Book review: Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

With the current popularity of fairy tale retellings within young adult novels, it was only a matter of time before someone would be inspired by the success of Disney's Frozen and create a young adult  adaptation of the source material, Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen. Written by Danielle Paige, who has gained international success through her Dorothy Must Die series, which puts a YA spin on the world of the wonderful Wizard of Oz, this is the story of the Snow Queen like you've never heard it before.

Book review: Pippa's Cornish Dream by Debbie Johnson

My edition: Paperback, published on 2 July 2015 by HarperImpulse, 208 pages.

Description: Since Pippa Harte was forced to take over her parent’s farm, she’s barely had time to shave her legs let alone make time for love. Now she’s more likely to be getting down and dirty mucking out the pigs – and avoiding those of the human male variety.

When Ben Retallick walks out of her childhood and back into her present it seems that perhaps Pippa has more time than she thought. All Poldark smoulders and easy-going charm, Ben’s definitely worth whipping her wellies off for!

But Ben is a man with his own past and his own issues – and as much as she’s enjoying having him around, she’s got to get a grip. After all life isn’t always a beach … even if you are in Cornwall.

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Theatre review: The Great Gatsby at Greenwich Theatre

©Mark Holiday

Having previously lived in South East London, Greenwich Theatre holds a very special place in my heart as my former local (aka a 'short' 40 minute walk from my house). I've seen some great productions there over the years, from exceptional tours of Spring Awakening and Avenue Q to Sincerely Mr Toad and, most recently, Tommy. Because of my past with this theatre I am always very keen to check out new productions making an appearance there, the latest being a stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's much-acclaimed classic The Great Gatsby.

Book review: A Fête to Remember by Julia Stagg

My edition: Paperback, published on 3 July 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton, 369 pages.

Description: It's summertime in the French Pyrenees and the mountain commune of Fogas is en fête. But Christian Dupuy has no time for the frivolity of les vacances. For a start, he's just been struck by the arrows of l'amour and doesn't have a clue how to approach the woman who's stolen his heart.

Then there is the not-so-small matter of local politics. With moves afoot to wipe his community from the map, Christian has to enter the fray once more to save the place that he cherishes.

In the midst of a sweltering heatwave and with the residents of Fogas at each other's throats over their future, the lovesick and embattled deputy mayor must decide if all really is fair in love and war.

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Book review: The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen

My edition: ebook, published on 7 October 2014 by Ballantine Books, 353 pages.

Description: Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.

Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in.

As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison?

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Book review: The Strings of Murder by Oscar de Muriel

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 12 February 2015 by Penguin, 406 pages.

Description: Edinburgh, 1888. A violinist is murdered in his home. The dead virtuoso's maid swears she heard three musicians playing in the night. But with only one body in the locked practice room - and no way in or out - the case makes no sense.

Fearing a national panic over another Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey's new boss, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, actually believes in such supernatural nonsense.

McGray's tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next...

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Theatre review: Miss Havisham's Expectations (Dickens With a Difference #1)

Growing up outside of the UK I've always been a lover of the stereotypical Dickens London at Christmas time in all its forms, from the source material in book form to the endless amount of cinematic and theatrical adaptations. And so I was excited when an invite arrived in my digital inbox to Dickens With a Difference at the Trafalgar Studios in the West End, promising to give me my Dickens fix with two one-act plays based on some of the author's most famous novels; Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.

Book review: The Vacationers by Emma Straub

My edition: Paperback, published on 5th June 2014 by Picador, 293 pages.

Description: For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school.

The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.


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Book review: Carry You by Beth Thomas

My edition: paperback, published on 24 April 2014 by Avon, 483 pages.

Description: Daisy has lost her mum to breast cancer. She's at rock bottom and doesn't think she'll ever get back up again.

Her best friend Abi has other ideas – she tells it like it is and she's determined to make Daisy remember the person she used to be.

What Daisy doesn't know is that, thanks to Abi, her life is about to take an unexpected turn, when she signs them up to do a charity walk.

