This Immaculate Body - Emma Van Straaten

Description

'From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys. Obsessive, delusional, disastrous - but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. An impeccable debut from a rising talent' ALICE SLATER

'An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire. Baby Reindeer meets Convenience Store Woman' KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Now She Is Witch

Alice has been cleaning Tom's flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. . .

This Immaculate Body is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, the line between fantasy and reality become ever more blurred, putting everything she has dreamed of at risk.

'One of the best books I've read in a long time. It was addictive, unsettling, and propulsive, I was hooked after the first page' CHLOE MICHELLE HOWARTH, author of Sunburn

'Stirring to its very core, This Immaculate Body enthrals beyond measure. It bleeds, burns and beguiles, and asks you, dear reader, to give in to obsession. Truly, a religious experience' LUCY ROSE, author of Of the Flesh

Review

Some people will love this book, probably fans of Baby Reindeer.

Alice cleans Tom's flat. She's never met him, but she is in love with him, obsessed with him.

The writing style took some getting used to for me. The words referring to Tom as "Him", "His" and "He" are all capitalized and my eye kept thinking it was the beginning of a new sentence. Once I had trained myself to be able to recognise it I was ok reading on. It's a story told from the viewpoint of Alice and is basically her inner thoughts for much of the book.

I wasn't too keen on the story, but that is down to me rather than the writing. It's a cleverly written book and it did keep me reading until the end. a very dark book and  little bit like car crash tv, I wasn't keen but had to know what would happen. The writing is very descriptive and did make me squirm a few times. There was a poignant moment that I loved and was so pleased for Alice. I was willing that she would mend her ways, but her mental health issues won out.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars because the writing deserves it. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. The book is published on 6 February 2025.

Let's Call Her Barbie - Renée Rosen

 

Description

“A fresh and fun take on Barbie lore…clever and satisfying.” – Shelby Van Pelt, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures


She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.

When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.

In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.

As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.

In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.

Review

I never knew there was so much history to Barbie.

A novel written based on facts with some fiction to bind it together makes for a great read. I especially loved the parts when they first began to design Barbie and the details to ensure her clothes worked. To take the coldness from what would have been just facts we get the backstory of each of the characters and their life outside of Mattel.

By the author's own admission at the end of the book, it says she had to cut it by 100 pages because it was too long. In my opinion, it is still too long. It flagged at times and I felt we were being taken over old ground. Sometimes reading was like working those long shifts in chapters as the employees toiled away.

I also had my eyes opened to some of the goings on in the toy industry and what happened at Mattel. I looked up some of it as I wasn't sure by this point what was fact and what was fiction. In the main the characters are real. With Barbara Handler and her family and the designer Jack Ryan the main real life people. A character which was invented was Stevie, who was a designer of clothes for Barbie in the book. 

The book was apparently in the making before the movie. There are a couple of references to things in the movie that went over my head at the time, and now I understand them. I never got a Barbie and I kind of understand why now!

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. This book will be published 21 January 2025.

The Cream Tea Killer - Judy Leigh

 

Description

Preorder the BRAND NEW instalment in the Morwenna Mutton Mystery series from USA Today bestseller Judy Leigh perfect for all fans of Richard Osman.

Morwenna Mutton should be living the quiet life of a librarian and grandmother in Cornwall’s beautiful Seal Bay – if only dead bodies would stop turning up…

After the excitement of her last investigation, amateur sleuth Morwenna is looking forward to things getting back to normal. When local DJ Irina asks to meet however, desperate to share information she has discovered regarding nefarious goings-on, Morwenna can’t resist.

But Irina never arrives for their drink – instead her body is washed up on the beach, an apparent victim of an accidental drowning. At once keen wild bather Morwenna knows something is amiss as Irina was a strong swimmer who knew the local conditions well. What had Irina uncovered and who would want her dead?

When the local news dubs Irina’s murderer The Cream Tea Killer in honour of Cornwall’s famous delicacy, the clock starts ticking. Now the murderer knows Morwenna is on their trail, no one in her family is safe. She must get to the truth before the killer gets to her…

Review

I decided to review this book based on the other books by the author I had read and enjoyed. I didn't realise that this was a cosy mystery or that it is book #3 in a series.

I started off reading on the back foot, as it felt like there was something I should have known before I began. It wasn't until a few pages in that reference to the earlier mysteries was made. I read on and really it didn't make any difference to me. Other than I had no back story in my mind.

It was nice to read a mystery where the main character (Morwenna) is a mature lady and I think that works to her advantage in the investigations she undertakes. In this case a DJ she is friendly with, asks her to meet up later to discuss some goings on she thinks could be explosive if uncovered. The DJ never makes the meeting as her body is found washed up on the beach despite her being a very strong and experienced swimmer.

