A destination thriller set is Abu Dhabi - I was excited to read this. However, the most exciting part turned out to be getting to the final pages.
FirsA destination thriller set is Abu Dhabi - I was excited to read this. However, the most exciting part turned out to be getting to the final pages.
Firstly, for me, a thriller needs to be thrilling. I expect fast-paced scenes that have me on the edge of my seat. I'm prepared to suspend my disbelief to a point, but some of the stuff here is so left field that it's ridiculous. I love a twist and a turn, but this was just silly.
Secondly, if you're promoting a book as a destination thriller, I want to feel the destination. Apart from the mention of a Friday Brunch UAE style, there's nothing UAE here. The author could have gone so much further to promote UAE daily life and culture. Emirati police officers and local laws, the nationalities of the hotel staff and multi-cultural environment, and the feel of the desert. For someone who experienced a sandstorm in Syria, the author didn't do a great job of creating an atmosphere of the desert and the scenes there. This could have been set on a sand pit in Clacton on Sea.
Thirdly, it's 2025. Can we please stop putting in sexual assault references that do nothing for the story. It does not advance the story in any way, nor is it handled well. If anyone is sexually assaulted, can we please not treat it like a cut knee. This really did not need to be included.
And finally, aren't we bored of the unreliable unstable female narrative now? It's been done over and over again, and it is becoming insulting. Don't even get me started on female mental health.
At first, I didn't think I'd get on with this book. I didn't like the way it was written. Every paragraph felt like a draft, brief, surface level, no At first, I didn't think I'd get on with this book. I didn't like the way it was written. Every paragraph felt like a draft, brief, surface level, no real depth. After a few chapters, I got on board with it, and I'm glad I did because this book is about everything that isn't said, which works well for this writing style.
Jayne and Barbara (Bunny) aren't particularly close sisters. Bunny runs away as a teen. She keeps in touch here and there, but nothing is consistent. Then she reappears years later with 3 children in tow, which she abandons with Jayne.
Bunny is sad, broken, and unstable. Jayne is put together, solid, reliable. There is so much unsaid between these sisters.
And without meaning too, with the best intentions, between them, they are going to create 6 messed up children which we follow into adulthood.
This is a sad book full of uncertain characters. It's dysfunctional and horrific. These mothers are products of their time and circumstance. We can only watch the ramifications of that on their children.
This is a very short book, 230 odd pages, but it pulls you in and gut punches on more than one occasion.
Five stars - I'll be thinking about all these characters for a while....more
I think I'm developing a thing for books featuring bots!
Meet Julia. She's a synthetic, and she's been made especially to win the heart of Josh in the I think I'm developing a thing for books featuring bots!
Meet Julia. She's a synthetic, and she's been made especially to win the heart of Josh in the reality show, The Proposal.
We have two timeliness here. In one timeline, we follow Julia as she makes her way through The Proposal reality show. The week by week dates, how she bonds with the other girls in the competition, and we watch the love blossom between her and Josh. I do love a trashy TV show, and this worked well on the page.
In the other timeline, we are fourteen months after the reality show has ended, and Josh is dead. This timeline is very much 'who dunit'.
I enjoyed reading this, I was equally invested in both timelines. While at points you have to suspend your disbelief, overall I thought it was well thought out.
I think if you enjoyed Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, I think you will also enjoy meeting Julia Walden.
I think this is my first real climate change fiction, and it's blown me away to be honest. This book felt so realI didn't read this book, I lived it.
I think this is my first real climate change fiction, and it's blown me away to be honest. This book felt so real that every blow of the wind, every beat of the sun, has confused me. My reality has mixed with this reading experience, and now I'm so element aware I'm on the verge of turning into a prepper.
Firstly, this version of the end of the world as we know it is so female, and I love it. Secondly, can we all appreciate Lucas and his horniness over his ex-girlfriend becoming more sexually experienced (I've never seen this outside of erotic fiction before and I'm here for it), and thirdly, these characters are so dimensional I saw them. I watched this from the pages. This is so adaptable for screen.
I don't know how I feel about this book. It's so real it damn right scary, but equally it's so beautiful. I hope the planet reacts to us exactly like this.
