Review: The Wishing Game

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lucy Hart had a very unhappy childhood and fell into a relationship with her college professor which also ended under a cloud. Now, saddled with debt, she is working as a teaching assistant in California. She cares deeply for one of her charges, a little seven year old boy called Christopher who has also had a traumatic childhood, and she is desperate to foster him but with poor housing, no car, and huge debts the odds are stacked against her.

Jack Masterson was a children's author who wrote a best-selling series of novels called Clock Island, a real island in Maine. But suddenly after writing over forty books he stopped and hasn't written anything for years. His books were a lifeline to Lucy and she has read them to young Christopher. The books feature children who venture to the island and have to solve a series of riddles and puzzles to get their wishes to come true.

Then one day Jack announces (very Willy Wonka) that he has written a new book, but there is only one copy, to be won by someone from a small group of personally invited guests. Each one of his books sells tens of millions of copies so this prize could make the winner rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Knowing that her only realistic chance of being able to foster Christopher is to win the prize (and also being beyond excited that there is a new book to read), Lucy is ecstatic when she receives an invitation, but the game will test her to the limit.

I loved this, miles too short, should have been at least 1,000 pages longer, wonderful, whimsical, charming, and sad. Currently only 99p on Amazon UK.

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Review: Outlier

Outlier by Susie Tate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book we've all been waiting for, Vicky and Mike.

Vicky is neurally diverse, a genius who makes millions for her clients, she has no understanding of social skills. It didn't help that she was the product of an affair between the late Duke of Buckingham and (obviously) Vicky's mother who hoped to trap him into marriage. Deemed 'difficult' by her mother, Vicky was dumped on Margot (Lady Harding) for the summer when she was only six years old, already barely speaking a word. Obviously her half-siblings were appalled and Margot wasn't thrilled to have the evidence of her husband's infidelity staring her right in the face. Now, as an adult people think she's weird, too intense, and too beautiful. Her beauty intimidates both men and women and they interpret her shyness as being too good for the rest of them and call her the Ice Princess. What no-one realises is that Vicky agrees with everyone that she is weird, she doesn't think she's loveable, and she remains convinced that her 'friends' are just being kind and/or have to be friendly because they work for her or are related in some way.

The only man Vicky has ever been attracted to is Mike Mayweather, a skilled artisan carpenter who makes bespoke furniture, his sister Lucy is married to Vicky's half-brother Ollie. He is aware of Vicky's interest in him but assumes she is posh totty looking for a bit of rough. Accordingly, he is rude to Vicky and turns down her tentative request for a date, thinking it was far more sordid.

If you've read the two previous books in the series (and if you haven't, do it now), you'll know what happens, Ollie and his on/off girlfriend Lottie get distracted at a party and fail to get Vicky out before the fireworks go off. Vicky reacts like she's at the Battle of the Somme and Mike is the only one there to protect/help her which brings out his protective instincts. Then Margot lets slip that she is the secret investor in Mike's business and if he doesn't 'woo' Vicky she will pull the plug, she does it for all the right reasons but we just know it's going to bite Mike on the bum LOL.

Once Mike starts to understand where Vicky is coming from he is intrigued, he is a bit obsessive about things too so the way she can talk about hedgehogs for hours on end is interesting to him.

I did enjoy this but it was very sad, my heart broke for Vicky, and so I would say I didn't like it as much as Gold Digger (mind you I did stay reading it (and the bonus epilogue) all night until I'd finished).

I received an ARC from the author via BookFunnel.




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Review: Not Quite a Wife

Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Laurel Herbert fell in love with her brother's best friend when they first met and they married in a whirlwind shortly afterwards. After a fairy-tale honeymoon of a year travelling Europe they returned to England where the romance turned to dust after her husband, James, Lord Kirkland, killed a man who had broken into their house with his bare hands.

Laurel fled London and returned to Bristol where she and her brother set up a charitable clinic helping the poor. Despite being a spy master and knowing where Laurel is living, James refrains from seeking her out. Then one day, a decade after their short-lived marriage, while in Bristol on business James is taken ill with a bout of malaria and, whilst incapacitated, beaten and robbed in the street. Two passers-by charitably carry him to Laurel's clinic where she is astonished to see her husband's face. For his part, James thinks he is hallucinating, one thing leads to another and of course Laurel ends up pregnant. James is determined to be involved in his son or daughter's life and proposes a reconciliation, but Laurel initially resists and insists she intends to spend the majority of her time in Bristol while James is in London. But the passion between them can't be ignored and soon they are as much in love as they ever were. But can Laurel get over the fact that James has killed a man?

