Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Review - Instructions for Heartbreak by Sarah Handyside

Instructions for Heartbreak by Sarah Handyside
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Release date: 30 January 2025
Back cover blurb: What if heartbreak came with a manual? It starts with a late-night knock on the door. Dee, Liv and Rosa share a flat in south London, while Katie lives close by with her boyfriend. But, when Katie’s nine-year relationship ends – suddenly and brutally – she turns up on their doorstep with no idea what to do next, or how to do anything after spending so long with her life entwined with someone else’s. Out comes the martini shaker (an old, well-washed gherkin jar) and, with an unused sketchbook, an idea. They’ll make Katie the handbook that she needs to process her heartbreak and start rebuilding her life. There are notes on tears, hangovers and roast chicken, scribblings about music, new bedding and pure, white-hot rage. But Katie is not the only one nursing a broken heart. Rosa is a hopeless romantic, despite still reeling from her ex’s infidelity. Scarred by her ex’s parting words, Dee is committed to being commitment-free. And while Liv knows that breaking up with her girlfriend was what she wanted, she can’t help but wonder if she did the right thing. Tested by big life changes, even the closest friendships can fray – could the heartbreak handbook they intended for Katie contain the words they all need to hear?

Katie, Dee, Rosa and Liv have been best friends since they met at Manchester University. They are all happy with their lives, Dee, Rosa and Liv sharing a flat, and Katie living with her boyfriend nearby.

When Katie turns up on the girls doorstep unexpectedly after having her heart broken, they rally round to get her back on her feet. Katie doesn't know what to do with herself, as she was with him for nine years. 

Nine years, and he ends it just like that.

She is to put it simply, devastated.

Who wouldn't be?

But the girls have all had their own share of heartbreak over the years, so in their quest to getting Katie feeling back to normal, they start to write her a book, 'Instructions for Heartbreak', or what to do when your nine year relationship ends and you think the world is ending around you...

Personally, Instructions for Heartbreak is a book I needed to read two years ago having just gone through a messy break up myself. 

Unlike poor Katie I 'only' had almost three years of 'perfect' relationship to pick through, and thankfully had my own circle of friends to get me through, but this book and the fictional book within it, would have been a godsend!

This is a brilliantly written novel about women who bring out the best in each other, and help each other when times are tough!

Instructions for Heartbreak is available to pre-order now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Monday, 27 January 2025

Review - Grace of the Empire State by Gemma Tizzard

Grace of the Empire State by Gemma Tizzard
Publisher: Headline Review
Release date: 28 January 2025
Back cover blurb: As the Great Depression bites, show dancer Grace's Irish immigrant family can't afford the rising rents, nor the medicine that her little sister urgently needs. When her twin brother is injured and can no longer work on the construction of the half-built Empire State Building, Grace steps up - literally. She trades her dancing shoes for worker boots, braving deadly metal work hundreds of feet in the sky. But survival isn't guaranteed. Failure could mean not only losing her job, but also her life, and the livelihood of her family and team. Sparks fly across the great metal beams, as a terrible accident and a split-second decision leaves Grace re-evaluating everything that she thought she knew about herself...








What a wonderful book this is. I love historical fiction, as any regular readers of my blog will know, but this one is a little bit different, and a little bit special.

Grace O'Connell is a dancer dreaming of working on Broadway, but lacking the confidence to audition when her family's life is turned upside down.

Her twin brother Patrick is injured and unable to work. If he can't go to work not only will he lose his job, but also the jobs of his friends and family around him.

Patrick is 'working the steel' part of the men building the iconic empire state building. If one of them goes down, they take the whole team with them...

Not only that but the twin's younger sister Connie is gravely ill, and they need the additional income to be able to pay for her medicines and treatment.

As Grace sees it, there is only one possible solution, she must masquerade as Patrick for enough time to allow his injury to heal and return to work.

They look alike enough for it not to be noticeable, as long as she can learn to do his work effectively, the weeks should pass quickly and no one will ever know.

Except nothing of course is that simple. 

The challenges that the O'Connell family, and those around them are nothing short of devastating. I've not read another historical fiction novel set in the great depression before, but I can only imagine how tough it must have been.

