Violeta - Isabel Allende

 

Description

One extraordinary woman.
One hundred years of history.
One unforgettable story.

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

In a letter to someone she loves above all others, Violeta recounts devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy, and a life shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics. Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humour will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

Review

Such an interesting story spanning 100 years.

The book is written as a fictional autobiography of Violeta. She is telling the story of her life to someone; who at first, we do not know who this person is. The writing as always is so very beautiful by this author.

I was mesmerised by the story which begins with the Spanish flu epidemic. It was certainly educational as well as a good story. That is until the politics began and I lost some interest for a while. Fortunately the characters who come in and out of Violeta's life are interesting and I read on wanting to know what became of them.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

The Station Road Sewing Circle - Lou Lewis

 

Description

Nosey Neighbours, Vigilantes or Community Assets? Read these charming tales and you decide!
Thirteen stalwart and like-minded women meet weekly as a Sewing Circle to publicly portray their dedication to knitting, needlework and all things stitched. Nothing, could be further from the truth.
Bessie the Law learns that there has been a serious outbreak of litter all over Pembroke town. She calls upon the Sewing Circle members to quickly expose the young culprits. How deep will they have to dig to find the real criminal who aims to make money out the town’s discarded rubbish?
A member of a respected family in the town is accused of poisoning her sister. Bron the Books steps out of the library and engages the Sewing Circle to prove her friend’s innocence. Will they need to take a closer look at the so-called treasured family pets to uncover the real poisoner?
Megan the Signals alerts the Sewing Circle to an auction fraud involving her grandmother’s antique chairs. They arrive too late to save the family keepsakes. Will a pair of fake heirlooms and a crockery crashing intervention be enough to spring their trap on the unscrupulous dealer?
How can the Station Road Sewing Circle possibly solve these mysteries without revealing their identity?

Review

A wonderful collection of charming and intriguing short stories.

Set in Wales these stories are a flashback to a more gentler and easier time, when life was simpler. When all it took for minor wrong doings to be sorted out was a word in the ear by the local Policeman. This is where Bessie the Law comes in as her husband is a Policeman. Each of the women in the circle have a  moniker determined by their husbands profession. Not very PC these days - but this is the 1950s.

Each tale was a joy to read. One in particular concerning antiques reminded me of the TV series Lovejoy - if anyone can remember that! The tales are like little puzzle to solve or let the ladies of the circle do it for you.

Although the circle is more of a cover for the ladies to meet and protect their town, there are sewing references!

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Pigeonhole for the staves to read this book. 

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes - Kate Strasdin

 

Description

The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook.

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages.

Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry.

This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

Review

I loved the beginning of this book and the story of how the dress book came into the author's possession. It was certainly fortuitous, as the author was obviously the right person to own the book and share it with us all. 

I found out a few things that I previously had no idea about. Such as the ban on cotton imports when the trade in England was suffering. The book is littered with not just the story of the dress diary but research by the author of the textile trade and fashion throughout this period.

The book I found to be one that is to be dipped in and out of, although in sequential chapter order to fully appreciate the timeline of events. 

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for this ARC to review. 

Must Love Books - Shauna Robinson

 

Description

‘A heartfelt and exciting debut . . . a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself’

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Meet Nora Hughes – the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.

When Nora landed an editorial assistant role at Parsons Press she thought it would be The Dream Job. But after five years of admin and taking lunch orders, Nora has come to the conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.

With her life spiralling and unable to afford her rent, Nora does the only thing she can think of and starts freelancing for a rival publisher.

But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling author (who also happens to be quite attractive), is thrown into Nora’s life, she must decide where her loyalties lie, and whether she’s ready to choose herself and her future over her job…

Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness and the ups and downs of being a young woman trying to figure it all out.

Review

I've really enjoyed being a part of the #MustLoveBooksReadalong with @onemorechapter this week, thanks for the invite.

This is not your usual romcom read. It's so very down to earth - in the main - and has some very real and relatable characters, especially in the office.

We join Nora recruiting a new member of staff. This gets her thinking about her own journey into publishing, and the not so rapid ascent within it. She's been at the publishing house for 5 years and is still taking lunch orders while all around her people are being laid off and she's lumbered with some of their work. She has an idea to get her ahead and stay afloat by working for two publishers at the same time. This had the makings of a disaster written all over it and I could hardly bare to read, waiting for a car crash. Actually it worked pretty well until it didn't! Can't say more on that one.

With witty repartee between Nora and one of the authors and some great friends (if only she realised) the book bounces along nicely in between the fractious thoughts of how Nora is going to get promoted, find her life purpose and pay the rent.

Nora has a lot going on in her head and part of that is a reoccurring thought that she might not need to live anymore. I was really willing Nora to hang on in and find someone who she could really connect to and help her through all her issues. The ending wasn't one I was expecting, but it's maybe the right one considering how complicated Nora and her life choices are.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley and onemorechapter for the ARC to review.

