BOOKSIMO

Description A stunning debut. Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life. Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine? Review I knew as soon as I began reading this book that I was going to enjoy it. Narrated by Eleanor the words just flew off the page as if I was listening to someone right there in the room telling them to me. I loved going on...

Description YOU SEE THE PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH EVERY DAY. BUT WHAT CAN'T YOU SEE? Amira, Sarah, Paula, Ewan and Charlie have worked together for years - they know how each one likes their coffee, whose love life is a mess, whose children keep them up at night. But their comfortable routine life is suddenly shattered when an aggressive new boss walks in .... Now, there's something chilling in the air. Who secretly hates everyone? Who is tortured by their past? Who is capable of murder? Review I began reading this book and all was as described in the jacket blurb. An office where a new boss arrives and everyone has to be on their toes. Then the book skipped to a character called Anne - a child psychologist who seemed to be in America. Whereas the office was in the UK.  I read on and then it happened again! This seemingly unrelated story that Anne was telling - it was like another book had got mixed up with the one I was reading. I checked the blurb agai...

Description COW [n.] /kaʊ/ A piece of meat; born to breed; past its sell-by-date; one of the herd. Women don’t have to fall into a stereotype. Tara, Cam and Stella are strangers living their own lives as best they can – though when society’s screaming you should live life one way, it can be hard to like what you see in the mirror. When an extraordinary event ties invisible bonds of friendship between them, one woman’s catastrophe becomes another’s inspiration, and a life lesson to all. Sometimes it’s ok not to follow the herd. The Cows is a powerful novel about three women – judging each other, but also themselves. In all the noise of modern life, they need to find their own voice. Review This book was a little different,  in that main characters didn't directly know one another, unlike most books of this type, where they are all friends. It took me a moment to realise that, but once I had each of them fixed in my mind it was easy to distinguish each character...

Description Meet the residents of number 24 in the warm, witty and wonderful new novel from bestselling author Juliet Ashton.   When your marriage falls apart, the last place you'd want your husband to move to is downstairs. Unfortunately for Sarah, up in the eaves at number 24, her ex-husband now lives one floor beneath her with his new wife. Their happiness floats up through the floorboards, taunting her. A child psychologist, Sarah has picked up great sadness from the little girl,  Una , who lives with her careworn mother three floors below, but is Sarah emotionally equipped to reach out? The Spring brings a new couple to the house.  Jane  and  Tom 's zest for life revives the flagging spirits, and Sarah can't deny the instant attraction to handsome Tom. Having seen at first hand what infidelity does to people, she'll never act on it ... but the air fizzes with potential. The sunshine doesn't reach every corner of number 24, how...

Description Would you risk everything for a second chance at first love? At forty-nine-going-on-fifty, Adam Sharp likes his life. He works part-time in IT consulting, is a leading member of his local pub-quiz and has a stable relationship with his partner, Claire. But there's something he can't shake: a longing for the life he might have had with smart, strong-willed actress Angelina Brown. Then, out of nowhere, Angelina walks back into his life. All the intensity of their affair twenty years ago resurfaces and Adam must make a decision. Should he let her go again? Or does he dare to live dangerously?  Review Maybe it's unfair to expect an author to produce another book like The Rose Project - but I was at least expecting some of the same style of writing. Unfortunately I was disappointed.  The book is told from the perspective of a 49 year old man - which I welcome as a lot of books these days don't cover this age group. Adam begins his story in the...

Description My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Review This is a debut novel for Alice Feeney - I have to say that I want to be on the waiting list for her next book right now! The terror of this novel had me from page one, as the thought of being in a coma where you can hear everyone speak, but no one know you are sentient is to me a living nightmare. That is exactly what is happening to Amber as we meet her in the hospital and the opening lines of  My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. I really should have paid more attention to number 3. The book is told from the perspective of Amber in the coma, flashbacks to just before she was in the coma and flashbacks to when she was a child. I found the whole book so enticing. Sometimes...

Description With her fortieth birthday approaching, Lucy Carpenter dares to hope that she finally has it all: a wonderful new husband, Jonah, a successful career and the chance of a precious baby of her own. Life couldn’t be more perfect. But the reality of becoming parents proves much harder than Lucy and Jonah imagined. Jonah’s love and support is unquestioning, but as Lucy struggles with work and her own failing dreams, the strain on their marriage increases. Suddenly it feels like Lucy is close to losing everything… Heart-wrenching and poignant, this latest work by bestselling author Amanda Prowse asks the question: what does it mean to be a mother in today’s hectic world? And what if it’s asking too much to want it all? Review This is the first Amanda Prowse book I have read, and I find that it is her 16th novel, so I have a lot of catching up to do as I absolutely loved her style of writing. The book flowed beautifully and I couldn't wait to reconnect with i...