The Dartmoor Bookworm

For three days I moved this book between the coffee table and my bedside table. I didn't open it or read it, I just kept moving it, downstairs then upstairs and back. The thing is, when you read a good book you never know whether the next book will be as good, and if it's not then there's always the disappointment, the loss and the grief you feel. I didn't want to read this in case it wasn't as good as Can you See me? the book I read previously. When I did start to read it, it was at night in bed. I told myself that I'd just read the first couple of chapters. At just after midnight and seventy odd pages in, I had to stop and go to sleep, but even then I didn't want to put it down, I needed to know what happened, who each character was and how they were linked. To say this story gripped me is an understatement. I read the whole book in three nights. The story is based around a large (very large) house in Chelsea, that is owned by Henry and Martina and...

Watching you by Lisa Jewell really didn’t disappoint. As I’ve said before I’m a big fan of Lisa Jewell books, they are usually gripping stories and easy to read. This one was both. The story starts with a murder scene but the author doesn’t tell you who it is and this makes you start questioning every character in the story. The story follows the main characters Joey, a newly married women, who with her husband, are living with her brother and sister in law in their house on the terrace which is the main setting of the story. The next main character is Tom Fitzwilliam who lives two doors away with his wife and son. Tom is a superhead who has been brought in to turn around the local academy school. His son, Freddie, is portrayed as a bit odd, constantly watching and photographing people who live in the village and recording their day to day goings on. Hence the “Watching You.” The other main characters are Jenna and Bess who go to the academy. Bess is infatuated by Mr F and Jenna...

The Girls by Lisa Jewell is my first library book in a long time. I rejoined the library at the beginning of January as part of my New Years resolutions. I read this in three evenings. I’ve always loved Lisa Jewell books since I read her debut ‘Ralph’s Party’ back in the late 1990s. The girls is about two girls Grace and Pip and their mother Claire who have recently moved into a flat that backs on to a huge communal garden in the centre of London. They have moved there due to an episode with their schizophrenic father who had burnt their previous house down. He is now in hospital and the girls and their mum are making a fresh start. After they move in they meet the other teenagers who live around the Garden and who have grown up together going in and out of each other’s houses. In the garden is a bench in commemoration of a 15 year old girl who was killed in the garden years before. On the day of Grace’s birthday and the annual summer party, Pip find’s Grace unconscious in a...