I was drawn to Fanning Fireflies by the stunning cover and it as mesmerising inside and out. I didn't realise it was the third book in The Limerent seI was drawn to Fanning Fireflies by the stunning cover and it as mesmerising inside and out. I didn't realise it was the third book in The Limerent series when I started to read it and it can definitely be read as a standalone but I now want to read the earlier books.
Set in 1944, it's shocking to see the prejudices that people experienced in our not so distant past. Love doesn't see the colour of your skin so when Veronica meets Lazio she can't stop thinking about him and vice versa. Lazio is sent to fight in World War II but he writes to Veronica and he meets her every night in his dreams.
Veronica works in a cigarette factory and she has a gift (or a curse) that enables her to see ghosts and there are a surprising number of them in the factory. When women from the town start going missing, the coloured residents are blamed but Veronica's gift holds the key to what is really happening to the missing women.
Mixing fantasy with historical fiction and romance, Fanning Fireflies is a genre-busting novel that completely blew me away. It's so beautifully written and completely mesmerising that I couldn't put it down and I couldn't stop thinking about it long after I turned the final page. The love story is just stunning and it adds an abundance of light to the shocking darkness of the racial prejudice. A highly recommended read and one I will definitely be reading again.
I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion....more
Maybe It's About Time is a poignant and powerful novel set during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Although I'm sure none of us will ever forget thisMaybe It's About Time is a poignant and powerful novel set during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Although I'm sure none of us will ever forget this horrific time, it is brought back to life in a haunting and sensitive way through Neil Boss' carefully crafted writing. Each chapter ends with the date and this simple but powerful sentence felt like a death knell; it gives me goose bumps just thinking about it now.
Marcus and Claire live completely different lives. Marcus and has family want for nothing as Marcus has a well paid job in the city; a job that Marcus hates. Claire's husband left her with two young children and her benefits don't provide enough money to feed them. The stark contrast between wealth and poverty is disturbing but very sobering to read. I feel incredibly fortunate that I've never had to worry about putting food on the table.
Marcus's work life really resonated with me as I was guilty of living to work rather than working to live in my last job. I think if you've ever worked in an office you will appreciate Marcus's chapters more as I found it very entertaining. I'm glad I wasn't working during the pandemic as I would have never got any work done for all the Zoom calls.
There are some very funny moments in the book that had me laughing out loud and the humour is very well balanced as it doesn't detract from the seriousness of the pandemic situation. Even though I had an idea what was going to happen, it still brought a tear to my eye at the end. There are a few unresolved parts of the story that have left it open for a sequel and I can't wait to read what happens next.
Haunting, emotive and compelling, I laughed and I cried whilst reading this beautifully written book. It's an important and powerful novel that everyone should read and I really can't recommend it highly enough.
I received a gifted paperback for the Love Books Tours readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion....more
Loading...
