My Review of "Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain"

"Five rivers ran together and the earth sang in celebration at the top of it's voice, a music hidden in the details of everyday, in footfalls of thousands of locals, ringing of cash registers and the great soaring dream of the spire,"........"the ideas and dreams encased in the buildings is what makes them beautiful."

And so begins a novel in love with stories and dreams, thoughts, silences and words. And Salisbury. Here in this city is where "Five rivers flow ....to make a single voice of the Avon." This is Norris's inspiration for his first book. Five stories, from five very different people, whose voices weave into one another as their lives become intertwined through an horrific car accident. The rivers and their free flow through an ancient city, gathering extra "phrases" and "clauses" along the way and pouring into the "mouths of women and men" is an exceptionally strong metaphor for how stories work too and a lot of this tale is a mediation on the written word and the art of story telling. The opening, which picks up the reader and carries them along on the current, reminded me of Graham Swift's "Waterland" which also reflects on the similarities between rivers and people's lives. Or perhaps some of Joanna Harris's novels which use nature as metaphors for love and life, and reality is often mixed in a lyrical song of magic and fairy tale.

My favourite story was "A River Curling Like Smoke" and focused on sixteen year old Sam. For quiet and shy Sam, "talking isn't natural at home"and "we ate guilt and silence for supper". His section is about coming of age, anguish, first love and fitting in as "people don't know they're weird if you don't tell them." For Sam, stories are an escape into another world; a chance to make sense of the world and a way to process life and emotions."A story lay within him and he would not sleep until he spoke it." Italics are used for the "story telling" sections which at first feel like fairy tales but then become more real as Sam's emotional journey of self discovery continues. For me, this was the most amazing section of the book and I could fill five more posts quoting the stunningly mesmerising prose. It is sad, moving and captivating.

The final story contemplates the role of the theatre. Norris is an acclaimed playwright so his musings here are interesting and pertinent. The fifth voice explains that theatre is a way of people "telling stories to each other, sharing their lives and caring about each other." Music is described as a "ritual", a place where "poems play themselves out" and the brain has to switch off and listen in order to process or solve its concerns. There is however a sense of sadness and emptiness in many of the segments - a sense of needing to search for deeper meanings or fill the loneliness and emptiness many of us carry around with us. People will listen to something "mediocre that someone else invented just to fill the silence of their lives." But, "every bar in the score of ourselves is receding already into memory, into imagination....might as well listen." I loved the statement "we grow into our little neuroses ....the little unhappiness at the heart of us."

In a sense it is a spiritual novel. The cathedral features in all the stories, towering above them, rising to the sky; it feels very symbolic and as if it holds some magical power over the city. There is no religion in this novel but are the stories themselves some expression of faith? As one voice admits, "My life is so small and unenlightened....If I were in a story...." Stories are escapism, a fantasy, an alternative.... a place of hope and dreams.

Norris conjures images and poetic metaphors with immense skill, lyricism, power and beauty. His writing is outstanding. The five characters are all different; all suffering, all flawed, all insightful, all immersed in their own journey and story. This book is so multilayered I could write a dissertation on it and it truly shows the power and capability of our language when it is in the hands of a gifted writer. Norris is clearly passionate about language, poetry and mesmerising power of storytelling.

My favourite line in the whole novel was:
"The imaginary world. It will always be a beautifully dangerous place to visit."

Surely this quote deserves to become as over quoted and referenced as some of the other famous lines in literature such as LP Hartley's "the past is a foreign country..." and of course the thousands from Shakespeare. I will be absolutely guilty of using it every time I come across a stunning story or want to entice someone into reading.

In "The Bookseller" Magazine (12/2/16) Norris explained that he wanted to "draw a map of the Salisbury through people" and"evoke what is extraordinary about the ordinary," how "the hidden currents of life draw together into something symphonic no matter how random they seem." This is an outstanding debut of great literary accomplishment. If you love words, stories, people and Salisbury - read this!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK) or sign up on the right for email notifications about future posts.

My Review of "183 Times A Year" by Eva Jordan

The image of this book cover caught my eye when I was rather speedily scrolling through my Twitter feed while making breakfast (I know, it was Mother's Day, I should have been in bed but I assure you, this was the better option!!). I love how sometimes your next favourite read presents itself in the most random way and suddenly you discover a new author and a whole new world of characters for you to become lost amongst. In just one split second, I discovered a book which was hugely entertaining and gave me a lovely, relaxing, light read that was like settling down in front of your favourite sitcom with a packet of chocolate hob nobs!

