So much can happen in six months ...

Blurb:

Tom Hope is broken.  Ever since his wife Laura dies he hasn't been the same man, and definitely not the same father.  Luckily however, his moth-in-law Linda is there to pick up the pieces and look after his struggling daughters, Evie and Lola.

But Tom getting arrested on the first anniversary of his wife's death is the last straw for Linda.

She decides on drastic action, and in a final attempt to make Tom reconnect with his daughters, Linda leaves for Australia.  Now, with two fast-maturing girls on his hands. Tom has to learn how to accept his responsibilities and navigate the newly discovered world of single fatherhood - starting immediately.

While Linda finds her journey brings more than she bargained for, Tom suddenly has only himself to rely on.

Will he fall back int grief or finally step yo and be the father his girls need?

Bittersweet, funny and sad, THE HOPE FAMILY CALENDAR is a novel about grief, love and family.

Review:

This author (a new one for me) lives in Birmingham which makes me wonder why he set this book in Reigate, the town next to my home town.  Not that I mind, I loved that I could really identify with location of this novel even though they were subject to ‘poetic’ license.  I can honestly say that I have had a cuppa in the local Morrisons’ (previously Safeway); and I know where the Red Lion is.

The story is told through two points of view and deals with loss and I suppose rebirth of each character.  Although the overall tone of this tome is that of loss, this novel is not really depressing.  It shows how a family can deal with loss through the inevitable sadness, and later with irony and humour.

I have not read a Mike Gaye book before but he does give life (for all its foibles) to his characters and you can really relate to them, warts and all.  Each character’s feelings are honest, genuine and therefore easily relatable.  As with life, the story is not totally black and white, there are quite a number of grey areas, not least the unexpected relevel near the end.

What I loved most where the characters, not just the ones whose points of view were represented in the book but also Lola, Evie, Charles and Fran.  These characters are so real and believable, so much so that you could quite easily meet them on a Reigate street.  However, they are not stagnant … the author allows them to grow and mature throughout the novel, so the Hope Family that you meet at the beginning of the book is not the same as that at the end and likewise for the lesser characters.  Don’t get me wrong, they are not flawless which makes them all the more irrelevant.

The family presented in this book is whole and well developed and then the bombshell drops and this novel shows what happens in the fall out.  Each person reacts differently as would be expected and the storytelling in this novel is above par.  This novel deals with a serious subject with great aplomb.  Everyone, at a stage in their life has to deal with grief so why is it such a taboo subject?  This novel hopes to make it more accepted.

All that said, though, the ending did feel unfinished, but then again isn’t that what a lived life is… The main element of the story is hope through adversity and this reader will be looking for more novels by this writer I the future.

Thank you Netglley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I rated this I liked it on Netgalley, Goodreads and Amazon

All love is Improbable - let's be honest

Blurb:

When lovelorn Annie McDee stumbles across a dirty painting in a junk shop while looking for a present for an unstable man, she had no idea what she has discovered.  Soon she finds herself drawn unwillingly into the tumultuous London art world, populated by exiles Russian oligarchs, avaricious Sheikas, desperate auctioneers and unscrupulous dealers, all scheming to get their hands on her painting - a lost eighteenth-century masterpiece called 'The Improbability of Love'.  Delving into the painting's past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but some of the darkest secrets of European history - a in doing so she might just learn to open up to the possibility of falling in love again.

Review:

Apart from reading ‘The Girl with the Pearl Ear-ring’ many years ago I have not read many novels about art.  Where this one differs from the aforementioned, this novel is about the mad, mad world of art acquisitions and auctions.

The improbability of love does not merely refer to artwork itself but how we find love in the most improbable of places, how it or the lack of it influences our actions and affects our lives for good or ill.

Throughout the novel we meet many interesting characters who although well written and researched but due to the sheer number of them many felt rather two dimensional.  The novel had quite a few points of view which could be rather confusion but each POV was written in a different way.  Interestingly enough we also get the POV of the artwork itself which was original and fascinating.

