Thursday 28 July 2022

The Good Husband by Abigail Osborne @Abigail_Author @Bloodhoundbook #bookreview #booktwitter #TheGoodHusband

 

The Good Husband by Abigail Osborne

Published by Bloodhound Books

Publication Date: 27th July 2022

Genre: Psychological Thriller


My thanks to the author for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication. All thoughts and opinions given here are my own and unbiased.


Book Description:

A shopping trip on Black Friday shoppers leads to Elsie’s tragic death—and leaves Jack, her husband of thirty-seven years, devastated. Unable to cope with his grief, he flees to his childhood home to be with his father, an overbearing religious zealot who puts his faith before everything—even his son.

Jack’s father convinces him that Elsie had not died in vain. Her life was sacrificed to give Jack the strength he needs for his mission: to rid the world of greed. Embittered by his loss, Jack soon sets out to punish the depraved and eradicate the sinners from the world. The greedy killed his wife, and now they must pay. But how far is Jack willing to go to fulfil God’s plan—and how many innocent people will die?

My Thoughts:

I haven't been so conflicted in my thoughts as I have read a book in a long time! Abbie Osborne has had me questioning my opinions on the actions and thoughts of the main character Jack on every page of her new book 'The Good Husband'. I have sympathised with him during his early years, celebrated his happiness as he found love with Elsie, then hated him as he took action against those he judged to be greedy members of our society. If ever a book could be called an emotional rollercoaster this would be it. But was I as hasty in my judgment of Jack as he was in choosing who should pay for their sins? I'll let you decide as you take the journey too.

There are going to be those who could possibly take offence at how religion is presented in this storyline, however I feel that the characters balance one another out wonderfully. My advice is to please read the whole story, then consider how you feel. Jack's father is depicted as extremely devout and follows the word of the bible absolutely as he was taught it; however Elsie, who follows exactly the same religious text, has a far more generous and caring view of the world and her treatment of people shines out as an example of how faith can bring love to both individuals and a community. Anyone who knows me well will know I'm not a huge fan of religion and I did have concerns at the start that maybe I wasn't the best person to be reviewing this book, but by following Jack's story to its end I discovered how the subject had influenced his personality. 

It's difficult to review this book without giving too much away about its conclusion, but I was totally stunned by the closing chapters. I really didn't expect the book to take the direction it did and a lot of my opinions about Jack and his family changed within just a few paragraphs. The fact that I hadn't seen anything coming proves to me what a talented writer we have in Abbie and I look forward with excitement to seeing where her writing will lead us to next.

About the Author:


Abigail Osborne is an author and also runs her own business supporting students and people in the workplace with their disabilities. Abigail is originally from the Lake District but moved to the West Midlands for University where she completed an English Literature & History degree. She lives in Worcestershire with her husband and is a board game fanatic, owning over 70 games. She has a huge collection of books, plays the violin, and is currently learning the piano.

You can follow her on

Twitter @Abigail_Author

Facebook: abigailosborneauthor

Tiktok: abigailosbornewrites

Instagram: abigailosborneauthor

Website: www.abigailosborne.co.uk

An Almost Perfect Holiday by Lucy Diamond @panmacmillan @LDiamondAuthor #AnAlmostPerfectHoliday #bookreview

 

An Almost Perfect Holiday by Lucy Diamond

Published by Pan MacMillan

Publication Date 28th May 2020 (paperback)

Book Description:

It was supposed to be the perfect summer escape . . .

Down in Cornwall, the sun is shining and a row of three holiday cottages are fully booked. Em’s in the first one, with her blended family – fingers crossed they’re still together by the end of the fortnight. Maggie’s in the second cottage with her bolshie teenage daughter, hoping that some sea air and sunshine will reunite them. And then Olivia arrives in need of sanctuary, and perhaps the chance to work through the secret that has weighed on her for so long.

As the lives of the three women become tangled together, it’s not long before everyone’s wondering – will this holiday turn out to be a scorcher . . . or simply too hot to handle?



My Thoughts:

This book was my lucky charity shop find for the summer.  I was using a short cut through a local shopping mall when I spotted this one in the basket of books outside. Suffice to say it didn't stay there long and was soon on its way home with me!

Meet Em, Olivia and Maggie; three mums who are all having their own struggles with life and all it chooses to throw at them. They all feel they are failing at parenting in their own way yet by the end of a fortnight in Cornwall around the pool they might just be re-evaluating things.

Single mum Em is just putting a toe back into the dating scene and has met George, dishy single dad to 7 year old Seren. Olivia has 3 year old twins and is wondering whether life will ever get any easier as husband Mack spends so little time at home she's struggling to cope without a network of close family to lean on. Maggie has brought up teenager Amelia single handedly since her husband walked out years ago and whereas the two of them were close during Amelia's childhood, the teenage years are proving a bit more of a challenge.

The three women find themselves bonding around the pool at the holiday cottages they are staying at in the south-west of England.  The setting sounds idyllic - especially as they are lucky with the British summer weather most of the time they are there - but is a drive down the A-roads of Devon and Cornwall enough to get away from the stresses of everyday life?

