Book Review: The Second Love of My Life by Victoria Walters*

Book Review: The Second Love of My Life by Victoria Walters*

Thursday, 2 June 2016

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Contemporary fiction is one of those genres that gets you through a long and sad day and gives you the pick me up that you so desperately need. When a copy of The Second Love of My Life by Victoria Walters fell through my letterbox, courtesy of the lovely team at Headline books, I was having one of those days. However, other commitments stopped me from launching myself straight into the book and I found myself sticking it on the top of my ever growing to-read pile. I picked it back up last week and delved right into it. I fell in love with Victoria Walters there and then and cannot wait to read The Summer I Met You, a book which tells the story of the other Talting couple, Emma and John.

This particular tale tells the story of Rose, a young and recently widowed artist. Her husband, Lucas, unfortunately loses his life in a drunk-driving accident for which he holds no responsibility and Rose is struggling to cope with the repercussions of his death. Her art ultimately suffers and she finds it difficult to find her muse. There is nothing she, nor her friends Emma and John, can do about her despair. When a young lawyer, Robert, comes to Cornwall to specifically buy from her art portfolio and then decides to remain in Talting for the entire summer, it seems that things may well be changing for Rose and the possibility of love is on the horizon.

I absolutely ADORED this book. I’m a sucker for a good romance novel and everything about this was beautifully done. Walters handled both grief and new romance flawlessly. I particularly loved the line “grief makes you both restless and listless” as I thought that was a pretty good way of describing the emotions and the feelings upon losing someone you love. I found that I loved every single character and how the people of the small town of Talting came together to help Rose (and eventually Emma) through her grief. I absolutely loved Robert, in spite of his flaws, and I loved the way in which he was introduced to the story. I feel like I’m going to be endlessly listing off the things I loved about this book, so I’m going to cut it short here and just saw: buy it.

If you love short, sweet and thoughtful tales of love then this one will be perfect for you. It combines all of those factors, isn’t unbearable in the slightest and doesn’t come off as being sickly-sweet or unnatural. I think this is a pretty impressive feat considering how it could have panned out. I’ll definitely be buying a copy of Victoria’s other book when it’s released in paperback-  I can’t wait to see where the story is going to go!

You can grab your copy of The Second Love of Your Life on amazon here.

Thank you very much to Headline for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

5/5

Goodreads: May Wrap Up

Goodreads: May Wrap Up

Wednesday, 1 June 2016

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Oh my goodness me, who would have thought that May would come to an end so quickly! I honestly feel like I’m blinking and the entire month is flashing right before my eyes! I thought I’d do a quick round up of the books I’ve read in the month of May. I talked about the books I wanted to get through here and I’m pleased to say that of the three, I managed one of the books I wanted to have a go at. I did read other books (oops!) as I tend to get easily distracted and change my mind about what I want to read, so I’ll be including those here instead.

In terms of paperback books, I managed to get through of them throughout the month of May. I finally reread To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee after years of avoiding it like the plague. I must admit I did like it a lot more the second time around than the first. I also finally finished Please Mister Postman, the second of Alan Johnson’s political memoirs. I really loved this book, I love Alan Johnson’s style of writing and I love how relatable everything that happened throughout his life could be. I definitely recommend picking his two books up regardless of your political allegiances. I completed Supplement au voyage de Bougainville by Diderot for my French literature class, as well.

I received a copy of The Second Love of my Life by Victoria Walters from Headline books about a month or so back, and since this lovely little number was published in April I thought it was about time I gave it a read. My review for this book will be up tomorrow and I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on it with you all!

I also managed to finish a book that was highly anticipated for me, Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick (author of The Silver Lining’s Playbook if you don’t recognise the name!) This book definitely didn’t disappoint and I am so grateful to the team at Headline books for sending me this beautiful hard backed advanced copy. The book was released in the UK on the 31^st May so you can buy it right here.

I also got through two e books in the month of May! I read Love and Other Man-Made Disasters by Nicola Doherty, which I reviewed here and found a lovely, easy going read! Thanks once again to Hachette Children’s Group for my copy of this book! I also completed the debut psychological thriller My Husband’s Wife by the amazing Jane Corry. I find it hard to believe that this book is a debut as it’s so well written, exciting and gut wrenching throughout. Thanks to the guys at Penguin for sending me a review copy! You can find my review here, if you’re interested in finding out a little bit more about the book!

I’ve now finished university FOREVER which is both absolutely terrifying and amazing all at the same time. I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the little bit of free time that I’ll have now I no longer have to feel guilty about not revising! I’ll be reading much more and reviewing as I go and I’m really looking forward to making my blog exactly the way I want it to be!

What did you read in the month of May? Let me know, I always love a good recommendation!

Book Review: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry*

Book Review: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry*

Monday, 30 May 2016

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I feel like I’m starting to sound a little bit like a stuck record when it comes to psychological thrillers, but they really are my favourite genre of them all. I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry about a month back and I was quick to get stuck into it. I think it’s fair to say that this book is one which has been much anticipated by readers and publishers alike and the fact that it’s been signed up by Penguin books speaks volumes. I absolutely loved both the title of the book and the cover itself and it was definitely the combination of the two which attracted me to the book in the first place. Thanks to Penguin for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The novel introduces the perspectives of two characters, Lily, a newly qualified criminal lawyer and Carla, the young daughter of Lily’s neighbour. Lily’s story is based around the relationship between her and her artist husband Ed and the case on which she is focusing all of her attention, involving a man who is accused of having murdered his girlfriend in a scolding bath. On the other hand, Carla’s tale revolves around her mother’s affair with a married man and the consequences that come with it. The story recommences around half way into the book with a flash forward in time, to a point where Carla herself is in the midst of training to be a lawyer. The manipulative characteristics she exerted as a child show themselves once again in a sudden change of direction which left me quite shocked! We’re aware from the very beginning that Ed has been murdered, which was an interesting touch as the novel covers more than 15 years before even touching on the events surrounding his death, so it really does leave you wondering and speculating on what could have happened. I’ll leave my little summary there as it’s really hard to say anything without spoiling the whole story, but expect murder, unexpected debauchery and a whole lot of creepiness.

I’m not going to lie to you- this is a very long book. I was a bit surprised to find it was so long, because I’ve found in the fact that psychological thrillers tend to be fast-paced and average-length. I was a bit put off by the sheer volume of the text but gave it a go anyway and I’m honestly so glad that I did because it really is an amazingly interesting, thrilling and mysterious story. I must admit, I really quite liked this tale. I thought the story moved along relatively quickly when taking into consideration its sheer depth and a lot of what was going on left me doubting the every move of each character involved. I did notice that there was a bit of confusion with names at one point, where a character was referred to as a different name to what they ought to have been. I won’t elaborate much further as it did kind of give away a key plot hole, but I presume this was a typing mistake. I’d like to hope that it’s been rectified during the final editing process! I loved the flashbacks and the eventual flash forward and the entire plot was thought provoking and shiver-inducing.

If you’re a fan of The Girl on the Train or I Let You Go then you’ll most probably like this one as well. It’s dark and intriguing with twists and turns aplenty. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Jane will offer up in the future and I wish her all the best with the paperback publication of this debut novel on August 25^th. You can currently buy an e-copy of the book on amazon here.

4.5/5