The White Cuckoo by Annie Ireson

The White Cuckoo

Annie Ireson


When twenty-seven year old Tamasyn Hargreaves travels to the heart of Northamptonshire to fulfill a deathbed promise to her mother, she soon begins to sense that something surreal and supernatural has drawn her there.

Who are the strange children she keeps bumping into? What secrets are concealed within the contents of a box of memorabilia she is given? Why does she look uncannily like a photograph of Jessie Smith, who gave birth prematurely in 1910 after being raped by a nobleman?

As Tammy reveals shocking secrets about her own family, she soon realises she must resolve the mysteries of the past before she can keep her promise to her mother.

The White Cuckoo is a story of two women whose lives connect through time. Is destiny just the past, rewritten?


From the opening chapter I was hooked into this beautifully written novel. I was right there with adolescent Harry and young Jess in the woods, as she goes into labour, rooting for them to find a way to survive.

The story starts and finishes in 1910 and the period detail brings the era vividly to life, but the modern day setting that makes up the bulk of the story is just as evocative. I liked the intriguing - and rather chilling - supernatural element, and all the characters are well-drawn - especially Tammy. I was absorbed into her life to the point where I didn't want the book to end. Some wonderful lines too ... Her lovely, gentle, wooden Dad, captured in his dark icy orbit of grief and loneliness. She flinched with the weight of knowing that she was his sun. Fantastic.

I really enjoy novels that cover big themes of family secrets, lies and divided loyalties and destiny, and how the past affects the present, and the author has handled them skillfully, pulling all the strands together in a deeply satisfying way.

The September Garden by Catherine Law

Nell got up and walked away from the unmarked grave, glancing back just once over her shoulder. I will be home soon. Cousins Sylvie and Nell have always been rivals. But when the Nazi occupation of France maroons Sylvie with Nell 's family, the girls grow up quickly in the early days of rationing, black-outs and the arrival of RAF planes in the skies overhead. Circumstances throw both girls into the path of the same man, and the machinations of war change the course of all their lives, with devasating consequences.






The September Garden
by Catherine Law

I love being transported to another era, and particularly like stories set during wartime. I was drawn to this novel as it's partly based in the area where I live, which for me added an extra layer of enjoyment. Apart from that, The September Garden is a beautifully written romance set against a well-researched backdrop of German occupation, collaboration, rationing and family rivalry.  It's a well-crafted, atmospheric and entertaining read and I'll be looking out for more novels from Catherine in the future - wherever they're set.

Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson

Tony Hogan tells the story of a Scottish childhood of filthy council flats and B&Bs, screeching women, feckless men, fags and booze and drugs, the dole queue and bread and marge sandwiches. It is also the story of an irresistible, irrepressible heroine, a dysfunctional family you can't help but adore, the absurdities of the eighties and the fierce bonds that tie people together no matter what. Told in an arrestingly original -- and cry-out-loud funny -- voice, it launches itself headlong into the middle of one of life's great fights, between the pull of the past and the freedom of the future. And Janie Ryan, born and bred for combat, is ready to win.

Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole my Ma

by

Kerry Hudson

I loved this beautifully written, sharply observed novel.  Despite the mostly grim circumstances of the feisty heroine, Janie Ryan, there was plenty of humour throughout.  Janie is an original and engaging voice, easy to warm to, and it was interesting (and horrifying in parts) to read a story about people on the outskirts of society - the sort of people we perhaps turn away from in real life, and feel uncomfortable being around. 

The Yarmouth setting is well-observed and the relationships, though flawed, are warm and believable, especially between daughter and mum.  You'll be rooting for Janie from the word go.

Tony Hogan is gritty and gripping, funny and moving, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something a little bit different.

Some great references to 80s music too!

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Florence & Giles by John Harding

1891. In a crumbling New England mansion, 12 year-old orphan Florence and her young brother Giles are neglected by their guardian uncle. Banned from reading, Florence devours books in secret, and twists words and phrases into a language uniquely her own. After the violent death of the children’s first governess, a second arrives. Florence becomes convinced she is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. against a powerful enemy, with no adult to turn to for help, Florence will need all her intelligence and ingenuity to save Giles and preserve her private world.

Florence & Giles
by
John Harding

I've just finished listening the the audio version of Florence and Giles in the car, and it took me a moment to come back down to earth (how I managed to listen and concentrate on driving at the same time I don't know!)

I've been listening to novels for a couple of years now, and so much depends on the narrator I've occasionally given up, but Laurence Bouvard so perfectly captured the essence of Florence - and even the male characters, including her brother Giles and friend, Theo - that I was immediately pulled into the story and didn't want to leave - cue lots of extra driving!

