Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna - Review

I really loved this book and really recommend it! I was made aware of it by Janet, who often shares books that she has liked that are cheap on Kindle on her Instagram. She and I have very similar taste in books, so when this was only 99p I had to get it. That's a couple of months ago now, but I'm really glad I picked it up because I liked it a lot. My friend Sarah, when she saw this photo on Instagram, messaged and said that she didn't like it at all and found all the characters unlikeable. After Janet said it was the best book she read last year I was really intrigued to see what I thought... Sorry Sarah, I loved it!

At its core the book is about three people: Maggie, Ed, and Phil. It is set in the heatwave summer of 2019, in London. Maggie and Ed are a couple, Maggie is pregnant, and they are barely scraping by in London so they are planning to move back to Basildon, where they grew up, to raise the baby. It's Maggie's last day at work before the move. A whale has come up the Thames and is beached, and all of London is talking about it and people keep going to see it. Ed is a courier, cycling all over London every day for little money. His dad died a few years ago, and his mum sits on the street back in Basildon every day, still grieving. Ed's best friend is Callum, who is about to get married to Holly. He is having a stag do with Ed and his dad Steve, but he goes AWOL for a bit so everyone is worried. 

His brother is Phil. Phil is gay and lives in a warehouse squat in London with eleven other people. One of them is Keith, who is in an open relationship with Louis, and who is also seeing Phil. Phil is sort of catching feelings though, but doesn't really know what to do about it. He doesn't like Louis, and he also thinks Keith is maybe using him. The squat is going to throw a party so everyone is getting ready for that.

Phil and Callum's mum, Rosaleen, has just discovered that she has cancer and her prognosis is terminal. She visits London on the Saturday with the intention of telling Phil, but finds she can't. A lot of the books is from her point of view too, about her childhood in Ireland and her friend Pauline, who died. Everyone in the book is very, very queer, except Maggie, who is just very in the scene. I loved how little bits were revealed and how so many people were intertwined with each other. I loved Rosaleen, I thought she was great, and I liked Phil a lot. I feel like I understand Phil. I didn't like Ed and Maggie as much for most of the book but I did really like their ending and thought it worked well. 

The book is about one weekend, that kind of hot city weekend when everyone is dying to get out of work and get to the parties, to the alcohol and the drugs and the dancing. I liked how this was portrayed a lot. I was right there, with these young people, who are connected by years and years of history (Phil and Ed have history too) and a vague sense of wanting more in life.

I'm giving this five out of five. It is an almost perfect book. 

The Otley Murders by J R Ellis - Review

You know I have read everything by J R Ellis and really rated his earlier books about DCI Oldroyd and his team, based in Harrogate. I know that part of the world and I've always really liked reading about places I recognise. My mum has read all this series too although I don't know yet what she thought of this one. It came out at the end of July and I picked it up because I can't resist! 

But I had a lot of problems with it. I'm not sure that the story was thought out properly, and it just kind of annoyed me. Then there were the kids named within - who were called Jonathan, Mary, Tom, Jane and Anne! Come on, find me a classroom in 2025 which includes those five children, I guarantee you cannot. Kids don't have names like that! Come on. It's not hard to name some kids. 

I also didn't think the ending really paid off. It felt a bit like Ellis had seen a topic that he wanted to address but hadn't really done enough research and didn't make sure enough justice happened. That annoyed me too. Really, I might be done with this series now, but then I feel bad because my mum will want to talk to me about them!

Anyway, the plot. A man called Adam Blake escapes from prison in a planned escape. He is a serial killer and when he was found guilty he threatened Oldroyd so now that he has escaped Oldroyd and his family all have to have protection so he can't get to them. Andy goes off to help look into the escape and where Adam is now, and has to investigate both prison warders and friends that Blake had on the inside. 

Meanwhile, Oldroyd and Steph are investigating a bizarre murder in Otley. In the new Arts Centre, which used to have some prison cells in it, a body is found. He wasn't killed there, so his body has been put there on purpose. It becomes obvious that some of the elders of the town know about historical things but they are still keeping it to themselves to stop any blame. It was this element that I just didn't feel worked properly. I enjoyed what Oldroyd and Steph did, for sure, but. But. 

In all I can only give this three out of five. 

The Burial Plot by Elizabeth MacNeal - Review

I read a review of this book somewhere and thought it sounded great, so I requested it at the library. However, I didn't really enjoy it at all. It took me absolutely forever to read because I just couldn't get into it. I did feel like it picked up at the end, but getting there just wasn't worth it for me. I won't rush to read anything else by the same author, that's for sure. 

The book is about Bonnie. It is set in 1839. She lives in London, sharing lodgings with her lover Crawford and his friend Rex, who hates her. They vie for Crawford's affection. Crawford thinks himself a cut above quite a lot of people. He takes bets on games in pubs. He gets Bonnie to entice men outside - them thinking they can buy her for the night or whatever - and then he and Rex attack and rob the men. 

One night Bonnie entices a gentleman outside, but things don't go as planned when Crawford and Rex don't show up, and the man starts to assault her. She hits him, and he whacks his head. Bonnie is certain she has killed him and thinks she will hang for the crime. Crawford however has a plan. He has seen an advert for a lady's maid wanted at a mansion in Richmond, which at that point was not part of London (I did like this historical part of the book!). Bonnie goes, applies for the job, gets it, and moves in, safe from the hangmen of London.

The family she moves in with is the Moncrieffs. The father is somewhat stilted, closed off. The daughter, Cissie, is sixteen and a strange little thing, but she and Bonnie grow close. Cissie's mother, Josephine, drowned in the pond earlier in the year, and the whole house is in mourning. There are only two members of staff, Annette, the housekeeper, and Manton, the butler. Mr Moncrieff has fallen on hard times and it seems likely that he will have to declare himself bankrupt. He spends a lot of time sketching mausoleums for Josephine and it is this which gives Bonnie an idea.

She has heard Crawford talking about the new cemeteries in London, like Highgate, and says that Mr Moncrieff could sell some of his grounds to make a cemetery, where he could also make a huge tomb for Josephine. He doesn't disagree, but nothing happens until Crawford turns up.

