Obsessed With Reading!

Make Your Own Jewellery?

2011-12-14T21:04:00.000Z

Slightly off the usual topic of books, books and more books, but I thought I'd let you know about a fab new website I've found that is great for all of those of you who make their own Pandora style bracelets and things.

http://www.moonj.co.uk/

They sell bracelets, beads and everything else you need to make your own jewellery - check it out!!

My Dooyoo Christmas Wish List

2011-12-05T10:25:00.001Z

I love Christmas and all things Christmassy so I thought I'd get into the festive spirit by sharing my dooyoo wish list in the style of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Now the list may look a bit excessive, but if you don't ask, you don't get, so here goes (see if you can read through it without getting the Twelve Days Of Christmas tune stuck in your head!):

On the twelfth day of Christmas, dooyoo gave to me,
Twelve Chocolate Oranges

Eleven Pairs of Slipper Socks

Ten Music Albums
Nine Household Gadgets

Eight Winnie The Pooh Gifts

Seven Fun New Board Games
Six Bottles of Wine
Five Patterson Books
Four Christmas Films
Three Pairs of Shoes
Two Electrical Items
And a Holiday to Somewhere Nice

So there you go, if you were looking for a present for me, you know what to get! And if you weren't thinking of getting me anything, perhaps there is some inspiration in that list for you - as you can see there are lots of links to help you search, so happy shopping!

Merry Christmas folks - have a good one and I'll see you next year to review all the things I hopefully got for Christmas!

Book Review - The Water Room by Christopher Fowler

2011-09-27T23:10:00.001+01:00

I received The Water Room by Christopher Fowler from Transworld as part of their reading challenge. The idea is that you pick four books from a selection of twelve and they send you the first, which you read and then review before they send you the second, and so on. I picked The Water Room because it sounded like my kind of book – a sort of crime thriller with a mystery twist to it.

I had never heard of Christopher Fowler before reading this and so I had no idea that the book was part of a series. The Water Room is actually the second in the Bryant and May series of Mysteries. Having read it without this knowledge, I can safely say that it isn’t necessary to read the previous book to enjoy this one. Fowler introduces the characters and their circumstances at the beginning of the book sufficiently enough that you don’t feel that you have missed out.

Arthur Bryant and John May are octogenarian detectives who work in the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit in London. I was a bit disappointed to learn that the unit was indeed fictional as I would have loved for it to have been a real thing. The unit is an offspring of the Metropolitan Police and takes on the bizarre crimes that are too time-consuming for the Met to investigate. In this particular story, the case involves an old lady who is found dead in her basement. Her death appears to be completely natural aside from the odd fact that she has a throat full of river water.

I’ll be honest, I found this book a little difficult to get into at first, not really warming to the character of Arthur Bryant. He is a typical old school detective who is methodical to the point of being obtuse, is arrogant and refuses to embrace anything that has happened in the last thirty years. Bryant was just a little bit too annoying for me to enjoy reading the book. However, not one to give up on a book, I decided to start again after reading a few chapters and I’m very glad I did. Once I got used to the obscure character, I actually quite warmed to him. He kind of reminded me of Columbo (the TV detective), in that he wanders around in his own little world, seemingly with no objective, but seeing things that others don’t and having that strange imagination that makes anything possible. It was quite enjoyable to read his thought processes and to wonder where he was going with his investigations.

John May is the polar opposite of Bryant; he embraces all things modern; is gregarious and outgoing, in stark contrast to Bryant’s solitary style; and he is a bit of an old womaniser. To be honest, even though he is part of the duo, I thought he was a bit of a secondary character really. May‘s character fit in very well with Bryant, acting to tame the latter where others can’t and being able to handle him where others prefer to steer clear. The two obviously have a long standing partnership both in and out of work and it is this that makes them such a good twosome. I’d be interested to read the other books in the series to see whether May takes the lead in other stories as it would be nice to learn a little bit more about him.

The story is rather different to the usual detective novel script, very much thanks to the Peculiar Crimes Unit angle. I think Fowler has come up with a great idea with this one as it allows him to be a little more adventurous with the storyline. There is much less need to stick to the factual workings of the police and he can use a little more artistic licence, which he has to great effect. The story takes us back to a London where Jack the Ripper was still roaming the streets and many of the streets were actually rivers. There is a hint of a ghost story involved and I must admit that I found it quite eerie in places. I wouldn’t have liked to have read it when I was in the house on my own, that’s for sure.

Fowler is good at painting a picture through the eyes of his main characters. I really felt at times that I was in the places he described and he does just enough to let your mind run away with you. There were lots of twists and turns in the story and I was guessing until the end, which is always good. In true ‘whodunit’ style, there are lots of possible suspects, all with a good motive and I found it impossible to guess which one it would be until the end. There are many different characters, each with their own little story and sinister secrets and Fowler does an excellent job of weaving them all together to create an enjoyable story and a good read.

I’m glad that I gave the book a second chance, because it turned out to be a good read and I am actually looking forward to reading the others in the series – they are definitely going on my Amazon wish list!

The Water Room was published by Transworld in paperback in 2005 and is available on Amazon for £7.19

Book Review - The Secrets Between Us by Louise Douglas

2011-08-21T10:42:00.000+01:00

I received this book to read and review from Transworld as part of their book group. The idea is that you choose four books from their list of twelve and they send you them one at a time through the month of August. I choose ‘The Secrets Between Us’ by Louise Douglas, because I have never read any of her books before, in fact never even heard of her, and I thought it’d be a great opportunity to go out of my reading comfort zone, plus I thought the book sounded interesting.

Sarah meets Alexander on holiday in Sicily, where she is escaping her marital problems and taking a break from the real world. It seems that Alexander is doing the same thing with his son and they end up deciding to start again together. Sarah moves to the quiet village in Somerset where Alexander lives, to be his nanny and housekeeper and, she hopes, more. It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems with Alexander and his previous relationship. His beautiful and much loved wife Genevieve seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet, totally against character, and the entire village (her rich and powerful family included) think that Alexander has something to do with it.

Sarah is beginning to fall in love with Alexander and simply cannot believe that he would do anything like what people think he might have done – but when the evidence and the hatred builds up against him, what will she do?

I struggled to get into this book at first. I found the whole idea that a person would meet someone on holiday, have sex with them once and then up sticks and move to a completely different part of the country, leaving behind everything she knows, to live with said person was a bit too far fetched. To be honest I don’t think the author made it particularly believable either, with the way she wrote it. I know you can use artistic license when you are writing fiction, but this just seemed a little too far fetched for me to swallow.

A couple of chapters in though; I had more or less forgotten about the odd pretext for the book and was pretty much hooked. The story is billed as ‘a passionate love story’, but I thought it was more of a psychological thriller in parts. For a lot of the book, I didn’t really understand what was going on, which I think added to the effect. During the story, Sarah seems to, understandably give her situation, lose her mind a bit, which adds to the confusion and means that I was pretty much turning the pages at a rate of knots. The confusion means that you are never sure what is going to happen, although you always have the feeling that something big was going to happen – I very much enjoyed that aspect of the story.

The characters are well written and aren’t at all exaggerated, which is sometimes the case and I do find irritating. Sarah is likeable and believable. Alexander is dark, quiet and brooding. I’m not quite sure why Sarah fell for him, I don’t think the author really gives a good enough reason for that, but at various times in the book you feel sympathy, annoyance and warmth for him and it helps with the did he, didn’t he storyline. Genevieve is wonderfully written and cleverly so too as are the many other side characters who don’t have a starring role in the story, but help to build it in their own way.

Overall, even though I struggled to get into the book and I didn’t really enjoy the way that it started, I thought the book was good and it did grip me eventually. It is a love story of sorts, but not a traditional one and the web of intrigue is much more prominent in the story than the love aspect of it in my opinion, which is fortunate for me, because I’m not a love story kind of girl!

‘I’m part of the Transworld Book Group!’

2011-08-10T20:12:00.001+01:00

I've just joined the Transworld Book Group and I'm very excited! The idea is that you pick four books from their list of twelve and they send you one, which you then review before they send you the next, and so on. Can't wait to get started and I'll let you know how it's going . . .

It's Challenge Time Again!

2011-01-25T21:27:00.000Z

I think I was a little bit ambitious with the challenges I got myself involved in last year - I started off well but it went downhill from there! Having said that, I couldn't resist BookChickCity's Mystery and Suspense Challenge - it was so much fun last year that I'm doing it again this year too!

Check it out!

PS It's sponsored by Simon and Schuster, so there's an ARC to get you started when you sign up!

Book Review - Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell

2011-01-25T10:27:00.000Z

Jill Mansell is considered to be at the forefront of 'chick-lit' writing and has a number of popular novels under her belt. Rumour Has It is her latest offering and deserves its place as a number one bestseller. Mansell has proved again that she has the formula of writing in this genre off to a tee.

Rumour Has It is the story of Tilly Cole a twenty-something, newly single woman who changes her life by moving to a new place (a quirky village in the country somewhere), taking a on a new job (a quirky but fun one that she has no experience of - as is usually the case in this type of book) and meeting a handsome chap who is probably going to be no good for her.

