Author: Ali@abookishlife

Book Review: Christmas Ever After by Sarah Morgan

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Christmas Ever AfterChristmas Ever After by Sarah Morgan
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

It’s a bright sunny day in September and I’m reading a Christmas book but do you know what it’s absolutely perfect. I was so excited to get a copy of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin that I had to read it immediately. The previous book in the Puffin Island series had a bit of a sneak peak at this one and based on that alone I knew I would love it. I was so right.

In previous meetings they have always seemed to rub each other up the wrong way but Alec comes to Sky’s rescue when she really needs someone. He takes care of her and takes her to his family home in the Cotswolds to make sure she’s OK. As they are forced to spend more time together the sparks flying between them could just set their relationship on fire but will one of them get burned.

I love Sarah Morgan’s books and for me this is one of her best books yet. Skylar and Alec were very likeable characters and I thought they had some great chemistry which in a book like this is by far the most important thing.

Skylar is bubbly, up beat creative, dreamy and smart. She knows what she wants out of life and isn’t afraid to go for it despite her extremely unsupportive family. She has the odd knock (mostly due to her family) but just keeps bouncing back. You can’t help but admire someone with that kind of resilience. Alec is dark, handsome, reserved, grumpy and secretly a knight in shining armour. He’s almost the opposite of Sky, shut off from the world and the possibility of love as a result of a past relationship that ended badly. He has some preconceived ideas about Sky which she proves to be completely wrong. The relationship between them is fiery to say the least but it also leads to some fantastic dialogue between the two of them which often made me laugh.

Despite being the third in the Puffin Island trilogy the story actually begins in the UK, in London and the Cotswolds, which I thought worked really well. It seemed so cosy and romantic spending time together with family in the countryside at Christmas. It also worked well in terms of shaking up Alec as he was subjected to the third degree by his parents and sister. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the holidays and was a little disappointed when they headed back to the states and Puffin Island.

Once they were back on Puffin Island I felt like the story slowed down a little. There was too much time spent trying to define their relationship without ever talking to each about it. The fire from earlier in the story seems to fizzle out a little and turn into angst. I also felt like there was too much time spent trying to bring in the characters from the previous books. It didn’t feel very natural to me but I’m sure loads of readers will be desperate to know how they are getting on.

The story does pick up again towards the end and I thought the conclusion of the story was perfect.

Overall it’s definitely a great romantic read for Christmas, or any other time of year.

Book Review: Sentencing Sapphire by Mia Thompson

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Sentencing Sapphire (Stalking Sapphire, #3)Sentencing Sapphire by Mia Thompson
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

If you’re looking for a deep, dark, psychological thriller about chasing down serial killers this is not the book for you. However, if you’re looking for an easy, funny, exciting read with some mystery, romance and a lot of action this book is perfect.

This is the third book in the Sapphire Dubois mystery series and one which I’ve been anxiously awaiting for ages. It seems like forever since I read Stalking Sapphire and Silencing Sapphire and I have been semi stalking Mia Thompson ever since to find the release date for this one.

The story starts with heiress and hunter of serial killers Sapphire Dubois on the run in Europe following the events at the end of the last book. Free from the constraints of her old life and reputation she’s enjoying not having to live a double life and can hunt serial killers to her hearts content. Her thoughts and dreams however keep wandering back to Detective Aston Ridder and everything she’s left behind.

When she finally decides to return home it seems her secret is out and she ends up in jail accused of murder and obstruction. She has to try to clear her name but to make things more difficult a copycat serial catcher is on the loose and Daddy is back and looking for Sapphire to join the family business (which is murder).

It had been so long since I read the first two books that I’d forgotten what it was I loved about them. However this was clear pretty much from the start of this instalment in the series.

Sapphire is a great character. She’s another kick ass heroine, intelligent, tough, independent, with a great sense of humour and a smart mouth. She seems to take most things in her stride from her latest run in with a killer to her completely crazy family and friends.

I have to admit though that Aston is my favourite character. He’s rude, curses pretty much non stop and I’m not sure how much thinking he does with his head (as opposed to other parts of his anatomy) but he does make me laugh. He definitely gets some of the best scenes and one liners. Notable examples being his choice of outfit to a masquerade ball and the morning after the night before when he wakes up at his bosses house.

