Laura

I've been a big fan of Freya North's books for years now, beginning many years ago with Sally and Cat and I have read all the books as they've been released. I was thrilled to spot this on Amazon a few weeks ago as her standard is normally really high.The story of Tess and her baby girl Em running off to play house sitter to bridge builder Joe's huge victorian home in Saltburn started promisingly however I found by around 100-150 pages in that it slowed down dramatically. By that point I'd managed to figure out what all the alleged ‘Secrets' were in the book and therefore I found it a bit of struggle reading the subsequent 200 pages as it really took it's time in coming to a conclusion.This is not something that Freya North is normally guilty of, her books are normally pacy and enjoyable however on this occassion I just couldn't seem to keep my interest in this book, I kept waiting on huge action to start but instead it just kept plodding along.Am I dissapointed, a little, would it stop me reading another Freya North - absolutely not as this is the exception not the norm from this author.Comment Comment Permalink

I've seen all the “I Heart” books on sale for a while but finally decided to delve into the first one, where heroine Angela Clark runs off to New York to escape her cheating fiancé.

It was such an auspicious start, cracking along at a great pace so that by Chapter 3 she had landed in JFK and was well on her way to a new life. And for 3/4 of the book this fast pace kept the book moving along wonderfully.

I was just a little disappointed with the last 1/4 where I felt that it began to slow, the plot became rushed and actually I found myself less than fussed about who and where Angela chose for her future.

I'd try the next novel in the series based on the majority of this book and would recommend if you are a fan of Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond & Veronica Henry.

I have read all of Sophie Kinsella's books and have always found them good fun light reading and very enjoyable. She has had great success with the Shopaholic series but the subsequent books she's written have also been engaging and so I couldn't wait to delve into Twenties Girl.

I found the first few chapters of the book a little slow - it took me some time to get my head around the rather unusual plot line that the lead character Lara is seeing the ghost of her dead Great Aunt Sadie who follows her around generally causing mayhem and trying to get her to search for a necklace that has gone missing and which only once found will allow her to pass on to the other side.

If you can suspend your disbelief at the plot and that the lead character is clearly in public places talking to a ghost which is raising some eyebrows and questions about her sanity this becomes a really good read. Sadie's character is at first a little weak but this builds throughout the book and as the story comes together it is a very heartwarming read.

Innovative storyline, different from the usual girl meets boy chick lit and very very good.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Kinsella's other books.

I have been a huge fan of Phillipa Gregory's Tudor novels looking at the women affected through the reign of Henry VIII and his daughters after him. I have loved them all but read them already knowing much of the historical background and characters.

I don't however have any real background on the War of the Roses and thought that this time I would allow Greogry to enlighten me. This is a good book in that I did learn much more about the story of the Princes in the Tower and from the viewpoint of their mother Elizabeth Woodville. There are points of the book I was absolutely engrossed and then others where I found myself skim reading. Lots and lots of ups and downs - one minute their at peace - the next at war - the next at peace...it's difficult to keep track of who's fighting who and who's on which side as they all keep changing allegience.

This is probably very historically accurate but it doesn't always make for engrossing reading. I'm glad I read this book as it has helped me to put into context the years leading up to the time I was interested in - Tudor times - hoping the next book is slightly more compelling though.

I've been absolutely hooked on the Women's Murder Club novels, at times devouring a whole book in a day. Reaching book 7 though I'm getting a little worried about the future for my favourite girl detective and her friends.

The books seem to have settled into a formulaic familiarity. Mystery going on in the background which is visited concurrently alongside chapters about an ongoing court case which Yuki the assistant district attorney will be trying. Boxer leads the investigation into the ongoing case while Yuki tries a suspect Boxer has already caught.

Play all the above against the ongoing love triangle between Boxer, Joe and Rich Conklin and the books are losing their sparkle a little. It's mystery writing by numbers and i struggled more with reading this one than any so far. It didn't grip me in the same way and the plot was much weaker.

I pray book 8 is redeeming and that the Joe/Rich indecision moves on as it's getting staid and tired. I had such joy reading the initial books it would be a shame to lose that feeling now.

Diana Gabaldon - curse you for creating a character such as James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser. For engaging me so fully in your novels that I'd happily spend all night long reading just to see what happens next to our hero and the wonderful heroine Claire.

This is the second book in Gabaldon's Outlander series and begins in 1968 in Inverness with Claire Randall and her daughter Brianna coming to Scotland to find out the fate of a group of men who are suspected to have died in the battle of Culloden.

Seeking the help off the adopted son of her old friend she appears to hold many secrets and Roger soon begins to wonder how she seems to know so much about the battle and the men she seeks to trace.

Stumbling across the grave of a James Fraser in a small churchyard far from the battlefield of Culloden she breaks down and tells her daughter that the grave if this highlander is that of her father, a man she believes dies in the battle of Culloden over 300 years before.

the rest of the book sweeps is back to the time when Outlander book one ended with Jamie and Claire in France setting out to try desperately to stop the advance of Bonnie Prince Harlie Nd the eventual battle he will lead his dates troops to at Culloden. sweeping through the court of King Louis of France and the Palace of Versailles. It sweeps from France back to the shores of Scotland as we follow Jamie and Claire as they desperately try to thwart the advices of Charles army.

