Mortlock by Jon Mayhew

Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
First published by Bloomsbury in 2010 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2011)

Description (from Goodreads)

The sister is a knife-thrower in a magician's stage act, the brother an undertaker's assistant. Neither orphan knows of the other's existence. Until, that is, three terrible aunts descend on the girl's house and imprison her guardian, the Great Cardamom. His dying act is to pass the girl a note with clues to the secret he carries to his grave.

My thoughts
That there is the most awful book description I have ever seen! I am pretty sure that is not what is on the back cover of the book, but I can't find the book right now, so I'll just have to keep this one for now. Anyways, other than that fact, this one was a book that try as I might, I just couldn't get myself to enjoy.


((I found another description (from the author's website this time). I think it's better than that one above.))

A wonderfully exciting, dark, and gruesomely gothic middle-grade chiller, set in Victorian London. Perfect and pacy entertainment for both girls and boys of 8+. 

For orphan Josie, life is good with Cardamom, the great magician who took her in as a baby and with whom she now performs her astounding knife-throwing act. But then three mysterious ‘aunts’ turn up - taking over the house and transforming into vicious, giant crows, in thrall to evil Lord Corvis. With his dying breath, Cardamon tells Josie to ‘seek the Amarant - and Mortlock’.  So begins a terrifying quest for Josie and her newly discovered twin, Alfie, the undertaker’s mute, who soon realize that the legendary Amarant is a plant with power over life and death, which Cardamon, Corvis and Mortlock first discovered many years ago in Abyssinia.

Only the final destruction of the plant can quench Corvis’s growing powers and evil plans.  Braving a circus of the living dead, and a terrifying encounter with the Amarant in a graveyard, Josie and Alfie will need all their courage and skills to save themselves and the world.

I'm not sure what it was about it that I just didn't like. The storyline itself was not bad. It was based on a rather interesting idea; it was the delivery that I found to be rather lacking.


The story focuses on two long lost siblings; they grew up separately, one - Josie - as an assistant to a magician and the other - Alfie - as an assistant to an undertaker. But circumstances lead to them being reunited, when three terrible aunts arrive at Josie's home and threaten her and her guardian, Cardamom. In the space of days, Cardamom is dead (yes, guess who did it!) and leaves Josie with barely just enough information to figure out where she came from. Joining forces with Alfie, the two children go through some pretty tough situations before finally figuring out the mystery.


So, as you can see, there is much to go with and it does have the potential to make a pretty good and fast paced story. But for me, it turned out to be a little disappointing. There were quite a few pretty gory scenes of birds devouring various things and of weird transformations, which would be pretty scary for the intended audience, but other than that, the story felt a bit flat. It didn't feel as if the two children were very anxious and scared, and as a result, it didn't make me feel scared.


But then again, I do concede that I read this from a different perspective that if I had been a younger reader. I think I will have felt much different after having read it if I were younger. So, if you do like the sound of it, then don't let my review put you off it. Each to their own!


Rating: 3/10


Author:
To find out information about Jon Mayhew and his book, you can check out his website HERE.




Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
First published by Viking in 2009 (this edition by Penguin in 2010)

Description (from Goodreads)

Annie loves Duncan — or thinks she does. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn’t. Duncan really loves Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanish singer-songwriter who stopped making music ten years ago. Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life. 
In doing so, she initiates an e-mail correspondence with Tucker, and a connection is forged between two lonely people who are looking for more out of what they’ve got. Tucker’s been languishing (and he’s unnervingly aware of it), living in rural Pennsylvania with what he sees as his one hope for redemption amid a life of emotional and artistic ruin — his young son, Jackson. But then there’s also the new material he’s about to release to the world: an acoustic, stripped-down version of his greatest album,Juliet — entitled, Juliet, Naked. 
What happens when a washed-up musician looks for another chance? And miles away, a restless, childless woman looks for a change? Juliet, Naked is a powerfully engrossing, humblingly humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one’s promise.

My thoughts
Having already read two other Nick Hornby books this year (High Fidelity and Slam) and enjoying them both very much, I decided to read Juliet, Naked. Well, it was also because I was looking for a small book to travel with. But I was going to be reading it sometime, anyway, it just happened sooner rather than later!

Juliet, Naked felt rather different to High Fidelity and Slam, for some reason. In Juliet, Naked, we have Annie and Duncan,a couple who have been together for years and think they love each other. But Duncan also has this pathological "infatuation" with Tucker Crowe - a reclusive musician who has been out of the music scene for nigh in ten years -, that seems to always take precedence over Annie. At the beginning on the book, Annie and Duncan are actually on a Tucker Crowe pilgrimage; visiting all the places that had some significance to the songs from Crowe's disks.