The POVs include those of wealthy society types, gallery owners, Russian oligarchs, politicians, scholar, restorers, and ‘ordinary everyday’ people.  Their lives are both fascinating and on occasion heart-breaking … the lengths people will go to, to acquire an important piece of art.  However, instead of being a major part of the plot; many could have merely been supporting characters as is befitting their station.

The plot was reasonably paced and suspenseful.  Without giving too much away there was a mention of Holocaust/Nazi history. Although a literary work of fiction the descriptions of the art and the food draw you in and make you want to be a part of the action.

One of the main characters and the unwitting owner of the artwork was Annie who had a very dysfunctional relationship with life, love and her alcoholic mother.  Yet through the novel Annie grows and develops her love of life, work and another.

This book is good albeit there were, in places large gaps in the story; and the ending felt rather rushed.  There seemed to be huge gaps between some significant events near the end, as if the author had been given a page count and had to cut a lot of the novel out to achieve it.

Sometimes the novel cannot decide whether it wants to be a modern or even archaic romance, a satire of the London art scene, a cooking book, a mystery, a history of the lives who owned the painting or of art theft in Nazi Germany.  Perhaps the author was trying to cover too much ground in her debut novel.  All that taken together with the rather archaic/literary and foreign words used could put quite a few readers off.  Thank goodness for the build in dictionary feature of my Kindle.

I think the most interesting part of the novel was the restoration and researching the history of the artwork (proving is provenance); and what this painting meant to its creator and each of its owners.

As a first novel this work is reasonably well polished although some more editing would have given it more of a gleam.  I will definitely be looking for more works by this author.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Netgalley review 4 stars, Goodreads and Amazon review 4 stars

I still don't know why 'We are the Hanged Man'

Blurb:

The Hanged Man is coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop him ...

Durrant was the most brutal, psychotic killer the Met had ever come across. Captured in the early '80s, he should have been in prison for the rest of his life. Someone had other ideas.

Thirty years later, DCI Jericho, the man who put Durrant away, is working in quiet anonymity in the West Country, living with the guilt of the one case he never solved:  the disappearance of his own wife.

The Hanged Man tarot card that arrives in the mail seems like a trivial joke, but it's only the beginning.  Soon people are disappearing, and Durrarnt is back to his old ways.

Suddenly Jericho is being thrown to the wolves.  The noose tightens, the body count rises, and events spin helplessly towards a shocking and bloody climax.

Review:

This is a police procedural novel set in the West Country of the UK.  Although it is well plotted and makes you want to continue reading it is written in a gloomy ploddy fashion, much like the protagonist of the novel. 

DCI Jericho is rather an unlikeable gloomy, damaged (aren’t they all?) do with only one real companion in the Somerset and Wells Police force.  He is even disliked by his Chief Superintendent (the reason for which is divulged later in the novel).  He does not suffer fools gladly and despises a lot of things especially cheap ‘popular’ television and yet he is assigned to be the Police representative for a reality TV show. 

So whilst he is not participating in the reality show is also has to try and sole a crime or two.  This character did not really come off the page for me.  I think he was too much inside his own head.

I did not really get into this novel despite it being well written and with an intriguing plot.  Don’t get me wrong I love mystery thriller novels and the creepier and gorier the better but this one was so bland.  There were humorous light touches thanks to the DCI’s only ‘friend’ and partner DS Haynes; but other than that there was very little to bring this novel out of the doldrums.

Like the rest of the novel the ending felt flat too.  Too little action rather too late with very little explanation and too many things were left open ended – a perfect set up for book 2 (which I was going to read next but needed something lighter before getting to it).

I am not really into satirical books and perhaps for this reason this novel didn’t grab me.  If this genre of book is your bag then this is probably the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for an honest review.  

Netgalley 3 stars; Goodreads 2 stars; Amazon 3 stars.

Who is the Honeysuckle Girl and why does she need burying?

Blurb:

Althea Bell is still heartbroken by her mother's tragic, premature death - and tormented by the last, frantic words she whispered into young Althea's ear: Wait for her.  For the honeysuckle girl.  She'll find you, I think, but if she doesn't, you find her.

