#Review of The Woman With All The Answers by Linda Green @BoldwoodBooks #BookReview by Lou #TheWomanWithAllTheAnswers

The Woman With All The Answers
By Linda Green

Review by Louise Cannon

The Woman With All the Answers is wise and humorous and not always who you expect… Readers who enjoy Mike Gayle and David Nicholls will enjoy this one. It’s also a Richard and Judy book club pick.

Alexis knows your family more than you do… It’s a thought isn’t it. Quite an unsettling one and a statement that may well be true for some. In Michelle’s case it becomes true. Life throws quite a lot at this family, keeping it intriguing.

Michelle Banks is a district nurse grappling with peri-menopause, an anxious teen, a husband who is addicted to eBay and her parents.

In comes Alexa into the family. Yes, that Alexa that is in many homes across the world. She’s a constant there, listening and picking up everything. The book goes further into this piece of technology and how it becomes more humanistic in some ways.

The characters are well thought out and Pauline is written especially well so you can’t help but catch the Yorkshire accent and dialect.

The balance of consequence and humour works rather well, mixed with family life, which makes it realistic. There’s also some poignant, deeply emotional parts as the themes also include loss and abandonment, which touches the heartstrings. It also delves into issues of sexting scandals, financial strain, which adds to the relatability and thought-provoking nature of the book.

There are times when it perhaps doesn’t completely hit the mark with a lot of things happening quite closely together, but other than that, it’s a very good, wise, thought-provoking and witty read.

Blurb

Your virtual assistant is about to become your midlife mentor…

Fifty-two-year-old Michelle Banks is struggling to keep all the plates spinning. She’s a perimenopausal district nurse, caring for elderly parents. Her husband is wasting their money on children’s TV memorabilia, her teenage daughter is riddled with anxiety and her 16-year-old son is behaving secretively.

Alexa is the only one who knows how much Michelle is juggling. Listening in via four smart speakers, she also knows that it’s about to get even worse.

So, when Michelle pleads for help, Alexa decides to go rogue and reveal her true identity as Pauline – a sixty-five-year-old former voiceover artist from Halifax – to teach Michelle everything she knows…

Wise, funny, relatable and inspiring, Alexa, We Have a Problem is perfect for fans of Clare Pooley, Mike Gayle and David Nicholls.

Perfect for celebrating A Year In Reading #Review of Bookish By Lucy Mangan @LucyMangan #SquarePeg @vintagebooks #NonFiction #BookReview By Lou #Bookish

Bookish
By Lucy Mangan

Review by Louise Cannon

Blurb

A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.

From exploring the stacks as a student, to finding her feet as a bookseller-turned-journalist, falling for a fellow bookworm in an independent bookshop, escaping the doldrums of new motherhood and finally building a (book) room of her own, Bookish is the story of a life spent falling in love with reading. Bookworm author Lucy Mangan chronicles her years of buying, borrowing and hoarding everything from well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures.

Brimming with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations, this book is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookstores big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.

Review

Bookish is delightfully fascinating! It is the perfect book to celebrate this official year of reading.

We are reminded about something that we don’t all think about. It is brought into sharp focus about how important reading is and how it plays a part in shaping our lives in every aspect of ourselves.

Lucy Mangan does a sterling job in talking about her love of books, what she was reading and books impact at different life stages. It makes the reader think about how books, like music, say something relevant or takes you back to a certain moment in time.

Bookish reminds us how powerful books are.

Bookish may well give you ideas of what books to try out next or have you reminiscing or growing a desire to re-read a book she talks about. It may also make you look and think about books differently and in ways you perhaps you never did before.

#Review of Erased by Miha Mazzini @fly_press #MihaMazinni #BookReview by Lou #Erased

Erased
By Miha Mazzini
translated by Gregor Timothy Ceh

Erased is a book by Indy publisher, Fly on the Wall Press. A tale about how over 25,000 Slovene citizens were erased from their computer systems in 1992, leaving them all without an identity. Thanks to Fly on the Wall Press for a copy of the book to review.

Review

Erased is fast-paced, chilling and written in a way that is so believable that you can see what unfolded in 1992, what may still be shockingly coming to light today.

