Category Archives: Rating

December 26, 2022 · 2:36 pm

Shrines of Gaiety – Kate Atkinson

Shrines of Gaiety – Kate Atkinson

I like all of Kate Atkinson’s novels – here’s a previous review – and I found this one compelling.

Here’s the blurb …

London 1926. Roaring Twenties.
Corruption. Seduction. Debts due.

In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.

This novel was beautifully written (and researched). It’s all about London night life of the 1920s, everyone is trying to have a good time after the deprivations of the war. But it is also about the seedier elements of the nightlife; the crime, the drugs and the girls (who seem disposable).

This is definitely one of my favourite books for the year.

A review

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December 13, 2022 · 6:14 pm

Beach Read – Emily Henry

Beach Read – Emily Henry

This is the third Emily Henry novel, Book Lovers and People we Meet on Vacation. I like them all.

Here’s the blurb …

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

This was a fun, witty and easy read. If you read romance, you will enjoy this, and even if you don’t read romance, this novel has a lot to offer.

A review

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December 7, 2022 · 5:41 pm

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver

I always like Barbara Kingsolver novels (here’s my thoughts on Unsheltered), so I was very keen to read this, and then a dear friend told me how much she loved it and I moved it straight to the top of the pile.

Here’s the blurb …

“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

I haven’t read David Copperfield, I have seen this adaptation though, so I can’t comment on how close it is to Dickens or on any clever literary conversation that might be happening between the two novels.

I loved it, her writing is superb. It is written in the voice of Demon and it is a very compelling voice. I wanted to hear his story and to know how it ended. It is confronting at times, there is so much poverty, neglect and substance abuse, but it is worth persevering.

I have been telling everyone to read it.

A review

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November 24, 2022 · 8:46 pm

Going Rogue – Janet Evanovich

Going Rogue – Janet Evanovich

This is the twenty ninth book in the Stephanie Plum series, an amazing achievement.

Here’s the blurb …

Monday mornings aren’t supposed to be fun, but they should be predictable. However, on this particular Monday, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli, who is as reliable as the tides in Atlantic City, hasn’t shown up.

Stephanie’s worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie’s abductor. He says he will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin that a recently murdered man left as collateral for his bail. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office—just like Connie—is nowhere to be found.

The quest to discover the coin, learn its value, and save Connie will require the help of Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur, her best pal Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and hunky security expert Ranger. As they get closer to unraveling the reasons behind Connie’s kidnapping, Connie’s captor grows more threatening and soon Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue.

If you have read any of these novels, then you know what to expect. They’re racy and pacy, with laugh out loud moments. Very fun and quick to read.

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November 21, 2022 · 6:53 pm

Lucy By the Sea – Elizabeth Strout

Lucy by the Sea – Elizabeth Strout

I do like Elizabeth Strout’s writing and I was super keen to read this one.

Here’s the blurb

A poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown–and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.

With her trademark spare, crystalline prose, Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic.

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea.

Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart–the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.

This is the first novel I have read with Covid references. It definitely catches the confusion that happened in March 2020. This continues Lucy and William’s story, so I think you do need to have read the previous two. If you enjoyed those, then you will enjoy this one.

A review

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November 15, 2022 · 7:17 pm

Infamous – Lex Croucher

Infamous – Lex Croucher

I read Reputation and really enjoyed it, so when Miss A told me there was a new novel I was super keen to read it.

Here’s the blurb …

22-year-old aspiring writer Edith ‘Eddie’ Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together-climbing trees, throwing grapes at boys, sneaking bottles of wine, practicing kissing . . .

But following their debutante ball Rose is suddenly talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified.

When Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson, he invites her to his crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside. The entourage of eccentric artists indulging in pure hedonism is exactly what Eddie needs in order to forget Rose and finish her novel.

But Eddie might discover the world of famous literary icons isn’t all poems and pleasure . . .

I enjoyed this one too – it was fun, very decadent (there was a lot of drinking and some mushrooms). If you like regency romances (Heyer, Austen, Quinn, etc) then this is for you.

A review

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November 12, 2022 · 3:37 pm

In Love with George Eliot – Kathy O’Shaughnessy

In Love with George Eliot – Kathy O’Shaughnessy

I picked this up from the book exchange at Floreat Forum and then it languished on the ‘tbr’ shelf for sometime. Then I came across a free audible version, so I listened to it.

Here’s the blurb …

Marian Evans is a scandalous figure, living in sin with a married man, George Henry Lewes. She has shocked polite society, and women rarely deign to visit her. In secret, though, she has begun writing fiction under the pseudonym George Eliot. As Adam Bede’s fame grows, curiosity rises as to the identity of its mysterious writer. Gradually it becomes apparent that the moral genius Eliot is none other than the disgraced woman living with Lewes.

Now Evans’ tremendous celebrity begins. The world falls in love with her. She is the wise and great writer, sent to guide people through the increasingly secular, rudderless century, and an icon to her progressive feminist peers — with whom she is often in disagreement. Public opinion shifts. Her scandalous cohabitation is forgiven. But this idyll is not secure and cannot last. When Lewes dies, Evans finds herself in danger of shocking the world all over again.

Meanwhile, in another rudderless century, two women compete to arrive at an interpretation of Eliot as writer and as woman …

Everyone who has thrilled at being shown the world anew by George Eliot will thrill again at her presence, complex and compelling, here.

This book had a very interesting structure. It has two different time periods, George Eliot’s time and a contemporary time. For the sections set in George Eliot’s time, the author has used letters and diaries and then fleshed out the story. In the modern section, we have a George Eliot scholar writing a novel about George Eliot. It’s fascinating. I have read a biography of George Eliot (for My Victorian Literary study group), so I knew the bare bones of her story, but I enjoyed this fleshing out of her character (and the other characters like George Lewes, etc). There are a few echoes in the modern story to Eliot’s story, but I won’t give anything away.

A review

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November 7, 2022 · 6:59 pm

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

This was languishing in my ‘to be read’ pile until a friend offered to lend me her copy. I finally dug it out and read it and I am glad I did, it’s lots of fun.

Blurb …

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

We don’t really know the person who gets brutally murdered and then the next person that gets murdered we don’t really like, so this is not a disturbing read at all. It’s well-written and fun, and I didn’t guess the murderer (which is unusual for me).

A review

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November 1, 2022 · 8:58 pm

The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding – Holly Ringland

The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding – Holly Ringland

I finished reading this, it was lovely. Esther can be annoying, but I suspect that is a trauma response and besides an annoying character doesn’t mean the writing is poor. It was well researched, I want to visit the Faroe Islands.

This novel is about female relationships; sisters, mothers and daughters and friends. It’s about bodily autonomy, and marking your body with tattoos and myth and fairy tales.

A review

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October 16, 2022 · 7:45 pm

The Murder of Mr Wickham – Claudia Grey

The Murder of Mr Wickham – Claudia Gray

This is like the love child of Agatha Christie and Jane Austen, a country house murder mystery with Jane Austen characters.

Here’s the blurb …

A summer house party turns into a whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. The unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

This was a fun read, well-written and interesting. I am not sure that the Knightley’s and Wentworth’s would have been duped by Wickham’s investment schemes, and I have a different view of Edmund Bertram. However, I kept turning pages to find out who the murderer was. I think you could read this without knowing Jane Austen, but it is definitely for Jane Austen fans.

Another review.

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