Devotion by Madeline Stevens

Published by Faber

Available from all good online and high street Bookshops

 

What Is Devotion All About?

Desire. Deception. Destruction. Devotion.

Ella is 26, lonely, hungry and far from home. Lonnie is also 26, but rich, talented and beautiful – with a husband and son to match.

Their fates intertwine the day Ella is hired as the family’s nanny. She finds herself mesmerised by Lonnie’s girlish affection and disregard for the normal boundaries of friendship and marriage, but soon resentment grows too.

Crackling with sensuality and suspense, Madeline Stevens’s debut novel is a dizzying thriller in which roles are confused and reversed and nothing is ever quite as it seems.

What Do I Think About Devotion?

“I’d wanted too much from her, wanted to conquer her, to become her, to encase her in my life in order to write her out of her own.”

I have realised as I have got more and more into book blogging, that there are definitely some types of novel I am always attracted to. One of those is any novel that features an unreliable female narrator.

Devotion is exactly this.  A novel about a woman called Ella who longs to be exactly like her employer, to have her life, her world, her husband.  To seamlessly glide into Lonnie and James’ life and become everything to both of them.  Ella is driven by her desire to consume the world around her and become the one thing they cannot live without.

Right from the start of the novel we are aware of two things – that Lonnie is no longer with James, and that Ella’s former life is one of little money and scant recognition.  Daily she has to make choices about how she spends the little money she has, and her life is really a mundane hand to mouth existence.

Ella makes up a resume and invents a past which impresses Lonnie and is her entry to the world she wants to inhabit.  It is done easily and without many reservations, and sets the precedent for Ella’s behaviour for the rest of the novel.

For Ella, to be a nanny to a woman who is the same age, and has all this wealth at her fingertips without any care or conscience is something that both fascinates and angers Ella.

Her desire and devotion to Lonnie and James, means that she doesn’t just want to work for them, she wants to be right at the heart of their marriage, to know everything about them.  It is however, Lonnie who becomes the object of Ella’s obsession. As the nanny to their child William, this gives Ella the perfect opportunity to search through their house, to read Lonnie’s diary, to sneak peaks at her photo albums, and even to take little items like a worthless ring, and wear it right in front of Lonnie.

What works so well about Devotion is the way in which nothing is as it appears.  Even though Lonnie and James appear to be the ultimate Insta-perfect couple, all is not what it seems, and Ella discovers that Lonnie is having an affair with Carlow, James’ best friend.  No one is above suspicion, no one is blameless, and you feel that Lonnie and James’ world may sparkle, but that it lacks any sort of real emotional depth.

As Ella manages to inveigle her way into Lonnie’s world, the lines between Employer and Employee merge, and the two women become far more involved than is at all appropriate.  The physical similarities between Lonnie and Ella add a disorientating quality to the book – at times you are not sure where Ella ends and Lonnie starts.  Ella is finding herself increasingly attracted to Lonnie, but she also craves to be Lonnie so deeply, she attempts to seduce both James and Carlow.

Little by little, Madeline Stevens starts to blur reality and fiction, which is most evident when Lonnie, Ella and William head to an Artist’s retreat.  Isolated, away from all the norms and conventions that they usually live by, Lonnie and Ella are free to be whoever they choose.  It is there that Lonnie convinces Ella to become her, to wear her clothes, adopt her mannerisms, all in an attempt by Lonnie to allegedly play a prank on the pompous course leader.

Devotion is constantly filled with sensous images of food and eating, of wealth and decadence and it is a clever and subtle way of drawing you closer to the story. I felt it brought me closer to Lonnie and James’ world, to understanding why Ella falls so utterly under their spell.

All the while, as a reader, you are aware of a slow, burning tension between all the characters. We already know that Lonnie is nowhere to be seen at the the start of the novel, and that Ella and Lonnie are increasingly one and the same.  The world around them, and for us seems to take on an ethereal quality, where rules and boundaries are merged and lines are crossed without consequence.

For me, seeing Ella trying to find her way into a world which only values her as the Nanny, was a clever and taut plot device which added to the simmering resentment you sense that Ella has for the privileged, but also the realisation that she yearns to be part of this world too.

When Lonnie and James go to visit Lonnie’s father, taking Ella to help look after William, Lonnie’s father makes it very clear what he thinks about Ella and her position in the family.  From here on in, Devotion takes on an even darker tone, and we realise that James is far from the debonair and charming husband we may have believed.  The novel slides towards a very unsettling and disturbing climax, disorientating and almost other worldly in its hazy and unsteady resolution.

One thing is certain, that no one will ever be the same again.

Devotion is a clever, sharply satirical and unsettling novel, that perfectly captures the contradiction of wanting everything, but ultimately having to lose yourself in the process.  It shows us how easy it is to be beguiled by a world we believe we need to be part of, but that belonging comes at a heavy price for Ella. Devotion makes us realise that those without are regarded as a fair currency for those with much more privilege to do exactly what they want with – irrespective of the cost.

Thank you as always to Lauren Nicoll at Faber for my copy of Devotion in exchange for an honest review.

Author Madeline Stevens.

Don’t forget to see what these other bloggers are saying about Devotion too as part of the Faber Blog Tour.

 

 

 

 

Lady In The Lake by Laura Lippman

Published by Faber Books

Available from all good online and high street bookshops

 

What The Blurb Says:

Cleo Sherwood disappeared eight months ago. Aside from her parents and the two sons she left behind, no one seems to have noticed. It isn’t hard to understand why: it’s 1964 and neither the police, the public nor the papers care much when Negro women go missing.

