I read because one life is just not enough for me
Synopsis: Chrissie knows how to steal sweets from the shop without getting caught, the best hiding place for hide-and-seek, the perfect wall for handstands. Now she has a new secret. It gives her a fizzing, sherbet feeling in her belly. She doesn't get to feel power like this at home, where food is scarce and… Continue reading Review – The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Synopsis: The highly anticipated new novel from the Costa-award winning, three-times Booker-longlisted author of Reservoir 13. When an Antarctic research expedition goes wrong, the consequences are far-reaching – for the men involved and for their families back home. Robert ‘Doc’ Wright, a veteran of Antarctic field work, holds the clues to what happened, but he is… Continue reading Review – Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor
Synopsis: Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week. What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea… Continue reading Review – The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
Synopsis: The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn… Continue reading Review – The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
Synopsis: In Baxter's Beach, Barbados, Lala's grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister, a cautionary tale about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers. For Wilma, it's the story of a wilful adventurer, who ignores the warnings of those around her, and suffers as a result. When Lala grows up, she sees… Continue reading How The One-armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Synopsis: Marguerite Demers is twenty-four when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint-Sulpice, to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier, once one of the most powerful men in the village, and now dying alone in his large and secluded house, surrounded by rambling gardens. Manipulative… Continue reading Review – Nightingale by Marina Kemp
Synopsis: AN INTIMATE, STIRRING PORTRAIT OF A COUNTRY AT WAR AND A FAMILY'S BATTLE TO SURVIVE Set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War, The Mountains Sing is the enveloping, multi-generational tale of the Trần family, perfect for fans of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Hà Nội, 1972. Hương and her grandmother, Trần Diệu Lan, cling to… Continue reading Review – The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
Synopsis: She doesn’t exist. She can’t exist. ‘A uniquely gothic tale about grief, belonging and hiding in plain sight’ Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars ’Those who live in the walls must adjust, must twist themselves around in their home, stretching themselves until they’re as thin as air. Not everyone can do what they can. … Continue reading Review – Girl in The Walls by A.J. Gnuse
Synopsis: The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives… Continue reading Review – The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Synopsis: Mercy is hard in a place like this. I wished him dead before I ever saw his face… Mary Rose Whitehead isn’t looking for trouble – but when it shows up at her front door, she finds she can’t turn away. Corinne Shepherd, newly widowed, wants nothing more than to mind her… Continue reading Review – Valentin by Elizabeth Wetmore
