Book after Book

By Victoria Hislop Published by Headline Review Synopsis: Athens 1941. After decades of political uncertainty, Greece is polarised between Right- and Left-wing views when the Germans invade. Fifteen-year-old Themis comes from a family divided by these political differences. The Nazi occupation deepens the fault-lines between those she loves just as it reduces Greece to destitution. She watches friends die in the ensuing famine and is moved to commit acts of resistance. In the civil war that follows the end of the occupation, Themis joins the Communist army, where she experiences the extremes of love and hatred and the paradoxes presented by a war in which Greek fights Greek. Eventually imprisoned on the infamous islands of exile, Makronisos and then Trikeri, Themis encounters another prisoner whose life will entwine with her own in ways neither can foresee. And finds she must weigh her principles against her desire to escape and live. As she looks back on her life, Themis...

By Dorothy Koomson Published by Headline Review   Synopsis: Pieta has a secret. Ten years ago, Pieta was kidnapped by a man calling himself The Blindfolder who said he wouldn't kill her if she kept her eyes closed for 48 hours. She never told anyone what happened to her, vowing to move on with her life. But when The Blindfolder starts hunting down his past victims, Pieta realises she may finally be forced to tell her deepest secret to stay alive… Jody has a secret. Fifteen years ago, policewoman Jody made a terrible mistake that resulted in a serial killer known as The Blindfolder escaping justice. When Jody discovers journalist Pieta survived an attack by him, she realises she may finally have found a way to catch him. But that would mean endangering at least two innocent people… How did this book end up in my hands? I read this book thanks to a serialisation via The Pigeonhole app. Was it a page-turner? Reading the daily instalment of the book was the firs...

By Emma Cooper Published by Headline Review Synopsis: If Melody hadn't run out of de-icer that day, she would never have slipped and banged her head. She wouldn't be left with a condition that makes her sing when she's nervous. And she definitely wouldn't have belted out the Arctic Monkeys' 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' in assembly at her son's school. If Dev hadn't taken the kids to the zoo that day, then the accident wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have left Flynn and Rose without a dad. Or shattered the love of his life's heart. But if they hadn't seen the missing person report that day, they might never have taken the trip to Cornwall. And, in the last place they expected, discovered what it really means to be 'Us'. How did this book end up in my hands? I was a lucky blogger in the right place at the right time! Was it a page-turner? Due to personal reasons, I wasn’t able to read ...

By Virginie Grimaldi Published by Headline Review Synopsis: Julia's not running away. Not exactly. She just needs a break from Paris and Marc and all the sad stuff that's been going on lately. A little time to pull herself together. The job offer felt like a lifeline. But now she's back in Biarritz, suitcase in hand, she hasn't the faintest idea what she was thinking.  What Julia doesn't yet know is there's more to the odds and ends of Ocean View than meet the eye. Behind the double doors lie broken hearts, lifelong secrets, a touch of romance and an unwavering passion for life. And sometimes it's the most unlikely of places and people who help you find your way. How did this book end up in my hands? One of the publisher’s lovely publicists kindly sent me a copy of the book to review, inclusive of pretty postcard and sweet treat! Was it a page-turner? Not in the way that a thriller could be but you can’t help getting attached to all the chara...

By Maggie O'Farrell Published by Headline Review Synopsis: A distraught y oung woman boards a train at King's Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London. AFTER YOU'D GONE follows Alice's mental journey through her own past, after a traffic accident has left her in a coma. A love story that is also a story of absence, and of how our choices can reverberate through the generations, it slowly draws us closer to a dark secret at a family's heart. How did this book end up in my hands? This is another one of those books that have been moving home with me for a good few years so I don’t actually recall how it’s ended on the shelves. Was it a page-turner? Not in the beginning but as I kept learning more and more about the women of the Raikes family, I could hardly put it down. I just needed to know what would happen to...

By Kathryn Hughes Published by Headline Review Synopsis: Tina Craig longs to escape her violent husband. She works all the hours God sends to save up enough money to leave him, also volunteering in a charity shop to avoid her unhappy home. Whilst going through the pockets of a second-hand suit, she comes across an old letter, the envelope firmly sealed and unfranked. Tina opens the letter and reads it - a decision that will alter the course of her life for ever... Billy Stirling knows he has been a fool, but hopes he can put things right. On 4th September 1939 he sits down to write the letter he hopes will change his future. It does - in more ways than he can ever imagine... The Letter tells the story of two women, born decades apart, whose paths are destined to cross and how one woman's devastation leads to the other's salvation. How did this book end up in my hands? It was given as a present to a friend of mine but she didn’t think it was her cup of tea. That ...

By Maggie O’Farrell Published by Headline Review I finished reading The Hand That First Held Mine , Maggie O’Farrell’s fifth and latest novel, on the same evening that it was awarded the Costa Novel Award and I couldn’t agree more with the jury’s choice. In fact, I am surprised that it hasn’t won all the literary prizes available. Yes, it has made a lasting impression on me! The narrative of The Hand That First Held Mine , a novel whose subtitle could be “on forgetting and remembering”, is divided into two skilfully crafted storylines at the centre of which are two very strong female characters living in the same city but at different times. In the 1950s we see Lexie Sinclair leaving her family home in rural Devon and looking forward to an exciting future in London. Through her acquaintance with the mesmerizing Innes Kent, editor of an emerging art magazine, she plunges into the Bohemian life of Soho. Love soon follows but tragic events loom on a not too distant horizon. In present-day...