Adrift ever since, Althea is nor fresh out of rehab and returning to her family home in Mobile, Alabama, determined to reconnect with her estranged, ailing father,  While Althea doesn't expect him, or her politically ambitious brother, to welcome her with open arms, she's not prepared for the chilling revelation of a grim, long-buried family secret.  Fragile and desperate, Althea escapes with an old flame to uncover the truth about her lineage.  Drawn deeper into her ancestors' lives, Althea begins to unearth their disturbing history ... and the part she's meant to play in it.

Griping and visceral, this unforgettable debut delves straight into the heart of dark family secrets and into one woman's emotional journey to save herself from a sinister inheritance.

Review:

A well-crafted novel written from two points of view; one from the 1930s and one from the 2010s.  What starts as a simple time-sensitive search by one woman for the truth about her mother becomes somewhat of a quest that entails generations of the family and others.  It will keep you guessing right to the end.

I cannot say I was gripped from the beginning but I was certainly intrigued but once the story got involved and the first intimation of the mystery was mentioned I was hooked.  Towards the end it was a case of oh how much further ‘til the end; Ok I’ll read just one more chapter and the next I know some 2 hours later at 4.30 am I had finished and what an ending it was.

I liked the way the author wrote to book from two points of view and more intrigued as to how these women, some 75 years apart were essentially being treated the same by the men of the family.  In the 1930s women were essentially the property of their father until they were given to their husband on their wedding day and felt no remorse in butting in throughout their married life.  It would also seem that in modern Alabama, in ‘upper class’ families this is also an unspoken rule.

Although written from two points of view, there is no confusion as to which story you are reading, even though there are many similarities between the two stories which make the story more suspenseful.  It also keeps the reader reading so that we can learn the conclusion of both these inter- connected stories.

The characters are beautifully written, they have real depth of character and many redeeming features.  They are written in such a way that you want them to secure their own happiness and have a good resolution of their story; and find out what really happened on these women’s thirtieth birthday.

You empathise with Jinn and her plight; the way she is treated by her family and the distain she experiences from her young son.  One of her only bright spots is her relationship with a neighbour.  Throughout the novel you want Jinn to have her ‘HEA’.

In the case of Althea you feel all of her despair as she re-enters the world only to find that it is different to the one she left.  Again this woman is written such that you want to see her success in her quest, and to overcome her demons (both real and imagined) and history.  Althea’s exploits are both hilarious and yet in places rather disturbing.

The author also paints a very real world within which her characters live.  I have never been to Alabama but the description of the area is really vivid and comes alive on the pages.  That together with the old gothic charm added to this psychological mystery.

I was surprised to learn that this was a debut novel as the writing was so polished; and the plot well throughout and beautifully executed.  The ending was satisfying and a fitting conclusion for this novel.  You will be touched, disturbed, and appalled at Althea’s plight and treatment; so much so that you will be affected by this novel for quite a while.

I will definitely be looking for more novels by this author.  Thank you, Netgalley, for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Netgalley Review 4 stars; Goodreads review 4 stars; Amazon review 4 stars

Who is this mysterious

Blurb:

In the village of Lauscha in Germany, things have been done the same way for centuries.  The men blow the glass, and the women decorate and pack it.  But when Jost Steinmann passes away unexpectedly one September night, his three saughters must learn to fend for themselves. While feisty Johanna takes a practical approach to looking for work.  Ruth follows her heart, aming to catch gthe eye of a handsome young villagere.  But is is dreamy, quirt Marie who had always been the most capticated by the magic - and sparkling possibilities - of the craft of glassblowing.  As the spirited sisters work together to forge a brighter future fr themselves on their own terms, they learn not only how to thrive in a man's world, but how to remain true to themselves - and their hearts - in the process.

Review:

My previous experience of translated novels has not been good until recently and since then it has been blown away.  Perhaps it was the subject matter that affected my previous experience or that modern translators are not so literal but convey the essence of the novel.  Whatever it is I am glad that I have resumed my adventures into translated novels; otherwise this gem would have gone unread.

