Month: June 2024

Book Review: The Summer Party by Kate Gray

Posted on by Libby Price

“It’s the event of the year – the company summer party. Mel can’t wait to let her hair down with her colleagues. Sun, sea, and her sights set on her work crush. One big happy family.
But as the champagne flows and the sun begins to set, cracks in the team start to appear. Secrets, lies, revenge. No one is as innocent as they seem.
But could one of them be guilty of murder? Mel soon realises someone is orchestrating a deadly plan. And she must uncover the truth if she’s going to get out alive . . .”

I was offered an advance review copy of The Summer Party by Kate Gray on Net Galley – and saw that it was recommended for fans of Lucy Foley – so I said ‘yes please!’.

The book is told primarily from the point of view of Mel – who works in HR at a PR company, Flavour. I have to say she reminded me quite a lot of Eleanor Oliphant – the eponymous heroine of a book published in 2017. She is one of the ‘lucky’ VIP members of staff to be picked randomly to stay overnight at an exclusive hotel set on a historic fort in the middle of the Solent. After all of the Flavour staff have finished their summer party – the lucky few will remain over night in the lap of luxury.

The weather is a scorching heat wave – and the oppressive heat as the party starts is written really well and you can really feel it. You know from near the start that something has happened to a previous colleague, Holly, who died after the Flavour Christmas party – and Mel in particular seems to be being reminded of her at every turn – even the bedroom smells of her perfume.

The party goes off reasonably smoothly – although with a drunken speech and lots of alcohol involved – and then most of the staff head back to the mainland. Things then get weird! It’s written really well and is incredibly evocative of the VIPs being totally stranded on an isolated fort with no way of getting off.

There’s murder and intrigue and you’re never quite sure who can and can’t be trusted. It had a great pace and made me want to keep reading to unravel what was happening!

Overall a great read for this summer.

A bit thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my ARC. It’s out on July 4th – busy day for books – and voting!

Book Review: If I Were You by Cesca Major

Posted on by Libby Price

One of my books of 2023 was Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major, and so when I heard she had a new book out, I was delighted to be granted an advance review copy by Net Galley – here’s the blurb:

“How do you know when you’ve found The One?
Amy loves Flynn
Flynn loves Amy
But she can’t read his mind, and he can’t read hers. Heading away to her sister’s wedding weekend, little do they know it’s make or break.
When a bolt of lightning gives them the ultimate change in perspective, they have to get through the weekend walking in each other’s shoes… Literally.
Will this crazy experience split them up – or make them fall in love all over again?”

Early in the book a bolt of lightning cause Flynn and Amy to change bodies. Now, I’ve seen this happen in films – but wondered how it would be dealt with in a book – and I have to say that it was a bit of a headf*ck to start with. I kept having to stop and think ‘so who is this? Is this Flynn in Amy’s body – or Amy in Flynn’s body?’ But I did get into the swing of it.

Whilst Amy’s sister’s wedding is the back drop – lots of history is covered and uncovered in a really clever way for numerous members of the wedding party. It also addresses some fundamental issues and differences that men and women feel – but may not necessarily have considered. For example Flynn feels much more vulnerable when he’s Amy – and Amy is expected to be more aggressive when she’s Flynn.

There are some slight inconsistencies – where skills each of them possess when themselves are sometimes exchanged to the other person – and sometimes most definitely not. But you’re massively suspending your belief because they’ve body swapped – so whether someone can or can not then sing or play tennis is a bit irrelevant I guess!

I was interested to see if they ever swapped back into their own bodies, and if so how that could happen – because lightning doesn’t often strike twice (yes, I went there, yes, I am a d*ck) – and there are no spoilers from me here.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was desperate to keep reading.

It’s out on 4th July – which is a big day for lots of new releases, and I think something else might be happening that day too?!?

A big thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for my ARC.

Book Review: Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood

Posted on by Libby Price

I was lucky enough to be offered another book to read that is going to feature in ‘Don’t Buy Her Flowers’ packages going forward – and so I obviously said yes (having never knowingly refused a free book!) I have to say that real life / autobiographies are not a genre I often read – but sometimes it’s good to try something outside your standard comfort zone. Here is the blurb:

“Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.
Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water… At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK.
From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape”

The book starts in the 1970s with Suzy and her family in Warwick before her father decides to take them on a 3 year trip around the world sailing in the footsteps (um, that doesn’t quite make sense?!) of Captain Cook’s circumnavigation to celebrate it’s 200th anniversary. The family share a surname with the aforementioned Captain – and Mr Cook is very focussed in his plans for the trip – with his wife and kids (Suzy and her younger brother Jon) being swept along with it whether they want to or not.

The trip doesn’t go exactly as planned – and ends up being extended again and again. The family take on paying crew members to help fund the trip – which adds to the characters in the book. At times I found the storyline quite repetitive – but I guess the whole experience was at times. I also do not enjoy boats (I get motion sickness on a lilo!) and some of the descriptions – especially of ‘the wave’ incident – made me feel physically sick, which shows just how well it was described!

I have to say that I really did not like Mr and Mrs Cook – they appeared to have absolutely no thought or love for their kids at all. (Although I appreciate this book is told from Suzy’s point of view, and she’s now seemingly estranged from them, but I do wonder what they would say about their singlemindedness to complete the trip and be together as a couple – often seemingly to the detriment of their children).

Suzy was clearly incredibly self motivated to try and complete her studies by correspondence school (something that I think is much more common in Australia due to how much of the population lives in far flung outposts – and well before home schooling was a ‘thing’ for lots of us #shudderatthememories) and shows incredible strength of character. Given the incredibly unusual experiences – Suzy appears to be a surprisingly normal person.

Overall it was a really interesting book – and the trip around the world (visiting places I’ve been lucky enough to visit in South Africa and Australia) was great.

A big thank you to Don’t Buy Her Flowers and the publishers for my free review copy.