#Review By Lou of Close To Death By Anthony Horowitz @AntonyHorowitz @centurybooksuk @penguinrandom #HawthorneSeries #CloseToDeath @SarahHarwood_

Close To Death
By Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz brings the unexpected into our books and onto our screens and in his talks. I recently watched The Magpie Murders and enjoyed it and I also saw him give a fascinating talk at Bloody Scotland. So, to have a chance to review Close To Death, well, I was amazed and grabbed the opportunity with both hands thanks to Century/Penguin Random and Sarah Harwood.

Blurb

Richmond Upon Thames is one of the most desirable areas to live in London. And Riverview Close – a quiet, gated community – seems to offer its inhabitants the perfect life.

At least it does until Giles Kenworthy moves in with his wife and noisy children, his four gas-guzzling cars, his loud parties and his plans for a new swimming pool in his garden.

His neighbours all have a reason to hate him and are soon up in arms.

When Kenworthy is shot dead with a crossbow bolt through his neck, all of them come under suspicion and his murder opens the door to lies, deception and further death.

The police are baffled. Reluctantly, they call in former Detective Daniel Hawthorne. But even he is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle.

Review

A quiet, gated community in Richmond Upon Thames should be just that… quiet and unassuming in a rich, picturesque, highly desirable area of London. Perhaps it is, most of the time, but this is Antony Horrowitz writing about this area, so of course this is turned on its head. There are twists and turns and and ending that you simply must reach.

Giles Kenworthy is the neighbour from hell, the sort you see being written about on social media from time to time each summer. No one likes him and when he is killed, everyone has a motive so everyone is under suspicion.

Close To Death is very cleverly plotted in such a way that you truly are left guessing until the very end. I found this in The Magpie Murders too. It’s reminiscent of Johnathon Creek in some, but not all ways as Horrowitz has very clearly got his own unique style.

I was glued to Close To Death from start to finish, even more than I expected with this curiously intriguing plot.

About the Author

Anthony John Horowitz CBE (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the Alex Rider series and The Diamond Brother’s Series.

Horowitz’s works for adults include the play Mindgame; two Sherlock Holmes novels, Moriarty Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders The Twist of a Knife (2022), and Close to Death (2024).

The estate of James Bond creator Ian Fleming chose Horowitz to write Bond novels utilising unpublished material by Fleming, starting with Trigger Mortis.

Horowitz has also written for television, contributing scripts to ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot and adapting six early episodes of Midsomer Murders.
He was the creator and writer of the ITV series Foyle’s War, Collision and Injustice and the BBC series Crime Traveller and New Blood.

#Review By Lou of The Holiday Bookshop #LucyDickens @PenguinRandom #SummerRead #BeachRead #TheHolidayBookshop

The Holiday Bookshop
By Lucy Dickens

A quick look at the blurb that reads like an ad for a job as a bookseller in a beautiful location and I am hooked. I also would like the job….

The Holiday Bookshop

Blurb

Are you looking to start a new chapter?
Role: Bookseller wanted! (3-month fixed-term contract) Location: A luxury resort on the island of Bounty Cove Cay.
Skills required: The ideal candidate will have experience in a retail environment, preferably within the book industry.
Desired qualities: This role will appeal to a book lover with an adventurous streak who is looking for an escape from their everyday life.
What to expect: Sun, sea, and a bookshop that is far from thriving. No one said it would be smooth sailing.
Please note: You may fall in love with more than just our island along the way…
Looking for your next beach read? Look no further! Escape with The Holiday Bookshop, perfect for fans of Jo Thomas, Phillipa Ashley and Jenny Colgan.

Review

Okay, so I would love the job and maybe I could be somehow spared for 3 months from normal life. I am just about all those things and I could easily get around not working in a bookshop before due to retail and other book experience.

Okay, I’m obviously not the candidate. Jen is the successful candidate and is off for a new life in the Maldives to run the bookshop.

