2017 Best Reads

Let’s talk very quickly about all the books I gave 5 stars to in 2017 because YES and also because if you discount Handmaid’s which was a re-re-re-re-read, there were 10 of them which is a nice number for a round-up and also points to A Good Reading Year.

I’m going to keep this post pocket sized but shall also link back to where I’ve chatted about them previously so that I am not repeating myself. Mostly all you need to know is that THESE BOOKS ARE EXCELLENT.

In which I love bookish snail mail

SUBSCRIPTION BOXES.

Best thing since ever, am I right? I am, I’m totally right. Not always or about everything, but absolutely about this.

I mean most of my snail mail is dullsville, bills and other such adult stuff about which I care not a jot but which I have to deal with because I am trying my hardest to do successful adulting.

Trying my hardest but not always succeeding.

‘My head hurts. I need ibupforen and hugs,’ I wailed at my Dad recently, ‘I am not ready to self-parent,’ and because most post is telling me about money that will be leaving my bank account and thus making me sad, it feels nice when those little boxes rock up. I mean I know that money has had to leave my bank account in order for me to get said boxes, but whatever: I feel much better about spending my hard earned cash on bookish goodies than on gas and electric and council tax. It’s just the way it is.

Book Review: Manhattan Beach

Oh my goodness but this book. Which, is that how I start a lot of blog posts lately? I feel like it is. I make no apology; I’m reading some good stuff. This book is Some Good Stuff.

Book Review: Genuine Fraud

Genuine Fraud - E Lockhart

YES THIS BOOK.

I am, as it happens, a massive fan of Lockhart’s We Were Liars; I think it’s an excellent book and so obviously I was super excited to get my hands on a copy of her new book, Genuine Fraud and let me tell you a thing: it didn’t disappoint.

Blog Tour: Little Fires Everywhere

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When the Richardsons' friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family - and Mia's.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak.

Autumn Wrap Up

But how is it November already. That means it’s almost Christmas, right? Not that I am going to get excited just yet. I mean, I love Christmas, I absolutely totally do, but I love it in the way that means I want to concentrate that love into a small time frame so that I can love it really intensely whilst it lasts and then tuck it away for another year knowing I’ll love it just as hard when it comes around again which means I don’t ‘do’ Christmas until December 1^st. I won’t even eat a mince pie, which is pretty hard going actually because holy moly I love mince pies. The only exception I make to this rule I think is the festive coffees. Give me all the gingerbread lattes please. Today I had a spiced cookie latte from McDonalds (Maccies is the only coffee place open before I go to work and actually it’s not that bad), the cup had little foxes on it and I was beyond delighted.

Author Visit: Jen Campbell

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
Spirits in jam jars, mini-apocalypses, animal hearts and side shows. A girl runs a coffin hotel on a remote island. A boy is worried his sister has two souls. A couple are rewriting the history of the world. And mermaids are on display at the local aquarium.
The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve haunting stories; modern fairy tales brimming with magic, outsiders and lost souls. 

So a couple of weeks ago I asked the lovely Jen Campbell to sit down and have a slice of pizza and chat with me* about her short story collection The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night which is published today. This is how that chat went.

*I say ‘with me’ but actually real life prevents Jen and I from eating pizza together as often as I’d like so what I actually mean is she was there and I was here although in my case the pizza was in no way hypothetical.

Books I am looking forward to for the rest of this year...

...even though my TBR is already the size of Everest and my bookshelves are full. A list by me.

Basically guys, I am in a reading slump and it’s making me sad. Seriously, up until yesterday I think I’d read about ten pages in as many days and I hate when this happens to me and I have decided to try and get myself out of it by making a list, thanks to the notes on my phone, of the books I am excited about for the latter part of this year. Also because this list is generated from said phone notes me of which are months old, a couple of these books are OUT NOW GO GET THEM.

Review: The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

So.

I’ve been pondering over this review for a while now, partly because I excel at procrastination and partly because never has a review ever felt so important. I want to do this book justice, and I want to review it in a way that makes it clear that what I love most about this book is the quality of the writing and not the person that wrote it.

Make your selves comfortable my lovelies. This could go on a while.

Things to Read if You Liked The Handmaid's Tale.

So a week or so ago I chatted about the recent tv adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale and how I felt about it and that got me thinking about what an excellent book that is which then got me to thinking about other excellent dystopian books there are out there because I love me a good dystopia and so then I decided to make a list because I also love me a good list.  Wow, holy run on sentence Batman.

