Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 59

Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

My Review

I must just first say that my favourite character is Elizabeth’s dog whom she calls Six-Thirty. He was a stray but he is very clever and empathic and he knows 103 words, though by the end the count has gone up to 981. Elizabeth talks to him like a child, reading him stories, while he talks to the dead in the cemetery and the unborn ‘creature’. According to Six-Thirty, ‘maybe it worked; maybe it didn’t.’ ‘It’s me, Six-Thirty. I’m the dog,‘ he says. I just love him.

Elizabeth is a one-off. Apart from confiding in her dog, she doesn’t care what others think of her, except when they accuse her of not being a true scientist because she’s a woman. She’s also a pain in the neck. She could be Aspergers, definitely neurodivergent, though there are many readers who don’t like that label.

Another criticism is that it’s like taking a woman from today and time-travelling her back to the 50s and 60s. I disagree. I expect lots of women felt the same at the time – they just didn’t get the chance to shout about it, let alone on a TV show called Supper at Six. It’s a cooking show that should’ve been a disaster with Elizabeth at the helm, but women love it. It gives them power. Walter Pine is permanently terrified that it will all blow up in his face.

Into this strange mix we also have Elizabeth’s daughter Madeline, a precocious genius, (she’s illegitimate – shock horror – as Elizabeth and Calvin never married), Rev Wakeley who was Calvin’s pen-pal until Calvin told him he HATED HIS FATHER AND WISHED HE WOULD DIE, neighbour Harriet Sloane, whose husband is a pervert and a slob, and a variety of male chemists at Hastings, determined to put her down.

Everything about this book is a bit bonkers (I love a bit bonkers), from a chemist turned cookery show host, to a daughter who reads The Sound and the Fury at age six and a huge, ugly (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) dog with human characteristics – he picks up Mad from school and takes her to the library.

I almost didn’t read Lessons in Chemistry. I admit I was put off by the beginning – her experience wasn’t remotely funny – but I persevered and was well rewarded. By the end it had become one of my favourite books of the year.

About the Author

Bonnie Garmus is a copywriter and creative director who has worked for a wide range of clients, in the US and abroad, focusing primarily on technology, medicine, and education. She’s an open water swimmer, a rower, and mother to two pretty amazing daughters. Most recently from Seattle, she currently lives in London with her husband and her dog, 99.

The Dictionary Of Lost Words by Pip Williams

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

My Review

Absolutely fantastic! Who knew that a book about compiling a dictionary could be so emotional and beautiful.

It’s a combination of fictitious characters like Esme and her father ‘Da’, and others like Dr Murray, his daughters Elsie and Rosfrith and Ditte who really existed. The author gives some of the real people more importance and personality in the story than we know as real – Ditte for instance is very central to the book, but in reality we know little about her in real life.

Esme has spent much of her childhood in the Scriptorium where ‘her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard.‘

Then one day she finds the word ‘bondmaid’, which she ‘steals’ and hides in an old trunk under her friend Lizzie’s bed. But Lizzie is actually a servant in the big house – a ‘bondmaid’. This one word changes Esme’s life.

So while Esme continues to work on the Oxford English Dictionary, she begins to collect rejected words – those not written down, not supported by the men at the Scriptorium or considered too offensive in polite society to be included. It will be called: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

While the lexicographers live in their bubble of words, around them the country is preparing for war – a war that will see so many from the nearby printing press sent to the front, never to return. It also sees Esme become tangled in a relationship with an actress who is part of the suffragette movement, one which Esme supports, but doesn’t want to be part of the violent protests.

I cannot express how much I adored this book. There are not enough words in The Oxford English Dictionary and The Dictionary Of Lost Words combined to give it justice. It is probably one of my favourite books of the year. It is so much more than a story about words, love, women’s suffrage and war – it’s a masterpiece of storytelling.

About the Author

Pip was born in London, grew up in Sydney and now calls the Adelaide Hills home. She is co-author of the book Time Bomb: Work Rest and Play in Australia Today (New South Press, 2012) and in 2017 she wrote One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life, which was published with Affirm Press to wide acclaim. Pip has also published travel articles, book reviews, flash fiction and poetry.

