beate251's reviews
436 reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this ARC.

Bernie is 64 and mother to Connor, 27. Connor has learning disabilities and has been living with his mother all his life in Hope Street. He has a job in a DIY shop which he loves and is generally quite happy, as he is loved and safe with his mother, even though strangers can often be cruel.

Then the council start planning a housing development which means that Hope Street needs to be demolished to make way for it. One by one people leave until it's only Bernie and Connor left - and then Bernie mysteriously disappears without a trace. 

Three years later, journalist Lila from the local paper gets a tip about the last remaining resident of Hope Street steadfastedly refusing to move and sets out to interview him. She ends up vowing to help Connor find his mother because Connor can't leave while she's missing. She is helped by Connors's best friend Marcus who is initially very sceptical about her and about good news for Connor.

This compelling story is told in dual POV between Connor and Lila, with flashbacks giving us Bernie's rather surprising story.

We get a good insight into the main characters, Connor's motivation and Lila's ambition for a job with a national paper in London. The ending is surprising, and while it's not solving everything the way people wanted, it's full of potential and hope.

However, I feel like the Adele subplot was unnecessary because the drama ultimately went nowhere and was solved too neatly.

This is an emotional and heartwarming story about friendship, loss and not giving up. Mike Gayle has long been a favourite author of mine and he once again proves why. Highly recommended if you loved Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yale University Press for this ARC.

I'm German and while I know the Grimm's tales well from my childhood, I know next to nothing about the brothers themselves, which is why I downloaded this biography.

The Grimm Brothers are primarily known as fairy tale and legend collectors but they earned money as librarians and civil servants while their passions lay in science and literary scholarship. Their world was marred by wars and short life expectancy - tales of "a shining world of gold and pearls, but also a world of darkness and evil" had to be preserved for future generations. They were deeply bonded and spent their whole lives together under one roof, even when Wilhelm married.

This is the first full-length biography in decades and also covers the brothers’ many other groundbreaking but largely forgotten or overshadowed accomplishments, like the work on a German dictionary, grammar work that led to Grimm's Law (a systematic consonant shift) and contributions to linguistics, mythology and German culture and identity.

It's a warts and all biography, from their struggle with poverty, loss and ill health to their mentorship with Friedrich Karl von Savigny and friendship with Clemens Brentano and Achim and Bettina von Arnim, from their intellectual brilliance to their anti-Semitism and patriotism in the face of political upheaval. For example, as members of the Göttingen Seven, protesting against the king, they lost their university posts which enabled them to start undertaking the massive German dictionary project, which sadly was not completed in their lifetime and only finished in 1961 through a collaboration of German academics.

I learned a lot of new things - Jacob and Wilhelm were rather introverted and didn't go out themselves to collect stories and most
tales came from educated young townswomen and not poor old women or peasants, like they themselves purported. They didn't change too much from the original tales but edits were nevertheless made, for example to keep gender stereotypes in line with the attitudes of the time.

It's a shame that their fairy tale collections weren't commercially successful during the brothers' lifetimes but it speaks for the quality of them that they have endured over time and been made into films, plays and musicals, as well as given psychoanalysts a field day for generations.

This is a thoroughly researched, detailed and accessible account offering a rich historical background and should have broad appeal even though it's written in a scholarly manner.

“And if they have not died, then they are still living today.”

This is the sequel to The Family Man which was primarily about Kenny Bond.

Now the gangland saga continues with his grandsons, twins Beau and Brett, who is gay. They are both not great people but Beau is utterly evil, having killed half-brother Jamie just so his way was free to marry traveller girl Jolene Tampin. Mind, they are all just 16 at the beginning of this book that spans five years, from 1993 to 1998.

There are plenty of Romani words from the traveller community used that I had to Google. A glossary at the back might have been helpful.

I can't tell you how I hated almost everyone in this book, some women included. They are all horrible. They have no idea how to speak proper English, without swearing or slagging people off, how to live a non-criminal life, not cheat on their spouses or bring up their children to become normal adults. They are grandparents at 38 because they all start extra young.

The men are entitled arseholes who think women are possessions and who never understand what they have done wrong. But the women aren't much better. They all hate each other, there is no solidarity just misogyny towards their own gender.

I hated the writing style. People say sentences, followed by "lied", "gabbled" or "chuckled". I don't need to be told when someone in the book lies, it's all they do. People talk in slang and with bad grammar, use bad English like "reason being" and "mug him off". The language is unpleasant and full of swear words and casual racism and homophobia.

