
Welcome to my personal book blog - Brown Flopsy's Book Burrow!!
I am mad about books in all their forms - paper books, e-books and audio books.
I review books and share the bookish love. You may also see me talking about books on Twitter (X), Instagram and Threads (@brownflopsy).
I always give honest reviews of the books I have enjoyed, and the views expressed here are completely my own.
I am also a member of, and admin for, the SquadPod Collective bloggers group.
Search This Blog
Tuesday, December 31, 2030
Friday, August 1, 2025
The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson
The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson.
Published 22nd July 2025 by Cassava Republic Press.
From the cover of the book:
Bradford, December 1962.A precocious Mercy makes her reluctant entrance into the world, torn from the warm embrace of her mother’s womb, to a chaotic household that seems to have no place for her. Her siblings do not understand her, her mother’s attention is given to the Church, and the entire family lives at the whims of her father’s quick temper.
Left to herself, Mercy finds solace in books, her imagination, and the quiet comfort of her faithful toy, Dolly. But escapism has its limits, and as the grip of family, faith and fear threatens to close in, Mercy learns she must act if she wants a different future; one where she is seen, heard, and her family set free.
The Mercy Step is a sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl’s quiet rebellion, and her refusal to be broken.
She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to Cultural Diversity. Moving to Manchester in 2012, she became a community activist and was eventually elected as a Labour Councillor in 2021. She is now a full-time writer and an active member of the Black Writers' Guild.
She is the co-author with Kate Griffin (under the pseudonym Lila Cain) of the historical fiction novel The Blackbirds of St Giles, which will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2025. The Mercy Step is her literary debut as a solo writer.
July 2025 Reading Round-Up
July 2025 Reading Round-Up
![]() |
Getting Away by Kate Sawyer |
![]() |
Divinity Games by Lou Gilmond |
![]() |
The Heretic Cypher by Murray Bailey |
![]() |
Murder In Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie |
![]() |
Havoc by Rebecca Wait |
![]() |
Seven Recipes For Revolution by Ryan Rose |
![]() |
The Secrets Of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore |
![]() |
The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster |
![]() |
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko |
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko.
Published 3rd July 2025 by Oneworld.
From the cover of the book:
TWO UNFORGETTABLE STORIES. TWO FAMILIES. TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY.1854: When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Brisbane – or Edenglassie, as it was once briefly known – his community still outnumbers the British settlers. Tensions are simmering just beneath the surface of a fragile peace, but hopes for independence are running high. Yet when colonial unrest tears through the region, Mulanyin's passion for his new bride clashes with his loyalty to a homeland in danger.
Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny when her grandmother Eddie has a serious fall. Winona just wants the obstinate centenarian back on her feet, but a shrewd journalist has other ideas. Eddie becomes a local celebrity, dominating the headlines as 'Queensland's Oldest Aboriginal'.
Her time in the spotlight brings past and present crashing together, the legacy of Nita and Mulanyin's tragic past reaching into Winona and Eddie's lives with consequences they couldn't have predicted.
Melissa Lucashenko is a Goorie (Aboriginal) author of Bundjalung and European heritage. Her first novel was published in 1997 and since then her work has received acclaim in many literary awards. Her sixth novel, Too Much Lip, won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, the Stella Prize, two Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, two Queensland Literary Awards and two NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, and a founding member of human rights organisation Sisters Inside. She writes about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead.
The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster
The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster.
Published 29th May 2025 by Mantle.
From the cover of the book:
Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is the unforgettable feminist historical novel from the Women's Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.They said I would swing for the crime, and I did . . .
1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged for the murder of her newborn child, passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.
But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.
It is Maggie. She is alive.
Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering this one: will they hang her twice?
Kate Foster worked as a national newspaper journalist for more than twenty years before becoming an author. Growing up in Edinburgh, she became fascinated by its history and often uses it as inspiration for her stories. Her previous novels include The Maiden, which won the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and The King’s Witches. The Mourning Necklace is her third novel. She lives in Edinburgh with her two children.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore
The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore.
Published 31st July by Simon and Schuster.
From the cover of the book:
Secrets from the past, unravelling in the present…Set in the beautiful environs of the Norfolk Broads in 2010, and in London in the '40s and ‘50s, when life for career-driven women was so different, The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge is Sunday Times multi-million copy bestselling author Rachel Hore’s utterly compelling new novel, interweaving the past and the present.