Honestly, I love MJP as an author but this was a hard read. Laurel is a Methodist but even that doesn't really explain why she ran away from her husband when he killed an intruder. Frankly she was just irritating and poor James had the patience of a saint. Also, this is the sixth book in the series (I've only read one other) and there is a really dire bit in the middle where James introduces Laurel to all his friends and their wives and then one by one each of the wives admits that they too have killed a man - totally ridiculous.

Most definitely not one of her better books IMHO.

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Review: Lessons in Heartbreak

Lessons in Heartbreak by Karla Sorensen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruby is a small town librarian. As an only child, from a young age she was always the responsible one, the one who stayed home at weekends, always handed her homework in on time, commuted to college, never had a one-night stand. After a massive health scare she has resigned herself to living alone but lately she has felt as though she is missing out on something ... not love, marriage, and children but at least some sort of love affair at least. Her best friend Lauren (who is one of those obnoxious BFFs that seem only to exist in romantic comedy novels) is trying to force Ruby out of her comfort zone (because a huge dildo as a birthday present is 100% the way to gently ease someone into trying romance LOL) and persuades her to try an escort service.

Griffin King is a pro football player, after speaking rather too candidly to a journalist about his feelings for his twin brother Barrett (who is a football coach) his agent has sent him to spend a few weeks away from the spotlight at his house in Welling Springs, Colorado before the announcement that he has signed for Denver. Griffin and Barrett were always rivals, something their father encouraged, but they fell into good boy/bad boy stereotypes, Barrett was always (like Ruby) the one who worked hard, studied hard, listened to the coaches and his teachers, while Griffin played hard and leant into every stereotype of the college football hero.

Griffin and Barrett used to live next door to Ruby as children, until her family moved away. Bored of being stuck in a mansion alone, he wanders into the local coffee shop where Ruby has arranged to meet her escort. Griffin is dressed the same way as her escort and Ruby jumps to wrong conclusion, particularly because Griffin recognises her and greets her by name.

However, once the snafu is revealed Ruby decides that she feels more comfortable with Griffin that with the escort she chose and asked Griffin to teach her the ways of seduction. He's only in town for a few weeks so it is perfect for both of them.

Navigating the code words for romance novels is a nightmare. The latest one is 'spicy' which, based on this book, I would guess means a cosy small-town romance with a few smexy scenes but nothing raunchy.

Anyway, I liked this, nothing earth-shatteringly different but everything was well done and a fun read.

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Review: The Murder at World’s End

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephen Pike has been invited to take a position as second footman at Tithe Hall, a remote stately home on a Cornish island. He has just been released from Borstal after serving two years for a gang fight in a Bow pub. An orphan whose only living relative died while he was in Borstal, he knows that this is his last chance to redeem himself.

When Stephen arrives he finds that the house is boarded up, yet there are family, guests and staff inside. The owner, Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt firmly believes that Halley's Comet will bring death and destruction to the World and the only way to survive is to seal everyone inside the house until it has passed over.

Stephen is immediately set to boarding up fireplaces, locking people in their rooms, sealing locks with wax and stuffing wadding around door frames etc (although thinking about it, if the house is sealed from the outside why do they also need to seal people up individually as well?). Then he his handed the poison chalice of being forced to look after Miss Decima Stockingham, a foul-mouthed elderly woman who resides in a separate wing of the house and has terrorised all the maids.

Much to his surprise, Miss Decima pooh-poohs Conrad's fears and instead insists that Stephen take her outside so that she can chart the comet's progress across the sky.

The next morning when Stephen, the first footman Lowen, and the butler Mr Stokes start unsealing the rooms Stephen makes a grisly discovery. Conrad has been murdered by a crossbolt through the eye ... in a sealed room (duh duh duh). Stephen is terrified, as the newest member of staff, with a criminal record he is obviously going to be the primary suspect, something which is borne out when the police inspector arrives from the mainland. Only Miss Decima believes him and together they set out to discover who killed Conrad and why. Was it his cousin Edwin Welt, MP, who expects to inherit the money and the house on Conrad's death? Or his cousin Read Admiral Jolyon Welt, the alcoholic? Of Lettice Welt, who has allegedly seen off her husband, daughter and son-in-law? Or Lettice's grandson the foul Gilbert? What about Conrad's German friend and co-founder of his Halley's Comet society Professor Wolf Muller? What about one of the servants?