The suspense was perfectly pitched, and the house and the people in it brought wonderfully to life. I felt like I was there with Florence, running down corridors and finding my way to the library or her 'secret' tower overlooking the drive, where she read her books and waited for Theo to visit. 

Florence's original style of talking and thinking wasn't at all overdone and was totally inkeeping with her character, adding to the novel's wonderful, dark and gothic uniqueness - though there are some lovely touches of humour throughout the book.

The sense of mystery concerning her background, and the disappearance of their first governess, soon had me wondering if things weren't quite as they seemed, and without giving too much away I have to say that the ending shivered me quite.

I've actually read a previous book by John Harding called What We Did on Our Holiday, which I loved, but this couldn't be more different, and I'm now eagerly awaiting something else from this author.

Home for Christmas by Cally Taylor

Home for Christmas
by Cally Taylor

Beth Prince has always loved fairytales and now, aged twenty-four, she feels like she’s finally on the verge of her own happily ever after. She lives by the seaside, works in the Picturebox – a charming but rundown independent cinema – and has a boyfriend who’s so debonair and charming she can’t believe her luck! There’s just one problem – none of her boyfriends have ever told her they love her and it doesn’t look like Aiden’s going to say it any time soon. Desperate to hear ‘I love you’ for the first time Beth takes matters into her own hands – and instantly wishes she hadn’t. Just when it seems like her luck can’t get any worse, bad news arrives in the devilishly handsome shape of Matt Jones. Matt is the regional director of a multiplex cinema and he’s determined to get his hands on the Picturebox by Christmas. Can Beth keep her job, her man and her home or is her romantic-comedy life about to turn into a disaster movie?


I finished reading Home for Christmas last night, and am still feeling the nice warm glow that it left. Beth and Matt are so lovely and believable it was a pleasure spending time with them, and by the end of the book I felt like they were my friends.

The story is written from both points of view, which I really like as I enjoy getting into the character's heads, and Cally Taylor's done a great job of being a 'bloke'!

I'm a fan of independent cinemas - there's a beautiful art-deco one near where I live - and I particularly loved the plot about the Picturebox where Beth works, which is due to be sold to a big chain company, and found myself hoping it wasn't going to happen.

The story is set in Brighton and the wonderful descriptions really brought it to life - it's clear the author has a genuine love for the place.

Home for Christmas is a fantastic, heart-warming read with a wonderful cast of characters, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some that made me cry, and despite the title it can - and SHOULD - be read any time, anywhere.

Highly recommended.

This review appears on Amazon

Then by Julie Myerson

Then
by Julie Myerson

It was 9.22, the moment when everything stopped. First there was the burning air, then came the darkness, the fire, and finally the frost. Now, in a frozen, wasted London, a woman – uncertain even of her own name – is fighting to stay alive. Along with a small group of fellow survivors, she takes refuge in an abandoned skyscraper in what was once the financial centre. But spectres stalk the empty offices and endless corridors, and soon visions of a forgotten world emerge, a world of broken love and betrayal, and horrific, shocking mercies – a world more traumatic even than the desolate present.

It's a tribute to the power of Julie Myserson's atmospheric writing that this book scared the bejaysus out of me. Not in a creepy/horror/ghosty/blood and guts kind of way, but in the sense of I can totally imagine this has happened. And I really don't want to.

At times it's hard to work out what's actually happened and what's imaginary as the story flashes between past and present, and I was compelled to keep reading, drawn completely into Izzy's life. It's a bleak and devastating read at times, but there are flashes of humour here and there and the ending packs an emotional punch that stayed with me for days afterwards.

HIGHLY recommended.

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Far to Go
by Alison Pick

From the jacket:

Czechoslovakia, 1939

Pavel and Anneliese Bauer, much like any other affluent Czech family, dote on the six-year-old son, Pepik, and enjoy a life of domestic comfort. Their nanny, Marta could not adore Pepik more. But as rumours of the Nazi threat, and then German troops, reach their corner of Sudetenland, this charmed existence is turned on its head: for all that the Bauers barely consider themselves Jewish, their lives are now in danger.

I enjoy stories set during this period, and Far to Go is one of those that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

It's all the more interesting for being based on Alison's own grandparents, who fled their native Czechoslovakia for Canada during the Second World War.

The story's primarily told through the eyes of Pepik's nanny, Marta, and a present-day Holocaust archivist, and it highlighted a role I knew nothing about before: that of the Kindertransport, and the role it played in taking Jewish children (almost 10,000 of them) away from areas occupied by Nazis to the safety of British households. I read later that most of them survived, and a few were even reunited with their parents.

