I have previously confessed my love for Mhairi McFarlane books – and as soon as one is available on NetGalley the rest of my TBR pile is dumped temporarily!

“When Joe and Roisin join their group of friends for a weekend away, it’s a triple celebration – a birthday, an engagement and the launch of Joe’s new crime drama on TV.
But when Roisin sees secrets she shared with Joe play out on the TV screen, she knows that between us means nothing at all.
Roisin finds herself searching for clues to the truth – about her life, their history, and the man she thought she loved. And it’s then that Roisin finds the most unexpected plot twist of them all. Among those same old friends, there’s a surprising potential for new beginnings . . .”

The book starts when Roisin (can I just say I like the fact the main character had a tricky name to say – just like Mhairi!!) was a small girl and an outing with her Mum and her Mum’s friends – whilst you know it’s going to be relevant later on – it’s not immediately evident why.

Then we’re back to the present day when Roisin and her boyfriend Joe meet up with a group of friends whom they worked with in a bookshop historically – AKA the Brian club (it’s explained in the book so don’t be confused!) for a weekend away in a fancy house in the countryside. I did wonder if this was going to be Mhairi’s first foray into an Agatha Christie style murder mystery who-dunnit – but do not fear, it’s not! They are congregating for various celebrations – and it’s also the first showing of Joe’s new TV show which they’re all going to watch together. As they’re watching it – it becomes evident that things Roisin had told Joe in confidence ‘between us’ – had been used as part of the storyline in the series – and not only is Roisin gutted by this, she also begins to wonder what else of the storyline is based on the truth – when she can spot Joe and other friends as different characters.

The book then follows the disintegration of Roisin and Joe’s relationship – along with the whole friendship group ripping apart at the seams.

I have to say I did then guess some of Roisin’s ‘plot twist’ – but I was not disappointed by this at all (it just cements the fact that I think Mhairi and I would get on brilliantly if we met in real life #weirdstalkervibesnotintentional!) and I’m not going to spill any beans here.

Whilst a lot of the book is the story of Roisin, Joe and their friends – I also really enjoyed the relationship between Roisin and her Mum – and also the scenes of Roisin in her day job as an English teacher. With a large number of teenagers in my house (my kids, not some strange hostage situation) – I did think the students interactions with her were brilliantly written!

As you’d expect from a Mhairi McFarlane book it’s cleverly written, laugh out loud funny, has current reference points and you can’t wait to read on (and will miss the characters now it’s finished!) Another fantastic book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“When 35-year-old Leni McKenzie is knocked off her bike, her family’s world is turned upside down.
Leni and her sister Alice were best friends as well as siblings. But did they know each other as well as Alice thought? In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni’s last weeks – but her discoveries only lead to more questions. And that’s before the surprise reappearance of someone from the past. Life is certainly getting very complicated …
Meanwhile, the rest of the family seem to be falling apart. Belinda, Alice’s mum, has developed an unhealthy obsession with a clairvoyant, and Tony, her dad, is stressed about becoming a father all over again, what with three failed marriages stacking up behind him.
As for Will, the youngest McKenzie, he’s in denial, having hopped onto a plane to Thailand days after the funeral. Secretly, he’s tormented by the part he played in Leni’s death … and the thing about secrets is, they always come out eventually …
Full of hope and heartache, love and truths, Lucy Diamond’s new novel is the big-hearted and relatable story of one unforgettable year in the life of the McKenzies.“

The book starts from Leni’s point of view and her birthday party – and the various niggles she has with different family members at her party.

It then cuts further forward and it’s obvious Leni has died (although it takes a while for the story of that evening to be fully explained). The book then follows Leni’s siblings and parents and how each of them deal with their unique situation and the grief / guilt / sadness that brings. It also fills out the story of the family and how it has broken down over the years – and touches on infidelity, friendship, parental desertion and many other things in between.

Sorting through Leni’s belongings make both Alice and Belinda want to investigate what their sister / daughter had been doing in the weeks before she died.

It is really interesting to see how the various intertwining relationships develop – and how Leni essentially brings her family back together again in death. The peripheral ‘step’ relatives are also explored – and you’re rooting for the entire blended family.

Some of it is incredibly moving, some quite funny – but all of it kept me wanting to read more.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lucy Diamond (it’s out in February 2023) but I would definitely read more from her in the future – and will investigate her back catalogue.

