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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating |
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notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read | date added | date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0718155327
| 9780718155322
| 3.64
| 2,261
| 2012
| Sep 13, 2012
|
Private investigator Helen Walsh is going through a rough patch. The economic downturn means that no one has the money to hire PI’s anymore. The sort...more Private investigator Helen Walsh is going through a rough patch. The economic downturn means that no one has the money to hire PI’s anymore. The sort of business that once kept her income steady has dried up and now Helen has had almost all of her possessions repossessed and had to move out of her beloved flat and back in with her parents. When her ex Jay Parker comes offering her a job, Helen doesn’t want to take it. But Jay’s money is too good and Helen desperately needs the work. Jay is putting together a reunion of one of Ireland’s most popular boybands and one of the members, Wayne Diffney has disappeared without a trace. Wayne was reluctant to take part in the reunion concert but he swore he’d be there and now with just a week to go there’s no sign of him. Jay wants Helen to find Wayne and find him fast – there’s a lot of money riding on this and a lot of people stand to lose big time if the tour gets canned. Helen can’t help but end up intrigued. She falls in love with Wayne’s place, painted and decorated exactly to her tastes, had she been able to afford it. She’s distrustful of the other band members who all seem to have various things riding on this tour and things they might not be telling her. And most of all she doesn’t trust Jay Parker – she hates Jay Parker, even if he does feel sorry for what happened between them a year ago. Helen’s personal life is also in a bit of a tangle – she’s met a man named Artie that she fancies rotten only Artie comes with the added complication of three children, one of which hates her guts and an ex-wife named Vonnie who is alarmingly all too present in Artie’s day to day life. Helen isn’t the domestic type, so she’s okay with the fairly separate lives at first but she finds herself wondering where she stands in the life of a man who already has one. And lurking at the back of her mind is the blackness she thought she’d beaten, a dark depression that threatens to rear its head again and drag her back down under. I love Marian Keyes. I’d read that woman’s grocery list. I’ve read (and adored) all her novels but the Walsh sister’s books are my favourites, in particular Rachel’s Holiday and Anybody Out There?. This is the fifth and final Walsh sister book, the story of the youngest sister Helen, a periphery but forceful character in the previous books. Helen was well known for her sharp tongue and even Keyes herself mentioned in interviews she was frightened of writing Helen’s story because she is such a formidable character, even in books that weren’t about her. However Helen’s story is finally here and I regarded it with equal parts excitement and anticipation. Would I be able to like Helen as a protagonist? The short answer is yes – Helen is smart and funny but still retains her disdain for people and most things in general. She has a “Shovel List”: ‘It’s more of a conceptual thing. It’s a list of all the people and things I hate so much that I want to hit them in the face with a shovel.’ Various things on the Shovel List are hot drinks (doesn’t believe in them), Birkenstocks, all types of music (doesn’t trust girls who like music), any type of spiritual New Age book or CD and people who shudder and say ‘EWWWW’. Helen is still as grumpy as she ever was but Keyes manages to soften and humanise her with the fact that Helen suffers from depression. Keyes’ own battle with depression is something that has been well documented through interviews and it’s obvious she draws upon her own experiences in the past to help flesh out Helen’s. There’s some truly chilling descriptions, such as: ….But I knew it was more than that. Blackness was rising inside me, rolling up from my gut like an oily poison, and a heavier outside blackness was compressing me, like I was descending in a lift. and I’ve heard people say that having depression is like being hounded by a big black dog. Or like being encased in glass. It was different for me. I felt more like I’d been poisoned. Like my brain was squirting out dirty brown toxins, polluting everything – my vision and my taste buds and most of my thoughts. Helen often thinks about ending her life within the book – regular readers of the Walsh sisters books will remember what a strong and forceful, confident character she was so Keyes has used her as a gentle reminder that anyone can be struck down by this. Helen will readily admit that she’s close to her family – they have an unconventional relationship, but they’re close. She’s pursuing things with Artie, taking it slowly. And she loves her job. Her home life or childhood was not traumatic or a catalyst. It’s not the spiral into the economic depression that fueled hers, the depression that resides with in her over the course of this novel is recurring – something she thought that she’d beaten once before and she’s devastated that it has come back. She isn’t sure she has the strength to keep fighting these feelings, to face the knowledge that it could be months, even years before they go away. And that even if they go away, there’s no guarantee they’ll never be back. The Mystery Of Mercy Close is such a multi-layered novel. On the surface it’s an innocent story of Helen searching for a boyband member who has up and disappeared but dig a little deeper and it’s so much more than that. The mystery itself is truly enjoyable and quite unexpectedly complex as Helen deals with dissolute and ego-maniacal boyband members, Wayne’s suitably distraught family and an underground ‘personality’ named Harry who seems to have a vested interest in Wayne’s reappearance. There’s also Helen’s personal life – Keyes went a heck of a different route than I expected her to go, romantically, with Helen and it really works. Artie and his family are well fleshed out characters with enough distance to make you wonder whether or not he and Helen can really make a go of it – or is he looking like heading back into the arms of Vonnie, his apparently friendly ex-wife? And then there’s Jay Parker, who clearly has a history with Helen, but what is it? Will they sort out their differences? This book has been worth every minute of the wait. Anybody Out There? the previous Walsh sister book was published in 2006 – so fans have been waiting 6 long years for Helen’s story (two other novels have been published in that time, This Charming Man and The Brightest Star In The Sky, taking a break from the Walsh girls and also Saved By Cake, Keyes’ story of finding solace in baking) and Keyes has delivered on all levels. Helen keeps her acerbic and grumpy nature, but she’s not so unpleasant when you’re peeking into her own life as she was about everybody else’s. There’s a lot of laughs in this book but it retains a serious core, of looking at an important issue, highlighting and addressing it, stripping it bare for people to see, experience and try and understand. It works.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Sep 07, 2012
| Sep 07, 2012
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Sep 07, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 4.08
| 66
| Apr 01, 2013
| Apr 01, 2013
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Tim Ellison is happy with his casual job as a cook at his father’s restaurant and spending his days surfing Sydney’s picturesque northern beaches. How...more
Tim Ellison is happy with his casual job as a cook at his father’s restaurant and spending his days surfing Sydney’s picturesque northern beaches. However he seems to be wearing out his welcome at his ex-girlfriend Lilla’s place where he’s been crashing on her couch. Her new boyfriend is getting testy about it so Lilla finds an add in the paper offering a cheap room to rent. When Tim arrives to check out Fairview it’s not what he expects. The house is huge, a mansion in a beautiful location with one lonely occupant named Anna, who suffers from agoraphobia. The home belonged to her parents and Anna still mourns them after their death in a car accident. With no friends other than the siblings Marcus and Fiona, Tim is expected to occasionally help Anna out by bringing her things she needs, in return for the cheap rent. He sees no problem with this but it doesn’t take long before he’s wondering if he made the right decision. There is definitely something strange happening at Fairview. Tim wakes up and thinks someone is watching him in his room, he is left something nasty on his birthday, he gets locked out. Anna swears that she isn’t doing it but there’s no denying the fact that her behaviour is beyond odd. At times she is easy to talk to and Tim can see the girl she would’ve been, before tragedy touched her. And at other times she is so closed off to him, distant and abrupt that he wonders just how fragile her mental condition really is. And who was Benjamin? There’s no denying that name means something but Tim is kept in the dark. As his feelings for Anna grow, so do the odd events. And Tim is wondering if this really was a huge mistake or is someone out to get them? Sweet Damage is the second novel from Australian author Rebecca James and it’s a modern day gothic style story, revolving around a large, beautiful house on Sydney’s northern beaches and the lonely inhabitant within, Anna. Our narrator is Tim, a young and carefree type of guy – he’s not one to want to be tied down by a career and he’s not buckling down to save for a mortgage for his own piece of northern beaches real estate. He’s the sort of guy who’s happy getting up, going for a surf, having a lazy day and then working a dinner shift at his dad’s restaurant. Anna has had tragedy in her life the past couple of years which has led to her agoraphobia and she spends most of her days sitting up in the attic of the large house, thinking. Reliving. Grieving. Even though she’s very withdrawn, you can see at times she appreciates Tim’s attempts at friendship and she tries to reciprocate. She’s damaged, she’s scarred but you can still see the person underneath that is just waiting to emerge again. Tim is good for Anna, because he’s the sort that doesn’t pry necessarily, but he attempts in his own way, to look after her. He doesn’t take offence at her often-abrupt moods and he copes better than I would at the creepy and often downright weird goings on at the mansion. It isn’t long before Tim and Anna develop some shy feelings for each other but there are other people around to complicate matters, namely the mystery of Benjamin and also Tim’s ex-girlfriend Lilla who doesn’t really want Tim but perhaps doesn’t want anyone else to have him either. I enjoyed the delicate way the relationships between the characters were explored in this novel and the way in which James kept me guessing on several key things all the way to the end. Whilst I felt for Anna, I was never quite sure what was going on in her head and that kept me nicely on edge, trying to figure out if she was self-sabotaging her blossoming friendship/relationship with Tim or not. I do love a book that keeps me guessing and I really wanted to like Anna, to give her my sympathy but at the same time, the story was clever enough to keep me wondering, just a little bit, if she was a total whack-job. I enjoyed James’s first novel, Beautiful Malice but I think I liked this one even more. Sometimes the second book can be a very difficult one for authors, having proven you can do it, you now have to repeat it. I think that Sweet Damage is a very worthy second novel, well constructed and written in a way that makes it all too easy to simply sit back and spend an afternoon between its pages. It’s part mystery, part gothic-inspired thriller, part investigation and exploration of grief, love and how the mind can be so fragile.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Mar 21, 2013
| Mar 21, 2013
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Mar 20, 2013
| Paperback
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| 1742534848
| 9781742534848
| 3.74
| 27
| Feb 22, 2012
| Feb 22, 2012
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Cate Perry is one day off turning 18 – not much time left if she wants to win the bet that she’ll make her first solo flight before her birthday. She...more
Cate Perry is one day off turning 18 – not much time left if she wants to win the bet that she’ll make her first solo flight before her birthday. She grew up on a cattle property in the Northern Territory named Twin Falls. She has so much to look forward to besides piloting solo – she’s a daughter of the land and loves the family property and working around it dearly. Plus there’s Alf (short for Alfredo) a family friend whom she has grown up with. Alf was like a brother to her in childhood but now she’s feeling some distinctly unbrotherly-like feelings towards him. She makes her first solo flight with ease and is excited about the potential in that, such as perhaps learning to muster properly from the air one day. On a property such as that, the skill would be more than handy. Planes are almost a necessity in the Northern Territory, given it is usually the best way to visit neighbouring properties and can make a heavy workload easier. Then a tragedy strikes, shattering Cate’s world and turning it utterly upside down. Driven out of her home, the only place that she has ever really known and a property that meant the world to her, devastated by the loss of two of the most important things in her life, she retreats to a family friend’s place to ponder her future. Her beautiful singing voice takes her to Tamworth for a look at the Country Music Festival, working for Alf’s aunt and uncle in their Italian restaurant. There she meets Nat, drummer in a band that just happens to have lost its singer. Cate asked if she might be able to audition and bemused, Nat gives her a go. From there Cat is catapulted into a world of singing, rehearsing and writing songs as the band picks up local gigs around the area. To Cate’s disappointment it seems like life in the Top End is going on without her – Alf is seeing someone and his sister, her close friend, is barely around to take her calls these days. Her music keeps her plenty busy as she wins a singing competition that sees her get to record in Nashville – the world home of country music. But you can’t keep a girl away from where she feels is home forever and as the singing starts to fall apart for Cate -due mostly to the implosion of her relationship with Nat- Cate finds herself tasked with the job of getting a farm in Queensland up to scratch for the absent owners to sell it. She stocks it with cattle, mends fences, finds a place for herself in the community and even starts singing again. And then Alf, the man she has always loved, reappears in her life. Under Southern Skies is another Australian rural lit release that I was recently offered the chance to read and review. Our protagonist Cate is young – in fact sometimes it’s easy to forget just how young she is. She’s just 17 (well a day off 18) when the book opens, preparing to take her first solo flight over her family’s vast cattle property in the Northern Territory. That solo flight is important, as it is just the first of many solo flights that Cate will have to take as she goes on her journey to find her place in the world after tragedy strikes. Cate is a happy go-lucky sort of girl, passionate about the land and her family farm. She works hard on it doing all sorts of jobs and you can tell that she looks forward to taking it over one day, making the property hers and carrying on her family legacy. She’s also a people pleaser, often sacrificing something she wants to do (or trying to) in order to make others happy, particularly her stepmother very early on in the book and then later, her bandmate-turned-boyfriend Nat. When her family farm can no longer be her home, she could’ve stayed in the Top End, with Alf’s family or possibly have gotten a job on a nearby property. But she chooses to go interstate, to country New South Wales and make a life for herself in Tamworth. She’s always loved to sing and if she can’t work on her family farm, then maybe she can make a go of it as a singer. Luck falls in her lap when she meets Nat and his band, who are currently down a singer. Success finds them steadily after Cate joins and soon she is putting all her energies into music. It was hard not to like Cate, she had suffered a lot in her young life but she managed to retain a very happy personality and an attitude to looking on the bright side. A lot of people would’ve been very bitter about being forced to leave the only home they had ever known but although Cate was devastated, she wasted no time hating. And it was the same when her singing career stalled and she found herself back working the land. She didn’t lament the loss of her fame, or popularity. She found something that she wanted to do, that she could do, and went to do it and once again, made herself happy. There’s a lot going on in this book – plenty of action at every turn and it can leave you feeling at little dizzy at times, especially when the book jumps forward in time. Cate has a whirlwind life, from the Northern Territory to Tamworth to Nashville, back to Tamworth and then up into Queensland. But it’s a very warm and inviting sort of book with lots of enjoyable characters, such as Alf and his boisterous and generous Italian family and the vet and his daughter that Cate meets when she arrives at the Queensland property. Overall I enjoyed Under Southern Skies although for me personally it could’ve benefited from a little less action and a bit more character depth and development. But it’s a fun read.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Feb 27, 2012
| Feb 29, 2012
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Feb 27, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385619227
| 9780385619226
| 3.96
| 1,958
| 2012
| May 24, 2012
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It has been eight year since Vianne left Lansquenet. For the last four years she has been living on a houseboat in Paris with Roux, father of her daug...more
