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...

The perfect life. The perfect love. The perfect lie.  Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He's a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley's most innovative start-ups.  He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. If you loved your wife, you'd do anything to bring her back...wouldn't you?  When Abbie awakes in hospital, she has no memory of how she got there. In fact, it isn't even a hospital at all, it's her husbands company, Scott Robotics - and she's plugged in.  Soon her beloved husband announces that she's actually a robotic version of her old self. Downloaded memories, charging systems and silicone skin.  But something isn't right. Scott says that her old self, the real Abbie, went missing  five years ago. But why, al...

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...

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one.  Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away. Laurie has everything planned; the perfect flat, best job and most importantly, Sarah - her best friend. Though what she didn't plan on, was to be falling in love with a complete stranger at a bus stop and spending an entire year searching for him.  Fast forward a year later and he's stood in front Laurie, in the girls flat but as Sarah's new boyfriend. His name is Jack O'Mara and he's the best thing that's ever happened to Laurie  Sarah.  Over the span of ten years, problems arise for all three best friends, wine is shared, laughter is made and tears are shed. Though some secrets run deep and they should never resurface.  As Laurie and Jack try to overcome t...

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 ...

Undenied by Maya Banks Payton Ricci is the last person Wes Hoffman ever expected or wanted to see again. After the disastrous sexual experience between them twelve years ago, he was only too happy to put the whole episode behind him.  Wes Hoffman is happy in his life, he's surrounded by loving friends, a great job and no commitments. But when his group of friends slowly start to all get married and pop out children, he soon starts to feel a little out of place and like a third wheel.  Payton Ricci is on a night out with her best mates, it's a bachelorette party and she feels like she is always the bridesmaid and never the bride, but that's okay. She's not really looking for a strings attached kind of relationship, just a quick fondle with a handsome man. So when she catches her eye on Wes Hoffman sat at the bar, Payton can't believe her luck.  There couldn't be anything worse than spotting Payton Ricci at the same bar as him. All W...