Category: Contemporary

‘The Unhoneymooners’ – Christina Lauren

This really was a story to take me by surprise. While the end result was obvious, it was such good fun to watch things unfold you’d have to have a heart of stone to not be sucked in.

Olive has always been used to feeling less than her composed sister, Ami. But when Ami and her entire wedding party get sick on the day of the wedding it ends up with Olive and best man, Ethan, taking up the honeymoon.

They hate each other, so it’s obvious they’ll end up together, but this was done naturally and in a way that had me both laughing out loud and swooning.

Great fun, though all quite obvious. A perfect summer read.

‘The Perfect Mother’ – Aimee Molloy

Mothers’ groups can be a great source of companionship, but they also result often in a strange form of one-up man-ship as those involved strive to maintain the facade of ‘perfect mother’. This book takes what’s become quite a common thing and plays up to every fear you might have about the people you’re suddenly sharing intimate details with.

The May Mothers…a group of women (and a token male) who bond over the fact they each gave birth in May. Keen to support, but it’s very easy to see that these people know very little about each other.

On a night out when their children are young, the unthinkable happens and one of the children is abducted. What follows is a curious mix of establishing what happened to Baby Midas and unearthing the many secrets held by each of the group members.

We get multiple POVs which made it seem quite slow. Everyone had a secret and we just had to wait and see how these linked to the story.

I can see why this has been optioned for a movie, and I imagine it will be a book on many group lists. Unfortunately, the ending fell a little flat for me and I felt things were increasingly rushed in an attempt to resolve the many strands.

‘Fragments of the Lost’ – Megan Miranda

Jessa is given the unenviable task of sorting through her boyfriend’s room when he dies. His mum doesn’t know that Caleb and Jessa were no longer an item, but when Jessa is asked to do this final thing, she feels she has to help out. Even though she feels Caleb’s mum holds her responsible.

Jessa was one of the last to see Caleb alive. He turned up to her cross-country meet then left. Rumours circulate as to why, but nobody could have predicted that Caleb would be caught in the floods that swept their town that night and that his car would be swept off the local bridge.

Jessa is everywhere in this room, and it is certainly not the kind of experience you’d wish on anyone. However, as Jessa packs up Caleb’s belongings there are clues that perhaps she didn’t know him as well as she thought.

In the opening stages of the novel it seems to focus very much on the relationship and grief element, which had limited appeal. However, very quickly we move into Jessa trying to uncover the mystery of Caleb’s last days and putting together the clues she’s been left as to exactly what happened. This soon became a tense mystery, and slowly trying to put the pieces together was great fun. Jessa was believable and though I was surprised by the ending it really was a great read.

‘All The Things We Never Said’ – Yasmin Rahman

All The Things We Never Said is a book that aims high in terms of topics being explored. Abuse, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, on-line bullying…all feature in some way, and at times I couldn’t help but feel anyone trying to deal with all these things would find life tough. For these reasons, this will be a book that some won’t like.

The story focuses on three characters – Mehreen, Olivia and Cara – who are paired together by an online suicide pact. They meet and are set a series of tasks to complete to help each other in their bid to end their lives. The unknown organisers of this site become increasingly manipulative and start to show their sadistic and damaging tendencies.

The concept behind the site and the way this panned out didn’t quite ring true. I can’t help but feel that if the police were aware of the existence of such a group that such vulnerable people would not be left to their own devices as they are here.

That gripe aside, the book was interesting for not shying away from some difficult topics. The friendship that developed between the three girls was well-depicted and it showed the importance of talking to those around you.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with access to this prior to publication.

‘The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World’ – Amy Reed

Billy Stoat and Lydia Lemon don’t have much in common. Yet when their schools combine, they find themselves becoming friends.

Both socially inept, the teenagers have family backgrounds that make you want to cry. Yet the two keep a sense of humour, and actually come across very positively.

The story as such is not that exciting. Billy’s uncle (a famous singer) has a breakdown and returns to his home town. He hides away from everyone, relying on Billy to keep him fed. Then the town is hit by a tsunami.

It’s rather rambling, and could have been made more succinct but the appeal of this story was the two key characters, their developing relationship and their growing self-belief.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

‘Heartstream’ – Tom Pollock

I should have expected the bleakness after my previous encounter with a Tom Pollock novel, but this was a book to be recommended with caution.

We have what seems to be a fairly standard split narrative. We assume they’ll link in some way, but exactly how isn’t revealed until a lot later…and it really did turn some of my thoughts completely over. The less said about it the better, but my goodness did the revelation fill me with despair.