It has been eight year since Vianne left Lansquenet. For the last four years she has been living on a houseboat in Paris with Roux, father of her daughter Rosette and her other daughter Anouk. Then she receives a letter from an old friend, a letter from the grave. The letter asks of her to return to Lansquenet and help someone who is in desperate need of it, for the letter writer knows that they themselves will not be able to lower their pride and ask. And so Vianne finds herself travelling back to Lansquenet with her two daughters, Roux opting to stay behind on the boat and not accompany them. Vianne is not prepared for what she finds when she arrives – firstly she finds herself standing next to the man who once would’ve stopped at nothing to oust her from the town, Monsieur le Curé himself, Father Reynaud. He is not giving Mass at the Church, instead there is a new priest. Vianne wants to know why but it is a long story and first she needs somewhere to stay, the empty house of her old friend Armande the obvious choice. Once settled, Vianne begins to get to the bottom of what has been happening – the Muslim community and the small local Lansquenet community once co-existed peaceably and amicably with respect for each other’s religions and cultures. There was friendship, a blending of the cultures but now there is alienation and suspicion and a lot of it centres around the arrival of a mysterious woman, clad head to toe in black. She seems to have inspired a competition of purity in the other Muslim women and they all dress to hide themselves now and that combined with the arson of Vianne’s old chocolaterie, now a school run by the woman in black, has led the town almost to a revolt. And number one suspect for the arson? Father Reynaud. Vianne and Father Reynaud may not have been friends before but he is a different man and Vianne knows that he didn’t set the building on fire and try to burn it to the ground with the woman and black and her young daughter inside. Could it be that Vianne has journeyed all the way back to this town in order to save the one person who only wanted to drive her from it? Hot on the heels of finishing Chocolat, I dived into this, the third book, Peaches For Monsieur le Curé. I did skip the second book but I figured because I’d read Chocolat, I knew all the players and I think that it’s quite fine not to have read the second one, which takes place elsewhere. However I was very glad I had chosen to read Chocolat before this one because all of these Lansquenet characters have backstories and connections and previous relationships with Vianne so it was nice to have that prior knowledge. I was very interested to see how Harris would play out this one given Reynaud is such an unsympathetic character in Chocolat. When Vianne returns to Lansquenet at the bequest of a dear old friend long departed, she can see immediately that the Father is quite a changed man. Whereas before he seemed to watch over the village with a all-seeing and knowing eye, she finds him almost on the outside of it, not involved in the religious celebrations taking place and nor is he getting ready to give the Mass. It seems that Father Reynaud has been relieved of his duties for the moment and it all centres around a growing discord between the Catholic church and the local Muslim community, made up mostly of families from North Africa. Once again religion is quite a heavy theme in this book but this one seems to be more about promoting religious tolerance. Father Reynaud doesn’t begrudge the Muslims their mosque, only the spire they have built to amplify the call to prayer, which although passes regulations, also sort of mocks them. He and the leader of the Muslim community managed along together quite well until the arrival of the woman in black and things began to change. When the building was firebombed, fingers were pointed firmly at the Father and the Muslim community retreated within itself – it became a war. I really enjoyed this book – it’s a real page turner, such a fleshing out of story and then a gentle tension builder until by the end I was literally bursting for something in particular to happen! Vianne really is a most interesting character, such a hard person to get a feel on sometimes, but so generous and interested in other people, even those who haven’t exactly been pleasant to her in the past. There’s enough whimsical magic in this story to make it a bit special but without alienating the skeptics and the evolution of Father Reynaud is skilfully done. Food is a huge part of this novel too and the descriptions were utterly divine, both what Vianne was making and also the creations of the Muslim community. They were fasting for Ramadan throughout the book so all day was spent preparing for the meal to break their fast after sundown. Vianne visits a household quite often and they usually offer her something and once again, I wanted to try it all. It’s rich with imagery and beautiful description and to be quite honest I could quite easily see myself living in that little village! I think that Peaches For Monsieur le Curé is a stronger book with a stronger story. It’s a longer story but it’s definitely got more complexity to it and for me, that just meant more to enjoy.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Sep 16, 2012
| Sep 17, 2012
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Sep 16, 2012
| Paperback
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| 9781743480724
| unknown
| 3.33
| 9
| Jan 10, 2013
| Jan 10, 2013
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Park Ranger Victoria Price has no tolerance for poachers. When she rescues documentary maker Dan from the jaws of ‘Big Mama’, a local crocodile, she a...more
Park Ranger Victoria Price has no tolerance for poachers. When she rescues documentary maker Dan from the jaws of ‘Big Mama’, a local crocodile, she at first suspects that he’s looking for the eggs, especially given he was right near her nest when Big Mama attacked. In order to preserve both Dan’s life and Big Mama’s, Victoria (who is perhaps not that crack a shot) inadvertently shot Dan in the shoulder when she was attempting to scare Big Mama into letting him go. Unbeknownst to Victoria, Dan’s cameraman Harry was filming everything, including Victoria’s barnstorming rescue and the documentary’s financial backers have seen the footage and they absolutely love it! They want Victoria on board with the project as a kind of co-host/expert, someone that finds the animals for filming and then talks about them to the host Dan. Although Victoria knows this isn’t the job for her, because she freezes up talking in front of people and especially to a camera, she agrees because she feels guilty and like she owes Dan one. She did shoot him after all, no matter how much of an accident it was. So Victoria agrees to spend some time with the crew tracking and filming some of the wild animals in the local area but the attraction between Victoria and Dan has her firmly out of her comfort zone. Victoria is far more at home with her animals than people and her distraction over Dan leads to interesting interactions with crabs, fire ants, wild pigs and more crocodiles. And always, at the back of Victoria’s mind, are the poaches and how she can go about finding them and protecting the wildlife that means so much to her. Wild At Heart is a romantic comedy with just a touch of drama. Victoria had a very different childhood, living with her father in remote mostly indigenous communities, learning all there was to learn about the bush and its inhabitants. She’s far more at home in the bush than she is in an office and seems to have little in the way of a social life. She’s dedicated to her job, devoted to it and it fills her days. She’s passionate about stamping out poaching and it seems like keeping them away is a daily struggle. The way in which Dan and Victoria meet is quite funny – he’s about to be dragged off by a huge crocodile although he manages to fare rather well out of that stand off with really only the bullet wound courtesy of Victoria to show for it and an injured foot. He’s fascinated by Victoria, who stormed in there like a sort of Park Ranger Wonder Woman and pulls out all the stops to get her to agree to appear in the documentary. The documentary is Dan’s chance to make his dream program, not just assist on someone else’s and there’s not much he wouldn’t do to make it happen. Even he begins to wonder though, just how this is going to work when he sees just how dire Victoria is whenever there’s a camera pointed at her. I quite enjoyed the blossoming attraction between Victoria and Dan. I felt that they were really quite different from often-used character types in romance. Victoria is a real outdoors girl, dusty and dirty, spending all day out in the sun. She plays with trap door spiders (just reading that scene gave me the squicks, I thoroughly sympathised with Dan during it!) and tags wild hogs and fights off mama crocodiles with oars from a boat. Dan, by contrast at the beginning of this book is more at home in his air conditioned office than he is out in the bush. Even though it’s the basis of his documentary, it’s like he doesn’t really see it for all that it is until he experiences it through Victoria’s eyes. Her passion is infectious and he begins to understand just what it is that drives it. They end up sharing something quite special. There’s a small dramatic sub-plot of the poachers running throughout the novel and it’s quite well done. It doesn’t detract from the comedy and push the novel into a more serious genre and actually it ends up providing some giggles as well. This novel definitely touches on the importance of the environment and treating it with respect, especially the animals that live within it but it’s not done in a pushy or preachy way. Probably my only qualm was that pretty much every time Dan came into contact with an animal of any description, something disastrous happened, which was kind of funny for a while but then just got to be a bit too much.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 05, 2013
| Jan 05, 2013
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Jan 04, 2013
| ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 0815609841
| 9780815609841
| 3.83
| 64
| Mar 30, 2011
| Mar 15, 2011
|
Ellen is a French teacher at a relatively exclusive school in America’s north east. Her husband Fintan, from whom she was mostly estranged, living dur...more
Ellen is a French teacher at a relatively exclusive school in America’s north east. Her husband Fintan, from whom she was mostly estranged, living during the week on her campus in free accommodation from staff, dies in a sailing accident. Ellen, who had been trying to muster up the courage to leave Fintan after a marriage that had disintegrated into mental beration and abuse, is feeling as though some effort should be made to inform Fintan’s family. An Irish immigrant who was illegal for many years until his marriage to Ellen, Fintan had never returned home and told Ellen that his immediate family was deceased. A chance run-in with an Irish woman who Ellen met briefly many years ago when she first started going out with Fintan and who hailed from a part of Ireland very near to where Fintan did, leads Ellen to discover that Fintan’s mother is, in fact, not dead like he told but still very much alive. After sending a letter and making a phone call to the woman and getting precious little in the way of response, Ellen decides to fly to Ireland in her summer break from teaching at the school. She wants to see where Fintan grew up, do the right thing about informing his family properly and lay the ghost of her husband and their unhappy relationship to rest. Jo, her mother-in-law is a tough and forthright sort of woman. She immediately assumes that Ellen has come to see what she can get out of Jo when Jo dies as Jo is very ill with lung cancer. After seeing how badly Jo is, and how she is struggling to cope alone on her isolated farm but refusing to go to hospital, Ellen surprises herself and Jo by offering to stay and take care of her. By staying on in Galway, she will learn the deep, dark secret that made her husband flee his native country to America without ever once looking back. She will learn what sort of woman his mother was and the actions that she undertook that made her son tell everyone, even his wife, that she was dead when she was still very much alive. Dance Lessons is a journey of self-discovery as well as the discovery of truth about the spouse that Ellen comes to feel she never knew after he died – not really. He never chose to confide much of his life in Ireland to her at all, especially the important pieces. The fact that his mother is alive really shakes Ellen and her determination to go out and see where her husband came from and see if she can get to know him a bit better in death than she feels she did in life. Her attitude towards her recalcitrant and often rude mother in law is very patient, and her desire to stay and nurse the woman on her deathbed is really quite surprising. It’s no easy task to undertake, especially if you have no qualifications or training in that particular area and I would’ve liked to see the trials and emotional upheaval that comes with that explored a bit more in depth. It’s very much glossed over, the fact that Ellen is tending to a virtual stranger in the final days of her life. She also does this with not a single complaint or breakdown which I find a fraction unrealistic. I know that the nursing part is not what the novel is about, but it’s a rather large portion of the novel so I did expect to see a little more depth to it. What I did like was Ellen, as a mostly-repressed American raised by strict parents who were determined for her not to get airs above her station, coming to grips with small town Ireland, especially small-town Ireland from 40 years ago. Although the narrative starts with Ellen, we switch to Jo after meeting her and she takes us back in time so that we can hear her story – how she came to marry a man old enough to be her father, forced into it by her parents and the envy she had for her sister Kitty, who had freedoms and choices that were never available to Jo. Her relationship with her son is explored for the reader to absorb – dysfunctional and often uncomfortable to read. Although fiercely proud of her extremely intelligent son, Jo was incapable of truly expressing it, although she was extremely quick to show anger. And she proves towards the end of the novel that she will go to any lengths to give her son opportunities (or take them away) and it costs her dearly in the end. I would’ve also liked to see more from the third point of view we are treated to in this novel – it does feel a bit rushed, appearing when it does and I would’ve liked more of a background on that persons life and upbringing. I did like the actions Ellen took towards the end of the novel, they seemed very fitting with her generous nature, and because of that I’d have liked a longer epilogue with the third narrator to tie things up just a little more. You know the essentials but I’m always one for more detail! It could’ve done with more depth and character growth. I felt a bit flat, like I didn’t really care that much about the end gift because I didn’t know the recipient enough! Dance Lessons certainly had some bright spots – I love the setting of rural Ireland and the depth of the description of local life. Even when describing current time, it was almost like taking a step back into another time and it was amazingly vivid. Especially the stories pertaining to Jo’s youth, taking place during an era that felt like much longer than 40 or so years ago, with talks of dowries and arrange marriages! Where I did feel a bit let down was the lack of character development – it doesn’t seem as though fundamentally, Ellen changes at all. Even Jo doesn’t change, despite all she has done in her life and where it got her in the end. I think that this could’ve been explored beautifully but was a little underdone.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| May 10, 2011
| May 11, 2011
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May 10, 2011
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1921518650
| 9781921518652
| 4.14
| 21
| Jan 02, 2013
| Jan 02, 2013
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Willow Carruthers is a golden girl of the tabloid world. The Australian born actress has had the glittering career, including an Oscar and married the...more
Willow Carruthers is a golden girl of the tabloid world. The Australian born actress has had the glittering career, including an Oscar and married the requisite successful rock star and popped out three children. She seemed to have it all – fame, money, love, family. But now the husband has strayed, the photos are in the public eye and Willow faces divorce and financial ruin, thanks to her husband’s exuberant spending and the fact that there’s decidedly less income coming in now. Willow needs to return to work and soon, so she can support herself and her three children. Her husband is no where to be found and Willow isn’t sure she wants him located anyway. Kitty Middlemist has worked for Willow as nanny to her three children for the past three years. She’s used to being the one in the background, keeping things afloat. When Willow admits that she has no money and needs a place to stay and to go back to work, Kitty thinks that she just might have the answer. When her father died, Kitty and her much-older brother Merritt inherited the family pile, which desperately needs some TLC. It was a source of bad memories for both of them so they locked it up and left due to the caveat placed upon them that prevents a sale for 10 years. It will be a perfect place for Kitty, Willow and the children to hole up while Willow attempts to secure a part in a period film being directed by an eccentric genius. And the period film just happens to be on the lookout for an ancestral pile that hasn’t been modernised within an inch of its life. Middlemist becomes the dream location for the movie and production and actors descend upon it, much to the chagrin of Merritt, who has also returned to his family home. Three years have given him some perspective and now he thinks that he’d like to restore it to its former glory – something he can’t do without the massive injection of cash that allowing filming will give him. It also throws him into close contact with Willow and there’s something about the beautiful, fragile actress that draws Merritt and the attraction between them simmers even as every sort of complication arises to get in their way. Seduction is Australian author Kate Forster’s second novel and takes us to the glittering world of the rich and famous – or the not so rich, as Willow Carruthers discovers. Her husband Kerr has pretty much squandered all of their money and now there’s nothing left and what they do have will need to be sold. Willow is forced to abandon her easy lifestyle and rely on the help of the nanny Kitty, who capably organises a home for them to stay in and takes care of the children while Willow does her best to get back into the acting world. Willow is quite brittle, distant emotionally from her children and husband and quite ill-equipped to cope alone. She’s lucky to have Kitty to organise things and look after her children and give her the freedom she needs to reboot her career. As you get further into the book, her character evolves and she becomes more human, more warm, more real with her children and she finally begins to see what they need from her, one of them in particular. She became more likable, as she wasn’t too sympathetic a character at the beginning, despite what she was going through. I was very surprised just how invested I became in the story of Kitty, who really blossoms as a character in this novel. She starts off peripheral, the ‘hired help’ so to speak with no real relationship to Willow other than employer and employee. She has a natural knack with children, she’s eager to please and goes above and beyond the call of duty in her job. She meets the gorgeous Ivo, whom she has had a brief interaction with in the past and doesn’t want to be just another notch on his bedpost. In fact I think the development of the friendship between Ivo and Kitty was my favourite part of this novel. Ivo is the son of wealthy parents who has an art history degree but is basically wasting it and his intelligence, bumming around sleeping on friend’s couches and relying on wealthy lovers to keep him. The part in the period movie gives him some focus and his friendship with Kitty leads to him cleaning up his lifestyle almost without him noticing and it is through his time at Middlemist that he discovers his true calling. And the chemistry between them was fabulous – their interactions at the end of the novel when both of them are hurting are so fabulous. Ivo could’ve been a character that just didn’t work because like Willow, he’s not particularly likable at the beginning of the book. But the details that Forster adds to his character ended up making him very interesting. Seduction surprised me – I was expecting a light, almost trashy beach read in the movie world judging by the glitzy cover but it turned out to be more than that. I really became quite invested in the characters of Willow, Merritt, Ivo, Kitty and Willow’s children. I think they were charmingly and accurately portrayed for their ages – I have a child the same age as Willow’s middle child who never stops talking and found there were some real similarities! There were things in the novel that seemed a little easy – how quickly Willow gets a part, how quickly the conflict with her husband Kerr is resolved – but all in all it was an extremely enjoyable read that had me engaged from start to finish.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jan 04, 2013
| Jan 04, 2013
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Jan 03, 2013
| Paperback
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| 9780731815081
| 3.71
| 220
| Jun 21, 2012
| Nov 01, 2012
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Sydney PhD student Freya Dane receives word that her long-ago departed father has died in an accident off the coast of an island in Scotland. She inhe...more
