Category Archives: Book Reviews

CARIADS’ CHOICE: JULY 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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Nita Prose’s The Maid reviewed by Kitty Wilson

This is my favourite audiobook in ages. I absolutely loved it and found myself racing through it over the course of a weekend, deliberately choosing activities that meant I could keep listening. A delightful heroine surrounded by a fab cast of characters, you cannot help but fall in love with Molly the maid as she navigates a world full of social cues, clues and language that she doesn’t always understand. On the surface this is a simple whodunnit with a neurodiverse detective heroine, but it’s also a witty, refreshing look at society, how we communicate and what we prioritise. Highly recommended.

 

Lynne Shelby’s Rome for the Summer reviewed by Carol Thomas

What a lovely, uplifting read! I read the novel on holiday; it was the perfect book to relax and unwind with. Kate was a likeable heroine, her family were wonderful, and her newfound life and love interest in Rome was perfect. For a novel filled with artistic fervour, Jamie was the ideal hero; his passion for both the art exhibited in Rome and that created by his hand was evident throughout. The insights into the past worked well, and I enjoyed discovering more about Kate’s Italian girl (depicted in a painting). Overall it is a lovely escapist read that will whisk you off to Rome for the Summer, fill you with warmth and leave you with a big satisfied smile.

 

Anne Booth’s Small Miracles reviewed by Jane Cable

I can absolutely see why this book is published under Random House’s Vintage label, because it is just that. Quaint, charming and a little old-fashioned, not just because it is set in 1995; it transports the readers back to simpler times, before the world was glued to its mobile phone.

Set in an English catholic convent down on its luck, the book follows the remaining three nuns, the local priest and a small cast of parishioners and friends, as after a modest lottery win, a series of other ‘small miracles’ begin to occur.

Although I quite enjoyed the journey, there was something missing from the book for me. I wanted it to be either funnier, or tug at my heart-strings more, and I had problems relating to the three main characters. However if you yearn for fiction akin to the Miss Read books, this may very well be exactly to your taste. It was in no way a ‘bad’ book (whatever that is), just not for me.

 

Bella Osborne’s A Wedding at Sandy Cove, parts 1 and 2 reviewed by Morton S Gray

I have loved all of Bella Osborne’s books and wasn’t surprised that I loved this one too. I sat and read the first part of Ella’s story in one sitting and didn’t want it to finish. Can’t wait for the next part.

Like Ella, I was a bridesmaid numerous times and never thought I would be a bride, but to work in the bridal industry must make that thought even harder. Love her cat and her friends, who can see her flaws but want the best for her.

Easy to read, easy to relate to, left me wanting more …

Part two of A Wedding at Sandy Cove didn’t disappoint and I found myself laughing and even shouting at my kindle, so I guess that means I was involved in the story!

Ella’s adventures continue. I’m glad I wasn’t at her friend’s hen party event but there is plenty to read about and I even spat my mouthful of tea out at one point when I laughed totally unexpectedly!

Waiting for Part Three…

 

 

 

PUBLICATION DAY SPECIAL: THE LOVE EXPERIMENT BY KITTY WILSON

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Sometimes I fall in love with a book instantly, and sometimes it takes a little while. This was one of the latter, but let me tell you, by the final chapters I was laughing and sobbing at more or less the same time, which isn’t the best of looks in a busy Starbucks branch.

The premise of The Love Experiment is deceptively simple; Lily won’t date – even staying the night after a hook up is too much like commitment, and Jay can’t date – he’s promised his sister he won’t in an attempt to show her that changing the habits of a lifetime is possible. But there the cliches end.

All the characters, large and larger than life, are drawn with an incredible eye for detail and a roundness that is often missing in romantic comedy. They were real and will stay with me for a very long time. And laugh? Did I mention a fair chunk of the action is set in a drag club? The names of the artists alone was enough to make me cackle. And don’t even get me started on the harpist…

This book is laugh out loud funny while at the same time dealing with serious issues and the horrendous scars they leave. The more I came to know about Lily’s past the more I ached for her to be able to move forwards. The more I understood what made her the way she is. The more I wanted to be her friend.

