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After the War is Over
After the War is Over
Maureen Lee | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
204
Book
After the war is over
By Maureen Lee

Liverpool, 1945.Three women, strong friends, return home from the war trying to fit back into their old lives after they've been demobbed.They've been thrown together by the war and shared all sorts of good and bad times. Now their old lives seem dull in comparison, but not for long... The younger women, Maggie and Nell, are both twenty-one and are full of hope and excitement; Iris, on the other hand, is feeling apprehensive about returning to civilian life. At the age of thirty her only wish in life is to have a baby, but sadly this wish has yet to come true. When one of the women falls pregnant, there begins a dramatic sequence of events so wide-reaching that the three friends' lives will become more intricately interwoven than they could ever have imagined. Over the next quarter of a century this story of three remarkable - and very different - women unfolds into an uplifting tale of how three ordinary families become extraordinary.


This is not normally a book I’d pick up from a shop or the library this was passed on by a friend and I always like to try different books. I really enjoyed it! It’s a gentle well told story of 3 women who’s lives take so many different twists and turns. You find yourself immersed into each of their lives. I will certainly be trying more of her books sometimes a girl needs a break from supernatural and crimes!
  
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    Deus Ex: The Fall

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Thrown for a Scoop
Thrown for a Scoop
Dana Mentink | 2024 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Is the Solution to an Old Mystery Here in Town?
Upper Sprocket is celebrating its centennial, and Trinidad Jones has created a special freak shake to celebrate the milestone. But before the celebration kicks off, a stranger wanders into her shake shop. He’s a true crime podcaster trying to track down clues on a fifty-year-old case, and he thinks that Trinidad’s soon to be brother-in-law, Doug, might know something about it. Since Doug isn’t good with strangers, Trinidad tries to warn him only to find that the stranger is dead when she arrives. Despite vowing to stay out of it, she can’t help but try to clear Doug. Can she do it?

I was pleased to see the author was self-publishing a fourth book in the series. It does a good job of updating us on the characters while also kicking the story off. We are treated to a well plotted story that kept me guessing until we reached the logical climax. And the characters are as quirky and charming as always. There were some continuity issues early on that felt like things left over from earlier drafts of the book, but once things really got going, I didn’t notice any more of them. This book will definitely make you crave ice cream, and I am curious what was in the breakfast ice cream that is featured in a fun subplot. Fans of this series will scoop up this book. I know I’m glad I did.
  
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ClareR (6256 KP) rated True Story in Books

Jan 16, 2022  
True Story
True Story
Kate Reed Petty | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I thoroughly enjoyed this highly original book. It’s written as a series of emails, transcripts of audio interviews, successive drafts of annotated college admission essays and screenplays (some of which are written when the main female character was a child). True Story tells the story of a young woman who, when too drunk to defend herself, is sexually assaulted in the backseat of a car by two boys on the local lacrosse team. Or was she? Because they deny it, and the fact that they went to the local private school and were seemingly sober (or more so than she was), seems to help people side with them and call her a liar. They gaslight her, make her doubt herself, and the damage this causes her, follows her into adulthood. She finds herself in a very damaging relationship that she struggles to escape from.

Out of all the boys on the lacrosse team, Nick also struggles with the consequences of that night. Whilst he wasn’t in the car, he feels the guilt of those boys’ actions, and he slips into alcoholism as a result (there may well be other reasons as well, but this is what I read into it).

I think I probably inhaled this book. It’s one of those that you start and then find it very difficult to put down. I loved the jumps in presentation, particularly the screenplays. I was urging Alice to stand up for herself and walk out of her dangerous relationship.
It’s a fascinating novel that I’d most definitely recommend.
  
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Merissa (14112 KP) rated Ugly by Kelly Vincent in Books

Aug 9, 2022 (Updated Aug 14, 2023)  
Ugly by Kelly Vincent
Ugly by Kelly Vincent
Kelly Vincent | 2022 | Contemporary, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
She doesn't have the answers, and that's okay.
UGLY is a realistic story about a girl who doesn't fit in - anywhere. She is bullied at school, doesn't have any friends, the list goes on. And what made this such a good read is that she is completely 'normal' - whatever that is.

Nic is slightly overweight, doesn't like makeup or other girly-girl things, likes a boy who doesn't like her, and tries her hardest but doesn't always succeed. How refreshing to read about someone who isn't perfect! And then, to top it off, she stays that way throughout the book. There is no sudden weight loss and she's suddenly popular; she doesn't suddenly gain a boyfriend who smooths the way for her. She doesn't decide to change for the sake of conformity. She remains true to herself throughout, realising that not everyone is horrible, and some people will actually take her as they find her, without trying to change her. She doesn't have the answers, and that's okay.

I found the pacing to be smooth and the story flowed. It had ups and downs as Nic figured things out about her life. This book is unlike many others, and I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Aug 3, 2022