Sydney PhD student Freya Dane receives word that her long-ago departed father has died in an accident off the coast of an island in Scotland. She inherits the island and its contents and finds herself longing to understand the man that she was long estranged with. She travels to Findnar, determined to learn more about him and his work and the reason he left her and her mother so long ago. It appears that the island has an extensive Christian and Viking past that dates back to around 800AD and Freya finds herself continuing her fathers work. She begins to experience things that she cannot explain – she sees a young, dark haired woman, she experiences visions when she is around a local man by the name of Daniel Boyne. The house and island hold treasures of unimaginable importance and historical value, Freya just must follow the clues she is being given to find them. In 800AD, Pictish girl Signy loses her entire family to a Viking raid. Left on the island with only some brothers and nuns for company, she helps care for the horribly injured Viking boy left behind. Known as Bear, the two become inseparable but a tragic event leads to Signy taking orders and becoming a nun. Deeply confused and believing that she must atone for her sins, Signy still cannot ignore the way in which she feels about Bear and the depth of Bear’s love for her sees him stopping at nothing in order to get her back by his side. Torn between the Pagan rituals of her ancestors and the strict Christianity of her new order, Signy is the voice that guides Freys to make her startling discoveries. The Island House is the latest novel from Australian author Posie Graeme-Evans, whose previous works include The Dressmaker, The Innocent, The Exiled and The Uncrowned Queen. She is also known for creating the long-running TV series “McLeod’s Daughters” which has been partially responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of the rural romance ideal. I haven’t read any of her novels before but I was a bit of a McLeod’s Daughters fan (my former housemate got me into it, Wednesdays were our take away, McLeod’s and a few drinks nights!) so I thought I would give this one a go and see how I found it. The narrative is split in two: firstly we meet Freya, mourning the father she didn’t really know, having made the journey from Sydney to a remote island off the coast of Scotland. The island was bought by her father and bequeathed to her in his will and Freya thinks that she may be able to get to know the man a little better, even posthumously, and perhaps even complete the thesis she’s struggling with herself. The island is accessible only by small boat and is not hooked up to power and running water – instead there are lanterns and she has to pump water in. I have to admit, I do get distracted by things like this, there was no mention of a toilet or how on earth one went about that. Love the idea of a stone cottage on a remote and windy Scottish island – do not like the idea of tripping outside at nighttime to a hole in the ground. The other story revolves around Signy, a young girl hovering around adolescence who has her whole family brutally cut down during a Viking raid. Left to a handful of Christian people who are attempting to establish the island as a place of religion and learning, she finds a tentative love with Bear that is overshadowed by the guilt of her religious instruction, especially when something tragic occurs. Believing it to be a punishment from a God she previously didn’t believe in, she takes holy orders in order to become a nun. Signy was a pagan and the brutality of the Viking raids couldn’t strip her of her courage and her faith. The two sides war within her still. This novel had so much potential! I love a blend of historical and contemporary and Scotland is one of my favourite places to read about and the past era was fascinating – a time in history that I have barely touched on in my reading. However there were things about this novel that stopped it from being truly great and I think that most of it revolved around the modern-day storyline. Freya was as much a mystery to me at the end of the book as she was at the beginning. I never really learned much about her, other than the fact that she’d missed her father’s presence in her life and that she was organised and often distant with people. She embarks on a strange almost non-existent love triangle with two local men and it’s obvious which one she is going to really end up with but it was so underdeveloped that it was impossible to feel anything about it. I liked the bare bones character of Daniel Boyle but he needed more and the two of them needed more interaction. It started off promisingly, with the visions they both experienced when they touched, Daniel avoiding her because of his guilt over her father’s death, etc but it petered out quickly and from then they settled into like being an old married couple. I feel as though the romance/chemistry aspect was just entirely skipped. Fortunately the part of the novel set in 800AD was much better in terms of constructing a world with fleshed out characters. I enjoyed the story of Signy and Bear and felt for them with all the trauma and heartache they experienced in their young and tumultuous lives. The religion made me frustrated, because it was all the sin and hell and damnation preaching, a vengeful God who permitted nothing but worship. Everything else was the Devil and required exorcism. It was very interesting to learn about Signy’s Pagan rituals, especially concerning death. She was such a strong character, so resilient after everything that happened to her, stoic until the end. The Island House has its good points but for me, it also lets itself down in a few areas, most notably character development. The plot is good, all the players are there, I just feel as though more time should’ve been devoted to making Freya a real person, giving the reader a much better, clearer picture of her. And developing intimacy with Daniel Boyne would’ve been appreciated too! I’m a girl who likes time spent on the romance, even when it’s a small part of the story. If you’re not bothered about that and you’re more interested in the historical aspect and the mystery, then this book will probably be right up your alley.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 19, 2012
| Nov 20, 2012
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Nov 18, 2012
| Paperback
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| 0373210574
| 9780373210572
| 4.12
| 6,858
| Oct 23, 2012
| Oct 23, 2012
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For as long as he can remember, Ethan Chase has always been able to see Them: the fey. Piskies, gremlins, etc. Most mortals don’t know they exist, the...more
For as long as he can remember, Ethan Chase has always been able to see Them: the fey. Piskies, gremlins, etc. Most mortals don’t know they exist, the glamour of the fey prevent humans from seeing their true selves. But Ethan has always been able to see past the glamour and that means he has to watch his back. The fey don’t look too kindly on those that can see their true colours. And Ethan is also the younger brother of The Iron Queen, his sister Meghan who left him and her life in the mortal realm some 12 years ago, rarely to be seen since. Ethan is now 17 and he’s struggling to fit in because of his ability to see the fey. It makes him a target and it also endangers anyone that gets close to him, something he learned the hard way some years ago. When a half-breed at his new school implores him desperately for help, Ethan is reluctant but in the end, he gives the boy what he needs. Ethan has seen something new, a type of fey he doesn’t know the name of and they’re not friendly. When they attempt to attack him, he is forced to do something he thought he would never do: use a token to enter the land of Faery and travel to the Iron Realm to inform his sister of the strange new creatures and ask for her help. Kenzie gets dragged along for the ride by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A non-seer, she gets a quick education when she and Ethan tumble into the realm of the fey and are met by Grimalkin, who leads them on the journey to the Iron Realm to speak to Meghan. Kenzie isn’t one to back down from a challenge and she adapts quickly, refusing to go back to the moral world when Meghan gives her the choice, instead wishing to stay with Ethan. She wants to get to the bottom of what’s happening and why fey are disappearing and she’s willing to do the one thing you’re not supposed to do – make a bargain – in order to be of use. She and Ethan are getting closer than ever even though Ethan has long maintained a distance from people. He doesn’t want to do anything that could get someone he cares about killed but Kenzie isn’t the type of girl who is going to do what Ethan tells her to. The Lost Prince is the first in Julie Kagawa’s new series, The Iron Fey: the Call of the Forgotten which spins off from the original Iron Fey series, featuring Ethan’s sister Meghan and her journey from normal teenager to a Queen in the Faery realm. I quite enjoyed the first series, although I do still have one book to read in it, (the last one, The Iron Knight but it wasn’t exactly difficult to figure out how it was going to end and this novel doesn’t spoil anything for anyone, really). This book got off to quite a slow start for me – I can remember getting to about page 80 and being quite frustrated because I really did not like any of the characters so far. Ethan was overly moody and rude, Kenzie was far too in-your-face-tryhard and Todd was the sort of annoying little worm who managed to be smarmy even when he was begging Ethan to help him. This was disappointing because of how much I had enjoyed the previous books of Kagawa’s that I had read. Thankfully though when Ethan and Kenzie escape the strange creatures attempting to attack them to the Nevernever, the book picks up considerably. For a start, they were off to see Meghan and Ash and I was definitely looking forward to seeing how they were doing. Kenzie also calmed down a bit and became a bit more bearable and because Ethan wasn’t trying to drive her away so much anymore by being an arrogant jerk, he also became more likable. I was much more into the story as Grimalkin (who is always quite fun to read about) led them to the Iron Realm and although Meghan and Ash’s presence was quite brief, it wasn’t entirely unexpected as this is Ethan’s story. I had to admit, I found Ethan’s reaction upon learning to Kierran, who helps Ethan and Kenzie leave somewhere they don’t wish to be, hilarious and believable. I didn’t see it coming, although in retrospect I really should have as the signs were there if I’d bothered to pick up on them! I liked that though, it was a nice surprise and it gave me a few minutes to ponder precisely how that had worked. After a slow start, I think The Lost Prince picked up in strength the further into the story I got. Ethan and Kenzie both matured as characters in a relatively short period of time (matured quite rapidly really) and I found the story of forgotten fey quite fascinating although my sympathy didn’t extend quite as much as Kierran’s did! This didn’t seem to leave a lot hanging regarding Ethan and Kenzie and given the name of the second installment is The Traitor Son I’m guessing we’re going to be seeing a lot of Kierran, which I think is fabulous. He has the potential to be a very interesting character given his very unusual heritage and he’s sure to be the sort of creature that could be sought after for both good and bad, given his particular gifts and strengths. I think that like this book, the series might get better as it goes on. Kagawa is a very strong storyteller and generally leaves you wanting more of her perfectly constructed worlds and gripping characters.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Nov 26, 2012
| Nov 26, 2012
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Nov 25, 2012
| Paperback
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| 0778329860
| 9780778329862
| 4.04
| 10,492
| Jan 01, 2011
| Apr 26, 2011
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Tara and Emerson were freshmen year room mates at college who were befriended by their third year RA Noelle. The three girls formed a tightknit friend...more
Tara and Emerson were freshmen year room mates at college who were befriended by their third year RA Noelle. The three girls formed a tightknit friendship that has lasted close to twenty years at the opening of this novel, their lives intertwining in every which way. Tara loses her husband Sam in a car accident and then six months later, Noelle is found dead by her own hand in the cottage she was renting from Emerson and her husband Ted. There’s a garbled suicide note that reads ‘I don’t know how to tell you what I did’, baffling Tara and Emerson. They had no idea Noelle was depressed and as they begin to investigate her life and why she may have done this, more and more secrets start to tumble out. Noelle was a midwife, but she’d stopped practicing some 10-12 years ago whereas Tara and Emerson were under the impression that she’d stopped only a couple of years ago to start up a program for preemie babies in need. She also has more savings than someone who hasn’t undertaken paid work in some time and it seems that Tara’s late husband Sam, as her attorney, was privileged with more of her secrets. Both Tara and Emerson, grieving for the loss of their friend (and Tara grieving also for the loss of her husband and her inability to mother the teenage daughter who is like a stranger to her) will discover things about Noelle that will totally change their lives. An unaddressed letter will send them on a terrible search to attempt to right a wrong that Noelle committed in the past, the wrong that weighed so heavily on her that she ended up taking her own life over it. And in writing that wrong, they will find themselves coming full circle in that search back to themselves. Told from various viewpoints, The Midwife’s Confession tells the story of an amazing, lasting friendship – albeit one where secrets were being kept from two of the participants! Despite the fact that it jumps back and forward in time, it’s such a smooth and seamless transition each and every time. The story is intriguing – and from someone who has delivered a baby to a midwife, disturbing! It really makes you think just what sort of amazing job these people do but also how the slightest thing can place pressure on them, or put them under stress, or change the way they do things. Noelle, as a passionate midwife, made a mistake that changed the lives of so many people with the secret going undetected for so long. Although the twists and turns of this book (and there are many) aren’t always completely and utterly out of left field, the ones that you don’t see coming will shock you and even the ones that you do guess or muddle through before the reveal will leave you reeling when your suspicions are finally confirmed. The characterisation in this novel is so strong – the three main characters, Tara, Emerson and Noelle are so wonderfully fleshed out and real. Tara’s pain is so real, firstly at losing the love of her life, husband Sam, and also, the awkward phase she is going through with her teenage daughter. It’s so interesting to read that kind of struggle from a mother’s perspective as reading a lot of YA lately, I’m used to reading about repressive parents! I felt that the relationship between Tara and her daughter Grace was spot on – so perfectly written. The friendship between Tara and Emerson was wonderful too – rich with history and sharp with a sense of betrayal at the end that had to be repaired. Because Noelle commits suicide at the beginning of the book and all we’re treated to are a few flashbacks, I didn’t get as strong a sense of the friendship she had with them but their grief for her is all too real and consuming so you know that it was truly powerful. This is a truly engrossing mystery tightly wrapped in the strength of the friendship these women have shared over more than half of their lifetimes. Written in a way that makes you want to keep on going, to uncover more and more of the secrecy that Noelle has carefully guarded. Everything about it is praiseworthy from the pacing to the drawing of relationships to the intricacies of the mysteries in the storyline. A highly enjoyable novel and I’ll be working my way backwards through Chamberlain’s back catalogue whenever I get a chance.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| May 08, 2011
| May 08, 2011
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May 08, 2011
| Paperback
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| 0778313174
| 9780778313175
| 4.18
| 2,489
| Apr 24, 2012
| Apr 24, 2012
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Nora Crane has done it tough most of her life. An unsympathetic, often narcissistic mother, an absent father and then a boyfriend who left her abandon...more
Nora Crane has done it tough most of her life. An unsympathetic, often narcissistic mother, an absent father and then a boyfriend who left her abandoned with two young children in a house without proper heating or even sealed windows in the middle of winter in a place in the middle of no where called Virgin River. Nora is used to making a go of it on her own, she’s used to struggling. She wishes she had better opportunities for herself and her children and she’s prepared to work for them. What she wasn’t prepared for, was the way the town of Virgin River opened its arms to her when they found out about her struggles. After her mostly absent boyfriend was arrested and carted off to jail, the town realised just how dire Nora’s situation was and they rolled up with help sealing up her windows, babysitting offers for her two young girls, a part time job at the local clinic and general friendship and support. After a long time without one, Nora begins to find herself seeing Virgin River as home. She spots a flier advertising jobs at the Cavanaugh Apple Orchard, a few miles out. She’s determined to go and apply, as the money and hours are good. There’s a daycare opening at the soon-to-be-completed school and she’ll be eligible for a reduced rate. Even though she’s slight, she’s used to carrying a 10 month old around all day and she’s convinced that she won’t have much trouble picking and lugging apples all day. The owner of the orchard, Tom Cavanaugh, isn’t too sure. He fails to see how a young, pretty, delicate-looking lady like Nora is cut out for this job and he turns her down flat. Luckily for Nora, his grandmother sees her potential and her determination and insists that Tom give her a job. Nora works hard and comes to win Tom’s trust and admiration, especially when he learns of her circumstances. As she picks apples throughout the season, the two of them find themselves becoming closer and closer, even though Tom has very clear ideas about the sort of woman he would like to make Mrs Cavanaugh. They don’t include a single mother of two, no matter how attractive he finds her and how much he comes to enjoy her spirit and even like her two small daughters. If Nora definitely isn’t his type…then how come he can’t get her out of his head? How come she’s all he thinks about, even when he’s with someone else? Sunrise Point is the 19th installment of the Virgin River series and the most recently published title. A couple of books ago we were introduced to Nora, a woman in her early 20s who was down on her luck with two small children to look after. In the previous book we were given a passing introduction to Tom Cavanaugh when Jack greeted him like he’d been popping in and out of the whole series the whole time, when he’d actually just returned from several years away from the town, as (what else?) a serviceman, stationed overseas. He’s returned to take over the reins of his family apple orchard – his grandmother, his only other family is getting on a bit and she can’t handle the picking season alone anymore, even if she is extremely sprightly and energetic for her age. A long time ago she was given a chance by a family and she ‘pays it forward’ by seeing something in Nora and giving her exactly the same chance. I admired the heck out of Nora – she might possibly be my favourite Virgin River female since Ellie Baldwin in #9, Forbidden Falls. She had known hardship almost her entire life and had been left in Virgin River to fend for herself with no money and no possessions. I admired her tenacity and determined spirit and the way she was ready to do anything that meant she’d have a little bit of money for herself and her girls to start towards a better life. She walked to the orchard (about 3.4miles from memory) to start just after sunrise and worked hard and then walked home. She sacrificed a lot of time with them in order to support them and as a mother of children similar in ages to Nora’s (hers are 2 and 9 or 10 months, mine are 3 and nearly 8 months) I appreciated just how enormous that sacrifice was. She was scarred by the things that had happened to her, which made her slow to accept help or to re-establish contact with someone from her past who she had lost touch with, but I understood that. She was protecting herself and her children, which was very important to her. I didn’t like Tom quite as much – well I did at first, but several things he did and said over the course of the book irritated me just a little. I didn’t appreciate his attitude towards Nora being a single mother, as though to be involved with someone in her situation was unpalatable and I didn’t like the shallow way in which he went about dating someone in order to find a wife. It didn’t reflect well on him and it wasn’t really what I expected. This book did differ in most, if not all of the previous ones I’ve read in that the romance was definitely a much slower ban. The two main characters don’t even kiss until about 75% of the way through the book, whereas mostly the attractions are quite quick and the relations begin a lot sooner! This felt fresh, quite different, in that it didn’t take that path which is I think, quite true to Nora’s character. I do like how Tom was pretty much forced to reassess his prejudices in the end.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| May 03, 2012
