Book After Book

I read this book in two seats. It starts slow, but I found myself quickly immersed in this novel full of surprises and revelations.

CROSS HER HEART is about three women, three strong, determined, and brave women, all of them hiding secrets. Lisa is forty years old, she has a sixteen-year-old daughter, Ava, a good job, and a great best friend, Marylin. But Lisa is also afraid, afraid of a past that still terrifies her and that it’s now catching up with her.

Ava is a normal teenager, drinking, occasionally smoking, and worrying about boyfriends and school exams. She has a secret that she is keeping not only from her mother, but also from her best friends. But her mysterious Facebook admirer is not the only secret Ava is keeping.

Marylin has been Lisa’s best friend for ten years, since they started working for the same company. They spend a lot of time together, in and outside of work, but Marylin has never told Lisa that her life is not at all what it seems.

What I love about this author is that she completely and repeatedly takes you by surprise. I thought I knew exactly what was going on, who not to trust, and it turns out I was completely wrong. Every few pages there were new revelations, some I had already figured them out, but most were unexpected, and there were so many twists that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The characters are very well-crafted and developed. The relationship between mother and daughter is well explored. Lisa, because of her past, is an apprehensive and overbearing mother, always checking on Ava. Ava, like every sixteen-year-old, is annoyed by her mother’s attention but also feels guilty when she snaps at her. I also enjoyed reading about Lisa and Marylin’s relationship, how strong their friendship is, and how much they trust each other, secrets aside.

Secrets, obsession, and betrayal are at the center of this haunting and compulsive book (which is out next week) and I’d like to thank HarperFiction for providing me with an early copy.

First of all, look how beautiful is the cover of this novel, so delicate and elegant. I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Then there is the book itself which is immersive, memorable, and completely addictive. I really love Paige Toon’s novels, I can’t never get enough of them, but they always make me cry at the end. In this case, I cried at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end.

The protagonist of this novel is Nell. She spends her time between London, where she lives with her mother, and Cornwall where she spends her holidays with her father.

Nell is five years old when she first met Vian. He is her same age, just two days of difference, and he is Ruth’s son, his father’s new girlfriend. At the beginning, Nell is a little cold towards Vian, but, at the end of the holiday, she is sad to go back to London and leave him behind.

“One day, maybe five years from now, you’ll look back and understand why this happened…”

Five years later, Nell’s mother has moved to France and Nell is happily living in Cornwall with her father, Ruth, and Vian to whom she is closer than ever. But fate separates them and Nell and Vian reunite again every five years, but the timing is never right and things won’t be easy between them.

Once again, Paige Toon created a series characters to fall in love with and gave them storylines that fill you up with emotions. I loved meeting Nell and Vian when they were children and see them grow up, being with them through their happiest and saddest moments. I laughed with them and I cried with them, and I wish they were my friends. It wasn’t only the relationship between Nell and Vian that kept me glued to the page, but Nell’s closed relationship with her father, the difficult relationship with her mother, and I enjoyed reading how she stayed closed to her childhood friends over the years.

I loved that Paige Toon set her novel between Cornwall, a place I am falling in love with thanks to her books, and Australia, a place I really wish to visit. Her descriptions are very atmospheric and vivid, the perfect frame to a beautiful and inspiring story.

I will be thinking about this unique and beautifully written story and its engaging characters for a long time and I’d like to thank Sara-Jade Virtue and Simon and Schuster UK for providing me with an early copy of the book.

I was drawn to this novel after reading online the positive reactions from early readers and the intriguing blurb. My expectations were fully met because I was hooked from the first page. The novel is set in 2013 and 2015 and it’s told from three different points of view: mostly Caroline, her husband Francis, and the unknown character that is staying in their house for a week.

Francis and Caroline have been together for fifteen years, married for eight, and they have a young son, Eddie. For the last few years their lives have been hard. Francis has been fighting (with no much conviction) an addiction to pills, so Caroline found comfort in the arms of her colleague Carl, eight years her junior. The affair ended “horribly”, according to her, and Francis stopped taking pills and, two years later, they are still trying to save their marriage, although it seems mostly for their son’s sake. This house swap is their chance to reconnect and to spend more time together without being too expensive, but things are strange from the beginning because the house seems unlived and cold. There aren’t many personal effect of the person who lives there, the person who is now staying in their house. But when Caroline starts to notice a few things that remind her of Carl and their affair, she starts to suspect that this holiday has been planned from someone else who is not her, someone who is now in her house. Is it Carl? If so, why is he contacting her after two years of silence? And what does he want?

The author masterly leads the reader through Caroline’s affair with Carl, her conflicting feelings both towards him and her husband, and her confusion and shock as she starts to figure out that there is something strange going on. I couldn’t put down the book as I wanted to read what really happened that made her affair with Carl end in a horrible way, what she is hiding, and I couldn’t wait to find out who is really the person staying in her house. I was also suspicious of Amber, the girl living next to their holiday house. She was always calling Caroline and knocking on her door and I kept asking myself: why is she so friendly? I was taken by surprise when the truth was revealed.