One of our narrators is Amy. She uses a seemingly innocuous app called Heartstream to try to make sense of her emotions, and to manage her feelings after the death of her mother. We first meet Amy on the day of the funeral, when she returns home to find a strange woman in her kitchen who threatens to blow her up. Why, we assume we’re about to learn.

Then there’s Cat. Sixteen, and one of a group of super-fans who follow their favourite boy band around, using social media to manipulate those around them. While she loves this part of her life, she has a secret. She also happens to be the girlfriend of the lead singer of the band. Naturally, it’s known to no- one. Naturally, it brings her great joy. Naturally (I hate how cynical this made me feel) it doesn’t work out as she’d hoped. In fact, it goes way beyond the worst things you could imagine.

As we slowly establish the story of each character and learn a little more about them, we are drip-fed hints of the link between their stories.

I was enjoying this immensely, reluctantly putting it down to go to work, but then the rug was pulled from under me and I was left with a sense of utter horror.

Bleak doesn’t begin to cover this, but it was a fascinating exploration of obsession and the role the media/internet can play in our lives.

This would have been a hands-down five star read, apart from the fact I felt those characters needed something hinting at a resolution…and there was one character who I was desperate to find out more about, but never got the insight I craved.

‘The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods’ – Emily Barr

This story by Emily Barr is definitely one to go into without really knowing too much.

Initially I found the split in narrative quite disconcerting. We focus on sixteen year old Arty who is forced out of her commune when illness affects many of the group. She is thrown into a world of which she has no experience and her story as she navigates what so many of us take for granted was interesting. Alongside this is a curious story told from the perspective of someone locked in a basement.

As the story progressed I confess to getting quite carried away trying to plot how the two would be linked. It did become evident where it was heading, but not before I’d imagined things far worse than we were faced with.

I enjoyed the story, though the reaction of characters to Arty’s innocence did, on occasion, make me frustrated. That irritation aside, this was quite enchanting while not being afraid to touch on some rather unpleasant things.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read it in exchange for my honest review.

‘I Am Not A Number’ – Lisa Heathfield

A must-read book that shows people at both their best, and their worst.

Ruby has always been encouraged to value her opinion. She’s encouraged to make up her own mind about politics, and even when the Traditional Party get voted into power she imagines she will still be able to have her own views.

It begins quite innocuously with assemblies and an increased presence of those keen to uphold these traditional values. Slowly we start to see a clamping down on opportunities for people to dissent. Then, all too soon, Core supporters whose views are not welcome are herded together.

Taken from her home in the middle of the night Ruby is slowly adjusting to a life where she has no rights. Living in a modern-day concentration camp she is starved, forced to work and subject to brutal treatment. Like Ruby and those around her, we wonder how it can happen. But it does.

A chilling tale that shows just how easily the world we know can be changed, and just how vital it is for people to fight for others.

‘What She Found in the Woods’ – Josephine Angelini

‘Be like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’ – the advice given to Macbeth by his wife before he commits the murder of King Duncan definitely sprang to mind as I was reading this. Everyone is hiding something, and it’s not clear who to trust.

What She Found in the Woods is a pacy thriller, focusing on the story of a young girl with mental health issues who finds herself caught up in events beyond your worst imaginings.

Magda has – we know – done some awful stuff. She’s heavily medicated and comes from a life of privilege. When she is forced to live with her grandparents she finds herself drawn to the woods, where she spends her time hiking. There she meets Bo, a young man whose family live in the woods.

There’s a bit of everything in here, and yet it works. We quickly become invested in Magda’s story and curious to see how the strands come together. Some of the reveals were quite heavily hinted at, but there was plenty to leave us doubting the reliability of our narrator.

‘The Rest of the Story’ – Sarah Dessen

A coming-of-age story that explores family bonds, grief, friendship and romance…and even has time for a major event…

Emma Saylor is (dare I say it) rather bland as a character. Since her mother’s death she’s always been protected by her father and, at seventeen, leads quite a sheltered life. When plans for her to stay with a friend fall through, she is determined to do whatever it takes to ensure her father and stepmother go on their honeymoon. So she agrees to stay with her grandmother, the one she hasn’t seen since she was four, at the lakeside resort her mother lived in.

A rather slow beginning as Emma gets to know who’s who in the family she never knew. We have quite stereotypical reactions from Emma as she learns some of the truths about her mother that others have tried to hide. However, through these stories she also learns about herself.

There’s no major revelations, just a gradual self-awakening. But it was portrayed quite realistically and did leave me with a bit of a smile on my face.