You Are Here by David Nicholls

From Goodreads

From the internationally bestselling and Booker Prize-longlisted author of One Day, one of the most enduring love stories of its generation, comes an uplifting and unputdownable love story about second chances.

Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way...

Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future ... if they can survive the journey.

A hilarious, hopeful, and heartwarming love story—the novel beloved New York Times bestselling author David Nicholls calls “my funniest book yet”—You Are Here is a bittersweet and hopeful story of first encounters, second chances, and finding the way home.

My thoughts

I am not sure how I came across this book.  Whether I saw that someone was reading it and thought it looked good or whether I just saw the cover and synopsis of it and thought I need to read that.  Anyway this is where I was at, when I was sat with a Library copy in my hands to read.

This is not the first David Nicholls book that I have read.  I have previously read One Day by him.  I approached reading this book with an open mind, as you don't always get on with other books written by the same author that you may have previously read.  

Who would fancy tackling doing what Michael and Marnie have been coerced into doing by a mutual friend?  A hike across England starting off on the North West Coast and finishing off North East Coast, taking in parts of the Lake District and the Pennines.  It's one hell of a hike and not one that everyone will complete, as we find out when parts of the group that they are with fall by the wayside for various reasons.

Michael and Marnie, both have mixed troubled relationships in their pasts, they could be anyone as most people have secrets and issues in their pasts.  How will these two get along?  It's the plan of a mutual friend of theirs, that they may get along in such a way that they may find things in common that may align them as a couple.  Will this plan that their mutual friend has work or not?   Only the pages contained within this book will tell you the answer.

I enjoyed this story and the developing friendships and relationships between the group.  The story was even more poignant as some of the hikes were carried out not far from where I live and are places that I have been to in the past. 

The last paragraph of the chapter titled 'Hotel du Lac', made me laugh to myself.  If you've read the book you may know what I am talking about, BUT if you've yet to read the book then keep your eyes peeled for it. It features a copper bath! 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

 

From Goodreads

With introductions by Margaret Atwood and David Bradshaw.

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this book from my local Library.  It's one I decided to read with planning to read 1984 by George Orwell.  I want to compare the two books.

I read the introduction to this story by Margaret Attwood and David Bradshaw, I was interested to find out what they had to say before I read the story.  The introductions by them went on for quite some time, but was worth reading in my opinion.

The story by Aldous Huxley was written many years ago, but could easily be set at any time as it's a story set in the future.   This is certainly a very thought provoking read and well worth reading in my opinion.  It sure makes you wonder how the drugs that some people take can immerse them in other worlds.  The lives that the drugs will make them assume they live in, are not always the lives that they are actually living in and can effect their mentality as a result of this.  

How does our World compare to the Brave New World?  This is quite a poignant question and one that you will find out for yourself if you grab a copy of this book to read.

The Fault by Kitty Sewell

 

From Goodreads

Once inside The Rock there’s only one way out…

17-year-old Mimi has joined her engineering prodigy brother and his diving-instructor fiancée Eva in Gibraltar. Sebastian is leading an exciting and innovative project building a new city on the sheerest face of the Rock. They each struggle to adjust to their new lives together discovering that below Gibraltar’s façade of Britishness is a deeper layer of peculiarities and mystique; it’s a place of mixed traditions which mistrusts outsiders.

Mimi enters into a romantic entanglement with an ex-priest twice her age, a man Sebastian considers a sinister predator. Eva is hiding a secret that might endanger not just her relationship but her very life. Sebastian, torn between dreams of greatness and an urge to rescue his sister, attempts to control his family’s complex interdependence until a violent death shatters everything…

From the Rock there is no escape.

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this from Borrowbox and started reading it last September, 24. It got put on hold for various reasons and I got back to reading it in February, 25.

Told from the POV of 3 characters ~ Sebasrian, his fiancee Eva and his younger sister Mimi.  Each short chapter centres around one of the characters, that dip in and out of the past and present.  This encourages you to keep reading, as you think just one more chapter!

This was a claustrophobic read, that took many twists and turns in more ways than one.  There were sections of the book that I didn't enjoy, due to their claustrophobic nature as I must admit that I do have a tendency towards being frightened of claustrophobia and all it entails.  All this added to the atmosphere portrayed between the pages for me.  I have to admit that when I started reading this book, I didn't envision where it would end.

One of the scenes featuring Mimi and three Barbary apes, reminded me of the time that we were on Gibraltar and one of the apes that live there bit the youngest one of my children. Thankfully the guide that we were with knew what to do and made sure that the attack wasn't too horrific!

