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Kathrin

@torchlight.reader

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fantasy & romance, ARC reader
📖 Turncloak
📱 The Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
🎧 DCC 5
2026 📚: 241

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New on my shelves this week: I posted my review of Tales from the Territory earlier this year, and am delighted to finally have a physical copy on my shelves. This is the Waterstones edition to match my other three.

Doubling up for this week's @buddyreadbooknook photo challenge and including a picture of one of my favourite jumpers. I love a dark green, and this one has a collar and a button top. It's fresh out of the wash, and will be back in use by the weekend...

#newonmyshelves #buddyreadbooknook #cosyjumper #legendsandlattes #talesfromtheterritory by @torchlight.reader

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3 days ago

Happy #mapmonday - it's the start of the holidays, so I still just about remember what day it is...

I'm really excited as this is the week of Cymera Loves Romantasy, and I'm reading some titles by attending authors in the run-up to the event. I'm starting Turncloak today and can't wait to return to Ascenfall. Other titles I'm hoping to read this week are The Book of Blood & Roses and The Café at the End of the World.

Where are your literary adventures taking you this week?

#fantastyreader #cymeralovesromantasy #lksteven #turncloak by @torchlight.reader

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6 days ago

#monstermash with some of the titles from my shelf for another #oldskoolchallengeclub prompt:

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble Into the Midnight Wood - a macabre Hansel and Gretel retelling.

The Witch and the Tsar Keep It in the Dark - not suitable for readers under 18.

Gifted & Talented People of Abandoned Character - short biographies of the world's richest CEOs.

Which one of these would you read?

#HereForTheFunNotTheNumbers #scottishbookstagram by @torchlight.reader

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7 days ago

I had the absolute pleasure of participating in the @instabooktours read along of The Deadly Inheritance of Everest MacDonald by @ajwestauthor, which is now out.

The story follows Everest, who gets tasked by her dying father to discover the truth behind the death of her Uncle William, a famous actor, who was stabbed outside the theatre by another actor twenty years earlier. The perpetrator, another actor, now resides in an asylum. Armed with a folder of letters, newspaper clippings, and some diaries, Everest sets out to solve the mystery of her uncle's death.

I previously read The Betrayal of Thomas True by AJ West, and having absolutely loved the author's writing style, I was excited for this new release. I'm amazed by how AJ spun together what must have been a wealth of research and turned a story based on facts and real people into this absolute page turner of historical fiction.
Everest was a compelling main character, and I enjoyed her collaboration with Clare. The pair made excellent amateur detectives, and I was amazed at how far the settings of the story reached, with diary entries and correspondence taking us far afield.

I ended up reading the last third of the book into the night as the mystery kept me guessing and unable to put the book down. Thanks again to Instabooktours for having me on the read along!

Homemade murder macarons included as spooky baking for this week's @buddyreadbooknook photo challenge.

#instabooktours #historicalfiction #murdermystery #thedeadlyinheritanceofeverestmacdonald #ajwest by @torchlight.reader

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8 days ago

#HauntingHaiku to kick off my takes on the first this week's @oldskoolchallengeclub prompts.

I give you three lines of haunting Arctic horror and impending doom. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with. Yes, I read through the titles of the visible spines to find suitable candidates. And yes, plenty more options available.

Give this one a try - it's great fun!

#HereForTheFunNotTheNumbers #OldSkoolChallengeClub #scottishbookstagram #spookyseason by @torchlight.reader

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8 days ago

Time for the third @oldskoolchallengeclub prompt of this week - it's the #GraveyardShift !

I've gone digging, looking through shelves, digital TBRs, and others, and here are some of the skeletons I have unearthed:

First up, there's the book box sector of the graveyard. Star Daughter was in my first ever Fairyloot box, which I received back in August 2020, and The Space Between Worlds was in my first ever Illumicrate box and has been resting on my shelves since July 2020....

Next up is a skeleton that also has a digital memorial on NetGalley. I absolutely loved Little Thieves by Margaret Owen and obviously requested and ordered Painted Devils when it came out... Waiting to be read since April 2023...

Then we have the series finale I absolutely had to have when it came out in August 2021, Gods & Monsters, and which has since been gathering dust.

Finally, this last title is a current empty grave with a symbolic stand-in. I paused my read of Gideon the Ninth in May 2025, and haven't gone back to it since. As it turns out, my hardback isn't even on the shelf I expected it to be, so Harrow is currently standing in for the missing skeleton...

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my TBR graveyard. There are plenty more skeletons buried... Are there any titles I should prioritise?

