BOOKSIMO

  Description Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave. Matthew:  the perfect husband. Titus:  the perfect son. Charlie:  the perfect illusion. Rachel:  the perfect stranger. Charlie didn’t want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn’t listen. And that’s how Charlie finds himself slumped beside his husband’s body, their son sitting silently at the dinner table, while Rachel calls 999, the bloody knife still gripped in her hand. Review Who knew belonging to a book club could end in a murder? This book begins with the end - in that we know from the outset that Matthew is dead at the dinner table. What we don't know, although we might think we do, is who did it? and what led to this murder? Be prepared for some unsavoury spoilt privileged characters, who quite frankly I couldn't care less about more and more as the book progressed. What I did like was the impressive almost secret service Father - he's someone you need to know and have...

Description Two best friends .   One missed chance .   And a night that changes everything . Eve, Justin, Susie and Ed have been friends since they were eighteen. Now in their 30s, the four are still as close as ever, Thursday pub quiz night is still sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe Eve should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed sometimes thinks about it too. Then one night, in an instant, all their lives change forever. And, as Eve learns she didn’t know her friends as well as she thought, she also discovers she isn’t the only person keeping secrets… Review I've read all of Mhairi's books and loved them, this one is no exception.  I realise I've been reading Mhairi's books since the first one in 2012 - so it should come as no surprise that her writing style has evolved. It's still Mhairi that's for sure. Unable to pin her into a neat genre, she has one all of her own. Not really ...

  Description Dot Watson has lost her way. Twelve years ago her life veered off course, and the guilt over what happened still haunts her. Before then she was living in Paris, forging an exciting career; now her time is spent visiting her mother's care home, fielding interfering calls from her sister and working at the London Transport Lost Property office, diligently cataloguing items as misplaced as herself. But when elderly Mr Appleby arrives in search of his late wife's purse, his grief stirs something in Dot. Determined to help, she sets off on a mission - one that could start to heal Dot's own loss and let her find where she belongs once more... Review Strong trigger warning - scenes of attempted suicide, suicide, dementia, sexual assault This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. Whilst a lovely read in places, it is also very, very dark in a lot of others. I listened to the audio version of this book. Dot works in lost property at TFL and is, shall we say, a l...

  Description A wise, bighearted, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family from the celebrated author of  Standard Deviation . Jane easily falls in love with Duncan: he's charming, good-natured, and handsome. He has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan's old girlfriends everywhere – at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away. While she may be able to come to terms with dating the world's most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she didn't have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, still has Duncan mow her lawn. And his coworker Jimmy comes and goes from Duncan's apartment at the most inopportune times. Jane wonders how the relationship is supposed to work with all these people in it. But any notion Jane has of love and marriage changes with one tragic accident. Now her life is permanently intertwined with Duncan's, Aggie's, and Jimmy's, and she knows she w...

  Delighted to be on the blog tour for this amazing book. Description Fortune favours the fraud... When she was thirteen years old, Ada Howell lost not just her father, but the life she felt she was destined to lead. Now, at eighteen, Ada is given a second chance when her wealthy godmother gifts her with an extravagant art history trip to Italy. In the palazzos of Venice, the cathedrals of Florence and the villas of Rome, she finally finds herself among the kind of people she aspires to be: sophisticated, cultured, privileged. Ada does everything in her power to prove she is one of them. And when a member of the group dies in suspicious circumstances, she seizes the opportunity to permanently bind herself to this gilded set. But everything hidden must eventually surface, and when it does, Ada discovers she's been keeping a far darker secret than she could ever have imagined... Review I love Italy and so to revisit past haunts via this book was just heaven in the present climate. Ad...

  Description Sometimes it takes a lifetime to find where you truly belong… Seventy-nine is too late for a second chance. Isn’t it? Missy Carmichael is prickly, stubborn – and terribly lonely. Until a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new. Something wonderful. Missy was used to her small, solitary existence, listening to her footsteps echoing around the empty house, the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock. After all, she had made her life her way. Now another life is beckoning to Missy – if she’s brave enough… ‘A touching, deftly written debut that celebrates community and kindness’  Sunday Times ‘Moving and optimistic… will delight readers right up to the very last page’  Stylist ‘Bittersweet, tender, thoughtful and uplifting . . . I loved it’ Nina Stibbe Review I loved, loved, loved this book. Missy is 79 years old and all alone in her big rambling house with too many memories of her family life. Then ...

  Delighted to be on the Blog Tour today. Description Westview belongs on a postcard. Quaint, picture-perfect, a tiny New England town steeped in history and traditions.  Angela has always been everything people in Westview want her to be. She’s supposed to be happy here, but she’s starting to see all the flaws in her seemingly-perfect life and she’s afraid that everyone else will notice, too. Now, she wants something more than small towns, something bigger than the life planned out for her by a family that has designed and destroyed reputations in Westview for generations. Owen knows that history can be a lot of lies depending on who tells the story and he’s just discovered the truth about how Westview became a drowned town a century ago. But all he wants is to run away from his own past, from the bad decisions he’s made and the tragedies still haunting him. He’s focused on the future and proving people wrong, even though that means keeping secrets from his friends. Long befo...