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31/7/2018 0 Comments

Review: Pieces of Her

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Page Length: 480 Pages
Publication Date: 9 August May 2018
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Stars:  5 out of 5


Link: AMAZON (UK)


ABOUT PIECES OF HER:

You’ve known her your whole life…
Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother Laura. She knows she's always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in her life.

but she’s hiding something…
Then one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence and Andy suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura.

and it could destroy you both…
Hours later, Laura is in hospital, her face splashed over the newspapers. But the danger has only just begun. Now, Andy must go on a desperate race to uncover the secrets of her mother's past. Unless she can, there may be no future for either of them…

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My Review:

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. 
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27/7/2018 0 Comments

Review: Make or Break

Make or Break by Catherine Bennetto
 
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romantic Comedy
Page Length: 496 Pages
Publication Date: 12 July 2018 (Paperback)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
 
Stars:  4 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)


 
ABOUT MAKE OR BREAK
 
Jess, a 29-year-old Londoner with a Kate Beckett fringe and a tendency for dramatics, gets taken on a surprise trip by her long-term boyfriend, Pete, to attend her best friend’s last-minute wedding in South Africa. Jess imagines sun, sand, wine and safaris. And returning to London with an ethically mined diamond on her left hand...
 
But this holiday isn’t set to be quite the fairy tale Jess has planned... Suddenly she finds her world tilting on its axis, and things are only set to get worse when Jess returns home…

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My 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.
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24/7/2018 0 Comments

Review: How Not To Be a Boy

How Not To Be a Boy by Robert Webb
 
Genre: Autobiography
Page Length: 337 Pages
Publication Date: 31 August 2017
Publisher: Canongate Books
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT HOW NOT TO BE A BOY
 
RULES FOR BEING A MAN
Don't Cry;
Love Sport;
Play Rough;
Drink Beer;
 Don't Talk About Feelings
 
But Robert Webb has been wondering for some time now: are those rules actually any use? To anyone?
 
Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes (on girls and boys) to discovering the power of making people laugh (in the Cambridge Footlights with David Mitchell), and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life.
 
Hilarious and heartbreaking, How Not To Be a Boy explores the relationships that made Robert who he is as a man, the lessons we learn as sons and daughters, and the understanding that sometimes you aren't the Luke Skywalker of your life - you're actually Darth Vader.
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My 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
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18/7/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Break

The Break by Marian Keyes
 
Genre: Romance/ Women's Fiction  
Page Length: 570 Pages
Publication Date: 7 September 2017
Publisher: Penguin
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)
 
ABOUT THE BREAK
 
'Myself and Hugh . . . We're taking a break.'
 
'A city-with-fancy-food sort of break?'
 
If only.
Amy's husband Hugh says he isn't leaving her.
He still loves her, he's just taking a break - from their marriage, their children and, most of all, from their life together.
Six months in South-East Asia. And nothing she says can stop him.
But when does a break become a break up?
For a lot can happen in six months. And it's enough to send Amy and her family of gossips, misfits and troublemakers teetering over the edge.
When Hugh returns if he returns, will he be the same man she married?
Will Amy be the same woman?
Because if Hugh is on a break from their marriage, then isn't she?
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My Review:

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

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14/7/2018 0 Comments

Review: Now You See Her

Now You See Her by Heidi Perks
 
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Page Length: 368 Pages
Publication Date: 26 July 2018 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Century
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  4 out of 5
 
LINKS: AMAZON (UK)


 
ABOUT NOW YOU SEE HER:
 
Charlotte is looking after her best friend’s daughter the day she disappears. She thought the little girl was playing with her own children. She swears she only took her eyes off them for a second.

Now, Charlotte must do the unthinkable: tell her best friend Harriet that her only child is missing. The child she was meant to be watching.

Devastated, Harriet can no longer bear to see Charlotte. No one could expect her to trust her friend again. Only now she needs to. Because two weeks later Harriet and Charlotte are both being questioned separately by the police. And secrets are about to surface.

Someone is hiding the truth about what really happened to Alice.

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My Review:

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. 
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