The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Holly Ringland

On the Australian coast, miles away from the nearest town, nine-year-old Alice Hart lives in fear of her father's dark moods. She is sheltered only by the love of her mother, Agnes, and Agnes' beautiful garden.

When tragedy changes Alice's life irrevocably, she is sent to Thornfield, a native flower farm run by the grandmother she has never known. Thornfield gives refuge to women who, like Alice, are lost or broken, and it is there that Alice learns to use the language of flowers to say the things she cannot voice.

But as she grows older, Alice realizes that there are things that even the flowers cannot help her say. Family secrets are buried deeper than the flowers' roots and, if she is to have the freedom she craves, she must find the courage to unearth the most powerful story she knows: her own.

Beautiful story, reallly enjoyed it.I also loved the series on Amazon Prime!

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 29: A book with chapter titles.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

October in Books

Suicide Med - Freida McFadden

One suicide. Every year.

Nobody wants to go to a school nicknamed Suicide Med.

Heather McKinley has always dreamed of becoming a doctor. She doesn’t even care about her medical school’s grisly history of suicides—it can’t happen to her. But after Heather’s longtime boyfriend dumps her and she finds herself failing anatomy, her world starts to crumble.

The pressure is intense. People crack.

Thank goodness for Dr. Conlon, her quirky but beloved anatomy professor. He’ll do anything to help his students succeed. But is it a coincidence that the bespectacled professor joined the staff the same year the suicides began?

Or are they suicides at all?

All Heather knows is that one student will die this year.

And that student could be her.

This was an enjoyable read. I do like McFadden's books, they're quuick reads and entertaining.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 18: A book with a school.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel

In 1942, Eva is forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children escaping to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva realises she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember their own identities.

When Rémy disappears and the resistance cell they work for is betrayed, the records they keep in The Book of Lost Names become even more crucial to remembering the truth...

Wow, where do I begin? This had me on the edge of my seat and I did shed a tear at the ending. I absolutely loved this book. Eva is a booklover, which makes her endearing to me, I liked her character. The romance was a bit flimsy, but I'm not one for steamy romance anyway so that's all good. Looking forward to reading more of Ms. Harmel's books!

A present day discovery of the book leaves researchers fascinated by its origins and desperate to decipher its codes. Only Eva holds the answer but will she have the strength to face old memories and help reunite those lost during the war? Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 14: A book with 'lost' in the title.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Obsidian Eyes - AW Exley

1836, a world of light and dark, noble and guild. The two spheres intersect when seventeen-year-old Allie Donovan is placed at the aristocratic St Matthews Academy. More at ease with a blade than a needle, she finds herself ostracised by the girls and stalked by a Scottish lord intent on learning why she is among them. She begins to suspect why she is at the school when soldiers arrive to see her friend, Zeb, a mechanical genius. On the hunt for answers she breaks into his underground laboratory. There, Allie discovers he is not just constructing sentient mechanical creatures, he is building a devastating new weapon for the military. Used to relying on herself, Allie must cross the guild-noble divide to keep Zeb safe and stop the weapon falling into the wrong hands. However, the guilds want the device and she is caught in their trap. Once rescued from Newgate prison, now she must obey the overlord of the guild and deliver up her friend or he will return her to the gallows. Can she trust her new bonds of friendship to save both their lives?

Obsidian Eyes is the first book in the Queen's Blade series. I couldn't get into this book, and I'm not sure why. The book has everything I like: magic, steampunk, fantasy and yet, this just didn't do it for me. Surprising as I really enjoyed the Artifact Hunter series by the same author.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 39: The first book in a series you've never read.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Good Servant - Fern Britton

Balmoral, 1932
Marion Crawford, an ordinary but determined young woman, is given a chance to work at the big house as governess to two children, Lilibet and Margaret Rose.