Maddie Schwartz – recently separated from her husband, working her first job as an assistant at the Baltimore Sun– wants one thing: a byline. When she hears about an unidentified body that’s been pulled out of the fountain in Druid Hill Park, Maddie thinks she is about to uncover a story that will finally get her name in print. What she can’t imagine is how much trouble she will cause by chasing a story that no-one wants her to tell.

What I Say:

“Men were no help at all she decided. Men kept each other’s secrets.

Men put men first in the end.”

 

To start to read the Lady In The Lake, is to lose yourself completely in the world of Baltimore and a time where a woman’s worth is solely judged on their ability to ensure that food is on the table, the house is tidy, the children are seen and not heard, and women’s own hopes and dreams are relegated to an afterthought.

Maddie Schwartz is seemingly a happily married woman, wife to Milton and Mother to Seth.  Her culinary and hostessing skills are second to none, and her privileged life and social connections should guarantee a comfortable and secure life.  Except for Maddie, it’s not enough.

Caught in a world that has meant she has had to subdue every outspoken word and trapped in a life that brings her no personal joy, she makes the brave decision to walk away from her marriage and start her life over again.  Make no mistake, Maddie is not a meek and mild woman unable to do anything on her own, she is a fiercely independent person who has decided that her time is now.

As she sets out on her own, she has to make sacrifices about where she lives and what she does, and her decision to live in a neighbourhood which is removed from the gilded cage she has previously inhabited is the start of her quest for independence.

Laura Lippman has an amazing skill to her writing, which lingers on all the seemingly inconsequential details of everyday life in the 1960’s, but also affords us the opportunity to see the reality of what life was like for women at that time.  A woman’s worth is measured by her ability to procreate, to keep home and to ensure that above all her man is happy.  Now that she is free from these constraints, Maddie can finally be in charge of her own destiny.

After she inadvertently helps to solve a murder, Maddie’s desire to work for a local newspaper becomes her motivation to stay in this new life she has chosen.  She eventually manages to get work on the local paper The Star as an assistant to the man who helps local people solve problems with the most mundane of things.  Maddie is astute enough to realise that in order to make any mark in this male dominated world, she will have to use her intelligence and wit to get what she wants.

Laura’s skill at describing the testosterone laden, sexist and claustrophobic newspaper offices, put the reader right at the heart of everything.  Every step forward that Maddie makes is pushed back as the men in the press room take credit for every discovery she unearths.  It is easy to see how much easier it would have been for Maddie to put up and shut up, but as a reader you can feel how frustrated and exasperated she is, and you know that Maddie is not going to fade into the background.

When a resolution to one of the paper’s problem letters means that apparently the body of Cleo Sherwood is found in a local fountain, Maddie feels an affinity to her, and decides that she is not going to let this black woman be another forgotten story, consigned to a few lines in The Star.

Maddie’s voice is not the only one we hear.  There are other characters who also tell us all about the world Maddie and Cleo are in.  We hear from a bar tender, a waitress, a psychic, police officers and other journalists, as well as Cleo’s family, and most importantly Cleo herself.  Not only do we learn more about Cleo and Maddie, and how they are viewed by the world around them, but in having multiple narrative voices, we learn about the racial issues and inherent sexism that were of that time.

1960’s Baltimore is no place for a woman like Maddie to have a mixed race relationship, and her passionate relationship with Ferdie, a black police officer, has to be conducted at nightime and almost exclusively in the confines of her apartment.  To go public in such a hostile world could be catastrophic for both of them.

One of the many things I loved about the Lady In The Lake is the parallels that Laura draws between Cleo and Maddie.  The novel starts with a scene where Cleo sees Maddie and their eyes lock briefly for a moment, and it seems that the two women are poles apart, living in completely different worlds.  The thing is, Maddie and Cleo are more alike than you could possibly imagine.  They do not want to be constrained by the limits that society has placed on them. Both women are absolutely aware of their sexuality, and know exactly how to use it to get what they want.  Men are often perceived as stepping stones to them attaining what they are searching for.

The Lady In The Lake succeeds so well because it uses the slow, simmering tension which keeps us entranced right from the first page.  Maddie and Cleo are strong women who refused to be silenced, and together have a voice which refuses to go away or to be ignored.  Their stories are told with tenderness and understanding, and at the end of the novel, I really felt that they had made a lasting impact on me. 

Laura Lippman has written an exquisitely paced and timely novel, which is a powerful indictment of a world that unfortunately still holds many truths for us today.

Thank you so much to Namra Amir at Faber & Faber for the chance to join the Blog Tour and for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Please check out the other brilliant Bloggers who are also taking part in the Lady In The Lake Blog Tour.

 

 

Luan Goldie: Nightingale Point

Published By: HQ Stories

Available to buy online, and at all good book shops..

What The Blurb Says:

On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996, the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries.

Mary has a secret life that no one knows about, not even Malachi and Tristan, the brothers she vowed to look after.
Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart, he feels older than his twenty-one years.
Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he’s falling in with the wrong crowd, without Malachi to keep him straight.
Elvis is trying hard to remember to the instructions his care worker gave him, but sometimes he gets confused and forgets things.
Pamela wants to run back to Malachi but her overprotective father has locked her in and there’s no way out.

It’s a day like any other, until something extraordinary happens. When the sun sets, Nightingale Point is irrevocably changed and somehow, through the darkness, the residents must find a way back to lightness, and back to each other.

What I Say:

I am going to be honest with you all, and say from the outset, that if I had known what Nightingale Point was about, I don’t think I would have asked for a copy to read and review. Not because of the setting, or the subject matter (more of that later), but because of one character. Elvis.

Elvis is a young man with learning disabilities who lives in Nightingale Point, and is visited by his seemingly disinterested, go through the motions, tick the box carer. He is there because it is deemed the most appropriate place for him in our community, and he has to deal with navigating life and all it throws at him in a world where he is seemingly a statistic to be analysed.

