The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

"I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will." 

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. 

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter. 

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

I don't think it is fair to compare this book to Gone Girl because Gone Girl was a physiological thriller, whereas this could only be really classified as a general thriller novel. 

I don't mean to imply that it wasn't good, because I actually enjoyed it (and finished it in just 2 days). I just don't think there was as much character / plot depth as other thrillers, which made it a nice easy read.

It was pretty easy to pick early on how it was going to play out, but there were still a couple of surprises at the end.

Read my review on Goodreads

Us by David Nicholls

“Of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and we’re left with ‘how was your day?’ and ‘when will you be home?’ and ‘have you put the bins out?’ Our biographies involve each other so intrinsically now that we’re both on nearly every page. We know the answers because we were there, and so curiosity becomes hard to maintain; replaced, I suppose, by nostalgia.”

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen-year-old son, Albie; then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway. Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage and might even help him bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. 

I thought this was actually a pretty traumatic story. I'm so used to reading how couples meet and fall in love, but to have that side-by-side with the unravelling of that same relationship is just brutal!

It all unravelled in a very clever way. Each character was so relatable that I felt my allegiance shifting each time another clue to the demise of this relationship developed. It seems so obvious that Connie and Douglas are not right for each other, but that didn't mean I wasn't still hoping that they'd somehow work it out and their holiday would magically fix everything.

I give the story 4 stars, but the writing deserved 5 stars.

Read my review on Goodreads

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout

“I've realized that the world is, in essence, full of banana peels - loaded with things that may unwittingly trip an internal wire in my mind, opening a floodgate of fears without warning.”

The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace.

As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.

Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.

Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity.

I battled with myself to keep going through this story - when I was reading about her earlier travels and life I just wanted to hear about the kidnapping, but once I got to that part, even though I genuinely wanted to keep reading it, but I had to stop and have breaks to mentally prepare myself to keep going because they were so shocking and heartbreaking.

Parts of it were so saddening that I have to questions if any of it was embellished, I just can't believe that someone would go through something so terrible - especially when managing to remind themselves to stay positive and even feel some kind of sympathy for her kidnappers!  

“By concentrating on what I was grateful for, I was able to stave off despair.” 

Well done to Linkhout for surviving and seemingly growing from something so huge and life changing. Now that I've finished reading her story, I feel like doing to Hunger Games salute for her. The strength of her mind is amazing.

“It's only your body that's suffering, and you are not your body. The rest of you is fine.” 

Read my review on Goodreads

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

Seriously what is there not to love about this book? Witty friends who 'keep it real', a broody hot guitar player in a band, a funny hot nerd, flirty work colleagues, a slightly wacky Mum, loud-mouthed best friend and looooove!

This book was the perfect ratio of realistic modern-day communication and stalking, against dreamy and probably wouldn't actually ever happen (making out in the cinemas before ever meeting or talking? Umm, maybe not, or at least not unless it really happened in a nightclub!)

A really quick read so I burned through it in 24 hours! This is one of the rare times that I actually would want to see a movie made from a novel. I wouldn't change a thing about this book.

Read my review on Goodreads

You (You #1) by Caroline Kepnes

“Lies don’t pave the way to joy,” he says and sometimes he reminds me of a rabbi and I can’t believe I used to think that you had sex with him. “And, if there’s anything I’ve learned in almost fifty years on this planet, it’s this: If you don’t start with crazy, crazy love, the kind of love that Van Morrison sings about, then you don’t have a shot to go the distance. Love’s a marathon, Danny, not a sprint.”

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

"I didn’t go to college, Beck, so I don’t waste my adulthood trying to recapture my time in college. I’m not a soft motherfucker who never had the guts to live life right now, as is."

Umm, no wonder why so many women have trust issues these days! This was a seriously disturbingly good story, but maybe not one that the weak hearted would enjoy as much. 

I think most people will admit to checking the Facebook / instagram / twitter feed of an ex or new crush, but this is taking it to a whole new level!

