Tag: Books of the Month

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

My Best Reads April 2024

Posted on by thelotusreaders

House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly

Another unusual family and a great mystery from Erin Kelly, my full review is coming this week, but the book is out now. Karen and Rex Capel seem like any normal couple nearing middle age, but there are many secrete in their past, particularly the truth about what happened ‘the night of…’ when two men were left dead, Rex’s sister Biba disappeared and Rex ended up in prison. The Capel family are rich, but Rex’s father found a younger wife and started a new family, leaving Rex adrift. Several things happen that destabilise this usually, rather quiet family. Rex and Karen’s daughter Alicia seems to be getting serious about eco warrior Gabe who she is dating and she also opens a vintage dress shop. Honestly, Erin Kelly had me as soon as I read the name of the shop – ‘Dead Girl’s Dresses.’ Roger Capel dies leaving her an inheritance including her grandmother and her aunt Biba’s wardrobe of clothes. A strange woman keeps appearing, even turning up at the shop in disguise and leaving several cryptic notes. Could Aunt Biba still be alive and might there still be secrets about ‘the night of’? An interesting and engaging mystery with a touch of Alice in Wonderland inspiration.

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable.

I’m not going to say too much about this novel because it’s not out until the end of the summer. It is an incredible debut though and I was utterly spellbound by it. Set in 18th Century Venice, our heroine is Anna Maria an orphan handed over to the Ospedale Della Piéta as a baby. This community of nuns have a recess in a wall where a baby can be anonymously passed into their care. The girls are brought up to work within the hospital, scrubbing floors and doing laundry, but they also have the chance to learn a musical instrument. The best musicians have a chance to be taught by the music master and be part of his elite orchestra. Anna leaps off the page, she’s lively, talented and ambitious. She’s determined that her violin playing will bring her to the attention of the famous music master, because the alternatives don’t bear thinking about. This really is a book to look out for and I loved it.

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

I loved this dive straight back into the Walsh family after Again, Rachel. Rachel has always been my favourite Walsh, but in this latest novel Anna really did steal my heart. Anna is nearing her fiftieth birthday and her high flying PR role in the beauty business is wearing a little thin. Although she’s always loved living in NYC, the pandemic left her feeling the distance from her family in Ireland. After losing her husband Aidan in a terrible car accident several years ago, her contact with his family in Boston has waned. Her subsequent relationship with Angelo – a ‘feathery stroker’ – has been conducted with respect, equality and a deep fondness, but never passionate, all consuming love. With a need to be near those she loves, she gives notice on her job, her apartment and her relationship. Back in Ireland she is offered an emergency PR role for family friend Bridie who is opening a resort on farmland she owns near the coast. Her daughter is seriously ill and their building works have been vandalised overnight. With disgruntled locals and no time for the delicate negotiations required Bridie is begging Anna to work her magic. There’s only one problem, the financial broker on the deal is Joey Armstrong. He and Anna have unfinished business, will they be able to work together without stirring up the past? This is a fantastic novel, full of Marian’s trademark wit and emotional intelligence. I absolutely devoured it.

The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher

“Florrie learned, long ago, that society forgets an old person was ever young.”

Florrie Butterfield has been in poor health lately and her mobility starts to suffer, so rather sensibly she decides to sell her house and look for a residential home. She wants assisted living, where she can keep her freedom and independence but have help on hand if needed. When she finds Babbington Hall in the Oxfordshire countryside she thinks she’s found just the place. As she settles into her self-contained flat in the grounds she starts to make friends, when unexpectedly one of them is found dead near the compost heap. Arthur’s death could have been natural causes, but Florrie’s suspicions are aroused. Then something terrible happens. The home’s manager Renata approaches Florrie as someone she’d like to talk to about matters of the heart. It’s lovely to still be seen as someone useful, someone to confide in. Florrie looks forward to their get together, but that night as she looks out of her window at the storm brewing outside, she hears a scream. Then she sees a body fall from an upstairs window, from Renata’s room. So, Florrie sets out to investigate these deaths. Is there a murderer at large and if so what have they gained from killing a defenceless old man and the lovely Renata? This was a lovely mix of mystery and a woman looking back over her life, it brought back so many memories of working in nursing homes and the rich lives many of my residents had lived.

Goodbye Birdie Greenwing by Ericka Waller

I loved this beautiful story that revolved around an elderly lady called Birdie, who receives a terrible diagnosis from her doctor. Birdie is lonely. She has lived alone ever since an event that took away her sister and husband. She hasn’t been participating in life and even now she chooses to walk away from the hospital without the help or support offered. Birdie’s doctor Ada is also isolated. Having come to Brighton from Poland she has few friends, just the elderly man and his son who run the Polish shop nearby. When a new intern comes to work with her, this isolation is challenged and she is worried about Birdie who lives in the same road. She finds herself walking past and checking the house and garden for signs Birdie isn’t coping. Birdie also has new neighbours. Jane has moved to the south coast with her daughter Frankie to escape the rather claustrophobic influence of her mother Min. However, Frankie and Min are thick as thieves and share a rather abrupt and forthright manner. It’s sure that where Frankie has gone, Min will definitely follow eventually. It is Birdie’s predicament that brings all these women together in unusual ways. Ericka writes beautifully about mothers and daughters, the subtle cultural differences that influence how we support and help each other, as well as the personal growth that occurs when we let someone in. I thought this was a beautiful story and everyone I have recommended it to has enjoyed it too.

You Are Here by David Nicholls.

It’s been such a gift to have two of my favourite romantic writers with books out this month. Marian Keyes is a writing goddess! Equally David Nicholls writes about the experience of falling in love like no one else. As anyone who’s read or watched the Netflix series One Day can attest, David writes about those misunderstandings, obstacles, miscommunications and the minutia of relationships with such truth and charm. Here we have Michael and Marnie, each invited on a walking weekend in Cumbria by a mutual friend, Cleo, but with the intention of meeting someone else. Michael is closed off, hurt in the past and not able to let anyone in. Marnie is a great character, she’s funny, patient, and willing to go with the flow. The man she’s supposed to meet has a high stress and high paid job in London. He would suit her, geographically at least, but to be blunt he’s a bit of a dick. Marnie is a reader though, a translator of fiction and full of romantic ideals. She goes into the walk as a novice, breaking in new boots and not enamoured by the unfortunate weather. However, a transformation occurs over a couple of days as Marnie starts to appreciate the head space, the incredible views and just being out in the open air. Michael’s potential date doesn’t turn up, but he is still wrapped up in thoughts of his estranged wife. He does find himself drawn by Marnie though, noting how she looks when dressed for dinner at the hotel. He finds her perhaps a little too outspoken, she doesn’t hold back when finding the going a bit tough, but does respond to her sense of humour. As the main group make preparations to leave for the working week, Michael plans to walk on to the opposite coast and Robin Hood’s Bay. Marnie has nothing immediate in London and could easily walk alongside him a bit longer. How will they get along, just the two of them? This is a beautiful novel that’s somehow heartwarming thanks to it’s lack of traditional romance. This is two older people, who’ve been hurt, negotiating a challenge together and I was transfixed by the ‘will they won’t they’ of the story.

Next month’s reading:

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Best Reads March 2024

Posted on by thelotusreaders

The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore.

I was so glad to be invited to the paperback blog tour of this fantastic book, it’s been on the pile to read for a long while but other priorities kept popping up. I won’t ruin my full review because it’s out in a few days but I absolutely loved it. The Garnett girls of the title are Rachel, Imi and Sasha, all of them very close to each other and their mother Margo. All were living in London until Margo suggested that Rachel and her husband Gabriel move into the family home of Sandycove. The house is too big for one person and Margo is moving to a bungalow further into the village. Sandycove was their holiday home as children until their father Richard left and Margo moved the girls to the coast. In some ways Rachel enjoys living in the house but she still spends some time in London for work, leaving Gabriel and the girls behind. Margo is often in residence too, planning family events and cooking with Gabriel. There are times when she doesn’t feel that the house is theirs. Imi is in Venice, expecting a proposal from her perfect boyfriend William. She knows he’s going to propose because Margo and Rachel have called her every night for ‘news’. They think William is perfect for her, but is he? When Imi’s head is turned by a beautiful actress starring in her new play, it shakes the safe foundations of her life. Sasha is the rebellious daughter, her short pixie cut is a direct reaction to people in the village always telling her how much she looks like Margo. She’s married to Phil, who isn’t fond of the Garnett family and sits on the edge of family gatherings looking glum. The issues all of the girls are struggling with lie in a past they only vaguely remember. They struggle to live up to Margo and Richard’s wild and passionate romance, but was it really as wonderful as it sounds?

Night Watching by Tracy Sierra

I feel so lucky that two of the best thrillers so far this year have fallen into one reading month. This really is the most incredible, spine tingling and nerve-shredding story of a mother who is woken in the night by a heavy tread on the stairs. There’s someone in the house. Their home is isolated and she has two small children to protect. She remembers the strange hidden space next to the main chimney and quietly makes her way, gathering the children and begging them to be quiet. They make it into the crawl space, now all she has to do is keep the children quiet. As the footsteps move ever closer the tension mounts until the man is sitting in the adjoining office, talking to the children and asking them to come out of their hiding place. Thankfully he has no idea where it is. As he walks away to search other parts of the house, her little girl says she knows his voice. This is the man in the corner, the man from her nightmares who sits in her bedroom and whispers to her. My heart was in my mouth at this point. I didn’t know whether they were in a dream, whether this young mother was in the grip of madness, or if this was an intruder who’s been there before. This is a story that will keep you awake at night and is utterly brilliant.

