Month: October 2019

Book Review: The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

Posted on by Libby Price

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

I loved Josie Silver’s previous book – One Day In December – so when the publisher emailed to ask if I wanted the secret Netgalley link to her next book, I jumped at the chance!

Here’s the blurb:

“Two love stories. One Impossible Choice.
Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’ve been together for almost a decade, and Lydia thinks their love is indestructible.
But she’s wrong. Because on her 27th birthday, Freddie dies in a tragic accident.
So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob ’til her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to live her life well. So, enlisting the help of his best friend and her sister Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world and starts to live – perhaps even to love – again.
Then something unbelievable happens, and Lydia gets another chance at her old life with Freddie. But what if there’s someone in her new life who wants her to stay?
A heart-breaking, uplifting story for fans of PS I Love You and Me Before You, this gorgeously romantic novel will make you laugh, cry and remind you of what a wonderful gift it is to love and to be loved.”

 This is such a clever book. I was going to say a Sliding Doors type premise – but it’s cleverer than that (and Lydia isn’t Gwyneth Paltrow)

Very early on in the book Freddie is killed – and Lydia’s life is changed forever – or is it? She has a portal back into her old life where the accident didn’t happen (this isn’t as weird and far fetched as it sounds – and flows really well in the storyline I promise!)

The relationships between Lydia and all of the other characters – family, friends, colleagues are all beautifully written and cleverly nuanced. Whilst less than major parts – her workmates are just lovely – and so caring when she goes back to work.

It also really makes you think about what would happen if a tragedy didn’t happen. (On a personal level, my mother in law passed away after a long fight with cancer a few weeks after I met my husband. She knew I existed – but she was too poorly for us to meet. I often think about how different for all of her family life could have been if she hadn’t died so young.)

Anyway – back to the book before we all get over emosh.

 It’s fabulous, and I really enjoyed it. I kind of guessed the ending-ish. But it twists and turns to get there, and you’re never quite sure what will happen next.

A couple of times Lydia seems to make crazy decisions – but it just pushes the storyline forwards in a new way.

Overall it’s a great book – and I would thoroughly recommend it.

Book Review: Messy, Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac

Posted on by Libby Price

Messy Wonderful Us

 

“One morning in early summer, a man and woman wait to board a flight to Italy. 

Allie has lived a careful, focused existence. But now she has unexpectedly taken leave from her job as an academic research scientist to fly to a place she only recently heard about in a letter. Her father, Joe, doesn’t know the reason for her trip, and Allie can’t bring herself to tell him that she’s flying to Italy to unpick the truth about what her mother did all those years ago.

Beside her is her best friend since schooldays, Ed. He has just shocked everyone with a sudden separation from his wife, Julia. Allie hopes that a break will help him open up.

But the secrets that emerge as the sun beats down on Lake Garda and Liguria don’t merely concern her family’s tangled past. And the two friends are forced to confront questions about their own life-long relationship that are impossible to resolve.

The dazzling new novel from Richard & Judy book club author Catherine Isaac, Messy, Wonderful Us is a story about the transforming power of love, as one woman journeys to uncover the past and reshape her future.”

 I saw this on Netgalley and it sounded interesting, so when the publisher emailed to ask if I wanted to read it, I said ‘yes please!’

Whilst I’ve not read anything by Catherine Isaac before – I had read and enjoyed books in her previous life as Jane Costello (not sure why she’s changed her writing name – I may have to Google it and find out!)

Early on in the book Allie discovers a family secret – which threatens her whole existence – and the book is basically the fall out from this, and her uncovering the truth.

It twists and turns – and the chunk in Italy is just beautiful. I’ve never been to Lake Garda (although have been to nearby Lake Como) but it really evokes the feeling of being there.

I liked Allie – and Ed – and their relationship is really interesting. The age old ‘can men and women really be platonic friends’ is looked at from a new angle. Their relationships with others were also explored in depth.

Some big juicy topics are covered throughout the book – which are really thought provoking and written about very well.

My only slight niggle with the whole book was the sections about Allie’s work in medical research. I am sure they were really well sourced and completely factually correct (in fact the acknowledgements at the end would back that up) but I felt they were too detailed and broke up the flow of the book. I am a total geek and love learning new and scientific stuff – but probably not in the context of a novel.

But I am sure I’m being over picky – and it didn’t ruin the book as a whole, which was a really good read. I romped through it at pace as I was so keen to see how it all played out.

It’s out next month, and I would definitely recommend it.

Book Review: Reluctant Adult by Katie Kirby (Hurrah for Gin)

Posted on by Libby Price

The Reluctant Adult

I read Katie Kirby’s first book and really enjoyed it – and follow her on social media – but have to confess I didn’t read her second book. I’d felt that the Mummy blogger books had been published thick and fast, and as my children were older, I wasn’t enjoying them as much. However, when I saw that this next book wasn’t a standard Mummy book I thought I’d give it a go – particularly as the blurb rang incredibly true!!