| May 03, 2012
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May 03, 2012
| Mass Market Paperback
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| 0670922129
| 9780670922123
| 3.88
| 152
| Nov 01, 2012
| Nov 01, 2012
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Agnès Morel has been living in the ancient cathedral town of Chartres for nearly 20 years. She was found sleeping on the porch of the cathedral one ni...more
Agnès Morel has been living in the ancient cathedral town of Chartres for nearly 20 years. She was found sleeping on the porch of the cathedral one night and due to the kindness of several locals, found her way through enough odd jobs to get by, found a room to stay in exchange for helping look after an elderly lady and made a few friends. She keeps mostly to herself though, even though her dark looks, interesting clothes and eccentricity do attract some attention. When the cleaner for the cathedral can no longer do the work because of rheumatism, the Abbè Paul asks Agnès to take on the job, knowing she cleans around the village for several of its inhabitants. Agnès is happy to, liking to keep busy and it isn’t long before she has other offers – to organise the papers of Professor Jones and to babysit Philippe Nevers’ very young nephew. In cleaning the cathedral, Agnès also meets Alain, who is working on the restoration and he immediately wants to strike up a friendship with her, despite her awkwardness. But not everyone regards Agnès with such kind eyes. Her strange manner has attracted the attention of the jealous and spiteful Madame Beck, who asks Agnès to clean for her under the guise of observing her. When she believes that Agnès is responsible for something that goes missing in her apartment, she uses that as a reason to start a smear campaign of Agnès’ reputation and proves that she’s willing to drag up a painful, lonely past of a woman she doesn’t even know in order to make a petty point. The story is choppy, starting in present day Chartres and giving a brief history of the church before beginning to introduce us to Agnès but in a rather round-a-bout way. Her story is dolled out to the reader in dribs and drabs and speculation interspersed in the present day story, which is really just a very vague description of Agnès’ day to day life in Chartres: where she cleans and who for, the people she occasionally speaks to (there aren’t many, she has very few friends). I think that her story was supposed to make me really feel for her and pity her and I did pity her in some ways, because her childhood was the sort which would affect anyone in terms of their growing up – it would colour every thought and action. But I was unable to feel a connection with Agnès, I never really feel that I got to know her. She remained distant and vague to me, strangely inactive and passive to the events occurring around her. This book is written in a quite lovely way, very descriptive and charming with a good knowledge of the history of Chartres and the cathedral and also religious tales and Greek mythology. I enjoyed the interactions of some of the other people in the town, particularly the toxic friendship of Madames Beck and Picot, ladies probably in their sixties who maintained a kind of friendly tone that hid careful, well-honed barbs towards each other. I think it was such clever, well thought out writing and the same could be said of Madame Beck’s jealousy towards Agnès and her seemingly good-intention desire to bring her down. But I would’ve liked a little more reasoning for why Madame Beck was set against her from the very beginning of the book, as it seemed very flimsy. I couldn’t quite get behind such maliciousness gossip-mongering. I find this book quite hard to assess because there were times when I quite enjoyed it, however most of those times were when it wasn’t about Agnès. I think the remoteness I seemed to feel about her, made this book pretty difficult for me. It’s not a bad book, it’s written in a lovely way but it just wasn’t for me. I actually think I would’ve enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been structured with a linear narrative, starting with the beginning of Agnès’ story and taking us through her unhappy and often difficult life and working up to her arriving in Chartres. I think that would’ve definitely enabled me to really get to know her as a character a lot better and end up feeling a lot more for her.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Oct 19, 2012
| Oct 21, 2012
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Oct 18, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1926428471
| 9781926428475
| 3.40
| 163
| Sep 01, 2012
| Sep 2012
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Lola Bensky has what many would consider a dream job. She’s just 19 years old and she travels through London and America interviewing up and coming ro...more
Lola Bensky has what many would consider a dream job. She’s just 19 years old and she travels through London and America interviewing up and coming rock stars for an Australian publication. It’s the rise of rock n roll and Lola has been chasing down the likes of Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Cher and Mama Cass, talking to them about their music, their lives and their dreams. Mick Jagger makes her a cup of tea and debates word meanings with her, Jimi Hendrix possibly propositions her and Cher borrows her favourite pair of false eyelashes, with a line of diamontes and never returns them. It’s a charmed life and Lola is told that she should stay in America and keep working as a journalist and not return to Melbourne for a boyfriend that has probably just been sleeping with someone else anyway. Behind Lola’s fun life travelling the world is a desperately insecure girl who obsesses about her weight. Her parents are survivors of the Holocaust and her mother is fanatical about Lola’s weight, what Lola eats and what Lola doesn’t eat. To her, anything more than terribly skinny meant either German or someone aiding the Germans. Lola is a tall girl, broad and her mother has been trying for years to shift weight off her. Desperately unhappy, guilty that she lived when all of her family perished, Lola’s mother excels at passing on that guilt. She doesn’t know how to be happy, all she knows is the horrific things she saw and experienced at Auschwitz and they colour her every day life in post-war Melbourne and her relationship with Lola. Lola Bensky moves through Lola’s life as a rock journalist, through her marriage and motherhood and her shift into writing detective novels well into her adult life. Always she is influenced by her mother and her mother’s experiences which causes her to question things, to seek a deeper meaning in everything there is. I’ve read Lily Brett before and deeply enjoyed her work so when I was offered a review copy of her latest novel, Lola Bensky, I didn’t hesitate to accept. She writes with understanding and sensitivity of what happened in the second world war. This novel borrows heavily from Brett’s real life experiences – her own parents are survivors of the Holocaust and took six months to find each other again after the end of WWII. Lola has grown up with the shadow of what her parents, in particular her mother, experienced, hanging over her, tinging everything she did, said or thought. She was a character that it was easy to soften towards, to feel sorry for – her wistful interviews with rock stars seem to always lead back to a ‘sad topic’ and quite often she berates herself internally for introducing, or perpetuating these sad topics when she’s supposed to be talking about music, or their hopes and dreams. Despite her knack for dampening the topic of conversation, Lola seems to invoke a natural comfort in those that she interviews and it’s quite obvious they rather like her – Mick Jagger makes her tea and talks of being a role model and why he shouldn’t be. Jimi Hendrix invites her several times to come and see him and he remembers her when he sees her months later, in a different country and comes across to talk to her like a friend. Lola’s mother has instilled in her, an obsession about her weight. Each week it seems, she tries a new diet, each more ridiculous than the last, in an attempt to shed those extra kilos and become the thin daughter her mother seems to long for her to be. Extra weight means something sinister to someone who spent time in a prison death camp and Lola wants to be thin but can’t seem to find the willpower to stick to her diets. It’s a hard life, living on the road, shifting from one festival for the next to interview musicians and she breaks diets before she even starts them. Her weight gains her attention from her mother and I think that for Lola, even negative attention was good attention, from a woman who was hardly ever ‘there’. Physically, she was in the room and in the same house as Lola, but mentally her mother seemed locked away in her memories, lamenting the people she lost. Lola’s mother Renia regales her with horrific tales of Auschwitz, of prisoners being injected with typhus and cholera so they could be studied, of women being forced to submit for German Shepherds, of the experiments to attempt to glue shut women’s wombs. These are all based on things that Lily Brett heard stories of herself growing up and it’s hard to imagine a child being told of these things, or even a teenager that matter, about people that they know now, or about people that would’ve been part of their lives as relatives, had they not been brutally tortured and slaughtered. Lola Bensky is a novel that seems light when you first pick it up, littered with stories of famous musicians and her interactions with them. Delve below the surface and it’s a story overshadowed by the heinous acts that occurred during the second World War and how they are influencing lives a generation later and half a world away.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Oct 06, 2012
| Oct 07, 2012
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Oct 06, 2012
| Paperback
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| 9781101590898
| 3.78
| 2,710
| Aug 01, 2012
| Aug 07, 2012
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Olivia Mackenzie finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time during a job interview over lunch. Her inquisitive questions, stemming from her wo...more
Olivia Mackenzie finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time during a job interview over lunch. Her inquisitive questions, stemming from her work with the IRS lead the man to believe she is an FBI undercover agent and he attacks her and assaults her, before attempting to set his bodyguard on her. Fortunately for Olivia and unfortunately for her attacker, she has inadvertently stumbled into an FBI sting and they come to her rescue. That leads her to meet Agent Grayson Kincaid. Theirs is an attraction that is immediate but it seems as though there will always be things standing in their way. Olivia is a determined woman, she knows her father is running an extremely elaborate Ponzi scheme and she has been working tirelessly for years to find the evidence she needs to bring him down. Her careful digging and asking questions has touched a nerve somewhere and she is abused, threatened and then shot at in the street outside her building, putting her in hospital. Greyson is an agent assigned to the case as it is possible the shooting was also to do with the disastrous interview lunch and the fight that broke out during. While Grayson is protecting her 24/7, he cannot think of possibly getting involved with her, it goes against his training and morals. And there are other complications in his life that he must prioritise. Sweet Talk is a fun romantic suspense read that opened with a bang, featuring a lunch time interview for a job that turned into a guns-drawn stand-off with the FBI. Olivia is an attorney who works for the IRS but she suspects her job may possibly be in jeopardy because of cutbacks so she has been scouting around looking for something new. She also works part time as a children’s advocate attorney, a job that she loves but would find difficult to do full time because of how emotionally draining it is for her, seeing children in danger and terrible situations. In her spare time she looks for ways to bring down her egotistical and Narcissistic father who she is sure is running a Ponzi scheme. The evidence is well hidden, but Olivia keeps searching, determined to try and stop him from destroying more people’s livelihood. She faces extreme pressure from her family to ‘tow the line’ and stop her alienation in order for the family’s public image to be that of unity. Her childhood was spent mostly being treated for a rare form of illness, which neither of her parents could cope with and she is used to going it alone. She has no need for solidarity, no need to put her morals aside and support a father that she knows is doing the wrong thing, even if her mother and sister cannot see it. Olivia was a very strong female character and I liked her immensely. We’re treated to a little glimpse of her life as a child in hospital being treated for a rare disease along with three other girls, who became like her family. Olivia has always known her father cannot be bothered with anything less than perfection, seeing her as ‘flawed’ because of her illness and her mother only has room in her life for her father and her sister is keen to behave the way in which their father expects. I admired her strength and her determination – it’s a very big thing to go after your own father and attempt to bring him down, knowing that it will alienate people from you even more. But she knew she was doing the right thing and you got the feeling that she’d just keep searching until she found what she needed, no matter how long it took. Likewise I found Grayson as a character mostly enjoyable and I understood his reluctance to be involved with Olivia whilst he was an agent working on her case, for conflict of interest reasons (although to be honest, this resolution of his seemed to go out the window no more than three seconds after he made it) but I did find his disappearances to deal with “other” commitments in his life almost unforgivable, as he did it without even the most basic of explanations. Olivia was rather more forgiving when he reappeared than I would have been, which I didn’t feel quite fit in with her ‘strong’ woman persona. I’d have liked to see her not take Grayson to task, but perhaps demand to be treated with a little more respect from him. It really wasn’t fair that he just disappeared (I think, twice). This is my first Julie Garwood book and I really did enjoy it – I sense there may be more books coming that are loosely linked to this one and I’d definitely read them. I’m thinking about going back and picking a couple of her backlist to try as well as several people have told me that there are some really fabulous stories there.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Aug 20, 2012
| Aug 21, 2012
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Aug 20, 2012
| ebook
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| 9780857990303
| 3.73
| 15
| Mar 01, 2013
| Mar 01, 2013
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Christina Clay is determined to secure the best when it comes to marketing her family’s new label of wine and the best in the business is Tate Newell....more
Christina Clay is determined to secure the best when it comes to marketing her family’s new label of wine and the best in the business is Tate Newell. But Tate has been dodging her calls for months, not willing to be taken in with the kind of “cause” marketing he’s seen Christina and her family’s vineyard embark on before. When they finally meet, Tate decides that he has to let Christina experience exactly what she wants for this new wine brand – for it to be ‘wild’ and ‘outback’ and something that will turn Australian wine on its head. He takes her camping on his family’s remote cattle station, sure that city girl Christina with her leopard print shoes and scarves will run screaming in no time. Instead, Tate finds himself reluctantly impressed at the fact that there’s more to Christina than he first assumed. Christina has decided that her clock is ticking – she’s almost 35 and medical complications may make it difficult for her to conceive. She doesn’t really have time to waste. The attraction between her and Tate has been simmering during their camping experience and she plans to use that to her own advantage. Tate is the perfect opportunity to give her what she wants – a perfect brand for her new venture and also a baby. She just doesn’t plan on telling him about that last bit. After all, once the branding is finished, she’ll probably never see Tate again. Unfortunately it’s not that easy. Commitment shy Christina finds herself slipping into an easy relationship with Tate, despite the fact that she’s keeping a secret from him. But she doesn’t want to get married and she doesn’t want anything from him. Christina has seen what happens when a woman has to sacrifice a part of themselves for someone else’s happiness, to be responsible for that and she’s not going down that path. His Brand Of Beautiful is a debut title set in South Australia, which I have to admit, was a nice diversion from the usual settings of the eastern states. The first scene, in which the hero Tate is mistaken for the stripper that the heroine Christina has organised for her best friend’s hens party is so fun and it had me quietly giggling to myself. The attraction between Tate and Christina is almost immediate but things are complicated by the fact that Christina wants to hire Tate and Tate is…reluctant to be hired by Christina. He did some research and he’s seen her committing funds to save an endangered tree frog and finds out that she’s running in a marathon for breast cancer. When Christina mentions her ideas for the new brand, Tate baulks. He’s definitely not into “cause marketing” where a company attaches itself to a cause (such as saving cuddly koalas or freeing dolphins) simply because it looks good and it leads to more people buying their product. He’s into conservation for the belief, the desire to do good, even if it isn’t a particularly marketable cause. When Christina says she wants the new image to be wild, Tate decides to show her wild. I really liked Tate as a character – he was a very interesting mix of successful city businessman, with the degree and the business and the image and skills but also a rural man, who grew up on a very remote cattle station. He was schooled through the School of the Air and has a real passion for the rugged Australian outback – not the pretty variety, seen from a plane but the dusty, sweaty landscape where the flies are thick. He wants someone in his life that he can share that side of him with – and if Christina isn’t it, she’ll cut and run a mile early. She reminds him of someone that he lost that was very dear to him and I think at times Tate fears too much about history repeating itself. Which he actually has in common with Christina and they tend to butt heads with their decision making in that they don’t so much make decisions as a couple but just order each other around. Christina was a character I had a bit more trouble getting a handle on. She’s very generous, she’s a good friend, she’s passionate about her family’s business and making it a success. She has a fun and funky attitude to fashion but she’s also at home in jeans, camping out. However she was scarred by an incident in her childhood which tended to make her extremely selfish – case in point being her desire to conceive a child with Tate without telling him. That’s a very low thing to do to a man. The novel doesn’t touch upon a lot of things such as child support being compulsory whether the father knew of the pregnancy etc or not (which it is) and the fact that relegating someone to that of a weekend dad, or no sort of dad at all, is a bit morally bankrupt. Christina claims to want nothing from Tate, which is all well and good for her – but what about the baby? None of this really gets discussed properly or in depth enough for my liking. Tate is mad at Christina once he finds out but he seems to get over that awfully quickly – a little too quickly. What Christina did really wasn’t fair especially when it seemed like there was very little reason for her to be so underhanded about it. She put herself first in just about everything and didn’t show a lot of consideration towards Tate and there’s only so much mileage you can get out of “screwed up childhood with abandonment issues”. I did like that Christina was called out on her selfishness later in the book and forced to face the fact that she does do things without consulting other people or with little care for how it might affect them. There comes a time when you have to grow up and let things go and realise that other people’s choices are not your choices. You don’t necessarily need to live your life a certain way because of something someone else did a long time ago. Overall this was a lovely read with characters who have to face past losses and let them go in order to step forward into a new life together free of any baggage. It’s sweet and sexy at the same time and with some humour. It’s a very nice debut which promises more good stories to come.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Mar 30, 2013
