REVIEW: Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

Genre: Historical Fiction, Children/Young Adult

Read: 7th December 2015

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★★★★★ 5 stars!

A truly magnificent story! I'd heard my dad always talk about the movie with John Thaw as Mr Tom, and draw comparisons to life during the war and to that of an evacuee, as he himself had been. He recommended both the movie and the book to me and I always prefer to read the book first, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, staying up late into the night or early hours just to finish the "last 200 pages"! lol. It was sad in parts. The life Willie had known in London and the life he came to know with Mr Tom. Will grew to learn more about life, and death, and the strange emotions he found himself experiencing. But, I'm glad to see Sammy survived! As an animal lover, I hate stories where the dog dies...but Sammy doesn't. A truly wonderful story. Will definitely read it again someday...

REVIEW: The Magpies by Mark Edwards

The Magpies by Mark Edwards

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 31st August 2015

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★★★★★ 5 stars!

I started this book around 11pm and finished it at 5am. I really hadn't intended to read through the night in one sitting - and I'll pay dearly for it tomorrow (or rather, later today) - but I really couldn't put it down. It was easy to read and didn't drivel on about useless shite but stuck with the story. It was psychological without being cerebral. It was brilliant! I loved it. Though I was saddened by the outcome of the major players, after all they'd been through together. But I still shake my head at a man's need to be a man and get bitten on the arse for his troubles. He should've gotten out while he could instead of trying to "fix things". Still I enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down. Maybe now that I have finished it, I can put my head down and sleep before I need to get up...lol

REVIEW: The Cleansing by Bill Rogers

The Cleansing by Bill Rogers

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Read: 23rd August 2015
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★★★ 3 stars

** spoiler alert **

It's hard to rate a book you've enjoyed but still found difficult to get through. The original synopsis for the book was a little misleading in saying someone dressed as a clown was killing in Manchester, or words to that effect. Yes, he was dressed as a clown - but for the first murder only. When the second one came around you would expect him to don the clown costume again and leave his mark once again. But he did not. Especially disappointing since a whole rigmarole was spent in investigations that lead to a delivery of a clown costume, making it seem a significant part of the story. But it didn't amount to anything more than that. That aside, however, my biggest problem with the book was the fact that it was far too wordy. The author went into too much description about things where I felt fewer words were needed. When they visited Soaper's apartment I had to wonder if Caton was in the market for an investment property, the way every room and its furnishings were described. It was redundant. Dialogue and character thoughts trump furnishings. I'm reading a murder mystery, not a prospectus for inner city living.

But in all having said that, I did enjoy the book. I merely skimmed over the "too wordy" areas and concentrated on what I felt was more in line with the story. I did enjoy the relationship between Caton and Kate, and was pleased that there no descriptive focus on the bedroom. Again, this is a murder mystery not a Mills and Boon, so I was pleased on that score. They had good chemistry and flirting, but it wasn't overdone. 

Three stars I think is fair, though I would lean towards three and a half, but not enough for four. There are many more books I've read and enjoyed a whole lot more worthy of a four, so three is fair.

REVIEW: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Genre: Historical Fiction

Read: 31st March 2015

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Purchase: Amazon

★★★★★ 5 stars

One word - WOW! 

I cannot begin to describe this book and it is not one that I would have normally chosen myself. But it was recommended to me, despite it not being my usual genre and style...but I loved it! I would stay up late into the night, sometimes 3am - one morning 6am - devouring each and every line. And although it is an epic tale, it's almost like a Catherine Cookson novel some 600 years earlier.

I did find a few faults. Some of the language and use of the F word I just don't see being used in the Middle Ages, and to me didn't seem right. 

Then there were the unfinished characters. We got the general gist of where Jonathan ended up and Richard got a mention of having died in Syria, but what happened to other characters that seemed to have fallen off the pages and into oblivion? Martha? Francis? Peter of Wareham? Walter, William's lifelong squire and partner in crime? Elizabeth, William's wife? And Ellen, Jack's mother? I know she lived in the forest, but she was there from time to time but no mention of what became of her. I felt as if some characters just weren't finished. Even King Stephen. It wasn't written into the story that or how or when he died, though we assumed he did because Henry was suddenly king.

But my biggest flaw I felt was the book should have ended with Jack's story. He's not even mentioned in the final scenes. Aliena and Tommy are there for the hanging and then it's over to Philip and the Canterbury monks for King Henry's penance. I don't think an epic tale such as this should have ended with Philip doling out lashings on the King...but with Jack. Because the story began with the hanging of Jack's father. So therefore I felt it should have ended with that story and Jack finding out WHY.

But flaws aside, this was a brilliant epic tale, not just about a cathedral or the building of the cathedral, but all the lives that are intertwined and all that surrounds it.

Definitely FIVE STARS!