Lily’s backstory and what happened to her as a teenager really got to me. So much so I had to ask Kitty Wilson why she decided to shape her character that way:

Thank you. Lily is far from my usual heroine and is polished, successful and on the surface has it all but, underneath, is a scared young girl desperate for a sense of control.

When I was creating her, I initially wanted to highlight women’s health, I know so many women with periods that are completely incapacitating[1] and yet I haven’t seen it mentioned often in novels. That was my starting point but, as an author, it is hard not to be shaped by the things around you. As I wrote the first draft, the discussion of women’s safety was at its peak with the subsequent growth of Everybody’s Invited illustrating how schools and universities were often far from the places of safety that every parent hopes. This awareness worked its way into Lily’s story and when her body changes as a teen, things take a dark turn as name-calling in school morphs into something more sinister.

I did consider carefully whether these themes should be included but they are so frequent in women’s lives it felt wrong to cut them, so Lily was born, a high achiever who is privately carrying the weight of gynaecological issues and a related history of childhood bullying. These two things then shape all her life decisions; decisions that on the surface look like they are healthy, empowered choices but are actually indicators of deep-rooted scars.

But I love a happy ending – I write romance after all – and adore weaving through the joys in our lives, and hopefully The Love Experiment brings many, many moments of light and laughter to brighten Lily’s path as she learns to defeat the dark and open herself to life and love at its fullest.

 

 

[1] One in ten women in the UK have endometriosis and another one in ten have PCOS. https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/information

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos/

 

 

 

 

SKINTELLIGENT: What you really need to know to get great skin

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SKINTELLIGENT

What you really need to know to get great skin

By Dr Natalia Spierings

 

Published by Vermilion.

Trade Paperback priced £16.99

The first entirely evidence-based skincare guide written by a real expert that explains how skin actually works, how to navigate the confusing world of Big Skincare and what you really need to do to achieve healthy, glowing skin – throughout your life.

 

This is the first book about skincare based on fact, not fiction

 There is no such thing as ‘essential’ skincare; almost all skincare should be viewed as a ‘luxury good’ and therefore, in fact, absolutely not essential!

  • Scared of using Vaseline? Don’t be – it’s the best moisturiser on the market, also the cheapest, it doesn’t ‘clog pores’ or cause pimples and it is totally safe to use. Plus, it is in every single moisturiser on the market anyway.
  • You don’t need to buy a separate product to use around your eyes, just use your regular moisturiser around your eyes; ‘eye creams’ are a scam
  • Facials are a waste of time and money
  • When it comes to skincare, less is always more
  • Expensive skincare is never better than cheaper skincare

 

Consultant Dermatologist Dr Natalia Spierings of Channel 5’s Skin A&E has announced the launch of her new book, Skintelligent: what you really need to know to get great skin, published by Vermilion. Dr Natalia Spierings is here to shake things up in the skincare world and isn’t afraid to tell the truth and call out the BS about all things related to skincare. Drawing on a decade of work as a practicing consultant dermatologist, helping thousands of people achieve great skin, she will empower you with the knowledge to navigate the confusing world of skincare so you never get fooled into buying hundreds of pounds of disappointing cosmetic skincare products again. If you have a problem with your skin – whether it is pimples, pigmentation, overly dry skin, large pores or whatever – the problem you have needs to be viewed as a skin abnormality or even a disease and therefore cannot be corrected with a three-step skincare regime you buy at a department store.

 

Dr Natalia Spierings said: “I wrote this book with the aim of answering all the hundreds of questions I get every day from my patients and through social media about skincare; there is too much misinformation being thrown at us about skincare from people who just don’t know what they are talking about, merely to sell products. It’s time to empower the skincare consumer with facts and the correct information so we all stopping wasting our money (and our hope) on products that don’t deliver on their (often outlandish) claims.”

Using an unbiased, evidence-based approach and cutting through the pseudo-science, she explains:

–        how skin actually works

–        which skincare products are proven to be effective for all of major facial skin complaints

–        what trendy skincare ingredients do or don’t do what they promise and why

–        what you can do to manage everything from acne to rosacea to melasma as well as wrinkles and sun-damage

 

Bringing together years of experience treating a huge range of skin problems, Skintelligent is the only book you will ever need to read to get great skin.

