Darling Blue is, ostensibly, the tale of three disparate women who are brought together at the impeccable Richmond location of Ryans Castle. Just to clarify, this is Richmond in London, UK and not USA and Ryans Castle is not a castle but a rather plush upper middle class villa. Set in the 1920s, it follows the three women through just one year in their lives.
Ishbel - Known to everyone as Blue and she seems to be universally adored. 21 years old and an aspiring writer the book follows the year from the events of her 21st Birthday when her father announces to everyone that she is ready to marry and that she should be courted by letter.
Midge - Stepmother to Blue and a rather enigmatic woman. She is struggling with her marriage and the constant reminders of her husband's deceased first wife.
Delphine - Working Class girl who has had an impoverished upbringing and moved in to a violent marriage. In running away from her husband she is looking to reclaim her life.
Here's the problem with the book - it is mainly about Ishbel, as the title suggests. Blue herself I did not find to be a particularly likeable character. She is self-absorbed and seems to not really give any thought to how other people feel in any given situation, on the rare occassion that she does her responses are overly dramatic. Once or twice she shakes this off and has a surprising amount of empathy but these are so out of pace with the rest of her character that I fear these are just examples of the author trying to make a point about something (if I was to tell you what that is it would spoil a plot point for you - admittedly if you are reading the book and have met Floss then you already know what I'm talking about as it comes as no real surprise).
The only characters I felt myself really interested in were Midge and Delphine. Of the two there is only really Delphine who is a thoroughly decent person - although she does behave in a frustrating manner much of the time. This however, can be explained by the time period. Set in 1925 it is true to say that women had few freedoms and were seen as being the property of first their father and then their husband; the feeling of suffocation this must have brought to many is writ large with Delphine.
This is definitely a book about emotions and behaviours rather than actual events. There are a couple of more explosive, action packed scenes but on the whole nothing really happens throughout the book except for Blue, Midge and Delphine variously describing their lives and those who have interacted with them. Some of the emotional responses in the book feel lacking and the mystery behind Midge is not really dealt with, it is swept away under the carpet and forgiveness is freely given in a situation where I feel few could do so.
Based on all I've said you would only really expect a 2 Star review. That third star is simply for the capturing of the 1920s in England - certainly, in that rarefied sector of England at any rate. From the dialogue to the settings we find our protagonists in it all smacks of authenticity and you do feel sucked in to the time and the place - even if the people that populate it leave you, on the whole, rather uninterested. The author's attention to detail in the setting is what earns this book a read.
The supplementary characters are well written and all have a worthy place in the tale as they flesh out the world Darling Blue inhabits. From the superficiality of being a party girl (Dorian, Floss, Tab), to a hard working hack (Roger, Gordon, Barnaby - dear, delightful Barnaby) and a book loving homebody (Merrigan, L.W.) we get to see all her facets through her interactions with these people. The main background character (if that isn't too much of a contradiction interms) is Kenneth Campbell. As Midge's husband and Blue's father he is quite an important part of the tale but he is completely one dimensional and never blossoms in to a real person. The nearest we get is when he makes his ludricrous speech at Blue's 21st, after that he is almost so superficial as to be Santa Claus.
I don't regret reading the book and enjoyed the settings more than the people. However, I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone as it is very much a marmite book and I would hate anyone to be disappointed in my recommendations. Why not read a short excerpt before buying (if available).
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM THE PIGEONHOLE.
Monday, 30 July 2018
Click Date Repeat Series Box Set by K J Farnham
This duo really are a tale of two halves, and to be honest neither of them is particularly great. I have reviewed them seperately but a brief summation follows:
Click Date Repeat - 3 Stars
By far the better of the two books. It gets the balance between characters mostly right and each one feels like they are a genuine person - so both good and bad personality traits. Even the disastrous dates have a little bit of believability about the characters; sadly I think this is coincidental and they are supposed to be out and out appalling.
The main character, Chloe, is a good mixture of appealing and horrendous but not in a way that made me want to befriend her or even really root for her.
Good look at the early days of online dating and I think the nostalgia factor worked in its favour.
Click Date Repeat Again - 1 Star
Completely unlikeable main character. This makes it very difficult to engage with the book as you find yourself completely blase about whether or not she gets her life together, let alone her love life. The humour of the first book is completely missing in this one and it comes across as quite unpleasant in places.
Overall I would struggle to recommend these books to anyone and, on reflection, I am now wondering if the first book deserved those 3 stars. I will leave it as is as I fear my judgement of it has been coloured by how much I disliked the second in the series.
Click Date Repeat - 3 Stars
By far the better of the two books. It gets the balance between characters mostly right and each one feels like they are a genuine person - so both good and bad personality traits. Even the disastrous dates have a little bit of believability about the characters; sadly I think this is coincidental and they are supposed to be out and out appalling.
The main character, Chloe, is a good mixture of appealing and horrendous but not in a way that made me want to befriend her or even really root for her.
Good look at the early days of online dating and I think the nostalgia factor worked in its favour.
Click Date Repeat Again - 1 Star
Completely unlikeable main character. This makes it very difficult to engage with the book as you find yourself completely blase about whether or not she gets her life together, let alone her love life. The humour of the first book is completely missing in this one and it comes across as quite unpleasant in places.
Overall I would struggle to recommend these books to anyone and, on reflection, I am now wondering if the first book deserved those 3 stars. I will leave it as is as I fear my judgement of it has been coloured by how much I disliked the second in the series.
Click Date Repeat Again by K J Farnham
As you can tell from the rating of 1 Star, I really did not like this book. I struggled to finish it if I'm being honest and didn't so much read the final half of it but skimmed through just to get to the end.
There is little plot here, I didn't expect it to have a great one based on the premise of the tale but I did expect more from it than it delivered. The whole gist is that Jess has split up with "The Golfer" and her best friend Chloe has gifted her a 3 month subscription to Yahoo! Personals for her birthday. Online dating worked for Chloe so apparently she thinks it will work for Jess too. I've read the first one and expected this to be much the same format and it is - pokes and icebreakers, online messaging turning to phone calls turning to the big meet up.
The real problem here is the way Jess is portrayed. She comes across as completely without a selfless bone in her body and to be actually incredibly unlikeable. Even worse every stereotype you have come across about Air Stewardesses is afforded to Jess and it makes for uncomfortable reading. Chloe does appear in this book and she has suffered a complete personality transplant as well. The perceived tension of who will Jess choose - Sawyer or Justin - holds some interest for the reader but ultimately you don't care about the character so couldn't give two hoots about who wins the fair maiden.
I just could not connect with anything about the characters, the humour that should be in the book is replaced by what comes across as incredibly vitriolic rather than wry observation. I also noted that everyone drinks and drives in this book. At one point Chloe meets up with Jess at the Home Bar, has an incredibly alcoholic drink (what we Brits would call a Top Shelfer) and then a normal cocktail and then leaves the bar and drives home. There is never any comeback for this behaviour either and the only time drinking and driving is mentioned is when someone can barely stand up and the wisdom of them driving is questioned.
The writing itself is actually competent - such a pity that the plot and characterisation are far from it.
There is little plot here, I didn't expect it to have a great one based on the premise of the tale but I did expect more from it than it delivered. The whole gist is that Jess has split up with "The Golfer" and her best friend Chloe has gifted her a 3 month subscription to Yahoo! Personals for her birthday. Online dating worked for Chloe so apparently she thinks it will work for Jess too. I've read the first one and expected this to be much the same format and it is - pokes and icebreakers, online messaging turning to phone calls turning to the big meet up.
The real problem here is the way Jess is portrayed. She comes across as completely without a selfless bone in her body and to be actually incredibly unlikeable. Even worse every stereotype you have come across about Air Stewardesses is afforded to Jess and it makes for uncomfortable reading. Chloe does appear in this book and she has suffered a complete personality transplant as well. The perceived tension of who will Jess choose - Sawyer or Justin - holds some interest for the reader but ultimately you don't care about the character so couldn't give two hoots about who wins the fair maiden.