Even though Joe is clearly crazy (actually, after reading the Psychopath test recently, I feel I can confidently diagnose him as a true Psychopath), he does raise some valid points about society these days. And Beck is one beautiful disaster herself! They really should be perfect for each other...if only they weren't so self-indulged, damaged and mentally unstable their love story might actually be romantic!

They were definitely messed up, but these were some of the better sex scenes I've read in a book. They were graphic but I didn't feel like I was reading a porno mag, and they weren't as cringe-worthy or predictable as other 'romance' novels (*cough* rhymes with Nifty Shrades of Lay)

Read my review on Goodreads

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

"Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet."

Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up - she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan - her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.

“In the future . . . if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again . . . fall in love with me.”

Wow Wow Wow! I haven't been moved by a book since Me Before You...

This book took a turn I was NOT expecting and I loved every minute!! I was honestly so engrossed in the story that I read it on my phone kindle app while listening to live music at a festival. 

I really don't want to go into any detail and potentially spoil any surprises, but the writing is perfect and I was completely absorbed even before the end of the first chapter. The characters all play an important part of the story, and were exactly who they needed to be. The relationship between Ryle and Lily was painfully, but profoundly real. Even Atlas had an important story to tell.

Definitely a 5 star book in my opinion, but I would give it 6 stars if I could because of the Note from the Author at the end.

Colleen Hoover is now officially on my top 5 favourite author list (November 9 almost had her there, but this just topped her over) 

Read my review on Goodreads 

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

They say one out of every hundred people is a psychopath. You probably passed one on the street today. These are people who have no empathy, who are manipulative, deceitful, charming, seductive, and delusional. The Psychopath Test is the New York Times bestselling exploration of their world and the madness industry.

When Jon Ronson is drawn into an elaborate hoax played on some of the world’s top scientists, his investigation leads him, unexpectedly, to psychopaths. He meets an influential psychologist who is convinced that many important business leaders and politicians are in fact high-flying, high-functioning psychopaths, and teaches Ronson how to spot them. Armed with these new abilities, Ronson meets a patient inside an asylum for the criminally insane who insists that he’s sane, a mere run-of-the-mill troubled youth, not a psychopath—a claim that might be only manipulation, and a sign of his psychopathy. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud, and with a legendary CEO who took joy in shutting down factories and firing people. He delves into the fascinating history of psychopathy diagnosis and treatments, from LSD-fueled days-long naked therapy sessions in prisons to attempts to understand serial killers.

Along the way, Ronson discovers that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their most insane edges. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.

“There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.” 

Unless you have severe mental health issues, it really seems that there is a very fine, blurry, wavy line separating those who are 'normal' and those who are 'crazy'.

There isn't really a swaying conclusion pushed in the book, just a way to look at mental health and mental illness from a few different angles each chapter, which I liked so that at the end I could make up my own mind about what I thought about it all.

Although it was discussing a potentially mentally 'heavy' topic it was easy to follow, understand and I still enjoyed learning about it (as well as being intelligent AND funny!)

(I couldn't help myself. And after finishing reading I had to do the Robert Hare Psychopath Test, and I was happy to see that I definitely am NOT a psychopath - phew!... unless I am such a good psychopath that I was able to beat the test... ... ...) 

Read my review on Goodreads

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.

The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

When I made it to almost the halfway point of reading this book I wanted to give up - I just wasn't engaged in the story it didn't excite me, and the characters felt a bit bland. I wish I could say that it picked up (as sometimes it has when I was struggling to read some other books) but it didn't, and I stuck with it to the end out of curiosity, but I had to force myself to do so.

I don't know how anyone can compare it to The Night Circus, it doesn't even come close, mainly because how the two main characters fell in love was barely believable. I think that's why I didn't really enjoy it, because I had such high expectations. 

The actual writing was good, its just a shame the story didn't engage me. 

