beate251's reviews
414 reviews

Frank, 67, lost his wife Marcie two years ago. He had a fallout at the funeral with son Mikey, and they haven't spoken since. He is now agoraphobic and almost exclusively sees and speaks to an apparition of his dead wife. Frank is lonely and grieving.

Red, 6, has had to move house and school, where he is bullied, after the breakdown of his parents' marriage, and ends up living next to Frank, with a shared garden fence that has seen better days. Red is lonely, sad and confused, but also very interested in the grump next door.

The two of them are not a natural fit and are only thrown together after Frank gives Red a tip against his bully that earns him a one week suspension - and Frank will have to look after him. 

Soon Red realises that Frank is estranged from his adult son and he hatches an utterly brilliant plan. Like most utterly brilliant plans hatched by six year olds, this one goes awry pretty soon - or doesn't it?

This must be one of the best debut novels I've ever read. The way those two lonely souls connect is nothing short of heartwarming. Talkative Red may be a bit precocious but he's also smart and kind, and Frank may be grumpy but he has a good heart, buried under grief and alcohol. When an unlikely friendship gets started, it has far-reaching consequences. Heartily recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for this ARC.

I've been reading Katie Fforde's novels for years and I've always liked them but I only gave the last one 3.5 stars. I had high hopes  this would be better but unfortunately I couldn't get on with this at all. 

The story is so slight. There are two young women living in the same house in a posh part of London in 1968 who become friends and both deal with step families and romances that suffer from miscommunication.

There was some attempt to show the quaintness of the sixties with maps and telephone directories (and the casual sexism of that period) but other than that I don't think that decade was drawn too well and it didn't feel particularly relatable.

I didn't like all the classism and hatred towards French people, there wasn't enough plot going on and I constantly mixed up Felicity and Violet and their two suitors. I also didn't believe in the chemistry of any of the love stories, and the pacing was all over the place.

The mudlarking and trying to find a forgotten palace was at least some semblance of a story but it wasn't enough. I am afraid this was too predictable and instantly forgettable. There was also no reason to set the story so far back in time. This book will work for a lot of people but for me it's not one of the author's best.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.

Claudia Stitchwell, headmistress of a CofE Primary School, collapses in the school hall after her nut allergy kicks in and dies when no EpiPen is found in time. She wasn't well-liked and in particular four people had reason to want her dead - school cook Hattie, teaching assistant Kiera, deputy head Ben and school bursar Clive.

The suspicious parents of "Year 6 Tiger Class" have a lively group chat going that discusses everything from this week's spellings to now rumours that Ms Stitchwell was murdered, considering the school is usually a nutfree zone. We get the typical parents who think their children are the best in everything, the parents whose child loses clothes all the time, or who is never invited to a party and Laura who is always "in the wrong group, sorry". We have the odd vaccine denier and "trans is a life choice" bigot, but we also have great people who help out everywhere and try to make everyone welcome.

The book is written in multi POV between the four suspects (who are all unrelatable narrators) and is interspersed with chaotic chat transcripts, police interviews, receipts from the local supermarket and newspaper articles. I have to admit it took me a while to get used to this writing style, especially as the group chat format  was all jumbled up in the Kindle edition.

This book is a hoot! These parents and their gossip and attempts to investigate are hilarious. I also loved "Tickly Tiger's Diary", the class mascot who gets to spend alternate weekends with a child and their parents, and Office Manager Marcia's newsletters to the parents, especially the last one! The addresses go from Parents to Carers to Guardians to  Parental Responsibility Providers to Guiding Adults to Self-determining Care Providers to "whatever the bloody hell you want to call yourselves this week", LOL.

The narrative is fast and frenetic anyway but goes up to high-octane speed the further we get in the book, especially when Ben is fighting multiple fires at the same time - the dreaded Ofsted inspection, a school trip that ends in a Norovirus outbreak, his faraway son and his affair with Kiera. This was also around the time I really started to dislike him.