Posing as Bonnie's brother, he inveigles his way into the household and persuades Mr Moncrieff to start the cemetery. But he is cunning and he has so many plans and so much bitterness. Bonnie is quite stupid, though, and there are many times when she could do something but she just waits for things to happen. I liked her as a character but so much of the book just drags and there's no action. It's supposed to be really gothic and I thought the setting was good, but the slowness just stopped it from being really gothic for me.

In all I'm giving it two out of five, possibly a two and a half. But I won't rush to read anything else by her! 

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves - Review

After the last book I read, which I didn't much like, I wanted something easy to read. So I turned to Ann Cleeves, because I find the Vera Stanhope books easy to read. I hadn't heard of this one before but I saw it when we were on holiday and liked the premise, so I bought it on Kindle. 

A group of old friends is meeting on Holy Island. They are all sixty odd but they met fifty years ago in drama class and went on a residential course to the island, and they have had a reunion every five years since. At the first one, five years after the original trip, two of the people got into an argument and one of them drove off and was drowned on the road back to the mainland when the tide came in. This time, when everyone is getting on a bit, one of the men is found dead. It's been staged to look like a suicide, but Vera doesn't agree. And she's right - so there has to be a murder investigation. Vera and Joe and Holly have to spend a lot of time on the island to solve the crime. 

The group these days are: Louise and Ken, a couple. Ken is suffering from dementia. Lou is younger than the others and is the sister of Isabel, the girl who drowned forty five years ago. Philip is a vicar now, and seems to have found peace in his old age. Annie works in a local deli with her friend Jax. Rick is celebrity journalist but he has been 'cancelled' recently due to allegations of misconduct. He says that he is writing a book, thinly veiled as what happened to Isabel. He also says that fifty years ago he had sex with their teacher, Judy Marshall, who was newly out of college when she taught them. He is the one found dead and it turns out that quite a lot of people would have a motive to kill him. 

He has an ex wife, who also knows the group. Annie's ex husband is involved, too, and his new partner turns out to be Vera's boss, which complicates matters quite a bit. There is a whole cast of characters but it was easy to keep them straight which I appreciated. I liked the mystery behind the whole thing. I felt a lot of sympathy for a lot of the characters. 

In all I'm giving this four out of five, I appreciated the easy read. 

The Magickal Summer of Evie Edelman by Harriet de Mesquita - Review

I was offered some book to review by UCLAN Publishing, because I'm on their list, so I chose this and another, and I was so excited to receive them! So thank you very much to UCLAN Publishing for gifting me this copy of this book. I was provided with a copy for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I didn't like this book much at all and I feel really bad about saying that, because I really thought it sounded like my kind of thing. But it just wasn't. It also took me nine days to read it, which was partly because I was away for the weekend with not much time to read, but also because I just couldn't get engrossed in the prose. It is a shame because I wanted to like it! 

The book is set in 1982 and is written as the diary of Evie herself, so it comes off a bit like Adrian Mole in parts, which may or may not be intentional. As it is historical fiction I do think it is broadly of the time, but there were a couple of things that were anachronistic which kind of annoyed me. I also think the language skews more modern, but maybe that doesn't matter. 

So anyway, Evie is twenty two and she lives in Leeds with her parents, Dad and Lizzie. Her elder brother, Joe, is married to a woman called Val and they have a one year old baby, Tom. The family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, I think. They attend synagogue but it seems like it's more for the gossip that anything else! They live in a community of Jewish people with a lot of women called Susan and Sarah, which I get was a joke, but it was also a bit difficult to keep everyone straight in my head. Evie used to have a thing with a young man called Alex Ishkowitz but they broke things off, and he is now married to one of the Susans. 

Evie visits a psychotherapist and is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It feels like everyone in her life already knew this and has been kind of blaming her for it? I also strongly suspect her dad is autistic too (since that is the term we use these days). So she starts a diary. 

Evie's auntie Miriam dies very suddenly one day, and in her will, she leaves Evie nearly all of her quite sizable fortune. There is a distinct feeling that this is a stupid dea and she won't know what to do with it. Evie is trying to be a witch and as part of this she buys a small cottage in a village near Barnsley and moves there. She goes there because of a picture of a mill in that village that her parents have in the house. 

Now it must be that this village is close to where I live because it is four miles from Scissett, and I live about eight miles away from Scissett. Scissett is misspelt as Scisset, which I found incredibly annoying, because it's not that hard to google. In fact the book needed a better edit/proof read because there were a few mistakes like this that I picked up. In fact, Edelman is spelt wrongly on the spine of the book! 

Anyway Evie moves there in to a tiny somewhat delapidated cottage and makes friends with some of the locals, but she doesn't entirely fit in. She still practises her magick and she is awkward at times. She sometimes have visions but these aren't really explained enough. I just sort of didn't get the point of the book? I liked Evie enough but just couldn't get into the story. 

Two out of five. Sorry. 

The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster - Review

I saw this book a couple of times when I was on holiday and was intrigued by it, but it was still in hardback so it was the best part of £20 and I just didn't want to spend that much on a book. But then I saw it on Kindle for a few quid a bit later so I bought it. I also sent it to my friend Leanne because I thought this would be right up her street. We read it at the same time which was really nice. I also read it quickly and would have read it even quicker if I had had more time over the weekend. 

It's based on the story of a real woman called Maggie Dickson who was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of her child. However, she survived the hanging and was deemed to have served her sentence. She lived a lot longer! So Kate Foster has reimagined her life. 

Maggie is twenty two years old, ish, and lives in Fisherrow near Edinburgh with her parents and her sister Joan. At the very beginning of the book she awakes after being hanged, and realises she is in her own coffin (well, the parish coffin, because her parents are too poor to pay for one for just her) in the stables of an inn. She gets out of the coffin and goes into the inn, surprising her family, who thought she was dead. She has given her engagement ring to her sister and demands it back. She is captured by the sheriffs who take her back to Edinburgh because they have to discuss whether she has served her sentence or not and whether she is allowed to go free. 

The novel then goes back in time to show the reader what has happened. Maggie lives in a tiny cottage with her parents and sister. The four of them share a bed. Her Da has a bad temper. He is a fisherman and Ma, Joan and Maggie all sell the fish. She meets a stranger called Patrick Spencer and starts a courtship with him. They get married and Maggie is quite content in her little cottage with him. She doesn't want a baby so Spencer gives her some kind of 'women's tonic' to try to prevent that.

