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ClareR (5674 KP) rated Dreamland in Books

Feb 5, 2020  
Dreamland
Dreamland
Nancy Bilyeau | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dreamland is set in 1911, the year of a heatwave in New York. Peggy Batternberg, a wealthy heiress, is forced to spend the summer at the exclusive Oriental Hotel on Coney Island. She would rather work at the Moonrise Bookstore and keep her distance from her controlling family. Even though she’s not allowed to go to the fairgrounds on Coney Island on her own, she does go there with her brother and male cousins. After an argument, they become separated, and Peggy is able to explore Dreamland (the fairground) alone. She meets a poor artist, Stefan, and falls in love with him and his art.

But when dead women start turning up and Stefan is under suspicion, Peggy realises that the culprit may be closer than she realises (and not Stefan!). She decides that she has to be the one to find out who has murdered these women. In doing so, she discovers the dark side of her family.

I really enjoyed this - the descriptions were so good, and really illustrated the vast difference between the exclusive, luxurious hotels and the fairgrounds, the wealth of Peggy’s family and the poverty of the fairground workers.
Henry Taul, Peggy’s sisters fiancé and her ex-boyfriend, really is an unpleasant piece of work, and his mother is awful - a great example of ‘new money’ and how they clearly don’t know how to conduct themselves (ok, I’m saying this with a little ‘tongue in cheek’). Unlike the more staid (on the surface) Batternbergs!

The descriptions of Coney Island so evocative, that I could have been there, and the photos that the author had taken and posted on The Pigeonhole really added to this.

I must have changed my mind about the identity of the murderer at least half a dozen times , and it really did take me until the end and the big reveal to be sure!

A thoroughly enjoyable serialisation by The Pigeonhole, made even better by the authors participation.
  
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Sue (5 KP) rated The Art of Keeping Secrets in Books

Aug 13, 2018  
TA
The Art of Keeping Secrets
Rachael Johns | 2016
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Art of Keeping Secrets is an intertwining story of 3 women (Emma, Flick, and Neve) who share a friendship and close bond. You soon find out that they each is hiding a different secret, one which they are struggling to come to terms with. A mother who never shared with her child the truth about his father. Another who fears losing her children to her ex & his new wife, while hiding a health issue. While the third lives in a picture-perfect marriage, all the while hiding the fact that her husband is not who everyone thinks he is.

Each chapter is from the point of view from one of the characters and you get a peek at their inner turmoil as they must face their secrets and the destruction it could cause to their families, friendships, and the lives that they are living.

If you want a book that is hard to put down and makes you go through every emotion (I laughed, cried, yelled, and more than once was in shock), then this is definitely a book you want to read.