Then, when they get back to England, Duncan gets sent a cd, which has yet to be released and is titled Juliet, Naked, as it features acoustic demos of all the songs on Tucker Crowe's last (and greatest) album. In a conflict of opinions, Annie and Duncan grow further apart and Annie starts a correspondence with Tucker, through a string of bizzare events! And that's where I am going to stop, because if I go on, I'll just summarise the whole book for you!

In Juliet, Naked, we have a variety of different characters. First, we have Annie. Annie is a lovely, if slightly timid (in the beginning) woman, who has become comfortable in the knowledge that she has someone there for her, despite the fact that that someone isn't really there for her. But she starts seeing things more clearly and realises that what she has with Duncan doesn't really mean anything and that she has - essentially - wasted her best years on him. Duncan was a complete and utter idiot. He had his head in cloud-cuckoo-land, was - at best - just passively interested in what Annie was doing and was a firm believer that she could not have an opinion about Tucker Crowe's music; only the best of them, those names Crewe-ologists, had the right (as well as the in-depth knowledge) to do such a thing. Tucker Crowe was another lovely character; it was obvious he had his issues (and was doing a pretty good job of avoiding them), but you couldn't really help but like him. And then there was Jackson! At times, I felt a little sorry for him, but he was such a cute little boy!

The focus of this book is how relationships work (or don't work). There are prime examples of what NOT to do to make a relationship work and other examples of what to do so as to say that you tried, but it just didn't work out in the end (or you have yet to see what will come of it). Nick Hornby has managed to create yet another memorable male character in the form of Duncan; though he will not stay in your mind for how adorable he may sound, but for how idiotic and blind he really is (and actually reaches the point of not recognising what he's lost even when he has lost it). It takes a lot of skill to do that.

Rating: 6/10


Author:
You can find out more about Nick Hornby and his books at the end of my review of High Fidelity.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challnge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

One Day by David Nicholls

One Day by David Nicholls
First published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2009 (this edition by Hodder Paperbacks in 2010)

Description (from Goodreads)

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.' 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. 

My thoughts
One Day was a book that I had been seeing around quite a lot, especially since the trailer for the film (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess) came out. I had seen it in my local bookshop a couple of times, but it always disappeared before I got a chance to buy it for myself. Sometime later, I was talking to my Grandma and the subject of books and my blog came up. She said that she had a book that is very popular, but which she read and pretty much hated. And then she said the book was called One Day.

So, you can see that when I got round to reading it myself, I was preparing for the worst. My Grandma has quite good taste in books (though not always), and it was one of the few times that she has expressed strong (bad) feelings about a book to me. But I still wanted to try and read it for myself and it sounded like a nice book to read on the beach, so I did.

The story is told in a rather different way. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the 15th of July 1988, the night of their graduation. Each chapter in the book is focused on events on or surrounding the 15th of July in later years. So, essentially, you get to see one day of every year in the lives of Emma and Dexter over the span of 20 years.

The book started off as rather promising. Both Emma and Dexter were perfectly likeable (Emma a little more so) and the story was progressing in a nice way. But then something happened that caused Dexter to act like a major idiot and resulted in my not liking him at all. And wondering why Emma puts up with all that idiocy (and other nice words I'm not going to mention). Emma was likeable throughout the novel; she has a lovely personality, is genuinely nice and sweet and definitely brings out the best in Dexter. Dexter is mostly an obnoxious, arrogant and supremely irritating boy (and, yes, I do mean boy, as he pointedly refuses to grow up for the greater part of the book) and it because of him that I ended up not enjoying the novel as much as I hoped to.

One Day is by no means a bad book. It is a lovely love story and it is told in a rather different, interesting way. The fact that the author chooses one day in each year to tell you about all things Emma and Dexter works very well and, essentially, allowed him to span the story over so many years, without it getting too tiring (seeing as there wasn't much space to put unnecessary information in). And then, there was that ending. I was shocked; I was appalled; I am still trying to figure out what on EARTH possessed the author to finish the book like that. You'll know what I mean when you read it.