The Misadventures of Margaret Finch by Claire McGlasson

Blackpool, 1938. Miss Margaret Finch – a rather demure young woman – has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation. Then, her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson), who is the subject of a national scandal.

Margaret is determined to discover the truth behind the headlines: is Davidson a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret’s fear that history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover that truth urgently.

#TheMisadventuresOfMargaretFinch @ClaireMcGlasson @FaberBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour 

This deeply evocative novel ripples with the tension of a country not yet able to countenance the devastation of another war. Margaret walks us along the promenade, peeks into the baths and even dares a trip on the love boat in this, her first seaside summer season, on a path more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

My Review

I’d only just started reading when one of my buddy readers mentioned to me that the Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson) was a real person. I then had to look him up on Wikipedia (I know I shouldn’t have), but it didn’t spoil anything for me. Because his story entwines with that of fictional Margaret Finch, who is working as a researcher in Blackpool in 1938. In fact it enhanced it for me.

Margaret’s job is to watch the ‘working classes’ on holiday and make notes of everything she sees. She enjoys her job and is good at it – her reports are second to none. Her immediate boss is James, to whom she reports at ‘HQ’. He’s a bit of a strange one, but then so is she. ‘I’m not like other women,’ she says.

But while out one night doing her research in a pub (rather silly of her to be out alone at night), she is rescued by a small, white-haired, old man, who turns out to be Harold Davidson himself. Known as the Prostitute’s Priest, he was accused of exploiting young women for his own gratification, but Margaret is determined to find out the truth.

She becomes embroiled in his scandal, following him as he tries to prove his innocence by setting himself up on the pier in a number of dangerous stunts. But can Margaret trust him or is he manipulating her as well?

Margaret also has her own demons to fight, from her upbringing by her stepmother to her relationship with alcohol.

I adored this book. Margaret is an unusual main character, with her quirky ways and inability to form trusting, personal relationships. It’s all set during a time when the country was still recovering from The Great War and afraid of entering another war, even when Chamberlain declares ‘Peace for our time’ following a meeting with Hitler.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours and also to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Claire McGlasson is a journalist who works for ITV News and enjoys the variety of life on the road with a TV camera. She lives in Cambridgeshire.

Vita And The Birds by Polly Crosby

1938: Lady Vita Goldsborough lives in the shadow of her controlling older brother, Aubrey. Trapped and isolated on the East Anglian coast, Vita takes solace in watching the birds that fly over the marshes.

But then she meets local artist Dodie Blakeney. The two women form a close bond, and Vita finally glimpses a chance to escape Aubrey’s grasp and be as free as the birds she loves.

1997: Decades later and in the wake of her mother’s death, Eve Blakeney returns to the coast where she spent childhood summers with her beloved grandmother, Dodie. Eve hopes the visit will help make sense of her grief. The last thing she expects to find is a bundle of letters that hint at the heart-breaking story of Dodie’s relationship with a woman named Vita.

Eve and Vita’s stories are linked by a shattering secret that echoes through the decades, and when Eve discovers the truth, it will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family – and change her life forever.

My Review

The Unravelling was one of my four favourite books of 2022 (and probably all time). Therefore I had great hopes and expectations for Vita And The Birds. I was not disappointed. I love the cover to start with.

In 1997, Eve Blakeney returns to the place where she spent her summers with her four brothers and her Bohemian mother Angela. During these holidays they hung out with the local teenagers and her brothers’ friends who came to stay, having picnics on the beach and drinking. Angela was not exactly a traditional mum. On one of these nights, Eve and Henry’s friend Elliott, both intoxicated, accept a dare and go off to explore the disused Cathedral of the Marshes. It’s dangerous and scary and lots of myths surround it. Then an accident and the discovery of a painting change Eve’s life forever.

In 1938, Lady Vita Goldsborough meets Dodie Blakeney, Eve’s grandmother, on the beach. Dodie is an artist and lives in a tiny studio where she paints. Vita, constantly under the control of her bullying brother Aubrey, is entranced by Dodie, her passion and her freedom. She is free like the birds that Vita adores. But can Vita ever be free to pursue her own life?

This is a story full of sadness, secrets, beauty, love and hope. There is something about the author’s writing that is like no other and I can’t really describe what it is that stands out for me, but it’s magical and breath-taking and I adore her books.

