Like A Brother by Nathanael Lessore

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⭐ out of 5

It's been a while since I read and reviewed my last children's book but this first paragraph will still be the same as the last one, which says that each book I read and review starts off with the full 5 stars and I'm always hopeful that they will all still be stuck firmly in place by the time I close the back cover.  The most common reason for an otherwise 5 star book becoming a 4 star book is through the use of copyrighted and/or trademarked brands potentially without permission.  There has been one book so far that has had the star rapidly replaced thanks to a magic little sentence right at the back saying that the author had gained permission to use the brand name - it's only happened once so far in the hundreds of books that I've read and reviewed so far, but I'm always hopeful that it'll happen again and I'd love to read that magic little sentence again.

I was pre-approved by the publisher to read and review an ARC of this book a month before it was published.

Let's get going with the reading and reviewing shall we?

The buying information says that this book is for "11 years and up" and is 336 pages long which is too long for a middle-grade book unless it's a sci-fi or fantasy book, so the first star is already wobbly before I've even opened the book.  It also says that it's a "teen comedy" but 11 year olds aren't teenagers and I already don't know if this is a middle-grade or teen book!

I'm at the end of the second chapter and there have already been a couple of word choices that an 11 year old wouldn't understand and a mis-placed capitalisation that should have been picked up waaaay before the publisher put it into pre-publication circulation so the first star is already coming off at the end of the first page.

And now, on page 3, we've got two English football teams named, so the second star is already coming off... will I make it to the end of the first chapter without removing the third star??

I think the author is as confused about the ages of his characters as I am because they've just become teenagers, but the author hasn't said how long ago that was... was it this year?  Last year?  Longer than that?  According to my Kindle, I'm 2% of the way through the book and the utter confusion is making me take the third star off... there's 98% to go and only one star left before it officially becomes a DNF for me.

Less than a paragraph later and the author has used two celebrity names/brands which I can't see them giving permission for, so at only 2% and less than a chapter I'm removing the final star and declaring it another DNF unfortunately.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Each book I read and review starts off with the full 5 stars and I'm always hopeful that they will all still be stuck firmly in place by the time I close the back cover.  I'm not shy about removing stars but I always give my reasons for doing so within the review.

I've never read a classic book in my life but this was recommended by a friend and I've got a few more classics to try reading as well, but this is my first ever classic so I'll go into it with an open mind and try and remember that it was written a looong time ago.

Let's get going with the reading and reviewing shall we?

Well, I've read 6 pages so far and I'm starting to see how much books have changed over the decades.  Most of the paragraphs are way longer than they are now, but maybe that was the thing to do at the time this book was written?

I'm enjoying this book more than I thought I would, but the extra-long chapters and the rare speech is a bit off-putting.  I'm up to chapter 7 so far.

Up to chapter 9 now and it's time for a warming drink methinks.  There's a bit more speech now, but still barely any compared to today's books.

Up to Part Two now and I'm gonna stop for a breather after reading pretty much constantly all morning.  It's a good book, but some of the language that's used is horrific!  I guess it must have been common in the time that it was written though so the star is safe, but only because it's a classic instead of modern.

I've just finished reading my first ever classic book and while I didn't like some of the language, it was a different era back when it was written and published.  I doubt I'll read it again, but I'm glad I've got my first one under my belt now.

Welcome to Amanda's new blog!

Amanda has been a bookworm since childhood and she's now in her late 40's but still has that same passion for books.

This blog will have all of the reviews of books she's read so that she can keep them all together.  There could and probably will be all sorts of book reviews on here because she reads most books.

There will occasionally be ARC and DRC reviews of books that haven't been released at the time of the review.

Every book will be rated in the same way - up to 5 stars and the first paragraph always being an explanation that stars don't just disappear, each star loss is explained.

This blog has been started on 21st January 2026 so each book that I read after that will be on here.

There will be children's, grown-up's and adult books but I'll try not to swear.  There will be fiction and non-fiction and all the types within each of those.  I want to try and read a couple of cozy thriller and cozy horror books to see if they give me nightmares like their non-cozy equivalents do. 

I started to read a book a couple of days ago, but the text was too tiny to read, even with my nose almost touching the screen so I gave it a one star review and let the publisher know why.  That got corrected within hours but there were now numbers at the start/end of every line so I took a few photos and sent them to the publisher who fixed it by the close of business yesterday (20th January 2026) so I'm gonna try and read it again today.  It's a long book with over 300 pages so it'll take a few days, but that will be the first review and I'm hoping the last one with so many niggles to sort out.

Please sit back and relax as you get to know me through each review that I post on here.