Whatever this author writes, I will read. This will be a favourite of the year for me.
We meet Rachel as she's sitting in the passenger seat of the family car. Tom, her husband, is driving. Their twExceptional debut but not an easy read.
We meet Rachel as she's sitting in the passenger seat of the family car. Tom, her husband, is driving. Their two young children in the back. They had been at Tom's parents that afternoon. The drive home is just routine. Or it is until her husband apologises and runs the car off the road.
From there, the timeline splits.
We see how Rachel and Tom meet, the proposal, wedding, kids. A sneak peek into family life and the weeks leading up to 'the incident '.
In the second timeline, we witness the horror of the aftermath.
This is a successful dual timeline, in my opinion, I was equally invested in both, and it made sense to format the story this way.
This wasn't an easy read, yet I could have read it in one sitting. The plot is as gripping as it is emotional. The grief and shock represented is very real, raw, and ugly to look at. It's not pretty here.
Nothing is cut and dried in these pages. Life is nuanced and complicated, and we are left with questions in the way we are when all stories end earlier than they should.
I cried a lot reading this. There's sadness everywhere in all kinds of forms, but there is hope too, sneaking in the cracks.
It's wild to call this novel beautiful, but the way it's structured, the carefully handling of tough subjects, and the love that swirls in the darkness, it's the only word that seems appropriate.
Book two in The Last Binding trilogy, and in this one, we are searching for the second object that forms part of the Last Contract.
I wish I'd learn fBook two in The Last Binding trilogy, and in this one, we are searching for the second object that forms part of the Last Contract.
I wish I'd learn from my mistakes and would read series without gaps. I read book one over a year ago, and it took me a fair few chapters to get back into this world.
I did, however, get back into it, and while I didn't love this adventure as much, it was a decent read, and it was nice to get to know Maud better.
I've made a promise to myself to read the final book in this trilogy very soon!
This feels like a cross between Stephen King's Misery and the Harry Potter series mashed together to make a romance.
Meet Emily, who in her own words This feels like a cross between Stephen King's Misery and the Harry Potter series mashed together to make a romance.
Meet Emily, who in her own words is as dopey as a potato. She has ditched her job as a librarian in the US to go to Ireland and help her favourite author write the last book of her favourite childhood series.
Once in Ireland, Emily quickly meets the son of her favourite author, and his bulging arms and deep eyes have her in full on giddy mode.
And so, the romance begins.
I'm past this kind of romance that centres silly girls that can't see what's going on in front of their own eyes. There are so many authors now writing romances with strong, smart, logical female leads that I don't see the value in these thick girl romances anymore.
Two stars - the literacy references were fun....more
I'm not normally one for short story collections, but I'd never read from Curtis Sittenfeld before, and this seemed like a good way to sample their woI'm not normally one for short story collections, but I'd never read from Curtis Sittenfeld before, and this seemed like a good way to sample their work.
And it was.
I really loved the writing style and will definitely be checking out the full-length novels.
I enjoyed every story in the collection to varying degrees.
Standouts would be A for Alone, White Women LOL, and Patron Saints for Middle Age.
Creative Differences was probably my least favourite.
Set in Sri Lanka, we follow our protagonist Sashi from 1981 to 2009. She's sixteen when we met her, she hWinner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024.
Set in Sri Lanka, we follow our protagonist Sashi from 1981 to 2009. She's sixteen when we met her, she has 4 brothers, and the civil war between the Tamils and Sinhalese is brewing.
If you like to learn via fiction, this is the book, especially if like me, you enjoy a good armchair travel.
What struck me most here was how often these stories have the same plot beats. People are marginalised, and the resistance groups are formed to fight for their people. As war escalates, as time passes, the resistance groups lose sight of their people, in many cases turn on their people. Every day citizens get dragged into the conflicts, traitors are accused and pulled from their beds, and stones are thrown within the same party. And the UN, well, the UN does what it does best, condemns from the comfort of its offices, and counts the deaths.
While we chant 'Never Forget', it appears we never learn. The cycle continues to repeat itself globally.
This book is as brutal and unflinching as you'd expect war to be. The fact that this is so recent and still bubbling away makes this an important read.
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