April/May Reads

 So here we are at the end of yet another month and here I am again late as usual.  It won't surprise you to know that my end of year reports at school always said 'If only Mitzi applied herself more she would produce great things, must try harder'.  That seems to have followed me through life and at nearly 60 isn't likely to change really is it. 

My April and May reads are a mixed bag of good and no so good.  

Starting with Jodi Picoult's 'The Book of Two Ways' 

Dawn is a death doula, and spends her life helping people make the final transition peacefully.

But when the plane she's on plummets, she finds herself thinking not of the perfect life she has, but the life she was forced to abandon fifteen years ago - when she left behind a career in Egyptology, and a man she loved.

Against the odds, she survives, and the airline offers her a ticket to wherever she needs to get to - but the answer to that question suddenly seems uncertain.

As the path of her life forks in two very different directions, Dawn must confront questions she's never truly asked: what does a well-lived life look like? What do we leave behind when we go? And do we make our choices, or do our choices make us?

Two possible futures. One impossible choice.

I am normally a great fan of Jodi Picoult books and have read most but not all.  As with a lot of very established authors sometimes they have a real winner that before you even get half way through you can imagine being made into that Hollywood blockbuster sadly for me this isn't one of them. It seemed to blurr between the past and the present and at times I was left not knowing whether I was in the past or the present.  I also felt in part it got a little far fetched.  Knowing you had a family at home would the first thing you did when you survived a plan crash be to get on to a plane to take you to a country you left 15 years previously to try and salve your conscience of the past.  Not sure it would be my first thought that's for sure. 

I then moved onto the latest in the Vera Stanhope books 'The Darkest Evening' .  I have made it one of my challenges to read all the Vera books hopefully this year but I've still got quite a few to go. 

Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly.

But the snow is so heavy, she becomes disoriented and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver's door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat.

Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognizes as the house her father Hector grew up in.

Inside Brockburn a party is in full swing, with music and laughter to herald the coming Christmas. But outside in the snow, a young woman lies dead and Vera knows immediately she has a new case. Could this woman be the child's mother, and if so, what happened to her?

Sometimes there is nothing better than to immerse yourself in an Ann Cleeves novel especially as the weather we have been having has felt more like winter than approaching summer of late.  I really enjoyed The Dark Evening which is the ninth novel of the series.  You got to know a little bit more about Vera's past and that of her fathers.  There are subtle differences between the novels and the TV series and if they go on to make this one into the TV drama it will be interesting to see how they make those changes. 

Into May and I turned my attention to a book that has been sitting patiently on my bedside table waiting for me to pick it up to read. 

Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .

London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.

Less than a mile from Bess's lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

Stacey Halls is a new author to me and I had heard great things about her first novel the Familiars, which I am currently working my way through as my June read. The Foundling  is Stacey Halls second novel and so far I enjoyed it more than her first but as I am only just into the first 50 pages I suspect there is a lot more to come as yet. I have visited the Foundling museum in London albeit many years ago now.  I also have a friend whose ancestor was left at the foundling hospital as a baby and in true Oliver Twist style the name he ended up with was not the name he was given at birth.   Anyway back to the book.  It was a really good read and I was found book in hand at every given moment, even whilst cooking the dinner and you would find me with book in one had a wooden spoon in the other.  It also made me wonder as a mum of four, if I had ever been in that desperate situation where I had to leave a child at the foundling hospital with the intention of returning to reclaim them when circumstances allowed only to find that they had been given a new home, a home I could never provide would the maternal pull be that strong that you would want to get them back no matter what or would you want your child to have all those things you could not provide.  It definitely gave you food for thought.  

And for my last selection of the month. Yes it is another Vera Stanhope this time novel number 2 in the series Two Tales.

They thought she was a murderer. But now she’s a victim . . .

Ten years ago fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel was murdered, her cold body discovered lying in a ditch. Her father’s girlfriend was found guilty of the crime. Now, evidence has emerged that proves her innocence and means that Abigail’s killer still roams free.

Abigail’s best friend at the time of the murder has now returned to the East Yorkshire village of Elvet to raise her young family. Shocked by the new revelations, she begins to realize that she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought . . .

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is tasked with uncovering the truth and, as her new inquiries stoke up past secrets the villagers will lie to protect, she must find out which lies will bring her to the killer.

It didn't take me long to match the novel to the tv drama and although there were some subtle differences to the book the TV drama didn't stray too far away from the novel.  Its a while since I have watch any of the tv series so I have forgotten most the story lines but part of the pleasure in reading them is to see what changes have been made for tv.  There are times when I do wish I had read them all before ITV made them into a series.  Either way I still enjoyed it and have already downloaded book 3 for when the mood takes me. 

So there we are a mixed bag and three I would definitely recommend the fourth not so much unless you are an ardent fan of Ms Picoult and have to read everything she has ever written.

The sun has finally seemed to have put its hat on and brought us some nice weather.  Wonder how long it will be before everyone is complaining that  its too hot and we need it to rain for the plants. 

As always take care 

Mx