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ClareR (5849 KP) rated Never Have I Ever in Books

Aug 8, 2019

Never Have I Ever

Joshilyn Jackson | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller

8.5

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

Prepare for a pretty wild ride!

Never Have I Ever is a psychological thriller which had me completely hooked from the first chapter. Amy is a housewife who teaches diving and is currently on maternity leave. She helps her friend Char to run a book club, which the other mums in her neighbourhood also come to (I think more drinking than reading goes on, to be honest!). At one of these meetings, a new person arrives. Roux is renting a local house for a short period of time, and gatecrashes the club, taking over entirely. She starts a game of ‘Never Have I Ever’, uncovers some of the other mums secrets, and lets Amy know in no uncertain terms that she knows her deepest, darkest secret. And Roux wants to be paid to keep that secret. But Amy isn’t going to just hand over the money.

I loved this - Roux is a great villain, and Amy is an intriguing character. I loved how the lines between good and bad were blurred where Amy was concerned, but she always remains a good mum and Stepmother throughout.

My heart was in my mouth pretty much the whole time - I warn you, there is no let up at all in this book at all!

I will most definitely be looking for more books by Joshilyn Jackson!

Many thanks to NetGalley for my copy of this fabulous book, and to The Pigeonhole for giving me the incentive to read it!

Kudos

Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor in Books

Mar 30, 2020

Adam Kay was a junior doctor from 2004 until 2010, before a devastating experience on a ward caused him to reconsider his future. He kept a diary throughout his training, and This Is Going to Hurt intersperses tales from the front line of the NHS with reflections on the current crisis. The result is a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy, and a love letter to those who might at any moment be holding our lives in their hands.

I happened to win this book in a competition @smashbomb it's not something I would normally buy myself but I'm so glad I did! I have laughed, felt physically sick and cried and Adams recounts. After having a lot of issues on a personal level with birthing 4 children one of which was preterm and died at 18 days old I can see the constant struggle in our maternity wards. The second begin now I face endometrial pre cancerous cells and need an Hysterectomy, its quite funny that I chose to read this during our covid 19 lockdown it brought so much home. We should be celebrating doctors like Adam and our staff in the NHS as they keep battling on against budget cuts, long hours, shit pay and a barrage of patient abuse!!! Please read this book and please next time you use our NHS say thank you it goes a long way!!

Kudos

Discrimination and the Law

Malcolm Sargeant

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Discrimination and the Law provides an exploration and evaluation of Discrimination Law, focusing...

The Birthful Podcast | Talking with Pregnancy, Birth, Breastfeeding, Postpartum & Parenting Pros to Inform Your Intuition

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Podcast

Women get bombarded with all sorts of advice on maternity: a lot of it unsolicited, and often...

Merissa (12669 KP) rated Art and Soul in Books

Sep 14, 2020

Art and Soul

Claire Huston | 2020 | Contemporary, Romance

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Art and Soul is the debut book by Claire Huston and is both genteel and charming.

Claire is returning to work after taking a year off on maternity leave but she is finding it hard to get her clients back. Charlie is a painter sinking into obscurity, through both circumstances and his own behaviour. Together, these two can get Charlie back into the limelight and get him the woman of his dreams... but what about Claire?

For a simple storyline, this book was surprisingly complex and intriguing. Claire was a great character, being straightforward in certain situations and yet completely blind in others. Charlie was the more tentative of the two, easily being led by Claire and Rachel. I would have liked him to have been a little stronger but then I'm not the author!

Two things I loved about this book - 1) the main characters are not in their 20's! and 2) it was set in the UK. It makes a nice change for it not to be the US.

The scene setting was brilliant and both Claire and Charlie are helped along by a wonderful supporting cast. This was a lighthearted read without any major angst that kept my interest and the pages turning. Absolutely recommended by me.

* 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!

Kudos

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 20, 2021

Today, author Julia Daily stops by my blog with a fascinating interview about her women's fiction novel NO NAMES TO BE GIVEN. Watch the book trailer, and then enter the giveaway to win a $100 Amazon gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-no-names-to.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
1965. Sandy runs away from home to escape her mother’s abusive boyfriend. Becca falls in love with the wrong man. And Faith suffers a devastating attack. With no support and no other options, these three young, unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans where they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired.

But such a life-altering event can never be forgotten, and no secret remains buried forever. Twenty-five years later, the women are reunited by a blackmailer, who threatens to expose their secrets and destroy the lives they’ve built. That shattering revelation would shake their very foundations—and reverberate all the way to the White House.

Told from the three women’s perspectives in alternating chapters, this mesmerizing story is based on actual experiences of women in the 1960s who found themselves pregnant but unmarried, pressured by family and society to make horrific decisions. How that inconceivable act changed women forever is the story of No Names to Be Given, a heartbreaking but uplifting novel of family and redemption.