She discovers something awful about him and takes off. She wants to go to London, where Spencer always told her they would go, and open a perfumerie, but she only gets as far as Kelso. She stays the night in an inn and ends up staying there. She is betrayed by a woman she meets and gets a job in the inn. She realises she is pregnant but keeps it to herself, because she doesn't want to lose her job. 

I won't give anything else away because I was so intrigued by the book and loved uncovering that for myself. I really liked it, really rated it, and can't wait to read more by Kate Foster. I am giving it five out of five. 

Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell - Review

I bought this book in the children's and YA book shop in Retford that I visited over Easter with my friends. We each had a gift voucher to spend so all bought books, which is always a joy. I got this and two others. I picked it up in early July which was actually a really stupid time to pick it up, because a lot of the stories are Christmas themed or winter themed, so it would have been cute to read it in December. But never mind, I enjoyed it anyway!

There are nine stories in the book, but the first two are Midnights (which I've read) and Kindred Spirits (which I've read twice) and which I reviewed in one volume here back in January. So I didn't bother reading those two again. I went straight in with story number 3, which was SO good, I loved it. It's called Winter Songs for Summer and it's about a girl at college who breaks up with a boy and plays Tori Amos over and over again, and the guy who lives below her, Benji, makes her a mix CD so that he doesn't have to listen to Tori Amos anymore. The two of them become close. Rainbow describes Benji as a 'different type of love interest' to what she usually writes I guess, and I agree. I loved him. 

She says The Snow Ball was a prototype for Slow Dance, which I read and reviewed here, and I can see where she's coming from. I liked it. The next story, If The Fates Allow, features Reagan, who was apparently in Fangirl, which I read and LOVED before I started this blog. I don't remember Reagan but I really liked the story, especially as it uses Covid and the pandemic lockdowns as a backdrop. The Prince and the Troll was perhaps my least favourite of the stories, mostly because it's a fairytale and I am not that keen on that. 

Mixed Messages was really good, focussing as it does on older women - like I myself am getting towards - so I liked that a lot. Snow for Christmas is about Simon and Baz from the Carry On trilogy, which I didn't love, but I did really like this story because it was cute and Christmassy.

The last story, In Waiting, is very meta, I loved it. It's about a character waiting in the wings, with her whole life and world set out. She lives in a world where characters wait - some only for a day or two and some for literally years. I really liked this, especially as a writer myself. I know what it's like to have some characters hanging around for a long time!

In all I'm giving this book four out of five. I really liked it and liked being immersed into Rainbow's worlds again. 

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré - Review

 

I chose this book for my book club choice of 2025. I have seen a couple of friends read it and enjoy it, and I thought it would be good for book club. I'm writing this before our book club meeting so I don't know what everyone will have made of it, but I hope they liked it. I did, but it is harrowing in places and I would give a trigger warning for sexual assault and abuse. 

So, Adunni is fourteen years old and she lives in a small town with her dad and her brothers - one older and one younger. Her mother died a few years ago and Adunni misses her terribly. She has friends, and she wants to stay in education because she is clever. But her family is poor, so she can't do that. Instead, her dad sells her off to a much older man, Morufu. He already has two wives - Labanke, and Khadija. Labanke struggled with infertility and managed to have just one child. Khadija has had four girls and is pregnant again. Everyone is hoping for a boy. Khadija is kind to Adunni but Labanke hates her and bullies her. Morudfu doesn't get involved in the tensions between the women. He takes some kind of elixir and rapes Adunni night after night, wanting her to get pregnant and have a boy. He is a terrible person and Adunni's life seems over. Something happens that means she has to run. She eventually makes it to Lagos. 

She is trafficked by the brother of a friend into being the house girl of a woman called Big Madam. She has fabric stores and is very wealthy. She is married to a man called Big Daddy who she hates. He is having loads of affairs and spends all her money. Big Madam is cruel to Adunni, of course, but some salvation does come. I really wasn't sure where I expected this part of the book to go, but I'm mostly happy with what happened. 

The book is written in non standard English (which explains the title, as Adunni describes herself as having a 'louding voice') with some Pidgin English in there. I wonder if book club members will have had a problem with this, but honestly, I think it's good for us as readers to be pushed out of our comfort zones occasionally. It took me maybe twenty pages to get used to the writing, but once I did, I loved it. I loved turns of phrase that Adunni used and I loved how she learnt things throughout the book. 

She is a genuinely fantastic character and I wanted her to succeed. I've seen there is a sequel to this book which I will have to read! I'm giving this five out of five. 

The Heights by Louise Candlish - Review

I requested this book at the library at like the beginning of May and picked it up and then ignored it for a while. I am very much a mood reader and can't ever make myself read something if I don't want to. But I took it on holiday and picked it up on our last day while we were at a spa in Helmsley. I've enjoyed the other books I've read by Louise Candlish but I found this an odd one. She writes a lot about social class which I don't ever mind but I do find it weird sometimes how she deals with it. 

The book has a story within a story, kind of. There's a woman writing an article for a newspaper about a creative writing class, and in that, Ellen is an attendee, so most of the book is from her point of view. But there are other points of view too which are needed but sometimes they end up telling the author too much. 

She is a lighting interior designer kind of person and one day she is working with a client in central London when she catches sight of a man on a high roof across the road. She recognises him as Kieran Watts - but surely, he is dead? She follows him over the next few days. He is the person she blames for ruining her life and her family's life. She catches up with him and realises he has had some plastic surgery. He is also going by a different name. Ellen is warned off by an older man in Kieran's life. 

She gets in touch with her ex partner, Vic. He, like her, thought that Kieran was dead, but he doesn't believe her to begin with. See, Kieran used to know their son, Lucas. Back in time five years, Lucas was paired with Kieran at the beginning of sixth form when Kieran was new to the school. Lucas was asked to buddy with him and they quickly became friends. Lucas' sometimes girlfriend, Jade, was a good friend of Kieran's too. To be honest, he seemed just like an ordinary teenager. He smokes weed, they like to go to parties and skip school sometimes, and he learns to drive. It's basically what I did when I was in 6th form, but Ellen absolutely loathes him.

