OPERATION TULIP by Deborah Swift @swiftstory

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)

On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: one of my 'go-to' authors!

In a Nutshell: Working for the resistance in Nazi occupied Holland, 1944

What a cracking book this is!  I loved it.  It's set mostly in The Hague in the Netherlands, as well as in other parts of the country under occupation, and in England.  Main character Nancy is assigned the most dangerous task of her life in the resistance - she must assume yet another identity, and get close to a high ranking Nazi officer.  Meanwhile, her beloved Tom, a coding expert in England, finds that he can no longer just wait for her, and makes plans that he knows are potentially perilous.

What made this book so compelling for me was the plot - unusual, as I'm usually all about the characters.  But this never lets up from the opening scene; it's perfectly paced, with more introspective passages complimenting the tension and action.  Deborah Swift brings the bleak terror of the occupied territory to life; I didn't know, before reading this, that the Dutch were kept in such appalling conditions.

It's a 'clean read' with no bad language, not even when streams of it would probably have been uttered, but the picture painted is so real, so raw that the characters' reactions all seem completely realistic.  This has been my favourite of this authors' tales of espionage in WWII; it's a real page turner!

LAKE OF WIDOWS by Liza Perrat #RBRT

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Emotional family drama.

Lake of Widows is set in France in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when not all attitudes had caught up with the Swinging Sixties and Women's Lib movement elsewhere in the West.  The main character is Adrienne, a timid woman lacking in confidence, who doesn't realise how much her whole personality has been subtly eroded by her manipulative husband, until an event when out shopping sends her head into rebellious overdrive, and she doesn't go home.

Then there is Blanche, who lives by a lake dear to Adrienne's heart; she is struggling with the reality that her husband is a treacherous conman.  Most of all I was interested in the story of Suzanne, a First World War wife whose life takes a turn for the worst when her husband returns from the Front.  All three women's lives intertwine in this beautiful setting, as they discover their own expectations for themselves, finding courage they did not know they possessed.

I found the part set in an insane asylum most interesting - I've read and watched a few books and documentaries that show how the treatment of the emotionally sick was, even in the 1970s, positively Dickensian.  I also loved Suzanne's story - I would have liked to read more about her and her husband.  As for the writing itself, it will make you want to visit L'Auberge de Léa, and stay there!

THE TOWN HOUSE and THE HOUSE AT OLD VINE by Norah Lofts

 5 GOLD stars (or possibly 10!)

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: the series is an all-time favourite of mine and I haven't read it for years - during a short hospital stay the time was right to return to it!

In a Nutshell: Family saga and chronicle of social change over 6 centuries.

This wonderful trilogy starts with the tale of Martin Reed, born the son of a serf in 1381, the year of the Peasants' Revolt.  Freed from his bonds, circumstances take him and his beloved, Kate, to the Suffolk town of Baildon, where they live in dire poverty and squalor.  In time, Martin builds a house.  This is the story of that house, and Reed's descendants, each new chapter told by one character further down the line.

Throughout the books, ghosts appear in the form of family characteristics (though sometimes in actual manifestations, too).  Cold fingers on the neck of the old man who hears his grandson saying that he longs to be a travelling musician, while knowing nothing of his ancestry.  The cunning trickery of a small girl is mirrored two centuries later.  The beauty, of course, is that we know more than the characters, which means that their innocent statements are often more pertinent than they realise.

I have several favourite characters in these first two books (I'm still re-reading #3); one which interests me a great deal is that of Ethelreda, a young girl who survived the flooding of the Fens during the land reclamation of the 17th Century.  All she knew, until she was found near death in her boat, was her life on a little island with her father.  Nothing else existed.  Every chapter is an utter gem, though.  I recommend this trilogy with every molecule of my reading brain!!!

