Do you know what I've learned in the past year? Life is busy. I love it so much but I'm terrible for being one of those people who says "I need to blog about this...I will blog about that..." and then suddenly I realised it's been about 9 months since my last post! So I have kicked myself into gear and I've given the blog a little makeover which will hopefully make it look clean and fresh. I've also read millions (almost) of books between my last post and now so instead of talking about them all, I've picked a couple of my favourite reads recently, which also have turned out to be fresh new talent on the block that I feel deserve highlighting. Both The Pearl That Broke Its Shell and The Versions of Us are both debuts and Silent Scream, although not Angela Marsons' first book, it's a debut signed with Bookouture so I'd say that counts!
I will endeavor to post up regularly, about books, life, or anything else and get back into the blogging world. I've written it down now, so it will happen.
The Pearl that Broke its Shell
by Nadia Hashimi
It's hard to put into words how much this book moved me. The story is both heart breaking and uplifting and it has opened my eyes up to a whole side of the world that I did not know. I have only just recently started exploring this sort of fiction, set in Afghanistan, and I quickly fell in love with Khaled Hosseini's books and desperately wanted more. The Pearl That Broke Its Shell has provided me with what I was looking for and although it is very easy to put this book in the shadow of Hosseini's work, I think that it has enough power and charisma that it deserves to stand out in its own right.
In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.
But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-aunt, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.
Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?
(Goodreads)
The parallel stories of Rahima and Shekiba were truly incredible, following their journeys as they both become a bacha posh, a girl dressed as a boy, generations apart. I had no knowledge of this before this book and it sent me through a range of emotions as I was reading it. Both characters get constantly pulled between being girls and boys, women and men and to spend your whole life being told which gender you are going to represent, on top of who you will marry and how you will behave is such a tragic thing yet the courage that keeps them going is remarkable. I felt angry for these women who's identities are treated as disposable just because they are not male. I also, slightly selfishly, couldn't help but feel thankful for the freedom that women have in this country - I know that there is a long way to go with gender equality still but in comparison we have it good.
I became well and truly engrossed in this story, Nadia Hashimi's writing is incredible, it flows beautifully and paints such vivid pictures throughout the entire book. It is hard to believe that this is her debut novel and I really hope to see many more to come.
The Versions of Us
by Laura Barnett
I can completely understand why it was the Number 1 on the Kindle bestseller charts for so long and I would recommend this book in an instant.
Do you know what my biggest gripe with this book is? That I didn't write it first. I am constantly thinking what if? with things; what if I'd studied harder and ended up going to a different University? or what if I'd never moved back to London or dated this or that boy? What if I hadn't been in that exact place at that exact time, what would be different? If you get that, read this book.
If you don't, then read it anyway as an interesting concept.
I'm also one of the majority of the reading population who got their heartbroken by David Nicholls' One Day and I needed something to fill that void.
Some moments can change your life for ever. Have you ever wondered, what if...?
A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling towards him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.
Eva and Jim are nineteen and students at Cambridge when their paths first cross in 1958. And then there is David, Eva's then-lover, an ambitious actor who loves Eva deeply. The Versions of Us follows the three different courses their lives could take following this first meeting. Lives filled with love, betrayal, ambition but through it all is a deep connection that endures whatever fate might throw at them.
The Versions of Us explores the idea that there are moments when our lives might have turned out differently, the tiny factors or decisions that could determine our fate, and the precarious nature of the foundations upon which we build our lives. It is also a story about the nature of love and how it grows, changes and evolves as we go through the vagaries of life.
(Goodreads)
I knew pretty early on with this book that it would be a rollercoaster of emotions and it didn't disappoint. It kept me on my toes. Like Emma and Dexter in One Day, I was constantly routing for Eva and Jim and I was certain that the first version would be the one, the true romance story where everything is perfect, but as soon as I got comfy with one situation it flips to another. I think what I both loved - and slightly hated (I'm a sucker for romance through and through) - about this narrative device was that it was so realistic, that even the version that seems to be the most perfect can be faced with difficulties and disagreements and I found myself quite surprised that there points where things were the opposite to what I wanted, but they seemed to turn out for the better.
Each version had its own moments that made me laugh and cry and I did find myself thinking about what my own different versions could be like. However, I found it really refreshing that this book didn't preach at you about the sanctity of life, there wasn't a correct/incorrect way of life even at the end, it was just looking at parallel possibilities in equal measure.
If you don't, then read it anyway as an interesting concept.
Some moments can change your life for ever. Have you ever wondered, what if...?
A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling towards him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.
Eva and Jim are nineteen and students at Cambridge when their paths first cross in 1958. And then there is David, Eva's then-lover, an ambitious actor who loves Eva deeply. The Versions of Us follows the three different courses their lives could take following this first meeting. Lives filled with love, betrayal, ambition but through it all is a deep connection that endures whatever fate might throw at them.
The Versions of Us explores the idea that there are moments when our lives might have turned out differently, the tiny factors or decisions that could determine our fate, and the precarious nature of the foundations upon which we build our lives. It is also a story about the nature of love and how it grows, changes and evolves as we go through the vagaries of life.
(Goodreads)
I knew pretty early on with this book that it would be a rollercoaster of emotions and it didn't disappoint. It kept me on my toes. Like Emma and Dexter in One Day, I was constantly routing for Eva and Jim and I was certain that the first version would be the one, the true romance story where everything is perfect, but as soon as I got comfy with one situation it flips to another. I think what I both loved - and slightly hated (I'm a sucker for romance through and through) - about this narrative device was that it was so realistic, that even the version that seems to be the most perfect can be faced with difficulties and disagreements and I found myself quite surprised that there points where things were the opposite to what I wanted, but they seemed to turn out for the better.
Each version had its own moments that made me laugh and cry and I did find myself thinking about what my own different versions could be like. However, I found it really refreshing that this book didn't preach at you about the sanctity of life, there wasn't a correct/incorrect way of life even at the end, it was just looking at parallel possibilities in equal measure.
I will admit that I don't think this is a definite replacement for One Day but in its own right I think it is a great book, Laura Barnett paints a beautiful picture of Cambridge and other parts of south England and it really opened my eyes to the wonders of cause and affect in life.
Silent Scream
by Angela Marsons
I can completely understand why it was the Number 1 on the Kindle bestseller charts for so long and I would recommend this book in an instant.
This book had me hooked from page one all the way through until the last page. It was one of those books that even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it.
Normally I find crime thrillers can be quite predictable and become laborious, but Silent Scream grabbed me instantly and kept going the whole way through with so many twists and turns.
I'm pretty sure I was on the edge of my seat, gripping my Kindle while the death count went up and the killer still hadn't been found! I couldn't guess what was going to happen and I didn't want to stop reading until I knew.
Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…
Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood …
Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.
But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.
As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?
Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.
But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.
As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?
(Goodreads)
I loved the characters on the team, DI Kim Stone, Bryant, Stacey, Dawson and the other doctors. Each character really developed into their own and added depth to the story. I felt myself becoming invested in these characters' lives and I thought Kim was the perfect character who plays the dedicated, hardcore detective that is required for a job like hers.
This book gave big amounts of thrills, a lot of action and just the right amount of character development that I know it will make a really successful series.
