Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell - Review

I had never even heard of Angela Thirkell but I came across this book in a charity shop in Wales over the summer, where it was 50p. There was another by her, too, so I bought both and thought I would take a chance on them! I ended up really liking this and would read more in the series too. Oh, upon looking, it turns out that I bought the first one in the series on Kindle back in April. It was probably 99p or something so I often take chances on books when they're so cheap. So I will have to get to that soon! 

I will say first off that someone uses the n word in this book, which I found shocking as it's not a word I have ever used. I understand that the book was written in 1934, but it wasn't right then, either. I also understand the reasons behind keeping it intact, but even so, to modern ears that word is just gross and I want to warn for it up front. 

The family at the heart of the novel is the Leslies. The matriarch, Emily, is a Lady (I think because her father is or was an Earl? But the intricacies of the British aristocracy are lost on me. Suffice to say, she's very posh, and her husband is less posh, although still posh) and her husband owns cattle that are sent to South America. They have four children - the eldest is killed in World War One and leaves behind a son, Martin, who is fifteen at the beginning of the novel, then there's John, a widower, Agnes, happily married to Robert, who doesn't appear in the book, and then David. David is only a few years older than Martin so the two of them get on famously. They live in a big house near the vicarage in the village which I believe Thirkell uses in this series. The vicar is renting out this house to a French family for a couple of months over the summer, which becomes relevant later in the book. 

Emily is totally scatty, and used to having her whole family trail around her and generally sort out her stuff. Agnes is visiting for a few months with her children. She dotes on them and excuses all their bad behaviour. She is also scatty and just a bit drifty in life. John works in the City but comes down every now and then. His wife died a few years ago and while he is still young enough to find someone else, he hasn't so far. David is a bit of a cad - he is rakish and good looking and young and rich, so he has quite a few women falling over him.

Into this comes Mary. She is Agnes' niece by marriage and she's around 23. She falls for David, but he treats her quite badly. There a lot of farce and misunderstanding. The book as a whole is very funny which I really liked. There are so many people and so much coming and going, but it's only a short book and it's just hilarious. I'm giving this five out of five because I really liked it. 

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid - Review

As you may have seen previously, I started reading the Karen Pirie series of books by Val McDermid. I bought the first one and really enjoyed it, and then I passed it on to my mum who really enjoyed it too. So I made a list of all the Karen Pirie novels and picked up a couple of them on eBay. My mum and I both read the fourth one in the series, Out of Bounds back in September, but she got annoyed at reading them out of order. But I had already bought this one on Kindle for only about 99p, so I told my mother to either do the same or go to the library. Or buy it herself, I guess! Don't complain at me about it! 

Anyway I had this on Kindle so I went to it and I liked it. There are two strands to the story and it isn't clear to begin with how the two will match up, but I knew they would. 

In the first strand, a man is reported missing, only he went missing in late 1984 and by this time it's over twenty years later (the book was published in 2008, and set I think in 2007). He was a striking miner called Mick, living in a small pit village. He had a wife and child. It was believed that he went to Nottingham to work, to become a scab and betray the strike. Five men from the area also did this on the same night, so his wife and child believed he had gone there. They became pariahs in the village and haven't really had an easy time of it. Now, Michelle's child is seriously ill and his only hope of survival is to find a donor. Hence why Michelle is looking for her dad. But she can't find him and so reports him missing. Karen takes the report and although she's supposed to be looking at a different case, she is intrigued by this one and starts to look into what might have happened to Mick that night in December 1984. 

Meanwhile, a journalist called Bel is on holiday in Tuscany with some friends. She goes for a run one morning and goes into an abandoned and delapidated villa. There is a large blood stain on the floor in the kitchen. And then she finds a silk screen print of a poster with marionettes on it. She recognises it as a poster that was used in a ransom note in 1985. The daughter of local millionaire Brodie was kidnapped, alongside her baby son. Brodie and his wife arranged to meet her and the kidnappers and hand over the ransom, but it went wrong and Catriona ended up dead and her child Adam was never seen again. The poster being in the villa would link the people who had been squatting there to the kidnapping, but who were they? Bel approaches Brodie, hoping to be able to make a lot of money off the story. They try to keep the police out of it but Karen gets called anyway. But Brodie is used to being able to bend the police to his will, and he isn't forthcoming with what happened in 1985. 

I did really like the story and I felt like it came together really well. But I did think there were a few too many characters - many of whom were also known by aliases, which ended up confusing. I wish a few people could have been cut out and then it would have flowed better for me. It was hard to keep everyone straight in my head. 

But I thought this was a good second book in the series and I'm giving it four out of five. 

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh - Review

I can't remember where I picked this book up. I can see the Waterstones sticker so maybe it was in fact there, but I don't remember it. But it was in the piles of books next to my bed, so I got round to it. I liked the blurb but in the eventuality, this book didn't quite make it for me. It's over complicated and it really drags in parts. 

