I grabbed this book thinking it would be a fun, heartwarming read, unfortunately my expectations were not met and because of this I did not enjoy the story so much. Maggie is a 29 year old whose solution to her problems is either booze or sex which continue to derail her life. Maggie is quite a disaster – her mother refuses to support her any more and she spontaneously buys a caravan to live in. Luckily by the end of the story Maggie begins to sort her life out.
Mina works in advertising in London, having left behind a mother who won’t leave the house in Melbourne. When she hears that her mother has been seen out of the house, she drops everything and rushes home. An introspective novel with a leisurely pace, Kokomo is about complicated families, love, longing, misogyny , sex, and modern life for women. A little bit Sally Rooney, I didn’t really connect with the motivations and emotions of the main characters, but found it to be a thought-provoking story with a great sense of place.
Family secrets always draw me in. This was a family that inherited a lot of issues through past actions and these are exposed as the story is told. This was a quick and easy read – I even guessed the twist!
The second book in the trilogy, this brought more character development and an expansion of the glorious world building. It took me a while to get through this, as with the first one, but I did find it compelling. It’s dark, complex, intricate with a lot of heart, and I look forward to the final book.
I have become drawn to circus stories lately, and this one did not disappoint. The story is a good historical story, solidly set in 1840s America. It did take me a while to get into the style of writing which had lots of asides and descriptive passages, but once I did, I was involved in the story of Cordelia and her daughter Gwenllian who are mesmerists and find their way into circus life.
The Women of Troy follows on from The Silence of the Girls. Troy has fallen, and Briseis, pregnant with Achilles’ child moves around the camp of the Greek warriors while they wait for wind for the journey home. I think I don’t know enough Greek mythology to appreciate the detail here; though beautiful, and haunting, in truth I found it a little dull.
After Juliet’s mother dies Juliet moves into her house on Magnolia Road in a London suburb, with her writer husband and small son. Juliet works full time and Liam drops Charlie to school while trying to write his second novel. Liam finds the school mums fascinating, and the family settles into the community. It’s about the struggles of parenting small children, marriage, work/life balance, grief, and connection. There is a lot of suburban angst, some of which felt a little stereotypical, but the treatment of grief was moving, and while the ending was perhaps a little neat, hopeful and happy feels good at this point.
A modern Australian women’s story that was engaging and easy to read. After 10 years of marriage to Ross, it is over after Andie finds he has cheated on her. Andie now has to rediscover what she wants from life. It is a story of messy relationships and achieving your dream.
This is like what life would have been like for Hufflepuff students whose names we never knew. While Harry Potter and friends were off saving the world, they just had to get on with high school. It’s about a group of teenagers just about to finish school, dealing with family problems, mental health challenges, relationships, and planning for the future, while the “indie kids” have to save the world from supernatural forces. I found it a funny, touching, and hopeful book about friendship and growing up.
Saeed and Nadia live in an un-named city, and fall in love as it falls to militant rule. As the world becomes more and more full of unrest, doors begin to appear that take people from their unstable homelands to safer places, and Saeed and Nadia escape to Mykonos, London, and California. The elements of magical realism, are only elements; it is a story of a relationship, of connection, of how migration, in all its forms, changes places and people, of the tenacity of the human spirit. The writing is beautiful, I often wanted to read it aloud, and while I found that the middle section dragged significantly, there were also moments of real insight and clarity.
rrlreads 