House of Shades by Lianne Dillsworth

I awaited this novel with trepidation, having loved her first novel I really wanted this to be equally fascinating. Our heroine is Hester, a doctoress who has inherited the skills and potions of her mother and now earns a living treating the prostitutes of the King’s Cross area of London. Then she receives a job offer that could change her life and those of her husband Jos and sister Willa. Factory and plantation owner, Gervaise Cherville, offers her ten pounds to move into his mansion in Fitzrovia and treat his unknown ailments. This is life- changing money, especially for a black woman in the 19th Century. As Hester moves into Tall Trees she makes two discoveries: her sister Willa is enjoying a flirtation with Cherville’s son Rowland; Gervaise Cherville is a slave owner, not only on his plantation but here in his home. Cherville makes a request of Hester, if she can help him trace two slaves who lived at Tall Trees he will increase her payment to twenty pounds. This sum of money could take her family away from London altogether and take Willa out of the clutches of Rowland Cherville. The author portrays Hester beautifully as a woman who falls in between society’s rigid class structure. A black woman living in a Fitzrovian household, in the same accommodation as the housekeeper. She’s torn between helping her family and potentially harming another black woman, one who has fled the Cherville mansion with all the trauma of being a slave. Taking in class, race, ‘passing’ and the misogyny of men this is a deeply affecting story. My full review will be this month.

Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

This novel is an absolute tour de force and a damning indictment of the legal system when it comes to sexual offences. Tessa has come a long way to be a barrister in one of London’s best chambers. Born in Liverpool and raised on a Luton council estate she set her sights on Cambridge and achieved her goal. Tessa doesn’t have many beliefs but she does believe in the law, as a tool that isn’t perfect, but more or less delivers justice. As a barrister she doesn’t need to know whether the client is innocent or guilty, she just needs to find the holes in the prosecution’s story, something she can exploit to create reasonable doubt. She also believes that her experience and education have made her the equal of any rich, privately educated, and well-connected colleague. However, when a date with a fellow barrister goes wrong Tessa finds herself on the other side of the bench, she is now a witness and now someone will pick apart her story looking for the gaps and the holes, the fuzzy bits she isn’t quite sure of yet. Tessa is a character that pulls you into her world from the first page. Miller pulls apart the legal system like I’ve never seen before and watching Tessa lose faith in something she’s always believed in is really hard. In parts this is a hard read with trigger warnings for sexual assault, but it’s necessary. I had a visceral reaction to it. It made me think about whether the law truly is an equaliser or does justice depend on how deep your pockets are, who you went to school with, the colour of your skin, your gender. It also made me think about incidents in the past that newer generations of women simply would not tolerate and with good reason. I wish I has seen the play of the same name starring Jodie Comer who I can see was perfect for Tessa. I’m so grateful to my Squad Pod for choosing this as one of our March reads. This is a book I will think about long after popping it back on the shelf.

Here are some other reads from March.

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Best Reads February 2024

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Hey there everyone and hope you’ve had a good February. This month has been an eclectic month where I’ve done very few blog tours but instead did a lot of reading by choice. I decided to pick and choose from my proof trolley and my NetGalley ARCs. What usually happens is these get neglected because I focus on so much on the most important deadlines. Then my NetGalley reviews are useless because they’re always after the fact and my percentage is appalling. I’ve actually read more books this month and I’ve enjoyed my reading more. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a blog tour, particularly my friend Anne Cater’s tours because she’s lovely and gets great books. In fact my one blog tour choice is one of her Orenda Books titles and it’s brilliant. I thought January was good but February’s books have been even better. Some of these I have reviewed this month, others are due in a couple of months so I’m only going to give you a quick review of each. I loved every single one of these and hope you will too.

This book has been chosen by the BBC programme Between the Covers and I’m not surprised. I love Doug Johnstone, I think he’s a brilliant crime writer but this series is something completely different. This is the second in a series featuring a telepathic extraterrestrial octopus creature called Sandy and his journey with three human friends, Lennox, Heather and Ava. We left them as they reached Ullapool and reunited Sandy with his Enceladon friends. Yet, lurking on the horizon were M17 agents, Ava’s abusive husband and other authorities who want to capture the friends, but also take Sandy and study him. This novel deals with the aftermath, where Ava faces a trial for the murder of her husband and Lennox and Heather are incarcerated in a newly built American military base. The Americans, accompanied by M17 agent Oliver, are capturing partial Enceladons to study them and work out how they communicate with each other. This is a hard read in places as it puts our friends and the lovely Sandy in danger, but it’s also uplifting, life affirming and gives us some faith in humour nature. If you haven’t read part one order them both, you won’t be disappointed.

Out March 14th 2024 from Orenda Books

This novel is one of my most anticipated for the year and my full review will be on the blog this week. Eadie is an unusual little girl and she doesn’t have many friends. Not the live kind anyway. Her house is next to the cemetery and Eadie sits and talks to the inhabitants. There is also an elderly gentleman who tidies the cemetery and talks to the lonely little girl. At school she is bullied by Patrick Semple, but life starts to look up when she makes friends. Celeste and Josh are also bullied by Semple, although as Josh points out he seems to save his cruellest jibes for Eadie. These three kids form a close bond, then go their separate ways for university with Eadie ending up in Manchester just before the ‘Summer of Love’. Eadie and her housemates become devotees of dance music and the Hacienda. She’s happy, especially on those nights when they try Ecstasy. They haven’t realised that the club is being pulled apart by rival drug gangs. Life changes when there’s an unexpected meeting, a link to the past and events she still finds difficult to deal with. I fell in love with this character and the depiction of unprocessed trauma that follows her through life, until she can find a way to let it go. It’s about love, our formative experiences and how hard it can be moving forward when we’re dragging too much baggage.

Out now from Mountain Leopard Press

This book covers a subject that I’ve never read about before and I’ll give you a quick glimpse, because my review is coming later. The author takes the usual machismo in stories of the Vietnam war and shows us that women also served as part of the Army’s Medical Corps. When society girl Frankie is told that her brother has died in Vietnam only months after enlisting she wants to find a way to honour him. As the family gather at their home on Coronado Beach, Frankie is studying the wall in her father’s office dedicated to the McGrath men celebrated for their bravery and service. Finley’s friend Rye tells her that men aren’t the only ones who can be courageous. She’s been thinking the same thing and Rye’s words light a fire under her. The Air Force and Navy would need her to train for several years as a nurse before she could serve in combat zones. However, the Army will deploy her with just her basic nursing training, so Frankie signs up and within months she’s flown out to a field hospital in Vietnam. The author’s historical detail and sense of place is incredible. I felt like I was in the jungle with Frankie, covered with sweat and red dust and highly tuned to the distant ‘whump whump’ of approaching helicopters with casualties. I loved the combination of strong female friendships, loss, romance and the struggles of serving and returning from this particular conflict.

Out now from MacMillan Publishing

Another great thriller this month was the latest from B.A.Paris, a great domestic noir about two couples who have been friends for years. On holiday twenty years ago, Iris and Gabriel met a French couple called Laure and Pierre who were on their honeymoon. Their friendship and their marriages have lasted and the couples always meet at least once a year, either in Paris or the English countryside where Iris and Gabriel have settled with daughter Beth. The couple are surprised when Laure turns up alone and unannounced asking to stay for a few days. Pierre has just found out that he has a daughter from a brief liaison during their marriage. Laure is giving him space to think about this revelation, but she’s also very angry and suspects his best friend Clare who has a six year old daughter. Gabriel is on leave from work after a traumatic incident and he tries to get in touch with Pierre to support him, but gets no reply. In the meantime, Laure starts to settle in but her need for a listening ear seems endless, she is borrowing Iris’s favourite clothes and even rearranges their kitchen. When Pierre doesn’t show up for a meeting at their apartment in Paris, Laure comes straight back and Iris starts to wonder how long she’s going to stay. This is a great thriller which takes the discomfort of a guest overstaying their welcome and magnifies it, leading to adultery, betrayal and even murder. There are twists to this tale and you will not expect the outcome. Prepare to be reading this in one go!

Out now from Hodder and Stoughton.

It’s Christmas and Charlotte Salter doesn’t turn up for her husband’s fiftieth birthday party leaving daughter Etty immediately alarmed. She’s sure that her mum wouldn’t choose to stay away from the event, even if her parents don’t always get along. Etty’s three brothers are less worried, thinking their parents may have had a row or she’s just gone for a walk. When Lottie still doesn’t appear the following morning, Etty insists on calling the police. It’s Christmas and the Salter family are paralysed, unable to do anything except search for their mother. Village rumours are linking Lottie with Duncan Ackerley, so when the Ackerley’s invite them for Christmas dinner only Etty turns up on time. In a strange twist, Duncan has gone for a walk and not returned for dinner. Etty sets off with one of the boys to look for him and he’s found dead, presumed drowned, next to his boat. The police find his glasses on a bridge further upstream and conclude that Duncan Ackerley killed Lottie and then committed suicide. Case closed. Twenty years later and the Salter siblings are clearing their childhood home before their father moves into nursing care. His dementia is worsening and it’s no longer safe for him to be at home. Meanwhile, Morgan Ackerley and his brother are back home recording a podcast about the death of their father and Lottie, who has never been found. What might be uncovered by this generation’s exploration into the past? This is an intelligent thriller, exploring the dynamics of families and traumatic events in childhood. I found it really hard to put down.

Out now from Simon and Schuster.

