A Book Haul #4

Hello again guys; it feels like ages since I’ve done a book haul, which is mad considering it feels like all that I’ve done over the past few months is buy books, haha. I’m actually running out of space for all of my books to be in my house, oops. Over the past year or so reading has easily become my favourite hobby, I love being able to escape into someone else’s world for a few hours or pages or chapters. I definitely have a book buying addiction, to the point that I keep walking into every charity shop that I pass in the hopes of spotting a bargain haha. The best of this haul was literally 20p, which was so cheap it’s actually amazing! These days I often rely on goodreads to work out which books to read or buy, but at the same time I’m terrible for simply buying a book because of a beautiful cover; that can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether the writing is to my taste or not, but I’ll read anything once and I never stop reading a book, I always have to finish it even if I hate it.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The list above is the author and title of each of the books in this haul. I’m particularly excited by the Hunger Games trilogy set, they’re the limited edition foil versions and I managed to snap these up for a reasonable price online and in absolutely fantastic condition too. The only book I’ve read so far is Big Little Lies and I loved it so I’m sure I’ll be rereading it at some point in the future, once I’ve got through my hefty reading list. All of the other books in this haul are books that I haven’t read but I’ve been meaning to read for a long time; I have no idea when I’ll be finding the time for these books but that’s ok, life is long haha. I have a lot more books to show you in terms of hauls and reviews that I’m planning for the next few months so I’m looking forward to getting some feedback as I’ve been having a bit of a lull when it comes to blogging over the past couple of months and so I’m excited to get back into it after a bit of an unintentional break. Have you bought any books recently? What books are you planning to read? Or is there a book that you think I’ll love to read? Let me know in the comments! :)

Book Review: The Last Anniversary

I’ve read so many novels by Liane Moriarty now that I’m not even surprised that I enjoyed this one; although I admit that I was drawn in pretty quickly by the interesting title and equally interesting blurb. Sophie has spent years wondering if she did the right thing by dumping the nicest guy that she’s ever dated, just as he was planning a romantic getaway to propose to her (ironically, he is now married to someone else and completely out of her life). Unsurprisingly, it comes as a shock when he suddenly gets back in touch to let her know that his Great-Grandmother Connie, has died and left Sophie her house. Thomas is genuinely happy for Sophie, but his sister, Veronika is not so enamoured with the results of Connie’s will. Sophie has no idea how complicated her life is going to become as she prepares to move onto Scribby Gum Island and fit herself into Thomas’ rather large family. No other families live on the Island, only the Doughty family since their ancestors won a bet to own it. The Island is home to one of Australia’s most famous unsolved mysteries; a mystery that Sophie herself loved as she grew up, visiting the Island countless times to see the mysterious elements of it.

The mystery surrounding the Island is the ‘Munro Baby’, also known as Grandma Enigma. Sisters Connie and Rose we’re heading to tea at the house of Alice and Jack Munro to find that they had disappeared from the cottage and left their baby in the cot - a baby that is now in her seventies. The sisters turned the mystery into an elaborate business venture, with guided tours of the Island the cottage, left in its original state and various items that can be bought from their gift shop. As the family has grown, more of them have coupled up and started families, but all of them contribute to the annual anniversary of the mystery; a massive party with face painting, food and drink and other entertainment for adults, children and anyone who is curious about the mystery. This years anniversary has more pressure than ever, due to wanting to live up to Connie’s memory; the sister who had the most vision for the business that came alongside of the mystery. The Munro Baby case was the thing that really threaded this whole story together and it added another side to the overall plot.

The other side of the plot contained so many family members, all with their stories, secrets and fears; it wasn't a surprise that it all began to unravel as the novel started to take shape. However, the characters who concerned me the most were Grace, Sophie and Thomas; all of them weren't as happy as they should be and it seemed a bit complicated. As much as Veronika had some slightly strange habits, her thirst for knowledge was pretty interesting; such as her attempts to uncover the mystery were commendable and to be honest, fairly entertaining. Sophie's incessant issue with constantly blushing made me cringe alongside her a little, too; that aside, she does seem like a good person, although the amount of bad decisions that she made and the range of situations that she found herself in drove me insane! Grace was a concern as it was clear she was suffering from some kind of undiagnosed health condition that is affecting her in all parts of her life. All of the topics covered throughout this novel are fairly modern issues, such as Post-Natal depression, marriage, children and family life, insecurity and many others. Despite there being some difficult subjects to discuss, Moriarty managed to weave these topics into her characters realistically and flawlessly.