The novel is slow-paced and character-driven. It’s also a quick read, both because I couldn’t stop reading it but also because the narration flows easily and flawlessly. THE HOUSE SWAP is carefully plotted, brilliantly written, haunting, and immersive and I’d like to thank Poppy Stimpson, Thomas Hill, and Transworld Books for giving me the chance to read this book and to take part in the blog.

Rebecca Fleet lives and works in London. The House Swap is her first thriller.

Coal Diggers is one of the most watched reality shows on TV. Five women in their twenties and early thirties show to the world how they succeed in their businesses. It’s on its fourth season and only three of the original cast are still in the show, Brett, Jen, and Stephanie. Lauren came in the second season, while Kelly, Brett’s sister, started on the fourth, to her sister’s disappointment. It’s on this fourth season that things go really wrong because, as we learn from the first page, Brett was murdered. But what happened? How did these five women get to this point? Jessica Knoll takes us back in time and shows us how allegiances switch, jealousies rise, lies are told, and secrets are hidden.

I loved this book. I didn’t like any of the characters, but I really loved and enjoyed the book and its twisty and juicy plot. The story is told from different points of views: Kelly, Brett, and Stephanie, but you can’t trust these characters. I liked that these characters are unreliable because you never know who is telling the truth and there are many unexpected moments and revelations that took me by surprise. Since the story is told from different points of views, I found myself siding with Brett and then, after reading Stephanie’s side of the story, siding with her, and then switching over and over again. As I said I didn’t really like any of these characters because I found them selfish and self-centered, but I liked that they were strong, determined and driven and I was entertained by their machinations and lies.

At the center of the novel are women competing with each other to make it out alive of that jungle that is the reality show. I was surprised, and sometimes shocked, at the lengths these women would go to win the reality show. Even Brett and Kelly, sisters, business partners, and really close (at least at the beginning) grow apart and keep secrets from each other after Kelly becomes one of the protagonists of the show.

Liane Moriarty (of whom I am a big fan) meets Real Housewives in this compelling and vibrant novel and I would like to thank Pan Macmillan for providing me with an early copy of the book.

This is a gripping novel about friendship and obsession set in Cornwall in the summer of 1986 (with a few jumps to present time).

The story is told from many points of view. Firstly and mostly, from Tamsyn’s point of view, a 16-year-old girl living with her poor family in Cornwall. She spends her time spying with her binoculars on The Cliff House, the mansion belonging to the Davenports, a wealthy family from London. She is a loner, still grieving over her father’s death, who died when she was ten, and she finds happiness imagining of living in The Cliff House and being part of this seemingly perfect family. She sees her chance when she becomes friends with young Edie Davenport.

Edie Davenport’s life is far from perfect. Her mother is an alcoholic and her father is a famous writer who likes to flirt with women. They sent her to boarding school when she was eight years old. She travels around the world, she wears fashionable clothes, and she can have whatever she wants, but she feels unloved by her parents, so she got herself expelled from school. Although her friendship with Tamsyn is born out of boredom, Edie seems to care about her and she is also attracted to Tamsyn’s older brother, Jago.

Jago is a couple of years older than Tamsyn. He dropped out of school and went to work in the mine, but he has been jobless since this closed. He manages to bring home some money and get the odd job, but he feels a failure, especially towards his father, having promised to take care of the family.

Angie, Tamsyn and Jago’s mother, works as a cleaner for the Davenports, but she doesn’t trust them and becomes worried when the entire family seems to show an interest in Tamsyn. Also, she is worried about Jago, about their financial situation, and, like Tamsyn, she is still grieving over her husband’s death.

I didn’t really like the character of Tamsyn, but she is very well-portrayed by the author. She seems naïve and shy, but she is not that innocent. Her obsession with The Cliff House and the Davenports is at the centre of the story and make her a complex character, difficult to figure out.

“Here, at The Cliff House, the colours were exaggerated, the light brighter, the smells, the tastes and sounds richer.”

THE CLIFF HOUSE is very well-written and I found the author’s descriptions very evocative. The setting and some of the characters (the alcoholic and depressed wife, the womanizer famous author) reminded me of F. S. Fitzgerald’s novels.  The surprises are mostly at the end of the novel, but the tension is high throughout the entire novel, and I was never sure what to expect next.

THE CLIFF HOUSE is out on May 17^th and I’d like to thank HQ and HarperCollins for providing me with an early copy of this haunting and fascinating novel.

I really loved this novel. It is unique, a murder story whose protagonist is a young boy who sees the world in a different way from the rest of the world.