I mean, how can you not resist a book which begins with the opening paragraph: "I don't like my daughters' very much. Don't get me wrong - I love them, and would lay down my life for them should the need ever arise - but right now my teenage daughters' are a pain in the proverbial backside."

Meet Lizzie. A librarian and mother to three teenagers - one of which is her step daughter - partner to Simon, who can't be bothered to propose and make it official, and ex wife to Scott who is a complete waste of space and happily ignores any responsibility for his children now he's remarried and has new babies of his own. Lizzie is a self confessed bibliomaniac and irritates her children enormously by illustrating any comment or piece of advice with a literary quote. She has a witty and often sarcastic internal voice which sometimes escapes into a real conversation. She struggles to juggle all the pressing demands of a modern day family - "I'm sure I meet myself coming on most days"- and is completely baffled by her teenage daughters who refer to her as "psychotic" what ever she tries to do and however she tries to resolve tension. "Of course it's your fault," she thinks during a row with Cassie, "Why are you surprised....her entire existence is your fault and she'll blame you forever more."

Meet Cassie. Perpetually annoyed by her mother whose sole purpose is to destroy any hope of her having a social life, boyfriend or getting any revision for her GCSEs done. A habitual door slammer with an irritating habit of over using the word "sick" in every utterance and continuous exclamation of "Oh my actual god!" Cassie is self centred, skittish and hot headed. Her inability to recall the right word is very amusing- I liked her reference to Shakespeare and his use of Islamic pentameter, or was it imbecilic pentameter?! Cassie is suitably irrational and unpredictable as she tries to navigate her way through adolescence and all its heart searing moments of first love, bullying, homework and an all consuming effort to fit in and be liked.

Together their voices, which alternate rapidly in short extracts, create a laugh out loud, engaging and entertaining read about mothers and daughters. Despite being nagged, harangued, shouted at and taken for granted, Lizzie remains calm and resilient. During one of Cassie's rants, Lizzie thinks how she sounds like a "tortured animal" and "taxidermy sprang to mind. I imagined her here but stuffed and quiet. She would stand with her arms out -welcoming, and she would smile - permanently." There's an hilarious episode where Lizzie tries to wear sexy knickers in a bid to regain a sense of self and is in such discomfort it was like watching a "Miranda" or "Bridget Jones" style comedy moment! But she is an intelligent, caring, nurturing person with a dry witty sense of humour and this saves the book from becoming either too depressing or too saccharine. Cassie too, although her teenage vocabulary is suitably repetitive, irritating and cliched, is actually quite endearing. We can all relate to the pain of "coming of age" and the absolute "unfairness" of life at that age. Her naivety and lack of self esteem make you want to either give her a good shake or jump into the pages and lamp the other characters for their unkindness. I liked the description of her "hedonistic melancholy" during the summer holidays which reminded me that actually, her plight was still within the confines of a very safe, secure and loving home which prevent things becoming too bleak. The quick and fluent switching between Lizzie and Cassie's voices also keeps the book moving at a good pace, full of vitality and life. The mood is light and entertaining. Jordan has struck a perfect balance between amusing her readers but not belittling or patronising mothers or their daughters. The writing is authentic and sensitive.

I wasn't quite prepared for the last quarter of the novel when things take a very dramatic turn of events but this gives the characters a chance to complete their emotional journeys; to mature, gain some understanding and self realisation and wrap the story up in a very satisfying resolution. Be warned though - it's a bit of an emotional roller coaster on the way there, with some much more touching, emotional and tear jerking moments to survive first!

The book is about relationships, friendships, growth, deception and grief. The characters are flawed  but the novel is about being able to forgive yourself for being flawed; to accept it and move on. It is about the fragility and strength of life and that "wanting deprives you of contentment and happiness.....don't miss what you actually have.." And I'm going to finish my review with the words of Grandad - "It's not a life, it's an adventure." I hope you enjoy joining Lizzie and Cassie on theirs!

I got a copy of this book for 99p on Kindle on 6th March 2016 - an absolute bargain!

