Tag Archives: book of the week

Book of The Week: The Variety Girls By Tracy Baines

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The Variety Girls , Tracy Baines

Our Book of The Week is this stunning novel from Tracy Baines. You can read our review here. Get your copy now.

This heart warming saga is set on the brink of the 2nd World War, and circumstances have dictated that Jessie Delaney, her mum, Grace, and young brother Eddie, up sticks and move in with Jessie’s aunt and uncle. To call these relatives the sober-sides, the  ‘sucked a lemon’ brigade is to understate the case. Life is toxic, and miserable, but our Jessie is aspirational, she determines to escape onto the stage in her father’s footsteps.

Can she pull it off, especially as it means leaving her mum and brother, and what about Harry the boyfriend?

If she does leave, how can she rescue her mother and brother? Will she be the successful singer she craves to be? Will she still see Harry? Where will she live? Will she make friends?

So many questions, and to find the answers, and enter this razzmatazz world, you will have to read this well-researched song and dance of a novel in great gulps as I did, all the while so wanting Jessie to pull it off, just as the author most certainly has: an evocative, busy, entertaining read, which has well balanced touches of humour, vying with angst, and of course, more than a dollop of tension. Bravo, bravo.

But be warned, you’ll end up buying sparkly knickers, and dancing to the big band sound around the kitchen – oh yes you will.

The Variety Girls by Tracy Baines. pb, ebook and audio. Available from Amazon.co.uk WH Smith, and ASDA

 

Three Bullets By R. J. Ellory | Book of The Week

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three bullets R. J. Ellory, book, JFK

This is a stunning book that I only grudgingly put down when I had to. A mixture of fact and fiction: it is a gripping and pacy thriller. This is my favourite book of the year so far.

IT WAS THE SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD
On 22nd November 1963, John F. Kennedy’s presidential motorcade rode through Dealey Plaza. He and his wife Jackie greeted the crowds on a glorious Friday afternoon in Dallas, Texas.

BUT WHAT IF IT MISSED?
Mitch Newman is a photojournalist based out of Washington, D.C. His phone never rings. When it does, a voice he hasn’t heard in years will tell him his former fiancée Jean has taken her own life.

WHEN THE TRUTH IS BIGGER THAN ALL THE LIES
Jean was an investigative reporter working the case of a lifetime. Somewhere in the shreds of her investigation is the truth behind her murder.

WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT?
For Mitch, piecing together the clues will become a dangerous obsession: one that will lead him to the dark heart of his country – and into the crossfire of a conspiracy…

Available here.

Book of The Week: Only a Mother By Elisabeth Carpenter

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only a mother, book, elisabeth carpenter

This is an atmospheric psychological thriller that leaves you wanting more. Brilliant.

 

ONLY A MOTHER . . .
Erica Wright hasn’t needed to scrub ‘MURDERER’ off her house in over a year. Life is almost quiet again. Then her son, Craig, is released from prison, and she knows the quiet is going to be broken.
COULD BELIEVE HIM
Erica has always believed Craig was innocent – despite the lies she told for him years ago – but when he arrives home, she notices the changes in him. She doesn’t recognise her son anymore.
COULD LIE FOR HIM
So, when another girl goes missing, she starts to question everything. But how can a mother turn her back on her son? And, if she won’t, then how far will she go to protect him?
COULD BURY THE TRUTH

Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Louise Jensen, Katerina Diamond, Helen Fields and CL Taylor – a hard-hitting psychological thriller told from the fresh perspective of a killer’s mother.

 

Available here.

Book of The Week: Hungry Babies By Fearne Cotton

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hungry babies fearne cotton book

This highly anticipated sequel to the best-selling Yoga Babies was a huge hit with my son. He loved the book and it is easy to see why. The book has a great storyline for children and glorious illustrations. There is so much to see in every page. The Hungry Babies story will also -hopefully!- get your child interested in some different foods. It is our well deserved book of the week.

 

Broadcaster, author and mum Fearne Cotton has revealed her brand new children’s picture book Hungry Babies to her millions of social media followers.

