The Marble Collector – Cecelia Ahern.

Back of the book :

What if you only had one day to find out who you really were ? 

When Sabrina Boggs stumbles upon a mysterious collection of her fathers possessions, she discovers a truth where she never knew there was a lie. The familiar man she grew up with is suddenly a stranger to her.

An unexpected break in her monotonous daily routine leaves her just one day to unlock the secrets of the man she thought she knew. A day that unearths memories, stories and people she never knew existed. A day that changes her and those around her forever.

 

What I think : 

Sabrina Boggs is living a normal, boring life. She has a husband, three children and a job as a life guard in a up-market care home for elderly people. Oh ! and a lot of the time she forgets to breathe !

Her Dad Fergus, has had a stroke and is currently in hospital. he’s lost a large part of his memory and can’t remember much about his past only his present. One day after Sabrina is sent home from work early, a nurse that is caring for her father at the hospital telephones her to tell her that some boxes have been delivered at the hospital containing her fathers belongings. After Sabrina opens them she discovers that they contain amongst other things, marbles, lots and lots of marbles. Marbles of all different kinds, in sets with a inventory detailing all the marbles in the box. It’s then that she discovers that some of the marble sets are missing, in fact they are the most expensive ones. Sabrina didn’t know that her father collected marbles, this is part of her fathers life that she knew nothing about. She has one day to discover where the marbles have gone to and who her father really was …..

The book is written in two sections, present day with Sabrina and the past with Fergus. Sabrina’s parts are entitled ‘Pool Rules’ and  ‘Playing with marbles’ are Fergus’ chapters. In Fergus’ parts we find out about Fergus’ childhood, teenage years and early married years, in Sabrina’s it’s the here and now and her quest to ‘find’ her father. However, somehow along the way I think she also finds out a few things about herself.

This is a fabulously written book, I always really look forward to a Cecelia Ahern novel and I’m never disappointed. The characters are wonderfully written and you really feel like you are there and in the thick of things. Cecelia’s books are always warm and witty with lots of wisdom thrown in for good measure. Another un-put-downable book.

I give this wonderful book 9/10.

Published by Harper Collins on 05/11/15.

I purchased my copy from Tesco £6:00.

The Santangelos – Jackie Collins.

Back of the book :

A vicious hit. A vengeful enemy.

A drug-addled Colombian club owner and a coke-addled young actress.

The ever-powerful Lucky Santangelo has to deal with them all.

But Lucky can deal. Always strong and unpredictable, with her husband Lennie by her side, she lives up to the family motto ‘Never f**k with a Santangelo’

A lethal enemy from Lucky’s past is determined to seek revenge for the murder of his son. A gorgeous woman lures lucky’s son Bobby to her hotel suite and he wakes up to find himself inside a nightmare. The sexiest man in Hollywood has her teenage daughter Max in his sights, even though he has broken Max’s heart once before. A beautiful, very troubled movie star will stop at nothing for the role of her career, even if it means sleeping with a dangerous drug baron.

But when Lucky opens an expensive notecard edged in gold and printed with the single word Vengeance, she knows that she is in for the fight of her life.

From the fabulous watering holes of the South of France to the chic fashion runways of Milan,to the glittering casinos of Las Vegas, the Santangelos rule – and Lucky will always come out on top ….

What I think : 

This is another fabulous read from the queen of Chic-Lit. As you would expect, its all there in spades, the wonderful characters, sex, drugs, revenge and of course girl power !

I must admit, I wasn’t actually going to review this book, not because I didn’t like it, because again Jackie has hit the nail right on the head and written a excellent book. But because reading Jackie’s books is one of my most favourite things in the world, and I was just reading it for me, I didn’t want to feel any pressure to review it, just to read and enjoy. However after I woke up yesterday to the awful news that sadly, Jackie had died at the age of 77 from breast cancer, a secret that she’d kept for 6 years even from her family, I felt that I wanted to write a post to share what her books meant to me.

Ever since I can remember, I have had my nose stuck in a book, As a child, I would read anything, however it was when I was a teenager, I was around 13 or 14, I think, when I read my first ‘Jackie’ novel it was ‘The World is Full of Married Men’. I can remember thinking back then that I wished I could go to all the places described in those pages and how wonderful it all sounded. Since then I must have read all her novels at least 10 times each, I have looked forward every august /September to her next new novel arriving on the shelves in the shops, not being able to wait to get home to start reading it, but at the same time not wanting it to end. Needless to say she became my most favourite author. Her books told of really strong women ‘kicking ass’ and that was exactly how I wanted to be ! All my friends and family knew not to disturb me when I was reading my ‘Jackie’ book.

Not only is the book world grieving for this wonderful lady, but we will all be grieving for her fabulous characters as well, I, Myself will miss Gino, Lucky and Lennie and all the other brilliant characters that she has introduced us to over the years. Its hard to believe we’ll never be catching up with them again in their very glamorous world.

This wonderful, larger than life, lady will be sadly missed by so many people.

Rest in Peace Jackie …

My weekly Round-Up. 08/02/15.

Hello lovely book people 🙂
Hope you’ve all had a fabulous week.
There is nothing to report on the book front this week as I’ve been really busy and haven’t managed to read a full book. However, I’ve 9 days off work now so hopefully there will be lots to tell you all next week 🙂

So that’s all for this week folks !

Happy Reading 🙂
️
xxx

My Weekly Round-Up … 18/01/14.

 

Hello Lovely Book people 🙂

Welcome to this weeks round-up.

Things this week have been a little less busy, I actually had time to read and review a book. Something as you all know has been impossible for me just lately, what with work and everything else that life throws at you !!

Anyway it was for the Blog Tour for ‘The Girl On The Train’.  My day is Wednesday 21st Jan, so look out for that 🙂

Well, less of my waffle, here’s the round-up for this week :

 

Books I’ve been sent this week :

That Part was True – Deborah McKinlay – Sent by the very lovely Lucy at Orion.

The Life I Left Behind – Colette McBeth. – Sent by the wonderful folk at Bookbridgr.

 

Books I’ve been accepted for this week :

None – As I didn’t request any.

 

Books I’ve purchased this week :

None.

 

Books I’m reading / read this week :

The Girl On the Train – Paula Hawkins – 10/10 – A really excellent read – My review (as part of the Blog Tour) will be on the Blog on the 21st Jan ’15.

Summertime – Vanessa LaFaye – Currently reading.

 

That’s all for this week folks !

Happy reading 🙂

xxx

 

 

 

 

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.