Once again my posting has fallen behind. It has been an intense summer - having finished my degree, leaving Leicester and moving back home, then graduation and then my amazing Interrail trip around Europe for over a month! It's been abit non stop but I have loved every minute of it! And even better I have managed to read so many books. I loved my degree and the reading choices attached to that (well most of them!) but it is such a relief to be able to read anything now and I'm making the most of it. The problem I seem to have these days is just purely so many books that I want to read all at once and just not enough time in the day!
I am also 52 books through my 100 books Goodreads target for this year, so I've got to speed up and get reading!
I doubt I would have time to review all the books I have read over the summer, especially the ones on my Kindle while I was traveling, but I thought I'd kick off this post by talking about the book I just finished reading today, one that I bought on Kindle with view of reading it across Europe but not having time to. Jojo Moyes' 'The Last Letter From Your Lover' was simply amazing.
I have read Me Before You by Moyes and 'The Last Letter...' has always been on my must read list since it was published, so I knew it would be good but there was something about it that just made it stick with me.
Goodreads summary: "It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband. Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance."
I found myself wanting to shout at the characters in the book, so they would do what I wanted them to - stop ruining their relationships and start seeing clearly and following how they really feel (to name a few). I found I sympathised with Jenny's husband Larry for a large proportion of the book having to endure his wife's lack of attention and sympathy towards their marriage, but then when you get introduced to the sheer depth of her love to Boot and how Larry becomes distasteful and a bully towards his wife it suddenly all falls into place and you love the characters you are supposed to and you empathise with all her actions, which just breaks your heart even more so when things don't go the right way.
It definitely became one of those books for me that every time I had to stop reading (during commute train-changes:having mastered the art of reading and travelling across busy stations or at the end of my journey) I was disappointed and wanted to get back to finishing it to find out how things worked out.
My only real criticism of the book - whether it is a Kindle layout issue or just in general, was that I found the transitions between 1960's before and after the accident were quite interchangable and it took me a while until Boot was introduced to realise that they were different times. A more distinguishable time shift would've been helpful, but I got to grips in the end!
I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely seek out some more Jojo Moyes books and recommend this one to as many people as I can so we can discuss it!
I think what makes this such a fine novel is how Moyes manages to completely capture the true essence of the love story and as the modern journalist Ellie falls deeply into the story I felt I did too. Even though I have no real connection to the story - I'm not living in the 60's or part of a adulterous married relationship or anything of the sort, I somehow felt like I could relate to every part of it. I think Moyes has written a true love story, based around the romanticism of the old fashioned love letter.
I am also 52 books through my 100 books Goodreads target for this year, so I've got to speed up and get reading!
I doubt I would have time to review all the books I have read over the summer, especially the ones on my Kindle while I was traveling, but I thought I'd kick off this post by talking about the book I just finished reading today, one that I bought on Kindle with view of reading it across Europe but not having time to. Jojo Moyes' 'The Last Letter From Your Lover' was simply amazing.
I have read Me Before You by Moyes and 'The Last Letter...' has always been on my must read list since it was published, so I knew it would be good but there was something about it that just made it stick with me.
Goodreads summary: "It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband. Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance."
I found myself wanting to shout at the characters in the book, so they would do what I wanted them to - stop ruining their relationships and start seeing clearly and following how they really feel (to name a few). I found I sympathised with Jenny's husband Larry for a large proportion of the book having to endure his wife's lack of attention and sympathy towards their marriage, but then when you get introduced to the sheer depth of her love to Boot and how Larry becomes distasteful and a bully towards his wife it suddenly all falls into place and you love the characters you are supposed to and you empathise with all her actions, which just breaks your heart even more so when things don't go the right way.
It definitely became one of those books for me that every time I had to stop reading (during commute train-changes:having mastered the art of reading and travelling across busy stations or at the end of my journey) I was disappointed and wanted to get back to finishing it to find out how things worked out.
My only real criticism of the book - whether it is a Kindle layout issue or just in general, was that I found the transitions between 1960's before and after the accident were quite interchangable and it took me a while until Boot was introduced to realise that they were different times. A more distinguishable time shift would've been helpful, but I got to grips in the end!
I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely seek out some more Jojo Moyes books and recommend this one to as many people as I can so we can discuss it!
I think what makes this such a fine novel is how Moyes manages to completely capture the true essence of the love story and as the modern journalist Ellie falls deeply into the story I felt I did too. Even though I have no real connection to the story - I'm not living in the 60's or part of a adulterous married relationship or anything of the sort, I somehow felt like I could relate to every part of it. I think Moyes has written a true love story, based around the romanticism of the old fashioned love letter.
