The Gardener’s Wife by Jane Allison

About:
Emma Holt has been happily married for many years to the gardener of the local Quaker school. Headmaster Philip Manners, on the other hand, has been unhappily married to the Bishop’s daughter for just as long.

When Philip finds Emma in the school library, he can’t help but be intrigued by her. Emma, dealing with her two eldest sons going off to war, is overloading herself with work to keep her mind focused. Philip, meanwhile, is trying to understand how his students could enlist when he teaches them pacifism, but is also struggling with his conscience: is he really falling in love with another man’s wife?

When conscription finally arrives and all the eligible men are called up, Emma and Philip find themselves unavoidably tangled up in each other’s lives more and more. Emma is pushed to her limits with worrying about her sons and trying to juggle all her new duties, while Philip, invalided out of the fighting, can’t help but rush to comfort her when the worst happens overseas.

With Emma torn between the loyalty she has for her husband and the passion she’s been missing for so long with Philip, will she fight to hold on to Philip or stand back when events conspire to rip them apart for good?

Review:
I can’t deny that I was initially hesitant about this book. Personally, my favourite genres are horror and dystopian; my no-no genres are romance and… even more so if it’s historical, romantic fiction. So, for me, this should have been a combination of everything I don’t enjoy in books. Then you’re adding in a love triangle. Oh, here we go, this book is going to be a massive cliché. The woman falls in love with another man, her husband treats her like crap, you want her to leave and be with the other guy. At the end, she’ll have to pick between her husband and the other guy. Oh, wow, look at that, she picks the other guy and they run away together, off into the sunset, to start a new life, yada yada. I’ve seen it done a million times before.

Well, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. And I’m happy to admit that I got this book all wrong. I was hooked from the beginning. I smiled, I cried… I cried some more. Jane was excellent at bringing the characters to life and hitting you with that emotional aspect. But what really, really did it for me with this book was Jack, Emma Holt’s husband. The horrible husband cliché was not in Jack. Not even an inch. He was selfless, genuine, loving, affectionate, loyal… the list of good traits goes on. I was genuinely torn between Jack and Philip and didn’t know which way Emma should go. Both men had amazing qualities and I didn’t want either of them to end up hurt.

On top of that, the war facts in this book were spot on. I genuinely learnt so much!

5/5 stars

Goodbye, Theodore (Book 1) by Candy D. Mitchell Book Review

About: There are some worlds separate from ours – worlds that are thought to be just whispers. But what happens when one of those worlds collides inside our own? That’s exactly what happened in the sleepy town of Harthsburg. When Theodore Lexington’s body flew up into the chilly air it was clear that his day was turning into a real-life nightmare.

But the magical creatures that swept him into the sky, known to some as Twilight Breathers, took more than just Theodore. With only a small group of people left behind, three friends Eliza, Ben and Audrey set out to save him, along with any other townspeople they can find. But the more they learned the more they wonder if the creatures are really there on their own accord.

Will the three friends be able to save Theodore in time? And who or what is behind the appearance of the Twilight Breathers?

Review: Immediately drawn in by the first chapter, which is beautiful and has a poetic feel to it with the way it personifies The Night. The storyline keeps you hooked by constantly dropping little shocks of information throughout. In terms of characters, I’m very drawn to Audrey and Gerald. The author’s use of metaphors are on point. Great story and can’t wait for the next.

5/5 stars

A Window Breaks by C.M. Ewan Book Review

About: If your family was targeted in the middle of the night, what would you do?

You are asleep. A noise wakes you.
You stir, unsure why, and turn to your wife.
Then you hear it.
Glass. Crunching underfoot.
Your worst fears are about to be realized.
Someone is inside your home.
Your choices are limited.
You can run. Or stay and fight.
What would you do?

Review: Unlike some books that slowly edge you into the story, this book starts right in the action (not in the intrusion). Right where you want it to start. In fact, there is no ‘slow’ part to this book. The amount of times I changed my favourite character throughout is ridiculous because the plot never once stuck on a straight path. There were always little secrets and little puzzle pieces being thrown at you constantly.