Grace's courage and love for her family are nothing short of outstanding and really shine through in this novel. Grace is an amazingly brave young woman, and if everyone was a little bit more like her, the world would be a much better place. 

Grace of the Empire State is available to pre-order now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Thursday, 16 January 2025

Review - The Favourites by Layne Fargo

The Favourites by Layne Fargo
Publisher:
Chatto & Windus
Release date: 16 January 2025
Back cover blurb: To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn't. My first love was figure skating. Katarina Shaw has always known she’s destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating – and each other – to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating fans with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style and rollercoaster relationship. Until, at the Olympic Games, as the world holds its breath, a shocking incident instantly destroys their partnership. Ten years later, an unauthorised tell-all documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha. If Kat wants to own her story, she must break her silence. As Kat’s account of her dramatic rise and fall alternates with scandalous interviews from the film, The Favourites spins into a dance between passion, ambition and what it truly means to win. Sensational rumours have haunted Kat and Heath’s every step for years, but the truth may be even more outrageous than the headlines.

Heath Rocha and Katarina Shaw are American Figure Skating champions, destined to win big at the Olympics. Everyone loves them, and the Gold medal is almost guaranteed.

The Favourites is told largely from Katarina's (Kat's) point of view and follows Heath and Kat's rise to fame, from their early years of skating together as poor teens with no coach, to the Olympic games.

They are as famous off ice, as they are on. Their relationship is complex and dramatic.

The stuffy skating committees and official boards hate them, the fans love them.

Together they are unstoppable.

Ten years on from the Sochi Olympics, a tell all documentary is being made about them 'the Favourites: The Shaw and Rocha story', and the novel intersperses bits of the documentary with Kat's point of view.

We hear from fellow skaters, coaches and friends of the pair, and wonder who exactly is telling the truth, and who is embellishing.

I saw a quote that described this book as Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones and the Six and thought nah, not possible, but it is genuinely the closest I think I have come to another Daisy Jones style book, and I absolutely loved it. (And it would make a great movie/tv series..)

It's early days of course, but I think The Favourites will be one of my favourite (no pun intended) reads of 2025. It has something for everyone, and was a really enjoyable read.


The Favourites is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sunday, 12 January 2025

Review - the Stranger in the Room by Luca Veste

The Stranger in the Room by Luca Veste
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release date: 16 January 2025
Back cover blurb: A STRING OF MURDERS. AND THE PERSON WHO LINKS THEM ALL IS . . . YOUR DAUGHTER. Alison Lennon receives the worst news a parent can expect - her son, Ben, has been killed, in what looks at first like a random attack on a dark street in the middle of the night. Only, she knows that he isn't the first victim. Mia Johnstone has just turned eighteen. Ready for the next phase of her life, she should be looking forward to university, studying, partying. Instead, she's thinking about how her boyfriend Ben is the third person close to her to have died. Alison believes that Mia killed her son. Mia needs people to stop calling her a killer. And someone is desperate for the truth to never come out . . .








Luca Veste is one of my favourite authors and I think this is now one of my favourite of his releases.

When Ben is killed on his way home from a night out, at first it looks like a random attack. It was late, it was dark, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ben's Mother Alison thinks that there is more to it.

She thinks that Mia, Ben's ex-girlfriend is responsible for his death. It seems like too much of a coincidence after other recent murders in the previously quiet and relatively crime free town where they reside.

The Police urge Alison to let them do their thing, they have a number of lines of enquiry and don't need a grieving Mother meddling in the investigation.

But Alison can't help herself and is in danger of jeopardising the entire investigation with her fixation on her son's ex-girlfriend. 

Is Mia really a killer, or it someone even closer to home?

As further evidence is found, Alison must question everything that she thought she knew in order to find the truth. 

The reality will be devastating, but at least she will have closure for Ben.

I don't want to say too much more, and this review I'm aware isn't as detailed as some as I have written, but I really don't want to give anything away, and need you to discover this gem for yourselves!


The Stranger In The Room is available from 16 January 2025. You can pre-order it now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request in exchange for an honest review.