I enjoyed this book immensely, reading about other parents having issues with their kids and trying to blend families together who know very little about each other. Life's never easy and no two families are the same so there are always going to be bumps along the way. However, despite differences in people's circumstances, there are common denominators across the board: as mums we often feel like we're not parenting as well as the next person. This story takes a look into the imperfect world of every family and shows that quite often we are all just winging it - or as Izzie finds out, you just have to "fake it till you make it".

Lucy Diamond has me craving a gorgeous staycation in the south-west although that's probably because my kids are young adults and far less likely to cause me the stresses that Em, Olivia and Maggie are experiencing! This one is a great holiday read so if you do get chance, pop a copy in your suitcase.


About the Author:


Lucy Diamond grew up in Nottingham and went to university in Leeds where she studied English Literature. After graduating, she lived in Oxford, London and Brighton, working in publishing and at the BBC. She now lives in beautiful Bath where she writes full-time.

As a Sunday Times bestselling author with sixteen novels, two digital novellas and a Quick Read under her belt, Lucy writes with warmth and honesty about the joy and surprises, as well as the complications, that love, family and friendships can bring. Her seventeenth novel, Anything Could Happen, was released as an ebook in December last year and published in hardback January 2022.

Lucy's website is www.lucydiamond.co.uk She is on Twitter @LDiamondAuthor, has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LucyDiamondAuthor and is on instagram @lucydiamondwrites.


Tuesday 26 July 2022

One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke #Netgalley @lucyclarkebooks @HarperCollinsUK #OneOfTheGirls


One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke

Published by Harper Collins 

Publication Date: 26th May 2022

Genre: Womens Fiction

My thanks to publisher Harper Collins for giving me access to this book. The opinions I give here are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

WE WERE DYING FOR A HOLIDAY

The six of us arrived on that beautiful Greek island dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and blood orange sunsets, ready to lose ourselves in the wild freedom of a weekend away with friends.

On the first night we swam under a blanket of stars.

On the second night the games began on our clifftop terrace.

On the third night the idyll cracked, secrets and lies whispering on the breeze.

And by the final night there was a body on the rocks below . . .

WHO WOULD KILL FOR IT?

My Thoughts:

Ever since I read Lucy Clarke's early book 'The Blue' (recently rebranded as 'No Escape') I have followed her work avidly. This latest book 'One of the Girls' was an auto buy for me, I didn't even need to read the "blurb" to know I would love it.  With both wedding and holiday seasons in full flow right now this is a book you need to have packed ready for your down time.

Lexi and Ed are getting married. The perfect excuse for Lexi's best friend Bella to leap into action and arrange the best hen event in history. Unfortunately for Bella things start to go off course right from the airport terminal as she and partner Fen bump into one of Bella's former colleagues who blurts out information about Bella which she's been keeping close to her chest. This is the first of the cracks to appear over the holiday, each getting bigger and more traumatic to the group. 

Every one of the girls in the friendship group is battling with some kind of secret or life event which they haven't shared with the others, whether it's recent or historical. Gregarious Bella goes headlong into situations without thinking through how her reaction will affect anyone else, then goes into a period of self-loathing which she reflects onto other people which just makes things even worse. The revelations just keep coming right the way through the book and the reader is kept in the dark as to who will become the victim of the story as described in the synopsis. 

Lucy has described the scenery and overall atmosphere of the Greek island villa and local town beautifully, so if you don't want to take a trip to the area by the end of the book I would be amazed. Just maybe don't choose it as the destination for your hen event!

About the Author:


Lucy Clarke has a first class degree in English Literature, and is a passionate traveller and diarist. She has worked as a presenter of social enterprise events, a creative writing workshop leader, and she is now a full-time novelist. Lucy is married to James Cox, a professional windsurfer, and together they spend their winters travelling and their summers at their home on the south coast of England.




Thursday 21 July 2022

One Good Thing by Alexandra Potter #bloggersborrowbooks #hardback #libraryloan @40somethingfkup @panmacmillan #OneGoodThing

 

One Good Thing by Alexandra Potter

Published by Pan

Publication Date: 9th December 2021

Genre: Womens Fiction, Humour

Book Description:

In life, nothing is certain. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something can happen to change the course of everything . . .

Liv Brooks is still in shock. Newly-divorced and facing an uncertain future, she impulsively swaps her London Life for the sweeping hills of the Yorkshire Dales, determined to make a fresh start. But fresh starts are harder than they look and feeling lost and lonely she decides to adopt Harry, an old dog from the local shelter, to keep her company.

But Liv soon discovers she isn’t the only one in need of a new beginning. On their daily walks around the village, they meet Valentine, an old man who suffers from loneliness who sits by the window and Stanley, a little boy who is scared of everyone, hides behind the garden gate and Maya, a teenager who is angry at everyone and everything. But slowly things start to change…

Utterly relatable, hilarious and heart-breakingly honest, this is a novel about friendship, finding happiness and living the life unexpected. And how when everything falls apart, all you need is one good thing to turn your life around and make it worth living again.

