Kiki > Recent Status Updates

I just couldn’t really get into this book, and after making a start I put it aside by page 35 and ended up reading several other books instead. So parking it (for now at least)

Finally getting around to cracking open this novel, years later than planned. It’s just been sat on the pile, its sheer heft is off-putting. But as the new TV adaptation starring Eva Green is in production, I thought I’d brave reading the original book before it comes on screen.

Straight into the action and just as gripping and morally ambiguous characters as the first novel in the series, “Vicious”

I'm really not enjoying this at all so far, it's a real struggle to read

I’m finding this slow-going and not particularly enjoyable. I don’t like any of the characters so far and the plot isn’t throwing up much of interest so I hope it gets to the big twist about this “betrayal” soon

Really engrossed in Emily and Robbie’s epic story!

Really liking this so far. It’s surprising and warm and mildly amusing without trying too hard. Plus it’s so easy to read and has very short chapters of no more than a couple of pages. So it’s great to read on the train during the commute to work. Right now it’s not easy to work out all the connections between the stories / people, but I’m sure it will all become clearer towards the end.

It’s been AGES since I’ve read a Philippa Gregory novel. So on this dreary drizzly weekend, I’m looking forward to hunkering down on the sofa tucked under a blanket, with this 500+ page epic and hopefully getting fully absorbed into Tudor politics again!

One story down and 16 more to go. So far it's a bit 'meh'.

I've hit a bit of a wall with this book to be honest. Might take a little break, read something else, and try to come back to it.

I'm enjoying this so far. Rose Tremain is an excellent writer and creates such vivid characters and settings. Some of the key characters feel so real and their worries so relatable; and I can really picture both Anthony's chilly little antique shop and the contrasting French countryside of La Callune. Looking forward to seeing what's in store for them ..

I'm disliking this book intensely, to the point that it's making me angry reading certain parts of it. I wasn't at all expecting this negative reaction, because having read the blurb and some reviews, I thought it would deal with a difficult subject but with some humour and ultimately be uplifting. But so far, there isn't a single sympathetic character. Such a stark contrast to the wonderful "A Boy Made of Blocks".

Plodding through this ...

This book has me already intrigued, from the very beginning with the opening scene where Alison spots the portrait in an art gallery in present day Marlborough. I've read plenty of historical fiction, many books which have parallel storylines set in different time periods and quite a few books featuring time travellers. But this is nicely shaping up to be a bit different from anything I've read before.

Not a great start, so far the book has been plodding along with no idea where the real intrigue lies. Now a third through and still wondering where it's heading and waiting for the action to begin

This hasn't begun well - for most of the beginning of the book the plot plodded along and I really had no clue what the 'case' was for Shardlake to be investigating. Now a third of the way through, and it's still not much in the way of intrigue compared to the previous books