I would say that the blurb does throw you off slightly as to the main story. Yes, a window does break and there are intruders in the house, but they are staying in a luxurious lodge in the middle of the Scottish wilderness rather than their actual house so it’s clear from the start that the intrusion isn’t random and this also makes it harder for them to escape and find help. Tom and Rachel’s son had died in a car accident, their daughter was badly hit during a mugging, Rachel is keeping secrets from Tom that are slowly uncovered through the book. So, in a way, I think the blurb doesn’t do the book justice. I would have actually been more drawn to the book if the blurb was more on point.

One major thing I have to applaud this author for is his showing of body language throughout. I struggle on the best of days to find ten different ways to show the same emotion throughout one book, yet this author has had to find A LOT of different ways to portay fear. And they have done it amazingly well.

4/5 stars

Shadow City by Anna Mocikat Book Review

About: Los Angeles is an apocalyptic wasteland. The few survivors of a horrific catastrophe live under the constant threat of radiation, mutated creatures, and worse… lurking in the shadows.
In the ruins of the deserted city, the scavengers Jean and Louis come across a nameless stranger and bring him to the only safe zone, once known as Hollywood. What’s left of society is divided among different factions; mistrust, brute force, and anarchy rule every day’s life. If the struggle for survival wasn’t bad enough, the nuclear disaster has shifted realities as we knew them and brought something into our world which threatens to exterminate the human race. Something so dark, that every living being is horrified of it. Something that feeds on suffering and violence.
But humans aren’t alone in this existential fight. Unexpected allies emerge from the shadows and in the final stand, the nameless stranger will decide humanities fate.

Review: It’s not a bad book at all and there were amazing aspects to it. It definitely gets better as the book goes on, but there are just some things that didn’t work for me. I feel the characters were all introduced way too quickly. It took me a couple of chapters to get the hang of who was who, what side who was on etc. As someone with a qualification in writing, I was taught to try not to use the word ‘suddenly’ but there were many chapters in which this word was used an awful lot. Also, the last battle I felt ended way too easily. Both sides of the battle were so strong and within what felt like moments, there was a simple act and the whole thing was over. So those aspects are what didn’t work for me, BUT there are definitely some very relatable characters in the story and to be honest, those characters are what kept me going through the story once I got the hang of who was who. I’m very, very drawn to Eurydice.

3/5 stars

Cilka’s Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2) by Heather Morris.

About: Based on the heart-breaking true story of Cilka Klein, Cilka’s Journey is the sequel to the internationally No.1 bestselling phenomenon, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

‘She was the bravest person I ever met’
Lale Sokolov, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

In 1942 Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival.

After liberation, Cilka is charged as a collaborator by the Russians and sent to a desolate, brutal prison camp in Siberia known as Vorkuta, inside the Arctic Circle.

Innocent, imprisoned once again, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, each day a battle for survival. Cilka befriends a woman doctor, and learns to nurse the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under unimaginable conditions. And when she tends to a man called Alexandr, Cilka finds that despite everything, there is room in her heart for love.

Cilka’s Journey is a powerful testament to the triumph of the human will. It will move you to tears, but it will also leave you astonished and uplifted by one woman’s fierce determination to survive, against all odds.

Review: After reading and being such a big fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I just had to read this book. Cilka was such a prominent person for me in the last book and the prison she was sent to was always something I wondered about. Especially as a reader who could not believe she was charged with being a collaborator after years of what is obvious rape.

Even though Heather had no way of speaking to Cilka personally (Cilka now being deceased) and this is much more a piece of fiction than the first book, I think she’s done a great job of compiling evidence about her life together and giving a good idea of what she may have gone through as a prisoner.

I always look forward to Heather’s notes at the end of the book that show the facts. You can tell she’s put in a lot of research to get the story written as close to real life as possible.

5/5 stars

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

About: Kate Reese is a single mother fleeing an abusive relationship by starting over in a new town, with her young son Christopher. But Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, is not the safe place they thought it would be…

Their world begins to unravel after Christopher vanishes into the Mission Street Woods – where 50 years earlier an eerily similar disappearance occurred. When he emerges six days later, unharmed but not unchanged, he brings with him a secret: a voice only he can hear and a warning of tragedy to come.

