BOOKSIMO

  Excited to be a part of the book tour for this book today. Synopsis: “For crying out loud! I can’t even cast on now.” Claire has never unravelled anything before, being a confident knitter. But now, to her dismay, everything she creates is a disaster, riddled with dropped stitches and glaring holes. It’s almost as if her hands have a mind of their own. Maybe it’s because her longest relationship to date has just ended, or perhaps it has something to do with the fact her career is on the ropes. “Don’t get frustrated with your needles! The problem lies with the knitter, not the knitting,” said Adrian, owner of Oddballs wool shop. Following his advice, in the desperate hope it will cure her woolly woes, Claire begins to turn her life around. Her grand plan involves FishTank, the online dating site. She convinces Adrian that if they sign up and find love, their problems will be solved (and she’ll have at least one area of her life sorted!). The trouble starts when he has far more luc...

  Description 'When did you last read a genuinely original thriller?  The wait is over ' A. J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window ' I couldn't put  Eight Detectives  down  . . . I genuinely wanted to applaud at the end' Alex North, bestselling author of The Whisper Man All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. Grant McAllister, an author of crime fiction and professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out. But that was thirty years ago. Now he's living a life of seclusion on a quiet Mediterranean island - until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor, knocks on his door. His early work is being republished and together the two of them must revisit those old stories: an author, hiding from his past, and an editor, keen to understand it. But as she reads, Julia is unsettled to realise that there are things in the stories that don't make sense. Intricate clues that seem to reference a real murder, one that's remained ...

  Description *A moving, unforgettable story inspired by true events* We all have something to tell those we have lost . . . When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she wonders how she will ever carry on. Yet, in the face of this unthinkable loss, life must somehow continue. Then one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone box in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone box spreads, people travel to it from miles around. Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone box, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Then she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking. When you've lost everything, what can you find . . ? Review I usually love books set in Japan, and whilst th...

  Description This is Britain as you've never read it. This is Britain as it has never been told. From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first,  Girl, Woman, Other  follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . . Review I had so many reasons for not reading this book! It won a Booker Prize (I often don't get on with ones that do win), it has no punctuation, there are no capital letters for words beginning a sentence, it is a mix of prose and writing. It is written from a POV I know little about. Yet I read it - and I am so glad I did. Borrowed from the library in case I hated it I slowly got into the book. Yes the lack of capital letters and punctuation annoyed me - b...

  Description Leila’s charm bracelet tells a story of love, a story of loss, a story of hope. This is the story of her… and the story of Jake. When Leila Jones loses her precious charm bracelet and a stranger finds it, she has to tell the story of how she got the charms to prove she’s the owner. Each and every one is a precious memory of her life with Jake. So Leila starts at the beginning, recounting the charms and experiences that have led her to the present. A present she never could have expected when she met Jake nearly twenty years ago… Review The book begins with Leila having lost her charm bracelet, she is emailing Caitlin who has found it. What follows is Leila's explanation of how she got each charm, so as to prove to Caitlin that she is the true owner of the bracelet. We are then transported back to when Leila and Jake first met when they were children. Leila's Mum has left the family home and she and her Dad are moving out now. Jake and his parents are moving into ...

  Description Vintage Crime  is a CWA anthology with a difference, celebrating members’ work over the years. The book will gather stories from the mid-1950s until the twenty-first century by great names of the past, great names of the present together with a few hidden treasures by less familiar writers. The first CWA anthology,  Butcher’s Dozen , appeared in 1956, and was co-edited by Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert, and Josephine Bell. The anthology has been edited by Martin Edwards since 1996, and has yielded many award-winning and nominated stories in the UK and overseas. This new edition includes an array of incredible and award-winning authors:  Robert Barnard, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, Mat Coward, John Dickson Carr, Marjorie Eccles, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Anthea Fraser, Celia Fremlin, Frances Fyfield, Michael Gilbert, Paula Gosling, Lesley Grant-Adamson, HRF Keating, Bill Knox, Peter Lovesey, Mick Herron, Michael Z. Lewin, Susan Moody, Julian Symons  an...

  Description You think your life is perfect. You think your secrets are safe. You think it’ll always be this way. But your life can change in a heartbeat. Brilliantly emotional, suspenseful and page-turning,  One Minute Later  is the stunning new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author, Susan Lewis. Susan Lewis – behind every secret lies a story. With a high-flying job, a beautiful apartment and friends whose lives are as happy as her own, Vivienne Shager is living the dream. Then, on the afternoon of Vivi’s twenty-seventh birthday, one catastrophic minute changes everything. Forced to move back to the small seaside town where she grew up, Vivi remembers the reasons she left. The secrets, lies and questions that now must be answered before it’s too late. But the answers lie in thirty years in the past… Shelley Raynor’s family home, Deerwood Farm, has always been a special place until darkness strikes at its heart. When Vivi’s and Shelley’s worlds begin to entwine,...