| Mar 30, 2013
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Mar 29, 2013
| ebook
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| 9780857990
| unknown
| 4.12
| 33
| Jun 01, 2011
| Jan 10, 2013
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When Connor awakes from a coma after an accident that nearly claims his life, the last three years are a blank slate. Suffering from post-retrograde a...more
When Connor awakes from a coma after an accident that nearly claims his life, the last three years are a blank slate. Suffering from post-retrograde amnesia, everything that has happened in the past three years is as if it never took place at all. Connor has a new job, new friends, a girlfriend he doesn’t remember. And a friend that hangs back looking haunted and who promises to tell him everything, but that he’ll have to trust her. Emma and Connor were best friends – they were more than best friends. But then Connor discovered a secret she’d been keeping from him and the bond between them was ruthlessly severed. Emma blames herself, not only for their estrangement but also for Connor’s accident. She wants to help him remember but there are things she won’t tell him – what ended their relationship for starters. Connor may not remember everything that happened with Emma but the feelings are still there and the more time he spends with her, the more he wants to rekindle whatever it was they had, no matter what she says about him not being able to cope with her secret. He’s sure that this time around it will be different and that whatever it was, they can overcome it. Unforgettable is a sweet contemporary romance about love that has gone horribly wrong and getting a second chance. In the case of Connor and Emma, their second chance comes after Connor is involved in an accident and has his memory of the last three years of his life wiped. He doesn’t remember Emma, their friendship or their brief relationship but something that has overcome the memory loss is his reaction to her. There’s something still there, there are feelings still there and even more feelings are developing as Connor is getting to know Emma again and putting back together the pieces of his fractured life. I love amnesia stories, I do. I’m a deadset sucker for them actually, although a lot of people will say that they’re a very tired plot device. But when done right I think they’re so fabulous and they give so much chance for beautiful romantic and sexual tension. They’re almost an automatic buy for me so I was really looking forward to this novel. And while I enjoyed parts of it, there were some elements that did not particularly work for me. Firstly, the reason for which Emma and Connor broke up was….a bit weak, to be honest. It’s billed as this extremely huge secret that Emma has and I have to say, my mind was working overtime trying to figure out what it could possibly be that would result in such a catastrophic meltdown. And when it is revealed and Connor reacts exactly the same way the second time as he did the first time, I felt a bit let down, both by the actual fact and by Connor’s behaviour. Up until that moment, I had really liked him but the way in which he reacted again made me dislike him. I tried to puzzle this out a little bit - Unforgettable is quite a short novel, around 177p. It begins when Connor wakes from his coma and goes forward from there with only a few flashbacks to happier times for him and Emma. I think that this was a problem for me because it didn’t give me a clear enough picture of their relationship before her secret was revealed (the first time). I was told a lot of times that they were perfect for each other and that everything had been fantastic before the big reveal but I don’t think enough time was taken to show me this. I wanted some more flashbacks to really flesh out the relationship that they’d had and why Connor had reacted the way he did. I can see on the surface, why he may have but I think it would’ve been better once again, fleshed out. Everyone has things in their past that they haven’t confessed and Emma’s secret was not actually that terrible. It would’ve been a blow to Connor’s ego but the fact that he reacted so severely not once, but twice kind of irritated me a little bit. Having broken her heart twice he then thinks he should get a third chance and it just wasn’t enough for me to believe in it. However what I did really enjoy was the setting. It’s set in Melbourne and I live here so I always really like finding books with familiar landmarks and I appreciated the unusual world of construction. I found a lot of the details and intricacies of the project Emma and Connor’s company were working on quite fascinating and although I’ve no idea if they’re plausible or not, they certainly seemed that way! I think for me, this book would’ve benefited from another 100-130 pages and I do not say that very often! I would’ve loved a lot more exploration into the dynamics between Emma and Connor, them getting together, the comfortable style of their relationship and I’d definitely have liked some more time devoted to the situation behind the secret. I think the framework was there and it’s still a good read but it’s just missing that something more, those finer details and character developments that would have made it truly awesome.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jan 07, 2013
| Jan 07, 2013
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Jan 06, 2013
| ebook
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| 9781743481189
| unknown
| 3.45
| 20
| Mar 15, 2013
| Mar 15, 2013
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Helen Stoddart is performing in Venice, taking full advantage of the dark wig and mask that makes up their costume. She’s had enough notoriety to last...more
Helen Stoddart is performing in Venice, taking full advantage of the dark wig and mask that makes up their costume. She’s had enough notoriety to last her a lifetime and the pleasure of being unrecognisable gives her the confidence to sing in front of an audience. She spots Gabriel Venier in the crowd and the attraction simmers between them. Later when Gabriel rescues her from an attempted assault after the show, she goes with him back to his palazzo where she allows herself to indulge in one night of passion in the dark of night with no names before her flight back to Australia. Once back in her home country, Helen dons a different mask – one of icy remoteness, standing straight and tall against the horrible scandal that has engulfed her family. Jailed for fraud and corruption, her lawyer father and brother brought down a scandal in law, the likes of which hadn’t been seen before. Hounded by the press, suspected of being involved, Helen has not helped her cause by maintaining her aloof silence. But she made a promise… A trained accountant, she’s had trouble getting a job since the police raid and arrests. When she finally does get one as a clerk on a team auditing Venier’s bank she’s stunned when the owner arrives and turns out to be her one night stand from Venice. At first, Gabriel Venier doesn’t recognise her - after all she never gave her name and she was wearing a dark wig, hiding her naturally white blonde hair. But when his private investigator finally gives him the name of the woman who ran from him that night, Gabriel is shocked to find it’s the same woman the scandal surrounds…and the same woman that he still felt oddly attracted to. Gabriel is also shocked to find that this icy, cold and impenetrable woman is nothing like the fiery and passionate one that he experienced in Venice. He at first suspects her motives, wondering which is the real Helen. As he decides to get to know her, he begins to see chinks in her armour and makes it his mission to shatter it and once again rouse the fire lurking inside. A Venetian Affair is the second March release for Destiny Romance. The book opens in Venice where Helen is performing as part of her studies at the Conservatory of Music, something that she is passionate about. She hides behind her mask, enjoying the freedom to just be, without being hounded by the press for a comment, a photo. I’ve never been to Venice, so I don’t really know much about the logistics of police and doctors making housecalls but Gabriel manages to get Helen to his palazzo where she throws caution to the wind and abandons her façade for one wild night. Back in Australia, Helen is a different person. She’s been deeply affected by the family scandal and she’s also been effectively gagged by a domineering family member as well, unable to speak out of her own innocence. Helen has wanted to be recognised and respected by her family for so long that even after the scandal, she’s doing everything she can to try and earn that. She’s shoving everything back behind an icy demeanour that makes it hard to relate to her at first but you get the feeling that she really has had the most difficult life. There’s been wealth and privilege but also obviously she’s been overlooked and perhaps even bullied. A trained accountant, not a lawyer, Helen didn’t even work for the family firm but yet the press don’t seem to care about this, hounding her constantly and printing whatever they like. This part of the story did feel a bit unrealistic to me – it’s very unusual to see huge presses of paparazzi in Australia, especially directed towards a member of a family that were brought down in a legal scandal. Helen is attractive and her reluctance to speak might have warranted some interest, as would her friendship with a reclusive wealthy man but the constant stories and speculation really didn’t seem that likely. To be honest, it just didn’t seem like Helen would be that interesting, for the press or for the readers of their publications. The trial was long over, her corrupt family members were in jail. However it gives Gabriel and excellent excuse to blackmail her and it also provides a reason for Helen to be somewhere on a specific day. I appreciate what Gabriel wanted to do, in his deal with Helen but I have to say that I did not particularly enjoy the way in which he went about it. Overly alpha heroes do tend to rub me the wrong way, especially if they border on bullying type of behaviour. Gabriel was straddling a line here – his thinly veiled threats to Helen when he first discovers her identity and later when he blackmails her to spend time with him were borderline for me. I really just wanted Helen to walk away from him, which is not really what you should be thinking about the hero and heroine! I know he wanted to get to know her, the real her but his way of doing this was very heavy handed and it angered me. And Helen was far too forgiving of it, and of him. However like Helen’s sister, I really think that Helen took the whole implacable mask thing a bit too far and was in danger of becoming someone who never allowed themselves to feel a thing. I see what they wanted to do and I think her sister’s method was much quicker and much more effective than Gabriel’s. I really liked Helen’s sister and the bits and pieces we got of her story – in fact, I wish there was a book about her.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Mar 14, 2013
| Mar 14, 2013
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Mar 14, 2013
| ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385342063
| 9780385342063
| 3.90
| 46,242
| Oct 31, 2011
| Feb 14, 2012
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Poppy Wyatt is in big trouble – she’s lost the one thing she was not supposed to lose. Her engagement ring. And to make matters worse it’s a family he...more
Poppy Wyatt is in big trouble – she’s lost the one thing she was not supposed to lose. Her engagement ring. And to make matters worse it’s a family heirloom and her fiancé’s parents (who already make her feel inferior enough) are flying in – the wedding is almost here. The hotel where she was when she lost it all have her phone number – but that phone has been stolen. When Poppy spots a phone lying abandoned in a rubbish bin in the hotel lobby, it’s like fate. She needs a phone so she can be contacted by the hotel. There’s a phone right there. And possession is nine tenths of the law, right? Even if she doesn’t really know what that means. The phone that Poppy picks up happens to have belonged to the Personal Assistant of businessman Sam Roxton but she has jacked in her job, tossed the phone and disappeared. Poppy now faces a very irate Sam on the phone demanding it back as it is company property. Poppy ends up having to do Sam a favour and in return she negotiates usage of the phone until her ring is found, swearing that she will forward on all correspondence, both email and text message that is meant for Sam. Sam doesn’t want Poppy to read the correspondence, just forward it but Poppy can’t help taking some sneak peeks. Soon she and Sam are trading messages back and forth, about everything. Poppy keeps finding excuses to keep the phone and she and Sam are becoming more and more involved in each other’s lives, both through messages and also in person. Faced with news about her fiancé that could change everything, Poppy will have to decide just what it is she really wants. What I love about Sophie Kinsella is that I know what I’m going to get pretty much every time I pick up one of her books. I’m an avid fan of her Shopaholic series and I’ve liked a few of her stand alone novels so when I was offered a chance to review this one – I couldn’t reply quick enough! And for me, I’ve Got Your Number delivered on every level. Kinsella specialises in quirky, fun, slightly catastrophic heroines in that they’re always finding themselves in scrapes and digging themselves deeper before they begin to climb out. Poppy’s scrape is obvious from the first page – she’s lost her engagement ring. Her fiancé’s parents are gifted academics who can barely have a conversation without turning it into a debate worthy of a Ph.D and they already make Poppy feel unintelligent. She can’t face the humiliation of them knowing that she has lost her engagement ring when they already seem to think her entire existence is mostly useless anyway. So she comes up with plan after plan in order to stall the inevitable. I loved Poppy! Kinsella’s heroines can often make me frustrated, even when I’m liking them, but Poppy didn’t at all. I found her funny and warm and yes a bit of a stickybeak but in her situation, with tonnes of emails and texts at her fingertips, who wouldn’t take a peek? Honestly I’d have found it odder if she didn’t snoop around in the phone! She can’t help herself trying to make a few ‘improvements’ for Sam – most of which backfire! I thought it would be hard to top the love I have for Luke Brandon, but I think Sam comes quite close. In his own brusque way Sam pries into Poppy’s life just as much as she does into his and he tries to help her with the feelings of inadequacy that she has regarding her fiancé Magnus and his overachieving family. Poppy is a perennial people pleaser, almost incapable of asserting herself especially in a situation where she feels uncomfortable and insecure, such as dinner with Magnus’s family. Sam doesn’t lack this talent and he tries to push Poppy to value herself, because it’s quite clear that he values her. She has erupted into his life like a whirlwind and sought to change his life as he seeks to change hers (signing his emails with kisses, volunteering him for a fun run and also calling for company employees to make suggestions on how they think things could be improved), and the relationship that they have nurtured through mostly texts, emails and phone calls becomes more intimate than the one Poppy has with her fiancé. It showcases just how much times are changing in this digital era where it’s utterly possible to conduct communication using a phone and still end up developing a meaningful relationship with someone and perhaps even falling in love with them. I’ve Got Your Number was the sort of novel that had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions and emotionally invested in the story of Poppy and Sam the whole way through. I loved the way in which Kinsella brought them together and built the foundations of their friendship. I’ve read a few reviews that mention not liking the footnotes but I actually found them quite entertaining – I almost found them like a little voice in my head, Poppy specifically adding in details to the story as an aside, much in the way someone would when relating a long, involved and funny story. They didn’t pull me out of the story at all and I think they were quite relevant to the story given Poppy’s comments on Magnus and his family’s work and also the speech she makes at the end. If you enjoy Kinsella’s humour then I can highly recommend this one. It’s pacy, well written and just lots of fun.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jun 27, 2012
| Jun 28, 2012
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Jun 27, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0062004360
| 9780062004369
| 3.65
| 1,955
| Aug 20, 2009
| Feb 14, 2012
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Natalie is a young woman who perhaps had, the most perfect relationship. François and Natalie met on the street and from there it was an easy segue in...more
Natalie is a young woman who perhaps had, the most perfect relationship. François and Natalie met on the street and from there it was an easy segue into a date, a steady relationship, an engagement and then marriage. They both had good jobs and a routine that suited them well. Natalie is aware of the looks that often slide her way, the wonders on how their relationship can be so easy. Natalie doesn’t understand having to ‘work’ at keeping things fresh, exciting and new. Neither of them do. Then the unthinkable happens and several years into their marriage, François is killed, hit by a car whilst out jogging. Natalie’s whole world is ripped apart and for a while it is all she can do to go through the motions of life, using her work as something to keep her grounded, keep things on an even keel. Years later, still almost living in a fog but questioning whether or not she can go on like this forever, Natalie kisses a work colleague Markus. For Natalie, it is an impulsive move, a spur of the moment thing that she later wants to ignore. For Markus, it is the moment where he falls helplessly in love with Natalie and he cannot ignore it, or forget it. He has to know why – awkward, shy but funny, Markus and beautiful, intelligent but somewhat remote Natalie seem a very unlikely match. And their whole office environment is watching with avid interest (and jealousy) as their stumbling relationship plays out. Delicacy is an interestingly written novel, unlike anything I’ve read before. I’m not sure if this is because it’s the first novel I’ve ever read that has been translated from French (I don’t read a lot of translated fiction and what I have read has been translated from Swedish or Afrikaans), or if this is just the unique way in which David Foenkinos writes. There’s a certain charm to it, a bit of a rhythm that takes some getting used to but I did find it quite enjoyable when I settled in to it. The story of Natalie and her loss of François and attempt to grieve and move on is peppered with very short chapters containing information on things ranging from what Natalie had to dinner at a restaurant, the likelihood of an allergy to fish, lyrics from a song heard by a character in a car and excerpts from novels, plays and movies. There’s also footnotes expanding upon points, citing a reference of clarifying a point dotted throughout the text. I actually always really enjoy stuff like this, although I do know that these kind of inserts aren’t always for everyone. The short chapters and often abrupt ‘information’ chapters certainly weren’t a detraction for me. There’s a certain sort of detachment in the narrative, almost as though someone is relating this to you as a story about a handful of people you are vaguely acquainted with. And because it feels like that, not a lot of time is taken to establish character (either Natalie’s or Markus’s) or to promote character depth. The book is, like it’s title, very delicate where the focus seems to be on giving just the bare bones and allowing the reader to flesh out the rest. This made it quite difficult for me to decide whether or not I liked Natalie, because I didn’t know much about her other than she liked to read, was married to François, in what was pretty much the perfect relationship, gutted by his death and she was very good at her job. The rest I had to guess for myself through the barely constructed narrative and I decided in the end that I did like her, but mostly only when she was conversing with Markus and they were navigating their way through their unusual and awkward relationship. Markus was Swedish and I’m not sure if this is a French thing, but there was much made of how Swedes are so depressed and the high suicide rates and that Markus would basically die than return there when he’s offered a promotion back to Sweden later in the novel. I found Markus quite likable right away, I think because such pains were taken to establish him as an underdog in compared to Natalie, who is beautiful. It is repeatedly stated that Markus is not handsome or attractive, but that he is quite funny (especially for a Swede) and dresses in a very odd way, but a way in which suits him. He’s endearing and his crippling crush on Natalie only serves to make him more so. If you like subtle novels, full of a certain charm and a lack of sexual harrassment policies at work then Delicacy might be a novel you’d be interested in. I did very much enjoy the story line and the writing, once I got used to the idea that I was going to be given a little information, not a lot. Delicacy was nominated for all five of the major French literary awards – the first novel ever to achieve that. I couldn’t find out a lot of information about the author (most website hits were in French!) but his novels have been translated into fifteen languages. Delicacy has also been adapted for the big screen, starring Audrey Tautou and I have to admit, I’m interested in seeing it, especially as the author himself adapted the screenplay and directed the film.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| May 15, 2012