What follows is a moving, thrilling, chilling modern masterpiece – a work of towering imagination and emotional depth which unfolds on an epic canvas.

Review: I’ve been reading a lot of great books lately, but this is one of my favourites. I knew that Stephen was the author of ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. I’ve not actually read that yet, but I know how well liked and known it is, and from this assumed ‘Imaginary Friend’ must be great, despite being a very different genre. I was not disappointed. Though I’ve noticed this book has a lot of bad reviews – they must have been reading a different book to me!

I didn’t realise when I started reading this book (I read via my Kindle) that it was over 700 pages! Did I enjoy every single page? Yes. Could it have been cut down in word count a bit? Probably. In fact, that is one of my only faults. But then again, even if I could have cut the book down, it would only be by a meagre twenty pages or so throughout the entire thing. My other fault is the age of the children. The decisions they had to make and the thinking process of Christopher feel older to me. Personally, I feel they should be 11/12ish.

This book has genuinely shaped the way I see things now. I wait to feel flesh instead of bark on trees and I take a lot more notice of the shapes in the clouds. When I started reading this and found out about the ‘nice man’ portrayed as a plastic bag, I actually went out walking and a plastic bag flew straight in front of me. I smiled and had to refrain from talking to it. It wasn’t JUST a plastic bag to me anymore.

I would love to get into the mind of Stephen. I thought I had a great imagination, but his is just something else. I can usually start a book or film and point out what’s going to happen. 95% of the time I’m usually right. With this, I didn’t catch ANY of the twists. Really hoping Stephen releases more horror!

I really, really hope this gets adapted into a film!

5/5 stars.

One Night in Drake Mansion – Channing Whitaker

About: Six Missing, Five Dead, and One Night to Unravel the Mystery

Eighty years ago, a wealthy family returned home from a magic show, after which neither they nor the magician, Malvern Kamrar, were ever heard from again. When several bystanders died in their mansion, the house was sealed. After nearly a century of rumors and haunted stories, the mansion will be opened for a live TV event, allowing five contestants to spend one night and win their share of a million dollars.

The contestants: a psychic, a high-tech ghost hunter, a Hollywood scream queen, a local woman, and a paranormal skeptic named Harlan Holt fuel excitement as each tries to solve the mystery. Upon entering the journal of the family patriarch, Vinton Drake is discovered, illuminating the puzzle, rooted all the way back to Vinton’s service as a medic in WWI when he first met the magician.

Departing from the familiar haunted house tale, this story explores the very nature of belief in the supernatural with consequences more frightening than any ghost story. Intensity soars when the contestants discover their lives, and thousands more, are in genuine peril. Is the mansion haunted? What fate befell Malvern and the Drake family? And will the contestants uncover the truth in time to save themselves…

One Night in Drake Mansion is the first book in Whitaker’s Skeptic Detective Series.

Review: The story opens with the characters on the plane – it really helped to show the reader each character and their quirks and so by the time the main story started, I already knew who was who. Channing goes into detail about a video of Kamrar (the magician) and I genuinely felt like I was watching the magic show in my head with how descriptive it was and therefore how much imagery I gained from it. The video opened up so many possibilities to me and made the mystery even more mystifying.

I loved the fact the characters were in the ‘haunted’ mansion as part of a TV show – first book I’ve read where it’s not just teenagers breaking inside of somewhere they shouldn’t be, and I actually preferred it. It made for more realism for me.

I definitely connected with Harlan the most, who was the sceptic. I really didn’t expect that as I myself believe in spirits, but he still has a way to draw you in with his kindness. Maybe it was the fact he was the one so interested in Vinton’s journal. The others were interested too, but not to the point of Harlan. I, too, could imagine myself being the person to sit and read the entire journal.

Usually when a story flits between past and present, I find myself preferring one to the other, but in this case I genuinely was interested in learning about both. I got to excited when Harlan would read another passage from Vinton’s journal, but I also wanted to know what was going on in the mansion.