I just could not connect with anything about the characters, the humour that should be in the book is replaced by what comes across as incredibly vitriolic rather than wry observation. I also noted that everyone drinks and drives in this book. At one point Chloe meets up with Jess at the Home Bar, has an incredibly alcoholic drink (what we Brits would call a Top Shelfer) and then a normal cocktail and then leaves the bar and drives home. There is never any comeback for this behaviour either and the only time drinking and driving is mentioned is when someone can barely stand up and the wisdom of them driving is questioned.
The writing itself is actually competent - such a pity that the plot and characterisation are far from it.
Death In Summer by Michael Theurillat
This book was both better, and worse, than I was expecting it to be. Hence the middle of the road 2.5 Stars I have given it. There is nothing really surprising or innovative here but there are moments that entertain.
First and foremost this is a thriller centred around the murder of a prominent banker on a Swiss gold course. Swiss banks are, of course, internationally recognised for their tight lips and secure environs. So what secrets could have led to this man's murder? Just who where the clients that he looked after so well? What did he know that caused his death?
Minor spoiler alert:
His death was nothing to do with his job. In fact, banking is barely touched on and his illustrious clients have nothing to do with his untimely demise.
As you can probably tell from the above this is where I was hoping the tale would take us. I was looking forward to espionage and double dealing in the rarefied air of the Alps. Instead we are taken somewhere far more pedestrian, what should be a plot twist feels more like a standard deviation for the genre - it no doubt had more impact on original publication but this English Language translation has come a couple of years later and it suffers for the time delay.
Plot wise this would have been a 2 Star read.
However, what the author has done very well here is give us a sense of person, of place, and how that place informs the person. Eschenbach is no great legal mind, he is no Sherlock Holmes. What he is a working copper who knows his countrymen, knows his country and knows how people work on the inside. This informs his behaviour at every turn and makes him feel all the more real to the reader.
There is rather too much dwelling on the weather - although when I read the book we were in the middle of a UK heatwave so to read of Zurich melting under the summer sun felt very easy to envisage. In fact, the sections of the book that deal with Eschenbach's movements around the city as he ponders the case and his peregrinations to other Cantons and Countries are some of the best bits in the book. His interactions with his erstwhile secretary, Rosa, and his new trainee, Jagmetti, are also enjoyable reading.
As a thriller I found this book to fail at every turn. The plot was insufficient to carry the book and the twists were just not there. There was also a sense of disconnect between events in such a way that any deduction that linked them together felt as though it was a complete leap of faith to reach that conclusion.
Where the book did work is as a study in people. How the human animal can, and does, modify it's behaviour to suit a certain social situation or a particular place. This is where the author excelled. Unfortunately, it was not enough to salvage a rather turgid tale.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
First and foremost this is a thriller centred around the murder of a prominent banker on a Swiss gold course. Swiss banks are, of course, internationally recognised for their tight lips and secure environs. So what secrets could have led to this man's murder? Just who where the clients that he looked after so well? What did he know that caused his death?
Minor spoiler alert:
His death was nothing to do with his job. In fact, banking is barely touched on and his illustrious clients have nothing to do with his untimely demise.
As you can probably tell from the above this is where I was hoping the tale would take us. I was looking forward to espionage and double dealing in the rarefied air of the Alps. Instead we are taken somewhere far more pedestrian, what should be a plot twist feels more like a standard deviation for the genre - it no doubt had more impact on original publication but this English Language translation has come a couple of years later and it suffers for the time delay.
Plot wise this would have been a 2 Star read.
However, what the author has done very well here is give us a sense of person, of place, and how that place informs the person. Eschenbach is no great legal mind, he is no Sherlock Holmes. What he is a working copper who knows his countrymen, knows his country and knows how people work on the inside. This informs his behaviour at every turn and makes him feel all the more real to the reader.
There is rather too much dwelling on the weather - although when I read the book we were in the middle of a UK heatwave so to read of Zurich melting under the summer sun felt very easy to envisage. In fact, the sections of the book that deal with Eschenbach's movements around the city as he ponders the case and his peregrinations to other Cantons and Countries are some of the best bits in the book. His interactions with his erstwhile secretary, Rosa, and his new trainee, Jagmetti, are also enjoyable reading.
As a thriller I found this book to fail at every turn. The plot was insufficient to carry the book and the twists were just not there. There was also a sense of disconnect between events in such a way that any deduction that linked them together felt as though it was a complete leap of faith to reach that conclusion.
Where the book did work is as a study in people. How the human animal can, and does, modify it's behaviour to suit a certain social situation or a particular place. This is where the author excelled. Unfortunately, it was not enough to salvage a rather turgid tale.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly
3.5 Stars
The first thing that struck me about this book was how unreliable a narrator Jane appears; from the outset there is that feeling that appearences matter to her so whe will only ever tell you things from her own particularly skewed viewpoint. She says she wants to be a writer but instead of following that dream she did the next best thing and married one, a relatively successful one at that and now she is playing happy families with Leon and the 2 children (1 boy, 1 girl - aww how perfect). The live a seemingly respectable middle class existence with the only blot on Jane's landscape being the argumentative elderly neighbours from across the road.
All this is thrown in to sharp relief when Leon is attacked and there seem to be no clue as to who or how. Shot in front of his children the local police seem to think Jane is involved and she is convinced it was the curmdgeon from across the road, Lawrence or his peculiar son. From this point on the story becomes more of a crime thriller than an expose of domestic life; albeit one told from Jane's jaundiced point of view.
What really stood out for me in this book was the detail surrounding Leon's brain injury. How vast the memory loss was, the mercurial mood changes, the loss of impulse control. This is told with such delicacy and brutal honesty that it drives home how life changing one small trauma to the brain could be, let alone a massive one as suffered by Leon. ther eis little to no support when he is deemed fit to go home and even I had to sympathise with Jane as she struggled to balance the demands of two small children and a damaged husband.
As you can tell from the above I really did not warm to the main character at all. From the off I just couldn't trust her and as proceedings progressed I actually started to hope that Ledecky would find the smoking gun that proved it was Jane who shot Leon. It is a pity that I took such a dislike to the main character as the plotting of the tale is execptionally well thought through and constructed. The writing flows on to the page and the author's voice never gets in the way of the characters (always a plus). The rest of the characters, the periphery if you like - even someone as important to the story as Leon is only ever really peripheral - are all beautifully flawed and believable as people. Leon's mother and sister are a gorgeous double act and realistic in their reactions to both the situation and each other.
I did enjoy the book and the twist as to the perpetrator and the reasons behind it were well hidden and only really hinted at about 20 - 30 pages before the big reveal. Basically, we suspect only when the author is ready for us to do so and, in this case it works well, it was a bit of a gamble to throw so many red herrings in to the mix but Ms Daly pulled it off. It was also nice to see a novel set in Liverpool that wasn't all about the seedy underbelly or the heart of gold under a tough exterior Northener.
I readily admit that I marked this book down because the narrator of the book drove me potty. If you happen to like her then this will be a 5 Star read for sure.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM THE PIGEONHOLE.
The first thing that struck me about this book was how unreliable a narrator Jane appears; from the outset there is that feeling that appearences matter to her so whe will only ever tell you things from her own particularly skewed viewpoint. She says she wants to be a writer but instead of following that dream she did the next best thing and married one, a relatively successful one at that and now she is playing happy families with Leon and the 2 children (1 boy, 1 girl - aww how perfect). The live a seemingly respectable middle class existence with the only blot on Jane's landscape being the argumentative elderly neighbours from across the road.
All this is thrown in to sharp relief when Leon is attacked and there seem to be no clue as to who or how. Shot in front of his children the local police seem to think Jane is involved and she is convinced it was the curmdgeon from across the road, Lawrence or his peculiar son. From this point on the story becomes more of a crime thriller than an expose of domestic life; albeit one told from Jane's jaundiced point of view.
What really stood out for me in this book was the detail surrounding Leon's brain injury. How vast the memory loss was, the mercurial mood changes, the loss of impulse control. This is told with such delicacy and brutal honesty that it drives home how life changing one small trauma to the brain could be, let alone a massive one as suffered by Leon. ther eis little to no support when he is deemed fit to go home and even I had to sympathise with Jane as she struggled to balance the demands of two small children and a damaged husband.