The thing is, while Elvis is content with his life, able to cope with living semi independently in his flat, it is the attitude and behaviour of those around him in Nightingale Point flats who have little understanding and even less tolerance. I found these chapters so hard to read, and had to stop and gather myself before reading the rest, because it was all too real, a snapshot of a future for my eldest son who, like Elvis, has learning disabilities. and one which I cannot comprehend having to face.

Why are my personal reactions to one resident remotely relevant when discussing Luan’s novel about a block of flats filled with lots of people? To have an emotional reaction to something so personal means that Luan has absolutely understood the subject she is writing about, and it is testament to her skill as a writer that I didn’t want to stop reading, and couldn’t put this novel down.

After all isn’t that the thing about literature, that it not only entertains, but also educates and challenges us?

Luan has written an emotional and powerful novel that not only made me confront a part of my life that I have always conveniently put to the back of my mind, but she also writes so eloquently and passionately about all the residents, that you fall into the novel and only surface when you have lived through their experiences and gained a deeper understanding of what life is really like for them.

As well as Elvis, we meet brothers Tristan and Malachi, Mary, and Pamela. The one thing they have in common at the start of the novel is that they are all residents of Nightingale Point. By the end of the novel, they have another thing in common, that one Saturday morning, their lives will never be the same again.

Malachi is responsible for Tristan, as his mother is no longer around, and he is trying to balance his own studying with doing everything he has to in order to ensure that his brother can live with him. As well as keeping their heads above water, Malachi has fallen in love with Pamela, a girl who lives in a flat upstairs with her overbearing and controlling father. Their relationship is carried out in snatched moments and lies to those around them so that they can spend some precious time together. Unfortunately when Pamela’s father finds out, he makes a decision that on that day will have devastating consequences.

As Mary struggles with her day to day life, she is torn between being faithful to her increasingly absent husband, and allowing herself to live the life she truly deserves. Mary is a kind and thoughtful woman, who has made a promise to look after Malachi and Tristan, and is in essence the mother figure they both desperately need. As the novel progresses, you really understand how Mary is trapped by what other people expect, and that her desire to live the life she wants is suppressed by the fear of other people’s disapproval.

Nightingale Point is not simply a novel of their everyday life, but you have to read all about these people to appreciate why this is such an important part of the story. To understand the enormity of what happens to all the residents, you have to know their stories, to understand why they are there and what makes them who they are. It is only then, when we are totally engaged with the characters, that Luan shifts the narrative and suddenly their world is no longer limited to their flats and estate.

Something monumental happens to them all (you know me by now, no spoilers – you have to read it!) and Nightingale Point is now a novel about finding your way in a life you never thought would be yours. For Tristan, Malachi, Pamela. Mary and Elvis, they will never be the same people again as when they woke up on that Saturday morning.

Luan’s tender exploration of lives changed beyond recognition, draws us even closer to her characters, and as we follow them in the aftermath of Nightingale Point’s drama, we see how they all are simply people like us, trying to find their way back to a world they took for granted. All of them are bonded together by what they have experienced, but they all react differently and emerge from the darkness with a renewed understanding and desire to live the lives they deserve, rather than the ones they have accepted.

I loved it – and Elvis will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Allison Dickson: The Other Mrs Miller

Published By: Sphere

Available from all good bookshops from 16th July

 

What The Blurb Says:

Two women are watching each other.
Phoebe isn’t sure when the car started showing up. At first she put it down to the scandal around her late father, but she’s certain now it’s there for her. What’s interesting about an unhappily married housewife, who barely leaves her house?

Only one knows why.
Every morning, not long before your husband leaves for work, I wait for the blinds beside your front door to twitch. You might think I’m sitting out here waiting to break into your house and add a piece of your life to my collection. Things aren’t quite that simple. It’s not a piece of your life I want.

When a new family move in across the street, it provides Phoebe with a distraction. But with her head turned she’s no longer focused on the woman in the car. And Phoebe really should be, because she’s just waiting for an opportunity to upend Phoebe’s life…

What I Say:

Let’s be clear about this.  I was never planning on doing a blog post about The Other Mrs Miller, definitely a tweet review, possibly a video one, and I picked it up on Saturday morning because I was trying to clear my TBR Pile and I liked the look of the story.

Normally, if I intend to write a review, I have a notebook filled with copious notes, pages littered with post its, and a blog post set up and ready.

I am flying by the seat of my pants as I write this review as I can only tell you what my reactions are as I sit here and type!

The thing is, once I picked it up The Other Mrs Miller, I couldn’t put it down because it’s the absolute definition of a page turner, and I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a book blogger if I didn’t recommend it to you!  It is such a perfect summer read, and I am not surprised that it has been picked up to be a television series.

It’s the story of Phoebe and Wyatt Miller, who live very comfortably in a beautiful house in an affluent area of Chicago. Their marriage is slowly falling apart, as Phoebe and Wyatt move further away from each other, and is compounded by the fact that they had a stillborn son and are now unable to conceive naturally. Phoebe has had to endure the pain and disappointment of multiple IVF failures, and no longer feels the connection she once had to her husband.  While Wyatt has a career as a therapist, Phoebe doesn’t work and is also tainted by the fact that she is the daughter of the businessman Daniel Noble, who has been all over the press and is notorious for his awful treatment of women, so her father’s reputation precedes her.

Bored, listless and bitter at what her life has become, Phoebe spends her days in a drunken haze in her mansion, unable to face being part of the world outside, worried that she will encounter hostility and anger from those who know who her father is.  As the days pass, she notices that there is a blue car constantly parked near her house all the time, and that someone seems to be watching her.

