Review - Sophie's Turn by Nicky Wells

A laugh out loud, extremely easy to read, fabulous book that whisks you off and transports you a whole other exciting world! 

Sophie, a budding journalist on a London paper used to be a massive fan of rock band Tusk back in the 80s and travelled the country in her youth to follow Tusk and blagged her way into their dressing room and onto their tour coach with the lead singer Dan who was the man of her dreams!  

She is now with Tim, an Accountant and he is a nice, average man, but there's not much excitement and romance in her life, much to the disappointment of her best mate Rachel . When at the airport, waiting to check-in for a flight, she spots a familiar face in the queue who turns out to be Darren, one of the old members of Tusk.  He amazingly recognises her too and they meet up and have a chat before she flies off to New York.  He tells her that the band have reformed and are doing a few intimate gigs and she decides to go and watch one of them. 

This puts her back in touch with the band and particularly back in touch with the man of her old dreams Dan, who sweeps her off her feet and after inviting them to cover their new tour proposes to her! 

Find out whether the grass really is greener on the other side and who Sophie decides to be with in this fabulously well written, romance which is guaranteed to make you smile and has a quite unexpected ending.    Sophie is an outstanding and believable character who'd you love to be friends with. 

Can't believe that this is Nicky's first book.  She writes in such a fabulously colourful and descriptive way which makes you believe you are the main character of the book, and feel the deep emotions of the characters.  I was on that tour bus!  I was singing and dancing at the concerts! I love Tusk!  I for one, and I'm sure anyone else who reads this excellent debut novel from Nicky, will be awaiting the next one with baited breath.  I love her style of writing, and this book was an absolute pleasure to read. 

Born and raised in Germany, Nicky moved to the UK in 1993.  Having received degrees from the University of London and from the University of Oxford, she spent 6 years as a researcher and project manager for an international HR research firm.

Nicky left work in late 2004 to spend three months writing Sophie’s Turn, before the birth of her first baby in April 2005 and she currently lives with her husband and two sons in Bristol, and is trying hard to work on her next novel as much as being Mom to 2 small children allows.  

To find out more about Nicky Wells and her fabulous writing, you can check out her website http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/

Review - Coffee at Little Angels by Nadine Rose Larter

Crikey!  This book had me sat around the pool on holiday with tears streaming down my face and people asking me if I was ok!  What a tearjerker but a lovely and well written one at that!

Coffee at Little Angels is about a group of small town high school friends.  Some have moved away from the town to make a life elsewhere, and some have stayed around.   They share a ton of memories between them, some good and some bad, but haven't really caught up as a group for a long time.  Reunited in grief when one of their group Phillip, is killed in a hit and run accident, they all return back to their home town, dealing with his death in different ways.  The book starts with Phillips death and his thoughts and feelings and a really strong opening line!  

A number of both new and old issues and emotions are raised and dealt with between this group of friends, and the book deals with many subjects including that of grief, loving and losing, discrimination, jealousy and above all friendship.

Nadine's style of writing is excellent, with the emotions from these very strong characters being felt deeply and you could easily imagine yourself being an additional member of the group sitting around the breakfast table joining in with the conversation.   The book was not written in chapters but in reasonably short sections from the view of each of the characters making it easy to read, once you had worked out the style. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if the sobbing left me feeling a little exhausted! 

I believe that Nadine decided to write this and use her experiences from losing a childhood friend of her own, which is perhaps why it's written so well and so clearly from the heart.   An excellent and delightful read, so honoured that I have been invited to review it. 

Nadine lives in Port Elizabeth with her son, fiance and two step children.  She is never happier than when she's writing, writing short stories and poems from a very early age. 

Over the last two years she made the decision to become a full time author and is developing her writing skills all the time.  Judging on this book, I think she's doing a fantastic job! 

You can find out more about Nadine and her other writing  at http://www.passingtheopenwindows.co.za/

Review - Breaking Even by Kathleen Kole

A fantastic book which gets you thinking about your own life and whether what you have is enough for you, or whether you want more!

Penelope is a sensible accountant who is engaged to Ben, a lovely, kind man and they have been together for what seems like forever.  One day while helping out her sister in law to be by taking the kids to school she locks her keys in her car, and is offered help by the most handsome man she thinks she's ever seen.  She finds out that Scott was left a single dad when his wife died with a child at the school too and he totally bowls her over.   After spending a little time with him, she finds herself becoming very girly and excitable!

On an impulse, Penny goes out and gets herself a makeover and buys herself a flashy new sports car and is amazed by the different reactions she gets from the family and friends in her life. She is surprised by her own reaction to how she feels about the excitement of meeting someone knew and is astonished that he finds her as attractive as she finds him.  It makes her question her own life and think about whether she and Ben are actually happy together, or whether they are just ambling along in a life which they are used to, which now seems a little staid and boring.   She finds herself wrestling with her emotions on this rollercoaster journey in her life.

