Tag: contemporary fiction

Sometimes it’s the things we don’t say that we need others to hear the loudest . . .

Izzy has always taken everything in her stride but motherhood is proving more difficult than she thought. She keeps telling herself it’s just a phase but the dark clouds are starting to appear.

Neighbour and widower Arthur might be in the winter of his life but he’s not ready to be packed off to a care home. He’s determined to do things his way.

When Izzy hears about Arthur’s big move, she offers to help. But Arthur isn’t telling her the whole story. It takes courage to admit you need a friend and when you feel invisible, all you need is a ray of hope. After all, what if the best is yet to come?

My thoughts:

This was a sweet, moving story about friendship and life. Arthur thinks he’s ready to join his beloved Pearl, but then he meets neighbour Izzy and her newborn daughter Evie, who help him see that life doesn’t have to be over.

Both Izzy and Arthur need help, and their bond provides so much to them both. Their intergenerational friendship is lovely and genuine. It made me think of my grandparents who I miss a lot as I haven’t seen them in such a long time. Older people have so many interesting stories and knowledge to share, a wealth of experience. We all should tap into that if we can.

This was a perfect book to curl up and read, some chocolate and tissues at hand.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Westview belongs on a postcard. Quaint, picture-perfect, a tiny New England town steeped in history and traditions.

Angela has always been everything people in Westview want her to be. She’s supposed to be happy here, but she’s starting to see all the flaws in her seemingly-perfect life and she’s afraid that everyone else will notice, too.

Now, she wants something more than small towns, something bigger than the life planned out for her by a family that has designed and destroyed reputations in Westview for generations.

Owen knows that history can be a lot of lies depending on who tells the story and he’s just discovered the truth about how Westview became a drowned town a century ago. But all he wants is to run away from his own past, from the bad decisions he’s made and the tragedies still haunting him. He’s focused on the future and proving people wrong, even though that means keeping secrets from his friends.

Long before they understood the rumours and grudges that rule their hometown, Angela and Owen were friends for one perfect summer.

Now, as they navigate their senior year of high school and Westview celebrates its Tricentennial, they are reunited, discovering truths about themselves, each other, and the ways their community has been shaped by secrets, lies, and a devastating obsession with perfection.

Jennifer Pierce is a graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she earned a degree in Creative Writing & Literature.

Upon graduation, she moved to England to obtain her Master’s in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. Jennifer has worked with lifestyle websites and academic publishers in Ireland, England, and the United States.

She is currently an Editorial Project Manager at Elsevier and resides in Boston.

Slow Motion is her first novel.

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My thoughts:

This was a moving and bittersweet novel about growing up and moving on. Realising her home town and life look perfect from the outside, her growing dissatisfaction causes Angela to reevaluate things. She doesn’t want to do what everyone expects her to, doesn’t want to attend the same college her parents did, doesn’t want to spend her life in the small town she grew up in.

A chance encounter with Owen, a childhood friend, adds to her desire to make changes and as she and Owen grow closer, both start to become different people.

Love, friendship and the past collide in this beautiful, lyrical story. The language is soothing and flows well, like the water in the town’s famous reservoir. The images of blue water resonate through the novel, creating a sense of calm waiting to be shattered, like a pool as someone dives in.

A wonderful first novel from an exciting new voice, inspired by her own home town.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

A sweeping, moving novel based on an incredible true story.

Picture an old disused telephone box in a beautiful garden, not found easily.

When Yui loses her mother and daughter in a tsunami, she wonders how she will ever carry on. Yet, in the face of this unthinkable loss, life must somehow continue.

Then one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone box in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone box spreads, people travel there from miles around.
Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone box, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Then she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss.
What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels like it is breaking.

When you’ve lost everything – what can you find?

About the Author

Laura Imai Messina was born in Rome, Italy but has been living in Japan for the last 15 years. She works between Tokyo and Kamakura, where she lives with her Japanese husband and two children. She took a Master’s in Literature at the International Christian University of Tokyo and a PhD in Comparative Literature at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

She took a Master’s in Literature at the International Christian University of Tokyo and a PhD in Comparative Literature at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World has been sold in over 21 territories.
Laura can be found on Twitter and on Instagram, or on her website.
Lucy Rand (Translator): Lucy Rand is a teacher, editor and translator from Norfolk, UK. She has been living in the countryside of Oita in south-west Japan for three years.

My thoughts:

Beautiful and moving, this is a joy to read.

It really captures the terrible loss and pain of those left behind, not just after a major tragedy, like a tsunami, but also after those small ones in people’s lives, the deaths of loved ones.

I liked the little lists of characters’ thoughts and asides, it made them more realistic, as we are all made of those little things. Truly a stunning book.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Home can be the most dangerous place…

In a small London bedsit, a radio is playing. A small dining table is set for three, and curled up on the sofa is a body…

Jenn is the one who discovers the woman, along with the bailiffs. All indications suggest that the tenant – Sarah Jones – was pretty, charismatic and full of life.

So how is it possible that her body has lain undiscovered for ten whole months?

My thoughts:

Inspired by one of the saddest real life stories I know, this book deals with some big themes – loneliness, family, mental illness and death.

Jenn’s discovery of the body of a tenant, forgotten and alone, who seems to have had no family or friends around her, sparks a determination to find someone who cared, especially when she realises there is a connection between them. At the same time she’s dealing with her own issues and worries.

Sensitively handled and written, the reasons why Jenn is so desperate for answers slowly reveal themselves in her own life. She’s an interesting protagonist and her hypervigililence around her son makes sense the further the book goes.