When Phoebe tries to tell Wyatt about her concerns, he brushes them aside as the ramblings of his drunken wife, who has far too much time on her hands and is refusing to try and work on their marriage. When a new family called the Napiers move in across the street,  Phoebe starts a friendship with the mum, Vicki, and she finally starts to allow herself the luxury of having a friend and realises maybe it is time to start living again.  The only problem is that the Napiers have a college age son called Jake, and although Phoebe knows it is wrong on every level, she feels herself attracted to him, and knows from the sideways glances, and things that are not said, that he feels the same way too.

The Napiers might, on the face of it, seem to be the average American family, but as Phoebe gets closer to them, she starts to understand that what you see is not always what you get. Is this all American family as wholesome and naive as they initially seem?

Allison brilliantly shifts the narrative between Phoebe and the occupant of the car, so that we understand not only what has brought the driver to a point in their life where sitting outside Phoebe’s house is the only course of action for them, but that there is a dangerous and unpredictable edge to this person that doesn’t bode well for Phoebe.

As Phoebe and Jake edge ever closer, they make an emotional decision which starts a chain of events that pulls you along at a break neck speed as you hurtle towards plot twist after plot twist, and a series of revelations that will have you flicking back through the pages wondering how on earth you missed them! There are a few plot points that will make you stop and say ‘really?’ but, put those doubts aside and just let yourself get lost in the glorious and unrelenting drama that you cannot help but be caught up in!

There are scenes that you almost have to read through your fingers because they are so tense, where the characters sit in a polite silence because no one wants to be the first one to unleash the reality of what they all know..

The problem with reviewing The Other Mrs Miller is that to tell you anything else that happens will only ruin it for you – and you know me by now- I’m not going to do that!

The Other Mrs Miller is a perfect, fast paced novel, which thrills and shocks you as you turn each page.  It is a novel about identity, what family means and how in the most extreme situations, normal people can find it in themselves to do things they would never have thought possible.

Aside from the fact that I really enjoyed it because it is a rattling good read,  it also allows us to go behind the curtains of the houses in this privileged road in Lake Forest, and shows us that behind every erratic decision and heated argument, there are real people with lives that have been damaged and changed forever by the actions of others.

The Other Mrs Miller is an unapologetic, full on page turner, perfect for a Summer Read. Let yourself get lost in it, revel in the plot twists and just sit back and enjoy the drama!

Thank you so much to Viola Hayden at Sphere for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be a guest on Antonia Honeywell’s show #BooktimeBrunch on the Chiltern Voice Radio Station – we spent two fantastic hours chatting about all things blogger, bookish and Summer Reads.

I promised Antonia that I would write a blog post about my experience, but when I thought about telling you all about appearing on a radio station – let’s be honest- it ain’t going to go viral!

One thing that struck me, was that in just that two hours, what came to the fore in our discussions was the love we have for books and reading, and in turn, we talked about a LOT of people from all areas of the book world.

Antonia and I talked about bloggers, authors, publicists and people from the publishing world, all of whom share the same goal.  To make us talk about reading and books.

In the past few months, as a blogger probably right in the middle of things, I have been saddened by the negativity I have seen on social media.  There have been debates about how to write a blog, should you post negative reviews (Personally I don’t, thank u next!), tagging authors in negative reviews (Really?!), and whether bloggers are influenced by the pull of free books.

We are all united in the fact we love reading, and that we love books.  I am tired of negativity, and I don’t want to be part of it. We need to remember why we started doing what we do, and to have confidence in our opinions and also to treat people like we want to be treated. I read somewhere that you should only write a tweet with things you would be prepared to say to that person’s face, and I think that’s a fantastic attitude to have.

So, this post is a great big thank you to all these people who are fantastic at shouting about books, and supporting those of us who are trying to shout about them too!

Look them up, read what they do, follow them, read their blogs, and here’s to us all of us for sharing the book love!

The Books We Talked About

Something To Live for by @richardroper from @orionbooks – published 27 June

You Will Be Safe Here by @Damian_Barr from @BloomsburyBooks – out now

Leonard and Hungry Paul by @MumblinDeafRo from @Ofmooseandmen – out now

City of Girls by @GilbertLiz from @BloomsburyBooks

Confession with Blue Horses by @Sophiehardach from @HoZ_Books

This Brutal House by @niven_govinden from @dialoguebooks

The Heavens by @sannewman from @GrantaBooks

The Rapture by @ClaireMcGlasson from @FaberBooks

The First Time Lauren Pailing Died by @allyrudd_times from @HQstories

Riverflow by @AlisonLayland from @honno

In Her Wake by @MandaJJennings from @OrendaBooks

A Perfect Explanation by @ellieanstruther  from @salt

Dignity by @alysconran from @wnbooks

Worst Case Scenario by @FitzHelen from @OrendaBooks

 

Also, in case you didn’t know – and you really should, because she is far too modest to tell you,  Antonia has written The Ship which is published by @wnbooks  and she is on twitter as @antonia_writes

 

The Fabulous Book Loving Bloggers We Talked About

@BookishChat

Amanda is a truly brilliant blogger, who puts into words the posts I wish I could. She is  also so supportive of everyone around her, and posts the BEST Instagram stories which genuinely make me laugh out loud.

@thelitaddict_

Siobhain writes fantastic and thoughtful reviews, and if she is talking about a book, I know I am going to want to read it!

@corkyorky

Emma is one of those bloggers who writes effortlessly, and her posts always mean I end up adding more books to my Reading Pile..

@bookbound2019

Rachel writes blogs so well, and I often read them and wish I could have found those words! She is always spot on with her reviews and is pitch perfect in her blog posts.

@ShortBookScribe

Nicola has been such a kind and supportive blogger since the day I started. She is also a prolific blogger, whose love and passion for reading is plain for everyone to see.

