I'm a Believer by Jessica Adams

(380 pages)



‘I’m A Bellever’ is a funny, moving and sophisticated novel about Mark Buckle, a cynical primary teacher in south London who doesn’t believe in anything, and absolutely, positively doesn’t believe in life after death. Then, five days after his girlfriend, Catherine, dies in a car accident and he’s trying to come to terms with his loss, she starts communicating with him and turns his world (and belief systems) upside-down. As the novel progresses, the truth about Mark’s relationship with Catherine is revealed. And we encounter his friends and colleagues who provide support during this difficult time including Felix, a flamboyantly camp Australian, Caroline the Sloane who just longs to meet a nice man and Tess, drama teacher and practising Christian who starts to become increasingly attractive to Mark. Jessica Adams’s characteristic humour is combined with an exploration of more serious issues that affect us all. ‘I’m A Believer’ is a wonderful novel about love, life and what lies beyond.

I found this one really hard to read for some reason. The first 100 pages were fine, then it seemed to drag on and eventually pick up ove the last 100 pages. I thought the ending was good, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters (some felt a little shallow to me).

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

(128 pages)



She was a schoolmistress with a difference. Proud, cultured, romantic, her ideas were progressive, even shocking. And when she decided to transform a group of young girls under her tutelage into the "creme de la creme" of Marcia Blaine school, no one could have predicted the outcome.

I enjoyed this. She was slightly reminiscent of a teacher I had once!
I would recommend this read as it is witty and emotional whilst being only 128 pages long :)

Getting Over It by Anna Maxted

(416 pages)



Helen Bradshaw, 26, has a lot to get over. A dogsbody job on a women’s magazine. An attraction to unsuitable men. Being five foot one. Driving an elderly Toyota. She is about to ditch the infuriating Jasper when she hears the news that will change her life. Her father has collapsed with a massive heart attack. Initially Helen thinks of this as an interruption in her already chaotic lifestyle. But with his death everything starts to fall apart around her – her relationship, her mother, even her cat. Her flatmate Luke has the tact of a traffic warden with toothache, her friend Tina is in love with her new man, her landlord Marcus is in love with himself, and, after the tequila incident, it looks as though Tom the vet will be sticking to Alsatians. Seems like Helen will be dealing with this one herself…

I really enjoyed this and was impressed by how unafraid to tackle the problem of grief Anna Maxted was. Having said that though it was hysterical in places and has meade me want to read more of her work :D

The Bull Is Not Killed by Sarah Dearing

(206 pages)



Into the unsettled life of a young Portuguese graduate comes the sensuous and uninhibited Luisa, a gypsy princess. The year is 1974, the hated Salazar is still in power and the turmoil of the revolution is matched only by the turmoil of their love.

this was an odd little book, not knowing much about Portugal I found it interesting, and would reccommend it :)

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

(176 pages)



A girl called Fern loves a litte pig called Wilbur. Wilbur's dear friend Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful grey spider, saves Wilbur from the usual fate of nice fat pigs, by a wonderfully clever plan (which no one else could possible have thought of).

I absolutely adore this book, it brings back so many childhood memories. Wilbur is adorable and Charlotte has to be the nicest spider in the world!

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

(272 pages)



When you work for a T.O.D. (short for Tyrannical Office Despot... also known as Amy Jenkins, Director of the Human Resources Division at the New York Journal, New York City's leading photo-newspaper), and your musician boyfriend of ten years has just announced that he can't commit to a long term relationship because he has to take it "one day at a time", and your best girlfriend is on fertility drugs because she and her husband can't seem to get pregnant, and your mother is driving cross country in an RV with a younger man, and you can't seem to be able to find an affordable studio apartment anywhere in the five boroughs, it might seem like things can't get any worse.

They can. Because the T.O.D. might make you fire Ida Lopez, the most popular employee in the paper's senior staff dining room. And Ida might sue for wrongful termination. And you might just find yourself giving a deposition in front of Mitch Hertzog, son of one of Manhattan's wealthiest law families, "a soulless corporate drone" who embraces everything you most despise... but also happens to have a nice smile and a killer bod. The last thing anybody - least of all Kate Mackenzie - expects to find in a legal arbitration is love. But that's the kind of thing that can happen when... Boy Meets Girl.

this was rather an odd book. I enjoyed it, and tobe honest was surprised that I did.
It wasn't written like a novel, but instead as a series of e-mail, IM's, letters, notes and transcripts of answerphone messages. very strange
The synopsis tells you everything you need to know about the story, needless to say there were a few laughs, and glee ant the baddie getting their commupance :)

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

(192 pages)



This novel is about a feckless young mother and her two daughters in Morocco in the 1960s. While mum immerses herself in the Sufi religion, the children begin to rebel: Bea insists on going to school while the five-year-old narrator dreams of mashed potato.