The person I hated the most though was Clive and I have to say it was a brave decision to make him the focus of everyone's hate for the majority of the book, and not the murdered headmistress. He did so many hateful things that his ultimate fate didn't come as much of a surprise and I was rooting for the ever so clever murderer.

The plot is so incredibly entertaining and the characters so well-drawn that I read it in one sitting and was sad when it ended. There are many twists and turns, it is funny as heck with many laugh out loud moments but also dark and knows when to be serious (anyone else having tears in their eyes at little Jacob?). None of the four suspects are flawless, they all have secrets to hide and have not always behaved well, which makes them very relatable.

I loved Over My Dead Body by the same author and I am happy to say she has done it again. This is such a unique, smart book that cleverly incorporates darker elements like religious bigotry, blackmail and abuse of power, and makes us actually be ok with someone possibly getting away with murder. You don't need to be a parent or work in a school but if you do, you will identify so hard with everything. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

This is book 3 in the Morwenna Mutton Mysteries. Morwenna, 63, part time librarian and waitress in her family's tearoom, is an amateur sleuth in Seal Bay, a small seaside town in Cornwall.

During a Sea Shanty Festival, radio journalist Irina is found drowned even though she was a strong swimmer, and after she told Morwenna she was in the process of uncovering a huge scandal.

The tone of this book is lighthearted and humorous, with equal importance given to Morwenna's private life as to the murder mystery. There are four strong feisty generations of Mutton women, of whom I liked little Elowen the best. She just has a comeback for everything!

I had previously read Judy Leigh books but only the romance for the older gal ones. This has the same airy writing style and it's a joy to see an older woman getting to grips with murderers in her close knit community, while actually being respected and consulted by the local police force. 

I read this as a standalone and had no trouble understanding the dynamics. Recommended if you like a cosy murder mystery with mature characters in a Cornish setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.

Fleeing her controlling husband, Grace Cleary has returned to her hometown of Maiden's Cove with her 8 year old daughter Bayla, to take over the failing family restaurant she has inherited from her father.

Soon she is immersed in the small seaside town's community, reconnecting with her brother Ben, old crush Luke and BFF Isla who is rumoured to be a mermaid. Because Maiden's Cove seems to have magic and mermaids and green shimmering lights coming from the sea, enchanting the community and tourists alike.

In an unforgettable summer of mouth-watering fresh seafood, cheerful fishing festivals and childhood memories to better times, old friends find their way back to each other but old dangers also resurface. This is a compelling story of love, friendship, self-discovery and second chances that will make you hopeful that everything is possible.

"One from the land and one from the sea. Summer soul sisters forever shall we be."

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Liv's boyfriend Kit vanished seven years ago without a trace on a hike. After grieving for years, she is now getting married to James until, the morning of the wedding, everything changes again. She finds a familiar necklace in her groom's suit pocket and is transported back to her old flat with Kit, six days before he disappeared and able to relive that time. Can she change history, and more to the point, does she want to?

There are twists aplenty, far more than I was expecting in a romance - but it wasn't just a simple romance. We get two timelines and POVs in which several mysteries are explored - what happened to Kit and is he still alive, and whatever relevance does hermit Connor McDonald have to the family? The second timeline is so cleverly written that I didn't realise at first who it was about, just that something didn't quite add up.

I liked both Liv who is strong and knows her mind, and kind James, who got a raw deal with his parents and didn't deserve what they, or at least his horrible mother, put him through. Liv's relationship with her mother and how she deals with her mother's agoraphobia was beautifully explored.

This is a story of love, loss, redemption and second chances, with a dash of magical realism, and is far less predictable than I thought it might be, and far superior to recent similar offerings about a woman torn between two men. I read this book in one sitting and highly recommend it. This is a well-written and capitvating emotional rollercoaster of a story that will stay with you. The epilogue was something else!

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

This is book 3 in the Bad Girls Detective Agency series, and it's a smasher. I really like the dynamic between Clio, Amber and Jeanie, three feisty middle-aged women who take no crap from anyone.

