Tag: The Miseducation of Evie Epworth

My 20 Favourites of 2020

I can’t quite believe that 2020 is over! It’s been a strange year and I think we’re all hoping that 2021 brings better things and that we can soon get back to a new normal.

It was my second full year of blogging and once again I read more than I had even hoped to. I had set my Goodreads challenge at 120 and managed to read 177. That’s 27 more than in 2019.

As you can probably imagine, reading so many books made putting together my favourite twenty books of the year a difficult task. That last spot in particular had four other books that I really wanted to include and it was a real struggle to know which should make the final spot.

Here is my list in the order that I read the books:

Firewatching by Russ Thomas
The Foundling by Stacey Halls
Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Switch by Beth O’Leary
What’s Left Of Me Is Yours by Stephanie Scott
What Lies Between Us by John Marrs
Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith
The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Eudora Honeysett is Quite Well, Thank You by Annie Lyons
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey
The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby
The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor
The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside by Jessica Ryn
The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn
The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Out of the final twenty, sixteen are by new to me authors, nine of them debuts. I found that 2020 was a strong year in terms of fantastic debuts, with others such as The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, Pine, The Memory Wood, The Wreckage, The Holdout, If I Can’t Have You, Dear Child, The Missing Pieces of Nancy Moon, Shiver, The Push and The Thursday Murder Club standing out in particular.

So what almost made it? Contenders for this list included Three Hours, Pine, The Memory Wood, In Five Years, The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, If I Could Say Goodbye, The Push, Strangers, Dear Child, The Ice Cream Girls, All My Lies Are True and The Thursday Murder Club.

My favourite book of the year was not a difficult choice. Though there were many that were good enough to take the title, What’s Left Of Me Is Yours is the standout book of the year for me. I can honestly say that I’ve thought about this stunning debut every day since I read it in April. Do yourself a favour and read it if you haven’t already. I’m just hoping it’s not too long before I can read another book by the talented Stephanie Scott.

Did we have any of the same favourites? What was your book of the year? Let me know in the comments.

Keep an eye out for a post tomorrow with the top 20 lists of some other bloggers and which 2020 book we recommend most of all.

*Thank you to the tagged publishers for my #gifted ARCs.

Tags A Court of Wings and Ruin, All The Lonely People, Annie Lyons, Anticipated Treasures 2021, Away with the Penguins, Beth O'Leary, Black Swan, Bloomsbury UK, C. J. Tudor, Canongate, Catriona Ward, Ellen Alpsten, Emma's Anticipated Treasures, Eudora Honeysett Is Quite Well Thank You, Eve Smith, favourite books of 2020, Favourite Books of the Year, Firewatching, Frances Quinn, Hamnet, Hazel Prior, Hodder Books, HQ, Jessica Ryn, John Marrs, Maggie O'Farrell, Manilla Press, Mariah Carey, Matson Taylor, Matt Haig, Michael Joseph, Mike Gayle, One More Chapter, Orenda Books, Polly Crosby, Quercus, Russ Thomas, Sarah J. Maas, Simon & Schuster UK, Stacey Halls, Stephanie Scott, Support Debuts, Tandem Collective Readalong, The Burning Girls, The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside, The Foundling, The Illustrated Child, The Last House On Needless Street, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, The Midnight Library, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, The Smallest Man, The Switch, The Waiting Rooms, Thomas & Mercer, Tinder Press, Tsarina, Viper Books, W&N, What Lies Between Us, What's Left Of Me Is Yours, Year In Review

Blog Tours Monthly Wrap Up

Monthly Wrap Up – June 2020

Post author By emmasbibliotreasures
Post date 1st Jul 2020
No Comments on Monthly Wrap Up – June 2020

Another month has passed and we’re now half way through the year. It has flown so quickly. I just hope that the rest of the year isn’t as crazy as 2020 has been so far.

June has been a fantastic reading month for me. I read fourteen books, including my first ever audio book. It was almost fifteen books read but I didn’t quite finish Nine Elms. It was a big month for reading with others for me. I took part in a buddy read with my lovely friend Beth and three readalongs with the Tandem Collective, two of which are still going on.

So here is what I read this month:

A Theatre For Dreamers ✮✮✮✮✰
The Split ✮✮✮✮. 5
The Lies I Tell ✮✮✮. 5
The Phone Box at the Edge of the World ✮✮✮✮. 5
I Know Your Secret ✮✮✮✮✰
A Court of Thorns and Roses ✮✮✮✮✮
Unbroken ✮✮✮✮✰
The Colours ✮✮✮✮✰
The Waiting Rooms ✮✮✮✮✮
The Miseducation of Evie Epworth ✮✮✮✮✰
Monstrous Souls ✮✮✮✮✰
The July Girls ✮✮✮✮✰
The Silent Wife ✮✮✮✮✮
Sadie ✮✮✮✮✰ (Audiobook)

You can read the reviews for all of the books except for Sadie by clicking on the title. My review for Sadie will be posted in the coming week.

My BOTM was a close call again but I have to give it to A Court of Thorns and Roses. I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did and it’s opened up a whole new genre for me. That’s one of the things I love about Bookstagram though, it brings books to your attention you’d never have considered reading otherwise and it’s helped me discover a wealth of books and authors I doubt I’d have ever read without it. The other books that deserve a special mention this month are The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, The Waiting Rooms, and The Miseducation of Evie Epworth. These three outstanding novels were all contenders for my book of the month and are candidates for being in my favourite books of the year so far.