Sapphire and Aston together make an explosive couple and their relationship fluctuates from love to hate from one page to the next. There is a clear attraction but being on different sides of the law causes them quite a few complications and some very funny interactions.

In addition to Sapphire and Aston there are a lot of great supporting characters including Aston’s partner Barry Harry, spoilt, shallow, billionaire heiress (and Sapphires BFF) Chrissy Kraft and possibly the thickest man ever John Vanderpilt. The stereotypes are played to the max but it totally works.

The plot itself is fast paced and exciting and as well as all of the laughs there is a lot of action. It is a who-dunnit as Sapphire has to figure out who the copycat is and solve her father’s riddles before someone she cares about gets hurt. I have to admit it kept me guessing and totally hooked throughout.

Overall I thought it was a great read and would recommend to anyone who likes a mystery that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I’m off to stalk the author some more until the next one comes out.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sunday Classic: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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20150830_143335It’s taken me a while but finally this is the first of my Sunday Classic features. I’ve set myself the goal of reading one classic novel a month and posting my thoughts on it. I’m hoping to widen my reading a bit beyond young adult, fantasy and romance and read some of those books considered classics. First up…

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I thought a good one to start off would be To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is pretty topical at the moment as it seems like everyone is reading it but believe it or not that wasn’t why I chose it. My reason was that it worked for a challenge I was doing and I found, and stole it from my parents house while they were away on holiday (don’t tell them). For once this meant I read an actual book (pictured right) and not an electronic one. Something I haven’t done in a while.

So, in addition to the theft of it from my parents house I have a couple of other confessions about this book. Firstly, I’d never read it. It seems at the moment like everyone is going on about how much they loved it when they were younger, how it influenced their life and changed them but I’d never had any inclination. To make things worse it turns out this is my father’s favourite book of all time. Based on that alone I probably should have read it sooner.

My second confession is that I almost gave up after three pages. I found it so difficult to understand the language in those first few pages I was tempted to chuck it and go find something easier for the challenge. I had no idea what was going on, who was telling the story or what half of the words actually meant. (This is the part where I probably did miss my kindle. It makes life so much easier to just highlight a word and get it’s meaning.) However, I did stick with it and read to the end and I’m kind of glad I did.

It turns out it was not at all what I expected. I haven’t seen the film so knew very little about it. I was expecting some kind of courtroom drama from the point of view of Atticus Finch. I didn’t realise the whole story was told from the point of view of his young daughter Scout and is more of a social commentary of the time than a courtroom drama (although there is a bit of that).

The whole thing gave such an incredible picture of life, growing up in that very different time with the social hierarchy that was just seen and accepted as the norm. Despite the different country, time and attitudes it felt like there were still a lot of similarities to when I was at school. There was that family who no one wanted anything to do with (something I feel guilty about now), we had a boy who just never came to class and I can remember playing in the street outside my home every evening and weekend until it got dark or we were called in for dinner.

I did love Scout. She is not the most reliable of narrators as you don’t always know everything that is going on and it feels like you miss some important things. However you can’t help but like her. She knows her own mind and just wants to be friends with everyone. She treats everyone the same and just doesn’t recognise the differences. In some ways she seems older than her age and the well thought out arguments with her father over why she shouldn’t have to go to school were hilarious. She isn’t afraid to say what she thinks and has a strong sense of right and wrong from her father Atticus.

Atticus is a likeable character and despite being a little distant seems to do a pretty good job of raising his two children. He comes across as wise, fair and more observant than Scout and her brother Jem believe. He’s obviously not happy about being landed with defending a black man accused of attacking a white woman but he does fight for what’s right even though he knows it’s a losing battle.

The scenes in the courtroom were some of the most gripping in the book and it is shocking how a group of people can destroy someone’s life based on their prejudices.

Overall I am glad I finally got round to reading it. The language was a struggle throughout and there are still parts I didn’t follow but I can understand why my Dad loves it so much.

Favourite quote from the book:

“With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.”

Book Review: The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

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The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5)The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

With five novellas together in one book this is a bit of a mixed bag. Some are better than others. Some I loved, some were great and one was just OK.