This was a wonderful novel, taking place initially in a very different place setting to that of book one we get to see James and Claire as they mingle in the upper echelons of Paris society, but that doesn't mean it is filled with any less danger or superstition than the Scottish Highlands.

Many of the amazing characters from the first book feature again and perhaps I may be alone in letting out a little whoop of joy when characters such as Dougal and Collum Mackenzie made their appearances, so engaging were they. Also returning in this book is the villain Jack Randall, although maybe I am alone in beginning to find something a little endearing about the man.

gabaldon has done a quite wonderful thing, she has created a book based on the concept of time travel and made it into a sweeping and wonderful love story. I was utterly engaged with this book immediately and found it really nice to read about the battles which took place right next to where I myself live in Falkirk. Reading about the stationing of English troops in Callendar House, our closest sizeable historic manor and park.

I am most likely not the only person who would rather love the prospect of finding themselves wishing for the opportunity to escape through a circle of standing stones into the arms of a hunky, sexy Scottish red head dressed in full highland dress. I live in Scotland and even I'd go for that, a visit to find out if Craig Na Dun exists is high on my agenda.

Of course this book again ended on a cliffhanger just trying desperately to draw us into the next book. I am so very tempted to dive straight in but am going to force myself to take a break for fear that any more heroics from one Mr Fraser may drive me to Inverness post haste in search of those standing stones.

This follow up to the hugely successful Twilight finds Bella turning 18 and finding that when your a human whose dating a vampire even the simplest of paper cuts can cause huge problems when your boyfriends families lust for blood means that they may accidentally end up killing you.

Due to this accident we find that for much of this book the Cullens are absent as Edward tries to protect Bella from the world of Vampires by leaving town, in his absence though Bella finds herself drawn into the world of Jacob and his friends who are not what they initially appear to be and are equally as dangerous to her as Edward and his family.

I thorougly enjoyed this sequel to Twilight, I'd read in reviews that people couldn't understand how she could simply forget about Edward and seem to move so transiently to the world of Jacob but in understanding her anguish and need to find something to ease her pain I can fully sympathise with the character. I like the way in which the author has begun to bring together the characters and set them up in preperation for the novels to come but my only criticism of this book is that like Bella I found myself pining for Edward - I missed his charisma and romance in much of this novel as he perhaps only features prominently in around a third.

An absolutely outstanding author who has grabbed lots of attention and deservedly so - books for the generation who have outgrown or read all the Harry Potters and yet still yearn for a darn good read!

I have been a big fan of Douglas Kennedy for a few years now, The Pursuit Of Happiness and A Special Relationship were fabulous books, with great punchy storylines, good lead characters and all round good writing.

I truly have awaited the release of his novels with great anticipation - however - The Woman In The Fifth was such a huge departure from his normal writing that I really did not understand why he had written it. I swallowed hard though and immediately requested Leaving The World in the hope that the last books reviews had persuaded him to return to his normal writing style.

Instead Leaving The World is very slow - by page 250 - 300 I was still waiting for the storyline to pick up. The story of Jane, the university professor whose life seems to go into freefall is so unbelievably slow and the character melancholy and self indulgent. You just long for her to deal with at least something in her life constructively. Many people on this site have written that the last third of the book redeemed it for them. For me it just left me confused about what exactly I was reading. It turned into some sort of detective novel with the lead character getting involved in the hunt for a missing teenager.

After two poor novels I'm not sure how I feel about reading another Kennedy novel - if you are thinking of reading this author then please don't make this your first book by him. He is an awesome writer when he gets it spot on and unfortunately this book fails to deliver the things I love about him.

If I Stay came to my attention through a trailer for the current film adaptation of this young adult novel, around the time that John Green ‘ s The Fault In My Stars was receiving great interest. As regular readers of my reviews will know I hate watching films adapted from books without reading their original book forms first. With this in mind I decided to break away from my recent Outlander obsession and try a little young adult fiction with Gayle Forman's novel.

I was very surprised to find how short this book was, it seemed to be a little way between a short story and a novel. So surprised was I that I actually was checking to see my entire download had transferred to my ereader correctly. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations of a young adults book but I was worried that there was enough content for a book that had been adapted to a movie.

This was the story of Mia, who setting out one unexpectedly snowy day with her family on a car journey finds herself the victim of a serious car crash which leaves her an orphan and fighting for her life in a coma. Through Mia ‘ s out of body experiences we view her thoughts after the accident and her observations of what it's like to have to choose whether to fight for her life or pass over into death. This was beautifully interspersed with flashbacks to her life before the accident and her close knit family life and bright future as a talented cellist.

It was a very touching book exploring the themes not only of choosing whether to stay in life but also whether prior to the accident Mia should stay with her boyfriend Adam and go to college near home or whether she should go to New York and study at Julliard.

The book zipped past, it had only started and it was done but for all that it was thoroughly engaging and beautifully written. Forman has pitched the balance between the emotion of the situation and the pricking of our own sense of how grave Mia ‘ s decisions are perfectly. For young adults I can understand why it achieved such high regard and it would be an ideal text to study with young teens. As an adult I found the characters engaging and the writing excellent. I am certainly looking forward to reading the sequel to this book, entitled ‘Where She Went'.