Read my review on Goodreads

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

“I think grief is like a really ugly couch. It never goes away. You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room—but eventually, you learn to live with it.” 

Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment - or worse.

Still Jenna - now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief - steadfastly refuses to believe in her mother's desertion. So she decides to approach the two people who might still be able to help her find Alice: a disgraced psychic named Serenity Jones, and Virgil Stanhope, the cynical detective who first investigated her mother's disappearance and the strange, possibly linked death of one of her WC mother's coworkers.

Together these three lonely souls will discover truths destined to forever change their lives. Deeply moving and suspenseful, Jodi Picoult's 21st novel is a radiant exploration of the enduring love between mothers and daughters. 

Animals, Family, Love, After-life, and add on top of that how well written and in-depth the story was - what more could I want? The story around the elephants was well researched and I love reading books that also make me feel like I've learnt something (without actually having to read a text book).

I had an idea where the story and plot twist was heading after a little while, but there were still a few surprises I didn't see coming. And I loved the format of hearing from alternating characters each chapter, they each had different voices which were clear and distinct.

I honestly think that Jodi Picoult can do no wrong, well not any of her books that I've read as yet anyway. 

Read my review on Goodreads

There Will Be Stars by Billy Coffey

"I've learnt a lot from living the same day over and over. I know what works and what doesn't, all my truths and lies. I never figured out how to live until I died, Bobby, and the one thing I know is never listen to your heart, talk to it."

No one in Mattingly ever believed Bobby Barnes would live to see old age. Drink would either rot Bobby from the inside out or dull his senses just enough to send his truck off the mountain on one of his nightly rides. Although Bobby believes such an end possible—and even likely—it doesn’t stop him from taking his twin sons Matthew and Mark into the mountains one Saturday night. A sharp curve, blinding headlights, metal on metal, his sons’ screams. Bobby’s final thought as he sinks into blackness is a curious one—there will be stars.

Yet it is not death that greets him beyond the veil. Instead, he returns to the day he has just lived and finds he is not alone in this strange new world. Six others are trapped there with him.


Bobby soon discovers that rather than the place of peace he had been led to believe he was in, it’s actually a place of secrets and hidden dangers. Along with three others, he seeks to escape, even as the world around him begins to crumble. The escape will lead some to greater life, others to endless death . . . and Bobby Barnes to understand the deepest nature of love. 

An interesting look at life before/in between/after death and second chances for those willing to take them. A slower, deeper book, and not one that I would call a 'light holiday read', but still really well written and well formed characters. 

I give this a 3.5, not because there was anything wrong with it at all, but just because when I look at other books I have rated, I liked it more that the other 3 star books, yet I didn't devour it like the other rated 4 star books. 

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

“That's what love is, Ben. Love is sacrifice. I got this tattoo the day I felt that kind of love for your father. And I chose it because if I had to describe love that day, I would say it felt like my two favourite things, amplified and thrown together. Like my favourite poetic line mixed into the lyrics of my favourite song”

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist. 

I'm a sucker for a bit of romance every now and then, and t's even better if the female character is strong, funny and independent weather than weak/helpless in a damsel in distress situation. Even though life had a few downturns for Fallon, and her confidence had taken a beating, she was still strong and independent enough to move across the country and not fall helplessly in love with the first guy that showed her attention (but really, who could resist Ben forever). She was strong and witty and I would love to see more female characters like that.

The ONE and ONLY thing that I thought was a tad disappointing (*Slight SPOILER ALERT*) was in the final chapter, when Ben and Fallon met up the last time, she said she wasn't there to forgive him because he didn't do anything wrong...then SHE apologised. I disagreed with this and the fact she was then begging him to forgive her made me gag that such a cool chic ended up being so pathetic.

I don't think you can read a book like this thinking 100% realistically, because if you did, you would have to question their dedication to only meeting up on November 9 and not succumbing to contacting each other on social media when they were desperate (i.e. when planes were delayed and family members were in accidents). 