About the Author

After a whirlwind of a year which saw Polly receive writing scholarships from both Curtis Brown Creative and The University of East Anglia’s MA in Creative Writing, she went on to be runner up in the Bridport Prize’s Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel. Read Polly’s piece for the Bridport Prize’s blog here.

Polly’s novel was snapped up by HarperCollins HQ in the UK and Commonwealth in a 48 hour pre-empt, and a few days later by HarperCollins Park Row Books in North America.

Polly grew up on the Suffolk coast, and now lives in the heart of Norfolk with her husband and son, and her very loud and much loved rescue Oriental cat, Dali.

The Illustrated Child was her first novel. Her second novel, The Unravelling, was published in January 2022. Vita And The Birds is her third novel.

No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara

No one saw it happen.

You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.

By the time you get to the next stop, you’ve convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren’t two children waiting for you on the platform. There’s only one.

Someone is to blame.

Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find…

My Review

I’m exhausted after reading this book! It literally races along at breakneck speed, jumping from the ‘now’, back to the last few days and then fifteen years earlier.

Sive and Aaron and their three children live and work in Dublin, but they are going to London for a university reunion with Aaron’s old mates. There’s Scott the pilot, serious-slightly-boring Maggie, dopey Dave and Nita – Nita, a social media influencer with 45,000 followers, who just happens to be the sister of Yasmin, who was engaged to Aaron before she died in a fire at the age of 26. They all lived in a house in Stratford (in London not Shakespeare’s birthplace) belonging to Dave’s mother Carol. Keep up!

Then on that fateful day, Faye and Bea board the tube ahead of Sive and the doors close, leaving Sive and the baby on the platform. But it will be fine because Faye will look after Bea until the next stop where they will get off. Except when they arrive at the next stop there’s only Bea. Where is Faye? She would never leave Bea alone – which means something has happened and Sive is panicking.

Who can Sive trust? Her friends, her successful barrister husband (frankly I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him), his friends? Her friends – she doesn’t appear to have any apart from Jude, the hard-nosed journalist who works for the same paper. The police? Well at least them hopefully.

And then we board a speeding train, only this one is full of lies and red herrings, because no-one is telling the truth and Faye’s life may depend on it.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Andrea Mara is a Sunday Times and Irish Times top ten bestselling author, and has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including Irish Crime Novel of the Year. She lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband and three young children, and also runs multi-award-winning parent and lifestyle blog, OfficeMum.ie. Hide and Seek, her second thriller to be published in the UK and internationally, became an instant top ten bestseller.

I Know Who You Are by Mark Gillespie

Rowan Wilson has finally escaped her dark past. Or so she thinks.

Rowan Wilson has humiliated another woman online. But she took it too far and caused a shocking tragedy which rocked her hometown to the core. Rowan is advised to leave – quickly. She’s given a new identity and, desperate to make up for the damage she’s caused, works hard to redeem herself.

Now she lives a quiet life working at a drug and alcohol rehab centre. She keeps to herself and gives little away about her past.

But is Rowan’s second chance doomed before it begins?

#IKnowWhoYouAre @MarkG_Author @InkubatorBooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Someone is watching Rowan, day and night. He’s following her to work, and back to the flat where she lives alone. He knows who she really is, behind the lies.

But who is he and what does he want?

Two lives connected by tragedy. Destined to collide. And one last mind-blowing secret, waiting to be revealed.

I Know Who You Are is packed with mystery, suspense and jaw-dropping twists. If you love suspense and nail-biting tension, you’ll love this chilling psychological thriller.

My Review

Rowan Wilson did something terrible while she was at University. It resulted in a shocking tragedy that saw Rowan and her family having to leave the town where they live and relocate, even using a different last name. She was forced to abandon her studies. take a job in a rehab centre in St Andrews and live quietly under a new identity.

But is she safe? Because someone is watching her, but who is he and is he connected to what she did? Or is it something else – something from her past?

I Know Who You Are is a short, quick read, full of intrigue, suspense and lies. I was totally conflicted about Rowan. Are we supposed to like her and forgive her, or do we believe her to be the monster others think she is? Much of the book is written from her point of view, recounting the details of the tragedy and why she needs to redeem herself, seemingly for the rest of her life. We also feel her fear, always looking over her shoulder, looking for that figure in the shadows who is coming for her.