This was my first Tina Baker thriller and I loved it. Set on the island of Tresco off the Cornish coast, the author explores the tensions of this very unique place. Tresco’s community is always split because of it’s reliance on tourism and only wealthy families can afford to stay on the island, usually block booking a ‘cottage’ for several weeks at the same time each year. Residents are always seen as staff, either working directly in one of the cottages or in the shops and pubs on the island. The ‘family’ who own Tresco usually remain on their estate and have a staff of estate workers, gardeners and servants in the house. These groups usually don’t mix but rich playboy Kit and barmaid Hannah are about to break the rules. Hannah is seen by others on the island as a bit slutty, a home- wrecker and even a witch. When she and Kit spend the night together no one bats an eyelid, but when their flirtation blossoms into love problems start to arise. Kit’s widowed mother is unimpressed and constantly tries to dangle the right kind of girl in front of him. Wronged wives start to mutter about her behaviour, especially Christie, whose husband was Hannah’s last conquest. Alison just wishes Hannah would keep her jeans buttoned up and stop causing punch ups in the pub. When Hannah disappears in a storm, Kit is heartbroken and stays on the island. Hannah could have met with an accident, but so many islanders have a motive that she might have been murdered. This is a deliciously wicked romp through the lives of Tresco’s inhabitants, full of wit as well as some thrilling revelations.

Out now from Viper

I love Helen Fields and this is a fascinating thriller coming in April, so I will just whet your appetite here. Midnight Jones works as an analyst, processing application forms for universities, the military and other institutions. She’s trained to psychologically profile, but she’s paid very well to check forms against the required criteria and accept or decline on the data provided. The applicant is assessed using a virtual reality headset showing images to illicit the required response, but on this day Midnight finds an anomaly. The applicant has no score for empathy. When she views the assessment footage, Midnight is shaken to her core. Some of the images are so graphically violent she feels sick, surely they aren’t on the system? The applicant has zero empathy. She has found a Profile K – K for killer. However, when Midnight tries to report it she meets with resistance. How far can she push this, knowing that her sister depends on her salary? Midnight has a twin sister called Dawn, who suffered a lack of oxygen during birth and is now affected mentally and physically by cerebral palsy. She needs round the clock care and if Midnight loses her job they’re going to struggle, especially since there are no friends and family to help. The stakes get higher when a woman is brutally murdered, in a way that was shown on the terrible recording. Who can Midnight turn to? This was complex and intelligent with a dystopian vibe and a cameo from Dr Connie Woolwine.

Out 25th April from Avon

I had been granted access to Rebecca Serle’s upcoming novel on NetGalley and I had to read it right away! I usually get bored with rom-coms, but I do enjoy those with a historical background or those that try to do something completely different and I think this author is especially inventive. Her novel In Five Years blew me away with it’s twist in the story and I’m always keen to see what she’s done next. Here we are introduced to Daphne, a young single woman living and working in L.A. Dating is never a mystery for Daphne because as soon as she meets a man she finds a little slip of paper with an expiration date on it – 6 months, a weekend, one night – she knows how long each liaison will last. Until she meets Jake, who has everything she could want in a man. He’s considerate, doesn’t play games and is happy to talk about his feelings. Daphne waits for her slip of paper, but when it comes it only says his name. No expiration date. Does this mean Daphne has found her happy ever after? Their relationship is quiet, loving and has only one snag. Daphne has another secret, one that will break Jake’s heart if she tells him. I loved this story and felt a real connection to the conundrum Daphne finds herself in. This was heartbreakingly romantic and full of surprises.

Out 19th March 2024 from Quercus

That’s all for February, keep a look out for the full reviews coming your way and here’s to a new reading month and hopefully a touch of spring. Here is my TBR for March.

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Best Reads January 2024!

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Well, what a wonderful start to my bookish New Year! January has been a busy month and I’ve read some fabulous books. Being away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of January has helped enormously. I’ve been able to keep up with blog tours and managed to get some personal choices read as well, a balance that I’d like to continue through this year. It’s been so nice to just pick something that appeals to my mood on that day! So my favourites are a great mix: three are choices from my Squad Pod book group; one is a blog tour book from Orenda Books and Random Things Tours; the final two were personal choices. These are my January favourite reads:

The Knowing is a fantastic debut from Emma Hinds and Bedford Square Publishers. If a book could have been written specifically for me it would have been this one. If you love The Night Circus, The Crimson Petal and the White or the books of Sarah Waters then this is for you. Flora is a mystic, tarot reader and tattoo artist living with a member of the Dead Rabbits gang in Five Points, NYC. Jordan has had Flora since she was a child and their ‘relationship’ is nothing more than a long history of physical and sexual violence. Her life changes when she meets Minnie, a young woman with dwarfism who organises freak shows and curiosities. She takes Flora in and shares her own room, within a mansion belonging to her lover Chester Merton. This isn’t just an act of altruism though, Minnie wants Flora to share her gift and become their ‘tattooed mystic’. But Flora’s ‘knowing’ is more powerful than anyone expects. This book takes us from NYC to the slums of Manchester, through Flora’s eyes, as she experiences love, obsession and betrayal.

Lou has lost her sugar daddy and needs to get a job, so she decides to interview for a role in Edinburgh working in a halfway house for offenders newly realised from prison. She intends to live with her cousin Beatrice and get her life back on track. Before she’s even over the jet lag she meets a man at the matinee of Beatrice’s new play. After a few days of wild outdoor sex, she has to start her new job. One shift shadowing a current employee introduces her to the men she’ll be on night shifts with. The offenders are guilty of crimes that range from drugs and public decency, all the way up to murder. I wondered if Lou hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew! Her nighttime routine means doling out cocoa and the right biscuits, but is timed to the minute so she’ll be able to catch one resident who tries to hang himself every evening at the same time. This thriller is dark, but also very funny. I loved Lou. She is a force of nature, displaying compulsive and even dangerous behaviour. As the routines of the house start to unravel a little, I was rooting for her and hoping she’d come out alive! A brilliantly dark and comic thriller.

This book was a Squad Pod choice in it’s paperback form and I fell in love with it’s charm and themes of loss, letting go and moving on. There is nothing more cathartic then having a good clear out – something I tend to do at this time of year. I also love a good rummage in second hand and charity shops, especially the bookshelves of course. I’m also mainly clothed in Vinted purchases so I love to repurpose things and give homes to some unique items that seem to exist purely for me – a candleholder in the form of a monkey wearing a dress anyone? Gwen is being made redundant and decides to use the pay off she receives to have a career break and really think about what she wants to do next. For the summer she decides to volunteer at her local charity shop and it opens her up to experiences she never imagined. Gwen has been in a rut for a long time, now that she can reshape it she seems overwhelmed. She also seems detached from family and old friends. With the help of volunteer Connie, who is determined to help Gwen take the next step, or the hint of romance with young volunteer Nicholas could she find a new way of living? This is a love story, not a boy meets girl, but of finding yourself. It’s about discarded belongings getting a new lease of life and a family’s acceptance of loss. I loved it.

This was one of my personal reading choices for the month and I really enjoyed the premise. Blue has decided to attend a grief retreat, run in the rural home of Molly and Josh Park. Guests stay in the farmhouse and take their meals together, but also participate in therapy sessions facilitated by Molly. Blue is an unusual woman, who has grown up with the gift of mediumship. The happiest days of her childhood were with stepfather Devlin who encouraged her gift and understood what it cost her – after seeing a spirit Blue would be exhausted and affected by headaches. She lived with Devlin, her mum and two other children – a baby and young boy named Bodhi who seems to glower at her and never speaks. As soon as she reaches the farm, Blue’s headaches and vision problems start. Her neighbour Sabine’s door keeps coming open, no matter how many times it’s locked and Blue gets the sense of a little girl with long, wispy blonde hair. As a storm encroaches on the weekend and the roads start to flood, they are completely cut off. Blue is getting the sense that all is not well with their hosts. Who is the girl in the photograph, hidden in their private living room? Why does she sleep so well after Molly’s hot chocolate? Why does participant Milton keep coming to the retreat when he barely joins in? As the flood waters close in, will Blue find answers to her questions? Or are they in even more danger than they imagined?

We rejoin the unforgettable Molly the Maid in this wonderful sequel that drew me back into her world immediately. Molly still lives in her grandmother’s and is still working at the Regency Grand, but now she’s living with her boyfriend and has been promoted to Head Maid. She has declined a trip to Cuba because the mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe will be launching his new book from the newly restored Art Deco tea room at the hotel. She knows the author is very precise and has high standards so getting his tea trolley ready is no easy task. Molly trusts Lily, her protégé, to make sure all his needs are met including his own honey pot to sweeten his tea. As everyone gathers to hear the author, including some avid book fans, he takes a sip of his tea and collapses to the floor, quite dead. The Regency is once again at the centre of a murder mystery and Molly’s incredible memory and powers of observation are a much needed asset. What she’s not telling them is that she knows J.D. Grimthorpe rather well. Could she have a motive for his murder? This is a brilliant return of a character I absolutely loved the first time.

This book absolutely blew my mind! It’s like nothing else I’ve read recently and I was transfixed by it, almost reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Cole doesn’t understand modern women any more. He has taken a job in a remote coastal area that comes with its own lodgings, removing himself from London and the failure of his marriage. His wife Mel is seeking divorce, but he has always treasured her and looked out for her safety, especially when she was working too hard. They had decided to start a family through IVF and still have three viable embryos waiting for implantation. Mel is acting like he’s some sort of monster. When he meets Lenny, an artist who lives in the coastguard cottage, he is taken with her femininity and decides to call her Leonora as he thinks it suits her better. They become friends, but he is wary of wanting more even though they look at life the same way and she lets him look after her. Then he becomes embroiled in the drama around two missing girls, who were walking the coastal route over several days to highlight the amount of violence against women in society. Will Leonora stand by him if he is implicated? This is a brilliant book which captures the zeitgeist and is full of so many delicious twists and turns you won’t know who to believe.