Mrs P's Book of Secrets - Lorna Gray

 

Description

Mrs P’s Book of Secrets will be published in the US as The Book Ghost.

The Cotswolds, Christmastime 1946: A young widow leaves behind the tragedy of her wartime life, and returns home to her ageing aunt and uncle. For Lucy – known as Mrs P – and the people who raised her, the books that line the walls of the family publishing business bring comfort and the promise of new beginnings.

But the kind and reserved new editor at the Kershaw and Kathay Book Press is a former prisoner of war, and he has his own shadows to bear. And when the old secrets of a little girl’s abandonment are uncovered within the pages of Robert Underhills’s latest project, Lucy must work quickly if she is to understand the truth behind his frequent trips away.

For a ghost dwells in the record of an orphan girl’s last days. And even as Lucy dares to risk her heart, the grief of her own past seems to be whispering a warning of fresh loss…

There are no white shrouded spectres here, no wailing ghouls. Just the echoes of those who have passed, whispering that history is set to repeat itself.

Review

Set in 1946 this novel reads as if the characters just left the film Brief Encounter. You need to be prepared to read a very stylised form of writing.  

Lucy is a widow at 26 and has left Bristol to work and live above the printers her Uncle owns. She has publishing experience but does not get to use it, as a newcomer is the editor and she types, does the books and makes tea.

A lot of the book is taken with the inner thoughts of the main character Lucy - Mrs P. She also describes the inner thoughts of other characters which I found a little over the top. Although she does have some sort of sixth sense, so maybe she did know what everyone else was thinking.

There were glimpses of an intriguing plot and I did finish to find out how it all ended.  Reading more like a gothic novel to me than one set post war I found it very hard going. Veiled romantic interactions and yet then an outright relationship between two unmarried people in a small village in this time felt unrealistic.

It wasn't really for me. I never became invested in the characters and Lucy herself was so dramatic and I thought belonged in a Wilkie Collins story.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

The Open House - Sam Carrington

 

Description

Everyone’s welcome. But not everyone leaves…

Nick and Amber Miller are splitting up and selling their Devon home. But despite the desirable location, the house isn’t moving. Not a single viewing so far.

When their estate agent suggests an open house event, Amber agrees, even as she worries about their gossiping neighbours attending and snooping around their home.
 
But Amber has more to worry about than nosy neighbours. Because thirteen people enter her house that afternoon, and only twelve leave.
 
Someone doesn't want the house to sell, and is willing to do anything to stop it…

Review

Wow - this is a page turner.

This book begins with Amber having split from her husband and now selling what was his family home. An interfering Mother In Law who doesn't want her to move and take the grandchildren with her or sell her old family home. Pretty pedestrian stuff until the house isn't selling and the estate agent encourages Amber to hold an open house.

Soon after the open house things begin to happen that can't be explained. Amber was watching the open house through her ringapp door bell and saw 13 people enter and only 12 leave, except no one is left in the house. Scary stuff.

There's a few threads running through this story. For once I did try and work out what was happening in a break from reading, it was really in my mind.  I only figured out a tiny bit and then I found myself saying out loud - "what is going on here"? I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to get to the end. 

Believable characters and so many plot lines you end up suspecting everyone of everything.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

What July Knew - Emily Koch

 

Description

Summer, 1995.

July Hooper knows eighteen things about her mother.

Like number thirteen: she loved dancing on the kitchen table. And number eight: she was covered in freckles.

And then there's number two: she died after being hit by a car when July was small.

She keeps this list hidden in a drawer away from her father. Because they're not allowed to talk about her mother. Ever.

But an anonymous note slipped into July's bag on her tenth birthday is about to change everything she thinks she knows about her mum.

Determined to discover what really happened to her, July begins to investigate, cycling around the neighbourhood where her family used to live. There she meets someone who might finally have the answers.

July wants her family to stop lying to her, but will the truth be harder to face?

Review

I absolutely loved this book.This book is not like anything else I have read before, and these days that's getting rarer for me.

Set in the summer of 1995 we follow July, whose turning 10 years old. She knows 18 things about her dead mother and she is desperate to know more. She has a step sister and step mother who have an on off relationship with her emotions and a Father who doesn't want to talk about his dead wife. She craves affection from her Father, but it's given out in very small doses.

Covering domestic violence this book deals with the issues in such a way that it isn't a terrifying read, but the danger is obviously present. July becomes a bit of a detective which is enabled when she receives a bike for her tenth birthday. Now she can go further afield to find out more about her earlier life and her Mother. Unfortunately that knowledge brings her into more danger.

I raced through this book, especially when it was getting nearer to finding out what had happened in the past. There was a bit of a twist which I didn't immediately understand. At first I found this additional information irritating, but as more was revealed it all became clear.

A brilliant read with down to earth everyday characters. July's voice is amazing and so well written, you can't help but fall in love with her. The story is evenly paced throughout the book and flows with beautifully descriptive writing.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. What July Knew is published on 9 February 2023. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.