Rating: 6/10


Author:
David Nicholls is a British author, screenwriter and actor. He studied English Literature and Drama at the University of Bristol. After he graduated, he won a scholarship to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. Upon returning to the UK in 1991, he worked as an actor, as well as a screenwriter and script-editor. Other books by David Nicholls:

Starter for Ten   |   The Understudy

You can find out more about David Nicholls from his official website.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

Sister by Rosamund Lupton
First published by Piatkus in 2010 (this edition by Piatkus in 2011)


Description (from Goodreads)

Nothing can break the bond between sisters... 
When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face. 
The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

My thoughts
Sister was not at all what I expected it to be. By that, I don't mean that I was expecting it to be a bright and light hearted read, but I definitely did not think it was going to be as it turned out to be (I am being purposely mysterious, because I don't know how else to phrase what I want to say and not spoil the book for you.)

The main character in Sister is Beatrice (or Bee). The whole book is actually a narration of the events that happened four months prior to the present time (of the book), with Beatrice telling the story from the beginning - when she gets a call from her Mother who tells her that her sister, Tess, has been missing for four days - as part of her testimony to Mr Wight, a lawyer who is keeping track of all the records and testimonials.

It is discovered quite early on that Tess is dead, something which was obvious from the first few pages of the novel. I found it rather weird that the author would choose to have the discovery of Tess' death so early on in the novel, but, since she did choose to, it became obvious that the book is not the story of Beatrice trying to find her sister alive, but rather of trying to find out exactly what happened to her, seeing as everyone else believes it to be a suicide.

The story is a very well written one, and though it kept me wanting to find out what happens in the end, it wasn't one that made me feel like I just had to read one more chapter; and then another; and then another. The characters were easy to relate to and down-to-earth, with a few cases of "worship" (you can't speak ill of the dead, can you?) and others of irritating/selfish/slap-worthy personalities. But what surprised me the most was the ending. Or maybe - to make myself more clear - the chapters leading up to the ending. Parts of them just seemed to come out of nowhere and they actually left me stunned (not the best word, but I couldn't find another one...)

All in all, Sister was a good book that is worth reading, even if you're not really into mystery/thriller/detective stories. It just wasn't one that I can say I absolutely loved. I really did like the author's writing style, so I will definitely be trying out her new book, Afterwards!

Rating: 6/10


Author:
Rosamund Lupton studied English Literature at Cambridge University. After she got her BA, she first worked as a freelance reviewer and copyeditor and then, went on to become a full-time screenwriter for BBC and independent film companies. Sister was her first novel and her second novel, Afterwards, just came out in the UK.

You can find more about Rosamund Lupton from her website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

Sleepwalking by Nicola Morgan

Sleepwalking by Nicola Morgan
First published by Hodder Children's Books in 2004 (this edition by Hodder Children's Books in 2004)

Description (from back cover):
Imagine being born into a world without wonder, where even your happiness is controlled.
A world where rain is programmed to fall, where mood state is at all times the same. Passive. Accepting.
But there are some citizens of this world, who refuse to have their story written for them. They are the Outsiders - and they risk death for their chosen life.
Now, even they are losing strength and heart. It is up to four 'chosen' teenagers to restore their hopes and dreams, and their stories ... for good.


My thoughts:
Sleepwalking is one of my favourite books ever. And I do mean EVER! I think I first read it 8 or so years ago, but I have read it time and time again over the years (which is pretty easy to do, as it's a rather short book). I still love it, though. Every single time.

The society in this book is weird, to say the least. It's probably the first dystopian society I ever read about in a book... People live in cities, which cater to their every need. They have special prescriptions, called pims and funks, which are specially adjusted to each person, so as to make them as calm as possible. Those prescriptions serve the purpose of keeping order within the city. Despite that, there are still guards around, to keep the Outsiders out of the cities, despite the fact that being an Outsider is not illegal.

There are four heroes in this book: Livia, Marcus, Tavius and Cassandra. The first three grew up in a completely sheltered environment, as opposed to Cassandra, who grew up as an actual Outsider and has seen much more than a girl her ages should have seen. They come from completely different circumstances, but they have a common purpose: to try and restore the world back to what it used to be before pims and funks.

The actual explanation as to how the whole situation came to be the way it was is really ingenious and one that is definitely appealing to children (like me!). I really liked how the author explained everything in the end. I'm not going to say anything else, because it's definitely going to be spoiler-y.

I will admit that this time around, I found this book a little too quick. Everything seemed to be happen very fast. I probably only just noticed it because I am a little older now. I was also very sad when I saw that it is now out of print. It's such a lovely book, it deserves to be out there for more children to read.

Rating: 10/10


Author:
Nicola Morgan is the author of numerous books for children and teenagers. As in, she has had nearly 90 books published. 90! On her website, you can find a lot of interesting little facts about her, such as:

•  She used to go to an all boys’ school.
• She has one leg longer than the other.
• Each time she has a new book contract, she buys new boots.
• She used to be a professional cook.