UNHUMANS by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)

On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Recommendation

In a Nutshell: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and how to crush them)

A highly readable and succinct overview of the worst communist revolutions of the past few centuries, making one realise why far left overlords do their best to blank out history - otherwise, why would anyone welcome in such a regime?  Because the great, just realignment of society never happens.  For the common man, everything gets much, much worse.  You thought you were living in a dictatorship before?  At least you could work for a living, own land, come and go as you pleased....

'Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn' (The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant).

Any criticism of the Chinese Communist Party was condemned as right wing extremism; academics and writers were encouraged to speak out, air their viewpoints, after which they were forced into labour camps.   In Stalin's Russia, the peasants worked on the collectivised farms, but died of starvation.  In Mao's China, in the state-owned farms, the workers lived in dormitories.  They owned nothing but weren't very happy.  Anyone who owned cooking utensils was forced to smelt them down, to feed Mao's desire to be a great steel producer. All the farming equipment, too.  This policy resulted in the death of tens of millions.  Peasants resorted to eating sawdust, leather and manure.  Cannibalism was rife, and celebrated.  Churches were completely destroyed.  One would be forgiven for thinking that the aim was to create Hell on Earth.

Castro sold himself as a liberator, to a naïve population who had no idea how much worse their lives would be under his communist regime.  Posobiec and Lisec write about Cambodia, about Marxist Chile, about South African apartheid.  Every time, the results of the new order are the same.  Those at the top become richer, and millions of ordinary people die.

I felt that the 'how to crush them' section was a little idealistic, but it's a good book and I'm glad I read it.

NOWHERE MAN by Deborah Stone #RBRT

 3.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: complex domestic, psychological drama

This is the sort of story that makes you keep turning the pages because, even if you're pretty sure what's going on, you suspect that there might be another twist, and maybe even one more... 

Deborah Stone has a relaxed, flowing writing style that made this book an 'easy read'.  The plot was well structured, with the complex web of events and deceptions slotting together nicely, and all the intricacies and character history being woven in at just the right time.   

I did have a few issues with the novel as a whole, though.  For the plot to work as well as it did, both Diana and Angie needed to be unusually insular, with little or no social life, or awareness of anything outside their own tiny corner of the world.  The reasons for this are revealed over the course of the book but, having said that, many of the attitudes seemed to come from another era.  I wondered, at first, if the story was set in the 1970s or 80s.  A secondary character, Julia, I also found problematic; in her first scene she manages to eat almost an entire sponge cake, which was amusingly written, giving the extra detail that fleshes out a secondary character so well.  I thought the pudding was somewhat over-egged, though, her self-indulgence highlighted in almost every scene she was in.  I found the dialogue unrealistic, too, with these characters.

The males, however, worked much better.  Daniel's story was good to read, while Ben and Patrick were convincing, as was Diana's mother.

To sum up, the plot is compelling, and I did enjoy it - I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a cracking plot and is able to suspend disbelief - but aside from a couple of mentions of WhatsApp, the online world with all its possibilities (especially where scammers, tracking people down and the general gleaning of information are concerned) seemed to barely exist.  As a contemporary story, it didn't feel quite feasible.

TIME AND TIDE by Marie Keates @marie_keates #TuesdayBookBlog

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link) 
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I'd read a couple of others by this author.

In a Nutshell: Dunkirk 1940, from several points of view

The time and place of this book, about the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk in early summer 1940, is so well rounded out, as the author alternates between the story of the Hariph, Bert and Denis, who set out to take part in the rescue effort, of George and his friends in the Service Corps, trapped in the middle of enemy lines - and, lastly, the wives at home in Southampton, England.  The family connections and histories are quite complicated, with many names to remember, but they began to slot into my head after the first couple of chapters - proof that they became three dimensional!  The characters come from the author's previous series, so I did recognise some of them.

Marie Keates is something of an authority on the history of Southampton, and I liked reading such interesting detail as the delivery men at home using horses rather than vans because, unlike in the First World War, the horses had not been requisitioned, and fuel was hard to come by.  I was struck by the people's innocence in this earlier age, despite all they had been through, and also by the fact that their values were focused on the health and safety of others as well as themselves; a less self-centred era.