Morwenna is a librarian and also helps run her daughter's tea shop so she is a very busy lady. However, she still finds time to meddle in police investigations and do some investigating of her own. The police do their best to discourage her maverick detection but to no avail.

I enjoyed the book and the characters. It was a nice cosy read and going along at a nice pace until the last third of the book. Then it became very fast  with action and not at all cosy really, but a page turner for me. 

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.
This book will be published on 4 January 2025.

My year on Goodreads

 

and why I haven't reviewed as many books this year

The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers - Samuel Burr

 

Description

An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us

Clayton Stumper might be twenty-six years old, but he dresses like your grandpa and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. As Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve—and it's a secret that has the potential to change everything.

Review

I researched this book before buying it in case it was going to be too hard to solve the puzzles. I got my copy on kindle and looked the preview pages. It seemed that you didn't need to be able to solve the puzzles to read the story, so I made my purchase.

I do love puzzles and at first I actually learnt a couple of things, so that was cool. The story was really rather charming to begin with but then I felt it began to be very drawn out. The dialogue also became cutesy and I found I wasn't rushing to pick it back up to read.

Set over two timelines that didn't work for me. I think it would have been better written in two parts. Some very nice characters and nothing too awful happens, so it's a cosy read.

Well I made it to the end of the book and have to say overall I was a little bit disappointed with the story. I think that the book was probably a little bit overhyped. So if you are really a puzzler maybe give it a miss.

I'm giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

Eat Slay Love - Julie Mae Cohen

 

Description

A friend will help you move on. A best friend will help you move his body.

Opal, Marina and Lilah are three strangers and have nothing in common. Well, except for the man who's been lying to all of them. And who they are now holding hostage in a basement.

From the author of Bad Men, Eat, Slay, Love is a book about making friends, finding joy, and discovering the woman you really are . . . though, sometimes, becoming your best self involves committing abduction and murder.

Review

This is the second book by the author I have read and this time rather than a professional killer it has an unimagined killer. 

Three woman are all involved with the same man, unbeknown to two of them. When the third one reaches out to alert the other two, they get together with a plan in mind to teach him a lesson. In teaching him a lesson they also form a sisterhood, and end up teaching each other a few life lessons too.

With some dark humour it also covers some serious topics including violence against women and coercion. It doesn't take itself too seriously though, and at times this led to the characters being perhaps too one dimensional for me.

At first I thought this read was going to be a little slapstick for my liking. But combined with a librarian and a down to earth Mother the book began well for me. It took me a minute to get who was who straight in my head, but once I did it was straightforward to read from the different points of view.

I went through a phase with the story where I wondered wasn't this all mapped out with not much left to discover. Then the story took a different turn and I couldn't put it down. Best of all though, OMG - the ending! No spoilers here!

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. The book is published on 24 October 2024.

The Blue Hour - Paula Hawkins

 

Description

AS FEATURED ON BBC RADIO 4 FRONT ROW

‘Utterly compelling. Could not put it down.’ LIZ NUGENT

‘Really, really, REALLY good. Highly recommended!’ MARIAN KEYES

'I LOVED this art-world-set thriller with its stately-home Saltburn vibe.' DAILY MAIL

THE CHILLING AND ADDICTIVE NEW THRILLER FROM THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR.

**************
WELCOME TO ERIS - A SCOTTISH TIDAL ISLAND WITH ONLY ONE HOUSE, ONE INHABITANT,
ONE WAY OUT. . .

A place that is unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. Once the hideaway of Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace. A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, Grace receives an unexpected visitor.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . . .

Review

Is this another "The Girl on the Train"?- no. Is it a fabulous read in it's own right - yes!

Just before I started the book I saw a comment that this was nothing like TGOTT, and I worried that I had set myself up with a DNF. Someone living on an island all alone, cut off from the world, how exciting can this be? I thought. A shocking discovery - will it be that shocking?

Becker has a job to do. He needs to visit the island and understand why Grace isn't playing ball with the wishes in the will of the late artist Vanessa. Becker has a complicated life, but his love of the artist and his dream job makes him want to visit the island, and meet Grace himself.

I loved the writing from the first page, it's very different and whilst descriptive, I felt every word deserved to be read. I was so taken by the portrayal of the artist that I began to think she actually existed, especially when her letters and diary entries were included. Also very vivid were the descriptions of her art and I longed to be able to actually see them in person. All this just a backdrop to what is really happening. So much planning has gone into the plot and the resultant story telling.

It's certainly a slow burner.  It's a well thought out and meandering ride until it reaches the fast paced ending. For the trip you are taken on I felt was worth the scenic route.

It's been a while since I have really wanted to keep reading a book, couldn't wait to get back to it. For that reason this deserves 5 stars from me.  My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.