I've recently read Roberta Kray's new book "Traitor" and while this takes place in London's East End and contains unsavoury characters, people talk normally and many have redeemable features or are outright good people, just trying to survive. There is nothing of that here. All we get are two despicable criminal families, one white and one from the Traveller community. There are too many characters to mention as these people multiply like rabbits. There are secrets and lies but no real storyline.

The pacing is all over the place. The beginning is taken up with introducing characters and catching us up on the plot from the first book. Most of the action happens in the last third which spans the last year. 

And the book is too long. Way too long, considering this is book two and there is at least one more coming. How can you write that much about utterly despicable people?

All. The. Content Warnings.

Joe-Nathan is 23, lives with his widowed mother and works in a supermarket, which he loves. He has some kind of undiagnosed neurodiverse disorder (maybe autism) - he's intelligent but needs his routine and structure and often struggles with emotions and touch. 

His mother is wonderful and tries to make him as independent as possible, teaching him things and writing them down in two notebooks - a blue one for practical things and a yellow one for emotional ones. She teaches him a lot about preconceptions and it's generally very wise stuff.

On the whole he has great colleagues but Charlie and Owen don't seem to like him and bully him mercilessly, calling him Joe Nuthin', until one day Joe finds something out about Charlie that changes everything. I have to say I found Charlie's story almost too harrowing. 

When the worst happens and his mother dies of a heart attack, Joe has to gather the strength to live independently and embrace change, which is when he finds that colleagues like Chloe, Pip and his boss Hugo (he calls him Hugo Boss) rally around him in a very heartwarming way.

This is a very touching story about friendship, kindness and acceptance. Joe-Nathan is a huge fan of the American sitcom Friends and uses lessons from it to navigate the world. It was fantastic to see him get his own found family at the end.

As an aside, I found Mum Janet's swirly font terribly hard to read and I would have wished for it just to be italics or something.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for this ARC.

Jem Byrne has moved to the Mansfield Estate in the fictitious East London borough of Kellston where all of Roberta Kray's novels take place, in order to hide from her violent ex Aidan Hague who has just finished a ten year stretch at his Majesty's pleasure. She is convinced he is going to find and kill her to finish what he started. She asks PI Harry Lind to find out where he is because she feels observed - as if someone is stalking her. Does she need to run again?

Ten year old Kayleigh and her mute younger brother Kit live alone with their mother Nola Dunn on the Mansfield Estate since their father disappeared three years ago. They want PI Harry Lind to find him because their mother has become a neglectful prostitute and alcoholic. Was Ray Dunn involved with local gangland boss Danny Street and had to hide or is he just one of those feckless Dads shirking their responsibility?

Celia Montlake lost her daughter Christine 51 years ago. No one knows what happened to her, there were suspects but nothing ever came of it. She hires PI Harry Lind to dig into the cold case again. Was it really the Freer family that everyone suspected and just could not prove and who were hounded out of Kellston by Christine's father Arthur Montlake? Or is someone very different the culprit? And how is religious nutter Moses connected to it all?

Then there is Phillip Grosvenor, a faded crime writer who has rented a small flat on the Estate under the name Joe Chapel. On the surface, he seems to have done this to immerse himself in the criminal culture for his next book, but is he really all he seems? When a young woman is murdered on the Estate, it is the same person that Phillip wanted to murder in his book. Is it coincidence or is something more sinister at play?

Roberta Kray is such a great storyteller. You just disappear into the story as if you lived on the notorious Mansfield Estate in Kellston yourself, with the prostitutes, the drug dealers, the graffiti and the casual racism and also classism of yesteryear, plus the general atmosphere of decay and neglect.

There are a lot of characters but you never feel overwhelmed because they get introduced one by one. The characterisations are spot on, especially of the less savoury characters and those who think they are respectable when they are anything but.

Harry is such a great character, juggling three cases at once and trying to do them all justice, even though he only gets reimbursed for one. I also loved Jem and Kayleigh, just trying to survive in tough situations not of their own making.

The writing style is tense, with the different storylines seamlessly intertwined and plenty of twists and turns. I couldn't put the book down. What a treat. This will keep you up until late at night but in a good way. Roberta Kray really is the queen of crime writing!

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for this ARC.

This novel is about bride Bryn who invites five former friends to her wedding that she hasn't seen in five years, due to some unspecified but spectacular falling out of the entire group.

The wedding will be in Vancouver, Canada but the friends are in the UK so Bryn gets them flights to Toronto, then cabins on a four day sleeper train to Vancouver, so they can use the time to kiss and make up with each other.