All are prequels to Throne of Glass and fill in a lot of the gaps of Celaena’s background as the worlds greatest assassin and the events leading up to her incarceration in the Endovian salt mines. I read this after Queen of Shadows (the fourth book in the series) but you could probably read it at any point. I kind of wish I’d read it before Queen of Shadows as it gives a lot of details as to why Celaena has such a grudge against certain people and there are a few characters that pop up in Queen of Shadows from these stories.

I should say I’m generally not a fan of novella’s or short stories, I tend to find that they aren’t long enough to allow for a decent plot or any real character development and most of the time it feels like just as they are getting going they come to an end or that nothing really happens. In this case however, having all five in one book is almost like having a full story albeit that there are some breaks and changes in style between the individual tales.

Anyway, it’s not fair to review as one so thought I’d go a novella at a time.

THE ASSASSIN AND THE PIRATE LORD

The first story sees Celaena off to deliver a message to Rolfe the Pirate Lord with her fellow assassin Sam. It turns out that the message is that Celaena’s master (the King of Assassins) wants to go into partnership in Rolfe’s slave trade business. Something that doesn’t sit well with Celaena and makes her consider going against orders. If she does there could be some serious consequences for both her and Sam.

I loved that this story was just classic Celaena. It starts with her disrespecting the pirate lord on his own ship, ignoring what everyone says and doing exactly what she wants. These are probably the attributes I love most about her as a character. She’s at her best when she’s cheeky, rude, proud and just a little bit crazy and out of control. This is also the story where we first get to meet Sam who is so sweet and so obviously crushing on our heroine although she’s oblivious. Initially they seem to just annoy each other (which leads to some great banter) but somehow Sam manages to sneak under her defences and she’s forced to trust him. It’s a great start to the novel.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

THE ASSASSIN AND THE HEALER

This was a shorter story than the others and in my opinion the weakest in the collection. Celaena has stopped en route to the red desert in a dive of an establishment where she waits for her ship. It’s full of thieves and mercenaries and Celaena is looking for a fight but the barmaid would rather keep her head down. The narrative flits between Celaena and Yrene (the barmaid) which I found a little bit irritating. I don’t usually mind the different perspectives in the Throne of Glass series but in this story neither narrative was particularly captivating.

Celaena was being grumpy and miserable and didn’t really care about anything or anyone. Yrene was more of an observer than a participant and I found her lack of action a little frustrating. There was little dialogue which I think was also partly the problem for me. It’s kind of an interesting story but nothing special or particularly exciting. Who knows though, maybe Yrene will reappear in a later story.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

THE ASSASSIN AND THE DESERT

In this story Celaena has made it to the desert and the league of silent assassins with whom she is to train. She need to impress the master if she wants to return home but how long can she stay on her best behaviour and can she trust those around her. To me this plot felt a bit like the Karate Kid with Celaena doing a series of seemingly pointless tasks at the instruction of a new master. While they initially all seem pointless there is a secret purpose to them which will be revealed at some point. Think “wax on wax off” and you’re not far off.

What is most interesting about this story is that it’s the first time Celaena meets another girl the same age and in a similar position to herself. This could be her first chance to make a friend if she can learn to trust. It also lets her meet a different master of assassins and the contrast between the Mute Master and her own master Arobynn gives her something of a shock and leads Celaena to question a lot of her beliefs.

The ending is not particularly surprising but I thought it was a good read and it has a nice pace to it.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

THE ASSASSIN AND THE UNDERWORLD

This for me was the best of the five novellas in this collection.

Celaena is back home in Rifthold and ready to give her master Arobynn what for but somehow he manages to knock the wind out of her sails and convinces her to stay. He showers her with gifts and convinces her to take on a job that she believes will achieve something good. However, things may not be as they seem and she has to decide whether to trust Arobynn. I think everyone at this point, me included, is shouting no.

The relationship between Celaena and Arobynn is one of the most fascinating aspects of this story. You can never really get a clear answer as to whether he truly cares about her or whether he is playing games and using her. The highlight of this story however is the romance between Celaena and Sam. They are just so sweet and funny together. He is still so obviously hung up on her from the first time they bump into each other but Celaena is back to pushing everyone away. She just can’t help being rude and nasty. I love how he sticks by her regardless of how much she exasperates him.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (mostly for Sam)

THE ASSASSIN AND THE EMPIRE

Having read the rest of the series I was kind of dreading this story. Anyone else who has read the books know how things turn out between Sam and Celaena and I didn’t want to read it.