As you can tell from the above I really did not warm to the main character at all. From the off I just couldn't trust her and as proceedings progressed I actually started to hope that Ledecky would find the smoking gun that proved it was Jane who shot Leon. It is a pity that I took such a dislike to the main character as the plotting of the tale is execptionally well thought through and constructed. The writing flows on to the page and the author's voice never gets in the way of the characters (always a plus). The rest of the characters, the periphery if you like - even someone as important to the story as Leon is only ever really peripheral - are all beautifully flawed and believable as people. Leon's mother and sister are a gorgeous double act and realistic in their reactions to both the situation and each other.
I did enjoy the book and the twist as to the perpetrator and the reasons behind it were well hidden and only really hinted at about 20 - 30 pages before the big reveal. Basically, we suspect only when the author is ready for us to do so and, in this case it works well, it was a bit of a gamble to throw so many red herrings in to the mix but Ms Daly pulled it off. It was also nice to see a novel set in Liverpool that wasn't all about the seedy underbelly or the heart of gold under a tough exterior Northener.
I readily admit that I marked this book down because the narrator of the book drove me potty. If you happen to like her then this will be a 5 Star read for sure.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM THE PIGEONHOLE.
Kick The Candle by Genevieve Jack
3.5 stars
The second book in the Knight Games series is heavier on the Supernatural elements and much less focused on the amorous life of Grateful and there are far less toe-curling passages to endure this time around. We do get to meet a few new supes - including a Werewolf detective and a fairy bordello owner. We also get to find out more about the burgeoning Vampire community set up close to the Hellmouth that it is Grateful's task to guard.
I was disappointed to note that one of the themes of the book (Grateful losing the graveyard house) was also repeated here. We've already done this one and there was never any actual fear that the mysterious Mr Nekomata would succeed in ousting Grateful from her attic. It just felt a bit like a lazy plot point to try and dredge up more tension - not really necessary when you factor kidnapping and torture.
On the whole Grateful is a lot easier of a person to like in this book, maybe because she is away from Rick for big parts of it and she seems to think more with her head than other, less salubrious organs. The plotting is generally tighter and conversations seem to have a point to them, even if it doesn't seem terribly important at the time. The fictional world the characters inhabit is fleshed out a lot more and is starting to feel solid and to have a good sense of it's own mythology.
All this gives me hope for the third installment of the series. I can't honestly say that I am waiting for it with bated breath but I am much less trepidacious than I was after the first book.
The second book in the Knight Games series is heavier on the Supernatural elements and much less focused on the amorous life of Grateful and there are far less toe-curling passages to endure this time around. We do get to meet a few new supes - including a Werewolf detective and a fairy bordello owner. We also get to find out more about the burgeoning Vampire community set up close to the Hellmouth that it is Grateful's task to guard.
I was disappointed to note that one of the themes of the book (Grateful losing the graveyard house) was also repeated here. We've already done this one and there was never any actual fear that the mysterious Mr Nekomata would succeed in ousting Grateful from her attic. It just felt a bit like a lazy plot point to try and dredge up more tension - not really necessary when you factor kidnapping and torture.
On the whole Grateful is a lot easier of a person to like in this book, maybe because she is away from Rick for big parts of it and she seems to think more with her head than other, less salubrious organs. The plotting is generally tighter and conversations seem to have a point to them, even if it doesn't seem terribly important at the time. The fictional world the characters inhabit is fleshed out a lot more and is starting to feel solid and to have a good sense of it's own mythology.
All this gives me hope for the third installment of the series. I can't honestly say that I am waiting for it with bated breath but I am much less trepidacious than I was after the first book.
Jar Of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Although I have become relatively jaded to this genre of novel, I found that I really enjoyed this tale and got sucked right in to the story from the off. I think that it helped that we start the tale almost halfway through, the past is dealt with not in a flashback form that has become prolific but rather in the thoughts of the main character as she struggles to come to terms with her life as it is now.
Georgina appears to have everything, a stellar career, a wealthy fiance and all the material possessions she could want. Outward appearences are deceptive though and a dark secret from her past constantly shadows her days. When she is arrested at an important board meeting by a school days friend her life begins to unravel and those far off days of being 16 again are at the fore-front of her mind; especially now she seems to have been involved with the murders committed by the Sweetbay Strangler.
We start with the trial of Calvin, the aforementioned murderer, and the deal done by Geo's lawyers to get her 5 years in prison in exchange for her testimony. The story putters along quite nicely as we follow her through those 5 years in prison, the friendships she makes there and the sheer regimented horror of the days. Even the more gruesome aspects are dealt with in such a matter of fact way that they feel neither gratuitous or voyeuristic; they also give you an insight in to the person Geo pretended to be on the outside and on the inside juxtaposed against her real personality.
The plot is well conceived and has plenty of twists, turns and red herrings to keep you guessing. Unfortunately, the final denouement was spoilt slightly by the perpretrator of the new murders being flagged up a little too obviously (at least to me). The subtle shifting of focus from present day to the past is done well and usually through the form of memories rather then flashback chapters. This does make you doubt what you read as you can never be sure just how reliable a narrator Geo is. Although, she never fails to show herself in a less than flattering light maybe this is all just self-deprecation to get us on her side.
The peripheral characters are believable and rotate in and out of her life ina naturalistic fashion. I particularly enjoyed the backwards and forwards between Kaiser and Geo and their relationship felt realistic; to a point. Even with their history I am not convinced that a member of law enforcement would be so eager to associate with an ex-con.
The writing was free flowing and I feel like the author really brought Geo's voice to the page. It never felt constricted or contrived to show off a literary turn of phrase, it just felt like a master storyteller entertaining us by making us believe the fictional people were real. There is a lot of sub-text here and it is so well stitched together that you just go with it and allow the plotlines to consume you as you wonder how they fit together.
This is certainly an excellent example of the genre and one I would not hesitate to recommend. Even if you think you have read more than enough of murder and detective work this one serves to intrigue and does have a genuinely fresh spin for you to enjoy.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
Georgina appears to have everything, a stellar career, a wealthy fiance and all the material possessions she could want. Outward appearences are deceptive though and a dark secret from her past constantly shadows her days. When she is arrested at an important board meeting by a school days friend her life begins to unravel and those far off days of being 16 again are at the fore-front of her mind; especially now she seems to have been involved with the murders committed by the Sweetbay Strangler.
We start with the trial of Calvin, the aforementioned murderer, and the deal done by Geo's lawyers to get her 5 years in prison in exchange for her testimony. The story putters along quite nicely as we follow her through those 5 years in prison, the friendships she makes there and the sheer regimented horror of the days. Even the more gruesome aspects are dealt with in such a matter of fact way that they feel neither gratuitous or voyeuristic; they also give you an insight in to the person Geo pretended to be on the outside and on the inside juxtaposed against her real personality.
The plot is well conceived and has plenty of twists, turns and red herrings to keep you guessing. Unfortunately, the final denouement was spoilt slightly by the perpretrator of the new murders being flagged up a little too obviously (at least to me). The subtle shifting of focus from present day to the past is done well and usually through the form of memories rather then flashback chapters. This does make you doubt what you read as you can never be sure just how reliable a narrator Geo is. Although, she never fails to show herself in a less than flattering light maybe this is all just self-deprecation to get us on her side.
The peripheral characters are believable and rotate in and out of her life ina naturalistic fashion. I particularly enjoyed the backwards and forwards between Kaiser and Geo and their relationship felt realistic; to a point. Even with their history I am not convinced that a member of law enforcement would be so eager to associate with an ex-con.
The writing was free flowing and I feel like the author really brought Geo's voice to the page. It never felt constricted or contrived to show off a literary turn of phrase, it just felt like a master storyteller entertaining us by making us believe the fictional people were real. There is a lot of sub-text here and it is so well stitched together that you just go with it and allow the plotlines to consume you as you wonder how they fit together.