  So happy to be on the blog tour for this poetry book today. Synopsis: Unhinged: Putting the Pieces Back Together by Olena Rose showcases the unshakable strength and perseverance of the human spirit during times of romantic turmoil. Through emotionally-charged poetic storytelling, the reader is taken on a journey of healing and transformation that gains momentum page by page. By book’s end, one is instilled with an unwavering sense of self-empowerment and confidence to overcome any challenges of the heart. Review This is a book of poetry with four sections named as follows:- Unhinged - Putting the pieces back together Falling Holding On Letting Go It's beautifully typeset with so much wonderful white space so as to let the words really hang and sink in, with different fonts also occasionally used too.  You may not be a poetry reader, but this book is also I think a kind of self help book. It contains almost mantra like staves which struck a chord with me. Whilst you may not h...

  Description What do you do when your fake engagement starts to feel too real… Aspiring clothes designer Victoria Scott spends her days working in a bar in Chelsea, and her evenings designing vintage clothes, dreaming of one day opening her own boutique. But these aspirations are under threat from the new department store opening at the end of her road. She needs a Christmas miracle, but one is not forthcoming. Oliver Russell’s Christmas is not looking very festive right now. His family’s new London department store opening is behind schedule, and on top of that his interfering, if well meaning, mother is pressing him to introduce his girlfriend to her. A girlfriend who does not exist. He needs a diversion. Something to keep his mother from interfering while he focuses on the business. When Oliver meets Victoria, he offers a proposition: pretend to be his girlfriend at the opening of his store and he will provide an opportunity for Victoria to showcase her designs. But what starts...

I'm on the tour for this wonderful book today. Blurb Berlin 2014. The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, and the city is gearing up for a celebration of unity and liberation. But, beneath the surface, are those for whom the divisions and allegiances of the past remain close to home. In her hushed and leafy corner of Berlin, Nina’s life is a comfortable, conventional one – until her younger sister Marie, a free-spirited writer, is attacked and left for dead. For Nina, Marie’s brutal demise – and that of her unborn child – tips her own carefully controlled life into a nightmare. Stonewalled by official incompetence and subterfuge, Nina begins to realise that her sister’s past and the secrets of the once-divided city are connected in unimaginable ways. As she seeks out justice for Marie, Nina becomes caught in a tangle of obsessions, lies and hidden truths that threatens to destroy her marriage, her livelihood and all that she holds dear. Review The book begins with Nina and he...

  Description Best friends Annie and Sarah need cash—fast. Sarah, a beautiful, successful lawyer, wants nothing more than to have a baby. But balancing IVF treatments with a grueling eighty-hour workweek is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, Annie, a Harvard-grad chemist recently transplanted to Southern California, is cutting coupons to afford her young autistic son’s expensive therapy. Desperate, the two friends come up with a brilliant plan: they’ll combine Sarah’s looks and Annie’s brains to sell a “luxury” anti aging face cream to the wealthy, fading beauties in Annie’s La Jolla book club. The scheme seems innocent enough, until Annie decides to add a special—and oh-so-illegal—ingredient that could bring their whole operation crashing to the ground. Hilarious, intelligent, and warm,  Crimes Against a Book Club  is a delightful look at the lengths women will go to fend for their families and for one another. Review I wasn't too sure about this book to begin with as it be...

  Description Welcome, dear visitor, to a proud and storied nation. When you put down this guidebook, look around you. A nation isn't land. A nation is people. Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Matthew Baker's collection portray a world within touching distance of our own. This is an America riven by dilemmas confronting so many of us, turned on its head by one of the most innovative voices of the moment. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of our true nature and a dark reflection of the world we live in. Review This book of short stories won't suit everyone. Cleverly written with such imagination and creative writing, each one is a story set in a future America - although that future could be nearer rather than farther away from us in some of the stories. It's a little like Black Mirror. The writing style is unique with the descriptive nature of the prose coming in the main from very long paragraphs and sometim...

Description Eloise is an erratic, faded fashionista. Bradley is a glum but wily teenager. In need of help to write her racy 1960s memoirs, the former 'shock frock' fashion guru tolerates his common ways. Unable to remember his name, she calls him Boy. Desperate to escape a brutal home life, he puts up with her bossiness and confusing notes. Both guard secrets. How did she lose her fame and fortune? What is he scheming - beyond getting his hands on her bank card? And just what's hidden in that mysterious locked room? I'm so thrilled to be on the Blog Tour for this book today. Review I liked the description of this novel, but it was when I read the author's bio that I knew I wanted to read it. Reading that she has written comedy for some of the greats, I knew this was going to be a funny book and I wasn't let down. There are some classic lines and right at the beginning Eloise is describing her previous "help" who couldn't even say essential words, s...