She is new, she is tall, not slim, has red hair, wears mismatched clothes and has an extremely chaotic home life. She is Eleanor. He is American-KoreaShe is new, she is tall, not slim, has red hair, wears mismatched clothes and has an extremely chaotic home life. She is Eleanor. He is American-Korean, his family is pretty cool, he is cute, he tries to get on with everyone, he loves music and comics. He is Park. On her first day going to her new school, Park grudgingly lets her sit next to him on the school bus; their lives are changed forever. [image] art credit: Buzzfeed This book, especially the first half is a deeply realistic and painful as it is beautiful look at first love, truly warts an all. I am not sure if I have ever read such a superb interpretation of first (teenage) love. Rainbow Rowell is just so good at telling modern stories, stories set to the backdrop of shared cultural references; to the backdrop of ever present toxic masculinity; to the central need for everyone to fit in and or not be noticed! The book is far from perfect but it is a standout piece of realistic young romance writing. A well deserved 8 out of 12, Four Star read. Above everything this captures the intenseness and insecurity of youth, [image] 2023 read...more
Jenkins Reid's debut novel challenges the entire romantic fiction genre, I kid you not. After an easy yet intense five month romance Elsie and Ben gotJenkins Reid's debut novel challenges the entire romantic fiction genre, I kid you not. After an easy yet intense five month romance Elsie and Ben got married, in less than ten days Ben would be killed in a road accident! This book - praise be to Jenkins Reid - is about the redemptive power of female relationships as Elsie and Ben's mother, Susan, having never ever met are forced together in grief. Elsie also get s support from her best friend. [image] A book that does go back and look how the married couple's relationship developed by in the context of how it impacts the thoughts and actions of Elise and Susan post tragedy. Not necessarily a happy read but very much so a life affirming human read and pretty daring and thought provoking debut novel. A firm 7 out of 12, Three Star read. [image] 2023 read...more
Ten years after they first fell in love at college, married Lauren and Ryan have falling out of love after a somewhat idyllic ten years together. TheyTen years after they first fell in love at college, married Lauren and Ryan have falling out of love after a somewhat idyllic ten years together. They not sure what happened or why, but they know they can't continue destroying what they have little cut by little cut. They decided to spend a year apart. This is the story of Lauren's year as she seeks to assure her and hopefully Ryan's future. A a pretty adult romantic work in that it takes a serious albeit fictional look at mending broken relationships, and although very well written it all feels very Hallmark movie-ish. [image] If you've read Daisy Jones & The Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo don't be expecting those heights here as this is TJR's conventional albeit realistic take on romantic fiction. A 6 out of 12 Three Star read. [image] 2023 read...more
Mixed race journo Monique has a lowly position at top mag Vivant, when one of the most famous and biggest Hollywood stars and now long-time recluse 79Mixed race journo Monique has a lowly position at top mag Vivant, when one of the most famous and biggest Hollywood stars and now long-time recluse 79 year-old Evelyn Hugo requests her personally to write a once-in-a-lifetime article on Evelyn! It's only when Monique gets there, that Evelyn tells her that she can have her entire true life story, seven husbands and all! [image] What follows is a record of what Evelyn shares with Monique, it's raw, feels real, and is as wonderful as it is devastating; the interview has interludes that follow Monique back into her personal life; and entertainment media articles after the chapters (events) they reported on. (view spoiler)[Ultimately her recollections are built around how homosexual and bi-sexual people in the public eye managed to live their lives and still pursue same sex relationships. When I step back and look at it, it's pretty horrifying having to not only hide who you are, but to pretend to be someone else. And we now know that this is indeed what happened to multiple people in the limelight, in the 20th century! (hide spoiler)]. As Evelyn unashamedly shares how she ascended in Hollywood and went through seven husbands, dealing with the world on her own terms to protect her true self and her small family of real friends, it begins to influence Monique's decisions in her own life! [image] This book is a reality check. A reality check on the price of fame. A reality check on how far we have to go on gender equality. A reality check on just how dangerous privilege is to those around them, and powerful it can be if wielded like how Evelyn wielded her hard earned privilege. This book is one-woman's uncompromising story, and it's brilliant because she stands by her actions and who she finally became. Evelyn Hugo knows that when her memoir is published, no one will remember the seven husbands, they'll remember Evelyn Hugo. You might hate Evelyn after reading her story, but you would have needed to have loved her to do so. [image] image source: artsbylys on Tumblr This book is yet another ridiculously well crafted character build, and driven, study of talented people in the limelight; within a few pages I really cared about Monique and wanted to know all about Evelyn, and throughout I was immersed in each decade of her life. What Jenkins has done for me, yet again, is tell the most real fictional love story possible, framing it in the times it's set in seamlessly, and adding in such sweet, and also such damning events that for me, replicate the bumpy road to love that most of those in the limelight seem to go through. I use the word spellbinding, not lightly. 