Category: coming-of-age
+ childhood, coming-of-age, crime fiction, fiction, friendship, murder, murder mystery, review, sixties, superstition, wales, whimsical
Tiding by Sian Collins
A lyrical, engaging coming-of-age murder mystery set in the Great Freeze December 1962. Eleanor O’Dowd, a middle-aged piano teacher, is found stabbed and bludgeoned to death. As the Great Freeze of 1963 takes hold, local vicar’s daughter Daphne Morgan finds herself forced to navigate the confusing currents of the adult world, where she must face up to her own crimes and what she knows … Read More Tiding by Sian Collins
+ adventure, childhood, coming-of-age, crime fiction, family, fashion, female friendship, fiction, forgiveness, friendship, haunting, humour fiction, List, literature, love, metafiction, murder, mystery, police drama, review, supernatural, witchcraft, witches
My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Three
Here are my favourite eight books of the third quarter of 2022. I should have published this at the beginning of the month but I am in Gran Canaria and to be honest, what with the sunshine, the sea and the vino, I totally forgot. Apologies all round and here goes. Still Water by Rebecca Pert What a stunning book. Beautifully written and so … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Three
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, Historical fiction, literature, London, love, music, piano, relationships, review, sisters, twins, World War Two
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
Lost are the creatures destined never to be understood. 1926. Professor Josef van der Holt obtains a post at an all women’s college overseas. Stuffy London suddenly becomes the site for the unseemly exploits of his half-Dutch and half-German daughters Anneliese and Isabel. When tragedy carves out a hollow in their lives, an ailing soul sends the sororal twins along a jagged path: while … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
+ coming-of-age, family, fiction, history, literature, love, memoir, motherhood, piano, relationships, review, World War Two
Lessons by Ian McEwan
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended, young Roland Baines’s life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his pianoteacher Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Twenty-five years later Roland’s … Read More Lessons by Ian McEwan
+ brothers, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, mid-life crisis, motherhood, relationships, review, sisters
The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid
Once it was a family home. Now they are all at sea . . . When Anna and David receive a phone call late one evening, their lives are upturned. Within minutes, they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, preparing to care for two young sisters, tragically and suddenly orphaned. #TheWilderness @SarahDuguid4 @TinderPress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour It’s a beautiful place, the heather is in … Read More The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, coming-of-age, community, cult, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, germany, grief, Historical fiction, holocaust, jewish history, jews, lies, List, literature, loss, love, motherhood, murder, music, nazi germany, piano, rape, relationships, religion, review, secrets, sisterhood, suffragette movement, whimsical
My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
Here are my favourite eight books of the second quarter of 2022. You will notice that it doesn’t include any crime dramas, detective novels or serial killer thrillers. While I love those genres, they rarely bring something totally new to the table and my favourites tend to be feel-good, whimsical or magical realism. Or totally original or make me cry. There are a couple of … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
+ coming-of-age, family, female friendship, fiction, friendship, lies, literature, love, Magical realism, motherhood, review, secrets, sisters, wales, whimsical, World War Two, WW2
Only May by Carol Lovekin
A young woman haunted by ghosts, magic and long-kept family secrets, in a new novel from the author of the Wales Book of the Year 21 shortlisted Wild Spinning Girls. I give you fair warning, if you’re planning on lying to me, don’t look me in the eye. It’s May’s 17th birthday – making the air tingle with a tension she doesn’t fully understand. … Read More Only May by Carol Lovekin
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, female friendship, fiction, friendship, literature, love, review, secrets, seventies, University
Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin
At fifteen, she made a life-changing decision. Thirty years on, it’s time to make another. When Diana escaped her misfit childhood, she thought she’d chosen the easier path. But the past lingers on, etched beneath her skin, and life won’t be worth living if her secret gets out. #SugarandSnails @Annecdotist @InspiredQuill As an adult, she’s kept other people at a distance… until Simon sweeps in … Read More Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, love, mental illness, obsession, relationships, review, secrets
Into The Lake by LK Chapman
Can she find the truth in time? When Natalie reluctantly agrees to attend a school reunion, she hits it off with former classmate Josh – a boy she barely spoke to while they were at school together – and finds herself swept up in a whirlwind romance with him. Then she receives the message: you can do better than marrying a murderer. #IntoTheLake @LK_Chapman … Read More Into The Lake by LK Chapman
Angels of Mud by Vanessa Nicolson
In Angels of Mud we jump through time, between the interwoven stories of mother and daughter. The reader is immediately transported to Clerkenwell soon after the end of World War II, where they learn Mary’s story; about her marriage and the upbringing of her daughter Cara. Through this narrative, Nicolson paints a vivid picture of women’s lives in one of London’s Italian communities. #AngelsofMud … Read More Angels of Mud by Vanessa Nicolson
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, coming-of-age, fiction, friendship, literature, Psychological fiction, revenge, secrets
Fragile by Sarah Hilary
Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to find a place she can belong. So when a job comes up at Starling Villas, home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder, she seizes the opportunity with both hands. But her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was … Read More Fragile by Sarah Hilary
+ autism, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, love, motherhood, review
This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely. Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy, and she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants. Violetta is a high-class … Read More This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
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