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! 

The Party by Elizabeth Day - Review

I picked this book up in a charity shop not that long ago. I haven't read anything by Elizabeth Day before but I have the book Magpie by her as well, which I will have to read soonish. I was intrigued by this so bought it for a couple of quid. 

I had seen this book sort of touted as a cross between The Talented Mr Ripley and Brideshead Revisited, which I would completely agree with, but I also think it's got a touch of Saltburn in it too. I also read a couple of more negative reviews on Goodreads left by people I know or follow, and I have to say I didn't disagree with them. One of them said she was kind of sick of this kind of narrative, which I do get. However I don't think I've read too much of this type of story - and I loved Saltburn - so it worked for me. But some critcisms were valid. 

There are kind of three strands to the book, which are all about the same people and which are all concentrated on the events of one particular night. In one strand, Martin Gilmour is being interviewed at the police station about the events of the night of his friend Ben's fortieth birthday, some weeks previous. He is interviewed by a woman with beige hair and a man in a grey suit. He is determined to not give them anything, but of course, he has underestimated what exactly they know and he has to work out how much to tell them. 

In the second strand, there is his wife Lucy's notebook. She is in therapy with a man called Keith, and we get to see her side of their marriage. Martin is not really in love with her, and is cold towards her. There are a lot of hints that he is actually gay. And in love with Ben. She is somewhat downtrodden by life and by him. She seems to think she doesn't deserve anything better, in a way. Something happened at Ben's birthday but Lucy's part in it doesn't get revealed until late on in the book, which I actually think worked very well. I liked Lucy but she is used as the only person with any morals in the entire book, which is kind of annoying. 

The third strand of the book is Martin's retelling of his entire life. He was born in to a lower middle class family and his dad died just before he was born, leaving him to be brought up by his cold, distant mother, Sylvia. He is very clever, but doesn't fit in at school. Eventually he gets a scholarship to Burtonbury, a public school in Derbyshire (I think). He arrives, and he obviously doesn't fit in, because he's not posh enough, and he doesn't speak like they do, and he doesn't understand how to act like them. He doesn't make friends, but he meets Ben, a popular and good looking lad. He becomes obsessed with him and plots how to become his friend. After that, the other boys sort of tolerate Martin, although they still don't actually like him. Martin describes Ben as his "best friend".

For Ben's birthday, Martin and Lucy head to Ben and his wife Serena's new massive mansion house, a former priory. They are a bit put out to have not been invited to stay at the house, and are instead stuck in the local Premier Inn or whatever. They head over early. Ben is his usual, cheerful, charming self. He shows them round the new house and he says he wants to speak to Martin about a business deal later. Serena is her usual self too - she's beautiful, but cold, and she clearly thinks Martin and Lucy are beneath her. The couple have four children. Martin and Lucy have no children which Martin is glad about but Lucy is sad about. Lucy can't stand Serena so she is determined to just get drunk at the party.

The party happens. The Prime Minister (meant to be David Cameron, I'm sure) turns up. Martin's old bully, somebody Jarvis, turns up too. He went to Cambridge alongside Ben and Martin, and there are so many secrets coming out. 

There were a few things that I thought were anachronistic, given that Martin and Ben were supposed to be in school in the early 90s and then at university just after that. I also thought that it was maybe a tad predictable in terms of the story. All the characters are unlikeable but I don't think that's necessarily a reason to not like the book? I don't have to like people to find the stories compelling. It wasn't perfect but I did enjoy reading it. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper - Review

I saw this book on Netgalley and requested it, so thank you very much to Harper Collins 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. 

I did quite like this book and found it compelling, and read it very quickly, but I'm not sure it was really deep enough for me. There wasn't enough character development and there are a lot of characters to keep track of which got confusing. I'm not sure the pay off was worth it. 

