Category: Fiction

If you’ve read The House in the Cerulean Sea, you’ll understand why I was so incredibly excited to read Somewhere Beyond the Sea – its sequel. But, as I always am with any form of sequel, I was quite nervous that it wouldn’t be as good as the first one, or that the story would READ MORE

I’ve been a fan of Amanda Craig’s writing since reading Hearts and Minds (though The Lie of the Land is probably my favourite so far). This was, I believe, her first novel. It received mixed reviews upon its release, but has been re-issued because it features crossover characters with Craig’s later novels. And I’m very READ MORE

This was one of the books recommended to me (by Pam at Read! Bake! Create! – thank you!) when I discussed how much I enjoy intergenerational friendships. But this book has the refreshing twist of not just being about an intergenerational friendship, but being between two people who need each other and being quite the READ MORE

Sue Townsend is one of those authors I grew up with. Her Adrian Mole books were introduced to me by one of my cousins, Chris (I still have the copy of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 with his inscription in it), and were some of the first I couldn’t get enough READ MORE

  Let me be up front – I loved this book. It was recommended to me by Joanne over at Portobello Book Blog as a great book about intergenerational friendship, and boy was she ever on the mark! It’s the story of two people who, for different reasons, are having a hard time in thier READ MORE

I decided to read this book because I loved Wrong Place Wrong Time by McAllister that I read before this one. It was such an exciting thriller with great pacing and interesting twists and turns – not to mention the unique premise! I wanted to see if there were other books by her that might READ MORE

Wow. That’s the one word version of this review. I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read this blockbuster book, or that I went into it with zero idea what I was getting into. Honestly, I think that’s probably the best way to experience it, so if you want to go and READ MORE

In Bomb Shelter Mary Laura Philpott introduces herself while lying upside down on her living room floor, rendered immobile at the age of forty-four by two herniated discs. While she’s down there, she ruminates on memories of her family, Christmases past, the house they share, and thinks about how she ended up there. But quickly READ MORE

When we meet Liv, she is in a situation many of us have faced in our lives. Her life is spent on jobs that are necessary but not enjoyable – her work life is spent cleaning offices and homes for people who see through her and don’t notice or care much about the work she’s READ MORE

The story in this book seems to be an easy one to judge. There are some things that seem to be moral absolutes. And yet, somehow this book takes some of the most basic moral absolutes and makes them ambiguous. It takes the easy good guys and has them become at best misguided, at worst READ MORE

It’s been rather warm here over the past couple of months (except, of course, the last week), so this felt like a very thematic book to tackle this summer. I haven’t read many of Maggie O’Farrell’s books – in fact, before this, I’d only read one. But that one made such an impression on me READ MORE

Sometimes even for very different people at very different points in their lives, there is a shared experience. In this book, that shared experience is loneliness. The book begins in a cemetery. Maddy, a lonely teenaged girl, is there on her lunch hour to visit her mother’s grave. Arthur Moses is there – as he READ MORE