Book review: Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

Tuesday, May 5, 2020 Permalink

I keep vowing to stop reading books about parenting. I realise actual parents probably enjoy them and can definitely relate; but the mummy (mommy) wars and good vs bad parenting dilemma aren’t really high on my relevance agenda. Having said that, I do read a lot of books about sociopaths damaged by bad parenting, so…. I guess there’s that.

As it happens, I decided to read Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan however because I’d read and enjoyed a previous novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, by the former political reporter.

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three-half-stars

Book review: Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs

Friday, April 17, 2020 Permalink

I received an early copy of Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs. The Temperance Brennan series was one I once didn’t miss, though haven’t read many in recent years. My mother loved the TV series (Bones) and has read some of the books so I offered it to her first as I wanted to read it closer to its release date.

When she returned it she was a bit ‘meh’. I wondered if Reichs was starting to ‘phone it in’… I’ve talked about other long-running series and authors perhaps becoming too complacent or running out of ideas. However, instead I reminded how different my mother’s taste is to mine. Because I really loved it.

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four-stars

Book review: You Don’t Know Me by Sara Foster

Monday, October 28, 2019 Permalink

When ticking the ‘genre’ of this book for this post I added romantic suspense because – though not generally a fan of ‘romance’ as such – I was completely taken with the burgeoning romance that underpinned much of this novel.

The book opens as our two leads, Alice and Noah meet, and I adored their relationship and the way it grew. It felt… well, um romantic. Of course it’s hampered by a backstory of long-kept secrets, guilt and death, so it’s not all rainbows and kittens.

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four-stars

Book review: Under the Midnight Sky by Anna Romer

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 Permalink

Although I missed Anna Romer’s much-lauded debut, Thornwood House I’ve read Lyrebird Hill and read and interviewed Romer about Beyond the Orchard.

I’d assumed this book would have gothic or fairytale (are they not the same thing? Different sides of the same coin perhaps?) undertones, but it sits a little more firmly in the mystery genre and what WAS to be a short pre-dinner read, turned into several hours, until I’d finished the book.

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four-stars

Book review: The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence

Sunday, February 3, 2019 Permalink

I’d misunderstood the backcover blurb of this book by Jennifer Spence so thought it was going to predominantly be historical fiction, flashing back and forth in time to a point at which someone made a decision they later regretted or that could have gone two ways.

I’m not a fan of historical fiction. I had visions of war-time London or similar and was worried this book might be heavy-going.

And… Was. I. Wrong!!!! (That’s a statement, not a question by the way!)

Of course it helps that a time-slip of 20 years – which is the case in this novel – only takes us back from its present (the book kicks off in 2017) to 1997, which kinda feels like just yesterday. 

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four-half-stars

Book review: Holy Ghost by John Sandford

Monday, October 29, 2018 Permalink

I was a tad harsh on John Sandford and Virgil Flowers when we last caught up in Deep Freeze. In reality I missed the wild, irresponsible and irreverent Virgil who seemed much changed. Though in fairness to him he was facing fatherhood and monogamy for the first time ever.

Obviously it didn’t deter me as I was keen to rejoin Virgil (or ‘that fuckin Flowers’ as he’s known to most) on his latest exploits. And (other than the weird inclusion of bloody larceny involving children’s toys again – this time lego* instead of barbie dolls!) THIS was more the Sandford I know and love.

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three-half-stars

Book review: The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale

Friday, October 5, 2018 Permalink

I downloaded this book onto my e-Reader some time before my Italian holiday, along with a few other books, planning to do some reading while away. As it happened however, I didn’t even turn my iPad on until my flight home…. over 3wks after I’d left.

I didn’t remember seeing this book as a hard copy on offer for review but requested an electronic copy when it started to appear everywhere and thank god I did as it helped one of the two legs of my flights from Rome to Brisbane pass really quickly.

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four-stars

Book review: Second Sight by Aoife Clifford

Sunday, July 1, 2018 Permalink

I very much enjoyed Australian author Aoife Clifford’s debut novel All These Perfect Strangers, released in 2016.

Second Sight is a little different to the first book (in neither a good nor bad way). It feels very Australian and I adored the opening pages – Clifford’s vividly visceral descriptions and the easy way in which she gives us a strong sense of the small coastal town of Kinsale.

The sun pours through the glass and warms my bones to jelly. I wind down the window to take in the salted scent of my childhood: sea mixed with the crusty tang from the deep-fryers in the takeaway shops. It’s all sunscreen, tan lines, peeling skin and bad holiday traffic. p 2

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four-stars
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