The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

'Beware! Peril to the detective who says: "It is so small - it does not matter..." Everything matters.' After the Great War, life can never be the same again. Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory. Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement …

This is my first ever Agatha novel, and I decided to go with Poirot over Miss Marple as I heard so many good things from my books friends about these books. Well they were right (as always), I really enjoyed this one, I took a litle while to get into at first but once I did, I was quite happy.

Poirot is a funny little man, and I loved the way he always said he knew what was going on, or who the culprit was etc, then wandered away or just stopped talking. He kept me guessing from start to finish, I often backtracked on who I thought done it, and then changed my mind again haha. 

The narrator Mr Hastings was good, seemed very eager to be of assistance to Poirot, and got equally frustrated and excited around him.

I’m definitely going to read the next Poirot and if I enjoy that one too I will carry on with the series. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Between life and death there is a Library...

When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

'Between life and death there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within that library , the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Ever since Matt first tweeted about the idea of this book, I was sold. So when I saw it on Netgalley I had to try for it, and dived straight in when I was accepted.

This story was amazing, like a fiction version of Matt's Self Help books. The story starts with Nora who takes her own life, and wakes up in a strange library full of books which look the same, and a familiar face. She has endless possibilities of living a life she never did, each book a different life. She can visit as many as she wants, and if it isn’t the right life to stay in, she'll end up back in the library to try again.

Sounds great right? Living the lives she never got to, living out choices she regrets making? Well she only has a certain amount of time in the library, as long as be click stays on Midnight, so she needs to figure her plans out before time runs out.

The idea of this story is brilliant, and the book didn't fail to make me smile. I'd recommend it to everyone!

Have you read it, or do plan to? Let me know :)