For further recommendations, reviews and bookish chat follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK))

My Review of "The Girl Who Stayed" by Tanya Anne Crosby

I felt slight trepidation before beginning this book as it is another thriller with "Girl" in the title which immediately- and I'm sure deliberately - creates a certain expectation about style, content and genre. However after reading the opening line where it says that Zoe, the main character, sometimes gets a feeling as though something were about to happen and it had come again,  "clinging to this day like cold sweat," I was hooked. What a great use simile to evoke fear, uncertainty and suspense! It continues to build tension with the description of her finding her sister's bike lying in the sand in "twisted death throes " like it needed its "body outlined in white chalk except they didn't do that for bikes." Intriguing!

The reader is thrown straight into the action and confronted with a character and a family trying to deal with the impact of losing a sibling when children. Zoe was ten when Hannah, then eight, disappeared. Her younger brother Nicky was only six. After Hannah's disappearance - which has never been solved nor any body ever found - the family "unraveled like a tapestry." The story flits between modern day where Zoe has eventually returned to the family house on the Sullivan's Island following the death of her parents. She needs to sort out the home in order to sell it after it's been rented out for years. Neither Zoe or Nick wanted to live there following the devastating sadness and bad memories of their childhood. The house is beautifully described and it is used by Crosby to imply heartache, trouble, hurt and anger. It incites suspicion, mystery and drama. To complicate things, Zoe has also run away from an unhappy relationship and her fear of being discovered and the clues about the type of relationship it was exaggerate the sense of grief and pain which will permeate this tale. She also has a rather broken relationship with her brother who is now her only living relative. Zoe finds these bad feelings "cling to her nerves like the yellow film on the curtains."

The second thread of the narrative takes us back to 1986, the year of Hannah's disappearance where we see events from ten year old Zoe's point of view. Zoe was blamed for Hannah's disappearance and held responsible for it. The whole town blamed her and most devastatingly, her own father blamed her and subjected her to much cruelty as a result of his inability to deal with the loss of his second daughter. Thirty years after the event, Zoe remains deeply traumatised by the whole experience, unable to move on and deeply buried beneath the burden of this accusation. The lack of closure and explanations are "like splinters buried in her skin festering every day of her life" and she needed to "root out the septic truths that were poisoning her day by day." Zoe is an unhappy person, in an unhappy relationship with an unhappy past. Worse still, she has no memory of what actually happened during Hannah's disappearance.

Zoe's tormented character isn't easily likeable. She's prickly, bitter, reclusive and difficult. She is disturbed. She is jealous. She is hurt. She is uneasy, overly obsessed with Hannah's disappearance -in fact she's haunted by her, puzzled by her feelings towards her. Did she love her or did she hate her? Zoe has no sense of self worth and she loathes herself. As one of the other character's observes, "Ain't nothing worse than an unloved child." But as the story from 1986 develops and the reader learns more about the family it is easy to understand why she is this way and it does encourage empathy and sympathy towards her.

She is a trapped women. Trapped by the past, trapped by the town's gossip and also trapped by her boyfriend. There is a foreboding sense of violence created from the shadowy threat of her boyfriend Chris, which is then heightened by the malevolent presence of Hannah's ghost.

There is also a question of Zoe's reliability as a narrator which adds depth to the plot and is such an effective way of complicating the reader's ability to figure out the mystery and the truth about what actually happened. Zoe is so confused and troubled that it is difficult to believe that any of her memories, recounts of events or observations about people, are accurate.

The ending was brilliant. The dramatic tension soared in the last section, building to a completely unguessable and unforeseen twist which grips the reader and completely holds your attention until the very very last page.

This story does deserve to be compared with the contemporary psychological thrillers currently in the best seller list and will certainly join them there. It is a good "grip lit" read. Crosby successfully examines how childhood trauma affects decisions we make as an adult through one person's emotional journey of discovery, acceptance and desperate attempts to move on.

Thank you very much to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this novel and the opportunity to read it before publication in return for a fair and honest review.

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK) or sign up on the right for email notifications.

My Review of "Not Working" by Lisa Owens

I like the cover of this novel- it's very stylistic and attractive and it's the main reason I wanted to review it! The critics reviews printed on the cover are also full of praise. The blurb describes Owens' debut as the next "Bridget Jones"- a mix of "Sex and the City" and "I Don't Know How She Does It."

This is a light, entertaining and quirky novel. It is about twenty-something Claire who leaves her job in order to do a bit of soul searching and have some time to think about what she should really do with her life. She spends the next few months largely procrastinating, easily distracted by anything on the internet and social media, and quickly finding it impossible to achieve much in a day. She lives with Luke, her boyfriend of seven years who is a surgeon - completely career focused, dedicated and secure within his choice for a respectable, worthy and stable career.