This is a good old-fashioned, locked-room mystery. Loved it. Plenty of obnoxious suspects. Plenty of red herrings. Lots of accusations, dead fish, a suit of armour, a maze, missing laundry, a change of will.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Well, This Is Awkward: A story of Family Misunderstandings, Midlife Malaise, and Mildly Terrifying Teenagers

Well, This Is Awkward: A story of Family Misunderstandings, Midlife Malaise, and Mildly Terrifying Teenagers by Esther Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mairéad is living her best life, head of a influencer talent agency which she sold to a US group for a pile of money, single, her own immaculate flat, impeccable hair, make-up and clothes.

Then she receives a call, her estranged elder sister has been hospitalised and there is no-one to look after her eleven year old daughter Sunny. As her daughter's name suggests, Mairéad's sister is a bit of a hippy, living off-grid, eschewing modern medicines as poison, protesting pretty much everything, and home-schooling Sunny. Mairéad's mother Helen is more interested in her lodgers than either of her daughters or her granddaughter, plus to Mairéad's knowledge she hasn't left her house in years.

So reluctantly, Mairéad agrees to take charge of her niece. Sunny still sucks her thumb, hates being touched, rarely wears shoes, and frankly smells. Her arrival completely throws Mairéad through a loop (hoop?) and necessitates huge changes to her life.

I really enjoyed this, although I thought Mairéad was incredibly dense at some points, it was heart warming and life affirming without the misogynist undertones that successful single women are all really deeply unhappy and would feel happier if they became full-time mothers which I see/feel in many books/films where a career woman suddenly acquires a child. My only gripe(s) was that the end felt a little rushed - there was an issue, it got solved in a few pages, there were some seeds of new beginnings and BOOM the end. I could have read on and on and on.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The White Octopus Hotel

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Its 2015, Eve Shaw lives a lonely existence, she is haunted by the death of her younger sister Bella at only two years of age, a death for which she feels responsible. She is nicknamed the Black Widow by her colleagues at the Auction House where she works because of her propensity for wearing black clothing at all times, usually a polo-neck jumper, little do they know it is to hide her octopus tattoo which has an unusual habit of crawling around her body and sometimes peeking over her clothing.

Then a mysterious old man, who happens to share the name of her favourite composer Max Everly, who died decades ago, visits her at the auction house, presses a gift of a ceramic octopus into her hand, makes some cryptic remarks and later dies on the steps of the building.

After purchasing an antique tea-set with an octopus motif at a flea market, Eve shows it to a colleague who hazards a guess that it may have come from the fabled White Octopus Hotel in Switzerland, which closed suddenly in 1935. Owned by the reclusive painter Victor Roth, the hotel was claimed to contain numerous magical items, including writing paper which would allow the writer to send a letter to the past.

When Eve enters the derelict hotel a magical key whisks her back to 1935, when the hotel was in its art deco heyday, where she meets a young Max Everly who had convalesced at the hotel in 1918 after developing a septic wound. Whilst staying at the hotel he fell in love with a young British nurse called ... Eve Shaw.

This book took me on a wonderful, fantastical journey, from 2015 to 1935 and 1918, a doomed cross time romance, historical traumas that can't be undone, a scavenger hunt, and a magical hotel with hidden rooms.

I loved it and I could totally see it as a film.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.


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Review: The Times Sir: The year in letters

The Times Sir: The year in letters by Andrew Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A collection of letters to The Times newspaper.

I've read similar collections from the The Telegraph and I have to say I think those were funnier and/or more batty. Generally I got the impression that it was only funny/interesting if you were there at the time (although I will take the tip about scaring away Magpies from a fellow Orpingtonite), otherwise these letters barely raised a wry smile.

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Review: A Saxon Shadow

A Saxon Shadow by H.L. Marsay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chief Inspector Shadow has a string of crimes: vandalism in the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, a spate of break-ins in York, then a murder in a small Moorland village, where, surprise, surprise there are also signs of a break-in and vandalism in the local churchyard (shamelessly stolen from the blurb).

The victim, Kenelm Underhill was an independently wealthy man who co-owned a pet food company and was obsessed with Saxon history, particularly the legend of King Alfred’s Hoard which he allegedly buried locally when fleeing the Vikings.