Anyhow. Here is that list. (Also, disclaimer: this is not me in any way pretending to have any intellectual or literary-wise opinions here. I just really liked these books.)

Dystopian Novels you should read if you liked The Handmaids Tale (in no particular order).

Blog Tour: Death in the Stars

So today I am super excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Frances Brody’s new Kate Shackleton mystery, Death in the Stars. (Thank-you Little,Brown for asking me to take part and for the copy of the book) LET US TALK ABOUT IT.

The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t true to the book…..and weirdly I’m not sure I care.

So I finally finished watching The Handmaid’s Tale, which is weird actually because I thought I’d fly through it. Seriously, I thought I’d be cancelling my Sunday evening plans for ten weeks in a but somehow it didn’t happen that way. Real life gets in the way doesn’t it, and I’ve been on holiday and stuff and so I ended up with a few episodes lined up that I still hadn’t watched weeks after they aired which meant actually I got to do a little bit of binge watching after all; I watched the last 3 episodes in one night like a pro.

Book Review: Franklin's Flying Bookshop

Franklin's Flying Bookshop

Let us not pretend here guys, that picture books are the type of book I review often on this blog.

They’re not.

Let us not also pretend though, that I don’t read them.

I do. I totally read them. I love a good picture book.

Quick August Wrap-Up

September already though.

Holy and also Moly, goodness and also gracious. LET’S DO A WRAP UP. Let’s do a wrap up, mostly because August was a fun fun month and I had a nice nice time and I want to get that written down for posterity so that in one hundred years where some future person from the future stumbles across this blog they can say ‘wow she had a really nice time in August 2017.’

That and the fact that when I have lots of talking to do it makes sense to put it all in one post. Lazy blogging is lazy but whatever.

So, what did I read?

A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Shwab which I loved. It’s the first in a series and it’s fits right in with the kind of books I seem to be loving right now. It’s about this guy called Kell (who I might be in love with a little bit) who is one of the last magicians alive with the ability to move from London to London to London because there isn’t just 1 London. There’s 4. (I know, right) – he’s like an Ambassador between Red, White and Grey London (black London isn’t around anymore) so he’s pretty important but he's also a smuggler. Which is frowned upon, obvs.  & there are shenanigans so he ends up on the run and he meets this girl called Delilah – a cross dressing thief who I also love - and there is lots of magic and a whole host of excellent characters  and so much angst and perfect perfect worldbuilding which is always such a thing for me in these kinds of books and basically I just liked it a whole lot and I cannot wait to read book two – which is a little bit of a lie actually because I have book two so technically I could have read it already except that I have a bad case of book procrastination and a massive to do pile.

Author Visit: Dawn Barker

Fun times, peeps, fun times! Grab yourself a glass of something bubbly – because the sun is shining where I am and it’s a Bank Holiday weekend so why would you not; I’ve already been on the bucks fizz this morning – and make yourself comfortable because today I’m chatting with the lovely Dawn Barker about her novel Let Her Go, and writing in general.

Blog Tour: True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop

Exciting times here today guys! The lovely True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop was released earlier this month and to celebrate I get to share a fun little extract with you. 

Review: One of Us is Lying

One of Us is Lying

This is the kind of book you’d binge watch. I mean seriously, it’s like everything you spend your hangover watching on a Sunday. If its not adapted then I’ll be the most surprised ever and I never say this because THE BOOK IS BETTER but this is crying out to be dramatized and that, it’s a compliment, it really is. I’ve seen it likened to The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars and Riverdale and YES. Also Gossip Girl and maybe a little bit Nancy Drew and Poirot – that’s just me though. Also, considering the The Breakfast Club is well, The Breakfast Club and PLL and Riverdale are both Netflix shows that I binge watched like a pro, it was probably a given that this book was going to tick all the boxes for me.

It did.

Quickfire Reviews: Beach Edition

It’s time for a little bookish catch up, mostly because I want to talk about the books I read when I was away last weekend because that is what I do when I am placed on a beach for 4 days with nothing to worry about and no place to be: I read. I didn’t read as much as I thought I was going too actually, because it was hot, man. The kind of hot that leaves you unable to do little more than lie with your eyes closed and dip in and out of the sea. What I did read, though, was pretty good, which – well that’s excellent isn’t it, because nobody wants to read something shit on holiday (or ever).