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

“When Rachel meets Luc, the attraction is instant.
But she is a doctor, and he is her patient.
She gives him the drugs he needs – but in doing so, risks everything.
And when a secret is exposed, they’re both in the firing line.
Not all patients are telling the truth.“

The book centres on Rachel – a 49 year old GP. She is bored in her marriage to a local school teacher, and her grown up librarian daughter doesn’t seem to want anything to do with her – and she feels peri menopausal and invisible. Having a central character the same(ish!) age as me was interesting.

Rachel’s first dealings with Luc are as a patient – after hours one evening at her surgery – but this is only a very small part of the storyline.

Luc and his glamourous wife Ophelia, and extended family, have moved to Salisbury (the cathedral – famous for the fact that Russian spies like to visit it – is almost a character in its own right!!) and Rachel and her family are invited to their housewarming party – and from there the storyline develops.

The plot twists and turns – in Salisbury and France – and you’re never quite sure whom to trust. I have to say that some of the twists I guessed – whilst others were a total shock – which gave me the right level of smugness whilst still enjoying the ride!

I really enjoyed the book and will definitely look out for more books by this author in the future.

The Patient is released next week, 28 April 2022. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Beloved Girls had rave reviews on NetGalley and from authors I enjoy reading – and so I requested and was granted an advance review copy (it came out on 19 August 2021 for Kindle and in hard copy – paperback is out in April 2022). Here’s the blurb:

“‘It’s a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer . . . There’s an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. Half for them -‘ my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. ‘And half for us.’
Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure – someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?
The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes – a mysterious West Country manor house – where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . .”

Apart from the weird poem at the start – the book starts in the present day with Catherine and her family in central London. She’s a successful barrister who has just lost a case and is clearly struggling with the aftermath. Then – she disappears when she’s supposed to be heading off on an anniversary trip with her husband to France. At the end of this section there is then a twist based on on old photo – but it’s exactly the same twist as in another book I read recently #weird

It then flashes back – and is told from different points of view – to teenagers in the late1980s (lots of this was incredibly familiar having been a teenager in the same era!) and then even further back to the parents of the teenagers in their youth.

You know that the storyline is going to build up to a big tragedy in 1989 – although you don’t know exactly what it’s going to be.

The main problem was, I didn’t really give a toss about any of the characters – and the whole bee b*llocks, was just plain weird,

I pushed through, hoping to find what was missing and what everyone else had loved – and because I hate letting a book beat me (The Goldfinch anyone?!?) but it just didn’t click with me at all. Others appear to have loved it – but it just didn’t do it for me. It felt too long, too boring, too simplistic language – it wasn’t badly written or offensive – just a bit of a waste of a few hours of reading.

I have been ‘So Lucky’ to read Dawn O’Porter’s recent fiction books – so was intrigued to read her new non fiction book – based upon her experiences during the coronavirus crisis. Or – the start of the coronavirus crisis as it seems to be never ending. Now, I am also a member of Dawn’s Patreon page (yep, bit of a fangirl!) and I knew this book was based upon the daily blogs she’d done on there – so I was nervous that the book would be a bit boring reading stuff I’d already read – but I needn’t have been concerned! There’s plenty of new content too – and re-reading previous blog posts felt like reminiscing with friends about the fun we had at the start of lockdown!!

Anyway – here’s the blurb:

“Dear 2020 – can we just start over?
Love Dawn x

LIFE IN PIECES is a book for anyone who’s been thrown into a life they didn’t plan, or who just wants to stick it to 2020. When it looks like everything’s falling apart, we’ll piece it back together.
 
From reflections on grief and identity, bad hair and parenting, sleep and spirituality, to the things we can control and the things we cannot, Dawn has been doing a lot of thinking about life in lockdown. Mostly from a cupboard. Discover the daily diaries that track the journey – for a hilarious, heartbreaking and highly entertaining glimpse into the new normal.”

The book is pretty much chronological from just before lockdown – when Dawn came to the UK for her good friend Caroline Flack’s funeral – and then through the experience of lockdown for Dawn and her family in LA.

So yes, it’s based in LA where Dawn lives with her handsome movie star husband – but so much of it is totally relatable to any parent going through this madness. The relentlessness. The hell on earth that is homeschooling. The drinking from early in the afternoon. Not the weed gummies for me – but I can see the attraction if they were legal here! The endless meals to be prepared.