Are all/any of the crimes related? Shadow finds the village is a hotbed of infidelity, jealousy, rivalry, and unrequited love. as the list of suspects and motives grows can Shadow pick through the evidence and uncover the perpetrator?

I requested this book after reading the previous book in the series. In the interim I purchased the first two books and discovered my feelings towards Chief Inspector Shadow had grown into active dislike. He's just unpleasant to his staff, a total stick-in-the-mud, and a culinary philistine. Hence why it has taken me ten months to finish a book I started reading three weeks prior to publication.

Now obviously picking up a book and putting it down for months on end doesn't help keep the characters straight but I couldn't really tell any of the suspects apart (obviously male versus female wasn't an issue) but best friend/brother/rival didn't really stand out in any way and it all became a bit convoluted and the number of crimes just grew and grew. Frankly, I though Sergeant Chang did better at spotting a crime than Shadow.

Clearly this series is not for me, I don't like a curmudgeonly detective or a distracting number of suspects where the clue to unlocking the crime involves a superhuman feat. I will no longer request books in this series, although I still like all the other books I have read by this author.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: Dangerous Sea

Dangerous Sea by David Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lord Benyon is travelling to the USA on one of the first of the Queen Mary's voyages on a secret mission to persuade President Roosevelt to support the UK against Germany. There have been rumours of attempts to prevent the meeting so Lord Edward Corinth has been asked to act as companion, he wouldn't be out of place in the First Class cabins and his previous attempts to retrieve politically sensitive letters have shown he can be trusted. A secret service agent will act as Lord Benyon's valet and Edward's nephew will act as Lord Benyon's bag carrier after he had to be rescued from Spain after running off to fight for the communists.

Meanwhile, Verity Browne, communist party member and journalist has been asked to accompany American union representative Sam Forrest back to America to understand how the workers are protesting and uniting against their overlords.

Also onboard are a motley crew of guests. There's a black American singer/actor and his white wife. A racist American senator and his put-upon wife. A widow and her twins, distant cousins to the President, Lord Benyon's assistant, an art critic who commissioned several of the artworks on the Queen Mary, and one of the artists themselves.

But as they undertake the five day journey the bodies start mounting up - can Edward and Verity sort the wheat from the chaff and identify the murderer(s)?

I did enjoy this. However, there were so many suspects/false confessions that TBH I am still a bit confused about who killed whom and why. Well I'm not, what I'm trying to articulate (badly) is that everyone had a motive, means, and opportunity so it feels like any one of them could plausibly have been the guilty party, there was no 'it can only be X because Y' explanation. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the historical political detail just as much as the mystery.

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Review: The Otley Murders

The Otley Murders by J.R. Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A particularly unpleasant man, Adam Blake, who DCI Oldroyd helped to convict of multiple murders of lonely old women has broken out of prison after a decade. Since he threatened revenge on DCI Oldroyd the police are understandably concerned for his safety and for that of his family.

Meanwhile, a man's body is found inside a cell in what was the Old Courthouse before it became a community arts centre. The man has been strangled and the word Vindicta scrawled across his forehead.

DCI Oldroyd can't help but suspect the murder is somehow linked to Adam Blake, particularly when Adam starts calling him on his mobile phone. There is surprisingly little information about the victim, he seems to have very little history prior to a few years previously, even his wife seems to know very little about his previous life. Then a second body appears, similarly staged, with the same word scrawled on their forehead. What links the victims? Why has the murderer chosen to write the Latin word for vengeance on their heads? Why have the victims been murdered and their bodies moved to a different location and staged?

While DCI Oldroyd and Steph investigate the murders, Andy is helping investigate how Adam escaped custody and try to locate him.

I recall that I had read the first few books in this series and given up, but decided to request an ARC of this eleventh book anyway. Rereading my previous reviews apparently I requested an ARC of the tenth book and power read through four of the earlier books before thinking they were a bit same-same and finding DCI Oldroyd a bit of an old fuddy duddy. Nevertheless, after a suitable palate cleansing romance or two I really enjoyed the tenth book so I am glad I requested this book.

Overall, I enjoyed this. A solid police procedural with DCI Oldroyd not always getting things right and maybe failing to follow up on avenues of enquiry. The irritating quirks from the first four books are no longer in evidence (I think his partner Deborah has helped remove them).

I know the series is available on Kindle Unlimited so I may well start to read the intervening books.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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