That’s my January round up for 2024. February is looking like a bumper month for publications and with less time to read them all I’m going to be very busy!

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Best Reads October 2023

Posted on by thelotusreaders

October has continued to be a quieter reading month as I’m still recovering from a relapse that started last month. I’ve not taken part in blog tours and mainly have picked and choose what I’ve read from my TBR book trolley and my pile that lives next to me in the bedroom. It’s been an eclectic mix and I’m even starting to pick up the odd non-fiction book too. I’ve enjoyed most things I’ve read but these six really are the cream of the crop.

This latest novel from C.J. Cooke was originally a NetGalley choice but I bought it as well, because I like a finished copy when I’ve enjoyed a book and I’ve bought her last three models without worrying about trying it first. They’re always good. This one was exceptional and all based on board the Arctic whaling boat the Ormen. In the present day it’s a shipwreck just off an isolated part of Iceland and about to be moved out to deeper water and sunk. We follow Dom, who is try to document the ship before it is disappears forever, but I had so many questions about why she’d chosen to do this alone. Not long after a group of three explorers also turn up to document the boat and they join Dom, living on the Ormen and measuring sounds, distances and filming their attempts at Parkour. Then we’re sent over 100 years into the past and a different voyage for the Ormen, a whaling expedition with an unusual addition on the ship. Nicky wakes as the ship is moving and soon realises she has a severely broken ankle with an open wound. She has no recollection of coming aboard, but does remember being in the park and bundled into a sack. For some reason she has been taken from her home and family by one of these rough and ready crewmen. She hopes the captain will free her, but when he refers to her as the crew’s Selkie wife she knows what she’s here for. If Nicky wants to live and return to her family, she will spend the voyage ‘entertaining’ the men in her cabin. Nicky resigns herself to her fate, but not to the strange thing that’s happening to her injured leg. Where the leg is healing, instead of soft warm skin covering the wound Nicky can see a sleek silver grey skin, almost like that of a seal. This is a brilliant bit of historical fiction and a great ghost story too. The setting is eerie and unsettling, Nicky’s voyage is horrifying and the explorers become very on edge with their situation and each other. Unputdownable!

The Hidden Years is another dual timeline narrative, set in a large mansion in Cornwall both in the 1960’s and the war years. We start with Belle who is at university in the 1960’s when she meets Gray and falls head over heels in love. Gray invites her to Silverwood, a community where self sufficiency and creativity are a way of life. Gray wants to work on his music and he wants to take Belle down to Helford, Cornwall with him. Once there, Belle experiences a different way of living but also befriends a lady in a nearby cottage who inexplicably seems to recognise her. We then go back to the 1940’s a girl called Imogen taking two boys down to their school in Cornwall, where she’s offered a temporary job as matron in the dormitory. She has a friendship with one of the teachers Ned, but there’s a spark of attraction with another school master too. When Imogen starts to volunteer as a nurse for the war effort, her relationships with these two men will cause heartache and shape her life. I loved the way she writes about how war shapes the future of these young people and how far reaching it’s influence is. This is a great read, full of period detail and local history with a central mystery you’ll want to uncover.

Alice Hoffman’s new novel The Invisible Hour is a mixture of historical fact and magic realism, including one of America’s most famous writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hoffman’s book uses Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter as a basis for her story which starts with a young girl called Ivy who becomes pregnant while still a teenager. Her rich, Boston, family are horrified and reject her pleas for help, so Ivy leaves home. With the help of a friend she makes her way to a community in Massachusetts that has a very charismatic leader. Joel has been left land by his first wife and has built a religious community that makes its money from the apple orchards they harvest. By the time Ivy’s father has sent out a private investigator to find her, she is married to Joel and has a small daughter, Mia. In a separate timeline we meet a teenage Mia who is finding the restrictions of their community too hard to cope with. She has already found a way to sneak into the library and enjoy the books banned by Joel. When tragedy strikes at the farm, Mia takes a chance and runs with the help of the librarian. However, Joel isn’t very good at letting things go and Mia has left with a painting, with a very important inscription on the back. There’s jeopardy and tension all the way, but of course Alice Hoffman brings in some romance and a sprinkle of magic as Mia steps outside her time and meets Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was a feminist take on the themes of The Scarlet Letter, with a strong defence of women across history and an even stronger defence of the written word.

This was a real return to form for the Strike novels after the complex and internet based case at the centre of the last book. Here Strike is running several cases, but the main investigation is of a religious organisation not unlike Scientology in it’s methods. A peer of the realm asks Robin and Strike to find his son, who has been part of the church for a number of years. They have been trying to let him know that his mother was terminally ill and would like to see him, unfortunately she has now died and he believes that the church haven’t given him their letters. We’re taken to the church’s farm and retreat in Norfolk, known as the Chapman Farm. With most of their operatives already on cases it’s Robin who volunteers to be a new recruit, offering to visit services at their London temple. Strike worries, but from Robin’s point of view as an equal partner she has the right to make these choices. However, knowing Robin’s previous trauma I was worried that the church would target and manipulate her. They agree she will identify a place on the farm’s perimeter to leave them a note each week under a rock. That way if she wants to come out, they will know. The farm sections are tense, disturbing and kept me turning the pages – no mean feat in a book of this size. As always the feelings these two have for each other will threaten to break the surface and as Robin finds herself in danger will this be the time they are honest with each other? This was a great investigation and a definite step up from the last novel in the series.

This is the third novel from Alix E. Harrow and she became a ‘must-buy’ author for me after her last. Consequently, I ended up with three copies of this after forgetting I’d ordered it and getting a copy from the publisher. We’re in the town of Eden, Kentucky, a place where industry dominates the job market and the Graveley’s power plant is the destination of most young men who stay put. Opal doesn’t want that for her brother Jasper, who she’s been looking after since she was twelve and their mother drowned in an accident. The brother and sister live in a motel room, exist on food that doesn’t need cooking and live hand to mouth. Opal has two cleaning jobs, but isn’t spending their money on their day to day expenses, or on herself. She has seen potential in Jasper and she wants him to get a proper education. Her savings are all for him to attend a private academy where he’ll flourish and be able to leave Eden. However, Opal is attracted to Starling House. She passes on her way between jobs each day and although it’s barely visible from the road, there is one light that glows in an attic room and there’s the gates, sinuous ironwork that almost looks alive. One night she stands at the gate and places her hands on the curls of the ironwork. Immediately, she feels wetness and realises her hand is cut, but on what? When she looks up, a tall, dark wild looking man has appeared in front of her with a sword. He’s magnetic and as they stare into each other’s eyes he says one word – ‘Run’. Opal doesn’t need telling twice, but will she be able to stay away? Especially when the house wants her. … A love story of swords and thorns rather than hearts and flowers, this is a perfect dark fantasy for autumn.

Val McDermid is one of my reading oversights, so I was thrilled when her latest Karen Pirie novel was chosen for one of our Squad Pod reads. We were also sent Still Life, to catch up with the story and I can now see why Val is the Queen of Crime. Karen Pirie is in charge of a cold case unit, but this case begins with a new body being pulled from the Firth of Forth. The dead man has been living in France under an alias, but strangely his artist brother went missing a few years before and is in Karen’s cold case files. Surely the two disappearances are related? I loved Karen because she’s so determined, meticulous in gathering every detail and not above getting her hands dirty. They follow the dead man’s movements during his Scottish visit and think he had a lead on his brother’s disappearance. Meanwhile, her sergeant Jason is following leads on a skeleton found in a camper van, within the garage of a rented house. Two women lived there, but the team can’t be sure at first who they body is and which woman is on the run. They have a lead to the north west of England where one of the women has lived in an art collective. So, on her own travels to France, then Ireland Karen has the help of a young recruit called Daisy. The story took us into interesting places, including Westminster and the Scottish office and how they choose their art from the National collections. I was also touched by the sensitivity Val brought to Karen’s personal life and her new relationship with Hamish, while still grieving for Phil – a fellow police officer and the man she loved. The cases are fascinating, but so is Karen and there are so many reasons to keep turning the pages. I was so sucked in by this that I read the next one straight away and then went back to the first in the series! I’m so excited to have all of Val’s back catalogue to read.

So that’s been October. Here’s what I’m hoping to read in November.

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Mystery of Yew Tree House. The Detective’s Daughter Series – Book 9

Posted on by thelotusreaders

As Stella Darnell arrives at Yew Tree House, it seems like an idyllic little place to spend the summer. Like any village, Bishopstone has it’s past and a dark side lurking beneath the surface. The holiday is a trial of sorts for her, partner Jack Harmon and his seven-year-old twins, Milly and Justin, not forgetting Stanley the dog. Stella‘s thoughts and feelings around a more permanent living arrangement with Jack is always changing, but what better way to trial the arrangement? As they disembark and start to explore it’s clear that the house is a little dilapidated once you look closer. Stanley and Millie, both as lively and full-on as each other, are soon tramping round the garden making discoveries. The house belongs to the Stride family, two sisters Stevie and Rosa live in the annex while eking out their state pension by renting the main house for holidays. Perpetually single, the two women can’t afford to run Yew Tree House, but can’t afford to leave either. It’s clear that some parts of the house are past their best, but cleaning company owner Stella, can see past that and once the place has had a good scrub it will be adequate for a family holiday. However, the house has a complex history, especially the period during WW2 when Stevie and Rosa were girls, living with mum Adelaide and an evacuee called Henry. Their Dad Rupert is called up but loses his life at Dunkirk, leaving his family to make their own way in the midst of rationing and the bombings while their house is also used as a meeting place for the Home Guard. When Millie is exploring one day she finds an old pill box in the garden (a concrete guard post or dug-out from where volunteers would defend the coastline) putting past and future on a collision course. Inside is a skeleton, with a hole in it’s skull that’s been caused by serious force. Jack and Stella may have fallen upon a murder mystery for their popular podcast, but as the aged vicar glares at them from his cemetery across the road, it could be that not everyone wants the truth to be discovered.