This is certainly an excellent example of the genre and one I would not hesitate to recommend. Even if you think you have read more than enough of murder and detective work this one serves to intrigue and does have a genuinely fresh spin for you to enjoy.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
Friday, 20 July 2018
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
We meet the crew of the Anomaly Files as they meet up at a desert motel prior to filming at the Grand Canyon. The whole story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Nolan, who presents the show and researches the coinspiracy theories that he prefers to think of as anomalies - hence the titel of the show, and the novel. He has his usual crew with him - the irascible Ken (producer and director), Pierre (cameraman), Molly (Girl Friday, production assistant and voice of reason much of the time) but now they are making the move from webcast to Cable TV they also have Feather (there on behalf of the sponsors) and Gemma (web journalist with a huge dose of scepticism) on board.
As they set off for the Grand Canyon we already have a good fix on the characters and even though they are sketchily drawn on the page you do get a really good sense of who these people are. I found this rather unusual as somehow Nolan's viewpoint doesn't cloud the personalities of the people around him, he lets their interactions speak for themselves and the reader gets to make their own judgements despite Nolan's prejudices. The relationships are beautifully drawn - particularly between Nolan and Ken.
It all starts off quite well with the scene set for the reader about the nature of the expedition (finding the Kincaid Canyon) and Nolan's belief that science doesn't always tell us the truth - just the truth scientists want us to know. You do want to feel really cynical about the whole thing but such is the verve of the writing you find yourself being sucked down Nolan's particular rabbit hole quite willingly. Couple this with tantalising details about Newspaper Rock and known details about Ancient Civilisations being used to bolster the story and you rapidly become immersed.
The story soon becomes particularly preposterous and a huge suspension of belief is required by the reader. But I found that I really didn't care that the science had become muddy and the scenarios ever more far-fetched I just wanted to know what happened next. I had to turn that next page, start that new chapter and keep bowling on through until I got to the end. An end which doesn't disappoint but keeps on in the "Boys Own Adventure" vein right up until the very last.
This book is a guilty pleasure. It shouldn't entertain, it should make you put it down in disgust at the sheer ridiculousness of events. Such is the joy of the writer in outdoing himself in each chapter and yet never losing the sense of character amongst the increasing absurdity you willingly take his hand and follow with a huge grin on your face.
This is what a book should be - complete, pure escapism that makes you happy just to be along for the ride. You trust the author implicitly and he never lets you down. So, put your common sense and sceptism aside, grab a BIG glass of wine (and a cheeseburger), ring in sick to work and get reading - you are in for a bumpy, thrill filled ride that you will not want to put down.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW
As they set off for the Grand Canyon we already have a good fix on the characters and even though they are sketchily drawn on the page you do get a really good sense of who these people are. I found this rather unusual as somehow Nolan's viewpoint doesn't cloud the personalities of the people around him, he lets their interactions speak for themselves and the reader gets to make their own judgements despite Nolan's prejudices. The relationships are beautifully drawn - particularly between Nolan and Ken.
It all starts off quite well with the scene set for the reader about the nature of the expedition (finding the Kincaid Canyon) and Nolan's belief that science doesn't always tell us the truth - just the truth scientists want us to know. You do want to feel really cynical about the whole thing but such is the verve of the writing you find yourself being sucked down Nolan's particular rabbit hole quite willingly. Couple this with tantalising details about Newspaper Rock and known details about Ancient Civilisations being used to bolster the story and you rapidly become immersed.
The story soon becomes particularly preposterous and a huge suspension of belief is required by the reader. But I found that I really didn't care that the science had become muddy and the scenarios ever more far-fetched I just wanted to know what happened next. I had to turn that next page, start that new chapter and keep bowling on through until I got to the end. An end which doesn't disappoint but keeps on in the "Boys Own Adventure" vein right up until the very last.
This book is a guilty pleasure. It shouldn't entertain, it should make you put it down in disgust at the sheer ridiculousness of events. Such is the joy of the writer in outdoing himself in each chapter and yet never losing the sense of character amongst the increasing absurdity you willingly take his hand and follow with a huge grin on your face.
This is what a book should be - complete, pure escapism that makes you happy just to be along for the ride. You trust the author implicitly and he never lets you down. So, put your common sense and sceptism aside, grab a BIG glass of wine (and a cheeseburger), ring in sick to work and get reading - you are in for a bumpy, thrill filled ride that you will not want to put down.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW
The Bluebell Bunting Society by Poppy Dolan
This is more of a coming of age story than anything else. Admittedly, the coming of age isn't a teenage one but when you are heading oin the downhill slope to the big 3-0 it feels like adulthood is ready to sit on your shoulders and that is very definitely a coming of age. Certainly Connie seems to feel that way - then again, the character appears to be rather immature for her actual age in years and seems to have retreated to a safe existence after a failed relationship in the big bad city. Connie isn't as dreary a character as this summation makes her sound though, she just has a slightly skewed sense of priorities. On the one hand she wants to "do good" and "help people" and keep Bluebell Hall running so that the community can enjoy it; on the other she wants nothing more than to hide in safe old Hazlemere behind the ghost of her Gran and behind the needs of her mentally ill mother.
It isn't all doom and gloom though, the rest of the cast pull you through the worst of Connie's wallowing. Her relationships with Susannah, stevie and Luce are old ones, comfortable ones but it doesn't mean that these people are afraid to call Connie out on her decisions. Indeed the little glimpses of humour in the book (not as many as the blurb would have you believe but there are a good handful) generally come from one of these three setting her straight on her misconceptions and self-delusions. Her new friendships with Flip, Polly and Dom are also quite telling and although Connie seems to fall in to friendship far too easily they are fairly realistically drawn. We won't go into the relationship with Alex as it is too trite for words and from the first moment we see him through Connie's first interaction with him you know how that will end.
The plot itself is neither here nor there really. There is a whole background of trying to save the cherished Village Hall - well, cherished by Connie and a handful of others but definitely not by the village as a whole. This is merely the device to serve to bring the characters together and to move the story along. It serves as a handy meeting place and as a hiding place for that matter. What fate ultimately befalls it really isn't that important - even Connie doesn't seem that bothered really. It is the characters that are important here and how they relate to each other and deal with the ups and downs of a few months in thsi snapshot of their lives.
I didn't find this to be immersive reading and it was easy enough to pick it up for a chapter or two and then lay it aside in favour of something else. In fact, this has probably led to me giving it a higher rating than if I had read it in one or two chunks as I think Connie's personality would have made me exceedingly grumpy if I had to suffer it for more than 2 or 3 chapters at a time.
This is the first of Poppy Dolan's books that I've read and I am pretty much ambivalent out reading any more. I may give them a go but there was nothing in this book that lit a spark for this reader and made me interested to see what else was on the author's bookshelf.
It isn't all doom and gloom though, the rest of the cast pull you through the worst of Connie's wallowing. Her relationships with Susannah, stevie and Luce are old ones, comfortable ones but it doesn't mean that these people are afraid to call Connie out on her decisions. Indeed the little glimpses of humour in the book (not as many as the blurb would have you believe but there are a good handful) generally come from one of these three setting her straight on her misconceptions and self-delusions. Her new friendships with Flip, Polly and Dom are also quite telling and although Connie seems to fall in to friendship far too easily they are fairly realistically drawn. We won't go into the relationship with Alex as it is too trite for words and from the first moment we see him through Connie's first interaction with him you know how that will end.
The plot itself is neither here nor there really. There is a whole background of trying to save the cherished Village Hall - well, cherished by Connie and a handful of others but definitely not by the village as a whole. This is merely the device to serve to bring the characters together and to move the story along. It serves as a handy meeting place and as a hiding place for that matter. What fate ultimately befalls it really isn't that important - even Connie doesn't seem that bothered really. It is the characters that are important here and how they relate to each other and deal with the ups and downs of a few months in thsi snapshot of their lives.
I didn't find this to be immersive reading and it was easy enough to pick it up for a chapter or two and then lay it aside in favour of something else. In fact, this has probably led to me giving it a higher rating than if I had read it in one or two chunks as I think Connie's personality would have made me exceedingly grumpy if I had to suffer it for more than 2 or 3 chapters at a time.
This is the first of Poppy Dolan's books that I've read and I am pretty much ambivalent out reading any more. I may give them a go but there was nothing in this book that lit a spark for this reader and made me interested to see what else was on the author's bookshelf.