Without giving away anymore of the plot, this is a great book, a really good read, which gets you reflecting on your own circumstances and thinking about how you would feel in this situation!   It certainly made me want to go out and get a makeover and buy a flashy new car. It's a story about good friends, family, love and relationships.  An extremely well written, enjoyable and easy to read book with terrific characters which kick started both my holiday reading and my new Kindle relationship and made me forget that I was not reading an actual book.   Kathleen's writing has you feeling all the emotions that the characters feel and I'm really looking forward to reading Kathleen's next book Dollars to Donuts. 

Kathleen is an extremely talented writer.  Born in Edmonton, she began storytelling in grade school and has many fond memories of entertaining her friends by story telling in her back yard.  She pursued a career in story telling and graduation from college with a Diploma in Radio & Television Arts and became a freelance writer for local newspapers.   She lives with her beloved husband, adored son and daft dog! 

If you'd like to know more about Kathleen Kole and her writing and books, check out her website at http://www.kathleenkole.com/. 

My Kindle Experience

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently, I've been on a family holiday to Menorca.  Weather fabulous, a few initial hiccups with the accommodation, but all ok in the end.

It was my birthday just before we went away and I was lucky enough to be given a Kindle.  I wasn't sure about having one, as I've always been a big reader and love the feel of a book in my hands and turning pages etc.  

I normally go away with around five books weighing my case down and then swap books with my other half and start reading the ones that he finishes as I'd normally run out!  This time I decided that I wasn't going to take a book at all, hoping that I'd get on ok with my new reading device as I'd be hunting down a book shop if I didn't.

OMG - I have a new best friend!

I LOVE MY KINDLE!

Probably helped by the fact that the first book I read on it, which was called Breaking Even by Kathleen Kole, was an absolute cracker, I didn't miss the feel of a book once.   Once I got into this fantastic story, I didn't really notice that I wasn't reading a book. 

No glare at all, so great to read outdoors.  Light and easy to hold, and easy to turn the pages, I don't know how I managed without one.  Easy to slip into my handbag to bring out at any time giving me the chance to carry on reading, and I managed to get through 9 books.   

I did find the "talk to me" feature a bit wierd as it has an odd voice (which I was prepared for as I had been told that) but also that it didn't stop at sentence ends, just continued talking so I shan't be using that particular feature.   

I didn't realise that you can also use it to go onto the internet, a feature that I would definitely use and a nice surprise and you can also transfer music files onto it too so can listen to music while you are reading.  I'll be playing around with these features now I'm back.  The model I had was the £111 version as I felt that this would be perfect for what I needed it for.  And it SO was!

All in all, I would definitely recommend a Kindle to anyone who loves books.   After I've raved about mine, my sister has already put one onto her birthday list and my 79 year old Aunty has already gone out and treated herself to one too.

Will crack on with all my reviews now and will be posting them very soon! 

Catch you later

Kim

x x

Review of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? by Claudia Carroll

A wonderful story of Annie and Dan and who've been together since they were childhood sweethearts and everyone sees them as the perfect couple.  However, on the inside of their relationship Annie feels completely and utterly ignored and taken for granted, not only by workaholic husband and vet Dan, but also by his Mother who has Annie running around doing erands all over the place, and other people who just use their house (which used to belong to Dan's Mom and Dad and is also home to the vetinary practice that Dan's father owned) as their own.  They live in a very small Irish village where everyone knows their business, they have no privacy whatsoever, Dan's mother disapproves of everthing she tries to do in her own house and everyone treats her like a skivvy, and generally takes advantage.  There is no longer any spark or excitement in their relationship and despite her attempts to get Dan to spend time with her, he just can't tear himself away from the practice. 

So when Annie agent calls and she get's the opportunity to audition for a part in a play, she's delighted to go of to Dublin to the audition where she meets up again with Liz, an old acting friend and she starts to feel just a little bit like her old life is returning and that she has more to offer.   Annie has to wait for a good while to see if she gets the part and during this time, Dan didn't even spend Christmas dinner with her, as another "emergency" cropped up and she's left with his malingering friends and family.  Due to Dan's habit of not listening to her and finding the fact that someone's horse has got the trots, far more important than paying attention to his long suffering wife, it takes her what seems like an age to tell him that the's been offered the part which is on Broadway and that they have asked her to go to New York for a year to take the part! 

She really wants to take this opportunity as she has put her life on hold for a while to please everyone else so with Dan's blessing, she takes off and they try to conduct a long distance relationship an ocean apart.  Does she miss Dan as much as she thought she would or does her new exciting life, experiencing a new city, living on her own, meeting new people and making new friends change what she wants?

To find out how it pans out, you'll just to read it yourself as I'm not giving away anymore of the plot.  But it's an emotional journey which I feel I suffered myself!   Once again, I lost myself in the plot of this book, becoming the main character and experiencing her feelings and thoughts in this new life which is so different to her old one.

