BOOKSIMO

Description When every word’s a lie…A picture is worth a thousand A dark psychological thriller about the secrets that destroy us, perfect for fans of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN and BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.  Oliver Molloy never meant to hurt his wife. It was an accident, not his fault. A respected lawyer, he needs to make sure no-one finds out the truth. But there’s someone watching him, waiting for him to slip up. Photography student Joanna Lacey has always been close to her mother. But when Rachel Arnold turns up on her doorstep, Joanna’s world falls apart. The father she never knew has been found in the canal – a married man, now dead. Joanna and Oliver’s paths cross when they meet at the funeral. Convinced everyone she loves is lying to her, Joanna turns to him for help. But Oliver is the most dangerous liar of all. Can she uncover the truth before the past destroys them both? Review When I began reading this book I was unsure how a man who finds a dead body, (but has admitt...

Description When Edie is caught in a compromising position at her colleagues’ wedding, all the blame falls on her – turns out that personal popularity in the office is not that different from your schooldays. Shamed online and ostracised by everyone she knows, Edie’s forced to take an extended sabbatical – ghostwriting an autobiography for hot new acting talent, Elliot Owen. Easy, right? Wrong. Banished back to her home town of Nottingham, Edie is not only dealing with a man who probably hasn’t heard the word ‘no’ in a decade, but also suffering an excruciating regression to her teenage years as she moves back in with her widowed father and judgy, layabout sister. When the world is asking who you are, it’s hard not to question yourself. Who’s that girl? Edie is ready to find out. Review I only just got around to reading this book as it is part of my own personal book shelf. I love Mhairi's writing and so wanted to make sure I was up to date with her books. So...

Description She’s watching you, but who’s watching her? Lily Gullick lives with her husband Aiden in a new-build flat opposite an estate which has been marked for demolition. A keen birdwatcher, she can’t help spying on her neighbours. Until one day Lily sees something suspicious through her binoculars and soon her elderly neighbour Jean is found dead. Lily, intrigued by the social divide in her local area as it becomes increasingly gentrified, knows that she has to act. But her interference is not going unnoticed, and as she starts to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat. But can Lily really trust everything she sees? Review Lily watches her neighbours - they are all laid out like a snapshot of Celebrity Squares - each in their own square. Using her bird watching experience she categorises them and makes notes on each of them in the form of field notes. Even at one point making a grid to record their sightings and habits. Each chapter is prefaced by...

Description Based upon the authors large personal collection of beautiful fashion postcards from Edwardian times, this book takes the reader on a journey through that era covering the hat fashions and social changes of the day. Delve further into the carnage that took place around the world, in which unscrupulous and money grabbing individuals, from the Northumbrian coast in England to the Everglades in America, would callously slaughter whole colonies of birds (leaving their young to die) purely to provide the millinery trade with ornate feathers to decorate fashionable hats during that era. The book also takes the reader into the world of millinery sweatshops of poverty stricken New York and describes the conditions and deprivations under which the poorly paid workers, many of them immigrants, worked. You can even learn about the background, history and amazing life of one of the worlds greatest fashion designers, Coco Chanel, as she set out on her lifetime of fashion in Edward...

Description The  Sunday Times  bestselling psychological thriller Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for The Cambridge Examiner. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters - but none like the one she's just received:  'Dear Amy,  I don't know where I am. I've been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I'm afraid he'll kill me.  Please help me soon,  Bethan Avery' Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax. But, as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything . . . Review This book is described as a psychological thriller and for me it did not disappoint. I was a little concerned that the subject matter was going to be a little bit more like true crime for my tastes, all that was forgotten once I began to read and was hooked into the story straightaway. Margot is also going through a to...

Description The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn’t always been this overweight; mother-of-two Brid Riordan hasn’t always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn’t always felt that her life was a total waste. So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke – a former love of both Brid and Evelyn – the village’s dark past begins to unravel. As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community’s worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret. Darkly comic, touching and at times profoundly sad, Holding is a masterful debut. Graham Norton employs his acerbic wit to breathe life into a host of loveable characters, and explore – with searing honesty – the complexities and contradictions that make us human. Review I was intrigued that Graham Norton had written a novel and couldn't wai...

Description *Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016* A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court,  The Sellout  showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. Born in Dickens on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, the narrator of The Sellout spent his childhood as the subject in his father's racially charged psychological studies. He is told that his father’s work will lead to a memoir that will solve their financial woes. But when his father is killed in a drive-by shooting, he discovers there never was a memoir. All that’s left is a bill for a drive-through funeral. What’s more, Dickens has literally been wiped off the map to save California from further embarrassment. Fuelled by despair, the narrator sets out to right this wrong with the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court. In his trademark absurd...

