Archive | November 2018

My Name Is Anna by Lizzy Barber

Nov6

Your Worst Nightmare

My Name Is Anna by Lizzy Barber is a fabulous compulsive psychological read that drew me in from the start. The book is written in the first person from the point of view of two sisters. Each chapter alternates the voice as we intimately get to know the girls.

The novel deals with the pain of loss. A loss that occurred when you were too young to remember but has defined your every waking moment for fifteen years. Your whole family is frozen in time, unable to move forwards as their focus is one day fifteen years earlier.

The other side of the coin is stifling obsessive love. It feels like something is missing. Your memory has filed a traumatic event away, just out of reach.

Obsessive compulsive behaviour rules a character. Brain washed as a teen, struggling to come to terms with a devastating loss, a character battles to face reality, with denial being the order of the day.

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The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

Nov5

After Rebekah

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele – what a fabulous, nail biting, edge of your seat contemporary psychological thriller. I just could not put it down. I read with heart racing as the book sped to its conclusion.

Anyone familiar with Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca has just got to read this modern version, set in America. Anyone who hasn’t read the original Rebecca is in for a real treat too, not to mention a roller coaster ride.

The story follows similar lines to Rebecca, even opening in a parallel way. The house, Asherley, like Mandelay, plays a starring role. It almost takes on a personality as its rooms and hallways echo with those who have gone before.

There is a startling contrast of innocence and experience, with Rebekah being everything the narrator is not. Envy? Jealousy? Or just lack of experience? You decide.

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Snowflakes At Lavender Bay by Sarah Bennett

Nov5

Fulfilling One’s Dreams

Snowflakes At Lavender Bay by Sarah Bennett is the most delightful contemporary tale to warm every heart. It is the third book in the Lavender Bay series but can be read as a stand-alone. This is a wonderful series. I have decided I would love to move into Lavender Bay where there are no strangers, just potential new friends.

The atmosphere is warm and welcoming – like hot chocolates with marshmallows or a roaring log fire. The reader just sinks into the book with ease. Characters open their hearts and homes to all. Generosity is the order of the day.

With witty dialogue and amusing moments, a light heartedness hovers over the novel. There are serious themes of searching for roots and to belong. Sometimes we are looking for a home, only to realise we are already there. A home is where we are loved and there is much love in the novel.

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An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M White

Nov3

Deeds Not Words

An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M White is a marvellous Christian historical wartime adventure. it is the third book in the Shadows Over England series but can be read as a stand-alone.

Set in 1915 there is the theme of trust and the threat of German spies everywhere. Even those with foreign surnames were suspected. No one was immune. The royal family changed their name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor as it sounded more patriotic. “Help me to trust.” God can always be trusted even when man cannot.

Sometimes circumstances suggest that God is absent, or even worse, He doesn’t care. “He just sits there in His heaven… not caring a whit.” This is anger and hurt talking because we know that being a Christian does not make us immune to bad things but “He [God] didn’t remove the bad – He just lent him strength to face it.”

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