allmyprettybooks-new

The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 25th, 2017 Sometimes life carries you in different directions and you don’t even realise you’ve gone down a fork in the road; the great GPS of destiny has not followed the planned route and there has been no sign to indicate you’ve passed the point of no return. Life’s Bermuda Triangle is both myth and reality. Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him as he is dining alone in a Parisian Brasserie. In his mind, he plays over the conversation he will have with family and friends at his luck, and is astounded when the President leaves his hat behind. Rather than offer it back, Daniel takes the hat as his own, and finds himself blessed with mysterious good fortune... only for him too lose the hat himself! I adored this short, uplifting novel, perhaps even more than my preceding read by Laurent, The Red Notebook . It is whimsica

The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 24th, 2017 Nineteen year old Alba Ashby, an intellectual prodigy, feels she has nothing left to live for. Unable to explain why, she finds herself wandering the streets of Cambridge, her hometown, and is drawn to knock on the door of a building she has never seen before: 11 Hope Street. When warmly greeted by the "landlady", she is offered a place to stay for 99 days during which she will be able to turn her life around - with the mysterious, magical assistance of the house itself... The blurb describes this book as "magical realism" though I'd go so far as to say it fringes on "fantasy". I sincerely liked the concept of a "last chance saloon" for women who have otherwise lost hope, particularly with the promise of previous inhabitants (George Eliot and Beatrix Potter among them). Unfortunately, the execution did not live up to my expectations.

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 20th, 2017 The Red Notebook is a delightful novella, translated from the original French by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce: a quintessentially French story of coincidence, opportunity and romance. When bookseller Laurent comes across a luxurious woman's handbag on top of a trash can, he does not believe it was intended to be thrown away. Rather that it was somehow lost by a woman who had loved it dearly, possibly even the remnants of a robbery. When the police prove ineffective at tracing the owner, Laurent takes it upon himself to reunite the handbag with its rightful owner, but since all identifying items have been removed, he can rely only on the dedication in a paperback novel and the jottings found within a simple red notebook. Incidentally, I discovered this translated treasure after googling "books like the film Amelie", which remains one of my favourite cinematic experiences after all thes

Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 22nd, 2017 Good Me Bad Me is the debut thriller from Ali Land which explores the life of teenager, Annie, in the aftermath of her mother's conviction as a serial killer of children. Annie has started a brand new life: a new name, new family, new school and hometown. Only her foster parents know of her background: that her birth mother is the name headlining the national newspapers and TV, that she will soon need to be a witness at court, that her foster father is also her therapist. Now renamed Millie to protect her identity, this fraught teenager must battle with her own thoughts and instincts: the Good Me Bad Me of the title. She wants to be good, to throw away the cloak of malice wrapped around her by years of her mother's abuse and the horrors of what she has endured. But is she as innocent as she seems to the outside world? Now I really, really wish that booksellers would refrain from comparing novel

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 20th, 2017 I should admit that I'd avoided this book for some time. How often I had seen it gracing the displays at Waterstones without paying much thought to the contents, despite the beautiful cover, having wrongfully anticipated that this would be too fantastical, too steampunk for my interest. Now I am very glad to report that not only did I purchase it on a whim, it will now prevail as one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read. The story begins with the mysterious discovery of a pocket watch by Thaniel Steepleton, a civil servant, when he returns to his tiny London apartment after a busy day at work. Mistaking it for a birthday gift from his sister, he receives the gift gratefully, having no idea at the time that in six months it will save his life from a terrorist attack on Scotland Yard. Elsewhere, Grace Carrow is a physicist who dresses like a man in order to g

I'm really looking forward to reading Ali Land's new novel this weekend! Do you think it could be as good as Gone Girl?

In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 13th, 2017 I seem to be on a run of reading feminine noir this month, and was looking for my next read. In A Dark Dark Wood fit the vein of my current genre crush, though I should admit that after having read reviews on Amazon, I was apprehensive about the quality of writing. Perhaps due to this forewarning, I was not disappointed. Ruth Ware's novel is fast-paced and exciting, a murder mystery in which six unlikely people come together in a glass house far from the reach of a mobile phone signal. If Agatha Christie was resurrected in the mind of a chick-lit writer, In A Dark Dark Wood could well be the end result. Most (perhaps all) of the characters are beautiful, trendy or successful: too stereotypical to win any major literary awards. Our main protagonist is Leonora (Nora) Shaw, a crime writer who likes to run. An email invite to the hen night of a friend she has not seen since school intrigues her;

Tor.com has published the 2016 edition of Some of the Best from Tor.com, which is available from now until January 17th on the website , and available wherever ebooks are sold for the duration of 2017. The table of contents includes: “Clover” Charlie Jane Anders “The Art of Space Travel” Nina Allan “The Destroyer” Tara Isabella Burton “Traumphysik” Monica Byrne “The High Lonesome Frontier” Rebecca Campbell “Lullaby for a Lost World” Aliette de Bodard “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” P. Djeli Clark “Breaking Water” Indrapramit Das “Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage” Alix E. Harrow “The City Born Great” N. K. Jemisin “Everything That Isn’t Winter” Margaret Killjoy “The Weight of Memories” Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu “The Maiden Thief” Melissa Marr “The Caretakers” David Nickle “Your Orisons May Be Recorded” Laurie Penny “meat+drink” Daniel Polansky “The Three Lives of Sonata James” Lettie Prell “The Great Detective” Delia Sherman “Finnegan’s Field” Angela Slatter “The Weather” Cai

I See You by Clare Mackintosh Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on January 11th, 2017 Zoe Walker is disturbed when she sees a photo of herself in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, alongside ads for personal services. Accompanied by a dead telephone number and a website which appears to lead nowhere, she wonders if it really is her. Other images follow, of other women. None of whom appear to be looking at the camera. Zoe wonders if it's just a coincidence, or perhaps a practical joke. Until she recognises one of the women on a TV news story, following a brutal attack. Someone is watching women on the Underground, and their intentions are less than pure... I really enjoyed the premise of this fast-paced novel, in which almost everyone could be a suspect, and we, the reader, have no idea what will happen next. Most of the characters are well-developed, adding belief to their motivations and actions, and each strand of the ever-developing mystery blends well. I was a little

After a gorge of fiction during the busy festive period, I gave myself a rest from reading at the start of the new year. Meanwhile, my Kindle was beckoning from the shelf, wondering what next I would download, my first read of 2017. Inspiration struck when I read an interview with Ali Land , author of the upcoming novel, Good Me, Bad Me , which is hailed as the next Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train . I realised I wanted to start my new year reading with something of the same genre, which I have discovered is frequently termed "domestic noir". The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena may not be as well-known as the titles mentioned previously, but hailed impressive reviews on the book sites I frequent. The blurb reminded me of a news story which is still making headlines years on, of the British couple whose daughter was abducted from their hotel room. I wondered if this novel may have been inspired by those real-life events. The story revolves around Anne and Marco Conti, wh