The Try a Chapter Tag #1

The online book community often do ‘tags’ which are usually a series of questions around a particular bookish topic. The try a chapter tag is when you read a chapter of a few different books before deciding which one to read.

I recently reorganised my bookshelf and ordered books in terms of those that I have read and those that I have yet to read and the order that I might read them in. I had some books left and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to read them or not so I decided to try a chapter of each book to decide whether I want to read them.

The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward

I won this book in a giveaway and it was one of the books that I didn’t know much about. When I read the blurb I wasn’t sure about the book. It features a princess who makes a love potion and accidentally drinks it herself and another girl who works with potions and tries to help the princess. There is a possible love interest and social media. The only thing that really interested me was the apothecary part. I read a couple of chapters to experience the book from both perspectives. The thing that put me off this book was the fact that both females are romantically interested in the same man and we see him interact with the princess where he seems completely uninterested in her.

Spinning Thorns by Anna Sheehan

This book is a Sleeping Beauty retelling and this intrigued me. The writing of this book started very confusing but throughout the first chapter we gradually obtain pieces of information about one of the main characters and their story. This book is set after the tale of Sleeping Beauty, the princess woke up twenty years ago and is married with children. She took away the names of all of the fairies related to the fairy who placed the curse on her. This means that they are outcasts and are hunted down as a result. This book features two perspectives and the first one that we follow is the nephew of the fairy that placed the curse on the princess. So this story was dark but interesting. However, the fairy seemed to truly wish harm on the royal family and the fact that the princess, now Queen was so harsh on the family of the fairy seemed unlike the character that we are used to from the original story. I don’t know whether the whole story kept to a dark tone but I just did not like reading from a character who didn’t seem to think of a different way of dealing with the problems they faced or think from a different perspective.

How to Think Like Sherlock: Improve Yours Powers of Observation, Memory and Deduction by Daniel Smith

I actually ended up reading more of this book! I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. It mixes quotations from the original Sherlock Holmes stories with research, puzzles and suggestions. If this interests you then I would recommend checking it out. I will be posting a review when I finish the book! I think that it would make a great gift for a Sherlock fan and I might actually get it for one of my friends.

I still have more books to sort out so I may be doing more of these posts. Let me know if you do this tag!