The novel has a dual narrative concerning five pop stars, spread across two bands. There is Breathe, a girl gorup, comprising Enola, Angel, and Sophie. And This Way Up, made up of Max and Liam. Breathe were put together on an X Factor type show, and weren't friends before hand. And barely were after, to be honest. In the earlier time in the book, it is 2008 and Enola is riding high. She's the lead singer, she's famous, and she's going out with Max. She has bought herself a gorgeous penthouse by the river in London. Her mum, pushy Kimberley, always wanted Enola to be famous. Enola has a twin, too, Roxie, but she's much more introverted and barely features. Max is a problem - he's really jealous of any man that Enola comes into contact with and is really quite abusive towards her. 

After winning an award and having a big party, Enola disappears. Her passport and phone disappear and she is never seen again. Sophie goes quiet, no longer famous. She starts a yoga wellness retreat in Ibiza. Angel has a short solo career but eventually loses her fame and fortune too.

So fifteen years later, both bands get back together to play a couple of gigs in Vegas. They will have an empty microphone on stage in tribute to Enola. Each of the four of them have their own issues and own needs and wants for the gigs. But they are beset by bad luck almost straight away. There are a few people who wish them harm - so who's the guilty party?

As I said, I just didn't think the characters were developed long enough. I did like the conspiracy parts because I really think they showed how insane fan culture can be, but I didn't think the pay off was quite worth it. Still, I would read something else by the same author. I am giving this a three and a half out of five. 

Stay Buried by Kate Webb - Review

I had seen a few people read this book and I was intrigued by it, so when I had a book voucher I got it and picked it up not too long later. I really enjoyed it and have got two more in the same series on Kindle as they were cheap. I'm looking forward to them! 

This is another cold case book, like the Karen Pirie books, and it turns out I really like that kind of detective fiction, so if it works for me, then that's fine. I have struggled with books a bit recently so have been trying to read anything that is easy to read and keeps me enraptured, which this one definitely did. I am going to pass it on to my mum because I think she will like it too. 

The main detective is Matt Lockyer. He has been moved to a cold case crime review unit within Wiltshire police because of mistakes made on a previous case which included his best friend, Kevin. He is a bit of a pariah in the station because of this, but he affects like he doesn't really care. He has a constable working with him, Gemma Broad. She is youngish and enthusiastic and they get on well together. Matt grew up on a farm where his parents still live. He lost his brother when he was young, and it continues to have a massive effect on Matt and his parents. 

Matt gets a phone call from a woman called Hedy Lambert, who has served fourteen years in prison for murder. She wants to tell him that Harry Ferris has returned. This opens up her case again, and Matt obviously goes looking into it. He and Hedy had a bit of a thing, a connection between the two of them. When she was arrested, she refused to speak to anyone except him. He kind of believed she was innocent, but all the evidence pointed to her, and she went down. But maybe he was right back then, and maybe he can now make amends. 

So what happened was this: Professor Roland Ferris owned a huge house which he lived in with his wife and son. She took her own life when Harry was a teenager, and he left the home not too long after, saying he would never speak to his father again. He then reappeared aged about thirty. At that time, Hedy was working as the housekeeper in Roland's house. "Harry" slept in the barn, and was found dead there one morning. By Hedy, who then ended up covered in his blood. The knife that was used was one that Hedy used often, and it had been left on the drainer overnight. The only fingerprints found on it were hers. But it turned out the man in question wasn't Harry. He was a Traveller by the name of Mickey Brown. But now the real Harry HAS come back, and it turns out he wasn't that far away all along. His cousin knew where he was, and his aunt, Roland's sister, never thought Mickey was him. Roland is now dying so Matt is racing against the clock really to go back to the beginning - who wanted Harry dead? Who might have wanted Mickey dead? Who was in or had access to the house that night? And so on.

It's a twisty turny story with lots of red herrings and dead ends. I did work out who had done it before the end but that actually made me enjoy it more because I wanted to see how Matt and Gem got there. It's a really good book and I'm glad I got it. I'm giving it five out of five. 

Good Trouble by Forest Issac Jones - Spotlight and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my stop on the tour for Good Trouble by Forest Issac Jones. Thank you so much for having me along. Please do click around and look at some of my other posts. I was so intrigued by the premise of this book but I'm really sad that I ran out of time to read it before this post was due. I do still plan on reading it. The issue of civil rights and civil freedoms is something that I am really interested in, especially the history of Northern Ireland and associated fights. 

