Cuddy by Benjamin Myers - Review

This was the book club choice for January and I got a Readers Group copy from the library in like November or something, I dunno, a long time ago. The book was a bit intimidating as it seemed long, and I was concentrating on queer books in January, so I decided to listen to the audiobook instead. Generally in a week I might have a couple of hours where I'm driving and can listen to an audiobook, so I knew I could finish it before the 21st when our meeting was. But then I ended up finishing it in only a couple of weeks as I really liked it and ending up listening to it while I was working too. Listening to it was a joy too because three of the four main parts were narrated by friendly Geordies which was nice. My experience with this made me decide to listen to February's choice for book club, too! More on that later... 

So, Cuddy is the nickname of St Cuthbert, who is the patron saint of Durham Cathedral. This was about the sum total of my knowledge about Cuthbert before I read this book (audiobooks count as reading and it's ableist to suggest otherwise as some people CAN'T read paper or electronic books!) and I expected it to be a novel about him and his life, not dissimilar to Haven by Emma Donoghue which I read back in 2023. Margaret at book club thought the same thing, but no. This is not really a book about St Cuthbert. 

There's a lot of scene setting with quotes about Cuthbert's life and the settling of Durham and the start of the building of the cathedral. I found this a bit dull but I made my way through it to Book 1.

Book 1 is about Ediva, a young woman who is with the band of monks that are taking care of Cuthbert's coffin. When Cuthbert died his body was put inot a stone coffin and removed from Lindisfarne, where he had lived, to the mainland, because of the Viking invaders. Ediva is cook, healer, general dogsbody for the monks. She is somewhat friendly with a young boy, who is also an outsider from the monks, and who has large owl eyes. He is a recurring character through the book, in an odd way. Ediva has visions of where they will set Cuthbert's body down and build a chapel for him - there will be a clearing with a cow. Indeed, this comes to pass, at the bend in the river Wear where Durham Cathedral now sits. 

I liked Ediva; it was interesting to hear her back story and her place within the bank of monks. I liked the faith that they all had that they would find a place worthy of Cuthbert's shrine. I love religious stories like this because I just don't have  that type of faith. This book is set in the tenth century. 

Book 2 was my favourite of the four and lots of people at book club felt the same. It could have been a book in its own right! It's about Eda, a woman who is married to Fletcher Bullard, an archer for the king. This book is set in the 1300s. Fletcher is great at his job, a great archer, well respected etc, but he's also abusive towards Eda. He kicked her so hard once that she has been unable to bear children. She likes it when Fletcher is away from home fighting. She makes beer and takes it to the stonemasons working on the walls of the cathedral. There she meets Francis Rolfe, a mason, who woos her and charms her. I thought that the story would end really badly but loved how it worked out. This part was written in the second person which really gave it immediacy and drew us towards it. 

Book 3 was maybe my least favourite but I still liked it a lot. It's a ghost story set in the 1850s or something like that. A professor at Oxford is invited to Durham to be there when some clerics open Cuthbert's tomb. There's a myth that Cuthbert's body has never decayed and that in the stone coffin it is still whole. The professor is disdainful of the north but arrives in Durham and is greeted by a boy with eyes like an owl's who leads him to his lodgings. But his host, one of the vicars involved, doesn't know this boy. The professor is haunted at night by strange singing in his room. This part owes a lot to writing like The Woman in Black and so on. I didn't love it but it is compelling. 

Book 4 is about Michael. It's set in 2019. Michael is around nineteen years old and is caring for his dying mother. He works as a casual labourer doing back breaking work and he budgets every penny - eating nothing but Pot Noodles - while also kind of wishing for something outside of himself. He gets a job working in the cathedral where talented masons and so on are working on repairs to the ancient building. His life is very much a portrait of Tory Britain at the time which I thought was very effective. I felt really sorry for Michael. At book club, we liked the ending too, and we liked the through motif of Cuthbert spraking to the protagonist of each book. 

