Tag: Reading Challenges

20 Books Of Summer 2025 Reading Challenge Sign-Up #20BooksofSummer2025

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Cathy at 746 Books has handed over the baton of the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge to two new hosts: Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace. Thank you, Cathy, for hosting what has become one of my favourite reading challenges for the past ten years. Put your feet up now and read a book… or twenty.

The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st. You can find all the information you need about the challenge here where you can also sign up to participate. It’s where you can also grab the wonderful new logos to use on your sign-up post, updates and reviews. Plus there’s a bingo card if you want to make things even more challenging.

Every year I approach the challenge high on ambition and usually low on likelihood of success. But, hey, it’s supposed to be a challenge, isn’t it? I’m aiming for the full 20 books, targeting the oldest physical books in my TBR pile, quite a few of which – sadly – have appeared on previous years’ lists.

Being a stubborn old so-and-so, I like to stick to my original list and not take advantage of the option to swap books in and out. However, I am going to allow myself the freedom to DNF at the 25% point if I’m not loving a book. (I rarely DNF books usually.) I have audio versons of the two biggest books and I’m hoping this might help me get through them.

If I DNF a book, it’s going to the charity bookshop. If I finish it but didn’t absolutely love it, it’s going to the charity bookshop. That should mean lots of space created on my bookshelves. Win/win.

Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads. I’ll update them with links to my reviews when I’ve read them.

  1. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson Read
  2. The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel Read
  3. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee Read
  4. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Read
  5. The Body in the Ice by A. J. Mackenzie Read
  6. The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser Read
  7. The Dark Isle by Clare Carson
  8. Pompeii by Robert Harris
  9. The Assassin of Verona by Benet Brandreth
  10. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  11. Force of Nature by Jane Harper
  12. The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
  13. Appetite by Philip Kazan
  14. Tombland by C. J. Sansom
  15. Anna of Kleve by Alison Weir
  16. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
  17. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  18. All The Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
  19. Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
  20. The Cross and the Curse by Matthew Harffy

Wish me luck! If you’re taking part too, enjoy your summer of reading.

Book Review – Viper in the Nest by Georgina Clarke @clarkegeorgina1 @Verve_Books

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Welcome to the final day of the blog tour for Viper in the Nest by Georgina Clarke, the third book in the Lizzie Hardwicke historical crime series. My thanks to Lisa at VERVE Books for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy. Head over to Instagram, X or Bluesky to read the thoughts of the other readers taking part in the tour.

About the Book

London, June 1759. When a charmless civil servant takes his own life, few are interested in his death. But Lizzie Hardwicke, who plies her trade in the brothels of London whilst also working as an undercover sleuth for the magistrate, can see no reason why a man who had everything to look forward to would wish to end his life.

Lizzie’s search for answers takes her from the smoke-filled rooms of fashionable gambling houses, where politicians mix ambition with pleasure, to the violent streets of Soho, ready to erupt with riots in the sultry summer heat. All the while, she is navigating her complicated feelings for the magistrate’s trusted assistant, Will Davenport, and a disturbing situation at home.

Then a gambling house owner is brutally murdered, and Lizzie finds herself tangled in a chaos that she cannot control. The darkest of secrets threatens to turn Davenport against her forever; its exposure will send her to the gallows.

Format: Paperback (320 pages) Publisher: VERVE Books
Publication date: 24th April 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find Viper in the Nest on Goodreads

Purchase Viper in the Nest from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

I haven’t read either of the previous books in the series – Death and the Harlot and The Corpse Played Dead – which puts me in the perfect position to assure you Viper in the Nest can definitely be read as a standalone.

You can’t help but become engaged in the story from the start with the sudden and seemingly inexplicable suicide of a man who seemed to have everything. But was it all built on sand? Just how did a clerk working in a government office acquire the wealth to afford a large house and a mistress? As Lizzie observes, ‘Mr Merrick, the dullest man in London, was beginning to intrigue me.’

At one point a character says to Lizzie, ‘I think you’re like a terrier with a bone, agitating people until you find answers’ and there was never a truer word said because Lizzie can’t stop herself trying to find out the truth. She’s a brilliant character: resourceful, clever, witty and a loyal friend. She’s used to dissembling, pretending attraction where there is none. But her insatiable curiosity brings her dangerous enemies.

Always at the back of Lizzie’s mind are the circumstances that brought about such a change in her life and social status. She’s determined that will change one day but a new arrival at the Berwick Street brothel threatens her plans.

I liked the way the story demonstrated the divisions in society with many citizens of London living in abject poverty whilst the rich (mostly men) while away the hours gambling, whoring and seeking preferment in whatever way they can. The epitome of this excess is the bizarre personal bets, often involving thousands of pounds, placed on events such as what the weather will be on a particular day.

I enjoyed the simmering relationship between Lizzie and magistrate’s assistant, William Davenport. Despite signs of mutual attraction, Lizzie’s mindful that a harlot doesn’t make an ideal wife for a man in William’s position.

Viper in the Nest is a really entertaining historical mystery with a skilfully crafted plot and great period atmosphere. I hope there will be more adventures to come for Lizzie.

In three words: Engaging, suspenseful, colourful
Try something similar: Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

About the Author

Georgina Clarke has a degree in theology and a PhD in history part-time, while working as a parish priest. Her love of the past is at the heart of her fiction: her Lizzie Hardwicke crime series is set in the mid-eighteenth century, and her standalone novel – The Dazzle of the Light – unfolds in 1920s London and is inspired by the real-life activities of the women-led Forty Elephants crime syndicate. Georgina is currently a tutor at the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham. When she’s not working she enjoys dressmaking, running and mooching around old houses. She lives in Worcester with her husband, son and son, and two lively cats.

Connect with Georgina
Website | X/Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky