Month: April 2023

Book Review: Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon

Posted on by Libby Price

“Neither of them expected to fall in love. But sometimes life has other plans.
When Wren realises her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover.
On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.
Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.
But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harbouring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone.
Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?“

I was offered this ARC by NetGalley and the comments by other authors I enjoyed meant I said ‘yes please’.

I hadn’t read, what I would call, a standard romantic comedy for the last few books – and I fancied an escapist read and I really enjoyed this from the off.

Initially Wren is in the UK – but when her engagement falls apart, she takes herself across the Atlantic to stay with her Dad and his ‘new’ family in Indiana. The descriptions of the American countryside are fantastic – and I could really visualise the setting (and want to go and visit!)

The relationships between Wren and her Dad and step family are explored – along with new friendships with the locals – especially the neighbours Anders and Jonas.

I was really enjoying this escapist read and then BOOM there’s a twist! I had to go back to see if I’d somehow missed the clues – and with hindsight you can see they’re there – but it came as a total shock, which I really liked and shows how clever the author has been. And no spoilers here! This really changed the book for me into something deeper than ‘just’ a romcom. (Although there is always space for a well written romcom in my world.)

The book twists and turns through the final chapters in a brilliant way – and the ending has a perfect element of deja vu.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book – and would definitely recommend you buy it when it’s out later this week.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Posted on by Libby Price

I am lucky enough to get to read lots of advance review copies of books – and consequently I sometimes miss books that have hit bestsellers lists. ‘Lessons In Chemistry’ was on my radar – not least because it featured on the Sara Cox TV programme ‘Between The Covers’ – but I’d never got round to buying it. I was then given it as a Mothers’ Day present! I thought my husband (or kids) had been super clever, and read back through my blog posts to see what I had or hadn’t reviewed – but seemingly it was a lucky suggestion from a lady in Waterstones Solihull!! Anyway – it was a very thoughtful gift, and it leapfrogged the contents of my TBR pile. Here’s the blurb:

“Your ability to change everything – including yourself – starts here.
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.
But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results.
Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.”

The book starts with Elizabeth and her daughter Madeline at home – but then jumps back in time to when Elizabeth first met her soul mate – Calvin Evans. The descriptions of the Hastings Research Institute and it’s overtly sexist atmosphere was excellent. I also loved the rowing descriptions (whilst my kids don’t row – lots of their friends do – and there was lots of recognisable rowing shenanigans, and I found out why an erg is called an erg (a rowing machine to most of us, but a friend had mentioned the erg in their kitchen and I hadn’t had a clue what she meant)!)

The chapters then fill out the intervening period – and carries on with the story of Elizabeth and Mad.

Whilst the story is primarily about Elizabeth Zott and her fight against the patriarchy (although it’s never actually called that!) the supporting cast of characters such as the neighbour Harriet, whose husband is abusive, and the ‘secretary’ Miss Frask also have their own awakenings. I enjoyed all of this additional group of characters – and not just the women – but also the TV exec Walter Pine, the clergyman Wakeley – and, of course, the dog Six-Thirty.

Whilst in my own working life since the mid 90s – I’ve seen huge change in the attitude to working women, it’s shocking that in my own Mum’s working lifetime things were as described in this book – just totally unimaginable to young people today!

It was a great book – with a storyline I enjoyed, and at the same time well written, with interesting characters and lots to learn. It’s definitely worth all of the accolades it has received. I’ve just seen it’s being turned into a TV series by Apple – and I can see that being a massive hit too (although I’m already nervous as to whether it will do the book justice or not!) I would recommend reading the book first – in fact that is pretty much a motto for life!