So, quickfire reviews. Here we go.

The Mid Year Freakout Tag

So a thing that happened is that I realised that it’s almost August and I hadn’t done any kind of halfway-through-the-year-recap because I am apparently the most tardy ever. So I thought ‘hmm yes best get on that because better late than never, right’ and figured I’d do it now, and then I've seen this post doing the rounds and decided it was a tag I was just going to steal because it’s a fun twist on my usual Top 5 Books Jan-June. So pull up a chair and grab a cup of tea (or a gin if you’re that way inclined which I absolutely am) and let’s chat about the first half of the year in regards to all things bookish. What fun.

THE MID YEAR FREAKOUT TAG (and how I wish I could make the pretty graphics that all the other blogs have but whatever I can’t so let’s just move on).

Review: Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare - Non Pratt

Sooo in my ILLUMICRATE subscription box (which you should all go and subscribe to because it’s lush) there was a book – two books actually but let’s not over complicate – and that book was Truth or Dare by Non Pratt. And I won’t lie: I’ve heard of Non, but I hadn’t heard of this book at all. I liked the cover though (call me fickle, whatever) and after I finished The Hate U Give I thought I’d give it a go mostly because it was there and I wasn’t in the mood to tackle my usual WHAT SHALL I READ NEXT dilemma.

Daddy, My Daddy

So, today is Father’s Day, a day to celebrate Dad’s everywhere and with that in mind, and because I feel like this blog should perhaps maybe be a little bit more than all the reviews all time, I’m going to talk about Dads with daughters because I’m a daughter who genuinely honestly 100% believes her Dad is the best man she ever met and a million times better actually than any on this list. It was a fun list to compile actually because there’s a lot of them and some are good and some are bad and some are downright nuts and it made me happy. & also made me want to do some serious re-reading. & I know you want to know who made the cut, so sit down ,grab a cup of coffee and take a look and then drop me a comment and let me know who your favourite bookish Dads are. I WANT TO KNOW.

Ooooh, actually let's make a list. I love a list.  

Review: Flight of a Starling

Flight of a Starling - Lisa Heathfield

Rita and Lo, sisters and best friends, have spent their lives on the wing – flying through the air in their trapeze act, never staying in one place for long. Behind the greasepaint and the glitter, they know that the true magic is the family they travel with.

Until Lo meets a boy. Suddenly, she wants nothing more than to stay still. And as secrets start to tear apart the close-knit circus community, how far will Lo go to keep her feet on the ground?

Oh, but my heart.

Review: The Names They Gave Us

The Names They Gave Us - Emery Lord 

When it all falls apart, who can you believe in?

Everything is going right for Lucy Hansson, until her mom’s cancer reappears. Just like that, Lucy breaks with all the constants in her life: her do-good boyfriend, her steady faith, even her longtime summer church camp job.

Instead, Lucy lands at a camp for kids who have been through tough times. As a counselor, Lucy is in over her head and longs to be with her parents across the lake. But that’s before she gets to know her coworkers, who are as loving and unafraid as she so desperately wants to be.

It’s not just new friends that Lucy discovers at camp—more than one old secret is revealed along the way. In fact, maybe there’s much more to her family and her faith than Lucy ever realized.  

I won’t lie: my expectations weren’t all that high for this book. I read When We Collided recently and was disappointed but The Names They Gave Us, the new book from Emery Lord, resonated with me, in ways I wasn’t quite prepared for. 

It’s about a girl called Lucy, she’s a Christian, heavily involved in her Church – her Dad is a pastor – and spends every summer at the Church camp her parents run. Her faith is a part of her, a deeply ingrained part of who she is and then her Mum gets diagnosed with cancer and her faith begins to waver and the book, basically, is an exploration of that: of faith, of the lack of it, of grief and loss and growing up.

& it’s good.

Quick May Wrap-Up

Perhaps I’ll do this every month because why would I not. I mean, with the BEST WILL IN THE WORLD – and let me tell you, my will is good – I never ever get to review all of the books that I want to review and this seems like a nice little way to make sure that the books I don’t manage to spotlight get a mention. And I can talk all about all the other stuff that’s been going on also, because my life is nothing if not fascinating. I mean, I read a lot and I sleep and lot and I drink a lot of coffee and why would you not want to hear all about that?