Sleepwalking and Mondays Are Red are currently out of print, but she has loads of other books she has written, such as Fleshmarket, Deathwatch, The Highwayman's Curse and Wasted.

You can find out more about Nicola Morgan and her books HERE.

One Chance by Steve May

One Chance by Steve May
First published by Egmont in 2004 (this edition by Egmont in 2004)


Description (from Goodreads):
Jaq, is running scared. This is France, wartime, 1940. Dodging soldiers and enemy tanks, hunted by the villagers for thieving, Jaq has nowhere to hide, nowhere to shelter, no one to turn to. And then he meets Lise...Told in the manner of a traditional adventure story, Steve May's writing stands out for its pace and dynamism, and offers a wonderfully fresh and modern account of wartime France.


My thoughts:
I only picked up this book because, after 1984, I was in the mood for something much lighter and much easier to read. One Chance is a children's book, which we have had for quite a few years, but which I had not read when I was younger. 


What I got was not what I expected. This is a book that is definitely targeted to a much, much younger audience than my 21-year-old self. The good thing about this book is that, instead of focusing on the war itself, it focused on the relationships between the members of two families, when Jaq, a 15 year old thief, appears and steals a chicken from one of them. All of these events happen having the war as a background and it only seems more real as the reader reaches the end of the book. It doesn't lessen the effect of the war, as it is mentioned throughout the book; it's just that it is more real near the end. The characters are ok. I didn't feel as if I could relate to any one of them, except maybe Yvette, Lise's mother. She was a wonderful maternal figure, not afraid to stand up for her beliefs.


The one thing I really did not like about this book was the writing. I hadn't liked it even after a few pages, but it got more tiring as the book progressed. As a result, it took me 2 days to finish a 250-pages-long children's book with a relatively large font. To give you an example, this is what you can find on the back cover of the book (but it is in the same tone as most of the book):

This is France, 1940. War is approaching and Jaq is running scared. Branded as a thief. Hunted. He has nowhere to hide. No one to turn to. And then he meets Lise.

Most of the time, it felt as if I was reading a telegram or something of the sort. Though I did not enjoy it very much, I am pretty positive that a younger child would probably enjoy the book. (It is the intended audience, after all!)

Rating: 4/10

Author:

Steve May is a teacher, poet and radio dramatist, among other things. His novel, One Chance, has been described as a classic wartime adventure story, fit to rival the storytelling of Morpurgo.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

1984 by George Orwell

1984 (or Nighteen Eighty-Four) by George Orwell
First published in 1945 (this edition published by Penguin Books in 2008)


Description (from Goodreads):
'It was a bright cold day in april, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal.
When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent.

Ninteen Eighty-Four is George Orwell's terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.


My thoughts:
I have been wanting to read a book by George Orwell for a few years but decided to read one now mainly because of the fact that I am participating in the Author A-Z Challenge this month and realised I had not read any books by authors whose surname begins in O. I was definitely planning on reading one of his books this year, but the time came sooner rather than later. And, as I am obviously not the smartest crayon in the box, I started with the long and more difficult of his two books that I own, 1984 (the other being the infinitely more manageable, Animal Farm).


Regardless, I really enjoyed reading this book. It is very, very political, and, even though I am not a great one for politics (they bore me), I found myself wanting to read more and more of it, to find out what happens. The main character in this book is Winston Smith, a man in his late thirties, who works for the Ministry of Truth (also known as Mini-true). He goes to work everyday, makes all the changes to documents he is told to make (by a weird device on his desk which seems to sprout out papers) and then goes back to his house, and is constantly under the surveillance of  a telescreen. The story takes place in London, which is now the biggest city on Airstrip One and a part of Oceania. (Yes, I did say Oceania.) There, he begins a little rebellion of his own, as he purchases a diary and a pen without anyone knowing (from a prole - proletarian - store) and sits in the only place in his apartment where the telescreen cannot see him.


At some point, he meets Julia. At first, he hates her, because she embodies all that he finds wrong with the system. But, gradually, things start to come to the surface, that he ends up falling in love with her. It turns out that Julia is a lot more complex than he previously thought. I have to say, while reading about her, I did experience a certain admiration towards her character, as to how she managed to live what was essentially a double life.


The most interesting part of the novel is, by far, the third one. I am not going to tell you what it's about, but it gives you a certain understanding of the order of things. People are not who they seem to be, while certain places are used to 'cure' people of ideas in any way possible. In this part, we get to find out how the system really works and why it works in such a way and I found it very interesting.


