Tag Archive | Boldwood Books

Sunrise With The Silver Surfers by Maddie Please

Delightfully Fun

Sunrise With The Silver Surfers by Maddie Please is a delightfully fun contemporary novel that will make you smile as you read of sun-filled days.

The novel is set in Australia. Maddie Please has some wonderfully descriptive passages enabling the reader to ‘see’ the landscape and ‘feel’ the heat. As with life, it is not always sunny. The storms come but after the rain, the sun comes out. The weather mirrors the action.

I loved all the characters. It is so refreshing to have the lead characters approaching sixty. Maddie Please shows that growing old does not have to mean slowing down and wearing beige! Life is for living. We can be just as colourful and enjoy life at sixty as at twenty. Life is not just for the young, life is for everyone.

We witness a character coming to life again after years of being squashed down. New horizons enable her to expand and become the girl she used to be.

Continue reading

The Neighbour by Gemma Rogers

A Compelling Read

The Neighbour by Gemma Rogers was a compulsive contemporary psychological suspense that gripped me from the start.

A cul de sac of six houses should be the ideal place to live – but no one expected the neighbour. Fresh from one nightmare situation and dropped into another. Can you guess what goes on behind closed doors?

We see the protective love of a mother for her daughter. They share a beautiful bond which extends to their little dog.

Other daughters, in contrast, have a more warped relationship with their mother.

Continue reading

There’s No Place Like Home by Jane Lovering

Wow – Heart Racing!

There’s No Place Like Home by Jane Lovering is a contemporary adventure novel that entertained me from the start.

The premise is a reality tv show shot in the wilds of the Yorkshire moors, with contestants on the hunt for evidence of a big cat. Financial reward beckons as the group of five and their leader channel their inner Bear Grylls! The bleak wet, winter landscape comes alive under the author’s masterful pen.

They are an eclectic mix of characters from various backgrounds who all want a share in the £250,000 prize money.

At first it is the money that binds them together but as they open up, friendships begin to form.

Everyone is hiding their true identities. As they spend time together, the shutters slowly begin to rise and the true identities shine through.

Everyone wants a place to call home. Sometimes home is not bricks and mortar but home is found in another person.

Continue reading

New Neighbours For Coronation Close by Lizzie Lane

A Snapshot In Time

New Neighbours For Coronation Close by Lizzie Lane is a marvelous historical novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The book is set in Bristol in 1936 and provides a social commentary on the times. We see terrible slum conditions that some find themselves living in. This contrasts with the new council houses. There were waiting lists but once in your house, there were some surprising rules and regulations to follow. Drop-in inspections also happened.

We witness the camaraderie that slum living created. Bonds formed in adversity remained. People shared what little they had, with those who had even less.

Friendships grew up in the council estates but it seemed harder to make them as people didn’t live so closely together.

We see the historical context too with Edward VIII coming to the throne and having to choose duty or love. Oswald Mosely and his blackshirts began their reign of intimidation and terror. And Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister – this always resonates with me as he was a son of Bewdley, where I live, and there is a lovely statue of him in the town and also a plaque on the house where he was born in High Street.

Continue reading