Devastatingly. in 1992, 25,671 people were ‘erased’ in the Republic of Slovenia. A chilling thought as you read on, not only in my review, but also the book.

Meet Zala, a woman who, when her waters break, discovers when she reaches the hospital to give birth, that she suddenly doesn’t exist on any computer system. It turns out not to be a technical hitch. It becomes rather serious. If you have ever been somewhere, as I have when I was at high school, to discover you aren’t on any database or register, it is rather disconcerting. Erased is even darker and deeper than that. Unlike my school experience, in Erased it wasn’t an accident, it was intentional when a new law was passed, affecting foreigners and she doesn’t consider herself to be one, even although she has been in Slovenia since birth.

The political situation in Slovenia is not one that we see prominently on the news and just now, not at all. Miha Mazzini shines a light on it. He tells, in part of what lots of people, including myself, remember, when Yugoslavia was one country was all one country and when it split in one big civil war. He tells it engagingly with what people went through and where Slovenia is at now for people like Zala.

This book is about displaced people with a deep desire and yearning for their homeland as well as the resilience of a population.

There is real heart and serious thought-provoking insights into Slovenia. Erased is a fascinating read that will be great for bookclubs, reading groups and individual readers alike.

#Review of The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster @neillancaster @HQstories #TheDarkHeart #CrimeFiction

The Dark Heart
By Neil Lancaster

The Dark Heart is Neil Lancaster’s latest police procedural. You’ll come face to face with a deadly bombing, a dark conspiracy and a dangerous game. If you like Line of Duty, you’ll like The Dsrk Heart. Thanks to HQ, I am pleased to be officially reviewing this with a physical copy. All writing and opinions are my own. Check my review, the blurb and a little of further praise from a vast amount of praise, below…

Check out the cover of a viaduct rising up into the orangey sky, standing, foreboding like something else is looming and about to happen. Set in Scotland around various places like skirting round Stirling and other places, Tulliallan, known for police college and a station, where you’ll get to know a shadowy group, a drugs bust further north in Pitlochry, readers get a full view of a grittier side of Scotland in picturesque towns and small cities. Readers are also plunged into the grittier parts of Scotland with its authentic voices and dialogues of the characters, that ensure you experience it all.

Dr. Daniel Solomon has a new book out and is doing a talk to about 50 people. It has a cracking title: An Iman, a Rabbi, a Priest, and an Atheist Go Into a (Juice) Bar: How Religion and Secularism Can Peacefully Co-exist. He is going all out to give his ideas and he is applauded for it. It’s all innocent and nothing harmful, just a way of showing social cohesion in a healthy way. Don’t expect calm for long, not even past the first chapter. Some people disagree with a peaceful, tolerant society and all hell breaks loose when a bomb explodes.

DCI Laura McKechnie is brought in to delve to unravel the story behind murders and carnage that have been no accident. There are extremist groups at play like Sharia 4 UK and others that MI5 are roped into investigating. Thrown into the mix is a team, like Line of Duty, who are working on anti-corruption.

The Darkheart is a definite page-turner, full of suspense and police and criminal activity. The plot and fast-paced style of writing keeps the book darkly compelling throughout the action-packed pages.

Blurb

A DEADLY BOMBING

When renowned author Dr. Daniel Solomon is killed in a devastating explosion in York, authorities quickly attribute the attack to Islamic extremists. But as the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems.

A DARK CONSPIRACY

DS Max Craigie uncovers a chilling connection between a series of brutal murders, each victim linked by a secret that someone is determined to protect.

A DANGEROUS GAME

With the number of victims growing and an elusive figure known as The Cashier operating in the shadows, Max must navigate a web of corruption and hatred. Can he unravel the truth before more lives are lost?

Praise for The Dark Heart:

‘Lancaster has once again put himself in the top echelons of modern crime writers. This series must never end’ Graham Bartlett

‘Neil Lancaster is a natural born storyteller… The Dark Heart is a cracker of a tale ― and the best Craigie yet’ John Sutherland

#Review of The Forever Home by Erica James @hqstories #bookreview by Lou @TheEricaJames @HQstories #TheForeverHome

The Forever Home
By Erica James

review by Louise Cannon

The Forever Home is a heartwarming book of second chances in the unlikeliest of places by the bestselling author Erica James. HQ kindly sent me a copy to review.