Time & Tide is a story about the bonds of friendship as well as family, about self-sacrifice, courage and faith.  Now and again I felt opportunities to create atmosphere and tension were missed, though this is a wartime family drama about the people of Southampton, inspired by many of the author's own relatives, rather than a dark action adventure; as such, I'm sure it will hit the mark for many readers.

USS PRIMIS: The First Starship by M H Altis #RBRT

 3 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link) - available on Sept 30.
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Saving humanity by moving it 500 light years away - what could possibly go wrong?

At the start of this book, the story reminded me of Raised by Wolves, an HBO series I thought was inspired, in which androids are sent to a far away planet to raise children from protected embryos, after Earth is all but destroyed.  Great concept!  In the case of USS Primis, it's a team of astronauts with human and animal embryos, and the planet to which they travel in hypersleep is 500 light years away.  I loved the author's idea for how the sun is destroyed - that in a peace treaty, all nations agree to fire their nuclear weapons into space, with disastrous consequences.  No idea if this is what would happen, but it works here!

In a way this was like two novels  The setting up of the story was, I felt, far too long.  The first half is mostly told in captain David's 1st person, in the form of a captain's log/diary, etc.  He gives a description of each crew member, outlining various intricacies of their personality; I think this works on the screen but not in a novel, where it feels like an unnecessary 'information dump'.  In a film you see the face, which makes them more likely to stick in your head.  I prefer to discover a character by their thoughts, words and actions rather than being given an outline of their character traits.  Though the writing certainly flows and is most accessible, David's 'banter' mode of narrative in the first half of the book didn't really work for me.

After the character descriptions was a long section about their two months quarantine before lift-off day, which I found neither necessary nor convincing, as the crew seemed more like a group of students than mature, experienced astronauts, aware of the gravity of their mission.  I felt I was waiting for the story to start, all the way through the first half.

Then, book two.  So much better, and not what I expected at all.  Another great twist in the tale, this time told by an omniscient narrator.  No more details because *spoilers* - you should be as surprised as I was.  I am most interested in the short stories in which the plot moves in a different direction; I'd love to read about life on Nova.

To sum up - I think it needs a good, thorough developmental/copy edit by someone who really knows their stuff, to get rid of errors, and also to think through some of the content - the novel must surely be set far into the future, but the lifestyle and cultural references about the world they've left behind made it sound like they set off in 2024, or earlier.  I was also unconvinced by David not knowing (and being surprised) that the AI could track the exact whereabouts on the ship of any of the astronauts.  Wouldn't that be a most basic facility?  And one of them clearly has extremely dark psychological problems - would she have been chosen for a mission such as this?

However, it's a fabulous basic story with masses of potential, and the writing itself has a great deal of promise.  With input from an experienced editor who really knows their stuff, the best of both could be brought out.   

SIZE ALWAYS MATTERS by Sally Cronin @sgc58

 5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I've long been impressed by Sally's nutrition articles on her blog, so bought this when it came out.

In a Nutshell: Comprehensive guide to weight loss, exercise, nutrition and so much more.

This has to be the best book of its type that I've ever read.  Whether you want to lose a lot of weight, the odd stone, or simply to have a better understanding of nutrition and how your body works, I can't recommend this too highly.  Sally Cronin is a qualified, experienced nutritional therapist.

I consider myself to be an 'old hand' when it comes to nutrition, but the book taught me a whole lot more, and reminded me about (a few too many) aspects that I'd let slip.  I've just eaten a (lightly fried in olive oil) egg, smoked salmon and raw mushrooms for lunch - if I hadn't just read this book, the mushrooms might have been fried too, and I'd have included a slice of toast, albeit sourdough!  Also, for a long time now, when I've bought vegetables to last a few days, I've prepared them and put them in plastic zip-lock bags in the fridge, for easy use later in the day.  No longer - I've just discovered that this practice destroys half their nutritional value.  Who knew?