My Thoughts:

My first thought about this book is that it is a big hug on paper. Yes it is perhaps a little predictable: middle aged woman gets dumped by her husband in favour of the younger, more glamorous model, moves to a new town and makes a new life for herself. Can't argue there, but that would be a harsh summary as there is SO much more to this book which had me cheering Liv, the said middle aged former teacher, on to the new improved version of herself. Liv is such a lovely lady, she really deserved better than all that life in London had dealt her. 

The introduction of delightful Stanley, the little boy whose view is that everything in life is scary unless he can categorise it somehow on to his list of things to expect and in what order, is just the start of Liv's new friendship group. Valentine keeps himself to himself, another character struggling with the challenges life has thrown his way until a homemade bird feeder causes him and Liv to strike up an unlikely friendship. The common denominator which ties these three characters together is Liv's decision to adopt the oldest dog at the rescue centre, Harry. After a throw away comment from her friend back in London about her getting a dog as a loyal companion instead of a new man in her life, Liv decides that maybe it's not such a bad idea; an opinion she has second thoughts about when Harry decides to wreck her living room while she attempts to get her social life back on track.

This is a story which will have you chuckling, cheering and crying at depending on which page you're on. The characters are as diverse in personality as they are in age groups but I can guarantee you will have fallen in love with them all by the final page. Well, maybe with the exception of Liv's ex-husband. He's still a rat. But given that it was down to him that Liv rediscovered who she really was, maybe I might just forgive him.

About the Author:


Alexandra Potter is the bestselling author of romantic comedy fiction novels in the UK, including Me and Mr Darcy. These titles have sold in twenty-two territories and achieved worldwide sales of more than one million copies (making the bestseller charts in the UK, US, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Serbia).

Yorkshire born and raised, Alex currently lives in South-West London with Mr California and their Bosnian rescue dog and when she’s not spending time writing or travelling, she’s spending far too 
much time on Instagram being reminded that she should be exercising regularly, drinking enough water, practising mindfulness and feeling blessed.

Thursday 14 July 2022

A Beginner's Guide to Murder by Rosalind Stopps @HQstories @RosalindStopps #BeginnersGuideToMurder #book #review #libraryloans

 A Beginner's Guide to Murder by Rosalind Stopps

Published by HQ

Publication Date 22nd July 2021


Book Description:

Grace, Meg and Daphne, all in their seventies, are minding their own business while enjoying a cup of tea in a cafĂ©, when seventeen-year-old Nina stumbles in. She’s clearly distraught and running from someone, so the three women think nothing of hiding her when a suspicious-looking man starts asking if they’ve seen her.

Once alone, Nina tells the women a little of what she’s running from. The need to protect her is immediate, and Grace, Meg and Daphne vow to do just this. But how? They soon realise there really is only one answer: murder.

And so begins the tale of the three most unlikely murderers-in-the-making, and may hell protect anyone who underestimates them.




My Thoughts:

I must start my review by saying that this book was really not what I expected. Not in a bad way, it just gave a completely different vibe to what I was expecting when I chose it from the library shelf. It's along the lines of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club in that it's very character driven and more in the cosy crime genre. That's not to say that it doesn't tackle some gritty issues, far from it. Although most of the characters are "of a certain age" the issues they face are very much of our times.

Three retired ladies are enjoying a post yoga class cuppa together in a local cafe when a clearly distressed young woman bursts into the establishment. By some sixth sense the ladies know that it is their mission to protect this young woman and there begins their adventure and the start of a close-knit group.

As I said before this book is very character-driven, and we get to know quite a lot about the 3 older ladies' lives before they turned into invisible pensioners who nobody expects to ever have had anything interesting happen to them. It turns out these 3 ladies all have very diverse backgrounds and still have plenty to offer a young girl who made one wrong decision which changed her life completely.

Among the horrific events which Nina is subjected to and some sad situations which the older ladies relate, there are some comical moments and I found myself warming to each of the 4 ladies in different ways. This book certainly makes you realise how our society makes it easy for traffickers to target people from certain backgrounds and just how little support and guidance there is for them to recognise potential dangers from the unscrupulous gangs who operate across the world, not just in the UK. We never imagine it's happening on our doorstep.

I found this to be a fairly quick read and was cheering the women on in their quest for justice - even if it needed some decidedly illegal actions in order to achieve the desired result! The moral of the story: Never underestimate a pensioner!

About the Author:


Rosalind Stopps has always wanted to tell the stories of the less heard.  For many years she worked with children with disabilities and their families.

She has five grown up children, three grandchildren and an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University.  Rosalind’s short stories have been published in five anthologies and read at live literature events in London, Leeds, Hong Kong and New York.

She lives is South East London with large numbers of humans and dogs.  When she is not writing fiction she is, mostly, reading it or working as a host at London’s South Bank Arts Centre.