A very cleverly written book by Claudia Carroll, and a message to all the couples out there who do take each for granted because there are other more important things in your life that seem to take priority over spending quality time with each other.  

Claudia's writing flows so easily and it's such an enjoyable book, that you don't notice how much you've read, and you just want to keep on reading.  It's lively, it's colourful, it's realistic, it's exhilarating, it's just thoroughly brilliant.   You can probably gather by now that I loved it!  I've never been to New York so it was also about learning about and being a tourist in a fabulous city for me too and it's now firmly planted on my "places to go" list.   Again, another new author to me whose work I found utterly pleasurable and I will certainly be looking out for her other books now.  This is her eighth book. 

Claudia Carroll was born and still lives in Dublin and not only is a writer, but has also worked as a theatre and TV actress.  Her first novel was published in 2004 and became a massive hit and she has since gone on to write a string of successful books. 

You can find out more about Claudia and her fantastic novels at http://www.claudiacarrol.com/.

Review of The Guardian Angel's Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke

WOW!  This incredible book had me wrestling my innermost emotions all the way through! 

The beautifully designed purple and gold sparkly cover (those of you know me, know that this is the perfect combination for me!) drew me in immediately to start this fascinating story. 

At one point, I wanted to put it down and not read any more as I found certain parts of it really distressing.  On the other hand, I desperately needed to find out what was going to happen to these amazing characters in this book. 

At 40 years old, Margot Delacroix dies and is sent back to earth as her own Guardian Angel!  She has to re-experience her life along with all her mistakes and regrets and record it all through her wings.  She is told that she cannot change any of her actions, but must use them to learn lessons.  She herself had a really tough life and some of the experiences she has been through, are so dreadfully sad and traumatic that you physically feel her pain and want to leap to her defence! 

She relives her own life and memories from birth and some things which she couldn't even remember happening and when her teenage son gets into serious trouble she realises that its her actions and behaviour that have turned him into the troublesome boy he has become.  She tries her hardest to put this right and tries to save him from his fate with stunning consequences and heartbreaking decisions along the way. 

A tough book to summarize without giving a lot of the plot away, but it was a mesmerising, fascinating story.  A Mother's love for her son is the most amazing thing and to feel her emotions the way that Carolyn describes them in this book, was just unbelievable for me.  Losing my own Mom a few years ago, made the experiences in this story made it all the more personal and heartwrenching for me and I will openly admit to sobbing my heart out for the last part of the book. 

The Guardian Angel's Journal makes you question your belief in both life after death and angels and even demons.  I know I do, but for those sceptics out there, I think it would certainly be putting questions into your mind too.  For those people who have ever loved and lost someone, this book can give you an insight into what your loved one might be doing right now!

A fantastic read, delving deep into your most innermost and private feelings.  I certainly hope that most of the distressing encounters that she writes about in this book are not from experience!  Carolyn is a truly outstanding writer, and has won numerous awards for poetry and I seriously can't wait for her next novel to come out. 

Carolyn was born in 1978 in Belfast and now lives in the North East of England with her husband and three children. 

She has been writing since a really age.  Her second novel is to be published in 2012 and again explores the relationship between the spiritual and mortal world. 

Her website is www.carolynjesscooke.co.uk. 

Review of There's A Lion In My Bathroom by Giles Paley-Phillips

There's A Lion In My Bathroom is a hilarious collection of nonsense poetry (his words not mine!) by the very talented Mr Paley-Phillips. 

This book is full of delightful and amusing poems which are accompanied by fabulous illustrations from Matthew Dawson. 

This is a book which can be shared by both adults and children of all ages, that will bring a smile to your face and brighten up your day with its humerous words and general sillyness.  It brought a lot of laughs to Oliver, my nearly four year old, and I have to admit to having quite a titter myself.   They are both daft and great fun. 

The book is full of both long and short poems and the shorter ones are really easy to remember.  My personal favourite was a poem called Falling Apart which I thought was hilarious.  Oliver's favourite was Bagshaw which he fell about laughing at and we had to read twenty million times (OK - well that may be a slight exaggeration but it sure felt like it!)

This book would be a great addition to anyone's bookshelf and a pleasure to pick up at anytime to put a huge great grin on your face.  Well done Giles for another pleasurable collection piece. 

A percentage of the profits from each copy of the book which is sold is being donated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research so buying a copy is also helping to raise funds which is a charity very close to Giles' heart. 

I have been lucky to also review The Fearsome Beastie by Giles and my review can be found here. 

Giles agreed to have a chat with me for the site to tell me more about him and his books and our interview can be found here. 

Giles lives in sunny East Sussex with his wife Michelle and his two young sons Elijah and Sonny.  (I bet he must be the best bed time story teller ever!)   He is a Crystal Palace fan and in his spare time plays in a band.  If you would like to learn more about Giles, please check out his blog site here.