Sally's book reminded me, over and over again, that most of what we eat needs to be in its natural state, cooked from scratch; if we eat too much industrially produced, ultra-processed food we can suffer from malnutrition while still being overweight.  She includes shopping lists of all we need to obtain every vitamin and mineral, and how to facilitate the production of vital amino acids.  Throughout, she does not just give instruction, but tells you why.

As well as nutritional advice, the book contains detailed chapters about exercise, along with details of how many calories are burned by everyday activities, about the emotional reasons for overeating, advice on how to plan your weight loss programme, and there's an excellent recipe section at the back.  Sally also talks (in a refreshingly honest way) about her own experience - the long road that took her from morbidly obese to slim, healthy and positive.

Take it from one who knows.  This book is an absolute 'must have' for anyone who wants to lose weight and/or take care of their own health.

THE ARCHITECT OF GRAYLAND by Evelyn Arvey #RBRT

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: SciFi fantasy; a kidnapping across time.

A most curious book!  Long, at 500 pages, but interesting enough for me to keep turning.  At no time did I think it could have been cut down, as one often finds with longer books

The plot: Elaine wakes up in a world of grey.  There is nothing there at all, just acres of grey all around - she isn't even wearing any clothes, and she has no water to drink.  Worst of all, she has no memory of what came before.  Of who she is, where she is from, how she got to this place.  To survive, she must find ways to work with her environment to feed herself, keep warm, find others.

We soon discover that she has been kidnapped from the present and dumped into the distant future, into 'the Domain', by a historical anthropologist under pressure to produce an enthralling spectacle, that the habits of the 'primitive human' may be observed.  Not only is Elaine the subject of Professor Mirri's research, but the public are able to watch her story unfold.  Unbeknownst to Elaine (and others she meets later), she has become a celebrity amongst the viewers.  It brought to mind a futuristic version of the first series of the Big Brother House, when the contestants had no idea how popular the show had become, on the outside!

I did enjoy this book and it's a wonderfully original idea, unfolding slowly, though I was disappointed by the lack of resolution, for both myself and Elaine.  I still had so many unanswered questions when the book suddenly finished.  I needed to know how the subjects were extracted from present to future, how they were chosen, what year in the future we were looking at - thousands of years away, I imagine, because the humans had actually evolved physically in some rather alarming ways - the reveal of this was so well done and quite shocking.  However, I so wanted to know more about life itself in this strange time, whereabouts in the world Professor Mirri lived.  I wanted more information, generally; I am sure that the sparsity of such was an artistic choice that will work well for some, though I was frustrated by it - just a personal preference!   

LOCAL GODS by Mark Hurst @MarkHur41481024

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Recommendation

In a Nutshell: An assassin who needs to lie low discovers strange happenings in the village of Little Baddington...

Local Gods is a dark and terrifying little gem that I looked forward to getting back to each time I had to put it down.  London assassin Pete Collins allows personal vengeance to enter into his paid work, which does not please the faceless men he serves.  On the advice of his handler, he drives into deepest Gloucestershire, out in the sticks, to avoid any heat that might come his way.  

After a strangely cool reception on the night of his arrival (with the exception of new pub landlord Craig, who has made the mistake of trying to inject Little Baddington with the culture of Hampstead), Pete becomes increasingly unsettled by every experience in the village, and every local with whom he comes into contact.  And it's only going to get worse.  Suffice to say that Pete the contract killer soon starts to feel like the 'goodie'.

I love a story that surprises me all the way through, with developments I can't predict at all, and this was one such.  It's not a particularly long book, I imagine about 65 or 70K words (though I might be wrong, as the words do tend to whizz by when you're eagerly turning the pages!).  It's beautifully edited, with never a superfluous sentence, just the right amount of detail and atmosphere, with characters that pop into life as soon as they appear.  And the ending ... so, so good.  Really wish I hadn't finished it, though!

