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ClareR (6062 KP) rated When the Lights Go Out in Books

Nov 17, 2020

When the Lights Go Out

Carys Bray | 2020 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry

7.7

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

When the Lights Go Out is not just about climate change and the disaster that we seem to be hurtling towards. It’s also about a marriage: Emma and Chris’ marriage. I seem to be having a really good run with books lately. This is a book where not overly much happens on the surface, but it’s packed full of action if you look at the way that it’s scrutinising Emma and Chris’ marriage. These are two people who have a lot going on. They have both been pushed to their limits, and whilst Emma seems to be dealing with the changes in her life, Chris is really struggling. He is constantly plagued by thoughts of ‘worst case scenarios’. He stockpiles food and fuel in the garage, he buys fish antibiotics just in case the human version is unobtainable. And he tests his family’s resourcefulness by turning off the electricity in their home to make sure they can cope - and leads them to believe it’s a power cut. Chris is unhappy. Work is very slow - no one needs a gardener if it rains non-stop and the garden is submerged, or if it gets so hot that nothing survives to tend to. Money is tight since Emma lost her job when the library where she worked closed, and she works part time in a school, supplementing her income with her craft work.

Everything comes to a dramatic head on Christmas Eve - and I don’t think I was capable of breathing properly for the last couple of chapters.

This sounds like a morose, depressing read, but it really wasn’t. There are some really quite funny bits interspersed with the more serious aspects - I thought it was really well balanced, and I loved reading it.

Kudos

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Feb 12, 2021

Check out this awesome playlist (and the sweet inspiration for it) for the cozy mystery GRAND OPENINGS CAN BE MURDER by Amber Royer Author on my blog. Come view the book trailer, and enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of the book as well as a $25 gift card to Dandelion Chocolate!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/02/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-grand.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Felicity Koerber has had a rough year. She's moving back to Galveston Island and opening a bean to bar chocolate factory, fulfilling a dream she and her late husband, Kevin, had shared. Craft chocolate means a chance to travel the world, meeting with farmers and bringing back beans she can turn into little blocks of happiness, right close to home and family. She thinks trouble has walked into her carefully re-built world when puddle-jump pilot Logan Hanlon shows up at her grand opening to order custom chocolates. Then one of her employees drops dead at the party, and Felicity's one-who-got-away ex-boyfriend - who's now a cop - thinks Felicity is a suspect.

As the murder victim's life becomes more and more of a mystery, Felicity realizes that if she's going to clear her name in time to save her business, she might need Logan's help. Though she's not sure if she's ready to let anyone into her life - even if it is to protect her from being the killer's next victim. For Felicity, Galveston is all about history, and a love-hate relationship with the ocean, which keeps threatening to deliver another hurricane - right into the middle of her investigation. Can she figure it out before all the clues get washed away? FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!