Finding Secrets by Lauren Westwood

Seemingly straight forward but uncovering secrets by the score. One lead to another and Alex's world was turned upside down. What was a normal occupation - manageress of a country home and expanding the business, being the adopted daughter of a very nice set of middle class parents and then you sort of ending up having royalty ancestry, lots of money and a very complicated background.

It was a bit difficult for me to follow the various strands of the story as it was very involved but they all came together very well. The mystery and the ancestry was one section, the romance was another and they blended well.

The setting of the old English manor, the bits of history adding to the interest in the story were good and kept me going throughout the book.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Aria. 

Three short reviews. Three different genres.

Three  short reviews. Two different genres!

Based on Jane Austen's Emma this Emma has also got the match making gene along with a Knightley in the background and a Weston who likes a bit of dalliance. There are lots of other characters in this charming Southern background book and the old fashioned style of story despite its modern setting echoes the Emma of Jane Austen.

What I really liked is that our Emma here had all the faults of the original character and more! she was not a good two shoes but someone who liked to have her own way and who thought she knew it all and was superior to lots of those around her. This characterization made her much more easier to like in the book.

The setting in the US I thought could detract from the rural village setting of England but it was not so. It seamlessly blended into the story and worked out very well.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Adalia Street Press.




Guy is a very successful landscape architect. Sybille his wife is administrator cum excellence. It is she that does the nitty gritty in their business. An argument like any other, on a deserted road Sybille gets out of the car, storms off and is never seen again. Two people do not accept the story and file a report against Guy. It is Guy himself who is his own worst enemy. His laid back attitude, his telling of the facts in an extremely factual way, does not endear him to authorities or friends alike who do not know what to make of this.

The resolution was not for me, quite right. An unresolved ending may have been better but the writing, the story told in chapters by different people all added interest to a mystery.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Ipso Books.




Living in a beach cottage would be idyllic for Laura who has come on a holiday to do a series of paintings. She did not envisage anything other than a peaceful time - not for a holiday romance as she was just getting over a break up and certainly not for ghosts and hidden spirits trying to tell their story.

Though this was a ghost story, it did not come across as eerie or creepy. Maybe it was the setting and maybe it was the relationship that developed between Laura and Ben who are two very likable characters. The town itself, the characters in the town all add interest to this story and it being a very short read was enjoyable in itself.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Lily Night. 

the lying game by ruth ware

Four girls, friends from the time they were young teenagers in a boarding school in Salten have remained friends though their lives have taken them in diverse paths.  They have not met for years but when a message comes from one of them "I need you" it draws them all back immediately despite each one having responsibilities which they cannot shake off easily.

A secret they share buried so deep that should it get out, consequences will be very tough on all of them. They could lose their careers, their families, their marriages and their lives. Arriving in Salten the four try to come to terms and to organise the identical story that they should come up with, in case the worst scenario happens. Unravelling slowly first through a dead sheep left on their doorstep following up with unsigned notes, they know that they are not the only ones privy to their deadly secret.

The setting of a very closed village where the four girls are even decades later disliked and shunned, the isolation and general desolation of the village all add to the scenic gloom where you know that sooner or later things are going to come to a climax which is not going to be good for any of them.  Descriptive of the marshes and the tides and the seas around Salten are so good that you can feel how much the environment added to the story's telling. For someone who has not seen this kind of scenery, it was very evocative of the dangers and the treachery of these tides and seas.

This is not the happy reunion of school girls meeting after seventeen years. This is a dark and dangerous period in their lives. It was as good as watching this in a movie. You felt the atmosphere pull you into the story.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Random House UK Vintage Publishing. 

Two short reviews. Donna Leon's Earthly Remains and Bette McNicholas's Farragut Square

For me its both Brunetti and Venice that draw me in. I know the setting will be Venice - drawbacks and all and told from the point of view of an actual resident, not the romantic version of tourists and then there is the Police matters told in minute detail with an Italian flair! Irresistible.

This time the setting is out on the islands and adds another dimension to this author's work. A sudden drowning of a seasoned seaman - is it enough to be suspicious or is it just one of those freak accidents. Brunetti decides to investigate with surprising results and sequences which goes back decades to uncover a tale of corruption, hidden stories and very present day problems.

As usual a fabulous story.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Random House UK, Cornerstone.




Lindsay McCallister is almost you could say undercover in the Washington investigative division. She has earned her stripes the hard way but no one knows exactly who she is and she intends it to stay that way.

