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The Country of Others
The Country of Others
Leila Slimani | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a fascinating look at Leïla Slimani’s own family history.

Mathilde falls in love with, and marries, Amine Belhaj, a Moroccan stationed in Alsace. After the war, she sails to Morocco to live with Amine on his family farm. Life is so different to that in France, and Mathilde struggles to adapt. The French there shun her because of her husband, and Moroccans are suspicious of her because she’s French.

It’s a time of great upheaval in the 1950’s, as the Moroccans fight for independence from France, and life becomes increasingly dangerous for the Belhaj’s.

It’s a challenging life for Mathilde: she has to work hard, and Amine has a very fixed idea of a wife’s role. When she doesn’t stick to his rules, voices her opinions or disagrees, Amine beats her - he’s a violent man, scarred by the things that he saw and experienced in the war.

Mathilde does manage to insist that their daughter, Aicha, goes to a good French speaking school, and Aicha proves to be a good, diligent student - but the other girls at school are poisoned by their parents views: they’re very unkind and bully her.

There is a real feel for the heat and dust of Morocco. The contrasting cultures and religions of Christianity and Islam are shown, as well as the roles of women and how they are restricted in the light of their religions and it’s traditions. It looks at what it is to be a foreigner in a strange land; belonging, both in a country and a family; and the Moroccan struggle for independence from France.

This is going to be a trilogy, and I’m already fully invested in it - I can’t wait for the next book. Sam Taylor’s translation is perfect, and I hope that they’ll be translating the subsequent books as well.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for helping me (yet again!) with my NetGalley reading, and to Faber for my ebook copy through NetGalley.
  
HR
Hanks Radio ( Haunted Collection book 4)
Ron Ripley | 2022
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
58 of 230
Kindle
Hanks Radio ( Haunted Collection 4)
By Ron Ripley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A man's seductive voice emanates from an antique radio, luring women into his murderous embrace....

It's business as usual for Stefan Korzh as he continues to send haunted antiques onto unsuspecting buyers. Despite going into hiding, his desire to punish the universe for his own misfortune remains unchecked.

Victor Daniels, now more than ever, is focused on grabbing Korzh by the neck and making him feel the full extent of his pain and suffering. But plans change when a suave ghost from the 1940s leaves a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Hank, a sly and charming specter, uses a mahogany-colored radio to reach his victims...lonely, elderly women in nursing homes who find him hard to resist.

Meanwhile, Tom Crane is slowly adjusting to the life of a home-schooled student, spending his days immersed in books from the local library. But brewing underneath his scholarly demeanor is his insatiable thirst for revenge. With Victor occupied, Tom embarks on a dangerous mission to confront the man behind his misery.

The lives of Stefan, Victor, and Tom become more and more intertwined as they continue to play the blood-riddled sport. When old friends - and enemies - reveal themselves, they discover that anything is possible in a game filled with ghosts and vengeance.

Even the hunter can become the hunted....

I really enjoy these books and the character development. We pick up with Victor And Tom in this one and how they are dealing with Jeremy’s death and there continued search for Korzh. They get split up and things go a little haywire. These are so good and they involve a different vengeful spirit each time. This on also brought back the doll Anne that thing really gives me the bloody creeps. Recommended if you enjoy a good ghost story.
  
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Sedition ( Saving Setora book 3)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
144 of 230
Kindle
Sedition ( Saving Setora book 3)
By Raven Dark and Petra J. Knox
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶🌶

It all began when the road warriors found me outside Hell's Burning, lost and dehydrated. When the bikers took me into The Compound, I thought I was saved.

Especially when, as a Violet - a rare genetic anomaly prized above all - I'm taken in and raised by one of the wealthiest men in the world. Educated and groomed by the best teachers money could buy, I mistakenly thought he had a great future planned for me, one in which I'd be cared for and cherished.

I was wrong.

For centuries, women have been sold as slaves. In my 18th year, my benefactor reveals a truth that shatters my world. I'm to be put on display before the wealthiest of society at one of the biggest auctions this world has ever seen... as a slave.

But that night at the auction, something goes wrong. I am stolen by members of the infamous Dark Legion, a road warrior crew feared the world over. Torn from the only world I have ever known, now I have not one master, but four.

I shouldn't want these dangerous, deadly men with their leather cuts and their growling bikes, but the deeper my captors draw me into their dark and twisted world, the more I crave what they do to me. They stole me from a powerful man who'll stop at nothing to get me back. If I don't find a way to escape soon, my new masters might just steal my heart.

Well that’s so much better! I’ve had a few ups and downs so far with this series but I really enjoyed this one. Setora is just a really good character and despite her circumstances she just keeps fighting. I’m onboard with her men although Sheriff still needs shaking really hard!!! The epilogue in this book has me on edge I need to know what happens with Steel! Really enjoyed it.