“Do you overthink everything?
Do you struggle to say no to people?
Are you paying membership for a gym you never go to?
Do group chat politics make you want to throw your phone under a bus?
Are you overjoyed when people cancel plans so that you can sit at home in your pyjama bottoms eating Coco pops for dinner?

If so then this book is for you!

We spend our childhoods wanting to a be adults and, when we get there, find ourselves lost under a pile of life admin, half completed to do lists and anti-ageing face creams that promise to make you look as good as Natalie Imbruglia.

In her new book, Hurrah for Gin pinpoints with painful precision just how overwhelming life can be when you’re all grown up. From the worry spiral that keeps you up at 3AM, to maintaining a professional aura when you can’t stand other people – this is for everyone struggling to stay afloat.

Honest, relatable, funny and containing no useful advice whatsoever, take comfort in the knowledge that it’s not just you, we’re all as f*cked as each other.”

(And I was super excited on Katie’s behalf when THE Natalie Imbruglia liked her insta post!!)

This was another fabulous book. Funny, relevant, and just adulthood in book form!

I have to admit that I’d seen some extracts on social media before – but there was enough fresh stuff not to feel shortchanged for spending actual money on a book for once!

It’s a quick easy read that you can dip in and out of – a perfect book for the loo perhaps?! (Although I read it on my Kindle – and I’m not sharing that with anyone else whilst they’re on the toilet! Oh – and the stick men illustrations are fine on a Kindle too, as I know I was worried about this with the first book and so bought it in hard copy.)

Overall a funny escapist read again – to be read with or without gin!

Book Review: Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Posted on by Libby Price

Secret Service

I think of Tom Bradby as the guy who reads the 10 o’clock news on ITV and sometimes says daft introductions, the newsreader who managed to blag himself a ticket to the Royal Wedding – and then the journalist who got the Harry and Meghan documentary scoop! But I didn’t realise he was also a published author – so when I saw this on Netgalley I thought I’d try it.

Here’s the blurb:

“The world is on the brink of crisis.
The Cold War is playing out once more on the global stage.
And governments will do whatever it takes to stay at the top . . .
______________________
To those who don’t really know her, Kate Henderson’s life must seem perfectly ordinary. But she is in fact a senior MI6 officer, who right now is nursing the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb.
Kate’s most recent mission has yielded the startling intelligence that the British Prime Minister has cancer – and that one of the leading candidates to replace him may be a Russian agent of influence.
Up against the clock to uncover the Russian mole, Kate risks everything to get to the truth. But with her reputation to uphold, her family hanging by a thread and a leadership election looming, she is quickly running out of options, and out of time.”

This isn’t a genre I read often – although is a TV type I would watch frequently – and it very much felt like watching something akin to Spooks.

The main character is Kate – and I admit to thinking it odd that a male author wrote the lead character as female (which I realise is ridiculous, as I never said that about JK Rowling and Harry Potter) – but he does get the working Mum / Mum to teenagers guilt down brilliantly (interestingly in the credits he says his wife helps write his books – so perhaps that explains it?)

The book feels very ‘of this time’ – Russian interference in foreign elections / personal lives of politicians being exposed etc etc! I suspect that Tom’s establishment and journalistic connections means a lot of this is very true to life!

You are rooting for Kate throughout – and a whole plethora of different events happen that would stretch the sanity of anyone – but she pushes through.

Her relationships with her family and also work colleagues are explored – and the interconnections are very interesting.

The ending feels a bit quick and forced – and I would have liked to have known exactly how the characters all got to that point – but I suppose it leaves you wanting more, which isn’t a bad thing?

Overall it was a good, fast paced read – and I really enjoyed it. I could imagine it being a TV drama. And I’ll definitely look at Tom Bradby’s back catalogue when I fancy reading this genre again.

 

 

Book Review: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Posted on by Libby Price

The Flat Share

“Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…”

Having read an excellent – but emotional book most recently – I decided I needed something more light hearted, and a friend in my reading group had recommended this and it had sat on my kindle for ages – so I thought I’d crack on.

Chapter 2 revealed that Leon worked in a hospice – so I did wonder if I’d made the right decision ‘light hearted wise’!

The chapters are either written from Tiffy or Leon’s point of view (or sometimes as notes between them) and the styles are really different – so you never have to check back as to who you’re reading about – which is really clever.

I really liked Tiffy and Leon – and found I was rooting for them as a pair – rather than being TeamTiffy or TeamLeon.

It deals with some pretty heavy stuff – emotional abuse in a relationship being fairly fundamental to the whole book – but that doesn’t stop it from being and enjoyable and entertaining read.

There’s a sliding doors element – where Tiffy and Leon could meet in person so much earlier in the book – but them not meeting adds to the storyline.  When they do meet it is brilliantly awkward!

Overall it was a lovely, easy read that I really enjoyed.