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Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.6 (97 Ratings)
Book Rating
Diverse intersection of characters. Amazing build up of tension. Who done it based in the OZ Suburbs. (0 more)
I can't think of any other than I wish I read the book first! (0 more)
A perfect example of a who done it with added school politics!
Okay, so a small confession...
I may have watched the TV series before this book and didn't know it was actually a book before Nicole Kidman and Reece Witherspoon brought the rights.
I loved the TV show and the book certainly didn't disappoint.
It was quite relevent for me too ATM as my son is about to start reception class and I can certainly imagine all the different school politics that go on!
This book was hard to put down and whilst on holiday of managed to read it in a couple of days.
It delivered everything I want in a book and more.
(This bear in mind with me knowing what does actually happen as I had seen the series already). To read this for the first time without seeing the show I can imagine locking myself away and calling in sick to work to keep reading.
I loved the pace, tone and voice of the book and how it switched between each character and how they thought and felt.
As a mother I identified with all of the main characters at one point of another as their lives all intersect around a fatal event which occurs at a fundraising Trivia Night.
You know this from the outset, and I really enjoyed the comments from all the secondary characters throughout the chapters too.
They really did help set the scene and tension in the build up to the big event.
I loved this author so much I've already brought and started reading another one of her books and will likely be buying them all!
  
A State of Freedom
A State of Freedom
Neel Mukherjee | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A series of interconnecting stories.
I very much like books set in Asia, and in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in particular. The stories they tell are far from the world that I live in, and I like to think that I'm going to learn something about those worlds and peoples.
This novel follows the lives of multiple people who are all connected in some way (even the first person we meet is connected, albeit in a very tenuous way). The stories are fascinating: from the privileged son of a couple who live in Calcutta who is visiting from London for a month, to the young girl (a child) who is sent to work in other people's houses and is treated like a slave in one of the houses she works in. I won't say any more about the stories of these people, but I loved where their stories led them, no matter how uncomfortable it was for me to read.
The writing is beautifully descriptive: it gave a feel for the sights, sounds and smells of where these people lived. It described the caste/ class system of India, the slums and the places where the better off lived. I really enjoyed this book, it really is well worth reading.
  
Orderly Affair, Hearts and Health #6
Orderly Affair, Hearts and Health #6
D.J. Jamison | 2018 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
the warm and fuzzies are back!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Book six in the series, but they are all stand alone novels with pop ups from previous characters. All 4 and 5 stars reads from me, bar book one, which I STILL haven't got to read yet!

Ian is only just, at his 38th year, finally finding it in himself to find himself. A hook up app seems the best option. Finding Callum answering his message was a surprise, but both men run with it.

I found myself fully engaged with both Ian and Callum. Ian, experimenting with his sexuality, and Callum, already fully embraced in his. Their chemistry is hot, and burns bright, even before they decide to date properly. Ian does tend to jump in with full force once he makes his mind up, and his mind is made up that he wants Callum.

Callum's independent streak is a mile wide and causes some problems, he just needs to let Ian in. While Ian is still in the closest, though, Callum won't utter those three little words Ian already said, not until he knows he has a future with Ian.

I loved that Callum waited for Ian, he could easily have gone off on one and forced the issue but he didn't. Ian's son forced the issue, in a spectacular way! Loved though, that after his blip, Liam comes around.

I read this in one sitting. I even took the kindle to the kitchen to make tea and feed the natives so I didn't have to stop reading!

No idea who is next, or even if there IS a next book. I'll read it, regardless.

The first book in this series is a cross over with another series, and I'd like, at some point, to go back and read those books too. I'll add them to my pile, and maybe get round to them some time in 2025!

I love this series, I really do. They leave me with that warm and fuzzies feeling that lasts for days!

5 warm and fuzzies stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
TF
The Forgotten Man (Elvis Cole, #10)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Normally, a man shot in an alley in downtown Los Angeles wouldn’t cross Elvis Cole’s radar. However, this man claimed that he was the PI’s long-lost father in town to make up for lost time with his son. Could it be true? If so, what was he doing in the alley when he got shot?

At some point, this part of Cole’s past had to come into the foreground in the series, and this book does a great job of using that hook to springboard us into a great mystery. As you’d expect, there are some good twists and an exciting climax. I did feel that a flashback to Elvis as an early teen really didn’t do much for the story other than slow it down. We don’t get to see much of Joe Pike, Elvis’ partner. Instead, the sidekick role is filled with Carol Starkey, but I hated how she came across here. Definitely a step down for her character.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-forgotten-man-by-robert.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.