I love reading young adult fiction on occasion because it allows us to remain aware of where our reading started, the stages we've gone through in life and where our own children will explore as they grow. It also allows me to have books I can recommend to my children as they grow and share because I've read them too but that aren't too dated or out of touch. I'm looking forward to the film adaptation and think it's one I'd share with my daughter as she grows. an excellent book, perhaps worthy of another 100 pages but not detrimentally affected by its length.

This third book in the Twilight series is truly the one in which the characters start to come into their own, all the goundwork done in the first two books to set the scene are absolutely worth it.

In this book we find Bella struggling to persuade Edward that the time is right to turn her into a vampire without the need for her to walk down the aisle with him. She also decides that she has some conditions of her own about becoming a vampire - one of which is that she want to have sex with him before it happens - which when your boyfriend is a vamprie is a dangerous request.

On the other hand we find her struggling to reconcile her feelings for her best friend and werewolf Jacob Black who is madly in love with Bella and who he believes loves him back but won't allow herself to admit it.

Meyer writes so beautifully about the relationship triangle in this book - there is a real feeling of sexual tension throughout and the way it is written is so beautiful that as a reader at times you genuinely feel for Bella's predicament as you also find yourself falling in love with both male characters and want to root for them both. This is no small feat on behalf of the author and Meyer is a true master at writing about the real teenage angst that Bella is experiencing.

Set against a backdrop of the ongoing attempts by the vampire Victoria, introduced in Twilight, to try and kill Bella by means of revenge for the death of her partner James this novel is outstanding.

I am so pleased to have found an author whose writing is so clearly emotional, descriptive and gripping - I still need to read Breaking Dawn and can hardly wait to get started.

I am long past the stage of being a Young Adult - being over the 30 threshold however I having been a fan of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles who's grown a little bored of them I was keen to read this book to see if it offered anything akin to the joy of Rice's earlier vampire novels.

I managed to devour this book in a weekend, which having two young children under 5 is no mean feat. It is testament to the joy of Meyers writing and characterisation. The story of Bella, a young teenager trying to fit into a new town and finding herself drawn to the unusual and enigmatic Edward is outstanding.

It is a beautifully written novel, the way in which she builds the relationship between Edward & Bella is a joy to read, the protection which Edward shows towards Bella and the ways she writes about their first kiss and embrace is fantastic as it's a combination of Bella discovering her first teenage love but also hints at something much greater than just teenage love. The sleeve on the book indicated that this would be a relationship that would remain with me past the turning of the last page and they were not kidding. I have been blown away by Meyer's writing and cannot wait to read the next book.

It was great to read a vampire novel that for once wasn't drawn down by trips back to ancient Rome or Greece and without the need for us to endlessly revisit how vampires came to exist. Meyer keeps it light but with enough information to satisfy the reader - a welcome and refreshing change!!!

So I have taken a break recently from reading the James Patterson Women's Murder Club series having found them becoming slowly more same-y.

When I delved into The 8th Confession I was a little concerned that if it failed to deliver then I may lose faith and not try another but I have to admit to being very pleasantly surprised.

The storyline in this booked seemed to pop along with more pace than the previous few books. It had more mystery to it and mixed two great tales on opposite ends of the social divide. One the murder of a homeless street hero Bagman Jesus and one about the mysterious murders of wealthy socialites.

In this book we finally find Lyndsey Boxers own life moving on a little and an end to the ongoing love triangle between her, Joe & her partner Rich. The other girls don't feature equally,Claire pop's in and out and Yuki has an odd and surprising love thing going on whilst Cindy takes more of a lead as she tries to figure out who killed Bagman.

After this instalment I'm feeling my faith being restored and subsequently will indulge in the 9th novel in the series

I'd read one other Sophie Hannah book before Little Face and remember finding it's plot weak but the description of Little Face persuaded me to try this book despite my previous experience.

Alice Farncourt leaves her newborn baby to go out for a few hours, when she returns she swears the baby in the crib is not her daughter. No one, even her husband believes her. Why would someone take a child and replace it with another? Post natal depression, insanity or is Alice telling the truth?

This book grips from the first chapter, your sense of unease builds throughout as you learn more about Alice and her husband and the matriarch of the family her mother-in-law Vivienne. I just wanted to keep reading to find out more.

I am more of a chick-lit reader, mysteries aren't always my thing but I loved this book. The story was well thought out, planned and meticulous and the characters plausible. It reminded me of Virginia Andrews Flowers In The Attic, that same sense of things in a household being wrong and creepy. A wonderful book.

I picked up this book knowing only a very little about it and with having read none of the author's previous work so I really had no real expectations from this book. I know other reviewers have commented on the hype this book seems to have been getting but in my small area of Scotland I have to say I've not been aware of this and so I truly didn't have any preformed opinions.

I loved the premise of this book whereby people who have done or experienced traumatic or difficult things can go to a ‘binder' who will take those memories from them and put them into a book, therefore, allowing the person to return to their life with no knowledge of their difficult past and that the book will forever be the only remaining evidence of their memories. This makes for a wonderful opportunity within a fantasy setting to really push the boundaries of our characters as they struggle to remember clearly their past and the ability to discover through books the past of other's and how people could manipulate this to stop others from remembering things they have done to them.

