2021 - my year of reading

 Just a quick (hopefully not too waffly) post to round up the year - I do hope you all received some lovely new books in your Christmas stocking this year. I know I did and I can't wait to get myself settled onto the sofa over the New Year to get stuck in to them. I'm not a big fan of going out to crowded bars or parties, etc to see the new year in so Boris wasn't going to change my NYE plans one iota if he had decided to rejig the covid restrictions. I'm not going to get all political but I do hope the hospitality industry can start to get back on its feet again after suffering for so long, and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year however you decide to see in 2022.

Looking back at 2021 it's been a strange one for me reading-wise. I kind of hit a bit of a wall and lost my reading mojo for most of the year in comparison to previous years.  I've only completed 54 books this year where my previous years have been 80+ titles but amongst the books I've read have been some which will stay with me for a good while.  

A couple of books which were set during lockdown really hit the spot, 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard especially so. I read this via NetGalley a good while before it was published and I couldn't wait for it to hit the shelves to see how it was received by other people. I was therefore delighted to see that it won The Irish Book Awards Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2021.

Another book came along which made me consider how the lockdown would be affecting office staff who were required to work from home yet didn't have a great set-up for doing so, a situation which had never crossed my mind before: Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley blends a difficult work scenario with a bit of an office romance and is a good bit of fun.

The real stand out books for me this year are two totally different novels. One I think because I wasn't expecting to enjoy it quite as much as I did, considering it is based around the concept of euthanasia - and I certainly wasn't expecting to physically laugh out loud whilst reading it either (I still feel rather awkward admitting this, but anyone who's read it will get why I am able to do so. I promise I'm not totally callous!). Exit by Belinda Bauer caught me completely off guard and was just the book I needed to lift me out of my slump. Please, if you haven't read it yet, don't be put off by the euthanasia thing. I promise you will love the story!

My final recommendation from this year's reads is, in contrast, a hard hitting, emotional read. Set in South America it tells the harrowing tale of one woman's efforts to escape the cartels which run the country. She and her young son witness the cold-blooded killing of their entire family and instantly realise they need to escape to the North to safety. My pulse raced and my heart broke for them through the entire book.  Not my usual type of read but boy, has it made its mark on me. On the one hand it is a slow burner of a story yet at the same time I was racing through the pages in order to get the migrants to safety. I don't know how a writer can do that, but Jeanine Cummins certainly managed it here.

2021 has also seen some excellent TV adaptions of novels this year. As many of you know, I don't watch much TV but I have tried to watch some of the thriller adaptions which have hit our screens.  One notable one was the version of the first in Peter James series of Roy Grace novels, Dead Simple. They called it simply 'Grace' and while I felt, as I often do with TV/movie adaptions, that much was left out overall they didn't do a bad job.  More recently was the adaption of Imran Mahmood's You Don't Know Me which I felt was very well done. The casting was excellent and if you haven't read the book you really should. You can hear the young defendant's voice in your head as you read and it will tug at your heart strings as he describes how he has ended up in the dock.

Another show which I enjoyed was The Tower, based on Kate London's book Post Mortem. Again, well cast and quite true to the book in my opinion. Unlike my disappointment of the year which I was SO looking forward to watching however switched off after one episode: The One. I really looked forward to watching however it fell way, way short of John Marrs' excellent writing and didn't do him justice at all.

Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you too much with my standout moments of the year. I'm hoping 2022 will see me reading far more again - there are certainly some good looking books already on my reading list with author favourites for me such as Veronica Henry, Lucy Diamond, Luca Veste, Will Shindler, Lucy Foley, Simon Lelic and Lucy Clarke all with new books planned plus lots of new authors on my radar to try.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my random thoughts about the books I've read again this year, I really do appreciate the support you give my tiny blog. I hope I've managed to find you at least one book you might not have tried otherwise. I'll keep you posted on the ones I feel are worth a read in 2022

Have a wonderful New Year, keep yourselves and your families safe, and happy reading everyone!

The New Year's Eve Party by Hannah Emery @hannahcemery #TheNewYearsEveParty @HarperCollinsUK @OneMoreChapter_ #book #review

 

The New Year's Eve Party by Hannah Emery

Published by HarperCollinsUK, One More Chapter

Publication Date: 17th December 2021

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Book Description:

Resolutions are made
Marriages are broken…

A gripping domestic thriller set in The Cotswolds and perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Adele Parks!

It started with the party…

Frankie, Verity and Alice live in the idyllic Cotswolds community of White Fir Lake, but behind closed doors everyone has a secret they’re desperately trying to keep…

And ended with a bang!

Now, as midnight on New Year’s Eve approaches, the three women will face the consequences of a long-ago holiday, one which changed their lives forever … and threatens to shatter their perfect worlds into perfect pieces.