| May 16, 2012
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May 13, 2012
| Paperback
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| 1921901101
| 9781921901102
| 4.17
| 18
| Aug 22, 2012
| Aug 22, 2012
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Judd Bell used to have it all. He was the top of his game as an astronaut, the man of the moment. And he had a beautiful, smart girlfriend named Rhond...more
Judd Bell used to have it all. He was the top of his game as an astronaut, the man of the moment. And he had a beautiful, smart girlfriend named Rhonda who worked along side of him at NASA. There was no denying that Judd Bell was going places. But then the space shuttle Columbia is lost, taking with it Judd’s best friend and the man of the moment loses his mojo. His career is suddenly going in a downward spiral, not rising up through the roof and it’s Rhonda that is rising. When she is chosen to pilot a new mission in space, Judd knows that things between them have changed. She’s different now, and he doesn’t know how to fix it. As the space shuttle Atlantis is preparing for take off, the unthinkable happens – the shuttle is highjacked by an advanced team of terrorists and completely taken over. The high level of skill, funding and even luck required to be able to pull off such a thing is baffling and no one can believe that it has actually taken place. A space shuttle, stolen off the launch pad – it’s unbelievable. This could be the end of the space exploration program, the end of everything if they don’t get that space shuttle back and prevent whatever it is the terrorists want to use it for. But to Judd, that’s all secondary – what he cares about is the fact that Rhonda is strapped into that space shuttle and is little more than a pawn in a terrorist’s game. If they pull off their mission, there is no way the love of his life will come back alive and Judd knows he can’t let that happen. Frustrated about being sent to Central Australia to gain access to a satelite dish receiving data after the terrorists destroyed valuable ones for collecting flight tracking data in the take off, Judd is suddenly shocked to realise that he could just have inadvertently ended up right in the thick of things. A space shuttle gone blind in the night…..might not be so untraceable after all. But Judd is going to have to overcome some problems if he wants to stop the terrorists and save not only Rhonda, but the world as well. For starters, he’s alone in the unforgiving Australian desert with nothing more than a crazy helicopter pilot who talks to his cattle dog for company and back-up. And Judd also has that little problem of his confidence…. Velocity is a heart-stopping new thriller from first time Australian author, Steve Worland. Having previously worked in film and television, Worland has now turned his talents to novel writing and the result is a fast-paced, action packed story that takes a reader on a pretty wild ride! We start with Judd Bell on top of his game, knowing he’s at the top of his game and that his life couldn’t be any more perfect. He’s an astronaut on the way up, he’s got a fantastic girlfriend, he’s the man. All of that changes when space shuttle Columbia breaks up upon re-entry to Earth’s orbit and Judd is crippled by grief and also, doubt. All of a sudden he’s making mistakes, he’s struggling with simple SIM exercises and chances are, he’s not going into space when Atlantis is cleared for its mission. Not only that, but his relationship with Rhonda is suffering greatly. Judd’s lack of confidence has caused him to become needy and Rhonda is not in a position to be able to shore him up and deal with that neediness. When Atlantis is high-jacked and Rhonda along with it, Judd’s focus is getting her back. The fact that he also needs to stop what the terrorists have planned is in his mind, but his thoughts are primarily for Rhonda. At times I did question whether or not Rhonda deserved such devotion from Judd – she was quite rough on him in terms of his state of mind and unable to really want to deal with a boyfriend that was no longer the man of the minute. I felt that I didn’t quite get a good enough handle on the good times of their relationship to really appreciate the depth of Judd’s feeling and desperation to save her. But apart from that, this book was really fun! I don’t really like action movies so much because I am the person who always criticises the lack of plausibility but for some reason, I don’t seem to have that issue when I am reading books. I think that Worland really thought out the possibilities of actually high-jacking a shuttle, what it would take, how long it would take, the sort of skills that would need to be involved and that shows in the writing. So many things are covered, so much planning and meticulous detail and this continues throughout the story when Judd is sent to Central Australia and what he discovers there. I know that Worland is Australian, so it’s not surprising to see our country playing a large role in the plot but I do always get a kick out of seeing Australia featured in a global story as an important part! I also really came to like Corey, the rather ‘different’ Australian helicopter pilot that assists Judd, and his dog Spike. At first I wasn’t quite sure about them – but I think the amusing dialogue combined with Corey’s relaxed manner and skill as a pilot won me over. Worland is currently writing a sequel to Velocity which will be released next year from Penguin AU and I’ll definitely keep reading. If you are fond of expansive terrorist plots, explosions, gun battles, stunt flying and the battle of good vs evil then you’ll find lots to enjoy in this book. It makes a great story to read in one sitting.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Aug 16, 2012
| Aug 17, 2012
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Aug 14, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1476711100
| 9781476711102
| 3.79
| 3,263
| Jan 21, 2013
| Jan 21, 2013
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Kasie Fitzgerald is in Las Vegas for one last pre-wedding weekend and her best friend murmurs in her ear that she should sleep with a stranger. Kasie...more
Kasie Fitzgerald is in Las Vegas for one last pre-wedding weekend and her best friend murmurs in her ear that she should sleep with a stranger. Kasie dismisses this until in the casino, she sees Robert Dade. Handsome, well-dressed, powerful and dangerous the sight of him gives her ideas. It was supposed to be just one night – that’s all. One night of passion, something that made her feel before she married the man she’s been seeing for the last 6 years. The safe, sensible option, the one that fits in with all of the other life choices that Kasie has made. But then the stranger reappears in her life… He’s the billionaire CEO of a company that has engaged her PR firm and Kasie is made head of the team to handle the account. That means that she’s going to be seeing a lot of him an he’s made it very clear that he’s anxious to repeat the experience they shared in Vegas. And no matter how many times Kasie tells herself and him that it’s not going to happen again, it does. Again and again. With Robert Dade, Kasie experiences a freedom to act and do as she wants, to let something inside of her out to be free that she cannot do in her regular life. But she’s promised herself to someone else and something has to give… Sometimes a book is fabulous because it’s original, something fresh and new and exciting that a reader has never come across before and strikes a chord within them. Sometimes a book is fabulous not because it’s original, but because it’s well done. An old idea can still be amazing, if it’s done very well. And sometimes a book is none of these things. Kasie Fitzgerald has an Ivy League education and a fabulous job with a top firm that she owes to her tax accountant boyfriend of 6 years. She wears no-nonsense suits and apparently the night in Vegas is the first time she’s ever worn something that wasn’t hideously unflattering, hiding her body from the world. She’s sure her boyfriend is going to propose soon and her friend urges her to sleep with a stranger before she ends up tied down for life. Kasie gives this statement the disdain it deserves until she spots Robert Dade and from then on, it’s just a matter of how long until she’s in his private suite. When Robert turns out to be the CEO of the company who has hired her firm and of course he has requested she head up the account because she dropped her business card in his suite. Way to be anonymous for your one night stand Kasie! Confronted by Robert in her place of work, her life, Kasie attempts to tell him that what happened in Vegas, stays in Vegas but it seems like Robert doesn’t get that memo – and actually, neither does Kasie and she’s only too happy to repeat the experience in his office, at his home, on the internet via webcam. I was hoping the fact that Kasie was basically engaged would provide an interesting element to what is becoming a tired formula: billionaire CEO and sexually inexperienced or naive young woman but that didn’t seem to happen. In fact, all it seemed to do was make me dislike Kasie even more. She doesn’t seem to actually care for her boyfriend/fiancé at all but nor will she end things with him because his godfather is the boss of her company and that apparently would mean he would fire her? Is that actually allowed? I suppose she got hired when her boyfriend put in a good word for her so I suppose it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that she’d be fired if she were no longer dating him but that does seem like a unfair dismissal lawsuit right there. I didn’t really get a sense of Kasie’s moral dilemma because it doesn’t really actually seem to be one – she says she’s not going to sleep with Dade again because she’s nearly engaged and then actually engaged, but she still does anyway, more than once. This is a short novel, very short and it seems that’s at the expense of developing the character of Robert Dade into anything beyond a cardboard cutout. He’s rich, he’s well dressed, he’s a CEO of something-or-other and he’s fascinated with Kasie. That’s about the extent of the character insight we get into him and I didn’t find him that interesting or even that charismatic or attractive. Time needs to be taken to establish chemistry and I think that is also where this book fails – the characters sleep together pretty much right away, so there’s no build up, no sexual tension allowed to play out teasingly and develop to a high level, as is the case in other erotic romances similar to this one. He talks up a big game about “setting her free” and seeing the real her and all of this other stuff but it doesn’t even seem believable. It’s very much a cliche. The one thing that stirred my interest in this book was the ending, which I didn’t expect. I’m not sure if it’s enough to make me want to read the second novel (as this naturally, is a trilogy) but I would like to know what happens. Maybe I’ll just read some reviews.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 07, 2013
| Jan 07, 2013
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Jan 07, 2013
| ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 9781921795831
| 4.00
| 33
| Dec 01, 2012
| Dec 01, 2012
|
Single mother Angela Ranger is struggling. Abandoned by her former boyfriend, the father of her 4yo daughter Claudia, she’s been slowly drowning in de...more
Single mother Angela Ranger is struggling. Abandoned by her former boyfriend, the father of her 4yo daughter Claudia, she’s been slowly drowning in debt ever since. So when her father, who runs a freight business offers her a job driving B-double freight loads between Adelaide and the town of Munirilla, a small rural spot on the map between Adelaide and Perth, she hesitantly accepts. The job will enable her to have Claudia with her and hopefully, she will be able to save some money and get back on her feet. However it seems that things aren’t going exactly to plan – some of the locals are surprised and a bit wary upon finding out that she’s a woman and a small, blonde, delicate-looking woman at that. Soon she finds some trouble with orders being cancelled, being stuffed around and a rival trucking firm that seems to want to run her right out of town. Angela is doing her best but the odds are already against her being a woman and some of the delays and issues that seem to her like sabotage are just making her seem even less reliable to the locals who need a freight service that they can count on. The town has been crying out for it and now that she’s here, it seems like they’re not happy with what they’re being offered. Angela wants to make a go of it so she’s determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening but she’s also got Claudia’s father turning up in her life and wanting access to her after months of no contact and a family member who seems to be making an underhanded bid for Claudia, behind Angela’s back. Coop has never been one to stay in the one place. He likes moving around, drifting from job to job, not putting down any roots and not having people depend on him. For the past 18 months he’s been working for local farmer Alice Tansell who needs to go to Adelaide for some medical treatment. She’s depending on Coop to keep her farm going in her absence and so far there’s been a few strange happenings that he’s trying to get a handle on. Angela is a breath of fresh air for Coop and he finds himself spending more and more time with her and her daughter Claudia, helping her out occasionally in ways that are mutually beneficial to both of them. Angela wants to stay in Munirilla but she also needs the people to trust her and give her their business. If they can’t do that, then her father will pull the contract. Coop is feeling restless, like it’s time to move on but his newfound friendship with Angela might just be a sign that Munirilla is the place he’s meant to be. Queen Of The Road introduces us to Angela, down on her luck, living in Melbourne and struggling with debt and credit cards. She’s been abandoned by her former partner and is raising their daughter alone. She’s always been able to drive the big rigs, her dad used to take her on the road with him a lot and its been the one thing she’s been able to keep between the two of them after he married her stepmother Janice. When he offers her a job doing freight between Adelaide and Munirilla, she has to think about it but ultimately decides to accept even though she has some reservations. A woman who drives a B-double? Fabulous! I love characters that break ground and having Angela firmly ensconced in what is pretty predominantly still a man’s world, was such an interesting idea. I have to admit – I’ve watched Ice Road Truckers and I’m a fan of Lisa, the one girl that does long-haul freight in Alaska. She’s seriously five foot nothing and watching her maneuver these huge trucks is amazing. And given my eldest son is the same age as Claudia, I had a huge amount of respect for Angela taking her daughter along with her. I know how difficult it would be, even with plenty of snacks and activities for kids, to have them on a lot of long trips. I admired her, for making a decision to hopefully better the future, for both herself and Claudia. Angela was determined and strong, but not without her faults as well – hotheadedness, a tendency not to stop at one drink even though she was often in a situation where she should, not exactly good with money. But she was a good mother, a good daughter and she worked hard at her job, worked hard to get in with the local people and provide a good service. She didn’t want to let her father down and she came to really care about the job she was doing and the fact that it was making her and Claudia happy. I also enjoyed the story of Coop, a bit of a drifter who found himself unexpectedly landed with more responsibility than he bargained for when his boss had to go to the city for medical treatment. I really enjoyed the friendship that blossomed between him and Angela as they got to know each other. As I said to someone I talked about this book to, I feel as though this was a novel first and foremost about Angela’s journey, learning to stand on her own two feet and get her life back. She negotiated with people, she won contracts, she foiled attempts at sabotage. The romance that was just beginning to bloom with Coop towards the end of the book was secondary to that and it really worked. Angela wasn’t trying to fix her problems by finding herself a man, he was just a bonus that came along basically after everything else was sorted. Queen Of The Road was such an enjoyable story, I burned through it in about 3 hours! I found myself really invested in Angela’s situation and wanting her to fight the sabotage and be accepted by the community. I was also really incensed on her behalf with the accusations that she wasn’t a good mother – pretty much everything she did was because she was a mother and she was trying to do her best. It’s not easy to be any sort of parent, even harder to be a single one. She was making a go of it and her daughter was fed, clothed, well looked after and happy. The situation wasn’t perfect but it’s probably more preferable to have Claudia with her and sleeping in the rig and spending time with her mother than being in a city daycare while her mother worked in the city. I’ll be definitely looking forward to more from this author in the future.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Nov 24, 2012
| Nov 24, 2012
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Nov 23, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1408819651
| 9781408819654
| 3.46
| 168
| Jul 19, 2012
| Sep 13, 2012
|
In Geneva, a Russian spy approaches an employee of MI5 and requests to speak to only one person: Liz Carlyle of MI6. After they figure out precisely w...more
