About the Book: What if your first love was your one and only chance of happiness? In our lives, some promises are easily forgotten, while others come to haunt us with tragic results. From the bestselling author of The Girl on the Page comes The Lessons, a compelling novel about love and betrayal. 1961: When teens Daisy and Harry … Continue reading Book Review: The Lessons by John Purcell
UK Fiction
Book Review: After Paris by Nicole Kennedy
About the Book: Three best friends. A weekend away. And a whole lot of baggage. Alice, Nina and Jules have been best friends for twenty years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the troubles of home behind, and indulge in each other's friendship and warmth. But … Continue reading Book Review: After Paris by Nicole Kennedy
Book Review: When I First Held You by Anstey Harris
About the Book: Silence tore them apart. Can the truth bring them back together? In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors’ squat is raided and many, including Jimmy, are sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced … Continue reading Book Review: When I First Held You by Anstey Harris
Book Review: I’m Sorry You Feel that Way by Rebecca Wait
About the Book: Immensely readable and gorgeously comic, this is Rebecca's finest novel yet. For Alice and Hanna, saint and sinner, growing up is a trial. There is their mother, who takes a divide and conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, who takes an absent one. There is their older brother Michael, whose disapproval … Continue reading Book Review: I’m Sorry You Feel that Way by Rebecca Wait
Book Review: The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
About the Book: Come home, if you remember. The postcard has been held at the sorting office for ninety-one years, waiting to be delivered to Joe Tournier. On the front is a lighthouse – Eilean Mor, in the Outer Hebrides. Joe has never left England, never even left London. He is a British slave, one … Continue reading Book Review: The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
Book Review: A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford
About the Book: A gorgeous, haunting and captivating novel of a century-long family mystery in the wilds of Scotland, and one woman's hunt for the truth. Scotland, 1949: Caroline Gillan and her new husband Alasdair have moved back to Kelly Castle, his dilapidated family estate in the middle of nowhere. Stuck caring for their tiny … Continue reading Book Review: A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford
Book Review: The Swift and The Harrier by Minette Walters
About the Book: An unforgettable novel of England's Civil War, from the bestselling author of The Last Hours and The Turn of Midnight. Dorset, 1642. When bloody civil war breaks out between the King and Parliament, families and communities across England are riven by different allegiances. A rare few choose neutrality. One such is Jayne … Continue reading Book Review: The Swift and The Harrier by Minette Walters
Book Review: Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
About the Book: A heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship. Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of … Continue reading Book Review: Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Book Review: The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
About the Book: From the author of The Heart's Invisible Furies and powered with Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of … Continue reading Book Review: The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
Blog Tour Book Review: The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
About the Book: Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim. At 11pm she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30am Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a … Continue reading Blog Tour Book Review: The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Theresa Smith Writes 