The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village - Joanna Nell

Description

It's never too late to grow old disgracefully...

The life of 79-year-old pensioner Peggy Smart is as beige as the décor in her retirement village. Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim.

Peggy dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy? As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their eighties.

But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista Angie Valentine - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

Can she channel her 'inner Helen Mirren' and find love and friendship in her twilight years?

Review

Due to the title, I began this book thinking it was going to be set in South America, one of the native regions for the plant. As I began to read and references were made to Woolworths - I thought it was in the UK. Not until I was a good way through did it become apparent that it was in fact set in Australia! I now know that Coles is a famous Australian department store - but I thought it was a made up name for the book!

Anyway, it just goes to show the similarities between the UK and life down under in retirement villages and peoples perceptions - I did think they were brave going to the seaside lol! It also turns out that the author is a GP who grew up in the UK and now lives in Australia. This probably accounts for the sympathetic Dr who takes over at the retirement village and finally Peggy can reveal her hidden secret.

This was such a gentle, funny book and I couldn't wait to get back to it each time to read some more. Peggy has a great turn of phrase and her internal dialogue had be chuckling along. Peggy is maybe getting a little confused in her later years but only as much as could be expected. However, her children have other ideas and she dreads the day when they take her for the "car ride" from which she never returns to her little unit. Peggy has after all seen it happen all too many times before to other residents. 

The rivalry between everyone (well the ladies) at the Retirement village for the eligible men was very entertaining. With a "will they won't they" theme running through the book, as Peggy wonders if it's all worth it anymore at her age. Then there is Angie Valentine the glamorous old school friend, Peggy finds she has moved into the village after not seeing her for many years. Is she a new rival?

There is some back story throughout to times when Peggy and Angie were school girls and then at their first job working together. Peggy always thought she was the underdog in their friendship - will that be still true all these years later, especially when Angie decides to take her in hand and give her a makeover.

A delightful read, I loved every second of it. I'm giving the book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a ARC to review.

Everything is Lies - Helen Callaghan

Description

**THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER DEAR AMY **

No-one is who you think they are

Sophia's parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed.

Everyone has secrets

Until the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.

Especially those closest to you

The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name.

And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .

What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

Review

I enjoyed the previous book by Helen "Dear Amy" so I was keen to read this one and I enjoyed it every bit as much as her last book.

The title is certainly true! When you read "what if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born" you may think you could second guess what will happen in the book - but believe me you won't.

The book begins with Sophia and the background of her working and living in London, not wanting to return to her Suffolk roots, despite her Mother being very needy. Sophia is then informed that her parents have been involved in an incident. Her mother has committed suicide but not before attacking her father who was left for dead. 

The book then begins a flip flop to the past of the mother. What follows is very unnerving reading.  

With flips back to present day the plot became like an MI5 novel with Sophia being followed and a knife attack of her own. 

Towards the end of the book I found the events very chilling and was inwardly screaming at Sophia not to follow a request she receives. Such an usual subject for a book - I will not spoil it by going into any details. 

Although I thought I had guessed some of what was going to be found out, the very final twist I never saw coming.  There are a few loose ends in the book - I wonder if a follow on book is planned? 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley for a ARC to review.

The Last One - Alexandra Oliva

Description

She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.TWELVE CONTESTANTS
When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality TV show, In The Dark, she knows that she will be tested to the limits of her endurance. Beating eleven competitors in a series of survival tasks deep in the forest will be the ultimate challenge before she returns home to start a family.

A GAME WITH NO END
As the contestants are overcome by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games to which Zoo is subjected grow dark beyond belief. This isn't what she signed up for: the deserted towns and gruesome props. Is this a game with no end? alone and disoriented, Zoo must summon all her survival skills - and learn new ones as she goes . . .

Review

The idea of this book really appealed to me, however, I struggled to read it. It's only 350 pages but it's taken me far longer to read than a book of that length would normally take me. 

Imagine all that happens on a reality show, and every word of it written down, plus all the stuff you don't see that happens off camera - it makes for a very long 350 pages. I understand that if you commit to writing about a reality tv show you have to be in it for the long haul - it just wasn't for me. It felt a little groundhog day.

There is also the mechanism of the flip flop story telling. To begin with this confused me as I thought I had missed something. The action goes from the reality tv show as it begins and progresses to the reality tv show much later on. Once I realised that it was ok, but I couldn't understand the need for it. 

Towards the end there is a twist which I can see maybe necessitates the flip flop approach, except by then I had worked out what was happening anyway and just waited for the character to catch up. I thought it was a little far fetched but can see that the way the character has to cope without a vital piece of her everyday life could just about mean that she is slow on the uptake.

This is YA fiction - however I think the YA audience are just as smart if not smarter than some of the older generation. I personally feel they may get bored with the book before the ending. 

I did enjoy the parts of the book which related what was happening and what the TV editor would be broadcasting - very interesting and will make me rethink some of what I see on TV.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC copy to review.