There are also some ‘essays’ in amongst the diary entries which give more background to Dawn’s life and experiences to date. I am by nature a nosey cow, so found these really interesting.

Clearly Dawn has found lockdown tough – exacerbated by the horrific grief of suddenly losing a friend just before being stuck at home in the midst of a global pandemic. But the love for her husband Chris, her boys and her pets shines right through. (This was made all the more poignant because after finishing the book but before it will be published, Dawn’s first responsibility – her Siamese cat Lilu – sadly died at the grand old age of 16. This book is a fitting tribute to her though (although she may well have p*ssed on a copy if she’d been near one.))

As I’ve mentioned before – I am a bit of a fan of Dawn O’Porter’s (although TBH so are quite a lot of women of my age – our book club has regularly discussed how we’d like her to join us on a night out!) and maybe the book wouldn’t be as interesting if you didn’t know of and like Dawn. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments – and it’s also really moving in places, particularly when Dawn talks about losing Caroline and her Mum when she was a young girl.

In years to come it could be considered a historical account of these bloody strange times!

A massive thank you to Harper Collins, NetGally – and Dawn – for the book.

I have LOVED the previous books by Gill Sims, the previous one being my absolutely favourite – so when the publisher emailed to see if I’d like an ARC of the 4th and final instalment (out in October 2020), I replied within seconds, and started reading it that afternoon!

Here’s the blurb:

“Number One bestselling author Gill Sims is back with her eagerly awaited fourth and final Why Mummy novel.

I just wanted them to stop wittering at me, eat vegetables without complaining, let me go to the loo in peace and learn to make a decent gin and tonic.  
It genuinely never occurred to me when they were little that this would ever end – an eternity of Teletubbies and Duplo and In The Night Bastarding Garden and screaming, never an end in sight.  But now there is.  And despite the busybody old women who used to pop up whenever I was having a bad day and tell me I would miss these days when they were over, I don’t miss those days at all.  
I have literally never stood wistfully in the supermarket and thought ‘Oh, how I wish someone was trailing behind me constantly whining ‘Mummy, can I have, Mummy can I have?’ while another precious moppet tries to climb out the trolley so they land on their head and we end up in A&E.  
Again.

Mummy has been a wife and mother for so long that she’s a little bit lost. And despite her best efforts, her precious moppets still don’t know the location of the laundry basket, the difference between being bored and being hungry, or that saying ‘I can’t find it Mummy’ is not the same as actually looking for it.

Amidst the chaos of A-Levels and driving tests, she’s doing her best to keep her family afloat, even if everybody is set on drifting off in different directions, and that one of those directions is to make yet another bloody snack. She’s feeling overwhelmed and under appreciated, and the only thing that Mummy knows for sure is that the bigger the kids, the bigger the drink.“

Yet again – this is totally timely for me. It starts with Jane learning to drive – something I’m going through with my eldest at the moment! Peter and Jane are also studying for their GCSEs and A levels – exactly the same as my eldest two (although whether they’ll actually sit exams in the summer, who knows? #bloodyCovid) So all in all – I TOTALLY got this book! As with the rest of the series it frequently had be laughing out loud – and wondering if it was based on our household?!

But don’t be put off if you haven’t reached the teenage years yet, Ellen’s friend Hannah has a demon toddler, and the chapter where Ellen looks after him for 24 hours brought lots of those memories flooding back. Sudocrem and carpets are not happy bedfellows.

Although I should confess, and I feel I almost need to whisper, I’m not a dog person – so that bit of the storyline wasn’t relevant to me at all!!

I love how Ellen’s group of friends have stayed together throughout the books – and the support they provide each other – it’s great, and like meeting up with your own old friends.

The book then deals with Jane heading off to University in Edinburgh (weirdly as one of my good friends was dropping her daughter up to start studying there too!) and Ellen thinking about how she only has a couple more years of Peter at home before she has an empty nest! My sister is at this stage next week, and it’s really mixed feelings (having got 4 kids, an empty nest is A LONG way off for us, so I’m possibly less emotional about the whole thing!)

The storyline was reasonably predictable – with some very amusing twists and turns along the way – but I actually really liked that, and as the final book in the series, I think it concluded brilliantly. I think it’s usurped book 3 as my favourite in the series!

I’ll miss Ellen! Maybe she can come back when we’re all going to have grandkids?!?

A huge thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the advance review copy – and to Gill Sims for yet another fabulous book!