After devouring The Good Daughter, I was delighted to get an advanced copy of Karin Slaughter's newest offering.

I read the book in two sittings, one the first evening, I took it out to dinner, just in case I was left alone for a minute or two! I don’t know how Karin Slaughter does it. By the end of the first chapter I care about the caharacters, feel for their predicament THEN comes a massive action sequence and at the start of chapter two I feel in the middle of a book unable to put it down.
 
Andy doesn't know who her mother is, what she is, but now Andy is running for her life. She's not even sure who she is running from. Is it the man? The government? Or worse? Laura's back-story was compelling and as it intertwined with Andy's escape, it became clearer and clearer who Laura was and why she had hidden her past. The suspense was built by the very long chapters, allowing the reader to be immersed in the past and the present respectively. The extensive research was evident without being overwhelming or intrusive to the story.
 
An excellent story, with great characters, stretched across the globe.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
I'm now sad that I have finished the book, and there is a literary hole to fill.
Karin Slaughter is a recent discovery and considering how much I enjoyed this book (and The Good Daughter), it occurs to me there is so much of her back catalogue I have to enjoy!
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 

The story opens with Jess promising to help her sister look after her two young children whilst Jess' mother and their grandmother looks for respite at a health retreat. Next, Jess is whisked away to South Africa for a friend's wedding. It's not quite the seven year itch for Jess and Pete (it's only six years for starters), but the cracks are there and it's telling in how realistic the dialogue is; awkward, barbed, and full of compromise.
 
When Jess spots her father, she phones him, and there is that awkward moment where he lies where he is. Jess' relationship woes intertwined with extensive family side-tangents keep you occupied and entertained. I was Team Jess the entire time (and I couldn't wait for Pete to fall from a great height. Spoiler: he was at no point in any danger, such a shame!).

It feels that as Jess' story is coming to an end - there is still another third of the book to go. When Jess returns to London, her life is even more complicated.

A lovely woven tale of love (new, old, and familial).
 
A life affirming romantic comedy – it leaves you thinking life is too short to not swim, even if that happens to be with sharks, rather than dolphins.
 
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
 
Having been to South Africa I was envious that my own travels didn't make it to Cape Town – Catherine describes the it as a wonderful and beautiful destination.

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.

I don't read many autobiographies and I'm reminded of a quote from PD James “All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.”
 
I enjoy Robert Webb's work on television and an ardent fan of everything Mitchell & Webb. I was interested in reading this book but not chomping at the bit. As I started it a few months ago, and then got distracted with something else and only just returned to it having forgotten what I had read and had to start from the beginning again. 
 
This book is so gorgeous, it's raw and honest, and warm and sweet, and it goes without saying – funny, but it's deeper than that – it's as if we're allowed into his inner neurosis, the small voice we keep hidden from others, helped along through excruciating teenage diary entries.  
 
There is a feeling that the young Robert Webb that is portrayed is genuine. It is also such a brilliant account of how confusing it must be to be a modern man with expectations of such dense masculinity.
 
I am in awe of his writing and wonder if there is a budding novelist in Webb about to be unleashed – something I would heartily welcome.
 
And it's changed my mind about reading autobiographies.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I have been Marian Keyes since the beginning. I had to look up when her first book Watermelon had been published (1995) to work out how long our relationship was – over 20 years. The women in her books were making the same mistakes and me and my peers, and now twenty years later, the characters are older and wiser, but then so am I.
 
I had The Break for a few months before starting.  And this is one of my strange habits with books from authors I love. I don't want to binge the book, for it to be gone too quickly. I want to savour and enjoy every sentence.
 
The Break is told in two timelines; the present day and starting from twenty years previously, until the timelines meet. The story of a marriage that has perhaps gone stale isn't new, but the actions to prevent settling for just that feels novel and fresh.
 
As always there is more than meets the eye to any Marian Keyes' novel, and in this case there is an side plot involving the complexities of abortion in Ireland that really resonated with me, especially in light of the recent referendum to repeal the 8th amendment.
 
The book made me cry, it made me angry, and it made me laugh. What more could I ask for?
 
Next time I won't wait so long to read a new Marian Keyes' book!
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

What is worse?
 
Losing a child?
Or losing someone else’s child?
 
The beginning of this book is a slow burn; akin to the suburban life it is set. Scattered with red herrings and unreliable alibis, it seems no one could have done it yet a little girl has gone missing. It turns satisfyingly from a who-dunnit to a why-did-they-did-it.
 
The characters are real and believable which makes the situation all the more damning and distressing.  The climax was fulfilling with all the clues dropped like breadcrumbs coming to fruition.
 
A thoroughly good read.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.