Like the first book focusing mainly on Clio and the second on Jeanie, this has Amber as the main character, and there is an interesting personal component to the story for her. It's her birthday and she gets invited on a weekend away with her two BFFs to a luxury retreat with food from a world-renowned female chef from France.

Unfortunately, the retreat is on an island that gets cut off by bad weather, so when the bodies start to pile up on a dark and stormy night, there are only a handful of suspects, and they have to solve the case against the clock before they fall victim themselves to a murderer they are trapped with in very close proximity.

This is fast-paced, entertaining and easy to read. There is proper sleuthing and getting into danger going on, and it's all wrapped up in the relationships of the women with their friends and family. I found this compelling and was truly surprised by the ending, but equally charmed by the friendship of three strong women who stick together through anything. Recommended.

The Woman on the Bridge is historical fiction, which is a bit of a departure from Sheila O'Flanagan's usual romances - apparently it's by and large her grandmother's story.

Having grown up in Germany and now living in England, I knew nothing about the Irish War of Independence in 1920 so this was a welcome departure from my usual Tudor fare and an opportunity to learn something new.

The author weaves a compelling take of young Dublin woman  Winifred O'Leary; Joseph Burke, the man she falls in love with; and their respective families, plus Winifred's employer Alice Kelley, a woman I grew to love during the story.

Both the years of war and uproar and the 1920s are described perfectly. It struck me how early and how easily people seemed to decide to marry. Apparently, 15 was a bit too early, 16 just about acceptable and 19 already a bit spinstery.  So, do it at 17-18 and it's perfect, and do not wait longer than a few weeks either, there is a war on!

The author doesn't shy away from the raw deal women generally had -casual misogyny and domestic abuse were rife, and the "new Ireland" that the protesters wanted didn't always include women's rights. Contraception methods were woefully inadequate and only worked until they didn't (olive oil on a sponge, anyone?), hence the large families everyone had. 

Winnie's own family has been scattered to the four winds, with sisters married into England, Belgium and America. Her mother-in-law is suspicious which side Winnie is on because no one could really stay neutral. It's remarkable how much Winnie grows during those war years and really gets to know her own mind and what is important. Recommended.

Anna Love and Leo Knight used to be married to each other for six months before Anna broke it off because she was very insecure and didn't trust Leo to stay with her, even though he had not given her any indication that he wouldn't.

Years later, they meet again in Prague, Czech Republic, where they both have a six months beer brewery placement and are, of course, forced to share a flat.

Predictably, the forced proximity makes them fall in love with each other again, but Anna still needs a few stern talkings to before she agrees to try again.

In the meantime, the author does a great job of writing a love letter to Prague, a city I've never been to. The culture, scenery and food descriptions are enticing, and the people friendly.

I enjoy Julie Caplins books because she does romantic escapes to foreign cities very well and seems to research thoroughly every time. Recommended if you like second chance romances in a charming foreign setting and it doesn't bother you that it's never explained how a six months' stay in an EU country works after Brexit.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Sophie is about to marry Will but she has unfinished business with ex-husband Tom so she travels to Paris to meet him there one last time.

There are three timelines: From "first summer 2011" towards the present, "two weeks ago" in Paris and "now". The twist, which I've figured out very early on, comes at 40% and from then on the Now timeline actually also goes back in time, to after what happened with Tom and her encountering his best friend Will again, up to the wedding, but all while in the past timeline we haven't got to the point where Tom left yet. 

I found it all very confusing and questioned why the story couldn't just have been told in a linear fashion. Also, don't get me wrong, I like Paris as much as the next person but I wouldn't want to go there eight years in a row, as symbolic to your relationship as it might be, especially if all you ever do is visit the Louvre. It just feels like such a cliché.

I really didn't understand why we had to spend so much time in Sophie's relationship with Tom. I would have loved to get more story with Will who was so lovely instead of endlessly having Sophie fretting about not becoming pregnant while not actually having much in common with rich boy Tom.

This story contains some emotionally hard-hitting topics and you might need tissues if you're prone to tears. Recommended if you like books with really gorgeous covers about how to deal with grief and getting second chances.