Do books need content warnings? When you watch a film, it will have an age rating. In the cinema, the rating card will state the reasons behind the rating, such as swearing or violence. You'll see the same at the top of the screen at the start of anything you watch on a streaming service.

So why not books?

The Guest List is a book that didn’t grab me at first. In fact, for the first few chapters, I thought I was in for an excruciating read. But once the character introductions are out of the way, Foley gives us a fast-paced web of a story that is almost impossible to put down.

Is Monogamy Dead? is a bit of a strange creature. But anyone who believes in questioning the status quo or feels they haven't managed to work out what they want from their relationships could do a lot worse than to pick this up.

I love Kate Atkinson’s work and have done since I first read Life After Life. But Emotionally Weird is a strange creature. I honestly can’t say I enjoyed it, as the plot and characters go nowhere. But if you’re a fan of hers, it’s fascinating to see how the ideas from his book would fuel her later (much better) work.

I like stories that are told in interesting ways, and this promised something like that. I didn’t quite know what to expect and having finished it, I’m left with the weird feeling I shouldn’t have liked it, but I really did.

I enjoyed The Evening and the Morning, but it’s not Follett’s best work. And unfortunately, comparisons with the previous books in the series only serve to highlight its flaws.

I am a sucker for stories told out of chronological order, so Out of Love caught my eye a while ago. I don’t know why the concept appeals to me so much. I think it’s something about examining cause and affect, playing around with what the reader knows and when, that somehow suits my sensibilities.

Jo Jakeman’s debut, Sticks and Stones, was about facing the truth about your life and how you free yourself from the shackles that hold you down. Now her second book is about the next steps: trying to create something new in the shadow of your past.

I finding myself enjoying stories like this one; smaller focused family stories, where people are forced to face the cracks caused by the tiny things done in their past.

With The Shadow Rising the series has really hit its stride. Now we’re through the initial “trilogy”, as I discussed in my last post, we’re able to get into the story proper.