Overall, I found this book to be fascinating. I found myself desperate to know the story behind the Munro Baby Mystery and actually it was nice that nothing was revealed until fairly late into the book as it made the book so much more interesting; although the answer was well written and delivered a lot of understanding, it was also slightly predictable, which was a little disappointing. I felt like myself and any other reader would benefit from a family tree alongside the map of the Island at the start of the book as there were so many family members once partners were included; for most books having so many characters would result in an absolute mess, but as I have read so many of Moriarty's novels now that I'm used to her way of working multiple narrators into her stories. In fact, this is what makes her books so enjoyable. I liked this novel, but I didn't love it; it had a lot of potential to be a 5 star read but honestly, there was something missing for me; the ending was a a disappointment after loving the majority of the tale, so it's a 4 star, but definitely worth a read. Families are never quite as they seem.

A Book Haul #3

Hello again guys; over the past couple of months I feel like my bookcases have started to struggle with the amount of books that I've purchased, oops. Recently I've been loving discovering gems for as little as 20p in charity shops or in Libraries that are selling off their excess stock. I'm sorry if it seems like I've posted a ridiculous amount of book hauls over the past few months, the reason behind my excessive book buying is not only do I love a good book, it is also a reasonably inexpensively enjoyable hobby once you know where to find the best titles for excellent prices too. Plus, it's always nice to escape the world around you and focus on another world for a few hours. Below are the titles that I've been naughty and bought this week alone:

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Baby Doll by Hollie Overton

Girl at War by Sara Nović

I See You by Clare Mackintosh

Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

As I've previously mentioned in other posts, I'm sucker for beautiful covers, but I also do read a bit of everything, too. I've read some of the books below already, but they're the kind of reads that I'd love to reread at some point as they were that good that they're still on my mind, a couple of months afterward. (That is the sign of an excellent novel!) I do feel like I need to invest in a larger bookcase now though as I have literally ran out of any space at all and I doubt I'll stop wanting to buy books any time soon. I've recently joined two Book Clubs, which I'm really excited about as I've been wanting to join one for ages now. Are any of you members of book clubs, reading or have read any of the books included in this haul or on Goodreads? Let me know in the comments :)

Book Review: Three Wishes

Over the last few months I’ve been enjoying making my way through my ‘To Be Read’ list and many of the books by the fantastic Liane Moriarty have made their way onto the list purely because I always enjoy her writing style. Said writing style often involves a range of characters and Three Wishes is certainly no exception to that rule. Centred around the tale of three thirty-three year old sisters, they are in fact triplets who often attract a lot of attention whenever they meet up in public due to their confidence and near constant bickering. In all honesty, on the surface they seem to be a lot younger than they are, although they are quite clearly individuals with their own lives and various problems. Lyn seems to have it all; the perfect family life and the perfect self employed empire, whereas Cat is having a difficult time after discovering that her husband’s eyes have been wandering elsewhere and Gemma seems to be at a crossroads, on the one hand she is a free spirit, enjoying house sitting as a career but struggling to take any relationship past the six month mark. At the start of the novel we see the triplets celebrating their birthday, one of them is heavily pregnant, another is enjoying the alcohol a little too much and the last one is feeling completely and utterly incensed after hearing some awful news.

This is a novel that is extremely enjoyable to read; the characters outside of the triplets, their parents and partners add a lot of fun into the mix, particularly when they all get together at various family gatherings. I like the dynamic that appeared between all of the characters, there are a lot of themes running through the novel too, including infidelity, infertility, friendship, sibling rivalry and divorce amongst many others. Considering there are a lot of what many would believe to be adult themes, this book is actually fairly easy to read as it flows very naturally. Each triplet has their own stories and personality which makes it easy to like and/or dislike them. The least favourite for me was Lyn as all of her troubles were fairly insignificant compared to those of Cat and Gemma; yes her stepdaughter was a nightmare at times but ultimately that could be be blamed on the fact that she met her husband when he was married to mother, as well as general teenage angst. It often seemed as though she almost enjoyed being the only settled sister and therefore had an air of boastfulness at times. That being said, Lyn definitely plays the role of peacemaker between the three sisters.

