„It was the feeling of someone taking her life that was already a muddle and giving it a good hard shake. Like she was her own personal snow globe.” (Original citation pos. 1135)
Content
Anna Whitehall and her fiancée Seb are living their upper class live in London and are planning a stunning wedding ceremony. But due to a failed investment, Anna loses her job and all their money. When Seb gets a job offer as teacher at Nettleton High, in the small village where Anna had grown up, he is happy to move there. Anna finds a job in an old antiques shop, Vintage Treasure. A few years ago on her way to become a famous ballerina, she is now asked to train a group of village youngsters for the “Britain got Talent” Show. But there is a new job waiting in New York …
Theme and Genre
This story is about love, friendship, family, failures, hopes, and about decisions.
Characters
Ann has to learn to value things in her life and also be ready and open for twists. Happiness sometimes comes different than planned and expensive designer clothing does not always guarantee a happy life. The characters are loveable and very well described.
Plot and Writing
Even though a kind of Happy Ending is predictable, there are enough twists, to make the story enjoyable to read. Especially to see how Anna learns to value the small village community, and her old friends who still are there for her when problems arise, is interesting. Also funny situations are not missing.
Conclusion
A cosy and enjoyable read with enough romance to finish the book with a smile.
„We’re concerned with literary fiction, not with our own personal reality.’ ’I don’t see how you can separate them,’ says Joy.” (Original quotation page 173, 174)
Content
This book contains six short novels: The Bird’s Trilogy, Culture Lovers, Carol’s Christmas, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Framing, The Reading Circle. Each story has different main characters, men and women in a relationship, but definitely focuses on the female protagonists. One of the stories is very amusing and special.
Themes
All stories are about love, relationships and the British way of life, seen from different point of views and as adopted by different cultures and they all contain unexpected turns and twists.
Language is
important, not only connected to the content, but used in a splendid way,
playing with idioms, giving words and phrases amusing new contexts, which makes
the book a real pleasure to read and makes the reader not only smile but laugh
out loud.
Conclusion
Everyday life and marriage, including misunderstandings, humorously analyzed and described and told in a sensitive way, with subtle wit and irony.
“Fiona realized as she walked inside that she’d been picturing something Harry-Potter-like, with high Gothic ceilings and warm candlelight.” (Quotation page 56)
Content
Idlewild Hall had been a boarding school for girls, sent away by their families. Finally closed around 1979 and since abandoned, the new owners want to restore it and reopen the house as a new, modern school.
Young
Journalist Fiona Sheridan has her own bitter memories connected with the
Idlewild property, as twenty years ago her sister Deb had been found dead on the
former sports field. Although Tim, her sister’s boyfriend, had been sentenced,
for Fiona there are still lots of very unclear details and open questions. She
wants to write an article about Idlewild Hall and starts her own researches.
When the renovation team finds the remains of the body of a young girl, dead
for more than sixty years and definitely murdered, she digs deep into the past
of Idlewild Hall. Who was Mary Hand?
Theme and Genre
This dark and atmospheric story is written in the perfect tradition of the famous Gothic fiction originated in England in the second half of the 18th and the 19th century. There are female heroines, four girls in 1950 and Fiona in 2014, a ghost and darkness and mysteries. Topic are the living conditions of for different reasons unwanted girls in the early 60ies, but also female friendship, tenacity and courage, now and then. Another topic are grieve and loss and the Holocaust.
Characters
Fiona is likeable, because although her questions are soon getting dangerous for her, she is not willing to stop and give up. 1950, in the dark, cold surrounding of Idlewild School, four girls, Katie, Roberta, CeCe and Sonia are best friends, holding together against everything.
Plot and Writing
The story takes place in Barrons, Vermont. There are two timelines, the fifties with each chapter focusing on one of the four girls and 2014, with details going back to 1994. Both timelines are gripping und breathtaking, with surprising twists and turns. Especially historical facts connected to Sophie´s story were thoroughly researched.