 

“Buying this book will be a great investment; following Natalia’s advice will save you money on your skincare whilst helping you to look your best.”

Dr Andrew Birnie, Consultant Dermatologist & Founder of Altruist Sunscreen

 

“Dr Natalia Spierings is a terrific consultant dermatologist with a very clear – and utterly science-based — approach to skincare which many people will find refreshing.”

Alice Hart-Davis, founder of thetweakmentsguide.com

 

About the Author

 

Dr Natalia Spierings is a Consultant Dermatologist with a Master’s Degree in Aesthetic Medicine. A unique combination of technical skill, depth of knowledge, aesthetic sensibility and communication skills has positioned her globally as a leading dermatologist. She currently splits her clinical time between both the NHS and private sector in London, and at Kings College Hospital in Dubai. @drnataliaspierings

 

 

The Bay by Allie Reynolds Book Review

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The Bay by Allie Reynolds is the second novel from the author of the widely acclaimed chiller thriller, Shiver. I LOVED her first novel and was so excited to receive The Bay. Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. Allie Reynolds has a way of writing a pacy, sporty thriller like no one else. This is a tense and absorbing story about what happens when Type A sporty athletes get thrown together. The Bay is paradise to them, the ultimate surfing spot and they will do anything to protect it.

You are never sure who to trust or what is going to happen. The Bay will have you by the throat until the very last page. I am not sure how Allie Reynolds does it, but I’m glad she does. Her high-octant sporty thrillers are as brilliant as they are unique. Truly stunning. Get a copy now.

 
The Bay, Allie Reynolds, Book review

The Bay is an addictive summer thriller where the waves are to die for at the wild and beautiful Sorrow Bay, a remote surfing spot paradise that a mysterious group of people will do anything to keep a secret.

 

Allie has a trademark ability to pair isolated and dangerous natural landscapes with high-stakes, extreme sports to rewrite the popular locked-room mystery with an elegant, high-octane twist. She has received wide praise from the world of crime writing, including Peter James (‘sensational’), Harriet Tyce (‘a knife-sharp locked room mystery’) and Sarah Pearse (‘nail-bitingly tense’).

 

Ideal for slipping in holiday beach bags, The Bay is filled with sun, sea, suspense and a sinister cast of characters driven by obsession and perfection.

 

THE WILD YEAR – the family who lived in a tent for a year

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The Wild Year immediately caught my attention for it’s originality. This memoir by Jen Benson, who lived with her family for a year in a tent, is a brave book about triumph over hardship. This book is awash with nature and atmosphere. It is inspirational and will fill you with both joy and hope. It will also make you angry about the financial hardships so many are under. Jen writes about struggle with flair and complete honesty. Her talent as a writer is vast, and her love for her family and the world around her is so beautiful. I cannot recommend this book enough. I think everyone should read it for it’s insights into poverty, financial hardship, and the beautiful outdoors. Awash with love, nature and bravery.
The Wild Year by Jen Benson, book, book review,

This is an utterly delightful, eye-opening read, bathed in the natural world. Reminiscent of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn and Homesick by Catriona Davies. Jen and her husband Sim have written a whole host of walking and running guides, and this is her first memoir. You can find out more about their previous books on their website — https://jenandsimbenson.co.uk/books/

The Wild Year is all about Jen and her young family’s decision to live in a tent for a year after suffering severe financial hardship and needing a way to live that retains their freedom but doesn’t cost a lot. Think cooking over fire in the dead of winter in stormy weather with a 3 year old and a 6 month old! Out now with Aurum (Quarto Group).

The Wild Year tells the uplifting true story of a family who left their old life behind to spend a year living wild in a tent around Britain.

With a baby and a toddler, mounting debt, work demands and stress trampling over their desire to spend time together as a family in nature, Jen and Sim Benson move out of their rented accommodation, sell up their possessions and decide to live in a tent for a year as nomads around rural Britain. This is the story of that year – the highs and the lows – the doubts, epiphanies and the weather.

