Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(562 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
=='''14 APRIL'''==
+
=='''25 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Polly Barton
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=Fifty Sounds
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
 
|isbn=1913097501
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''15 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1529124255
 
|title=The Whispers
 
|author=Heidi Perks
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=We know straight away that there's going to be a body.  It's on the beach under Crayne's Cliff near the town of Clearwater and it's new year's day.  To understand what happened we're going to have to go back to the previous September.  Grace Goodwin has a soft Australian accent - she's lived there since her teens and now, in her mid-thirties, she's returned to her home town to live.  Her husband, Graham, works in Singapore and she and her eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, might as well be in the lovely apartment she's found.  Grace's best friend, Anna Robinson, is still in Clearwater and she has an eight-year-old child too.  Ethan's in the class Matilda will be joining.  It's perfect!
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Lucy Holland
 
|title=Sistersong
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|isbn=1529039037
+
|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''9 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Goldy Moldavsky
+
|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Last Girl
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Rachel Chavez is the new girl at Manchester Prep. A school filled to the brim with the richest children in the city – and Rachel doesn't belong. She's not rich, she has no ties to some royal family in Serbia, and most of all, she spends the majority of her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comfort. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie style, and unless someone screams, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in the competition. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure is before it's too late.
+
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every directionAnd yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|isbn=0755501527
+
|isbn=1398527122
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Sarah Sultoon
 
|title=The Source
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleak...
 
|isbn=1913193594
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''27 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0753558378
 
|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters
 
|author=Greg McKeown
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.''
 
 
 
That's what happened to Patrick McGinnis.  It's no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt companyHis stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and his job had little value.  He made a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changes.  He did survive and came through stronger - and richer.  There is, you see, a different way: ''great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Kristen O'Neal
 
|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary= Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones'', an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months.
 
|isbn=1683692349
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
=='''23 MAY'''==
=='''29 APRIL'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1471181405
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=Nighthawking
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|author=Russ Thomas
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Sheffield's [http://www.sbg.org.uk/ Botanical Gardens] (on Clarkehouse Road, if you'd like to visit) are an oasis of calm in what's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this was disrupted when the body of a young woman was discovered.  It had obviously been buried in one of the beds but who would have started to dig her up?  It had been in the earth for months and could have been undiscovered for years.  The police need to establish who stabbed her - and who left the two, very rare, gold aurei on her eyes.  DCI Diane Jordan is the Investigating Officer and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani.  They're joined by DS Guy Daley who's just returned from extended sick leave.  Mina thinks he's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that he's not fully recovered from his injuries.
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author= Jennifer Saint
 
|title= Ariadne
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Women's Fiction
 
|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.
 
|isbn=1472273869
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0241985137
 
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 
|author=Cara Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds.  There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student.  When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher.  Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence.  She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers.  When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Mercedes Helnwein
 
|title=Slingshot
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Gracie Welles has resigned herself to being lonely. As a secret illegitimate daughter of a man with a "real" family, she is used to not being a priority in people's lives. But when she defends a random boy in her class with her slingshot, her simple existence is changed for good. No longer can she spend her time writing novels in solitude, for her life now has a boy in it that she never asked for: Wade Scholfield.
 
|isbn=152905818X
 
}}
 
 
=='''30 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Ananda Devi
 
|title=Eve Out of Her Ruins
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=At not even 200 pages, Eve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I've read in a long while, but it's one of the most dramatic. It's also told in a way that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromantic.
 
|isbn=0993009344
 
}}
 
 
=='''3 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1635862353
 
|title=The Sandalmaking Workshop
 
|author=Rachel Corry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crafts
 
|summary=A sandal-making workshop?  I couldn't really believe it, mainly because I'd always thought that you'd need more equipment than the average home was likely to be able to contain but I was intrigued.  Rachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - a small fire destroyed some of her shoes.  One pair had come apart and she could see how the sandal was constructed.  Then she realised that she couldn't afford to replace all her shoes.  Could she combine these two facts to create a new and worthwhile craft?  She showed quite a few people her first pair and they all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair.  A new career was born.
 
}}
 
=='''7 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0241985137
 
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 
|author=Cara Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds.  There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student.  When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher.  Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence.  She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers.  When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
 
}}
 
=='''11 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1523092734
 
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
 
|author=Eliza Van Cort
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)
 
 
''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely.  It is to live the life you've always wanted.''
 
 
Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk.  Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''.  I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space.  If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.
 