The novel is written in short, breezy segments with headings like "Tube", "Phone", "Wake" and vary in length from the odd sentence, one off paragraph or a longer extract. This reflects the world of today; we absorb so much information about people through the 160 characters of their Twitter post or Facebook status. We communicate our thoughts and activities with concise efficiency and constantly flick from one opened window to another on our laptops, iPads and phones. It's a really effective technique and shows how much can be revealed about a character from such well crafted snippets. Claire's personality quickly becomes alive and vivid. We engage her with straight away due to rapid fire delivery of her comments and observations. Owens' use of these "soundbites" is clever as it allows her to disclose a lot more information than a traditional narrative and also shows a more interesting range of detail as she can juggle a range of locations and times over which to sprinkle nuggets of Claire's thoughts. It is an informal, contemporary voice and I found I was reading quickly, flying through the pages - totally unaware of how much I had got through as the short pieces help spur you effortlessly further into the novel.

The writing is sharp and humorous. It feels very authentic. Many readers will relate to Claire's comments like "I take the bus to the gym that I can't really afford," and the more humiliating situation of being placed on "the children's table" despite the fact that all these guests are over 25 years old. Claire uses cliches like "exploring my options" when people enquire about her job hunting, but again, this is authentic and indeed this need for some time out is a little bit of a cliche in itself. Owens proves that she is "a writer on whom nothing is lost" as one reviewer commented, by her more subtle observations and use of language. For example, later in the novel Claire explains to her boyfriend that in terms of her job search she is "mentally no clearer but still technically closer". These hilarious statements truly sum up Claire's character. She becomes obsessed with mini projects that allow her to produce "dossiers pulled together from an afternoon's research". They go shopping with the decision to "expand our culinary horizons and cook more at home" but end up with a takeaway. She is a little crazy, a little bit chaotic, a little bit naive, a little bit cringe worthy and a little bit frustrating! All in all she is likeable despite her directionless mooch through life. She often misreads situations and can't really see the truth in her own. She's insecure and in conflict with the different pressures on young women like marriage, career, babies and the unattainable desire to "have it all". She has enough spirit for you to find the time and heart to relate to her and is haphazard and self deluded enough for you not to pity her. Claire is also an unreliable narrator which is effective in exposing more of her vulnerability and induces more comic moments, even if the laugh is sometimes at her expense.

The second half of the novel has a more serious edge to it and explores her relationship with her mother in more depth, as well as her relationship with Luke. Claire does seem to become more depressed and at times it's a little difficult to fully sympathise as some of her problems are her own making. However, I'm not sure she's totally to blame. I think Owens might actually be making a point about the pressure of modern society. Young people have been lead to believe they can "have it all" and are constantly bombarded with information, they can search and access anything at all in a matter of minutes and they are constantly in virtual communication with notifications constantly pinging like rapid gun fire. It is a pressurised world. And I think every one of us has experienced a moment in time when we've questioned our choice of career and whether it is what we really want. Answering that question is hugely difficult and sometimes takes us the best part of twenty years to fathom! I think many readers of Claire's age and generation will relate massively to this coming of age novel for the twenty-somethings.

The Guardian wrote that this was a "deadpan comic debut for the procrastination generation" and Glamour also heralded it as' "voice-of-a-generation observations". These reviews sum up the book well. I'm not sure I'm quite the right target audience for this book but think ten years ago I would have related to Claire more. Owens' is a writer with spark and this is a light read which you will fly through amidst smiles and knowing shakes of your head!

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel in return for a fair review.

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat, follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK) or sign up for email notifications on the right hand side.

My Review of "Hey Yeah Right Get A Life" by Helen Simpson

I have been boring anyone who will listen with quotes from this book all week. Some very lucky people have even had a photocopy of the odd story thrust upon them with fierce instructions to read  immediately. Others are going to find it turning up as a birthday present, house warming present, thanks-for-having-me-for-coffee present or any other lame excuse I can think of to spread the joy of this excellent collection of short stories!

