Today I am sharing my review for a very special book, The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey. This is the epic and long-awaited new romance from the author of Letters to the Lost, winner of the RNA Award.

Title: The Glittering Hour 

Author: Iona Grey 

Published: May 30th 2019 by Simon & Schuster

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing. Her life is a whirl of parties and drinking, pursued by the press and staying just the right side of scandal.

Lawrence Weston is a penniless painter who stumbles into Selina's orbit one night and can never let her go.

Spanning two decades and a seismic shift in British history as World War II approaches, this is an epic novel of passion, heartache and loss.

Review: I have just finished reading this stunning story and I need to put into paper how much I loved The Glittering Hour. I still have tears in my eyes and I cannot believe that Selina and Alice's story is over. I am definitely going to miss them immensely. As you can tell, this book has made me feel many emotions, as I felt really connected to story and its characters. 

Iona Grey already made me fell in love with her writing with her acclaimed debut, Letters to the Lost, but I think that The Glittering Hour is in a whole new level. The writing really transports you back in time and the characters feel like part of your family. 

The story is set in two different decades. We have shy young Alice in the thirties, who has gone to live with her grandparents in the big and cold Blackwood House, while her parents go on a long business trip. And then, thanks to letters sent by her mother, Selina, we discover more about her mother's youth and how Alice herself came to be. 

Together with the letters, Selina sends Alice in a treasure hunt to help her feel better in this new foreign setting but also as a way to share with her her past and talk about the people that were important to her. I loved discovering the glittering twenties through Selina's eyes, Iona Grey painted such a clear image of the colours, the fashion, the cars, the parties... that I felt like I was looking at photos rather than just reading. 

I can only praise this epic story and I highly recommend you pick it up if you are looking for a very special story that will fascinate you and probably steal your heart. It has secrets, it has family drama, it has love, it has glamour but also lots of pain. A book that has found a place in my favorite books ever list, for sure. 

Rating: 5 stars

Today I am reviewing After the End, the stunning new novel from Clare Mackintosh, the number one bestselling author of I Let You Go, I See You and Let Me Lie.

Title: After the End 

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Published: June 25th 2019 by Sphere

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son. 

What if they could have both?

A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find. With the emotional power of Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, Mackintosh helps us to see that sometimes the end is just another beginning.

Review: This story is completely different from Clare Mackintosh's previous books, which all fell in the psychological thriller category. After the End is all about a family and how their son being terminally ill changes their lives forever, especially when they cannot agree what the best course of action is. 

This is a very emotional story, I cannot even imagine what these character must have felt going through such a hard time, but the author makes an exquisite job of describing their thoughts, their feelings, their fears and their hopes. You become one hundred per cent invested in their story and wonder, in every single page, what you would do in their shoes. 

The book is divided in two parts, the first one centers its action in the hospital, during the months leading to the decision on their son's future and the second expands a few years after it. I had already fell in love with this story during the first part but it was the second one that left me completely in awe. It was so cleverly written and although it was hard to read sometimes, I loved following the characters' lives. 

In After the End, Clare Mackintosh managed to break my heart and put it all back together. This story surprised me until the very last page and it will stay with me for a long time. 

Rating: 5 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book via NetGalley. This is my honest opinion.

Today I am sharing my review for Cathy Bramley's new book, A Vintage Summer, a sparkling summer story that's FULL of surprises!

Title: A Vintage Summer

Author: Cathy Bramley

Published: March 21st 2019 by Corgi

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: London has not been kind to Lottie Allbright. Realising it’s time to cut and run, she packs up and moves back home – but finds her family in disarray. In need of a new place to stay, Lottie takes up the offer of a live-in job managing a local vineyard. There’s a lot to learn – she didn’t even know grapes could grow so far north!

Butterworth Wines in the rolling Derbyshire hills has always been run on love and passion but a tragic death has left everyone at a loss. Widowed Betsy is trying to keep the place afloat but is harbouring a debilitating secret. Meanwhile her handsome but interfering grandson, Jensen, is trying to convince her to sell up and move into a home.

Lottie’s determined to save Butterworth Wines, but with all this and an unpredictable English summer to deal with, it’ll be a challenge.

And that’s before she discovers something that will turn her summer – and her world – upside down...