@Sophie_Jo_Books

Sophie writes so eloquently and with such emotion and passion, her love of reading is infectious and she is always such a cheerleader for books and bloggers.

@SezzThomas

Sarah is not only a fabulous blogger, but she is also so kind and ready to help everyone else find their next read, that she is a pleasure to follow!

@annecater

Anne, and her Random Things Through My Letterbox Blog is an absolute gold standard for other Book Bloggers.

She is endlessly supportive of other Bloggers and it is wonderful to have her in our corner! Ann also writes Book Reviews for the Daily Express and is a powerhouse Blog Tour Organiser for authors & publishers.

@Frizbot

Naomi is a writer and interviewer, and her blog is a testament to the immense canon of writing by women.  A must read.

@EleanorFranzen

Eleanor not only works as a bookseller, but her lit crit blog is also a fantastic read and Antonia loves it and constantly recommends it, so you need to check it out!

@lonesomereader

Eric is a thoughtful and passionate blogger, who is so well known and respected in the blogging community. His reading always inspires me to try something different and step out of my comfort zone!

@Nicki_Mags

Nicki is a prolific reader who has been suggested by a number of people as one to follow, she loves to read a whole range of genres, and is an amazing advocate of reading and books!

The Amazingly Supportively Publishing People

Karen Sullivan is the founder of  @OrendaBooks  who is so supportive of her authors, but is also an amazing advocate of the blogging world. Her passion and enthusiasm shines through everything she does, and she was one of the first people in publishing who engaged with me and retweeted my review of @sarahstovell  and her novel Exqusite. Karen gave me the confidence to keep going.

Sam Missingham  – @samatlounge who is not only a major player in the Publishing Industry, but is also responsible for founding @lounge_books and constantly talking about books and authors.  Sam is an immense power in the publishing world who is tireless in her efforts to get people talking about books and publishing.

Virginia Woolstencroft  – @gigicroft  superstar, superhelpful publicist for W&N, Orion Spring, Seven Dials, Orion Fiction and Trapeze. Gigi’s love of books is evident in how approachable and supportive she is to bookbloggers, and she is a pleasure to talk to.

Janet Emson  – who has introduced me to Leonard And Hungry Paul, sent me a copy of Case Histories when I had lost mine, and is so kind and helpful in my search for new books – @JanetEmson

Rachel Wilkie  – @RLWilkie  from Bloomsbury Books has always been so friendly and approachable, and took a chance on me and my reviewing by sending me a copy of Damian’s book – I am really grateful to her for helping me out and supporting my blogging!

Thank you so much to Antonia for having me as a guest on her show #BooktimeBrunch on @ChilternVoice it was an absolute joy to be honest!  I am going to be going back in the Autumn and Christmas too, so if anyone wants to suggest some books Antonia and I should be talking about, please let me know!

This post is just the start of my mission to keep talking positively about books, reading and blogging and the people who love them too.

So, the only thing you need to answer is – are you ready to share the #Booklove too?

 

Let’s put this out there.  I just love books. I have since the moment my Mum first pushed one into my hands.  If someone’s reading a book on a bus, or in a coffee shop, I need to know what they are reading.   If I’m at a friend’s house, the first thing I do is look at their bookshelves, and see if they have anything there I haven’t read yet.  I can’t help it.

Show me a bookshop and I’ll show you a happy woman.  There is nothing I love more than spending time browsing, picking them up, putting them down, occasionally sniffing  them (oh come on, we’ve all done it!)!

Anyway, the reason for this post is two things.  After posting this picture of books I had got from the fabulous Rennie Grove Hospice Charity Bookshop in Princes Risborough, someone asked me how can you possibly find time to read them all?

Honestly?  I probably won’t ever read all the books I have on my shelves, and this is even though a couple of weeks ago I had a massive cull and sent over 100 of them to my local charity shop.

Here’s the thing.

When you love reading as much as I do, and I don’t know if this makes sense, it’s the comfort of knowing that you have that book on your shelf.  As I sit here, I can see book after book that I have bought, and I can tell you when and where I got them too.  That’s the thing for me, each book I have holds a memory, and there are some I am reluctantly able to give up – like those ones when I NEEDED to buy a book and I thought it looked interesting, but there are also some I will never ever part with – my collection of Jilly Cooper novels (hardback and paperback thank you), or the first hardback book my Mum gave me (Adventures of the Wishing Chair Again).

The other thing?  I also have a current wishlist of books that haven’t been published yet, that I am already desperate to read.  It seems crazy that I have so many books I haven’t read yet,  and they are sitting looking at me accusingly as I type this, but that’s the joy of being part of this brilliant bookish community.  Just when you think you couldn’t possibly want any more books,  even more come along…

Anyway, for your perusal, and in no particular order, here to hopefully to give you some ideas for your Summer/Autumn/Winter Reading Lists, are the books I am really excited to read this year..

 

Claire Lombardo – The Most Fun We Ever Had

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (25 June 2019)

 

What The Blurb Says:

At a family wedding, the four Sorenson sisters polka-dot the green lawn in their summer pastels, with varying shades of hair and varying degrees of unease. Their long-infatuated parents watch on with a combination of love and concern.

Sixteen years later, the already messy lives of the sisters are thrown into turmoil by the unexpected reappearance of a teenage boy given up for adoption years earlier – and the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons’ past is revealed.

Weaving between past and present, The Most Fun We Ever Had portrays the delights and difficulties of family life and the endlessly complex mixture of affection and abhorrence we feel for those closest to us. A dazzlingly accomplished debut and an utterly immersive portrait of one family’s becoming, it marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

I absolutely love novels about families, and more importantly about families that have secrets and things to hide. Throw in a shifting timeline and I’m in!