This is a book within a series based around Jack’s true crime podcast and I would recommend reading the others to better understand the relationships in this story. I felt I connected better with the wartime section of the story and I think it was because regular readers will know these characters well. Jack is rather blindly optimistic about their first family holiday, leaving readers and Stella as the more doubtful parties on this journey, especially when we meet the redoubtable Milly. Despite being of primary school age, Millie is possibly in charge of every room she walks in and if I were Stella, I’d be imagining what this exuberance might look like when ramped up by teenage hormones! A terrifying thought. I didn’t pick up the chemistry between Stella and Jack at first, but they clearly have a joint passion for solving mysteries and presenting true crime stories that’s rather infectious. I really liked the fact that both characters were connected to the area, bringing an added element to their sleuthing as I felt they had a stake in the village’s history and a real thirst for the truth. I thought the author created an interesting balance, not only between the two timelines, but with a contrasting lightness and shade of the plot. Family life is very lively and full of fun, especially with Stanley’s antics, and there was an almost Famous Five style coziness to the mystery. However, as foreshadowed by the glowering vicar in the book’s opening, there are darker undertones that become even more pronounced as we travel back to the 1940’s.

War isn’t the only cloud over Rosa and Stevie’s family, there is a missing girl too and the anxiety felt by Adelaide Stride about her two girls is very real. I felt Adelaide’s uneasiness around some of the guard, who move freely around the downstairs at night. The house is split between normal family life upstairs, with the realties and tension of war downstairs. There’s a sense this is men’s business and the presence of them in her family home must have added to her worries about her girls. Can Adelaide trust them? It seems clear she has her instincts and one character definitely raised her hackles (and mine). Tension and suspense build in both timelines, with some creepy moments but the wartime sections were the more disturbing. The present day sections have plenty of humour, the directness and attitude of Miliie, as well as plenty of twists to keep the reader on their toes. The fact that some of the characters from the 1940’s still live in the vicinity added to the tension towards the end of the book, as I wondered if any of them were still a danger in the present day. What might they do to keep certain secrets buried? Stella and Jack would need to keep their little family safe, all the while uncovering a tale that holds the heartbreak and tragedy of WW2, alongside a vengeful and murderous secret.

Meet the Author

Lesley Thomson was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. Her novel A Kind of Vanishing won The People’s Book Prize in 2010. Lesley combines writing with teaching creative writing. She lives in Lewes with her partner.

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Monthly Wrap-Up August 2023

Posted on by thelotusreaders

August has been a quieter month as far as blog tours and my usual reading schedule goes. It’s been a reading rollercoaster in that I’ve loved a book and blazed through it, then had another that I’ve really struggled to get into. There have been DNFs and a couple of very close calls. I’ve also taken time to catch up on the books I’ve missed in a series, this time it was Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories novels that I’ve now caught up with. I’ll be mentioning them at the end of the post. I have indulged myself with a book that I knew would make me laugh, a couple of novels from writers I really admire, then a debut that I knew would be close to home. I’ve been to England, the USA and Australia plus two strange other worlds that bear some relation ours accept for some very strange medical conditions or the possibility of some strange paranormal phenomena. Here are my thoughts on my favourite August reads:

I’ve enjoyed Anita Frank’s other novels so I was very keen to get hold of this as early as I could. Thanks to NetGalley, HQ and the lovely Anita herself I was sent this beautiful finished copy as well as the digital version. This mystery had some of my favourite themes and settings; I enjoy the ‘new servant arrives at a family estate’ plot as it’s always reminiscent of Jane Eyre and I enjoy books set after WW1 as it’s a turbulent time when British society was changing rapidly. Sarah is the new employee arriving at Darkacre, the family seat of the Stilwells. WW1 has wreaked havoc on the men in this family. Maurice was not prepared to be the master of the house and with double death duties already crippling the estate, he’s had to learn fast. Unfortunately Maurice has returned from war a changed man, plagued by nightmares, flashbacks and extreme responses to loud noises. With youngest brother Leonard severely disabled by his war injuries and struggling to come to terms with the loss of his limbs, the family are depleted and barely coping. However, as Leonard so cryptically tells us, perhaps it is no more than they deserve? Sarah’s arrival is the catalyst for this story and it isn’t just the relationship between family members that points to there being issues at Darkacre, soon a series of unexplained happenings start to gnaw away at the nerves of even the most stoic inhabitants. Then a mysterious police officer arrives to tell the family that he’s investigating rumours of a body buried in the family’s woodland. This is a great mystery, placed within such a well researched and atmospheric setting.

I read this touching and very entertaining memoir one afternoon on holiday and feel more in love with Lou Sanders than I already was. Having enjoyed her on Taskmasters and Outsiders I was very interested to read the story behind the slightly scatty and incredibly open woman I’d seen on screen. As expected Lou tells her story with no frills or filter, creating a really intimate reading experience. I could hear her voice immediately and that was the best thing about it. She describes a difficult early life – struggles with ADHD and a very late diagnosis, coupled with devastatingly low self-esteem. Totally misunderstood at home, she was drinking and drug-taking from an early age, all to mask feeling different and as if she didn’t belong. Leaving home at 15 and working in pubs, she learned to use drink to create a new persona, one that made people laugh. Drama followed her and some of her stories, especially around the opposite sex, are starkly told and are all the more devastating for their honesty. She’s totally unaware that she has the option to keep to her boundaries, in fact I don’t think she was aware of her ability to set them. Lou is very matter of fact and unshowy about choosing to get sober and change her life. She credits AA with her success and it only stuck when she realised she was ruining her own chances, self-sabotaging her career. She would ask comic friends why new comics were getting TV gigs and she wasn’t. After shows where she was obliterated, threw things into the audience and even bit someone, it took a good honest friend to tell her the truth. TV producers didn’t trust her, she was too unpredictable. That friend probably saved her career, in act they saved her life. A brilliant, well written and emotionally intelligent memoir that’s also laugh out loud funny.

Lowbridge is a small town in Australia; the hometown of Katherine’s husband James. Katherine has been struggling with her mood and self-medicating with drink. James is hoping that the move will help, but it’s clear something momentous has happened. Their lives have imploded, but they are each dealing with it in different ways. James encourages Katherine to leave the house and she accidentally stumbles across the town’s historical society. She is inspired by the exhibition they’re putting together as it’s something she can potentially help with, but when she comes across a thirty year old mystery, problems start to arise. The disappearance of teenager Tess has remained unsolved and Katherine thinks it may be time to highlight the case and jog people’s memories. She knows she must involve Tess’s family in the decision, but she doesn’t expect opposition from anyone else. However, she is faced with opposition and it is from James. He tells her to leave the mystery alone: it will stir up trouble and be unhealthy for her to become wrapped up in another family’s grief. Katherine is determined though and with Tess’s family on board she starts to research what happened in 1987. The setting really does bring small town attitudes to life, but it also highlights the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ Uptown teenagers have lives filled with homework, tennis club, music lessons and private schools, a group that includes Katherine’s husband James as well as the missing girl. Downtownis where miner’s families live and poverty, drinking, trouble with the police and lack of aspiration seem to be the norm. The author shows how geographical situation can determine your life in a gritty and painful story that Katherine slowly uncovers, all the time wondering if the answers might lie too close to home.

This incredible debut is seriously in the running for my book of the year. It floored me emotionally and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting it any time soon. When Ella from Hachette Books messaged me to say there was a book she thought would be right up my street I was a little surprised. I didn’t think the publicists would know me well enough to make predictions about what I’d like. I was wrong. She knew exactly who this book was for. ‘It’s about a man turning into a Great White Shark’ she told me, well what’s not to like? I was hooked on the idea before the book even arrived. Lewis and Wren have fallen in love. They’ve no idea that their first year of marriage will also be their last. It’s only weeks after their wedding when Lewis receives a rare and shocking diagnosis. He has an unusual mutation and although he might retain some of his consciousness, his memories and possibly his intellect, his body will become that of a Great White Shark. Lewis is complicated, an artist at heart he has always wanted to write the great American play for his generation. How will his liberal and loving heart beat on within the body of one of the earth’s most ruthless predators? He also has to come to terms with never fulfilling his own dreams. However, worse than that, he has to come to terms with leaving Wren behind for her own safety. Wren wants to fight on. To find a way of living and loving each other as Lewis changes. She is told that there will come a point when this will be too dangerous. Lewis will then have to live in a state run facility or free in the ocean. It’s when she sees a glimpse of his developing carnivorous nature that a memory from her past is triggered. Wren has to make a terrible, heart-wrenching decision. This is a beautifully written, astounding debut, that takes universal human emotions like fear, love and loss but presents them in a highly original way that makes them all the more devastating.

