Category: Recent Reads

Recent Reads: Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli is an emotional journey both for a family travelling together for the last time, and for the children who are travelling to the US border, trying to make their way into the US.

The main characters are described to us either by their gender or their family role, and so we are taken on a car ride by husband, boy, girl and our point of view, the woman who is wife, mother and step mother.  The husband and wife are barely speaking to each other, and their children fill the silence.  

Meanwhile, at the border, children who have travelled a long way are being held by the border agencies.

This is a very vivid book, with emotive descriptions and has been up for several prizes.  I found this book to be strangely distant, with the lack of names of the main characters, but at the same time we’re there in their emotions, and feelings, so it’s also quite intense.  You are learning about them, but at the same time being held back from them.

Lost Children Archive was published on 12th February 2019 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Valeria Luiselli on her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins.

Recent Reads: The Montgomery Murder by Cora Harrison

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

The Montgomery Murder by Cora Harrison is a YA crime, set in Victorian London, and feels in the vein of The Baker Street Irregulars from Sherlock Holmes books.

Alfie is the leader, and he’s the one who comes up with the plans for how they’re going to pay the rent.  When a vicious murder happens close to their home, and Alfie gets dragged into the police station, he soon strikes a deal to look into the murder, and to feed back what he finds!

This is very much a YA book, and so is a fun introduction to historical books for that young person you know!

The Montgomery Murder by Cora Harrison was published on 4th March 2019 and is available from Amazon and Waterstones.

 You can follow Cora Harrison on her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Sapere Books.

Recent Reads: Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson is about life after death, except with computers!

This is the second book with Richard ‘Dodge’ from Reamde, which is about phishing scams.  You don’t need to have read that in order to enjoy this one, you just need to know that Richard is rich and does unconventional things.  

Richard dies very early on in this book, but he has left instructions on what he wants done with his body, which is to store his body cryogenically, so that in the future he can be revived.  There are a lot of ethical implications with all of this, and Neal Stephenson explores these.

Neal Stephenson does not write small, simple books, but I find the journey he takes me on interesting and entertaining, so I’m happy to see where it goes! 

Fall or, Dodge in Hell was published on 11th June 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Neal Stephenson on Twitter and his website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins UK.

Recent Reads: The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez has Tucker, a dog on the run, nearly get hit by Sloan.  She takes the dog in whilst trying to find the owner.  Sloan was on her way to her late fiancé’s grave when Tucker appeared out of nowhere, and suddenly is making her life better.

Jason is Tucker’s owner.  He is a musician, has been backpacking in New Zealand, and returns to Australia for his gig, and when he turns on his phone for the first time in 2 weeks, and gets all of Sloan’s messages, he gets all of her messages, and is immediately interested in her.

I know I’m enjoying a book when I go to make myself a tea and carry my book with me to keep reading, and I did that with this book.  I very much enjoyed it, and can’t wait to read more of her books!

The Happy Ever After Playlist was published on 14th April 2020 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Abby Jimenez on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Little, Brown. 

Recent Reads: Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M.C Beaton (Agatha Raisin 2)

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M.C Beaton has a dishy vet who has a practice in the village, and the women are flocking to see him with their pets.  He’s charming to them, but seems to hold the pets quite tightly.

Then he’s found dead in a horse stall. It looks like accidental death, that he managed to stab himself with an injection instead of the horse.  But Agatha starts investigating, after all, it’s a good reason to spend time with James Lacey, her next door neighbour that Agatha is after.

This is another hilarious cosy mystery, with Agatha putting her foot in it, and learning to be less on her guard all of the time.  

Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet was first published in 1993, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

My review of the previous book in the Agatha Raisin series are below:

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (book 1)

Recent Reads: In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda is set in the time of humanity reaching out to the stars.  They’ve discovered the ability to terraform, which is coming at a good time as Earth has become overcrowded.  The Quill, a harmless alien being, was has been changed because of the terraforming, and has been changed into something that kills humans.

Humans have spilled into the stars, on space stations, but they are very crowded, as colonists who had been heading for the terraformed worlds had been travelling there.  Aaron Pardell is a descendent of one of the terraforming scientists, and Dr Gail Smith thinks that he’ll be able to help her with finding an answer to the Quill.

This is science fiction story with a difference for the struggles the space stations brings, and the Quill.  I enjoyed the discoveries as the story progressed, and the character differences of those from the stations versus those from Earth.  I did feel like the story dragged in areas though.

In the Company of Others was published on 1st June 2001, and is available to buy from Amazon and Waterstones (audio CDs).

You can follow Julie E. Czerneda on Facebook, Twitter and her website.

Recent Reads: The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent is about Birdy, who always screws up her jobs, and chooses the wrong man.  Heather, her best friend, is a sommelier, and chooses to follow a man to Italy, instead of taking up a position in a Scottish hotel and restaurant that she was due to start.  Birdy is currently penniless and homeless, and so she winds up taking the job.  After all, how hard could the job be?

Hard, as it turns out.  There are cringeworthy moments, but this is written so well, with such an enjoyable story that I raced through the book.

If you like Beth O’Leary or Laura Jane Williams, then you’ll enjoy this book!

The Summer Job was published on 15th April 2021, and is available on Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Lizzy Dent on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin.

Recent Reads: Where the Dead Fall by M J Lee

Posted on by Pam

My review:???

Where the Dead Fall by M J Lee has DI Ridpath see a motorway accident, where a nearly naked man is hit by a lorry whilst running from a man with a gun.

This starts an investigation where DI Ridpath has to prove he wasn’t going crazy when claiming to see the man with the gun.  This is a police procedural, and a thriller, with Ridpath having an estraged wife and daughter, whom he’s trying to repair his relationship with, during all of this chaos.

This is the second book in the DI Ridpath series, and I hadn’t read the first one.  I found it to be a fine police procedural, but I’m not hunting down the rest of the books in the series.

Where the Dead Fall was published on 11 April 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow M J Lee on Facebook and his website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Canelo.

Recent Reads: The Monster MASH by Angie Fox (Monster M*A*S*H 1)

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

The Monster MASH by Angie Fox (Monster M*A*S*H 1) has Dr Petra Robichaud drafted into an eternal war between the old gods and the new gods, and is at a MASH camp (think of the US comedy series, M*A*S*H based in South Korea during the Korean war).  Petra can see the dead, and saves Galen, who believes that she is the person that the oracles predict.

This is a fun fantasy romp, and I’m looking forward to reading the other two books in this series!

The Monster MASH was published with this title on 29th December 2020.  It was previously published with a different title (Immortally Yours), and a different cover.  You can buy it through Amazon.

I’ve read a number of Angie Fox’s books, from the Southern Spirits series

Southern Spirits, A Ghostly Gift and The Skeleton in the Closet – book 1, 1.5 and 2

Pecan Pies and Dead Guys – book 7 

The Mint Julep Murders – book 8

The Ghost of Christmas Past – book 8.5

Southern Bred and Dead – book 9

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Moose Island Books and Author Collective 20  (the publishers) for this book.

Recent Reads: True Story by Kate Reed Petty

Posted on by Pam

   My review:?????

True Story by Kate Reed Petty is a powerful story that revolves around something that happened when our characters were teenagers, and how this echoes through their lives.

The story is written from different points of view and in different styles, which gives the story movement and makes it more powerful.

I thought this was a really good book, and it had me glued to the page.  I wanted to know more, to see where we were going to be taken.

Trigger warning: this book deals with rape, abusive relationships and alcoholism.

True Story was published on 4th August 2020, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Kate Reed Petty on Twitter and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Quercus Books.