Summer Reading 2024

Here are some of my favourites…

The Dance Teacher in Paris by Suzanne Fortin *** +

I very much enjoyed this dual-timeline story set in contemporary and early 1940s Paris at the start of the German occupation.

In the contemporary timeline, Fleur is visiting Paris from the UK, accompanying her grandmother on what has become an annual pilgrimage for Lydia, through which she wants to remember those who lost their lives in the city. This year, she has decided the time has come to tell her granddaughter the full story, but even she is shocked when at her old school where she used to dance the ballet, she finds an old ballet shoe belonging to someone she believed long gone. As they try to solve the mystery, they meet antiques dealer Didier, to whom Fleur is immediately attracted. But can he be as trustworthy as he appears, and is Fleur ready to move on from the loss she suffered when her beloved mother died and find the courage to love again?

Interwoven, is Lydia and Adele’s story narrated by Adele, the dance teacher of Paris. It was Adele who tried to save the Jewish children at her school. Her love story and her determination to do what she can to resist the occupation and save people’s lives lies at the heart of this book and was the driving force of the story for me. This is a compelling, sad and poignant narrative, well-told. Highly recommended.

 

The Hike by Lucy Clarke ***

Four old school friends re-unite to go on a hiking holiday in Norway. This could be (and is) a chance to re-assess their life journeys and make big decisions about the way forward. As one might expect, they all have problems. Liz, organised and practical, is on a trial separation from Patrick, husband and love of her life. Helena, still grieving for the loss of her mother and determinedly single, might or might not be pregnant. Maggie hasn’t fulfilled her own hopes and dreams – she has a wonderful daughter but also a problematic ex-husband and she is no longer as creative as she would like. And Joni is a burnt-out coke-addicted rock star who has lost her way. Hmm…

In fact they all lose their way on the Norwegian slopes before their problems are finally resolved.

 

The Golden Hour by Jacqui Bloese ****+

Set in Victorian Brighton, I was immediately drawn in to the world of the three main female characters in this novel. Ellen works and lives with her twin brother; they run a photography business which includes the salacious ‘golden hour,’ a time at the end of the afternoon when they photograph girls in more risqué poses than the usual society photographs, which can be sold for a profit in London or France. Ellen does have qualms – but the way she sees it, they are enabling girls to make a much-needed income without them having to resort to prostitution.

The second woman, Lily, is one of these women. She works in the laundry and is at constant risk of assault from her uncle. She needs money in order to get away from home, but when she does get away from home, she finds herself with even more problems than before.

The third woman is Clem, a well-to-do American, who is married to a man who is rather too fond of pornography and other women for Clem’s liking. And anyway, Clem has other interests to pursue… ones which her husband will definitely disapprove of.

A friendship builds between Ellen and Clem and when Lily comes to work in Clem’s house as a maid and Ellen becomes Clem’s paid companion, tensions mount until eventually their secret is out.

Beautifully written, sensuous in detail, I loved ‘The Golden Hour’ which kept me hooked and entertained from start to finish.

 

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell ***+

Lisa Jewell is one of my favourite authors and as usual, this novel sizzles with tension from the off. Very dark tension…

Josie Fair goes to a restaurant on her 45h birthday with her husband Walter, and there she meets podcaster Alix Summers, also out on a birthday celebration of her own. It turns out that they were born on the same day in the same hospital; they are ‘birthday twins’.

Josie, trapped in what she sees as a boring and unsatisfied life with her husband and her daughter Erin who has special needs, is fascinated by Alix, but it is a fascination that quickly turns into an obsession. She begins to want Alix’s life.

Alix is attractive and appears to be happily married with two healthy children. Having listened to some of her podcasts, Josie approaches Alix and asks her – would she be interested in interviewing Josie as an example of a woman who has had a difficult life and who is now determined to change it?

Alix is unsure at first, but as she begins talking to Josie, she starts uncovering a shocking darkness in the other woman’s life. She feels that she must continue – even as the power shifts between them and Josie starts encroaching on Alix’s personal life and that of her family.

Gradually, the truth is revealed – but whose truth is it? And is there another truth deeply hidden that may stay hidden forever? Chilling and compelling.

 

The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh ****+    and my book of the season 😊

I was expecting a feel-good romance when I started this book, but actually it is so much more.

Emma, a marine biologist, loves her husband Leo, an obituary writer, very much. They have a young daughter Ruby; the family are blissfully happy, apart from the times when Emma has one of her ‘turns’ when she needs to take off and be alone by the sea somewhere, searching for rare marine creatures.

But their life is thrown into chaos and shock when Leo discovers that almost everything Emma has ever told him about herself, is a lie.