I am looking for a novel to lose myself in this Summer, and this looks just perfect.  I think it’s going to be everywhere this Summer, and I am really excited to read it!

 

Alix Nathan – The Warlow Experiment

Serpent’s Tail (4 July 2019)

 

 

What The Blurb Says:

Herbert Powyss lives on a small estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman’s fashionable cultivation of exotic plants and trees. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science – something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London.

He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: for seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the cellar of the manor house, fitted out with books, paintings and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay? Fifty pounds per annum, for life.

Only one man is desperate enough to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate labourer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included.

In this seductive tale of self-delusion and obsession, Alix Nathan has created an utterly transporting historical novel which is both elegant and unforgettably sinister.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

I am currently reading lots of (and loving) historical fiction.

The Warlow Experiment certainly ticks all the boxes, and I think the premise and whole concept of imprisonment and isolation will make for a very interesting read and lots of debate too!

 

Lisa Taddeo – Three Women

Bloomsbury Circus (9 July 2019)

What The Blurb Says:

All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn’t touch her?

All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town?

All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?

Three Women is a record of unmet needs, unspoken thoughts, disappointments, hopes and unrelenting obsessions.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

This is the first of my non-fiction titles on my Must Read List.  I think it sounds like an interesting and timely examination of women’s sex lives and the reality of relationships behind closed doors.

 

Rachel DeLoache Williams – My Friend Anna

Quercus Books (23 July 2019)

What The Blurb Says:

This is the true story of Anna Delvey, the fake heiress whose dizzying deceit and elaborate con-artistry deceived the Soho hipster scene before her ruse was finally and dramatically exposed.

After meeting through mutual friends, the ‘Russian heiress’ Anna Delvey and Rachel DeLoache Williams soon became inseparable. Theirs was an intoxicating world of endless excess: high dining, personal trainer sessions, a luxury holiday … and Anna footed almost every bill.

But after Anna’s debit card was declined in a Moroccan medina whilst on holiday in a five-star luxury resort, Rachel began to suspect that her increasingly mysterious friend was not all she seemed.

This is the incredible story of how Anna Sorokin conned the high-rollers of the NYC social scene and convinced her close friend of an entirely concocted fantasy, the product of falsified bank documents, bad cheques and carefully edited online photos.

Written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, the Vanity Fair photography editor who believed Anna’s lies before helping the police to track her down (fittingly, deciphering Anna’s location using Instagram), this is Catch Me If You Can with Instagram filters. Between Anna, Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland (Anna even tried to scam Billy) and Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up app duped the high and mighty of Silicon Valley, this is the year of the scammer.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

I first heard about Anna Delvey ‘s story on the BBC Website, and instantly went and looked her account up on Instagram (it’s @theannadelvey if you are interested).  I have watched the Netflix Fyre Festival Documentary, and listened to The Dropout Podcast, and have to say that this book sounds amazing! I am fascinated by the psychology behind the people who do things like this, and My Friend Anna is going to be a brilliant addition to the genre.

 

Laura Purcell – Bone China

Raven Books (19 September 2019)

 

What The Blurb Says:

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

If you know me at all, then you will know I am a HUGE Laura Purcell fan.  I have read, loved and raved about both The Silent Companions and The Corset.

When I heard that Laura had a new novel coming out, and then I read the synopsis, I knew the only place this was going on was my Must Read List.  Laura’s novels are always so brilliantly written, and she can strike fear into my heart with just one well placed line or a single moving wooden object!

Yep, I’m going to need to read this one…!

 

JoJo Moyes – The Giver of Stars

Michael Joseph (3rd October 2019)

 

What The Blurb Says:

1. It’s by Jojo Moyes.
2. It’s about books.
3. IT’S WOMEN DELIVERING BOOKS ON HORSEBACK FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
4. See 1, 2 and 3!

Kate Elizabeth Russell – My Dark Vanessa

4th Estate Books (23 January 2020)

 

What The Blurb Says:

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager–and who professed to worship only her–may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

I saw Kate reading from her novel on 4th Estate’s Instagram stories, and knew that it was going straight on my wish list! As you may or may not know, there is a HUGE book buzz about this novel already, and I think its going to raise lots of interesting questions about sexuality and women.

Absolutely going on my Reading Wish List..

 

Jane Healey – The Animals At Lockwood Manor

Mantle (Pan Macmillan) 

 

What The Blurb Says:

In August 1939, a lonely thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright arrives at Lockwood Manor as the director of the evacuated Natural History Museum.

She is unprepared for the scale of protecting her charges from party guests, wild animals, the elements, the tyrannical Major Lockwood and Luftwaffe bombs. Most of all though, she is unprepared for the beautiful and haunted Lucy Lockwood.

For Lucy, who has spent much of her life cloistered at Lockwood suffering from bad nerves, the arrival of the museum brings with it new freedoms. But it also resurfaces memories of her late mother, and nightmares in which Lucy roams Lockwood hunting for something she has lost.

When the animals start to move of their own accord, and exhibits go missing, they begin to wonder what exactly it is that they might need protection from.

As the disasters mount up, it is not only Hetty’s future employment that is in danger, but her sanity too. There’s something, or someone, in the house. Someone stalking her through its darkened corridors…

With its atmospheric setting, beautifully rendered romance and vivid characters, The Animals At Lockwood Manor is perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, Jessie Burton and Alice Hoffman.

Why Do I Want To Read It?

I came across this novel purely by chance (Thank You Bookish Twitter!), and have to say that I absolutely loved the cover.

When I read the synopsis too, it seemed to have that perfect balance of haunted house setting and absorbing characters which make for a perfect read in my eyes!

I think it is going to be one of those novels that everyone will be talking about, and I want to be one of those people!