Friday, July 25, 2025
Seven Recipes For Revolution (What We Eat Book One) by Ryan Rose
Seven Recipes for Revolution (What We Eat Book One) by Ryan Rose.
Published 22nd July 2025 by Daphne Press.
From the cover of the book:
The Bear meets Attack on Titan in this exhilarating, food-based epic fantasy filled with high stakes and monster steaks, perfect for fans of Pierce Brown and Jay Kristoff.Paprick is a common butcher, carving slabs of meat from gargantuan monsters so elite chefs can prepare magic-granting meals for the rich. But Paprick’s true passion is cooking, and if he can learn the secret art, his dreams of liberating his people and sharing the monsters’ magic with the world could come true. He steals the precious ingredients needed to practise recipes at home, but if he’s caught, he’ll be executed.
As his desperation grows, he ventures into the black market and uncovers a spice imported from unknown lands. Combining it with the last of his stolen meat, he cooks a dish the world has never tasted before, with side-effects he couldn’t have foreseen.
The dish’s magic grows Paprick to kaiju-size, and legends of his powers spread among the people. Immediately, the rulers arrest him, but Paprick convinces them to make him a chef’s apprentice—if they ever want to learn his Recipe. However, his exposure to the world of high cuisine reveals the rot at its centre, and with his new power, rebellion is only a few recipes away…
A year later, he became an English major working in Concert and Live Entertainment production and writing a fantasy novel, eager to become a full-time author. These days, Ryan lives in Oakland with his partner and their dog, which may in fact be a demon. He still works in event production (occasionally) but now works to support Democracy Policy, which is more relevant to revolutions at least. Ryan continues to write about ridiculous things, like a world where people eat kaiju to gain superpowers. At least he achieved that author thing part-time.
His debut epic fantasy novel, Seven Recipes for Revolution, debuts in July 2025. It is the first in the What We Eat trilogy. He is represented by Harry Illingworth of DHH Literary Agency.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Havoc by Rebecca Wait
Havoc by Rebecca Wait.
Published 3rd July 2025 from riverrun.
From the cover of the book:
Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb, St Anne's seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast.Meanwhile, the geography teacher Eleanor Alston, in her late thirties, a disastrous love affair in her wake, faces the new term with weary resignation. But the fragile ecosystem of the school is disrupted by the arrival of a new teacher, Matthew Langfield. Eleanor has an uneasy feeling he is not who he says he is.
Her previous novel, Our Fathers, received widespread acclaim and was a Guardian book of the year and a thriller of the month for Waterstones.
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Murder In Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie.
This edition published 22nd March 2018 by Harper Collins.
Originally published 1936.
From the cover of the book:
An archaeologist’s wife is murdered on the shores of the River Tigris in Iraq…It was clear to Amy Leatheran that something sinister was going on at the Hassanieh dig in Iraq; something associated with the presence of ‘Lovely Louise’, wife of celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner.
In a few days’ time Hercule Poirot was due to drop in at the excavation site. But with Louise suffering from terrifying hallucinations, and tension within the group becoming almost unbearable, Poirot might just be too late…
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.
Monday, July 21, 2025
The Jane Austen Insult Guide For Well-Bred Women by Emily Reed
The Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women by Emily Reed.
Published 17th July 2025 by Harper Collins.
From the cover of the book:
A celebration of the sharpest, wittiest, most beloved Jane Austen characters and their timeless retortsWhy use plain words to scold those nearest to you when fancier insults are available?
If you are also yearning to apply a bit of Jane Austen sass, then this is the book you need to hand! It is full of choice quotations of the fancy Austen kind for you to use as insults in place of boring old plain words - and it even has suggestions for when each biting phrase might be appropriate in a modern setting.
Some of my absolute favs are here, many from Pride and Prejudice (which in my opinion is the best Austen source material for a literary retort); absolutely loads from Emma too (a remarkably under-rated treasure trove of disparaging asides). All the insults are worthy examples of her formidable genius - and, as the blurb quite rightly states, just as effective today as they were two hundred years ago.
Celebrate #JaneAusten250 by treating yourself (or the Austen fan in your life) with this enjoyable guide to well-bred barbs, and go forth with a slice of excellent Regency era scorn... it's what Jane Austen would do!
Required reading fellow Austenites, and "Obstinate, headstrong girls'. Also lots of fun spotting who said what from among her characters.