9.5 out of 12, Four Stars. Why not Five Stars? I gave Daisy Jones & The Six 10 out of 12, and I think it's a t least half a point better than this :) [image] 2022 read...more
I bought a trilogy of Kevin Kwan books and this single-shot after having my expectations absolutely not being met with the first book Crazy Rich AsianI bought a trilogy of Kevin Kwan books and this single-shot after having my expectations absolutely not being met with the first book Crazy Rich Asians, this book (even though I have giving it Three Stars, like I did the first book in the trilogy), met my expectations and surprised me a bit. It felt like all the ultra-rich shenanigans of CRA cast were here again, as well as the formulaic main romantic plot, but what surprised me was a sometimes serious looks at the East Asian obsession with looking at the world through a Western lens. [image] For lovers of this writer, this story has a smaller cast than CRA, and is just as mainstream-y (in my opinion) funny, cutting and outrageous with the added bonus that the main cast are far better fleshed out and less archetypal like they were in CRA. Enjoy! 6 out of 12. [image] 2022 read...more
Taking the mythical Western European doomed lovers story of 'Tristan and Iseult' and taking a nod at the multiple versions of that legend, 19th centurTaking the mythical Western European doomed lovers story of 'Tristan and Iseult' and taking a nod at the multiple versions of that legend, 19th century characters find themselves reliving the drama compelled by seldom referenced or acknowledged undesignated magical forces. At heart it's just about a young bride married to a very old man almost instantaneously falling for, of all things, a Brecon (French Brecon) onion seller. The cool thing about the book is how the bride is not painted as a 'fallen' or 'bad' woman by most of the cast and the writer, but as one who is a slave to her emotions. The downside is the almost complete disregard for what compels the couple to fall for one another. Dare I say this is a book that du Maurier fans could afford to miss. [image] It was only on completion of this book and when I read up on it, did I discover that it was started by du Maurier's father, a celebrity in his lifetime 'Q'', Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, but left unfinished; in time the publishers handed it over to Daphne to complete. The beginning of the book was such hard work, that I had to read the first 75 pages (Q's?) twice over! 5 out of 12. Daphne du Maurier [image] 2022 read...more
Over achieving high powered lawyer Sam has a spectacular fall from grace and in the calamitous tines that ensues, ends up being sort of accidently hirOver achieving high powered lawyer Sam has a spectacular fall from grace and in the calamitous tines that ensues, ends up being sort of accidently hired as a housekeeper… there's just the slight problem that she has no idea how to cook, clean, iron etc. A typical 'chic-lit' Noughties read with the added bonus of Kinsella's superior plotting and good instinct for comedy. [image] This is my third Kinsella read in as many months and I feel her formula of taking romantic comedy tropes and adding solid story lines, modern professional women and some great humour works for me; although the downside for me is all the banal romance and will they-won't they stuff that took so many pages of this book. 5 out of 12. [image] 2022 read...more
2021 read: Financial reporter Becky Bloomwood has three serious problems, she loves shopping, she can't stop shopping and she shops to destress; if th2021 read: Financial reporter Becky Bloomwood has three serious problems, she loves shopping, she can't stop shopping and she shops to destress; if this was an animated encyclopaedia her face would come under the entry for shopaholic. I picked up a three-book box set of this series for a £1, so thought sod it, let's give this almost modern-classic 'chic-lit' series a go. Well this book is a masterclass in light-comedy tongue-firmly-in-cheek modern woman storytelling, I kid you not! With a delightful almost quirky protagonist in Becky and the innovative backdrop of the world of financial media(!), this book thoroughly deserves its top billing best selling status. [image] Warning, only about 5% of this book is romance, and at least 50% is about shopping... which I found fabulous! For all those detractors of these kind of reads, I stand by what I've always said, there's good and bad in all genres, and this is very very good! Big fans of romantic-comedies may not like this, as this is very much more a shopping-comedy! 8 out of 12 for this delightful and surprisingly compelling bit of fun. [image]...more
