REVIEW - Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

Here's my review of the latest novel by Irish best-selling writer Liz Nugent, which unfortunately wasn't for me but a great dark humour - if you like that sort of thing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.

Expected: 26 March 2020

The blurb 
Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin.

Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women... They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.

But which brother killed him?

The Review
Three brothers are at the funeral but one lies in the coffin. They betray each other, over and over, until one of them is murdered but which one? From that blurb, I was expecting a psychological thriller with lots of twists and trying to work out who had killed who. However, that's not really what this turned out to be. 

It started that way with the funeral, but then it turned into more of a dark family drama following the lives of each brother as they inflicted multiple cruelties on one another through childhood and into adulthood and the present day. The biggest cruelty of all was obviously one of their death's but during the telling the mystery of the murder sadly became almost forgotten - disappointingly there were no clues, suggestions or twists and turns to untangle along the way. 

The book is essentially in four parts; Will's story, Brian's story and Luke's story followed by present day events. However, the stories are not only not chronological but also don't follow any kind of pattern with chapters switching to a different random year in logical order. It's all credit to the skill and talent of author that this actually even works although it is definitely a little confusing initially until you get to grips with it and the story and characters. 

Liz Nugent also has a real gift for character development, creating three extremely complex personalities full of both light and dark. Unfortunately, however, I didn't actually like any of them and therefore even care who got murdered. At first I thought it was the all-male cast but in reality it was the fact that between them the brothers possess pretty much every negative character trait possible from sexism, abusiveness, manipulativeness, meanness, selfishness, and obessiveness. Perhaps it's karma but these truly horrible characters experience a plethora of hard-hitting life situations including rape, addiction and mental ill health which altogether makes for rather depressing, dark and shocking reading. 

So, despite me wanting to read this award-winning author for ages, disappointingly this just really wasn't for me. It really is best enjoyed as a dark humour and not a psychological thriller - which is what I was expecting/hoping for.   

The author
Follow @lizzienugent or find out more at www.liznugent.ie

REVIEW: The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

I'm delighted to share my review of the latest novel by bestselling U.S. author Tarryn Fisher. xxx.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ for giving me the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.

Expected: 25 June 2020

The blurb 
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, you see your husband only one day a week. Thursday. But you don’t care, you love him that much. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself…

And then, one day it all changes.

You thought you were fine with this, with only having a fraction of a husband. But you can’t help yourself, you start to dig. Begin tracking them down, the other days… Who is Monday and why does she have bruises on her arms? Is she being abused? By who? Her husband? Your husband?

What else is he keeping from you? And who is he, really?

The Review. 
I was totally captivated by the blurb for this book.....imagine that your husband has two other wives, you've never met the others and don't know anything about them. That is until you find something out by chance that sparks a quest for answers and makes you question whether you even know your husband at all. However, it turned out that this just wasn't for me unfortunately.  

Choosing this book blind, based totally on the blurb, I didn't know anything about best-selling U.S. author, Tarryn Fisher. This was probably a mistake as had I done some research I probably would've realised that I wasn't going to be fan of @darkmarktarryn (as she calls herself on Twitter). As the name suggests her style and language is quite dark, raw, melancholy and explicit. However, whilst not my preferred style I've read and enjoyed many such books, as a brilliant, compelling a story can conquer all. 

Unfortunately, despite promising a brilliant, compelling story and definitely captivating me initially, it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to pan out like that. It's hard to talk about without giving anything away but the author put forward the idea that the main character was imagining everything. And, then it turned that she was, and in doing so I felt made light and a mockery of mental ill health, particularly as well with the massive and unexpected ending twist. I was hoping for a positive outcome for the deeply conflicted and complex main character but instead got a shocking ending which seemed unnecessarily and deliberately sensationalist. But, again having now read up on the author I realise that this is her style - deliberately different, thought-provoking and sad. 

You can have toxic, unlikable characters but still empathise with them or love to hate them. But, again this wasn't the case. There were so few characters in the story and I didn't like any of them, which also added to the difficulty of this read and my enjoyment. 

So, as I'm sure you can tell this really wasn't for me. However, please don't let that put you off because most readers totally disagree with me and had I known more about the author I probably would've realised that beforehand.

The author
Follow @DarkMarkTarryn or find out more at www.tarrynfisher.com

REVIEW: Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan

In my opinion this was a nice warm-hearted read, realistically portraying the highs and lows of family life as well as love and loss without ever becoming too downhearted or sad.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ for giving me the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.

Expected: 2 April 2020

The blurb 
When Flora falls in love with Jack, suddenly she’s not only handling a very cranky teenager, but she’s also living in the shadow of Jack’s perfect, immortalised wife, Becca. Every summer, Becca and Jack would holiday with Becca’s oldest friends and Jack wants to continue the tradition, so now Flora must face a summer trying to live up to Becca’s memory, with not only Jack’s daughter looking on, but with Becca’s best friends judging her every move…

The more Flora tries to impress everyone, the more things go horribly wrong…but as the summer unfolds, Flora begins pushing her own boundaries, and finding herself in a way that she never thought she needed to.

And she soon learns that families come in all shapes and sizes.

The review
It's very difficult to review something when you don't have a strong opinion either way. And, unfortunately that's exactly where I find myself with this book. There was nothing not to like - it was a well-written, warm-hearted read - but at the same time it didn't quite capture my imagination either.

This was the story of Flora embarking on a relationship with widower Jack, and the emotional challenges that come hand-in-hand with a father of two - it's not just him but the whole family who needs to fall in love with you too. As such it wasn't meant to be a love story but a story of family dynamics.

However, to go from Jack and Flora accidentally meeting, to being introduced to the family and moving in together all within the space of a few chapters seemed way to quick. I wanted the build-up as without it, like Izzy, Jack's teenage daughter, I just couldn't believe in the relationship and see how the two were remotely compatible and understand why Jack would knowingly upset his fragile family dynamic for someone he'd only just met.

That said I did like the fast pace. The book started with the lure of an untold secret about Becca, Jack's dead wife, and so needed to progress quickly through Flora trying to live up to this image of Becca as the perfect, wide, mother, friend and career-woman, to the big reveal that Becca was actually as flawed as the rest of them. Every page and word were relevant - there was definitely no filler.

I also loved the ending and the reveal, which without wanting to give too much away showed great depth and likeability to Jack's character - it was just a shame that we had to wait until the end to see it and understand him or his relationship with Flora. And, this was the other problem in that whilst I really liked Izzy, I didn't warm to either Jack (for the reasons just given) or Flora. Izzy described Flora as someone you don't want to but can't help liking because she's so nice. But, I had no such problem, for me Flora was too nice, too much of a people-pleaser, too vanilla to really champion. 

All-in-all this is a nice story realistically portraying the highs and lows of family life as well as love and loss without ever becoming too downhearted or sad. However, once again its very much a nice read rather than a must-read.

The author
Follow @SarahMorgan_ or find out more at sarahmorgan.com