Book review: The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne

My edition: Paperback, published on 6 June 2013 by Quercus, 509 pages.

Description: Amy Wilde is tired of the idiots her glamorous flatmate Jo tries to set her up with – she'd much rather be landscaping a garden with her dog Badger at her side than trying to find the man of her dreams. That is, until she meets Leo Wolfsburg. Handsome, polite, funny, intriguing – Leo is everything Amy could want in a man. Best of all, the attraction seems mutual.

But Leo's lifestyle is a world away from her own. Private planes, charity balls, exclusive members' clubs – Amy begins to realise that her simple existence has been turned upside down. And just where is Leo's home country of Nirona, anyway? Is this all too good to be true?

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Showcase Sunday and Stacking the Shelves #1

While I've been writing book reviews for years I've only recently become more organised and started publishing on here regularly. I would love to get to know some fellow book bloggers, so I decided to start participating in Showcase Sunday and Stacking the Shelves; two excellent book blogging memes that allow me to show some of the exciting reads I've received in the mail in the past week.


The Sea Sisters by Lucy Larke [competition win]
There are some currents in the relationship between sisters that run so dark and so deep, it's better for the people swimming on the surface never to know what's beneath. Katie's carefully structured world is shattered by the news that her headstrong younger sister, Mia, has been found dead in Bali - and the police claim it was suicide. With only the entries of Mia's travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister's life, and - page by page, country by country - begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death. What she discovers changes everything. But will her search for the truth push their sisterly bond - and Katie - to breaking point?

By My Side by Alice Peterson [review book]
Cass Brooks loves her job, her boyfriend Sean, her life. Until, leaving home one morning, distracted and hungover, she steps into the path of a truck. When she wakes up, she can't walk. And suddenly all her hopes and dreams, the plans she'd made with Sean, the future she thought she'd have, seem out of her reach. But then fate intervenes again. Cass meets Ticket, a loyal golden Labrador who refuses to leave her side. And on a flight to Colorado, she sits next to Charlie, who believes he can show her a life full of possibilities, if only she'll let him. Cass wants her life back the way it was. Charlie knows this cannot be. Yet a future beckons all the same.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani [review book]
Thea Atwell is fifteen years old in 1930, when, following a scandal for which she has been held responsible, she is 'exiled' from her wealthy and isolated Florida family to a debutante boarding school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. As Thea grapples with the truth about her role in the tragic events of 1929, she finds herself enmeshed in the world of the Yonahlossee Riding Camp, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty and equestrienne prowess; where young women are indoctrinated in the importance of 'female education' yet expected to be married by twenty-one; a world so rarified as to be rendered immune (at least on the surface) to the Depression looming at the periphery, all overseen by a young headmaster who has paid a high price for abandoning his own privileged roots.


All three novels while wildly different sound right up my alley and I look forward to reading them in the coming week. I'm probably most looking forward to By My Side by Alice Peterson because not only does it seem somewhat similar to the beautiful Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, but all the novels I've received from Quercus recently have been wonderful and this one sounds like another winner.

Have you guys read any of the books showcased above yet? If so, did you enjoy them?

Book review: The Second Life of Amy Archer by R.S. Pateman

My edition: Paperback (uncorrected bound manuscript proof), to be published on 18 July 2013 by Orion, 432 pages.

Description: On 31st December 1999, ten-year-old Amy Archer went missing from her local playground. Her body was never found and the lives of her parents, Beth and Brian, were torn apart.

On the tenth anniversary of the disappearance, Beth is alone, still struggling with the enormity of her grief and the horror of not knowing the fate of her only child. But the fear and confusion have only just begun, and Beth's world is turned upside down when a stranger knocks on her door, claiming to know what happened to Amy.

Beth is introduced to a little girl who is the uncanny double of her missing daughter, who knows things that only Amy would remember; the name of her favourite toy, the place where she scratched her initials, what Beth likes for breakfast. But this can't be Amy, she hasn't aged a day...

Now Beth is forced to question everything she has ever believed in, and push her faith and her sanity to the limits, if she is to find out the truth about what happened to Amy.

