Review of "How I Lost You"

If you were going to pick up just one thriller in 2015, this is definitely the one I would recommend. I absolutely whizzed through it, and ended up puzzling through my opinions on Susan's guilt whilst I was in the shower, at work, basically any time that I couldn't be scouring the book for new information. I'm not going to lie, I love a good ol' bit of conspiracy theorising. So, when this book combined that with some mystery, speculation and a whole tonne of grief, I was enthralled. Imagine being told that you murdered your 12 week old baby, but not being able to remember anything about that day; never knowing whether you did this or not, never knowing whether you are indeed insane, or not. 

Susan Webster, now Emma Clarke, has been released back into the "normal" world after four years in a mental institution after she killed her only child. Having moving to a new town, and set herself up with a new identity, Emma is horrified to receive post at her new home addressed to her old name. Who knows she's moved here? Is she in danger? Things take a turn for the worse when she opens it up, revealing a photograph of a four year old boy, and on the back is written the name she can't bear to see: Dylan. Is her son alive, or is this all some kind of cruel prank?

Desperate to get to the bottom of things, Emma calls on the aid of her best friend Cassie and journalist Nick Whiteley. But as they search deeper into the past, someone gets more and more determined to terrify them away. Multiple break ins, and evidence of stalking puts Emma entirely on edge, especially when it appears that Dylan wasn't the only person murdered, and her (ex)husband may have the answers ...

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Dead Wife's Handbook"

I'm pretty sure we've always indulged ourselves a little, imagining how people would react to our deaths, but what if that fantasy became your reality? Rachel had everything she ever wanted, until it was all stripped away from her in an instant when she suffers a sudden death from an undiagnosed heart condition. What she suffers next however, is worse than a death she had ever imagined. The book is split up into the seven stages of grief, and as such you follow Rachel through her journey into the afterlife. Everybody questions death at some point, considers whether there is a life after death at all, right? I found this to *excuse my French*, be a little bit of a mindfuck: just imagine if those that you loved could watch you grieve for them, suffering just as you do for the lost relationship. Would you do things differently?

Rachel and Max have the kind of marriage everybody dreams about, and it's only strengthened by the birth of their daughter Ellie. However, when Rach suffers a premature death, Max and seven year old Ellie are left to pick up the pieces, and re-organise the chaos that their life and feelings have descended into. 

However, they aren't quite as alone as they think. Rachel is granted visionary access to some elements of their lives, but has no control over when or how often this will be. From seeing her parents for the first time since she died, to witnessing Max and Ellie's emotional celebration of the first anniversary at the cemetery, this access seems both a blessing and a curse. But what if Max and Ellie's wounds start to heal and they commence rebuilding their lives?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Moon and More"

Sarah Dessen was pretty much my heroine in the chic lit world during my teenage years, and definitely introduced me to the idea that romance and chic lit for teens isn't all trash. So, when I was looking for a new read last week I figured: why don't I go back and see if her writing's as fab as I remember? And it definitely was. Say goodbye to simple plot lines, and the belief that teen fiction about relationships should either be all or nothing on the physical front, here we have a book that effortlessly blends complex characters with beautiful settings and rigorous plot twists. 

It's Emaline's last summer in her tiny town on the coast before she heads out to college. She imagines everything will change when she leaves, but what if it all comes before she expects? Her and Luke have been dating for what feels like forever, but as things get rocky and NY city boy Theo turns up, a break up may be on the cards far sooner than she ever thought. Plus, living and working with her two step-sisters and mother seems a bit unbearable at times, but when Emaline's invisible father turns up in town with her ten year old half-brother in tow, the notion of 'family' gets complicated too. Will this summer of change make her long to escape the tiny town she lives in? Or cling to it more than ever?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Goldfinch"

I've finished the summer (weep) off with another thriller in this season of reading thrillers that I advanced upon, This was probably, unfortunately, my least favourite of the ones I've read, perhaps because the others were so much of exactly what I was looking for. However, that isn't to say that it wasn't worth reading at all! The Goldfinch was definitely one of those books that made you think: both about your own character and the state of our capitalist world.

