I’m halfway to my Goodreads 2021 target of 100 books!
With 50 (mostly) great books under my belt, I thought it was time to take stock and pick my favourites so far.
These five in particular have helped light up my 2021…
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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Glorious Guinness Girls’ by Emily Hourican, a fascinating insight into the daughters of the famed Irish family.
With thanks to the publisher, Headline, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The main draw for this book was the period of history it covers – primarily the 1920s. Throw in some glitz and glamour, some high society sisters from the famous brewing dynasty, lots of Bright Young Things and raucous parties and I was absolutely sold!
This book fictionalises the story of the Glorious Guinness Girls – three sisters from Ireland who were celebrated in the contemporary media for being beautiful, privileged and eminently newsworthy. They were the daughters of Ernest and Cloe Guinness and raised in wealth and luxury in Glenmaroon until the events of the Irish Civil War became a little too close to home. They then embarked on a round the world yacht trip before settling in London where the girls were ‘brought out’ as debutantes and attended some pretty wild-sounding parties.
The story is told from the point of view of a fictional cousin of the Guinness Girls, Fliss, who is invited to live with the family and so is witness to the girls’ lives in the twelve year period that the book covers. Although she lives alongside the family, it is clear that she isn’t one of them – she is not invited on the yacht trip and instead becomes a kind of companion to Cloe and chaperone figure for the girls, even though she is a similar age to them. Fliss’ narrative covers mainly her time with the family in the 1920s, although we also see her as an older woman revisiting the former Guinness estate that has now been turned over to a religious order.
I’ll admit to being unsure how this book would work – particularly how the mixture of fact and fiction would work. In fact, the story is beautifully presented and engaging, although it is slightly ironic that the character we get the most vivid sense of is Fliss, the fictional one. This isn’t really surprising though, as her personal story – including her relationship with her brother, Hughie, who is caught up in the Irish Civil War – is really the heart of this book.
Of the three Guinness Girls (Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh), the one developed the most as a fully rounded character is Maureen, so it came as no surprise to me to read the author’s note at the end of the book which explained that one of her main sources was someone who knew Maureen best. Indeed, Maureen is vividly rendered as someone who is quite spiky and willing to test the boundaries of her sheltered life – it is a clever device to place Fliss as being a similar age to her and so sharing her experiences most closely. Aileen, the eldest, is probably the most mysterious of the three, while Oonagh (the baby of the family) is mostly sweet and spends most of her time on childish pursuits.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story of the Guinness Girls as I followed them from the volatility of the Irish situation to the glamour of the Roaring 20s in London. It was really interesting to see the ways that their wealth protected them from the political situation up until the point they could no longer ignore the reality of what was happening on their doorstep. I also loved how the author presented the fact that the traditions of the aristocracy were slowly dying in the youth revolution of the 1920s – to be young and free and living life to the full was the most important thing and Maureen embodies this.
Obviously, this presents a narrow view of what life in the 1920s was like, but it is an exhilarating experience to be carried along with the beautiful people as they partied like it was 1929 (pre-Wall Street crash, of course!) The blending of historical figures with the fictional ones was also engaging – it was lovely to ‘see’ Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and Brian Howard among others.
This book left me desperate to learn more about the Guinness Girls – all of whom had absolutely fascinating lives after the period of this book. In many ways, I really wanted this book to be more fact and less fiction – the historical figures are interesting in their own right and Fliss’ story is perhaps less compelling than the other elements of the novel. However, as a piece of historical fiction based in fact, it does work and is engaging.
I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction – fans looking for heavy-duty non-fiction will not find the detail they want here as this isn’t the intention of the book. As a fictional insight into the lives of the wealthy and fortunate in an interesting period of Anglo-Irish history, it absolutely hits the mark.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Having absolutely adored Elizabeth Macneal’s debut novel, ‘The Doll Factory’, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I was so sure that I would love this book that I’ve also pre-ordered the independent bookshop hardback version…so pretty!
I can now confirm that this has proved money well spent!
Continue reading ‘Circus of Wonders’ by Elizabeth MacnealWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Assistant’ by Kjell Ola Dahl, a twisty historical Nordic Noir thriller.
With thanks to Random Things Tours and Orenda Books for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
From the Publisher:
The new historical thriller from the author of the award-winning The Courier,
which was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger and the Petrona Award.
The award-winning Godfather of Nordic Noir returns with a fascinating and richly authentic portrait of Oslo’s interwar years, featuring Nazis operating secretly on Norwegian soil and militant socialists readying workers for war…
Oslo, 1938. War is in the air and Europe is in turmoil. Hitler ’s Germany has occupied Austria and is threatening Czechoslovakia; civil war rages in Spain and Mussolini reigns in Italy.