Welcome to Castle Cove by Kory M Shrum
Although slightly too old for the choose Your Own Adventure novel craze I do have very fond memories of it and thoroughly enjoyed it 20+ years ago. I was, therefore really looking forward to this modern, adult take on a forgotten genre. Even better when read on an e-reader there's none of that nasty desire to just peek at the choices before you decide which way to go - you have to choose and commit right now.
Sadly, that is where my enthusiasm for this novel begins and comes to a crashing and abrupt halt. The chapters are exceptionally short so you have little information on which to make your choice and no real gut feeling to go off either as we never really get under the skin of the character. So, go methodically think I - choose "safe options" for the first run through and just get a feel for it. However, this meant that everything just becomes completely confusing in very short order. People are introduced in later choices that it is quite clear the character you are supposedly inhabiting already knows but you haven't got Clue One who they are. So making your next choice is just a case of "get me to the end as soon as possible as I have no idea what is going on here".
So, second read through and I decide to make more honest choices try and get more of an event out of it. This did work to a lesser extent. I found out a little more about Castle Cove but then clearly made a wrong decision as I was suddenly in a completely different section of the story with no idea who the people where around me and just wanted to step back a choice so that it made sense. No, that isn't the spirit of the book so lets get to the end. Started a third attempt and it was just a rehash of my previous experiences with the exception that because I'd had 2 goes at deciding my destiny I kind of knew who these people were.
The whole experience left me feeling rather cheated. I came away feeling that the wuthor had generated an idea for a strange town and started working on a novel based on that idea but had ended up with a set of disparate parts and just couldn't find a way to bring them in to a cohesive narrative. So spend a month or two with a pad and paper and take the nostalgic route and we get this rehash of an old idea. I am sure it would have been much quicker to persevere with a traditional novel and, for my money, I think it would have made a better reader experience.
This was very definitely not for me as the narrative becomes lost after the first 3 choices as not enough thought has been given in to the introduction of characters, places and themes to fit the choices which means you can suddenly crash in to a location or a character that it is clear the fictional you knows but you have never met on the page, or screen, before. Needs a lot more thought and work to allow each storyline to make some sort of sense unless you have read through it multiple times and are nearing the end of your possible choice combinations. Sadly, I was too disappointed and disillusioned to try it more than three times and will not be returning for more.
Sadly, that is where my enthusiasm for this novel begins and comes to a crashing and abrupt halt. The chapters are exceptionally short so you have little information on which to make your choice and no real gut feeling to go off either as we never really get under the skin of the character. So, go methodically think I - choose "safe options" for the first run through and just get a feel for it. However, this meant that everything just becomes completely confusing in very short order. People are introduced in later choices that it is quite clear the character you are supposedly inhabiting already knows but you haven't got Clue One who they are. So making your next choice is just a case of "get me to the end as soon as possible as I have no idea what is going on here".
So, second read through and I decide to make more honest choices try and get more of an event out of it. This did work to a lesser extent. I found out a little more about Castle Cove but then clearly made a wrong decision as I was suddenly in a completely different section of the story with no idea who the people where around me and just wanted to step back a choice so that it made sense. No, that isn't the spirit of the book so lets get to the end. Started a third attempt and it was just a rehash of my previous experiences with the exception that because I'd had 2 goes at deciding my destiny I kind of knew who these people were.
The whole experience left me feeling rather cheated. I came away feeling that the wuthor had generated an idea for a strange town and started working on a novel based on that idea but had ended up with a set of disparate parts and just couldn't find a way to bring them in to a cohesive narrative. So spend a month or two with a pad and paper and take the nostalgic route and we get this rehash of an old idea. I am sure it would have been much quicker to persevere with a traditional novel and, for my money, I think it would have made a better reader experience.
This was very definitely not for me as the narrative becomes lost after the first 3 choices as not enough thought has been given in to the introduction of characters, places and themes to fit the choices which means you can suddenly crash in to a location or a character that it is clear the fictional you knows but you have never met on the page, or screen, before. Needs a lot more thought and work to allow each storyline to make some sort of sense unless you have read through it multiple times and are nearing the end of your possible choice combinations. Sadly, I was too disappointed and disillusioned to try it more than three times and will not be returning for more.
Thursday, 19 July 2018
The Plumberry School Of Comfort Food by Cathy Bramley
This was such a treat to read, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. There is a lot going on here and the main thrust of the book is about how to cope with overwhelming grief and how it can completely derail your whole life.
Verity is a case in point. Until her best friend Mimi died suddenly she grabbed life by both hands and she found joy in the simple things. Mainly she found joy in cooking her friend. We join the story 2 years after Verity loses Mimi and then loses both her boyfriend and her job in quick succession. Her friend's mother, Gloria, offers her a lifeline by asking her to help her get things ready for the opening of her new venture - the eponymous Plumberry School Of Comfort Food.
Surprisingly the book isn't all happy, happy, jolly, jolly and it deals with quite tense subject matter - infertility, widowhood, sudden death. However, there is such warmth here that you feel in safe hands as you traverse the interwoven lives of Verity, Gloria, Gabe and Tom. All the characters are vibrant and multi-faceted and behave like real world people. The setting whilst idyllic isn't some 1950's throwback rural village, it is a very modern small town whose inhabitants mix the sense of community with modernity. Even though it is set in Yorkshire I think I'd like to live there (I'm Lancashire born and bred and, well, you know...).
There are some rather trite sections and things do seem to work out all for the best all too often. However, if this book had gone down the path that life often leads us it would no doubt lead you to a stiff drink or three - instead of a fish finger sandwich (white bread, ketchup on the fish). It is nice that things appear to work out for Verity in both her business and personal life, it is left on a delicious cliffhanger as to whether or not it all works out. Not enough of a one to make you beg for a sequel as some stones are best left unturned, but just enough to make you come up with certain scenarios when you've completed the book.
If you like an uplifting story with just the right amount of pathos then this will be a Gloria's read (if you've already read it that will make sense - promise!).
Verity is a case in point. Until her best friend Mimi died suddenly she grabbed life by both hands and she found joy in the simple things. Mainly she found joy in cooking her friend. We join the story 2 years after Verity loses Mimi and then loses both her boyfriend and her job in quick succession. Her friend's mother, Gloria, offers her a lifeline by asking her to help her get things ready for the opening of her new venture - the eponymous Plumberry School Of Comfort Food.
Surprisingly the book isn't all happy, happy, jolly, jolly and it deals with quite tense subject matter - infertility, widowhood, sudden death. However, there is such warmth here that you feel in safe hands as you traverse the interwoven lives of Verity, Gloria, Gabe and Tom. All the characters are vibrant and multi-faceted and behave like real world people. The setting whilst idyllic isn't some 1950's throwback rural village, it is a very modern small town whose inhabitants mix the sense of community with modernity. Even though it is set in Yorkshire I think I'd like to live there (I'm Lancashire born and bred and, well, you know...).
There are some rather trite sections and things do seem to work out all for the best all too often. However, if this book had gone down the path that life often leads us it would no doubt lead you to a stiff drink or three - instead of a fish finger sandwich (white bread, ketchup on the fish). It is nice that things appear to work out for Verity in both her business and personal life, it is left on a delicious cliffhanger as to whether or not it all works out. Not enough of a one to make you beg for a sequel as some stones are best left unturned, but just enough to make you come up with certain scenarios when you've completed the book.
If you like an uplifting story with just the right amount of pathos then this will be a Gloria's read (if you've already read it that will make sense - promise!).
Where The Light Gets In by Lucy Dillon
This was a bit of a mixed bag of a read for me. I wasn't really disappointed in it as such (even though I have thoroughly enjoyed other books by this author) I just couldn't really connect with the people or the place. The story arc didn't really grab me either if I'm being honest and it all felt a little bit contrived - what really galled me is that Lorna (our main character) mentions that the accounts for the Gallery don't tally but this is never resolved. It did make me wonder if the editor had snipped a side story out as they are never referred to again. It is made perfectly clear up to this point that Lorna is meticulous in her approach to work so it is pretty much unconceivable that she had made an error of what we are led to believe is some magnitude judging by her panic over paying the taxman.