Collins kicks off this book with plenty of mystery as we follow Emmett Farmer, a young boy who receives a letter telling him he is to be apprenticed to a ‘binder' where he will learn the trade of being a ‘bookbinder'. Bookbinders are viewed with suspicion by people in the countryside, seen as trading in the occult and leaving those whose memories they take as only shell's of the people they once were. Books are objects of evil and rarely touched. For Emmett this life is one he's unprepared for and when he finds himself living in the middle of the marshes with an elderly woman ‘binder' after having only just recovered from a mysterious illness which he is sure is linked to his new trade it offers us as the reader plenty of unanswered questions and mystery to keep us glued.

Yes, this book is packed with potential, from the mystery of what's happened to Emmett and why he is sick through the mysteries of ‘binding' and how it works to the mysterious Lucian Darnay who comes to be bound and then seems to fall into Emmett's life. There is a darkness to this book, the evil reasons why certain characters have been bound and the hidden secrets they've been made to forget offer us huge potential. And this for me was the problem. This book ultimately failed to take advantage of the darkness that it could have offered and instead became almost a love story alone.

As we move through Part Two and Three of the book we become less involved in the whole ‘binding' process and instead focus on the background of Emmett's life and his family and his first love. It's a controversial relationship for it's time to be sure but essentially this part of the book is fully dedicated to it and whilst I loved the two characters together I just felt that we lost certain magic in this section of the book as it became a romance. This meant that in Part Three of the book we are really just resolving the situation created in Part Two of the book to allow our romantic leads to resolve everything.

So whilst I enjoyed this book I was left somewhat disappointed, there are lots of characters we meet along the journey whose stories are never quite fleshed out, characters whose darkness and manipulation of binding would have made for fascinating and dark storytelling which is what I was hoping for from the beginning of this book. Instead, we have essentially a star-crossed lovers scenario that seems tame in comparison to where the book could have gone. And the ending, all just a bit too sudden for me. We resolved the outstanding reason the lovers couldn't be together and bang it was done. No further discussions at all. Literally one page it's resolved and next page ‘The End'. This left me feeling unfulfilled and disappointed.

If I reflect on this book it's with a sense of missed opportunities from the author. The concept for the story is excellent, it has lots of potential but it was squandered a little to tell a story of forbidden love. The characters who really grabbed my attention and made me want to see them brought to justice were never addressed or their stories explored more. I had to give this one a 3 out of 5 stars because all the groundwork was there, the foundations were solid but just not built upon into an exciting storyline.

Liane Moriarty's star has been in ascendance over the past few years with her hugely popular book Big Little Lies being turned into an HBO TV show with a powerful female cast of Hollywood big hitters and readers lauding her books both old and new. When I spotted a beautiful hardback copy of her newest release Nine Perfect Strangers in a local charity shop I knew I couldn't resist a chance to delve into her writing once again.

Nine Perfect Strangers started out really well, we follow a group of, as the title says, nine strangers who all check into a health retreat that promises to change their lives forever. We have author and recent catfish victim Frances as our main protagonist as she checks into Tranquillum House in order to deal with her own self-doubt over her writing abilities, her recent heartbreak, and a bad back. The book is told mostly through the eyes of Frances as she meets the other guests and staff of Tranquillum House, most notably it's the strange and enigmatic owner who seems to have all the answers to her guest's troubles even if her approach seems somewhat questionable.

As we delve into Frances' life and troubles and learn about her and her fellow guests I was really enjoying this book. It had a delicious people watching vibe to it. I felt I was getting a glimpse into different worlds of the guests and wondering just how it was all going to be connected because as readers of Moriarty's novels will know there is often a twist. I liked the people I was reading about, as we learned more about them they were all redeemable and in the main likable and I wanted the book to continue uncovering the layers of their stories until they began to either heal or in a twisty way, merge.

Then around just over halfway through that thing happened where the twist came. Yes, Moriarty was doing it again and giving us something we hadn't expected. The only problem this time was it was just bizarre. It went from being quite a credible book to one that left me really quite amused that I was meant to take this seriously. It felt like a disjoint in the book and I'd suddenly slipped into a different book altogether where an almost Dr. Evil type character ala Austin Powers had crept in where everything was ‘groovy baby'.

The only thing that really kept this book on track after this point was the great job Moriarty had done prior to the twist in establishing her characters stories and their personalities and the fact we knew they were all redeemable people. This meant we could put aside what had happened and still root for them. Right through until the end when we follow them past Tranquillum House we want them to achieve the happiness they all sought at the start of the book and this keeps you reading and does provide a somewhat satisfying end to the story.

I know this book has received some very mixed reviews and so I was perhaps not totally shocked by the odd twist this one provided but when held up alongside Moriarty's other work this one did fall a little short if only because the shock factor was just a step too far to be believed.

I always look forward with great joy to the release of a new Kate Morton book and even though my most frequently read genre at the moment is fantasy I still was waiting with bated breath for the release of The Clockmakers daughter last month. Promising the story of a mysterious event in the summer of 1862 as an artist and his friends stay at his house in the country it promised more of Kate's normal and much-enjoyed format of a historical story intertwining with the modern day as we seek to untangle the mysteries of the past.