My partner and I visited Northern Ireland a couple of years ago and we went to the Museum of Free Derry. It is amazing and I highly recommend it if you're in the area. It is simultaneously one of the most depressing and one of the most uplifting places I've ever been. Depressing because of the sheer scale of human misery inflicted upon the Catholics of Northern Ireland - especially on Bloody Sunday, which features heavily and which was so interesting to learn a lot about - but uplifting because of the power of people. The people who will fight for their rights and who will come together to make a movement. There is mention in the museum of the Black Civil Rights Movement and how there was support on both sides. So this book was really ideal for me and I will most likely read it on holiday. 

Let me show some of my photos of Derry and some of the murals. When we were there we saw a lot of Free Palestine graffiti and Palestinian flags, which was amazing too. All these photos are copyrighted to me and may not be copied or used elsewhere. 

This is the blurb for this book: 

Good Trouble will show the strong connection between the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the Catholic Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland – specifically the influence of the Montgomery to Selma march on the 1969 Belfast to Derry march through oral history, based on numerous interviews of events leading up to both marches and afterwards. This is close to the author’s heart as both of his parents marched to integrate lunch counters and movie theatres in Salisbury, North Carolina, in 1963 as college students. His mother was at the 1963 March to Washington where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

Award winning author Julieann Campbell (On Bloody Sunday) wrote the introduction for Good Trouble, looking back at her times growing up in Derry, in the heart of the Catholic Civil Rights Movement. Jones travelled to Dublin, Belfast and Derry to conduct interviews for the book. In all, he did fifteen interviews with people who were involved in the movement in Northern Ireland (including Billy McVeigh – featured in the BAFTA winning documentary, Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland) and in the United States (including Richard Smiley and Dr. Sheyann Webb-Christburg – both were at Bloody Sunday in Alabama and on the Selma to Montgomery march among others). Jones was also able to talk with Eamonn McCann (he took part in the Belfast to Derry march in 1969; he was the John Lewis of Northern Ireland).

Unlike most books on Northern Ireland, this goes into detail about the connection and the influence between the two movements. Also, most focus on Bloody Sunday and not the pivotal incidents at Burntollet Bridge and the Battle of the Bogside. Building off of unprecedented access and interviews with participants in both movements, Jones crafts a gripping and moving account of these pivotal years for both countries.

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn - Review

I saw this book on Netgalley and had to request it immediately because it seemed really up my street. Thank you very much to Macmillan for granting me access to it. 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. 

This book is very much in the vein of Simon James Green which I really liked. It reminded me of Noah Can't Even. I loved it, I loved Patch and found the storyline both funny and sweet. That's my favourite kind of YA fiction. 

So Patch is just going into the sixth form. He is called Patrick but he's trying Patch out now as a cool new thing. He lives with his mum and older sister, Kath, who he bickers with constantly. His best friend is Jean. They are kind of outcasts at school and are in the drama club. Patch is gay and Jean is a firm ally. Patch is determined to get a boyfriend by Prom, at the end of term. 

They go to drama club in preparation for the new play, and two very exciting things happen. Firstly, Tessa comes. She uses to be friends with Patch and Jean, but then she started hanging out with the popular crew and they haven't spoken since. So why is she back?! But more excitingly there are two new boys. Peter and Sam. Peter is American and living with Sam's family for a bit due to some family stuff going on. Patch is entirely certain one of them will be his new boyfriend. 

There are many shenanigans and so on, and it's fun and funny, but there are points of pathos too. I liked the growth that nearly everyone showed in the book. I would have liked a little bit more of Patch's mum and sister, but generally I just can't really complain. I'm giving this four out of five as I just really liked it. 

The Yacht by Sarah Goodwin - Review

After the disaster that was A Little London Scandal, I needed something to really enthrall me and drag me in, so I went for one of these thriller type books that I have a hundred of on my Kindle - usually bought for 99p or so. I had seen this one in the library actually and was intrigued by the premise. I've never heard of Sarah Goodwin but I would now read other stuff by her. 

