Tink's Book Reviews

Miranda is thrilled when she meets Greg at a cocktail party. He's gorgeous, he's funny - and he's very keen. Just what a girl needs to put some sparkle in her life. Heavens, he's practically perfect! Greg likes Miranda a lot. She's young, she's pretty, and she never talks about babies.  Of course he hasn't told her everything about himself - even the sweetest girls can be a bit funny about a man who's just left his newly pregnant wife. But there's no way she's going to find out - or is there? Miranda can't believe her luck when she gets stopped by a homeless man. She's already late for work, has forgotten her lunch and in desperate need of a sit down. But here she is promising a sandwich to the local man whilst standing in the pouring rain, could her day get any worse?  Chloe is on cloud nine. She's madly in love with her husband Greg and she's about to tell him that they're expecting their first child. Greg isn't ...

The Fen is a liminal land. Real people live their lives here. They wrestle with sex and desire, with everyday routine. But the wild is always close at hand, ready to erupt. This is a place where animals and people commingle and fuse, where curious metamorphoses take place, where myth and dark magic still linger. So here a teenager may starve herself into the shape of an eel. A house might fall in love with a girl. A woman might give birth to a, well, what? In a town, where a girl wastes away into something peculiar. A woman gives birth to something inhumane yet feral. Where one woman wrestles with the conspiracy theories and prophecies of her fisherman husband, and where a young girl becomes infatuated with a wall - is anything reality for much longer? Where hope, fear, love and sexual desire all become mingled into one. Where life ceases to live and hardly exist at the same time. Where chaos and beautiful, wonderful things come together as one, and then nothing all at the same...

No matter how far you go, home is where the heart is... Beth Williams hasn’t been home for ten years. After falling pregnant at sixteen, she ran away from the imposing Scottish estate where she grew up rather than risk her family’s disapproval, working hard to build a life for herself and daughter Isabelle  but now she’s finally returning to Glendale Hall.   When Beth gets a call to say that her Grandmother has taken a turn for the worst, she knows within her heart that she must go back home, even though there are a million other things she would rather do. When she arrives, nothing has changed. The house is the sam e since she left it at sixteen and  even her parents attitude towards her.    Though when she finds out that the once loved village where she spent most of her time as a teen, will slowly come to an end, Beth must quickly think up a way on being able to restore the Glendale village and spirit back to its original self.   Dre...

It's been sixteen years since Gretel last saw her mother, half a lifetime to forget her childhood on the canals.  But a phone call will soon reunite them, and bring those wild years flooding back: the secret language that she and her mother invented; the strange boy, Marcus, living on the boat that final winter; the creature said to be underwater, swimming ever closer.  In the end there will be nothing for Gretel to do but wade deeper into their past, where family secrets and ages prophecies will all come tragically alive again. Gretel knows how to light a fire, skin animals, make wind chimes and how to steer a boat.  What she doesn't know is, how to commerce with people, how to live on her own or where her mother went.  Her estranged, beautiful, wonderful, secretive mother. The one who would tell her stories of the creature in the murk, who would cook breakfast for her in the morning then let her camp out under the stars at n...

September 1957 Henry and Effie, young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon. It's the end of the season and the town is deserted.  As they tentatively discover each other, they begin to realize that everyday married life might be disappointingly different from their happily-ever-after fantasy. Henry and Effie are the sweetest newlyweds going, when they travel to Cape May for a week for their honeymoon, they are happy to find they have the town to themselves, or so they thought.  Carla is Effie's nemesis from childhood, when Effie learns that Carla is staying down the street with her lover Max, she isn't all too pleased.   But when their invited round, Carla has no relocation of ever being this mean to Effie. With the drinks flowing, music playing and the elegant nights starting to set in, all is soon forgotten as the glamorous parties start to pull Henry an...

