Sophie spent many happy summers as a child at Rockaway Beach. Visiting her beloved grandmother and taking in all the ambiance of a summer seaside resort. Then, suddenly one summer, the holidays stopped and all Sophie knew was that her mother and her grandmother had really fallen out. A couple […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
I seem to have read a number of these multi generational novels recently. Perhaps that is the latest fashion in fiction like when you couldn’t escape a vampire book or a dystopian future for quite a while? Thats not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I really did. […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
I’ve been a huge fan of Armstrong’s various series over the years – particularly the Cainsville and Otherworld books but the standalone stories are rarely as strong. Every Step She Takes is one of her better one-off stories although it does take a little while to get going. Genevieve leads […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
When Ruth is offered her first role in a Broadway play it feels as though things are really starting to take off with her career. Coupled with the fact that she and her boyfriend Adam have been asked to house-sit a beautiful old house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it has been […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Just when you think that Caroline Mitchell can’t surprise you she comes up with The Perfect Mother. Roz is just about scraping by in a job that she hates in Dublin. When she realises that she is pregnant after an ill advised one night stand things are pretty desperate. She […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
You might remember Jessie Burton as the author of the phenomenally successful 2014 book The Miniaturist. It has been a long wait for this, her third book, but one that was well worth it. The story begins in London in 1980. On Hampstead Heath a young woman called Elise Morceau […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
You may remember Lauren Weisberger for her hit novel The Devil Wears Prada. Her iconic anti-heroine Miranda Priestly became world famous after it was turned into a movie in 2006. This is the third book in the series but can be read as a standalone novel. I do recommend seeking […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Modern American literature isn’t always a favourite of mine. There is such a difference in tone between a European author writing on a subject and that of their American counterpart. I’m very pleased to say that Rowley has crafted a modern American novel of significance with a pathos and circumspection […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Futures is described as a New York Love Story but for most of the book the main characters Julia and Evan seem to be almost the antithesis of love. Their relationship is a convenience, a habit. Julia and Evan get together at college where Evan is a Canadian ice […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
If you are finding it a struggle waiting for the next Fifty Shades movie to hit the big screen you can console yourself with Lara Adrianโs latest novel. This is the second book in her โ100โ series and they really do need to be read in sequence otherwise there are […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Oddly enough this is the second consecutive book that I read set in the mid nineteen sixties. Little Deaths finds us in Queens, New York. Ruth Malone is a single mother and a cocktail waitress. Divorced from her husband Frank, he is fighting her for custody of their children Frankie […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Written by Noah Hawley โ he of โFargoโ fame โ โAfter the Fallโ is set in the immediate aftermath of a plane crash. A small private passenger plane flying from Marthaโs Vineyard to New York with eleven people on board crashes into the sea just sixteen minutes after take-off. There […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
UK Publication Date: 24 May 2016. 274 pages. Up till this point my only experience of Lara Adrian has been through her Midnight Breed series of paranormal romances. โFor 100 Daysโ is a bit of a departure from the world of vampire warriors and we are transported to modern day […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
UK Publication Date: 24 Mar 2016. 400 pages. Considering that I read quite a lot of crime fiction Iโve never actually read a Harlan Coben novel before. I always felt like I should but never actually got round to it. Saying that I started this novel three times before I […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
UK Publishing Date: 5 Apr 2016. 368 pages. Over the last couple of years there has been a resurgence of classic books being rewritten in a modern or futuristic setting. Tell the Wind and Fire doesnโt hide where it gets its inspiration from as it opens with: โIt was the […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
UK Publishing Date: 8 Mar 2016. 274 pages In many ways Lexington and 42nd was a bit of a surprise. The title and the cover give you the impression that it is going to be a fairly run of the mill chick lit story however it is actually quite a […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
UK Publishing Date: 3 Dec 2015. 400 Pages. Holly Johnson lives in Dublin. She’s a sometime researcher for a run of the millย radio station – and controversially not the singer from Eighties band Frankie Goes to Hollywood! Life is ticking along nicely but she hasn’t met The One. Signing up […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
UK Publishing Date: 2 July 2015. 256 pages. Fire Colour One is a rare book. Itโs one of those Young Adult books that have the ability to touch anyone of any age that reads it. My only frustration with it was that it wasn’t long enough! Iris lives in America […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
UK Publishing Date: 22 Oct 2015. 736 pages. I can honestly say that it took me the best part of a month to get through this book. “A Little Life” is a deceptive title for a tome that weighs in at over 730 pages and is one of the most […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
UK Publication Date: 27 Oct 2015. 496 pages. I rarely read period dramas, unless they were written in the time that they are set. Think Wilkie Collins or Dickens and you are along the right lines. Modern day versions of these books tend towards the melodramatic and I normally find […]
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes