Change of plan ….

Good Morning lovely book people …

This blog post was going to be a review of the fabulous new book by Julie Cohen ‘The Day Of Second Chances’. However, after receiving a message last week from the lovely lady herself, telling me that the publishing date had in fact been moved from 28th Jan to 28th July, I thought I’d better explain why there is no review this week.  This is for various reasons, the main one being that so the publishers can repackage the novel to go along with Julie’s next novel, which will be out in early 2017.

‘The Day of Second Chances’ is a wonderful story full of heartfelt moments and some heartbreaking ones too. My full review will posted on 28 July, so be sure to look out for it…

Published by Black Swan on 28/07/17

 

Thats all Folks …

Happy Reading 🙂

xxx

 

The Way We Were – Sinead Moriarty.

Back of the book :

What if you lost your husband and you had to hold your family together ?

And what if, after the hard and traumatic years, when you feel you and your children have finally put the pain and agony of his loss behind you, the man you believed gone forever turns out to be alive and well ?

And he want to come back into your lives.

Could you – Should you – let him ?

For Alice and her teenage daughters Jools and Holly, it can never go back to being how it was. But can it bee anything else ?

 

What I Think : 

The book begins with Alice starting a new life and getting engaged to Dan. Ben, her husband and father of her two girls, Jools and Holly has been gone for two long years, he is presumed dead.  He was a top surgeon and had been asked to go to Eritrea in East Africa to perform surgery on a diplomat, however a couple of days into the trip there was an accident and it was thought that he had been blown up in a car bomb. Alice has had to cope with her grief and her children’s grief also. Her brother, Kevin has been her rock, finally she feels able to move on.

Its at her engagement party to Dan that she receives a phone call that changes everything, Ben is alive and coming home, will Alice be able to give him what he wants so badly ….?

The book then jumps back two years to tell Alice and Ben’s Story…

This really is an unputdownable book, about when the worst happens, or when you think it has, how you can cope and move on with a little help from your family and friends. I think this is quite heart wrenching on places, however its quite a lovely story of how love and family will always win through.

Expertly written characters, that really get deep in the heart of you. I really wished that I had a brother like Kevin, he was so loving and caring and really helped Alice move on.

I really love Sinead’s books she has a real knack of writing about real life and making it special and really lovely, even if the subject matter is hard at times.

I give this wonderful book 9/10.

Published by Penguin on 24/03/16

A very big Thank you to Lovereading.com for the copy of the book to read and review

My Top Ten Books of 2015.

Hello lovely book people …

I know its a bit late, but here’s my top ten books of 2015.

Its not in any particular order, its just the ten books that have stood out for me in 2015 🙂

 

10. The book of the lost and found – Lucy Foley.

Published by Harper Collins on 15/01/2015.

 

9. Disclaimer – Renee Knight.

Published by Doubleday (Transworld) on 09/04/15.

 

8. The Lie – C.L Taylor.

Published on 23/04/15 by Avon Books.

 

7. The Day We Disappeared – Lucy Robinson

Published by Penguin on 09/04/15.

 

6. Letters to The Lost – Iona Grey

Published by Simon and Schuster on 23/04/15.

 

5. We are All Made of Stars -Rowan Coleman

Published by Ebury Publishing on 21/05/15.

 

4. The Sun In Her Eyes – Paige Toon. Published by Simon and Schuster on 25/05/15.

 

3. The Tea Planter Wife – Dinah Jefferies.

Published by Penguin books on 03/09/15.

 

2. Out of the darkness – Kay Hogan.

Published by Illumine on 06/07/15.

 

1. Sophie Kinsella – Shopaholic to the rescue.

Published by Bantham Press 0n 22/10/15.

Thats my Top Ten of books for last year, However there is one last book that I feel deserves a special mention and that is ….

The Years of Loving You – Ella Harper.

Published by Avon Books on 19/11/15.

I really loved this book, it really stuck with me for quite a while after reading it. Warning : Tissues at the ready !!

Thats all Folks …

Happy Reading 🙂

xxx

Try Not to Breathe – Holly Seddon.

 

Back of the book : 

Alex is sinking. Slowly but surely, she’s cut herself off from everything but her one true love – drink. Until she’s forced to write a piece about a coma ward, where she meets Amy.

Amy is lost. When she was fifteen, she was attacked and left for dead in a park. her attacker was never found. Since then, she has drifted in a lonely, timeless place. She’s as good as dead, but not even her doctors are sure how much she understands.

Alex and Amy grew up in the same suburbs, played the same music, flirted with the same boys. And as Alex begins to investigate the attack, she opens the door to the same danger that has left Amy in a coma.

 

What I think : 

Amy is just 15 when, on the night of 18th July 1995, she is taken and brutally attacked. Two days later she is found in the park, she has been left for dead. She is in a deep coma. No-body was ever caught for the awful crime.

15 years later, Alex, a functioning alcoholic, is writing a story about coma patients and if they understand more than people think, when she stumbles upon Amy in the same ward as she is writing about. Its when she is interviewing a Dr Peter Haynes, that she remembers Amy from when she was growing up, they were at the same school together.

Alex becomes really intrigued with Amy’s case and decides to delve more closely into what happened in more detail, hoping to get justice at long last for Amy.

In opening old wounds, has Alex put herself in danger ….?

The story is told from different points of view, the main characters being, Alex, Jacob – Amy’s old boyfriend  and of course Amy. There are also some minor characters too like Matt, Alex’s ex husband and Jacobs mum sue.

I do feel really sorry for Alex because if I’m honest, she seems totally at a loss as to what to do. She has a big problem with drink and she only seems to be able to function properly in the mornings because after 12 midday she can’t seem to do anything. Her drink cravings seem to get the better of her. She is quite a weak character as she does give into her booze cravings a lot . However I do think underneath it all she does seem to want to change. In the main all the other characters are pretty well written too.

There are many up’s and downs in the book and a few red herrings too as to who actually attacked poor Amy. I did guess early on as to who actually did it, but I think its because thrillers are my most favourite genre and I’m always on the look out for clues !!

This book really kept me gripped and couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed it and will certainly be looking out for her next one with great anticipation.

I give this gripping thriller a excellent 9/10.

Published by Corvus books on 07/01/16

A very big Thank you to Corvus Book for sending me the review copy.

I’m Back !!!

I’m Back !

Hello lovely book people, welcome back to my blog.

I hope you all had a very lovely Christmas and a wonderful New Year, mine was busy to say the least ! What with one thing and another, Boxing day brought a last minute 4 hour road trip to take one of my offspring back to his army barracks, not something that I was planning !! However that is a whole other story !!!

Anyway, I’m back and ready to go 🙂

To kick us off gently here are a few dates to whet your appetite  🙂

Dulwich Books January-March Events PR

Thats it for now folks 🙂

Happy Reading

xxx