This set of tales focusing on mums in various different scenarios was actually published in 2000, but I've only just discovered it. However, even reading it 16 years later, it is still very resonant and perceptive about the lives of mothers. My youngest has just started school so I am beginning to emerge from the world of nappies, toddlers and weaning- although still rooted firmly enough in the world of sleepless nights and tantrums to not have totally forgotten about the more relentless side of parenting. If I had read this collection even a year ago it might have made me weep with despair but, with a little distance from some of the situations depicted, it had me smiling, snorting, highlighting, rereading and nodding vigorously in vehement recognition and empathy. Don't get me wrong, motherhood is a wonderful gift, an amazing experience, I love my children and count my blessings but....it has been hard, gruelling, challenging and a completely life changing experience which has sometimes been lonely and a little bleak. Simpson acknowledges this continuous conflict felt by every parent and writes about it with perception and wit.

I had four favourite stories. "Lentils and Lilies" shows eighteen year old Jade's perceived view of motherhood. She vows never to "be dead inside" or end up "making rotas and lists and endless arrangements" like her mother who is admired by everyone for achieving such micro management of her family when, in Jade's judgmental eyes, she is merely harassed, nagging and frequently unable to get them to school on time. When Jade accidentally gets involved with helping another stressed mother, she has nothing but contempt and disgust for the woman whose house is "like a propaganda campaign for family values.....a fluttery white suffocation of cliches." Yet I have every confidence Jade will become one such woman  - after all, I said the same and look at me now......!

I loved "Cafe Society" and if this book hadn't had been published so long ago I would have suspected Helen Simpson of stalking me, especially as the child even has the same name as mine and mentions the "collective intake of breath as everyone turns to stare" which seems to haunt me everywhere I go! This story described the last nine years of my life. It was so entertaining, so sharp and so true. Two shattered women meet for a coffee but the presence of the toddler "precludes anything much in the way of communication beyond blinking in morse." His behaviour was described with such wit and accuracy - the tiny details sprinkled over the narrative like the cocoa power on your latte -creating a brilliant, vivid image of the scene and conveying character and atmosphere with scant, concise remarks. The internal voices of the two women show a more complex and serious reflection on motherhood which is more thought provoking and sad. They leave in a sudden hurry as you so often have to with small children resolving "never again," having exchanged "less than 200 words inside this hour."

In "Hey Yeah Right Get A Life" and "Hurrah for the Holidays" we meet Dorrie whose initial enthusiasm for motherhood is wearing thin as her youngest child begins to leave the toddler years behind and Dorrie is forced to confront what is left of her and her life: "She had broken herself into pieces like a biscuit and was now scattered all over the place." She does nothing for herself, through her "constant usefulness to others she has herself become a big fat zero". Dorrie doesn't know how to put herself first as she feels nothing but guilt if she is not busy with tasks for the family all the time. But at the same time she exhausted and consumed with a sense of inferiority and failure after years of dealing with "tempestuous egomaniacal little people." These stories are perhaps the saddest and most poignant in the collection. Her apathy and listlessness generates huge empathy from the reader as she is a caring, loving, indulgent mother who is bullied by her husband. Simpson writes with sensitivity about Dorrie's depressing plight yet the writing remains full of humour and dry, sardonic comments which will bring a broad smile to your face.

I liked the recurrent theme of Doctors and their apathy for female patients; their sense of disinterest in another neurotic mother. They have the skill to silence a woman before she makes them feel obliged to put her on prozac. Another example of Simpson's skilled observation and shrewd insight.

This collection of stories was so enjoyable - I did not find it caustic or cliched but realistic, authentic and reflective. Simpson's writing is intelligent and accomplished. She is highly skilled at creating characters quickly and adeptly, placing the reader firmly in the centre of a scene quickly and effortlessly. These stories and each of the women will stay with me. I have filled pages of a notebook with quotes that I loved and that meant something more personal to me.

There's a lot to be said for the fact that every book has a totally different impact on each individual. Certain books definitely affect you differently depending on whether you are on holiday, over-worked, emotional, ecstatic or at a particular life stage. I think this is one of these books and I appreciate that it won't appeal to every parent or reader however hard I insist, but I would encourage you to give it a go. It's intelligent, pertinent and funny. Simpson is a gifted observer of people and life. I am off to discover more of her books.

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat, follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK) or sign up for email notifications on the right hand side.

My Review of "The English Girl" by Katherine Webb

This book took me a while to get into but once I got stuck in, I became fully immersed in the landscape of the desert which Webb so adeptly describes and the complex emotional journeys of the two female protagonists. I made over four pages of notes while reading this which just goes to prove how taken I became with the writing and development of the novel - I promise that this review will significantly condense those notes into a more "bitesize" portion of a review!