Jen and Marianne were once best friends, but something happened that caused cracks, that becomes a bit of a rift. They ran and co-owned a bookshop called:
The Book Nook, so you really feel for them that things aren’t working out quite as well as they might and both end up leaving Marianne’s brother to run it. Jen, as said, goes off to the Maldives and Mari, along with her boyfriend, plan a trip of a lifetime.

The book is part adventure as it takes you from your cosy reading nook to various places by page. It’s adventure by location and life as, especially Jen, when she meets different people, discovers something quite special, but just needed a nudge to see it.

It’s a lovely read, just when it’s that time of year of planning holidays or lazing around on a beach for a day or even in the garden on a warm day. Even on a rainy day, this brings guaranteed sunshine and joy.

#Review By Lou of The Secrets of Rochester Place By Iris Costello @CostelloWords @PenguinRandom @EllieeHud

The Secrets of Rochester Place
By Iris Costello

Although set in Spring, The Secrets of Rochester Place is a great winter read.
If walls could talk…
Find out more in the blurb and my opinion in the review below.

Blurb

Spring 1937: Teresa is evacuated to London in the wake of the Guernica bombing. She thinks she’s found safety in the soothing arms of Mary Davidson and the lofty halls of Rochester Place, but trouble pursues her wherever she goes.

Autumn 2020: Corrine, an emergency dispatcher, receives a call from a distressed woman named Mary. But when the ambulance arrives at the address, Mary is nowhere to be found. Intrigued, Corinne investigates and, in doing so, disturbs secrets that have long-dwelt in Rochester Place’s crumbling walls. Secrets that, once revealed, will change her life for ever . . .

Who is Mary Davidson? And what happened at Rochester Place all those years ago?

Review

Set between 1937 and 2020, it has an eerie quality intertwined in mystery. Mary phoned Corrine, telling her about a child under rubble. The house she says she is in no longer exists, as such. This sparks many questions, including what happened to Rochester Place and what secrets are being harboured there? Where did Mary suddenly disappear to?
If walls could talk they would tell a thousand stories or more… The crumbled walls of Rochester Place has had its time of harbouring secrets and now is its time for letting them all unravel from its crumbling structure.

It’s quite a complex story set in complicated times as both The Spanish Civil War and World War 2 rumbles on. Everyone has a story to tell, whether its about friendship, bigotry and more…
There’s a lot that people can take from this book, whether it is something about both of these wars or the bigotry aspects that people faced then and still, sadly face today.

Join Corrine on what turns out to be quite an intriguing investigation in challenging times into what is a multi-layered, mystifying story about 2 people separated by time.

#Review By Lou of This Year’s For Me and You By Emily Bell #EmilyBell @PenguinRandom @MichaelJBooks

This Year’s For Me and You
By Emily Bell

This Year’s For Me and You is heart-warming and just gets you into the festive spirit and ready for ringing in the bells for the new year.

Blurb

When Celeste loses her best friend Hannah, she’ll do anything to keep her spirit alive.

So when she uncovers her friend’s old list of New Year’s resolutions, Celeste vows to complete them all.

One adventure at a time, she rediscovers how wonderful life can be.

But when one resolution leads her to someone from her past, Celeste can’t help but wonder . . .

Could the biggest adventure of all be falling in love?

Review

This is a heart-warming story that is great for seeing in the new year. It’s full of tradition like making new year’s resolutions and the warmth of hope and wonder of what’s to come.

Hannah was Celeste’s best friend and it is heart-wrenchingly emotional to learn that she dies. This is when the almost magical part comes in, where memories are re-ignited and new hope comes and surprises spring into life – there’s a new year’s resolutions list that was Hannah’s that gets discovered. What follows feels bittersweet and tender. Celeste vows to honour her friend and do everything in the list. It sends her on quite an adventure of discovery, and re-discovery as one resolution brings her back to an old flame. The ‘will they won’t they’ scenario kicks in and by this time, I’m so invested in the characters that I find myself rooting for Celeste’s love to come alive again as grief and peace circle.

Go on an adventure of a lifetime to bring you in the new year and be inspired to carry out your own resolutions. This book sure does the job and will leave a fuzzy warm glow inside, quite the contrast from the wintry temperatures outside.