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Book review: Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 6 June 2013 by Quercus, 348 pages.

Description: When Imogen and Anna unexpectedly inherit their grandmother Vivien's ice cream parlour, it turns both their lives upside down. The Brighton shop is a seafront institution, but though it's big on retro charm it's critically low on customers. If the sisters don't turn things around quickly, their grandmother's legacy will disappear forever.

With summer fast approaching, Imogen and Anna devise a plan. Rather than sell up, they will train up, and make the parlour the newest destination on the South Coast foodie map.

While Imogen watches the shop and conjures new marketing ideas, her sister flies to Italy to attend a gourmet ice cream-making course. But can their best-laid plans survive their warring family, tempestuous love lives - and the great British weather? One thing is for certain - this summer will be like no other . . .

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Book review: Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 1 July 2013 by HarperCollins, 415 pages.

Description: The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the New England island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne to an impeccably appropriate young man. The weekend is full of lobster and champagne, salt air and practiced bonhomie, but long-buried discontent and simmering lust seep through the cracks in the revelry.

Winn Van Meter, father-of-the-bride, has spent his life following the rules of the east coast upper crust, but now, just shy of his sixtieth birthday, he must finally confront his failings, his desires, and his own humanity.



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Book review: The Bad Mother by Isabelle Grey

My edition: Paperback, published on 9 May 2013 by Quercus, 368 pages.

Description: Tessa Parker runs a successful B&B in a seaside town. During a surprise visit from Australia, a long-lost aunt lets slip a family secret that unsettles her fragile world.

In shock, and feeling betrayed by her whole family, Tessa confides in her ex- husband just as he reveals he has a new woman in his life.

Struck unexpectedly by jealousy; balancing her own turmoil against the demands of parenting, Tessa tries to trace her birth father, with devastating results. Yet she fails to see how this is a crucial moment in her children’s lives. If she gets things wrong, the consequences could be fatal.

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Book review: Bay of Secrets by Rosanna Ley

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 9 May 2013 by Quercus, 560 pages.

Description: Spain, 1939. Following the wishes of her parents to keep her safe during the war, a young girl, Julia, enters a convent in Barcelona. Looking for a way to maintain her links to the outside world, she volunteers to help in a maternity clinic. But worrying adoption practices in the clinic force Sister Julia to decide how far she will go to help those placed in her care.

England, 2011. Six months after her parents' shocking death, 34-year-old journalist and jazz enthusiast Ruby Rae has finally found the strength to pack away their possessions and sell the family home. But as she does so, she unearths a devastating secret her parents, Vivien and Tom, had kept from her all her life.

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Book review: The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 23 May 2013 by Simon and Schuster, 384 pages.

Description:In 1964 Maggie wakes to find herself in a psychiatric ward, not knowing who she is or why she has been committed. She slowly begins to have memories of a storm and of a man called Jack and slowly the pieces of the past begin to come together.

In 2008 Jonathan is struggling to put his differences with his parents aside to tell them he and his wife are expecting a baby, when a detective arrives to question him about crimes committed long ago.

And as these two tales interweave, the secrets of the past, long kept hidden, start to come to light in unexpected and sometimes startling ways.

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Theatre review: Once

Synopsis: Based on the much-loved Oscar-winning film, Once is an extraordinary, original and irresistibly joyous celebration of love, friendship and music.

When an Irish busker and a young Czech girl meet through a shared love of music, their songwriting sparks a deep connection and a tender, longing romance that neither of them could have expected.

Cast: Declan Bennett, Zrinka Cvitešić. Valda Aviks, Phoebe Fildes, Ryan Fletcher, Allison Harding, Aidan Kelly, Gareth O’Connor, Michael O’Connor, Tim Parker, Miria Parvin, Jos Slovick, Flora Spencer–Longhurst, Alex Turney, Jez Unwin, Gabriel Vick, Robbie White, Poppy–Lily Baker, Mia–Jai Bryan, Pacha Ann Green, Nancy Ann Jeans.

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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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