The Lucky Dress - Aimee Brown

Description

We all have our lucky dress... an irresistibly hilarious rom-com!

Emi Harrison hasn't been feeling particularly lucky lately. Ever since her ex-fiancée, Jack Cabot, successfully shattered her heart into a million pieces. She's managed to avoid him for a whole year, but all that's about to change at her brother Evan's wedding...

She will have to face Jack, Jack's sister, Jack's parents, and Jack's new girlfriend: a mean girl that just won't quit. What could possibly go wrong?

With her lucky dress on, all bets are off, and maybe Emi will find her happily-ever-after at last?

Review

I've actually read and reviewed this book before - except Aimee got a new publisher and rewrote the book and so it's not technically the same book at all. I never read books twice - I mean why would you when there are so many books to read. However, something about the previous version of the book "The Little Gray Dress" hooked me so much that I just had to see how Aimee changed it.

Now don't get me wrong - I loved it the first time, but this time around as The Lucky Dress it is even better. Emi and Jack have only been apart from one another a year instead of two this time around. Although the "lovely"! (not) piece of work that is Greta is still hanging onto Jack's arm as his new girlfriend, this time around I felt more confident that she could be thrown off - but I will leave you to read and find out if that gets to happen.

The star of the book has to be Jack's Mother Amelia - do Mother-in-laws like this actually exist? - I wish this one did, what a true lady. I found myself waiting with glee for her lines.

I found it interesting to see how Aimee switched around some of the story a little but if it is the first time reading for you - you are in for a real treat. Such a good story with a romantic but down to earth feel - so glad I read it twice!

Five out of five stars to Aimee not only for a fab read but also the tenacity to rewrite - I'm not sure I would have had the tenacity - I hated rewriting and editing essays only a few thousands words long.

My thanks to Netgalley and Aria Publishing for an ARC of the book for review.

Also - Emi's friend Liam is going to get his own story due out next year! Can't wait.

How to Stop Time - Matt Haig

Description

HOW MANY LIFETIMES DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE?

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen it all. As long as he keeps changing his identity he can keep one step ahead of his past - and stay alive. The only thing he must not do is fall in love . . .

Review

If you've read my reviews before you will know I love time travel books. Now whilst this isn't strictly time travel, it's someone who has lived for a very long time, so it still felt a little like time travel and I loved it.

I also love social history and this book has it in oodles, as Tom recounts some of his life from years past and then in the present day he points out how things in London have changed since Tudor times. I've read before accounts of the witch hunts and the dunking stool, but this brought it to all too real life for me. Especially when Tom gets tracked down across the sea.

The book flip flops back and forth from present day Tom the history teacher to his life over the many centuries. At times the concept reminded me of the book One Hundred Years of Solitude. In many ways it is a book of one man just retelling his day to day life, if you can count meeting Shakespeare and Charlie Chaplin as normal.

There is also a little romance, a cute dog and a secret organisation - really this book has it all and I was enthralled by it. I really got into the book and and no point questioned how crazy it all was, I just went with it and enjoyed the ride. I loved it so much I read it in one day. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. Thanks to the library for lending me a copy!

No Further Questions - Gillian McAllister

Description

The police say she's guilty.

She insists she's innocent.

She's your sister.

You loved her.

You trusted her.

But they say she killed your child.

Who do you believe?

Review

I was a little torn when I began this book as I hadn't realised the child that had been killed was a baby. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it - but I have read her two previous books and really wanted to see what this book was like. 

Most of the book is a court room scene and I'm not sure if that is why it took me a while to get into it. It also seemed to be an open and shut case and I found it hard to get interested for the first few chapters. Mainly because it was such an emotive read. Two sisters on opposing sides and a dead baby.

As the witnesses were introduced the author also gave a little back story as to how they had seen the evidence from their point of view. This really was great observational writing and gave life to each of the characters, even though some of them only had a few pages in the book. 

