The Missing Half - Brooke Powley

When I was a little girl and children went missing it was just one of those sad things.  

It never happened to anyone I knew. It happened over breakfast or lunch. 

It happened to parents who were careless. 

Alice Winters is not a careless mother. 

Yet one awful day her two year old daughter is taken from her pushchair outside a village shop. 

Alice's life becomes every parent's worst nightmare as she begins questioning everything and everyone she knows, vowing to leave no stone unturned until Grace is found. 

Now ten years later, Alice believes that the publication of her book recollecting the events surrounding Grace's disappearance will be the final needle in the haystack needed to bring her home. 

Who had taken Grace and why? 

Will Alice ever be ready to accept the truth, no matter how difficult it is to hear? 

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Grace disappeared when she was just 2 years old from outside the village shop.
That was in 1996.
10 years on she is still missing and her body has never been found.

In Brooke Powley's début novel she splits the story into two halves.
 In part one she is writing her book describing the events leading up to her daughter going missing and how this has affected her and her family for over the last 10 years.
The most important thing being that she has never given up hope that one day Grace will be found and reunited with her family.

In part two the story is picked up by Edd the Private Detective and takes you to the USA where members of a family may hold the key to finding out just what happened to Grace.

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Released in January 2014  as Brooke Powley's début novel, I thought this book was fantastic.
Right from the beginning you forget that this is not a true story and are gripped for the whole 184 pages.  It is every parents nightmare that their child will go missing and sadly for some it is a reality. Obviously here in the UK it immediately brings the McCann family to mind and  all that they have done to try and find their daughter since she disappeared in 2007.
 They like Ms Powley's character Alice will never give up the search for their daughter.

I read this novel over two days, as I had to keep reading in order to know what the final outcome of Alice's story was going to be.  Definitely worth a recommendation and I have now downloaded her second novel to add to my ever growing number of books residing on my kindle.
Just as well D can only see those that find themselves on my bookshelf.

I am continuing with another selection from my kindle in Louise Douglas's The love of my life,  which by coincidence is her début novel.



Not read anything by this author before but at the time it was part of the kindle 99p deal and so it would have been rude not to have purchased it don't you think and I do like to support new authors.

Happy reading one & all

Mx

The Villa - Rosanna Ley

When Tess Angel receives a Solicitor's letter inviting her to claim her inheritance - the Villa Sirena, perched on a clifftop in Sicily - she is stunned. Her only link to the island is trough her mother, Flavia, who left Sicily during World Warr II and cut all contact with her family.

Initially resistant to Tess going back to her roots, Flavia realises the secrets from her past are about to be revealed and decides to try to explain her actions. Meanwhile, Tess's teenage daughter Ginny is stressed by college, by her blooming sexuality and filled with questions that she longs to ask her father, if she knew where he was. 

 Three women, all seeking answers. 

Will Villa Sirena bring them together - or drive them apart.?

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Tess Angel's mother has always been very secretive about her life in Sicily and has never discussed her reason for leaving or why she has refused to go back.

Out of the blue Tess receives a Solicitors letter telling her she has been left a villa in her mother's village back in Sicily. She has never heard of Edward Westerman and has no idea why he would have left her his villa.
Tess decides she will travel to Sicily and see for herself the place her mother grew up and the villa
Mr Westerman has left her in his will, but what about her daughter Ginny she is in the middle of her exams.
With everything organised Tess leaves for Sicily where she doesn't just find her villa but discovers family feuds and family secrets and a little romance.

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Rosanna Ley's The Villa is a warm, romantic read in which you discover the lives of three generations of women. Tessa, her mother Flavia and her daughter Ginny.

A great holiday read and one I would definitely recommend,

Continuing with novels I've stored up on my kindle my next May read is




Happy reading one & all

Mx

DARK WITCH Book one of the cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy - Nora Roberts

Iona Sheehan has always felt a powerful connection to Ireland. So when her beloved grandmother confesses an extraordinary family secret, she can't resist visiting County Mayo to discover the truth for herself. 

Arriving at the atmospheric Castle Ashford, Iona is excited to meet her cousins, Connor and Branna O'Dwyer. And when she lands a job at the local riding school, she is soon drawn to it's owner - the charismatic, fiercely independent Boyle McGrath. Perhaps she has found her true home at last...

But Iona's arrival is no accident. The three cousins have inherited a dangerous gift from an ancestor known as the Dark Witch. And they are about to discover that some old legends can return to haunt the present.  

