BOOKSIMO

Description An Amazon Charts and  Wall Street Journal  bestseller. From the bestselling author of  Everything We Keep  comes the highly anticipated sequel. Told from one man’s two perspectives,  Everything We Left Behind  effortlessly blends suspense, mystery, and romance in an exploration of loss, resilience, and the compelling need to protect the ones we love at all cost. Two months before his wedding, financial executive James Donato chased his trade-laundering brother Phil to Mexico, only to be lost at sea and presumed dead. Six and a half years later, he emerges from a dissociative fugue state to find he’s been living in Oaxaca as artist Carlos Dominguez, widower and father of two sons, with his sister-in-law Natalya Hayes, a retired professional surfer, helping to keep his life afloat. But his fiancée, Aimee Tierney, the love of his life, has moved on. She’s married and has a child of her own. Devastated, James and his sons return to Calif...

Description I AM, I AM, I AM is a memoir with a difference - the unputdownable story of an extraordinary woman's life in near-death experiences. Insightful, inspirational, gorgeously written, it is a book to be read at a sitting, a story you finish  newly conscious of life's fragility, determined to make every heartbeat count. A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie O'Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose? Review I decided to get the audio version of this book, as I have so many books to read already. I'm so glad I did, as the lady reading the book has the most lov...

Description Japan, 1957 . Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage secures her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community. However, Naoko has fallen for an American sailor and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations.  America, present day . Tori Kovač, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation. Setting out to learn the truth, Tori’s journey leads her to a remote seaside village in Japan where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption.  Inspired by true stories,  The Woman in the White Kimono  illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home. I'm so pleased to be a part...

Description Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life-changing begins. Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can't. Review I've been avoiding this book as I decided it was over hyped,  but when I went in the library there it sat and it looked like a quick read so I decided to go for it. I also heard that it's being adapted for the TV so I thought it would be good. I was wrong! I didn't really care for this book at all. The beginning was ok, but after that it felt like it just kept repeating itself, or rather the characters did. The same relationship on and off and the same pitfal...

Description A luminous debut with unexpected twists, Everything We Keep explores the devastation of loss, the euphoria of finding love again, and the pulse-racing repercussions of discovering the truth about the ones we hold dear and the lengths they will go to protect us. Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents’ restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James’s funeral—a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace. As Aimee struggles to reconstruct her life, she delves deeper into James’s disappearance. What she uncovers is an ocean of secrets that make her question everything about the life they built together. And just below the surface is a truth that may set Aimee free…or shatter her forever. Review I...

Description THE ONLY THING MORE SHOCKING THAN THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . IS THE LAST. Everything changed the night Flora disappeared. Heather and Jess were best friends -  until the night Heather's sister vanished. Jess has never forgiven herself for the lie she told that night.  Nor has Heather. But now Heather is accused of an awful crime. And Jess is forced to return to the sleepy seaside town where they grew up, to ask the question she's avoided for so long: What really happened the night Flora disappeared? 'Amazing. A twisty whydunnit that I finished in just two days. Smart, gripping and atmospheric, readers will love  Then She Vanishes' Gillian McAllister , bestselling author of  Everything But The Truth Review It's not often I agree with book blurb  - but this was spot on! THE ONLY THING MORE SHOCKING THAN THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . IS THE LAST. . .  The book begins with a quite shocking scene that involves Heather. We then...

Description When John Cadbury came to Birmingham in 1824, he sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate in a small shop on Bull Street. Drinking chocolate was considered a healthy alternative to alcohol, something Cadbury, a Quaker, was keen to encourage. In 1879, the Cadburys moved to Bournville and created their ‘factory in a garden’ – an unprecedented move. It is now ironic that today’s Bournville is surrounded by that urban sprawl the Cadburys were so keen to get away from. This book looks at some of the social impact this company has had since its inception, both on the chocolate and cocoa business in general and on the community at large, both within and without the firm of Cadbury. In 2024, Cadbury's will be celebrating 200 years of the first store opening. This is the story of how the company began, how it grew, and how they diversified in order to survive. Review This book charts the history of Cadbury from it's beginnings to the present day - although rat...