Monday, 31 December 2018

Best Reads of 2018 - Le migliori letture del 2018



And here are my best reads of the year: 2 American fiction, 2 British, 1 French, 2 Italians, a super crime fiction and a memoir. Highly recommend them all!

Click on the titles to read the reviews


CATEGORY: Fiction















CATEGORY: Narrativa italiana






CATEGORY: Crime fiction




CATEGORY: Memoir



Saturday, 29 December 2018

Book Review: A country Christmas - V. Henry


I really enjoyed other novels by Veronica Henry, so I was looking forward to this Christmassy one. However, I was not able to continue after the first quarter. I found the story dull and unoriginal, same for the characters and I did not fell the curiosity to go ahead and see what would happen to them.
A big disappointment for me...

Overall rating:  Abandoned    Plot: 5   Writing style: 6   Cover:  8



Title: A Country Christmas (first published as Honeycote)
Author: Veronica Henry
Publisher: Orion
Pages: 480
Publication year: 2002

The Plot:

It's the most wonderful time of the year, they say. And in the little Cotswolds village of Honeycote, the festive season looks set to bring people more than a few surprises under the tree. As Lucy Liddiard plans the festive lunch for her nearest and dearest, she has little idea of the dramas about to play out before the crackers are pulled and the corks popped. She knows the family brewery, Honeycote Ales, has seen better days. She knows her husband, Mickey, is an incorrigible flirt. But does she realise how close both are edging towards disaster? As the nights draw in, garlands deck the halls and the carols ring out, there are secrets and lies, love and lust all waiting to be unwrapped. Welcome to Honeycote, and a Christmas no one will ever forget...

The Author:
From the Author's webiste:
"As an army child, I went to eight different schools, including the Royal School Bath, where I learnt Latin, how to make rock buns and how to take my bra off without getting undressed.  I went on to study Classics at Bristol University, followed by a bi-lingual secretarial course - a surprisingly useful combination.     I landed a job as Production Secretary on The Archers at Pebble Mill in Birmingham, where it used to take me two and a half hours to type out an Archers script on an Olivetti ET121 typewriter.  Duties ranged from recording the sound of newborn piglets to playing Peaches the barmaid in the Cat and Fiddle.  There was never a dull moment, and The Archers taught me that everyone needs an escape from everyday life. From there, I became a script editor for Central Television, working on broadcasting legends Crossroads and Boon.  I started a family and became a freelance scriptwriter, writing hundreds of hours of television drama, including Heartbeat and Holby City.   In 2000 I got my first book deal, and am currently writing my twentieth novel. I also write lifestyle features for newspapers and magazines, including Woman and Home, Red, The Daily Mail, Woman and The Sunday Times. I speak regularly at Literary Festivals, libraries, WIs and charity events, talking about my career and the inspiration for my novels."









Monday, 24 December 2018

Book Review: One day in December - J. Silver


Everybody is talking about this book on social medias so I had high expectations about it.
I really struggled with the first part of the novel, I just couldn't see where it was going and it was all a bit slow for me. I enjoyed the second part though, it is a pleasant romantic comedy, I can really see it on the big screens as if the story actually belongs more on TV than in a book.
I wouldn't say it is an original plot, it reminded me of other novels where the two main characters fall in love but never manage to be together until the very end. I don't think i got the whole picture of Laurie, known the true her throughout the novel and this is why I am giving it an average rating. I was not as engrossed and whisked away by the romanticism of the story as it happened with other books.

Overall rating:  6,5    Plot: 6,5   Writing style: 6,5   Cover:  7


Title: One day in December
Author: Josie Silver
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 432
Publication year: 2018

The Plot
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist. After all, life isn't a scene from the movies, is it? But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away. Laurie thinks she'll never see the boy from the bus again. But at their Christmas party a year later, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus. Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans?
The Author:
Josie Silver is an unashamed romantic who met her husband when she stepped on his foot on his twenty-first birthday. She lives with him, her two young sons, and their cats in a little town in England called Wolverhampton.

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Book Review: Bright young dead - J. Fellowes


Second volume of The Mitford murders serie (click here to read the mini review of the first volume)

I quite enjoyed the first novel of the Mitford murders serie so I was looking forward to this second installment. But, unfortunately, I was disappointed.
 Also in this book we find  again the same characters, the Mitford sisters, Louise, Guy, plus the infamous Bright young people in the 20s swinging London and a gang of women thieves, which make the novel interesting from a social point of view. The murder case though is slow and generally the pace of the book is painfully low speed for my liking. The chapters are quite repetitive and, even if a lot could happen, nothing really does and I was left with a bitter taste of what it could have been.
Pity...

