nocto

Whenever I tell Amazon I like Rebecca Tope's books it proceeds to recommend me a load of hideously cosy sounding mysteries. This series revolves around a housesitter in the Cotswolds but I wouldn't class them as outright "cozies". Very enjoyable, well written and pretty well plotted.

Borrowed.

The story of a divorce; and much better than it might sound from that description! Adrian leaves Irene and their three young daughters and this is what happens as she falls to pieces and then gradually picks the pieces up again. Like Gerrard's last book I enjoyed it much more than the Nicci French thrillers she co-authors with her husband.

Borrowed.

A copy of this book is available on BookMooch.

Odd book. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

Firstly, I probably wouldn't have got past the first few pages if I hadn't have been stuck with it for the first 70 pages or so (toddler napping at the seaside and nothing else to read or do). And in the middle I couldn't much have cared about what was happening because I put it down for about a week. The end though, I found really quite interesting, the central character's life has fallen to bits and that's more interesting than the bit before where it was falling to bits.

The narrator is a Catholic priest and the writing feels very old fashioned. I thought I was in a bygone age, and references to shopping in Ikea or terrorism threw me out of time. This is kind of the point though, it works quite well. I just didn't find the largest part of the book very entertaining. Definitely an odd one.

I might try something else by the author because I think he's probably quite good, I just didn't get on with this book really.

Borrowed.

Fabulous. These books are wonderfully humourous without being the slightest bit "light". Some dark and heavy stuff though there's plenty of sunshine, and a lot of characters so weird they could be real. I like Grace a lot, I want to hit her over the head and tell her not to do things like this, but she wouldn't be the same if she'd take my advice.

Borrowed.