As is probably obvious, I highly recommend this novel.  If you're not the sort of person who spooks too easily...

MOMENTS OF CONSEQUENCE by Thorne Moore @ThorneMoore #RBRT

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member, but I'd already downloaded it anyway.

In a Nutshell: Short stories, dark themes.  Mostly.

What a treat this book is. It's not very often that you read a short story collection in which every one is a gem, but such is the case with Moments of Consequence. Every single one is beautifully written and perfectly plotted whilst wending its way down unexpectedly murky corridors. Some bloody ones, too, like the horrific Chef's Special, in which the main character comes up with an ingenious way of dealing with her staff problems, and It Was Late June, an every day story of country folk in a village that just happens to have an active Satanic society. These two are seriously gruesome, dark humour at its best. As is A Midsummer Nightmare, a brutal tale of revenge.

My favourites:

Dare Devil: about three students who, drunkenly, dare each other to commit the perfect murder.

Dances on the Head of a Pin: two time-lines, two main characters. One, in modern times, tries to interview random passersby about transubstantiation. The other, in the perilous days of Bloody Mary Tudor, is condemned for not believing in this (that the communion sacrament is the actual body and blood of Christ).

The Food of Love: a 'foodie' wife, who fails to see the the impact her obsession is having on her marriage...

Away in a Manger: about a homeless young artist, at Christmas time.

Piggy in the Middle: The story of Mary Bennett, the forgotten middle daughter in Pride and Prejudice.

As You Sow: A mother laments the choices her adult children have made, considering them a personal affront. I love stories like this in which the reader can read between the lines about what's actually going on, whereas the blinkered narrator cannot.

...and the last one, Footprints, showing snapshots of everyone who lived in a house, going back down the decades. I too am, as Thorne Moore says, fascinated by houses and the secrets they reveal. Footprints made me think of books by Norah Loft: The House Trilogy, and A Wayside Tavern.

All the stories are long, something to get your teeth into. It's stunningly good, all the way through. Highly, highly recommended - can't emphasise this too much!

A BOUNDARY OF STONES by Millie Thom @MillieThom

 5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: On X (Twitter) - I believe via via @Zeamee or @vallypee or both!

In a Nutshell: The story of Eyam, the Derbyshire village that famously isolated itself during the 17th Century bubonic plague, stopping it from spreading to neighbouring villages.

This is such a good book and stays so true to the history of this village; I've read more about it online since finishing the book.  We can't imagine how it must have been to have lost one's whole family but still carry on, as so many did back then.  The novel centres around Reverend William Mompesson who, with his predecessor Reverend Stanley, proposed the quarantine idea.  He was having a hard enough time as the new Church of England priest in a staunchly Puritan village, but gradually some of his congregation were softening towards him, just as the plague reached Eyam, via cloth delivered from London to a local tailor.

I liked very much how the author gives us just enough scene-setting before the plague takes hold, to show us the Reverend's trials, and to let us get to know the village.  Aside from Rev Mompesson's story, Millie Thom introduces us to the villagers themselves, in chapters that tell their own stories when the plague enters their houses.  I so much appreciated the writing style; these stories are incredibly emotive but never 'over-written'.

I highly recommend this book - and it made me want to visit Eyam again.  I did so in 1978, and can vaguely remember looking at the records of all the people who died, that was still kept in the church; I don't know if it still is, but then that was 46 years ago, and I imagine it's not so open now.  We just passed it one winter afternoon and had a look around; there was no evidence of any tourism trade back then.

I shall have to look at more photos and work out where I was standing!

THE SWAN MAIDEN by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

 5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: a favourite author

In a Nutshell: Book 2 of The Surface and the Deep, the story of Anne of Cleves.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which starts with Anne's journey to England to meet Henry, and ends shortly after the annulment of the marriage.  The main body of it shows Gemma Lawrence at her best, when she writes solely about her character's own life and experiences, from inside her {the character's} head.  She has a truly exceptional talent for this, and I was completely engrossed, reading the book in the early hours when I needed to go to sleep!