Another part of the book I really enjoyed reading (though I don't usually) was the appendix, which explained the principles of Newspeak. It was so interesting to find out exactly how the author came up with the language, how he justified all the changes. I finished reading the book at nearly 3am, but kept on reading about the principles, because once I started, I couldn't stop!


In one sentence? George Orwell is one hell of an author! Lovely prose indeed. Will definitely be reading Animal Farm soon!


Rating: 8/10 (only because I found it difficult finishing some chapters, as they were a little too long)


Author:
Eric Arthur Blair, better known with his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. According to Wikipedia, his work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism. He wrote fiction, poetry, polemical journalism and literary criticism. He is best known for the two books mentioned in this review, the dystopian 1984 and the satirical novella Animal Farm. His other novels include Keep The Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up For Air. He died in 1950, at the age of 46.

You can find out more about George Orwell HERE.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011, Dystopia Challenge

In The Bag by Jim Carrington

In The Bag by Jim Carrington
First published by Bloomsbury in 2011 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2011)









Description (from back cover):

Joe and Ash are best mates.

One night after a party, they find a holdall abandoned by the side of the road.

They open it up.

Inside is £20,000.

Of course they're going to hand it to the police.

Aren't they?

And that is when the trouble starts.

My thoughts:
I'm actually not very sure as to how to start this review. In The Bag is not a book I would have chosen to buy for myself, the main reason being that I think I'm a little too old for it. But it seemed like a quick read, so I decided to give it a try.


The story in itself is appealing. It's about two boys (who are 15-16, if I remember rightly), who discover a bag with a lot of money in it. What are they going to do with it? Hand it over to the police? Or maybe not? It is quite a story, featuring mafia people, gunshots, black cars with dark windows. The main focus of the story is the reasons behind the boys' actions and how they deal of the consequences of their actions. Will they be able to keep it a secret, or will they find that they can't hold on to it any longer? Plus, it has a really weird ending... Like it's half-unresolved... You don't see it often in books and I have to say I didn't mind it! 


One aspect of this book that I liked was the fact that it had alternating chapters from the two characters' points-of-view. We got to be inside the heads of both characters and see how each one of them dealt with the consequences. Joe and Ash might be very good friends, but they're very different to each other and each one of them deals with the problem in his own way. That was very interesting to see. I also enjoyed the fact that the author did not focus solely on the 'bag'. He had a few side stories going on, which gave us more insight into both characters.


On the other hand, there were a couple of things I really didn't like. This book contains rather strong language. It even has a warning on the back for it (which I think is very good). To be honest, I am not bothered by swearing in books. But because of the fact that I think the story (as a storyline) would be more interesting for younger readers, the swearing excludes them from reading it. What I am trying to say here is that I am rather dubious as to whether the story would appeal to a 16 year-old me. It's more of the kind-of story that I would have found exciting when I was 13-14. Another thing I didn't like were all the smoking and drug references. I absolutely hate people smoking (I'm really weird about it) and I hate reading about children smoking. I know it is a wide-spread phenomenon nowadays, but I still don't like reading about it. (Including all those references to smoking marijuana.)


All in all, it wasn't a bad book, but the main problem I have is to whom I would recommend reading this book. It's worth a try though, as the writing is very good and the story flows well.


Rating: 5/10


Author:
Jim Carrington is the author of In The Bag and Inside My Head. (Sorry but that's all I could find!)

You can check out his website HERE.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
First published by Orion in 2006 (this edition by Orion in 2007)




Description (from back cover):

Angelfield House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once the imposing home of the March family - fascinating, manipulative Isabelle, Charlie, her brutal and dangerous brother and the wild, untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline. But Angelfield House conceals a chilling secret whose impact still resonates...

Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield's past - and the mystery of the March family starts to unravel. What has the house been hiding? What is its connection with the enigmatic author Vida Winter? And what is in Margaret's own troubled past that causes her to fall so powerfully under Angelfield's spell?

My thoughts:
So, first things first: WHY on earth did I not read this book when I first borrowed it????? It was such a good read! It's definitely between my top reads for this year, if not the top top one.

This book is split up into four parts: Beginnings, Middles, Endings and Post Scriptum. It follows the layout of a story. As Vida Winter says in the novel, 'Every story has a beginning, a middle and an ending'. That is exactly the way she wants to tell Margaret her story. One of her stipulations for telling Margaret her story is that she won't interrupt her, will not ask her any questions that might cause her to tell her story out of order. Though Margaret seems to be initially reluctant to take on the assignment (as she has only dealt with writing biographies of long dead people), but slowly, the story of Vida Winter and the involvement of Angelfield House pull her in.

