Not one of her best books, but still an Agatha Christie.

I really enjoyed this - intriguing mystery with an interesting cast of characters, and the setting of wartime London was very well evoked. The audiobook narrator was very good as well.

A collection of stories by local writers suggesting how the tea shop Bettys got its name. Most of the stories are very short but this was a light, entertaining read.

Contains four short stories, set in Jamaica. The first story takes the form of a letter written by a Jamaican boy to an American pen pal, describing some aspects of life in Jamaica. The three other stories each illustrate a moral, such as doing what you are told or looking after pets.

I really enjoyed this, more than the previous books in the series. The character development, especially for Hazel, was very good; I'm enjoying seeing her maturing, and realising that she doesn't have to do everything Daisy wants, whilst still maintaining a close friendship with her. I also liked that some of the other girls played a bigger role in this book, which I think adds something too. The mystery itself kept me guessing and there were quite a few twists along the way; and although I read these books more for the characters than the mysteries, this aspect was also enjoyable. I don't think I'll wait so long next time before picking up the next book...

(I listened to the audiobook narrated by Katie Leung, which I also recommend.)

Patricia St. John writes about her childhood, her years working as a nurse during WWII, as a teacher and matron at a girls' boarding school, and as a missionary nurse in Morocco, as well as how she came to write each of her novels and the "backstory" behind them. I found this an interesting and inspiring read.

I think this is one of the best in the series so far, but it is rather dark at times -- more so than I would usually read. I'm hoping the next one will be a bit more cheerful...

I think this was one of the less believable of Patricia Wentworth's books; but it was still much in the vein of the other books of hers that I've read, and quite enjoyable. A man wakes up after an accident having lost his memory of anything that happened to him previously, including his own identity. A woman tells him he is her husband and takes him home with her -- but is she telling the truth, and if not, why not? Recommended if you're in the mood for a fairly light mystery, with a little bit of romance.

This is a short book, which contains extracts from writings by or about the Cynic philosophers. It consists of three main sections: a dialogue in which a Cynic philosopher attempts to justify his way of life, and in particular his shunning of material goods, to another speaker; a collection of quotes and anecdotes from various writers about the philosopher Diogenes; and an extract about the life of Bion.

Although short, this was an interesting read about a topic I knew little about. I would have liked a little more background information and explanation, but it was still interesting to read.

An interesting read, although it was very short.

I think this is my favourite of the series so far.

This was a sweet, fun story, with some gentle humour. I enjoyed the details of Rosellen's life, and especially her interactions with her two brothers which I felt were realistic. Although she is a princess I think her life is quite relatable for many children.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through LT's Member Giveaway.

This is more a story of a heroine trying to escape the bad guys than a mystery per se. We know fairly early on who most of the bad guys are and what we want, and the suspense is generated by wondering what they will do to get it and whether Chloe will be able to escape them. I did enjoy it, though, and found Chloe a very likeable character.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but found this one didn't live up to it. I'm not entirely sure why; it's possible I just wasn't in the right mood when I read it. Despite the title, much of the book is about Veronica's life outside of Sadler's Wells, and I would have liked a lot more about her time there; I don't feel like I know much about it, and we never really get to know any of the other girls either. I also didn't particularly like Sebastian in this book, although I liked him in the last one. On the other hand, there were good parts; I really liked the characters of Jonathan and Stella and Mrs. Crapper.

As with the other book I've read from this series, this was a quick, fun read.

Delightful, and full of witty, gentle humour. I'm so glad I've finally read it properly, rather than just skimming through, and surprised it's taken me so long to do so.

I enjoyed this overall, but found it a bit uneven; there were parts that were really good, and parts that I didn't enjoy so much. Generally I preferred the bits that involved time travel (yes, I know I shouldn't call it that) to the present-day (in the book's timeline).

This was an enjoyable read, although nothing special. I enjoyed it enough that I'd consider picking up the next in the series. There were some typos and missing words, which was irritating, but they didn't interfere too much with the reading process.

I enjoyed lots of these poems, though generally I liked Anne's the best.

This was a good read, though I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the previous book.

Having waited more than three years after reading Eight Cousins before getting to this one, I found the beginning a little confusing as it took me a while to remember who everyone was and so on. But that was more a fault of mine than of the book, and once I got going, I began to really enjoy it.

I thought it was a sweet story. The main question of the story of course is who Rose (and Phebe) will marry but there are other things going on too, as Rose and her cousins mature and try to find their paths and vocations in life. I definitely enjoyed getting to know these characters more and, although I liked some of them a lot more than others, they were all well-drawn and interesting characters. There were one or two pretty sad parts, but the ending was happy and satisfying.

Despite the author's preface claiming that there was no moral to the story, there did seem to be a fair amount of moralising in it, but this was generally coming from the characters rather than the author (at least explicitly), and a certain amount is of course to be expected given the time it was written. I didn't find it detracted from the story for me, though I suppose it might bother some people.

Overall, a good read, though not quite up there with Little Women or An Old-Fashioned Girl.

This was a fun, quick read. I did find it a bit slow to start off with but I was later swept up in the excitement of the journey and the wondrous things that the three travellers encounter on their journey. It's a short book, and didn't take me long to read, but it was definitely worthwhile reading.

This is not the sort of book I usually read and I didn't know that much about the book prior to reading it, but I'd heard a lot of good things about it so decided to give it a go. I thought it was really good - I was really drawn into the story and it definitely kept me reading wanting to know what happened next. The connection with Cinderella is clear, but the book deviates quite a bit from the original story (which was good, because it kept me reading to find out what would happen next). The story does end on a bit of a cliffhanger though with quite a few loose ends still to be resolved. Hopefully these will be cleared up in the rest of the series.

This is not quite what the title claims since there isn't actually very much about Dido Belle herself in it - not much is known about her - but it is an interesting look at the world in which she lived, and at attitudes to slavery and race in England at the time (and how these were slowly beginning to change a little). It was definitely an interesting read. If you want to know the true story behind the film (which took rather a lot of liberties even with what is known) then it is worth a read.

This was a good book. I would recommend reading A Cinder's Tale (published in the Five Glass Slippers anthology) first, because I don't think this would have been fully satisfying in its own right, but for someone who already cares about the characters it works well as a prequel. However, it could be read on its own. I would definitely recommend it.

This book was quite a bit longer than the two previous books in the series. This was a good thing, because it meant there was more time to enjoy the book! It also allowed for more development of the story, especially in terms of plot and worldbuilding.

I have to say that I don't think I enjoyed this one quite as much as the previous books, but that doesn't mean that I was disappointed in it; it was still a really good book. I really liked the characters and the worldbuilding, and thought that the story was good too.

All in all this was an enjoyable read. I thought the mystery aspect of this was good. Perhaps not surprisingly (given the title), books play a significant role, which was of course a bonus. There were a few twists along the way which I didn't see coming, though perhaps others might. I also really liked the historical detail; I enjoyed learning about medieval Oxford, the university, and Nicholas' work as a bookseller, which I found really interesting. However, although I thought these details seemed to fit quite naturally into the story, I can see that some readers might find them distracting from the main mystery. I didn't think the characterisation was as good; the main characters were all likeable enough by none of them really seemed to come to life. I'm hoping they might develop more in later books.