The story starts with them together and free from Arobynn at last, or are they?. They are short of money and if they really want to get away and make a new start they need one last job. The job they take on however could actually be too much for even the greatest assassin.

Knowing how it was all going to end I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach from the very start. The tale itself was just what I expected frustrating and so sad. It didn’t have the same emotion or depth for me as Crown of Midnight or Heir of Fire but this goes back to the novella thing. I felt like Sam and Celaena never really had a period of happiness so I wasn’t rooting for their relationship as much as I could have been. It also felt like you didn’t know that much about Sam which is a pity. It would have been nice to have some of the narrative from his point of view to know what he was thinking. It does however explain a lot of what happens in Queen of Shadows.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In terms of the book as a whole, I did enjoy it and would recommend it but maybe read it earlier than I did as I think you’d get more out of it.

Book Review: The First Last Kiss by Ali Harris

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The First Last KissThe First Last Kiss by Ali Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m one of those people who cry at pretty much everything, films, sad songs, stories on the news and even TV ads but I don’t think anyone could read this book without being reduced to a blubbering mess by the end.

It’s difficult to describe this book without giving too much away but essentially it’s the story of the relationship between Molly and Ryan. The story begins with Molly being woken up not by a kiss but by her cat Harry. It’s moving day and as she packs up her belongings and generally procrastinates (which I can totally relate to) she reminisces about moments and kisses she shared with love of her life Ryan.

In some ways it reminded me quite a lot of One Day by David Nicholls as it’s a series of episodes in their life that are linked in some way. However, where One Day was set on the same date, in this case the episodes are linked by the different types of kiss they represent such as the worst first kiss, the lost kiss, the celebratory kiss and the eternal kiss. This means that the story jumps back and forward in time from the mid 90’s when they first met as teenagers to the present day with Molly packing away her memories.

It seems at the start that they aren’t together any more, and the title of the book suggests that if there is a first last kiss there must be a last last kiss at some point, but what happened? Were they too young and grew apart, was someone unfaithful or has something driven them apart? I have to admit these questions and more drove me a little crazy. At some points I decided they were actually still together or at least that’s what I hoped.

I absolutely loved Ryan as a character. He just seemed so perfect, good looking, athletic, loving, romantic, funny, popular and totally devoted to Molly. I loved how determined he was to win her over and how he would do anything to keep them together and make her happy (although the story was told from Molly’s point of view so I suspect there was some bias).

Molly I wasn’t so sure about. She was the more ambitious of the two and always seemed to be wanting more than what she had. A better job, better flat, more nights out to the newest and trendiest places and to travel all over the world. She seemed like the rebellious teen who’d never really grown up unlike Ryan who wanted to settle down in his hometown near his family.

As individuals they couldn’t be more different but as a couple they just worked so well. I found myself really rooting for them and that was an emotional rollercoaster. There are some funny moments, some romantic moments that left me smiling for the rest of the day and some exceptionally sad moments which will take me a while to get over. Even thinking about it now, hours later makes me want to smile and cry. I’m so jealous of the love they seemed to have.

I have to admit I found the episodic style of the story and all of the jumping back and forward in time a little confusing and frustrating, particularly at the start. I kind of wish the author had just told the story but by the end it turned out there was a reason for it and once I understood it it made a lot more sense.

Overall it’s a great read and a book I’d recommend to anyone who loves a good romance and a bit of a tearjerker.

Book Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

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Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“There was nothing left in her, not really. Only ash and an abyss and the unbreakable vow she’d carved into her flesh, to the friend who had seen her for what she truly was.”

I really love this series. It is so well written each book seems to build on the previous. It completely draws you in, overwhelms you and leaves you with an ending that could take months to recover from.

In Heir of Fire the story starts with Celaena alone, abandoned and in a very dark place. She has been sent by the King of Adarlan to Wendlyn “a land of myths and monsters – of legends and nightmares made flesh” to kill the King and Crown Prince leaving the country open to invasion. However she is overcome with grief and guilt after the events of the previous book and can’t do it. Instead she does nothing. She barely eats, drinks too much, starts fights and generally just hates herself.