Conclusion
A dark, atmospheric novel in the tradition of the famous English Gothic literature, gripping and full of suspense. A perfect pageturner, sleepless nights included.
Deutsche Ausgabe: Die schwarze Frau, Goldmann Verlag, 18.
Februar 2019
„They said it was good all the records had been destroyed, because it was time to move on.“ (Quotation pos. 2149)
Content
Young journalist Sam, mother of four-years-old Emma, after a bad row with her husband Ben stays with her Grandmother, where she had grown up. Her Grandfather had died less than 12 months ago and Nana shows her a bundle of letters she had found. They are from a girl named Ivy, written a long time ago, in September 1956. Ivy had gotten pregnant and was sent to, a home for unmarried mothers, open until the mid seventies. Sam is deeply captured by this very sad, impressive story about Ivy and her baby Rose and determined to find out the truth. She has left only two days, because the old Victorian manor is going to be demolished and the persons involved are not ready to talk about St Margaret’s. Are the many mysterious, sudden deaths in the area somehow linked to the past?
Theme and Genre
A gripping novel about the situation of pregnant but unmarried poor young girls and women, sent away by their own families to Catholic institutions. Often their babies were given up for adoption, often against the mother’s will. The story, settled in England, is based on known facts about real, similar institutions in Ireland.
Characters
Sam is a modern woman, struggling to be taken serious as an investigative journalist. A working mom feeling guilty for leaving her little girl with Nana, but definitely not ready to give up to find out Ivy’s story.
Ivy too is
strong and helpful under her own worst conditions of life, willing to fight for
her baby.
Plot and Writing
The gripping story has many twists, turns and many characters involved from the past until today. Told in two different main time levels, Ivy’s story beginning in 1956 and Sam’s story in 2017, there are more steps into the past when it comes to events in the lives of persons involved. Although the reader from a certain moment on might have some assumptions about how some events are connected, the story remains exciting until the end.
Conclusion
An impressive, gripping story, empathically written – a book that is unputdownable.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about responsibility and what one generation owes to the next.” (Citation page 151)
Content
In September 2015 Kate, an ambitious sommelier living in San Francisco, returns to Meursault, Burgundy, where her family since generations owns a vineyard, famous for its wines. Years ago, she had left Burgundy and her fiancé Jean-Luc. Now she needs to freshen up her knowledge about Burgundy vintages, to pass the blind testing of the extremely difficult Master of Wine exam.
She stays
in the old family landhouse and vineyard, now managed by her cousin Nico who is
married to her best friend Heather. When she helps Heather to clean out the
large, deep cellar, she discovers a hidden room, the traces leading back to
WWII. Who was Hélène, a family member never mentioned? Should they reveal
hidden family secrets?
Theme and Genre
This novel is about family, generations, friendship, love and about the passion of viniculture, Burgundy and French living style.
An
important theme is the Second World War, the occupied France, Nazis and resistance
and how people tried to survive and in the same time follow their conscience. There
are family secrets, still hidden and never spoken about.
Plot and Writing
The story is told in two different timelines; both are chronological. They are interwoven and told alternately. There is the first story, told by Kate in the first person and set in modern France 2015. The second story is the diary of Hélène, written between 1939 and 1944. The headlines show the dates, so it is easy to follow the story.
Ann Mah has
found the perfect balance between the French scenery of modern, but still
traditional winemaking, framing a story about friendship and love, and the
gripping story of the French Résistance, courageous people risking their lifes.
The author
gives us wonderful descriptions about wine and Burgundy and shows a deep
understanding of feelings and human character.
Conclusion
This admirably written novel about the violence of war and memoirs between generations of family members is both, a story of love and friendship in the beautiful scenery of a Burgundian vineyard and a gripping, breathtaking story about life in occupied France. A perfect page-turner to lose yourself.
„And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters. (quotation page 3)
Content
Addie Moore and Louis Waters are both widowed. The houses they live in are just one house apart, in Cedar Street, in the small rural town Holt. One day in May Addie asks Louis that they could maybe spend some of the hours during the long, lonely nights together.
