SUMMER is almost upon us, a time to relax beside the pool with a good book in one hand and a long cool drink in the other.
As a consequence, this month’s reviews have more than their fair share of romance and the feel-good factor. We also have a number of titles from Richard and Judy’s summer selection and as always a variety of authors and subjects, introducing new writers alongside some rather more established favourites.
I Heart Forever
by Lindsey Kelk
THE DAY HER HUSBAND Alex picks up a backpack and goes travelling, Angela Clark promises to stay out of trouble and keep both Louboutins on the ground. So when her best friend’s boyfriend confides in her, it can’t hurt to help him pick out a ring at Tiffany’s surely?
And when her fashion magazine announces major changes, being terminally late and arguing with your new boss isn’t that bad is it? Then there’s another big secret Angela’s got to keep – and the man she loves is thousands of miles away.
As the wedding of the year looms she is going to need her friends as her old life looks set to change forever.
Among The Lemon Trees
by Nadia Marks
ANNA THOUGHT her marriage to Max would last forever. Having raised two happy children together, she looked forward to growing old with the man she loved. But when a revelation from her husband just before their wedding anniversary shakes her entire world, she’s left uncertain of what the future holds.
Needing time to herself, Anna takes up an offer from her widowed father to spend the summer on the small Aegean island of his birth, unaware that a chance discovery of letters in her aunt’s house will unleash a host of family history beginning in Greece at the start of the 20th century and ending in Naples at the close of the Second World War.
The Girl From Venice
by Martin Cruz Smith
THE WAR MAY BE WANING in 1945 Venice, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich.
One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo finds a young woman floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from Wehrmacht SS.
Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia – an act of kindness that leads them into the world of partisans, Mussolini’s broken promises, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon..
How Hard Can It Be?
by Allison Pearson
KATE REDDY is counting down the days until she is 50, but not in a good way. Fifty in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility. Her hormones have her in shackles, teenage children need her but won’t talk to her and her ailing parents aren’t coping. Husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness.
Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace when old client and flame Jack reappears – and Kate realises that complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.
The Wildflowers
by Harriet Evans
TONY AND ALTHEA Wilde, glamorous, argumentative… and adulterous to the core. They were my parents, actors known by everyone. They gave our lives love and colour in a house by the sea – the house that sheltered my orphaned father when he as a boy.
But the summer Mads arrived changed everything. She too had been abandoned and my father understood why. We Wildflowers took her in. My father was my hero, he gave us a golden childhood, but the past was always going to catch up with him… it comes to us all, sooner of later.
This is my story. I am Cordelia Wilde. A singer without a voice. A daughter without a father.
The Midnight Line
by Lee Child
JACK REACHER is having a bad day. Reacher sees a West Point class ring in a pawn shop window. Reacher was a West Pointer too, and he knows what she went through to get it.
He’ll have to go through bikers, cops, crooks, and low-life muscle. If she’s okay he’ll walk away. If not he’ll stop at nothing…
The Party
by Elizabeth Day
MARTIN GILMOUR and Ben Fitzmaurice have been best friends for 25 years, since their days together at Burtonbury School. They are an unlikely pair; the scholarship boy with the wrong accent and clothes, and the dazzlingly popular, wealthy young aristocrat.
But Martin knows no-one else can understand the bond they share – and no-one else could have kept Ben’s secret for over two decades.
At Ben’s 40th birthday party, the cream of the British establishment gathers in a haze of champagne, drugs and glamour. Amid the politicians, the celebrities, the old money and the newly rich, Martin once again feels that pang of not quite belonging. His wife Lucy has her reservations, too. There is something unnerving in the air. But Ben wouldn’t do anything to damage their friendship. Would he…?
He Said She Said
by Erin Kelly
IN THE HUSHED aftermath of a total eclipse, Laura witnesses a brutal attack. She and her boyfriend Kit call the police and in that moment four lives change forever. And while Laura knows she was right to speak out, she also knows that you can never see the whole picture: something is always hidden… something she never could have guessed.
DVD Corner
THE END OF MAY will see a number of new films released on DVD and they will be on our shelves as soon as possible. So if summer decides to have a hiccup the Library can always be relied upon for entertainment in one form or another
In the meantime, here are a couple of recent additions to our shelves to tide you over.
Goodbye Christopher Robin
DV1239
THIS BEAUTIFULLY-FILMED poignant story gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between children’s author A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin. At the end of the First World War, Milne is inspired by his son’s toys to create the magical world of Winnie-the-Pooh – which brings him immediate and enduring celebrity.
But the books’ international success comes at a cost to the author, his young son and his wife Daphne. This is a compelling film about fame and family.
Liar
DS422
LAURA IS A DEDICATED TEACHER, not long out of a relationship and unsure about getting back on the dating scene. Andrew is a renowned surgeon whose son is a pupil at Laura’s school. An initial attraction leads to a date, but neither fully realise the far-reaching consequences that their meeting will have on each other or their families.
Truth and consequence go hand in hand in a tense and gripping thriller that examines both sides of a relationship and both sides of the truth.