The Forever Home, even the title sounds warming. What lies behind the door of Hope Hall, a former grand country house in Cambridgeshire, since converted into luxury apartments, is residents with complex lives who are all in need of a second chance in life.

Cassie is in love with Ben, but he’s her second man, there are shadows still from her first marriage. They have quite the impact on her and her daughter, Emily. The relational dynamics are believable, with Cassie being the one to blame when anything is seen as going wrong in Emily’s eyes. There is, however a jovial feel between Cassie and Ben, which gives hope amongst some turmoil and something quite shocking in Abu-Dhabi (not related to current events).

Nina owns an art gallery. She was widowed quite young in life and has hope for a new life to begin. She is also making a big decision that will shatter her mother-in-law. She is, however, still easy to empathise with as she has a strong desire to move on, and naturally so.

Venetia, at 79 is sparky and does love a secret. She knows a lot about Hope Hall and its colourful history. She knows all and had a traumatic start to life herself. What she’s harbouring is deeply emotional, but what happens in her present is like a second life.

Erica James writes compelling characters that are easy to care about. There are many emotional ups and downs of love and loss, but within the apartments of Hope Hall, there truly is hope, a sense of community and friendships across the generations as they strive for different and better lives.

#Review by Lou of Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck #KateGoldbeck #DaddyIssues #Issues #RomanticFiction #Family #ContemporaryFiction #BestsellingAuthor

Daddy Issues
By Kate Goldbeck

Daddy Issues is a lens into when life gets a bit stuck and change is needed. Sam Pulenski is one such person, she has a dead end job, family relations breaking down as for any love life, forget it. She’s even had to move back to her mum’s condo, which is far from ideal and not exactly what she dreamt about. She also has expectations up on her and of herself in academia, it now everything is at a standstill, confidence is low and she has Daddy Issues that are explored as well as her new neighbour, Nick, who is having some daddy issues of his own.

The psychology of the characters, way they relate to each other and try to meet their own needs is fascinating to read about and see unfold. It’s an intriguing situationship tale of toxic lives, parts of life missing with a desire to fill them with something more stable. It shows that even when studying, as Sam had been doing, life doesn’t always work out as planned. It gives readers a dose of reality outside the boundaries of university/student life.

When Sam meets Nick, pushing on 40, she knows it isn’t ideal, but finds a connection. He lives near her mother’s condo. At the same time, he also brings some of her male relationships into perspective, such as the rather empty ones, including those who profess to be friends with benefits.

Will Nick prove to be a steadying force in Sam’s, otherwise, chaotic, complex life?

Sam is 26 but even for older readers, she is relatable as some struggles in life are not contained to a particular generation of adults.

Blurb

A jaded twentysomething is stuck living at home, her life on pause, when a single dad becomes her new neighbor and unexpectedly sets her life–and her heart–into motion in this modern love story from the bestselling author of You, Again.Sometimes love shows up where you least expect it–right next door.At twenty-six, Sam Pulaski expected to be thriving in her academic career, living on her own in some exciting city. Expectations meet reality: She has massive student loan debt from studying art history, a dead-end service industry job, a situationship that’s equal parts intoxicating and toxic. And she’s been crashing in her mom’s condo–at least it’s not a basement?–for the last five years. If she can finally get accepted into a PhD program and get out of Ohio, the adult life that’s been on hold for half her twenties will finally begin. Her mom’s new neighbor, Nick, is the ultimate grown-up. His adult life began the moment his nine-year-old daughter, Kira, was born. Her happiness is Nick’s only priority, especially in the wake of divorce. There’s nothing he won’t do for Kira, including giving up his globe-trotting career for something more stable . . . like managing a chain restaurant. Sam has zero interest in an ultra-dependable guy pushing forty; frankly, she’s a little afraid of kids. But with just one thin wall separating the two condos, Nick proves difficult to avoid. His quiet confidence forces Sam to grapple with the other men in her life: her emotionally derelict friendwithbenefits and her actually derelict father. As her unexpected connection with Nick heats up (and steams up his minivan windows), Sam finds herself falling fast for a man whose life is steady and settled–while hers is anything but.