I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off so, when I saw this book challenge I though ‘yeah, sign me up for that one.’

ON YOUR MARKS – A Book You Can’t Wait To Read

I can’t wait to read The Last Mandarin, a fast-paced, all-too-real thriller co-written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny and award-winning journalist Mellissa Fung, global politics become personal for two unlikely heroines.

The Last Mandarin is an electrifying study of absolute power and voracious greed, political terror and personal conviction. But it is also, as to be expected from the minds of Louise Penny, beloved author of the Gamache novels, and Mellissa Fung, an acclaimed international journalist, an intimate examination of choice, of sacrifice, of memory and myths, both cultural and personal. It is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down.

SIGNATURE BAKE – A Book From Your Favourite Genre

This series, Her Majesty Investigates, just goes from strength to strength and this title, coming out in May, is one that’s been on my radar for a while. I mean, just look at that cover?

SHOWSTOPPER – A Book With A Beautiful Cover

Though I love SFF and read a lot of crime fiction, I also love a good historical novel now and then, and recently discovered The Boleyn Curse which also just happens to have a great cover.

The court of young King Henry VIII seethes with secrets and scandals, but every ambition has its price. Elizabeth Boleyn, loyal wife to Thomas Boleyn and devoted mother to Anne, Mary and George, believes she can navigate the shifting tides of court life. But when she catches the eye of the lascivious king, Elizabeth is drawn into a perilous game and the cost of her defiance will echo through the generations.

SOGGY BOTTOM – A Book That Made You Cry

There are not many book that make me cry but there was a certain scene in Foundryside that, when a certain character died, got me really choked up. And yes, I may have shed a tear or two.

HOLLYWOOD HANDSHAKE – Your Perfect Book

I read The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett last year and it was, for me at least, the perfect fantasy read (if ever there was one). Excellently written from cover to cover, a unique setting and clever world building, I was hooked from page one.

LEAVING THIS WEEK – A Book You Didn’t Finish

Ugh, I have read one too many books that ended up being a DNF for one reason or another. Sadly, this was one of them.

STAR BAKER – A Five Star Read

My 5-Star read? Has to be the superb second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, A Drop Of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett.

AND THE WINNER IS – A Book By A Favourite Author

As anyone who reads knows, it’s really hard to choose just one book as a winner/favourite out of all the books we read week to week. So asking me to choose just one is thrown me into a quandary. I want to say one of the above mentioned books but is that cheating?

Ha! I’m going to choose THE TAINTED CUP (mentioned above) — book one in the Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett — as it’s the book I read that got me back into reading fantasy again after a very long hiatus.

And you Dear Reader, what would make it onto your Great British Bake Off list?