But other than that, I loved every minute I was reading their story. 

Read my review on Goodreads.

Forty Rooms by Olga Grushin

"Papa, do you  believe there is any meaning to life?" I blurted out. "I don't not believe" he said sternly. "I know. The meaning of life - the meaning of a single, individual human life, since I assume that is what you are asking - consists of figuring out the one thing you are great stand then pushing mankind's mastery of that one thing as far as you are able, be it an inch or a mile. If you are a carpenter, be a carpenter with every ounce of your being and invent a new type of saw. If you are an archaeologist, find the tomb of Alexander the Great. If you are Alexander the Great, conquer the world. And never to anything by half."

Totally original in conception and magnificently executed, Forty Rooms is mysterious, withholding, and ultimately emotionally devastating. Olga Grushin is dealing with issues of women’s identity, of women’s choices, that no modern novel has explored so deeply. 

“Forty rooms” is a conceit: it proposes that a modern woman will inhabit forty rooms in her lifetime. They form her biography, from childhood to death. For our protagonist, the much-loved child of a late marriage, the first rooms she is aware of as she nears the age of five are those that make up her family’s Moscow apartment. We follow this child as she reaches adolescence, leaves home to study in America, and slowly discovers sexual happiness and love. But her hunger for adventure and her longing to be a great poet conspire to kill the affair. She seems to have made her choice. But one day she runs into a college classmate. He is sure of his path through life, and he is protective of her. (He is also a great cook.) They drift into an affair and marriage. What follows are the decades of births and deaths, the celebrations, material accumulations, and home comforts—until one day, her children grown and gone, her husband absent, she finds herself alone except for the ghosts of her youth, who have come back to haunt and even taunt her. 

Compelling and complex, Forty Rooms is also profoundly affecting, its ending shattering but true. We know that Mrs. Caldwell (for that is the only name by which we know her) has died. Was it a life well lived? Quite likely. Was it a life complete? Does such a life ever really exist? Life is, after all, full of trade-offs and choices. Who is to say her path was not well taken? It is this ambiguity that is at the heart of this provocative novel.

This is such a fantastic concept for a story. Even though each chapter is only a snapshot of her life in a particular room/year, I felt like I had such a clear image of who she was.

The story is so crushing, not because of the intense drama in the characters actions, but because this theory could be applied to anyones life, unintentionally making you question how many shadow lives you have of your own. 

The plot isn't really anything new - girl has dreams, goes to uni, falls in love, gets heart broken, meets new boy, gets married and starts a family, there is an affair, life, deaths, friends...but there is so much angst and so many parallel lives in this story that it is hard not to feel it within yourself too.

Some chapters I could relate to, others not as much, but more so as she became a mother and struggled with the new identity and how to fit in time for who she was as well as all the there things that need doing. The first half of the book was the hardest to enjoy, because at times I found her a little annoying - each era of her life was frayed by more and more hesitation, selfish,unsure of herself and never quite satisfied yet not really doing anything to change it - but on reflection I think tis is what makes the story so real and relatable, because what young adult isn't like that at times?

There was a lot going on in this book with so many layers, and while it is ver intelligent and poetic at the same time, it isn't the sort of book I could read if I didn't have any mental energy to focus. 

What I have taken away from reading this, is that sometimes the only real challenges some of us face are the ones we put in front of ourselves.

Read my review on Goodreads

Sweet Thing (Sweet Thing #1) by Renee Carlino

“You are your mother and your father. You are your experiences and your fears and the love you let yourself feel. You are your degree and your talent and your passion. You are your pain, your joy, and your fantasies.” 

Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.

When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's cafe, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions—for him, for music—but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.

A "heartbreaking and romantic" (Aestas Book Blog) debut, Sweet Thing explores the intensity and complexities of first love and self-discovery. 

This was the best prologue I have read, and I loved how it was woven through the story again at the end.