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Ordinarily I love anything that's a bit of escapism and takes you into the world of witches and warlocks and the like, so I was really looking forward to reading this Nora Roberts novel, which is part of a trilogy.
Unfortunately I was left a little disappointed and it became a novel to read in order to get to the end and move onto something else rather than a novel you just couldn't put down.

 Set in Ireland the story is of the three cousins O'Dwyer who have inherited their grandmothers (The Dark Witch) powers and  who together need to combat their enemy Cabhan.

I thought the story would be more along the lines of how they would develop their powers and a strategy to rid themselves of Cabhan. Instead it seemed to start off well in the beginning loose its way in the middle and not really recover by the end.
There didn't appear to be much in the content of the novel and I couldn't decide whether it was in fact a romance novel as the later seemed to be the main element to the book and not done particularly well.

Nora Roberts is a prolific writer of novels with great reviews but I suspect that her many fans will be left more than a little disappointed with this one.
I was looking forward to reading the trilogy,  but as this one will be going on the shelf for the charity shop I don't think I will be purchasing the other two.

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Moving on my next book will be one from the many that are residing on my kindle forming an orderly queue.

I have chosen The Villa by Rosanna Ley  

Happy reading one & all

Mx

Rikki-Tikki Tavi - Rudyard Kipling

                                          

This is the story of a boy and his weasel, a bird and a snake, India and the British Empire. 

Rudyard Kipling's dramatic tale, here excerpted from the greater volume of The Jungle Book, is the story of a loyal mongoose Rikki-Tikki Tavi, and the lengths that he must go to protect his adoptive human family.

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Rikki-Tikki Tavi is a Rudyard Kipling short story of just 62 pages.

It is an enchanting tale of a little mongoose who is found by a family after a summer flood and taken back to their bungalow to recover. There he comes across Nag and Nagaina the husband & wife Cobra's. They have set their sites on killing the family especially the little boy Teddy but they hadn't banked on Rikki-Tikki Tavi.  

He may be small but he is strong enough to kill a Cobra snake and he will do anything to protect the family that gave him a home. 

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I hadn't set out to read this book, I was actually looking for something else when I spotted it on my kindle listing and all my childhood memories of this little story came flooding back.

I have always been vertically challenged and this was a story my mother read to me when I was a child to try and instil in me that just because I was smaller than all of my peers that it didn't mean I couldn't achieve anything I set my mind to.

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My next read is from my bookshelf and is 

Happy reading one & all

Mx

WE ARE ALL Completely BESIDE OURSELVES - Karen Joy Fowler

What if you grew up to realise that your father had used your childhood as an experiment?

Rosemary doesn't talk very much, and about certain things she's silent. She had a sister, Fern, her whirlwind other half, who vanished from her life in circumstances she wishes she could forget. And it's been ten years since she last saw her beloved older brother Lowell.

Now at college, Rosemary starts to see that she can't go forward without going back, back to the time when, aged five, she was sent away from home to her grandparents and returned to find Fern gone. 

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There have been many mixed reviews on We are all completely beside ourselves it appears to be very much a Marmite novel.

It is written in six parts and by the time you get to to the end of page 1 of part two the twist has been revealed therefore I can't tell you too much about the storyline or it will give it away.

What I can tell you is that at the beginning of the story (which is actually the middle) Rosemary is in college where no one knows about her family background and that's the way she would like it to stay.
She hasn't seen her brother since the disappearance of their sister but she is hoping that by going to college at Davis he may just get in touch and want to see her.
From here on out the story really is about Rosemary blaming herself for the disappearance of her sister.  She feels that Lowell  somehow blames her for it too and is hoping that if Lowell does get in touch that she will be able to get closure.

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 I can't say this particular novel absolutely grabbed me and it was more that I had to keep reading to get to the end quicker.
I'm not sure that I agreed with all the hype that the book received there are definitely better novels around at the moment.
That's not to say that it wasn't well written but it did seem to loose it's way a little in some parts.

If you already have a copy it is worth reading but I don't think it's one that you should rush out and buy.

So on to my next read, which is going to be my return to childhood favourite reads and for the month of May that is going to be.




Happy reading one & all

Mx

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN - PAULA HAWKINS

                      

EVERY DAY THE SAME

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. 

She knows it will wait at the same signal each time.

Overlooking a row of back gardens.

She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses 'Jess and Jason', she calls them.

Their life - as she sees it - is perfect.

If only Rachel could be that happy.

