Hungry for Love by Barbara Cartland

(Image from Goodreads.com)

Araminta Sinclair is horrified when she learn her brother Sir Harry Sinclair has lost £600 gaming, to the Marquis of Wayne.

She offers to five up the small sum collected for her debut in London and then has an inspiration as to how they can obtain the rest. 

Her father, the previous Baronet, a gourmet and an epicure insisted on his daughter becoming an exceptionally fine cook. 

How Araminta enlists the help of General Sir Alexander Bracknell, one of Wellington's Commanders, how there is a bet that her cooking can rival that of Careme - the Prince Regent's Master Chef - and how her deception brings her heart-break and finally happiness is told in this dramatic 186th book by Barbara Cartland.

This has to be one of those books that even if it was stripped of all romance I would have still enjoyed it.

Heroine

I really liked Araminta. She had a head on her shoulder and she used it. When her brother gets into debts (£600!) she immediately starts thinking of how to pay it and fix the situation.

How?

She is going to cook her way to it!

Hero

Arrogant and distant the Marquis of Wayne has no qualms about taking money from young idiots who have nothing better to do than gamble away their fortunes. And then he make a bet that involves the Prince Regent’s cook and Araminta and his perception of life tips.

While not my favourite Barbara Cartland hero he isn’t my least favourite. He was a bit of an overbearing numpty but he comes through at the end.

The Romance

Hmmm…I found the romance lacking a wee bit. It was very much love at first sight and lacked a bit of development.

All in All

I really enjoyed the random cooking details about kitchens and ostrich brains (no ostriches were harmed in the reading of this book).

The occasional historical detail popped in too. 

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

(Book cover and synopsis from goodreads.com)

THE GREATEST FANTASY EPIC OF OUR TIME

The dark, fearsome Ringwraiths are searching for a Hobbit. Frodo Baggins knows that they are seeking him and the Ring he bears—the Ring of Power that will enable evil Sauron to destroy all that is good in Middle-earth. Now it is up to Frodo and his faithful servant, Sam, with a small band of companions, to carry the Ring to the one place it can be destroyed: Mount Doom, in the very center of Sauron’s realm.

Thus begins J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings, which continues in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

"I tried to make a few notes, but we shall have to go over it all again together some time, if I am to write it up. There are whole chapters of stuff before ever you got here!"

That about sums up the first half of this books. I spent most of the book wanting to press the fast-forward button and rolling my eyes. I mean, hello! The overlord of all evil is after you, but I tell you what, lets hand around for a while (months!) before we leave, and lets not forget to get a cup of tea too...

WHAT!

The pages of songs and poems grated on me a bit too, although I do appreciate that some of them worked wonderfully as info-dumping sessions in disguise.  

So far I am failing to see the attraction of these book, but we'll see how it goes. 

Bout of Books #12 Wrap-Up

Hi everyone!

So Bout of Books didn't go as well as I had hoped, but like I said it was during my first week back at work after a fortnights holiday. So all in all, not that bad really :)

I managed four audio books and 1 actually-turn-the-pages books.

Wanna know what they were?

Of course you do!

Audio - Twelfth Night
             The Tempest
             A Midsummer Night's Dream
             Bleak House (I finished the last few chapters of this not the whole thing)

All of the audio books were beautifully narrated. The Shakespeare plays had full casts and really brought them to life. I would highly recommend them if you want to give reading Shakespeare a bit of a jolt. I enjoyed a Midsummer Night's Dream a lot more than I was expecting to.

Not Audio - The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie.

Out of the Christie's that I have read so far this is not one of my favourites. Usually I zip through these but I think that it took be so long because I wasn't liking it.

I hope you all did well and achieved the personal goals you set :)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Book cover and synopsis from goodreads.com)

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the 'roaring twenties' and a devastating exposé of the shallowness of the 'Jazz Age'. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920's, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the dark mystery which surrounds him.

The Great Gatsby is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War, and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century.

First Thoughts

Yay! *happy dance* I’ve finally read it. GO ME!

Second Thoughts

Well, there’s four hours of my life I’m never going to get back.

