Category: Book Reviews

It is hard to look into someone’s eyes. Even when you love them, it is difficult to sustain it,for the sense of being seen through. In some way, found out. It’s not often that I read a library book and enjoy it enough that I want my own copy, but I’m surprised and delighted to…

If there was ever a doubt about the efficacy of promotional book clubs, let this be a testament that they work. I saw a blurb for Anatomy a couple months back when it was picked for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, and I was immediately intrigued. It’s 1871 and Edinburgh is gripped with fears of another…

A few years ago, I read this endearing, captivating novel called The Flatshare, which I absolutely devoured in the way “easy reading” books allow. When I saw its author, Beth O’Leary, had a new book out, I immediately added it to my list. It’s Valentine’s Day and three women all get stood up. While to some…

Or were they in this moment unaware, or something more than unaware – were they somehow invulnerable to, untouched by, vulgarity and ugliness, glancing for a moment into something deeper, something concealed beneath the surface of life, not unreality but a hidden reality: the presence at all times, in all places, of a beautiful world?…

Hannah Hall and Owen Michaels have been married one year. One year of love and bliss, in spite of his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey, being less than thrilled about her new step-mom. Then one day, Owen disappears and a note is dropped off at their door with three words: ‘keep her safe’. As Owen’s company is accused…

It’s 1913 and Laura Lyons, her husband, and their two children have an unusual living accommodation: an apartment cloistered in the newly opened New York Public Library. In 1993, Laura’s granddaughter Sadie Donovan is also at the New York Public Library, but working rather than living amongst the books. Their histories are connected when a series of thefts occur,…

All they wanted was a quiet week away: away from the noise and bustle of New York, away from the sticky summer heat locked amongst its buildings, away from the endless work emails. But they got far more than they bargained for when the owners of their rental home return because of a blackout in the city,…

Don’t let the floral, whimsical cover fool you. The Jane Austen Society handles grief and loss in the same stride that it revels in the work of Austen and marvels in the friendships that are forged around great literature. From an American film star to a taciturn farmer, the Society is comprised of people from…

‘It scares the health out of me,’ he sang from the Bodines song. He sighed and looked into the yellow distance. ‘I totally love those words,’ he said,’and I wish they were mine.’ It was always the way with Tully: keeping his worries close. I’m constantly captivated by covers and I’m embarrassed to admit they…

“At the end, everyone seemed to be expecting an apology, but I didn’t have one to give them. What could I say? This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.” Our story begins at the end. The end of a 10-year prison sentence, that is. Oliver Marks has served ten years for murder and now that he’s been…