In Geneva, a Russian spy approaches an employee of MI5 and requests to speak to only one person: Liz Carlyle of MI6. After they figure out precisely who he is and what his connection is to Carlyle (and how he even knows about her) a meeting is arranged between the two of them in Geneva. He gives Carlyle some valuable information: he tells her of a secret joint operation between the UK and the US that has been infiltrated by someone from a third country (but that third country isn’t Russia). At first the information seems pretty out there – after all no one has even heard of this joint mission. But once Carlyle does some digging she finds out that it does indeed exist. The Russian has said that the leak is coming from the London end of the operation even though all of the people working on the project have the utmost highest clearance in the land and have been strenuously checked by security. In Nevada, a man operating a drone aircraft for testing is horrified when the drone suddenly begins ignoring his commands and taking on a life of his own. This happens once and everyone is on high alert but believe it to be a technical glitch. When it happens a second time and the drone goes down, the information the Russian has given appears to be correct. Someone has cracked the encrypted coded software that controls the drones and can now give the drone commands. This kind of cyber terrorism could be catastrophic. People are torn as to who exactly is behind this. Their Russian contact swore that it wasn’t his own country but there are some that aren’t willing to believe that – who else could it be? How do Russia even know about it if they aren’t involved in some way? As Liz and her team race to hunt down the mole inside the secret project they uncover a plot of money laundering and designs of cyber terrorism that could change the superpowers of the planet entirely. The Geneva Trap is the seventh novel in Stella Rimington’s Liz Carlyle MI6 series dealing with international espionage. It’s the first I’ve read, which is unusual for me as my preference is to read a series in order but given this is the seventh installment I didn’t have enough time to track down the previous six and get them all read before this one’s release date! However I do believe these can easily be read stand alone. Characters are explained, roles are explained, country relations are explained. I never felt lost or confused and although there are a lot of characters here and quite a few organisations (a lot of which are abbreviated) it’s quite easy to follow what’s going on. Liz is quite a capable character, obviously you don’t get where she is by not being good at what you do. She’s calm, measured and tolerant even when she needs to deal with people you can tell that she doesn’t particularly like and unlike others she seems to try not to show this and also attempt not to let it affect working relations. She’s someone that interests me, it seems that this novel is the first time that why she joined MI6 is stated, as it has to do with the person that needs to speak to her. I don’t know much about how her career progressed so obviously there are some gaps but the book doesn’t concern itself a huge amount with her life away from the particular investigation at the time. You do meet her family and she does get involved in a mystery there and you do deal with her partner but that seems to be very much a supporting plot to the one about the cyber terrorism. The book doesn’t get bogged down in familial life and dramas away from the one that’s threatening world security. The cyber terrorism idea I found utterly fascinating, probably because in such an age as the one we’re in, you can do just about anything so long as you have a computer. You can work a lot of jobs, you can pay your bills, order your food, clothes and entertainment. Some people could probably get by just fine never leaving the house so long as they had a computer and an internet connection so why not be able to control drones from a different part of the world? In the future any wars may be fought from remote locations using a variety of weapons manned in such a way as these drones. The idea that other countries could hack into these secure, encrypted systems and use that as a base to serve their own agendas is quite frightening! I do think that sometimes the characters were a little cliched depending on their nations but overall I found this a very enjoyable way to pass an afternoon, immersing myself in international espionage. I do intend to keep up with this series.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Sep 12, 2012
| Sep 12, 2012
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Sep 11, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 9781864712384
| 3.80
| 1,360
| Jan 01, 2011
| Jan 01, 2012
|
Vanessa ‘Michael’ Munroe has been holed up in Morocco since the events at the conclusion of The Informationist. When someone approaches her to request...more
Vanessa ‘Michael’ Munroe has been holed up in Morocco since the events at the conclusion of The Informationist. When someone approaches her to request – no, beg – her assistance, it isn’t normally the sort of job she would take. After all, they’re not able to pay her nearly the amount she would usually command. But this person happens to be one of the few people in the world who can claim a relationship with Munroe. He’s one of the few people she cares about – they’ve been friends for a long time and when Logan comes asking, Munroe puts aside some demons and a reluctance to return stateside because she cannot say no to him. Logan wants her help to extract a 13yo girl named Hannah who was kidnapped eight years ago by a man who took her deep into the arms of a cult known as The Chosen. Hannah’s mother and her friends have been looking for her ever since and it’s taken them this long to even get a good tip on her location – The Chosen have kept Hannah extremely well isolated and protected, moving her around often. She’s believed to be in Argentina, South America, although a precise location isn’t known. That’s where Munroe comes in. Pretty soon Munroe and the hangers-on who came with her into Argentina realise that the best way to get Hannah out is to infiltrate the cult. The greatest chance of success to get this young girl out…is to send Munroe in. The Innocent is the follow up to The Informationist which I read last year. Stevens’ flawed hero, Vanessa ‘Michael’ Munroe exploded onto the scene, drawing comparisons with Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander and intriguing readers with her fine range of abilities and damaged psyche. I found The Informationist fast paced – almost excessively so and at times, Munroe a little hard to connect with. Nevertheless I was still very interested in where Stevens was going to go with the character and the series so when the opportunity to review this title came up, I was eager to take it. There’s no doubt that the pace in this one is slower – but that’s not to say it’s boring. There’s still plenty of action, lots of sneaking around, Munroe slipping easily into different personas and doing what she does best – gathering information. But there’s less country hopping, less kidnappings, less running for their lives. Miles Bradford makes an appearance in this book, taking time off from his own company, to assist Munroe again, one of the few people she will tolerate having her back. The relationship between the two of them is easier – Munroe is agreeable to working with him, she’s not trying to lose him at every turn or make things difficult. Even though she’s deeply troubled in this book by certain things and is as deadly as ever, she seems softer, somehow a bit more vulnerable in this novel. She is suffering from traumatic nightmares and these also contribute to the fact that she seems more human in this novel, less a caricature of outrageous skills. I found it easier to connect with her and to really immerse myself in the story and what her particular assignment is. According to her author bio, Taylor Stevens is the one that escaped. She was raised in a cult, denied an education past the sixth grade, much like the escapees of The Chosen in the novel so she knows first hand what life in one of these organisations is like. She takes care to really flesh the scenes at the communes out, detailing the sort of emotional manipulation pressed upon young, impressionable people that are drawn to these cults: people who are a bit lost, looking for something, be it answers or happiness of some form. However she’s also careful to stop short of fully portraying it as brainwashing, with one of the ex-members clearly stating it isn’t that, it will only work on you if it’s attractive to you on some level. Likewise the sexual abuse is hinted at more than explicitly described, just enough detail to clue the reader in but without really forcing them to bear witness to it. I think that if you liked The Informationist but had a few reservations, most notably about the way in which Munroe’s character is portrayed, then I would recommend reading The Innocent. I feel that this was a much stronger book in terms of giving the reader a more in depth look at her actual personality without the excessive devotion to her multitudes of skills with languages, combat and weaponry. People with an appreciation for character-driven novels will probably enjoy this one more than the first, but there’s still plenty there for those who prefer plot-driven books too! I feel that Taylor Stevens’ writing was stronger in this one and I think this is something that should continue the more experienced she becomes and the more she fleshes out Munroe. She is currently writing a third book featuring Munroe and after the conclusion of this one, I will be very much looking forward to the release of that one to see what is in store for Munroe, Bradford and Logan.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jun 02, 2012
| Jun 02, 2012
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May 27, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0857207245
| 9780857207241
| 3.67
| 30,709
| Jun 26, 2012
| Jun 21, 2012
|
Julia is 11 when it is first announced. It has been happening so slowly that people barely notice at first and when the scientists announce it, it has...more
Julia is 11 when it is first announced. It has been happening so slowly that people barely notice at first and when the scientists announce it, it has already made a change to the day. In what has been called ‘The Slowing’ the Earth’s rotation has slowed, adding time to the day. First it is minutes, but then it gradually becomes longer until daylight lasts 24 hours and then so does the dark of night. No one knows why and no one knows how to stop it. How do you stop the world from doing something that it has been doing since the dawn of time? The rate at which the Earth turned had been steady but now it is not and people scramble to deal with this and adapt. The government announces that they will stay on ‘clock time’, following the same pattern of 24 hours, getting up and going to bed at the same time as ‘before’, no matter what the light is like outside. Julia finds herself going to school when it looks like the dark of night and attempting to sleep when it’s bright as day outside. There are some in the neighbourhood that don’t want to stick to ‘clock time’ and instead adjust to the new days and nights. They begin staying up while it’s light and going to bed while it’s dark and sleeping longer, changing their circadian rhythms to suit these new times of daylight and darkness. Julia’s once simple life is becoming more and more complicated as she faces a mother who cannot cope with ‘The Slowing’, falling prey to a mysterious illness that affects a portion of the population who don’t adjust well with the changing of the Earth’s rotational speed and the change in gravity. She’s also discovering that her father may not be the person she’s always thought him to be. Everything is changing and all they can do is try to survive it. The Age Of Miracles is one of those books where the buzz is strong and steady. I knew I immediately wanted to read it so I definitely couldn’t pass up an offer of a review copy from the Australian publisher, Simon & Schuster AU. The idea of it was something that fascinated me – it was such a simple thing. No meteors, no nuclear disasters, no huge catastrophic moment… just a simple scientific slowing of the Earth’s rotation that changed everything. At first it’s only adding a half hour to the day, barely noticeable. But then ‘The Slowing’ increases and soon the days and nights are double their previous length and that begins to have huge effects on well, everything. Plants and crops cannot cope with that amount of light withering and dying (or conversely, that amount of darkness). The population is divided on how to cope personally, some sticking by the government mandated ‘clock time’ and keeping their previous hours, going to school or work whenever the clock tells them to. Others choose to try and live a different way, regulating their bodies by the movement of the sun and this creates friction within communities, leading to some people heading to more remote areas and creating communities where they can live the way they choose unmolested. The entire book is told by Julia who is really just a child when it begins, which adds to the simplicity of the core story. Before ‘The Slowing’ she was just a girl who liked playing soccer, having sleepovers with her friend and crushing on the quiet skater boy from her school that she caught the bus with. Now she’s having to deal with her paranoid, often hysterical mother who hasn’t coped well with The Slowing at all and the fact that she’s caught her dad out somewhere that he should not have been. She’s also lost the friendship of her closest friend, who has seemingly dropped her without a word, further adding to her confusion. Julia is a loner (and lonely) and has almost no one to talk to until she is befriended by Seth, the quiet boy she has a crush on. Together they explore the new world, trying to help whales beaching themselves, risking their health when they fail to understand the new threat of the powerful sunlight and the destruction of the synthetic field that had shielded Earth from the sun’s radiation. What should be an exciting time, a budding first juvenile relationship is overshadowed by the increasing level of disaster, everything they do revolving around The Slowing and the altered way in which they must live now. I loved this book! I loved the quiet thoughtfulness of it that even though this disastrous thing is happening, the book isn’t filled with rioting, looting, 42 car pile ups on the freeway as people scream out of town. It’s much deeper than that, it’s a story of people trying to go about their lives despite this thing happening, just trying to keep on the best way they know how even though after a while it basically seems like they’re on their way to impending doom. The days keep getting longer (up to around 70ish hours I think) and the solar flares and the radiation are really thought-provoking. I’m a redhead who is basically albino so I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of that sort of strong sun – I would be rendered a hermit in this world. I like how much attention was paid to the effect the changed conditions would have on food and crops and to the animals, with changing gravity affecting flocks of birds as well. Power is also very important, with appliances working for longer (such as air conditioners during the long hot summer days etc) and it results in hours of black outs as the grid gets overused. It’s about facing the adversity and getting through it. I think it says something that even though the world seemed on a one way path to total destruction, I wanted to live within the pages of this book and experience it firsthand. I think it’s a fascinating book, simply and well written with the sort of character who just imparts what is happening. Julia’s age means we don’t get her theories, or her politics, or her panics or her cynicism. It’s just the story, the facts as they happen and it’s utterly gripping from start to finish.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jul 03, 2012
| Jul 03, 2012
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Jul 02, 2012
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| 1408835908
| 9781408835906
| 3.70
| 23
| Mar 01, 2013
| Apr 01, 2013
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Louise is a young milkmaid, learning the tricks of the trade under the careful tutelage of Mary. She’s from a poor family – her brother and father hav...more
Louise is a young milkmaid, learning the tricks of the trade under the careful tutelage of Mary. She’s from a poor family – her brother and father have been lost at sea and her mother works in the fields, doing a man’s work. She has a sister as well and it’s believed that Susie might make a lady’s maid. However when the Captain comes, it’s Louise he wants. He takes Louise to be a maid to his youngest daughter Rebecca. When Rebecca weds a seaman, she will need someone with her to take into her new household and it is planned for that someone to be Louise. Louise didn’t know what to expect when she met her new mistress but Rebecca was hardly what you’d think of as a genteel young woman. She is spoiled, overindulged, cossetted and has clearly never lifted a finger in her life. But it doesn’t take long before Louise is hopelessly devoted to her mistress, forsaking even visiting her gravely ill mother to remain by Rebecca’s side. And when Rebecca becomes gravely ill herself, it is Louise who sacrifices everything so that she might save her. It’s a big risk but it is one that Louise is willing to make and it only strengthens the already unique bond between them. Luke Fletcher is a young lad who was drinking in a tavern when he was swept up into His Majesty’s Navy in a raid of compulsary conscription. He’s never been on a ship before and he’s utterly desperate to abandon this nightmare and get back to the woman he loves so dearly but that isn’t an option. There are wars on and manpower is needed. Luke is beaten, starved, tormented and worst of all, held prisoner on the warship Essex. He becomes the favourite of a big sailor named Nick who mans the large billowing sails. It’s a trecherous job, requiring skill and the absolute ability to back yourself on the ropes high up in the air. To stumble is disaster and Luke battles his own fear when it becomes clear that Nick wants to train him up to do the sails. This could be a chance for him to rise above the taunts and the harsh treatment by the other seamen, if only he can gather the nerve. Lou and Luke inhabit entirely different worlds and at first glance they could not be more different. Lou is learning how to be a maid but mostly she spends her days getting to know Rebecca and taking care of her in any way that Rebecca desires. Luke is desperate to escape his situation and get away from the hellhole that is the Essex. But in order to do that he will have to reveal the secret he has kept so closely guarded. Desperate times call for desperate measures. She Rises begins in 1740 and introduces us to Lou, a rather quiet dairymaid on a farm and Luke, a teenager swept up into service into the Navy. The narrative alternates between the two with a first person perspective for Lou but third person for Luke. When Lou gets the opportunity to go and work for the Captain as a maid to his youngest daughter, she also vows to find out what happened to her brother, who went away to sea when Lou was rather young and was never seen nor heard from again. She’s never forgotten him and a desire to find him, or at least find out what happened to him, has been strong within her and even after people try and dissuade her, she still persists in trying to find out what she wants to know. Worsley writes in a lovely, descriptive fashion and takes time to introduce her characters and build their relationships. If there’s any criticism for this book it’s that she perhaps takes a little too much time in the first half of the book. As the two narratives move forward towards a certain point, that point for me is where this book went from simply being a pleasant read to being a whoa! type of read. It was extremely clever and thought out the way in which the author constructed the story so that the reader was drawn to one conclusion and then neatly swung that around to reveal another. The latter part of the book is very good and was completely unexpected. However the first part could do with some tightening – there’s a lot of chapters devoted to Louise running around after Rebecca and worshiping her (and this is very important for their relationship but perhaps there didn’t need to be so much of it) and Luke’s misery on the ship and the games and politics between the other sailors, most of which he happens to loathe. I found it very easy to sympathise with Luke, even from the very beginning. Press-ganged into His Majesty’s Service with no desire or skill to do the job, consigned to a life at sea which he may not survive, surrounded by drunks, bullies, rapists and pedophiles. The life of a 1700′s sailor is a bawdy one and consent doesn’t seem to factor into many things and everyone is riddled with all types of the pox. It’s a bleak and miserable life, one which will require serious effort to escape. The punishment for desertion is death and sometimes you can see why some take that risk. She Rises is a very promising debut that weaves a delicate and fascinating story that simply gets better the further you get into the book. I have to admit, I’m in two minds about the ending. I’m not sure if I liked it or not – I understand it and I think on one hand, it’s rather powerful and quite poignant. But on the other, as a reader, it could be a bit of a letdown.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Apr 08, 2013
| Apr 09, 2013
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Apr 08, 2013
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| 1471113264
| 9781471113260
| 3.93
| 6,124