I just couldn’t  I did.

Ah. I can’t get my thoughts out properly.

OK. Here goes.

The majo 

Nope, not happening.

Right, what I will say is that I did give this book three stars so obviously I didn’t completely hate it.

I really didn’t like most of the characters – the most useless bunch of space wasters (in my humble opinion) I have ever read about. But it did seem to go by quickly despite this and I did like how all the little pieces came together to end in various tragedies.  

Right, I am leaving it there. I can feel the ‘ifs-buts-you-know-what-I-mean’s bubbling.

All in All

I am glad I have finally read this classic. I don’t really know what I was expecting,  but I am pretty sure that what I got wasn’t it and I am still trying to figure out if that was a good thing or not. 

My Reading Goals for 2015

I always tell myself that I’m not going to set myself goals as they inevitability fall through but as last year sis go pretty well I figured I might as well put some thought into it.

Last Year!

I set myself the goal on Goodreads of 75 books. Which I achieved. Yay! Gold star for me.

I completed one and a bit bingo cards for the Book Bingo Challenge.

I also finally crossed off some long standing goals I have had for quite some time. The Great Gatsby for one thing. I feel so proud *beam* that I have finally read this as it is one of those books that always crops up on lists and on the podcasts that I listen to. So yeah…HAPPY!

But never mind last year.

2015 Goals!

Ignoring the challenges *gulp* I decided to sign up for this year I woule like to read some more Charles Dickens than I have done so far… This might be a wee bit of cheat to put this in hear as I do have some Charles Dickens (well, Bleak House) goodness scheduled, but never mind. Eventually I would like to be able to say that I have read them all :).

And now to the challenges.

Outlander Series – I want to read all of this series this year. I have read the first book several times but I want to get all of the others under my belt.

Vintage Mystery Bingo Gold & Silver – there are 36 book spots in each of these challenges. I have a huge Agatha Christie collection so where I can a Christie book will be getting slotted into a spot for this challenge.

Colour Coded Challenge – there is no genre for this challenge so I might make it for…*think think think* YA? Hmmm…I don’t know, I’ll have to think on that one. Anyway, there are 9 places for books in that challenge.

Victorian Reading Challenge – this one is really to tie in with my Charles Dickens reading goal and also to get me away from Dickens and onto some other authors. It is also going to give me the opportunity to revisit some of my favourite authors so that is always nice. :)

Audiobook Challenge – the nice thing about this challenge is that it won’t take an awful lot of effort (thank fully) because of my work I listen to quite a lot of books :)

Read! Read! Read!

There is no getting away from it. I have LOTS of books, LOADS of books that I haven’t read. I am not going to give a number (that would be way to depressing, believe me) but I am going to put in more of an effort to read the books I already have and think more before I buy new one. I’ll keep a score of the number of books I get read from my shelves as of today (5^th January) so stay tuned for the final number.

Happy Reading and all the best with any goals you have set yourself for the coming year!

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme that you can find over at Tynga's Reviews :)

Only Charles Dickens this week :)

David Copperfield

A Take of Two Cities

Hard Times

Great Expectations

Barnaby Rudge

Nicholas Nickleby

Bout of Books #12

Bout of Books is coming to town again!

Well, a computer screen near you anyway.

I ummed and ahed about doing this one as it starts the day before I go back to work and then I thought ‘och, stuff it’ and decided to sign up.

What is Bout of Books?

Well… (from Bout of Books)

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Happy Reading Everyone!

Hello 2015!

Wow. 2015 is here! The speed that 2014 went zooming by at was a little scary huh?

I hope you all had a good and safe evening last night.

I was at home with my freaking out cats (cheers, fireworks) all evening safe and sound. You know, just in case you were interested.

*Awkward silence*

Alright then...

Look! A Bingo Card! Lots of Bingo Cards! So preetttty... *Drool*

So pretty...

Today is the first day of the first month of the new year so do you know what that means?

It means challenges start TODAY! Yay!

So the only challenege that is missing from this pic is the audiobook challenge. Hmm...I think I am going to have to rectify that.

Anyway, cheerio everyone and happy reading!