The story begins with Joan in 1958 Muscat. Joan, an archaeologist, has fulfilled her lifetime dream to visit the Oman and the Arabian desert. Her brother Dan is stationed in the army there and this is from where they base their visit. Webb subtly implies a slight mystery here as Dan has fallen out with their mother and Joan has no idea why but cannot get him to talk about it. Joan travels with her fiancé Rory although from the outset there are also hints that this relationship is not quite as happy as it appears. They have had a very prolonged engagement and although frequently confessing and showing his love, Rory seems reluctant to set a date for the actual ceremony. Their relationship is also described as one of companionship, of best friends; they are comfortable together in a way established middle aged couples might behave and appear more like siblings.  Already the stage is set for a story of revelation and intrigue.

While in Muscat, Joan is thrilled to visit Maude Vickery, a famous explorer, travel writer and the first western woman to ever cross the desert. She idolises Maude who is now in her eighties; she was her childhood heroine and a constant inspiration. Joan craves the excitement Maude has had in her life. She wishes her life to be "other than she now knew it".

The novel then splits into a dual time frame, stepping back to Hampshire 1890 and picking up Maude's story. It then alternates between 1890 and 1958 as events begin to unfurl. Maude is eccentric and bad tempered and not always very likeable! She holds a bitter resentment towards Nathaniel Elliot, the first man to cross the desert. She questions Joan intensely about his son Charlie, who Joan has met at the Army Base. Maude's comments imply a fierce jealousy, rivalry and a sense of unsettled scores. This is further complicated by the revelation that they grew up together and Nathaniel was sponsored by Maude's father throughout his childhood.

Maude has a huge sense of injustice and sense of failing despite Joan's assurances that to be the first woman to cross the desert at the turn of the century is an incredible achievement. "The desert changed me. it changed everyone." This concept that the desert holds this enlightenment and elucidation is very powerful and is repeated throughout the novel. The sheer magnitude and solace of the desert is described with effortless beauty and vivid imagery. Webb's writing during these passages was so alluring and bewitching that it completely illustrated the spell it was capable of casting and why Maude and Joan had become so obsessed with it. The "brutal mountains rid notions of walls closing in" and Joan's "heartbeat slowed to keep time with some invisible rhythm of the world around her." I jotted down numerous phrases that I found stunning or seductive but will restrain from sharing all of them for fear of ending up with an A Level essay analysing style and language - it would surely be a brilliant book to use for this!

Joan's time in Muscat becomes more of the adventure she so craves when Maude asks her to visit her servant's son Salim who is imprisoned for his political thinking. This reminds us that this is a dangerous country, one of political unrest and violence. Joan has to travel in disguise as an Arab woman and she finds the experience exhilarating. She makes several visits and the conversations that take place are spiritual and enriching, adding to Joan's journey of self discovery. I particularly liked the story of the "Gareen" who is a companion who walks through life on our shoulder. "We are not supposed to know the way....it does us no good to know the way of our life.... we must only live as we may." Salim advises Joan that "we are none of us helpless unless we choose to be" and this is another important theme in the book. Both women are thwarted by convention, society and men. Both women are ambitious, driven and desperate not to be second place or left behind "which made Maude so desperate," but come up against not only the barriers of their time and also the exploitation of their hearts and emotions. "You don't need to play the cards you've been dealt," Maude tells Joan, "Marriage is not your adventure."

However Maude has old scores to settle. Unwittingly, Joan mistakes Maude for a friend and is drawn into something darker and more dangerous in her own search for self discovery and adventure. She is pulled into something beyond her control. The last third of the book is a dramatic and page turning read, heightened by the brutality of the desert, its "precipitously steep banks," it's vast, undulating mass which has such a profound physical and emotional impact on the characters. It shows you should never underestimate a woman, particularly not a woman in a man's world.

This book is about changing your destiny, confronting the past, self discovery and atonement. It is about retribution and reprisals. It is about siblings, lovers, marriage and women. It is about potential and happiness, distortion and clarity. All set within the extreme, exotic location of Arabia and the desert which changes everyone and everything. As Joan observes, she was moved by its "hugeness..the multitude of it was dizzying" which is an appropriate summing up of how the scenery mirrors her own awakening.