She is soon found by Rowan Whitethorn, a distant fae cousin and servant of Maeve, who he takes her to meet. She seeks answers from Maeve but is refused them until she becomes worthy. To become worthy she must train with Rowan and learn to control her power. If she succeeds Rowan will take her to Doranelle, home of the fae to get the answers she needs to save her home, and if she fails she will be back to where she started with nothing but self hatred.

It’s very reminiscent of Throne of Glass, the first book in the series, with Rowan taking the place of Captain Chaol Westfall. However this time Celaena seems to have met a far superior opponent. While she walked all over everyone in Adarlan she is no match for the skills and abilities of Rowan and to make it worse he looks at her like something he scraped off his shoe. With her confidence at rock bottom it seems unlikely she will be able to win him over. As it turns out winning Rowan over isn’t the only thing she should be worried about, there are monsters lurking nearby and someone or something is killing demi fae.

Meanwhile back in Adarlan, Chaol and Prince Dorian are missing their friend and trying to work out how to deal with what they have learned about the King. It’s starting to look like they’re going to have to pick a side but will they be on the same one.

It’s safe to say there is a lot going on in this book and if I had one criticism it’s that I found it all a bit confusing at the start. We are in a different land and there are a lot of new characters to try to remember. As well as Rowan and the other characters that Celaena meets in Wendlyn, we are introduced to her cousin Aedion, the rebels and the witches. It’s quite a lot to take in and keep track of.

I did think that Rowan was a great addition to the series. It was so good to have a character who doesn’t worship or fear our heroine. He’s much older than she is and quite closed off and mysterious. He can’t be bothered with her self pitying attitude and Celaena is actually a little bit wary of him and has to check her attitude (to an extent). Their relationship and the way it developed over the course of the story was definitely one of the highlights for me. I absolutely loved their silent arguments.

Celaena herself develops and grows quite a lot over the course of this novel. At the start of the story she is at a pretty low ebb. She’s lost a lot of her vanity, pride and self assurance and ironically seems a lot more human as a result. She doesn’t want to admit who she really is and seems a little bit lost. At times my heart felt like it was breaking for her. She was just so lonely and tragic. There are still a few glimpses of the assassin but in this book she has to decide who she is and who she wants to be. Does she want to claim her birth right and fight for freedom or will she give up and run away?

For me this felt like a very transitional story. It feels a lot slower than the previous story particularly at the start but it does build and build throughout to a fairly heart stopping ending. I kind of missed having Celaena, Dorian and Chaol together and there was definitely not enough of the evil King of Adarlan but I get the feeling that it’s building the tension and setting the scene for the next story Queen of Shadows.

I did enjoy this but I have a feeling Queen of Shadows will be awesome.

List Five: September Reads

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August and September seem to be bumper months for new books. There are loads of books I’ve been looking forward to for ages being released so I thought I’d use this weeks list five to explain why I will have my nose stuck in a series of books for the next few weeks. Don’t expect any conversation from me but I would appreciate it if you could occasionally drop off food so I don’t forget to eat while I’m reading the following books.

1. 3.34am by Nick Pirog.

4eeb71_645180236b6445189a2f02d3bd318730.jpg_srz_p_262_419_75_22_0.50_1.20_0I love all of Nick Pirog’s books but the Henry Bins series is definitely my favourite. Henry Bins has Henry Bins syndrome a condition that means he is awake for only one hour a day from 3am to 4am. He manages to cram a heck of a lot into his hour including eating, exercising, watching Game of Thrones, earning a living, chatting with cat Lassie and occasionally solving murders or helping the President of the United States. You know, the usual stuff but in a limited timescale.

3.34am is the third book in the series and is advertised as being “Twice the length, Twice the fun and Twice the Lassie”. As I absolutely love and adore Lassie I’m sold and it’s sitting waiting on my kindle for me to get a chance to read it. I’m hoping this one will answer the big question of why he’s only awake one hour a day.

2. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor

51iqvRSqojL._SL160_Another continuation of a series by an author I love. This time it’s Jodi Taylor and book number 6 in the St Mary’s series.

The St Mary’s series follows a group of time travelling historians as they visit and document events in different time periods. I hated history at school but these books really bring it to life particularly as the historians tend to be disaster magnets and you can more or less guarantee that rather than being objective observers they almost always get dragged into the action. In previous books they’ve visited Troy, Pompei and met some very famous people so I’m very excited to see where this one will take them. Jodi’s books are always very funny and are riddled with great one liners and some very eccentric characters.