So, let’s do it. Let’s talk about May.

Books That You Should Read On The Beach Because Of Reasons

So I don’t do Top Ten Tuesday every week, mostly because I am so incredibly rubbish at keeping to any kind of posting schedule ever because I just suck, so it always gets to Thursday and I realise it was a really good theme this week and I kick myself. 

Not actually, because ouch, but you know, metaphorically. 

Anyway, their theme this week is a summer freebie which is nothing if not fortuitous because last night I was messaging with The Gals (which is the unique and very inspired name me and two of my friends have for each other) last night about our forthcoming weekend away in the sun (HURRY UP JULY) and my pal Hol asked me for holiday book recs. 

Which, OH HELLO LET ME THROW THESE BOOKS IN YOUR FACE. 

Metaphorically again, this girl is one of my faves; I would NEVER actually throw a book in her face.

Review: Six of Crows

“Kaz leaned back. "What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?"
"Knife to the throat?" asked Inej.
"Gun to the back?" said Jesper.
"Poison in his cup?" suggested Nina.
"You're all horrible," said Matthias.”

Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

Pals. We need to talk. We need to talk about this book I read which is all mystery and magic and heists and intense interesting characters and which I think pretty much the rest of the book blogging world has already read but you know me, I relish being late to the party. Sit down with me, grab a coffee and some kind of snack and let’s talk about Six of Crows.

I mean probably you already know what it’s about but just in case you do not, IT IS A KIND OF MAGICAL HUSTLE.

I KNOW.

Review: When We Collided

When We Collided - Emery Lord

When We Collided is one of those everywhere books, you know, in that, it’s been all over bookstagram (which makes sense because holy pretty cover, Batman) and all over Twitter and mostly it gets All The Glowing Reviews and I was super excited to read it. & if you’ve been sneaking into my house and studying my bookcase – which is a completely weird thought and one that may give me nightmares because I am nothing if not a sensitive soul – then you might be thinking ‘huh, she can’t have been that excited; she’s had that damn book for ages.’

You would be both right and wrong.

Review: How To Stop Time

How To Stop Tme - Matt Haig

Ok, so fair warning because I’m nice like that: I’m about to go CAPSLOCKING italicising fangirling CRAZY. If that’s not your thing, if you want me to sit here and sedately say ‘oh yas, that book was rather good’ well, now be the time to close your browser and go and do something else and I promise I won’t be offended because you see, the thing is, is that I just read Matt Haig’s How To Stop Time and I don’t know what to do really, other than keysmash a little bit about the beauty that is this book.

Review: Yellow Crocus

Yellow Crocus

So I’ve joined a book club. I know, exciting right? No, but it actually is because you do not even know how long I have wanted to be a member of a book club so I’m super delighted. It’s a small club, and it’s ladies I know already which is A Good Thing because oh my goodness am I shy, and I think it’s going to be lovely.

Except that.

And I have to be super comfortable with you before I’ll offer up my own opinion, speshly if my own opinion is not the same as yours and I’ve read the book club book and….I didn’t love it. I didn’t love it and I’ve been super scared the other ladies did and I didn’t want to show up for the first time and be all ‘yeah, I’m not sure…’

My friend Ang told me on holiday in March that I needed to be less of a mouse and more of a gerbil, and maybe this is a time to practise that but I feared that everybody will sing this books praises and I would be just sat there and smiling and nodding and agreeing when inside I was thinking but what about that one part where – which I am aware is not the point of a book club at all and that I should always put on my big girl pants and OWN MY OPINIONS.

Review: Did You See Melody

Did You See Melody?

I’ve read a few thrillers this year, which is pretty excellent actually because I love a good thriller. I really actually do. I think I say this every time I come to review one, like, there’s some weird part of me that feels like a can’t possibly write a review unless I’ve made it absolutely clear that DO YOU KNOW I REALLY LIKE THRILLERS AND I WISH I READ MORE OF THEM. What’s that about. Anyway, whatever, it is what it is and like every other time it segues (oooh good use of ‘segue’) nicely into this little chat about Sophie Hannah’s Did You See Melody which I read over the Easter weekend on my great Easter readathon. Hush. I know it was only 3 books and I care not a jot. I am totally calling it a readathon and thou shalt not raineth on my readthon-esque parade.

Anyhow. The book.

