Category: Book Review

Recipes for Love and Murder – Sally Andrew

Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew Series: Tannie Maria Mystery #1 on October 6th 2015 Genres: Cozy Mystery Pages: 384 Format: Paperback Source: My Bookshelf Buy on Amazon Goodreads A bright new talent makes her fiction debut with this first entry in a delicious crime set in rural South Africa—a flavorful blend of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency and Goldie Schulz, full of humor, romance, and recipes and featuring a charming cast of characters Tannie Maria (Tannie meaning Auntie, the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook—and eat. She shares her culinary love as a recipe columnist for the local paper—until The Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart rather than ideas for lunch and dinner. Tannie Maria doesn’t like the change, but soon discovers she has a knack—and a passion—for helping people. Of course she shares her recipes and culinary advice whenever she can! Assisting other people with their problems, Tannie Maria is eventually forced to face her own issues, especially when the troubles of those she helps touch on the pain of her past, like a woman desperate to escape […]

Posted May 12, 2016
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When God was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman Published by Headline Review on May 12th 2011 Pages: 341 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads This is a book about a brother and a sister. It’s a book about secrets and starting over, friendship and family, triumph and tragedy, and everything in between. More than anything, it’s a book about love in all its forms. In a remarkably honest and confident voice, Sarah Winman has written the story of a memorable young heroine, Elly, and her loss of innocence- a magical portrait of growing up and the pull and power of family ties. From Essex and Cornwall to the streets of New York, from 1968 to the events of 9/11, When God Was a Rabbit follows the evolving bond of love and secrets between Elly and her brother Joe, and her increasing concern for an unusual best friend, Jenny Penny, who has secrets of her own. With its wit and humor, engaging characters whose eccentricities are adroitly and sometimes darkly drawn, and its themes of memory and identity, When God Was a Rabbit is a love letter to true friendship and fraternal love. Funny, utterly compelling, fully of […]

Posted May 2, 2016
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The girl who saved the king of Sweden – Jonas Jonasson

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson Published by Fourth Estate on April 24th 2014 Genres: Fiction, Humor Pages: 421 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Just because the world ignores you, doesn’t mean you can’t save it . . . Nombeko Mayeki was never meant to be a hero. Born in a Soweto shack, she seemed destined for a short, hard life. But now she is on the run from the world ‘s most ruthless secret service, with three Chinese sisters, twins who are officially one person and an elderly potato farmer. Oh, and the fate of the King of Sweden – and the world – rests on her shoulders. On June 14th, 2007, the King and Prime Minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the Royal Castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill: the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes […]

Posted April 23, 2016
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After Anna – Alex Lake

After Anna by Alex Lake Published by Killer Reads on July 30th 2015 Genres: Thriller Pages: 309 Format: eBook Source: My Kindle Buy on Amazon Goodreads The real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned… A bone-chilling psychological thriller that will suit fans of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Daughter by Jane Shemilt, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless. The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved. But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, their daughter is returned. She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare. A five year old girl is missing. Taken in broad daylight right outside her school gate. These things happen. Way to often in this day and age. Thanks to the media, it doesn’t take too much imagination to sketch a vivid picture in our minds of what can happen when a five year old girl disappears. You hope and pray that the child […]

Posted April 18, 2016
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The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Published by St Martin’s Press on February 3rd 2015 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 448 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are. FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only […]

Posted April 14, 2016
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Category: Book Review

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