When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske, he and his assistant – his one-time nemesis and former drug-smuggler, Jack Rivers – begin a seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity.
But all is not what it seems. Soon, Jack is accused of murder, sending them on a trail which leads back to the 1920s, to prohibition-era Norway, to the smugglers, sex workers and hoodlums of his criminal past … and an extraordinary secret.
My Review:
Regular visitors to my blog will know I’m all about the setting…I love historical fiction that transports me to another time and place. With that in mind, I jumped at the chance to join the blog tour for this historical thriller set in prohibition-era Norway.
I’ll be honest – I had no clue that Norway had even had a prohibition era prior to reading this book. Every day’s a school day!
The novel opens with Jack Rivers, a smuggler of illegal alcohol and the main character in the book, on the run from the police after someone whistle-blows on his latest delivery. The book then cuts between this version of Jack in rural Norway in the 1920s and him in Oslo in 1938.
In the Oslo 1938 sections, Jack and his previous nemesis, Ludvig Paaske, have joined forces as private investigators and are asked to look into a possible case of marital infidelity. However, things aren’t so simple and they find themselves in a situation with much higher stakes…one that seems to lead back to Jack’s past.
As anticipated, the historical setting was just perfect for me. I loved the details about Oslo, especially the evocation of the slightly sinister waterfront area and all the places that sound gloriously exotic and fascinating to my very English ears – Oscarshall castle, Frognerkilen, Torggata, Besserud Station. Probably not remotely glamorous, but they add to the atmosphere of the novel beautifully and it does feel a little like walking the streets of Oslo with Jack.
The historical moment is also interesting – this is a Europe poised on the brink of war and little reminders infiltrate the events of the novel without overwhelming the narrative: a conversation about war, a reference to Hitler, a German ship in the port. It all adds a layer of tension to the plot as Hitler’s Germany begins to threaten the peace in Europe and civil war rages in Spain. This feels like a dangerous moment for Jack and Ludvig to be caught up in political affairs.
The plotting of the book is extremely clever – at first, I couldn’t imagine how Jack and Ludvig came to be working together given their 1920s lives. However, it all fits together neatly and the revelations come thick and fast once the pair begin working on the mysterious case. I loved how the lives of the main characters were so interwoven – there was a kind of claustrophobia in how they kept being drawn back to their past lives and connections.
This book – a stand alone, so no prior knowledge expected – would make such a perfect film. There were so many parts of the novel that seemed almost cinematic, not least the lit window that becomes a theatre for the watching Jack – it all made me think of Edward Hopper paintings and film noir. It would be extremely dark and atmospheric – this is a book of misty ferry journeys, grim autopsy rooms, car headlights slicing through darkness.
My only wish was for there to be more women in the novel. I guess it is a feature of both the genre and time period, but I really wanted some more strong female representation – just my personal preference!
Overall, this is a lively and engaging historical thriller. It ticks boxes for pace, plotting, twists, a fabulous sense of place, sinister atmosphere, dodgy dealings and some really shady people. I’d love to read more by this writer…and definitely think the film rights should be snapped up soon!
About the Author:
One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eighteen novels, the most prominent of which form a series of police procedurals-cum-psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix, and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015 (published in English by Orenda books in 2019). His work has been published in fourteen countries. He lives in Oslo. Follow him on Twitter @ko_dahl
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. Orenda Books was voted WINNER of the CWA Dagger for Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year in 2020. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme.
Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Ten titles have been short- or longlisted for the CWA Daggers; Doug Johnstone has been shortlisted (twice) for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year and Helen FitzGerald, Matt Wesolowski and Will Carver have been long /shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Helen FitzGerald, Doug Johnstone and Will Carver.
www.orendabooks.co.uk
@OrendaBooks
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Ariadne’ by Jennifer Saint, a gorgeous retelling of the Ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (among many others!)
With thanks to Random Things Tours, NetGalley, the publisher and author for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
From the Publisher:
‘My story would not be one of death and suffering and sacrifice, I would take my place in the songs that would be sung about Theseus; the princess who saved him and ended the monstrosity that blighted Crete’
As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.
In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?
Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.
A truly spellbinding, epic story taking readers on an unforgettable journey. Perfect for fans of Circe, A Thousand Ships and The Silence of the Girls.
My Review:
I have always loved mythology and have dipped in and out of various versions of the stories, most recently enjoying Stephen Fry’s narrative in ‘Mythos’ and subsequent books. I am blessed (cursed?) with a memory like a sieve, so I don’t tire of the old stories and cannot always remember how they all fit together, so I came to ‘Ariadne’ with only a very vague understanding of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth upon which this is based, at least initially.