The writing was really really good. Not only did it have cool band/music references, but the actual writing itself was intelligent and articulate. For a romance novel there was also the right amount of lovin' without being too cheesy, tacky or overpowering.

The only section I didn't really enjoy was watching Mia screw things up (again and again) so badly, and then having to watch her wallow in self-pity for so long. I found that a bit hard to believe because in the real world you can't lie on the couch and drink tequila for months without more consequences - well not in my world anyway. And if it was 'their dream' then why did Will exclude Mia from the planning and keep secrets from her? 

But overall I really enjoyed it. I didn't realise it was a series so I will probably end up reading more to see how it follows on. 

Read my review on Goodreads

Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #2) by Alexander McCall Smith

Following on the brilliant The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe charts the further adventures of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only - and finest - female private detective.

It's going to take all her intuition and eminent sensibility for Precious to crack her hardest cas yet: the decade-old disappearance of an American on the edge of the Kalahari. And if that wasn't enough, there are plenty of matters closer to home to concern her: her highly talented secretary, Mma Makutsi, eager to be promoted to detective; the unscrupulous maid of her husband-to-be, the wonderful Mr J. L. B. Matekoni; and the sudden - and unexpected increase to her family by not one, but two. 

The second book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is just as great as the first one. The characters stayed true to who they are and Botswana was shown in the same light. I can see why this book series is so popular. 

Read my review on Goodreads

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal

Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to take Jake away and give him to strangers. Because Jake is white and Leon is not. 

As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile – like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, burying his hands deep in the soil, hanging out with Tufty (who reminds him of his dad), and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum.

Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the fierce bond between siblings. And how – just when we least expect it – we somehow manage to find our way home.

This is a slower paced story so it might not be a good one to read if you don't have a lot of time (I feel it would just drag on too long), but stick with it because the ending does it justice.

For the majority of this book I couldn't understand how anyone would let their child wander the streets on their own and not question what they were up to - I certainly couldn't imagine me not caring about where my son was - but then I realised that that was exactly what my childhood was like growing up in the almost-country. It just made me sad that the whole time I was reading it, I was worried about someone nasty snatching him.

What I took most from this story, was that Family is what you make it. Leon was too young to understand that initially, but by the end he had made found himself in a very unique but caring family, as opposed to struggling to put back his real family. It breaks my heart to think that is a reality for some children, and I hope that it works out right for some of them, even though it also seems hard work. My heart strings were definitely pulled for Leon.

Read my review on Goodreads

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

“Our heads may be small, but they are as full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which come back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are. And who am I?” 

Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). When clients come along, whether it is to enquire after a missing spouse or establish the identity of a long-lost father, it is not The Principles of Private Detection that helps her to solve cases, but old-fashioned common sense and a warm-hearted understanding of human fallibility - especially that of men.

This book had a little bit of everything - humour, wit, smarts, mystery, love - and I loved it.

Despite the name and the blurb, it is a story that is as much about everyday life in Botswana as much as it is about solving mysteries. Each chapter offered insights in to life in Africa, both past and present.

Mia Ramotswe is a very endearing character who isn't easily fooled and isn't afraid to say it like it is. 

Easy to read but still intelligent.

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The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman

I was born old. My mother told me once that I looked like a grumpy old man from the moment I was born - wrinkled, pruney face, rheumy eyes. You've heard of the expression an old soul? I was born with a head full of someone else's failed dreams  and a heart full of someone else's memories.

In this compelling debut novel, an art authenticator and an art historian are employed by a famous, reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait, leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other, and from the artist who determined the course of their lives.

How do you find someone who wants to be lost?

Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close, until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong, manipulative—and beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds. During their family’s summer holiday at the lake, Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter, Thomas Bayber, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie, however, remains strangely unmoved, sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered.

Decades later, Bayber, now a reclusive, world-renowned artist, unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Natalie, and Alice. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting for him. That task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Natalie and Alice, who seem to have vanished. And Finch finds himself wondering why Thomas is suddenly so intent on resurrecting the past.