Added to which, someone is about to burst into Daisy's world in a riot of colour reminding her that life can be full of surprises.


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Book review: Skeletons by Jane Fallon

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 27th March 2014 by Penguin, 448 pages.

Description: Jen has discovered a secret. It's not hers to share, but is it hers to keep?

If she tells her husband Jason, he might get over the shock but will he forgive her for telling the truth? She might drive a wedge through their marriage.

If she tells someone else in Jason's family - the family she's come to love more than her own - she'd not only tear them apart but could also find herself on the outside: she's never really been one of them, after all.

But if she keeps this dirty little secret to herself, how long can she pretend nothing is wrong? How long can she live a lie?

Jen knows the truth - but is she ready for the consequences?

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Book review: Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 2nd January 2014 by Atlantic books, 513 pages.

Description: His whole life Danny Kelly's only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he's ever done - every thought, every dream, every action - takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment.

His parents struggle to send him to the most prestigious private school with the finest swimming program; Danny loathes it there and is bullied and shunned as an outsider, but his coach is the best and knows Danny is, too, better than all those rich boys, those pretenders. Danny's win-at-all-cost ferocity gradually wins favour with the coolest boys - he's Barracuda, he's the psycho, he's everything they want to be but don't have the guts to get there. He's going to show them all.

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Book review: The Widow's Guide to Sex and Dating by Carole Radziwill

My edition: Paperback, published on 29 August 2013 by Heron, 352 pages.

Description: Claire's husband is a philandering 'sexologist' who believes love and sex can't co-exist. But it breaks her heart when he dies and leaves her a young widow.

As she braces herself for her new life alone, Claire can't help but wonder if her late-lamented was right all along. After getting through the pain of his passing, she's returning to the battlefield of bad dates.

So when she's asked to write the biography of lothario movie star Jack Huxley, she's surprised when he doesn't live up to his sleazy reputation. Not only is he more than meets the eye, but he's got his eye on her. Claire's determined to banish her husband's ghosts and prove him wrong. But having found her first Mr Right, does she deserve a second?

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Book review: The Carriage House by Louisa Hall

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 4 July 2013 by Viking, 279 pages.

Description: William Adair, patriarch, doting father of three girls, Men's Tennis Club Champion from 1967-1974 wakes up in his hospital bed and realizes that his family are less extraordinary than he had believed. For more than thirty years, his faith in life was grounded on two indisputable principles: his daughters' exceptional beauty and talents and the historical resonance of a carriage house built by his grandfather. Now, both have begun to collapse.

The three Adair daughters once so brilliant have all returned home; Elizabeth, the divorced but once promising actress, tennis ace Diana, now a University dropout and beautiful, sorrowful 18 year old Isabelle. Having lost their father's pride they struggle to define themselves, each "a planet that had fallen out of its orbit". And the carriage house has decayed beyond recognition and risks being condemned.

To help him recover, William's daughters take on the battle for the carriage house and attempt to recover some of the promise of their former selves. Told through the alternating perspectives of the family, a dramatic fire jolts them out of their self-absorbed misery and each of the Adairs start to overcome their wrong turns and to find the promise of a fresh start.

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Book review: When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man by Nick Dybek

My edition: Paperback, published on 1 March 2013 by Constable & Robinson, 306 pages.

Description:Loyalty Island is a small fishing community dependent on the Gaunt family fleet for survival. Each winter, Cal's father - a captain of the fleet - sets sail for Alaska to trawl for crab. Cal may be too young to join in their adventure, but he is old enough to know that everything depends on the fate of those few boats thousands of miles north.

When the fleet's owner, John Gaunt, dies, he leaves the town's livelihood in peril. With winter fast approaching, Cal starts to suspect that his father may have taken extreme measures to save the fleet from extinction . . . Plagued by doubt, his loyalties strained and his moral compass in tatters, Cal is forced to make a terrible choice.

When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man maps the troubles waters of a community at risk, a family in turmoil, and a young boy becoming a man.

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