Review: We Come Apart

I read three books over Easter weekend. Three. I cannot remember the last time I read three books in one weekend and actually I’m not entirely sure how I managed it this particular weekend because man, I did a lot of things over Easter. So many of the things, roadtrips and walks and food and drink and family visits and fun on the park and somehow in amongst all of that I still squeezed in three whole books.

Clearly reading is my superpower and WHY DO I NOT HAVE THAT ON A TSHIRT ALREADY? Next stop: Redbubble.

Soooooooooo. This post was going to be a bookish catch up post because that seemed to make the most sense to me right now except that when I sat down and started talking about We Come Apart I realised I had quite a bit to say and that if I had the same amount to say about the other two than this post would be wordy. So I’m not going to talk about them all right now other than to say that all three of these books were good books and I have things to say about them all.

Review: The Trouble With Goats and Sheep

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep

Ah, The Trouble With Goats and Sheep. Question: have you ever wanted to hug a book? Like, to wrap it up in your arms and just squeeze it, in the way those slightly over zealous relatives would hug you when you were a child, so that you screwed up your face and were sure you’d cracked a rib or three? I want to hug this book. I want to hug it, and then like Cyrus Rose in Gossip Girl I want to say ‘not enough, not enough’ and hug it some more. I loved it.

It’s set in the great English heatwave of 1976, which, well it actually for reals was hot that summer, just ask any English person who was around then. Not me. I wasn’t born but that summer was hot enough that I’ve heard about it. We’ve not had a summer like that since. So I’m told. Anyhow, it’s set that summer when Grace (aged 10) and her pal Tilly decide to search the avenue for Mrs Creasy who has gone missing, and also for God. I love that, there’s something just so endearingly innocent about it you know, about these two children who think they can just Solve All The Mysteries. They’re so serious about it, this isn’t just a game to them, this is not a way to pass the time or Keep Out of Trouble. They actually believe 100% that both God and Missing Mrs Creasy are can be found and they’re the ones who can do it and it made me miss being 10 and the summer holidays and those endless days stretching out in front of you and how actually grown up you actually thought you were even though actually you obviously totally weren’t at all.

Review(ish): Not A Book. A Show

Things I review: books.

Things I don’t review: everything else. Like theatre shows.

That’s just a thing, I just don’t ever. Mostly because I can talk about books and what I like and don’t like and not look like a dick, or if I do look like a dick (which I might) then I don’t really care that much because I’m confident enough about what I do and don’t like and what I do and don’t know to throw my opinions out there in the general direction of The Internets and not be all that bothered whether anyone else agrees.

When it comes to anything else though I’m not sure I can get beyond ‘yes nice I like it’ and ‘yak 0/10 do not recommend’ and so I just…don’t. Hush. I see you there, reading this at your computer screen eyebrows raised quizzically and wondering what, actually, I am talking about because all of these words, do they even have a point?

Review: Paper Butterflies

Paper Butterflies

This book made me cry. For real. Actual tears people, actual tears. I read it on holiday, alone in my hotel room after a day skiing. Or rather, I started it on the plane and then finished it in my hotel room and I had to text my friend and tell him I needed rescuing because I had a massive sad. When he rang me to ask what on earth I was talking about I burst into tears, which, well way to go Jo, way to go.

‘What’s it about,’ he asked me when he came to save me and take me for vin chaud, and then ‘Jesus Christ’ when I told him.

‘What happens in the end?’

I don’t know,’ I told him, ‘I’ve got a few percent left to go.’

Then a pause….’is it not a true story?’

‘No.’

And then he laughed, because (and this is not the first time this has happened) it's apparently hilarious that I can get so emotionally attached to things and people that aren’t even real, except of course they totally are real in my head and I kind of feel like it’s a testament to how good a book is, if it can move me like that.

Blog Tour: The Method

Ooooh! Another blog tour!!

The Method

Imagine a helpless, pregnant 16-year-old who’s just been yanked from the serenity of her home and shoved into a dirty van. Kidnapped Alone Terrified.

Now forget her

Picture instead a pregnant, 16-year-old, manipulative prodigy. She is shoved into a dirty van and, from the first moment of her kidnapping, feels a calm desire for two things: to save her unborn son and to exact merciless revenge. 

She is methodical calculating scientific in her plotting. A clinical sociopath? Leaving nothing to chance, secure in her timing and practice, she waits for the perfect moment to strike. 