In July I have a busy month full of blog tours that I’m so excited about . I’m also looking forward to seeing what books the rest of the year brings and will be posting some of the ones I’m looking forward to most in the next few weeks.

Thank you to all the tagged publishers for the gifted copies of the books.

Tags A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Theatre For Dreamers, Agora Books, Bloomsbury UK, Bookouture, Courtney Summers, debut novel, Eve Smith, FFS Publishing, Harper Collins UK, Headline, I Know Your Secret, Joel Hames, John Blake Publishing Ltd, Juliet Bates, Karin Slaughter, Laura Imai Messina, Madeline Black, Manilla Press, Matson Taylor, Monstrous Souls, Orenda, orion books, Pan Macmillan, Phoebe Locke, Polly Samson, Rebecca Kelly, Recommended authors, recommended books, Ruth Heald, Sadie, Sarah J. Maas, Scribner UK, Sharon Bolton, Tandem Collective, Tandem Collective Readalong, The Colours, The July Girls, The Lies I Tell, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, The Silent Wife, The Split, The Waiting Rooms, Unbroken, Will Trent Series

Blog Tours book reviews

The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor

Post author By emmasbibliotreasures
Post date 23rd Jun 2020
3 Comments on The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor

Published: July 23rd, 2020
Publisher: Scribner UK
Format: Kindle, Paperback, Audio
Genre: General Fiction, Humour

Welcome to my spot on the tour for this spectacular debut. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Scribner UK for the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

July, 1962

Sixteen year-old Evie Epworth stands on the cusp of womanhood. But what kind of a woman will she become?

The fastest milk bottle-delivery girl in East Yorkshire, Evie is tall as a tree and hot as the desert sand. She dreams of an independent life lived under the bright lights of London (or Leeds). The two posters of Adam Faith on her bedroom wall (‘brooding Adam’ and ‘sophisticated Adam’) offer wise counsel about a future beyond rural East Yorkshire. Her role models are Charlotte Bronte, Shirley MacLaine and the Queen. But, before she can decide on a career, she must first deal with the malign presence of her future step-mother, the manipulative and money-grubbing Christine.

If Evie can rescue her bereaved father, Arthur, from Christine’s pink and over-perfumed clutches, and save the farmhouse from being sold off then maybe she can move on with her own life and finally work out exactly who it is she is meant to be.

Moving, inventive and richly comic, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth is the most joyful debut novel of the year and the best thing to have come out of Yorkshire since Wensleydale cheese.

MY REVIEW:

“I am Evie, sixteen and a half, as wise as a tree, as tall as time, the fastest milk bottle in East Yorkshire, hurtling towards Womanhood.
This is all really strange.”

Witty, uplifting and simply irresistible, I devoured this book in almost one sitting; staying up until 3am to finish it. As a proud Yorkshirewoman I admit that it was the setting of this novel along with the brilliant cover that drew me to this book, but it is the delightful story between the pages and the fabulous characters that will make it linger in my heart long after reading.

1962. Evie Epworth,, sixteen-and-a-half, is on the brink of womanhood. But she has no idea what kind of woman she wants to be or what she wants to do next. She lives on a small farm in Yorkshire with her dad, Arthur, and Christine, the gold-digging housekeeper. This novel follows Evie over the course of one summer as she tries to figure out womanhood, the future, and how to help her dad escape Christine’s evil clutches.

“I don’t think I’m ready to be an Adult.
It’s all far too complicated and messy. Not to mention unfair. And cruel. In fact being an adult is so far proving pretty unpropitious (adjective – disappointing, not very promising). It’s not at all what I thought it would be like.
They don’t tell you this part of being an adult in Bunty or on the telly, about having your world torn asunder and being thrown into a world of enforced coiffured labour, wicked stepmothers and grisly water features.”

I love Evie Epworth. From the moment I opened the book and she leapt from the page I adored her. Feisty, funny, quirky, intelligent and caring, Evie is easy to like and root for and is someone I would love being around in real life. I loved how she would randomly give the reader the definition of a word she’d read in the dictionary they kept in the downstairs loo. I think she could be one of my favourite comic heroines of all time.

There is a lively cast of compelling and memorable characters in the book but the only one I hated was Christine. Christine was the epitome of the evil stepmother: narcissistic, cruel, vapid and greedy. She is a wonderfully written villain and I loved her dynamic with Evie that was ripe for conflict, which the author exploits to perfection.

Matson Taylor is a comedy master. He had me hooked from the first page with his witty, offbeat prose and he clearly has a talent for uproarious characters you won’t soon forget. Using richly drawn imagery he brought the Yorkshire countryside of the 1960s and the community he’d created to life as vividly as any movie screen.

Fresh, wry, and laugh-out-loud funny, this addictive debut was like a hot cup of Yorkshire Tea on a cold day. It evoked a real sense of home for me and was a joy to read from beginning to end. Mastson Taylor is sensational new talent and I am excited to see what he writes next.

I do have one small complaint about this book before I finish. And that is that the many mentions of Bettys made me hungry and I started browsing online for their cakes. I’m still craving them days later!

All jokes aside, I highly recommend this book if you need a pick-me-up, or are just wanting something fun to read.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Matson Taylor grew up in Yorkshire but now lives in London. He is a design historian and works at the V&A museum, where he teaches on the History of Design programme and spends a lot of time trying to convince people that the luxury goods industry helped win the Second World War.

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