Month: July 2021

Review: Desperate Duchesses, by Eloisa James

When the Netflix series of Bridgerton came out, people flocked to it. I didn’t realize it was actually a book well before it ever became a series, and while looking at the reviews I noticed that Felicia Day (who I happen to follow on GoodReads) had a recommendation for people who enjoyed these types of historical romance – and that’s how I came to find Desperate Duchesses. I attempted to read Bridgerton and I did NOT enjoy it at all. This book though? This book was magical.

If you’re a fan of The Queen’s Gambit (another Netflix show, what can I say) then you’ll appreciate this book even more, because there are some intense chess scenes in the book that will take you right back to that show. The author has a fantastic way with words, and this book was an incredible way to relax that did not require very much brain power but still kept me interested enough to turn the pages. It was like listening to a conversation take place instead of reading.

You’ll follow the story of Lady Roberta St. Giles as she tries to meet the man of her dreams (who she thinks is Duke Villier) but spread throughout the story is a number of other interesting characters, including her father (a poet) known as the Mad Marquees, and her distant cousin, Jemma, who is a bit of a calculating fiend, to be honest.

Without spoiling any of the book, I will say that the reviews of it can be quite harsh, so I’d give it a go yourself if you’re interested in those types of books and not rely solely on the public. Otherwise, I might not have given it a chance at all – and I’m so glad I did.

4/5 stars

July Book Goals – 2021

One thing I do on another blog where I write about video games and fiber arts (because those are related..) is post a monthly update / goals in order to give myself a bit of direction when it comes to these things. My life runs better with direction, otherwise I can spend hours just sitting and doing nothing at all, completely lost with whatever I had intended to do. That doesn’t meant I can’t go off track, it just means that during times when I need direction, it’s there.

July goals:

  • Finish reading volume 3&4 of Sunstone
  • Finish reading Rogue Protocol (Murderbot #3)
  • Finish 50% of The Book of Hedge Druidry: A Complete Guide for the Solitary Seeker

I have some non-reading but still book related goals to work on, too. I want to properly set up StoryGraph, which I’ve never used before but has come highly recommended by some friends. I also just downloaded their app, so I’d like to explore that in more depth. Maybe even do a post about some great book apps.

I’d also like to update my ‘My Book Pledge‘ page, which is a Canadian site sponsored by some of the larger publishing companies. They host a lot of competitions and I’ve been adding my books there for a number of years, very similar to the GoodReads book challenge that is hosted yearly.

These are not lofty goals, and I should be able to complete them with very little issue so long as I consciously make the time to read. The way I tend to work is that the more tired I am the less I want to read, which means in June I did very little reading because I was incredibly tired. In fact for the entire month of June I only finished reading one book, which was Sunstone volume 2.

I want to do better this month.

Have you set yourself up with any reading goals?