In my opinion... I enjoyed Valentina, and was looking forward to reading 'The Proposal', without really having any concept of what it may be about. It turned out that it is an incredibly creepy and uncomfortable book to read. The characters are horribly real, I can still imagine Ryan now. I felt a sense of unease throughout 'The Proposal' which kept me hooked. The story is well written, rapidly moving forward with one twist after another, using a number of different, very effective techniques; blog, diary and comments from Ryan. We are told from the beginning that if we're reading this book, our narrator is dead, which makes us complicit in the story, but all the way through I kept wondering
In my opinion... I’ve had a bumper crop of psychological thrillers to review recently, and it’s been great! Some with similar titles, and, bizarrely, a similar concept of someone coming into your home/invading your space, but there the similarities end. This novel heads into the region of domestic noir, and as Adele Parks says, her style is to 'tell-it-as-it-is', and she certainly does that. Parks is an experienced story teller, and it shows. Her characters are credible, the story line is very contemporary. Who hasn’t been excited to reconnect whether through Facebook or some school reunion link with friends from the past? Mel’s kindness and tolerance towards Abi are believable, even a touch
In my opinion... An unusual concept for a story- I raced through this unsettling book, not totally sure how it was going to be resolved. From the beginning I didn't trust Miriam, but I wasn't sure why not. Unfortunately, I didn't actually like or sympathise with any of the main characters- and at times felt quite judgemental about their behaviour. I'm not convinced that in 2018 some of the events could have happened in a school (trying to avoid spoilers here!) - but I'm certainly glad my children aren't starting in Reception this year... Regardless, it did keep me guessing, with some significant twists right until the end, and is a very uncomfortable read- so I do think the author has achie
Lucia Graves(translator) In my opinion... Opening this book and starting to read was like coming home. I relaxed, and missed my train stop- I was in the hands of a master story teller. The language, even in translation, is inspirational and atmospheric, painting a magical world full of stories within stories. I read ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ and ‘The Angel’s Game’ many years ago, and loved them, so was excited to have the opportunity to read Ruiz Zafon’s latest work. I was being pulled back into a place that I was happy to revisit. Although I haven’t read ‘The Prisoner of Heaven’ I didn’t feel that affected my pleasure in this novel. The quality of writing is exquisite. The story, as you may
In my opinion... I found that I had to repeatedly rebuy 'I Don't Know How She Does It', as every friend I passed it to loaned it on to another friend, so I do take credit for Allison Pearson's previous success in achieving sales targets! When I was given the opportunity to review 'How Hard Can it Be,' I was apprehensive. It had been a long time, I'd changed. I hoped Allison wouldn't try too hard to produce those witty, pithy, unforgettable one liners, but ,all is well, Kate Reddy has aged too. Sadly I can empathise all too easily with her life, those cringing , toe curling moments. I even laughed out loud on the train-I never laugh at books on the train! I confess I do try and hide the book
In my opinion... Oh Lucy Clarke, yet again you play your readers so well. For those of us who follow Lucy on social media, this novel at times makes you feel it is scarily close to the truth…there are clues dangled before us, which may, or may not, enable us to have a glimpse into the author’s life. Facebook live feeds, tweets- yes they’re all there! But how reliable is our narrator… This is such a clever novel. We are drip fed information and I was hooked the whole time. I believed in the characters, I lived the story, I felt frustrated and wasn’t sure how it was going to be resolved. The clever twist did not disappoint. Having read all of Lucy’s novels, I was really looking forward to it,