She is married to Justin and they have a daughter, Freya, who is twelve. Ellen basically hates Kieran because she thinks he's below her family. He is in care and living with a foster mother. Her family is incredibly middle class and Ellen is just snotty towards Kieran. She doesn't believe that her darling son would EVER do anything wrong. That is the basis of the whole book.

I sort of don't want to give more details because it would be spoilers. But Ellen is sure that Kieran died, and now he is back. She becomes obsessed and of course it all goes off the rails. 

I did guess a couple of the twists. I quite liked the ending, but I found Ellen so insufferable that I struggled to sympathise with her throughout. I did feel sympathy for Vic, who seemed like a decent dad. I'm giving this three out of five. 

This Is Me Trying by Jenna Adams - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for This Is Me Trying by Jenna Adams. It is a pleasure to welcome you here, especially because it's the first day! I only finished this book on Monday night! I really wanted to get it finished for today so that I could write a full review of the book, because it's a long book and it's really dense, and I really want to know how it ended. 

So, the book is told from the points of view of Brooke and Matt. At the start of the book Matt is seventeen and Brooke is fourteen. Matt has been part of Stagefright, a drama company for teens and young adults for a while, but this is Brooke's first year. The play they are going to put on is Romeo and Juliet. Matt is Romeo and Brooke is Juliet. They obviously have to work very closely together and Matt manages to bring Brooke out of herself. She's a bright, vivacious teenager. She lives with her mum and her sister Amy. Her dad is American and he's pretty absent from her life generally. She has a best friend, Lucy, and is close with Lucy's brother, Callum. They are also in Stagefright.

Matt lives with his parents and has a few close friends. He is in the sixth form, and Brooke is only in Year 9. He has feelings for her, and they kiss a couple of times. Matt knows how it will look, though, so he asks Brooke to not tell anyone about it. A couple of times they are nearly caught. Matt eventually breaks up with Brooke but a bit later they meet up and they have sex. It's illegal because by this point Matt is eighteen and Brooke is not yet fifteen. 

Matt feels terrible. It is hard to not sympathise with him, actually, but as an adult I know that this is really wrong and that he should have left her alone. Brooke comes to that realisation too. I really liked how this was portrayed. She is incredibly hurt and slips into a deep depression that lasts for her whole teenage years. She self harms and she's very miserable and when she's 18, she leaves. 

I liked both Brooke and Matt and felt a lot of sympathy for both of them. They don't have this amazing romance. They do have issues. A lot of young girls will have been through something similar to Brooke, I am sure, which is terrible, because it is terrible, but it does mean that I was happy to see this reflected in a novel. I would definitely read something else by the same author. My only criticism really is that I wouldn't necessarily call this Young Adult. New Adult, maybe? I dunno. It's a hard one because both characters grow up and become adults in the book. But I'm giving it four out of five. 

Thank you for having me on this tour. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for the tour but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Have a click around and read some of my other reviews! 

Empress & Aniya by Candice Carty-Williams - Review

When I was on holiday last week we went to Whitby and went into a discount book shop there. It was there when we visited in January but it was closed, so I was happy it was open this time. The Young Adult section was pretty decent, lots of contemporary stuff and lots of diverse stuff. They had three books for a fiver so I picked three up, including this one. I then read it while we were on holiday, and actually at a day spa that we were at for our anniversary. It is a novella so it isn't very long, so I read it very quickly. 

I read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and liked it, so I was intrigued to read her first YA story. However, I think she missed the mark a bit with it. She maybe just isn't that familiar with YA and its ages and tropes and stuff. The speech between the girls especially skewed a lot younger than the age they were supposed to be. 

So, anyway, Empress and Aniya are now at the same school. It is a private school and Empress has got herself a scholarship. Aniya has been there for years. Her parents are rich, she lives in a huge house. She has a lot of privilege. Both girls are Black. Empress though is from 'the wrong side of the tracks'. She lives with her mother and her baby brother, Leo. They live in poverty and often the hot water or the electricity isn't working in Empress' flat. She gets bullied at school which is awful.

She and Aniya are sort of friends, though. Then on the eve of the 16th birthdays (they happen to share a birthday) they do a spell. And when they wake up, they are each other. Aniya then sees how hard Empress' life is, and of course she wants to swoop in and help. I found this whole bit a bit weird, actually. A bit too saviour-y? A bit patronising. In general the ending annoyed me too, but I won't spoilt it. 

In all, I think it had promise but perhaps didn't live up to it. I'm giving this three out of five. 

The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas - Review

I bought this on Amazon when it was only a pound or so, having enjoyed previous books I read by Claire Douglas. I read it while I was away on holiday and it didn't take me long to read, it was good holiday reading. I did mostly enjoy it, but I thought the ending was a bit weird. 

Most of the book is told from the point of view of Tasha. She is thirty something and married to Aaron. She lives in a village not far from Bristol I think called Chew Norton. They have twin girls, Elsie and Flossie, who are 'nearly three'. Keep this bit in mind for later. Aaron is a mechanic and Tasha works in a dentist clinic. Her dad has passed away. Her mum Jeanette lives in France. Her sister Alice is married to Kyle and lives in London. They are very rich and totally high flying. 

Alice and Kyle offer to look after the twins for a week so that Tasha and Aaron can go and stay in Alice and Kyle's apartment in Venice, have a break from the girls, and rediscover themselves a bit. So they set off. They love the apartment and they have amazing food and drink and Tasha borrows some of her sister's clothes. However, they are chased by a man with a knife down some back streets. He says something to them that Tasha thinks means 'you owe me'. 

However, in the early hours of the morning Tasha gets a phone call telling her that someone broke into their house and attacked Alice and Kyle. Kyle is dead. Alice has suffered awful injuries and is in hospital. Tasha and Aaron obviously rush home. Jeanette rushes from her home in France to be with her daughter too. She moved out there after her husband died. She has never got over the abduction of her youngest child, Holly, thirty years before. 

Some parts of the book are from Jeanette's point of view. She took Holly to the shop, left her in the pram outside the shop, and when she came out, the baby was gone. Viv, who is Aaron's mum, was there with one of her young kids, and she comforted Jeanette. A huge manhunt occurred, but there was never any positive sighting of Holly again. But, in the DNA of the blood after the attack in Tasha's house, the police find DNA that can only belong to another child of Jeanette's. Who else can it be except Holly? 