It all starts when Tilly returns to the London home she shares with her fairly long term boyfriend and finds out that he has done a runner whilst she's at work, moving out his belongings and leaving her nothing but a note and a nosy neighbour to break the news. Rather than mourning the demise of her relationship, Tilly heads off to the sleepy, quaint village of Roxborough to reap the commiserations of her best friend Erin. After a few days of moping she decides to head back to her life in the city, but is distracted by an advert in the local paper that requires a 'Good Friday Girl'. Intrigued, Tilly calls the number and after some gentle persuasion finds her self living with a gay interior designer and his feisty daughter, as their personal assistant.
Quickly adapting to village life, Tilly meets and becomes friends with many of the locals and soon forgets her old life. Along the way she meets the charming and drop-dead-gorgeous Jack Lucas and its love at first sight. But, deterred by his reputation as a ladies' man and general cad, Tilly forces herself to fall out of love with him pretty quickly. But, as the blurb asks, 'is she being mature and sensible - or is she running away from the love of her life?'

In Rumour Has It, Mansell has written a feel-good story and created a lovable set of characters that make you want to absorb yourself into the book. I found that I warmed to all of the people in the book straightaway - even the 'bad guys and girls' were well written in a way that made them an integral part of the story rather than an irritating addition that you could have done with out.

You can empathise with the main characters as they are all a little bit like you, the book isn't filled with rich, glamorous and unbelievable people. Tilly is a normal girl who slouches around in a tracksuit and only shaves her legs once a fortnight and her best friend Erin has a spare tyre and a lack of self confidence that makes you breathe a sigh of relief. That's not to say there is nothing to escape into though, the object of the village's desire, Jack Lucas is the kind of guy that everyone wants to love and Tilly's boss, Max, is the gay man that every woman thinks she can turn straight.

The story follows the familiar route of chick-lit novels and, as a result, is often predictable - but, that isn't a criticism. The familiarity of the story is what makes it so enjoyable - it is very much a feel good story that lifts your mood in its easy-to-read and friendly style. It makes it a book that you want to pick up to cheer you up after a bad day and relieve yourself of the monotony of day to day like.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the genre, it is a very likeable version of what it is - a heart warming tale of a girl who changes her life on a whim and falls in love against all the odds.

Book Review - I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

2010-09-01T21:34:00.000+01:00

If any of you have read my recent book reviews, you will know that I have recently entered the world of audio books and my latest ‘listen’ is I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. I didn’t think I would ever become a fan of listening to a book being read to me as I like nothing more than picking up a real book, but I am slowly being converted and much of that is thanks to James Patterson.

Why An Audio Book?

The bottom line is that audio books are sometimes just more convenient. I discovered this when trying to manage a cocktail and a book on the beach in Spain earlier this year. But the newest reason I have for listening to audio books is that they fill the long drive to work and mean that I no longer have to listen to endless replays of terrible music on the radio. It also means that I can continue to feed my addiction to books even when it’s not convenient (or legal!) to actually read one.

Why James Patterson?

From my admittedly limited experience of audio books so far, I have realised that there has to be a bit of action in the story in order to keep you listening. Many of the James Patterson audio books are read by more than one person and have added sound effects so it is like you are listening to a film almost. There is plenty going on and his written books in general are quite fast paced and have plenty of twists and turns, making them ideal audio book material.

What’s I, Alex Cross About?

Alex Cross is Patterson’s most famous and longest running character. He is a police officer of great standing in Washington D.C. and is often called upon in high profile cases. I, Alex Cross is the latest in the series and features the familiar character solving yet another ‘unsolvable’ case. This time Alex is dragged away from a family celebration to be told that his niece has been brutally murdered. It soon becomes clear that the Washington Police are dealing with a serial killer and that the killer is extremely well connected and, even worse, well protected.

Cross is facing his toughest case yet and finds himself in a world that you can only imagine and fighting against Washington’s highest movers and shakers. He has a personal interest in the case and will stop at nothing to get a result.

My Opinion?

In the past Patterson has been highly criticised for churning out book after book and using a legion of co-writers to do so, but this book was written as a solo effort – something that hard core fans will be delighted about. Personally I don’t have a problem with the co-writers and can very rarely tell the difference and this is the case too here for me. I don’t think this book is any better or worse than his others for being a solo effort.

The story line is typical Patterson style; short chapters, lots of action and a nasty killer interspersed with snapshots about Cross’ picture perfect family thrown in. Patterson is not a great writer, he is a prolific writer and this is again evident in I, Alex Cross. You shouldn’t read this books thinking that you are going to classic work of fiction, because it just won’t happen. It is however a fairly good thriller and will keep you (almost) on the edge of your seat. By this stage, all of the characters are familiar to Patterson fans and so there is nothing much new to learn about them and they aren’t really expanded any further. Having said that this book does focus a bit more on Cross’ new relationship with Brianna Stone and the developments form a sub-story throughout the book. In typical style, the relationship is sickly sweet and verging on the edge of being too perfect.

The book is read by Tim Cain and Michael Cerveris. I hadn’t heard of either of them before listening to this production, but a quick Google search tells me they are both actors in the USA who do a lot of stage work. The story is split really into two perspectives; that of the good guys (namely Cross, amongst others) and that of the bad guys. This makes having two readers a good choice, because it is immediately clear from which perspective the story is being told.

Tim Cain reads the good guys part and does a very good job. He really does act with his voice and portrays the different characters very well. He has a deep and authoritative voice that is exactly what you’d imagine Cross to sound like.

Michael Cerveris therefore voices the bad guys and he does an admirable job as well, although one of the characters is an English guy and Cerveris’ accent is appalling to say the least. The character in question is an underground business make who runs an exclusive sex club, but Cerveris makes him sound like Michael Crawford’s Frank in Some Mothers Do Ave Em – it really is laughable.

There are various sound effects used in the production. At first I thought I would hate this as I thought it would just sound too manufactured and cheesy, but it does actually work quite well. There aren’t too many and they are usually pieces of music used to build tension. There was one part in the story when a gun shot was heard and the sound effect for that was quite loud – scaring me half to death when I was driving to work in the early hours of the morning!

This version of the audio book is actually an abridged version and lasts about five hours. I thought this was quite a good length of time as I hadn’t forgotten the beginning of the story by the time I was listening to the end, something that I was afraid of considering I was listening to it over the course of a week. I haven’t actually read the written copy of the book, so I don’t know how the abridged version differs from the original. It didn’t impede my enjoyment of the audio book though as I didn’t feel that there was anything missing. One thing I did notice though was that the reading was quite quick, particularly the bits read by Michael Ceveris. When I first started listening I thought the speed was going to be too quick to keep up with, but I quickly got used to it, so it wasn’t a problem for long.

Overall, I enjoyed I, Alex Cross. It had the right mix of tension and suspense and was generally a good representation of the kind of story you get from ‘the master of suspense’. Apart from the few niggles I had with the accent and the initial speed, it was well read and on the whole well presented. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who like me is thinking of venturing into the world of audio books.

Information:

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
Running Time – approximately five hours, over four CDs.
Published by Random House Audio
Available on Amazon for around £7

Challenge Updates

2010-08-25T22:17:00.000+01:00

I've had a bit of a spurt on the old reading front recently so I thought I'd post my updates - to keep me up-to-date more than anything!

I have read:

Random by Craig Robertson (review to follow). This was a strange one, but I think I liked it!
Blind Fury by Lynda La Plante (read my review here). Not her best, but OK.
The Guy Next Door by Meg Cabot (read my review here). Fun read!
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot (read my review here). Another fun read!

Continuing with my latest reading of the Harry Potter series, I've also read:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I've also discovered the world of audio-books and have added these to my list of read (or listened!):

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson (read my review here). A departure from his usual Alex Cross books.
I, Alex Cross by James Patterson (review to follow). Alex Cross back to his best.

This brings my challenge totals to:

37 / 100 for The 100+ Reading Challenge hosted by Home Girl's Book Blog

11 / 12 for The Thriller and Suspense Challenge hosted by Book Chick City

6 / 10 for The James Patterson Challenge hosted by Socrates that has now finished :(

Book Review - Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

2010-08-15T21:20:00.001+01:00

Boy Meets Girl is the second book I've read by American author Meg Cabot, who is most famous for writing the 'Princess Diary' books that were made into popular films by Disney. Cabot is most well-known for her books for children and teens, although this new foray into the world of adult fiction is a successful one in my opinion.

This book is part of a series, although you don't have to read the books in order to enjoy them as it is more of a case that you will recognise the odd character from other books and the setting is the same, although the actual stories in the different books are otherwise independent from each other.

Kate MacKenzie works in the human resources department of the fictional New York Journal magazine. She is, as the blurb describes her, 'reluctant deliverer of termination notices and queen of instant messaging'. Ida Lopez is the creator of the most delightful cakes which she sells to the employees of the New York Journal by means of a dessert trolley, although she has her own very exacting standards of who is worthy of her treats. Mitch Hertzog is a corporate lawyer who is forever the saviour of the underdog, shunning a life of family wealth to make a difference to those less fortunate. When Ida decides that Mitch's tyrant brother is undeserving of her cakes, all hell breaks loose and Kate, Mitch and Ida must work together against the tyrants and the nepotism to find the truth.

Boy Meets Girl is a lot of fun. It is a quick and easy read that will make you smile and keep you reading fervently until the very end. If you aren't familiar with this series, let me tell you why it is such fun. Meg Cabot writes entirely in email and instant messages. We learn about the different characters and the whole story from their written interactions with each other. Writing stories in the form of written correspondence between the characters is nothing new - it has been done before. But with this book, Meg Cabot brings that writing style into the twenty-first century.

I love this style of writing because I think it makes the story seem so much more personal and it makes you as a reader feel so much more involved. Rather than just reading about a group of people who work together, you actually almost feel like one of them because you are witness to their private emails and messages.