I requested this book because the premise of a Christmassy sleeper train chugging through a Canadian winter wonderland sounded irresistible. However, there was not enough to keep me interested as all we got were six people sniping at each other for reasons unknown.

I got no sense of these characters and so I never got to care about or even like them. All I know is that while everybody was holding grudges, some carried torches for others, including Ember who once dated Bryn and wanted to see her again before the wedding. 

The reveal about the cause of the big fight should have come at the beginning but came at the end, and I rolled my eyes about how stupid and pointless it seemed.

The story was told in multi POV but some people got a lot more airtime than others. Most characters remained disappointingly underdeveloped as a consequence. It also wasn't very festive - I can think of better ways of celebrating Christmas than being stuck on a train in a snowstorm. I'm sorry but this fell flat for me. At least it was a fast read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hera for this ARC.

Sam Carmichael, 35, has made a written contract with his overbearing mother Gloria 20 years ago - if he hasn't got a boyfriend by 35, she can make the dating rules for him. The time has now come and his mother is overjoyed that she is allowed to interfere officially. She is still grieving for the loss of her sister Shug and this might give her a new impetus.

The way she goes about it is hilarious, plunging poor Sam into the dating pool by all means necessary and shoving him from one horrendous date to the next. Sam isn't really interested anyway - all he wants is his ex Paul back who is making positive noises about getting divorced from his hubby soon. At the same time Sam is growing closer to Finn Montgomery, an artist his company represents.

Sam is a regular at Plant Daddy, a quirky coffee & plant shop owned by grumpy Kai and populated by a diverse clientele, including his best friend Omar. I loved this found family of characters, with his mother eventually starting to work there too, although many of them stay very much in the background.

The LGBTQ+ and diversity representation is exemplary. One character is introduced as a wheelchair user and later as a trans man completely in passing, making it normal and no big deal. 

I have read a lot of books incorporating monster mothers. Gloria is not one of them. She is interfering, yes, and she would be too much for me. But she is not any different from any in your face, meddling but loving and supportive Jewish mother. She loves Sam and Sam loves her and she's also a fierce if sometimes inappropriate ally to the queer community.

Sam loves classic films which others see as outdated regarding queer representation. He's a writer but he doesn't see himself as one as he's "only" written six books for someone else as a ghost writer, and only one short story of his has won him critical acclaim. 

It's a bit perplexing that Sam thinks so little of himself and his talents. Everyone around him can see his worth except himself. It might have to do something with his ex Paul who never supported him the way he should have. Finn basically spends the entire book trying to boost his self-confidence.

However, the story spends more time on the mother/son relationship than on any romance so I felt a little short-changed. I would have liked Sam and Finn to have more scenes together although I loved the character of Glory, as she re-christened herself.

Altogether, this is a fun, warm-hearted if predictable story of finding your self-worth and love in the process, if you believe in yourself and your strong support system.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC.

Fallon Honeywood is an overworked events planner who gets invited to her mother's fiancé Douglas Knight's manor Blakeney Hall on the Yorkshire Moors for the Christmas period.

Mother Jacqueline is a soap actress in a soap called Mayfair Mews. Throughout Fallon's childhood she has been largely absent, making Fallon feel abandoned. She is still manipulative, used to getting what she wants, roping her daughter into organising an engagement party for her with extremely short notice. However, it looks like Douglas is softening her. 

At Blakeney Hall Fallon and her small dog Runcible soon get sucked into the Knight family - Douglas' son Alexander, a widower, and his son Theo, Alexander's gay half-sister Coco and their aunt Constance, plus Douglas' ex-wife Estelle who fronts a popular baking show and unexpectedly bonds with Jacqueline.

Fallon is not one to sit idle - she packs a lot into her day, likes bracing country walks and soon helps Alexander with the marketing for his artisanal gin at the Christmas Fayre.

She is also, against her better judgment, getting involved with nine year old Theo, even though she does not want to have children or look after other people's, largely because she thinks she would be as bad a mother as her own was.

This is predictable and sweet, largely conflict-free and sufficiently Christmassy. It reads well, has a clean romance and lovable supporting characters. The mother-daughter conflict is explored well. If you don't want to engage your brain too much, this is for you.

Alexis Montgomery, 37, is an ER doctor at the prestigious Royaume Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and part of the Montgomery dynasty. For 125 years, a Montgomery has always been associated with this hospital. Her brother Derek has checked out by marrying a pop star and moving to Colombia so everything rests on her shoulders now, whether she wants it or not.

Daniel Grant, 28, is a carpenter in the small town of Wakan, two hours from Minneapolis. For 125 years, a Grant has always been associated with the town, been the groundskeeper and mayor and looked after the people.