Aaron and Tasha have not always had an easy relationship and there is a woman at his workplace who seems to fancy him and Tasha is uncomfortable about the whole thing. There are so many ins and outs to this book and I won't give them all away, but I did find them compelling.

However. I have two main criticisms of the book. Firstly, the twins did NOT come across like 'nearly three' year olds. They speak in full sentences and they ask a lot of questions about how Kyle died which didn't ring true at all. Tasha also sends them upstairs to play for a couple of hours which sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. 

Secondly, I thought how the DNA issue resolved itself was kind of stupid. Not that it was wrong, it was just stupid. 

Because of those criticisms I am only giving this three out of five. 

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes - Review

I bought this book back in April when I visited a children's and YA book shop in Retford when I was in the area with friends. My friend Sam had given us all a £10 book token so we all bought books, which was actually delightful. I got three books in total, I have already red Trigger by C G Moore but haven't read the third one yet. That's by Rainbow Rowell, I haven't read anything by her in forever!

I didn't like this book as much as I was hoping to, which was a shame. Maybe it just wasn't for me. That's fine! The main character is Yamilet, Yami to her friends, who lives in Arizona with her mum and her younger brother Cesar. Cesar is in the same school year as Yami, although he's a little bit younger. Their dad lives in Mexico - he was deported like six years ago and can't come back to the United States. Yami talks to him often but she misses him a lot. 

Yami is gay and used to have a crush on her best friend, Bianca. However, when she came out to Bianca, Bianca reacted badly and outed her to a couple of mutual friends. Meanwhile, Cesar was getting into lots of fights in school so he is moving to a Catholic school a longer drive away, on a scholarship. Yami also decides to go, mostly because then she can hide her sexuality, but also to keep an eye on her brother. She has to find a job in order to help pay for her tuition and help her mother out. She eventually starts to sell her mother's Mexican beaded jewellery and makes it herself, which I did think was a good storyline. 

At school she firstly meets three girls who turn out to be proper mean girls, and she soon distances herself from them. She is one of the only students of colour at the school, and she is much poorer than most of the other students. She meets Bo, who is Chinese, adopted by a white couple, and who is one of the only outwardly queer students at the school too. Yami soon develops a crush on her, but she is trying so hard to be straight at her new school! 

She thinks her religious mother won't accept her if she comes out, so she's determined to not let her mum know. But this drives a massive wedge between them, of course. Cesar gets detention straight away at the new school so Yami has to worry about him, too. She has a lot going on, and I did feel really sorry for her. But I also felt like Yami was a bit of a passive player in her own life. She lets other people ride over her wishes too much which annoyed me. I can't fully empathise with her plight around coming out to her parents, but I did like mostly what happened here. Cesar is a really interesting character and I would have liked more of his story but I also don't want to give spoilers as I'm really glad I didn't have any when I went into it. 

Overall, I'm giving this three out of five because I liked it well enough but I thought it had problems in parts, and I didn't love it. I would definitely read something else by the same author though. 

Sorry I haven't published anything her for ages, I was away on holiday and was a little bit behind in blogging before I went. I will catch up! 

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng - Review

This was the June choice for my book club and I wasn't sure how I would like it. It's a really long book and I think it is a bit long in places, but it is an epic story so it did have a lot of story to tell. Rosa chose it and she's pretty new to our book club and hasn't chosen a book before so it was really interesting that she chose this. I can't wait to see what everyone else thought about it next week - well, after this post will go live, but I'm writing this before of course. 

So, the protagonist of the book is Philip. He is half Chinese and half English. He is brought up in Malaya by his English father and three older half siblings after his mother dies. His father owns a factory in Georgetown, on the island of Penang. He has rubber plantations and other business interests. It is the 1930s when Philip is young. War breaks out in 1939, of course, when Philip is about eighteen. 

But at the beginning of the book it's 1995, fifty years after the end of World War Two and Philip is invited to celebrate that with other people. He still lives in his parental home, Istana, where he grew up. He still works for his father's company and is now the ownder. He is somewhat distrusted in the local area because of his history. A woman called Michiko turns up at his house. She knows Endo, a Japanese man who taught Philip martial arts when he was a teenager, and for whom Philip worked during the war. He rented a small island from the family and his home is still there. He was a government employee. Michiko wants to know all about his life. She knew Endo too, when they were young. More of her history comes out but I won't spoil that because it was so interesting. 

Now, of course I knew that Japan was an enemy to the Allies in WWII and that it was allied with Germany and Italy, but I really don't know much of the history otherwise. I will assume that a lot of the history in this book is true; the author probably did plenty of research. The British are portrayed as having left Malaya undefended as soon as war broke out, and the Japanese took over and occupied the area. Endo's role obviously became more important Philip started working for him. Some people then saw him as a collaborator but it is more complicated than that. 

Philip felt like he wasn't part of his family because he had a different mother and was mixed race unlike his siblings. They are Edward, William, and Isabel. He does get to know William and Isabel more throughout the book, but they have complicated relationships. 

As for Endo - Philip really kind of worships him? I think there's some sexual overtones too between them. Endo teaches him martial arts but also how not to fight and not to be drawn into fighting. How to go zen. It's stuff that Philip will need for the rest of his life. I liked this part of it a lot, but I don't feel like we knew Endo enough. 

I liked Philip a lot and wanted what was best for him. He has a tough life and makes difficult decisions, not always for the right reasons. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Uncommon People by Miranda Sawyer - Audio Book Review

I had seen someone I follow reading this book and I thought it sounded interesting, so I found it on Spotify and started listening to it. I started in April and finished two months later. This is because I don't listen to audio books a lot - generally only when I'm in the car on the way to and from work once a week. But this was a good book to do that with, because I didn't need to remember much from previously as each chapter concentrated on a different song and band. It was good to dip in and out of. 

Miranda Sawyer is a journalist although I primarily know her as a talking head on different types of documentaries about music. She worked for Select magazine amongst others, and describes herself as more of a pop fan than anything else. But she was working for Select and Melody Maker in the mid nineties, when Britpop was at its height, and she met a lot of the bands involved. So she's the right person to tell this story for sure. 