 

Once again illustrated by Sheena Dempsey, Hungry Babies follows the same set of children from Yoga Babies as they go through the many perils of meal times – from big eaters to fussy eaters, breakfast at home to eating on the go, Fearne’s warm, funny rhyme reflects all aspects of eating with little ones. Sheena Dempsey has snuck in a few familiar faces and places if you follow Fearne’s Instagram – with her kids Honey and Rex, Fearne’s kitchen and even the children’s wendy house making an appearance!

 

On creating Hungry Babies, Fearne has said:

 

“Being a mother you realise how fussy or strange kids can be around food. My two have very specific favourites and dislikes and it can be challenging at meal times. Sometimes it’s a joy but it is also hard work in producing new foods to reluctant participants.

 

Meal times in our house are usually pretty hectic! The kitchen floor looks like the Monday after Glastonbury Festival and I’m sweating. I try to get my kids to try new things. Rex is very good at this and loves the challenge where as Honey takes a little more work. Some days they eat every thing I put in front of them and other days not so much so I try not to worry too much.

 

I think the book will deliver hope that kids will eventually try new foods, but also that it is OK if there is a meal time that goes a bit wrong. Food on the floor, kids spitting new foods out – I think the book is a fair reflection on a plethora of possible outcomes.”

 

2018 has been an incredibly busy year for Fearne so far, including the launch of her chart-topping podcast Happy Place.

 

Hungry Babies is published in hardback, £10.99

ISBN. 9781783446858

 

Believe Me By J P Delaney | Book of The Week

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believe me JP Delaney

I found it impossible to book this book down. I do not even read much crime thrillers as I get upset about the high female body count, but this book is so well done and does not feel gratuitous. Despite the horror of the crimes. If your love Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins you will love this. A pitch perfect psychological thriller.

A British drama student, in New York without a green card, Claire takes the only job she can get: working for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing as an easy pick-up in hotel bars to entrap straying husbands.

When one of her targets becomes the subject of a murder investigation, the police ask Claire to use her acting skills to help lure their suspect into a confession. But right from the start, she has doubts about the part she’s being asked to play. Is Patrick Fogler really a killer . . . Or the only decent husband she’s ever met? And is there more to this set-up than she’s being told?

And that’s when Claire realises she’s playing the deadliest role of her life . . .

Available here.

Necessary Evil: How to Fix Finance by Saving Human Rights | Book of The Week

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necessary evil finance

When I first received this book I worried it might be bias. There was no need. It is well researched and balanced. Full of fascinating facts and persuasive argument. A compelling and thoughtful read.

Finance is the evil we cannot live without. It governs almost every aspect of our lives and has the power to liberate as well as enslave. With the world’s total financial assets–valued at a staggering $300 trillion–being four times larger than the combined output of all the world’s economies, there is, apparently, plenty to go around. Yet, while proponents of finance-driven capitalism point to the trickle-down effect as its contribution to wealth redistribution, there are still nearly a billion people across the globe existing on less than $2 a day; 14 percent of Americans are living below the official poverty line; and disparities in wealth equality everywhere have reached unprecedented levels. Evidently a trickle is not enough.

How can this be when so much wealth abounds, and when finance is supposedly chastened and reformed after its latest global crisis? How, especially, can it be in an age when human rights are more loudly proclaimed than ever before? Can the financial sector be made to shoulder more of the burden of spreading wealth, reducing poverty, and protecting rights? And if so, what role can human rights play in making it happen?

In answering these questions, David Kinley draws on a vast array of material from bankers, economists, lawyers, and politicians, as well as human rights activists, philosophers, historians and anthropologists, alongside his own experiences working in the field. Necessary Evil shows how finance can shed its conceit, return to its role as the economy’s servant not its master, and regain the public trust and credibility it has so spectacularly lost over the past decade–all by helping human rights, not harming them.

Available here.

And Then it Happened By Linda Green | Book of the Week

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and then it happened

Frost’s book of the week is And Then it Happened By Linda Green. A stunning book about love, family and strength. The book gives you a reminder to live in the moment and make the best of life. A heart-warming novel that will stay with you. 

 

The only man you’ve ever loved is slipping away…

Mel and Adam were childhood sweethearts and remain blissfully happy twenty years on.

And then it happens…

When tragedy strikes, Mel is faced with losing the only man she has ever loved. But what if he hasn’t really been taken from her at all – he just can’t find a way to let her know…

From the bestselling author of While My Eyes Were Closed comes a heart-breaking story of love against all odds.

Available here.