Fiction

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes Review

Janereads6 Comments
The One Plus One book by Jojo Moyes next to a cup of tea
The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes, ISBN 9781405909051, 515pp

I read The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes a few months ago while on a long car trip. Luckily my husband drove so I could read. This was a re-read for me but I read this years ago so I couldn’t remember much of the plot. It was the perfect book to read in the car as the plot involves a road trip to Scotland.

If there’s one thing Jojo Moyes does well it’s creating characters who you can’t help but feel for and cheer for. The One Plus One is told from the perspective of four characters. Jess Thomas is a single mum separated from her deadbeat husband and working two jobs to try and make ends meet. Ed Nichols is a rich, talented software developer with a lot of brains but not the best sense when it comes to relationships. Tanzie is Jess’s tween daughter and a math genius. She has the chance for a better future at a new school, but money is an overwhelming obstacle. And Nicky is the teenage son of Jess’s ex who she has taken under her wing. His difference and love of eyeliner makes him the constant target of the local bullies. Continue reading →

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Janereads9 Comments
Photo of The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory Book
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory, ISBN 9781472255877, 310pp

I read The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory when I was in transit. I was flying from Koh Samui in Thailand to Singapore, waiting five hours at Singapore airport, and then flying eight and a bit hours back to Australia. I was also in the midst of a painful rib injury so it wasn’t the best time for me. But The Wedding Date was just the entertaining read I needed to get me through this travel hell. It made time go faster and took my mind off my discomfort. But this book passed by in a bit of a blur. Excuse me if the following review is on the vague side.

Let’s see what I remember… The Wedding Date starts with a meet cute when a power outage strands two people together in a hotel elevator in San Francisco. Alexa Monroe is at the hotel to visit her sister, while Drew is staying there for the wedding of an ex-girlfriend to his friend. He’s even the best man at this wedding. The problem is that he’s lacking a date. Continue reading →

Elevation by Stephen King Review

Janereads8 Comments
Elevation by Stephen King review
Elevation by Stephen King, ISBN 9781473691520, 132pp

Elevation by Stephen King was a quick and easy read (which is why I chose it). My husband has been bugging me to read a book from his vast Stephen King collection for quite a while. I chose Elevation because it’s new and on the short side (only 132 pages).

Like many of Stephen King’s books, it’s set in the small town of Castle Rock. (A place I wouldn’t want to live because weird stuff always happens there!)

Scott Carey is experiencing medical issues – he can’t stop losing weight. He is losing weight without doing exercise or changing his diet. And he looks exactly the same (muffin top and all) even though scales are registering the kilos coming off fast. Continue reading →

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes Review

Janereads3 Comments
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes review
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes review, ISBN 9780718157845, 515pp

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes caught me by surprise. It has now become my favourite Jojo Moyes book apart from Me Before You. I’ve been reading a lot of Jojo Moyes’ backlist lately, ever since my husband gifted me a whole heap of her books. I wasn’t in a huge rush to read this one. Then I read her collection of short stories — Paris For One — and there was a short story about a young married couple living in Paris, just before the outbreak of World War One. I really enjoyed their story and was thrilled to discover it was continued in this book. Continue reading →

Paris for One by Jojo Moyes Review

Janereads14 Comments
Paris for One by Jojo Moyes review
Paris for One and other stories by Jojo Moyes, ISBN 9781405928168, 336pp

Paris for One is a short story collection by Jojo Moyes. I’m a big fan of Jojo Moyes but I don’t usually like reading short stories. I personally prefer novel length books to short stories as just when I start getting invested in the characters and plot BAM… the story ends.

BUT I really enjoyed Paris for One. Firstly, because I love the way Jojo Moyes writes and have read so many of her books over the years. Secondly, because it was a great collection of stories. And lastly, because dipping in and out of these short stories made for great reading at a time when I was finding it hard to concentrate on my reading. Continue reading →

The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus Review

Janereads5 Comments
The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus by Charlaine Harris review
The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus by Charlaine Harris, ISBN 9780575096448, 935pp

For Christmas my husband gave me The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus (along with a whole stack of other books). This bumper bind-up includes five books by Charlaine Harris. For those of you who don’t know, Charlaine wrote the Sookie Stackhouse series of thirteen books which the TV series True Blood was based on. She’s also written a few more series.

The five Lily Bard books in this 935 page brick of a book include:

  1. Shakespeare’s Landlord
  2. Shakespeare’s Champion
  3. Shakespeare’s Christmas
  4. Shakespeare’s Trollop
  5. Shakespeare’s Counselor

These five stories revolve around Lily Bard, who is a plain speaking, tough woman in her thirties who runs a cleaning business. She lives in a sleepy little town named Shakespeare which is located in Arkansas. Lily always seems to get involved in the murders and mysteries that crop up in this small town. She is also the survivor of a brutal attack that left her scarred and in the news a few years ago and she came to Shakespeare for a fresh start. Continue reading →

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Review

Janereads9 Comments
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton review
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, ISBN 9781408889510, 510pp

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton is a book which defies classification. It’s uniqueness will have you puzzling out an unpredictable mystery and at the mercy of an unconventional plot. It’s a hybrid of a book which mixes a classic whodunnit with Groundhog Day, Downton Abbey and The Good Place.

This complicated mystery is set in a once great, but now moldering, manor named Blackheath House. Every night Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered at a party thrown by her parents. This happens every night at the same time. Each day Aiden Bishop, inhabiting the body of a different guest (host), has to try to figure out who the murderer is. He will finally be allowed to escape this ongoing time loop and leave Blackheath once he identifies the murderer. But he is not the only one tasked with solving the murder and other people are bent on stopping him by any means necessary. Continue reading →

Landline by Rainbow Rowell Review

Janereads5 Comments
Landline by Rainbow Rowell review
Landline by Rainbow Rowell, ISBN: 9781409152125, 320 pp

I devoured Landline by Rainbow Rowell over a 24 hour period but it left me with mixed feelings. Landline is about a TV writer, Georgie McCool, who is married to Neal and has two young daughters. When Georgie has to write a new pilot in the lead up to Christmas with her writing partner, her husband takes the kids to his mother’s place without her.

Georgie then can’t reach her husband on the phone. He’s not replying to any of her calls or texts. But then she manages to reach him with an old phone and landline from her childhood bedroom. The only problem is that she’s magically connected to a past version of Neal from years ago before they were married.

Continue reading →