Whereas there were many points that it was easy to sympathise with Gemma; the non-identical sister, the one who can’t manage to hold down a job or a relationship due to her secret. Her dead fiancé used to beat her, yet she has never told a soul, not even her sister who know her better than anyone. It’s interesting for someone who tells her family everything, to have such a big secret held so close to the chest. She means well, never wanting to upset either of her sisters and makes sacrifices for them, but ultimately one of her sacrifices wasn’t her most well thought out and makes her relationship with her family very strained. Cat has always been the confident, but after a series of truly nasty events is more or less on the verge of a mental breakdown after her marriage ends and some other issues arise amongst her and her triplet sisters. As a reader the impression is given that being identical to Lyn in looks has made her somewhat expectant of having the same achievements in life. Seeing her sisters each conceive was incredibly difficult for her after having some trouble herself and so looking at her nieces and nephew wasn’t easy for her, but she braved it all the same. Cat is definitely the sister who was dealt the most rough deal of the three siblings and there were so many times you wished that her luck would change.

Overall, this book was slightly different to the other novels that I’ve read by Moriarty. For one, this novel ends fairly loosely; none of the ends are really tied up and so the open ended finale is somewhat unexpected as well as unwanted. I was left with a want to know if Cat’s life improved, if she got the happy ending that her two sisters managed to have and some kind of closure in her personal life, not only in her professional life. The narrative structure was great, starting with an event before showing the reader the months leading up to that event was a fantastic way of providing a bit of insight into the triplets lives, as well as switching the narrative voice between each of the triplets in turn. The one thing that struck me as the novel ending was that the triplets were not as close as they appeared to be at the start of the book. Yes, they see each other regularly but they often bicker and don’t tell each other everything which was the expectation at some points before some secrets came out. I recommend this book if you want to read something that is fairly light but still has some drama; I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, particularly once I had started to know which character was which after the first few chapters (triplets make for fairly confusing reading). There are a lot of ups and downs throughout the story and a lot of the time you feel like you are a part of the novel, which is always a sign of a good book.

Book Review: The Husband's Secret

Despite a rather obvious title, this book doesn't revolve around a single secret; there are many secrets in the world and many of them go through life unnoticed. Liane Moriarty is one of those authors who writes impeccably; I've read a few of her novels now and they never disappoint me. Her writing style never fails to draw me in through excellent characterisation and extensive explanations of who is who within the novel. The use of multiple narrators through third person works well, although at first you have to really concentrate as it does take a while before the characters fully settle into place within the novel. Ultimately this book  focuses on three women; Cecilia, Rachel and Tess, all mothers, all different ages and all with different careers but at a point in the novel their lives interlink and they become connected through one secret.

Judging by the title, you would assume that this is a love story, but in fact it is far from a love story. As much as this novel mentions the notion of love frequently, it speaks more about the pain of love; of being in love, of infidelity and unrequited love. It begins with Cecilia finding a letter addressed to her by her husband in the vent of his death; naturally curious, she asks him about it and his reaction wasn't one that she expected. That was definitely the first mention of abnormality within her life, whereas with Rachel we learn fairly on that her daughter was murdered as a teenager and we watch her struggle to cope with the loss, even after twenty years. Tess gets to bear witness to her husband falling in love with someone else, someone that she trusted implicitly and so of course she is shattered and completely uproots her life to clear her mind, taking her young son with her.

On the surface, the three women have nothing in common and don't even know each other until some life changing events unfold and they suddenly find themselves in each others company often, due to Cecilia and Tess' children going to the local school that Rachel is the receptionist at. Tess grew up in Sydney before she made her life in Melbourne and so she did know of some of the past events that seemingly come back to haunt them all. Having the events told through a third person perspective about each of the women in turn was a fantastic way to witness the same event through a different set of eyes; each of them has a different understanding of life, hate and love. During the novel, the three individuals lives and stories become interlinked and we gain much more insight into their pasts and the present. Arguably, Rachel is the most intriguing due to how she struggles to cope with her grief; even her family have suffered due to her intense pain at the loss of Janie. She has fairly bad mood swings as a result of her loss and is desperate to prove who murdered her daughter; understandably, it is hard to find closure when you have no proof of who did it.