Webb has clearly researched both time frames thoroughly. This historical and political detail is extensive. It does not take over the plot - which remains very people centred - but enhances the tension, suspense and plight of the characters.

This is a saga of a novel for you to become lost in and transported to a different world and a different time. It is well worth a read. I will be looking for Webb's other books now! Enjoy and relish it!

Thanks for reading to the end of this not so "bitesize" after all review! My thanks also to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacUK) or sign up for email notifications on the right hand side.

My Review of "Flawed" by Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern is very well known for her highly successful and popular adult fiction. I have only read "PS I Love You", "The Gift" and "One Hundred Names" and found them easy, romantic, gently humorous reads about contemporary relationships and women. Perfect for a holiday or when you need a bit of a break from the demands of life! I was interested to read her first novel for Young Adults and even more interested when I saw the genre was Dystopian Fiction - I'm a bit of a sucker for a bit of dystopia and spent my teenage years engrossed in it. But with the recent explosion in this genre, particularly for young people, how will she fair against the giant success of titles like "The Hunger Games", "Divergent" and "Delirium"?

"Flawed" opens with its definition: "Faulty, defective, imperfect, deficient......and of a person, having a weakness in character". Celestine, the protagonist, then follows with the statement that she is a "girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white." And she is. Life is straight forward and clear for Celestine. The right choices are obvious and she frequently repeats statements that remind the reader of her perfection. She is the perfect student, perfect daughter, perfect girlfriend and living a perfect life where she mixes within the privileged society of the  "Judge" and feels protected and immune from the threat of the "Whistleblowers" who seek out and punish the "Flawed". Then one day, after the "last perfect moment of my life" Celestine makes an impulsive decision - an emotional reaction to a situation - and everything changes. She is suddenly one of the "Flawed", a regular citizen who has made a moral or ethical mistake in a society that will not tolerate bad decisions. Its mantra is "think before you act"; there is no room for hindsight as the controlling Judges seek to breed a society of forward thinkers, their motive to ensure that the public are never again punished with the financial ruin brought about by bad decisions. The Flawed are branded with the letter "F" either on the temple, tongue, hand or chest depending on their crime and weakness. They wear a red armband also with the letter "F" on it and are shunned by society, their civil rights relinquished and treated as an underclass.

Initially Celestine fights the accusations. She is offered a way out and her mother, whose mask of perfection gradually begins to slip in a world where image is everything, convinces her to lie in order to save herself. But can Celestine do it? Can she let an innocent old man take her punishment? Yet on the other hand, can she lose everything she has, including her family, friends and future, in order to do the right thing? And to add further complication to the decision, it seems the Judge wants to use Celestine to feed the fire of fear for the Flawed; to manipulate her in order to secure his own power and position. Does she become a hero for trying to rid the world of the Flawed or a hero for standing up for them?

This novel is about standing out rather than fitting in. It is about giving a voice to the silenced. It is about a girl who only wanted to fit in making a change through her own self sacrifice and finding an inner strength she did not know she had. It is the start of an adventure; a life changing journey.

It is a novel that raises questions like what is a bad decision? Can you breed forword thinking and eradicate bad decision making? "If you never make a mistake, how do you learn what is right and wrong?"

Teenagers will love this book because it is about making decisions and choosing what sort of person you want to be. It is about the power to make a change. It has all the necessary ingredients for a successful dystopian novel including a reluctant heroine who finds herself under the limelight by accident and  circumstance- a perfect, law abiding girl, who suddenly finds herself cast out on the wrong side of everything. Celestine is a strong female role model.

The style of writing is deliberately very plain and full of statements which helps emphasise the debate about "black and white" and decisions only being "right or wrong." There is a lot of repetition which also re-emphasises the key messages of the book. The chapters are short and action packed. The opening pages establish the key characters and their relationships quickly, throwing the reader straight into the drama.

It's only natural that "Flawed" will be compared to other trilogies but it doesn't mean it's not worthy of a place amongst them. It is not as violent or as harrowing as some of the other dystopian representations but is capable of provoking just as much discussion from the issues it raises. With it's love triangle, sibling rivalry, injustice and drama it has everything that most readers will want from a story and it is a satisfying and appealing read. The ending is really only the beginning and Ahern has enticed the reader enough to make them desperate for the next instalment as soon as they finish the last page. I think Ahern's first foray into Young Adult Fiction is a successful one. This would also make a good film!

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication in return for an honest review.

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