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Review - The Violinist's Secret by M.J. Hollows

The Violinist's Secret by M.J. Hollows
Publisher: HQ Digital
Release date: 16 January 2025
Back cover blurb: Charlotte Weber is against the Nazi regime and what it stands for, but as she attends Hamburg University, she struggles to make sense of the war she finds herself a part of. Practising her violin for the university orchestra with her friend, Greta, gets her through the days, until Greta fails to meet her one day, and Charlotte goes to her friend’s apartment to find her body inside. The police declare it a suicide, but Charlotte knows it is murder. Desperate to discover who killed her friend, but not knowing where to turn, Charlotte is approached by Nazi spies, who recruit her, believing she is Greta. Caught right in the middle of the regime’s web, Charlotte determines to use her position to subvert the regime from the inside, and find out the truth about Greta once and for all. As the war atrocities heighten, and she witnesses the brutality of the Gestapo, Charlotte begins to discover hidden truths of her closest circle of friends, all of whom have something to hide that would make them targets for the Nazis…




Charlotte Weber is a talented violinist attending Hamburg University in the midst of WW2. The University is a safe haven away from the world that she now struggles to make sense of. 

But is it really as safe as she thinks it is?

Charlotte is somewhat sheltered from the war, her boyfriend Kurt's wealthy family own a factory, so he is protected .. for now, and she herself has her studies, although the Nazi's are always trying to change the curriculum.

But Charlotte is suddenly thrust into the reality of War with no real warning. 

After the sudden death of a close friend, she is approached by a Wehrmacht officer asking for her help. He makes it sound like she has a choice, but Charlotte knows that she doesn't. In order to keep herself, her family and friends safe she must do as asked.

Because Charlotte has both friends and family members with secrets that the Nazi's must not discover. So she must work with them, in order to conspire against them. She knows that her own life is in danger, but when there are so many others at stake that doesn't seem to matter.

Charlotte uses her student status, her dual nationality and her University Orchestra membership to infiltrate clubs, bars and deliver messages whilst trying to remain invisible. But no one is invisible in war time.

Can Charlotte survive long enough to save her friends, or will she bring them all crashing down?

The Violinist's Secret is available from 16 January 2025. You can pre-order it now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Friday, 3 January 2025

Review -the Cleaner by Mary Watson

The Cleaner by Mary Watson
Publisher: Bantam
Release date: 16 January 2025
Back cover blurb: It's not dust she's looking for. It's dirt. Esmie is supposed to be invisible. Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place. Her uniform of leggings and a duster allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy, unseen; an outsider creeping around the edges of privilege. But as she sweeps through the exclusive Woodlands gated neighbourhood, cleaning is the last thing on her mind. Treading silently over the polished wooden floorboards and cloud-soft carpets, Esmie gathers up the mess of broken marriages, quiet deceptions and careless failures. She tucks away their fragments, keeping them safe. For now.  Because one of the residents took from her the person she loves most. She’s not here to clean; she’s here for revenge – and she’ll get it using the weapons her employers unwittingly handed her along with the keys to their homes: their own secrets…





Esmie is supposed to be invisible in her job as 'The Cleaner' in the big houses of the Woodlands exclusive gated community. It's a job she has landed by being calculated and manipulative, just like those who live there.

Esmie isn't actually interested in cleaning. She is looking for revenge, on whoever bought harm to her Brother, Nico.

Nico was a lodger at the Woodlands, a student at the local University. He was doing well, a model student, until he started taking prescription drugs to help him stay up all night studying and everything started to spiral out of control.

Now Nico is in a coma back home, Esmie distraught and determined to get answers from those who put him there.

It is easy for Esmie to snoop whilst trailing a duster behind her, after all, no one pays any attention to the cleaner. Especially those with wealthy privilege. But then the Woodlands residents aren't exactly like other wealthy people, and soon enough questions begin to be asked about Esmie.

Is she really who she says she is? And if she isn't why is she there, and what does she want?

None of the characters in this novel are particularly likeable, and that's okay, because I don't think they are supposed to be. In fact, I think the plot itself is easier to swallow if you don't like the characters because it would be very difficult to understand some of the things that happen if these people were at all likeable - or normal!

I enjoyed the Cleaner, but I'm not sure it's a novel for everyone, but of course you can be the judge of that!

The Cleaner is available from 16 January 2025. You can pre-order it now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.