BookNook: Author Round-Up
A few of my favourite authors all in one place.
If you’re on the hunt for your next great read, you can’t go wrong with these six incredible authors. Whether you love heart-pounding suspense, life-changing romance, or emotional drama, there’s something here for everyone. Here’s a quick guide to their work and why you might love them:
📚 Karen Rose – Romantic Suspense at Its Best
Karen Rose is the queen of romantic suspense, combining intricate mystery plots with steamy, emotional romance. Her books are often dark and intense, featuring complex characters and high-stakes danger. If you love thrillers with a strong romantic core, her work will keep you hooked from the first page.
Where to start: “Closer Than You Think” – A gripping blend of suspense and romance featuring a psychologist being stalked by a dangerous figure from her past.
❤️ Marie Force – Small-Town Romance with Heart
Marie Force is known for her heartwarming small-town romances and passionate love stories. Her Gansett Island and Fatal series are fan favourites, offering rich character development and emotional depth. She’s great at creating characters you’ll wish were your real-life friends.
Where to start: “Maid for Love” (Gansett Island series) – A sweet story about finding love when you least expect it.
💖 Kristen Ashley – Alpha Heroes and Strong Heroines
Kristen Ashley writes addictive contemporary and romantic suspense novels, often featuring alpha male heroes and independent, no-nonsense heroines. Her books are known for steamy romance, fast-paced plots, and lots of heart. The Rock Chick and Colorado Mountain series are cult favourites.
Where to start: “The Gamble” (Colorado Mountain series) – A swoon-worthy story about a city girl falling for a rugged mountain man.
🔥 Tijan – Intense New Adult Drama
Tijan’s books are packed with emotional intensity, complicated relationships, and high-stakes drama. Her writing captures the raw emotions of young adulthood, with themes of love, loyalty, and betrayal. Her Fallen Crest and Crew series are hugely popular in the new adult genre.
Where to start: “Fallen Crest High” – A dark, addictive story about family secrets and forbidden romance.
🌶️ Cee Bowerman – Small-Town Romance with a Hint of Heat
Cee Bowerman specialises in small-town romances with plenty of steamy moments and strong family dynamics. Her books often feature protective heroes and fiercely independent heroines, with a good mix of drama and light-hearted moments.
Where to start: “Texas Heat” – A small-town romance about finding love where you least expect it.
🌙 Scarlett Dawn – Fantasy Romance with a Dark Edge
Scarlett Dawn blends romance with fantasy and paranormal elements, creating fast-paced, imaginative worlds filled with complex characters and high-stakes relationships. Her Forever Evermore and Marked series are full of magic, political intrigue, and forbidden love.
Where to start: “King Hall” (Forever Evermore series) – A gripping mix of romance, magic, and political drama.
✨ Final Thoughts
Whether you’re craving an emotional small-town romance, a dark and dangerous suspense story, or a fantasy-filled escape, these authors have you covered. Happy reading! ❤️
BookNook: Lost Islamic History by Firas Al Khateeb
A review of Lost Islamic History by Firas Al Khateeb
Alkhateeb aims to give a brisk, readable survey of 1,400 years of Muslim history— from the rise of Islam in 7th-century Arabia through the flowering of empires (Umayyad, Abbasid, Andalusian, Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal), the age of European imperialism, and the tumult of the modern era. The book grew out of the author’s popular blog, and it keeps that spirit: approachable, episodic, and written for general readers who want the big picture rather than an academic monograph.
What works
Clarity and pace. The prose is clean and unpretentious. Complex developments—early caliphal politics, the Abbasid “translation movement,” or Ottoman administrative reforms—are explained without jargon. You can hand this to a curious high-schooler or an adult reader new to the subject and they won’t bounce off.
Coherent narrative arc. Instead of a grab-bag of facts, the book offers a through-line: the creative dynamism of early Islamic civilization; the diffusion of ideas, trade, and institutions across a vast geography; fragmentation and renewal; and finally the encounter with modernity and colonial power.
Correctives to clichés. Alkhateeb pushes back—gently—against Eurocentric storylines that treat the Muslim world as a foil to “the West.” He foregrounds scientific, philosophical, and commercial exchange, showing how porous and mutually shaping those worlds were.
Useful on-ramp. For readers who don’t know where to start, it’s a well-lit doorway into a huge subject and points toward topics you might later explore in depth (Andalusian convivencia, the Delhi Sultanate, the Tanzimat, etc.).
Where it’s thinner
Broad strokes over nuance. Compressing so much history into a short book means some eras and regions get only a few pages. North and Sub-Saharan Africa outside of Egypt, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia—vital to Islamic history—receive limited attention.
Sourcing and balance. The tone is mostly synthetic and secondary-source driven. Specialists may find some interpretations conventional or simplified, and detractors will note a broadly Sunni mainstream framing with less sustained engagement with Shiʿi, Ibadi, and other perspectives.
Modern period complexity. The late-19th to 21st centuries are extraordinarily intricate; here the account sometimes reads as a quick tour rather than a sustained analysis of competing ideologies, state formation, and economic structures.
Style and structure
Chapters move chronologically, with short sections that make it easy to read in sittings. The author occasionally pauses for thematic interludes (science, law, trade), which helps connect political narrative to intellectual and social history. It’s more narrative than argumentative: you get a sense of “what happened,” with interpretive nudges rather than heavy thesis-driven claims.
Who should read it
Beginners and autodidacts who want a single, friendly volume before diving deeper.