I was quickly dragged into this, reading it one lunchtime on the sofa with one of my cats. I read about a quarter of it then and the rest very quickly. It is extremely compelling. Is it maybe not that highbrow? Sure. But life is short and I want to read things that capture and keep my interest. And this did. 

Hannah is twenty nine years old and she works in a call centre. She is working the last shift of the year before heading to Italy to spend New Year with some friends. She struggles to make ends meet and she is pretty alone in the world as both of her parents are dead. She can't afford the plane fare so she is driving to Italy - getting the ferry and then driving for hours. She will then catch up with the yacht belonging to her friends Libby and Olly. All of this is really to show the juxtaposition between the ordinary world of Hannah and the rich world of her friends. 

Hannah went to school with Libby and Maggie. They are both very rich and they've married rich too. Olly is some kind of blue blood heir type. Maggie is engaged, sorry, not married, to Leon, who is a public school rugby sort. Hannah doesn't really like either of the men but she puts up with them for her friends. There is also Harry, who the girls met at university. He used to be on a normal income level, same as Hannah, working as an electrician, but then he's doing sculpture and he's starting to make real money with it. He offers Hannah some money for airfare etc but she won't take it. She does however have a massive crush on him. 

Libby usually throws these massive, extravagant New Year parties, but this year it's just the six of them on a yacht in Italy. Everything is extremely over the top, though, from the twenty pound litres of water to the white and gold helicopter on the back of the yacht. Hannah's clothes, shoes, face, etc, don't fit, but she's determined to make the best of it. But she hears Libby and Olly talking about her and realises Libby doesn't really care about her at all. She makes plans to leave first thing on New Year's Day and never see any of these people again.

But when she wakes up, the boat is adrift. They're floating in the sea, with no way of getting back to land, and no way of getting help. Everything starts to unravel. I won't give much more of the plot because so many things happen and I don't want to spoil anything. There's a lot. Some of it is really scary! 

I do have a few criticisms. I could have used a plan of the yacht because it would have helped to see where everything should be. There was one person that I needed more information about at the end, for more of a resolution. I also thought there would be more of a twist, and was expecting it to make me rethink the whole book. There is a bit of a twist but I'm not sure it fully paid off entirely. 

But I did like the book and I liked Hannah a lot. I'm giving this four out of five. 

A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson - Review

 

I picked this book up in The Bookish Type in Leeds and I really liked the sound of it so I bought it. I have been trying to read all new books that come into the house, so I started it. 

And then, good lord, it took me a week to read. Now that was partly because I was away for the weekend with friends so that didn't leave me a lot of time to read, but also because it just entirely bored me. I had such high hopes for it, too, but I would not rush to read anything else by Miranda Emmerson. Apparently this is the second in the series, featuring two of the same characters, but I wouldn't rush to read the other one of these, either. 

I am sorry because I really wanted to like this. I liked the setting in swinging London in the 1960s, before homosexuality was decriminalised. I'm not quite sure that the language for the time was exactly right, but I could give it a pass if I wasn't just so bored. 

Anyway, the plot. Anna Treadway is the dresser at a theatre. I was confused about exactly who worked in the theatre or was in the play, or both or neither, but there is a man called Bertie who is getting fatter and Anna feels bad about suggesting he needs to get his costumes altered. She has a boyfriend called Aloysius who is with his dying mother in the Caribbean so they're writing letters backward and forward. This is entirely not relevant so I'm not sure why it was included OR why some of the letters are included. Anna lives above a Turkish cafe and in there she sometimes meet Nik. 

Nik is from a Greek family and grew up near Blackpool. He was kicked out of the house when he was fifteen and made his way to London. He is now nineteen. He is a rent boy. He is gay. It isn't clear if he was kicked out of his house because he was gay or not, and I would have liked more clarity there. I did enjoy the parts about Nik growing up. 

He is working one Saturday evening and it is all a bit complicated. He goes hither and thither and it is just way too more involved than it needed to be. He is hired by the lead singer of a band and in trying to leave the recording studio he arouses the anger of the whole band and they set upon him, beating him up badly. I really do not know why this happened. Nik heads to close to Picadilly Circus, where there's a police raid on rent boys in the area. He ends up near the garden belonging to a swanky gentlemen's club. Later there, a rent boy called Charlie is found murdered. Nik is arrested for the murder and Anna is certain that he can't have done it, so she starts to do her own investigation. 

