I Read, Therefore I Blog

The Blurb On The Back:

Naeli loves her life in Hyderabad, India, yet she yearns to find her English father, who left when she was little. When a mysterious ticket arrives from England, Naeli abandons her familiar world to track him down. Armed only with her father’s name and cherished violin, she embarks on a bold adventure through Victorian London and beyond …

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The Verdict:

Jasbinder Bilan’s standalone historical adventure for readers aged 9+ is a mixed affair. I liked the fact that this is a story about bi-racial children with Indian and English heritage as it’s not something that gets covered a lot. Naeli is a plucky and determined character with a real gift for music and I liked her friendship with the confident Jack but the plot is episodic and for me missed emotional details that would have helped flesh it out.

NAELI AND THE SECRET SONG was released in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to the dark heart of Cornwall …

The Cornish village of St Petroc is the sort of place where people come to hide. Tom Kilgannon is one such person. An ex-undercover cop, Tom is in the Witness Protection Programme hiding from some very violent people, and St Petroc’s offers him a chance to lice a safe and anonymous life.

Until he meets Lila.

Lila is a seventeen-year-old runaway. When she breaks into Tom’s house she takes more than just his money. His wallet holds everything about his new identity. He also knows that Lila is in danger from the travellers’ commune she’s been living in. Something sinister has been going on there and Lila knows more than she realises.

But to find her he risks not only giving away his location to the gangs he’s hiding from, but also becoming a target for whoever is hunting Lila.

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The Verdict:

Martyn Waites’s novel (the first in a series) marries thriller and folk horror but because there’s so much going on it’s less than the sum of its parts. It has good pacing and there are some creepy moments, but the plot is heavily contrived at times and neither Tom nor Lila quite convince as characters while the antagonist is similarly underdeveloped. It’s not a bad book, I kept turning the pages, but it wasn’t as satisfying a read as I’d hoped.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Berlin was in ruins when Soviet forces fought their way towards the Reichstag in the spring of 1945.

Berlin’s fate had been sealed four months earlier at the Yalta Conference. The city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious powers - British, American, French and Soviet. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution; in reality, it fired the starting gun for the Cold War.

Rival systems, rival ideologies and rival personalities ensured that Berlin became an explosive battleground. The ruins of this once-great city were soon awash with spies, gangsters and black-marketeers, all of whom sought to profit from the disarray.

For the next four years, a handful of charismatic but flawed individuals - British, American and Soviet - fought an intensely personal battle over the future of Germany, Europe and the entire free world.

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The Verdict:

Giles Milton is a writer and best-selling historian. This very readable and informative book explores Berlin between 1945 and 1950 sets out how the agreement between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference set the seeds for the Berlin Blockade and the Cold War. Extensively footnoted and drawing on personal papers from Colonel Frank Howley it’s particularly good on the specifics of governing and everyday life in post-war Berlin.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Whiteshift tells the most important political story of the 21st century: how demographic change is transforming Western politics and how to think about the future of white majorities.

This is the century of whiteshift. As Western societies are becoming increasingly mixed race, demographic change is transforming politics. Over half of American babies are non-white, and by the end of the century, minorities and those of mixed race are projected to form the majority in the UK and other counties. The early stages of this transformation have led to a populist disruption. One of our most crucial challenges is to enable both conservatives and cosmopolitans to view whiteshift as a positive development.

In this groundbreaking book, political scientist Eric Kaufmann traces four ways of dealing with this transformation - fight, repress, flight and join - and calls for us to move beyond empty talk about national identity. To avoid more radical political divisions, we have to open up debate about the future of white majorities.

Deeply thought provoking, Whiteshift offers a wealth of data to redefine the way we discuss race in the twenty-first century.

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The Verdict:

Eric Kauffman is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College. This book posits that to fight populism in the West politicians should accept white majority concerns about immigration, and consider restrictions on/conditions to the same. Unfortunately, Kauffman fails to explain what he - or indeed white majorities - mean by white culture and as we are seeing in 2025, giving ground to populist extremists only sees them tack harder to white supremacy.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Assaults. Riots. Cell fires. Medical emergencies. Understaffed wings. Suicides, Hooch. Weapons. It’s all in a week’s work at HMP Parkhurst.