You can buy at Waterstones
Please not I am not affiliated to Waterstones in any way.

#Review By Lou of Only Love Can Hurt Like This By Paige Toon @PaigeToonAuthor @PenguinRandom #ContemporaryFiction #RomFic @RandomTTours #BlogTour

Only Love Can Hurt Like This

By Paige Toon

Only Love Can Hurt Like This is beautifully emotive. I have a blurb and my review below as part of the Random T. Tours blog tour and also thanks to Penguin for a copy of the book to review from, in exchange of an honest opinion, which you can find below.

THE SUNDAY TIMES SMASH HIT BESTSELLER.

Neither of them expected to fall in love. But sometimes life has other plans.

When Wren realises her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover.

On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.

Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.

But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harbouring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone.

Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?

Review

Emotions run long and deep when your love runs off with someone else, this is what Wren learns. As the book develops, it is an emotional read and you really feel for the protagonist. It truly feels like that’s it for her, until she moves to be with her dad and step-family and later meets brothers, Jonas and Anders. Prior to this, however, it is interesting to see what is a complex relationship develop, within her family. It seems things have been far from an easy ride there too.

When Anders comes onto the scene, there is a hope that all will be well, but love doesn’t always work like that. It isn’t always one big fairytale as this book shows the nuances, the complexities and, well, how well can you know a person. Anders keeps a really big secret.

It is a highly emotive, captivating read where you cannot help but be enraptured in the characters lives.

I’ll admit, to finish off this review, from the minute I saw the title and bits in between to the end, I couldn’t help but think of that song – Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paloma Faith. Think how strongly emotive that is and this book matches it. It is a beautifully written book that enthralls and clings onto you until the end. It is one I highly recommend.

#Bookreview By Lou of Glory By NoViolet Bulawayo #NoVioletBulawayo @carmellalowkis @penguinrandom #Glory #Orwellian

Glory
By NoViolet Bulawayo

Satirical and Animal Farm like in satire, tone and in use of animals. If you like the satire of Animal Farm, then you’ll be equally as fascinated by Glory. Thanks to Carmella Lowkis at Penguin Random House for inviting me to review.

**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022**

Discover an exhilarating novel about power and corruption set in a nation trapped in a cycle as old as time.

‘A masterpiece for our times. Gripping and exhilarating’Observer

‘Uplifting and original’ Stylist

This is the story of a country on the brink of revolution.

It’s the story of Destiny, who returns home to witness the uprising.

It’s a story for all of us, and a reminder that history can be changed in the blink of an eye.

‘A novel with heart and energy’ Daily Telegraph

‘Bulawayo is really out-Orwelling Orwell. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny’ New York Times Book Review

** SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2023**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 VISIONARY ARTS AWARDS**

Review

The first striking thing about this book, apart from it can be compared to Animal Farm by George Orwell, with its animals having human traits, is how much anger it has throughout. It is intense and is like an outpouring of anger throughout with no let up, so be prepared for quite a ride. NoViolet also pulls no punches about times gone by and also how things were after some changes about the politics.

The book is of black history and black present. It talks about when Africa had white farmers, who were overthrown and tells things how they were, then about present times about fake news and rigged elections. It shows huge power in huge positions and how it can go to your head and what seems hopeful, isn’t necessarily so. It shows that there can be choice in what path you choose. It has its moments of sadness, where you look now at Africa, knowing, when free from imperialism, it could have been so different. NoViolet also pulls no punches when it talks about present governments and the path they’ve chosen to take. It also, even more fascinatingly talks about Asia and how certain countries are viewed.

There is quite a bit about religion too and how it is viewed, especially Christianity and references to Moses and Jesus that is interesting.

About half-way through, the writing format changes to that of a social media style conversation, just for a bit, which brings a different dimension to what is being told, although it unexpectedly does this, it does fit rather well into the context.

Most of the way, you’re holding onto every hope that things change and that people can vote without fear and knowing it will be fair and instead of a country being stuck or being pulled in all sorts of directions, that there will be a peace that will reign over people. It is an energetic book, with a very fast-pace and yet a lot to digest.