In all I'm giving this five out of five, I absolutely loved it and it was a joy to keep me company on my drives! 

Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagan Brothers - Review

Hello! Welcome to a new year of blogging for me! I'm finally on to books I've read in 2026. You may notice that I usually write a round up of the books I read in the previous year. Well, the journal that I was using for the beginning of 2025 has been packed away into the loft, and I can't be bothered finding it in order to do the survey. So that post won't exist in 2026 unless I end up in the loft for something else and find my journal! Oh well. 

I have started using Storygraph in 2026, as well as Goodreads, so that will be interesting to see at the end of 2026 as they have lots of different graphs about format of books read, and so on. 

I also decided that in January 2026 I would only read books under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. This idea partly came about because I have a new desk at home for doing actual work on (as opposed to this desk, which is in my craft room) and it's right in front of the LGBTQIA+ books. I kept looking at them while working and thinking, ooh I'd like to read X, I'd like to read Y. So I thought for the month I would only read queer books. It is nearly the end of January now and it's been an absolute joy to read queer books all month. 

However, I didn't love this book. But I am glad I read it because I've been looking at it for ages! The book is about two best friends, Lula and Rory. Lula lives with her grandparents, who are pretty strict with her, because her mum walked out when Lula was only little. She was a teen mum and couldn't cope. Lula's grandad has never forgiven his daughter for leaving, so the family never mentions her. Lula still has some of her mother's posessions though, including a bunch of her books. 

Rory lives with his mum, who is an alcoholic, and who is chaotic. Rory doesn't have a very happy home life. Lula kind of does - her grandparents adore her - but she's stuck too. They're kind of outcasts at school. They spend every Friday night watching old episodes of The X Files and uploading to their blog about the TV show. The book is set in 2008 so it was a bit past the prime of the series, so their classmates just think they're weird. 

Rory came out as gay to Lula ages ago, but he hasn't told her that he is having an affair with his boss, who is like nearly three times his age, and who is divorced and has two daughters who are not that much younger than Rory. Rory seems to think that the two of them will be out and proud together eventually, and that they have a future together. It is obvious as an adult reading that they do not, but I liked the way it was portrayed. Rory also tries out for the high school football team, but doesn't tell Lula that either because he knows she'll scoff about it. I did think the book was quite fatphobic in the way that it talked about Rory's body, which I didn't like at all. He's big and tall and therefore an asset to a football team, sure, but it was quite shame-y in the way it talked about his body. 

Anyway, Lula then goes missing. She has been reading her mother's books and goes off to New York to try to find her mum. The first part of the book is from Rory's point of view and the second part is from Lula's. I don't think either part really worked for me. I can't decide what I just didn't like about the book but I didn't. I am giving it three out of five; I liked the stories mostly, but the writing, not overly. 

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon - Review

I got this book in the library in December. It caught my eye because I've read other books by Nicola Yoon and enjoyed them, so I picked this up. It's her first book for adults so I was really intrigued and checked it out. I started reading it just after Christmas but didn't get it finished because of how busy I was, so it just sneaked into 2026 and was my first finish on New Year's Day! I really liked it, I hope Nicola writes more books for adults!

The book is about a Black woman called Jasmyn and her family. She is married to King and they have a son and another one on the way. They've made quite a lot of money and have been living in Los Angeles, but then King wants the family to move to Liberty. That's a town in California where only Black people live. It's a gated community type of place and pretty exclusive. Jasmyn isn't sold on it, but King is pretty insistent on the move.

Once they get there, Jasmyn struggles to fit in. She quickly manages to annoy some of her neighbours, who are like the elders of the community and who ostracise her. King, though, fits in immediately, and begins spending too much time at the wellness centre which is a focal point of the town. He encourages Jasmyn to join too, but she's busy with work and her child. She also hoped that she would find like minded people in Liberty - people who are interested in social justice and rights for Black people and all of that stuff. But she can't find anyone else who thinks like she does, and she's disappointed. 