The storyline is true chick-lit stuff; it could be true but it's just a little too exaggerated to be so. The good characters (like Kate, Mitch and Ida) are a little too sugary sweet to be real life people and the bad guys (like Mitch's brother, Stu, and Kate's boss, Amy) are a little too scheming and evil and stereotypically bad to be real. But this just makes the book more successful in my opinion. When I read fictional books like this, I am looking for a bit of fun and escapism and this is what you get by the bucket load with Boy Meets Girl. It's all there - highs, lows, romantic interests, characteristically nasty folk and, ultimately, a happy ending.

This is a great series for adults, but I also think it would make a good choice for those with teenagers who are getting a bit old for 'Lizzie McGuire', 'Tracey Beaker' and the like. It is a perfect step from teen books to adult books - it's easy to read and will keep you engaged, but there is nothing unsuitable for teenage eyes. Overall I think it is a very enjoyable book that is suitable for all ages and will make a great summer read.

WIN! WIN! WIN!

2010-07-28T20:49:00.000+01:00

Hi guys!

I know how much everyone loves a competition and although it's not book related, I have a great one for you to enter here. You can win this fabulous pair of earrings just by entering Moon-Jewellery's simple competition.

Moon-Jewellery is my family's fantastic new venture and is a great place to buy (and win!) stunning hand made jewellery, including earrings and charm bracelets, for great prices.

All of their pieces are made from quality semi precious stones and make ideal gifts.

I know this is turning into a bit of an advert, but I'm very excited and I think you'll agree that there are some great items available!

Don't worry - I'll be back to reviewing books soon, but I didn't want you to miss out on this opportunity, so don't forget to enter!

Book Review - Blind Fury by Lynda La Plante

2010-07-21T10:56:00.000+01:00

Blind Fury is the latest bestseller from queen of the thriller Lynda La Plante. La Plante is probably most famous for her various books that have been adapted into highly successful television series, including Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution. Blind Fury is the next instalment in the series featuring Anna Travis, a police detective who is to English thriller writing, what James Patterson’s Alex Cross is to American thriller writing.

This time Anna Travis is enlisted to uncover the mystery of a young woman who is found brutally murdered and dumped at the perimeter of a motorway service station. In trying to discover the identity of the woman, they hit a series of brick walls that leads to high tension, frustration and, most disturbingly, more bodies. Just when the case looks like it might be becoming cold, Anna gets a message from a former nemesis; Cameron Welsh. Anna helped put Welsh behind bars, but now he insists that he can help and he will only speak to her. Much as she wants nothing to do with Welsh, Anna must put her feelings to one side in order to solve a murder, but it soon emerges that Welsh’s help comes at a high price.
I have to say that I’m really not sure about this book. It is only the second that I have read by Lynda La Plante and they have both been from the series that features Anna Travis, which may well be my problem. There is something about her that I find tedious. Anna is the typical underdog woman trying to make it in a man’s world, but rather than willing her to succeed I find myself wishing she would just get a grip. La Plante writes her heroine as a strong willed character, who can fight her own battles, but one who has a softer side that her colleagues rarely see. La Plante explores this softer side much more in Blind Fury and, as she did, I found myself warming to the character much more. She seemed at times a lot more human and much less arrogant, which I found less frustrating to read. Unfortunately this new persona is short lived and so my annoyance with the character prevailed.

I also found the story a little predictable. The format of the book is exactly what you’d expect from its kind, with suspense and tension a plenty. But I there were quite as many twists and turns as I’d have liked and this is what lead to the predictability of the outcome. Not only that, but there were a couple of red herrings in there that I just didn’t think were believable or plausible in the context, which added to the predictability of the story.

Having said that, I didn’t dislike the book and I did read it, quite happily to the end. La Plante writes characters (aside from Anna Travis, obviously) quite well and I enjoyed her descriptions of people and the imagery that they gave. She was particularly successful in portraying Cameron Welsh as the cold and calculating killer that he is. She writes him in a way that makes him clever and disgusting all at once.

I also think that La Plante writes relationships between the characters well. Anna’s relationship with her boss James Langton is interesting to read about; it provides an oasis in a desert of doom and gloom. The relationship has evolved so that the two characters are more equal and Anna is no longer the pining young girl that she has previously been portrayed as.

Overall, I would say that this is an average thriller book. It certainly wasn’t as good as the other of La Plante’s books that I’ve read (Silent Scream), but it was readable and enjoyable for the most part.

Book Review - The Guy Next Door by Meg Cabot

2010-06-30T11:41:00.001+01:00

Meg Cabot (whose surname apparently, and strangely, rhymes with 'habit') is a hugely successful American author of Young Adult fiction. The most famous of her books are undoubtedly 'The Princess Diaries' that were made into popular films by Disney. The Guy Next Door is Cabot's first venture into the world of writing for adults in the chick-lit genre (although it's wrongly listed here on Ciao under 'children's books') and is a fairly good, and very unusual, effort.

Melissa Fuller is a gossip columnist for the New York Journal who is on the verge of losing her job as she is late for the thirty-seventh time this year. Human resources have already been through the motions of politely informing her that it is her duty to be at work on time and her boss is getting more than a little tired of her tardiness. But, this time, Melissa has a legitimate reason for arriving late; her elderly neighbour has been attacked and Melissa has escorted her to the hospital where she lies in a coma. Even worse, the neighbour has left behind her Great Dane Paco, of whom Melissa feels obliged to take temporary responsibility. She soon realises that it is just too much for her and decides to track down her neighbour's only relative, her nephew Max, and that is when the trouble begins!

I read books like they are going out of fashion and I have read a lot of chick-lit books (I really think they are the best thing to accompany a sun lounger and a cold drink!). I read them because they are familiar, easy-to-read and fun, which The Guy Next Door is. However, Meg Cabot has achieved something with this book that I didn't think was possible; she has come up with a completely original way of telling the girl-meets-boy-girl-falls-in-love-with-boy formula. The story is told completely by email, instant messaging and other such correspondence; there is absolutely no prose anywhere in the book.

When I first realised this, I was a bit sceptical. I couldn't understand how Cabot was going to be able to introduce any of the characters properly, or even how she was going to tell a story at all. But my misgivings were soon to be proved unfounded. The novel way Cabot has chosen to tell this series of stories is a nice change from the norm and she does it very well. I found that it perfectly sidestepped the often long and tedious part of a book where the setting out of everything is done and you, as the reader, are thrown right into the thick of things. The fact that the story is told through private correspondence means that you quickly feel part of the cast as it were. There is no need to describe each character as you get to know them straight away through more subtle measures, such as how they write and what they say. It becomes very clear very soon, for example, who Melissa's best friends are and who she has little time for, without Cabot having to introduce them at all.

Another thing that I liked about this style of writing was that it was very easy to read and indeed very quick to read. You don't have to think hard about who is who and what is what because it all happens so quickly, which is definitely what I want from this kind of book. I must admit to more than a little impatience when it comes to reading this genre usually, because it is often inevitable what is going to happen and I find myself just waiting for the inevitable to happen and getting a little bored in the meantime. With The Guy Next Door, there was none of this boredom for me because, like I said it was a quick read and it kept me interested all the way through.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes this genre as it is a good, novel version of a tried and tested story. It is a very modern version that will be very familiar to all those people that feel like they live their lives via the internet and it's speedy way of interacting with other people!

Audio Book Review - Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson

2010-06-17T11:27:00.000+01:00

I have only recently ventured into the world of audio books and my only experience before this one was limited to Stephen Fry’s (excellent) telling of the Harry Potter series. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so thought the next step would be to try one of my other favourite authors; James Patterson. I had some trepidation about whether or not I would enjoy it, because James Patterson’s books, as you will know, are completely different to the light-hearted children’s books of J K Rowling and so I wasn’t sure whether they would work as well. I needn’t have been worried though, because Alex Cross’s Trial made an excellent choice for an audio book.

Trial is Alex Cross’s account of a lawyer, Ben Corbett, who fights against oppression and racism in the early twentieth century. He is sent from Washington DC by none other than Theodore Roosevelt to investigate the rumoured lynchings of black people in his hometown, with the help of Abraham Cross and his daughter. He immediately finds his own life threatened by the very people that he grew up with and he soon becomes determined to do the impossible – make a difference in a town that violently resists change.

When considering this story and in this format, I find it hard not to draw comparisons with the Harry Potter series; whilst I’m fully aware that they are an entirely different style, genre and story, it was never-the-less a shock to hear a drawling Deep South accent telling the story rather than the rather prim and proper English voice of Fry. It did take a while to get used to it and I had to listen to the first chapter a couple of times so that I could focus on the story rather than who was saying it, but the voice became familiar and likeable very quickly.
The story is narrated by Dylan Baker, an American film and TV actor who most notably played Dr Curt Connors in Spiderman 2 and 3. He has a perfect accent for the story, which is based in Eudora (a small town in Mississippi) in the early 1900s when the lynching of black people was commonplace, despite the outlawing of the Ku Klux Klan some 40 years earlier. Baker narrates the story so that you feel like he is an eyewitness from back in the era and he makes you really feel like you are walking the streets and seeing the things he does. The fact that he is an actor shines through in his narration and he portrays the various characters, male and female, black and white, equally well and completely believably. It really felt like I was listening to the soundtrack of a film and it was very easy to put the images to that film myself using Baker’s narration.

Aside from the narration, it was very dramatic production with sound clips and music thrown in at various intervals. For example during a fight ‘scene’, there was an accompanying sound clip of horses stampeding, men shouting and bullets being fired. This all added to the tension of the story and I thought it was very atmospheric. I must admit though, I could have done without the little snippets of music that kept appearing throughout the narration. It was OK when it was a tense part and the music was building up that tension, but there were times when it just appeared for no reason and it just seemed a little cheesy to me. It only happens a few times though and it didn’t impair the story at all – I just tuned it out!