Theme and Genre
This poetic, beautiful novel is about ageing, loneliness and friendship. It is also about the problems between parents and their adult children, about life and love. Another important topic are the small-mindedness of small towns and conventions.
Characters
Kent Haruf definitely loves the characters he creates in his stories. Addie and Louis are both caring about each other and their families. Loveable, not perfect, just two normal persons who try to do things their way, and to not care about what people might think about them.
Plot and Writing
A story that will make you laugh and maybe also cry and leave you thoughtful. The positiveness between the lines will remain with you after the end of this book. The novel is writen in the known poetic, brilliant, quiet and specific style of the author.
Conclusion
A beautiful, deeply human story about understanding, friendship and love, about growing old but trying to make the best of it.
„What is it with poets and their hearts? They leave them in the oddest places.” (Quotation from “Hearts”, page 241)
Content
This is a new collection of poems from nine of her published books, published between 1981 and 2010 and a new collection, “Unsent” from 2012.
Themes and Language
Thema und Genre TextThe poet
has written poems about everything, everyday situations and feelings; nothing
seems too simple, flowers, rain and roses, art, nature, Cornwall’s impressive
landscape, dreams and magic, children, especially about herself as a mother and
her daughter Zoe. We find poems about love and poems written about her love for
her husband Peter Redgrove who had died in 2003 and how she still is missing
him.
Penelope
Shuttle has words for everything and embraced by her feelings between the
words, her language paints beautiful pictures full of wisdom, wit, happiness
and sadness.
The first
poem by Penelope Shuttle, I had read, was “Outgrown” written for her daughter
Zoe and it is still one of my favorite ones
“…..
because just as I work out how to be a mother
she stops being a child.” (Page 107)
Just a few
words to describe everything about motherhood.
Conclusion
Unsent is a collection of poems, not of classical rhymes, but of a beautiful poetic language, with its own intonation and rhythm, sensitive, stunning and deeply impressing. They are experiences of life, to share with our own experiences.
„Tread softly because you tread on my dreams“ (Original quotation from a Poem by W.B. Yeats, page 64)
Content
This beautifully illustrated book is a collection of poems, some well-know, some known but forgotten, and others that might be new for the reader. The different poems are grouped together by topics: Musings, Youth, Family, Love, Imaginings, Nature, War, Endings.
I found my
favorite poem by W.B. Yeats, as well as poems by Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas,
together with song texts by Nick Care and Leonard Cohen. One of the poems that
deeply impressed me is “Outgrown” by Penelope Shuttle.
Conclusion
This collection definitely are poems to live your life by, an enjoyable book that is not meant to be read and shelved, but to be taken whenever you need time to reflect and unwind.
Ein wunderschön illustriertes Buch, das eine Sammlung von
Gedichten enthält, Gedichte, die man kennt, Gedichte, die man längst vergessen
hatte und auch Gedichte, die man bisher nicht kannte. Die Werke sind nach Thema
gruppiert, es geht um Jugend und Ende, Familie, Liebe, Krieg, Natur,
Träumereien und Phantasiegestalten.
Hier fehlt auch mein Lieblingsgedicht von W.B. Yeats nicht,
es ziert sogar als Auszug die Rückseite des Buches. Wir finden Lord Byron,
Dylan Thomas, natürlich Klassiker wie William Shakespeare, aber auch Songtexte,
zum Beispiel Nick Cave und Leonard Cohen. Doch es sei nicht zu viel verraten,
es ist eine breit gefächerte Sammlung, es macht Spaß, sich überraschen zu
lassen und Neues zu entdecken.
Sicher kein Buch, das man durchliest und dann ins Regal
stellt, sondern ein Gedichtband, den man gerne immer wieder zur Hand nimmt, um
nachzudenken und zu entspannen, oder einfach zum Vergnügen.