This story did initially start out with the normal format with chapters flitting between a mysterious female narrator who we learn is the ghost of someone from the past mixed alongside the story of Elodie Winslow an art archivist in present day who finds a mysterious notebook and photograph during the course of her work that make her think of a place she remembers being told about in childhood. In the first few chapters we learn that something terrible has happened at a place called Birchwood Manor in 1862 and that it led to the loss of a valuable family heirloom. We know that it's all linked to the mysterious voice we are hearing from the past, that of a girl we know as Lily Millington, whose story is one of a childhood lived trying to survive in the harsh world of London when abandoned by her father. So far at about a quarter of the way through I was quite enjoying this book, it was very Kate Morton and I was beginning to hope for learning more about Lily and Elodie in the remaining pages.

Unfortunately, this is where it all went a bit awry for me. As I began to work my way through the rest of the book I began to lose track of all the different characters and timelines we began to encounter. Overall there are at least 7 in this book along with all their associated side characters that pertain to their story. Each is linked to the house at Birchwood but they all have very different stories to tell and we don't always follow them in chronological order so we jump backward and forwards quite a bit throughout this book. Being a reader of Fantasy I am used to following lots of different people throughout the course of a book but on this occasion, I was left a little disappointed as we don't get resolution or expansion on many of the stories Kate starts in this novel. We flit from person to person and often just as we are engaging with that character and their story we are off somewhere and sometime else. We don't ever really return to the characters we leave we just move on. I can see what she was trying to achieve writing about all the lives that the house had touched throughout the years but it just left me struggling to engage with any characters in particular.

And as for the ending, I really really did not like it. It was a huge book at nearly 600 pages and we are building throughout the mystery of what happened in the summer of 1862 and how this mysterious voice from the past was killed and when we get there it was a bit of an anti-climax for me. I struggled with it. Reading the last few chapters I was getting quite frustrated because there is a character who holds all the knowledge as to what happened and has from immediately after it happened and knowing what they do I cannot believe they didn't share it. That they essentially left for years the knowledge that they had. It didn't sit well with me as a reader. Also, the speed with which it all wrapped up in the last few chapters was compared to the rest of the book just lightning quick. We leave many stories unresolved and with more questions than answers.

I can only give this one 3 out of 5 stars this time, which with Kate Morton is highly unusual for me. I wanted to love this book very much but it was too unweildy for me. I am behind not simply having the back and forth between a historical character and present day one in her novels but on this ocassion maybe there was a case of biting off a little more than one could chew.

This book only popped up on my radar about a week ago when browsing Amazon and immediately when I read its description I knew I had to read it. It isn't until I've completed it and had a browse at some of the reviews out there that I've realised what a divisive book this is.

This is a dystopian fiction novel set in the United States in a world where a new highly moralistic and religious government have decided that the world was a better place before women's rights and therefore women have been removed from workplaces, denied the right to anything more than basic housekeeping and mathematical education in schools and have devices fitted to their wrists that electrically shock them if they speak more than 100 words per day. They are denied the right to read, make decisions for themselves medically, financially or educationally and they are punished if found to be adulterous or to be engaging in pre-marital sex.

Our main character Jean is a highly qualified neuroscientist who was working on a cure for people who have lost the ability to speak due to illness and who one year ago had her whole world change when the new rules regarding females came into force and suddenly she has found herself a forced housewife, unable to communicate, watching her only daughter denied the right to speak or be educated and wishing she'd done something when her friend warned her that things were going to change.

I loved this book. I ate it up in just under two days, I couldn't stop reading. It was such a thought-provoking read. As a mother of two daughters and two sons, I could absolutely empathise with the emotions Jean was experiencing watching her family live in this new world. The horror at watching as her daughters retreat further and further into themselves, unable to express simple things such as their needs, emotions, daily experiences or to create friendships. I also could see how living this way would lead to the conflicts she had with her eldest son whose constant indoctrination by the new regime leads to him believing he holds higher sway than her in the household, that she has a role she must fulfil and that is to be silent and obedient and cater to his needs.

There are so many ‘what if' questions throughout this novel that it is definitely one that is going to linger with me for quite some time to come. There are lots of sciencey bits at the end and that was my less favourite part of the book and if I'm honest I did feel the last 3 chapters were a little rushed and didn't fully take the time to explore the outcomes of the actions Jean took. I would have liked a little more than a 2-page chapter set months later to wrap up the whole book. I had to go back and re-read the last 3 chapters and reflect again as things were glossed over in a sentence where if you blinked you'd miss it and the first time I did.

Now, this is clearly a marmite book, people either love it or they hate it. Many Christians are stating how concerned they are by this book as it is very much stated that this dystopian world has come about by extreme religious views and only that. There are concerns that this book promotes that Christians are all extremists and that they are intolerant of people of other sexualities, cultures, sexes. I can understand their concerns and yes I empathise with why they feel that way however as a reader I am intelligent enough to know that all Christians are not like those portrayed in this book, reading a fiction novel like this is not going to make me think that suddenly every Christian I meet is planning to gag women around the world. I think you need to suspend reality whilst reading and enter into the fictional world the author is creating and this one was captivating for me.

If you loved The Handmaid's Tale I have a feeling this one might just tickle your fancy. It is one of the standout books I've read this year and I have a feeling we might be hearing an awful lot more about this one in the months ahead.

