The Dartmoor Bookworm

Blurb: When Sarah forgets to check on her best friend’s little boy, distraction turns to disaster. And she’s faced with a dilemma. Tell the truth, lose a friend. Tell a lie, keep her close. In a split second, Sarah seals her fate. But accidents have aftershocks, and lies have consequences.  And when it’s someone else’s child, the rumours are quick to multiply. Everyone’s talking about what happened. And sooner or later, the truth will have to come spilling out… We all make mistakes, right?  Bt this one could ruin the perfect friendship. I asked for a preview copy of this book from Netgalley. I'm not really sure why I asked for it. I cannot stand playground politics and this is the main theme of the story. The characters are all members of the PTA and all communicate via the group WhatsApp. These kind of things really bug me - I just can't see the point, however, to bring it into a story plot line I can see would grip a huge number of people. The stor...

When I requested this book from Netgalley, it sounded ideal, a book about books, what more could a book loving girl ask for, and yet, there is a tell tale sign with me about how much I enjoy a book. The time it takes for me to write a review is the first giveaway. I can devour a book in an evening if it's really good, others take a few days, a week maybe, some when I'm three or four weeks in, you can tell I'm struggling and this one, however idyllic it sounded, is just one of those. I started reading it with great expectations.  I love historical, war stories and as this is set at the end of World War 2, I thought I'd love, but I just can't get into it. There is nothing in the first part of the story that inspires to read on. The story itself is very slow, the characters come across as quite dull and boring, and even though I'm a quarter of the way through it doesn't grab me like a book should, I can't even tell you what has happened because noth...

I've been reading this book with a student this term.  I chose it for him after the good reviews I had seen about it.  He's not a reader and has Autism so most of the book was read to him but he listened well and we enjoyed the story together, doing written work based on it as we went. The story line is great, really exciting stuff of about 9-12 years old. Four children are returning from the Amazon when their plane crashes into the jungle killing the pilot.  Their only way to help themselves is to find a way of escape. The story follows the children as they fight for survival, firstly on their own and later in the book after meeting "The Explorer", it is an adventure story with danger around every corner.  We loved some of the things they got up to (the bees, the raft ride) and really enjoyed the whole book. The characters were likeable, Fred, Con and Lila were really relatable, we could image children that age being exactly as they were described, Max howe...

I was sent a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review. I loved the look of the book, there was something magical about the cover, I chose a lot of books based on their covers and this one looked so lovely and Christmassy that I had to read it. It took some time to get into but I really enjoyed it once I did.  The story is about Rosie and her family, her sister Kate and their parents. Rosie is living in the US and Katie is a A&E doctor here in England. One night Katie receives a phone call from her sister telling her she is marrying her boyfriend of a few months this coming Christmas in the US. Katie who feels that it is all too quick decides she's going to stop the wedding. Rosie parents and Katie travel to the US for the wedding, but things aren't all they seem, secrets are being kept by all members of the family and the story, however predictable is heart warming. Love blossoms between unexpected people, (though i guessed early on that it ...

So I have seen this book many times whilst out shopping but have never bought it. On Thursday I went shopping and picked it up, read the blurb and put it back on the shelf.  When I got home I downloaded it onto my kindle ready for a weekend at the beach house. Unfortunately I was still reading The Winter Secret and with a poorly child I didn't get that finished until yesterday. With the 10 year old flaked out on the sofa all day, I decided to start reading it. I knew the reviews were good, but quickly realised how good this book is.  It is based on a true story, one that Heather Morris has researched and written with the help of Lale (the main character) and his son. It is a beautiful moving love story surrounded by the horrific day to day happenings of Auschwitz.  Morris brings very clear and vivid imagery to her writing, and part of me, even though I know what happened in concentration camps, when it's written from the mouth of one survivor, it still left me num...

This is the first book by Lulu Taylor that I have read. It took me a few chapters to fully get into it but I then found it really hard to put down. The story centres on Buttercup Redmain as the main character, who lives in her husband’s large country house with him and his staff. His ex wifeand the ex owner of the big house live in what I assumed to be smaller gate houses near to the main entrance.  The story follows Buttercup and her day to day goings on, where everything is done for her by her husbands grand team of staff. She quickly realised that the team are watching her every move and starts to delve into her husbands former relationship with his ex. The story also follows Xenia, the previous owner and goes back through her life of living in Charcombe, with her father and film star mother, how she comes to live in one of the gate houses.  I really got into the story and wanted to know what happened in the end. The ending was a real twist and not what I was ex...

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...

My first book of 2019 is Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey. If any of you have read Elizabeth is Missing by the same author, you'll understand why I picked this one as my next read. If you haven't read Elizabeth is Missing I strongly recommend it. Whistle in the Dark is about a 15 year old girl ‘Lana’ who has been missing for four days but has been found and can't remember anything of the four days that she was missing. It delves into her mental health and her wishes to commit suicide in the time leading up to going missing. But also goes deeply into her relationship with her mother ‘Jen’.  I will be honest. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Elizabeth is Missing and I’m not entirely sure why. I did flit between my kindle and the audible version (I listened to it on the way home from work) and I think I found the woman’s voice a little irritating, especially when reading Jen’s bits and this put me off a bit and made me quite dislike Jen as a character. I think I ...