She goes to the wellness centre for a pregnancy massage and she hears screaming and tries to run towards it, but she's stopped by the overly polite and extremely firm staff. She does meet two friends who are politically minded like she is, but they end up changing too and Jasmyn is trying to find out what on earth is going on in Liberty. 

I loved the book. It did slow a bit in parts but it kept me reading. I liked Jasmyn and desperately wanted her to succeed. There were a bunch of twists and turns and the twist at the end really shocked me. I loved the set up and all the supporting characters. I'm giving this five out of five. 

The Mystery Club 3: The Forbidden Island by Fiona Kelly - Review

I pulled this book off the shelves just before Christmas. It is a book I've had ever since I was a small child, and I read it again and gain. As you can see, it's pretty battered. It's funny because it still has my homemade library ticket glued into the front, and my name written very carefully just above that. I read this over and over, but I don't think I ever read anything else in the Mystery Club series. Maybe by the time I read this I wasn't visiting libraries any more so couldn't request any? I don't know. But I might have to get some more of these, for nostalgia's sake. 

So the Mystery Club is three girls, aged fifteen. Now, I will say, this book was written thirty years ago and Young Adult as a thing didn't really exist back then, so it skews younger, they skew as younger than fifteen and the audience for this book is definitely younger than that. It's weird, really, but it works. Anyway the girls are Holly, Tracy and Belinda. Reading this now I found these names odd given that these books were published in the mid 90s and those names seem older than that - there are few Tracys and Belindas my age. Never mind! It just struck me. 

As this is Book 3 they have previously solved some mysteries, they're not new to it. They go off to visit Holly's aunt for a week's relaxation. Tracy is sporty and regularly goes running. Belinda is more bookish and quiet. Holly is spunky, irrepressible, and nosy - I remembered why I liked her so much when I was little. I think all three of them skew queer, by the way, there's a lot of queer coding that I picked up on. Holly can't just sit on the beach and relax, no. Instead she becomes obsessed with the little island that lies just off the coast of where her aunt lives. It's known locally as Anthrax Island because it was used during the war to test anthrax or something, and it's forbidden to go there. 

But Holly and the girls have seen lights there, and then returning lights from the mainland. What is going on, and who is involved? The trio start to ask questions and get themselves in danger. Of course they do! 

I actually really loved my reread of this book. It was sweet and nostalgic and I really liked the girls as much as I used to. I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish - Review

I bought this book some time in 2025, I don't remember exactly when. I thought it looked like a cute romance book to read around Christmas, so that's exactly what I did. But it took me ages to read and while that always happens in December just because I get busy, it's also because I just didn't get on with the book too much. I can't fully explain why, but maybe it'll be clearer as I write this review. 

So Greta is one of the protagonists. She is from a tiny island in Maine, I guess a bit like Martha's Vineyard, where everyone knows each other. She is one of five sisters and they're are a close knit Jewish family. She is a lesbian. She went to university in Portland, Maine, which did give her some freedom, but she's now back on the island. She's at a festival type thing when her eldest sister Sadie - who is mean and rude throughout the book - puts her up for a dating auction thing, meaning she would be auctioned off for a date with a man. Greta is obviously upset about this because she is gay - and she's mad with her sister and with the rest of the family (her mum is a bit of a nightmare too). She desperately wants to escape Maine for a few weeks over Hannukah and the winter, and ends up looking for a house swap thing. 

Meanwhile, Truman lives in New Orleans. He is gay and he's in a relationship with a man whose name I forget but it doesn't matter as he's not relevant. But it turns out he is married and has a small child, meaning Truman has been the bit on the side all along. Truman is obviously heartbroken and wants to escape New Orleans. 

Enter their mutual friend, Ramona, who suggests they swap homes for a bit. Greta has a zillion houseplants that need babying, so she can't just leave them, and Truman has a dog that he can't leave by himself either. So they swap. Greta meets Carys, who leads ghost walks in New Orleans, on like her first day in New Orleans and they begin a relationship. I found Carys a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl - she's just TOO perfect, including her lovely found family which Greta gets involved with too, and including the way she calls Greta out over one thing in a way that really irritated me - and I didn't love their relationship. Their sex scenese were hot, though, so that's one thing. I actually thought that Greta's relationship with an older lady who introduces her to a bunch of gardeners was more interesting and which brought Greta out of herself in a better way than Carys did I think. 