“But as I stared at my new home, I felt a curious urge to ask Heckling to turn the carriage around and drive me back to Norwich, where I might sit on a bench at Thorpe Station until the sun came up and then return to London, a job badly done.” (Original citation page 70)
Content
When her father suddenly had died, 21-year-old schoolteacher Eliza Caine wants to leave London and applies for the position of a governess at Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk. Her job begins in October 1867. When she arrives, she meets the two children, she will look after, 12-year-old Isabella Westerley and her younger brother Eustace, 8 years old. They seem to live alone in this grand country house. There is Mrs. Livermore who cooks and cleans but she lives in the nearby village. Soon Eliza learns that she is not the first governess coming here, but only one of them is still alive, because the house is full of secrets and terrifying things happen. Nevertheless, she is determined to not abandon the two children.
Theme and Genre
A gripping ghost story in the best tradition of the famous 19th century gothic novels, including a dark house with secrets and supernatural mysteries, and a brave heroine. The narrative takes place in England, in the year 1867.
Characters
Isabella and Eustace are very well educated children, but they are very quiet, severely traumatized by the circumstances of the death of their mother. Eliza is missing her father, but she has a very brave character, not willing to give up when she can solve some of the mysteries surrounding Gaudlin Hall and the two children. It is typical for this kind of gothic novels that the reader likes the heroine and fears for her.
Plot and Writing
The exciting, creepy story is written in the first person, told by Eliza, the governess. As Eliza begins to ask people, she and the reader learn about past events that explain some of the occurrences happening in the present. Unforeseeable twists until the last pages stress the captivating storyline.
Conclusion
A spine-chilling gothic novel that makes the reader shiver and unable to stop reading. Perfect for enjoyable reading hours on dark winter afternoons and stormy evenings.
„Eliminate ignorance, Dickens dreamed in his Carol. Eliminate want. A tall order then, and a tall order now.” (Original citation page 226)
Theme and Genre
This book is part a specific biography of Charles Dickens, part a historical overview about live conditions in London around the middle of the 19th century. It also gives a detailed description and complete overview of literature, writing and of publishing during those times, between family enterprises and booksellers who began to set up the whole production process of their books.
But most of
all this is the loveable story about one of the most wonderful Christmas books,
“A Christmas Carol”, about the idea behind the ghostly story, the realization
and what Dickens wanted to tell his readers. He wanted to touch them, making
them laugh and cry at the same time and to re-new the Christmas spirit. Which
he does until today.
Conclusion
A non-fiction story, written in a poetic prose, as delightful to read as the original story. A book for everybody who knows values and loves the Seasonal Writings of Charles Dickens.
„That’s why I call this place the Haunted Bookshop. Haunted by the ghosts of the books I haven’t read.” (Original quotation pos. 1251)
Content
The main protagonists of Parnassus on Wheels, Roger Mifflin and Helen McGill, now are married and own a second-hand bookstore in Brooklyn. Roger Mifflin loves books and he definitely loves the art of bookselling. When Aubrey Gilbert, a young advertising agent visits the shop, he too fells under the spell of the books – and under the spell of Miss Titania Chapman, the new apprentice. Then some strange things happen – a special book Carlyle’s Oliver Cromwell, is missing, back the next day and missing again – is this bookstore really haunted?
Theme and Genre
This novel, published in 1919 as a sequel to Parnassus on Wheels, again is a story about books, readers, writers and literature. Again, there is also room for romantic, love and not only love for books and a mystic crime.
Characters
Roger and Helen are charming and likeable, as well as Titania and the sometimes a little bit clumsy Aubrey
Plot and Writing
The setting, Brooklyn just after the end of WWI, is described in a very vivid way, which makes this book an enjoyable, interesting read. A humorous authorial narrator tells the story, and the events that happen to our protagonists are unsettling but funny too.
Conclusion
A book that every booklover will enjoy, but also for readers who like a good story located in a bookstore.