The rest of the book is written from the point of view of her ‘stalker’, slowly leaking tiny clues as to why he is following her.

The twists at the end were a real surprise and just when you think you have unravelled the mystery, another one comes along. Brilliant!

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Mark Gillespie writes psychological thriller and suspense novels. He’s a former professional musician (bass player) from Glasgow, Scotland who spent ten years touring the UK and Ireland, playing sessions and having the time of his life. Don’t ask though. What happened on the road stays on the road. He now lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife and a small menagerie of rescue creatures. If he’s not writing, he’s jamming with other musicians, running on the beach, watching mixed martial arts and boxing. Or devouring horror and thriller movies. This is his first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

Follow Mark at :
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/markgillespieswritingstuff
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkG_Author
Website: https://www.markgillespieauthor.com/

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/131476479-i-know-who-you-are
Buy Links – https://geni.us/C9NAAb

Café 7Rheinhardt by Patrick Gooch

Anton Fischer, a curator at the prestigious Belvedere art museum, stands at the crossroads. War is on the horizon. Should he stay in Vienna under Germany’s oppressive regime, hide to avoid conscription in the Wehrmacht, or flee and join those opposed to Adolf Hitler?

Sacrificing his feelings for the woman he loves, Anton makes his way to England, and joins the Royal Air Force. Suffering injury during combat, Anton is seconded to the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Programme. Its aim, to safeguard, and where possible, return to their rightful owners, their works of art expropriated by the Nazis.

#Cafe7Rheinhardt @PATRICKGOOCH6 @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

In the final stages of the Second World War he returns to Vienna, in search of the woman he loves. But nothing is simple. In following his heart, Anton is painfully aware that she may be beyond his reach.

My Review

It’s 1938 and Anton Fischer is a curator at the Belvedere Art Museum in Vienna. At this time, my Jewish mother and grandmother were living there, having moved from Bucharest some 12 years earlier. They knew it was time to get out, but unable to return to Romania, they fled to London where my grandfather was already settled, and were eventually evacuated to Cheltenham, my home town.

Why am I telling you this? Well, for me the book was personal. I know my family had to leave everything behind other than the few things they could carry, the nazis would have taken it all anyway. I never found out what they had abandoned and we never got any of it back.

The first part of the book tells the story of Anton’s attempts, with others, to hide works of art that Hitler considered to be ‘degenerate’. These included the paintings of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Hitler was also planning to create the largest art collection in the world at Linz where he grew up, but little did he know that the likes of Heydrich and Göring were skimming Monets, Van Goghs and Vermeers off the top for their own personal collections. But Anton has a daring plan. Can he produce forgeries so good that they could replace the real thing?

Meeting at the Cafe 7Rheinhardt, Anton befriends Milo Stanton, an American war correspondent, who helps him in his mission, while reporting events back to his newspaper in the US.

Of course, in 1939, Hitler, having already taken Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland, invaded Poland and we officially declared war on Germany. It would be years before we would know the full truth of his treatment of the Jews and other non-Aryan races, disabled people and homosexuals, together with the horrors of the concentration camps.

Eventually it becomes too dangerous for Anton to remain in Austria, so he returns to his parents’ home in England, joins the Air Force, and having been wounded, is “seconded to the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Programme. Its aim, to safeguard, and where possible, return to their rightful owners, their works of art expropriated by the Nazis.”

All this and a love story too. Because Anton is in love with a woman he cannot have. But will she be waiting when the war is over?

When I was twelve years old, I went to Austria with my father and brother. We stayed just outside Salzburg, visited Vienna briefly and took a coach trip to Berchtesgaden where we visited one of the remaining bunkers – most ‘tourist attractions’ were destroyed to prevent them becoming a shrine to the führer – and spent the afternoon down a salt mine. I remembered this fondly while reading Cafe 7Rheinhardt, especially the secret location of the hidden art works.

