Bedside Bookstack

Thursday 28 January 2016

Kindred Spirits: Family Ties – Julie Wilson

Turning a hobby into a profession sounds like a dream! Kate was so good at exploring her own family history that she found herself doing the same for friends – mind you, locating her best friend’s mystery grandmother caused a few ripples… Anyway, word spread and now it seems that people are really prepared to pay her to dig into their family legends and find the truth; now she has all the work she can manage to fit in around two moody, rebellious teenagers.

Then a seemingly simple challenge to record a family tree took a curious turn, and Kate discovers a talent she didn’t know she had would change her way of working dramatically.

Kate’s life might look like a familiar story – a failed marriage, truculent teenagers and a couple of great friends who are there when they’re needed. A glass of wine with Vicky is an opportunity to relax and bounce ideas around, when the family stories she’s investigating cross from the interesting to the unexpected. There’s a responsibility when you’re revealing the secrets hidden in other people’s history.

What you’ll like (or at least what I did): An entertaining story with enough mystery and plot twists to keep the reader interested. There are well-drawn, believable characters, some of whom I liked and some I liked less. Some of the events had me giggling uncontrollably, and some had me reflecting on how easily things can go wrong.

I even learnt a bit about researching family history too.

It’s a short novel, and a comfortable read – at 63 pages it wouldn’t keep me occupied for a long flight, but it was a perfect bedtime choice – entertaining and not too stressful

Why you might not like: Kate and Vicky do like a glass of wine (or more).

You might find yourself learning more about genealogy that you expected.

Find it here

Format:	e-pub Kindle
Publisher
Year:
Price:	tba
Pages:	63
ISBN-10:	1906302162
ISBN-13:	978-1906302160
ASIN:	B00JYKH301
Reviewed:	28th January 2016
Prices correct at date of posting 2015-01-28 Review copy free from Amazon

Thursday 26 February 2015

Sally Bone - Sheila Fields

A small girl in a crowd of evacuees decides that destination marked out for her does not appeal – so she makes the first of many sudden decisions which change her life at every turn.

We follow Sally as she grows, through work, marriage and widowhood. This draws heavily upon the author’s own life and experiences, and it’s difficult to tell where fact and fiction meet. Sally’s life is eventful - with distant parents, a second life in the country as an evacuee, working first as a nurse and then becoming a businesswoman. There’s also a fair dash of romance in the Netherlands.

Why you’ll like it
It’s a believable picture of farm life seen through the eyes of a five-year old, the trials of life as a student nurse and a fascinating view of life in 1960s Amsterdam.

Why you won’t like it
The style is conversational; Sally is relating her memories to the reader, interspersing anecdotes and comments which can disturb the thread, and sometimes it’s difficult to follow.

Get it here

Format:	Paperback	e-pub Kindle
Publisher	Blenheim Press Ltd	Blenheim Press Ltd
Year:	2009	2009
Price:	£9.95	£4.80
Pages:	394	394
ISBN-10:	1906302162
ISBN-13:	978-1906302160
ASIN:		B005GAAVPI
Reviewed:		7^th June 2012
Prices correct at date of posting 2015-02-26

Tuesday 24 February 2015

City of Secrets - Christine Jordan

In the closing years of the fifteenth century, Gloucester is tense whilst piety and politics vie for power. Plague, floods and the fear of heresy affect everyone, highborn or peasant alike and suspicions run deep. Trapped in a marriage of necessity, Emmelina clutches at any hope of escape, however temporary, but the risks are great and the stakes high. When she disrupts the plans of the rich and powerful, she becomes the target of their revenge. How can she survive?

There is plenty of local detail and period atmosphere; Jordan knows Gloucester well and takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the mediaeval city. It is an intriguing story with a feisty protagonist, murders and violence, tears and joy and more than a little excitement. It is easy to believe that a woman could not stand alone in 1497; many did, owning property and running businesses, and Emmelina is determined to survive, manage her husband’s business and make her own way in the world, although she does not have it all her own way by any means. The chapter detailing Maud’s fate was graphic and could be distressing.

A few anachronisms; nightclothes were not common at this time, and a woman’s only undergarment was a chemise; some characters seemed to be wearing more modern underwear.
Some of the prose was a little stilted, with choppy sentences which could have been smoothed in the final edit. The story came to a somewhat abrupt ending; all the threads were brought together in a few pages, which was a shame as there would have been scope for a sequel telling of Emmelina’s further adventures, but that said, this was an entertaining debut novel.

Link to original review

Get it here

Format:	Paperback	e-pub Kindle
Publisher	FeedaRead.com	Indigo Books
Year:	2014	2014
Price:	£8.99	£0.99
Pages:	394	394
ISBN-10:	1784076015
ISBN-13:	978-1784076016
ASIN:		B00IDHC6T0
Reviewed:	29^th September 2014
Prices correct at date of posting 2015-02-23

Myth - Jolea M Harrison

Taking advice doesn’t come easy to Dynan and Dain Telaerin. Just because your father is the King doesn’t make you want to listen to him, and the fact that you’ve already saved the world once doesn’t make him trust you! However, fate and family destiny forces the twins to face personal tragedy and to grow up fast.

Darker than the first book in this series, this is a more challenging read. The characters are developed well, changing as they grow and face the challenges fate throws at them. Dream sequences and time shifts interweave the complex threads of the story, which are sometimes slightly difficult to follow. However, the story hangs together well, and holds the attention well. It’s let down slightly by a few silly textual errors.

Why you’ll like it

Believable characters sympathetically developed, and a plot which really holds the attention, it’s a great adventure story.

Why you won’t like it

Interwoven threads can be challenging to follow, and a few spelling mistakes.