As for the story itself, it has caused a little controversy amongst die hard Patterson fans – particularly those who are very fond of the Alex Cross series. It is advertised as the next instalment in the series, but it has very little to do with the man himself. In fact the idea of the story is that it is a book written by him rather than about him. The preface of the story is, in this case spoken, by Alex Cross (Shawn Andrew) and it is an introduction to a book that features his uncle and cousin. That is where the connection ends. I must admit, I didn’t listen to the preface properly and so spent most of the book wondering when Alex Cross was going to appear, so I can see why people are annoyed about it. That is not to say that it isn’t a good story because it is.

These frustrations should take nothing away from the fact that James Patterson has still retained his crown as a master story teller, although I will say that this story is very similar to John Grisham’s A Time To Kill, which tells of the same troubles in the Deep South of America. The fact is though that both of these stories are based on the truth. I don’t mean by this that they are based on true stories, but that they are fictional portrayals of things that really did happen at the time. This is something that makes the audio version of this story even more compelling – Patterson’s story telling is very graphic and it makes for uncomfortable listening in places but it also makes it more realistic.

Audio books in general are a great alternative to the traditional format. I decided to take the plunge because they are easier to handle on the beach! But I have found that they are a also a great substitute to a film - if they are well narrated and if they are telling a good story - and Alex Cross’s Trial certainly ticked both of those boxes for me. So if you’re looking for something different – even if you aren’t already one of the millions of Patterson fans – you should definitely give this one a try.

For your information, Alex Cross’s Trial (the unabridged version) is on 8 discs and lasts approximately 9 hours and is published by Hachette Audio. Its RRP is £10.00, although at the time of writing this review, it is available on amazon.co.uk for £7.70 with free delivery.

Challenge Updates

2010-06-03T10:29:00.000+01:00

I'm still really enjoying all the challenges I'm taking part in and I thought I'd update you to where I'm at and give you the links for if you want to join in:

I've added the following to my 'already read' pile:

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(Ok, so it's not the first time I've read these three, but it still counts!)
Hedge Fund Wives by Tatiana Boncompagni (review to follow)
Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante (See my review here)
The Best Laid Plans by Sydney Sheldon
It Had To Be You by Sarah Webbe (See my review here)

Which brings my totals to:

100+ Reading Challenge hosted by Home Girl's Book Blog 22 / 100
Thriller Challenge hosted by Book Chick City - 7 / 12
James Patterson Challenge hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews - 3 / 10

Book Review - Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante

2010-05-31T11:48:00.001+01:00

I am more than a little fond of reading thriller books, so it comes as a surprise that I have never read anything by Lynda La Plante who, according to one critic, ‘practically invented the thriller’. I have seen a number of the TV programmes that have been based on her books including the hugely popular Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution series’ and have thoroughly enjoyed them, but I have never quite got round to reading her work. So it was with a little excitement that I gratefully received her newest offering Silent Scream, from publishers Simon and Schuster.

Silent Scream is the latest in the series of books that follows Detective Anna Travis as she works on various murder cases. In this one, an up and coming young movie star, Amanda Delaney, is brutally murdered in her own home. During the investigation, it becomes clear that Amanda has lead a terribly troubled life which included childhood abuse, eating disorders and a string of sordid affairs. Detective Anna Travis soon discovers that Amanda was planning to publish her no holds barred memoirs, which meant that there was a long list of people who would have a motive to murder.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that I didn’t realise that it was part of a series. The fact that I’ve never read any of the previous books didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this particular story, but there is a side story that centres on Anna Travis’ previous relationship with her married boss, Chief Superintendant James Langton that I couldn’t get to grips with. It felt like I’d walked in half way through a conversation and so I didn’t really understand the relationship and the tension that La Plante describes throughout the story. The two characters made an unlikely pairing in my opinion and I couldn’t see how they had got together. Obviously that isn’t a fault of this book, more my fault that I’ve joined a series at such a late stage, however I would probably advise you to start from the beginning.

There were quite a lot of characters in Silent Scream and at times I found it difficult to keep up with who was who, as some of the characters we only meet fleetingly but they appear again later on. The main characters in the book are Anna and, although we only meet her for a little time whilst she is alive, Amanda. I thought both characters were well written, although Anna was a strange choice for a heroine. First of all she is only 29, something that you find out halfway through the book but that came as a surprise to me as I’d already decided in my mind that she was a lot older. She is something of a loner and it is a trait that gets her in trouble repeatedly throughout the book and isolates her from her colleagues. Again this is a something that is clearly built up in previous novels, because even at the start of Silent Scream her colleagues are already talking about her behind her back and becoming tired of her methods, even though it seems as though she hasn’t done anything wrong yet.

Amanda Delaney was my favourite character by far and La Plante did a superb job of bringing her to life, even though she was murdered at the very beginning of the book. We find out her tragic story through the various people that she knew and loved – from popular movie stars to low-life drug dealers - and through Anna Travis’ investigation into her life. Amanda’s life was clearly short but not sweet. Although we don’t feel entirely sorry for her because she had a mean streak that made her lots of enemies. She was a feisty character who made a great subject for the story. She was a great example of how things aren’t always as they seem: here was this stunning and talented young actress who seemingly had everything she could wish for, yet it seems that she had more than her fair share of trauma.

The story is the fast paced, edge of your seat stuff that you expect from this genre and there are twists and turns a plenty. La Plante has a way of making you attempt to solve the mystery as you are going along and just when you think you’ve done it, she throws in another twist. Like I said earlier, one of the ways she does this is by introducing a lot of sub-characters. This is a good way of doing it because it means you are kept on wondering until almost the end. Although I did find that some of the characters were introduced with their own little side stories that weren’t really tied up at the end; some of the stories just fizzled out a bit and whilst I understand they are there to add to the mystery, they ended a little limply.

Overall though, and despite me joining the series halfway through, I did really enjoy Silent Scream and I’ll definitely be reading more of La Plante’s work. The story is fast paced and gripping and she has a great knack for writing interesting and enthralling characters – exactly what you want from a thriller writer.

Book Review - It Had To Be You by Sarah Webb

2010-05-23T20:24:00.000+01:00

Sarah Webb is an Irish author responsible for many offerings in the world of chick-lit, including Always the Bridesmaid and Some Kind of Wonderful. I have read a few of her previous works with mixed reactions – she writes the stories with passion for her characters, but I’ve found that some of her novels take a little while to get into.

It had To Be You is the story of three woman from the small Irish village of Burnaby. Molly works in the local bookshop ‘Happily Ever After’, but has her own aspirations of writing a bestselling novel – something that will never happen if she continues to keep her work a secret. Molly’s best friend Paige is running as an independent candidate in the local elections. She is well on the way to fulfilling a lifelong ambition, but can she juggle a young and demanding family with her work, especially when a fellow candidate is out to sabotage her every move. Kate is Molly’s new housemate, she’s a nice enough girl but obviously has a lot of baggage that she refuses to talk about. Will the latest client for her dating service prove to be the answer to all her problems or is he just too much for her?
I really enjoyed It Had To Be You, which was pleasantly surprising I have to say. I’d read another of Sarah Webb’s books just before it and whilst I thought that one was good, I did find that it took too long to get into. This one was much better and I started to enjoy it straight away. I think one of the reasons for this was that there were three main characters, each with their own particular stories, which meant that it was like reading three books in one. It also meant that the story had to get going straight away in order to fit everything in. The book started off with an introductory chapter about each character, then they all merged together to create the main part of the book before a chapter was dedicated to each of them at the end. I thought this bookended (excuse the pun) the story nicely.

The three main characters were all very likeable and were fun to read about. They are close friends and so link the three parts of the story together nicely. Each of them had various love interests that were also well written and formed very good sub-characters. Each of the three ladies also had an amount of ‘baggage’ that added interest to the story, but that didn’t make it frustrating to read, as can be the case with this type of book.

Sarah Webb worked in a children’s bookshop before she became a novelist and she uses this as a baseline for many of her books. This one is no exception and her passion for the bookshop shines through in this story again. She writes well about little close knit villages, like Burnaby here, and has an excellent ability to make you really feel like you are in the story.

I would highly recommend this story as a nice way to fill the hours, especially if you are sitting in the sun – it is a great summer read and a fun read for any bookworms out there!

Book Review - Always the Bridesmaid by Sarah Webb

2010-05-07T20:09:00.000+01:00

Sarah Webb is an Irish writer who has a string of ‘chick-lit’ books to her name. I’ve read a few of her books before and I enjoy the easy reading and fun nature of them. They are a great accompaniment to a nice relax on a sun lounger, with a glass of something alcoholic and a view of everlasting sea.

Always The Bridesmaid is one of her older novels, published back in 2003, but I stumbled across it in the ‘3 for £5’ section of The Works the other day. It’s available on Amazon for around £4, if you don’t have The Works near you.

Amy is a bit down in the dumps to say the least. She has spilt up with her fiancé and is still at the stage where friends and family tip-toe around, tilt their heads sympathetically when they talk to you and you doubt your own choices in love, life and everything else. When she finds out that, what is supposed to be, her best friend has jumped into the arms (and bed) of her ex, Amy hits rock bottom. To make it worse, her little sister has just come back from Australia with a tanned and fit rugby player with impossibly perfect teeth and a rock on her finger, and her remaining best friend’s long term boyfriend has decided to make an honest woman of her too.

