Just Got Real by Jane Fallon

Hardback:  392 pages

Genre:  Humorous Contemporary Fiction

Publisher:  2022

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: She has no idea what she's doing here.

Review Quote: 'Her snappy, clever fiction . . . seems to slip down like a glass of nicely chilled white wine. Just Got Real makes no exception' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

My Opinion:  It is ten years since I read a book by this author! No idea why her writing has somehow passed me by, as I thoroughly enjoyed this, recommended by a friend when I was at the library.

A modern theme with the three female protagonists using an online dating app, where they find themselves dating a man called Ant, all at the same time. Complicated but it gets worse as they plot a brilliant revenge. To say more would spoil this delightful read.

Highly recommended if you need your spirits lifting as you will find this hopefully has you giggling out loud.

 

Previous Review:    Getting Rid of Matthew

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

Joni never thought she would try online dating but somehow - with the encouragement of her grown up daughter, Danielle - she's signed onto an app. After a few weeks of chatting to Ant, they really hit it off and agree to meet up. However Joni has been so nervous about the whole prospect of dating again that she's been using fake photos on the site.

She turns up to their date and sees Ant, but can't bring herself to come clean.

The problem now is that she can't stop thinking about him. They'd been getting on so well. And so she works out a way to 'meet' him without revealing herself as the person he's been talking to online.

But a few months in, she discovers not only is he still on the dating site but he's really active on it, too. She's hurt, and looks at his phone while he's in the shower one morning only to find intimate texts between him and two other women, Saff and Mary. At the same time, she is beginning to realise that the only thing Ant seems to have been honest about is his profile picture.

After a couple of drinks one night, Joni decides to call the two women. Their experiences sound identical to hers. And they're angry.

But how can they get their revenge? What can hurt a person who doesn't appear to be emotionally involved with any of them? What is it he's really looking for, and how can they catch him out?

Author Profile:         

Courtesy of Author Website

Biography in her own words from her website. Jane Fallon - Author 

I was born in Harrow in North London and later moved out to Buckinghamshire where I attended St Bernard's Convent School in Slough before moving back up to London to read history at University College.

My first real job was working as a 'Girl Friday' in a small Theatrical and Literary Agency - (the same job that Rebecca has in 'Foursome'). As soon as I walked through the door I fell in love with the idea of working in drama in some capacity.

After three years I left to pursue a career in TV, starting as a freelance script reader and then working as a script editor on various shows including EastEnders where I was made a producer in 1994. The following year I started work producing a new low budget show for BBC2 - 'This Life'.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Author Profile   Jane Fallon - Wikipedia. 

Jane Fallon - Author  Twitter Profile  Facebook Profile

Instagram Profile

The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah

 

Hardback:  358 pages

Genre:  Contemporary Murder Mystery

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 2022

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: Dear Whoever Killed Jane Brinkwood, Dear Jane's Murderer, Which do you prefer?

Review Quote: 'A wise and witty portrait of modern marriage and murder' THE TIMES

My Opinion: 

Although I prefer Sophie Hannah's psychological thrillers, I have read some, but by no means all of her Spilling CID series which this latest 'The Couple at the Table' is number 11. Detectives Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer are on the case again and it was interesting to catch up with them and see how their relationship has developed. As with the previous novels in the series, this can be read as a stand alone story.

A murder that seems impossible to solve and is certainly taking a long time to do so, because everyone seems to have something to hide. As the mystery unravels it seems to become even more confusing with every page, I really needed to concentrate as the author keeps us guessing.

I did enjoy this and it certainly held my attention, as I think it will all fans of the genre as it is such a complex mystery with an ingenious theme.   

Previous Reviews:   Haven't They Grown  Little Face  Hurting Distance  Point of Rescue  

The Other Half Lives

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

You're on your honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort.

You receive a note, warning you to 'Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours'. At dinner that night, five other couples are sitting close by, but none of their tables is any nearer or further away than any of the others. It's almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless. Why would anyone do that?

You have no idea.

You also don't know that you're about to be murdered, or that once you're dead, all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could possibly have committed the crime.

So who might be trying to warn you? And who might be about to kill you, and seems certain to get away with it?

Author Profile:         

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries. She has since published two more Poirot novels, Closed Casket and The Mystery of Three Quarters, both of which were instant Sunday Times Top Ten bestsellers.

In 2013, Sophie’s novel The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards.  She has also published two short story collections and five collections of poetry – the fifth of which, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK. Most recently, she has published a self-help book called How to Hold a Grudge: From Resentment to Contentment – The Power of Grudges to Transform Your Life.