Review: A book by Cathy Bramley is always a highlight of my reading year, I absolutely adore her style and her heart-warming stories, and A Vintage Summer is no exception. Set in a vineyard in Derbyshire, this is a novel about friendship, family and love. 

You can't help but fall in love with this setting but also with Lottie's bright personality and enthusiasm. She has had a rough time in London, so she is ready to go back home and find a new purpose in life. And she soon finds it in Butterworth Wines, a vineyard with a very unclear future. 

In the vineyard, Lottie doesn't only find a job tough, she discovers a whole new passion and makes a whole bunch of very passionate friends. These characters were a joy to read. I loved finding out more about them and how they all had their part to make this story special. 

But it was not all sunshine and laughs at the vineyard, the story also handled some more serious issues, which really touched my heart. I really cared for this characters and rooted for them. 

A Vintage Summer is a beatiful story that will warm your heart. With a delightful cast of characters and a stunning setting, it is the perfect read to enjoy outside now that the warmer months are coming.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

Today is my stop in the blog tour for CL Taylor's latest psychological thriller and I am sharing my review for this clever and addictive psychological thriller. Do you dare to sleep?

Title: Sleep

Author: CL Taylor

Published: April 4th 2019 by Avon

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Review: Sleep has all the ingredients I love in a psychological thriller: it is creepy, twisty, atmospheric, and above all, addictive. I loved how it started with a letter from the main character saying that if someone was reading it, it meant she was dead. My curiosity was certainly picked from page one and it only grew as the story unfolded.

In this book, CL Taylor takes us to a remote island in Scotland, where our main character, Anna, has escaped to to forget about a traumatic accident. But soon after her arrival, 7 guests come to stay at the hotel she is working in and things start going wrong, very wrong, in all possible ways.

I loved getting to know all the characters and trying to figure out who is lying and who is keeping secrets. I found this cast of characters fascinating and they made this story even more interesting.

As the story got darker and darker, I had my heart in my mouth. The suspense was superbly written and the ending took me completely by surprise. This well-crafted and absorbing book is probably my new favorite by the author. I cannot recommend it enough.

'Funny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish' Marian Keyes

Today is my stop in the Blog Tour for Nina Stibbe's latest book, Reasons to be Cheerful and I am sharing my review for this fun and enjoyable story:

Title: Reasons to be Cheerful

Author: Nina Stibbe

Published: March 28th 2019 by Viking

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: 'When people in the village heard I was about to start working in the city they tried to unsettle me with tales of woe. The sun, blotted out by the tall buildings, couldn't shine and the rain was poisoned by the toxic fumes that poured from the sock factories. My skin would be covered in pimples from the hell of it all'

So begins a young woman's journey to adulthood. Lizzie Vogel leaves her alcoholic, novel-writing mother and heads for Leicester to work for a racist, barely competent dentist obsessed with joining the freemasons.

Soon Lizzie is heading reluctantly, if at top speed, into the murky depths of adult life: where her driving instructor becomes her best friend; her first boyfriend prefers birdwatching to sex and where independence for a teenage girl might just be another word for loneliness.

In Reasons to Be Cheerful Nina Stibbe shows her extraordinary gift for illuminating the vital details which make us human. She is that rare writer who makes us laugh whilst reminding us of the joy, and the pain, of being alive.

Review: Reasons to be Cheerful is a fun and touching novel about growing up in the 80s in England. The story focuses on Lizzie, who has found her first job as a dentist assistant and has left her family home to move to a big city. She is not quite convinced that this has been the best decision though and although she tries to embrace her new adult life, she feels lonely.

It was very interesting to read about Lizzie and how she tried to make new friends and start a new relationship, although she did not have the best rate of success in those fronts, some of the situations she found herself in were sometimes so ridiculous that they were actually pretty funny. Actually, the cast of characters in this novel was definitely highly entertaining, which provided plenty of fun moments but also some touching and even sad ones. These gave a good balance to the story.

I actually didn't know this is the third book on a series when I started reading it but it turned out that it can be read perfectly well as a standalone as the author gives enough background for you to understand what's going. But now I am curious to know more about these characters and how they got here, especially about Lizzie's mum, as her story sounds like quite an eventful one.

Rating: 4 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.