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The Way We Are Now by Julie Houston #Review

BRAND NEW from bestselling author Julie Houston comes a powerful story of first love, long-hidden secrets and second chances. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes, David Nichols and Ruth Jones. First love, long-hidden secrets and second chances. Anna Piasecki thought she had left her university heartbreak behind. After spending decades building a successful life, she arrives at sixty with everything as she wants it – a glittering career, a devoted partner and brightest star of all, her brilliant son Noah, the apple of her eye. Theo Mandeville is trapped. Bound by aristocratic duty to his sprawling Yorkshire estate, he has spent decades living the life that was expected of him while regretting the star-crossed romance he walked away from. When their children meet at college, Anna and Theo suddenly find their carefully constructed lives colliding. With a devastating forty-year-old secret hanging over them, can their families survive the truth and do they dare to trust that fate h...

After Alice by Gregory Maguire

    After Alice by Gregory Maguire is a re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Ada, who is mentioned in Lewis Carroll's work, sets off to find Alice and a minute late, tumbles down the rabbit hole herself. We follow her search for Alice in the subterranean world of inconsistent rules and strange happenings, as she meets some of the familiar characters found in the original. Above the ground, Lydia, Alice's sister and Ada's governess are on the lookout for the girls. 

    The premise of the book sounded quite interesting. Modern takes on Victorian literature always appeal to me but I found that the style of writing made it a difficult read. The vocabulary and sentence structure were self- consciously complicated. I also found that that two parallel plotlines, one above and one below the ground seemed separate and unconnected. Including real life people such as Charles Darwin was a nice touch however and Victorian Oxford was a welcome character in the book. 

In short: a slightly disappointing journey down the rabbit hole. 

Thanks to the publishers, Headline, for a copy of the book via Bookbridgr. 

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