Zoe Adams

4 stars JUST. I'm in two minds about this. For the first two parts, I was blown away by this. The writing was beautiful, and so insightful. And I loved the Chia and exploring her musings on life and love. But I found it really really went off as we moved to Kadi's story - which we find out from the author's note was really the ‘core' story. The books didn't really hang together, despite the inter-weaving of the character's stories. And the beauty and insight I saw in the first part of the books, was very much lacking later on. It felt like this book needed another draft or two. It had so much potential. but just fell flat in the end.

This book definitely lived up to the hype. It was such a tender, sensitive novel. So well written. Heart wrenching at times, it was also incredibly heart-warming.

3.75 stars. This was probably better than is reflected by my enjoyment. I listened to it, but think I might have benefitted from reading it. It was full of heart, fun, and imagination - which I really appreciated. It just didn't quite work for me.

Adele Parks is very hit and miss for me. 50% of her books are weird conspiracies, with most of the book all gas-lighting the main character and making them feel like they are mad. I didn't enjoy that storyline the first time, but it's getting very old now.

3.75 stars. This book explored complex themes with sensitivity and nuance. It did an excellent job of showing how gender and racial power articulates itself down the generations, and how the past continues to resonate into the present. Unfortunately, it did this at times in ways that made it difficult to resonate with any of the characters on a deep level. Still, a very impressive read.

3.75 stars. This was a pleasant surprise. While the story felt oddly familiar (and very predictable), I loved the writing and characters, and just felt myself warming so much to Harry and Giles in particular.

This was a bit of a disappointment. With so many five star reviews, I expected something written with tenderness and eloquence, and I expected to feel emotionally attached to the characters. Instead, it was an inspiring true story which gave a deep insight into the horrors of human trafficking. Which was well done, and important - but it was hardly an achievement in literary terms.

I want so badly to like Eva Ibbotson, but there is something about her novels that just don't gel with me. I think part of the problem with this one was that it was a YA novel, and I hadn't realised. I also think the narrators of her novels are always quite weak. But even so, something always feels really forced and I just never get very involved.

2.75 stars. This book could have been relatively good. But ridiculous twist was thrown in one after the another, almost as if the author couldn't trust herself to hold the reader's interest without it. There were many lies that did not add up; many facts that were just so outlandish - and a final twist which was just so stupid and ridiculous that I wanted to throw the book against the wall. And yet, I still felt there was a much simpler and less twisty story in there that COULD have been good. A shame.

3.5 stars. A very moving story, well-written, and about a period of history that I was very ignorant about. But the dual/triple time-line did not work for me; I would have preferred just a single timeline that focused on the main character.

I was ready to give up on this at page 60, as there had been about 5 reference to ‘poo' already, and that really reflected the overall tone of the book - cheap, immature, etc. However, it did get better, and I did enjoy it in the end - I just wish Jojo Moyes didn't go in for cheap thrills so much and actually invested in proper character development.

This was a beautiful, tender novel, that most definitely meets the criteria for a ‘literary' novel. While 4 stars for the quality, I have to say, for enjoyment factor, it was more a 3.5 for me, as I just didn't gel with the characters, and found some of the story a bit unbelievable at times. But it was beautifully written, and very thought-provoking.

3.75 stars. This is a lovely series - the crime is always just background to the main story about Simon and his family - which I love.

Oh dear.

What an odd book. Just as I thought it had set itself up for the main story, it finished. Absolutely nothing happened; the characters didn't ‘grow' - everything felt like an introduction to the main event, but it never came....

This is 4 stars because it is very well done. I thought the narrative device of the pottery as a link between strands of a family's history was really clever, and I thought it explored class and race really sensitively. But I can't say I felt particularly invested in the characters.

This was a very different book from Allen Eskens, but as usual, beautifully done. It was an aspect of History I'm very ignorant of too, so I really appreciated the originality.

I have read a lot of transition/detransition novels recently, and none of them have really worked for me. But this was different. The characters were so real, the writing really moving, and the relationships just really believable. A lovely and thought-provoking book that has relevance well beyond the immediate subject-matter

What an awful book about awful people.

This was absolutely fascinating, and incredibly moving. It took me a while to get into this, but it ended up being harrowing, a fascinating look at an under-explored aspect of 20th century history, and beautifully written.

3.5 stars.

3.5 stars.

3.5 stars.

I'm now finding these too formulaic. I don't like the dual narrative approach where one narrative is the perpetrator, and the other the victims/investigators. It ruins a lot of the mystery, and somehow makes the villains seem like charicatures.

3.75 stars. This was a really interesting mystery/thriller, although I was expecting more because of the reviews. I felt that we could have gone much deeper into Nora's motivation and that the author copped out somewhat at the end. But it was still interesting and highlighted huge failings in the American justice system.