He cannot believe it at first, but he digs deeper, determined to find out the truth, and more importantly, why Emma lied to him. Where does she really go to when she needs to escape? And what can be so awful that made it impossible for her to tell him who she really is and what she has done?

When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past life finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was. But first, she must tell him about the love of her other life… Hugely enjoyable, thought-provoking, emotional and absorbing. Highly recommended.

 

Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus ***+

I’m late to the party on this one, and was really looking forward to seeing what the fuss is about. Easy to see – the book’s premis of a beautiful and clever female scientist trying to teach women how they can use chemistry to change their lives in the 1950s and 60s is both original and compelling. It’s a revenge comedy and the premis sets the scene for some sharp satirical humour with feminism at the root; a string of one-liners had me laughing out loud at times.

All the characters are caricatures and the book is heavy on authorial comment with constant switches of viewpoint, including that of the dog, six-thirty. But it works. The book begins with Elizabeth (the scientist) dropping bitter, pithy, life-lesson notes in the lunch box of her four-year old daughter Mad – herself a precocious genius who has to pretend to everyone at school that she is nothing of the kind. Elizabeth is depressed because she has lost Mad’s father, Calvin Evans, the love of her life, in a freak accident and she has been forced to leave her job as a research chemist and instead host a cooking programme entitled ‘Supper at Six’ which she has attempted to make more like a chemistry lesson intended to change women’s lives.

Enter a host of other similarly caricatured characters and a mystery concerning the parentage of Calvin. Will the TV show survive? Will Elizabeth ever recover? Who was Calvin anyway? This is the narrative tension that drives the book forward. We do want to know, but I feel that with this book it is the – sometimes heavy-handed – feminist humour that has made it such a successful debut. Highly recommended (as long as you’re not either religious or a female scientist).

Finca Writing in March and June 2024

Two writing groups came to the Finca in 2024, and we explored a range of subjects including life-writing and emotion – in fiction and non-fiction, internal balance and structure in fiction, writing a synopsis and a pitch, and collaborating in small groups to plot and write a short story. We also had a book-club session.

The writers also continued with their own works in progress and/or hopefully were inspired by some of our morning writing exercises into some pieces of new writing.

I like to stress that this is a writing holiday with plenty of me-time in a gorgeous setting (see https://hotelfinca.com/) and how participants choose to spend that time is completely down to them. Some people spent a lot of  time writing, others went out walking (in March) and others caught up with some much-needed R&R around the pool (in June).

As always, the food and ambience were superb and everyone seemed to have a good and productive time.

There are two writing holidays booked in for March and June 2025. The March one is full at the moment, but I will be opening the June writing holiday up for bookings in August. E-mail me for details if you are interested…

 

 

 

 

 

My Spring Fiction 2024

The Lake House by Kate Morton ***+

Who doesn’t love climbing into a Kate Morton novel? This complex family drama wraps itself around you like a cosy cashmere blanket, enveloping you in deep emotions and an intriguing mystery… (and as I’m writing this, it may be spring but I still need a cashmere blanket…)

Sadie, a detective taking time out for getting too personally involved in a case, discovers a derelict old house and garden in Cornwall, while out for a run one day. The house is Loeannath, the Lake House, and it is the centre of a seventy-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of a baby, Theo Edevane. Since Sadie has time on her hands, she decides to investigate further…

In London, Alice Edevane, the famous crime writer and sister of Theo, is shocked to receive a letter from Sadie, asking about the family tragedy. It brings back memories and sensations that she has tried all her life to put behind her. She ignores the letter at first, but Sadie is determined. It becomes clear that there are many family secrets to uncover before the mystery can be solved and the truth revealed.

Who knew more about Theo’s disappearance than they told the police at the time? Flashback chapters from other characters (including the deceased) provide more information, but no body was ever discovered and so Theo might be (still) alive or dead.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this story and I particularly warmed to Alice, whose viewpoint is both insightful and amusing. The author takes the opportunity of having a lot of fun by delving into the writer’s viewpoint. She is also very good at the slow reveal and build up of tension. A multi-layered and enjoyable read.

 

The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glynn ***+

The Dubrovnik Book Club is a warm and compelling story filled with sensory detail and emotion.

Claire is just starting a new job as manager at the Welcoming Book Shop in Dubrovnik, but this requires huge bravery on her part as she recently suffered from Long Covid and is  terrified of getting it again. In the bookshop, she meets Luna, her new colleague – who is struggling to admit her own sexuality to the world.

Claire and Luna start up a Bookclub and through this we meet a cast of other fascinating characters, some of whom also have a difficult journey to go on. The story is very strong on these character journeys, which are handled with sensitivity and perception.

