And why you should try it too — I told myself at the beginning of the year that by the end of it, I wanted to complete an entire manuscript draft. It didn’t matter if it was perfect, or far from it. …

I’ve decided I no longer care about how many books I read in 2022 — Half the year has already gone. That’s time we’ll never get back. Although that thought is daunting, what’s more worrying is that my pile of books to read only ever seems to get bigger. I can’t make it stop growing. Rather, I’ve begun to submit to it. Working in a…

And want to run away from — Bookshops are fascinating places for people watching. After all, everybody likes a good bookshop. They are cosy, warm, inviting, and a shelter from the crazy world. What’s not to like? Unfortunately, this means they often attract all sorts of difficult people. …

You should add these five star reads to your TBR list — May was a busy month. But it was easily one of my best reading months to date. I read five books and rated four of them five stars. That’s pretty good going, right? It takes a lot for me to rate a book five stars. It has to be near…

Make room for this pulse-raising novel — This year I’ve become a bit of a crime and thriller nut. Although I always appreciated a well-written novel from either of these subgenres, these days, I’m finding myself reading more and more. …

Spoiler: real life makes it pretty impossible to do what you love — At the moment, I wake up every day and tell myself this is the day I will write. But then the weight of the day pulls me so far under that once I get home, the will to write is no longer even keeping me afloat. …

#1 You never get over it completely — I can still remember the day that I found out my brother had passed away very clearly. It was valentine's day in 2020. I’d just started a new job at a cafe, and we were selling heart-shaped cookies filled with jam in the middle. The news was full to the…

These are bound to get your heart racing within the first few pages — I never used to be particularly fond of thrillers as I usually favour longer, more drawn out, literary reads. But these days, I need something I can easily breeze through due to having a tight schedule that lends me to feeling exhausted most days. …

Because for some, it may never be achievable — Every year since I was around twelve or thirteen, I have dreaded the return of spring after a long, dark winter. As soon as the sun feels warm on my skin, I begin to dread the long summer days that stretch out before me. I stress over the body that…