„As I stood in the still air of the studio, the moonlight entering the window and falling upon the desk, I knew somehow there was something waiting for me.“ (Citation page 68)
Content
Ivy is a children’s books illustrator who has moved together with her husband Stuart from London back to Cornwall, where she grew up. Now that she finally is pregnant she misses her mother, who had died five years ago, even more. When she gets her mother’s desk for her studio, she finds one of her mother’s beautiful Christmas cards, unfinished, a card, Ivy had seen never before.It is going to be Christmas at Sea Cottage, their new home, and magic is in the air.
Theme and Genre
This is a romantic, heartwarming Christmas story about the strong ties between mothers and their daughters. It is also about friedship and beautiful Cornwall.
Characters
Ivy Stuart is still missing her mother, but now that she knows that she will soon be a mother, things have changed and she feels really happy. There too are her friends and the nice old ladies, close friends of her mother. Cloudsea has charming, enjoyable Cornish characters who welcome the reader.
Plot and Writing
A beautifully written, magical story, not only about Christmas, but about life and new chances. It takes place in a Cornish village with beach walks, but also stormy Winter days. The story is told by Ivy, wtitten in the first person.
Conclusion
A magical, romantic book, that takes the reader to a cosy Cornish village. A perfect Christmas read that will make you laugh and cry, but it’s the uplifting feelings that will remain with a smile on your face.
“This moon made the night extraordinary penetrable and showed me on the lawn a person, diminished by distance, who stood there motionless and as if fascinated, looking up to where I had appeared looking, that is, not so much straight at me as at something that was apparently above me.” (Citation pos. 1100)
Content
The Turn of the Screw
“This moon
made the night extraordinary penetrable and showed me on the lawn a person,
diminished by distance, who stood there motionless and as if fascinated,
looking up to where I had appeared looking, that is, not so much straight at me
as at something that was apparently above me.” (Citation pos. 1100)
A wealthy
Gentleman from London, guardian for his nephew and niece, looks for a governess
and hires a young woman. The two children live in his country home in Essex.
Flora, the little girl, is beautiful, well educated and just loveable and after
just one hour, she and her new governess have become friends. Her elder
brother, Miles, too is a beautiful child, gentle, with good manners. Everything
seems to be absolutely perfect – but things are not always, as they seem to be.
A famous,
celebrated and well-known Gothic novella.
The Romance of Certain Old Cloths
“One of
these days my daughter shall wear them – my rings and my laces and silks.”
(Citation pos. 2364)
Two
sisters, Rosalind and Perdita, fall in love with the same man, Mr. Arthur
Lloyd, who marries Perdita. Perdita dies in childbed. Arthur has to promise her
to keep her chest with all her belongings and beautiful dresses for their
daughter. After some time, Arthur marries Rosalind and she is very curious
about the chest.
An American
Gothic tale.
The Ghostly Rental
“The last
red light of the sunset disengaged itself, as it was about to vanish, and
rested faintly for a moment on the time-silvered front of the old house.”
(Citation pos. 2540)
One grey
December afternoon, the narrator, a young Cambridge student, takes an old road
to shorten his way. He comes to a house in an orchard of old apple-trees and he
is curious about the house. The house is haunted, he is told, but he feels that
there must be more, some secret. So he returns to the place and one day he sees
a mysterious old man enter the house. He has several more meetings with the old
man, Captain Diamond. One day in September, the old man sends for the narrator,
he is dying and has one favor to ask.
Sir Edmund Orme
“From the
first time of her seeing me she had been sure there were things I should not
escape knowing.” (Citation pos. 3224)
It is
season in Brighton and the un-named narrator falls in love with charming
Charlotte Marden. Her mother has a secret and one day something happens and the
narrator shares the secret of Mrs. Marden.
A ghost story
told by an outer narrator and based on a written report of the events by the
inner narrator.
Owen Wingrave
“He talked
about the ‘immeasurable misery’ of wars, and asked me why nations don’t tear to
pieces the governments, the rulers that go in for them.” (Citation pos. 3881)
Young Owen
Wingrave is prepared for a brilliant military career like all his ancestors,
but he prefers Goethe and books to the military life of a soldier. Therefore,
his coach Spencer Coyle, his best friend and family members come together at
Paramore House, the home of the Wingraves, the house with a haunted room, where
no one ever sleeps. Owen is against war, but not a coward as assumed by his
family and is ready to proof it.