2021 read: Lou, 27, unemployed, with a fitness-fanatic, decent but going-through-the-motions boyfriend lives in a crowded home with her family, when s2021 read: Lou, 27, unemployed, with a fitness-fanatic, decent but going-through-the-motions boyfriend lives in a crowded home with her family, when she gets an unlikely six-month contract as a carer for the quadriplegic Will, good-looking, one-time city big-shot, alpha male who has purposefully and ruthlessly scared his previous carers away. This book tells the story of those six months, a story centred around their friendship, their relationship even, and also the reason why the contract is for six months. [image] Let's not beat around the bush, this is an utterly mainstream commercially viable book, but it also helped expose millions of readers and viewers to the high-concept (view spoiler)[ look at assisted suicide, the lives of those that become disabled and how they consider their own dignity etc. (hide spoiler)] themes and ideas. A commercially successful, but also highly readable and accessible book that needed to be written. As for me, I've been aware of it for years, but felt it wasn't for me, and was duly surprised and indeed entertained and educated by this very well conceived and presented read that also took the time to illustrate what families can go through with a member being disabled; how lives are eked out in small communities and above all, provided a well rounded, believable quadriplegic protagonist, despite him being an idealised character. I enjoyed it enough to want to read the sequel. 8 out of 12. [image]...more
Jean Perdu runs 'the little Paris bookshop' on a beautifully restored barge; he has a talent to soothe, or even medicate buyers with books, but he is Jean Perdu runs 'the little Paris bookshop' on a beautifully restored barge; he has a talent to soothe, or even medicate buyers with books, but he is unable to fix himself. He is in a decades long spiral of self-recrimination and pain for a love that was seemingly lost, a golden opportunity missed. A writer who found success and fame with his debut book struggles to write a second book, and a new neighbour inspire Perdu to seek out and face his romantic past. The book tells the story of his journey into his past by memory, by food and communal dining, and by location via the canals and rivers of France, starting from the River Seine, [image] I can see why this book was a bestseller and captivated many, but this tribute to French rural life and its waterways, to opportunities not taken, and to loving and being loved, just didn't resonate with me., despite being well written and chock full of great quotes. It was easy enough to read, it was just hard to read and care about, any of it! It felt like an extremely pale imitation of Joanne Harris' wonderful French set reads. 4 out of 12... sorry! [image]...more
Dig and Nadine are best friends, they shop together, they eat together, they support each other, they spend every Saturday day time withe each other, Dig and Nadine are best friends, they shop together, they eat together, they support each other, they spend every Saturday day time withe each other, and both of them are essentially serial monogamists. Each critical of the other, they question the possibility of either of them growing up and settling down, when Dig's first love, Delilah comes hurtling back into their lives and Nadine finds that she doesn't like it! [image] I'd been seeing Jewell's books all over Goodreads and Instagram so grabbed this when I saw it going for 50p in a charity store. What started of as an entertaining, yet pretty formulaic read, became much more as Jewell's writing, ideas and characterisations truly blew life into this making a very superior romantic / dark(!)-comedy. Not usually the sort of book I read, but I do dabble now and again, but this is a class apart, it's a cliche, but I couldn't out this down and finished it over 2 days! Give me more Lisa Jewell! 8.5 out of 12. [image]...more
Colin Singleton (yes, that is his real surname), a six foot plus slim prodigy has had his heart broken by Katherine, who also happens to be the 19th sColin Singleton (yes, that is his real surname), a six foot plus slim prodigy has had his heart broken by Katherine, who also happens to be the 19th successive Katherine he has dated! With his best friend and burger addict the rotund American Muslin Hassan, they go on a road trip, one that gets as far as small town of Gutsho, Tennessee. An interesting tale of attraction, anagrams, spoken history and Katherines! You can see the potential for his hit The Fault in Our Stars, but having read that first, this feels like a warm-up. 7 out of 12 [image]...more