I just need to make sure I have enough tea in before I get started.

3. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

18006496I’ve just finished the third book in the Throne of Glass series but had book number 4 pre-ordered before I started. I love these books so much. It’s very difficult to describe them without spoilers but it’s full of action, romance, magic, terrifying creatures, witches, fae, and warring kingdoms. I hate comparing books to other but have seen it described as a young adult Game of Thrones which is probably not far off. Expect a review of Heir of Fire soon but in the meantime isn’t this a great opening for the fourth book:

“There was a thing waiting in the darkness.

It was ancient, and cruel, and paced in the shadows leashing his mind. It was not of this world, and had been brought here to fill him with primordial cold.”

I’m hooked already. I’m expecting bigger battles than ever from this one.

4. After You by Jojo Moyes

thumbThis is one of those books that could go either way. The author herself said she hadn’t planned a sequel to Me Before You but I think came under quite a bit of pressure to reveal what happens next.

I do love Jojo Moyes and have read pretty much all of her books but I’m a little bit wary of this one. Me Before You was one of my all time favourites and I’m scared this book could ruin it all. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to resist reading it as, like everyone else, I want to know what happens next.

I just really and truly hope it’s great.

5. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

SoC_3D_CvrThe final book on the list is not part of a series but a spin off. I read the Grisha trilogy at the start of this year and loved it. This book is set in the same world of magic and monsters but has a completely different set of characters. This time we have a group of six outcasts brought together to commit an impossible heist with some pretty serious consequences if they fail.

What I loved about the Grisha series is that it felt very unique. There were some fantastic characters and great dialogue. The writing style and world Leigh creates is so different from any other that I’m hoping this will be a great start to a new series.

Book Review: The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies

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The Tea Planter's WifeThe Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was something very different from my usual read but I thought the description sounded good and it has some great reviews so decided to give it a try. Unfortunately it kind of reminded me why I don’t tend to read this type of book. I just couldn’t connect with the characters.

The story begins with 19 year old Gwen arriving alone in Ceylon to meet the man she recently married, Laurence. Laurence owns a tea plantation in Ceylon and, while overwhelmed by the change in her life, Gwen is very much in love with him and can’t wait to join him.

When he meets her in Colombo it seems all is well but as soon as they reach the plantation things change. Laurence becomes distant and is keeping secrets from her, there is unrest amongst the workers and Gwen is struggling to find her place and role. She begins to feel very much alone with no one to trust or confide in. When things finally start to improve Gwen is forced to make a terrible choice between her husband and her child but can she live with her choice.

Essentially it’s a story about secrets and lies and the damage they can do to a person and a relationship. Almost everyone in the book seems to be keeping some secret from everyone else and there are some complex moral dilemmas. It’s an interesting story that does keep you reading in the hope that you can get to the truth.

While the plot is interesting I found the pacing of the story a little bit slow. However, for me, the biggest problem in the book was Gwen. I’m afraid I couldn’t relate to her and I don’t think I even particularly liked her. At the start of the book she came across as very brave, marrying a man much older than herself and travelling from England to Ceylon alone to be with him. As the story went on though I started to feel she was quite naive and gullible and generally quite weak which I found frustrating. I wanted to shake her and tell her to get a grip, stop trusting everyone (particularly those who clearly have it in for you) and stand up for yourself. Most of my sympathy was with her husband and the others in the household rather than with Gwen and as a result I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I could have.

There are some great descriptions of Ceylon and life on a tea plantation at that time which I found fascinating but I think I just find the differences in attitudes and behaviour difficult to relate to. I’m not sure how keen I’ll be to read any more historical fiction for that reason.

Overall, I’d rate it as OK. I think those who love period family sagas will love it but unfortunately I’m not one of those people.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review. It will be on general release on 3rd of September for those interested.

List Five : Scottish Authors

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This week I’ve taken my inspiration from the kilt wearing bagpipe player outside the supermarket this morning and have gone for a list of five Scottish authors. There have of course been many great authors born and bred in Scotland (I blame it on the bad weather forcing people to stay indoors) so it’s a bit of a challenge to limit it to just three but I’ve gone for some of my favourites. I should say, these are in no particular order as their books are so different it is impossible to compare them.