Slowly as more and more of the back story was revealed I began to think I knew what had happened, or did I? This was really when the book hooked me in and I had to know, but would we ever know - was the dilemma in my head. Keen to get to the end I took the book onto public transport and that was a bit of a mistake. I managed to hold it together, but some of the writing really got to me and I was holding back a few tears. 

It's a book that in places was not an easy read. That doesn't detract from the author's talent in conveying so many emotions within the pages, whilst taking the reader into a court room they would rather not be in.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

Description

Keiko has never really fitted in. At school and university people find her odd and her family worries she'll never be normal. To appease them, Keiko takes a job at a newly opened convenience store. Here, she finds peace and purpose in the simple, daily tasks and routine interactions. She is, she comes to understand, happiest as a convenience store worker. But in Keiko's social circle it just won't do for an unmarried woman to spend all her time stacking shelves and re-ordering green tea. As pressure mounts on Keiko to find either a new job, or worse, a husband, she is forced to take desperate action...

A best-seller in Japan, and the winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, Convenience Store Woman marks the English-language debut of a writer who has been hailed as the most exciting voice of her generation

Review

Having visited Japan I am working my way through books by Japanese authors. As soon as I read the words "Irasshaimase!" I was instantly transported back to Japan. This is the greeting that you hear on entering any store - it means "welcome to the store". For foreigners it is easy to want to shout it back, thinking it means hello.

Some of the things in the book may seem strange to you if you have never been to Japan. Such as the attentiveness of those working in convenience or Konbini stores and the fact that the staff bow to you. The book is only 176 pages long so I easily read it in a couple of hours. Don't be put off by the shortness of the book - this is no usual short story. The author has packed so much meaning and nuance into the words that it feels like you've read a full length novel.

The book is set around Keiko - she is what we might think of in the West as on the autistic spectrum. She has never married and to those in Japanese society she is "not normal". Keiko is happy to continue in this world of hers, existing only to serve in the convenience store she has worked in for 18 years. She has stock answers to probing personal questions so that people will leave her alone. Unfortunately the answers are beginning to fail - she needs to find another way for people to let her be. She is perfectly happy - but it seems they are not - why does she not conform!

Beautifully written and a little quirky this is a book that will stay with me. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley and Granta Books for a copy of the book for review.

How Hard Can It Be? - Allison Pearon

Description

Kate Reddy is back! The follow-up to the international bestseller I Don’t Know How She Does It, the novel that defined modern life for women everywhere. This time she’s juggling teenagers, ageing parents and getting back into the workplace, and every page will have you laughing and thinking: It’s not just me.

Mail on Sunday’s Books of the Year

Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way. Fifty, in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility. And with hormones that have her in shackles, teenage children who need her there but won’t talk to her and ailing parents who aren’t coping, Kate is in the middle of a sandwich that she isn’t even allowed to eat because of the calories.

She’s back at work after a big break at home, because somebody has to bring home the bacon now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace, her old client and flame Jack reappears – complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

This is a coming of age story for turning fifty. It’s about so much more than a balancing act; it’s about finding out who you are and what you need to feel alive when you’ve got used to being your own last priority. And every page will leave you feeling that there’s a bit of Kate Reddy in all of us.

Review

I haven't read the novel that comes before this one, but I found this book stood on its own and their was no need to know any previous back story.

Kate the main character narrates the book and it is so funny - however, for me it was just a little too full on. Imagine being in someones head and hearing their every though at break neck speed. Don't get me wrong - it's laugh out loud funny and brilliantly observed writing, I just couldn't take too much of it at once. It's a little like going to see a stand up comedian - they are so funny you ache with laughter, but after an hour or so you really could do with a break. It's not them - it's you!

The story itself centres around Kate and her return to work after 7 years aged 49 and fast approaching 50. Except she can't admit to that age as she's found it puts her out of the job market. So instead she becomes 42 with hilarious inner turmoil, such as remembering her children must be younger than they are, who was in the charts when she was young and so on.