The Method  is what happens when the victim is just as cold as the captors. 

I know, right?! Sounds excellent. And it was really really good, I liked it a whole lot. I couldn’t wait to start it and then I couldn’t wait to finish it….and that sounds bad, like I didn’t like it. I did like it. What I mean I think is that I couldn’t put it down. I was so hooked, because this is such a unique take on your usual thriller. I have never read an abduction story like this and isn’t that a pretty cool thing to be able to say as a writer – that your book is like no other.. It’s so clever and so inspired to have a victim that also kind of isn’t actually willing to be a victim at all. So clever.

Review: Behind Her Eyes

Behind Her Eyes

Don’t Trust This Book

Don’t Trust These People

Don’t Trust Yourself

And whatever you do, DON’T give away that ending…

I like Sarah Pinborough. I like her Twitter account, which makes me feel like we should be pals, and (more importantly) I also like her writing. I read The Death House in 2015  and Thirteen Minutes last year and I loved them both so I was ridiculously excited about Behind Her Eyes as soon as I heard it was going to be a thing, and then there was the whole hashtag thing going on – and whoever does Sarah’s publicity deserves a high five because this book has been all over my twitter for the longest time and the buzz generated by #wtfthatending has been pretty remarkable. It was like a secret gang and I totes wanted in.

I finally got round to reading it last week, and it’s the worst isn’t it when it takes you so long to read a book you really want to read; when it’s always there at the back of your mind and you just. can’t. get. to. it. Anyway, I started it one night about 10pm in a hilariously misguided ‘I’ll just read the first chapter’ which resulted in me not turning the light off til 11.30 and then thinking about it all the next day and stopping up waaaaay too late again the next night and it’s a problem really. It’s a problem because I need my sleep. All the sleep, I need it. I wasn’t working on Friday last week, so stopping up too late reading wasn’t as bad as it had been the night before but still, I had plans. Only with myself but still, there were plans.

I went to Skipton because I was going to be one of those ladies that mooches around pretty market towns being all carefree and stuff, but I had my Kindle in my bag and there was a Starbucks and I accidentally sat down with a coffee and read the last 30% because I could not stop with the page turning and then all of a sudden I’d finished the book and done zero mooching and it was time to head home again to hang with my bestie. Whoops. Not that I’m really complaining because in actuality, is there a better way to spend your day off than in a coffee shop with a good book? I think not.

Anyway.

This book.

It’s about Louise –  a single Mum in a bit of a rut who kisses a guy(David) on a night out, only to find out when she gets to work on Monday that the guy is her new boss. Her new married boss. I know, right. It gets better though, because Adele,  the new friend that Louise has just made? Yep, that’s David’s wife and trust me on this, you might think you can predict where this story is going. BUT YOU CAN’T.

First off the ending, and never has there been such an accurate hashtag because erm, #wtfthatending. AKA #wtfhow. It’s super good. It’s creepy and chilling and dark and so gripping. It’s twisty and turny and you know some serious shit is going to go down but you’re never quite sure what its’s going to be and you get totally drawn into this incredibly well -crafted story of lies and deceit and fucked up levels of control and you can’t relax at all because you don’t trust anybody and you don’t really like anybody all and it’s the most wonderful kind of messed up.

It’s obvious from the beginning that things are so far from right and the secrets are sort of just there, you can practically taste them, but you can’t quite reach them and you do have to suspend reality quite a bit and I don’t want to say too much about that either but basically, I loved it.

Mostly I loved it because just when I thought I’d sussed it, something else happened that had me thinking ‘what the fuck oh ok maybe not then.’ I mean, never has a character gone from being bad guy to good guy and back again as many times as David did in this book. It’s so clever and the characterisation is so freaking good – Adele especially. As character she’s freaking excellent, the kind of character you just don’t get to see enough of. Actually, this book as a whole is the kind of thing you just don’t get to see enough of. The story in itself is something else but what made it for me is what Sarah Pinborough does with words because the characters whilst excellent aren’t likeable and the story is nutso and it jumps back and forwards so much that a lesser writer would only leave you feeling a little seasick but Sarah Pinborough can write and she unravels this tale so beautifully and so cleverly and I was kind of mesmerised actually. And there is so much I want to say but I am afraid to because I don't want to accidentally give anything away but it’s out now and you should get involved.