So this month I've been continuing on with my goal to finish The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and I'm proud to say that having read City of Glass I am now half way there being now 3 books into this 6 book series and I would say that at this stage for me it felt like the books were themselves reaching a turning point in the series.

From the outset of this book, we are aware that things are going to be different, for a start the action moves away from New York and into the Shadowhunter homeland of Idris and it's capital city Alicante. This marks a change in the pace of the books as we are made aware quite early on that there is limited technology in Idris and that it is the home of the Clave, the Shadowhunter council who govern over the laws and codes that our characters live by. The Lightwoods are headed to Idris to inform the Clave of the events of the previous book and to prepare them for the potential upcoming attacks that can be expected from Valentine and they take their family and Jace with them. Clary also is headed to Idris in search of warlock Ragnor Fell who holds the secrets of how to wake Jocelyn, Clary's mother, from her self-imposed sleep like state.

As the action moves, we are allowed the scope to begin to introduce even more new characters to our narrative. We are introduced to the Penhallow family who the Lightwoods stay with whilst in Idris and we also meet the sister of werewolf Luke, a Shadowhunter who has seen little of her brother since his transformation to Werewolf but who's past marriage would seem to be significant.

As well as introducing new characters I felt this book really began to finalise some of the stories we've been working through in the first few books and to really give more depth to some of the people we've come to know and love. We get to meet Clary's mother Jocelyn properly for the first time, Simon is growing more accustomed to his life as a vampire and with this we see his strength and confidence beginning to grow and the growing relationship between Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane is a highlight and they brighten up any pages they are on together.

I liked that this book seems to conclude one major plot we have been following since Book 1, I feel it is the right time to say goodbye to certain characters and to draw a line under some of those niggling plot twists that have been stopping the story from moving forward. I also feel that it may be time to move a little of the action away from Jace and Clary and to allow some of the amazing surrounding characters to have their moment in the spotlight. I like Jace and Clary very much but I almost love the other characters more.

At this stage in the series, I'd have to say I still prefer The Infernal Devices as a story overall as I felt it was slightly better developed and the writing more engaging. I am absolutely going to keep moving forward with The Mortal Instruments but I am also aware of The Dark Artifices series which is getting a LOT of attention and I'm really interested to be able to delve into that once I'm done with this but I'm aware that Lady Midnight the first in that series has major spoilers for the end of this series so I need to read books 4-6 of Mortal Instruments in order to move forward so I absolutely will be completing this series in the weeks ahead.

Lisa Jewell is one of those authors I've been reading for years, we've almost grown up together. Since Ralph's Party, 31 Dream Street and Vince & Joy she's never failed to deliver a great read. It's been a few years now since I'd read one of her books but decided I'd delve back in with Before I Met You.

It's a wonderful story about Betty and her step grandmother Arlette whom she cares for in her old age in a crumbling house in a cliff top in Guernsey. After Arlette's death Betty sets out to find a mysterious Clara Pickle to whom Arlette has left her life savings. Betty decides to move to London in search of the mysterious Miss Pickle and finds her own adventure along the way.

This is a much more mature Lisa Jewell than the one I remember from a few years ago, her writing almost less frothy and whimsical and more based in solid relationships and emotion. The story flits between Betty's London and Arlette's London in the 1920's and Jewell weaves the story seamlessly and enticingly.

Arlette's story is a joy to read, incredibly captivating and one I could have happily spent the whole book immersed in. That is not to detract from Betty's journey but it is less exciting and lacks some of the glamour of the 1920's jazz bars and post war politics.

A truly joyful book and a wonderful read. Jewell keeps the reader involves right through the book until the very end. Well worth a read and it certainly won't be so long until I read another.

Spinning Silver has been exploding in the book scene over the past months since its release, it seems everyone has been reading it and falling in love with the characters within this Russian inspired fairy tale retelling of Rumplestiltskin.

I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings and so I had high hopes for this book and spotting it on my libraries new releases bookshelf I immediately picked it up. I hoped that it would be perfect for this autumn time of year as we head into the Halloween season and having just DNF'd a thriller I was desperate to find something to sink my teeth into.

This book is set in historic Russia and much of it is based around old Russian folktales along with the theme of turning silver into gold as in Rumplestiltskin. For those who have read and enjoyed Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, this will be absolutely up your street as it has a very similar vibe to the setting and many of the same folk tales are mentioned such as Baba Yaga and the theme of Winter King's. We follow 3 different young female protagonists in this book. The first is the daughter of a Jewish moneylender who finding her father is better at lending money than reclaiming debts he is due takes over his business in order to save her family from poverty. As a result of her success, she attracts the attention of the Staryk king who challenges her to turn his silver into gold. The second is a poor girl from the same village who lives with her two brothers under the tyranny of her violent father and who goes to work for the moneylender as a way of paying off his debt and the way in which these first two stories intertwine are one of the highlights of the book. Their building friendship and the lessons they share make really good reading. The third and final character we follow is the daughter of a duke who aims to make her a marriage with the Tsar but she has little to recommend her as Tsarina and little does she know the darkness that her future husband hides within and the danger she will be placed in through the marriage.

