Freckles moves from her small island home to Dublin, in the hope that she will be able to track her down. She lives a solitary life in Dublin, seems to have few friends and lives by her rigid rules and routines - although I do think she has more friends than she knows. Those few friends are people who seem to genuinely care about her. Freckles is full of self-doubt though, and when a frequently ticketed Ferrari owner (she’s a traffic warden!) tells her that she’s the sum of the five people that she spends the most time with, she decides that the best thing to do, is to choose those five people herself.
This was quite the emotional rollercoaster. Allegra is such a vulnerable young woman, and I was rooting for her happy ending from the start. This book made me laugh out loud and cry - and genuinely want to be one of her five!
So, I’m re-evaluating my opinion of Cecilia Ahern books. I may not have got on well with the books I’d previously read, but Freckles really did hit the spot. I loved it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this.
David McK (3623 KP) rated Hearts of Stone in Books
Feb 9, 2022
Until recently, I've tended to avoid his few works that are more contemporary in nature, only recently (towards the end of last year) reading Blackout as I felt they were 'too close' (if that makes sense) for comfort for me in that there are still people alive who lived through the setting.
I must admit, I did quite enjoy Blackout so thought I would also give this a go, due to the roughly the same (WW2) setting.
This novel flits back and forth between then and 'now' (of 2013), as the descendants of the main 1940s settings character start to discover more about their ancestors - in particular, as history teacher Anna uncovers the story of her maternal grandmother Eleni, who participated in the Greek resistance on the island of Lefkas during 1943.
The whole had-a-German-friend in 1939 thing almost seems incidental to the story (he's not), until roughly about the final third.
And yes, I did pick up on the arguments in favour of teaching history (a subject I did, mostly, enjoy in school) passages.
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When they all converge at the vineyard, they discover Leonard is thinking of selling. He refuses to accept any of Leah or Vivian’s ideas to help save it. But when Sadie finds Vivian’s trashy old novels from her book club days, the three women come together. It’s fun to hear about the old novels (you’ll enjoy this book if you like Krantz or Collins) and watch the women triumph over Leonard, who, honestly can be sort of awful. The themes of marriage, sexism, and family run strong and make this an interesting read, even if the characters sometimes frustrate you to no end. 3 stars.
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Morgan Sheppard (968 KP) created a post
Aug 12, 2023
Merissa (13382 KP) rated Cocktails & Casualties (Crooked Cove Mysteries #1) in Books
Aug 17, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this story as Teddy becomes good friends with Jazz, and learns all about the other members of the community. Hawk is a great character and I hated what happened, although he still managed to hit me in the feels near the end of the book. There is a slight triangle here with Nate and Santi, which I'm hoping doesn't become a thing. Santi, all the way!
The pacing was wonderful and all the characters well fleshed out. I enjoyed my time in Crooked Cove and look forward to returning, where (hopefully) I'll see more of Santi! 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; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Aug 17, 2023