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Milleen (47 KP) rated Nine Perfect Strangers in Books

Nov 14, 2018

Nine Perfect Strangers

Liane Moriarty | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry

6.6

(9 Ratings)

Book Rating

Liane Moriarty’s Australian backdrop is ‘Tranquillum House’, a remote health retreat that promises total transformation. Each of the nine strangers has some reason for attempting to unload some mental baggage and relaxing away from the modern world. They relinquish their mobile phones and laptops, cutting themselves off from the outside. A different kind of therapy is administered by the austere manager and what unravels is an unusual twist on Moriarty’s narrative, yet it’s totally entertaining. There’s a level of chaos and farce, mixed with darker elements that make this a compelling read. Not at all like the famous, ‘Big, Little Lies’ but more ‘Truly, Madly, Guilty’ in its delivery. Available in hardback now, paperback in April 2019.

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Milleen (47 KP) rated Then She Was Gone in Books

Nov 14, 2018

Then She Was Gone

Lisa Jewell | 2017 | Thriller

8.1

(21 Ratings)

Book Rating

This thriller is completely gripping. Ellie was a golden girl, the apple of her motherÕs eye and only fifteen years old when she disappeared without a trace. Ten years later her mother, Laurel still has unanswered questions when she meets a man who sweeps her off her feet. Then she meets his daughter, the image of her lost Ellie, and Lauren must begin to unravel the mystery of what happened.
JewellÕs drama unfolds quickly and uses a smattering of dramatic irony, so that you figure out the truth before Laurel, making you squirm in your comfy reading spots as you read on. This is a pacy, dark, tense story, totally compelling until the very last word.

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Deborah (162 KP) rated The Last Queen in Books

Dec 21, 2018

The start was a bit shaky - a few Americanisms thrown in there (Why 'visit with'??! It's a daft, redundant sort of expression!) but when I got in to it I found it to be a really rather compelling novel! This is the story of Juana 'The Mad', Quuen of Castile, daughter of Ferdinand & Isabella, the catholic kings. Gortner has an interesting take on Juana's 'madness' which he develops in the novel.

It's not altogether a comfortable read though! so many times I felt myself to be frustrated for Juana and the situation she found herself in - manipulated by others.

An interesting and thought-provoking read about a queen perhaps not much known outside of Spain.

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David McK (3752 KP) rated The Lost Outlaw (Jack Lark #8) in Books

Apr 12, 2020

8th entry in Paul Fraser Collard's 'Jack Lark' series - originally dubbed as The Talented Mr Ripley meets Sharpe - and, this time, we're in Wild West territory with Jack joining a cotton convoy down from the Southern US States into Mexico.

Jack remains as compelling an protagonist as ever, having now fought on both sides of the American Civil War and throughout the British colonies (the series started in Alma), although now his past is beginning to tell - he is no longer as cocksure, as certain of himself as before and is suffering from nightmares over all he has witnessed.

And, yes, the finale does very much resemble Rorke's Drift - even the author states as much!