Frustrated with her inability to make good of her long held dreams of becoming a children’s presenter, mournfully sad that she is surrounded by talk of wedding cakes, dresses and decorations and down right miserable that she will have to be bridesmaid twice, Amy quickly becomes a nightmare to be around. Will anything pull her out of this bad snap? Is she ever going to find her night in shining armour? Or will she have to come to terms with the fact that she will, for eternity, be Always The Bridesmaid?

I have mixed emotions about this book. Sarah Webb does what she does very well. I have read a few of her other books and enjoyed them for what they are. This one was a bit different for me. Whilst I enjoyed it in the end and would probably recommend it, if this is your kind of thing, I found that it was very slow to get going. I always knew where the story was going, it is pretty much par for the course in this kind of book, but I felt like I spent the first half of the book wishing it would get there. This was such a shame, because when the story eventually did get ‘there’, I really enjoyed it.

I think that one of the main reasons that I found the first half of the book so trying, is that the Amy, the main character, is a little irritating. I understand that she is a bit sad about the demise of her relationship, but it seems that she didn’t particularly enjoy it anyway and she was the one that ended it – so I couldn’t see why she mourned it quite so much. By the start of the book, Amy has been separated from her ex for a while, so we don’t really see what went on, but throughout the rest of the story there are flashbacks to events in her relationships and they don’t exactly paint a good picture of it. I guess I just found it hard to understand why she was so negative. Amy has a negative outlook in general and she is mean and snappy to her family and friends and I generally found it quite tiresome. That said, when she finally does cheer up a bit she becomes a really likeable character that you want to succeed and can empathise with.

I also thought that the basic setting for the story was a really good one. It brings a level of escapism that made me stick with the book even when I was getting a little too tired of Amy. She works in an independent children’s book shop. I would love to do that and I think that anyone who is a serious bookworm has always harboured a desire to do the same. The bookshop is run by a lovely lady who has a genuine passion for it, which is lovely to read about. There are lots of events in the shop that allow the author to paint lovely images on your mind of displays from The Wizard of Oz and Dr Seuss, that really do warm the heartstrings and remind you of a simpler time.

Sarah Webb herself grew up in a town in Ireland that is the mirror image of the one in the story and her passion for that town comes across in her descriptions of it in the book. It is, in my opinion, a perfect place for the book to be set.

The secondary characters in the book are everything you expect from this genre – handsome men with a bit of mystery, boisterous girls with a happy-go-lucky attitude and friends that are rock solid throughout thick and thin. Sarah Webb has written all of her secondary characters really well and they fit in nicely with the story and the style of the book.

I would, as I said earlier, recommend this book to anyone who likes the chick-lit genre, although my recommendation would come with the warning that it is a little tedious to begin with, but is worth the wait in the end.

Book Review - The Swimsuit by James Patterson

2010-04-26T20:10:00.000+01:00

Tagged as his ‘most shocking and seductive story yet’ Swimsuit is the latest stand alone book from the ‘world’s best thriller writer’ James Patterson. Co-written by Maxine Paetro (who also co-wrote many of the books in Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series) Swimsuit is a story that combines breathtaking beauty with untold horrors.

Kim McDaniels is one of the world’s most beautiful supermodels and she as the top of her game, that is until a psychopathic killer abducts her from her latest shoot at the most glamorous hotel in Hawaii. A terrifying phone call to her parents begins the hunt her and cop turned reporter Ben Hawkins is assigned the story. Unable to let his past go and faced with severe ineptitude on the part of the local police force, Ben begins his own investigation into what quickly turns from a missing person case to a murder inquiry. Ben soon becomes completely and utterly involved in the case and is confronted by a psychopathic killer who has no morals and takes great pride in setting the stage for his next killing.

Swimsuit bears all of the unmistakable characteristics of a typical James Patterson thriller – it is a high octane, page turner that is easy to read but that will keep you hooked until the end. The layout of the book is Patterson’s usual style, with large print and short chapters that make it easy to read the whole book in, more or less, one sitting.

The protagonist Ben Hawkins is again similar to Patterson’s previous heroes – a former good cop who hit a brick wall and got tired of the force. He’s a strong character and makes a good lead character for this kind of story. It is easy to warm to Ben, who is not quite squeaky clean, but has high morals and good instincts none the less. The only criticism, and this is one that I often have with Patterson’s leading men, is that he is supposed to be rough and ready but he just isn’t quite gritty enough for the role. You get the impression that he does have a somewhat darker side to him, but it doesn’t quite come over in the story.

The serial killer is portrayed as a ruthless and swarthy man who takes a lot of pride in his work. He is a completely believable character and I think that is what makes him so scary – he could be a real person.

Anyone who is familiar with Patterson’s work will not be surprised by the storyline in Swimsuit. The premise is that the good guy finds himself in the middle of a murder case without the support of his peers but his great instincts see him through, in a someone unorthodox fashion, to the end. The fact that this is so similar to other Patterson stories (the Alex Cross novels and the Women’s Murder Club series, for example) is not a negative point for me. I know exactly what I’m getting when I pick up one of his books and that is exactly why I pick them up in the first place. The familiarity is what makes me come back to Patterson time and time again.

Patterson’s own slogan is that ‘the pages turn themselves’ and that couldn’t be a more accurate description in my opinion. It is true with Swimsuit as well, I literally read it in one go and I enjoyed every page of it. As stereotypical as it sounds, I couldn’t put The Swimsuit down. Even despite the somewhat cheesy nature of Patterson’s style that Swimsuit has in bucket loads – the characters are sometimes a little too good, the setting is a little too perfect and the turn of events a little too convenient – it still makes a really good read.

The ending of the book is typically climatic and does the story justice, although I do think that it is begging for a sequel. The loose ends aren’t quite tied up. Again this wasn’t a negative for me. I think that there will be a sequel somewhere along the line, but if there isn’t I didn’t feel short changed.

Overall, I think Swimsuit is typical Patterson; some might say that he is just writing to a set pattern now and that all of his books (this one included) are very similar, but I say that this is what keeps him at the top of his game.

Book Review - 8th Confession by James Patterson

2010-04-19T21:34:00.000+01:00

8th confession is the eighth book in James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. The series features a group of women who are successful in a man’s world and who have formed a close bond in the most difficult of circumstances. The main character is Lindsay Boxer, a detective in the San Francisco Police Department and her best friends are: Claire Washburn, the city’s chief medical examiner; Cindy Thomas, hot reporter for the city’s newspaper; and Yuki Castellano, a state prosecutor.

8th Confession sees the club pitted against a brutal killer who is stalking the rich and famous. Lindsay is under pressure because the SFPD is bottom of the league for unsolved murders and the newest victims are all high profile people with families that have plenty of clout in the city. Aside from this, reporter Cindy stumbles across a less high profile, but arguably more interesting case when the local homeless hero Jesus Bagman is found brutally executed. Both of the women need their friends to help them solve these equally disturbing cases, but can they pull together at the crucial moment or are their own personal agendas going to tear the group apart?

I couldn’t put this book down. It is James Patterson at his page turning, edge of your seat best. That is not to say the book was perfect, because there were a few things that I found irritating about the book, but none of these things was big enough to hamper my overall enjoyment of the story.
If you have read the previous seven books in the series, you will be well aware of each of the main characters and many of the sub-characters. Over the series, Patterson has introduced the reader into the lives of his characters; making you feel as if you know them and making you care about them. In 8th Confession, he continues this style and once again, you are quickly drawn into the world of the Women’s Murder Club. If you haven’t read any of the books in this series before, you can still enjoy this book. The author does give a little background into the characters and at no point would you feel lost or as if you’d missed out on something.

The story, like I said, is full of twists and turns and is really addictive stuff. In fact I finished the book in just one sitting. I always find that this is easy to do with Patterson’s books, mainly because of his short chapters and writing style that make the story run very smoothly and so easy to read. There was just one problem with the story though and that is that it seemed to be two or three different stories running concurrently and at no point did they seem to interweave other than that the characters are best friend so they meet up to discuss their own part of the story if you will. Each of the individual stories was well written and again, kept you turning the pages quickly, but I just felt that they should have all come together a bit better in the climax.

The story is set in San Francisco and Patterson does a fantastic job of describing the place in a way that makes you want to be right there (despite the fact that people are getting horrifically murdered left, right and centre!). At one point Lindsay Boxer and her boyfriend are sat in a restaurant and Patterson did such a good job of selling it that I actually went online to find out if it is a real place. I’m delighted to say that it is and I’m now working on going there!

Overall, I would say that this is a great example of why Patterson has been given the description of being ‘the world’s best thriller writer’. He has really come up trumps with a typical fast paced, addictive thriller here that will have his fans pouring more praise on him as well as it being a great place for Patterson virgins to start.

Challenge Updates

2010-04-18T11:26:00.000+01:00

Since my last post, I've read:

JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (excellent, but goes without saying!)
James Patterson - Swimsuit (good read)
James Patterson - 8th Confession (I couldn't put it down)

These books bring my challenge progress up to:

15 books for the 100+ Reading Challenge hosted by Home Girl's Book Blog
5 books for the Thriller Challenge hosted by Book Chick City
3 books for the James Patterson Challenge hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews

Why not come and join the fun!!

James Patterson Challenge

2010-04-02T10:05:00.000+01:00

I'm a such a big fan of James Patterson's books, so I was delighted when I stumbled across this challenge this morning, hosted by Socrates Book Reviews. The challenge is simple - read ten James Patterson books this year. The year actually started on August 15th, so I'm starting a little late - but since I got three James Patterson books for my birthday, I think I should be able to manage it! If you want to join in the fun, just click the link above to sign up! Happy reading!