The story opens on Crete, where Ariadne and her sister live in the shadow of their authoritarian and deeply unpleasant father, Minos. The jealousy of the gods causes Ariadne’s mother to bear a minotaur child and this monster – trapped in a labyrinth under the palace – is fed with an annual sacrifice of Athenian youths. One year, Theseus (Prince of Athens) arrives with those to be sacrificed to the minotaur and Ariadne – blinded by love that she takes to be mutual – helps Theseus and changes the course of her own life.
That bit is just the start of the story! To cover it all would be too complex and also give spoilers, for there are several versions of the different myths and so Saint has made some intriguing narrative choices along the way. The story intersects with others that will be familiar to lovers of Greek mythology – I loved that Medusa made it in there, plus Daedalus and Icarus and so many others.
In Saint’s hands, each of these characters became human – I’ve never really felt the tragedy of Icarus’ fate before, or what it must have felt like for Ariadne’s mother to know she birthed the monster that is the scourge of Crete, or how Phaedra and Ariadne felt at having their sisterhood torn apart. Saint explores the emotions of these very human stories and the result is intensely moving.
What is also apparent is just how awful the Olympian gods are. Saint presents their jealousies, their fickleness and their downright cruelty – it becomes a familiar theme that mortals never come off best in their dealings with the gods. Even those who seem preferable at first glance – Dionysus, for example – have a darker side and their immortal life renders them problematic in their relationships with humans.
One hugely appealing aspect of this book was the feminist slant on the stories – in Saint’s capable hands, we are really made to feel the injustices meted out on the women of the novel by some pretty terrible men – both human and godly. This was something I was aware of already (I can recommend ‘Zeus is a Dick’ by Susie Donkin if you need enlightening on Zeus’ general tyranny, status as rapist and general shoddy conduct – it is a very funny book too!)
However, in Saint’s version, the women are constantly underestimated and often abused – yet remain strong and resolute in the face of hardship. Pasiphae, Ariadne’s mother, is a prime example of this as she rises above the malicious gossip about her and ultimately grows in strength. Phaedra, Ariadne’s sister and co-narrator of the book, is also a tough, honest and down-to-earth figure. I’ll admit I didn’t know of Phaedra before reading this book and was hoping for a different ending for her.
The main narrator of the novel is Ariadne herself and she is presented with realism and truth. She makes mistakes along the way, is too trusting at times, struggles with various situations she is presented with, is aware of her many failings – yet is also kind-hearted and a brilliant heroine of the novel. The fact it is narrated in first person allows us to really get under the skin of a figure who – in the original mythology – is rarely developed as a character in her own right, being more of a plot device within Theseus’ story.
This is a beautifully-told story that brings Greek mythology to life. The things I have struggled with in regard to myth retellings – the complexity, the huge casts, the flat characterisation – are stripped away here and the result is gloriously readable. This is definitely one myth that will remain firmly fixed in my memory which – given my track record – is a miracle!
It is also worth mentioning here that the hardback version of this book – with gorgeous gold detailing – is something that every book-lover would be proud to find a place for on their bookshelves…just saying!
About the Author:
Due to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. She spent the next thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students. ARIADNE is her first novel and she is working on another retelling of ancient myth for her second.
@jennysaint
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this complex police procedural and the first in a series to feature DCI Eve West.
With thanks to Damp Pebbles for organising the tour and for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Bone Code’ by Kathy Reichs, the latest in the forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan series of thrillers.
With thanks to Random Things Tours and publisher Simon and Schuster for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was lucky to win a set of the books published so far in the Chastity Riley series – thanks to lovely Jen on Twitter.
This series is published by the fab people at Orenda Books and is bestselling in its native country, Germany.
Given all the excellent things I’d heard about this series, plus the fact that all four gorgeous novels had just arrived in the post, I thought I’d give it a go. Obviously, Book 1 was my starting point, so in I went with ‘Blue Night’.
One of the hugely appealing things about the series is that it is set in Hamburg, a place I visited a few years ago. Buchholz’s Hamburg is a seedy and corrupt place, filled with drug dealers, gangsters and prostitutes in the famous Reeperbahn district. I’d like to point out that this is a way away from the Hamburg my family experienced – the Miniatur Wunderland with its huge model railway was more our thing – but it was nice to be able to picture some of the settings and buildings mentioned in the novel.
