Still Life – Sarah Winman

I've been in a real reading slump this spring (and my reviewing has hit an all-time low in terms of productivity). Thankfully, my sister-in-law sent me Winman's Still Life, and there's so much to love about this novel that I don't know where to start. It might just be easier if I list what I …

Dear Mrs Bird – A. J. Pearce

This is probably one of the most blogged-about books of the past few years, so I finally caved in and treated myself to a copy. I think my reservations were built purely around the fact that everyone already had read it and there was that feeling that I'd missed the boat and there was little …

Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan

'Children pulled their hoods up before facing out to school, while their mothers, so used now to ducking their heads and running to the clothes line, or hardly daring to hang anything out at all, had little faith in getting so much a shirt dry before evening. And then the nights came on and the …

A Terrible Kindness – Jo Browning Wroe

The story of a young chorister who becomes an embalmer is an unlikely premise for a bestselling novel - but this will be a bestseller and it is brilliant. I knew within the first few pages that it would be going on my Top Ten Reads for 2022 - I haven't felt like this about …

Daughter of the Sea – Elisabeth J. Hobbes #Blogtour

This is Hobbes' second novel for One More Chapter and it's the novel that shows just how versatile she is as an author. Taking her short story which had won the RNA Conference's writing contest in 2018 , Hobbes has spun a magical tale of love and belonging that captures perfectly the pull of the …

Atonement’s links – L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between

In an interview with John Sutherland in 2002, McEwan says, 'A novel that was very important ... and I wanted to fit in, was The Go-Between, so Connolly says, "I trust you've read The Go-Between." I was very disappointed when the copy editor informed me that it was written in 1952 and I had to …

The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus – Ayşe Osmanoğlu

This story has clearly been a real labour of love, and the attention to detail is very impressive indeed. Focusing on the two years from 1903 to 1905, The Gilded Cage explores the realities of life for the members of the Imperial Family of the Ottoman Empire who have been imprisoned after Sultan Murad V …

The Lady in the Veil: The Talbot Saga – Allie Cresswell

I've really enjoyed the first two novels in the Talbot Saga - House in the Hollow and Tall Chimneys - and so I knew I was in for a treat with this new addition to the tale based on the Talbot family. This time, the house itself features only in the background; most of the …

The Blue Bench – Paul Marriner

Set in 1920, The Blue Bench is a moving account of the damage, both physical and emotional in its nature, done to the soldiers who survived the First World War. Edward Thompson, a gifted musician, and his friend and former comrade, William, are in Margate for the summer. William, who acts as Edward's agent, has …

V For Victory – Lissa Evans

I finished Crooked Heart and immediately opened V For Victory, thus deferring that sense of loss you get when you finish an excellent book. That is how I'm feeling now I've come to the end of Lissa Evan's third book in her trilogy (read my review of Old Baggage here). It's now 1944 and Vee …