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Spilt Milk
6.0
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Bryan Karetnyk, Gaito Gazdanov and Julien Pacaud
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The first half, set in 1986, follows a group of friends who travel down to Manchester from their small Scottish town. Manchester is the epicentre of everything they believe to be cool. Best friends James and Tully decide that weekend to make something of their lives, and not to compromise. This part of the novel is full of nostalgia - even for me, and I was 13 in 1986, so nowhere near as independent as Tully, Jimmy and their friends. But I could empathise with their new-found freedom, their enthusiasm of good music, films and books, and their feelings about politics.
2017, and Jimmy gets a phone call from Tully asking him to come home from London and see him. Tully has terminal cancer and needs Jimmy to help him - this is the true test of their friendship.
I loved how this was written, and how it really brought home the power of friendship and the memories that you share with those friends. Tully and Jimmy are more brothers than friends, and this felt like a really genuine relationship. So much so, that I was close to tears on several occasions. This is NOT a book to read in your lunch break (I did - but just the once!), because once I started reading it, half an hour wasn’t enough. And walking in to a room full of three year olds after a particularly emotional part wasn’t my finest moment!
So would I recommend this? Yes, I most certainly would. And I listened to parts of this on Audible, read so well by the author, so I’d recommend this too!
Debbiereadsbook (1647 KP) rated Dark (Blood Moon, Texas Shifters #1) in Books
May 25, 2020
I finished this book, so that's a good thing!
I can't say what didn't quite work for me, I hate that I can't, you all know it annoys me so!
The world building is good, with werewolves and vampires exposed to the world a short time ago, in a thoroughly modern way!
Hayden and Ethan have history, I was expecting that history to be a bit more than it appeared to be. Ethan's personal history is bad, as is Hayden's, both of them having difficult childhoods. There is much angst about their childhoods.
Or there SHOULD have been. While Ethan regularly comments on what his childhood did to him, how he closed off from everyone, Hayden does not. I wanted MORE from Hayden about her childhood!
Ethan brothers held more interest to me, than Etahn himself, I'm afraid and I would like to have had a bit more about them. I can see a pairing between one of his brothers and Hayden's sister, Ellie. Who, in my humble opinion, needed a slap a time or two!
There is a back story that kinda got lost on me, and I wasn't sure what the whole point of the kidnappings was, to be honest. It tells you, in the book, but the penny did not drop for me, I'm afraid.
Some sexy bits, although much of those are glanced over, off screen as it were. Some violent bits too.
Still, as the first by this author AND a first in series, not a bad read, just not one that really pushed any of my buttons, I'm sorry to say!
3 good stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**