What would keeping a life-ruining secret for decades do to you? In an interesting take on the psychological impact of deception, Theodore Decker's life is turned upside down the day his mother dies. Thirteen-year-old Theo and his mother take a trip to the Met but at the wrong time: a bomb goes off, rupturing both the gallery and the young boy's life. Handed a priceless painting by a dying man, Theo escapes the building in the confusion of the explosion only to live in fear of what keeping this painting may do to him. Suddenly left alone, the remainder of Theo's adolescence is spent moving from place to place, ending up in a whirlwind of addiction, crime and deceit. 

But, what happens if everything isn't as Theo thought it was? Who really has the painting and what will the ultimate consequences of taking it be?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of I Am Pilgrim

I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit of a massive fan of cop dramas, and the odd conspiracy theory or two. So, I ended up loving every second of I Am Pilgrim. Set in the world of super spy-dom, and linked to 9/11, this book had masses of action and mind numbing plot twists to hand out. Have you ever wondered what the survivors of the horrific terror attack on the World Trade Centre saw in that day: was it a tragedy? Or an opportunity?

Whatever you wish to call pilgrim, he's one of America's finest intelligence agents. Despite retiring, when the White House realises that country may be under threat, he's the third person in the entire world to be informed of a potential attack which could destroy the planet as we know it. As you travel through the world of an intelligence agent with Pilgrim you come to realise that nothing is a coincidence, and everything you've been told about international security is probably a lie. 

When Pilgrim gets called in to examine a murder in New York which follows an example in his own book (written under an alias of course), he ends up on a whirlwind of a case which sees him travel all over Europe. 

Is keeping on top of this and trying to uncover who exactly is behind the potential outbreak of industrial grade smallpox (and find the perp!) too much for the world's best intelligence agent to handle?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Bitch Goddess Notebook"

It's taken me a long time to decide exactly what to say about this book due to the deep connection I felt to it that almost made me feel utterly reviled (note: I included the above quotation to show you guys how disturbing and saddening the text could be at times, rather than feeling any specific connection to that). If there's anything I'm going to say that is definite about it, it's that it should come with a big fat trigger warning regarding it's content surrounding self-harm. As someone who's seriously suffered with this in the past, I can understand how influential any type of media can be regarding the subject, and the intense description of cutting oneself which the book narrates, as well as praises from the perspectives of the characters narrating the text is a little, well, disturbing. So, although I loved the writing and the plot was very eye-opening, I feel like that needed to be said, as a reader in a more fragile state of recovery may have suffered as a result of this writing.

Meet Rennie, Amy and Cherry: an unlikely trio of best friends at high school. Despite their differences, they couldn't image not being in each others' lives - after all, they have no secrets, right? Girls who stick together, stay together, but words aren't enough to prove a bond, and one night, high on a concoction of goodies, the three form a blood bond, leading to rumours about satanic worship. 

But how long to high-scool friendships last anyway? Interspersed with a narrative from all three girls about their time at school are sections from later on in life, where actions have consequences, and you don't always have your bitch posse to back you up.

Track the tales of troubled teens into their adult lives, and discover what it feels like to be an addict - to drugs, to self-harm, to sex, to drink: how do you recover when it's all you've ever known?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Miniaturist"

I find that great books are all about questioning your perspective, Whether it's developing ideas on race, culture, sex, relationships, or merely altering what you focus on in a novel, I love learning new ways to think about things and interpret our world. The Miniaturist questions what it is to be part of an arranged European marriage, and to lose faith in the idea of love within marriage when such a thing is forced upon you. Moreover, it tackles difficult issues facing puritanical society whilst keeping a realistic stance - i.e. whether or not one lives in a purtianical society, people always have and always will "sin", bucking against the norm.

Petronella is excited to finally become a wife to a wealthy merchant, and discover what it is to love and be loved by a man. Nervous about what a connubial bed might hold, at first Nella is relieved by the fact that Johannes, her husband, allows her to sleep alone. But soon she gets anxious: why is he so disinterested that he makes no attempt to seduce her? Does he not like her? Or is there a darker issue somewhere at the heart of their marriage?

In order to appease his new wife, Johannes buys her a dollhouse that is an exact replica of the house they live in. When Nella approaches a merchant in the city in order to gain furniture for the house as Johannes has asked her to do, she realises that the person behind the creation of the miniatures for the house knows a lot more than she should do. How else would she be able to make exact replicas of all the members of the household, and even predict the future? In the end, does it matter more than what is going on in the house itself. Perhaps Nella's insistence on looking into what the miniaturist is doing is simply deviating her attention away from the issues that are about to destroy her house entirely ....

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x