A nice quick read, with a fascinating narrator and a cast of strange and intriguing characters.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

(448 pages)



"A major decision about me is being made, and no one's bothered to ask the one person who most deserves it to speak her opinion." The only reason Anna was born was to donate her cord blood cells to her older sister. And though Anna is not sick, she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since she was a child. Anna was born for this purpose, her parents tell her, which is why they love her even more. But now that she has reached an age of physical awareness, she can't help but long for control over her own body and respite from the constant flow of her own blood seeping into her sister's veins. And so she makes a decision that for most would be too difficult to bear, at any time and at any age. She decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.

I loved this so much. At first i thought that it was going to be reall preachy and biased, but I soon realised that it wasn't! phew!
the story is told from the perspective of all the key characters including Anna, her parents, brother and Lawyer, and the story builds up in layers looking at the issue at hand from different angles.
At times the tale is veryu harrowing, and at others I found myself giggling away (especially at Jesse's attempts at flirting), but overall it is simply grippping.
A lot of people have said they felt let-down by the ending, but I think that it was kind of fitting, destiny and fate and all that. I don't want to spoil it here, but read it and you'll see what I mean :)
This is a book that I cannot recommend highly enough. READ IT... NOW!!!!!!

The Presence by Heather Graham

(424 pages)



Sometimes closing your eyes doesn't help. . .
Toni MacNally and her friends think they've hit on the ultimate money making plan. Buy an ancient run-down Scottish castle. Turn it into a tourist destination. Sweep visitors into a reenactment that combines fact and fiction, complete with local history, murder and an imaginary laird named Bruce MacNiall.
But when the castle's actual owner — a tall, dark and formidable Scot who shares the fictional laird's name — comes charging in, Toni is shocked. How is it possible he even exists? Toni invented Bruce MacNiall for the performance. . .yet every particle of his being is eerily familiar.
Soon the group is drawn into a real-life murder mystery; young women are being killed, and their bodies dumped nearby. And Toni is having sinister lifelike dreams in which she sees through the eyes of the killer — dreams that suggest a connection to Laird MacNiall. Bruce claims he wants to help catch the murderer. But can Toni trust him. . .especially when his ghostly double wanders the forest in the black of night.

A well written gripping story with plent of twists, turns and spooky bits, with a healthy dollop of romance thrown in for good measure.
I personally found the twist at the end slightly predictable, but I certainly enjoyed this quick read :)

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

(192 pages)



In 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen was sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression and spent most of the next two years there. In this, her memoir of her time there, she questions our definitions of sane and insane, and offers vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.

This was a really quick and interesting read. It read more like a collection of vignettes than anything, and this made it feel disjointed. I am a huge fan of the film (with Winona Ryder as Susanna & Angelina Jolie as Lisa), and reading the book filled out some of the characters a little, but Honestly, I preferred the film as it felt much more linear and easy to follow.

Rapture in Death by J.D. Robb

(320 pages)



The year is 2056. mood-altering drugs are legal, prostitution is licensed, virtual-reality games have replaced TV sets for entertainment and New York supercop Eve Dallas continues her sleuthing in Robb's fourth installment in the Death series (Naked in Death, Glory in Death, etc.). This time around, Eve has married her soul mate, Roarke, and is caught up in the puzzling suicide of a technician who's been working on Roarke's unfinished space resort. The young tech, Eve learns, had cheerfully hanged himself after a VR trip. Back on Earth, autopsies from two similar suicides reveal a pin-sized burn on the brains of the victims. All clues point to a deadly subliminal message in a VR toy?one that Roarke produces. This is sexy, gritty, richly imagined suspense.

This was a really easy and quick read, but I didnt enjoy it as uch as the others in the series. I dont theink the 'murders' were puzzling enough and I spotted the 'twist a mile off.
Having said that though, I do still quite fancy Roarke ;oD

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb

(336 pages)



'She'd come to New York to be a cop, because she believed in order. Needed it to survive. Her miserable and abusive childhood, with all its blank spaces and dark corners, couldn't be changed. But she had changed. She had taken control, had made herself into the person some anonymous social worker had named Eve Dallas...' But in a few weeks she won't just be Eve Dallas, lieutenant, homicide. She'll be Roarke's wife. But Eve's wedding plans may have to be put on hold as her private and professional lives collide...The victim in her latest murder investigation is one of the most sought-after women in the world. A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted - even another woman's man. And Eve's chief suspect is the other woman in this fatal love triangle - her best friend Mavis. Putting her job on the line to head the investigation, Eve discovers that the world of high fashion thrives on an all-consuming passion for youth and fame. One that leads from the runway to the dark underworld of New York City where drugs can fulfil any desire - for a price...