A great read, I would definitely recommend it. The outcome is definitely one I didn’t expect.

5/5 stars

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

About: You just dropped off your child at the bus stop. A panicked stranger calls your phone. Your child has been kidnapped, and the stranger explains that their child has also been kidnapped, by a completely different stranger. The only way to get your child back is to kidnap another child within 24 hours. Your child will be released only when the next victim’s parents kidnap yet another child, and most importantly, the stranger explains, if you don’t kidnap a child, or if the next parents don’t kidnap a child, your child will be murdered. You are now part of The Chain.

Review: The first book I’ve read from this author. Great book, great idea! I’d never heard of the Mexican concept of exchange kidnappings that influenced this book before, but I’m glad the author had so that they could write this amazing story.

This really invades your idea of what’s moralistic. It’s not moralistic to kidnap a child, but would you do it if that meant saving your own from certain death? It’s quite strange reading about a person doing all these things that I would say I’m not capable of, but… I don’t blame her. It really does make you ponder the idea of: are humans capable of anything given the right circumstances? I was definitely holding my breath on the nut allergy scene, my mind also torn just like Rachel’s as to the right step to take.

I was very drawn to Pete. I always seem to prefer the most broken ones.

Well written, likeable characters.

5/5 stars

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

About: A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane’s violent working class suburban fringe – from one of Australia’s most exciting new writers.

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It’s not as if Eli’s life isn’t complicated enough already. He’s just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way – not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli’s life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He’s about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.

Review: This book is written from the perspective of Eli Bell, who’s a bit of a potty mouth child with thoughts and intellect beyond his age. The fact he seems above his age really works well in this book because Eli has gone through so many things someone his age wouldn’t even know about.

There’s not a single thing I can fault about this book. The fact that a lot of this is taken and based on memories of Trent’s actual childhood is simply shocking and makes you wonder how much he went through as a child with the crime, domestic abuse etc. I have just read an interview by the author and I recommend everyone else to do so too once they’ve finished reading the book.

I actually didn’t realise Slim Halliday was an actual person, but I found him to be such a mesmerising character with a lot of hidden qualities. It kind of makes me wish I’d been around at the time to get to know the guy. None of his crimes are at the forefront of my mind whenever he enters the book, just all the wisdom and kindness he has to give. I felt very drawn to him, and along with Eli and August, he’s my favourite character – I really wish he’d written an autobiography!

There are a lot of things in this book that are very unique to it like the red telephone. Every time August would be creating the moon pool, I would get so much beautiful imagery in my mind. Like Eli, August’s intellect and thought processes feel very mature. In some ways he feels the more stable of the two characters, but in other ways (the fact he’s mute and writes messages in the air) he seems far more broken.

I hardly ever buy books in paperback anymore and read on my Kindle to save space and money, but I will be buying the paperback of this book (I only do this for my favourite books). It’s worth the extra money and the space on my bookshelf – a beautiful story with a beautiful book cover.

5/5 stars

Blind Walls by Conrad Bishop

About: It’s a monstrous maze of a mansion, built by a grief-ridden heiress. A tour guide, about to retire, has given his spiel for so many years that he’s gone blind. On this last tour, he’s slammed with second sight.

He sees the ghosts he’s always felt were there: the bedeviled heiress, her servants, and a young carpenter who lands his dream job only to become a lifelong slave to her obsession. The workman’s wife makes it to shore, but he’s cast adrift.

And the tour guide comes home to his cat.

My review: Seriously great writing skills and such an eye for description. The characterisation is perfect, all characters so unique and distinguishable from each other. This book really has the potential to be a five star, if it wasn’t for one issue – the tour guide. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great character, but not for this story. The real story was Dee and Chuck. The tour guide genuinely, to me, looked like he was just there as a way to piece the main story together. He had no relevance at all. Every time I’d be getting into the story, he would pop up again, distracting me from what I really wanted to read. And when he did pop up, it wasn’t like he should be there, it was more a case of he popped up just so you wouldn’t forget about him. Shame, without him I would have given it a 5 star rating.

3/5 stars