Description Hopeless romantic Eva loves everything about Christmas. Even if she is spending it alone housesitting a spectacular Fifth Avenue apartment. What she didn’t expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous–and mysterious–owner. Bestselling crime writer, and notorious cynic, Lucas Blade has hidden himself away in his penthouse with a deadline looming. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva and Lucas snowbound together will Lucas finally see the magic, and happily ever after that Christmas can bring? Review I've read a few of Sarah Morgan's books but not in this trilogy. However, the book stands alone and so you can read it without having read the previous books. You can always rely on Sarah for a nice romance and a Christmassy read. I love that this book has the love interest as Lucas Blade, he was a great character and the fact that he was a crime writer (one of my fav genres) just made it perfect teamed with New York and Christm...

Description A MISSING GIRL Edith Hind is gone, leaving just her coat, a smear of blood and a half-open door. A DESPERATE FAMILY Each of her friends and relatives has a version of the truth. But none quite adds up. A DETECTIVE AT BREAKING POINT The press grows hungrier by the day. Can DS Manon Bradshaw fend them off, before a missing persons case becomes a murder investigation? Review Something in the description of this book made me think that this wouldn't be a normal run of the mill crime read - and I was right. The basic plot of the book is that Edith is missing - cue the usual police procedure, press conference etc. However the book goes further with a look behind not only DS Manon Bradshaw and her love life, but also her colleagues and the friends and family of the missing girl. This book really hooked me in - not only in the whodunnit sense but also what would become of DS Manon - is she going to find love or go a step too far in her investigations preve...

Description Meet Prinny, Chelsea and Diana. Prinny is the owner of Cosmos, a shop that sells crystals, potions, candles, and hope. It’s also a place where no one turns down a little extra-special cocktail that can work as a romance potion or heal a broken heart. But Prinny is in love with her married lawyer and she’ll need nothing short of magic to forget about him. Chelsea works as a living statue at tourist sites around Washington, DC. It's a thankless job, but it helps pay the rent. That, and her part-time job at Cosmos. As her dream of becoming a successful actress starts to seem more remote and the possibility of being a permanently struggling one seems more realistic, Chelsea begins to wonder: at one point do you give up on your dreams? And will love ever be in the cards for her? Diana Tiesman is married to Leif, a charismatic man who isn’t faithful. But no matter how many times he lets her down, Diana just can't let him go. She knows the only way she can truly break...

Description Noelle is not a fan of the holidays and to make matters worse, she is at a crossroads in her life when it seems that love and adventure are no longer possible. When she stays late at her job in a department store on a snowy Christmas Eve she accidentally gets locked in after closing. She isn’t too concerned about the prospect of spending the night in the store…until a woman appears out of nowhere and tells Noelle that she’s her guardian angel. Soon Noelle finds herself camped out in the shoe department facing several “ghosts” of Christmases past, present, and future...Will visiting the holidays of yesterday and tomorrow help Noelle see the true spirit of Christmas? And will the love she has longed for all her life be the best surprise gift of all? Review I loved Beth Harbison's If I Could Turn Back Time and was eager to read this novella which is 176 pages long.  I wasn't disappointed this is a lovely tale - very Christmassy in the setting but you could rea...

Description An entertaining and authoritative exploration of how and why time has come to rule our lives from the bestselling author of  Just My Type . Not so long ago we timed our lives by the movement of the sun. These days our time arrives atomically and insistently, and our lives are propelled by the notion that we will never have enough of the one thing we crave the most. How have we come to be dominated by something so arbitrary? The compelling stories in this book explore our obsessions with time. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic wishes ignored. A moment of war is frozen forever. The timetable arrives by steam train. A woman designs a ten-hour clock and reinvents the calendar. Roger Bannister becomes stuck in the same four minutes forever. A British watchmaker competes with mighty Switzerland. And a prince attempts to stop time in its tracks. Timekeepers  is a vivid exploration of the ways ...

Description At the heart of the top ten bestselling  The Husband's Secret  by Liane Moriarty is a letter that's not meant to be read . . . Mother of three and wife of John-Paul, Cecilia discovers an old envelope in the attic. Written in her husband's hand, it says: to be opened only in the event of my death. Curious, she opens it - and time stops. John-Paul's letter confesses to a terrible mistake which, if revealed, would wreck their family as well as the lives of others. Cecilia - betrayed, angry and distraught - wants to do the right thing, but right for who? If she protects her family by staying silent, the truth will worm through her heart. But if she reveals her husband's secret, she will hurt those she loves most . . . Review I've read a few of Liane Moriarty's books now and I am always amazed by the absolute minutiae of human life that she manages to get into a book. I find myself thinking - oh I didn't know other people did th...