 

So there you go – the books I really want to read at the moment.  I can tell you now that there will be more that I don’t even know about at this point, but they will pop up on my timeline and there will be another ten I will have to add…

Which books are you looking forward to and why?

Love
Clare xx

 

 

What The Blurb Says:

Phoebe stands on Pulteney Bridge, tights gashed from toe to thigh. The shock of mangled metal and blood-stained walls flashes through her mind as she tries to cover her face so she won’t be recognised. It wouldn’t do to be spotted looking like this. She’s missing a shoe. She feels sick.

Phoebe thought murder and murder happened. Thoughts are just thoughts, they said. Now she knows they were wrong.

At home, Phoebe arranges the scissors and knives so they point toward her mother’s room. She is exhausted, making sure there’s no trace of herself – not a single hair, not even her scent – left anywhere in the house. She must not let her thoughts unravel, because if they do, there’s no telling who might be caught in the crossfire, and Phoebe will have to live with the consequences.

What I Say:

We all remember our teenage years, when it was so important to belong, to feel that we were part of a group. It is that time in our lives when we were not children, not yet adults, but we were stuck, unable to make that leap, at times frustrated by our parents, who continued to impose limits while we were desperate for the first chance of freedom.

Phoebe, Orla and Grace are three friends, trying to navigate their way through the tangled rites of passage that the teenage years bring.  Phoebe is the beautiful and seemingly powerful leader of the group, Orla is overweight and trying to find her self and her sexuality and is also completely in love with Phoebe, while Grace is a full time carer to her mother who has MS.

All three girls have complicated relationships with their mothers. Phoebe is at the mercy of her overwhelming and controlling mother, who wants to make sure Phoebe does nothing without her say so. Orla is frustrated by her seemingly naive and nervous mother, who does not want her to be anything other than the nice heterosexual daughter she can spend time with.  Grace is single handedly doing everything for her mother, and her Mum is totally reliant on Grace, both of them only want to stay together in their flat.

So far, so what? A group of teenage girls with different family situations. Haven’t we read about this a thousand times before?

Maybe you have, but in Crushed, Kate Hamer has taken these three teenage girls, and added a simmering sense of unease right from the very first page.

For me, the title, Crushed, was about how each of the group slowly buckles under the weight of expectation and the claustrophobia that steadily engulfs them. It is about the excruciating tension being a part of such a tight teenage group brings, especially with Phoebe at its core.

When they start to study Macbeth in their English class, it marks the start of a Summer which will change the girls’ lives forever. Phoebe is utterly obssessed with the witches in the play, and believes that she and her friends can hold and harness the same power that they have. The childhood games they played where they plotted and schemed in the safety of the den in the forest, are now replaced with the unwavering teenage belief that they are more powerful than this world, and can make the things they want to happen become reality. 

Phoebe also finds herself attracted to her young (and very married) English Teacher, and after initally rebuffing her advances, he finds himself intoxicated by her, with devastating consequences.

As the novel progresses, and we switch back and forth between Phoebe, Orla and Grace’s lives, we see how each of them, under the oppressive Summer skies, all strive to make their mark on the world.  Each of them has a goal, each of them wants to make sure that they can control their lives and be in ultimate charge of their destiny. They start to wonder whether something beyond their understanding and control is permeating their world and taking their fates out of their hands.

Phoebe is increasingly in the grasp of something unworldly, and is determined to rule her life, to be the Queen Of Her House. She becomes increasingly hedonistic and crosses boundaries and limits relentlessly. Orla always feels like she is the second choice for Phoebe – picked up and dropped on a whim.  Orla seeems to believe the way she needs to connect with the world is to have something to love that will love her back unconditionally – and decides that a baby will solve all her problems. Meanwhile, Grace’s determination to be the only person to care for her Mum, leads to her increasingly isolating them from the world outside. Grace emphatically believes that she alone is able to single handedly take on board the burden of caring for her, and becomes mentally and physically like a soldier, fighting her battles against social services and any do gooders that try to stop her looking after her mum.

Crushed is a difficult novel to review, because to say too much more would give away the plot! Suffice it to say that Kate’s writing is beautifully measured, so evocative of those teenage summers where the languid days stretched ahead of all of us, filled with the promise of what we could do and become, and the time we could spend with our friends, free from the constraints of school and out of sight of our parents.

It is a novel that will take you back to your teenage years, remembering those friendships that meant the world to you, and for which you would have done anything. Crushed is also a deeply unsettling and thought provoking novel about how destructive teenage girls can be at their very worst, and how indestructible they believe they are at their very best.

Crushed is the perfect Summer read, a novel that will both delight and unnerve you at the same time, and take you back to those seemingly endless Summers and memories of the friendships you lived for.

Thank you so much to Sophie Portas at Faber for a copy of Crushed in exchange for an honest review and a chance to be part of this Blog Tour.

Find out what my fellow bloggers have to say about Crushed too…..

 

 

 

Beth O’Leary:  The Flatshare

Published By: Quercus Books

Buy It: here

 

What The Blurb Says: 

Tiffy and Leon share a flat

Tiffy and Leon share a bed

Tiffy and Leon have never met…

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

What I Say

Tiffy Moore has just dumped an awful boyfriend called Justin.

Tiffy works at a publishing house and Leon is a Palliative care nurse.

Tiffy has a scatty client called Katherin, who is just about to hit the big time with her book about crocheting, and she needs Tiffy just as much as Tiffy needs her.

Tiffy decides to rent half of Leon Twomey’s bed.

Tiffy is at work when Leon isn’t and vice versa.

Tiffy starts to leave post it notes for Leon, little ones at first, longer ones as they start to communicate.

Leon starts to learn about Tiffy from the notes she leaves him, and Tiffy starts to learn about Leon, and they start to cook and look out for each other.