When Alexis drives through his town one day she is distracted by a racoon and drives into a ditch. Cue Daniel pulling her out. This promises a light-hearted romantic comedy with an impossibly cute meet-cute. But we get a so much more intense story which is full of emotion, mental health issues, heartbreak and sadness.

The story is told in alternating dual POV, so both Alexis and Daniel get their say. Both have baggage due to their parents. Daniel has an absent mother who only ever calls when she needs money and Alexis's Dad is an emotional abuser undermining Alexis' confidence, like her ex Neil, a surgeon at the same hospital, who refuses to move out of the jointly owned home.

Abby Jimenez' books seem to have many similarities to each other. They all deal with difficult topics like abuse in any form, there is always a cute animal or two with a ridiculous name, a bearded man, the desire to have children, big feelings that border on obsession, and a couple of mentions of Nadia Cakes, the author's own business. Here, there are also some royalty / fairy tale elements.

The people of Wakan are wonderful. They rally around a domestic abuse victim but they aIso made me scream with laughter at their tips for taking a tasteful dick pic and the fact that the whole town got involved. What a community! But even the town itself is like a living spirit, communicating via the weather, trees and dragonflies and even a stained glass window. Wakan means "magic" and it's certainly that - attracting people it needs and repelling people it doesn't.

"When she called, my mood lifted. When I saw her coming down the driveway, my heart would pound. When she was here, I slept better. When she was gone, I was sad. She felt like the sun. Like she was the reason for everything. Like I'd always been waiting for her to get closer and bring me to life."

Abby Jimenez can write big, believable love stories like nobody else.
This is the most romantic book I have read in ages - it's a romance I can totally believe in and not the insta-love for someone because they are hot. A romance where someone is there for the other person because they don't know how not to. The main characters are fantastic. Daniel is the perfect book boyfriend - he never stops caring. I have never been so frightened in a story that it wouldn't work out for the main characters because of some silly societal restraints.

The book is eminently readable and the big feelings will have many readers swoon. I got so invested in the characters that I read this in one sitting, until deep into the night. This is as good as "Just for the Summer", another five star read of hers. A book in which the main characters quote "The Princess Bride" at each other will always get my seal of approval! There's even a crepe recipe at the back, albeit only with imperial measurements. And now I even know what quasquicentennial is. I can't wait to read Bri's story!

"Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn't know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn't even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants. Even if what you want is not to be in love."

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for this ARC.

Björn Diemel, 42, is a criminal lawyer with a wife, Katharina, and a daughter, Emily who is 2 1/2 but talks like a 12 year old. He's a stressed workaholic who never sees his family until his wife forces him to see mindfulness coach and author of "Slowing Down in the Fast Lane: Mindfulness for Managers" Joschka Breitner, in order to save their marriage.

So when his client, crime boss Dragan Sergowicz interferes with his new found family time, he has no choice but to kill and dismember him. Mindfully of course. Dragan has a lot of people who work for him and Björn has to keep the illusion that Dragan is alive and giving instructions through him. However, the solution that Björn has mindfully come to is that it's easier to kill most of them. So begins Björn's journey into mindfulness and murder, while at the same time trying to get a preschool place for Emily, in his own surprising but mindful way.

This is a book by a German author that has been a success in German speaking countries since 2019. "Achtsam Morden" has finally been translated into English and is the first of a series of five books so far, which we will hopefully all be able to read in due course.

You get two books in one - a crime thriller and a mindfulness guide. There is a lot of talk about breathing exercises, time islands and mindful action. Mindfulness is all Björn ever talks about now, and he uses it more and more to justify his murderous actions. The  advice from the mindfulness guide at the beginning of each chapter is repeated within the chapter, which  made me skip the chapter introductions after a while due to overkill (pun not intended).

It's a darkly funny story about what happens when a stressed lawyer finds a new way of thinking and addressing his problems. It ends rather abruptly, but we're not done with Björn yet, and in the meantime, if I ever need to murder someone I know how to do it mindfully now.

This is an unconventional approach to crime narrated in first person by a smart but rarely likeable lawyer who tries to do what's best for his family in a rather violent but original way. There are plenty of twists in this very engaging read. Recommended for lovers of dark humour who don't mind the occasional torture or dismemberment taking place.

"Mindfulness was just autogenic training without lying down. Yoga without contorting yourself. Meditation without sitting crosslegged. Or, as the article in Manager magazine my wife once demonstratively placed on the breakfast table put it: ‘Mindfulness means taking in each moment with love and without judgement."