“I am glad I am not like most other teenage boys because I get to see the world in its full multi-coloured glory.”

Jasper is 13 years old. He lives with his father in a quiet street in Richmond. Jasper has synaesthesia, which means he sees sounds as colours. Also, he has prosopagnosia so he can’t recognise people’s faces. He spends his days painting, observing parakeets from his bedroom window, and keeping note of everything that happens in his neighbourhood.

“Bee Larkham’s murder was ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged, silver icicles.”

Bee Larkham is a young woman who just moved across the street. She is soon causing trouble in the neighbourhood with her loud music (which Jasper also loves) and the parakeets in her garden. Now the police wants to question her about her relationship with a 15-year-old boy, but she’s disappeared. Jasper knows what happened to her, but his memories are unclear so he goes through his notebooks to remember what really happened the night Bee disappeared.

I really felt for Jasper. The adults around Jasper don’t understand him. They think that because of his learning disabilities he doesn’t understand what is going on. But Jasper is a special boy, highly intelligent, and I did love this character. Since the story is told in first person from Jasper’s point of view, we can see Jasper struggling to express himself and, at times, it was actually painful to read (especially when he was bullied).

There are many emotional moments, I was especially moved by Jasper’s memories of his mother, who died when he was young, and he still remembers the cobalt blue of her voice and rubs one of her buttons every time he feels anxious or nervous. There is also some humour and irony, created by Jasper’s lack of sarcasm, that made me laugh.

The novel is brilliantly written and very well-researched. Jasper’s personality really drew me into the story and I found the entire novel intense and unforgettable. THE COLOUR OF BEE LARKHAM’S MURDER is out next week and I’d like to thank HarperCollins for providing me with an early copy of the book.

This book is different from the thrillers I am used to. I found the plot unbelievable, but the book is very well-written, original, and intriguing and the characters are engaging and likable.

The protagonist is a young woman who uses fake names and tells the story in first person. Her sister, Rachel, disappeared twelve years before. A summer morning, she didn’t turn up at her babysitting job and she was never found. But the woman never gave up and spent the last twelve years doing her own investigation. Her research led her to Carl Louis Feldman, a photographer accused and then acquitted of the kidnapping of a woman, and suspected of the disappearance of other women. Now, Carl lives in a nursing home and suffers from early dementia. Pretending to be his daughter, the protagonist takes Carl on a ten-day drive around Texas, to places significant to these disappearances to try and retrieve his memory.

The characters are well-crafted and complex. Carl seems to play with the protagonist and he uses his dementia against the protagonist to get her to do what he wants. He has a sense of humour and the author gives him a human side, a side that makes him rescue a wounded dog and a cat with three legs. It’s difficult to describe him as a bad or good guy. The same can be said for the female protagonist. She is so obsessed in her search for the truth and justice that she becomes reckless. She’s been preparing for years and she has everything planned out for this trip. But, like Carl, she has a human side, too. She takes on Carl’s wounded dog, she pays for his bill at the vet, and she goes back to pay her debts.

“I’m feeling more vulnerable and insignificant as the bowl of Texas sky expands and I shrink.”

I really loved the descriptions of the Texan landscape. The descriptions are vivid and evocative and I could imagine it like a movie as Carl and the woman embark on this trip on the Lone Star state with only the company of a dog.

The narration is slow-paced but the tension is always high. There are pictures, extract from Carl’s photography book, pages from the protagonist’s journal, and flashbacks from the past that weave through the plot. PAPER GHOSTS is an immersive and compulsive read and I’d like to thank Gaby Young and Michael Joseph for providing me with an early copy of this thrilling novel.

I was completely addicted to this novel. I couldn’t put it down and when I did (because, you know, I have to work) I couldn’t wait to go back to it and a few days after finishing it, I am still thinking about it.

The story revolves around the Crew, a group of five friends who grew up together in Chatwick, a small town in Vermont. Ruby (from whose point of view is told most of the story), Murphy, Ally, Danny, and Emmett had known each other since they were children and had been inseparable until they turned eighteen, when they all went their separate ways after graduation, especially Ruby who left the small town to go and study in New York.

Ten years later, Ruby is still in New York where she dreams of becoming a writer and she hasn’t seen or talked to her childhood friends for ten years. But when Danny suddenly dies, she has no choice but to go back home and face her past.

After the funeral, Danny’s mother gathers the four friends to give each of them an envelope left from Danny. Inside each of them, it’s one of their secrets, a secret that Danny wants them to share with the others. But the consequences could be catastrophic for all of them.

I wouldn’t categorize this book as a mystery or crime novel, but there is a lot of rising suspense as each character tries to keep their secret hidden. The story is told mostly from Ruby’s point of view, who can be seen as the main character of the story, but there are a few interventions from other characters that make this book even more gripping. We also jump back in time, as we learn more about their friendship, the strong bond with each other, the difficult childhoods that some of them had, the drama of first loves, their use of drugs and alcohol.

