Writing

Book Review: A Year of Being Single by Fiona Collins

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For my sixteenth book in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I chose to read Fiona Collins A Year of Being Single.

‘Best friends Imogen, Frankie and Grace decide to test whether the grass really is greener on the single side of the fence…

Imogen is supposed to be on the most romantic weekend of her life and instead she’s quickly realised that her current boyfriend definitely isn’t ‘The One’ and actually One Big Mistake.

Frankie is fed up. Fed up of her good-for-nothing husband and her four, unappreciative children. Well, they hardly notice her anyway, maybe it’s time to shake it up a little…

Grace thought she had the perfect life. Gorgeous little boy and perfect, hardworking husband. Or rather, she did, until she realised her husband was shagging his ‘work’.

It’s time for a change – and to ditch the men who are dragging them down! It’s time for a year of being single. Swearing off men, these single ladies don’t need to put a ring on it…right?’ (Thanks Amazon for that synopsis!)

This is the story of how when you’re not looking for something, it will find you.

Imogen, Frankie and Grace are three women, each of whom have their own problems with men.  Single life draws these already best friends together, as they swear off men for a year to become the independent women they know they can be.  As can be expected however, once they choose not to find men those men come looking for them.  The story follows these three women as they explore their relationships and find out what they want from life.

There are no surprises here – everything you would expect to happen in a novel like this, does.  However the characters are well-rounded and endearing, particularly Grace who finds herself thrown into single life completely against her will.  Frankie is a put upon wife that all wives and mothers will be able to relate to at some point, who just gets fed up of being the family slave.  Finally Imogen is the typical career driven woman, who has been hurt in the past and so has never been able to settle down.  You will laugh and cry along with these women as they fail miserably at remaining single whilst desperately ensuring neither of the others find out about their indiscretions.  Despite the predictability of the story, this is a sweet chick-lit novel that is perfect for the beach or just a cozy Sunday afternoon on the sofa.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Book Review: The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

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Book number 15 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge is Genevieve Cogman’s The Masked City.  Amazon provides the following synopsis;

‘Librarian-spy Irene is working undercover in an alternative London when her assistant Kai goes missing. She discovers he’s been kidnapped by the fae faction and the repercussions could be fatal. Not just for Kai, but for whole worlds.

Kai’s dragon heritage means he has powerful allies, but also powerful enemies in the form of the fae. With this act of aggression, the fae are determined to trigger a war between their people – and the forces of order and chaos themselves.

Irene’s mission to save Kai and avert Armageddon will take her to a dark, alternate Venice where it’s always Carnival. Here Irene will be forced to blackmail, fast talk, and fight. Or face death.‘

The Masked City is the second book in Cogman’s The Invisible Library series. I read The Invisible Library (follow the link for my review), Cogman’s debut novel last year and loved it so had to read her next novel in the series.  The second novel did not disappoint.  This series is set across a number of realms, all slightly different from the next and all linked by The Library.  Irene is the Librarian in Residence in the alternate London, working alongside her assistant Kai when he disappears.  Kai is a royal dragon who chose to work, in human form, for The Library.  However the Fae are aware of him and kidnap him, hoping to start a war between the Fae and Dragons which would have catastrophic consequences across all the alternative universes.  Irene finds herself in an alternate Venice where she must fight her way through the chaos to save her assistant and stop a war that would change everything.  Due to The Library’s neutrality, Irene must work alone to save her friend from certain death, whilst also saving the universes from war between these two very powerful factions.

Anything that combines fantasy with books is already a winning combination for me.  I really enjoy the premise of this series, as with each novel I learn a little more about the mysterious Library, about those who work for The Library and the inhabitants of the alternate realms.

Irene is a strong female lead character, but not so strong that she refuses assistance from her male colleagues.  Sometimes female lead characters are portrayed as hard and a little too tough, however Irene shows herself to be someone who can certainly hold her own and fight for what is right whilst also accepting help graciously when it is needed.

Whilst Kai does not feature in this book as much as he did in The Invisible Library, he shows himself once again to be a character of great strength.  Despite this, his deep respect for Irene is clear to see throughout the novel even though his royal roots would justify him playing on is superiority.

If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett, I would highly recommend that you try The Invisible Library series.  I look forward to reading The Burning Page, the next book in this series due to be released in December 2016.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

 

 

 

My Reading List – Yet Another Update!

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So I have an extensive to be read list which I thought I might share just a little of with you all.  As I read these books, I am reviewing them – these reviews can be found by following the links!

The Vintage Teacup Club, Vanessa Greene

Sleepless in Manhattan, Sarah Morgan

My Sister’s Secret, Tracy Buchanan

Waiting for the Bee Stings, Calvin Wade

The Lies We Told, Diane Chamberlain

The Midwife’s Revolt, Jodi Daynard

The Scandalous Duchess, Anne O’Brien

Montana Cherries, Kim Law

A Letter from America, Geraldine O’Neill

Hunger, Michael Grant

Me Before You, Jojo Moyes (must read this before the movie arrives – next on my TBR list!)

The Tea Planter’s Wife, Dinah Jefferies

The Masked City, Genevieve Cogman (review coming soon!)

Read along with me and let me know what you think!

Book Review: War Brides

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The 14th novel I chose to read in the Goodreads Reading Challenge was Helen Bryan’s War Brides.

‘With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever.

Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline’s arrival causes a stir in the village—but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there’s Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers.

As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst—and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance.

When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women’s mission is not to commemorate or remember—they’ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own.’ (synopsis taken from Amazon)

As I may already have mentioned I am a big fan of historical novels, particularly those set during World War II.  Women played a very important role during those turbulent years in the early 40’s and therefore, quite rightly, they often play a central role in novels set during this period.  This novels title, War Brides, clearly highlights that it is centred on a group of young women during this unsettled period as they support one another during times of love, loss and war.  The novel particularly follows five women; Alice, Evangeline, Elise, Tanni and Frances.  These five women all come from very different backgrounds, but find themselves thrown together in the small village of Crowmarsh Priors.  War brings these women together, as they find the men of the village slowly leave to join the war effort against an increasingly strong German force.  Left behind, these women find themselves fighting the battle on the Home Front as they, alongside women across the country, work hard to ensure their country is able to stay afloat, working the land, working in factories and protecting their homes.

I really enjoyed this novel, and can wholeheartedly recommend it.  My only criticism (if it can be called that) is the number of characters.  Whilst the book does centre on those five women, each has their own backstory and at times I found it difficult to keep track of who was related to who.  That could however be me trying to read the novel after particularly long days at work!  Do not let this put you off though, I found the back stories to be engaging and integral to the story as they showed you why each woman acted the way that she does.  This novel really does highlight the strength of women as they support one another whilst dealing with their own tragedies and losses, and it shows what a group of women can achieve under such traumatic circumstances.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5