In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again.

A 3 star rating sounds too harsh, but I can't quite make myself commit to 4 stars, so 3.5 it is. 

The story was intriguing and engaging enough to make me want to keep reading until the end, it was just that I was never really shocked enough by anything (I would call them 'plot bends' instead of 'plot twists'). It was extremely well written (see above quote, this is just one example) and a good display on how a decision can change the course of a persons life, but there was just something missing for me to consider this a great book rather than just a good book. 

I found Alice to be a bit of a bore. I understand there was probably another side to her (i.e. that she showed the children in scouts) but you didn't really ever get to meet that side of Alice, only the whinging self-pitying cripple side of Alice.

It was a similar thing with Natalie - she was apparently so despicable and callous as a teenager and adult, but you never really found out how much until the end, you just had to trust the other characters opinion of her until then.

I loved how the story evolved through the different times, and how it was entwined with art. Overall I enjoyed it but would not recommend for anyone who loves their thriller novels fast paced. 

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Lottery by Patricia Wood

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Perry's IQ is only 76, but he's not stupid. His grandmother taught him everything he needs to know to survive: She taught him to write things down so he won't forget them. She taught him to play the lottery every week. And, most important, she taught him whom to trust. When Gram dies, Perry is left orphaned and bereft at the age of thirty-one. Then his weekly Washington State Lottery ticket wins him 12 million dollars, and he finds he has more family than he knows what to do with. Peopled with characters both wicked and heroic who leap off the pages, Lottery is a deeply satisfying, gorgeously rendered novel about trust, loyalty, and what distinguishes us as capable.

I nearly didn't take this book home to read, because I thought it might make me too sad. I'm glad I decided that being too sad over someone being retarded ("I am NOT retarded") and ripped off by his family wasn't a good enough reason to not read it, because this story was really heartwarming.

It was one of those books that you think is going to follow a simple lighthearted path to the end, but it ends up having more to it than that. There was more to Perry than a slow mentality - he is kind and observant and funny and loving and there is a lot he could teach others instead of the other way around.

I started to get annoyed that part of the story where the family plots to steal his money was taking so long, but then I realised that wasn't the main point, it was giving us more insight in to who Perry was through his memories and musings. 

Although some of his real family are not very nice people at all, he shows that sometimes family are those that you choose as well as those that you are born with. There is also a very good reminder to not always judge a book by it's cover, so to speak. 

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

“He thought of Heraclitus: a man cannot step in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.” 

Noah is four and wants to go home. The only trouble is he's already there.

Janie's son is her world, and it breaks her heart that he has nightmares.
That he's terrified of water.
That he sometimes pushes her away and screams that he wants his real mother.
That it's getting worse and worse and no one seems to be able to help.

In desperation, she turns to someone who might have an answer - but it may not be one she's ready to hear.
It may also mean losing the one thing she loves more than anything.
Noah.

A novel that spans life, death and everything in between, The Forgetting Time tells an unforgettable story - about Noah, about love, and, above all, about the things we hold onto when we have nothing else.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. It had an interesting theme that I wasn't sure I would be able to believe, but it was written so well that I took to it immediately. It had a lot going on - mystery, love, complex relationships - and it didn't disappoint.  

I felt for Janie - what mother wouldn't move heaven and earth to help their child? Even if it sounded a little crazy to others.

Anderson's  pain and struggle made him more loveable and believable. 

Hearing about the families who lost their children/siblings, made me hug my son harder.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life.” 

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

What a funny Mum Bernadette would have been. A little crazy at times, but there'd never be a dull moment. There really is a fine line between genius and madness.

There were a few sections where I skim read because it was dragged out a tad too long, but otherwise this book had some really funny parts - the landslide paragraphs actually made me laugh out aloud. 

It had been on my 'To Read' list for a while and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Easy enough to read that I could be absorbed in it, but interesting enough that I actually wanted to keep reading longer than I could at times.

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