Book reviews - catching up!

Well I seem to have read quite a few books and not linked the reviews here so I've put a few on this post as I try to catch up!

 

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

From Hope to Despair.

Between two small towns in Colorado, nothing but twelve miles of empty road. All Jack Reacher wants is a cup of coffee.What he gets are four redneck deputies, a vagrancy charge and a trip back to the line.

But Reacher is a big man, and he's in shape.

No job, no address, no baggage. Nothing, except bloody-minded curiosity.

What are the secrets the locals seem so determined to hide?

Jack Reacher books are pure escapism. They're easy to read. They usually have you trying to work out what's going on and usually good triumphs over bad. Hard not to picture Tom Cruise in the title role now that they've made films of a couple of the books though, even if he doesn't live up to the physical attributes of the character. I'm working my way through the series.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever . . . but will the Cuthberts send her back to to the orphanage? Anne knows she's not what they expected—a skinny girl with fiery red hair and a temper to match. If only she can convince them to let her stay, she'll try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes and blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind. Anne is not like anyone else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special—a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreams of the day when she can call herself Anne of Green Gables.

What a delightful book. Can't believe I never read it as a child.
 

 

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A whirlwind of a novel

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family.

For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems.

As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down.

In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…

A lot happens in the 7 days! I'm sure the odds of all these events happening together must be incredibly high but that's the beauty of fiction. If you can imagine it you can write it. A really good debut novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

View all my reviews