#HereForTheFunNotTheNumbers #OldSkoolChallengeClub #scottishbookstagram #fantastyreader by @torchlight.reader

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9 days ago

Birthday book stacks!!! I completed another trip around the sun yesterday - and didn't get around to posting this between work, a meal out, and general end of term exhaustion resulting in me falling asleep when putting the youngest to bed.

So, anyway, 46 looks great so far, and I got absolutely spoilt. The first picture shows the books and sweet treats from my birthday book club, and the second one has presents from my husband, my parents and work (and yep, they're all pretty editions).

While there are a few shelf trophies (I have already read Homeward for a Spell and the first three of the Saints of Steel books), there are plenty of books added to my TBR. Do you spot any I should prioritise?

#birthdaybookhaul #newonmyshelves #beautifulbooks #readqueerallyear #scottishbookstagram by @torchlight.reader

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10 days ago

Tour stop: Adam, Mine by K. Ancrum

This Frankenstein retelling really delivered on Victor's character - his youthful arrogance, his longing for approval, and the way he backed himself into a corner were absolutely spot on.

How can the end justify the means if he cannot produce any ends?

For Elias, there were some significant changes to the monster's origin: whereas the classical tale gave us a monster assembled from body parts and in a scientific manner, Victor in this novel kidnaps Elias from a neighbouring village and fakes the whole reanimation. There is alchemy at work rather than science, with the resurrection creating an emotional link between Victor and Elias.
Overall, Elias's character felt less consistent in my opinion - the good, wronged guy who still ended up exacting revenge.

I found the novel quite the page turner! Ancrum's signature short chapters drove the narrative as Elias hunted Victor across Europe.
One detail that baffled me was Victor claiming to read French poorly, having grown up in French-speaking Geneva (Swiss dual national here). It was definitely an intriguing take on the Frankenstein source material, and it was an emotional rollercoaster with the guilt, anger, and the need for forgiveness or vengeance. As with the original, the question of what makes a monster and what makes a man remains at the heart of this story.

Huge thanks to @pridebooktours for having me on the tour, and to @harper360ya for sending me a review copy of the book.

#adammine #frankensteinretelling #readqueerallyear #pridebooktours #scottishbookstagram by @torchlight.reader

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10 days ago

Sharing the beautiful endpapers of The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands for #mapmonday. This is the October pick of my local fantasy book group, and as we're meeting this Saturday, it's the next title I'll be picking up. I am already intrigued by the various carriages the Trans Siberian Express in this historic fantasy has. There's a garden carriage, and I absolutely love that there's a library and an observation carriage!

Has your reading taken you on any journeys recently?

#scottishbookstagram
#fantasyreader #historicalfantasy #thecautioustravellersguide by @torchlight.reader

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13 days ago

I went on a WITCH HUNT for @oldskoolchallengeclub 's #toilandtrouble prompt.

And to make it a bit trickier, I only plucked books with WITCH in the title off the shelves. There were plenty of books with sorcery, spells, coven, and hex in the title, and other books with witches as important characters. But in the end, my witch hunt turned up the titles that make up this neat flatlay.

Have you read any of these?

#hereforthefunnotthenumbers #oldskoolchallengeclub #witchybooks #witchyflatlay by @torchlight.reader

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14 days ago

Current read and a snack: I've just started reading The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by @lexcanroar and it's off to a promising start. I've taken an instant liking to Briar and the prose is thoroughly enjoyable. Four passages highlighted in the first chapter because the descriptions tickled my fancy and took shape in my imagination.

Now to the snack - if, like me, you have plenty of foods you need to avoid, I can recommend the winning combination of Schär salted pretzels (gluten-free and vegan-friendly) with some vegan hazelnut chocolate spread for dipping.

What are you reading this weekend?

#currentread #theunmagicallifeofbriarjones #lexcroucher #scottishbookstagram #readqueerallyear by @torchlight.reader

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14 days ago

Here are some of my October hopefuls - it includes books for various bingo boards, book clubs, etc. There are more titles on there, but these are six I'm excited and determined to read in equal measures. So let's see if they make an appearance in my October wrap-up post!

From top to bottom:
A Sorceress Comes to Call
The Handmaid's Tale
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands
The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones
The Unicorn Hunters
Starling House

That is, if they don't float off before then...

October TBR for this week's @buddyreadbooknook challenge, and #LevitatingLiterature for oldskoolchallengeclub .

#HereForTheFunNotTheNumbers #OldSkoolChallengeClub #scottishbookstagram #octoberhopefuls by @torchlight.reader

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15 days ago