That aside there are some well drawn characters in the book. I particularly liked the depth of Samson who had such a changeable personality he felt completely real; his brother Gabriel on the other hand is completely one dimensional and almost reminded me of a Regency Villain so few where his redeeming features. The real chracters here are Joyce Rothery and Betty, Betty may not be in the book for very long but she sure leaves a lasting impression from her few pages and Joyce is just the sort of old woman we all hope to live to be. Unfortunately Lorna herself is a bit wishy washy and I just couldn't empathise with her and her supposed trials and tribulations. She is also a little bit of a doormat and for some reason that actively repels me in a character.
The sections dealing with Lorna trying to rejuvenate the local Gallery and bring new life to it are quite interesting and the plans she makes for Art Week are so seemingly simple and yet very powerful. I also really liked the yarnbombing theme and it almost made me want to attempt learning to knit - again (much to my grandmother's disgust I never could get an even tension - much like Lorna in the book). I think it was these interludes of life in the shop that kept me interested in the tale.
I enjoyed chunks of the book but parts of it left me feeling all a bit meh and made me want to skim through. I persevered with it though but ultimately did not feel rewarded on completing the tale. I am sure if you can connect with the main character you will garner much more enjoyment from the book than I did.
That aside there are some well drawn characters in the book. I particularly liked the depth of Samson who had such a changeable personality he felt completely real; his brother Gabriel on the other hand is completely one dimensional and almost reminded me of a Regency Villain so few where his redeeming features. The real chracters here are Joyce Rothery and Betty, Betty may not be in the book for very long but she sure leaves a lasting impression from her few pages and Joyce is just the sort of old woman we all hope to live to be. Unfortunately Lorna herself is a bit wishy washy and I just couldn't empathise with her and her supposed trials and tribulations. She is also a little bit of a doormat and for some reason that actively repels me in a character.
The sections dealing with Lorna trying to rejuvenate the local Gallery and bring new life to it are quite interesting and the plans she makes for Art Week are so seemingly simple and yet very powerful. I also really liked the yarnbombing theme and it almost made me want to attempt learning to knit - again (much to my grandmother's disgust I never could get an even tension - much like Lorna in the book). I think it was these interludes of life in the shop that kept me interested in the tale.
I enjoyed chunks of the book but parts of it left me feeling all a bit meh and made me want to skim through. I persevered with it though but ultimately did not feel rewarded on completing the tale. I am sure if you can connect with the main character you will garner much more enjoyment from the book than I did.
The Secrets Of Primrose Square by Claudia Carroll
I am constantly bemused by how well Irish authors manage to convey the human condition so well. this is another in that seam of books that deals with real people, quite boring ordinary people and makes them seem extraordinary. It reminds us all that what happens behind that front door, those closely closed curtains is not necessarily what we would imagine. The bright glow of the TV screen, the subtle hue of a lamp casting it's puddle of light, perfectly normal and yet the events around it may be anything but.
Dealing with four disparate women all struggling with life at different stages, this book brings every day to life and paints it in glowing tones. We first meet Susan, a middle aged woman struggling to get past a tragic event and not dealing with it in the best of ways. Her torment leaps off the page and in to your heart as the true depths of her emotional damage steadily unfold on the page (and this is just in the first chapter). Then there is school girl Melissa, desperately trying to make everyone believe that everything is all okay at home when it is far, far from that. Widowed Jayne looking to reinvigorate her life and not sure how to get out of her rut. Nancy running from her previous life and struggling to find somewhere to settle in a new city, a new country come to that.
The link between these four women is the peaceful Primrose Square in the centre of Dublin City. Slowly it works it's calm magic over them and helps them to reach some sort of resolution to their problems. Not in a completely fantastic, reversal of firtunes way but in a support network way. It is a book that envelops you in a warm hug and gives you hope that no matter how bleak things may seem there is always a brighter day to look forward to.
My only niggles with it where we had to wait an awfully long time to find out why Susan was so adamant that the neighbours son was responsible for her daughter's death. I can understand the need to build tension and it did come out in a relatively believable fashion and only when the character was ready to face up to the events that led to losing her eldest child.
The worst one was waiting to find out why Nancy had felt pushed out of her career and life in London. It is very near to the end of the book when this is revealed and it not something earth shattering in the great scheme of things. Personally shattering and professionally damaging I can see (had this been the real world and not a fictional one) but not as major as she has built it up to be.
The true heart of the book though is the people. They are all beautifully wrought - even relatively minor characters live and breathe within the pages and I did genuinely feel drawn in to the world Ms Carroll has created. It is only my innate nosiness and "need to know" being deferred time and time again that led to me only giving this 4 Stars. It is a joyous read and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about flawed characters that could so easily be real.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
Dealing with four disparate women all struggling with life at different stages, this book brings every day to life and paints it in glowing tones. We first meet Susan, a middle aged woman struggling to get past a tragic event and not dealing with it in the best of ways. Her torment leaps off the page and in to your heart as the true depths of her emotional damage steadily unfold on the page (and this is just in the first chapter). Then there is school girl Melissa, desperately trying to make everyone believe that everything is all okay at home when it is far, far from that. Widowed Jayne looking to reinvigorate her life and not sure how to get out of her rut. Nancy running from her previous life and struggling to find somewhere to settle in a new city, a new country come to that.
The link between these four women is the peaceful Primrose Square in the centre of Dublin City. Slowly it works it's calm magic over them and helps them to reach some sort of resolution to their problems. Not in a completely fantastic, reversal of firtunes way but in a support network way. It is a book that envelops you in a warm hug and gives you hope that no matter how bleak things may seem there is always a brighter day to look forward to.
My only niggles with it where we had to wait an awfully long time to find out why Susan was so adamant that the neighbours son was responsible for her daughter's death. I can understand the need to build tension and it did come out in a relatively believable fashion and only when the character was ready to face up to the events that led to losing her eldest child.
The worst one was waiting to find out why Nancy had felt pushed out of her career and life in London. It is very near to the end of the book when this is revealed and it not something earth shattering in the great scheme of things. Personally shattering and professionally damaging I can see (had this been the real world and not a fictional one) but not as major as she has built it up to be.
The true heart of the book though is the people. They are all beautifully wrought - even relatively minor characters live and breathe within the pages and I did genuinely feel drawn in to the world Ms Carroll has created. It is only my innate nosiness and "need to know" being deferred time and time again that led to me only giving this 4 Stars. It is a joyous read and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about flawed characters that could so easily be real.
I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor
I have to admit it was a hard slog to get to the end of this book but persevere I did - even if I am not particularly sure that it was worth it. It started off so well too - we join the Spirit Chasing Team on their last investigation of the season and it is definitely going to give their ratings a boost. Not only does it give us an introduction to our major character - Austin Cole - but also the lesser background characters on the team (Barrett, Bob, Gary, Thai, Luis and Josie - also confusingly known randomly as JoJo). It also describes the supernatural events they witness and are subjected too in wonderful detail without going for the schlock angle. It keeps the momentum going as we are introduced to Casey and accompany her as she moves out to join the Spirit Chasers team.
Then it basically falls off a cliff as the story vacilates between being a love story and a spooky one. Unfortunately the boy meets girl and they butt heads until they realise that they are meant for each other and then a stupid mis-understanding splits them up and then they reconcile thing really doesn't work within the constraints of the story. It is nice to have downtime in a book like this - after all you don't want wall to wall things that go bump in the night - but the execution of it just didn't work for me.
Things bump along patchily plotwise for the majority of the book before picking up for the final showdown but Austin and the Team and his demonic stalker. The atmosphere generated on the page is wonderfully evocative without straying in to overdone hyperbole or needlessly long descriptive passages. The ending is no real surprise in many ways as the story does prepare you for it but there is something unusual in the author's decision albeit a refreshing unusual.
In short there about 100 pages here that are very, very good (the beginning and the end), the rest of it felt like filler and I found it hard to wade through. Part of the problem lies in the characters themselves - neither Austin or Casey are particularly likeable and we know so little about the other people that they are literally just names on the page with the odd sentence chucked in from them. So much so I am amazed I remembered there names at all - maybe I should have given it an an extra star because at least the character names stayed with me? Nah, that would be generous and that isn't me.