This was an up and down reading experience for me with this book. There were chapters where I would be sucked into the story and would really be enjoying the characterisations that Novik outlayed and I would be really enjoying the story but then I'd come across chapters where I was getting a little bit bored. Things would become a little bit too wandered and steeped in the myths and I'd lose the will to keep reading and hence would be tempted to skip just a little to get back to the good bits. I think for me I found the bits where our heroines came together were really powerful and their growth as women was brilliant to read as was the building relationships between all the different families. Where it was character centered I was all in. I could have read all day but then when we became more steeped in the mystical and magical side of things I didn't love it. I found it all a bit too mixed up and confusing.

For me I have to give this one a 3 out of 5 star rating because it didn't grip me enough. About 200 pages in I did stop and think maybe it wasn't for me, then I flew through 8 chapters and thought I was back on track only to find that it dipped again and the last few chapters left me feeling a little unfulfilled. Because of my bumpy ride I can only give the 3 stars.

This book had me intrigued from the moment I first read the description on amazon. The story of a man, Joseph released from prison after serving 3 and a half years for the manslaughter of his wife Zoe and his struggle to build a relationship with the children who witnessed his crime. Having been utterly enthral led by the first Charity Norman book I read recently I knew to expect insightful and emotional writing based around a complex family dynamic.

From the outset we are left in no doubt that Joseph is guilty of the crime for which he was convicted, centralising the story around a moral dilemma in the reader in regards to how much forgiveness he should be granted. As he applies for access to his children we have to question whether we blame their grandparents for resisting every attempt he makes as he clearly killed their mother. It becomes clear quite early on though that there is more to this story than first appears and that nothing is ever just a simple story of black and white but that shades of grey are in abundance in the marriage of Joseph and his dead wife Zoe. When the big reveal did come though I must admit to being a little sceptical that actually the crime had been committed over something so seemingly small compared to the images I'd conjured up in my head.

The story is gripping and is told from the perspectives of Joseph, the grandmother Hannah and eldest daughter Scarlet who struggles in the role of go between. It is not their story's which touched me most but that of the grandfather Freddie who's health deteriorated throughout the book until we feel his greater need to reach peace at its conclusion. I cried buckets at the end of the book because of the beauty with which Norman wrote this character.

A wonderful book full of conflicting reader emotion and complex characters and a great read - Norman is fast becoming a firm favourite author.

In the past few years, I've read only a handful of contemporary romance novels. Instead, I've focused upon Fantasy and Thriller books thinking that I'd lost my vibe with the contemporary romance offering on the bookshelves. When I heard about Beth O'Leary's debut novel, The Flatshare, something just spoke to me about the storyline and I decided I'd give it a try.

The Flatshare is the story of Tiffy and Leon, two twenty-somethings who share a flat. The catch is they've never met. Tiffy has the flat at nights and weekends whilst Leon is at work and Leon uses it during the 9-6 weekday whilst Tiffy is at work. It's an arrangement that suits them both. Slowly but surely though they begin to build a relationship via the little notes they leave each other around the flat and that relationship blossoms into friendship and the hint of something more.

Yes, this book is exactly what you would expect, it's a contemporary romance after all. We know we are all meant to be rooting for Tiffy and Leon to get together and we have all the normal trappings of hiccups along the way and well-meaning friends trying to give them advice and it should be quite a run of the mill story but somehow I fell head over heels in love with the characters in this book and gave it what has become a very rare rating of 5 stars.

Firstly I loved how well rounded our characters of Tiffy and Leon are, I liked how Leon had such a complex job in a palliative care home, helping those with a terminal illness, this lent some lovely side characters and stories that gave some really touching emotional moments in this book. Also loved how O'Leary wound in the story of Leon's brother Richie, incarcerated for a crime he swears he didn't commit.

Also, this book was great at looking at the long-lasting impact and dangers of an emotionally abusive relationship and the behaviours of gaslighting and coercive control. It gives a really thought-provoking side to what could have been a light fluffy throwaway romance. It was great to follow Tiffy through her journey and see her growth as a character.

For a debut novel, I thought this was really well written, hugely emotional and really gripping. I couldn't stop reading. It's full of short-snappy chapters flicking between Tiffy and Leon's perspectives and makes it really easy to lose a few hours to this novel without realising it and if you aren't careful you could find yourself reading it all in one sitting. A great summer read and a fantastic first novel from O'Leary.

After reading several Young adult fantasy novels in a row I really needed to have a break and some light relief with a book I could just fly through and get engrossed in quickly and for occasions like that I often find that thrillers are just what the doctor ordered. Not having read any novels by Sabine Durrant before I wasn't quite sure what to expect but this seemed to have okay reviews and happened to be on my library shelves so I picked it up.

This is the story of Paul, an ageing and unsuccessful author who finds himself homeless, his latest novels being rejected and his relationships always seeming to be flitting and meaningless. To be very honest he is an awful lead character. He is the quintessential Lothario who has spent his life flitting from relationship to relationship avoiding settling down and now he's realising his time is running out and he is beginning to panic. He is self obsessed and his way of living seems to be to lie to those around him about everything in his life to give the impression he is more successful, more wealthy and generally more happy than he really is.