I don’t want to tell you too much about this follow up to Louise Hare’s novel Miss Aldridge Regrets, because my review hasn’t been published yet. However, I can tell you how much I enjoyed it and how the author moves Lena’s story on from the murderous and surprising events of her cruise across the Atlantic to NYC. Lena was travelling to audition for a Broadway role, but her proximity to the rich Abernathy family on board left her caught up in a murder mystery. She also came closer to knowing more about her own background. While on board she had a relationship with Will, the singer in the ship’s band. He offers her a place to stay in NYC, with his best friends Louis and Claude. However, as the book opens with a woman falling from their apartment window we’re left wondering what goes on in the fortnight’s break? Especially since the fallen woman was clutching Lena’s passport. Has our heroine met a sudden and untimely end? I won’t tell you any more as I’m still reviewing this one, but I really enjoyed the pace and the detail in her setting of 1930’s New York. Themes of family, identity and being black in the USA make for fascinating reading and I would highly recommend it.

Here’s a preview of my September Reading

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Monthly Wrap -Up July 2023

Posted on by thelotusreaders

As we pass the half way point of the reading year, I’m reading so many great books that I’m panicking about my end of year favourites. There wasn’t a bad read at all this month, but these are my absolute favourites of the bunch. With all the wet weather there isn’t a great deal to do outdoors so it’s been a blissful month for reading. Although, I must admit to a little bit of FOMO as people pop off to various festivals that are currently prohibitive due to cost and the fact I’m still recovering from my back procedure. Currently I can manage to be up and about for about 15 minutes at a time, but I’m hoping that will improve soon. I hope you’ve all had a brilliantly bookish July!

I loved this rather gothic dual timeline mystery from Freya Berry, with a fascinating setting of taxidermy and exotic animals. In 1932, Heinrich Vogel employs adventurer Emily Blackwood to come to his castle in Scotland and catalogue his taxidermy animal collection. She soon realises that she’s looking for a rather different treasure and through a book called The Birdcage Library, she follows the clues of another woman to bunches of paper secreted around the castle. In these papers is the diary of Heinrich’s sister-in-law Hester Vogel, who committed suicide by throwing herself from the Brooklyn Bridge. Emily becomes immersed in Hester’s life, as she is separated from the work she enjoyed to be a society wife and becomes stuck between two Vogel brothers. This is a fascinating story with amazing set pieces involving hummingbirds and the menagerie of animals in Vogel’s collection. As she reads Emily becomes increasingly suspicious about the remaining brother and exactly what is the real treasure he seeks? Sinister, intriguing and with two intelligent heroines.

This is another mysterious house with lots of conundrums to solve and isn’t this beautiful Art Deco cover incredible too? Sarah is a new employee arriving at Darkacre, the family seat of the Stilwells. Like many aristocratic families, WW1 has wreaked havoc on the men in this family. When their father died, the eldest son Hugo became the heir of Darkacre. Yet his time as heir was very short – he was killed on his return to the front leaving middle brother Maurice as heir to the Stilwell estate. Maurice was not prepared to be the master of the house and with double death duties already crippling the estate, he has learned fast. Unfortunately, he has returned from war a changed man too, plagued by nightmares, flashbacks and extreme responses to loud noises, an ailment then referred to as shell shock. With youngest brother Leonard severely disabled by his war injuries and struggling to come to terms with the loss of his limbs, the family are depleted and barely coping. However, as Leonard so cryptically tells us, perhaps it is no more than they deserve? Sarah’s arrival is the catalyst for this story and it isn’t just the relationship between family members that points to there being issues at Darkacre, soon a series of unexplained happenings start to gnaw away at the nerves of even the most stoic inhabitants. Especially the arrival of a mysterious, masked detective who claims to be trapped by rising water as a storm descends. A storm that rumbles all night, both outside and inside Darkacre. Exactly what is this family hiding? Brilliantly set in it’s time, with issues of loss and disability handled incredibly well

Wow! This is a searingly raw story, simmering with righteous anger and injustice. Set on a boiling hot summer’s day, you can almost smell the tarmac and diesel fumes. You can hear the traffic noise and feel the agitation and impatience of people trying to get to work without exchanging a word with anyone else. It’s too hot to breathe let alone exchange a friendly word. Em needs to get through her day at work, stay smart for her appraisal then find her way across London to reach the airport to catch an evening flight to Spain for her sister’s wedding. What follows is a total clusterfuck! This book is impossible to put down as the heat, her appraisal and strikes on public transport conspire to ruin her day. Not to mention the psychopath running round London and strangling women. Then she gets her period. I finished this book overnight because I just had to know what happened next. Em is determined and with the help of some new friends she is reminded that she doesn’t have to keep her landlords secrets, nor is it her fault that her much older, married boss sexually harassed her. It’s time to stop accepting the state of things and fight back. As Em becomes an unlikely heroine, this is a shocking indictment of the world we inhabit as women and a reminder not to accept it. Powerful, visceral and thought provoking.

This story is a slow burn, dual timeline mystery set in small town Australia. Katherine has moved to her husband James’s hometown of Lowbridge, a town with a very clear line between ‘the haves and have-nots’. Katherine is struggling with her mood and self-medicating with drink. James is hoping that the move will help her and has made it clear that they can’t continue as they are. He encourages her to get dressed and leave the house or go for a run like she used to. It’s clear something momentous has happened and their lives have imploded, but they are each dealing with it in different ways. When she does leave the house, Katherine accidentally stumbles across the town’s historical society and shows an interest in the exhibition they’re putting together. It’s something she can potentially help with and it’s enough to get her leaving the house. However, when she comes across a thirty year old mystery, problems start to arise. The disappearance of a young girl called Tess during the summer of 1987 has remained unsolved and Katherine thinks it may be time to highlight the case and perhaps jog people’s memories. She knows she must involve Tess’s family in the decision, but she doesn’t expect opposition from anyone else. It’s James’s opposition that surprises her most. He tells her to leave the mystery alone, that it will stir up trouble and it’s would be unhealthy for her to become wrapped up in another family’s grief. Katherine is determined though and with Tess’s family on board she starts to research what happened in 1987. Who has the most to lose from her findings? A brilliant depiction of how loss affects individuals and a whole town. Thoughtful, honest and addictive.

73 Dove Street is Julie Owen Moylan’s third novel and I thought it was a brilliant depiction of ordinary women’s lives in post-war Britain. What an incredible writer Julie Owen Moylan is, because within a few pages I was absolutely immersed in 1950’s London. This is a London I haven’t visited too often in literature, the haunted and broken post-war period rather than the glory and the drama of the the war itself. Here the war has a ghostly presence, shown by children climbing piles of rubble or an incomplete street that looks like a mouth with one of it’s teeth missing. The story is told through three women; Edie, Tommie and Phyllis. It’s Edie we follow to 73 Dove Street where she hopes to look at a room, with just a single suitcase and an envelope full of cash. Edie is almost put off by the mattress and pile of men’s clothes burning fiercely just outside the yard, but a voice summons her from an upstairs window and she recognises a place she can lie low. What is she hiding from? Tommie lives in the room below and works for an eccentric socialite who was once wealthy and popular. Outside work Tommie is lured to the seedy nightlife of Soho and the man she can’t quit. Phyllis is the landlady of 73 Dove Street, burning her husband’s belongings in the street after she discovered a terrible betrayal. She puts on a good front, an armour that she needs to cope with a past she won’t talk about. Slowly each woman’s story is unravelled and as we hear them it is so emotional, I found it deeply moving. It isn’t just the bombed houses that are missing. There are people locked in wartime, trying to carry on by avoidance, distraction or stepping around something there’s only one way through. I found this part of the book so beautifully rendered by this wonderful writer that the emotions were deeply felt.

A catastrophic climate emergency has spawned a one-child policy in the UK, ruthlessly enforced by a totalitarian regime. Compulsory abortion of ‘excess’ pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are now the norm, and families must adhere to strict consumption quotas as the world descends into chaos. Kai is a 25-year-old ‘baby reaper’, working for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning. If any of her assigned families attempts to exceed their child quota, she ensures they pay the price. Until, one morning, she discovers that an illegal sibling on her Ministry hit- list is hers. And to protect her parents from severe penalties, she must secretly investigate before anyone else finds out. Kai’s hunt for her forbidden sister unearths much more than a dark family secret. As she stumbles across a series of heinous crimes perpetrated by the people she trusted most, she makes a devastating discovery that could bring down the government … and tear her family apart. I LOVE that Eve Smith doesn’t baby her readers. If there are hover cars that’s what she gives us. A two word description. No long flowery explanations of how they came to be, she just tells us what IS. She expects our own imaginations to keep up. The immediacy of her writing brings us slap bang in the middle of this alien world and it’s exhilarating. This is a great addictive thriller, involving one of women’s most emotive issues. It’s an emotional, intelligent and imaginative read from a writer who’s fast becoming my go-to for speculative and dystopian literature.

I LOVED the first two books in the Forbidden Iceland series, featuring detective Elma, recently returned to her home town of Akranes after several years working in Reykjavik. This story is a prequel and we meet her eventual partner Sæver as he looks into some very strange events surrounding a family reunion. This is not your average family though and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to be at a party less! My sympathies were largely with hotel employee Irma who views the Snæberg family as if they are a totally different species. In a way they are, set apart by their successes and their wealth from the everyday hotel employee. So wealthy in fact that they’ve hired this entire luxury hotel for the weekend, with a full itinerary of activities and boozy dinners at night. It isn’t long before tensions and differences come to light: judgements and opinions on each other’s partners; family members who’ve lost touch and resent each other; teenagers who’d rather be elsewhere; parents who can’t connect with their children or each other. All cooped up together for a whole weekend. As the author moved our point of view from one character to another we realise this family has so many secrets. As a storm begins to roll in, cutting the hotel off from civilisation, horrifying truths bubble to the surface. Someone who has been waiting a long time for their moment makes their move in this complicated chess game. We don’t always see those who hide in plain sight and those we think we know could be monsters in disguise. I love this author’s ability to get inside the heads of her characters and pull the reader along with her. Here she builds a labyrinth of clues, red herrings and suspicious characters that I found absolutely impossible to resist. That’s why I was awake at 3am, with my attention split between the page in front of me and my ears attuned to even the slightest creak downstairs. After all you never know who might be watching….