I did really like the depiction of Greta's family and of New Orleans (a place I would love to go!) but her story arc overall left me a bit cold. 

Truman ends up meeting Greta's friend Ash, who owns the local flower shop (so many tropes). Ash is depressed and struggling to care for his mother, who has dementia. Truman turns up with a bit of colour and a whole load of ideas to improve the flower shop and while it's obviously really sweet, it puts Ash off. I thought this was a much more realistic relationship and they ebb and flow towards each other. Truman learns how to trust himself I think, he's a lot more introspective by the end of the book. Ash is really lovely and I liked how he was brought out of himself too.

But the book dragged a lot for me; I felt it was at least fifty pages too long. I am giving it three out of five and I wouldn't rush to read this author again.  

A Murder in York by J R Ellis - Review

 

Another J R Ellis book! My mum likes these which keeps me reading them, but I feel like Ellis is just churning them out and they're just not as good as they used to be. I feel also like he is trying to write about some 'issues' re austerity Britain and he's just not doing it very well. It comes across like he's trying too hard which annoys me. I may give up at the next one, but I probably said that about the last one, too.

So, Oldroyd is at a conference in York and one evening he decides to go on one of the famous ghost walks around the city. I really liked the description here because I know York well (I went to York St John University) and the ghost walks are famous. (I should go on one one of these days!). Oldroyd is enjoying himself when up one of the snickleways there is a body. He obviously gets involved in the case because he can't resist. The dead man turns out to be a local slum landlord who has no end of enemies - an ex wife, plenty of angry tennants, and even the people involved in running the ghost walk. Oldroyd keeps investigating which no other officers ever seems to mind because of course he is just so brilliant.  

Part of the book is told from the point of view of a family who lives in one of his terrible properties, and it was this that I felt was a bit heavy handed. I get it, but in the context of a novel it just didn't feel right. I also felt like being angry at your landlord was a pretty rubbish motive for murder. In fact, although it's a month since I read this, I'm not sure anyone had that strong of a motive. 

Oh god, and the sub plot with Andy and Stephanie annoyed me too, but the least said about that the better. I wish one of them would just leave, the other would be way better without them. 

I'm only giving this three out of five. 

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes - Review

This was the book club book choice for December and I hadn't ever heard of it or the author, but I was happy to read it. It was a good choice for our book club, I think. We talked about it at our December meeting, which is also a meal and a bit of a social, so I'm not sure we actually talked about the book for very long. But I think we liked it.

It is about the daughters of the painter Thomas Gainsborough, Molly and Peg. The book is told from Peg's point of view and starts with her as quite a small child when the family lived in Ipswich. Gainsborough genuinely did paint his daughters and the author has used this as a springboard to imagine the lives of the family, and has maybe used a rumour as part of her work too? I like this blurring of fact and fiction. 

Molly has funny turns in the book and Peg tries to control her and corral her into behaving. She desperately wants her dad to love her more but he is distant and forgetful about her. The girls' mother rules the house and the finances. There is a rumour that her father was a royal prince, and part of the book is from Peg's grandmother's point of view showing what happened to her. We felt like these chapters were a little jarring and took us out of the main narrative, and it wasn't clear how the two parts were related until quite a way on into the book. 

The family moves to Bath where the girls, their mother hopes, will marry well and make enough money to keep themselves. The girls are kept inside, away from people, while their father paints all the society people who want him to, and perhaps has an affair or two. Peg falls in love but it's Molly who gets married, despite her illness and the episodes where she disassociates. 

I generally liked the book and found it compelling, it kept me reading. But the story just didn't quite gel for me, so I'm giving it three out of five.