After 28 years working as a prison officer, with 22 years at HMP Parkhurst, one of Britain’s most high security prisons. David Berridge has had to deal with it all: serial killers and gangsters, terrorists and sex offenders, psychopaths and addicts.

Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and learn how to avoid their many scams.

Inside Parkhurst is his raw, uncompromising look at what really goes on behind the massive walls and menacing gates.

Both horrifying and hilarious, David’s diaries will shock and entertain in equal measure.

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The Verdict:

David Berridge worked as a prison officer at Parkhurst and its sister site Albany for 28 years between 1992 and 2019. This book, based on notes that he took as part of his job, paints a bleak picture of a tough job dealing with violent and manipulative men but also men who are suicidal. While strong on the job, I wanted to know more about Berridge, who he is, what drives him, and how the service can be improved to give it a human aspect.

The Blurb On The Back:

The definitive new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the author of Chernobyl, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize.

For more than four weeks in the fall of October 1962 the world teetered. The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave. Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.

In Nuclear Folly, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Kruschchev and Fidel Castro, and of their advisors and commanders on the ground. More often than not, Plokhy argues, the Americans and Soviets simply misread each other, operating under mutual distrust, second-guesses and false information. Despite all of this, nuclear disaster was avoided thanks to one very human reason: fear.

Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources, including the recently declassified KGB files, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama of those tense days. Authoritative, fast-paced and unforgettable, this is the definitive new account of the Cold War’s most perilous moment.

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The Verdict:

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of History at Harvard University and a leading authority on Eastern Europe. Published in 2021, this gripping book draws on then recently released KGB files to analyse the Cuban Missile Crisis from both the US and Russian perspective, drawing out how badly Kruschev and Kennedy misread and misunderstood each others positions and how nuclear war was averted by fear and accident more than negotiation and decision.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to Niveus Private Academy …

Where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter Aces is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in his rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high school game …

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The Verdict:

Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé’s debut YA thriller is billed as GET OUT meets GOSSIP GIRL for good reason. It’s a searing high concept novel where racism meets conspiracy to create an intense choking claustrophobia as Aces racks up their campaign against Von and Chiamaka. That said, it doesn’t nail the final quarter and there are holes in the conspiracy if you think about it too closely but it has pace, it makes you think and it still feels of the moment.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Spies lie. They betray. It’s what they do.

Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man’s library, and a mysteriously missing book.

Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn’t appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity.

Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks.

Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault.

But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all come home, there’ll be a reckoning.

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The Verdict:

The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.

The Blurb On The Back:

Pedro likes everything to be perfect.

His pile of toys …

His roly-polies …

And even his friends.

When Pedro meets Poppy, he thinks he’s met the perfect friend, until they enter the school talent show together. Poppy’s approach is definitely not perfect. But maybe she can show Pedro that perfection is not always what it’s cracked up to be …

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The Verdict:

Simon Philip’s lovely picture book about not putting pressure on yourself by trying to be perfect all the time and instead just focus on enjoying yourself, features delightful illustrations by Ella Oksted that convey a real sense of energy and movement. Young readers will enjoy the colours and the mischievous sense of humour and adults will enjoy the book’s central message.

PERFECT PEDRO was released in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

School. Home. Life. Everything has changed for Amir and Mo since they arrived in the UK as refugees. The two close friends are navigating their new lives as best they can: navigating their new lessons, using new languages.

But when Amir suddenly finds himself in hospital, he starts to read. Through the books, he finds an inspiring, unexpected voice to guide him. Will this help Amir and Mo to finally find their voice and come to terms with their past?

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The Verdict:

Sita Brahmachari’s contemporary novella for readers aged 11+ is part of a collection specifically aimed at readers with dyslexia and those lacking in confidence. It’s a very sensitive, empathic look at friendship, what it means to be a refugee and the terrible experiences that those who have been displaced endure in their journey to the UK that is all the more important given the current political climate.

PHOENIX BROTHERS was released in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.