The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish - Review

I bought this book some time in 2025, I don't remember exactly when. I thought it looked like a cute romance book to read around Christmas, so that's exactly what I did. But it took me ages to read and while that always happens in December just because I get busy, it's also because I just didn't get on with the book too much. I can't fully explain why, but maybe it'll be clearer as I write this review. 

So Greta is one of the protagonists. She is from a tiny island in Maine, I guess a bit like Martha's Vineyard, where everyone knows each other. She is one of five sisters and they're are a close knit Jewish family. She is a lesbian. She went to university in Portland, Maine, which did give her some freedom, but she's now back on the island. She's at a festival type thing when her eldest sister Sadie - who is mean and rude throughout the book - puts her up for a dating auction thing, meaning she would be auctioned off for a date with a man. Greta is obviously upset about this because she is gay - and she's mad with her sister and with the rest of the family (her mum is a bit of a nightmare too). She desperately wants to escape Maine for a few weeks over Hannukah and the winter, and ends up looking for a house swap thing. 

Meanwhile, Truman lives in New Orleans. He is gay and he's in a relationship with a man whose name I forget but it doesn't matter as he's not relevant. But it turns out he is married and has a small child, meaning Truman has been the bit on the side all along. Truman is obviously heartbroken and wants to escape New Orleans. 

Enter their mutual friend, Ramona, who suggests they swap homes for a bit. Greta has a zillion houseplants that need babying, so she can't just leave them, and Truman has a dog that he can't leave by himself either. So they swap. Greta meets Carys, who leads ghost walks in New Orleans, on like her first day in New Orleans and they begin a relationship. I found Carys a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl - she's just TOO perfect, including her lovely found family which Greta gets involved with too, and including the way she calls Greta out over one thing in a way that really irritated me - and I didn't love their relationship. Their sex scenese were hot, though, so that's one thing. I actually thought that Greta's relationship with an older lady who introduces her to a bunch of gardeners was more interesting and which brought Greta out of herself in a better way than Carys did I think. 

I did really like the depiction of Greta's family and of New Orleans (a place I would love to go!) but her story arc overall left me a bit cold. 

Truman ends up meeting Greta's friend Ash, who owns the local flower shop (so many tropes). Ash is depressed and struggling to care for his mother, who has dementia. Truman turns up with a bit of colour and a whole load of ideas to improve the flower shop and while it's obviously really sweet, it puts Ash off. I thought this was a much more realistic relationship and they ebb and flow towards each other. Truman learns how to trust himself I think, he's a lot more introspective by the end of the book. Ash is really lovely and I liked how he was brought out of himself too.

But the book dragged a lot for me; I felt it was at least fifty pages too long. I am giving it three out of five and I wouldn't rush to read this author again.  

A Murder in York by J R Ellis - Review

 

Another J R Ellis book! My mum likes these which keeps me reading them, but I feel like Ellis is just churning them out and they're just not as good as they used to be. I feel also like he is trying to write about some 'issues' re austerity Britain and he's just not doing it very well. It comes across like he's trying too hard which annoys me. I may give up at the next one, but I probably said that about the last one, too.

So, Oldroyd is at a conference in York and one evening he decides to go on one of the famous ghost walks around the city. I really liked the description here because I know York well (I went to York St John University) and the ghost walks are famous. (I should go on one one of these days!). Oldroyd is enjoying himself when up one of the snickleways there is a body. He obviously gets involved in the case because he can't resist. The dead man turns out to be a local slum landlord who has no end of enemies - an ex wife, plenty of angry tennants, and even the people involved in running the ghost walk. Oldroyd keeps investigating which no other officers ever seems to mind because of course he is just so brilliant.  

Part of the book is told from the point of view of a family who lives in one of his terrible properties, and it was this that I felt was a bit heavy handed. I get it, but in the context of a novel it just didn't feel right. I also felt like being angry at your landlord was a pretty rubbish motive for murder. In fact, although it's a month since I read this, I'm not sure anyone had that strong of a motive. 

Oh god, and the sub plot with Andy and Stephanie annoyed me too, but the least said about that the better. I wish one of them would just leave, the other would be way better without them. 

I'm only giving this three out of five. 

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes - Review

This was the book club book choice for December and I hadn't ever heard of it or the author, but I was happy to read it. It was a good choice for our book club, I think. We talked about it at our December meeting, which is also a meal and a bit of a social, so I'm not sure we actually talked about the book for very long. But I think we liked it.

It is about the daughters of the painter Thomas Gainsborough, Molly and Peg. The book is told from Peg's point of view and starts with her as quite a small child when the family lived in Ipswich. Gainsborough genuinely did paint his daughters and the author has used this as a springboard to imagine the lives of the family, and has maybe used a rumour as part of her work too? I like this blurring of fact and fiction. 

Molly has funny turns in the book and Peg tries to control her and corral her into behaving. She desperately wants her dad to love her more but he is distant and forgetful about her. The girls' mother rules the house and the finances. There is a rumour that her father was a royal prince, and part of the book is from Peg's grandmother's point of view showing what happened to her. We felt like these chapters were a little jarring and took us out of the main narrative, and it wasn't clear how the two parts were related until quite a way on into the book. 

The family moves to Bath where the girls, their mother hopes, will marry well and make enough money to keep themselves. The girls are kept inside, away from people, while their father paints all the society people who want him to, and perhaps has an affair or two. Peg falls in love but it's Molly who gets married, despite her illness and the episodes where she disassociates. 

I generally liked the book and found it compelling, it kept me reading. But the story just didn't quite gel for me, so I'm giving it three out of five. 

