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ClareR (6256 KP) rated Highway Blue in Books

Apr 9, 2024

Highway Blue

Ailsa McFarlane | 2024 | Contemporary, Crime, Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Highway Blue was rich in description, especially for such a relatively short book (192 pages). I could see the story unrolling in my head as I read.

It’s almost a modern day Bonnie and Clyde - except there aren’t multiple deaths or bank robberies! Anne Marie is trying to forget about her estranged husband, Cal, and when he turns up out of nowhere, it comes as a shock. He brings trouble with him, a man ends up dead, and they find themselves on the run. It seemed to me that Anne Marie is in a state of shock throughout this whole novel.

Will they make it to safety before they’re caught? I was hoping that Anne Marie would leave Cal and make her own way. At the beginning he clearly wants money from her to solve whatever problem he has made for himself and is very disappointed when he realises she has nothing.

Despite its darkness, and it was relentless at times, I really enjoyed this.

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ClareR (6256 KP) rated Cursed Daughters in Books

May 13, 2026

Cursed Daughters

Oyinkan Braithwaite | 2025 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

What must it be like to grow up with your family believing that you’re the reincarnation of the aunt that died on the day you were born - and you’re the spitting image of her? What makes it even worse is that everyone believes that your life will follow the same trajectory - even down to the way you will die.

Not an easy legacy to live with, made worse by the fact that Eniiyi buys in to the family curse, despite the fact that in every other way she’s a modern woman.

This all sounds very serious with curses and deaths, but it’s actually witty and looks at the line between family expectations and free will. I did wonder if these women were trapped by their own superstitions, turning the “curse” into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They believed it would happen, and so it did.

And that 30 year old dog - I’d love to know THAT secret!