Overall rating:  5    Plot: 6   Writing style: 5   Cover:  8


Title: Bright young dead 
Author: Jessica Fellowes
Publisher: Sphere
Pages: 400
Publication year: 2018


The Plot:
Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford, but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home.The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself, believes Dulcie to be innocent, and sets out to clear the girl's name . . . all while the real killer may only be steps away.
The Author:
Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker, best known for her work as author of five official companion books to Downton Abbey, various of which have hit the New York Times and Sunday Timesbestseller lists. Former deputy editor of Country Life and columnist on the Mail on Sunday, she has written for publications including the DailyTelegraph, the GuardianThe Sunday Times and The Lady. Jessica has spoken at events across the UK and US, and has made numerous appearances on radio and television. She lives happily in London and Oxfordshire with her family, an energetic Labradoodle and two chickens.

Thursday, 13 December 2018

Book Review: The Angel Tree - L.Riley



What a family saga! I was glued to the almost 700 pages of The Angel Tree for three days. Ac compelling story about three generations of a family whose destiny touches a lot of other people unrelated. Tragedy, fame, love, beautiful scenery, drama, illnesses, motherhood, friendship: there is a lot going on in this novel spacing forty years and yet it doesn't seem too much as sometimes happen.
Lucinda Riley has demonstrated me yet again that she can hold my attention so well and involve me in the plot and the characters fully.
A must read family saga!

Overall rating:  8    Plot: 8   Writing style: 8   Cover:  6,5

Title: The Angel Tree
Author: Lucinda Riley
Publisher: Pan MacMillan

Pages: 672

Publication year: 2015

The Plot:
Thirty years have passed since Greta left Marchmont Hall, a grand and beautiful house nestled in the hills of rural Monmouthshire. But when she returns to the Hall for Christmas, at the invitation of her old friend David Marchmont, she has no recollection of her past association with it – the result of a tragic accident that has blanked out more than two decades of her life. Then, during a walk through the wintry landscape, she stumbles across a grave in the woods, and the weathered inscription on the headstone tells her that a little boy is buried here . . .The poignant discovery strikes a chord in Greta's mind and soon ignites a quest to rediscover her lost memories. With David's help, she begins to piece together the fragments of not only her own story, but that of her daughter, Cheska, who was the tragic victim of circumstances beyond her control. And, most definitely, not the angel she appeared to be . . 

The Author:
Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland, and after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into over thirty five languages and sold fifteen million copies worldwide. She is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller.
 Lucinda is currently writing The Seven Sisters series, which tells the story of adopted sisters and is based allegorically on the mythology of the famous star constellation. The first five books, The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister, The Shadow Sister, The Pearl Sister and The Moon Sister have all been No.1 bestsellers across the world, and the rights to a multi-season TV series have already been optioned by a Hollywood production company.

Monday, 10 December 2018

Book Review: Agatha Raisin and the Busy body - M.C. Beaton


Agatha Raisin serie - Book 21

I don't think I will ever grow tired of Agatha! yes, probably the books now are a tiny bit predictable as it is our Agatha, and yet I still find reading her misadventures very enjoyable and it is like coming back home a bit/
In the busy body there is a double murder in a nearby village and the possible culprits are so many, most likely the entire village as they all loathed the Health inspector that was murdered.
Between the events and Agatha solving the crime, a year goes by and we encounter a new character, a young trainee detective that spices things up a bit, while Agatha is still her true self and cannot help herself in seeing love in every man she comes across.


Overall rating:  6,5    Plot: 6,5   Writing style: 6,5   Cover:  6,5


Title: Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
Author: M.C. Beaton
Publisher: Constable
Pages: 244
Publication year: 2010

The Plot:
Cranky yet lovable Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, though her cozy village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. Until now. This year, local Health and Safety Board officer John Sunday is threatening to undo some of Carsley’s most time-honored traditions. The tree on top of the church? A public menace. The decorations hanging on the lampposts? Hazardous. Even May Dimwoody’s homemade toys are deemed unsafe for the children. Bah humbug! The Carsely Ladies Society is in an uproar and will do anything to put a stop to this Scrooge—only to find that someone else has done it for them…with a kitchen knife. Soon Agatha’s detective agency is on the case. But when a man has made as many enemies as Mr. John Sunday, it’s hard to know where to start—or how to stop the killer from striking again.
The Author:
M.C. Beaton was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department at John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she received an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to become their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing experience, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter.After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion moved to the United States where Harry had been offered the position of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. They subsequently moved to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs at Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York. Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, supported by her husband, started to write Regency romances. After she had written close to 100, and had gotten fed up with the 1811 to 1820 period, she began to write detective stories under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Hamish Macbeth story. Marion and Harry returned to Britain and bought a croft house in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. When her son graduated, and both of his parents tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds, where Agatha Raisin was created. While Marion wrote her historical romances under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, as well as several pseudonyms (Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward), because of her great success with mystery novels as M. C. Beaton, most of her publishers both in the U.S. and abroad use the M. C. Beaton pseudonym for all of her novels.

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Book Review: So che un giono tornerai - L. Bianchini


"Signora e' femmina...come la vuole chiamare?"
Angela resta immobile, come se il suo parto non fosse finito ma stesse per ricominciare di nuovo. Era femmina, aveva sentito bene.
E pronuncio' il nome che aveva sempre pensato.
"Giorgio".