At the beginning I felt like she wasn't used to reading things out loud because she sounded a bit stilted, but this improved as the book went on. She started with a brief explanation of 'Britpop' and how it came about. As she said, you don't realise you're living in a scene until it's almost over. She went a bit off piste with her choices towards the end, but I understood why and thought the choices that were made made a lot of sense. 

So, she chose one song from a bunch of bands and talked about that band in each chapter. For instance - Girls and Boys by Blur, Connection by Elastica, A Design for Life by the Manic Street Preachers. I was a fan (and occasionally still am) of a lot of the bands, and I knew most of the songs, so some of the information wasn't new to me. But I managed to learn a lot in each chapter - even the Manics chapter, and I was a huge Manics fan for most of my teenaged years. I really enjoyed learning even about the bands that I actively don't like, like The Verve. 

It was an engaging book and one that reminded me of my teens and made me want to listen to all that fun indie pop stuff of the mid nineties again. I might write a zine about the songs detailed, because I think they lend themselves to it and hey, someone already did the hard work for me. 

In all I'm giving it four out of five. Some of the diction did annoy me, and some parts became a bit repetitive simply because they talk about the same people. But I definitely recommend this whether you were there or not! 

The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click around to see other reviews of mine. And don't forget to look at some other people's posts too! 

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I loved the premise of this book, set as it is in modern India, so I eagerly signed up for the tour. I loved the family dynamics, although it is quite complex for such a short book. First of all there are the Kapoors. Mr and Mrs Kapoor have three sons - Om, who is married to Mahima, and has twin sons, Luv and Kush; Dev, who is married to Sumi, and Vivek, who is studying at a university miles and miles away. Sumi has only just moved into the house. She and Dev have not yet consumated their marriage - it's implied it was an arranged marriage so they are getting to know each other. Still, Dev is very supportive of his wife. She wants to apply for a PhD in quantum physics. Her father is also a physicist and it had always been her dream. She wants to impress him. She has less time for her mother and brother, Gyan. 

The house is cleaned by a woman called Pushpa. Her husband does ironing for a living in the local area. The Kapoors' house backs on to two others - one lived in by Mrs Banshal (I think) and her son, Dhruv. The other one is lived in by Maya and her three daughters.

Maya is a single mother after her husband left six years ago. Her daughters are teenagers/young women. The eldest, Neeti, is getting married. The middle one, Nalini, is very beautiful but really obsessed with studying and working. The youngest, Naina, has a lot put upon her, I think. All the girls have a bit of a time with their mother. She cooks and sells food in the local area. 

In the Kapoors' house things keep going missing and Mahima is going crazy over finding out what happened to them. She is trying to pin it on Pushpa but Sumi isn't sure that's right - but also she doesn't want suspicion to fall on her. She keeps meaning to do her application but isn't exactly sure of herself. There's a lot going on and the wedding is drawing closer. 

I really liked the book and all the characters and the way their lives intertwined in the way that lives of neighbours do. I'd really recommend the book. I'm giving it four out of five. I would definitely read something by the same author! 

I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent - Review

I read the first Kitty Collins book in 2023 and reviewed it here. I liked it, so when I saw the second one in The Works or something I bought it for a few quid. It's been in my to be read basket for a while, and I finally picked it up right at the end of May. 

I'll say what I said before - some of this book is just plain satire, and it's very much a revenge story and maybe is supposed to empower women, and it's also not really a book of substance but it is very compelling reading. I compared her other book to a jam doughnut - not very good for you but it tastes nice occasionally. Do I think it's amazing literature? No. Will I read the next one? Absolutely. 

Kitty is turning thirty and she's celebrating with her boyfriend Charlie. She gets a beautiful diamond necklace from her mum, from whom she's estranged. Her mum lives in the South of France and sends Kitty a decent allowance each month, but they don't speak. Alongside the present is an invitation to her mum, Carmella's, wedding. To a man called Gabriel, who Kitty has never met and doesn't know. She isn't sure whether she will go or not. 

She has given up murdering but has found it hard to quit. She goes to a support group for angry women and gets incredibly angry about the ways in which women have been hurt and abused by men. She also can't stop herself from checking the social media of this incel/red pill bloke called Blaze Bundy. She literally can't stand him and she realises that he is threatening her. She is determined to find out who he is. 

Meanwhile Maisie is pregnant and Tor is seeing her therapist. Kitty is not happy about this so she goes off to meet him and threaten him a bit. She also hears at her support group that a famous TV presenter has groped the teenaged daughter of one of the attendees, so she goes off to meet him and ends up killing him. Because of course she does. She is in the middle of cleaning up when she gets an SOS from Charlie so has to rush home. 

Where there is no emergency, just a surprise party for Kitty's thirtieth! And her mother is there! And there's still a dead body that needs attending to! But then Kitty and Charlie have to head off to France for her mum's wedding and the presenter is merely 'missing'. Kitty has no chance to think about anything. 

A lot happens in this book and it was a bit hard to keep up at times. But I really did want Kitty to succeed and get some power over some terrible men too. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Vianne by Joanne Harris - Review

You may remember that I have read a lot of Joanne Harris' books and really like the Chocolat series. You can see some of my other reviews of her books here. When I heard there was a prequel to the series coming out, I had to order it straight away. And then I started it straight away too, because I was just so excited to read it. 

I read Chocolat way back almost twenty-five years ago when I was at sixth form college, on the recommendation of my French teacher, who was both my teacher of French and a teacher who WAS French, and I loved it, and made my parents both read it immediately. We then read all of Joanne's stuff as it came out. Five Quarters of the Orange remains one of my favourite books of all time. I've read the sequels to Chocolat and reviewed them here, so I would say to check them out.

This is a prequel, so it's Vianne's story before Anouk was born. She, then known as Sylviane Rochas, has been living in New York with her dying mother, Jeanne. Jeanne has died, and Vianne has scattered her ashes in the Hudson river and then used her last dollars to buy a flight to Marseille. It is August 1993. Vianne is pregnant with Anouk. 

