’s death nearly two years ago.  The new Flora is a human-like robot, specially created by a company which wants to help bring back the dead to those who are grieving their lost family members, but as Isla’s family get used to having Flora back, there are some obvious differences between the old Flora and new, and it becomes clear that somebody on their remote Scottish island doesn’t want Flora there at all.  This book really gets to you emotionally, I felt a mixture of emotions, and you really feel the difficulties Isla’s faily have, going through the grief and loss of Flora and welcoming the new Flora back which has mixed results.  The book really is fantastic, a powerful read for a middle grade book, full of happy moments and sad ones too.  It’s definitely a book that will leave you thinking about it for a long time afterwards.

Tea – A heartwarming classic

I haven’t read any classics for quite some time and certainly not any heart-warming ones (Nineteen-Eighty Four is definitely not heart-warming!).  So instead of mentioning a classic, how about a fun re-telling of a classic which I really did enjoy which was Pride and Prejudice – A Retelling by Laura Wood.  This is a special dyslexia friendly version of the classic tale which is by Jane Austen which I have a copy of but have yet to read.  This retelling is brilliant though, it’s a short read but told well and really great for teens and older who are looking to understand the Pride and Prejudice story within a short book.  It’s not long but the story ion the whole is there along with some of the humour of the tale which I remember from the television series in the 90s (have you seen that version of Pride and Prejudice?).  It’s a brilliant read that will make you a fan of the classics and will make you want to pick up the original too. 🙂

What do you think of my answers to this tag?  What would your answers be?  Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂

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