Anne is portrayed exactly as I've always imagined her, as a dignified, kind and clever woman.  Her wise choice of accepting the annulment without complaint was aided, of course, by the fact that she was no more enamoured of Henry than he was of her, but there are some marvellous passages when she talks about her survival being far more important than any notions of foolish pride.

'...these things we create and take inside ourselves, these things we cling to and call pride and honour, they are meaningless... these things, they have meaning only if we think they do.  They are baubles, shining so bright we think they are the sun but the are shimmering surface reflecting only candlelight.  They are shadows.  Their light is a lie created by man, reflected back at us to dazzle our eyes and confuse our minds.'

Also, when she saw how the monasteries had been destroyed mainly to serve the greed of those already in possession of great riches, her take on another of the Seven Deadly Sins: avarice (or greed).

'...Yet these men did not know the truth, that this sickness for gold could never be cured by adding more gold to their purses or hands ... once within the veins of a man it did not feed him, it sucked the essence of his soul, the sickness of greed leeching all from that man until greed was all that possessed his mind.  It was a demon which crept into the skin of a person...'

I loved her impressions of the English culture and customs, as opposed to those of her own country, her observations about what was really behind the deterioration of the King's character, and his dislike of her.  I very much appreciated how Ms Lawrence has placed the spirit of Anne Boleyn in the shadows, too; a warning from history.

I expected the series to end with this book so was surprised when it didn't, but I researched a little and discovered that the story of Anne the Survivor has more strings to its bow than I realised, so I very much look forward to reading about her take on the marriage and reign of Mary, in particular.

High recommendation!

THE TWILIGHTS by Harald Johnson @AuthorHarald #RBRT

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: 80 years post-asteroid falling on Earth.  Post-apocalyptic

My favourite genre, so I was all over this when I saw it on Rosie's book blog review list, and I very much enjoyed Harald Johnson's Neander series.

All writers of post-apocalyptic books provide a different take on how society will rebuild and develop once it has fallen apart, and this was an interesting one.  The asteroid fell 80 years ago, which was initially followed by a period of cold, but then it started warming up.  The first part of the book is set in Texas, which I believe is quite warm anyway!

Mr Johnson has come up with an unusual stance on the customs of survivors - most are 'Duskers' who celebrate the evening twilight (the 'Dawners' prefer the 'twilight' of the morning) by generally engaging n drunken debauchery, amongst other activities.  David, the protagonist, is one who prefers the quiet and solitude of the morning.  He shares his cave with Trish; soon, they are joined by Paul, and Porthos (canine).  The focus of the plot is their journey north to find colder weather and a better way of living, and, as with all the best post-apocalyptic journeys, they are beset with danger and problems along the way, though they do meet up with some who help them.

An aspect I liked very much about this book was the explanations about various survival techniques (especially the transport), and I had the feeling the author had thought of every possible pitfall - even how to surmount the problem of perished bicycle tyres.

Now and again I felt the story needed a bit more detail and atmosphere, but it's good, and I enjoyed reading it.

NEST OF THE GYRFALCON by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I've read earlier books in the series

In a Nutshell: The middle part of Eleanor of Aquitaine's life

THE KISS OF THE CONCUBINE by Judith Arnopp @JudithArnopp

 4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: One of my favourite authors, so more a matter of choosing which one I felt like reading!

In a Nutshell: The story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

I was embarking on a long, lone train journey, so wanted a good, easy read book by an author I already knew and loved - this fitted the bill perfectly.  I know the story of Anne and Henry VIII like the back of my hand, so it was just a matter of settling in!