My initial reaction was how is this about the glassblower who dies in the first chapter leaving three daughters.  Each daughter has a particular trait which most of us can identify with.  The sisters relationships with each other is reasonably realistic and engaging; but at times annoying beyond belief (as it is with normal sisters).  As we experience their trials and tribulations we also learn who the glassblower actually is.

  

This is not an historical novel per se and even the glass blowing elements (albeit fascinating when they occur) are few and far between.  The characters are well written even though sometimes what they do or say is at odds with the setting of the novel; they are extremely interesting whilst they are extremely flawed.  Initially they are portrayed as innocent and annoying, having been cosseted by their father (and not knowing the ways of the world – be it good or ill) but when they experience ‘real life; they become hardened to it; and move forward, and take on untraditional roles in their village of glassblowers.  But the novel develops these characters and they become reasonably grounded women who have found their place in their world.

I cannot say that the action is constant or fast paced as they are periods of monotonous inactivity.  Indeed the story line does not have a definite time line and appears to jump in places.  Ultimately this is a novel of women overcoming adversity by becoming successful against all the odds.

This reader has becomes so involved with these women that she will be looking forward to reading the next novels in this series.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I rated this 4 stars on Netgalley and 'I really liked it' on Amazon (4 stars) and Goodreads (4 stars).

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem in Elizabethan England

Blurb:

TWO QUESTIONS HAVE ALWAYS PLAGUED HISTORIANS:  HOW COULD Christopher Marlow, a known spy and England's foremost playwright, be suspiciously murdered and quickly buried in an unmarked grave - just days before he was to be tried for treason?  HOW COULD William Shakespeare replace Marlowe as England's greatest playwright virtually overnight - when Shakespeare had never written any thing before and was merely an unknown actor?  Historians have noted that the Bard of Stratford was better known at that time "for holding horses for the gentry while they watched plays".  The Shakespeare Conspiracy is a historical novel that intertwines the two mysteries and then puts the pieced together to offer the only plausible resolution.  The novel, a wild romp through gay 16th Century Elizabethan England, is a rapidly unfolding detective story filled with comedy, intrigue, murder and illicit love.  And most importantly, all recorded events, persons, dates and documents are historically accurate,  You will ... Get the scandalous view of the real William Shakespeare, with his sexual peccadilloes, illegitimate children and mistresses ... Wander through the gay world of Christopher Marlowe, when it was acceptable to be homosexual just so long as one stayed within one's own class - ad did Kings like James I, Edward II and others ...  Observe Inspector Henry Maunder matching wits with Christopher Marlowe's patron, Sir Thomas Walsingham - one cleverly hiding the facts and other cunningly discovering the truth ...  Watch the arguments unfold, showing the actual reasons tat many historians believe that it could only have been Christopher Marlowe writing tall those great works.  It's a tale of murder, mayhem and manhunts in the underbelly of London as the Back Plague scourges the country and the greatest conspiracy plot of all time is hatched.  It's ... The Shakespeare Conspiracy!

Review:

Elizabethan history has been a topic of great discussion, deliberation (and is one of this reader’s favourite historical periods).  It is often the topic of many mysteries not least those many novels based on the work of the astrologer John Dee.  This is a period of history that is extremely rich in more ways than one.  The Tudor era is a topic that this reader is particularly interested in the many works of John Dee but for many other reasons including the Witch Holocaust and the Shakespeare ‘who was he really’ question (previously dealt with to some extent in the excellent novel The Rose Labyrinth??).

This novel, in particular, proposes that Shakespeare was a member of the infamous ‘School of the Night’ which included Christopher Marlowe,George Chapman, Thomas Harriot, and Sir Walter Raleigh (and is mentioned in Love’s Labour Lost).

This novel is apparently the result of 10 years of extensive and meticulous research which is evident (not least in the many appendices that are added at the end of the novel which make least 20% of the total of the novel (according to my Kindle) but not having read it all this reader is not sure how much of this is repeated from the novel itself.