UNTIL TODAY

And then she sees something shocking.

It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough.

Now everything's changed. 

Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar.

Now they'll see: she's much more than just the girl on the train...

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With getting up at stupid O'Clock five days a week come a weekend I still wake up at stupid O'Clock and inevitably I won't be able to get back off to the lovely dream I was having so I get up make a cup of tea and 

read.

But this weekend I was also going to start my new book so I felt that an extra treat was in order.

Well what else do you do with a bank holiday weekend when the weather is blowing a hooley and all the housework is done. 

My new book is of course 'Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins. 

I had heard and read many great reviews about this particular novel, it was another recommended by Simon Mayo's Radio Two book club and was Colleen Nolan's recommendation on Loose Women (a daytime show here in the UK), but there are many of you who are taking part in Laura's The Year in Books Project 2015 who have recommended this one too. 

As it tells you above Rachel is a girl who travels everyday on the train into London and everyday the train stops at a particular signal giving her front row viewing of a row of houses.  She see's this particular couple every morning. She has never met them in person and knows absolutely nothing about them, so she gives them made up names and makes up a story in her head as to the lives they lead.

Then the girl she has named Jess disappears, it is all over the news and Rachel thinks she may have the answer to her disappearance. 

But here's the thing, will anyone take her seriously.

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I used to read thrillers all the time when I was younger, half the time frightening myself stupid but I had heard such good things about this novel that I knew I was going to have to read it. I am so glad I did. 

 Paula Hawkins tells her story through three main characters, Rachel, Megan and Anna.  

I was gripped by the end of the first chapter and just when I thought I had got the twist something would happen that would have me thinking again. 

This is Paul Hawkins first thriller and has been optioned for a film by Dreamworks, I just hope if the film goes a head that they don't detract too from the book.

It's not uncommon for me to devour a book within three days but I think I have even surprised myself in the fact that I just couldn't put this one down, it is therefore definitely one I would recommend you should read.

So what will I do now?

Make a cup of tea and pick another book from the bookshelf of course.

                     

We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler has been residing on the bookshelf for sometime now. It has been recommended by a number of you taking part in The Year in Books Project 2015 so I thought it was time it came off the shelf.

Hope you are getting better weather than we are.

Happy reading one & all.

Mx

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

Before her eyes the garden changed. Weeds and brambles, decades in the growing, receded. Leaves lifted from the ground revealing paths and flowerbeds and a garden seat. Light was permitted entry once more.

1913

On the eve of the First World War a little girl is found abandoned after a gruelling ocean voyage from England to Australia. All she can remember of the journey is that mysterious women she calls the Authoress had promised to look after her. But the Authoress has vanished without a trace.

1975

Now an elderly lady, Nell travels to England to discover the truth about her parentage. Her quest leads her to Cornwall, and to a beautiful estate called Blackhurst Manor, which had been owned by the Mountrachet family. What has prompted Nell's journey after all these years?

2005

On Nell's death her granddaughter, Cassandra, comes into a surprise inheritance. Cliff Cottage, in the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, is notorious amongst the locals for the secrets it holds - secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is at Cliff Cottage, abandoned for years, and in its forgotten garden, that Cassandra will uncover the truth about the family and why the young Nell was abandoned all those decades before.

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The Forgotten Garden is the first of my reads to tell you about in  May. I started it last weekend but knew I wouldn't finish it before the end of April so it's just about scrapped through until today when I turned the last page.
 I get totally immersed in Kate Morton's novels and this one was no exception.
 I love her style of writing moving effortlessly from the past to the present and from the present to the past. I know some people find this style of writing a little confusing but, in doing so all the questions you have in your head from the previous chapter start to get answered in the next two and there are always  fantastic twist at varying stages of the book.
There is always so much to absorb and that was certainly the case within the 645 pages of  this novel and I warn you, chocolate and a box of tissues are compulsory when reading. And just when you think you have all worked out you get another twist at the end.

If you've never read a Kate Morton novel before I would certainly recommend this one it will have you totally hooked and you won't be able to put it down. Each chapter will leave you wanting to know more and you will find you just have to keep reading  no wonder it was on Richard  & Judy's Best of Summer reads after it's release.

I definitely think this is my favourite of her novels so far.

 I have now read  all Kate Morton's novels  apart from Distant Hours which is in the queue and will be one of my Summer reads leaving me ready for the Autumn when Kate Morton's next novel 'The Lake House' is released.

Happy reading one & all

Mx