I was completely captivated by Ruby and Murphy’s relationship, best friends, and maybe something more (I hope I am not giving too much away). Their evolving relationship is what kept me glued to the page and I couldn’t wait to find out more. Although I hoped for a different ending for them (again, I am hoping I am not spoilering too much), I think that the author ended the novel in a perfect way for all the characters.

FRIENDS AND OTHER LIARS is a truly compelling, fresh and engaging novel and I’d like to thank Sourcebooks for providing me with a copy of the book.

“Mary Hand Mary Hand,
Dead and buried understand.
She’ll say she wants to be your friend.
Do not let her in again.”

This is the rhyme that, in 1950, the girls at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for girls in Vermont, were singing about the ghost who haunted the school’s gardens.

Although I was a little put off by the ghost element, of which I am not a big fan in thrillers, after reading the blurb, I was really drawn to this book. I loved that the novel is set partly in a boarding school and even the alternation between the past and the present which is always good in a mystery book.

In 1950, Idlewild Hall is a boarding school for troubled girls, girls whose families found difficult to deal with, the ones who caused troubles, the ones who were illegitimate, the ones who had no family left, the ones who were going through a traumatic event. Among them, four girls, roommates, and best friends, Katie, CeCe, Roberta, and Sonia. As each is going through their own personal problems, they also have to deal with Mary Hand, the ghost who haunts Idlewild Hall’s gardens and who reveals each girl’s worst fear.

In 2014, Fiona Sheridan is a freelance journalist who is writing an article about Idlewild Hall. After the boarding school closed in 1979, the place was left abandoned until now that a rich woman has decided to renovate it. The place is personal for Fiona because that’s where her sister’s body had been dumped after being killed by her boyfriend twenty years earlier. Fiona has never gotten over her sister’s death and she still visits the place, even in the middle of the night.

Moving between 1950 and 2014, between the four Idlewild Hall girls and Fiona, I was completely immersed as a I read about creepy and scary ghosts and legends, mysterious disappearances, homicides, prejudices against women, and small-town politics.

THE BROKEN GIRLS is dark and disturbing with a gothic atmospheric and characters with rich personality. As I said, I am not a big fan of ghost presences in novels, but somehow the paranormal elements (although not really necessary to the story) work perfectly well in this novel and give it another touch of suspense and thrill.

Haunting, sharp, and atmospheric, THE BROKEN GIRLS is one of these books that I couldn’t wait to go back to read, and it’s out now (in eBook in the UK).

I am still new to Jo Nesbo’s novels, I just read a couple of them, but I love his writing and his well-developed characters. Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare’s plays so I have been looking forward to read this and I’d like to thank Vintage Books for providing me with a proof copy of this modern retelling of the 400-year-old play.

The novel is set sometimes in the 1970s, in a town without a name, a town nobody leaves, a corrupted town where crime is high. The previous Chief Commissioner was a man in the hands of drug lords who let the town fall into chaos, but now Duncan is the new Chief Commissioner. He is a visionary, an idealistic who promises to end the war on drug by capturing the most powerful criminal in town, Hecate. At his side there are the loyal Malcolm, Duff, Inspector of the Narco Unit who dreams of becoming the Head of the Organised Crime Unit, and Macbeth, head of the SWAT team.

Macbeth comes from the poorest side of town, he grew up in an orphanage, and he is an ex drug-addict. Despite this, Duncan decides to promote him as Head of the Organised Crime Unit. And when Strega, a witch sent by Hecate, prophesizes him that he will become Chief Commissioner, Macbeth and Lady (who is the owner of the Inverness Casino) come up with a plan to get rid of Duncan and help Macbeth’s raise to the top.

I really couldn’t put this book down!!! I stayed up late at night reading and I am still thinking about it, days after I finished it. All the characters from the Shakespeare’s play are in the book, sometimes with different names (Macduff becomes Duff) and Jo Nesbo did a fantastic job in creating complex and vivid characters. They are all corrupted, but I couldn’t help liking them at some point or other throughout the novel. Duff is driven by his ambition to become powerful and Lady (who had a very troubled childhood) sees power as a tool for survival. Macbeth is the best-crafted character. Jo Nesbo follows the original storyline of the play, but until the end I couldn’t help but hope for redemption and salvation for Macbeth. It’s fascinating to watch Macbeth become a ruthless and reckless man who doesn’t stop at anything to get what he wants. But he has also a more human side, a side that doesn’t let innocent people die, a side that it’s not corrupted by drug or by his love for Lady.

Out today, MACBETH is such a superb and riveting novel. Jo Nesbo’s writing is captivating, as usual, and the setting of the novel is very dark and grim, the perfect frame to this world of drug and corruption.