Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I’ve had a busy day at school but it was lovely to come home and enjoy a nice walk in the sunshine.
My chosen book off my Goodreads TBR is one that has been sat on my TBR for a long time and that I found today. In all honesty I had forgotten I owned it.
The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.
Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.
The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.
She never returns.
2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.
‘DIG HERE’ . . .
A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s remarkable new novel.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence.
So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called “The Collectors.” She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.
Review
I’ve only ever read one book by Elly Griffiths that wasn’t a Ruth Galloway book so I was very excited to read something very different from Griffiths. This book was definitely something different and not what I was expecting at all.
This book revolves around the character Ali Dawson who is part of a cold case team who investigates old cases and these cases can be very old. However, there is something quite different from the way this team solves the crimes. This team uses time travel to look for evidence and this leads to Ali going further back in time than she has ever been before. Ali finds herself investigating a murder whilst stuck in 1850.
I loved the character of Ali as she is a strong independent woman who has fought the odds to better herself. Oh and she is also a cat owner. Ali worked cleaning jobs to provide for her son and at the same time she gained a degree in history. She then got a job with the police and she worked her way up the ladder. Ali works every problem she is faced with methodically and nothing seems to phase her. Whilst Ali is stuck in 1850 there is also a murder mystery happening in the present day which involves Ali’s adult son.
I really enjoyed this book and I would love to learn more about Ali’s team. John is a true gentleman who we do get to see more of and you can’t help but root for. Once I got over how different this book is from Griffiths’ usual work I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the concept fascinating. There were also some big questions left that I would love to get answers for so I really hope there will be a second book. The narrative of this book was quite busy and there was a lot going on. I will be honest and say that I actually enjoyed the Victorian sections more than the present day and preferred the Victorian characters. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly’s husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece’s head with the myths and legends of that area. Elly has two children and lives near Brighton.
I’m really struggling with The Catch at the moment. It started off really well but I am finding the character of Ed a little bit frustrating at the moment.
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I have bought two books this week. One book was on Kindle and another was a preorder that I have had preordered for nearly a year.
Waterstones
I can’t wait to read this as I love all things Hunger Games!
Kindle
I finished the first book of The Far Reaches series yesterday and immediately downloaded the next book and started reading it.
My chosen poem this week is by a new poet for me. Ada Limon (1976) is an American poet who in 2022 was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.
Instructions on Not Giving Up
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor's almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving their cotton candy-coloured blossoms to the slate sky of Spring rains, it's the greening of the trees that really gets to me. When all the shock of white and taffy, the world's baubles and trinkets, leave the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath, the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin growing over whatever winter did to us, a return to the strange idea of continuous living despite the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then, I'll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I'll take it all.
Adored only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, young Princess Mary grows up as the sole heiress to the English throne. But her father wants a son, and soon Mary’s world begins to fall apart.
With her parents’ marriage – and England – in crisis, Mary is banished from the court and kept apart from the mother she adores. The King promises to restore his daughter to favour, but first Mary must do something for which she will never forgive herself.
She seeks solace in her faith. But when her brother Edward VI dies, she finds herself fighting for the crown – and for her life. Emerging triumphant, all seems fair for the reign of Queen Mary. And then, very quickly, things began to go badly wrong…
Review
As you probably know if you have followed my blog for any length of time, Alison Weir is one of my favourite authors. Mary I has never really been one of my favourite monarchs from history but I was excited to read this book by Weir.
I have always found it difficult to feel any sympathy for Mary and this book was no exception. However, this book did highlight for me that Mary did not have an easy life. Her childhood started as perfect, loving parents and everything at her feet. However, that soon changed and she was separated from her parents and her life was thrust into turmoil. From that moment her life was not easy and even when she became queen her life did not go as she would have liked.
Mary could have done so much as Queen. Weir sets the scene of an England in chaos, the economy is a mess, her loyal subjects who always showed her such love are suffering and yet she does very little to help them. She is pushed around by her council and makes bad decisions, her husband doesn’t really help her and acts like a spoilt child when he can’t get his way and uses blackmail on Mary to try and get his own way. Then to top it off Mary orders cruel punishments for the heretics and orders people to be burned at the stake. Her people soon found it hard to still love her.
This book is as always brilliantly written and thoroughly well researched. Although the book is historical fiction it is based on historical evidence and well known facts from that time. The only thing that kept Mary going through her life was her fierce belief in God and the Catholic faith. I have always found the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ quite apt for Mary I but after reading this book I fully agree with Weir’s choice of ‘Queen of Sorrows’. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Alison Weir was born in 1951 and is a British writer of history books, and latterly historical novels, mostly in the form of biographies about British Royalty.
