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    Vanilla (2019)

    Vanilla (2019)

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Movie

    A freewheeling comedian determined to save her family business invites an uptight entrepreneur on a...

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Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated Finding Eva in Books

Jun 5, 2019  
Finding Eva
Finding Eva
J.A. Baker | 2019
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Finding Eva is a cleverly written story about one woman’s search for her birth parents and the trouble it stirs up among others.

In this thrilling psychological tale of friends and family connections, told by J.A. Baker, we discover there’s much more to Eva’s relationship with both her best friend Celia and her recently dumped boyfriend Gareth than we are first lead to believe. But who’s the liar and just what secrets have they been keeping?

Gareth can’t get Eva out of his mind. He want’s to track her down and make her pay for ruining his life. But what has she done to him?

Celia only wants to make sure Eva’s safe, but when Eva ups and leaves without telling her, she makes it her business to find out what is going on. She wants answers and will do anything to get them. But in order to do this she must find Eva first.

I loved the ‘family drama’ theme which plays on how some secrets should stay dead and buried, but once unearthed there can be no going back. With Finding Eva we delve into tricky topics such as mental illness, fraught childhoods and that feeling of not quite fitting in with society. We also uncover the secrets of a feisty heroine who’s more than a match for her adversaries. A fun read with a wicked twist at the end!
  
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ClareR (5721 KP) rated The Dictator’s Wife in Books

Mar 8, 2022  
The Dictator’s Wife
The Dictator’s Wife
Freya Berry | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Dictator’s Wife drew me in from the first page. I was utterly gripped by this claustrophobic-feeling story about the wife of a deposed (and dead) dictator.

Laura Lāzārescu’s parents had escaped Yanussia and its oppressive regime when she was a small child. Yanussian wasn’t spoken in the house, Yanussia wasn’t spoken about at all. So when Laura is asked to go to Yanussia with her law firm to represent Marija Popa, the wife of the country’s former dictator, her parents aren’t at all happy.

Marija is firm in her innocence. But is she really innocent? She’s accused of money laundering and human rights abuses, but she repeatedly paints a picture of herself as that of the nations mother. This is a woman with charisma, and you know when she has entered a room. She uses her femininity like a weapon - people do what she want them to with little effort on her part (or so it appears).

And Laura is affected by her. What makes it more interesting, is that Marija knows Laura’s mother - something that Laura has no knowledge of.

There’s a feeling of dread running throughout this book: Laura and her colleagues can’t leave the grounds without an escort, the building itself has secrets, and it’s as though those secrets are oozing from the walls. It feels like Laura is being constantly watched.

Everyone in this novel has secrets: Laura’s parents, her colleagues, the Yanussian lawyer, Marija’s sister, and most importantly, Marija herself. Family is an important theme: Marija is adopted, but even her adopted sister is clearly covering up for her. Laura’s family has pretty much destroyed itself as her parents keep their secrets from her.

Other themes are secrets, gender roles, stereotypes within those roles and the role of the media and social media in particular. Social media is a big driver behind the attitudes of the people towards Marija, and the media itself fuels this.

Laura just wants to find out the secrets that her parents won’t tell her, but will she be able to before she has to leave?

I’d most certainly recommend this book, and I’m really looking forward to reading more from Freya Berry in the future. Many thanks to Hayley @Shelflyfe and @Headline books for my prize-winning copy.