When Cal Weaver stops at red light on a rainy night while driving home, he ignores the bedraggled-looking teenaged girl trying to hitch a lift. Even when she starts tapping on his window. But when she says, ‘Hey, aren’t you Scott’s dad?’ and he realizes she’s one of his son’s classmates, he can’t really ignore… Read More »
Like many others, I discovered Patrick Ness’ writing through the Chaos Walking trilogy – if you haven’t read it, you have an unacceptable gap in your reading experience and I really think you should remedy that forthwith. Starting with The Knife of Never Letting Go the series has won just about every major children’s fiction… Read More »
A little bit of Yorkshire magic happened last week. I’d just finished reading this book, when my phone bleeped – unbelievably, it was an email from Jane Cable asking me if I’d think about reading it, because I’m Yorkshire based and because a number of friends whose blogs I follow had enjoyed it. Spooky eh?… Read More »
I’ve really agonised over this review, because I so wanted to love this book. The Thirteenth Tale is in my top ten favourite books of all time, and this second book has been so long coming – then it looked as if it was only going to be a novella, followed by the wonderful news… Read More »
It’s never easy reviewing a psychological thriller – how much do you tell without spoiling it for others? But what I can share is that this was a book that had me hooked from the start, with a child sprinkling magic dust on her Tiny Tears doll in the hope it will turn into a… Read More »
Two of Katherine Webb’s books featured in my Top Ten from 2012 – The Unseen and A Half Forgotten Song. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her latest – unusually for me (I have an aversion to heavy hardbacks…) I read it in the traditional way rather than on my Kindle, and loved… Read More »
I love a good psychological thriller. Tina Seskis’ One Step Too Far, Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson, Lottie Moggach’s Kiss Me First… and now I have a new favourite, a quite wonderful read that I found thoroughly gripping and so wonderfully written that you really… Read More »
I think I said it all when I reviewed The Long Weekend on Goodreads and Amazon last year really, but I don’t think there’s any harm in saying it again. There are a few kinds of novels I always know I’ll enjoy. With a small few exceptions, I usually enjoy dual-time narratives, so long as… Read More »
I love Maggie O’Farrell’s writing. I never keep on my shelves any books I’ve read unless I think I might want to lend them to others, show them what I love – Maggie O’Farrell’s books are all still there, top shelf, tall bookcase. I so wanted to love this one too – it’s been a… Read More »
I’ve read two books this week by much loved and established authors – Sinead Moriarty’s Mad About You and Catherine Alliott’s My Husband Next Door – that (I’ll be honest) didn’t entirely delight me. Now this is a situation I haven’t come across before since I’ve been a blogger. If the books had been my… Read More »
I was totally blown away by Tina Seskis’ One Step Too Far, full of twists and turns, looping backwards and forwards in time. I have to say that I enjoyed this one even more. Friends had told me about the cast of characters and difficulties keeping track – and maybe it did help that I… Read More »
I have a reading rule I almost always follow – if a book hasn’t grabbed me by page 50, give up and move on. This book came perilously close to falling foul of that rule – I was reading and really not understanding the links between the distinctly separate story lines, with characters I kept… Read More »
Tasmina Perry – I so loved her earlier books, and her latest book was always a must for summer sunbed reading. I loved Daddy’s Girls – and then Gold Diggers, Guilty Pleasures and Original Sin. If you spot any of them on your holiday bookshelves, I guarantee a total escapist and unputdownable read. But something’s… Read More »
In an undisguised attempt to catch up on my review backlog, what follows are some shorter reviews of some excellent books I’ve read recently. For that, my apologies to the authors and publishers – it’s not that I loved your books any less, just that I’d like to be in a position to do justice… Read More »
I must admit that this book lay unread on my bedside table for quite a long time. From the reviews I’d read, I knew it dealt with the subject of surrogacy: I did enjoy The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner, which helped me understand the pain of childless couples, but having spent most of… Read More »