My Thoughts:

This book has a strong 'Real Housewives' feel about it, with main characters Verity and Frankie living very privileged adult lives despite having both gone through tragedies earlier on. They've been the closest of friends since their schooldays but the reader is soon made aware that each woman has something the other would dearly love to have. But surely that wouldn't be enough for one of them to act in a way which would result in the death of a loved one would it? Questions are asked straightaway when the opening scene of the book is of Frankie's husband Red is found dead at Verity's legendary New Year's Eve Party and the children are rescued from the lake but what are the facts behind the horror that night?
The story moves back and forth in time throughout the book in order for us to understand the dynamics of Frankie and Verity's friendship and the relationships with husbands Max and Red. The information the reader needs is drip-fed along the way so I found it impossible to second guess certain parts of the story whereas other parts are fairly obvious I felt. The time frames are easy to follow though and at no point did I get confused as to where or when things were happening.  
The interesting cog in the wheel is Alice, the new resident in the area who literally crashes into the women's lives when she loses control of her car and hits Frankie's boundary wall. The two women welcome her in and soon Alice and daughter Luna are invited to The Party to be seen at, much to Alice's delight. Why is she so keen to establish a friendship though? Secrets soon start creaking their way out of closets and suspicions form among the group, culminating in the tragic events outlined at the beginning.  The author weaves the story very cleverly and leads things full circle via the highs and lows of the three women's life experiences.
My thanks to the publisher, One More Chapter, for the opportunity to review this novel ahead of publication which I rate as one of my favourite Netgalley titles of recent months.

About the Author:

Hannah Emery studied English at the University of Chester and has written stories for as long as she can remember.
Her favourite things are her family, friends, books, baking on a Saturday afternoon, going out for champagne and dinner and having cosy weekends away.

Hannah lives in Blackpool with my husband and their little girl. Find out more at hannahcemery.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @hannahcemery.

Mine by JL Butler #book #review #NetGalley @jlbutlerauthor @HarperCollinsUK #Mine @tasminaperry

 

Mine by JL Butler

Published by HarperCollins UK

Publication Date: 15th May 2018

Genre: Legal Thrillers

Book Description:

Set in the Inns of Court in London, where justice and corruption go hand in hand. J L Butler’s taut, gripping legal drama brims with suspense and obsession, and only you can solve the case…

Fatal Attraction meets Apple Tree Yard. This debut novel will be your new obsession.

Francine Day is a high-flying lawyer about to apply for silk, ambitious and brilliant. She just needs one headline grabbing client to seal her place as Queen's Counsel … Martin Joy. The attraction is instant. Obsessive.

They embark on a secret affair and Francine thinks she can hold it together. But then Martin's wife, Donna, goes missing. And Martin is the prime suspect.

As the case unravels so does Francine, because the last person to see Donna Joy alive, was her.

My client. My lover. My husband. My obsession.

My Thoughts:

Professional people: lawyers, bankers, doctors and the like. We never really think about the person behind the job, do we? JL Butler takes us behind the doors of Chambers, into the world of a barrister who has worked hard to get a good reputation in order to be considered for her dream job of Queen's Counsel. So when the prestigious banker Martin Joy requests that she represents him in his divorce case she is keen to accept the high profile case. It can only help get her noticed. But when Martin's soon to be ex wife Donna disappears, the headlines are hardly the ones Francine had hoped for when she signed up with him.

Francine and Martin quickly grow very close to one another, crossing professional boundaries which are there for a reason. Some people are quick to judge and others can see an opportunity to exploit what they think they know about the couple. Francine knows that this could bring her whole world crashing down but common sense seems to have left the building when she took on this case.

There are a really nice selection of characters in this book. The genuinely good through and through people who you would want on your side - the few that Fran has filtered into her life over years of building up her career and allowed into her personal life. Then there are the new, less attractive ones who have crashed onto her radar whether she wants them there or not. What are their intentions? She doesn't know them well enough to understand whether they have her best interests at heart or their own. We build a picture of the mess Fran's life has become and come to understand why she may have ended up where she is, with detectives on her tail and her oldest friends asking her to step away from them for a while.

I very much enjoyed this book as I genuinely had no idea whether Martin Joy was guilty in assisting with his wife's disappearance or whether she was the epitome of the trophy wife who was trying to manipulate her way into a bigger divorce settlement. The suspense continues right through to the final chapter and not all the loose ends are tied up by the final page. I don't usually like an ending which isn't completely tidy but in this case it kind of suits the overall story.

My thanks to the publisher for initially approving my request on NetGalley however I did actually end up purchasing the book in its final form and this is what my review is based upon.

About the Author:

JL Butler is the pseudonym for the Sunday Times bestselling author Tasmina Perry. Her debut thriller Mine has been optioned by Sony Pictures and is in development with Original Film.

She is a former lawyer and magazine editor and lives in London with her husband, son and too many shoes. For further information on Tasmina Perry or JL Butler visit her website www.tasminaperry.com or follow her on Instagram @tasminaperry @jlbutlerauthor