Skip to main content

Featured

The Battle of the Bookshops by Poppy Alexander #Review

  The Battle of the Bookshops by Poppy Alexander was published by Avon Books on September 25th.  A charming literary-themed novel about a young woman determined to save her great-aunt’s beloved bookshop from extinction by the shiny new competition—which also happens to be run by the handsome son of her family’s rivals. The cute, seaside town of Portneath has been the home of Capelthorne’s Books for nearly a hundred years… The shop, in the heart of a high street that stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea, may be a tad run-down these days, but to Jules Capelthorne, the wonky, dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone, Jules ditches her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop’s hundredth birthday a celebration to remember. Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The bookshop is close to bankruptcy, ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Bone by Bone by Sanjida Kay

Bone by Bone is a psychological thriller which succeeds in creating a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere. It is centred on a mother and daughter, Laura and Autumn who have recently moved to Bristol. Autumn is the victim of bullying by an older boy at the school. In trying to intervene, Laura sets off a chain of events which turns the whole community, children, adults and the establishment against her and isolates Laura further. 

    It is easy to empathise with Laura and Autumn and we are given events from both their perspectives, alternatively. As the suspense is built up, we see Laura becoming cut off from all the usual safety nets until she seems to have no one there to support her. Just as her daughter is bullied by the other children, we see her being bullied by the adults around her. 

    The novel is written in a realistic style which draws the reader in to the situation. The climax of the story stretches the tension to breaking point. In all, I found this debut novel eminently readable, a real page turner in fact.

In short: a dark thriller set in an everyday situation. 

I received a copy of the book in advance of publication by the publishers,Corvus,  in exchange for an honest review. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts