What Happened That Night Review | Sheila O’Flanagan

Despite normally being the one whisking off into outer-space or confronting dragons, I like a gentle book as much as the next gal. This was the first book I’d read by Sheila O’Flanagan, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Keep reading for my full review on What Happened That Night.

Publisher: Headline Review | Date: 2018 | Genre: General Fiction

Plot: Then: When Lola Fitzpatrick catches the eye of Philip Warren, she’s new to Dublin and loving it. He’s used to getting what he wants…and she can’t resist him. Until one night he forces her to make an impossible choice.

If she’d known then what she knows now, everything might have been different.

Now

Lola’s daughter Bey has inherited her mother’s impulsive streak and it takes her down dangerous paths.

Then one night she too finds herself in front of a man she loves, with impossible choices of her own to make.

For both women, what happened that night changes everything. For better. For worse. For ever.

Letters to my Daughters Review | Emma Hannigan

While I’m generally known for being a fantasy and science-fiction fan, I also have a soft spot for a warming, heart-felt book that touches you on an emotional level. Today’s book does just that – here’s my review Letters to my Daughters.

Genre: General Fiction | Publisher: Headline| Date: 2018

Plot: Her three girls were her world. It was time to let them know. 

To sisters Bea, Jeannie and Rose, the death of their beloved childhood nanny is a devastating loss. As the girls grew up, Nanny May had become so much more to them all: confidant, advocate, comforter, friend. In whom will they confide their hopes, fears and failures now she has gone? Especially now each sister needs a mother’s wisdom more than ever…

Martha cannot understand why her daughters are so upset about losing their childhood nanny. Yes, Martha was always in demand as a busy midwife, but that doesn’t mean she loved her own children any less. But why don’t the girls realise that? And has she left it too late to let them know…?

The Wildflowers Review | Harriet Evans

The Wildflowers felt it might fall a little outside of my normal reviewing comfort zone – and it was for that reason alone I was intrigued about giving it a go – besides, who can resist that cover? It’s a different pace to my usual read but I enjoyed it. Keep reading for my review on The Wildflowers.

Publisher: Headline | Date: 2018 | Genre: General Fiction

Plot: Tony and Althea Wilde. Glamorous, argumentative … adulterous to the core.

They were my parents, actors known by everyone. They gave our lives love and colour in a house by the sea – the house that sheltered my orphaned father when he was a boy.

But the summer Mads arrived changed everything. She too had been abandoned and my father understood why. We Wildflowers took her in.

My father was my hero, he gave us a golden childhood, but the past was always going to catch up with him … it comes for us all, sooner or later.

This is my story. I am Cordelia Wilde. A singer without a voice. A daughter without a father. Let me take you inside.

The Key Review | Kathryn Hughes

While a lot of my reviews are full-on fantasy, or fairly dark tales, I can’t deny I like a light-hearted, emotive book just as much. When offered the chance to review The Key by Kathryn Hughes, it was a good chance to step out of my comfort zone – and I’m glad I did!

Publisher: Headline | Date: 2018 | Genre: General Fiction

Plot: 1956: It’s Ellen Crosby’s first day at work as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum. When she meets a young girl committed by her father, and a pioneering physician keen to try out the various ‘cures’ available for mental illness, little does Ellen know that a choice she will make is to change all their lives for ever…

2006: Sarah is drawn to the abandoned Ambergate Asylum and whilst exploring the old corridors she discovers a suitcase in an attic belonging to a female patient who was admitted to the asylum fifty years earlier. The shocking contents of the suitcase lead Sarah to unravel a forgotten story of tragedy, lost love and an old wrong that only Sarah may have the power to put right.

A Year of Marvellous Ways Review | Sarah Winman

Welcome back! I wanted to return with something softer, something different, today, and my previous experience of Sarah Winman meant I thought this might be the one to do it. A heartfelt book that sweeps you up – I really enjoyed this one. Today, I’d like to share my A Year of Marvellous Ways review.

Publisher: Tinder Press | Date: 2015 | Genre: General fiction

Plot: Cornwall, 1947. Marvellous Ways is a ninety-year-old woman who’s lived alone in a remote creek for nearly all her life. Recently she’s taken to spending her days sitting on the steps of her caravan with a pair of binoculars. She’s waiting for something – she’s not sure what, but she’ll know it when she sees it.

Freddy Drake is a young soldier left reeling by the war. He’s agreed to fulfil a dying friend’s last wish and hand-deliver a letter to the boy’s father in Cornwall. But Freddy’s journey doesn’t go to plan, and sees him literally wash up in Marvellous’ creek, broken in body and spirit. When Marvellous comes to his aid, an unlikely friendship grows between the two. Can Freddy give Marvellous what she needs to say goodbye to the world, and can she give him what he needs to go on?