Description A truly original debut novel from an extraordinarily talented new voice in children’s books. Laugh, cry and wonder at this race-against-time story of a boy who travels back to 1984 to prevent a go-kart accident, and save his father’s life… “My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…” When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad’s time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary. Review This is a young adult novel which I requested from Netgalley because I love time travel novels. I wasn't disappointed, it is probably one of the best time travel novels I have read (and I have read a lot). The book is very good at "explaining" time travel which isn't always the case in a novel...

Description Whether it is a relaxing, action-packed or financially rewarding retirement you are looking for, this is the book for you. In retirement, personal ambitions can be realized and new experiences enjoyed. Yet with so much to consider, people are often unsure how best to plan for their future and the scope for concern and confusion is even greater with changing retirement ages and pension rules. The Good Retirement Guide  offers clear and concise suggestions on a broad range of retirement-related subjects. The Guide includes information on: Pensions/ Tax / Investment / Starting your own business / Leisure activities / Paid work / Voluntary work / How to avoid being scammed / Health / Holidays / Looking after elderly parents / Wills Revised and updated, the 2017 edition is packed with hundreds of useful suggestions and helpful websites to browse. This is an indispensable book that you will refer to again and again. Review I was expecting this book to be full ...

Dexcription Everything has been leading to this. It's the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, May 23rd, and the small town of Promise Falls, New York, has found itself in the midst of a full-blown catastrophe. Hundreds of people are going to the hospital with similar flu-like symptoms—and dozens have died. Investigators quickly zero in on the water supply. But the question for many, including private investigator Cal Weaver, remains: Who would benefit from a mass poisoning of this town? Meanwhile, Detective Barry Duckworth is faced with another problem. A college student has been murdered, and he's seen the killer's handiwork before—in the unsolved homicides of two other women in town. Suddenly, all the strange things that have happened in the last month start to add up… Bloody mannequins found in car “23” of an abandoned Ferris wheel…a fiery, out-of-control bus with “23” on the back, that same number on the hoodie of a man accused of assault… The motive for harmin...

Description All  Riley Flynn  wants is to meet someone who makes her happy. But attracting the right kind of man is not easy, and with her heart still hurting from her last break-up, Riley believes she’ll never find love again.  A year ago,  Sadie Stewart’s  whole world was shattered when her husband, Ross, died. She has struggled to keep herself together for the sake of their young daughter, but with the anniversary of his death approaching, Sadie finds herself overwhelmed by grief.  Sadie and Riley work at Chandlers shoe shop, in the charming town of Hedworth. But when Chandlers is threatened with closure, the friends are confronted with the loss of not only their jobs, but also their support network - the glue that holds them together when they are close to breaking.  As they put together a plan to save their beloved shop, Sadie realises that she might just be learning to live again. Could it be that new beginnings are just round the corner? The ...

Description Amaterasu Takahashi has spent her life grieving for her daughter Yuko and grandson Hideo, who were victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Now a widow living in America, she believes that one man was responsible for her loss; a local doctor who caused an irreparable rift between mother and daughter. When a man claiming to be Hideo arrives on her doorstep, she is forced to revisit the past; the hurt and humiliation of her early life, the intoxication of a first romance and the realisation that if she had loved her daughter in a different way, she might still be alive today. Review The story begins with 50 year old Hideo arriving at his grandmother's (Amaterasu) house claiming to be her grandson. The novel then travels back and forth in time as Amaterasu relives the previous years and how she came to be in America. Amaterasu reads letters and a journal to take the reader with her back over those years. Some of which is news to Amaterasu and ver...

Description The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school? So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades. One Saturday, he doesn't show up. Ona starts to think he's not so special after all, but then his father Quinn arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son's good deed. The boy's mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that even at her age the world can surprise you, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find yourself again. Review This really is a remarkable book I totally forgot I was reading a story - how Monica Wood ever came up with this story line is just amazing to me. The back story to Ona, who is now 1...

Description Eliade Jencks knows the only reason people call at midnight is to tell you someone has died. Professor Solete was one of her few friends. Perhaps her only friend. But his friends don't think much of her - a vague, scruffy waitress, impatient with philosophical onanism at parties. Naturally, they're horrified to find out that Solete has left her his Field Guide to Reality. The Guide has taken on legendary proportions among the celebrated minds of Oxford. The work of a lifetime, it purportedly advances Solete's great philosophical Theory of Everything and even defines the very nature of reality. A big, important book. Only, they can't find it. So, baffled, grieving, and slightly annoyed, Eliade sets out on a quest for the missing manuscript, and falls down a rabbit-hole of metaphysical possibility. From a psychotropic tea party to the Priests of the Quantum Realm, she trips her way through Solete's wonderland reality and, without quite meaning to...