My Progress:

1. The Murder of King Tut

Book Review - Kiss Like You Mean It by Louise Harwood

2010-03-26T20:26:00.000Z

Ella Buchan is the make-up artist on the next Hollywood blockbuster and she has been tasked with making up the alarmingly handsome, yet out of control, star’s face. Rory Defoe is the typical Hollywood bad boy – he’s arrogant, rude and selfish – and he has the power and the stupidity to ruin the film before it even gets to the cinema. Ella is tired of meeting people like Rory and she’s forced to spend hours each day pandering to his every need, she certainly doesn’t want to get to know him any better.

But the director of the film has other ideas – Ella is apparently the only one who can save the film from total meltdown and she, more than a little begrudgingly, steps in to ‘save the day’. Can a mere make-up artist really stop the impending disaster and does she really know what she’s let herself in for?
Kiss Like You Mean It is the latest novel from bestselling author Louise Harwood. I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of her before this, but I’ll definitely be looking out for her again. I really enjoyed this book; it is a chick-lit with a twist. By that, I mean that it has all the markings of chick-lit, but it wasn’t as girly as I was expecting it to be. I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but the front of this book makes it look like a typical summer read that I would read, finish and forget about. But Kiss Like You Mean It has a bit more sophistication than that. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a classic and is never going to set the world alight, but it is an enjoyable read with a little bit more depth than you expect from this genre.

I think Louise Harwood has hit gold with the basic plot of her story; the fact that it is centred on a film set means that the book has glamour and glitz a-plenty, but her real genius move is the fact that it is a war film. The serious nature of the subject means that she has been able to show a softer and more passionate side to even the most despicable of her characters. I felt that it made it a lot easier to get to know and like the characters – something that is crucial to the enjoyment of a book in my opinion.

The characters are all there – philandering leading man, cruel boss, ditzy supporting characters and a strong leading lady. Ella isn’t a goody-goody, insipid character – she has style, common sense and she can stand up for herself, but she also has modesty and a little self-doubt that makes her a really likeable character. I think Louise Harwood has created the perfect heroine for this type of story.

The fact that Harwood has chosen a war film as the centre of her story is interesting and very clever. Like I said, it brings out a serious and passionate nature to her characters which I think keeps the story from being unbelievable and too far-fetched. It is also an excellent way of bringing so many diverse characters together in one storyline. She has been able to really mix up a group of people that would clearly never usually have met and she has been successful in doing so.

I only have one criticism of the book and it didn’t really impair my enjoyment of it, but I think it’s worth mentioning. The ending seemed to come about a little too quickly. Harwood spent a lot of time building up the story and relationships but then seemed to run out of pages to get the ending in. It didn’t seem rushed so much as not quite in keeping with the pace of the rest of the story. It is only a small fault though, because it didn’t stop me from really enjoying the book.

I would highly recommend book and I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for her other books.

100+ Reading Challenge Update

2010-03-26T09:50:00.000Z

This is a great challenge that is being hosted by J. Kaye at Home Girl's Book Blog. Basically what you have to do (you guessed it!) is read 100 or more books this year. After a bit of a lull, I've picked up the pace on this reading challenge and have read another four books in the last ten days:

9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling (absolute classic, of course)
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (ditto the above statement!)
11. Home Truths by Freya North (click to see review)
12. Kiss Like You Mean It by Louise Harwood (click to see review)

So if you fancy a bit of a challenge (and it will be noew since we're already almost four months into the year!) then head over and sign up!

Happy reading!

Book Review - Home Truths by Freya North

2010-03-24T10:35:00.000Z

Freya North is a London based author who writes romantic fiction. She gave up a Ph.D. course in 1991 to write her first novel, much to the consternation of her family and with little success. In 1995 she decided to ‘go for it’ and sent the first three chapters of her book, along with a page of totally invented reviews, to some of the countries top publishers who then entered a bidding war for her work. The rest, as they say is history! Home Truths is North’s 8th novel and it led to Heat magazine commenting that ‘Freya North manages to strike a good balance between drama, comedy and romance, and has penned another winner in Home Truths . . . touching and enjoyable’.

Django McCabe and his three nieces, Pip, Fen and Cat, form a somewhat unconventional family, but one that is fiercely loyal and indescribably close. Until, that is, a stranger comes along to Django’s 75th birthday celebrations and turns their world completely upside down. Throughout their lives and their many ups and downs, the family have been able to rely on each other to help them through, but is this one hurdle too far? Can the family that has been left reeling by a massive revelation ever possibly be the same again?

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is not the first time that we have met the McCabe family, as North has written about each of them individually in previous novels, but it is the first time that I have read about them all together. They are a completely unconventional family and more than a little eccentric, but they work really well together. Each of the girls has their own little family, but the whole lot centres on the hub that is the charismatic and lovable Django. Going against the traditional format of mother, father and 2.4 children, the McCabe clan has step-relatives, half-relatives and ex-partners galore, making it a very much modernised version of the family unit. But it stills works – it isn’t portrayed as dysfunctional at all, simply something that is normal for many people nowadays.

The storyline is good too. It does indeed afford a range of emotions, at times making you laugh and at others making you sad. Even if you haven’t read any of the previous McCabe novels, North spends enough time introducing them at the beginning of this one, to make you like them well enough to empathise and sympathise with them through their shock.

Something that you can’t fail to notice when reading her work is that Freya North is very found of writing about sex. Not to the point that it is like reading a copy of the Kama Sutra, but there are numerous sex-scenes in all of her novels. They are very tastefully done and well-written. They only occur when the story warrants them and they do seem appropriate to the story when they appear (for the most part anyway!).

The only real criticism I have of Home Truths is a small one, but one that I have noticed appears in a lot of her novels. She has a tendency to change the person in which she is writing. For the most part, the story is written in the third person, but every now and then it changes to make it look like the author herself is talking to the characters or even that the characters are talking to themselves. I personally don’t like this, I find it irritating for some reason and it mars the story a little for me. Fortunately it doesn’t happen very often and, so far, it hasn’t hampered my enjoyment of North’s books so much that I would down grade it, but I don’t think it is necessary and I would prefer it if she didn’t do it!
If you are a fan of Freya North, I would recommend this book to you. If you aren’t a fan already, you can start with ‘Home Truths’ and still enjoy it very much, but I would recommend reading the others in the series first; ‘Pip’, ‘Fen’ and ‘Cat’.

Book Review - I Heart Hollywood by Lindsey Kelk

2010-03-17T11:39:00.000Z

‘I Heart Hollywood’ is the second instalment of Lindsey Kelk’s series about Angela Clark. In the previous novel ‘I Heart New York’, Angela had fled her English life after finding her ex-boyfriend in a very compromising position at her best friend’s wedding. Her out-of-character decision found her jobless and friendless in New York.

Fast forward to this story and Angela can’t believe her luck – she has the dream job and a gorgeous boyfriend and all is looking rosy. Then, it seems, her luck is getting even better when her boss sends her to interview the hottest Brit actor around, James Jacobs, in Hollywood. Angela is all set for a fabulous fortnight of shopping, sunbathing and working with the rich and famous and takes her American best friend with her to enjoy the fun. What could possibly go wrong?

It seems ladykiller James Jacobs, whilst charming and charismatic, has a bit of a secret that must be upheld or he’ll face career devastation. He, along with his PR army, will do anything to keep his secret and they don’t care who they take down and Angela finds herself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Can she possibly save her job, her relationship and her friendship with her best friend all at the same time?

I absolutely love ‘I Heart New York’ and I couldn’t wait to read this next chapter in Angela’s story. Whilst I did enjoy it, I couldn’t help feel let down – perhaps due to my anticipation or perhaps due to the fact that the story just wasn’t as good, I’m not quite sure.

The main characters from the first novel are all back and they are just as good as they were in the first. The new characters are all equally well written and, for the most part, brought a lot to this new story. However, Angela’s American best friend has a history with Hollywood and it takes her away from the story a bit. Whilst the two were as thick as thieves together in the first book, they spent much more time living their own individual lives in this one and I think it was detrimental to the story a bit as it was one of the things I enjoyed most about ‘I Heart New York’.

The setting of course is Hollywood, but it is painted as a bit of a facade, rather much as I think the real Hollywood is. If you peel away the dazzling exterior, you are left with a much more seedy and unlikeable place. Whereas Kelk painted New York as a dream place full of romance and wonder, Hollywood is a little disappointing in comparison.

It is very hard, as you can probably tell, not to draw comparisons between the two books so far in the series. But I think that if you hadn’t read the first one, you wouldn’t enjoy the second as it just doesn’t have the same engaging style of the first. It is fun to find out what happens next in Angela’s life, but I don’t think it is a good starting place. The next book in the series is ‘I Heart Paris’ and I really do ‘heart’ Paris, so Ill definitely be reading that – I just hope that Kelk can get the story back on track and the characters back to their original best.

Book Review - The Web by Jonathan Kellerman

2010-03-15T22:31:00.000Z

Jonathan Kellermen is a criminal psychologist by trade and he has now brought his expertise to the world of thriller writing. He has already established himself as one of the world’s most popular authors with a string of bestselling novels, a smattering of prestigious awards and number of non-fiction works to his name. His most popular series is the one featuring Alex Delaware, of which The Web is the latest instalment.

Alex Delaware and his wife are desperate to escape the violence of Los Angeles and recover from a harrowing ordeal and it seems that the mysterious Dr William Moreland is offering them the perfect solution. Out of the blue he invites them to his tiny Micronesian community, Knife Island, to help him record the masses of information he has gathered from his years of looking after the physical and mental wellbeing of the island’s inhabitants.