This view of Anne and Henry mirrors my own, and made me think, more than any other book I've read about Anne, that the periods of joy seemed so few and far between, even when Henry loved her - there was always doubt, insecurity, worry about what might lie ahead if she couldn't fulfil her promise to produce a male heir.  That her life was completely and utterly dependent on his whims.  Also, that out of the three siblings it was Mary, who had no aspirations or ambition other than to love and be loved, whose life ended the most happily.  

(Interesting: The 'Moost Happi' medal - the true face of Anne Boleyn?)

I liked very much how this is the story simply told; Ms Arnopp has resisted the need to weave in commentary about other aspects of the international or political situation, and, as in her marvellous trilogy about Henry, has written only from Anne's perspective.  It's so clever - for instance, I've always felt so sorry for Jane, George Boleyn's wife, who got such a raw deal out of life.  In this book we see her only from Anne's point of view, Anne who held a far more special place in George's heart than Jane did.  This is what I love about Judith Arnopp's writing - she never, ever falls into the trap of showing her own point of view, and is able to write solely from her character's head, even when she must surely know that the reader is screaming at the character that they've got it wrong.  To think again, to see a bigger picture, or the other person's point of view.

I especially loved the ending, which was beautifully executed, no pun intended.  From Anne's thoughts just before she died, to afterwards...

'I have seen you change from a prince into a monster.  I've witnessed every cruelty, every sin, seen each small betrayal, each moment of you, watched every discarded wife falter and fall.'

SIDESTEPS TO THE SOMME by Valerie Poore @vallypee

 5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I've read lots of this author's books, so, with my own interest in WW1, this was an obvious choice!

In a Nutshell: Travels by barge along the Western Front, with Val and her other half, Koos.

Sometimes I wish Val Poore's books had photos, though more than anyone else, the way in which she writes makes one able to 'see' the places, and certainly feel the atmosphere.  As ever, this book made me long to travel down those little side canals (I'm sure I'd be 'sidestepping' all the time, too!), off the beaten track, as it were.  A perfect way to live.

There were so many lovely tales in this book, one of my favourites being Koos and Val's impromptu musical session in a disused factory.  Koos is fascinated by derelict industrial sites and is a fine photographer - I too have a strange attraction to the derelict and abandoned, so I looked up some of his photos on YouTube via his unused TwitteX profile; they're HERE, if you would like to see.

Best of all, though, when browsing his YouTube profile I happened across this gem - I thought, hang on, I just read about this!  It's a lovely piece of music - oddly mournful, made me think of peasants dancing in a Polish village, decades ago (for some reason).  

Back to the book ... another passage that stood out for me was Val's visiting of some of the WWI graves.  She remarked on how the German dead were commemorated there too - because, of course, those poor boys and men weren't the enemy at all.  That label belongs to the generals, bankers and industry moguls whose own greed and megalomania caused the deaths of so many, for ... nothing much at all, really.  Talking of which, I loved Val's comment about Napoleon's aptitude and foresight when it came to building the canals of France - that he should have been an engineer, not a megalomaniac.

At the end of this piece in the book, Val was joined by a grey mare, who stood there and silently contemplated the graves, with her.

It's a beautiful book about a beautiful two months.  Informative, wistful, entertaining - a delight.

 

PSITTACIDE by @ZebHaradon

 5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: a favourite author, have read Book #1 of the series.

In a Nutshell: The crazy world of 2172

Psittacide is set 150 years in the future, when former stand-up comedian Jim Liu navigates the world of American politics in which authenticity and any real values or integrity are forgotten relics of the past.  And if you think that sounds pretty much like 2024, with all potential leaders resorting to blatant lying and any desperate tricks they can to discredit the opposition, you wait until you meet Silas Blackwolf and Oliver O'Shea.

The shifting of political stances means that the Democrats have become conservatives and the Republicans the liberals, which made me think of the main UK parties, whose lines have blurring for many years now; who knows what their agenda(s) will be in 2172?