She gets a job near La Bonne Mere cathedral, at a bistrot run and owned by a man called Louis. His wife, Margot, died in childbirth with their child, after a lot of miscarriages. Louis hasn't got over it. He has regulars at the bistrot, most of whom are quite as miserable as he is. Vianne gets a room there, and then a job. She has to learn to cook Margot's recipes, from her recipe book cum scrapbook that Louis lends to her. 

Vianne then also meets Guy and Mahmed. They are a couple, and they are about to open a chocolaterie. Guy is passionate about cacao and chocolate, but he is lying to his family in Toulouse, who think he is a pro bono lawyer. Vianne starts to learn about chocolate and how to temper it and make chocolates and how to use it in her magic. 

She ends up leaving Marseille, called by the wind, but things go awry and she ends up back there. She discovers a lot about her own past and a lot about the type of mother that she wants to be. 

Like all the Chocolat books, there's a mix of reality and some magic. Vianne consults her mother's tarot cards often; she can read people's colours and performs little spells often. I love this, it feels so real to the original books. The book is set in 1993 but it also really doesn't feel like that - it is timeless, which I love. I liked the backdrop of Marseille, a place that I've never been. It was all so French, which is one of the reasons I love Joanne's books so much. This is a worthy addition to the Chocolat story. I'm giving it five out of five. 

Five Have Plenty of Fun by Enid Blyton - Review

I read the second in this little boxset of Famous Five books straight after the first one, because I was just in the mood for something easy to read. Again, I really didn't remember this book, if I had ever read it before, so it was new to me. 

I will also say that I've really enjoyed the new series of The Famous Five that has been on the BBC recently. It's got George as a mixed race kid, and Uncle Quentin is less annoying than he is in the books. Anne was probably my favourite in the TV series. There was a new one at Christmas and it really felt like good Christmas viewing, nice and homely. So I would recommend that if you, like me, grew up on the Famous Five and would like some nostalgia. 

In this one, all five are at George's house for part of the holiday (these children as always on holiday!) and Uncle Quentin is going loopy at the thought of children in his house, as usual. He has got two scientist friends coming. They have been working on something to do with alternative energy and it's all very hush hush. One of them is an American, and some people threaten that they will kidnap his daughter, Berta, if he doesn't reveal some of the secret information. So he sends Berta to stay with the five. 

She is American and apparently says 'wunnerful' not 'wonderful' and she has a little poodle called Sally. George can't stand her. They disguise her to put any would be kidnappers off the scent. The five kids and two dogs spend a lot of time swimming etc, enjoying themselves. Quentin has to go to London so Aunt Fanny decides to go with him, of course, leaving the children with Joanna, the cook. Because that's sensible when there are kidnappers around. 

The five realise that someone is on Kirrin Island, possibly spying on them, so they head off there, of course. I thought the end of this book fizzled out a bit and didn't find it as satisfying as the previous ones, so I'm giving it three out of five. 

Five Go to Mystery Moor by Enid Blyton - Review

I recently got a collection of three Famous Five books for 99p on Kindle because I was feeling kind of nostalgic I guess. I read a lot of the Famous Five books when I was a kid, but I didn't remember this one. I had a bunch with this cover, though, that were borrowed off my uncle's family and which probably did the rounds among a bunch of us in the family when we were younger. This one was probably there, but I have totally forgotten it.

So, Anne and George are spending their holiday at a riding school with a bunch of younger children and a girl called Henrietta, who like George, prefers to be called Henry and dress as a boy. George can't stand her, but Anne basically thinks she's fine. I can't remember the exact circumstances but obviously Julian and Dick turn up too. They're also on holiday and they have to sleep in the stables because there's no room for them in the house. They of course think this is great japes, though. 

Meanwhile, a local Gypsy boy called Sniffer has brought his horse to the school for some treatment. He has a dog, Liz, who Timmy is very excited to meet. In my issue of the book the word Gypsy had been changed to the word 'traveller' which is not exactly the same thing, but never mind, and it did leave to some confusing sentences, but I do understand that it was probably done to modernise the text for a book that is over seventy years old. 

Sniffer's dad wants the horse back because the group needs to move to the middle of the moor. He gets very angry when he isn't allowed because the horse is still injured. Julian has a proper go at him, because of course, he is posh and middle class and the man isn't, so he even as a child has the right to speak to this man horribly! I really didn't like this but it was something I picked up on last year when I read Five on a Hike Together. These children really are incredibly irritating at times. 

Anyway, the Five decide to go on a camping trip to the moor together, because they just can't leave things be, and they end up finding a smuggling racket involving the travellers. Of course. I did like the ending though, with Henry coming into her own. This was a quick read of course and I just thought it was fun. Four out of five for nostalgia. 

The Magdalenes by Jeanne Skartsiaris - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Magdalenes by Jeanne Skartsiaris. It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click round and read some of my other reviews. I read a lot of different genres. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I was intrigued by the premise of this book so signed up for the tour. I realise that this book was one of the BBNYA finalists so it's not perfect, and that is one of my main criticisms of it - it needed a bit of a better edit which did detract from my enjoyment a little bit. But I don't have a lot of criticisms and it is just me being picky. 

Jude Madigan is a lawyer, working on settlement cases for her firm. The book is set in Dallas, Texas. Jude's boss is called Drew and he has a lot of time for her. Her assistant is called Katie and she keeps trying to be Jude's friend but Jude is having none of it. The case she is working on is the settlement for a child who was in a car crash with her mother. The mother died and the child is traumatised and Jude is working on a settlement. But then Drew has a strange case for her. A woman called Trudy has died, leaving a legacy behind, and she has several letters that she has requested Jude delivers to some beneficiaries of her money - a halfway house run by nuns. 

So, the nuns. They have set up a Magdalene house to help young women who have been sex workers and must complete some rehabilitation in order to avoid prison. The main nuns are Elizabeth and Bernadette. The house is in a bit of a rough neighbourhood but it is an old hotel and has been done up. Jude doesn't know Trudy so she's absolutely baffled as to why she needs to be the one working on this case, but she goes to meet the nuns and the women anyway. She finds herself getting caught up in their lives and the life of the home, despite herself.

Because, you see, Jude grew up as a Catholic. She was raped by the family priest when she was fourteen, and fell pregnant. She was sent to Texas to give birth, and was forced to give her daughter up for adoption. She thinks about her daughter often. Her family basically disowned her and she hasn't been home since. She has closed herself up to friends and socialising, and to the Church entirely. She has been dating a man called Rick, who she has broken up with, but he is refusing to let go of her and is causing her some problems. 

