Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

Raxter School for Girls has been in quarantine for 18 months after an outbreak of something they call "The Tox". No-one knows what it is or where it came from. It's deadly but the few that are left have changed... Byatt has a second spine, Reese's arm is strange,  it took Hetty's eye and others have things like permanent blisters, second heartbeats etc.

Despite the issues everything muddles along, until Taylor quits boat shift and Hetty is chosen as her replacement, then things start to change, things aren't right. Then Byatt goes missing and Hetty, with spiky Reese, decides she must do something and find her...

The writing style drew me in and I did enjoy this book but the character development was very lacking, even the mains seemed quite flat, although I did like the scenes between Hetty and Reese. Also I wanted more background on everything!

The ending was very abrupt and I was annoyed since I initially believed that this was a standalone novel but I understand that there is a sequel coming out so hopefully that will answer a lot of those currently unanswered questions.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton by Anstey Harris

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

I can't remember why I initially chose this book because it is not my usual style/genre but I'm glad I did because it was a beautiful story of human emotion and connection against a musical backdrop.

Grace is a cellist running a shop making and repairing cellos, violins and violas, all whilst running back and forth to Paris to see her married lover, David. Eventually it transpires that David isn't who she thought he was, a revelation that leads to her damaging her own work on the cusp of a prestigious competition. The incident leads to a new closeness with longtime client Mr. Williams, and her prickly teenage shop assistant, Nadia, both of whom are violinists.

The cast was small in this book, yet effective. I did find David's excessive swearing a little jarring and senseless. Otherwise though I thought the author's writing was beautiful and very lyrical and descriptive. I did want more though, it just ended quite abruptly, I wanted a certain point to be carried to fruition and another point kind of got abandoned.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

9 friends go on a New Year's vacation to a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands but not all of them will leave alive. A body has been found and everyone is snowed in... with the killer!

This book is told in dual timeline - leading up to the murder, and after the body is found - and has 5 points of view/narrators. I struggled at times to separate the voices and would have to use context clues to identify them. The blurb implied that everyone in the group had massive secrets to cover up but actually only a few did. Several of the characters seemed pointless in their inclusion, so little time was focused on them. The secrets we did find out took a little too long to be revealed and one in particular was a bit too cliche and a letdown.

By the end the author seemed confused by her own timeline. In the "now" chapters an unidentified guest was described as missing yet as the "before" chapters got closer to that time no-one was declared as missing. I did quite enjoy the fact that we didn't know who the victim or perpetrator were until the very moment of occurence.

The ending was a little abrupt and there was also a random extra side plot shoe-horned in which had little relevance to the rest of the novel.

3/5 stars

Stef Out x

The Last Lie by Alex Lake

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021

Holy twisty Batman!

Claire believes that her marriage to Alfie is perfect and happy, except for her lack of a baby - despite trying! Little does she know that everything about Alfie is a front. From the very moment they met he has been playing her. She has money - her father is a wealthy estate agent owner - and money makes life easier. He has also had a vasectomy so children were never going to be an issue, for him at least. Things are dull and he wants out. He has a plan for his wife to disappear using an alter ego but then Claire vanishes on her own first...

Alfie was never going to be a likeable person but I confess I wasn't fond of Claire either, she was very obsessed with having a baby but she didn't have much of a personality beyond that. There were a couple of plot points around Claire that weren't really gone into in any depth as well. I thought her mother dying of a drug overdose was going to be a bigger thing. Also I expected more detail about an incident mentioned after Claire's reappearance, regarding a work colleague - spoiler free.

I loved the final third, my jaw dropped when I realised for definite what was going on. Although I did think that the final couple of chapters made for quite a weak ending comparitively.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x

Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

Rumi is struggling to cope following the death of her sister, Lea, in a car accident, the apparent disappearance of her mother and a forced excursion to Hawaii to stay with her aunt for the summer. When she arrives she's grieving, angry with the world - her mother in particular who she feels favoured Lea - and has lost her passion for the  music that she shared with her sister, culminating in a final unfinished song.

This was a beautiful story about grief and how it can colour the memories of the lost person. I loved the variety of characters that Rumi met in Hawaii, Kai was adorable! And Mr. Watanabe was a hell of a character! I loved the lack of romantic entaglements, seeing Rumi figure out her identity and being OK with a lack of interest in dating was reallly refreshing  and great representation,

I especially loved Rumi's growth as a character, I felt like she really matured and learned to open up. The way she repaired her relationship with her mum was beautiful, they both did wrong, admitted it, learned from it and grew as people.

Akemi has a beautiful, lyrical writing style with brilliant description. The Hawaiian accent in writing took a couple of chapters to get used to but it was in no way extreme, not like the Yorkshire dialect in 'The Secret Garden'.

5/5 stars

Stef Out x