In the future world between these pages, most of the bad stuff predicted by the cynics/realists of the current day has happened - drug dependency and sex clubs are the norms (Jim and his girlfriend keep a sex robot under the bed), the attention span of the masses has shortened to the extent that a writer of Blankpage books can win a prize for literature - Karl's process is to think up a concept, brief outline and title, let his terminal design a cover, and publish.  That's it.  'Other than the summary of the plot on the back cover and by Karl on the front, all pages would be blank'.  Fake has become real: actors don't need to be present to act in films, politicians don't have to attend vote-winning activities, whole civilisations can be artificially created for the screen - anything can be rendered to look as if it actually happened.  Populations live in virtual reality without knowing it.

Sometimes it seems as though this novel is a comment on/lampoon of events and people in the present world, other times just the product of Mr Haradon's entertaining thought processes.  The title refers to the strange diseases affecting parrots everywhere.  Those genetically modified parrots, that is, who play such an important part in the new world.  I loved the observations of one character who predicts the worrying rise of the parrots, now that racism is a thing of the past (as everyone is, in 2172, a mixture of ethnicities).

I liked it more than the first book in the series, which I found a bit scattered.  I look forward to Book 3, Bubblequake - which refers to the bigger inside than outside residences (like the Tardis): the bubbles.

It's great - and may make you glad you were born in the 20th century.

ONE TUESDAY, EARLY by Annalisa Crawford @AnnalisaCrawf #RBRT

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: mysterious psychological drama.

A curious and interesting book that kept me turning the pages from the outset.  Finn and Lexi have been together for five years and have their ups and downs, until one morning after a drunken night when Lexi wakes up in a strange, alternative reality.  From Finn's point of view, she's disappeared.  Left him, and everything else in her life.  The chapters alternate from his and her points of view, with Lexi's being written in the second person, which should have felt awkward but for the most part worked very well.

As the story goes on, we see Lexi stuck in this strange place in time, and Finn dealing with his life without her - or not dealing with it.  I realised what was happening to Lexi about half-way through, though the ending still held plenty of surprises.  The book is extremely well-written and edited, nicely paced, and Ms Crawford can certainly tell a tale.

It's a particularly hard story to review without giving spoilers, but the next part might be a bit spoiler-ish, so please be aware!

The entire story spans 20 years, and I was quite a way through before I thought, hang on, why isn't this woman's disappearance being investigated more thoroughly?  By the police, and her aunt, who'd brought her up and was like a mother to her?  By her close friends, who loved her?  Nobody appeared to do anything other than ring up Finn to ask him if he'd heard from her.  This bit didn't ring true for me.  If realistic investigations had been carried out, the plot would have fallen apart.  I still enjoyed it, though, and was able to suspend my disbelief.  Mostly.

THIS WHITENESS OF SWANS by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: A favourite author; I read most of her books as they come out

In a Nutshell: Book 1 of The Surface and the Deep series, about Anne of Cleves

A most fascinating exploration of the wife of Henry VIII that we probably know the least about, showing that she was so much more than just a wife of Henry VIII.  She was, after all, the survivor, to a far greater extent than Katherine Parr, who lost and suffered a great deal more at the hands of the tyrant king.

Ms Lawrence has portrayed Anna of Cleves as I imagined her to be: more like the version brought to life by Joss Stone in the TV series The Tudors, than the 'Flanders Mare' of legend.  Educated, moral, reserved and dutiful, and quite realistic about her expectations of Henry, in this first book which covers the period from her childhood until her journey to England.

I very much liked reading the folk tales and the imagery of swans (I just love both the cover and the title of this book!) used in the narrative, particularly on, and also the part where her father dies; this was so poignant and real.  The whole story had a feel of three princesses in a fairy tale castle, somehow, though of course the real world kept invading.

I did feel that the book was a little research-heavy, particularly in the first half, in which much information about events elsewhere is given to the reader by way of dialogue; I felt this could have been trimmed down.  However, I enjoyed the final third of the book much more, and await the next episode with bated breath!