Month: March 2022

Book Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Posted on by Libby Price
I have really enjoyed Lucy Foley books before – both her amazing historical dramas spanning generations – and her more recent ensemble cast mysteries. So when I saw she had a new book out I requested and was granted an ARC. (Although didn’t read it quite as quickly as I should – so if you like the sound of it – you can buy it immediately, I’m not tempting you in advance!) Here’s the blurb:

“Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants
A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine. Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.
The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest
There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.”

The book starts with wayward 20 something Jess going to visit her older half brother Ben in Paris. When she arrives at his apartment he isn’t there waiting for her as they’d agreed – and she senses something is amiss.

Thus starts the story of the inhabitants of a fancy apartment block. I don’t want to give too much of the storyline away, as you need to witness it evolve in real time! It’s told from lots of different points of view, all intertwining. I have to say that lots of the characters aren’t that likeable – but that was good! I was rooting for Jess throughout though (despite some seemingly ridiculous decisions on her quest to find out what has happened to Ben!)

Having visited a friend in a similar Paris apartment block many years ago (I was considering a secondment to the Paris office of the accountancy firm I worked for – but decided as I was only confident speaking French after drinking wine, I’d have to be permanently drunk! So Sydney was a better option for my liver!) it felt very accurately described – but the book touched on lots of areas of Paris – some most definitely off the tourist trail – but you really felt like you were at the different locations.

It twists and turns loads – as I would expect from a book by Lucy Foley – and towards the ends the twists have your head spinning! But it was great – and the ending wasn’t predictable. Another fabulous book.

A huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance review copy.

Book Review: Birmingham: It’s Not Shit: 50 Things That Delight About Brum

Posted on by Libby Price


“You know that Birmingham isn’t shit. Sometimes, though, you can’t articulate exactly why…
In this funny, revelatory and occasionally even nostalgic collection, the team behind Paradise Circus explore the places, people and Brummie ephemera that delight us about the second city. It lays out the ineffable reasons why we say ‘Birmingham: it’s not shit’, and then effs them.
Meet at the ramp and Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman and Danny Smith will dally down Dale End and take you up The Ackers. Discover Aston Villa’s sarcastic advertising hoarding, learn why Snobs could literally be magical, and dig up what might or might not be buried under Spaghetti Junction.”

I was kindly ‘given’ this book for my recent birthday (actually, I bought it for myself the week before – but gave it to my husband so he could give it back to me to celebrate me turning 48 a few days later #jointbankaccount)

I loved it – and did that massively annoying thing of reading it in bed, laughing, and then dictating chunks to my husband who was just trying to watch the news in peace.

Admittedly I think it’s pretty niche. This is not a book to give to non Brummies in an attempt to win them over. This is firmly for people who’ve grown up within the 11 route. If you don’t know what that is (and have never even considered doing the Walkathon in the 80s / 90s) this is not the book for you.

But if you are an aficionado of Snobs and Mr Egg, you support Villa or Blues and have ever been taken up The Ackers – then you will enjoy it!

And whilst being a Brummie is a pre requisite to reading this – I reckon at 48 (just!), I’m pretty target age range too. I’ll get my Mum to read it and see if it still works at 72 (I’m not sure she’s ever been to Snobs or Mr Egg – but would still enjoy some of it I’m sure!) I’m not going to bother getting the teenagers to read it, they call Worcester ‘town’ for goodness sake #heathens #livinginB48

Right – I’m off to Venice in the summer with a trundle wheel to measure just how long those canals are (definitely less than Birmingham!) and if you like the sound of the book – you can buy it from Amazon – and also read why it’s had to be sold by the ‘untaxed behoth of capitalism’ here.

5* would highly recommend – the book and my home city!

Book Review: Old Friends by Felicity Everett

Posted on by Libby Price

I’d seen this described as a twisty, turny, dark thriller – and here’s the blurb:

“Two couples, best friends for half a lifetime, move in together. What could possibly go wrong…?
Harriet and Mark have it all: successful careers, a lovely house in a leafy London suburb, twin boys on the cusp of leaving home. Yvette and Gary share a smaller place with their two daughters in a shabbier part of the same borough.
But when the stars align for a collective move north, it means a fresh start for them all. For Mark, it’s a chance to escape the rat race; for Harriet, a distraction from her unfulfilled dream of a late third child. Gary has decided to reboot the Madchester band that made him famous, while Yvette hopes it will give her daughters what she never had herself.
But as the reality of their new living arrangements slowly sinks in, the four friends face their own mid-life crises, and the dream becomes a nightmare…”

Now up front I would question the description and the blurb – I don’t know if the storyline changed, but it just doesn’t make sense, particularly the line ‘Yvette hopes it will give her daughters what she never had herself’ is just odd – given neither of the daughters make the move North. And the move North doesn’t happen until quite a way through the book – I just felt the blurb and reviews from other authors weren’t quite on the mark and thus I felt a bit short-changed!

It’s an easy enough domestic drama to read – but I didn’t feel it was very dark with twists and turns. I also found the way it was written a bit strange, you’d jump forward quite a large amount of time with no explanation – and then the intervening period would be filled in a bit (although I often felt there were gaps in explaining why things had happened).

It felt to be like it was trying to be Cold Feet but without any of the history the viewer has with the characters – and I didn’t have a strong view about any of the lead characters. Sometimes a book is as intriguing if you hate a main character as much as if you love one – but I found Harriet, Mark, Yvette and Gary all a bit dull and thus was apathetic about what happened to any of them.

I was quite surprised by the twist towards the end of the book – but even that didn’t save it for me.

To be honest it just didn’t sit well with me – and whilst there was nothing specifically wrong or offensive about the book, it just didn’t really float my boat.

Thanks to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.