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Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks

Sep4

Slaying Dragons

Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks is a marvellous contemporary suspense that gripped me from the start.

The novel opens with the ending before going backwards eleven days, and then working forwards. The reader knows what is coming and wonders what led up to that point, and how it is all going to end?

I thought the actual ending was superb – it came out of the blue and was serenely beautiful as the love radiated from the pages.

All the characters were well drawn and believable. We see the action through several alternating points of view enabling the reader to get to know the characters intimately.

This is a book about family. Family can be messy and complicated – but family is ultimately about love.

Life is tiring when children are small – but so much harder as they grow. Parents have to give their children wings to fly. “It was up to them to fall and flounder or fly and flourish. She was powerless… all they [parents] could do was stand back and trust that they’d given their kids enough guidance, resilience and basic common sense to get through.” We see that however old our children are, a mother will fiercely protect her offspring. “Her focus was on protecting Fran.”

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And Then There Was You by Miranda Dickinson

Aug28

Hope Lives Here

And Then There Was You by Miranda Dickinson is a very charming contemporary novel that I enjoyed.

The novel is set in St Ives, Cornwall. In the back streets there is a café that offers love, hope and care to all who pass by. Characters unite over food and music.

We see the power of music to awaken souls and memories. Music takes us back down the years. For the leading lady, a song transports her back to being seven years old again, the only time in her life when she really felt loved for two short years. She was given hope by a man who was the closest thing she ever had to a father. Whenever she hears a certain song, it is her heart’s cry to see him again. “I still have my memories, and they don’t require living space.”

When dreams are shattered, characters are broken, losing their sense of purpose. “I just want to feel like me again.” They need to re-connect with what they once loved, but in a new, different way.

The power of the sea draws people in. For some it is the surf; for others it is an early morning stroll. “The sea is a pull to people who need reassurance [and] hope.”

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Deadly Reckoning by Liz Mistry

Jul4

Glued & Guessing

Deadly Reckoning by Liz Mistry is a gripping contemporary crime novel. It is the third book in the Solanki & McQueen series but can be read as a stand-alone. I recommend reading the books in order as there is a storyline running throughout the three books.

I enjoyed meeting up with familiar characters including the police team D headed up by the two leading ladies.

Once more the team sets out to solve fresh murders that have links to the past. The crime busting quartet are all different, with different skill sets but they all work well together.

Past crimes are having an effect on present day as the team once more are on the hunt for a murderous character.

Nature versus nurture rules its head as a theme. We cannot choose our family. Are some genes just pure evil?

Families are complicated affairs as we see, as we follow the families of some of the officers. Even upstanding members of the community can have troubled offspring.

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In The Family Way by Laney Katz Becker

Jun19

Powerful & Heart-Breaking

In The Family Way by Laney Katz Becker is an absolutely heartbreaking novel that consumed me from the start.

The novel takes place in 1965-1966. It is a powerful book about women and their roles and rights in 1960’s America. It is horrifying to see that women were subservient to men. Everything in society was there to promote men and to down grade women.

Women were supposed to be compliant wives and mothers. It was a myth put about by men that women would be fulfilled looking after their husbands, children and the house. Whilst many did want to be wives and mothers, women are also so much more than their domestic roles.

The novel surrounds a group of women – two sisters, their friends and an unwed fifteen-year-old who helps the lead character, Lily, whilst awaiting to give birth in a home for unmarried girls that her mother had sent her to.

Each chapter alternates between the characters as we ‘hear’ of various lives and struggles.

Some women, plus the teen are incredibly ‘innocent’ in the ways of the world. They have been shielded when they really needed to have been educated in the basics of life.

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