Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 29
March 20, 2018
Book review: The Professor’s Secret by Peggy Bird
The Professor’s Secret by Peggy Bird
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I bought this book as a box set of beta hero books from Crimson Romance.
Claudia Manchester, English Lit professor, writes sizzling erotica under the pen name April Mayes. If her colleagues found out, she’ll never get tenure.
Brad Davis falls in love with Claudia, but she won’t tell him her real name. He knows her by yet another name – Claire Mason.
I really liked the characters in this book. Especially Claudia. Brad was a bit of a...
February 28, 2018
Book review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was incredible. I put off reading it for ages because everyone was talking about it and I thought ‘it can’t possibly be as good as the hype’. Turned out I was wrong about that!
Firstly, it gave me a window into a world that I knew very little about.
Secondly, it was powerful. Sharp, to the point and clear in its description.
The most moving scene for me was the one where the family sit down to watch a game on TV. The thing that...
February 23, 2018
Guest post on SmartBitches about Dirk Gently
You may remember that I ADORED the first series of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on Netflix. Season 2 came out at the end of last year and I raced through it. I’m having a good old squee about it on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books site. Go read.
If you want to see the trailer, here it is on YouTube. Welcome to Bergsberg.
February 21, 2018
Book review: Living In The Past by Jane Lovering
Living in the Past by Jane Lovering
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Grace is grieving, two years after her husband died. Her friend Tabitha persuades her to volunteer at an archaeological dig in North Yorkshire. When going for a walk in the area, she finds herself in a bronze age settlement. The very settlement that grumpy Scot and dig director Duncan McDonald is looking for with this dig. But Duncan has his own ghosts from the past – year...
February 8, 2018
Self Publishing Journeys
Last year, I went to a Society of Authors event and got chatting to a lovely bloke called Paul. We discussed how I drifted from traditional publishing into indie publishing and the advantages of being a hybrid published author. The upshot of that conversation was a longer conversation that happened on his podcast.
You can listen to the whole episode here:
https://self-publishing-journeys.com/episode-101-rhoda-baxter/
We talked about my writing journey. He was most amused by the fact that my...
January 30, 2018
Book review: Write to Sell by Andy Maslen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Since I have to write a lot of copy now that I’ve got a few indie books out – writing blurbs, writing emails – I figured I should read up a bit on how to write copy. This book is easy to read and concise (which is good, since one of the main pieces of advice is ‘be concise’!).
There are lots of useful pointers here. To be honest, a lot of what he says is what my English teacher taught me at O-level, but it’s good to have it reiterated. It’s...
January 23, 2018
Book review: The Framley Examiner by Robin Halstead
The Framley Examiner by Robin Halstead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A friend lent this book to me many years ago and I loved it so much that I bought a copy. It is completely bonkers and fun. There is absolutely NOTHING serious about it.
I like to dip into it every so often when I need cheering up. I love the small ads pages. The ad for ‘Can’t you Breathe Little Bear’ had me in stitches. I love the town names too, especially Effing Sodbury.
This is very British and very, very silly. Sometimes you...
January 16, 2018
Book Review: Max Seventeen: Firebrand by Kate Johnson
Max Seventeen: Firebrand by Kate Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I read the first Max Seventeen book, I raved about it for days. It took me a while to get around to reading this one because… well, it’s a sequel and you know what they say about sequels. On the other hand, I LOVED Max. Plus, Space pirates.
I picked up the book and within the first few pages I was completely sucked back into the world of Max, Riley and the crew of the...
January 9, 2018
Book review: The Heights by Juliet Bell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A retelling of Wuthering Heights set in the 1980s during the Miner’s Strike. I studied Wuthering Heights at A-level, so I was curious to see how this went.
It was wonderful. For the first few chapters, I kept trying to link back to the characters in the original – Lockwood is a detective who has a hunch about Heathcliff, ‘Nellie’ Dean is a social worker etc, but after a while I stopped bothering and just got caught up in the story. I stayed u...
January 3, 2018
Book review: Christmas at the Little Village School by Jane Lovering
Christmas at the Little Village School by Jane Lovering
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This arrived on my Kindle yesterday and I read it as fast as I could. Jane Lovering’s books are an auto buy for me.
Lydia teaches at a school in a tiny village, alongside her fellow teacher Jake. She’s prickly and sharp edged, especially when it comes to Jake. Jake is big and kind without being a pushover. They’ve been tasked with organising the school play at short notice. Given the kids, Christmas, plaster of Pa...