Per come la vedo io, ci sono due Bianchini: quello che leggo con estremo piacere che comprende la maggior parte dei suoi libri (vedi recensione di Nessuno come noi qui), Instant love in primis, e quello di "Io che amo solo te" e di quest'ultimo romanzo, che invece proprio non mi sono piaciuti. Li ho trovati banali rispetto agli altri, troppo "paesani", pettegoli e senza davvero nulla che mi attirasse e mi incentivasse ad andare avanti con la lettura.
Mentre con gli altri romanzi sentivo le storie piu' "vicine" e coinvolgenti, con quest'ultimo romanzo, come anche con Io che amo solo te, davvero non ero interessata a sapere cosa sarebbe successo. 
Peccato, perche' sui numerosi libri che ha scritto, ne ho amati molti, quindi spero che il prossimo rientri di nuovo nel filone Bianchini che piu' mi piace.



Overall rating:  5    Plot: 5   Writing style: 5   Cover:  7,5



Title: So che un giorno tornerai
Author: Luca Bianchini
Publisher: Mondadori
Pages: 264
Publication year: 2018


The Plot:
Angela non ha ancora vent'anni quando diventa madre, una mattina a Trieste alla fine degli anni Sessanta. Pasquale, il suo grande amore, è un "jeansinaro" calabrese, un mercante di jeans, affascinante e già sposato. Lui le ha fatto una promessa: "Se sarà maschio, lo riconoscerò". Angela fa tutti gli scongiuri del caso ma nasce una femmina: Emma. Pasquale fugge immediatamente dalle sue responsabilità, lasciando Angela crescere la bambina da sola insieme alla sua famiglia numerosa e sgangherata. I Pipan sono capitanati da un nonno che rimpiange il dominio austriaco, una nonna che prepara le zuppe e quattro zii: uno serio, un playboy e due gemelli diversi che si alternano a fare da babysitter a Emma. Lei sarà la figlia di tutti e di nessuno e crescerà così, libera e anticonformista, come la Trieste in cui vive, in quella terra di confine tra cielo e mare, Italia e Jugoslavia. Fino al giorno in cui deciderà di mettersi sulle tracce di suo padre, e per lui questa sarà l'occasione per rivedere Angela, che non ha mai dimenticato.

The Author:
Dal sito dell'autore:
"Nato l’11 febbraio 1970 a Mola di Bari, Luca Bianchini ha vissuto la sua adolescenza e la sua giovane età a Nichelino (TO) e attualmente vive a Torino dove si è laureato in lettere moderne. Mente brillante e dalla bella parlantina, oltre ad essere uno scrittore di successo sempre crescente è stato anche conduttore radiofonico. Nella sua vita Bianchini ha svolto diverse professioni tra cui intervistatore telefonico, redattore filatelico alla Bolaffi, scrittore freelance. Per la BGS d’Arcy ha curato le campagne pubblicitarie di diverse grandi aziende come Ferrero, Pagine Gialle, FIAT, TIM, Piaggio. In seguito, dal 2000, con la Adv ha lavorato per Unicredit, Tele2, Suzuki e Breil. Insomma, Luca Bianchini ha studiato e fatto la gavetta, conosce l’Italia, ha capito che per adattarsi occorre lavorare, muoversi, cambiare. Una mente brillante ha meno difficoltà nel farsi notare, soprattutto dai lettori che hanno potuto apprezzare le sue opere. Tra le più conosciute Instant Love, Ti seguo ogni Notte, Se domani farà bel tempo, Siamo solo amici, Io che amo solo te, Dimmi che credi al destino che è l’ispirazione per molte slot machine online italiane."

Saturday, 1 December 2018

November 2018 Wrap up



November, month of fireworks nights here in UK!

Some really great novels read this month, an ever green Christie and three big disappointments I had to abandoned. 

(click on the titles for the full mini review)


No and me - D. de Vigan
A touching and profound novel, highly recommend it.
Rating:  8,5 out of 10

Educated - T. Westover
Shocking, insightful, very powerful. a must read
Rating:  8,5 out of 10

Only child - R. Niven
Heartbreaking, very touching, loved it.
Rating:  9 out of 10

The beach hut next door - V. Henry
Great escapism, a fairy tale set in a great seaside place. Enjoyable.
Rating:  7 out of 10

All grown up - J. Attenberg
Not my cup of tea. Abadoned
Rating: Abandoned

They do it with mirrors - A. Christie
Agatha never lets you down! Another great crime story with the cheeky Miss Marple!
Rating:  7,5 out of 10

This is how it always is - L. Frankel
A strong message, a very brave family and child. Extremely interesting, it loses its charm a bit in the last part in my view.
Rating:  7 out of 10

So che un giorno tornerai - L. Bianchini
Ho amato tanti libri di Bianchini, ma questo, insieme a Io che amo solo te, non mi e' piaciuto.
Rating:  5 out of 10

The darkest day - H. Nesser
I couldn't get into the story at all. Abandoned!
Rating:  Abandoned

Winter garden - K. Hannah
Too slow and repetitive for my liking, nothing seems to happen for ages. Abandoned!
Rating:  Abandoned