When the Bookshop is threatened, the characters all work together to try to save it. In the meantime, they are all getting to know one another rather better – the relationships between them are well-drawn and convincing.

The setting of Dubrovnik is impeccably researched with great precision of detail (especially on food – yum yum) and the author’s love of the city shines through. A very enjoyable read and highly recommended.

 

The Keeper Of Stories by Sally Page **** and my Book of the Season

Janice is a cleaner – but also a collector of stories and a storyteller herself. She likes to find evidence of the extraordinary in ordinary people and this gives her some hope of happier endings.  Most of her stories come from people she cleans for, some from conversations she overhears on the bus – where she also comes across a very nice bus-driver who happens to look like a geography teacher. (A nice touch, I thought).

Janice is married to the awful Mike and it soon emerges that this is only part of her story. But Janice does not want to tell her story – she feels too guilty – and it takes the support of friends and family plus a set of extraordinary circumstances to persuade her to do so. But if we cannot acknowledge our own stories, how can we hope to move on?

This is a brilliant story about loss, friendship and support. It’s so well-written with plenty of humour, and I loved it.

 

The New Wife JP Delaney ***+

As always, JPD launches us into the story from the off – direct and straight into the voice of our narrator, Finn. Finn and his sister Jess have just learnt about the death of their father (the Old Bastard) which is no great loss to them as he has never been much of a father to them in the first place. The difficulty is though, that their legacy is the rather glorious Finca Sequia in Mallorca, currently occupied by their father’s third wife Ruensa and her daughter Roze. So Finn goes over to check them out (and maybe throw them out) and from therein becomes embroiled.

To avoid spoilers, let’s just say that this is another twisty tale with plenty going on and a surprising jolt in almost every chapter. As usual, I was hooked from the start, and found it hard to put the book down. Five stars for page-turnability, but I haven’t yet decided how I feel about the ending. Perhaps you should read it and decide for yourself?

 

Secret Lives by Diane Chamberlain ***+

Eden Rily, movie star, needs time out from ‘wearing a mask’ (as she describes the business of acting) and she decides to write the screenplay for a film about her late mother, successful children’s author Kate Swift. She knows already that her mother, who died when Eden was a young girl, was solitary, possibly agoraphobic and was known as an eccentric. But what else might she discover?

Eden goes to stay with her uncle Kyle and her aunt Lou in her mother’s old home town, in order to find out more. But it isn’t easy for Eden being with them. She had a difficult childhood which included a spell in an orphanage and she feels guilty around Lou – who is wheelchair bound – because of an accident which she feels is her fault.

The story takes on an added thread when we hear Kate Swift’s voice through the journals which she kept at the time, and which Eden is now reading. There are a lot more dark secrets to her mother’s life than Eden had realised, some of which have a huge impact on Eden’s life and relationships now.  And then Eden meets Ben Alexander, an archaeologist friend of Kyle’s who has more dark secrets of his own.

Will Eden be able to continue with her plan to write the screen play of her mother’s life – or will it be too emotional and intense for her to contemplate? And can she find her own sense of self by discovering the truth about her mother’s past? I very much enjoyed this novel and highly recommend.

 

The Silence of The Girls by Pat Barker ****

In this re-telling of ‘The Iliad’, the main narrative voice is that of Briseis, taken prisoner when her city falls to the Greeks and given to Achilles as a ‘prize of war’. All the old narratives of the Trojan War concern themselves with the male characters – the women have traditionally never been given a voice, just as in this story, the women are given no choice; they are possessions to be dealt with and claimed accordingly.

Briseis was Queen of the Kingdom ruled by her husband, but she was forced to watch her husband and family butchered by the man who is now to become her owner, her lover. The Queen has become a slave. She has no choice but to give herself to Achilles, but she does this coldly and reluctantly, not allowing herself to show any emotion. Their relationship becomes complex however; even Briseis cannot fully understand it, and when she has the opportunity to escape, she decides not to take it.

Barker sticks closely to the Iliad story and although Briseis is a feminist, she is only a feminist within the boundaries of the world and time she lives in and so she accepts her fate. But Barker does give her character a strong, modern and feminist voice in both dialogue and thought and this makes the story more accessible and for me, more interesting too.

The characters are believable. Most of the men are unpleasant, though some are kinder than others. The god-like warrior Achilles is fascinating – his pride is wounded and he makes some bad mistakes, but for me Barker made him capable of deep love – especially for Patroclus, but also for Briseis and the mother goddess who left him.  I also enjoyed dipping into the world of the women with their laundry and linens, their herbs and natural medicines, the honey, the weaving and the complex laying out of the dead. Most of all, I loved the fact that Barker has given these women a voice once silenced by history.