I read the book in two sittings – one in the back of my son’s car travelling to Kent. It’s very short and it doesn’t mess about. We follow Anton from place to place over the years, hoping he will succeed and survive. I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Patrick Gooch studied History of Art, and lectured at the Central School of Art and Design in London. However, marketing was his main occupation; and in this role he worked for a number of German, American and British companies. Latterly, he joined the family trade development company, working principally with government departments of foreign countries. To relieve the tedium of long-haul flights and the four walls of rooms in impersonal hotels, he turned to writing.
Over time he amassed a number of manuscripts, which were stored in the metaphorical bottom
drawer. The number grew until, in exasperation, his wife declared he should either attempt to get
them published, or she would. In fact, she did submit the first novel; and, to date, ten have been published.

Follow him at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PATRICKGOOCH6
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125004824-caf-7rheinhardt

Buy Link – https://geni.us/JGklqze

The Monk by Tim Sullivan – The DS Cross Mysteries #5

DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child.

Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

#TheMonk @TimJRSullivan @AriesFiction @HoZ_Books #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour 

The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

My Review

First of all I’m going to recap the first part of my review of the previous George Cross Mystery:

‘I love DS George Cross. He’s on the neurodivergent spectrum and takes everything literally. He doesn’t get jokes or irony which can be very confusing for his colleagues and intimidating for the criminals. They think he is taking the p*ss. His colleague DS Josie Ottey does though – she’s worked with him many times.

‘We also met George’s father Raymond, an inveterate hoarder with a penchant for building models. George was brought up by him after his mother left. At the end of The Politician, she came back into his life. George is not really sure how to handle the change.’

Just as things are starting to settle down, a disturbing case lands on George’s desk. A Benedictine monk has been found in a field, savagely beaten to death. Who would do such a thing? But George’s first question is why.

In order to discover the truth and the killer, George and his team must follow the clues. Who was Brother Dominic before he took his vows? There must be records, but first they need to establish his real identity.

One of the things we learn about George is that he is an accomplished organist and plays regularly at his local church, where Stephen is the vicar. So a visit to the Abbey where Dominic lived is a wonderful experience for him. It’s quiet and peaceful and there is an old organ in need of repair. All the monks seem too kind and spiritual to have murdered one of their own, but you can never tell. Or is the murder linked to Dominic’s past life?

It was great fun trying to work it out.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Tim Sullivan is a crime writer, screenwriter and director whose film credits include A Handful of Dust, Jack and Sarah and Cold Feet. Early in his career he directed Jeremy Brett’s iconic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in ITV’s The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes¸ cementing his lifelong passion for crime fiction.
 
Tim’s crime series, featuring the socially awkward but brilliantly persistent DS George Cross, has been widely acclaimed and topped the book charts. The Monk is the fifth in the series.
 
He lives in North London with his wife Rachel, the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Barefoot Contessa and Pioneer Woman. To find out more about the author please visit TimSullivan.co.uk

Follow him at:
Twitter: @TimJRSullivan
Facebook: Tim Sullivan novels
Instagram: @timsullivannovelist
TikTok: @timsullivanauthor

Preloved by Lauren Bravo

Gwen’s life has stalled. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the country and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around herbaceous borders and the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. Above all she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone?

When Gwen’s made redundant from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, she realises it’s time to make a change. Over what might be the best – and most solitary – meal she’s ever eaten, Gwen vows to find something meaningful to do with her life, reconnect with her family and friends and finally book herself a dentist appointment.

#Preloved @laurenbravo @simonschusterUK #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Her search for meaning soon leads her to volunteer in a local charity shop where she both literally and metaphorically unloads her emotional baggage. With the help of the weird and wonderful people she meets in the shop and the donated items bursting with untold stories that pass through its doors, Gwen must finally address the events and choices that led her to this point and find a way to move forward with bravery, humanity and more regular dental care.

Brimming with life, love and the stories bound up in even the most everyday items, Preloved is a tale about friendship, loss, being true to oneself no matter the expectations – and the enduring power and joy of charity shops.

My Review

I love browsing charity shops, especially in places like Wimbledon or Oxford where the quality of the donated items is really good. I don’t dwell on the history of the items though – most are not really interesting enough – but I may do so now.

But what’s so special about Preloved is the staff. Most of the people who volunteer in our local charity shops are over 75, think Next is a designer brand, and wear polyester that looks like a hairdresser’s overall. I jest and I apologise.