The Friends of the Friends
“Certainly they ought to meet, my friend and
he; certainly they would have something in common.” (Citation pos. 4406)
Their
friends think that they should meet: she had been abroad with her aunt when she
sees her father waiting for her in a museum – it was the moment he had dies
back at home in England. He had been a student in Oxford many years ago, when
he saw his mother waiting in his room – it was the day when she had died in
Wales. However, for years all appointments for some reasons failed.
The Real Right Thing
“The first
night our young man was alone in the room it seemed to him that his master and
he were really for the first time together.” (Citation pos. 4895)
Mrs. Doyne
asks George Withermore, a writer and journalist, to write a biography about her
husband Ashton Doyle, who had suddenly died some months ago. Doyne, a well-known
writer and young Withermore had been very close friends. George is allowed to
work in Ashton’s study, to go through his documents and papers to get
information for the biography on his friend. After some time, George has a
negative feeling while writing about Ashton.
The Third Person
“The person
the elder of the pair had seen in her room was not – well, just simply was not
any one in from outside.” (Citation pos. 5244)
Miss Susan
and Miss Amy, second grade cousins, have inherited an old house in Marr and the
will said it should be sold. But they both were so happy about the house; they
liked it and decided to live there together, in the house of their anchestors.
One day they find a small chest full of old papers and they ask the vicar to do
some researches.
A humorous
ghost story.
The Jolly Corner
“For me it
is lived in, for me it is furnished.” (Citation pos. 5869)
Spencer
Brydon left New York with twenty-three and returned thirty-three years later.
Owner of several houses, family property, he had lived in Europe from the
leases and has come back for some renovation and construction works. Just one
of the houses remains as it is with its great, grey, empty rooms.
A story
about alternative futures and possibilities.
Conclusion
A selection of the famous Gothic ghost stories by Henry James. Family secrets and spooky tales about the unknown, the mysterious in life and occurrences that remain inexplicable. A perfect read for dark winter days.
„The most important thing of all he said was to only do what I was good at, not to struggle with the rest.“ (Quotation page 224)
Content
The elegant, timeless and famous Athina Farrell is the figurehead of the House of Farrell. Once very famous cosmetic brand, but meanwhile a little bit old fashioned, is the company almost insolvent. A group of investors is ready to give the Farrell a new but last chance. Bianca Bailey, a smart businesswoman and very successful, high-profile financial expert, has the knowledge and brilliant ideas, but many changes are to be made in the family leaded company. The matriarch Athina Farrell is absolutely not open to new ideas, if not her own and she is still powerful – would she risk the future of the famous House of Farrell?
Theme and Genre
This interesting, thrilling story is about family lead companies, about cosmetics and new markets in our modern world. It is also about family, love, feelings, about social media and bullying, and the problems of very successful working moms.
Characters
The characters are interesting, well drawn and most of them likeable. Bianca, who wants to succeed in saving the company and who knows that it will work, has problems to connect her intense job with her family live as a mother of three. Florence Hamilton, director of the famous Farrell flagship store at Berkeley Arcade for many years, is just loveable. Athina Farrell, stylish but with traditional business ideas is a legend and still sees the House of Farrell as her own, not willing to cooperate with Bianca.
Plot and Writing
The story is intense, because it is much more than the exciting question, if and how the famous House of Farrell is saved. It is about decision-making and the twists, troubles and happiness in the personal lives of everybody intertwined. The author switches between the persons, and they all have their own stories. In my opinion, that is why this book is so unputdownable, together with the naturally flowing, readable language.
Conclusion
This book could be described as a saga and generational fiction of a family owned famous cosmetic
brand, but what it makes a really captivating and delightful reading are the
personal stories of the members of the family Farrell, all the persons working at
Farrell and in Bianca’s team. A perfect book for enjoyable, exciting hours of
reading.