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration.  Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. Little Lottie is at a loss without her Mother and Sister by her side. Stricken with grief, Lottie starts to find more creative ways to help ease her pain and memories, though not everyone in the family is keen on her new creative streak.  This wonderful book is written in verse and is based around the 1980's. It's the first type of verse book that I have read, it did not disappoint.  The story focuses around Lottie, who is silently struggling with the loss of her mother and older sister Annie, the book flits between the past and present whilst giving a glimpse at what her family were like when they were still alive.  As Lottie begins to have a fascination with Taxide...

After calling off her engagement, Hayley, the Wynthorpe Hall housekeeper, wants nothing more than to return to her no-strings fun-loving self, avoiding any chance of future heartbreak. Little does she know, Wynbridge’s latest arrival is about to throw her plan entirely off course . . . Moving into Wynthorpe Hall to escape the town’s gossip, Hayley finds herself immersed in the eccentric Connelly family’s festive activities as they plan to host their first ever Winter Wonderland. Hayley hasn't had the best of luck going for her in her life, but when she manages to bag herself the hunkiest man in town; Gavin,  as her husband to be, things finally start to turn around for her.  Until once again, everything is ruined for her when she finds Gavin with his trousers round his ankles and a woman between his legs in the pub toilets.  Keen to make a fresh start and to hide her troubled past, Hayley moves into Wynbridge Hall with the  lovely Connolly family an...

Once a year the infamous Master Legend hosts Caraval - open only to those who have been invited.  This year the week long game is on Legend's glittering Isla de los Soenos, where the winding streets are an elaborate snow-covered maze and the people are never who they seem to be.  At midnight on the first day, the show beings and the visitors become players. Each of them vying for the coveted prize: a single wish.  Scarlett has only one wish in life, to finally be able to visit the legendary Caraval with her younger sister Donatella. So when Tella suddenly goes missing Scarlett knows there's only one place and once place only where she will have fled to.  Caraval is the greatest mystery this side of Trisda, where anything goes and anything can happen. If you win all your dreams will come true with just one wish from Legend, the grand carnival master - the man who everyone knows but has never been seen.  Though Scarlett can't ...

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh  Imagine you meet a man, spend six glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything.  So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him. But he doesn’t call.  Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they're wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence. On the 2nd June, Sarah comes to the same spot, at the same time to remember the tragedy that ruined her life. What she didn't think would happen, was that she'd fall madly in love with a complete stranger, that she's only known for seven days.  Seven wonderful, marvellous, days she'd spent cooped up with Eddie David's. Then out of nowhere, he just vanished without a trace or even a phone call.  Sarah can't shake the feeling that something is wrong; they shared life stor...

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. George is a simple man, he enjoys the simple tasks in life such as; a hot cup of tea in the morning, a new book in the evening and spending time on his studio.  So when he finds a small lesion on his side, his whole world is flipped upside down and everything  isn't that simple anymore. As George battles with his mind, his family are in a current battle of their own and falling apart at the seams. Katie, his argumentative daughter is planning to marry Ray, the "safe" partner, but when they have an argument and he storms out, Katie starts to question is she really marrying him for love, or because of her son Jacob?  Jamie, his uptight son is in love with Tony. It...

The Forever House by Veronica Henry Hunter's Moon is the ultimate 'forever' house. Nestled by a river in the Peasebrook valley, it has been the Willoughbys' home for over fifty years, and now estate agent Belinda Baxter is determined to find the perfect family to live there.  But the sale of the house unlocks decades of family secrets - and brings Belinda face to face with her own troubled past. Belinda Baxter loves her job, she loves seeing a houses potential and being able to sell to the right person. But when she gets a call about a local home, one she knows that will be snatched up as soon as it goes onto the market, Belinda can't wait to see what the house holds inside.   Hunter's Moon as been in Sally and Alexanders life for as long as they can remember, but when Alex is diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease they both come to terms with the fact that they will have to sell their beloved home.   Sally and Alexander soon start to go back in time ...