When he runs into an old college friend, Andrew, and begins dating one of Andrew's close friends he quickly finds himself covering up the real extent of his failures and instead he begins to move himself into the life of Alice and her 3 children, aiming to take up residence in her home with her to avoid having to move back home with his mother. Alice is planning a trip to Greece to have one final holiday in the villa she owns there and has done for the last 10 years. Paul is desperate to be invited and to bag himself a holiday on the island that he last visited 10 years previously. The island however has a decade long mystery of a missing teen who disappeared a the same time Paul was last on the island and Alice is determined to help her family to find out what happened to her.

I liked this book, the story was interesting and I liked the fact that it built slowly towards the ending and it did have some twists and turns that perhaps you may not anticipate. Personally for me though I couldn't rate this any higher than a 3 star book because of the odious characters within it. I didn't really emotionally invest in any of them. They are all quite dis-likable. Right from the outset there is something quite pretentious about the circle in which they move and whilst we know Paul doesn't fit the mold his clamoring to be “one of the gang” is quite irritating as a reader. He seems to lack any real emotional backbone and hence it's difficult at the end of the book to bear any sympathy with the situation when it is laid bare to us as a reader.

I did read this book really quickly, taking just 24 hours to fly through it and the chapters do keep you engrossed but I don't think this one will stand out to me months down the line, I don't think it is one of the stand out thrillers of the past few years.

This book is somewhat of a departure from Adele Parks normal style, normally her books are contemporary fiction but on this occasion she transports us back to the 1920's and the years post World War I.

With it being the centenary of the end of the war features it has been a popular topic both in the media and in books. Parks has decided to focus upon how the loss of so many young males led to a shortage of potential husbands for the young women after the war and how this impacted their lives.

The book features 4 such women, Beatrice who's plainess and lack of fortune makes her a poor catch in society, her sister Sarah struggling to cope with the loss of her husband, Ava who is full of life and money and with no intention of marrying and Lydia who finds herself set to be the next Countess of Clarendale but who cannot forgive her husband for having not served at the front.

I worried before reading this book because of it not being in Parks usual era and my fears proved to be founded. I worried that the stories would mimic those of similar novels set at the same time and unfortunately this was true. A heroine disenchanted with her husband meets a handsome war hero, she's struggling to conceive and unhappy in her marriage. From that point I had the whole plot sewn up and that disappointed me.

In fact the other 3 characters were grossly underused. Their stories playing out as a sideline as opposed to having equal time to develop. I would have enjoyed the book more had they spent more time exploring these rather than picking up and dropping them.

It's brave of any author to try something new and I applaud Parks for trying: it wasn't a terrible book it just fell into the trap many books set in this era can where they become staid and melodramatic. I'd be surprised if the author remained in this time period next time around as she seemed a little out of her comfort zone.

“Is that a children's book you are reading?” was the comment my mum made when she saw this sitting on the front seat of my car last week, there was a slight hint of mocking in her tone. My response was a resounding “yes” and in the back of my mind I was also thinking that yes it was the same series as my 7 year old daughter was reading the first book from. Was there any shame in my response, absolutely not. You see I believe firmly that just because a book is written for children does not mean it should not be read and enjoyed by adults alike because sometimes it's absolutely okay to read something just for the sheer magic of it and to relive the joy of childhood. And as a mum of 4 it also regularly allows me to sound of new and exciting authors and series that they might also enjoy.

Nevermoor was one of my favourite books of this year, I read is way back in January now and it's stayed with me ever since. It was a refreshing story of cursed child Morrigan Crow who is blamed for every single bad thing that befalls the people she knows and on top of that she is told her curse will cause her to die on her eleventh birthday and so on the eve of said birthday she is whisked away to a magical land called Nevermoor by an unusual man called Jupiter North where she is offered the chance to compete in a series of trials to allow her to join the coveted Wondorus society and gain the one thing she's always wanted, a family. I fell in love with Nevermoor, it was so whimsical and unusual and full of great characters and settings that I couldn't wait to get my hands on Wundersmith and was first in line at the library for this book when it hit the shelves.

Wundersmith was just as special as Book 1 and we are right back with all those magical characters we met in the first installment as Morrigan begins her training at Wunsoc, the magical school where members of the Wondrous Society are sent to learn all they need to know to use their magical talents. The only problem is that the only other Wundersmith alive who shares Morrigan's talent is the most evil man alive, Ezra Squall, and people are not keen for Morrigan to learn to use her talent in case she also turns bad. So with the help of her friends, her patron Jupiter and all the quirky and unusual guests who share her home at the magical Hotel Deucallion Morrigan has to find her way alone but people are disappearing in Nevermoor and suddenly she is being looked at as a suspect.

This book is another winning installment in what looks, and I hope will be, a long series following Morrigan's journey through Wunsoc. It was brilliant to get to meet all the great characters from Book 1 again like Fen the Magnificat and Morrigan's best friend Hawthorn. The magical setting is mesmerising and we can see a building story with Ezra Squall which we are unwinding book by book which suggests that perhaps he is not the only dark element in Nevermoor. I unashamedly encouraged my bookworm 7 year old to pick up Book 1 this month afte buying it for her and she is loving this series and we share our love of it together which let's be honest it's what makes children really engage with books when they can share their experiences with someone else.

An absolutely deserved 5 out of 5 for this book and I'd be very surprised if both of installments of this series do not show up on my top books of 2018 list in a week or so.