“Compose the perfect perfume and it will live on like a song, forever.” (Quotation pos. 2765)
Content
Del Jameson has learnt how to create perfumes from her Nan. She had applied for the Leclére Parfumerie competition, was chosen and invited to Paris where the competition takes place. Her mentor is Sebastien, the son of the deceased patriarch Vincent. During the competition, Del has to blend a dream and she is thinking about her dream to own a small perfume shop in New York, but as it comes out, instead of NYC she has created Paris. Would she be able to follow her dreams, but be open to changes?
Theme and Genre
This romantic novel tells us about flowers, scents and how to imbottle feelings into perfumes. It is also about self-confidence, following a dream and about family.
Plot, Characters and Writing
The story is told by Del, the main protagonist, who has to trust herself to create perfect fragrances as asked during the competition. She is lovable and is kind of a perfume whisperer, but still is missing self-confidence when it comes to her own plans and her own life.
The writing
style is fluent, paints sparkling pictures of Paris and the Provence and
creates magical scents.
Conclusion
A romantic read about the magic of creating perfumes in Paris, the city of love. Perfect for sleepless nights and delightful reading afternoons.
“The parents’ desperate expressions indicate that they would like to believe that it isn’t their fault after all, for leaving their baby alone” (original quote, page 23)
Content
Anne and her husband Marco are invited to dinner by their neighbors next door. When the babysitter cancels, they leave their six months old daughter sleeping in her crib at home, checking every thirty minutes if she is fine. When they come home at around one-thirty, the front door is open and the crib empty!
Theme and Genre
This psychological thriller is about parenting, postnatal depression and kidnapping. Which makes this story special is the fact, that it does not only focus on the criminal acts and research, but on the different characters of the persons involved. It shows how one single decision can change a life forever in a way that could not have been foreseen.
Plot and Writing
The gripping story is much more than a typical whodunit. The plot develops and shows the reader the idea and motivation of one of the persons involved, but then continues with disturbing and surprising twists, which does not allow the reader to put the book down again before the last page.
Conclusion
A gripping, disturbingly realistic plot, which captivates the reader with its unforeseeable twists.
„Her face is like a peaceful sea, its depths suspected by no one.“ (page 17)
Content
Paul and Myriam live in Paris. They have two children, babyboy Adam and a little girl, Mila. Myriam, a lawyer, after a happy time as a mother, desperately wants to go back to work. When a former classmate offers her a job in his law firm, she is looking for a nanny. Miriam with her arabic roots definitely does not want a North African nanny for her children. Then comes Louisa, a blonde widow over 40 and perfect. Soon Louise becomes an indispensable part of the family …
Theme and Genre
This psychological thriller is about modern parenting, the difficult job of nannies, the complex place they have in the family they work for. This novel also shows how class and race can influence the whole life of a person.
Characters
Myriam, happy mother of two, with the months as a housewife passing, falls into a serious depression. Back in the law firm, she works on her carrier, often overhours, and sometimes feels bad about it. She also prefers to neglect small signs that should alert her.
For
Paul it was normal to earn the money for his family and their privileged
upper-class life. He wants to share part of it with Louisa. For him too, Louisa
is the perfect nanny and when Myriam begins to be worried, he is convinced that
she just overreacts.
Louisa
loves the children and wants to be needed and be part of the family.
Plot and Writing
The book begins with telling the end, but this does not make the story less gripping. As reader you try to scan every sentence for hints, how and when things changed and led to what happened.
Leila
Slimani is a captivating storyteller, switching between persons and their
memories and descriptions of the life in Paris, comparing the different living
conditions, while moving the plot forward.
Conclusion
A disturbing psychological thriller about the problems of mothers reconciling job and family and the questions of every parent, if the nanny their children grow up with can really be trusted. A dark, gripping page-turner.