The main reason why I enjoyed this book (other than the slightly slow beginning, but that was to expected with so many characters to introduce) was that it didn't focus on what the title suggested; yes, the husband's secret was an important discovery, but it wasn't the sole focus. The novel is a sombre one and I liked that, there was a definite element of realism to the characters; life isn't easy, but sometimes you have to manage, somehow. I loved how Moriarty place little facts and figures into the novel, whilst constantly reminding the reader of the metaphorical Pandora's Box; how sometimes it is imperative to think outside of the box, to imagine what you would do in an unbelievable situation. Lastly, the epilogue blew me away; not only was it incredibly unexpected, it was an interesting finale to the Pandora's Box idea, although I will admit that I would've liked the ending regardless; not all books should have a have a happy ending, as life doesn't always. However, this book successfully opened my mind to thinking and reflecting far more as it definitely wasn't what I expected and that is always a good thing in a book.

Book Review: The Hypnotist's Love Story

 

The reason behind this book being on my (rather large) reading list was because I had enjoyed reading Big Little Lies so much, which is also written by Liane Moriarty. The title is actually a little misleading; Ellen is actually a professional hypnotherapist who helps her clients lose weight, quit smoking and face their fears, amongst some other things. As a reader we're told fairly early on that she's single, aged thirty five, with a rather unsuccessful dating history; but she's ready to settle down, provided that she can find the right man. Naturally, this is when she meets Patrick; a widow with an eight year old son and hiding a secret. At first glance, Patrick appears to be the perfect man but a little distracted. I suppose you could argue that this is because he's a busy man, working full time and balancing raising a child as a single parent, but in all honestly the book only become interesting for me when Saskia is introduced. It was interesting to see a female stalker at work, as well as seeing the narrative voices switch between the perspectives of both Ellen and Saskia. Although technically there are three 'main' characters, as a reader we only ever see Patrick through the eyes of the two women as he never takes over the narrative at any point.

There are parts of this book that feel fairly unbelievable; for example Ellen is not disturbed by the thought that her boyfriend, Patrick has a stalker, she's intrigued. However, Ellen also doesn't realise that Saskia is just as interested in Ellen; to the extent that she even poses as a client, using a false name to have the oppportunity to get to know Ellen and snoop around her house, as all Ellen works through her home. As a woman myself, I honestly found it all a bit bizarre; the fact that Ellen was actually fine with her new boyfriend having a stalker, that she was interested even, seems impossible to me. The worst part is that with time, you begin to feel sorry for Saskia, sympathise with her almost; she met the right man at the wrong time and she's been punishing him and herself, ever since. However, on the other hand, it is difficult to fathom why she would go to the lengths she does, to stalk Patrick; or even why she stalks him at all, other than the fact she's struggling to move on with her own life. The one thing I really loved about this book is that Saskia was included as a narrative voice; it made her character seem real, less one dimensional. 

The introduction of Saskia was really well done and was a great plot twist, although the apart from that, at times the book could be a little slow. It didn't grip me as much as I wanted it to; I just couldn't understand why Saskia couldn't let go of this man as on the surface she was an ordinary woman. She was successful at work and had her own house, and comfortably so. Obviously there are many layers to a stalker, one of these was that she met him as her mother died so I feel like she replaced her grief with love for Patrick. But even so, I feel like the introduction of Ellen, particularly when she becomes pregnant, clearly affected Saskia; but even more bizarrely, in another world you could imagine the two women being friends as they are fairly similar. The character that I throughly disliked was actually Patrick; in my opinion he was thoughtless and selfish. Using Saskia as a replacement wife and mother when his wife and Jack's mother died and then leaving her when his grieving period was over. I also got the impression that he constantly compares both Ellen and Saskia to his wife, Colleen. Which isn't nice, particularly when you consider that Ellen is pregnant and both him and his son then moved into her home.

