Luke Harkness, Author at Luke’s Blog

21Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin book review

Fire and Blood is a Game of Thrones prequel. Though it isn't a book about a set of characters with lots of speech and a simple overarching plot, instead it tells the story of the hundred years leading up to Game of Thrones. It covers many kings, queens, families, wars, betrayals and stories. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of any of the products. Fire and Blood starts off just prior to Aegon's Conquest which upon his coronation resets the year date to 0 AC. Essentially Aegon reunited the seven kingdoms, starting the…

18Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

A Comprehensive Guide to Social media for Bloggers

Features, Tips and Tricks

I've been running a blog for over a year and have worked in social media in my professional career for almost 5 years. So I like to think I have some experience as to the dos and don't of social media. Social media for bloggers can be make-or-break. It's all well and good having a great blog that you put many hours into and is well written, but if you never share it for it t be seen, it's going to be very difficult for it to have any real value. Why is social media important for a blogger? There are many reasons you'd want to get your social media feeds going for a blog. The first and foremost is simply to promote your blog to an external audience. Other…

15Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Rivers of London By Ben Aaronovitch book review

Book reviews, Crime, Fantasy, Mystery

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch is a book I have actually read before. I picked it up three years ago as it sounded quite cool and the front cover pulled me in. However, when I initially picked it up, it kind of flew by as I listened to the Audiobook, not really appreciating anything I was listening to. However, this time I had a lot more appreciation for the writing, and the comedy but I believe I still hold some of the same opinions as before. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion…

11Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett book review

Book reviews, Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction

The Vanishing Half was the number one most-voted-for book when I held a poll recently asking people which book I should read from my physical TBR list. After a quick google, I realised I wasn't quite sure what it was I was about to read about. And around 300 pages later, I'm still not 100% sure if I really get what the book was trying to portray. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase products via any of the links provided below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. The Vanishing Half focuses on the lives of twins Desiree and Stella and their two…

09Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Revelation by C.J. Sansom book review

Book reviews, Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery

The Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom is one of the best historical fiction crime series around. It's likely not an overcrowded genre but nonetheless, Sansom seems to have marked himself down as the one to beat in the genre and the king of historical fiction crime. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any products via the links provided below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of any of the products. Revelation is the fourth book in the Shardlake series by Sansom - a series that sees lawyer Shardlake get himself embroiled in murders far more often than he'd like and end up having to…

06Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

My Top 5 Posts on my Blog in August 2022

Features, Monthly Round Ups

Every month I like to look back and see which posts from those I posted did the best. This not only allows me to keep a historical archive of which articles have done the best so I can then use these going forward or when I need to look back for inspiration but it also allows me to share content with those of you who are aspiring bloggers. These posts below are the top five performing meaning they received the most amount of views from the month. These posts have all been posted within this month. If I posted the top five most-viewed articles each month that weren't posted in that month, they'd all be fairly similar and repetitive. So here are the top five most viewed blog posts from…

05Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

The Seven Books I Read in August 2022

Features, Monthly Round Ups

Each month I take a look back at what I've read and post my summaries and a link to the full review below. If you're looking for a new book then there's no better place to look than these lists. August featured four five-star books, possibly the most I've ever had in one month! Please be aware that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase products via the links provided below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the products. I finished seven books over the month with two being epic fantasies, one historical fiction, one a fairly contemporary romance (I know, unlike me!) and the other three coming…

03Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett book review

Book reviews, Crime, Mystery

The Twyford Code is Janice Hallett's second book after The Appeal was very positively received. I absolutely adored The Appeal - I enjoyed the incredible way it was written and how, despite having the technicality of trying to write a book in that way, Hallett still managed to write great characters and a clever twist and crime story. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any of the products below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of any of the products. The Twyford Code is similar to The Appeal in that it is written in a unique way. The Twyford Code uses dictated voice notes to…

01Sep 2022 by Luke Harkness 1 Comment

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin book review

Book reviews, Fantasy

I reviewed A Game of Thrones back in 2021 quite early on after I started this blog - since then I've done a reread and decided I want to give it another crack. I wrote my review based on memories of about two years after I'd read the book. This updated review is based on a reread I finished literally days ago. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any of the products linked below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These links do not affect my opinion of the products. A Game of Thrones is the first book in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin - if you've…

29Aug 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

How to Write Blog Posts Super Easily – How to optimise your words for Google

Features, How to, Tips and Tricks

I've been blogging for well over a year now and so have some experience when it comes to writing blog posts. In total, I've written over 230 posts at the time of writing this blog post (that's a bit meta hey?) and so I would like to think I know what I'm doing at this point. However, I won't sit here and say writing blog posts has become exponentially easier - in fact as I've learned more about how to optimise blog posts to get them viewed higher on Google, it has become a long process to complete posts. In this post, I'm going to give you tips and tricks on writing a blog post to optimise it for Google including language to use, how to format your paragraphs and…

Author: Luke Harkness