The story centres on a mysterious man in hospital after a brutal attack. Chastity Riley, our heroine and a state prosecutor, is assigned to his case and immediately senses that there is something worth following up. Initially the man is uncooperative, but Chastity soon wins him over with her contraband alcohol and tobacco smuggled into the hospital. This puts her on the trail of a huge case involving synthetic drugs and one of Hamburg’s criminal overlords…
Hopefully, everything I’ve written so far has given the impression that this is a dark book! It is similar in style to some of the Nordic Noir books that I’ve read – a kind of Hamburg Noir packed with sweary and straight-talking people, drugs and heavy drinking, gritty storylines and a shadowy criminal underworld.
As much as I love Nordic Noir, I was so pleased to find that this book was considerably funnier than some of its Scandinavian counterparts. Chastity is a fabulous narrator with a dry sense of humour and a lively turn of phrase – I’m not sure whether to credit Buchholz herself for this or some nifty translation work by Rachel Ward. All of Chastity’s first-person narration is written in her distinctive, sweary, colloquial voice – and it works brilliantly. It’s like being told a story by a really indiscreet, funny, brutally honest friend.
I did find it harder to get my head around some of the other characters in the book – I think they will come into their own later in the series perhaps. In particular, I loved cafe owners Carla and Rocco – Chastity’s friends – and wanted to see more of them as being slightly more of the ‘normal’ world outside the crime and law enforcement community.
Although most of the book is told by Chastity, there are sections that form flashbacks in multiple voices involved with the story. At the start, it isn’t obvious who some of them are but it becomes clearer – a really clever device that filled in gaps in Chastity’s narrative, dropped clues and gave some back-story.
Overall, I found this an engaging and lively series opener – I will definitely carry on and read the rest. I loved the narrative voice, even though the story was grittier than my usual choice of books, and I’d recommend that everyone take a peek into Chastity’s Hamburg underworld.
If you’d like a copy of this book (or the later books in the series – presented in order here), please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
This book isn’t my usual genre, but I’d seen lots of positive things about it on Twitter and fancied a fun, lighter read as a break from my usual crime novels. I did wonder how the main conceit (a woman taking her friend’s highly skilled job) would be sustained over the whole novel and looked forward to losing myself in Birdy’s world.
The novel follows Birdy (Elizabeth Finch) as she steps into her friend’s job in a Scottish restaurant – her friend Heather has run off to Rome with her lover and it seems a shame that a cushy job will be unfilled, so Birdy steps in. It’s far enough away from her life – and disastrous relationship – in London for people to suspect she isn’t Heather, the top class sommelier. Except for the fact that Birdy knows nothing about wine. Things get more complicated when she gets to the restaurant and meets the attractive chef…
Living as an imposter certainly throws a few problems Birdy’s way.
I’ll admit I was sceptical about some of the set-up. I’m not sure who asks their friend to turn down a job offer for them and am not sure you could ever pass as someone else for any length of time with social media so prevalent. However, Dent deals with these hitches well and the book is so cheery and funny that my reservations melted away.
I really enjoyed the Scottish setting, a long way from Birdy’s natural London habitat but gloriously described and written with real love. The restaurant itself was peopled with a lively and believable cast – anyone who has worked in catering or restaurants will recognise some of the types. I particularly loved Roxy, the trainee wine expert who helps Birdy out when her skills as a sommelier are being so sorely tested. It was also hard not to like and feel sorry for Bill, struggling with his own issues but smoothing the way for Birdy when he could.
Birdy herself is likeable and funny – there’s lots of self-deprecating humour that made me laugh and it was easy to feel sympathy for her as she worked hard to overcome her total lack of the specialist knowledge that she had supposedly been hired for. Indeed, her drive to make the best of the situation and not let her friend down made her an appealing character. She comes to really care about the restaurant – although not before a few disasters along the way.
I liked the love interest in the novel, James, although – for me – the central storyline was really Birdy finding her feet and place in the world. That this included a handsome Scottish chef was fine with me, and he came across well – although slightly lacking the warmth and humour of the female characters. Still, it was a romance I felt invested in and definitely preferable to Birdy’s London boyfriend who is just outrageously awful.
I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fun and engaging book. There’s plenty to keep you reading – even as you wince at Birdy’s faux pas, warm to her colleagues and wonder what on earth Heather is going to make of it all when she finds out!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
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Header photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash.
April has been a great month for my reading – the Easter holidays gave me plenty of time and I have read some absolutely brilliant books this month.
I’ve read 13 books this month and managed to creep my NetGalley percentage up to 77%. I’ve got slightly ahead of my HUGE pile of May blog tours but next month is also looking pretty busy.
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