Very quickly though, it appears that Knife Island isn’t the perfect piece of paradise that the Delaware’s were hoping for as one of the inhabitants is brutally murdered. Rather reluctantly, Alex is thrown into a grotesque web of intrigue that seems to prove that all, including Moreland himself, is not what it seems.

The story is a very promising one and is the kind of thriller that I enjoy the most, however the execution wasn’t, in my opinion, to Kellerman’s usual high standard. It seems that the whole book was working to a big ending. Kellerman does an excellent job of building up a very tense and intriguing scenario that in this case doesn’t live up to the hype. I obviously don’t want to give away the ending, but suffice to say I thought it lacked the massive climax that it deserved. I thought that the ending sort of just petered out to nothing and I was left feeling unsatisfied.

That said, it was the only thing that Kellerman did wrong here. His characters were interesting and full of dark secrets that kept me on the edge of my seat turning pages as quickly as I could manage. Moreland was an intriguing but distant character that was clearly hiding something big. His interaction with others was great at giving clues to his secret and I really felt that I was attempting to solve the mystery alongside Alex Delaware.

The setting for the story couldn’t have been more appropriate. Although on the face of it, Knife Island is a little piece of paradise in the middle of nowhere, right from the moment that the Delawares stepped off the boat, it was clear that something was amiss. Knife Island was described very successfully as a beautiful but chilling place that had a very dark history and many awful stories to tell.
Overall I would have to say that this book had a lot of promise that it just didn’t quite live up to. This kind of story has to have a really powerful ending to make you really sit back and wonder, but in my opinion Kellerman didn’t manage to accomplish this time.

Twitter-ing Away!

2010-03-15T12:08:00.000Z

I've joined the world of Twitter today and would absolutely love it if you'd come and follow me!

Book Blogger Hop!

2010-03-13T21:16:00.000Z

Jenn over at Crazy For Books has started a fun new weekly meme called Book Blogger Hop, which is a fun way of finding like-minded book bloggers that you may have missed.

In her own words:

Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following. In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!

So, if you'd like to participate, just repost this on your blog, sign MckLinky below, and check out other blogs in MckLinky! Let's connect and make new book bloggy friends!! So, if you consider yourself a book blogger, come join the fun!

Pretty please - Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

So if it sounds like your kind of thing, head over to her page and join!!

It's Better Than Getting An Oscar!

2010-03-13T11:13:00.000Z

I'm very excited because I've received three new awards this week! I'm new to this game, so it's really nice to know that people have been looking at my blog and enjoying it.

Thanks to A Novel Source and The Fiction Enthusiast for my awards - they are very much appreciated.

Read on to find out which great blogs I've given awards to!

The Rules:

Thank and link the sender in a blog post

Pass on to 15 people

Contact them and let them know they've won

State seven things about yourself

The Rules:

List 10 things that make you happy

Pass it along to 10 bloggers.

The Rules:

Put this on your blog, whether as an entirely new post like I'm doing,

or on your sidebar.

          Choose 15 other newly discovered bloggers that you love, and award
          them with this.

          Send them a message/comment to let them know.

So here goes....

7 Things About Me:

I love travelling and reading (preferably doing both at the same time!)
I have a deep-rooted fear of cockroaches and jellyfish
I am getting married in less than a year
I am currently obsessed with blogging!
I have lived in Germany and Canada, but come from and live in the UK
I collect mugs and fridge magnets from around the world
I work as cabin crew for a English airline

10 Things I Love:

My fiance
My family
Travelling
Reading (and blogging about it!)
Eating (especially eating out)
Sleeping
Winnie the Pooh (and friends! I have a huge collection of teddies)
Paris
The Killers (who I saw in concert last year and they were amazing!)
Christmas ('It's the most wonderful time of the year'!!)

I'm Passing these Awards onto:

Obsession
A Novel Source
Rhiana Reads
Page Turners
Layers of Thought
Libby's Library
Home Girl's Book Blog
The Fiction Enthusiast

Challenge - 2010 100+ Reading Challenge

2010-03-08T21:36:00.000Z

I've joined another challenge, hosted by J Kaye at Home Girl's Book Blog. This one is to read (you guessed it) 100 books this year. So far this year I've read:

1. I Heart Hollywood - Lindsey Kelk
2. The Murder of King Tut - James Patterson
3. The Web - Jonathan Kellerman
4. Thinking of You - Jill Mansell
5. Pop Tart - Kira Coplin and Julianne Kaye
6. Millie's Fling - Jill Mansell
7. A Minor Indiscretion - Carole Matthews
8. Black Jack Point - Jeff Abbott

If you want to join in the fun, visit J Kaye's blog - there's a button on the side of my page.

Happy reading!

Book Review - The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson

2010-03-08T12:06:00.000Z

The world’s best selling thriller writer is back and this time he has opened the ‘ultimate cold case’ – the unsolved death of Tutankhamen. This time writing alongside Martin Dugard, James Patterson is taking his inimitable style of page turning suspense to the mystery that has stumped Egyptologists the world over.

Tutankhamen was thrust onto the throne at a very early age, much to the dismay of many powerful Egyptians at the time, and his reign was a massive controversy from the very beginning. But that controversy became an even bigger one when he suddenly, and inexplicably, died after just nine years at the throne.

The Murder of King Tut is an intriguing and fascinating look at the life and death of the notorious king. The authors flit quickly between modern day America, ancient Egypt and the life of Howard Carter to bring us a completely engrossing true life story. Patterson and Dugard have done their homework and both quite clearly have a real passion for the subject matter which is reflected in their story telling.

The book is told through three different stories, which all overlap and intertwine to build up the life story of the young king and to tell the events that may have lead to his death. Firstly, we hear from Patterson in his Florida home. He tells us why he picked up this story and what it means to him. Occasionally throughout the story, we go back to Florida to hear his progress and his ‘Eureka’ moments. For me, these parts didn’t really bring anything to the story and I found them a little cringe worthy in their style. That said, it didn’t happen often enough or for long enough to impede my enjoyment of the book.

Next we are transported back to Ancient Egypt, where the first tombs are being built in what is now known as the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. From here we read about the predecessors to King Tut and the mark they left on Egypt historical landscape. We follow the birth of the boy king and his life before and after he takes the throne. I particularly enjoyed the authors’ portrayal of Tut’s relationships with both his mother and his sister, which were loving and just in a time when women were an accessory rather than an equal.

Finally we are taken on the roller-coaster journey that is the life of Howard Carter, the man who discovered the untouched tomb of Tutankhamen. Patterson and Dugard get the balance right on the nose with Carter. From all accounts, he was a brilliant but very arrogant man from humble beginnings, who lived and breathed Egypt. The authors do an excellent job of portraying him as dislikeable character that you are, somehow, still routing for.

Patterson is famed for his Alex Cross and Lindsey Boxer series’, however every once in a while he goes off the beaten track with a completely independent story. Sometimes he is successful; other times you, as the reader, feel he should stick to what he knows. In The Murder of King Tut, he has thrown a complete curve ball, but it has proven to be one of his successes. This is Patterson at his best in my opinion – he has taken a true story that is fascinating in itself and made it into an even more fascinating tale of betrayal, power and love.

Book Review - Black Jack Point by Jeff Abbott

2010-03-08T11:49:00.000Z

‘They found Texas judge Whit Mosley’s missing friends at Black Jack Point, dead and buried along with relics and bones from a legendary past. Whit opens an inquest into the murders, and is plunge into a shadowy world of ruthless treasure-hunters and double-crossing tycoons – all chasing a long-lost fortune in emeralds and gold.’

This is the premise of Jeff Abbott’s Black Jack Point, a tale which sounds like it’s come from the writer’s of the latest Disney movie, but that has somehow got lost along the way. I wasn’t sold on the idea of pirates and hidden treasure, but I have read and enjoyed several of Abbott’s previous novels (including Panic and Fear) so I thought I’d give this one a go. I’m undecided over it really. The story is full of the page turning twists and turns that you want from a suspense / thriller novel, but it just didn’t grip me quite as much as I wanted it to.

The story revolves around Judge Whit Mosley, a character familiar from previous Abbott novels. He’s a likeable character who isn’t squeaky clean and who in fact does have a few enemies. His sidekick is Detective Claudia Salazar, also familiar from previous stories. She is another likeable character who is feisty and successful in a man’s world. The platonic relationship that they have is a refreshing change from the usual love stories that run through these type of series’, although I suspect that their relationship may change in further instalments. I hope it doesn’t.

The secondary characters are all just that; not striking enough to remember once you’ve finished reading, but well enough written to carry themselves in the story. I think one of the complaints I have about this story is the number of characters involved. The idea is obviously to build up a story where any number of solutions is possible and you are left guessing until the very end. But I found that the opposite happened – there were so many twists and turns that it became confusing. Meaning that the only person I could focus on was indeed incorporated in the crime in some way – leaving me to feel that the ending was a little predictable.

Abbott’s writing style is relaxed and informal, which means that reading his books is not a challenge. This is again the case with Black Jack Point, making it a great holiday read and a book that is easy to pick up and put down. In fact the story of pirates and treasure is one that should indeed be read whilst you are sitting by the sea.

The nature of the tale is of fantasy and fortune – something that you do only seem to hear in fairy tales. But Abbott does a good job of making something of children’s fiction into an acceptable adult’s story. Whilst at times I felt a little as if the story had reached the realms of make believe, I found it for the most part and pretty believable tale.

Overall, I would say this book is of average success. In my opinion, it isn’t nearly as good as his previous novels, but I did read it until the end and I did enjoy it. My recommendation if you are thinking about an Abbott book would be to start at one of his others, but this isn’t a bad story at all.