I am vaguely tempted to see how things work out for the team but only very, very vaguely and I can't say I am genuinely tempted to buy the next in the series.
Then it basically falls off a cliff as the story vacilates between being a love story and a spooky one. Unfortunately the boy meets girl and they butt heads until they realise that they are meant for each other and then a stupid mis-understanding splits them up and then they reconcile thing really doesn't work within the constraints of the story. It is nice to have downtime in a book like this - after all you don't want wall to wall things that go bump in the night - but the execution of it just didn't work for me.
Things bump along patchily plotwise for the majority of the book before picking up for the final showdown but Austin and the Team and his demonic stalker. The atmosphere generated on the page is wonderfully evocative without straying in to overdone hyperbole or needlessly long descriptive passages. The ending is no real surprise in many ways as the story does prepare you for it but there is something unusual in the author's decision albeit a refreshing unusual.
In short there about 100 pages here that are very, very good (the beginning and the end), the rest of it felt like filler and I found it hard to wade through. Part of the problem lies in the characters themselves - neither Austin or Casey are particularly likeable and we know so little about the other people that they are literally just names on the page with the odd sentence chucked in from them. So much so I am amazed I remembered there names at all - maybe I should have given it an an extra star because at least the character names stayed with me? Nah, that would be generous and that isn't me.
I am vaguely tempted to see how things work out for the team but only very, very vaguely and I can't say I am genuinely tempted to buy the next in the series.
A Vintage Wedding by Katie Fforde
This is definitely not one of Ms Fforde's better books (and believe me I am a fan). It all feels a little bit rush to meet a deadline with a half formed idea and just slap all the usual tropes together and maybe it will come out okay.
It starts out with trying to save the Village Hall which is in a heinous state of affairs and, to be perfectly honest, it sounds like they'd be better off knocking it down and starting again rather than trying to rescue it. This brings together Lindy (native of the village and a single mum), Beth (young woman who is relying on the charity of friends for a roof over head) and Rachel (newly single and determined to make the most of her show house worthy house in the village). After a chance meeting at the said hall they go to the pub and over one glass of wine decide to go in to business together providing "vintage" weddings. Once this is decided the Village Hall very much takes a back seat and is referred to only fleetingly; to be honest even the wedding business doesn't have a starring role - it is all about these three women and how their lives change courtesy of meeting each other.
Unfortunately this doesn't really work as well on the page as it usually does for this author. The characterisations are all a little flat and Rachel's issues aorund people in her space and the white perfection of her home are cookie cutter cliches that are over-ridden by the character with seemingly no effort and certainly no professional input. Don't get me wrong I read this genre for the uncomplicated simpicity and the sheer escapism from real life but this book just took it all that one step too far in to rose tinted glasses land.
It is, though, a happy read. Not exactly life-affirming but you will get the chance to groan in empathy with Beth and her dire life choices, you will also get to giggle a little and nod sagely in places too. I suppose the real let down is that is uncharacteristically flat in several ways from the sheer unbelievability of the plot, the dullness of the characters on the page, the main issue is that it picks up ideas and then sets them down again only to revisit them several chapters later and try and extricate them from the plot because they have been supplanted as a device.
There are much better books by this author so if this is your first sample of her writing don't be put off.
It starts out with trying to save the Village Hall which is in a heinous state of affairs and, to be perfectly honest, it sounds like they'd be better off knocking it down and starting again rather than trying to rescue it. This brings together Lindy (native of the village and a single mum), Beth (young woman who is relying on the charity of friends for a roof over head) and Rachel (newly single and determined to make the most of her show house worthy house in the village). After a chance meeting at the said hall they go to the pub and over one glass of wine decide to go in to business together providing "vintage" weddings. Once this is decided the Village Hall very much takes a back seat and is referred to only fleetingly; to be honest even the wedding business doesn't have a starring role - it is all about these three women and how their lives change courtesy of meeting each other.
Unfortunately this doesn't really work as well on the page as it usually does for this author. The characterisations are all a little flat and Rachel's issues aorund people in her space and the white perfection of her home are cookie cutter cliches that are over-ridden by the character with seemingly no effort and certainly no professional input. Don't get me wrong I read this genre for the uncomplicated simpicity and the sheer escapism from real life but this book just took it all that one step too far in to rose tinted glasses land.
It is, though, a happy read. Not exactly life-affirming but you will get the chance to groan in empathy with Beth and her dire life choices, you will also get to giggle a little and nod sagely in places too. I suppose the real let down is that is uncharacteristically flat in several ways from the sheer unbelievability of the plot, the dullness of the characters on the page, the main issue is that it picks up ideas and then sets them down again only to revisit them several chapters later and try and extricate them from the plot because they have been supplanted as a device.
There are much better books by this author so if this is your first sample of her writing don't be put off.
No Turning Back by Sam Blake
Set in Dublin, No Turning Back, attempts to give us an insight in to the working of the Garda from the perspective of a very determined young officer - Cat Connolly. Nothing wrong with that except the nicknames they have for each other and the details of interpersonal relationships all feels a little superficial. This may be because this is clearly a few books in to a series (I checked - this is the third book chronicling the events in the life and career of Cat Connolly) and so we are expected to already know the important people in her life. It does work as a stand alone book though, even if the events of previous cases do seep in on a fairly regular basis.
There are a couple of intertwined tales going on here. You have the hit and run murder of a young man with distinguished parents, the discovery of a young girls body on the cliffe which may or may not be misadventure and a nice slice of cyber crime and a devolution on to the Dark Web. Unfortunately this does lead to things becoming very muddy with no real separation of the threads and I did find myself becoming a little confused as to how all the characters linked together and how this was supposed to gel together in to one tale.
Couple this with regular asides in to Cat's private life and her emotional attachment to a superior officer. Then the seemingly pointless introduction of a professor at Trinity College - I am still not entirely sure what point this character served apart from to link the Garda to the CIA to expose the cybercimes being perpetrated under their noses. Quite a lot of page space is devoted to this character as well so I think that their may have been editing decisions made with the overall plot trajectory that now make her feel superfluous to some extent.
There is a decent plot buried amongst some of the faff and flannel in the narrative. Certainly the ultimate denouement was fairly unexpected and the way at which the reveal is made shows that it is the slow plodding of procedure that gets results and not maverick intuition. Tension, however, is hard to come by. Just as it starts to build in one area of the investigation the next chapter will sidle off in to Cat's private life or to one of the other strands of the crimes being explained and it all fizzles out.
Not one of my favourite books of the genre but certainly not one of the worst I have read. It is pretty much middle of the road and does provide a modicum of entertainment; just not enough to make me want to read Cat Connolly's back story or be too invested in where she moves on to next.
There are a couple of intertwined tales going on here. You have the hit and run murder of a young man with distinguished parents, the discovery of a young girls body on the cliffe which may or may not be misadventure and a nice slice of cyber crime and a devolution on to the Dark Web. Unfortunately this does lead to things becoming very muddy with no real separation of the threads and I did find myself becoming a little confused as to how all the characters linked together and how this was supposed to gel together in to one tale.
Couple this with regular asides in to Cat's private life and her emotional attachment to a superior officer. Then the seemingly pointless introduction of a professor at Trinity College - I am still not entirely sure what point this character served apart from to link the Garda to the CIA to expose the cybercimes being perpetrated under their noses. Quite a lot of page space is devoted to this character as well so I think that their may have been editing decisions made with the overall plot trajectory that now make her feel superfluous to some extent.
There is a decent plot buried amongst some of the faff and flannel in the narrative. Certainly the ultimate denouement was fairly unexpected and the way at which the reveal is made shows that it is the slow plodding of procedure that gets results and not maverick intuition. Tension, however, is hard to come by. Just as it starts to build in one area of the investigation the next chapter will sidle off in to Cat's private life or to one of the other strands of the crimes being explained and it all fizzles out.