Sophie has recently helped to create a Master’s Degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge, for which she is the main teacher and Course Director. She is also the founder of the DREAM AUTHOR coaching programme for writers. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Sophie Hannah - Official Website  Twitter - Sophie Hannah  Facebook Profile

Goodreads - Author Profile   Amazon Author Page

In Deep Water by Christobel Kent

Hardback:  295 pages

Genre:  Contemporary Thriller

Publisher: Sphere 2022

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: At a certain point she thought, the next thing that happens is, he kills me.

Review Quote: The clear-sighted, confident writing won't disappoint Kent's numerous fans ― Daily Mail

My Opinion: 

Christobel Kent is not an author whose books I read very often in fact the last time I did so was in 2011, a long time ago. They were two of her earlier novels and they were both set in Italy where I was living at the time, so this was probably the reason.  Her latest novel ‘In Deep Water’ is mainly set in Greece and it appealed when I found it in the library recently.

One of the protagonists Sukie has been using an online dating app, not an uncommon practice these days. This story shows how dangerous it can be though when Sukie agrees to go on a short trip to Greece with Jake, a man she hardly knows.  By coincidence they are seen at the airport by Heather who just happened to have a disastrous relationship with this same man some fifteen years earlier.  Fiction yes and written for our entertainment, but really would someone in real life have then done what Heather did. Somehow for this reason the whole story just did not really click with me.

In conclusion although this did not appeal to me I think if you are already a fan of Christobel Kent, you believe in so many unlikely coincidences happening, or are a fan of the genre you will hopefully find it more entertaining than I did.   

Previous Reviews:    A Party in San Niccolo   The Summer House

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

What happens when 'putting yourself out there' means 'putting yourself in danger'?

Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is.

Heather is at the airport when she sees him, the man who raped her fifteen years ago. Jake is with another woman and instantly Heather understands - this woman is in trouble. She buys a ticket and follows them. She doesn't necessarily know what she's going to do, but she knows she needs to do something.

What should have been a perfectly pleasant weekend away quickly descends into something much darker. As these two women come ever closer each other - and to Jake - it becomes increasingly unclear who will walk away from the weekend with their life.

Author Profile:         

                                                                    Courtesy of Amazon

Christobel Kent was born in London in 1962 and now lives in Cambridge with her husband and four children; in between she lived in Florence. She worked in publishing for several years, most recently as Publicity Director at Andre Deutsch. Her debut novel A Party in San Niccolo, was published in 2003.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Instagram Profile   Amazon Author Book Page   Christobel Kent - Goodreads

One August Night by Victoria Hislop

 

Hardback:  230 pages

Genre:  Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

Publisher: Headline 2020

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentences: For some women, pregnancy is a period of good health and joyful expectation, but for Anna Vandoulakis it was a time of misery and nausea.

Review Quote:  A return to Hislop's thyme-scented, Aegean-lapped fictional Greece ― The Sunday Times on One August Night

My Opinion:  

Victoria Hislop in ‘One August Night’ has in her own words ‘opened a door that has been closed for awhile and stepped through it once more’ to let her readers know what happened next after the open ended conclusion she left us with in ‘The Island.’

A cure for leprosy has now been found and in this sequel we are reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas and other characters, in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island and afterwards as life moves on for the families.

Once again the author has written an engaging portrayal of Greece and its people through the pages of a novel. Recommended reading for fans of Victoria Hislop and Greece, also the story will make more sense if you have read ‘The Island.’

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

Beloved author Victoria Hislop returns to Crete in this long-anticipated sequel to her multi-million-copy Number One bestseller, The Island.

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.

When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.

In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

Author Profile:         

Courtesy of Amazon

Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller, has sold more than six million copies and was turned into a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, and in the number one bestseller The Return she wrote about the painful secrets of its civil war. In The Thread, Victoria returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki and its people across the twentieth century. Shortlisted for a British Book Award, it confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller.

Her fourth novel, The Sunrise, about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the enduring ghost town of Famagusta, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller. Cartes Postales from Greece, fiction illustrated with photographs, followed and was one of the biggest selling books of 2016. The poignant and powerful Those Who Are Loved was a Sunday Times number one hardback bestseller in 2019 and explores a tempestuous period of modern Greek history through the eyes of a complex and compelling heroine. Victoria's most recent novel, One August Night, returns to Crete in the long-anticipated sequel to The Island. The novel spent twelve weeks in the Top 10 hardback fiction charts.

Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages.

Victoria divides her time between England and Greece and in 2020, Victoria was granted honorary citizenship by the President of Greece. She was recently appointed patron of Knossos 2025, which is raising funds for a new research centre at one of Greece's most significant archaeological sites. She is also on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Victoria Hislop - Website   Goodreads Profile   Facebook Profile. Twitter Profile