When I started reading this book, I was immediately pulled into it. We, as readers, hear Vida Winter's story, but we also get snippets of Margaret's own story. When Vida Winter talks about the past, she talks about it in a way that made me feel as if I was actually there. The passage from present to past and back again is done very smoothly, you actually end up feeling as if you are slipping into the story yourself. That is how good Diane Setterfield's writing is.

Oh, I forgot to mention. This book has quite a few twists and turns in it, some predictable, some not, but none are as unpredictable as that BIG one. Honestly! I knew a big twist was coming (Shana from A Book Vacation sort-of let it slip), but I still did not expect it to be what it turned out to be

The characters are so multi-dimensional. They all hide secrets, some small, some huge and all of them seem to be essential in the telling of the story. Margaret is a lovely character. She is a book lover, having grown up in her father's antique book store, helping him run it, year after year. (I actually felt rather jealous about that. I would have loved growing up in a bookshop.) Vida Winter is quite a difficult character and extremely complex. Throughout the book, while she is telling her story, we find out more and more about her, which in part explain why she has been so reclusive in the past and I loved that slow unravelling of her story.

I really didn't want this story to end. But it had to and I loved it. If only for the lovely words Diane Setterfield has written about book at the beginning of the book.

Rating: 10/10 (of course!)


Author:
Diane Setterfield is a British author. Setterfield studied French Literature at Bristol University and specialized in 20th century French literature, particularly the works of Andre Gide. She worked at a number of schools, before stopping in the late 90's to write. The Thirteenth Tale is her debut novel. She is rumoured to be currently working on her second novel (can't wait!).


Read for: 100 Books In A Year 2011 Challenge, British Books Challenge 2011

The Secret Lives Of Sisters

The Secret Lives of Sisters by Linda Kelsey
First published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2008 (this edition by Hodder Paperbacks in 2008)


  


Description: (from back cover)

She is your best friend. And your worst enemy.

Hannah has always felt in the shadow of her older sister, Cat. Cat is the flamboyant one, the one who can make everyone laugh. Hannah is so quiet that her parents often joke, 'Has Cat got your tongue?'

Now Hannah has a daughter of her own, who is about to get married. On the day of the wedding, Cat's caustic tongue is once again let loose with devastating consequences.

As Hannah is compelled to examine her past and try to make sense of her complicated relationship with her sister, she begins to unravel the secrets and lies on which her seemingly normal family was built.

While the truth has the potential to finally unite the sisters, it also has the power to tear them apart for good.

My thoughts:

I have had this book for over a year (if I am not mistaken), but I never really wanted to pick it up and read it. It was actually a present and not a book I chose, and I'm not sure if I would have chosen this book for myself had I seen it in a bookshop. I only decided to read it because I am participating in the British Books Challenge and I had it on the initial list I had compiled when I signed up for the challenge. Even though I have already read more than the 12 books needed to complete the challenge, I decided to give it a try.

First and foremost, I must say that it was definitely not what I expected. I thought it was going to be one of those typical chick-lit novels, with women fighting over men, or falling head over heels in love with them and trying to snag them for themselves. If there is one thing this book isn't, it's that. This one was a lot darker and sinister than I thought it would be.

This book takes place both in the past and in the present. It starts off with the wedding. There, because of various things happening, it triggers the telling of the story of the past, of how the two sisters came to be the way they were. The story has quite a few things going on that are so very sad, it makes you want to sympathise with some of the characters for all the things that have happened to them.

The characters were rather well developed. I did like Hannah a lot, Cat a little less, but by the end of the book, I actually understood why Cat acted the way she did. A character I really did not like, even though she is portrayed as being one of the good characters, was Mavis. We do learn something as to why she acts the way she does, but I still didn't feel as if that justified part of her behaviour in the book.

One thing I really didn't like about this book was the end. I can't say much about it without spoiling the end, but I found it a little too rushed and that parts of it were unnecessary. It was as if the reaction was a little over the top. I might not make sense now... Sorry. All in all, a good story, that is not what it initially seems to be.

Rating: 6/10

Author:

Linda Kelsey is a British journalist and author. She has worked for a number of magazines, including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and SHE. She now works as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of different magazines as well as newspapers and has also published three novels. She currently lives in London.

Her two other books (other than The Secret Lives of Sisters) are:

Fifty Is Not A Four-Letter Word   /   The Twenty Year Itch

You can find out more about Linda Kelsey and her books by visiting her website, LindaKelsey.com

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
First published by Pan Books in 1979 (this edition by Pan Books in 2009)

Book #1 in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series




Description: (from Goodreads)
It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. At this moment, they're hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words:

DON'T PANIC. 