| Sep 01, 2012
| Oct 01, 2012
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Olivia Donatelli is grieving. Her life, which changed many years ago when her son Anthony was diagnosed with autism has become almost unbearable since...more
Olivia Donatelli is grieving. Her life, which changed many years ago when her son Anthony was diagnosed with autism has become almost unbearable since his death. Even though Anthony couldn’t talk, didn’t like to be touched, never made eye contact and lived his life by a strict set of routines, any altering of which would set him off on violent explosive tantrums, Olivia’s whole world revolved around Anthony. She tried every sort of therapy known to man to help Anthony live with his disability and learn things that other children had mastered years ago. She watched as other children grew up, made friends and acquired new likes and dislikes. For Anthony, things remained the same. He didn’t change and evolve as other children did, he loved Barney and he loved the beach and he loved swings. Since his death, Olivia has been trapped in a fog. She’s separated from her husband David and has retreated to their house in Nantucket to be alone with her thoughts and attempt to understand the meaning of Anthony’s life. Why was he put on this earth? Why could he not tell her that he loved her, or accepted her love for him? Why was he taken from her? Beth and her husband Jimmy have been married over a decade and have three daughters together. They enjoy their life on Nantucket and even though they went through a rough patch when Jimmy’s work scalloping dried up, they seem to have come through it. Jimmy has a new job bar tending and things seem to be good – until Beth gets a letter that changes everything. She can’t look at her husband now and she finds herself thinking of all the things she intended to do with her life, like write that book. Before she knows it, Beth is motivated – she finds an old short story she wrote in the attic and is immediately inspired to turn it into a novel. She settles into a routine, writing each day in the same spot in the library, finding distraction in her task from the turmoil going on in her private life. Two women, one small island. It is inevitable that they will cross paths, innocently at first. But then they will be connected by a powerful force that will give one of them the meaning she has been searching for and the other the strength to choose to live her life how she wants. I read Lisa Genova’s debut novel Still Alice and was blown away by it. I haven’t yet had a chance to read her second novel, Left Neglected but I’ve heard fabulous things about that too. So it was with much anticipation that I opened this novel, Love Anthony, which deals with autism. According to AutismSpeaks.org, autism affects 1 in 88 children and 1 in 54 boys in the United States. It’s the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in America and costs the country $137 billion per year. Despite the fact that it affects so many, the funding towards researching autism is relatively low – around $79million in private funding which seems like a lot until you compare it with other illnesses and disabilities which receive much more, despite affecting a much smaller part of the population. My dealings with children on the spectrum have been very distant, limited to school – both the primary school I attended and the high school had disability units for children with developmental disabilities ranging from delay to Down Syndrome to severely autistic or otherwise handicapped. I think one of this novel’s great strength, possibly it’s greatest strength is the way in which it portrays Anthony with sympathy, warmth and love. I don’t know what it would be like to be Olivia, to be told that your child has autism and that chances are, he will never speak, go to school, get a job, move out of home or be able to live independently. That he’d never say your name, or that he loves you. The way in which Genova established the relationship between Anthony and Olivia, despite his limited communications and abilities to grasp reality, was amazing. I could feel Olivia’s heartbreak and sadness that her boy was different, but also her desperate love for him, and the hope that one day she would find that therapy would be like the magic key to unlocking his mind. The other plot of Beth and Jimmy I quite liked as well but it lacked the emotional punch of Olivia’s story with Anthony. It was interesting and could’ve made a relatively workable novel on it’s own – a different type of novel, but fleshed out it could’ve become quite a good story. I am not sure that enough time was spent on establishing Beth and Jimmy as characters because so much was poured into Olivia and Anthony, which was fair enough, as it was their story. But it did make it hard to connect with that portion of the story at times because I never feel like I got a real idea of them and their relationship in all of its stages. The book’s weakness for me is that it requires its reader to take one giant leap of faith in the way that these two women become connected. For some people, that won’t be a problem. There are people out there who believe in a higher power and things happening for a reason and fate and that sort of thing. I…am not really one of those people. I’m not religious and I don’t place faith in a higher power or anything like that. It was a rather big stretch for me to try and get my head around the way in which the story came to Beth with such truth and clarity. I’m a cynic, I readily admit it. It was a little fanciful and not quite what I expected from this story, to be honest. But the writing is beautiful and parts of this story are just fantastic. It’ll be up to each individual to take that leap of faith or not.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Oct 04, 2012
| Oct 04, 2012
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Oct 03, 2012
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| 9781937044213
| 3.42
| 78
| Sep 03, 2011
| Sep 06, 2011
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Jess Devlin suffered the ultimate betrayal when her fiance dumped her for someone else. As perfect timing would have it, she is travelling to London t...more
Jess Devlin suffered the ultimate betrayal when her fiance dumped her for someone else. As perfect timing would have it, she is travelling to London to be a bridesmaid in her cousin’s wedding. The dress is unflattering and doesn’t suit her and Jess’s humiliation is all the more punctuated by the fact that the gorgeous Nick will be at the wedding. Last time she was in London, for the funeral of her grandfather, Jess ended up a drunken mess in tears. Nick held her hair back and comforted her, looking after her when her former fiance couldn’t be bothered. She dreads the idea of seeing him again, especially in an unflattering dress. Jess is taking a holiday from her job as a magazine beauty editor and house-sitting for a friend of her cousin’s in London. To her surprise, Nick lives right around the corner and he is showing definite interest in her, even if he does have a rather svelte redhead who seems to be attached to him at the hip. Jess thinks a fling with the lovely Pierce Brosnan look alike might be just the thing she needs to heal her broken heart and it seems like he’s more than willing. But guys like Nick don’t choose girls like Jess in the long run, so she makes herself some affirmations so that she doesn’t lose her heart. After all, she’s already had it broken once – she’s not sure she could cope with it happening again. I received Lucky Girl as an eARC from NetGalley and I thought it sounded perfect for a night curled up in bed – and it was. It’s a quick, amusing read with a likable sort of heroine. Jess is, in a lot of ways, a stereotypical sort of chick lit heroine – for a start she’s a beauty editor at a magazine and she’s also concerned about her weight. However I found her weight occupation realistic – it’s a ‘hmm this dress is unflattering and shows the 10lbs I’ve put on post-break up’ sort of worry rather than an all consuming obsession, more the sort of worry that everyone experiences (or most people) and not the sort that seems contrived and makes you roll your eyes. What I really enjoyed about this story was the ease with which the reader could grasp Nick’s attraction to Jess. While Jess herself sometimes doubted it (and sometimes was deliberately baiting it) the reader was always very clear on how much he seemed to like her and how attractive he found her. There are several funny scenes where he has an extreme amount of trouble hiding it, and it was refreshing! So often the lead male love interest is aloof and enigmatic and although you guess they’re going to get there eventually, the journey of discovery can be a bit tedious as it’s filled with moments where the man is stand offish. This wasn’t the case in this novel – Nick actively pursues Jess, his desire very clear. Lucky Girl was fun and light-hearted with really likable and relatable characters that made the book stand out in a sea of chick lit. It’s the sort of book that’s perfect for passing the time at the beach on holiday or by the pool in summer. I can see myself re-reading it some day as well, which is always a good sign. I really liked Nick although he did seem almost too good to be true occasionally. But that’s kind of why I read these novels – it’s nice to dream!(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Aug 04, 2011
| Aug 04, 2011
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Aug 04, 2011
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| 9781743314449
| 3.52
| 29
| Apr 01, 2013
| Apr 01, 2013
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It is 1948 and the Second World War is not long over. Those that survived are still making their way home and the scars are still obvious. Anikka Lach...more
It is 1948 and the Second World War is not long over. Those that survived are still making their way home and the scars are still obvious. Anikka Lachlan has been married to Mac for over 10 years and they live in Thirroul, a town on the northern outskirts of Wollongong in New South Wales with their daughter Isabel. Mac drives the trains and their life revolves around the hiss and steam of the engines as they make their way to and from the city. Then Mac is taken from her in a random event that makes her question everything. He escaped the war, his job deemed necessary for him to stay at home so they could keep the transport lines open. For him to survive such a threat and then be killed in the way he did makes Anikka uncertain about everything. She is given a job in the Railway Library where the townsfolk of Thirroul come to check out their means of escapism - Kangaroo by D.H Lawrence, which was written when he was staying in Thirroul, Jane Eyre, and the works of various poets. It is the place where Anikka comes to life again, not only given a purpose but the way in which she can be useful to people, sourcing what they want and engaging them in conversation. Her life has changed from stay at home wife and mother to a woman that works, often leaving her daughter in the care of a close neighbour. Anikka meets Roy McKinnon, a soldier who survived the war and published poetry. Now back in the beautiful Thirroul, Roy finds that the words he searches for just aren’t coming – until he meets Anikka. His shy offerings for the young widow offer up the hope of a new future but will Anikka feel the same? There are some books that I just find very difficult to review. I sit and stare at my keyboard and the screen, look at Twitter, check my email for the three thousandth time, read a blog or two and come back to the review to find that still, I’ve only written 20 or 30 words. Sometimes the words just don’t come easily and The Railwayman’s Wife is one of these books. It’s not that I didn’t like it it’s just that I don’t know how to say how it made me feel without spoiling it. This is a beautifully written book – it’s not a long one, coming in at just over 250p and author Ashley Hay has obviously valued every word. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Thirroul itself but my cousins and family live in close-by Woonona so I am at least familiar with the area, albeit in a more modern setting. The descriptions of what it’s like to take the train from the city, entering a dark tunnel and then bursting out to be confronted with the sea in all its glittering glory are wonderful and really put you in the novel. Likewise enough is given of Mac and Anikka’s easy relationship to paint a picture of their life – happiness by the seaside, blended with the smell and sound of trains. When Mac is lost in an accident, Anikka’s grief is not the sort that strips her of her ability to function – she still takes care of their daughter and begins a new job in order to support them – but it’s quite clear that she is deeply devastated by his loss and it colours most of her life. She begins to interact with some locals as an individual now, rather than as one of a married pair and finds herself forming an easy friendship with Roy McKinnon, a local poet and a slightly less easy one with Dr. Frank Draper, a friend of Roy’s who stayed abroad after the war and has only just returned to Australia. Frank is haunted by what he saw after peace supposedly came as he was one of those sent into the concentration camps to begin attempting to heal the sufferers. He’s haunted by those who survived the whole war, only to die after he arrived and this makes him often blunt, confronting and unpleasant. Anikka seems to have a tolerance for him even though what he says does often bother her but she doesn’t avoid him or seek to end their interactions. Roy soon develops feelings for Anikka although to the reader it never seems as though Anikka feels the same way (and here is where I struggle with what to say!). It’s hard sometimes, when you’re settled into a book expecting one ending and you’re delivered another, somewhat abruptly and I feel that’s what happened here with this book. It was a gentle, rolling read but yet when I finished it I felt quite flat and disappointed. Almost upset. The ending seems a little out of pace with the rest of the book too. I think if this time period is of particular interest, or the setting or if you like trains (if you really like trains!) then this book will be very enjoyable and it might be easier to feel differently about the ending. But for me, quite often the ending is the part that makes everything come together, it’s the part that really underlines how I’ll feel about a particular book. And this one, I find it really hard to articulate that without getting into a very spoilerish discussion of the why. It’s also hard to rate this book – I wanted to only give it a 5 or a 6 but the writing is pretty fabulous so that pulls it up a bit (less) | Notes are private!
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| Mar 30, 2013
| Mar 31, 2013
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Mar 30, 2013
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| 0143565699
| 9780143565697
| 3.75
| 16
| Jan 30, 2013
| Jan 30, 2013
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Finally the psychopath, the empath and the genius are all together. Together they are stronger than they are apart. But not everyone is happy about th...more
Finally the psychopath, the empath and the genius are all together. Together they are stronger than they are apart. But not everyone is happy about their reunion, especially their own mother. Not allowed to approach them directly, she is forced to use others to do her bidding in order to seek to gain access to each of them. She wants them to come into their powers, to understand what they are capable of, but more than that she wants to control them. From Jake’s castle in Lake Geneva, they are taken somewhere unbelievable, somewhere that will change the way in which all of them view the world. Luke, the psychopath doesn’t adapt well to their new surroundings. Samantha is worried about the people she left behind. Of all of them, Jake adapts the best. He’s eager to learn – he is the genius after all. And where they are is possessed of a depth of knowledge and technology that he couldn’t even dream about. It is he who seeks to discover the truth about the Telling. Written are their three destines – the powers of the psychopath, the empath and the genius. The powers that they will come into and that which they will control. As the three scatter across to world to become pawns for those that would abuse their power for evil, it is Jake who discovers that they must come back together. The Laeduin is the second novel in the Disharmony trilogy and things pick up almost where we left off, in the castle in Switzerland. The psychopath and the empath have come together with the genius, the three parts of the prophecy. Jake is 14 and working on the sort of research that most people would barely be able to comprehend. He deals in science and math, things that make sense and have logical answers. The people that explode into his life and claim to be his siblings turn all of that upside down. It isn’t long until Jake is seeing things he wouldn’t ever have believed possible. He’s finding out that people aren’t who he thought they were. Aren’t even what he thought they were. But Jake has to get over his sense of betrayal because he quickly realises that he’s going to need all of his superior intelligence where they are. He doesn’t take things personally, like Luke, who struggles to connect to others and can’t really feel much in the way of emotion and he doesn’t spend a great deal of time thinking about those in his previous ‘normal’ life like Samantha, because he really doesn’t have anyone to think about. Only his uncle, and he’s a busy man often traveling and away from home. Jake uses his intelligence to learn more about their situation – he’s the only one of the three who actually wants to find out about the prophecy and what their destinies are. You get a lot of answers in this book (thankfully!) especially towards the end. Jake’s dedication is the reader’s reward. I found the first novel very interesting, laying the groundwork and I was very much looking forward to this one to see where the story went. The Laeduin is a bit of an up and down ride – at times it’s quite slow and gets a bit bogged down in conversations and events that seem mundane and unimportant and merely filler. And then there’ll be a reveal that accelerates the plot forward greatly and I can’t wait to find out what is going to happen next. Almost immediately after the three come together, Giarratano seeks to separate them. At first this seems merely like added drama but the reasoning behind it makes a lot of sense and also gives further insight into the three characters. The way in which they react to their situation is telling and doesn’t feel at all contrived. However the pacing of the novel is a little slow at times and a bit misleading. There’s more happening than you realise until you finish the novel and have time to reflect on it and bring all of the pieces of information together that you’ve been given. I think that it’s a particularly cleverly written book (and series) because the information is given out in ways so that at times you’re not even aware of it. But the downside of this is that sections of the book can feel like filler, like you’re plodding through certain scenes that have no real place. A lot of the first part of the book felt like this – it wasn’t until Jake began to put things together later in the book and revealed his findings that I began to think about things a little more and reflect on the earlier portion of the book. I wish I’d re-read the first book before I read this one – the long gaps between them made my memory patchy and it took a while for my brain to kick in to gear and remember who everyone was and what had happened in the first book. This would probably be a series where it’d be beneficial to read them all together, rather than spaced a year apart! What I like about this series is that I can’t really tell where it’s going to go next. Most final novels in a trilogy, everything has been set up and you know you’re going in for a battle of some description. I know all (or most) of the players in this one but I don’t know how it’s going to unfold and in what way. The created world here is so rich and diverse and expansive that it’s almost impossible to guess what might be coming. But I do think that some people might be alienated by the way in which the information is delivered, amid much other less important scenes and filler. It’s not a book that keeps you utterly gripped from beginning to end. But if you can get through the first part, the second half is more than worth it.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jan 29, 2013
| Jan 30, 2013
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Jan 29, 2013
| Paperback
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