Frankie by Graham Norton - Review

You may know that I really like Graham Norton's books. I really rate him as a celebrity who is also an author, unlike some people we could mention. I always look forward to another of Graham's books, so when I realised I hadn't got to this one yet, I requested it at the library. 

The story is about a woman called Frankie. She is elderly now and her friend Norah has hired a carer for her after a fall, while she recuperates. The two live in London now, but they're from the same small town in Ireland and have known each other since they were little. Nor is worth a lot of money; Frankie lives in a flat crammed with things which are all a bit faded glamour. The carer is called Damian. He is gay, and also Irish. He is young but he and Frankie forge a friendship and she tells him about her life. 

After a tragic start, Frankie was brought up by her aunt and uncle, a conservative couple who kept her very sheltered. She was married off to a much older man who was a Church of Ireland vicar. He treated Frankie terribly and the marriage failed. Her relatives, outraged by this, disown her. She ends up in London where she meets Nor again. She ends up in New York where she becomes a chef eventually, and meets Joe, who is an artist. It's the 60s and 70s and they're in basically Warhol's world. Time goes on and other things come up. I loved Frankie and her life. She's a strong character and utterly likeable. I liked that the story concerned the Church of Ireland in the beginning because I feel like I haven't read books about that very often. Frankie thinks that she isn't the main character of her own life and I kind of get what she means, but the story IS about her and her backbone and strength throughout her life. 

I liked the device of telling Damian her story, it sort of brought together old Ireland and new Ireland. I liked the book a lot, can't wait for his next one! I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Amazing Edie Eckhart - The Friend Mission by Rosie Jones - Review

You know I love Rosie Jones' Edie Eckhart series. Edie is twelve years old and has cerebral palsy and is in the queer community. I love her so much. Ive enjoyed both books about her and am eagerly awaiting the next. I requested this at the library and they bought it for me. I love it when that happens! Libraries are so good! I hope the next person to find this book enjoys it too.

It is a World Book Day novella so it isn't very long, but I still enjoyed the story. Edie is starting Year 8 at school and there's a new girl in her class, Mia. Mia is American and she has a hearing impairment and wears hearing aids. Edie wants them to be immediate friends! And she wants to get to know Mia's twin, Benjamin! But she is a bit too enthusiastic so it takes a while to win Mia around.

There's not much else to say about this but I did really like it. I hope the next full book comes along soon! I'm giving this four out of five. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - Review

This was the book club choice for November and it was quite a departure for us. I've had this book on my shelf for years but had never got round to it, so I was glad to have an excuse to finally get to it. I got it in a Christmas swap a few years ago. I also know a bunch of people that have raved about this book, which really made me want to read it too! 

But then I ended up really not liking it. But neither did my friend Janet, and she and I often have very similar taste in books. I slogged my way through this and was interested to see what book club made of it. Mostly people had liked it, but I felt it was one of those where if people had just had a conversation with each other things could have been much simpler. Which yes would have meant no plot, but then I wouldn't have had to read the stupid book in the first place. 

The two main protagonists are Sam and Sadie. They are both gamers. They meet firstly when Sam is in hospital when he's about twelve years old. He has been disabled in the car crash which killed his mother and is now living in LA with his grandparents. Sadie's sister has cancer and is in the same ward as Sam. Sam is playing Oregon Trail one day when Sadie comes in and starts playing too. It turns out she can visit Sam and have it count as volunteering for her bat mitzvah, and she racks up nearly a thousand hours with Sam. When he finds this out, he feels betrayed, he feels like their friendship wasn't real. The two fall out and their friendship ends. 

Then when they are about twenty they meet again. They are both at college in Boston and they end up forging a friendship again. Sadie is at college for programming and is in a relationship with one of her professors, who is a total dick. Sam and Sadie start to write a game together and it gets noticed. Eventually they start a company with Marx, who is a friend of Sam's and who has a lot of money. He wants to be in LA so he like manipulates both Sam and Sadie into moving back there. Sadie and he eventually start a relationship. Sam and Sadie fall out again and Sam does something which really annoyed me late on in the book. Mostly throughout I had a lot of sympathy for him and found Sadie really selfish, but this incident really annoyed me and left me feeling sour about him. 

There's a lot about gaming in the book which I did quite like and as I'm a casual gamer myself and married to a hardcore gamer it is something I know a lot about, but I think if you weren't in that world it would be more difficult to understand. I thought Marx was just too perfect which annoyed me too. I liked Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin so I was disappointed by this and can only give it two out of five. 

The Cut Throat Trial by The Secret Barrister writing as S J Fleet - Review

 

I was intrigued to read this book because I know the Secret Barrister from social media and thought their first book would be good. However it really didn't live up to the hype and I wouldn't try hard to read anything else by the same author. It needed a much better edit and it was confusing in parts. I also thought there were far too many points of view which I do kind of understand as a narrative device, because it's a criminal case, but it's annoying to read.

So early in the hours of New Year's Day 2024, the body of a 70 something year old man is found on the streets. He has been stabbed by an illegal knife - a zombie knife - and two youths were arrested at the scene and one was found really close by at the same time too. The three young lads are all saying that the other ones did it. There are text conversations between two of them where they talk about bashing a random person until they're dead. The prosecution has a lot of evidence - blood all over the accused, the knife, and text messages saying this was the kind of thing they might be in to. The prosecutor, Aliyah, has a lot to prove - she fucked up an earlier case and needs to repair her reputation. 

Parts of the novel are from her point of view. Parts are from the points of view of two of the accused lads. They both have had difficult lives and it wouldn't be hard to believe that they are cold killers. There's also the point of view of one of their defence lawyers, because she also has a personal interest in the case.

I really struggled with this book as I said, and can only give it three out of five.