Wonderland Reader

 This one's a bit of a Christmas bumper special! The Matzah Ball   by Jean Meltzer Published: 28th September 2021 by Piatkus I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review. As soon as I saw this I knew I wanted to give it a go - there aren't nearly enough non-Christmas holiday romances written or published by big houses, so I wanted to show my support. I really liked Meltzer's writing and found that the alternating of chapters between Rachel and Jacob's POV allowed for good character development of them both. I also think the way in which she incorporated Jewish practices and culture into the story was very accessible but still informative and actually taught me a lot. While I am a big fan of the romance in the story, I thought the fact that such a big part of the story is about Rachel becoming more confident in herself was great. I also really appreciated that Meltzer used her own experience with a chronic illness in...

The Lost Apothecary   by Sarah Penner Published: 2nd March 2021 by Legend Press I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review. I was really intrigued but he sound of this book - the idea of a women's-only apothecary used for nefarious purposes sounded great! Unfortunately the book didn't pan out exactly how I thought or hoped it would, and I ended up finding myself just trying to get through the book by the end of it. I enjoyed the fact that 2 of the protagonists were older women, in their 30s and 40s rather than the newly-adult women I typically read about. However, I do think my main drawback of the novel was the fact that no connection of any sort was made between modern-day Caroline and Nella from the past until over halfway through the book. It made it read more like 2 books than one cohesive story, sadly. I also didn't think one of the main plot points of the story, the murder, warranted the time it took up in the...