I’ve looked forward to the new Polly Crosby novel for a while. I love her writing so I gave myself a lovely sunny weekend to completely wallow in the story. Eve has felt adrift since her mum Angela died, so her four brothers think it might be good for her to take a trip to the coast and clear out their grandmother’s studio. Grandmother Dodie was a painter and lived a fairly basic life in a small ramshackle studio just off the beach and all have fond memories of childhood holidays there. Close by is the strangely alluring Cathedral of the Marshes, a glass building so imposing it has the presence of such a holy building. Once, when she was a teenager, Eve had taken a dare to go into the cathedral with Elliot, one of the local boys. She remembers being terrified and running, but doesn’t remember much else about that night apart from seeing a painting standing on an easel – a portrait of her. How will it feel to be back in the place that still holds some of her best childhood memories? She finds a box under the sink filled with Dodie’s letters and reads of a hidden relationship and is plunged into a completely hidden part of her grandmother’s life, a powerful love affair with repercussions that lasted decades. We’re pulled back into the past to see what happened. As I was reading about the past I kept wondering who owned Goldsborough Hall now? The answer took many unwashed dishes and unhoovered floors to unravel. This was a beautiful hidden love story and an intriguing mystery as well, told with compassion and empathy.

What a brilliant month and as we creep closer to the end of the year I’m even more worried about how I’ll choose between them for the best of the year! I’ve been away this month and wanted to catch up on some books in series that I’ve only partly read. So I have to mention Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories series. I took the remaining four books to Shropshire with me and out of all of them, it was Changeling that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Not helped by the fact we were out in the very area between Chester and Wrexham featured in the story. This was a brilliant mystery and supernatural thriller combined and I can honestly say Ive never been disappointed by one of his books. I also enjoyed a paperback from Elizabeth Noble with the title Other People’s Husbands where the balance of a group of couples shifts when two people decide to have an affair. This was a brilliantly balanced novel that gives us the viewpoint of the two adulterers as well as other members of they’re social group. Can friendship and marriages triumph over this mistake, or has it blown everything apart? Both will appear in the next month on Throwback Thursday with a full review. Finally I must mention this lovely novel which was a Squad Pod Collective choice for July that I’m a little late starting. Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments by Hema Sukumar was a very enjoyable holiday read about the residents of a an old set of apartments in Chennai, South India. This is a relaxing read, full of incredible detail with each resident facing a personal dilemma as well as the possible compulsory purchase of their homes. Review to come in the next few days. See you next time and here’s a peek at next month’s TBR!

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

June Wrap-Up 2023

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Hello Readers, this has been a very tough personal month and it’s a surprise to me when I look at my blog to find how much I’ve read and then written about the above books. These are some of the best books I’ve read this year and for some it’s meant reading a couple of prequels beforehand which were equally good. I haven’t posted towards the end the month because I’ve had a bereavement. I lost my beloved dog Rafferty and I’m still not fully taking it in, never mind anything else. My energy is low, my sleep pattern is ruined and I feel bereft without his warm body next to mine. When Rafferty finally started to struggle with his heart it was difficult to contemplate a life without him in it. He’s been with me for sixteen years and it’s not been enough. Usually when reading he’s as close to me as he can be, so it’s odd without him. As we move forward we’re going to try and do some of those things that have been impossible while he’s been ill. We’re staying in a hotel for the weekend, returning to our old habit of visiting the cinema weekly and perhaps going abroad which we haven’t done in five years. I know that I’ll slowly learn to live with the loss and we’re all lavishing lots of love on our two cats which they’re lapping up! Here’s a quick look at my favourites this month, all of which I recommend highly.

This was a Squad Pod Collective read and since this was the third in the Emmy Lake series I decided to read all three and they were all fantastic. They’re based in WW2 and are full of historical detail, but also genuinely uplifting. We follow Emmy as she goes to work for a magazine, the Women’s Friend, in the hope of starting a career as a reporter. However, her job is to sort through and choose the letters for the problem page, presided over by the formidable Mrs Bird. Her rules are clear, nothing vulgar or remotely distasteful will ever grace her page. Yet Emmy is a modern woman who thinks differently, she would love the page to offer solutions and ideas for real problems faced by real women, tasteful or otherwise. By the start of this book, she has achieved that goal and is in charge of the problem page as well as writing a series of features on women doing war work. Things are settled when the owner is persuaded to sign the magazine over to his niece Mrs Porter in lieu of her inheritance. She has an entirely different vision for the magazine, a scrapbook of society parties and weddings, real fashion instead of the tips for looking good on a budget and no more dreary war features. How can Emmy and her colleagues keep their loyal readership, whilst trying to get rid of Mrs Porter? It’s not all magazine talk though. There are serious storylines set around Emmy and her friend Bunty’s work with the fire service and the horrors of the Blitz. There’s romance and having to keep the faith while the one you love is far away fighting in another country. There’s also a lovely camaraderie between women, as Emmy becomes closer to women from her war work articles. The issues facing women in WW2 were new to me and they’re shown in the raw, but still overall the books leave you feeling inspired by this loveable character’s resilience and spirit.

Another historical novel here from Amanda Geard, also set in WW2 but down under in Tasmania, intertwined with a storyline from the 1970’s and another towards the end of the 20th Century. The story begins as war seems inevitable and two little girls are sent to their aunt and uncle’s house Towerhurst in Tasmania, in the hope they’ll be safe from a war that’s expected to be contained within Europe. Grace Grey is Marcus and Olive’s niece, while Rose who travels with her is the daughter of their housekeeper. Rose is quite beautiful and the one people notice first, whereas Grace is rather awkward preferring to spend her time writing and reading poetry. They’ve escaped a household where the views of Oswald Moseley have become their cause and Grace’s mother was a proud black shirt. In Tasmania Grace falls for charismatic Daniel McGillycuddy, but can she seen past Rose’s beauty? What is it about these teenagers that spawns a story that lasts half a century? In the 1970’s Willow and Ben receive an anonymous inheritance, a house called Towerhurst in NW Tasmania. It sends Ben on a journey to find out about Tasmanian poet Daniel McGillycuddy, who returned to his native Ireland after fighting in WW2. Ben’s fact finding trip to London leads to a tragic accident and Willow bringing up their baby alone. In 2004 Libby flies from Tas to London to claim a satchel her father lost at the Moorgate Tube disaster. Using the clues within she tries to uncover a mystery that dates back to those two girls escaping the Blitz in 1936. This is the story of an incredible love, interrupted by war but never diminished.

My recommendations for this novel were some tissues, some chocolate and a cat to cuddle. I found it so deeply moving. Enid is struggling with aphasia, a symptom of stroke and dementia that affects comprehension and formulation of words. In fact Enid’s dementia is causing accidents and confusion, so much so that daughter Barb wonders if she should be living alone. However, this would mean separating her from her husband Roy, a devastating blow for both of them. Enid thinks this is temporary and Roy will join her in due course, meanwhile Roy is at home alone missing his wife. Tim Ewins writes Enid in such an intricate and beautiful way: sometimes she is watching life pass her by, sometimes she’s in the past falling in love with Roy or playing with her little girl and other times she’s further in the past with her first husband and all the terrible memories she has of his anger and violence. She’s experiencing all this in the same day, believing each reality to be the present. However, sometimes she has a surprising clarity and is very present, with a great sense of humour. Being so in touch with her past allows her to recognise the signs when a visitor comes in for another resident. Sometimes, Olivia is with her husband and Enid can see what this man is, he’s angry and dismissive. Enid builds a friendship with Olivia, but she wants to help her, to make her see that she doesn’t have to stay and that there is happiness, just look at her and Roy. I loved how Tim shows his main character living with an illness, despite her different realities she has formed a friendship and made someone’s life better. Tim has tacked his subject with his usual compassion and care, creating a book that had me reaching for the tissues.

I’m a big fan of Polly Crosby and this beautiful historical novel has cemented her position as a ‘must-buy’ author. In 1997, Eve is encouraged by her brother to stay in the rundown artist’s studio where her grandmother Dodie lived on the coast. Having lost Dodie and her mother, Eve has felt a little lost. This place reminds her of them both and family holidays where she and her brothers would fall asleep cuddled together like puppies after a day on the beach. Behind the studio stands the incredible Cathedral of the Marshes, a glass construction built by the Goldsborough family in the early part of the 20th Century. When clearing out her grandmother’s things, Eve discovers that Dodie had a link to the building. She painted Vite Goldsborough there, just before the war in 1938. In an echo of the past, Eve takes a commission to paint a local lady who is the key holder for the building. It’s the first time she’s been inside since accepting a dare to go in when she was a teenager. Slowly Eve begins to uncover long buried secrets that change the way she thought of her grandmother and also that night she first entered the glass cathedral and saw a portrait of herself. It’s a wonderful history of a family’s female line during the 20th Century and how much has changed for women in terms of making choices. This is a beautiful historical story of friendship, love and being your true self, no matter what others may think.