Detailing one family’s search for a life in the wild, away from the screens and stresses of modern life, this captivating memoir is a must read for nature lovers or anyone who has dreamed of a life outdoors. It’s nature writ large with the joys and challenges of each season experienced under canvas, a story of ultimate freedom in the beautiful landscapes of Britain. This is a book that gently steals up on you and captures your heart.

Jen Benson has a passion for wild places and sustainable adventures. A lifelong runner, she is a writer, photographer and part-time PhD researcher exploring the philosophy of running. Jen and her husband Sim live in Wiltshire with their two young children. They have co-written several books including Wild Running, Short Walks in Beautiful Places, Amazing Family Adventures and 100 Great Walks with Kids. Jen writes regularly for the national press. Twitter/Instagram @jenandsim

Did You Miss Me? by Sophia Money-Coutts Book Review

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I have read all of  Sophia Money-Coutts’s books and I am a huge fan of her witty, entertaining novels. She writes wonderful, sparkling characters and I always enjoy the story. As usual, Did You Miss Me?, is clever and funny. Sophia has taken a great premise and executed it with flair. Another wonderful novel. Heartily recommended.

Did You Miss Me? is Sophia’s 4th novel and explores whether you really can rekindle your first love, and is of course written with Sophia’s trademark humour, wit and gloriously steamy romance scenes. Nell, the main character, is effortlessly likeable and features alongside her barmy mother (who falls for an eccentric Italian barista), the divine Arthur Drummond and Wilma the wolfhound.

You never forget the one that got away, do you?

Nell Mason is extremely happy with her life – or at least, that’s what she tells herself. She’s lucky to have a high-powered job as a lawyer, even if it does come with an eccentric set of billionaire divorce clients. And she’s absolutely fine living with her sweet, if slightly dull, boyfriend Gus in their London flat where they have very sensible sex once (OK, sometimes twice) a week. She’s definitely not stuck in a rut.

But when Nell bumps into childhood friend and first love Arthur Drummond who broke her heart fifteen years ago, she’s more than a little shaken. The seemingly perfect life she’s worked so hard for starts to feel, well, less perfect. Maybe Nell’s been kidding herself all these years. Can she ever get over her first love?

Sophia Money-Coutts is a journalist and author who spent five years studying the British aristocracy while working as Features Director at Tatler. Prior to that she worked as a writer and an editor for the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail in London, and The National in Abu Dhabi. She writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph called Modern Manners and often appears on radio and television channels talking about important topics such as Prince Harry’s wedding and the etiquette of the threesome.

JANE CABLE REVIEWS THREE VERY DIFFERENT SECOND WORLD WAR NOVELS

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Hope for the Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas

I rarely follow a whole series, but the Railway Girls’ Second World War novels gripped me from the very first one. The characters are fresh and stand out from the page, there is tension, pathos and heartbreak, but more than that, there is joy – and that is important.

So often I find sagas descend into what I call ‘it’s grim up north’ where the heroines’ hardships and battles become so impossibly dark the book is no longer a pleasure to read. What is so clever about Maisie Thomas’s work (both in this series and The Surplus Girls, which she writes as Polly Heron) is that the moments of high tension – and frankly apparently insoluble conundrums – are balanced by humour and happiness. And of course, they’re so very beautifully written.

In this fifth book we follow Alison as her new romance develops, Joan as she approaches motherhood, and a relatively new viewpoint character Margaret, who I found the most interesting of all. If you haven’t read the other books these names will mean nothing to you, but I urge you to go back and start at the beginning of the series. You have an absolute treat in store.

 

The Helsingor Sewing Club by Ella Gyland

I love an unusual Second World War story and when I heard this one was set in Denmark I really wanted to read it. In part my choice was influenced by having loved Elizabeth Buchan’s I Can’t Begin To Tell You so much, but The Helsingor Sewing Club deals with a completely different aspect of Danish resistance.