The weekend has only just begun. 

This title is Volume One in the Trilogy of Five.

My thoughts:

The first time I ever heard of this book was when the film was made. I remember my friend Penny saying that she had watched the film and that she hadn't really liked it. (Then again, she grew up in America and doesn't particularly like British films, probably because of the accent. Fortunately, she likes me, despite my British accent!) Anyway, I stumbled upon this book in the bookshop a couple of years ago and decided to buy it as a present for my brother. It had been sitting on the bookshelf since the day after he opened his present. I only recently found the DVD for the film at my local video club and decided I wanted to try watching the film myself.

Well, I did and I ended up really enjoying the film! I thought the cast was great! Martin Freeman was really good in the role of Arthur Dent and I loved the voice of Alan Rickman as Marvin the Paranoid Android! But I'm not here to review the film. 

After watching the film, I decided to try reading the book. It's not a very long one after all. As is obvious from the blurb, this is the story of Arthur Dent, the only man to survive the demolition of the planet Earth, due to his friend Ford Prefect. In the book, we follow Arthur on his journey across the universe, a place he never expected he would be in. (Well, who would?)

This book really is a weird read. The story is great and it obviously required a great deal of imagination to come up with. The book is very funny in places. And that is not only because of the things that happen in the course of the story, but also because of the way the author chose to describe them. A few of my favourite parts in the book were the ones where we could read excerpts from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and the dialogues between Marvin the Paranoid Android and the rest of the characters! You could tell, from the words the author chose and from the way he formed the sentences that Marvin really was depressed (and with a very bad case of depression at that!). All the characters in this book were rather well developed (for a book that is not really that long) and I enjoyed that. 

The book does tend to lag in certain parts, with not much really happening, or just because of a certain dialogue or description going on for a little too long, but I didn't find it so bad that I couldn't carry on reading the book. I would like to add here that I think I enjoyed the book more having already seen the film. I feel that the director of the film did a fantastic job of recreating the world in the book. The images from the film kept coming to mind all the time while I was reading the book actually, making me laugh out at certain moments (which I might not have done had I not seen the film beforehand). All in all, I think I prefered the film to the book, which is not something that happens often.

Rating: 7/10

Author:

Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. This series began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a comic book series, a computer game, and a feature film that was completed after Adams' death in 2001. His Trilogy of Five contains - other than The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - the following books:

• The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
• Life, The Universe And Everything
• So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
• Mostly Harmless

He also wrote two books in the Dirk Gently series. A posthumous collection of essays and other material, including an incomplete novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.

You can find out more about Douglas Adams and his books here:

Official Website

Wikipedia

Goodreads

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge

Love Falls

Love Falls by Esther Freud
First published by Bloomsbury in 2007 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2007)







Description: (from Goodreads)

From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a charming, surprising, and utterly irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery.

When seventeen-year-old Lara accepts her father's invitation to accom­pany him to a Tuscan villa for the summer, she's both thrilled and nervous for the exotic holiday. To her delight, she soon discovers that the villa's closest neighbors are the glamorous Willoughbys, the teenaged brood of a British millionaire. Caught up in their torrential thirst for amusement—and snared by Kip Willoughby's dark, flirtatious eyes—Lara sets off on a summer adven­ture full of danger, first love, and untold consequen­ces that will irrevocably change her life.

My thoughts:

This book is one of the very few hardbacks I own. I think I got it as a present from my grandparents for my birthday back in 2007 (my birthday is in August and the book was published in July, so that is the only logical explanation as to why they got me a hardback). I hadn't actually read it until now, though don't ask my why not. I honestly do not know. I came across this book when my brother and I decided to have a clear out of our books (to give some of our kiddie books to charity), so I kept it with my other unread books.

Well, umm, I have mixed feelings about this book. I can't really say if I liked it or not. It was kind-of weird. It started off ok. We are introduced to Lara, the main character in this book, who lives with her slightly bohemian (??) mother. Her father, a university professor, invites her to travel with him to a villa in Tuscany, on his first trip out of London in years. She accepts and they travel to Italy by train, eventually arriving at her father's friend Caroline's villa. There, Lara and her father also meet up with the Willoughbys, the villa's closest neigbours.