There's a feeling of sadness throughout the book that makes it hard to read at times - it's a dark time in history and you sense there's not going to be a happy ending - but it's part-thriller too and keeps you turning the pages.

Ultimately Far To Go is a story of love, family and loyalty and the characters, though flawed, are well-drawn and realistic and the writing is beautiful.

Alison is also a successful poet, and it shows!

Plugged by Eoin Colfer

Plugged

by Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is more famously known for his Artemis Fowl books for children, but his first adult novel should win him a new army of grown-up fans. I was hooked from page one.

Dan McEvoy is an Irish ex-army sergeant living quietly in New Jersey, working as a doorman at a casino to supplement his pension, nursing a hair transplant, and harbouring a crush on one of the hostesses, Connie.

But everything changes when Connie is murdered in the parking lot, and his friend and hair surgeon, Zeb, is kidnapped.

Out to avenge Connie’s death, Dan gets pulled into a world of corruption and the bodies soon start piling up. With dodgy cops on the loose, and a ruthless drug-dealer and crooked lawyer after him, Dan employs his soldier-training skills to survive. Oh and his crazy neighbour thinks Dan's her ex-husband.

Soon he’s having flashbacks to his time in the Lebanon, hearing Zeb’s voice in his head and wondering whether to call his therapist, and his only ally is female cop, Ronelle Deacon - but can she be trusted?

Dan is a witty narrator, and there are enough laugh-out-loud moments and pithy one-liners to nicely balance the blood-splattered torture and violence - of which there’s plenty. There’s a real noir feel to the story that I particularly loved, and Dan has enough depth – or ‘issues’ – for the reader to care what happens to him.

Plugged is a brilliantly written and funny - at times dark - but wildly entertaining read.

It’s great escapism, and I’ve got my fingers crossed it’s the first of many outings for Dan McEvoy.

Thanks to Samantha Eades and Headline for the review copy.

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

by
Julia Crouch


Cuckoo was such a page-turner it kept me awake at night longing to find out what was going to happen next.

Having said that, it’s not a typical thriller; more a slow-burn, psychological chiller that leaves you wondering how well you ever really know anyone; even those closest to you.

Rose and her artist husband, Gareth, seem to have the perfect life, living in rural bliss in their newly refurbished home with their lovely daughter, Anna and little baby, Flossie.

Out of the blue, Rose gets a call from her old friend, Polly – a washed-up musician now living in Greece - whose husband has died in an accident.

Despite Gareth’s misgivings, Rose invites Polly and her sons to stay, but it soon becomes clear that Polly is unstable and her boys have been running wild. They’ve barely settled in when Flossie becomes seriously ill, possibly at Polly's hands, and after that Rose and Gareth’s cosy life slowly starts to unravel.

Told from Rose’s point of view it’s difficult initially to understand why she lets Polly have such a strong hold over her, in light of what happens, but as the story moves from Wiltshire to Brighton, revisiting their past, it seems that perhaps Rose isn’t quite who she appears to be either.

Cuckoo is a gripping and, at times, disturbing read full of foreboding and tension, as well as some wonderfully lyrical prose.

It brilliantly explores the nature of friendship and marriage when both are based on shaky foundations, and although the ending wasn’t necessarily one I’d have chosen, it certainly stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

I’m already looking forward to Julia's next novel.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

by
John Boyne



This is a ‘cross-over’ book that can (and should in my opinion) be read by both children and adults. I keep shuffling it from one section of the library where I work, to another, to maximise its potential!

Set in Nazi Germany in 1943, the book tells the tale of two nine-year old boys who become the best of friends in the most unlikely circumstances.

Bruno is suddenly uprooted from his happy life in Berlin to “Out-With”, with his father - a highly ranked man in Germany - his mother and his sister. The only other people he sees live on the opposite side of a tall fence and they all wear striped pyjamas.

Bruno spends a lot of time in his room, until curiosity draws him outside towards the fence, where he finally meets Schmuel, a boy his own age, with his own sad story. They never get to play properly but sit on opposite sides of the boundary and talk about their lives. Bruno is eventually told he is to return to Berlin. As a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and climb under a loose wire in the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who has gone missing in the camp.

What happens there to both boys is truly horrifying, and a reminder of man’s capacity for inhumanity.

The essence of the book is its childish naivety, which gives it immense power. The author's skill is that we are always one step ahead of Bruno, with our own knowledge of the situation he’s writing about.

John Boyne describes the holocaust with unnerving accuracy and, although the book is short, it’s a thought-provoking read and I must confess the ending left me with a massive lump in my throat. Get your hankies ready.