I am turning into a total Eve & Roarke addict!
The stories are so well written and easy to read, the characters are adorable (mostly! - even Summerset is growing on me now)
I am beginnig to enjoy the growth of the relationship between Eve and Roarke so much that it almost doesn't matter whodunnit!
Like Eve I missed loads of the clues early on in this one, and had convinced myself that i was on the right track with the murderer (coincidentally the same one she followed) But then was thrown a huge curveball at the end. Fabulous!
The ensemble cast is also starting to grow, and i feel as though I have been thrown into the centre of this huge family of friends. Its great!

The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin

(320 pages)



Nan, in her early twenties, goes to work for the wealthy X family to help put herself through college, and is shocked by their antics. Between raising the X's son Grayer, keeping on top of her studies, moving house and ensuring Mrs X's day runs smoothly, it's a wonder Nanny ever finds time to hang out with the gorgeous HH on the sixth floor. With divorce on the cards, Nanny finds herself caught up in the X's embittered world of power plays, lies and deciet. As communication rapidly breaks down, will Nanny be able to maintain the mental health of Grayer, despite the onslaught of Personal Problem Consultants, macrobiotic nutritionist and bilingual meals?

I can't believe how much I enjoyed this. I was ready to strangle Mrs. X right from the beginning, and felt so sorry for Nan and Grayer all the way through :(
I cannot understand why people like the X's have children, when they clearly cannot be bothered with them! Grrrrrr!!! LOL :)

Unchained Melanie by Judy Astley

(289 pages)



Melanie finds herself single again after years of being one half of a couple. Her friends predict loneliness, frustration, disaster. Her parents are convinced she's a failure in life. But Melanie is overwhelmingly excited to be able to do her own thing - she plans a programme of behaving badly, after a lifetime of behaving properly. With her daughter off to university and ex-husband Roger married off at last - to his lamentably young girlfriend whom he accidentally got pregnant at the office party - she has what a teenager would call a Free House, and she intends to make the most of it. But is the single life quite all it's cracked up to be? If no-one needs her any more, what is she really for?

A sweet look at life after marriage and all that it involves. Having never been married and having no kids, I couldnt really relate to everything, but it certainly was worth the read.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

(320 pages)



The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates she will, like all dissenters, be hanged or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

This really was intriguing and disturbing, and unfortunately I can see similar things happening in the future, although hopefully not as extreme!
I did enjoy this although it wouldnt be one I would read over and over.

With Malicious Intent by M.T. Kingsley

(248 pages)



Hardworking New Orleans environmental lawyer Rebecca Boudreaux's life just got substantially more complicated and dangerous because of the new case that her public interest law firm plans to file on behalf of citizens living in the Cancer Alley area of Louisiana. The focus of her case is River Road Recyclers, or Triple R, an oilfield waste recycling business that recently expanded its operations to illegally accept hazardous wastes. Rebecca must reveal how the company has doctored and falsified reports submitted to the government, spewed enormous amounts of toxic pollutants daily to the air and water near her clients' homes, and caused devastating health effects to her clients, all of which could have been avoided had the company just operated as it was required to under the law. Her efforts are hampered when her inside informants keep mysteriously dying, her clients are terrorized, her key witness is forced to hide in a rundown shack in the bayou until trial begins, and her own life is at risk. When Rebecca collapses in the courtroom and is rushed to the hospital on the first day of trial, her boss, Joe Cairns, steps in to litigate the case in her place. The drama climaxes as he exposes whether Rebecca's best friend, her steamy new love interest, the directors of the greedy and corrupt "recycling" company, or someone else has been acting ...With Malicious Intent.

I started this when I got up yesterday, and finished it before I went to bed, I just couldn't put it down!
Iwas really impressed with how gripping it was, it had a bit of something for everyone - murder, mystery, thriller, legal drama, romance, sex and twists galore at the end. Fabulous.
If you like John Grisham, but would prefer something a littleless far fetched, and if you need a bit of romance, and also if you love to read a book, feel like you know exactly where it is going, and then get surprised with twist after twist in the last third then this is for you!

Glory In Death by J.D. Robb

(336 pages)



'The dead were her business. She lived with them, worked with them, studied them. She dreamed of them. And because that didn't seem to be enough, in some deep, secret chamber of her heart, she mourned for them.' The first victim is found lying on a sidewalk in the rain. The second murdered in her own apartment building. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas has no problem finding connections between the two crimes. Both victims are beautiful and highly successful women; their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city. And their intimate relations with men of great power and wealth provide Eve with a long list of suspects - including her own lover, Roarke. As a woman, Eve is compelled to trust the man who shares her bed. But as a cop, it's her job to follow every lead...to explore every secret passion, no matter how dark. Or how dangerous...

This book had me gripped for the first page. I just love Eve & Roarke. I didnt guess who the killer was until it teigged with Eve, and the ending was wonderful! I never thought that sexy romance could be mixd with a murder Mystery, but JD Robb has got it down to a fine art!