Leon has a brother called Ritchie who is in prison for an armed robbery he says he didn’t do, and is waiting for his uselesss lawyer to speed up his appeal.

Leon nurses a man called Mr Prior who was in love with a man during World War II and before he passes away, Leon wants him to be reunited with the love of his life.

Leon and Tiffy start to edge closer to each other, realising that they are attracted to each other.

Leon and Tiffy go to Brighton to find Mr Prior’s Mr White, Tiffy hurts her ankle and Leon and Tiffy spend the night together… but nothing happens.

Leon and Tiffy return back to their flat, and suddenly everything has changed between them.

Their Flatshare is no longer as uncomplicated as it should have been, as more things happen and other people get involved.

Leon and Tiffy realise that sometimes, you have to take chances and go beyond what you have accepted for so long, to understand you are worth so much more.

Leon has to try to open his heart and life up to the things he has tried to run away from, to finally find the happiness he deserves.

Tiffy has to realise that the man of her dreams is not the one who controls her every move, and that she has to believe in herself to really find the love she deserves.

Leon and Tiffy are relatable, flawed and fully formed characters who will come into your lives and are impossible to forget.

Leon and Tiffy share the novel with their unique voices and viewpoints, and the story moves along at a perfect pace, filled with normal friends like Mo, Gerty and Rachel.

The Flatshare is the novel we all need to read, especially now. It is a gorgeous, joyous, unapologetic, heartfelt book that is impossible to put down, and even harder to forget.

The Flatshare is a novel that restores your faith in people and in love.

The Flatshare shows that you can read a romantic, comedic novel that will turn all the cliches on its head, but at the same time it is whip-smart, genuinely funny, and made we wish I had a Leon in my life.

Beth O’ Leary has written a novel that I absolutely loved, cannot stop recommending, and was just what I needed to read.

Tiffy and Leon share a flat.

Tiffy and Leon share a bed.

Tiffy and Leon finally meet.

Tiffy and Leon’s story is The Flatshare.

I am so glad that I met them, and I think you will be too.

 

 

 

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

Published By: Quercus Books

Buy It: here

 

What The Blurb Says:

Maddie and Ian’s romance began when he was serving in the British Army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend Jo in Europe. Now sixteen years later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America.

But when an accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son Charlie; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.

From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, the years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of shocking crime.

But what in this beautiful home has gone so terribly bad?

What I Say:

Beautiful Bad is a novel that many might classify as a psychological thriller, a page turning, shocking, twisty, turny book that asks you to try and work out what really happens. It is all those things, but it is also something much more complex.  It is an acute and intricate observation of the effects of conflict and PTSD on a relationship, how the realities of being in a war torn environment has consequences not only for those who served, but also for all those who love and live with them.

When a novel’s first chapter is titled ‘The Day of the Killing’, you are immediately aware that something awful is going to happen – you just don’t know when and to whom…

Maddie and Ian are undeniably attracted to each other from the moment they meet.  He is an ex-soldier, now working as a bodyguard in Europe, and Maddie is a travel writer who frequently visits her friend Jo, a woman who is determined to ensure that people get the humanitarian supplies they need whatever the cost. Unfortunately, it transpires that Ian is currently in a relationship with a woman called Fiona, and Maddie knows she cannot get involved.

The novel switches between time lines and moves backwards and forwards. From before Maddie and Ian were a couple, to when they were, to the Day of The Killing.  I have to admit, I did find the switching between timelines a little confusing at times, but, it makes you pay attention and this is certainly a novel that commands your attention at all times.

As Maddie and Ian edge ever closer, Jo makes it very clear that she is not happy about the relationship and does everything in her power to keep them apart. When they cannot fight their attraction any more, Jo seemingly massively overreacts and Ian and Maddie are cut out of Jo’s life. It may seem like they have finally got what they wanted, but it is then that Annie Ward starts to slowly drop little hints into the plot that Ian may not be as perfect as he seems.

He and Maddie initially stay at a beautiful hotel, wrapped up in each other in the first wonderful days of their relationship, but when Maddie wants to go out to the bakery, Ian becomes extremely agitated. He convinces Maddie to stay in, with her believing that it comes from a place of love as oppose to anything more sinister. This is when the alarm bells start to ring…

When we later learn that Maddie has had an accident while away with Ian, that has left her with serious facial injuries and no memory as to how it happened, the seeds of doubt are further subtly sewn in our minds. How far can we trust Ian – really.

This sense of things not being quite right seems to form the basis of their marriage, as Ian’s work constantly takes him far away from Maddie. When she gives birth to their son Charlie, the idyllic life she had pictured for the three of them is very far from the reality of her day to day existence. Ian’s prolonged absences and intermittent communication give Maddie time to think about what is happening, and strengthens the bond between herself and Charlie so they become a tight insular family unit..

Alone, isolated and overburdened, Maddie finds that her sessions with Therapist Cami J are the very thing that will help her understand the complicated reality of her relationships with Ian and Jo. Little by little, Maddie starts to come to the conclusion that she needs to do something to stop the creeping fear that permeates her days and increasingly her nights.

From the moment Maddie starts therapy, all the events prior to arriving in her home, and what she discovers when she moves in there, slowly and deliciously start to unravel. As we head towards the shattering conclusion (still am not telling you what is going to happen!), the novel picks up its pace and finally reveals the uncomfortable truth underneath the beautiful facade which has been so purposely constructed by Ian and Maddie.

Beautiful Bad is a clever and well paced story, that works by serving to unnerve us and make sure we never quite know who to trust. It is a refreshing and smart take on the well versed psychological thriller, which Annie Ward has skilfully turned on its head and made us look at again with new eyes.

Thank you to Ella Patel at Quercus Books for my copy of Beautiful Bad in exchange for an honest review.