So Mina and Adam used to be a couple, but they're separated currently. They have a five year old daughter, Sophia, who is adopted. She is very much attached to Mina but Adam struggles with her and struggles to bond with her. Adam is a police officer. Mina is a flight attendant. She was training to be a pilot when she was younger but had to drop out and instead trained as a flight attendant. She loves it and thinks it's important for Sophia to know that she will go away, but she will come back too. 

The airline Mina works for is about to launch the first non stop flight between London and Sydney, and thanks to the problems in her marriage, Mina has swapped shifts with someone to get herself on the flight. Everything starts off well, but then Mina is passed a note: either she gets one of the passengers into the flight deck, in a hijack situation, or they will kill Sophia. Mina doesn't doubt them, but she doesn't know who she can trust. 

Meanwhile, Adam and Sophia run into trouble with their babysitter at home. Mina thinks that Adam had an affair with their previous au pair, Katya, so fired her. Their babysitter Becca has seemed too good to be true... Adam is mired in his own shit and he needed support from Mina that he didn't really get. I liked Mina but I felt she was a bit self involved and too obsessed with Sophia, but there we go. 

Then there are short passages from some of the passengers, and it's not clear why until a little way through the book. I sort of did like the mystery of this, but it got a bit confusing as to who was who. It was obvious that there was a lot research into flying an aeroplane, being a flight attendant, and so on, so I did appreciate that part of the book. I also thought the deaths were well done. It's a locked room mystery really isn't it, only thirty five thousand feet in the sky. 

But something just didn't ring quite right for me. I found Adam annoying and his and Mina's relationship annoying. I feel like if they'd just talked about things they could have sorted it out. I found Adam's story back in the UK while Mina was in the air just boggling and kind of annoying too. In all I'm giving this three out of five and I wouldn't going rushing for something else by the same author. 

Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green - Review

I don't remember now where I picked this book up, but I think it might have been in one of the queer bookshops that I've been to fairly recently. It must be one of the only books by Simon James Green that I didn't own, so I was happy to buy it. I kept meaning to pick it up and I eventually did towards the end of October. Again I was trying to read something easy after The Book of Lost & Found and this fitted the bill and I was happy to enjoy one of Simon's books again. I love how he puts so much humour in his books, alongside a lot of touching parts and some pathos. 

This novel has a dual narrative. First of all there's Jack. Jack is out and proud, hugely camp, and going out with Dylan, who is captain of the football team. Jack was bullied when younger, but now, in Year 11, he isn't because he's going out with Dylan. It's their prom, and Jack wants to go all out, and he thinks they're in with a good chance of winning prom king and queen, too. But Dylan really wants Jack to tone it down somewhat. He's kind of embarrassed by Jack, and really clearly does not deserve him at all. 

Nate is quiet, a bit shy, he sort of fades into the background. He's giving a speech at prom, though, and he has decided that he will use the opportunity to come out. He has been seeing Tariq, but it's been a secret. Tariq has been trying to push Nate out, though, and Nate thinks he will appreciate this grand gesture of Nate coming out in front of the entire school. So he does it, and everyone is watching, but then Jack notices a look between Dylan and Tariq, and realises that he and Nate have both been cheated on... 

So everything blows up. Jack is upset, but he is determined to not show it. Dylan and Tariq immediately become the like hashtag couple goals and they head off on holiday and this amazing life together. Nate is really upset. Jack goes over to see him. The two of them used to be friends but when Jack came out Nate distanced himself and they haven't really spoken since. Clearly this was because Nate was struggling with his own sexuality, but it means they aren't really friends. 

Nate's parents want to take him and his sister, Rosie, who is hilarious, on a camping trip in their clapped out camper van. Nate's dad has had a bad year and has lost his job and a good friend, so he needs some headspace. I actually really loved these details because parents have difficult lives too! Jack gets himself an invite and he decides they will start an instagram called HeartbreakBoys and they will have the best summer ever!

But the best laid plans and so on... 

I really enjoyed this book, it's fun and funny. I'm giving it four out of five. 

Lemonade Sky by Jean Ure - Review

My friend Helen sent me this book a few months ago. She sent a little care package to me at some point, and it included this. She knows I like Young Adult and middle grade literature, and she thought I would like this. I picked it up when I finally finished The Book of Lost & Found, and I fortunately read it really quickly which was joyful because I had really slogged through that last book. 

This book is a perfect middle grade book, in my opinion. It deals with some really difficult themes, but in a gentle way - but also a really realistic way. This IS the life that some kids are living and I love that. 

So Ruby is twelve years old and in Year 8 at high school. She has two sisters - Tizz who is ten, and Sam, who is almost six. They live in a basement flat with their mum. She has bipolar disorder. She has pills to take and usually she's okay, but the family is in poverty and struggling at the best of times. Sometimes Mum falls into a huge depression and can't get out of bed, meaning Ruby has to look after her sisters. And then there was the time that she disappeared for ten days... 

And now she's done that again. Ruby wakes up and her mother is nowhere to be found. She knows that she has to get all of them to school, and they have to make sure that their upstairs neighbour, who dislikes the family at the best of times, doesn't find out that their mother isn't around. Because if she does, they'll end up split up and in care, and Ruby cannot let that happen.