A lot happens in the book. Some of it I was expecting, and some I wasn't. I did think parts of it were a bit predictable. But I liked Jude a lot and wanted her to be okay. I would read something else starring her for sure. I also thought that the end went on a bit long - I think I would have cut it maybe two or three chapters before it actually ended. There are also a lot of characters and threads to keep track of. I also thought that Drew flip flopped a lot and I wanted him to be more consistent. I did like the new love interest! 

In all I'm giving this four out of five, I did like it and I'm gladI  read it. 

Trigger by C G Moore - Review

Trigger warning for this book! It's about rape! Specificially male rape. It is a little graphic. 

I bought this book in a children's and YA bookshop in Retford at Easter. I was visiting the area with friends and read about this bookshop, so a few of us went along. I bought three books because I had a voucher, and this was one of them. I picked it up in mid May when I was feeling a bit down, and it turned out to be just what I needed. Sometimes books happen like that and I always love it when they do.

So, this is a book told in verse, like Sarah Crossan's books, which I didn't know when I picked it up actually, but it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I think some of the poems worked better than others, and I would have liked a little bit more depth on some. But they did generally work really well. 

The story is about Jay. He wakes up in a park one morning, beaten, bruised, and bloodied. His phone is smashed. He realises he has been sexually assaulted. He goes to his friend Lau, and Lau takes him to the hospital where they take samples and all of that. Jay later realises he was raped, but what exactly happened is a mystery. He remembers being in a club with his boyfriend Jackson, but nothing else. 

Jackson won't speak to him, doesn't come over or any of that. He messages to say he needs some space. Jay has supportive parents, and Lau, and he later goes to a support group where he meets someone called Rain. He goes back to school, but there, everyone knows about the rape, which is awful. 

There's a lot in this about how survivors of rape and sexual assault rarely get justice through the legal system - rapists are rarely prosecuted and even when they are, they are rarely found guilty. That is all true and it adds to Jay's trauma and feelings of shame and worthlessness. 

Jay realises that Jackson may have been involved in what happened to him, which is another massive betrayal. 

It's a sad book but I loved Jay and his character, his spirit. I am giving this four out of five. 

Fire on the Fells by Cath Staincliffe - Review

It's the second book starring Leo Donovan and Shan Young! I read and reviewed the first one back in October last year, and when I saw the second in the series I had to request it immediately on Netgalley. Thank you very much to Joffe Books for granting me access to it. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This book is now out. 

The book starts not too long after the close of the first one. Leo's son, Luke, is awaiting sentencing for his part in a series of racist crimes, which Leo found out about and was instrumental in Luke getting caught. Luke is sentenced to twelve months in prison and Luke and Ange feel awful. 

Shan had a miscarriage in the last book and since then her relationship with her girlfriend Erin have turned difficult. Shan doesn't want to talk about it so she's pushing Erin away. Things end up going really south between them which I felt was handled well throughout the book. 

Anyway, a young man is found murdered up on the moors. He is mixed race, and only about eighteen. He has been shot with a shotgun and has a distinctive tattoo. Ange knows him - his name is Tyler and he has been working on some eco protest things with her up on the moors. He is from Lancaster, and his parents are devastated by his death. Some suspicion falls on his ex girlfriend, who has gone a bit AWOL, but Leo and Shan are mostly concentrating on the nearby estate. It runs grouse shooting on the moors, with rich people paying a ridiculous amount to stay at the house and join in. There are several guests, one of whom was seen leaving the area near the time of the murder. There are several members of staff, many of whom live on site, and who have messy interpersonal lives. Leo and Shan have to try to unpack everything and find who has shot Tyler. 

I loved the climax of the book, where there is in fact a fire, when everything just seems awful. This is a really good detective book, with plenty of twists and turns, but the knowledge that Leo and Shan will sort everything out in the end. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Other Girl by Emily Barr - Review

As you may know, I have read a lot of Emily Barr's books previously and have enjoyed them all, so when I saw this on Netgalley I had to request it. Thank you so much to Penguin Random House Uk Children's for granting me access to this book. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I can see that Penguin have categorised this as Young Adult, and while I don't disagree, I do think it's got a wider appeal too. I think a lot of adult fans of thrillers would like this too, so don't necessarily discount it just because you don't like Young Adult in particular. 

The beginning of the book sees Tabitha, aged seventeen, on a train across Europe. She is travelling to Switzerland to spend six weeks in an exclusive rehab clinic. She has been partying wildly, drinking and taking drugs, and then she has done something which cost someone his life. Her absent father has managed to keep her out of prison by paying for her to go to this rehab centre. She has cut all ties with her mother, and she no longer speaks to her older sister, Leonora, and her dad has been absent since she was three, so she really hasn't got many friends left. A woman called Jana has been paid to escort her to the rehab. Tabbi is determined to find a way out. 

Then Ruby arrives on the train. She's innocent, a bit ditzy, aged sixteen. She has run away from 'home' - her parents are absent, her grandparents are dead, and she's run away from her aunt and uncle's house. She tells Tabbi she is going to the mountains in Switzerland. Tabbi thinks she is being very clever by persuading Ruby to spend six weeks at a luxury spa, while she can go free on Ruby's Interrail pass. The two girls swap clothes in the toilets, make themselves look a bit more like each other, and split up in Zurich. They plan to meet under the clock at the station six weeks hence. 

Ruby tells Tabbi to not use her name, but Tabbi ignores this, which ends up being her downfall. She quickly runs out of money and gets a job in Cannes as a waitress. She does some soul searching and I would say Tabbi comes out of the book as a better person, by far. Ruby has less to make up for, in my opinion, but I liked how she grew throughout the book. 

The first part is all Tabbi's point of view. The second part is Ruby's. I wasn't sure what would happen after that, and I really did not know how I thought the book would end. I think Emily Barr is brilliant at crafting good plots; her brain works marvellously and I'm always left thinking 'wow'. I loved the ending of the book and cannot complain at all. I'm giving this five out of five because it's just so good. Compelling and interesting. Can't wait for her next one!