A Hologram for the King
Book
New from Dave Eggers, National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King. In a rising Saudi...
The First Person and Other Stories
Book
The First Person and Other Stories is the fourth collection of short stories by Ali Smith. The First...
The Nowhere Man
Book
That rare thing, a sequel which is better than the original, The Nowhere Man is a thrilling,...
The Refugees
9.4
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From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2016 'A powerful antidote to all the...
Mr Lynch's Holiday
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Mr Lynch's Holiday is the charming and comic new novel by the bestselling and prize-winning author...
Cold Comfort Farm
7.5
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A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all...
Debbiereadsbook (1102 KP) rated Nothing But Good in Books
May 19, 2021
First time author, peeps, and I think it’s rather good!
Jefferson is an FBI agent tasked with catching The Smiley Face killer, Mr Smiley (I have no idea why, but that tickled me no end!) Coming face to face with his college room-mate after 8 years, and then Finny getting attacked by Mr Smiley, puts Jefferson in a difficult position. But Jefferson can’t stay away from Finny, not now.
So, couple points.
First, though, well done Ms McKinley, on a job well done. I did NOT see the whodunnit coming at me, at all! And the WHY! Loved being kept on my toes.
It did take me a little while to get into it, and it was touch and go whether I would dump this or not, but I am glad I kept going, I really did enjoy it!
I did feel, though, that I might have enjoyed this more, had there not been any smexy stuff, I really do. I felt the scene before the gala dinner was kinda thrown in, like it NEEDED some smexy, but I really don’t think it did. So, clean, here, might have worked better for ME.
And of course, I wanted to hear from Finny too! Why they fell out, all those years ago was playing on my mind, and what I had was not how it went down. But I needed Finny to tell me why, not Jefferson. Finny had his heart broken when Jefferson went nuts, and I needed Finny to tell me how he dealt with it all, in much more detail than when he is talking to Jefferson. And we don’t get him, we just get Jefferson. Just me, being greedy!
A well thought out plot line, well written, and well delivered.
4 GREAT stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
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Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come Together
Book
Clay Shirky's international bestseller Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come...
How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours
Book
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to...
ClareR (5596 KP) rated Unsettled Ground in Books
Feb 21, 2021
The characters Jeanie and Julius are vulnerable people who just need someone to guide them when their mother dies, even though they are fiercely independent. This is a family that has always lived on the edge of their community - both their actual geographical location and socially. They live hand to mouth, and when Doris their mother dies, the twins have to go without food at times, when it transpires that Doris has left them with no money and debts. The cost of her funeral is the least of their problems (and they overcome that problem reasonably easily anyway).
There is a feeling that the twins are trapped by circumstance and by each other. Jeanie has never recovered from a childhood illness and is illiterate, and Julius is not only expected to look after her, but is trapped in their local area because he has severe travel sickness linked to their fathers terrible death. Their one comfort is their joint love of folk music (I wish I could have actually listened to these songs - I shall have to google them, and I hope they really exist!).
Claire Fullers use of language makes the everyday seem more lifelike in her books. I read most, if not all, of this with my heart in my mouth. How could I not? Jeanie and Julius are people who are shunned by society, taken advantage of and treated terribly. I feel I can’t leave this quite like this though: there are the good people, the ones that help.
I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll stop here, but what I will say is that this is another gorgeously written novel by Claire Fuller, and you should most definitely read it!
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an e-copy of this book through NetGalley to read and review.