Book Chick City's Thriller Suspense Challenge

2010-03-04T19:59:00.000Z

I've joined up to the Thriller Suspense Challenge hosted by Book Chick City and I can't wait - I love thrillers and I think I'll probably end up reading more than the 12 in a year that makes the challenge!

Join up using the link!

http://www.bookchickcity.com/2009/05/thriller-suspense-challenge-2010_01.html

Thrillers so far this year:

James Patterson - The Murder of King Tut (Highly recommended)

Jonathan Kellerman - The Web (OK, but not the best)

Jeff Abbott - Black Jack Point (Not as good as his others)

Reviews to follow!

Book Review - Pop Tart by Kira Coplin and Julianne Kaye

2010-03-04T19:16:00.000Z

Pop Tart is the debut novel from Kira Coplin and Julianne Kaye, two American ladies who have close ties to the glamorous world of celebrity. The former is a contributor to popular magazines and the latter a successful professional make-up artist, so it probably seemed obvious to them that they should write a novel that combined both their skill sets.

The resulting tale is of a young girl, Jackie O’Reilly, who has a short attention span and a big desire to find her calling in life. She drops out of her college course to become a professional make-up artist. After a very lucky break she gets the opportunity to travel with the ‘next big thing’ in the American popular culture scene; teen sensation Brooke Parker.

The fairy tale soon shows its darker and nastier side when Jackie is thrust into the limelight whilst having to deal with working long hours alongside Brooke’s entourage of people who seem only to be looking out for number one. When Brooke begins to rebel she takes Jackie, as her confidante and ‘new best friend’, down with her.

Pop Tart is a fun story, but it does have its negative points. First of all I liked the characters; Jackie makes a good heroine who is young and innocent at times, but feisty and independent at others. She gets herself in some ridiculous situations and does give you the chance to laugh out loud once in a while. The other characters work well together – there is a good mix of likeable and realistic ones thrown together with some outlandish and outrageous ones. As with all fairy stories, there are villains and heroes in Pop Tart and they are for the most part well written.

One character that I did have a problem with was the teen sensation that was Brooke Parker. Everything about her screamed of Britney Spears, from the wholesome and grounded upbringing to the spectacular public fall from grace. I have no problem with drawing likeness to people for the purpose of painting a picture, but I draw the line at a blatant rip off. If you’re going to make the effort of writing a fictional novel, at least make it fictional. At times I was actually imagining Britney Spears as the girl in the story and this was, in my eyes, unacceptable.

As a direct result of this, the story was a little too familiar at times as well. In the same way that Britney Spears had a ‘nemesis’ in Christina Aguilera, so did Brooke. In the same way that Spears was manipulated by her manager to the point of nervous breakdown, so is Brooke. I could have been reading Spears’ autobiography in parts, which was annoying because that wasn’t the book I bought. It just seemed a bit of a cop out really. It was a story already told on the front pages of Heat and OK, but hidden under the guise of a book that was supposedly about a young make-up artist with big dreams.

Having said that, I did enjoy reading the book; at the same time it was funny and frustrating, heart-warming and naughty – all things you want from a holiday read. I kept turning the pages because I had become addicted to the world of celebrity – a world that is always intriguing and provides most of us with a guilty pleasure. The fact that it was written by two ‘insiders’ made it all the more interesting.

Overall I would recommend the book, but I would say that it should have been marketed a little differently, it isn’t quite what you expect but at the same it is fun and easy to read.

Book Review - Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson

2010-02-28T21:22:00.001Z

Catherine Sanderson is a thirty-something Brit who fell in love with France whilst she was at school and moved to Paris more than ten years ago. In July 2004, she discovered the world of blogging on the internet and her pseudonym Petite Anglaise was born. She wrote about her own daily trials and tribulations on her blog and it soon became a massive internet hit, with thousands of regular readers and rave reviews in the national newspapers.

Petite Anglaise the book was published in hard back in 2008, although it is the paperback edition (published by Penguin Books in February 2009) that I'm reviewing he

re. The book is ultimately a summarisation of Petite Anglaise's blog so far and, as such, is Catherine Sanderson's true story.

For those of you who've read my review of Paris, you'll be aware of my own love of one of the world's most romantic cities. So, when I spotted the doodle-like drawing of the Eiffel Tower on the front cover of the book when I was in Asda the other day, I was immediately drawn to it. A quick glance at the blurb on the back told me it was a true story of a British girl who'd moved to France in search of a life-long dream adn the bargain basement price-tag of £3.73 meant it was in my trolley before you could say 'credit crunch'!

-The Plot-

The book begins by telling us how Catherine Sanderson arrives in Paris. It tells how she originally moved to France in her second year of university where she worked as an English 'Assistante' in Normandy, before moving to Paris permanently a year later. Shortly after this Catherine meets her partner, always referred to in the book as 'Mr Frog'.

Fast forward seven years and Catherine is still living with 'Mr Frog' and now their baby girl 'Tadpole', but the French dream is waining in the face of everyday frustrations like looking after a baby, living with a man who is married to his work and having an unfulfilling job. Until' of course, she stumbles across the blog of 'Belle De Jour' (who I believe is the inspiration behind the programme starring Billie Piper) and decides to dabble in the world of blogging.

The rest (and main part) of the book tells how Catherine's alter ego becomes a phenomenon that she finds hard to separate from her real existance, changing her life forever when she embarks upon an illicit affair with one of her online readers. For the most part, the book attempts to answer the question on the blurb on the back: 'She might be bilingual, but how long can an English Rose keep up a double life?'.

-My Opinion-

First of all, you should be prepared to want to wander the same streets as Sanderson in real life - she paints an involving picture of everyday life in Paris, missing neither the romantic highs nor the frustrating lows. I have to say though, that is probably one of the only positive things I can say about this book, much as I wanted to love it.

When I popped the book into my trolley, I thought I would be getting a little bit of escapism in good old 'chick-lit', but the predominent feeling I got when reading Petite Anglaise, was that I was intruding on someone's life. It was almost as if I was reading her diary. Now, I suppose that is the whole point of reading a true story, especially one written in blog form, but for me, it was just a little too uncomfortable. It would seem though that it is not only me that feels this way - when Sanderson talks about some of the online reaction to her blog entries, one reader comments that 'we don't really need to read about this'.

As Petite Anglaise, Sanderson describes how she falls in love and has an affair with a regular blog reader. It is a very honest account of her feelings and actions, but I can't help feeling that she is looking for sympathy in her quest for what she thinks will make her happy. To some extent I did sympathise, but for the most part I felt a bit like she couldn't really be placated, so what's the point in giving her sympathy?

I think to really enjoy a book, especially one written in the first person, you have to be able to empathise with the main character. But I suspect that anyone who has experienced being cheated on by a partner, will be inclined to dislike Petite Anglaise. Even as someone who has fortunately never been in that situation, I found it difficult to get past her somewhat 'moany' attitude to pretty much anything.

Another thing that frustrated me was the way the 'characters' talked to each other. Conversations seemed false - as though they were manufactured by the author of a fictional novel and not as if they had happened in real-life, as these supposedly had. This may be me picking faults, but I found it confusing that it is meant to be a true story but the main players talk as if they're in some kind of cheesy day time soap opera.

-Summary-

Like I said, I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't do it for me. I didn't feel like it was a balanced story - there weren't any laughs to counter-balance the bad times - and I just couldn't connect with Petite Anglaise.

That said, it is an interesting look at life in Paris and what it would be like if you threw caution to the wind and followed your dream, wherever it might lead. So, please don't let me put you off - it might just be your cup of tea - all I'm saying is that it wasn't what I thought it would be and so, it left me disappointed.

One final thing I will say is that Catherine Sanderson still writes her blog, although I would recommend that, if you are going to read the book, you don't look at the blog first or it will ruin the story!

Book Review - One Red Paperclip by Kyle Macdonald

2010-02-28T13:28:00.001Z

Travel and reading are my passions, so books like this are a winner every time with me. This is a fascinating story about a man who is on the verge of losing his home and girlfriend, when he decides to trade from 'One Red Paperclip' to a house, in a year, based on a game he attempted to play when he was a child. He travels around Canada and America, making trades and quickly becomes famous in the meantime. The game is called 'bigger and better' and you basically take one item (in this case the red paperclip) and contiually trade it up for something bigger and better.

I won't spoil the story by telling you all of the trades, but some of them are very impressive, whilst others seem, on the surface, quite dissappointing. I think my favourite trade was one of the earlier ones when he trades a generator for 'one instant party', which is essentially a beer keg, a neon Bud sign and an I.O.U for some beer.

However, it isn't the trades that make this book so interesting, it's how quickly it becomes a story that interests the world over - culminating in a quite amusing story of Kyle MacDonald taking over a row of public phone boxes in an American airport whilst he takes part in various radio interviews across the world!

It's a great story because he sticks to his guns about his reasons for doing it. As he becomes more famous, he gets lots of offers from big companies offering to give him a house if he wears their t-shirt when he's on TV and so on. But he only ever makes genuine trades with the people who have not only the best item to trade but the ones who have the best reason for wanting to trade.

Also, although it is usually found in the travel book section, it isn't really about travelling. True, he does cross Canada and America a few times, but he only ever makes trades in places that he is going anyway for work or personal travel.

It's a great read, although not as funny as some of the other similar books out there which I was expecting it to be. It is easy to read, as each trade has it's own chapter. You can also keep up-to-date with what Kyle is doing on his website, which I googled. He is actually currently looking for a trade on the new house - if you think you have anything he might want!