The story focuses on all the relationships between the people in the area: Lara's rather awkward relationship with her father, Caroline's rather weird treatment of Lara, the relationships between the Willoughby children and their guests/spouses/spouses-to-be and, of course, the relationship between Lara and Kip, the youngest of the Willoughby lot. Yes, that's a lot of relationships to talk about. To the author's credit, you don't feel as if it's too much when you are reading it. I only realised it as I was writing these words.

The story was nothing too sophisticated. It was just how a girl of 17 grew up a little too quickly over the course of a few weeks over the summer, just because of her encounters with the other people in the novel. The character development was ok. Ms Freud told us more about some than the others, leaving me with a rather unclear picture of what was going on at some points in the book. I didn't particularly like Caroline or Roland (he's the husband of one of the Willoughby girls). Others I felt were there only because the author wanted to set a particular atmosphere - they didn't really contribute.

One thing I did like about this book was the descriptions of Tuscany. The villa and its surrounding area sounded beautiful and a little mysterious at times and I would love to see all that scenery myself. I particularly liked the descriptions of a beach the whole party visited one day! It sounded idyllic. I also liked the descriptions of Florence. I visited Florence for a day a few years ago (on a school trip) and loved it! Such a pretty place! The book did bring back quite a few happy memories!

All in all, I am not sure what to say about this book. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I would have liked to, so I'd classify it as an ok read for me. It just might be the thing for you though! If you like the sound of it, then give it a try! (Forgot to mention that it's actually set in 1981, a week before Charles and Diana's wedding, and I read it right after their son got married to Kate Middleton! No, I didn't do it on purpose!)

Rating: 5/10

Author:

Esther Freud is a British novelist. She is the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and granddaughter of the famous neurologist Sigmund Freud. Ms Freud has worked in television and theatre as both an actress and a writer. Her first novel is the semi-autobiographical ''Hideous Kinky'', which has also been made into a film starring Kate Winslet. Her other books include ''Peerless Flats'' and  ''The Wild'', with ''Lucky Break'' being her latest novel. She is married to actor David Morrisey, with whom she has three children.

You can find out more about Esther Freud here:

Esther Freud on Goodreads

Esther Freud on Wikipedia

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

Rockoholic

Rockoholic by C.J. Skuse
First published by Chicken House in 2011 (this edition by Chicken House in 2011)








Description: (from back cover)
Jody loves Jackson Gatlin. At his only UK rock concert, she’s right at the front. But when she's caught in the crush and carried back stage she has more than concussion to contend with. Throw in a menacing manager, a super-wired super-star, and a curly-wurly, and she finds herself taking home more than just a poster. It’s the accidental kidnapping of the decade. But what happens if you’ve a rock-god in your garage who doesn’t want to leave? Jody’s stuck between a rock-idol and a hard place!


My thoughts:
I picked this one up because I was in the mood for something light, girly and a little romance-y and I have to say it didn't disappoint! Rockoholic tells the story of Jody, a hardcore fan of the singer of The Regulators, Jackson Gatlin. She goes to the concert, only to find herself kidnapping him and taking him back to her home town of Nuffing-on-the-Wold. (The first time I saw the name, I actually thought it was a joke. But no, it's the actual name the author gave Jody's home town.) So, she hides him in her grandfather's garage


This book is funny, but it's also true. The whole point of the book (in my opinion) was to capture the hysteria you see quite often with teenagers (though it's not limited only to them) where they end up worshipping a certain idol (either from the music or film industry). They become blind-sided and try to imitate their idols, to the point of doing completely stupid things. This book does a great job of showing us exactly what happens when people are famous (which kind-of explains why so many musicians and actors are frequently admitted to rehab clinics to deal with all the palavah (is that the right spelling??) that comes with fame) and how it's completely different to what the fans think it is.


I thought that all the characters were rather well developed. You knew enough about them to understand why they acted in the way they did. I especially liked Mac (though his name is really bad - Mackenzie Lawless??). Jody was ok from the beginning of the book and Jackson grew on me after a while. Cree was an absolute pleasure and if you read the book, you'll know why! I could just imagine a little child like her in front of me! I have to say though, I had guessed a part of the story when I was only a few pages in, but it didn't spoil the book for me! I wanted to see how things went, so I had to finish it!


A fun read that tries to make rather meaningful point at the end of the story.


Rating: 6/10


Author:
C. J. (Claire Joanna) Skuse is a British author. She holds a First Class degree in Creative Studies in English, as well as an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. She has published two books (Pretty Bad Things and Rockoholic) and is currently working on her third stand-alone novel for teenagers.

Goodreads  |  Amazon.co.uk

You can find C.J Skuse on Goodreads and on Tumblr.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

(Won from Sammee over at I Want To Read That)