Windsor Castle, 1936
As dramatic events sweep through the country and change all their lives in an extraordinary way, Marion loyally devotes herself to the family. But when love enters her life, she is faced with an unthinkable choice…

This book was fab, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Marion Crawford, Crawfie, was Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret's governess. Britton crafted an excellent and credible narrative for Marion and her sacrifices made for the royal family, ie she postponed her marriage several times (10 years in total) out of love for the two princesses in her care. The choice to sell her story after her retirement was unfortunate and brought her only grief. The Marion in this book was a loveable woman, who was influenced by a no good alcoholic husband.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 37: A book related to the royal family.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Top Girl - Danielle Marin

Danielle has a safe, happy childhood growing up in West London, but her bright future fades as she turns her back on school for gang life and crime.

Betrayed by the police after a brutal gang rape, she finds protection under the wing of organised criminals and falls in love with the local ‘top boy’. However, her allegiances bring terror to her doorstep when gun-toting rivals target her flat – and the authorities answer by taking away her baby. Heartbroken, Danielle spirals deeper into gang life and becomes a key player in a sprawling county lines operation, running drugs to satellite towns all over the UK from the gang’s London HQ.

The Harrods shopping sprees, designer handbags and hedonistic lifestyle are the envy of her friends, but the good times and cash mask the grim realities of her life.

A turning point comes when Danielle is arrested and – with the help of a probation officer – she begins to question whether she really is ‘top girl’ after all. But after five years deep in the high-earning street hustle, can she really leave it all behind?

Interesting and well written. Did enjoy this.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 25: A nonfiction book with a 2 syllable title.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dead Romantic - CJ Skuse

Camille wants the perfect boy, with an athlete's body and a poet's brain. But when she's rejected again, she decides there isn't a boy alive who'll ever measure up.

Enter Zoe, her brilliant best friend, who takes biology homework to a whole new level. Together they create Camille's dream boy, Frankenstein-style.

But can they make him love her?

This is a cute, original romance. The book is aimed at the young adult market. It would also work for prompt 18: a book with a school. I enjoyed it for what it was. However, I have read far better YA novels (i.e. Girls of Paper and Fire for one).

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 40: A book by an author who uses initials.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Lady in Waiting - Anne Glenconner

The remarkable life of Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret who was also a Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation. Anne Glenconner reveals the real events behind The Crown as well as her own life of drama, tragedy and courage, with the wonderful wit and extraordinary resilience which define her.

Anne Glenconner has been close to the Royal Family since childhood. Eldest child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, she was, as a daughter, described as 'the greatest disappointment' by her family as she was unable to inherit. Her childhood home Holkham Hall is one of the grandest estates in England. Bordering Sandringham the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were frequent playmates.

From Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation to Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Glenconner is a unique witness to royal history, as well as an extraordinary survivor of a generation of aristocratic women trapped without inheritance and burdened with social expectations.

She married the charismatic but highly volatile Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who became the owner of Mustique. Together they turned the island into a paradise for the rich and famous, including Mick Jagger and David Bowie, and it became a favourite retreat for Princess Margaret.

But beneath the glitz and glamour there has also lurked tragedy. On Lord Glenconner's death in 2010 he left his fortune to a former employee. And of their five children, two grown-up sons died, while a third son had to be nursed back from a coma by Anne, after having suffered a near fatal accident.

I'm not a fan of biographies in general, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Lady Glenconner lead a very interesting life with lots of heartache.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 16: A memoir by a non-celebrity.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Seven Ways to Start a Fire - Rachel Mahood

Nell Davenport has it all – a loving husband and teenage son, a big house on the edge of the moor, and a career as best-selling author.

But everything is not as it seems.

An old friend arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep.
A few weeks later, Nell goes missing.

Stories appear in the local paper, supposedly written by Nell.
Each one designed to teach someone from Nell’s past a lesson they will never forget.
Who is writing these stories?
Where is Nell Davenport?
Will the mystery of her disappearance be solved before the stories wreak further devastation?

Everyone is a suspect.
Everyone has their secrets.
Everyone is afraid they will be next.

Nell is not a likeable, cuddly person, but as the story progresses, we learn why she is the way she is. I kind of guessed part of the end. Mahood has wrought a tale with many twists and turns. I enjoyed it!

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 32: A book with a number in the title.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Do You Remember? - Freida McFadden

Tess Strebel can’t recognize her own face.