This is one of those books that takes precedence over everything, from the TV to the housework. I was utterly engrossed! Rachel is in her thirties and married to Tom, but part of her heart is still with a man she met on a Greek island in the summer after her A’Levels. Alistair was her first love and their relationship was special. It has given Rachel something to aim for in relationships because their love was the ideal. It was what love is supposed to feel like and Rachel isn’t sure she’s ever had that since. She and Tom almost ‘fell’ into living together, it was easy and they are best friends. Alistair was the kind of love everyone dreams of and her memories are reignited when she and Tom visit the island as a couple and they see one of the girls Rachel knew back then. As they talk an altogether murkier story emerges, of a nightclub staffed entirely by young women and the parties with older, wealthy men who like pretty girls around, especially young pretty girls. Rachel decides to find Alistair and reassure herself that what they had was the real thing. Yet in the background, stories of exploitation and manipulation starts to emerge. Could Rachel have everything wrong? This is a brilliantly addictive story, perfectly pitched for the #MeToo generation and even those of us who lived through very different attitudes towards women. It’s a book that’s ripe for adaptation, in a similar vein to The White Lotus series. Be aware though, once you’ve started the book, nothing will get done for the next 24 hours.

Essie Fox is an amazing author who covers subjects very close to my heart. The Fascination takes us to Victorian London and shows the seedy underbelly of what everyone thinks was a prim and buttoned-up society. We start in the rural fairgrounds and twin sisters Tilly and Keziah Lovell, whose father is a snake oil salesman, selling his elixir to people desperate for a cure. However it isn’t long before the girls are wanted as attractions, especially Tilly who is a perfect copy of her sister but in miniature. When their father sells them they end up with a troupe of curiosities working for the enigmatic Captain and Tilly is immediately in demand in London’s West End. Meanwhile, Theo first meets the girls when the fairground visits close to his home. His domineering father Lord Seabrooke has a unique collection of curiosities and exotic animals, so when Theo sees the girls he is fascinated. The lord’s remarriage is a turning point and Theo is cast out to find his own way in the world. His ambitions to be a doctor are thwarted without his father’s money, but his skills are a good fit for Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London. The girls and Theo’s paths will cross again, but it’s not long before his father hears of Tilly and her beautiful voice. If a man will discard his own son, just how ruthless will he be when pursuing a new item for his collection? Essie Fox has created an incredible world of fairgrounds, freak shows and theatre that was so perfect for this reader, fascinated as I am by disability history. I felt like I was watching a Baz Lurhmann film as the details of the fairground and the West End came to life. I was also frightened for the girls, desperate to know how their stories would end. This is an exciting and unusual period novel, telling the story of people who would have been considered ‘other’ and their unusual lives.

My final choice is the lovely Kate Sawyer and her new novel This Family. Set on one day, the matriarch Mary’s wedding day, this slightly fractured family come together and set aside all their differences to celebrate. Mary has three daughters and for this one day she wants Emma to speak to her sister Phoebe, she wants Phoebe to stay sober and for Rosie to stay quiet about the climate crisis. Just this once. Mary still lives in the house the girls grew up in and their father Richard lives in the annexe with his mother, who Mary has been looking after. The house is sold, so everyone is saying goodbye to a house full of memories including the huge tree in the garden where they’ll be eating dinner. Each sister has something to overcome. Emma’s childlessness has consumed her, so facing her new niece and nephew will be difficult. Phoebe hasn’t spoken to Emma for years. Rosie is the baby of the family, but her appearance in the family was difficult for the older sisters. Over the course of the day we hear from each sister’s viewpoint about their lives, sometimes the same event but from two different perspectives. The author shows us how different an event can look from two different perspectives. From all these fragments she weaves a tapestry of this family. She is always questioning how we construct reality, whether there is one true account of an event, or whether the story is fragmented, fluid and ever changing? This was a fascinating read psychologically and really made me think about how others see events we’ve shared and how families choose to overlook each other’s faults and bad behaviour, to come together and choose love, again and again.

Here’s next month’s TBR:

And finally here’s a picture of my beloved Rafferty, ‘helping’ with my reading.

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

My Favourite Reads February 2023

Posted on by thelotusreaders

It’s been a funny old month reading wise and at least two of my choices are books I should have read last year. MS affects my concentration so much and I think that inability to concentrate has definitely affected what I’ve chosen and what I’ve finished. There have been a few DNF’s this month, because I simply couldn’t get into the story or it didn’t hold my interest. I know these are books I’ll try again in a few months and possibly enjoy them so they’re never discarded, unless they’re the sort I’d rather throw out of the window, like Bradley Cooper in The Silver Linings Playbook. It’s no surprise to me that I’ve chosen a couple of books that are the latest in well loved series. I think we often turn to comfort reads when we feel unwell or low and being back with familiar characters was definitely soothing, even when they are crime thrillers. I also think it’s telling that all the books this month are thrillers, possibly because of the way they’re written and edited to pull you straight into the story and keep you turning the pages. There’s an addictive quality to a good thriller that seems to make it past my sluggish brain cells. Here’s to spring and hopefully some lighter nights and the garden coming alive will give us all a recharge. See you next month.

This was a proof I was sent last year and seemed to fall by the wayside, but I’m so glad I finally got the chance to pick it up! Set by the author in a community of foster homes in Scotland, this story was both compelling to read and fascinating psychologically. The author’s mother spent time in a real life version of a village just like this, something that piqued the author’s interest. It’s the perfect setting for a thriller precisely because this is a community set up to nurture children whose parents can’t take care of them and the thought that someone is stalking these vulnerable young women is terrible. In each cottage is a foster mother and father with several children, underpinned by a strict religious teaching from the church on site. They also have their own school, although our protagonist Lesley takes the bus early each morning and attends the nearby grammar school. Lesley is sharp and very good with patterns and numbers, emotionally she is most attached to her best friend Jonesey who has been in care alongside Lesley for as long as they can both remember. When a young woman is found murdered at the Homes it brings outside scrutiny, but also breeds fear and suspicion amongst the girls. As the police start their investigation, Lesley and Jonesey start one of their own and it soon becomes clear that not everything is as it seems in this community and in Lesley’s home. The intrigue and horror of the case is balanced nicely with getting to know Lesley’s story and how being placed in care affects children psychologically.

This is the latest in Elly Griffiths’s series based around archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who as well as teaching at the University of North Norfolk helps the police date and identify human remains. This story follows the pandemic and although some things have gone back to normal, there are lingering after effects from feeling anxious in close proximity to others to our favourite Druid Cathbad who is suffering long term symptoms of COVID. Ruth’s whole department is under threat from budget cuts and it’s while she’s waiting to hear the results of a review that she’s called to look at remains found in a café behind a wall. The café used to be The Green Man and it’s been closed for several years, but current renovations have unearthed a skeleton behind a wall. The remains are not ancient, so become the preserve of DI Nelson who opens an investigation. The bones belong to student Emily Pickering from Lincoln, who went missing approximately twenty years ago. She was a student of archaeology under professor Leo Ballard, so the team need to build a picture of others on the course and who she socialised with. Many threads take them back to a camping trip one evening near some ancient mine shafts. Everyone remembers some sort of ritual being performed and the sudden appearance of a horned creature from the woods, who terrified everyone. Other than the students and Leo Ballard, there was a familiar person present. Where rituals are being performed Cathbad is often close by, but when he goes missing too he becomes a missing person and a suspect. Personally, Ruth is at an intellectual and emotional crossroads. Still living on the salt marshes with daughter Kate and cat Flint, she is avoiding Nelson who is the father of Kate. His wife has left him, breaking the deadlock the three of them have been in and Nelson can often be found at the cottage overnight and on Saturdays when he drops by with pizza. She senses the big question coming ever closer, are they going to define their relationship and make it permanent? Or are Ruth’s other opportunities going to take her away from Norfolk?

This book was recommended to me by a fellow blogger and Squad Pod member Clare – The Fallen Librarian. It’s very hard to define, but combines elements of a thriller, fantasy and love story. Writer and bookseller Lily Albrecht has done more selling since her husband Abe was struck down by a mystery neurological illness that has seen him needing round the clock care. At a book fair in NYC she and friend Lucas are told about a secret client looking for a 17th Century book that’s supposed to be transformative for anyone who follows it’s advice. The Book of the Most Precious Substance is reported to be magical, if the reader anoints the book’s magical symbol with various signs of arousal a magical reaction occurs. Completing the steps can give the reader the thing they most desire. Lily and Lucas obtain the magical symbol and begin a geographical search for the book and the collector who is willing to pay millions for it. It’s a journey of five star hotels, strange eccentric millionaires and sexual discovery, but will either of them get what they want most? This is a brilliant page turner, with magical elements and real emotional depth.

I only reviewed this a couple of days ago, so I won’t give a full review here just a quick blurb. DS Grace is mourning the loss of his son Leo in a traffic accident, but the cases don’t stop coming and when a cold case links to a new incident Roy takes the case. Harry and Freya Kipling find a painting at a car boot sale that’s horrible, but Harry loves the frame. However when they discover a different painting underneath they decide to take it to the Antiques Roadshow. As soon as the show airs things start to happen, because in a chance of a lifetime it turns out that the painting could be a Fragonard, the missing Spring in his series on the four seasons. The couple are broken into but nothing is taken and when a body turns up outside a renowned forger’s house Roy believes the two things are linked. It’s surprising how far collectors will go to complete their collections, even as far as murder. This is an interesting and heart-stopping addition to the brilliant Grace series.

So that’s all for February. It’s a really busy March with lots of fantastic new releases and blog tours. Below is my TBR for the coming month. See you then. ❤️📚