They cobble together what money they have and go to Tesco to buy food for themselves. It's nearly Sam's birthday and Ruby can't bear the idea of her having no party food. Ruby only has a couple of friends at school and she can't tell them too much, but her friend Nina comes through for her. I loved their fledgling friendship and would love to see more of it. 

Tizz is certain that their mum will be back after ten days. They just have to keep going and keep themselves together. 

My only criticism is that I felt like the ending happened very quickly. I do kind of get that from a storytelling point of view, because the more interesting part is at the beginning, really, when the girls are struggling to look after themselves. But it did all happen quickly at the end and I would have appreciated just a little bit less of the beginning and a little bit more of the ending. 

I'm giving this four out of five and I liked it so much that I bought another book by the same author - who I've never even heard of before - from eBay, and am looking forward to reading that soon! 

The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley - Review

As you may know, I've read the more recent novels by Lucy Foley which are all crime thrillers, and I've enjoyed them, so when I realised she had written a few books before her crime ones I decided to reserve one at the library to see what it was like. I then took this on holiday and it's true that I didn't have much time to read while I was away, but also, I just found this book so overblown and just way too long that it really annoyed me. Every time I thought it was almost about to finish, something else would happen and someone else would have something terrible happen to them. It's just a lot. 

Kate is thirty something and her mother, Jane, has been dead for only about a year, and then Jane's adoptive mother Evelyn has just died too. Jane was a famous dancer and Evelyn sort of adopted her when she was little and got her into dancing. Kate is a photographer. Before she died, Evelyn gave Kate a portrait of a woman by a lake, which is signed with the initials TS. Along with it was a letter from a woman called Celia, saying she was Jane's birth mother and that she wanted to reconcile with her. Evelyn concealed this from Jane and Kate, and is only now coming clean. 

Kate thinks that the artist might be Thomas Stafford, so she starts out by asking his sister, and eventually gets in touch with the elusive artist. She ends up on Corsica at his house, alongside his grandson, Oliver. Oliver is clearly unhappy that she's there, but Stafford wants to tell the story of his life, and his love affair with Alice, who is the person calling herself Celia in the letter. 

His family were on a trip to Cornwall when they met Alice's family, who were aristocracy and had a manor on the beach or whatever. Thomas and Alice were then very small, but they meet later when Thomas is at Oxford, in the 1920s. Alice is clever but not permitted to go to university by her cold and somewhat unloving mother. Thomas and Alice have a strong friendship that eventually turns to an affair, and he did indeed do lots of portraits of her. She ends up in Paris in the thirties, living a bohemian life even as Nazism grows and World War Two sits on the horizon. 

As I say, it's just too long. I'd have liked it to lose two hundred pages and at least a couple of the strands of what happens. Alice leads an interesting life and so does Thomas, but god listening to them both recount their entire lives was just dull. I'm giving this three stars and honestly I think that is a bit generous. 

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin - Review

Thank you so much to Quercus books for giving me access to this book! It seemed right up my alley so I was really looking forward to reading it. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not otherwise compensated for this post and all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

There are two strands of narrative in the book. In the first, Frances Adams is seventeen. It is 1965 and she has two good friends - Emily and Rose - and a boyfriend. There are three lads the girls hang around with. The girls visit a fortune teller, and she tells Frances that she will be murdered, and that the bird will betray her, and that she should be aware of the queen in her hand, or something like that. Emily's surname is Sparrow and she does end up betraying Frances, so Frances deeply believes the fortune teller. She becomes obsessed over the next few years - and indeed her life - about solving her own murder before it even happens. 

She changes her will to exclude her niece and instead to include her great niece, Annie. Annie and her mother live in a family house in a posh part of London. Annie has sent some of Frances' belongings to her in her posh house in the countryside, in this tiny town, and Frances asks Annie to visit. Annie's mum is an impoverished artist so she and Annie are lucky to live in such a fancy house, but I digress. Annie has never met Frances but she goes on to the small town to meet Frances. She meets with the solicitor - one of the boyfriends from the sixties - and they head to Frances' house. She married the local lord of the manor which explains why she's so rich. 

And she's now dead. It seems like the fortune teller's warning did eventually come true. Her nephew Sebastian and his grabby wife think everything will be left to them, but actually Frances' will is a strange one. Either Annie or Sebastian must solve the murder, or the house and land will be sold to developers to become a housing estate. Clearly this is going to go down like a bucket of cold sick in the town, and it means Annie and her mum would lose their house in London too. 

Annie sets about solving the murder, but she comes up against absolutely everyone. The house isn't safe for her. She doesn't know who she can trust and who she can't. Oliver, the estate agent, seems out to sabotage her. The local police officer is a total dish but he won't want Annie to show him up and solve the crime before him... 

I did generally like the book but I think that there were too many characters and it needed whittling down a bit. I did sometimes find the back and forth between the two time periods confusing and I think some further editing was needed. But I found the story compelling. Frances also had a room full of the sins of basically everyone in town, which may come in useful in further books. I would definitely keep a look out for the next one! I'm giving this four out of five and I liked it.