Published in 1813, and dare I say still utterly relevant and compelling today in 2020. I live in a world where almost everything is built on first conPublished in 1813, and dare I say still utterly relevant and compelling today in 2020. I live in a world where almost everything is built on first contact, on first impressions - social media imagery, brash headlines. political soundbites, even book covers! Austin delivers one of the most delightfully appealing and self-aware narrators in Elizabeth Bennett - she of the prejudice, with her often acerbic relationship with - him with the wealth and the good bearing, Fitzwilliam, AKA, Mr Darcy, he of the pride. [image] A story of first impressions, and in particular first impressions influenced by others and the environment we live in (sound familiar?) What could at first glance be deemed to be a cutting satire of the upper classes merry-go-round of marriage seeking, balls and gossip, is much much more in the hands of Austen. From critical looks at gender inequality, through to the fragility of the male ego (told you it was still relevant) Austen holds court. [image] But is it a great story? It is indeed, I found my self squealing in glee when good things happened and completely swept up in this drama in a bubble, going on, supposedly whilst Napoleon was tearing Europe apart. [image] A wonderful, if not the best, example of Austen's trademark mix of realism and humour with dollops of biting irony and social commentary, on top of a compelling and engulfing story, which on paper shouldn't take us away, but does. 9.5 out of 12 [image] Special shout-out to all those that stand by the BBC Pride and Prejudice drama in the GIFs above :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_a......more
Rowell's debut novel is actual a splendid piece of original and innovative modern romantic fiction! Her inclusion of nerdity and genuine understandingRowell's debut novel is actual a splendid piece of original and innovative modern romantic fiction! Her inclusion of nerdity and genuine understanding of digital media are at a forefront in this story of an IT consultant falling for a woman via reading her personal work emails. With a number of obvious but well written twists a long the way, a surprisingly absorbing read. 7 out of 12 [image]...more
A surprisingly addictive read! Twins get to go to the same university, one is outgoing, the other is an uber introverted geek. A wonderful explorationA surprisingly addictive read! Twins get to go to the same university, one is outgoing, the other is an uber introverted geek. A wonderful exploration of first love, geek-dom, loss, friendship and university freshmen! Really enjoyed the whole novel within a novel, within a novel! A very firm Three Star read, 7 out of 12. I also love how quickly the book cover and title became almost iconic in the Young Adult genre on social media :) [image] 2017 read...more
This big selling book, was all the rage when first published, an off-beat, quirky, yet delightfully alternate comedy about a tenured professor with a This big selling book, was all the rage when first published, an off-beat, quirky, yet delightfully alternate comedy about a tenured professor with a near extreme way of ordering and living his life and seeing the world, looking for love. [image] What this book does do exceptionally well, and is in my opinion why it stands out; it that it truly humanises the cast, they're not one-dimensional receptacles to generate humour; they are multi-faceted, complex human beings that when it came towards the fourth act, I was so involved and had emotive feelings about their journeys! Also another plus point this book, despite being written by a man, in no way tries to make comedy out of, or play-down toxic masculinity (= fragile ego masculinity). Personal I've found too many male written humour involving the degradation and/or objectification of woman as tools for comedy. Whoops, I digressed.. this book... read it! 8 out of 12. [image] 2022 read; 2014 read...more
Off-beat and humorous, yet poignant love story told in the first person, in English by a Chinese woman who has just arrived in England and is learningOff-beat and humorous, yet poignant love story told in the first person, in English by a Chinese woman who has just arrived in England and is learning English. A very original idea, that could have been better executed. 6 out of 12, Three star read. [image] 2013 read...more
Debatedly Shute's most famous work. And what can I say - well, this is a marvellous piece of fiction mainly set in 'the Far East' in Malaysia and in ADebatedly Shute's most famous work. And what can I say - well, this is a marvellous piece of fiction mainly set in 'the Far East' in Malaysia and in Australia, covering the Second World War and post-war life of the amazing Jean Paget as recounted by her solicitor. A truly wonderful, wonderful tale, by a great scribe. 8 out of 12. [image] 2013 read...more
Generic but interesting romance tale of Coco, a dog walker who has rejected her Hollywood heritage, having to share a house with the worlds most famouGeneric but interesting romance tale of Coco, a dog walker who has rejected her Hollywood heritage, having to share a house with the worlds most famous movie star. Somewhat limited characterisations and story arcs, yet still good enough to read in three sittings! 5 out of 12. [image]...more
National Book Awards Winner. Essentially a romantic comedy, but one with superb characterisations of the main protagonists. On the 15th July 1988, EmmNational Book Awards Winner. Essentially a romantic comedy, but one with superb characterisations of the main protagonists. On the 15th July 1988, Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation in Edinburgh… the book then goes on to tell the state of their lives each and every 15 July for the next 20 years. [image] A charming life-affirming read that justly deserves the high critical acclaim it gained on publication. 8 out of 12. [image] 2011 read...more
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