This novel proposed an alternative reason for Marlowe’s early death and the sudden resurgence of Shakespeare; and for this reader had a certain ring of truth to it.  What did rankle this reader is that there are just too may modernisms used in the narrative as whole to totally immerse this novel in the Elizabethan era; an era familiar to most historians and others.

All that said the characters, for me, felt rather one dimensional.  It seemed that that the author had spent so much time on finding the footing of this novel that he did not establish plausible and fascinating characters.  Another element that detracted from this novel were the numerous spelling and punctuation errors which this reader hopes are fund before final publication.

Even though this period of history is shrouded in mystery the novel is written in an easy manner and flows from one historical detail to the next be it in England, or Italy; Padua or Venice, Verona, Milan or Sicily.  Having not visited many of these places I cannot say whether their portrayal is accurate.

Although this is a well-researched novel, founded on fact, it is not necessary for the reader to know every miniscule detail that occurred during this historic period.  Yet despite this meticulous research there were still some historical errors such as people drinking tea some 100 or so years early.  Also there was the introduction of 21^st century language with did not fit with the telling of the story at all.

Although overall the story is interesting the ‘history professor’ butts in very frequently giving us extraneous background material that would have been better left in the appendices (as detailed as they are).

If you want an alternative point of view of this period in English history you cannot go far wrong but be aware of the provisos in this review.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I rated this 4 stars on Netgalley and 'I liked it' on Goodreads (3 stars) and Amazon (4 stars).

I am sure this is the beauty saloon everyone wants to go to:

Blurb:

Stella's mama never should've put Stella on the church prayer list.  With Stella's twenty-seventh birthday coming up fast, Nancy desperately wants to see her daughter married and giving her grandbabies.  Petitioning heaved seems like a surefire way to get it done.  But in Cadillac, Texas, where the gossip's hotter than the city's famous jalapeño peppers, it isn't long before all hell breaks loose.

Heather, the bossy leader of the chruch's Prayer Angels, thinks a summer ball will get Stella and the town's other single gals paired off.  But nobody can tell redheaded spitfire Stella what to so - not her mama, not Heather, and not even the sexy beau Stella's been seeing in secret.   Together, Stella, her best friends Charlotte and Piper, and te loyal customers of the Yellow Rose Beauty Shop hatch a good old-fashioned scheme to sabotage the ball.  But will it wreck Stella's relationship with her mama forever?  And what will the church folk think when Stella reveals the identity of her mystery man?

Review:

When I started reading this novel I did not realise that it was the third in the series.  But having realised that it did explain why many of the relationships felt grounded so early (they had been begun two books earlier).  To be honest, it did not really matter, although this reader will be looking for the preceding novels as this one as such good fun.  I was captured by this novel from the get do and did it held my attention until the final page.

I am not one to reveal the plot of the novels I review but believe me when I say this one is a humdinger.  It seems to be a modern Steel Magnolias but in contrast it is laugh-out-loud funny.  For this reader it epitomises the ‘movie/vampire’ notion of what the Deep South is.

As with Steel Magnolias this is a novel about the relationship of strong minded and strong willed women who have interfering alpha mothers.  As in most life situations there is a mean girl and the one in this novel is a doozy.  Each character is unique (as I life) but the reader can identify with each and every one of these women.  There is a wonderful American usage of malapropisms courtesy of Agnes (I soo want to be her when I grow old) which is one of the many reasons that made this a laugh-out-loud novel.

The characters in this book are well rounded, rich, relatable, and leap off the page.  They are sassy, independent, loyal and full of heart.  This novel deals with relationships, new beginnings and ultimately gossip and its consequences.  Ultimately this novel epitomise small town America; and how everyone knows everybody else’s business. 

Although laugh-out-loud funny there are strong themes in this book, together with a powerful romance that makes the heart beat faster.  This is this reader’s first Carolyn Brown novel but I can categorically say it will not be her last.

If you miss this novel you will be missing a treat.

I rated this 4 stars at Netgalley and 'I liked it' at Amazon (4 stars) and Goodreads (3 stars).