Book Reviews
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A Little Book Round-up
Such a long time since I’ve written a post. Therefore, I thought it would be a good time to talk about what I’ve been reading over the past few months and my book recommendations. The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins I loved this book! It’s a British period drama with a black woman at the core. The book is set in early 19th-century London with the plot following Collins’ heroine, Frannie, a slave-turned-servant who travels with her owner from a Jamaican plantation to 1800s London, where she finds herself accused of the brutal murder of her master and mistress. Frannie is an extremely well-written character with shades of…
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Book Review: The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
I read this book as I am a big fan of Agatha Christie’s work and was interested in her life. It was a fascinating look at not just the events surrounding Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance, but also how women were viewed at the time. There’s some great plot twists later on in the novel too. In 1926 Agatha Christie went missing for eleven days. Her mother had recently died and her husband was having an affair with another woman and planned to leave her. In 1926, Agatha Christie went missing for eleven days. Her mother had recently died and her husband was having an affair with another woman and planned…
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Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees follows the journey of Lily Owens, a young girl who is struggling to understand the world around her. The story takes place in 1964 in South Carolina, where Lily’s life has been shaped by her mother’s death when she was only three years old. Living on a peach farm with her harsh and unforgiving father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, the black servant who raised her after the death of her mother. When racial tensions erupt one day and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily chooses to flee with her. As they make their way across the country, they come across a trio of…
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Book Review
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is one of those books that I knew I would love within a few pages of starting to read it. I hadn’t even considered reading it before, in the belief that it wouldn’t be my thing. But seeing as it was my work book club choice, I thought I’d give the book a whirl. The story follow Monique Grant, a reporter for Vivant magazine, who has been selected to interview Evelyn Hugo, a reclusive former star. Evelyn is auctioning some of her famous gowns to raise money for a breast cancer charity. Monique doesn’t understand why Evelyn has chosen her, but nonetheless goes to Evelyn’s apartment to meet…
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Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon is a substantial novel, weighing in at over 500 pages. It’s so vast that it seems desultory to attempt to describe it in a review, yet that is exactly what I am going to do here. Hidden deep within the old city in Barcelona is a library of obscure and forgotten titles- the “cemetery of lost books”. His father brings ten- year- old Daniel there one chilly morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book and pulls out The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. Over the next few decades, he realises several people are interested in his…