„When you know someone’s pissed about what you’re writing – when you know you’re potentially in danger – that’s when you know you’re doing your job.“ (quotation page 36)
Content
Lela Falcon, reporter, is researching a story about a company called Undertown, that had now ownes a building connected to Lela’s first story, many years ago, about the serial killer Tusk. Now his sign, a red right hand appears again. He is dead – is he? Together with her niece Hannah, Mike Juniper, Josh, intern at her editor and his friend Derek, a genious of a hacker, she tries to stop an ancient dark force that is about to change the world through an internet virus.
Theme and Genre
This thrilling story is a combination of magic, horror and modern technology. It is gripping and makes you hope for the lives of the protagonists that try everything to stop the dark forces.
Conclusion
A book that makes you unable to put down, but for readers like me too much of „traditional horror“ with ugly figures to fight. I was hoping for more IT and dark net instead. But with the story developing and going on, it absolutely convinced me, drove me forward until the end. Definitely a book for readers that like the horror-genre and authors like Stephen King.
“But as our eyes adjust to the gloom, lit by a solitary light bulb in each room, Lucy and I gasp, because the only thing this place is, it could ever have been, is a bookshop.” (Quotation page 70)
Content
They are friends since University: Cath, Si (Simon), Josh and stunning Portia. While Portia has left to find her own way, Lucy, married to Josh, perfectly fits into the circle. Cath, successfully working for a London advertising agency, has an almost lifelong dream, to open a bookshop including a café and Lucy loves to cook and bake. Together they find a shop that had been empty for a long time, but is just perfect for them. Soon Bookends is open and running. Cath is very close to Si, her best friend, but while Si is trying everything to finally find the man of his life, Cath is sure that she definitely is not made for relationships. Maybe meeting kind, understanding James, their estate agent and a very talented painter, could make her rethink the advantages of her single life. Then Portia is back and with her exciting times.
Theme and Genre
This is not a book about literature and bookshops, but about friendship that lasts from the lighthearted student’s life to the different circle of life of adults who have to earn money, start a family and want to live their dreams. It is about misunderstandings and the fact that dealing with problems is easier if one has friends for support.
Characters
Cath, the main character, is single and happy with it, a little bit messy, but really cares for her friends, especially for Si, as he needs her. She just has to learn to trust herself and take care for her own happiness. Si is the perfect best friend as he loves to go shopping and is very good company. Lucy is an optimistic, loveable person and every character, such as Babysitter Ingrid, is special and well developed.
Plot and writing
This romantic story is written in the first person and told by Cath and is located in Hampstead, London, with interesting, precise descriptions of the surroundings and the urban lifestyle in busy London. There are some foreseeable and some unexpected twists as serious topics are entwined in the story.
Conclusion
A romantic, easy to read story about friendship, love, dreams and life – and about a bookshop. Entertaining, but with some lengths, because main protagonist Cath is just too indecisive in her behavior, with her thoughts circling almost endlessly around her fear to fall on love. I would have enjoyed to read a little bit more about the bookshop, café and its customers.
Two people in a car, driving on a cold winter day somewhere in the rural country. Jake and his girlfriend are going to visit his parents who live on a lonely farm. The girl is thinking about the future, but mostly about ending things. They could stay overnight but the girl wants to dive home, although it is late, snowing and freezing.
Theme and Genre
This is a gripping, dense, psychological thriller with many unforeseeable twists and chapters that seem not to fit into the story. A simple road trip that ends different from anything the reader would expect.
Characters
The girl, we do not even know her name, is thinking about ending things, maybe after having met his parents. She is scared by many calls and voice messages from a stranger, telling her “there is only one question”. Jack is intelligent and the girl seems somehow attracted to him.
Plot and Writing
It seems a simple car ride, written in the first person as told only by the girl and her thoughts. Interrupted by pieces of a written conversation that gives some frightening hints. A special twisted story, chilling and very entertaining the same time.
Conclusion
Words are missing to explain this gripping psychological thriller, the genius of the author, without giving too many hints. I would recommend just reading it and enjoying.
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