Her entire focus is on finding out about the abduction of Tricia Avery who went missing from the streets of Washington years ago. Determined to find out more, Lindsay sets out on this mission not knowing how dangerous it could be to herself as well. Till almost midway no one in the department knows that Tricia is Lindsay's sister.  The element of romance brought into the story by the handsome Dragani for me, took away from the depth of the story which was a good one.

Highlighting a common feature of missing people, this was a good well told story.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of The Wild Rose Press Inc.

I'm Still Here (Je Suis La) by Clelie Avit

Elsa is thirty and after a mountaineering accident, in a sort of irreversible coma in hospital.
Thibault accidentally barges into her room to avoid going into his brother's room as he is also
in hospital after a major accident. The story unfolds from there in alternating chapters told by both parties.

Unknown to doctors, friends and family Elsa is able to hear all that is spoken around her but not able to communicate by even a blink that she is functioning on one level at least. It is only Thibault, the absolute stranger who believes that Elsa is able to hear and that she is not brain dead.

A debate on whether to turn life support off is supported by the medical staff at the hospital but her family is dithering on the decision. Will Thibault's intervention help to save Elsa.

A little too bold on Thibault's part and a bit fairy tale ish the book was nevertheless engaging and unusual.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased read, courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.

The Awkward Age by Francesca Segal

It is a bit of a lopsided family. Julia after being devoted to her daughter Gwen for five years, where she has been the total and only focus of her life, has fallen deeply in love with James. James brings to the mix his quirky son Nathan. Then there is Iris and Phillip very much part of Julia and Gwen's lives. The loyal and supportive parents of David, Gwen's father and Julia's husband who died five years ago.

The story traverses the pitfalls of such situations - and the frailty and perverse nature of humans who are selfish and only see their situation from a point of view which is advantageous to them and them alone. Gwen cannot bear that her mother is happy and not just happy but incandescently happy with James. She cannot believe it either. She feels abandoned and alone. Nathan is sneering and rude, disruptive and a mess. That eventually two teenagers living in one house will develop feelings for each other is inevitable, but not obvious to the two parents who live there. When it does happen they are shocked out of their wits and each one secretly hates the other person's child. How is a loving relationship going to survive in the midst of so much secret antagonism. Then Iris and Phillip - Iris strong willed and Phillip very mild who springs the biggest surprise of it all.  The impact on all is felt and on Iris it is an avalanche of feeling, repulsion and revulsion!!!

The story told from the three different units of couples was complex, interesting, varied and kept me on the go from the first page to the last.  Human nature at its best and at its worst.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review courtesy of Chatto & Windus. 

the good at heart by Ursula Werner

I've been reading many stories set with a WWI and II background but this one is from a different perspective altogether. We hear of the persecuted and the persecutors but this is from a civilian German outlook, forced to live their lives under Hitler and for some members of the family only beginning to realize what was actually happening much later on in the day and then the utter horror of knowing that their men folk knew, understood and followed orders in the persecution of their fellow neighbours and others.

The story resulted as the author herself discovered papers regarding her great grandfather and this piqued her interest. This story is based on a family now living on the border to Switzerland, just because they wanted to escape the bombings of Berlin. Whilst Edith the mother was blindly believing in whatever the media turned out, her daughter, her adopted son and a pastor of the village knew otherwise. Clandestinely helping out sending Jews to the other side Marina and Johannes needed not to be the focus of attention. This was not to be. It is also ironic that it is children who on the one hand played games of make believe like all children would, believing that the enemy would come over and spy on them and kill them all would endanger an operation which would lead to disaster.

The arrival of the Fuhrer in this little picturesque village sets off a series of events including an attempted assassination which goes awry leading to arrests and immediate execution and a general uproar in the village.

For me the highlight of this story was the gradual awakening in Edith (the matriarch) mind that her husband too was part of the atrocities that took place and this was something she could never imagine. For her, her husband was a good man and that he could be responsible for such things was beyond her imagination, belief or understanding. She naively believed that the Jews were sent on trains for resettlement and that her neighbours and good friends were now happily setting up home elsewhere. The horror of the whole Holocaust hit her later.

The story was a mixed saga of War, family and the need for survival amongst a great many risks. That fathers would give up their lives even for the sake of family is very well outlined in this story. It must be one that would be replicated in hundreds of homes in Germany of that era. It must also be a very hard legacy to live with.

A very moving story.