Jaye Marie's Blog, page 37
September 5, 2024
September 3, 2024
The Fake Wife Review… #Mystery #Fiction
In between dodging the weather and finally finishing those bonsai shelves, I managed to finish reading another brilliant book, The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton.
You’re not who you say you are. But neither is she.Olive Anderson has accepted that tonight she’ll be dining alone, without her husband. So when a beautiful stranger appears at Olive’s dinner table, telling the waiter she’s her wife, Olive is immediately unsettled.
But the stranger wants to talk, and isn’t this what Olive wants on this lonely winter night? To vent to a perfect stranger? She’s too ashamed to tell her real friends the truth – six months into the marriage they all warned her against, her life is a living nightmare.
Perhaps Olive should have asked the fake wife who she’s really married to. Perhaps she should have known this chance encounter had something to do with her secretive husband. Because there is a string of missing women connected to Mr Anderson, and by the morning, Olive will be the latest…
The Fake Wife is an unputdownable thriller that will shock and surprise you like the best television boxsets. If you enjoyed Netflix shows like Behind Her Eyes, The Stranger and Obsession you will love The Fake Wife.
Excerpt from The Fake Wife
… She waited for the woman to ask her what she did, to seek details, the customary dance of strangers. Except they weren’t strangers, not in this odd game she’d been invited to play. They were married. ‘How about you,’ she asked, before adding a tentative, ‘darling,’ for good measure. It sounded odd and forced on her tongue. Her new companion was better at this than she. That companion sighed, even managed to look bored. ‘Hartlepool’s a month behind, usual trouble with the lads at Darlington.
On the other hand, they passed the health and safety inspection.’ She was in construction, a surveyor or site manager. Assuming, of course, that she was telling the truth. ‘The llamas got out again,’ she went on. ‘I’m going to have to talk to Jim about putting a taller fence up.’ Maybe this whole evening was to be played out in some odd fantasy land. Perhaps Olive herself should pretend to be a brain surgeon or an astronaut, because if you were going to play the game, you might as well play it properly.
A picture flashed into her head: Michael in the study at home, working his way through an endless list of constituency emails, grimacing when a noisy quarrel erupted elsewhere in the house, checking Find My Friends to make sure she’d arrived safely, worried about her being away in such awful weather. One of Michael’s pet subjects was the dangers of northern winters.
What on earth was she doing playing games?
what indeed?
Our Review
This was such an unusual and very welcome beginning to this story, instantly igniting my curiosity.
The Fake Wife is a complicated, intriguing story that kept me hooked until the very last page.
I should add that it is beautifully written, drawing you in so completely that you feel every characters emotions. The intensity builds up very quickly, so much so that I had to take small breaks to literally get my breath back!
what shall I read next?
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September 2, 2024
I really don’t like Mondays…
This is usually because I haven’t come up with any brilliant ideas over the weekend.
You know the ones I mean: a simple idea that will actually work to sell more books. Or a brilliant new idea for my next book, one that will take over my brain and keep me busy for months!
I do a lot of thinking over the weekend, which is family time. I am busy cooking or doing other family pursuits, and being robbed of any chance to switch on the computer encourages creative thinking.
This weekend was not turning out to be productive in any way, shape, or form. I’ll let you into a secret, I think it’s because I have been feeling guilty that I haven’t found the time to go outside and fix those bonsai shelves this past week.
So, after lunch, and prepared to endure whatever the weather chucked at me, I went outside and took the bull by the horns.
I had a little trouble drilling the holes in the wood, for my drill bit was blunt, but I managed it. By now, it was very warm out there, an oppressive heat, making me wish I hadn’t started this job. It was not enough to make me stop though, so I had a drink of water and continued.
Halfway through painting the struts, a wind picked up, and the air felt cooler. A glance at the sky told me I might get wet after all, as dark clouds were gathering overhead. I wondered if I could get away with watering the bonsai as I knew they were desperate for a drink. The last time I relied on the rain, we didn’t get the promised downpour, so, painting finished, I dragged the hose out and drenched them all.
In the end, it didn’t rain yesterday, but we are promised some today. I hope not, because I want to start painting that wall!
The post I really don’t like Mondays… appeared first on Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes.
August 30, 2024
Friday Flowers…
my garden has not done so well this summer. I call it that, both garden and summer, but it’s not been much of one so far.
Everything is showing signs of the struggle that has been going on out there, what with the periods of drought followed by drowning. Those howling winds have tangled everything, and although I looked for something to brighten our day, there was nothing. In desperation, I found this image on Pixabay.com and it will go a long way to spreading a little colour.
I intend to do some catching up outside today. The timber struts to repair my bonsai shelves are coming this afternoon, and there is some urgent repotting needed among the bonsai. If it doesn’t get too hot, I might cut the grass too, or wait until later when it cools off…
The crochet therapy is working well, and I have completed 27 squares now…
Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend!
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August 29, 2024
August 28, 2024
Reliving a Perfect Moment… #Memories
…Tomorrow, I have been promised a visit to the sea.
This may not mean much to you, but it is monumental for me.
I need regular sea fixes to keep my sanity and soul intact, and for many reasons, I haven’t had one this year.
I have been remembering another time like this…
After a very long time, I found my perfect moment.
I finally reached the sea, and the sun was shining. A strong breeze from the water created some medium-sized but beautiful waves.
We had visited this beach the week before, but the weather was atrocious that day, and we nearly froze. Yesterday’s weather report was more favourable, so we made the journey again.
I have been trying to snatch a few precious moments to get my sea fix, and it was beginning to look like it might never happen.
The sea is my soul mate and very special to me. I need to commune with the spirits of the deep regularly.
Seeing how my health seems to be slowly deteriorating, I need to keep my soul happy, or I may give up. So, yesterday was invaluable for several reasons.
Once on the seafront, the family was busy fussing about coffee or something to eat, but the sea called me, and I wandered slowly down the shingle beach and headed for the water. The deafening sound of the waves beaching and the sweeter sound of the water filtering through the shingle immediately lifted me out of this world—a world where I was completely at home.
I wanted to sit down, stay awhile and enjoy the moment, but the shingle was wet, so I perched on a breakwater, mesmerised by the crashing waves, allowing the magic to do its job…
I am more than looking forward to tomorrow…
Thanks for listening!
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Through the Mirror… #Poetry
I am walking through the mirror
The silver shine tugging at my back
The box in my hand, with its illuminated content
becomes a scream so cold it breaks my heart
In this space, someone is trapped
I cannot reach that far
Are they lost in darkness forever
before I can find out?
The mirror shine pulls me back
My face in the mirror looks out
My mouth open wide, screaming
Is it me, or did I bring something back?
©AnitaDawes2022
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