If you get the chance to read this book, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Christmas by the Coast by Mandy Baggot

 

From Goodreads

What would you give for a second chance with the one that got away?

After a terrible heartbreak, Harriet Cookson worked hard to build her life back up. Now she has a dependable boyfriend, a great job and a decent flatshare. But when her beloved grandmother passes away, Harriet drops everything to fly out to the Hamptons to comfort her grieving grandpa.

Christmas is coming and as she arrives on the sandy beaches of her childhood in Montauk, Long Island, Harriet spots someone she never expected to see again – her 'one that got away', ex-soldier Mack Wyatt. Now, Mack is determined to win Harriet back and show her that the life she's been living might be the wrong happily-ever-after.

This Christmas, find out if love letters from the past can pave the way to a brand-new future...

My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This book has been sat on my huge TBR for some time.  I have too many books and never enough time to read them.

Telling the tale of Harriet (Harri) Cookson, as she leaves what she had built up for herself following the heartbreak she had suffered in her past.  She has it all in her opinion, a dependable boyfriend, a job she enjoys and more.  Travelling to the US to console her dear grandfather as her mourns the loss of his wife, her grandmother.

It is not long after arriving in the US, that sees Mack Wyatt, the one that got away.  The one person who she probably didn't want to see again.  But life often has other plans for us and in this case for Harri, it sure did.  

With Christmas coming soon, Harri is in a different country to the one that she expected to be in and her path is destined to cross with Mack.  How will she deal with things and will feelings that she had hidden in the past resurface?  Left to Mack he has plans to try to win her back and try to rekindle what they once had.  

Will Harri remain with her boyfriend or will she realise that the US and Mack may have other ideas for her?

This was a lovely read, that flashes between the past and the present as it weaves the story of Harri and Mack.  You can only imagine what the characters had gone through in the past, that made them make the decisions that they did.  How you would cope with some of what they did, you would never know unless you faced it yourself.   I can fully understand some of the decisions that were made, as you would never want to see yourself as a burden on others.

To find out if Harri and Mack rekindle their feelings that they once had for one another or if fate has other plans for them?  You would need to grab a copy of the book for yourself.

Please note that Christmas themed reads are NOT just for Christmas.

  

 

You Can't See Me (Forbidden Iceland #4) by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

From Goodreads

A wealthy Icelandic family gathers for a reunion in a remote hotel on the isolated lava fields, but when someone goes missing, dark secrets are exposed and everyone is a suspect … the chilling, gripping prequel to the addictive, award-winning Forbidden Iceland series…

The wealthy, powerful Snæberg clan has gathered for a family reunion at a futuristic hotel set amongst the dark lava flows of Iceland's remote Snæfellsnes peninsula.

Petra Snæberg, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the event, and her troubled teenage daughter, Lea, whose social-media presence has attracted the wrong kind of followers. Ageing carpenter Tryggvi is an outsider, only tolerated because he's the boyfriend of Petra's aunt, but he's struggling to avoid alcohol because he knows what happens when he drinks … Humble hotel employee, Irma, is excited to meet this rich and famous family and observe them at close quarters … perhaps too close…

As the weather deteriorates and the alcohol flows, one of the guests disappears, and it becomes clear that there is a prowler lurking in the dark.

But is the real danger inside … within the family itself?

Masterfully cranking up the suspense, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir draws us into an isolated, frozen setting, where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted, as the dark secrets and painful pasts of the Snæberg family are uncovered … and the shocking truth revealed.

My thoughts

This was a book that I picked up from my local Library.  Having read and enjoyed one of the previous books in this series by this Author, I was keen to see what happened in this one.  Whilst this is the 4th in the series, it is actually marketed as a prequel to the series.

Set in a remote futuristic hotel in a remote area in Iceland, the Snæberg family are hosting a family reunion.  Like may families, this family has secrets hidden in the past, that they may prefer were kept in the past.  Will the past come back to haunt them and are  the secrets that are hidden in this family, going to come back to haunt them?

I enjoyed this book, I found the characters well written and the storyline drew me in.  The Icelandic setting made me want to be there in the hotel with them, I have no idea which member of the family I would like to have been..  I would love to visit Iceland and see the countryside in all it's glory.

I am looking forward to reading another book by this author.