Not one of my favourite books of the genre but certainly not one of the worst I have read. It is pretty much middle of the road and does provide a modicum of entertainment; just not enough to make me want to read Cat Connolly's back story or be too invested in where she moves on to next.
Thursday, 12 July 2018
The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr by Frances Maynard
I was taken aback by how much I genuinely enjoyed this book and how many layers I could see within it. Told from the perspective of the eponymous Elvira Carr it gives a touching and beautifully wrought insight in to life - not just life for someone with a "condition" but life for all of us. To be perfectly honest I think we would all be better for a touch of Ellie's honesty in our lives and by taking things literally and at face value we could avoid so much unnecessary pain and heartache. Although I would miss a good FOS.
We are never told exactly what Ellie's condition is but it is quite clear that she is on the Autistic Spectrum and I leant heavily towards Aspergers as she functions quite highly in social situations. I did like how her condition (as it is constantly referred to) is always though informing her behaviour and her choices and her understanding of situations but it is an accepted part of the character and seems a perfectly normal way for a person to be; it is the reactions of her mother, her neighbours and people outside the safety of her home who's reactions and behaviours seem shocking.
The plot has a bit of the Seinfeld's about it as really, nothing actually happens. The real activity takes place in the changes in Ellie's life with her mother falling ill and how she has to learn to cope with a minimal support network. We get to watch her make her first tentative steps to independence and the rules that she invents to help her get her through. This both touching and frustrating in equal measure and you do feel like you want to scoop Ellie in to your arms and support her as much as possible - especially with all the revelations about her father.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for soemthign a little different to the norm and about people rather than things or events. There are some quite dramatic reveals in this book but they do take second place to Ellie's reaction to them.
We are never told exactly what Ellie's condition is but it is quite clear that she is on the Autistic Spectrum and I leant heavily towards Aspergers as she functions quite highly in social situations. I did like how her condition (as it is constantly referred to) is always though informing her behaviour and her choices and her understanding of situations but it is an accepted part of the character and seems a perfectly normal way for a person to be; it is the reactions of her mother, her neighbours and people outside the safety of her home who's reactions and behaviours seem shocking.
The plot has a bit of the Seinfeld's about it as really, nothing actually happens. The real activity takes place in the changes in Ellie's life with her mother falling ill and how she has to learn to cope with a minimal support network. We get to watch her make her first tentative steps to independence and the rules that she invents to help her get her through. This both touching and frustrating in equal measure and you do feel like you want to scoop Ellie in to your arms and support her as much as possible - especially with all the revelations about her father.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for soemthign a little different to the norm and about people rather than things or events. There are some quite dramatic reveals in this book but they do take second place to Ellie's reaction to them.
Condemn Me Not: Accused Of Witchcraft by Heather B. Moore
Having read quite a bit about the Salem Witch Trials I was a little trepidacious going in to this book as I was not sure which tack the author was going to take. There are several theories that have done the rounds over the years over what really happened and what led to the girls accusing seemingly ordinary women of Witchcraft. There is everything from Religious Fervour, Ergot poisoning, revenge and plain old greed. This book touches on all but the poisoning theory.
Told from the perspective of the elderly Susannah North we are drawn in to her life by a series of flashbacks to her early years, her meeting and marrying her beloved husband at the ripe old age of 25 and then jumps around in an almost scattergun approach between her present in jail and on trial for Witchcraft and snapshots of her life. I did find it difficult to warm to the central character, whilst I felt empathy for the position she was in I never felt that I really knew who she was as a person. There was worryingly little about the trials themselves and what the actual accusations were - yes, there are little pieces from academic research in to the records of the time but little is shown of the trials themselves. Contrast this with the reports of the jail conditions the accused men and women were held in and we have a much clearer picture.
To be perfectly honest it was quite a dry read and as I found myself becoming immersed in one scene we would suddenly jump to another, happier, time and location and the moment would be lost. Much of it also reminded me of several programmes I have seen about the Lancashire Witch Trials (local to me) and it seems that there was little difference between them and Salem so I did find myself mentally switching to Lancaster Gaol and the proceedings there rather than in their intended setting.
Not a bad fictionalisation of real life events overall but a little light on detail and characterisation.
Told from the perspective of the elderly Susannah North we are drawn in to her life by a series of flashbacks to her early years, her meeting and marrying her beloved husband at the ripe old age of 25 and then jumps around in an almost scattergun approach between her present in jail and on trial for Witchcraft and snapshots of her life. I did find it difficult to warm to the central character, whilst I felt empathy for the position she was in I never felt that I really knew who she was as a person. There was worryingly little about the trials themselves and what the actual accusations were - yes, there are little pieces from academic research in to the records of the time but little is shown of the trials themselves. Contrast this with the reports of the jail conditions the accused men and women were held in and we have a much clearer picture.
To be perfectly honest it was quite a dry read and as I found myself becoming immersed in one scene we would suddenly jump to another, happier, time and location and the moment would be lost. Much of it also reminded me of several programmes I have seen about the Lancashire Witch Trials (local to me) and it seems that there was little difference between them and Salem so I did find myself mentally switching to Lancaster Gaol and the proceedings there rather than in their intended setting.
Not a bad fictionalisation of real life events overall but a little light on detail and characterisation.
The Little Bookshop Of Lonely Hearts by Annie Darling
2.5 Stars
This is pretty much standard chick lit fare; unfortunately the ending is so flagged up in the first few chapters it becomes an exercise in how long it will take the characters to realise. As you can imagine I found this somewhat frustrating and I did find it a bit of a chore to get to the end if I'm being honest. This is a shame as the setting is charming and the characters themselves aren't actually too bad, the writing flowed well and gave a good insight in to the characters and the location. What let the book down was the plotting, too much was given away far too soon - whilst we all know how a book of this genre is going to ultimately end it should be fun getting there.
The best thing for me was the setting. It did give a severe case of the guilts though as I am a firm e-reader addict and this mean my support of bookshops has fallen drastically by the wayside. Although I have to admit if Happy After After (shouldn't that have been HappILY After After by the by) really did exist I could see myself frequenting it. Maybe not on a weekly basis but certainly every couple of months or so and NOT for the Regency Romance section thats for sure.
The main character of Posy is a little bit of a puzzling person who definitely seems to lack a backbone and I did wonder what the rather incredible sounding Lavinia saw in her. Turns out Lavinia may have been right and I may have been wrong but I get the feeling I would have itched to slap Posy for her constant belittlement of herself and inability to stand up to Sebastian. She is clearly strong as she has brought up her brother after her parents untimely death but she is such a milksop.
I would struggle to recommend this book to friends though unless I knew that they were big fans of the genre. Even then it would come with caveats. It isn't a bad book but it isn't a great exponent of what should be light breezy and fun to read.
This is pretty much standard chick lit fare; unfortunately the ending is so flagged up in the first few chapters it becomes an exercise in how long it will take the characters to realise. As you can imagine I found this somewhat frustrating and I did find it a bit of a chore to get to the end if I'm being honest. This is a shame as the setting is charming and the characters themselves aren't actually too bad, the writing flowed well and gave a good insight in to the characters and the location. What let the book down was the plotting, too much was given away far too soon - whilst we all know how a book of this genre is going to ultimately end it should be fun getting there.
The best thing for me was the setting. It did give a severe case of the guilts though as I am a firm e-reader addict and this mean my support of bookshops has fallen drastically by the wayside. Although I have to admit if Happy After After (shouldn't that have been HappILY After After by the by) really did exist I could see myself frequenting it. Maybe not on a weekly basis but certainly every couple of months or so and NOT for the Regency Romance section thats for sure.
The main character of Posy is a little bit of a puzzling person who definitely seems to lack a backbone and I did wonder what the rather incredible sounding Lavinia saw in her. Turns out Lavinia may have been right and I may have been wrong but I get the feeling I would have itched to slap Posy for her constant belittlement of herself and inability to stand up to Sebastian. She is clearly strong as she has brought up her brother after her parents untimely death but she is such a milksop.
I would struggle to recommend this book to friends though unless I knew that they were big fans of the genre. Even then it would come with caveats. It isn't a bad book but it isn't a great exponent of what should be light breezy and fun to read.
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