Book Reviews

I am going to do three book reviews today all of which I enjoyed.  I have been laid up on the settee for most of the week with a badly swollen and bruised foot so have had plenty of time to read.

Separation by Dinah Jefferies

I was lucky enough to be given this novel by Love Reading to review a few weeks ago.  I do love new novels which aren´t my usual genre as it broadens my reading experience.  Anyway Separation is set in the 1950´s in Malaya and is about a Mother and Wife who becomes separated from her daughters and her journey to be reunited with them.

Within the first couple of pages I was hooked hook, line and sinker.  It was beautifully written and I was immediately immersed in the beauty and horror which was Malaya in the 1950´s.  But it wasn´t just that it was the “separation” of a mother from her children that tore the heart in two, it was also the unhappiness of one of the children in particular who couldn´t understand why her Mother had deserted them.

This novel has best seller written all over it.

Sound of Crickets by Marissa Farrar

I will own up immediately to say that I am biaised in this review as Marissa is my daughter. However saying that I do think this is an interesting concept of four women from four continents who get together via the web to write a blog.  This then reveals not just their lives but also how people in general react to blogging in a positive and negative way, but mostly this is about friendship and love and I must admit to shedding a tear or two.  Marissa normally writes very successful paranormal fantasy and I think this move away shows what a great writer she is.

Nearest Thing to Crazy by Elizabeth Forbes

I was recommended to this book by a friend and I am so glad she did.  It is a psychological thriller with a difference as it is written by the two people involved.  Ellie comes to live next door to Cassandra and her family in an idyllic country village and immediately makes friends with Cassandra´s friends and in particular her husband Dan.  Then things start to change and Cassandra finds herself more and more isolated but is it her or is it Ellie?

I do love psychological thrillers but as I have blogged before some are more “thrilling” than others.  I highly recommend Nearest Thing to Crazy and beware that newcomer to your life, he or she might not be all they are cracked up to be.

So what are you reading next?  I am going to try Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes.  I absolutely loved Into the Darkest Corner but found it difficult to get in to Under a Silent Moon and abandoned it.  But I think I should give it another go.