}}
 
=='''27 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=walker14
 
|title=The Coldest Case  (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
 
|author=Martin Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=It was when he saw Elisabeth Daynes' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief of police Bruno Courreges had the idea which he thought might help his boss, chief of detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, to solve a case which had haunted him for thirty years.  The body of a young male was found in the woods but he was never identified and his killer never brought to justice.  What if an artist could recreate the face from the skull and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man?  J-J calls the skull 'Oscar' and has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want to forget Oscar until his killer has been brought to justice.
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0008404925
 
|title=The Killing Kind
 
|author=Jane Casey
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Difficult clients were nothing new to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something of a surprise.  After all, it was her cross-examination of the 'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentence.  He'd been accused of stalking the woman but it didn't take long to establish that - if anything - it was the other way around.  Soon Ingrid never seemed to be free of John Webster and then she came to see him as a threat and was forced to remember that the police officer at his trial had told her that this was the best chance they'd had to put Webster away for a long time: he was a very dangerous man.
 
}}
 
=='''3 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=M G Leonard
 
|title=Twitch
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Twitch is a boy who loves birds.  He keeps pigeons at home, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting in his bedroom!  His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared to that of his time in school.  But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible that the missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand!  Can Twitch solve the mystery, and find the missing millions?
 
|isbn=1406389374
 
}}
 
 
=='''10 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=C J Carey
 
|title=Widowland
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen WallisFor yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''.  But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widowsFemale literacy is actively discouraged.  And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprintThat is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
+
|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gainNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about herAnuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so.  Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|isbn=152941198X
+
|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''13 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Terry Miles
+
|isbn=1635866847
|title=Rabbits
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
 +
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...
+
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally(There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of itNotes in the margins are sanctioned.  You get to fold down the corners of pages.  You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problemI ''loved'' this book already.
|isbn=1529016932
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''17 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Joseph Knox
 
|title=True Crime Story
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary= Joseph Knox, known for his series surrounding Detective Aidan Waits, has created a new genre with his latest novel, "True Crime Story". The story follows the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her university halls of residence. Split into four parts, the reader is taken through the life and disappearance of Zoe through the eyes of her twin sister, other family, friends and professionals, such as the police. The various accounts help the reader get to know Zoe, or at least the Zoe she presented to others. However, the twists and turns at the end of each chapter leave you shocked, confused and unsure of what is true or fabricated. Whose accounts can we trust?
 
|isbn=0857527703
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''24 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Catherine Steadman
 
|title=The Disappearing Act
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary= British actress Mia Eliot is on the cusp of success. Great success. If the rumours are true, award season is going to treat her well, acknowledging her for her latest, critically acclaimed production. She's going places but so, unfortunately, is her partner. And the places he's going take him towards lies, deceit and a pretty young thing in the form of his new co-star. It's a good time for Mia to escape, and pilot season in LA provides just the excuse.
 
|isbn=1471189783
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''8 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Hannah Peck
 
|title=Kate on the Case
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Meet Kate, although I got the impression she'd rather be a Catherine – and one specific Catherine at that.  For Catherine Rodriguez is Kate's idol, and the author of our heroine's favourite possession, ''The Special Correspondent Manual''.  Armed with a plucky father, that book, and her talking mouse called Rupert, she is all equipped to manage a train ride to the Arctic, to see her scientist mother for the first time in yonksHowever, this is a train ride with a difference, for on board is a greedy-seeming harridan and her cat, a thief – and two glowing eyes, shining from the darkness in a blink-and-you'll-miss-them styleIt's definitely a case for a new young investigative journalist...
 
|isbn=184812970X
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''22 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)
 
|title=Girls Who Lie
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now.  You think, seeing on the map that we're set in Akranes, and finding it's only twenty kilometres from the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws left.  However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lie.  Six months ago a woman failed to turn up for her date evening, and was never seen againThis left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed that she could now live permanently with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and a couple of delighted adopters.  But it left our three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote place.  Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her body.  Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one?
 
|isbn=191319373X
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''7 OCTOBER'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=John Gwynne
 
|title=The Shadow Of The Gods
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.
 
|isbn=0356514218
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
 
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
 
You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]].
 
You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]].

Latest revision as of 10:03, 22 March 2024

25 APRIL

0356522776.jpg

Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. Full Review

9 MAY

1398527122.jpg

Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

23 MAY

0861546873.jpg

Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? Full Review

13 JUNE

1635866847.jpg

Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting here.