Overall, I did find this novel fairly slow paced. However, I didn't dislike it as there were some fantastic parts. Saskia cooking and cleaning in Ellen's house, snooping in her bathroom and seeing what tampons she uses (amongst other things) were both creepy and did turn up the stalking a notch; a the book went on there were times when Saskia definitely became more dangerous, to both herself and those around her. It was a relief to see the stalking reach the point where the law needed to intervene; however I wasn't keen on Ellen's interest in Saskia. It wasn't healthy to be so fascinated by the fact that an ex-girlfriend is stalking your now boyfriend. It was great to see all parties, particularly Saskia, regain a social life and move on from an incident, but on the whole I felt the plot was a bit lacking. All in all, as a reader I was intrigued to see how Ellen shaped a relationship with Jack and her own father, both of which were skimmed over quite a lot. On a positive note, I really liked Ellen's 'three mothers'; the dynamic between them was great and I wanted to see a lot more of them than I did, but they were a fabulous addition to the character sphere. Despite this being a rather critical review, I did enjoy reading this book I would recommend it as the writing is great, but I would say that you need to be prepared to fully commit; it's quite a long book, slow in places but a good read that's worth seeing through to the end as it's worth it.

Book Review: Big Little Lies

 

Hello again! Today's post is another book review; I really enjoy sharing the books I read with you all. I decided to read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty after a workmate recommend it. I had super high hopes for it, but I'll admit that for the first few chapters I wasn't keen. The narrative style is a very modern writing technique; using internet 'chat' style statements at the end of each chapter to create speculation about the bigger picture. Once I got further into the story I quickly became addicted. The three main characters (Jane: a young single mother, Madeline: passionate, girly and begrudging, Celeste: showstoppingly beautiful) although seemingly quite extreme, are definitely relatable and work well as a trio. All of the characters that are introduced throughout the book are known to each other through their children being at the same school; on the surface this book comes across as being yet another kindergarten group of cliques who all believe their child is the most amazing, fantastically talented five year old to ever attend school.

However, through the snippets of information provided in each chapter and the statements suggesting that something big will be revealed at the school fundraising night it's almost impossible not to become curious; this book becomes fascinating very quickly. It deals with many taboo topics, such as domestic abuse, bullying, rape amongst several others. There are many hints that all is not what it seems; it really pushes the idea that parents can be badly behaved and that can easily affect children. I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated by the snippets of information as they kept pointing to some kind of crime being committed, with no suggestion of who but a clear indication of when. With an obvious link to the title, the whole book focuses on the 'little lies' that we as people often tell others without thinking of the consequences; leading up to the big event at the end of the book there are all kinds of lies and exaggerations being spread by main and minor characters. I found book incredibly gripping the further I read; there was so many unexpected twists, I never knew what was going to happen next... Even my best guesses were completely wrong!

It was a little confusing at time because there was such a vast array of characters being introduced at different points; I really liked the writing style once I got into the action and focussed on what was going on. The whole book was littered with clues, but because as a reader you saw so many different perspectives and ideas it was so hard to keep up with the clues and piece them together. Moriarty has a way of making all of the characters connect in ways that they don't even realise whilst on the surface being polar opposites; once the characters were established this was an excellent way of piecing the clues together. By using the present to relay the lead up of events to the fundraiser night alongside statements from witnesses of a murder from the same event from the past really messes with you when you're reading. This book really highlighted how you can never really know what is going on in someone's else life, no matter how close you think you are to them. For a crime novel, it was very light in places and very dark in others; I was gripped after several chapters, once I the key players were fully established.

Overall, I found once the plot started to shape itself, the amount of suspense was unfathomable; the ending was hugely unexpected and satisfying. I started the book not impressed at all, but I'm glad that I persevered as I ended up loving it. I wasn't a fan of the witness statements; yes they were useful for keeping up to date with the plot but the layout was confusing. As a reader you need to keep on track with all of the characters but it wasn't easy as there were so many players and perspectives provided throughout; it's only when the main characters are set in that the plot begins to make sense. Moriarty seamlessly weaves many important topics into this novel, using a variety of perspectives to do so. What I particularly liked about the way that Moriarty presented the murder was that the identity of both the murderer and the murdered were left to guesswork until the very end, with no disappointment at all. I would recommend reading this as although it's a slow start, once the action begins it's impossible not to engage with its enticing mystery, yet humourous (at times) aspects of storytelling. It's a fascinating read and wholly realistic; the majority of the characters will remind you of someone you've met at sometime in your life and that's what makes this book such a pleasure.