She can’t recognize her home. Her bedroom is unfamiliar. And she can’t remember the handsome stranger lying next to her in bed. A stranger who claims he’s her husband.

Tess reads a letter in her own handwriting, composed during a rare lucid day, explaining her life as it now exists: She was in a terrible car accident one year ago. Every morning, she wakes up unable to remember most of the last decade. Including her own wedding.

Tess has no choice but to accept her new life and hope her memory will return. After all, why should she doubt the letter she wrote to herself? Or the kind man from the wedding photos on her dresser who seems to genuinely care about her well-being?

And then Tess receives a text message on her phone. One that changes everything: "Don’t trust the man who calls himself your husband."

I haven't read a book by Freida McFadden that I didn't like. This did remind me a lot of Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson...

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 30: A book with a title that's a question.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher.

She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.

Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn't abuse. It was love. She's sure of that.

Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.

I cannot put into words how much I disliked this book. The thought of a teacher taking advantage of and having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The fact that they continued their relationship into her adulthood doesn't change things for me. No matter how much Vanessa tries to justify their relationship, it still feels wrong. A 32 year old having a relationship with someone in their 60s is very different to a 15 year old being in a relationship with someone 30 years their senior. No matter how precocious the 15 year old is. That's my opinion. I remember reading Lolita as a teenager and not really raising an eyebrow, whereas nowadays I'd probably hate that too.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 33: A controversial book.
Rating: ⭐⭐

NOS4A2 - Joe Hill

Young Victoria McQueen has a gift for finding things: a lost bracelet, a treasured photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. All she has to do is ride her bike through the Shorter Way Bridge and she'll come out the other end wherever she needs to be . . . even if that's hundreds of miles away. Vic doesn't tell anyone about her unusual ability because she knows that no one would understand it. She doesn't understand it herself. And then she discovers she's not the only one with a special gift.

There are others . . . like Charlie Manx, who takes children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4R2 vanity plate. Charlie drives his precious passengers away from all they've ever known: their families, their homes, even their own humanity. By the time they get where they're going - an astonishing secret place called Christmasland - they've changed, utterly. By the time they get out of the Wraith, they're truly Charlie's children; as unstoppable and insane as Manx himself.

Only one kid ever escaped Charlie Manx: a very lucky girl named Vic McQueen. But the end of that nightmare was just the beginning of another. Vic's first brush with Manx lit the fuse on a life-and-death battle of wills, her magic pitted against his . . . a battle that explodes a quarter century later. Because now Manx has taken Vic's own son. And Vic McQueen is going to get him back. Or die trying.

Excellent read! I only found out recently that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son, aand I can understand why. It must be hard to make a name for yourself in the field that your father shaped to its current state. Up until Dreamcatcher I devoured every Stephen King horror novel, but Dreamcatcher put me off of King's books for two decades. I've only recently started reading his books again. But I digress, Joe Hill definitely has his own style, but his book NOS4A2 (Nosferatu) was reminiscent of those older Stephen King novels. He definitely is the heir apparent of the horror genre!

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 6: A book over 500 pages.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

People Person - Candice Carty-Williams

Dimple Pennington knew of her half siblings, but she didn't really know them. Five people who don't have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad's gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She's thirty, and her life isn't really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple's life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she's never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they're all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

I loved Queenie by the same author so I was afraid this might not live up to my expectations. Boy, was I wrong! People Person is funny, charming and has those kinds of siblings you love to hate.

Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 34: A fiction book by a black author.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I Take This Woman - Suzy K Quinn

Three Thai brides have turned up dead – exactly one year after their wedding day. All the brides met their husbands at the same place, a marriage agency that offers a catalogue of women for men to buy.

Documentary maker, Ruby Philips, is desperate to uncover the truth before another girl is killed. But with only days before the next bride reaches her one-year shelf life, can Ruby find her in time?

I absolutely loved this book, which deals with human traficking. The details are gruesome at times, but it's needed. We have to stop closing our eyes for these serious crimes that still happen. The world needs to wake up, and Suzy K Quinn set the alarm clock!

Read for the Shelf Reflection's Reading Challenge.
Prompt 26: A book with a missing person or disappearance.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