The Chamber by Will Dean

From Goodreads

And Then There Were None meets The Last Breath in this tense and suspenseful locked-room thriller that takes place inside a hyperbaric chamber from the author of the “brilliant, twisted, and oh so clever” (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author) novel The Last Thing to Burn.

Six experienced saturation divers are locked inside a hyperbaric chamber. Calm and professional, they know that rapid decompression would be fatal and so they work in shifts, breathing helium, and surviving in hot, close quarters.

Then one of them is found dead in his bunk.

With four days of decompression to go before the locked hatch to the chamber can be safely opened, the group must watch one another’s backs at all times. And when another diver is discovered unresponsive, everyone is on edge. What…or who…is taking them out one by one? And will any of them still be alive by the time the four days is up or will paranoia, exhaustion, suspicion, and pressure destroy them all?

My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This was a claustrophobic read, that had me engrossed in the lives of the occupants of this hyperbaric chamber.  What a lot of twists and turns you are taken on as the author draws you into the lives of the divers, that are soon wondering what the hell is happening to them and all they want to do is get OUT.

Who can they trust, can they trust one another, can they trust the people that they are communicating to above the water?  It is so hard to know WHO to trust?

Once again Will Dean has written a great read that in many ways can be called a modern Agatha Christie style read, as it has been compared in some reviewers as being similar to And Then There Were None.  I can see why that comparison has been made, but to divulge that reason would be to give too much away.  If you are looking for a read that will make you feel that you are experiencing the lives of the characters with them, then this book will fit that bill.  I certainly felt that way and was longing to escape the confines of 'The Chamber', at my earliest convenience..

An excerpt from the book that resonated with me. 

'Jumbo scratches his ankle down by his Sonic tattoo and complains he cannot remember his PIN code, his daughter's birthday or his new mobile number. This is what they call 'bubble brain'. Too many sat hours affect our minds in some strange and undocumented ways.'

Having had children in the past I can empathise with the 'bubble brain' phenomenon to some extent, as I suffered with 'baby brain' and in my latter years have had 'menopause brain'. 

The Last Breath Before Death (an Extract blogpost) by Alan Golbourn

From Goodreads

‘The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.’ — Origen

Vampires, ancient folklores, and the ultimate act of betrayal. In this dark horror tale ... 🦇

From the Back Cover

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

A missing brother … An imminent phenomenon …

Award-winning comic book illustrator and artist Jimmy Cochran is also a freelance reporter in New York City, specialising in the supernatural. Upon hearing that his estranged brother, Quentin, has gone missing with his best friend over in Germany, Jimmy becomes concerned — unable to shake off the feeling of foreboding and dread. Things worsen when he quickly learns that the missing two are in great danger from an unequalled evil, which is connected to an upcoming, ominous and phenomenal event.

A mysterious ‘man’ with a terrifying tale …

With time running out, Jimmy investigates further, in spite of the strong warnings and the danger to his own life — particularly after he is contacted by a peculiar and mystifying man with a horrific, nefarious past of his own, linked to old Serbian and German folklores and a sinister, secret brotherhood.

My thoughts

What's not to love about Vampires?  Well there's plenty of things that we could give as answers.  What's not to love about  thrillers/  They may not be everyone's cup of tea.  However, this reader is a sucker for both vampire and thriller reads, excuse the pun.

The Last Breath, combines both these genres in one and I look forward to reading it soon.

At the moment though, I thought I would just do an extract blogpost, as the author Alan Golbourn was kind enough to send me a review copy to read and review.

Extract

' Naeem heard a slight rattling sound. He then saw Jimmy pull something out of his jacket pocket. “Keys?”

“They’re my skeleton keys.” He gave a crafty smile. “There’s some lockpicks here, too.” 

 “Aren’t they illegal?” 

 “Technically speaking, no. I guess it depends on who you ask, where you use them!” 

 “Where did you get them?” Naeem took off his cap, revealing his bald head. He gave his shiny scalp a scratch. 

 “I’ve had them for years. I used to know a locksmith back in the States. Let’s just say that the keys have got me into ‘certain’ places, helping me obtain information for my freelance reporting.” Jimmy winked. 

 “Best I don’t ask anything else, then!” Naeem half-grinned, placing his cap back on. 

 Jimmy started trying out the keys. “It can require patience at times. And there’s a technique to using them … Airport security never queried them much, either. To them, they are just keys, which you can take on a plane. I don’t even need to use the lockpicks at times … Bingo!” '

This reader is keen to find out what the skeleton keys open, what about you?  If you are, then you will be able to find this book from book retailers and Amazon.