This Month I Have Been Mostly Reading - February

This month I have been reading an awful lot! 

Books have helped me through hospital appointments, 

endless nights of rocking a poorly baby back to sleep,

snatched moments when the toddler isn't demanding my attention,

long waits in doctor's surgery

and long days when I can't get out of bed due to a twisted bowel! 

Forever Friends-Kate McCabe

I was looking for a light read something that I could pick up and put down in between

hospital appointments. So my Mam gave me a book she had been reading lately

Forever Friends is set in 1980's Dublin and about three friends Maddy, Rosie and Sophie

although the book is basically Maddy's story. Maddy is a successful sales woman for a local estate agent in Dublin. It's the 80's and in Dublin apartment life is what the young want and Maddy has an eye for knowing what the people want and what is going to be popular. That said it's the 80's and it's Dublin and she is a woman in business so she meets all the problems working women did in the 80's

I found the start of her story really interesting seeing how she over came certain stereotypes. She has a good head for business she buys a run down house at a bargain and turns it into something amazing.

However I found the romantic storyline with Grey a bit one dimensional and very drawn out. By the time I got three quarters of the way through the book I was sick to my teeth of hearing about property prices, and the property market! It is a book I would take on holiday with me and it is easy to read, it's fairly predictable but I could see it beside my sun lounger while I sipped a cocktail!!

The Distant Hours-Kate Morton
After reading The House At Riverton last month I just knew I had
to read some more of Kate Morton. I liked this book even more than Riverton!
It had me hooked after the first pages! So many secrets, so many twists, so many whispers!
This book is alot darker than Riverton, it's a slow builder but it's so worth it! I was snatching time to read it everywhere! I read the last few chapters in bed while the hubby was snoring unable to put it down till I finished it! Morton is such a good writer that her character have layers and layers, secrets after secrets and as the reader we get the joy of discovering these secrets and stripping away the layers.  Stories within stories, set in a huge castle during the blitz with a fictional Gothic novel thrown in!! It's a dark, heavy read but so well worth it!
It all starts with a lost letter from 50 years ago
that has been final delivered to Edith's Mother Meredith
If Edith hadn't happen to be home for a family dinner she would have never known anything about Middlehurst Castle and the Blythe sisters, but something changed in her Mother's face when opening that letter. Something Edith couldn't forget and with her Mother being tight lipped on the subject, Edith decides to do some digging herself. She goes to Middlehurst Castle never realising that the castle itself isn't ready to give up it's secrets ...but if she listens carefully she might hear the whispering in The Distant Hours

Love From Paris-Alexandra Potter

After reading The Distant hours I need a little chic lit in my life

With it being the month of love I decided to give this a go

I really wanted to love this as it promised not your normal kind of chic lit

in its blurb. At best I liked this book, the start was all very predictable and I wasn't very fond

of the style of writing. 

The story tells of Ruby who get stood up by her hot American boyfriend on her birthday

Not one to mop around she hops on the Euro Star to met her friend in Paris

She wants a weekend of shopping, eating and drinking but she get much more than

that as she finds letters of a Second World War romance and the secrets it held

I did like how Paris was described here Potter got the beauty of Paris spot on

and it did make me want to go back soon! The latter part of the book was better

and I enjoyed the mystery around WW2 romance. The cover of the book is beautiful and I would recommend this read while on holiday with a glass of wine in hand!

Through Streets Broad And Narrow -Gemma Jackson

This was another book my Mam passed on to me after reading as 

she thought it was a light enough read for doctors and hospital appointments.

The cover of this book is beautiful and the main thing that drew me to this book. 

The description on the front of this book is misleading it says If you like Strumpet City you will love this. Well I have read Strumpet City and it's nothing like this book, Strumpet is a much more of a heavy read and also much better written.

That said I did enjoy the tale of Ivy Murphy set in the slums of Dublin in 1925

As she fights to find a new life for herself after the sudden death of her Father.

All the character's are very well rounded and likable. The book itself reminded of the style of Catherine Cookson who's books I devoured as a teenager. Instead of the Newcastle slums, it was set in the inner city Dublin slums, instead of Northern slang it was Dublin slang and like Cookson's books there was a strong, independent, feisty heroine at the centre of the story. The writing isn't up to Cookson standard but this is a first in a trilogy of books 

about Ivy Murphy and I will be reading the other two soon.

The Miniaturist-Jessie Burton

This book tells the story of Nella Oortman a 18 year old country woman

who has come to Amsterdam as the wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt new wife

Johannes is kind but uninterested in his new beautiful wife he seems to be

always working. His sister rules the house with a strict hand and never

gives Nella any control over the running of what now should be Nella's household

So Nella feels not a true wife but there is another reason why Nella doesn't feel like

a wife her so called husband has never visited her bed.

The house itself frightens Nella but when Johannes give her a dollhouse

it gives Nella something to do and helps her loneliness. If she can't be Mistress of the house

maybe she can be Mistress of this Miniature house

I devoured this novel and to be honest I can't say why! The story drew me in and the secrets the house held had me gripped, but it was the storyline of the secret miniaturist that kept me asking, who, why, how but this storyline wasn't really for filled and questions where not asked in the way I liked.

I did enjoy the book and it's very well written, but I was unhappy with the ending.

What Oisín has been reading this month

Peter's Pebbles - Cherie Zamazing

Oisín has this book a while now

but has been asking to read it alot the last few weeks

It's a cute little story about Peter who paints his pebbles

different things and watches as they magically come to life

What have you been reading this month?