She is helped on her way by a police officer called Hayes, who she met in the first book. He used to work on murders but now he's in Vice. He starts asking questions too which puts a lot of people's noses out of joint. 

Additionally - which is ridiculous given that the book is only like 270 pages in total - there is an MP called Richard Wallis. He is married to Merrian and they have two children, but he hires rent boys and he has a bunch of secrets which threaten to come out at any given point. Merrian is a likeable character - if a little clueless - but she spends far too long fannying around over her husband. I thought there was going to be an actual pay off to this, but no. 

In all I'm giving this two out of five. I just can't, and don't recommend it. 

Eerie Exhibitions by Victoria Williamson - Blog Tour and Review

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Eerie Exhibitions by Victoria Williamson. It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do click around to read some of my other reviews. I've read quite a few books by Victoria over the past couple of years and I've really liked them and think she's a great writer. So I was excited to join in with this tour!

I got a physical copy of the book and with it some cute little gifts that matched up to some of the stories in the book. So thank you to Silver Thistle Press for that, too! I appreciate it. 

The book is made up of five short stories which all revolve around the same museum and include some of the same characters. It was inspired by Victoria's trips as a child to Kelvingrove museum in Glasgow. I loved this because I could imagine the museum perfectly. Especially because I recently when to Leeds City museum where there's an actual real mummy, and there is one in this book, too. 

I liked all the stories, but especially the one about the mummy's sarcophogus and the little girl, the one about the painting - which was SO eerie - and the last one, which was about a shell and which was literally terrifying. I really feel like Victoria has nailed creepy and eerie here. I'm giving the book four out of five. 

Thank you for having me along on the tour, I'll be back for Victoria's next book I'm sure! 

Pity by Andrew McMillan - Review

Oh my god, this book! I found it on a trip to The Bookish Type in March. I had vouchers to spend and I bought three books and this was one of them. I bought it because it's set in Barnsley, where I live, and it is queer, and it reflects on the Miners' Strike, which I like to read about. It is only a short book, a novella really, and it is told in little vignettes, which I also really liked. 

There are four main characters to the book. First of all, in the present time, there is Simon. He is a youngish man; he works in a call centre in Barnsley taking bets. He also does drag in the evenings, usually in Sheffield, but he has been asked to do a show in Barnsley in the club that he and his family frequent. He is gay and has started seeing a lad, Ryan, who works as security in the Alhambra shopping centre. Ryan is more straight acting than Simon and at times this causes conflict between them. Simon also does Only Fans, making a bit of money on the side. He lives with his dad, Alex, an ex miner. His mum left when he was younger. Simon is a great character - he's proud of who he is and where he's come from. 

Alex and Brian are the next characters. They are brothers. They lost their dad in a pit accident when they were just teenagers and lived with their mum after that. Brian has got involved with some researchers who are looking at the effects of the Miners' Strike - maybe 40 years after it happened - and who are very much outsiders looking in. Brian is attending some sessions to help them but he's quite taciturn. He was a miner himself through the strike, as a young man, but he remembers so much more. 

Alex was also a miner, in the exact pit that his dad died in. Alex has a complicated life and I don't want to ruin the story so I won't, but I really felt for him and his life. I would have loved more of his story but I utterly understand how it was more effective to not write too much about him. 

The fourth character is Alex and Brian's dad. He isn't exactly a full character - he's a ghost. All his parts are repetitive. He gets up, he goes to work, on the walk to the pit he catches up with his coworkers, he gets in the cage and goes down to the coal face, he works, he works, he works. These bits are almost poetic and they're so amazing, I loved them. It was such an effective way of telling his story. 

I also liked the shout out to Maurice Dobson and his partner Fred, who lived in Barnsley and ran a shop, at a time when homosexuality was illegal. We have so much to be proud of in this little town. 

I'm giving this five out of five and I now want everyone I know to read this book! I love it.