The parts of the book set in the office were brilliantly written and for me true to life in so many respects.Aalthough disheartening to read at times with the role of women still harder to earn in business than that of men. 

Just in case you think it sounds like Kate has no fun - she actually has a few great scenes where she gets even (I was cheering in one of them) and has time for a little romance too. That's when she's not deciphering what her teenage children are up to and trying to understand the world of #belfies! Also she has Roy - the librarian of her mind. Can he recall that name, place, event before she embarrasses herself even more?

I think you need to be of "an age" to enjoy this book. If you are, there are so many things you will totally relate to - perhaps a little bit too close to home for comfort sometimes.

I'm giving this book four out of five stars. My thanks go to Netgalley for a copy of the book for review.

Ivy and Abe - Elizabeth Enfield

Description

Ivy is always destined to meet Abe.

But when is the RIGHT time?

At school, as a free spirit in her twenties or when she is married . . . to someone else?

Perhaps they meet when she is a widow in her sixties? Or maybe he remains a stranger, glimpsed only fleetingly.

Ivy and Abe are soulmates. But what if they meet at the WRONG time, and fate and circumstance stand in Ivy's way?

Told over Ivy's lifetime, across a series of alternate realities, Ivy & Abe is a story for anyone who has ever wondered 'what if?'

Review

I was really looking forward to reading this book but unfortunately felt a little disappointed. It's a great concept and could have been a really good story line. Unlike "Sliding Doors" each time Ivy and Abe meet it is in a different year - things in their lives are at a different point, sometimes one of them is married, sometimes one of them or both of them are widowed. 

I'm not sure how many times the story gets told of Ivy and Abe, but I began to get bored. I started to get the stories mixed up - what was it they were doing in this one? I didn't care much for either character and so found it hard to buy into the book. In fact I liked the first story the most and maybe after that I just felt the other ones didn't matter to me.

If you can manage to read it one go then maybe you would enjoy it more and not get so mixed up as I did!

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

The Map of Us - Jules Preston

Description

A story of love, line graphs and lost directions

Violet North is wonderfully inconvenient. Abandoned by her family and lost in an imagined world of moors and adventure, her life changes in the space of just 37 words exchanged with a stranger at her front door.

Decades later, Daniel Bearing has inherited his father's multi-million pound business, and is utterly lost. He has no idea who he is or where his life is headed.

When Violet’s granddaughter’s marriage falls apart, Tilly, always adept with numbers, compiles a detailed statistical report to pinpoint why. But the Compatibility Index Tilly creates has unforeseen consequences for everyone in her world.

Tilly and Daniel share a secret too. 10.37am, April 22nd.
Soon, a complex web of secrets and lies is exposed and an adventure begins with a blue typewriter…

Review

It was probably the mention of and a picture of a typewriter that drew me to this book - but I am so glad it did. Such a quirky and unexpected gem of a read which I enjoyed immensely. I feel the world would be missing something without this book!

I read the whole thing in one day. There aren't chapters as such and some are only a page long. So when you tell yourself - one more chapter......... I just could not put it down, it made me laugh out loud and also in places a tiny bit sad, but not for long.

Violet is unable to travel anywhere, even outside her own house so she begins  to write imaginary travel books. Only problem is the typewriter she has borrowed -  the "e" sticks, so she avoids words like nose, eyes, and kissed. But still she writes.

Years later Violet's granddaughter Tilly writes a detailed statistical report on her failed marriage. Her mother sends her letters about the latest washing machine, there have been over 70 of them as her father is a sand sculpturer and as you can imagine it plays havoc with the machines. Tilly's brother Jack is the world authority on the colour blue.

This may sound pretty random - and it is but in a really, really good way.  So many of the office scenes with Tilly's co-workers rang true with me. "She was the bridesmaid at Trish's wedding, so it was moved." Just one line, but it says so much. Such fantastic eloquent writing that makes the words just float past you in a way you don't want to end. I can't wait to read more from Jules Preston.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book which is out on 12 July.