I didn’t know that, thanks to the Danish (albeit puppet) government, Jews were safe from persecution until 1943. Or that when the wrath of the Nazis descended on them the vast majority of Danes were prepared to help them to escape. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into that tiny slice of the country’s history and I loved it.

But no novel is ever a history lesson and Ella Gyland creates wonderful characters, not always brave, sometimes full of fear and even despair, but you love them all the more for it and root for them all the way. The whole story is fraught with tension and there are some truly heart-stopping moments too. My only slight reservation is that I thought the book was strong enough to stand without a contemporary narrative running alongside it, although I do appreciate most readers will have loved it exactly the way it is.

 

The Frequency of Us by Keith Stuart

I’m a sucker for a great premise: in 1942 radio engineer Will regains consciousness after a bombing and realises the love of his life, Elsa, is missing. But he is told there was no one else living with him, and no records of her seem to exist.

Seventy years later Will is struggling to cope and is refusing care, but he sees a kindred spark of loss in Laura and lets her in. It’s a prickly, difficult, unlikely yet beautiful relationship which evolves as strange things happen in the house compelling Laura to try to uncover what happened.

The flashbacks to Will’s wartime romance with Elsa provide relief from the unremitting greyness of Laura’s battle with mental illness and Will’s with old age. Whose mind is playing the most tricks? Clues are revealed, but none of them fit; indeed some of them seem completely contradictory.

Every thread is drawn together in the end, and although I found the ultimate answer deeply unsatisfying, I have to say I enjoyed the journey.

 

 

CARIADS’ CHOICE: JUNE 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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Rachel Hore’s One Moonlit Night reviewed by Jane Cable

An interesting mixture of a Second World War story and family mystery, the more I read of One Moonlit Night the more it intrigued me.

With her husband Philip missing in action after Dunkirk, Maddie is bombed out of her London home and her only safe option seems to be to take her daughters to the house in Norfolk where Philip grew up. But Knyghton holds its own secrets, including the reason why Philip rarely spoke of it and never took her there.

The characters are beautifully drawn and their reactions to the new arrivals complex, convincing and very much of their age.

Although told mainly from Maddie’s point of view, the story is interspersed with Philip’s dangerous journey across France to escape the German occupiers and return to his family and this adds contrast and an extra layer of tension.

 

Jan Baynham’s Her Nanny’s Secret reviewed by Carol Thomas

I have read and enjoyed the author’s previous books, so I was looking forward to this one; it didn’t disappoint. The female lead, Annie, was likeable from the start, and her emotional journey enthralled me both in WWII and the 1960s. Every character was well-drawn, and every setting transported me in time and place. As the end of the novel drew near, I was desperate for a happy ending, and I loved how the author achieved that without compromising the characters or the lives and emotional ties they had built since the start of the novel. As always with this author, the characters have stayed with me even after the final page was read. It is a compelling read with a wartime romance, enduring love, lies and a search for the truth.

 

Melissa Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring reviewed by Kitty Wilson

I listened to this as an audiobook and absolutely loved every second. A sweeping epic of a novel, it had me thoroughly emotionally invested as Mei Lin struggles to survive China at a time of huge upheaval, escapes to Taiwan with her son and has to begin her life again with very little support and danger around every corner. An evocative and skilfully written book that will stay with me for a very long time, and that I intend to buy in paperback so I can revisit it again in the future.

 

Nicci French’s The Unheard reviewed by Jill Barry

Whether or not you’ve read novels by this writing partnership, you’ll swiftly be drawn into a masterclass of crime writing. Poppy’s estranged parents are doing their best to make sure their little daughter isn’t upset by being ‘shared’ between them. But mum Tess starts to notice worrying indicators after Poppy’s been staying with her dad. It’s a measure of how clever the writing is that I became convinced demonic possession could be involved.

Tess’s concerns lead her to contact the police, confiding in an already stressed and overworked female detective who really doesn’t have much evidence to convince her anything is wrong. Tess, seeing worryingly violent drawings her daughter produces becomes convinced Poppy has witnessed something of a dark nature. But without proof, the police are becoming sceptical of Tess’s suspicions. And who or what is to blame?

And the moral is? Beware who you invite into your home.