May 2023 in Books

Zoya - Danielle Steel

St Petersburg: one famous night of violence in the October Revolution ends the lavish life of the Romanov court forever - shattering the dreams of young Countess Zoya Ossupov.

Paris: under the shadow of the Great War, émigrés struggle for survival as taxi drivers, seamstresses and ballet dancers. Zoya flees there in poverty - and leaves in glory.

America: a glittering world of flappers, fast cars and furs in the Roaring Twenties; a world of comfort and café society that would come crashing down without warning.

I first read this book about 30 years ago and absolutely adored it. My tastes have changed, and I was afraid I wouldn't like this as much now. I still really enjoyed the book. Zoya is an interesting heroine and leads an interesting life.

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Prompt 46: Script font on the spine.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Atlas, the Story of Pa Salt - Harry Whittaker & Lucinda Riley

1928, Paris - A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.

As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more.

2008, the Aegean - The seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.

To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew – and, even more shockingly, that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.

I have loved every single book in this series, and now it has come to an end. Because Lucinda Riley passed away before she could write this book, her son has finished the task. The book is good, but not as good as the previous installments of the series.

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Prompt 12: A book published in spring 2023.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman

Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, an excellent trivia team and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

So when the father she never knew existed dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers.

And if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny and interested in getting to know her...

It's time for Nina to turn her own fresh page, and find out if real life can ever live up to fiction. . .

It's kinda cute, but so not my genre!

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Prompt 51: A book that doesn’t fit any of the other 51 prompts.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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The Golem and the Djinni - Helene Wecker

One cold night, two newcomers emerge onto the streets of 1899 New York, and it is never the same again. But these two are more than strangers to this land, they are strangers to this world. From the depths of folkloric history come Chava the golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi and Ahmad, a djinni, born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped in an old copper flask released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.

Two companions who were never meant to be released, and never meant to meet. And when they do, their opposing natures will be sealed by a special bond, but one that is threatened by watching eyes, roaming owners and a misunderstanding world.

This book! Wow! The story is incredible! Highly recommend it!

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Prompt 5: A book with mythical creatures.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Last Time I Lied - Riley Sager

Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she--or anyone--saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips....

Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor.

Despite her guilt and anxiety--or maybe because of them--Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition.

As cryptic clues about the camp's origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.

Riley Sager is becoming one of my favourite authors. This book wasn't as good as some of his other books, but still very enjoyable.

Read for the 52 Book Club Challenge.
Prompt 42: Time in the title.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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In Their Footsteps- Tess Gerritsen

The quiet scandal surrounding her parents' deaths has always haunted Beryl Tavistock. Now she's asking dangerous questions, and the answers are proving that the past does not die easily.

Pulled into a world of espionage, Beryl quickly discovers that she needs help, and suave former CIA agent Richard Wolf is her only hope. But in a world where trust is a double-edged sword, friends can become enemies, and enemies can be killers . . .

A cute, quick read. I'm a huge fan of Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Idles series - this is not quite as good.

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Prompt 28: A book you bought secondhand.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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How to be an Antiracist - Ibram X Kendi

In HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST Ibram X. Kendi, one of the world's most influential scholars on racism, demolishes the idea of a post-racial society, punctures the myths and taboos that cloud our understanding of racism and presents a radically new approach to tackling it.

He shows how everyone is, at times, complicit in maintaining the structure of racism though we rarely realise it, and gives us the tools to identify and change those behaviours.

Uncompromising but essential, HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST sparked a new conversation about being antiracist around the world, showing that until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem.

A very interesting read. 4 Stars!

Read for the 52 Book Club Challenge.
Prompt 33: A banned book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Perfect Marriage - Jeneva Rose

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned. The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working. Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home. Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

I quite enjoyed this book, there were some plot holes and it was a bit predictable, but it was a good audiobook.

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Prompt 36: A book you think your best friend would like.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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Requiem - Lauren Oliver

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion has ignited into an all-out revolution, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

I was really looking forward to reading this, unfortunately I didn't think it was as good as books 1 and 2.

Read for the 52 Book Club Challenge.
Prompt 39: The final book in a series.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Impossible Truths of Love - Hannah Beckerman

When Nell’s father makes a deathbed declaration that hints at a long-held secret, it reignites feelings of isolation that have plagued her for years. Her suspicions about the family’s past only deepen when her mother, Annie, who is losing her memories to dementia, starts making cryptic comments of her own.

Thirty-five years earlier, Annie’s life was upended by a series of traumas―one shock after another that she buried deep in her heart. The decisions she made at the time were motivated by love, but she knew even then that nobody could ever understand―let alone forgive―what she did.

As the two women’s stories unravel, a generation apart, Nell finally discovers the devastating truth about her mother’s past, and her own.

I enjoyed the book but it felt unfinished to me.

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Prompt 40: A book by an author with the same initials as you.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

I enjoyed it, but it wasn't mindblowing.

Read for the 52 Book Club Challenge.
Prompt 44: A contemporary setting.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

Really anjoyed this book and the twist.. I didn't see that coming.

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Prompt 15: A book with a song lyric as its title.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri

Nuri is a beekeeper and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside. On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo—until the unthinkable happens. When all they love is destroyed by war, Nuri knows they have no choice except to leave their home. But escaping Syria will be no easy task: Afra has lost her sight, leaving Nuri to navigate her grief as well as a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece toward an uncertain future in Britain.

Nuri is sustained only by the knowledge that waiting for them is his cousin Mustafa, who has started an apiary in Yorkshire and is teaching fellow refugees beekeeping. As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss but dangers that would overwhelm even the bravest souls. Above all, they must make the difficult journey back to each other, a path once so familiar yet rendered foreign by the heartache of displacement.

I don't get the hype about this book, it was okay but not mind blowing.

Read for the 52 Book Club Challenge.
Prompt 41: A character who is a refugee.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Tyrant, blackmailer, racketeer, murderer - his influence reaches every level of American society. Meet Don Corleone, a friendly man, a just man, a reasonable man. The deadliest lord of the Cosa Nostra. The Godfather.

But no man can stay on top forever, not when he has enemies on both sides of the law. As the ageing Vito Corleone nears the end of a long life of crime, his sons must step up to manage the family business. Sonny Corleone is an old hand, while World War II veteran Michael Corleone is unused to the world of crime and reluctant to plunge into the business.

Both the police and ruthless rival crime lords scent blood in the water. If the Corleone family is to survive, it needs a ruthless new don. But the price of success in a violent life may be too high to bear...

I read this in school, for English and I remember my teacher liking it because it was a bit different to what everyone else read. I also read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.... so reading this again was a lovely blast from the past!

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Prompt 13: A book published the year you were born.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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