In Preloved, they are all mostly younger, eccentric or just plain crazy. Maybe that’s London compared to the suburbs. I love this about the book. Connie’s story, for instance, really touched me, though I’m not going to say why. And Gwen’s mum and dad are just struggling with trying to process grief. Asha finds it hard to go to work even though she is bright and well-qualified. Nicholas is… I don’t really know what to say about him. He likes Gwen, but he’s way too young and certain things he does are not in the spirit of a charity shop shall we say. He’s a bit of a twicer.

As well as the staff and the customers, there are also the items, many of which have their own story. It reminded me a bit of The Keeper Of Lost Things. There’s a vase which is definitely not Clarice Cliff, a sunburst clock given away by mistake, a pair of white, strappy shoes that come and go, and scarves – lots of them.

But this is about Gwen. Having been made redundant from a job she hated, volunteering in the charity shop till the money runs out, her non-marriage to Ryan having ended over six years ago, she is lost. And lonely.

I absolutely adored this book. The writing, the descriptions, the little stories, the people, everything about it is wonderful. The author is so perceptive and sympathetic. The characters came alive on the page.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Lauren Bravo is a freelance journalist who writes about fashion, popular culture, food, travel and feminism, for publications including Grazia, Refinery29 UK, Cosmopolitan, Stylist, easyJet Traveller, Time Out, Delicious, the Telegraph and the Guardian. She is the author of two non-fiction books, What Would the Spice Girls Do? (2018) and How To Break Up With Fast Fashion (2020). Lauren lives in East London, and Preloved is her debut novel. Find out more on her website www.laurenbravo.co.uk.

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The Forgotten Garden by Sharon Gosling

Budding landscape architect Luisa MacGregor is stuck in a rut – she hates her boss, she lives with her sister, and she is still morning the loss of her fiancé many years ago.

So when she is given the opportunity to take on a parcel of land in a deprived area, she sees the chance to build a garden that can make the area bloom.

#TheForgottenGarden @sharongosling #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour 

Arriving in the rundown seaside town of Collaton on the north-west coast of Cumbria, she realises that her work is going to be cut out for her. But, along with Cas, a local PE teacher, and Harper, a teen whose life has taken a wrong turn, she is determined to get the garden up and running.

So when the community comes together and the garden starts to grow, she feels her luck might changed. Can she grow good things on this rocky ground? And might love blossom along the way…?

My Review

I’m not normally a sentimental old romantic but this book left me an emotional wreck. I cried buckets, but then I did have Covid when I read it, so that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Luisa MacGregor is in a rut. After her husband Reuben died in an accident, she hasn’t been able to move on. Never having worked as a landscape designer, the degree in which she mastered, she works for a dreadful boss, lives with her sister Jo and has put her love life on hold forever. That is until she is gifted a piece of land in the rundown seaside town of Collaton on the north-west coast of Cumbria. She can turn it into a beautiful community garden – it was Reuben’s dream to do something like this – but can she make it work?

Well if she can’t we wouldn’t have a story, would we. But when she visits the land, she sees that her work is really cut out for her. She finds help in the most unlikely of places. First there is Cas, a local PE teacher who runs a boxing gym for deprived children, and Harper, a teenage girl whose life is taking a bad turn, with a drunken father and a shy, nine-year-old brother Max to care for.

But soon the community rallies round and the garden starts to bloom. I love Luisa’s Potato Planting Party idea (Harper still thinks she’s a loony), where local children (and adults) can plant a ‘seed’ potato or other vegetable, label it with their name and a date and watch it grow.

There’s a lot of information about plants and growing, but not too much, which I loved. It’s full of colour, scent and joy. We can take so much from growing things, and once the locals stop suspecting they are being used as cheap labour, they embrace the project with open arms. For some it changes their whole life. More tears I’m afraid. Though it’s Max that totally had me in the end.

But will it change Luisa’s life? And will romance blossom along with the garden? I certainly hoped it would but I’m keeping schtum.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Sharon started her career as an entertainment journalist, writing non-fiction books
about film and television. She is also the author of multiple children’s books. Sharon
and her husband live in a small village in northern Cumbria where they run a
second-hand bookshop, Withnail Books in Penrith. She can be found on Twitter
@sharongosling.