Educators seeking an accessible overview to accompany a course or reading group.
General readers looking to contextualize current affairs without wading into dense scholarship.
If you’ve already read Marshall Hodgson’s Venture of Islam or Chase Robinson’s Islamic Civilisation in Thirty Lives, you may find Alkhateeb’s book elementary but still useful as a panoramic refresher.
Pair it with (for depth and range):
On institutions & thought: Jonathan Berkey, The Formation of Islam; George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance.
On regions underrepresented: Richard Eaton, India in the Persianate Age; Nile Green, Terrains of Exchange (for the Indian Ocean world).
On modernity and empire: Cemil Aydin, The Idea of the Muslim World; Ussama Makdisi, Age of Coexistence.
My thoughts
4/5. Lost Islamic History succeeds at what it promises: a clear, sympathetic, and sweeping introduction to a vast past that is often caricatured or ignored. It’s not a substitute for specialised study, and readers should seek complementary works for undercovered regions and the modern period. But as a starting map—one that opens doors rather than trying to close debates—it’s engaging, useful, and very easy to recommend.
BookNook - September
The 6 books I’m reading this autumn.
Here are the books I'll be reading this autumn. I like to have a mix of fiction and non-fiction on the go, although I have to say that the fiction usually wins out- I'm all about epic adventures and badass women.
Having said that, as you've no doubt picked up by now, I have strong political views and I like to read a cross-section of literature in politics, current affairs, law, sociology etc.
1. American Islamophobia by Professor Khaled Beydoun.
Professor Beydoun is a legal scholar based in the US. As a Muslim by background, a lot of his work, if not almost all of it, focuses on the intersection between religion, race and the American legal system. His writing is accessible, easily understood and well presented. If you are interested in any of these areas and aren't quite sure where to start, I'd recommend this book for an overview.
2. War on Peace by Ronan Farrow
Yes, this is that Ronan Farrow - the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. He's probably better known for being a child prodigy and now an investigative journalist. With a stint in the State Department behind him, Farrow wrote this book charting the decline of American diplomacy in international relations, and the increasing use of militaristic intervention in modern times. An interesting look at the history of the US abroad.
3. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Renni Eddo-Lodge
This book is actually my first foray into properly reading about the lived experience of black people in the UK. Of course I'm aware of my own experiences as a Muslim female living in the UK but the challenges and issues faced by our black community are unique in their own way. For me, this book is about gaining a far deeper understanding of what it means to be black in a society that is predominantly white and not particularly happy to have you here, which it tells you everyday through the structure it enables to keep you in your place.
BookNook - May 2018
My Reading List for May featuring some of my all time favourite authors. (Incidentally, they're all women!) Let me know what you've been reading!
I adore this series so completely. I am genuinely fully invested in Nick and Sam Cappuano's relationship - I love the political element to these books but also that it doesn't take away from the life and love that comes through so much. Sam's struggle with conceiving, adopting a grown boy, dealing with family troubles and all while holding down a day job in the NYPD and being a wife to a US Senator turned VP. I have nothing bad to say about this series, I just hope it doesn't end. (And also that Sam eventually gets the baby she wants so much).
This is a classic YA series and also the one that introduced me to Tijan's writing. Wow. And I mean WOW. This woman knows how to write. I think Fallen Crest is her best known work and I kid you not when I say that I can easily see this whole storyline being adapted for TV, omg, the drama! This is a seven book series in total and follows the journey of Samantha and the Kade brothers.
I think what I love the most about Fallen Crest and also in Tijan's other books, is that her female leads are always strong, independent, determined young women. Yes, there's a running theme of falling in love (generally with someone fairly unsuitable), but who cares when you have a badass female lead ready to push through all the obstacles in her path. If you like YA books and you haven't read this series, you absolutely must. Trust me, you'll thank me later!
Ruthless People series by JJ. Mcavoy
Oh my. Where do I even start with this series. Although there are technically two lead characters in this series, I think the female lead, Melody Giovanni comes through much more strongly. Like the other series above, she is a seriously determined and focused woman with no plans to let anyone get in her way. Unlike the other series, in the Ruthless People world, Melody is the head of the Russian mob and perhaps the most ruthless of them all. It's an odd one because clearly there are an awful lot of references to crime families and the things they do, but as an individual character, Melody is maybe one of the most compelling female leads I've read in a long time.
I'd suggest suspending disbelief with moral judgments if you read this one, but in so many other ways, it's exactly right when it comes to the love story between Melody and Liam. Theirs is a very dominant story and during the first book, when their relationship eventually settles, I found myself rooting for them so much to find their peace and to be able to move forward with life. If you've never read anything in the "mob romance" genre, this one will chuck you in at the deep end, but damn if it isn't all worth it.
Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong
This series is slightly different in that it moves from one set of lead characters to others as the series develops, all of whom belong to the Otherworld in some way. This series is set in our world but its characters come from the Otherworld which is home to witches, sorcerers, werewolves, vampires and all manner of other creatures, weird and wonderful.
I do love the whole series but there are two books in particular that I really loved, which focus on my two favorite leads. The books are Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic with Paige and Lucas as the leads. Theirs is a funny and fiesty relationship which I adore. (And for the super sleuths among you, you may recognize these names from the TV show 'Bitten' which was the Canadian adaptation of the earlier books in the series, when it's focused on Elena and Clay and their relationship).
Happy reading friends! Let me know which books you're loving at the moment and any titles I should check out <3