1. Ian Rankin

First on the list and arguably one of the most famous current Scottish authors Ian Rankin. It was my Dad who started me on Ian Rankin’s books as he was a big fan and at that point I was going through a bit of a crime phase (reading wise not mugging little old ladies).

He is probably best known for the Detective Rebus series which is set in his home town of Edinburgh (capital city of Scotland). It’s your standard grumpy, middle aged detective and his younger female partner who work in the homicide department investigating murders. Despite some of the clichéd characters they are enjoyable reads. There have been a couple of attempts to turn them into a TV series but in my opinion these were not particularly successful. I much prefer the books but then I usually do.

2. Christopher Brookmyre

Another mystery and thriller writer whose books have been turned into a TV series. The most well known of his books is Quite Ugly One Morning which was the first in the Jack Parlabane series and the one turned into a TV series starring James Nesbitt as the reporter who is dragged into a murder investigation. As well as the Jack Parlabane series, he has a couple of other series as well as quite a few standalone works.

What I love about his books are the fantastic titles, “Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks” springs to mind, as well as the generally incompetent villains who are often more of a danger to themselves than anyone else in the book. The other thing I really like is that they are for the most part set in west central Scotland which is where I live and work. Books feel so much more real when you can visualise a particular place.

Occasionally there is a bit too much social or political commentary for my tastes and they can be a bit blokey with big long sections on computer games, football or music but that can be forgiven as he is the author of one of my all time favourite books The Sacred Art of Stealing.

3. Jenny Colgan

Just to prove that it’s not all crime and murder in Scottish books I thought I’d better include Jenny Colgan chic lit author extraordinaire. Currently lives mostly in France but was born in Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland.

I’ve been reading Jenny’s books ever since I first picked up Looking for Andrew McCarthy many years ago. Her books are funny, quirky, occasionally sad and have an interesting mix of characters. Most of the latest ones have had some sort of food related theme (sweetshop of dreams, beachfront bakery, cupcake café etc) which is great because who doesn’t love reading about cakes and sweets. What makes them even better is that they tend to include a selection of recipes to try at home. I still use the cupcake recipe as it never fails despite how incompetent I am in the kitchen. (she also posts them on her blog which you can find here)

As a random fact, she recently wrote an episode of Doctor Who which is one of my favourite TV shows.

4. Stuart MacBride

…and it’s back to crime and murder. This time mostly in the Aberdeen area (north east of Scotland).

Stuart MacBride books tend to get compared with Ian Rankin but I actually kind of prefer them in some ways. His most famous series features police detective Logan McRae who seems to end up investigating an inordinate number of serial killers. What makes the stories so great is how real the characters feel. They avoid a lot (although not all) of the clichés such as the alcohol problem and the ex wife and all of the characters develop and change over the course of the series.

There is quite a bit of humour, mostly dark, a lot of bad language, usually some pretty gruesome deaths and some violence. Main character Logan is pretty likeable, doesn’t want to be a hero just wants to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but the big draw for me is the cast of supporting dysfunctional characters who tend to make me laugh. I also love the constant commentary on the miserable weather. It is almost always raining which to be honest is pretty true to life in Scotland. The running joke here is that you know it’s summer because the rain’s warm.

5. Lewis Grassic Gibbon

I have to admit I’ve only read one Lewis Grassic Gibbon novel, Sunset Song, but it had such a big influence on me I had to include him in the list. He was born in Aberdeenshire in 1901 and passed away in 1935 but I think his books will remain classics forever.

Sunset Song is the first in the Scots Quair trilogy and was a set text when I was in secondary school meaning I was essentially forced to read it, or at least that’s how it felt at the time. At the start I absolutely hated it. It’s a very difficult book to read as the language includes a lot of words local to the area and the time which I had no idea of the meaning of. I spent probably the first quarter of the book flicking to the back pages where there were translations for some of the terms. It’s very difficult to get into a book when you have to keep looking words up.

However once I started to pick up the language I found I really loved it. It was one of the first books I had to really think about and which raised a lot of issues about the impact of the war. The characters were so real and the story captivating. It broke my heart in places.

Anyway, that’s my list for this week. What do you think? It’s got me thinking about how many crime writers there are in Scotland which is a bit of a worry but I promise it’s not all crime and death.