Of Irish Blood

Of Irish Blood by Mary Pat Kelly has a long story arc starting in early 20th century Chicago and moving to pre-WW1 Paris, on through the trenches and hospitals of war-torn France, and then on to Ireland and the stormy period after the Easter Rising, through the Anglo-Irish War and then the Civil War.

The book is based on the life of the author's aunt and it was certainly eventful. Nora Kelly is a strong believable character who sees the best in people and this often leads her down difficult and dangerous paths. She is swept along on the romance of Ireland painted by Yeats and Maud Gonne amongst others but doesn't always understand the nuances of politics. .


Nora discovers a whole hidden part of Paris when she stumbles across the Irish College and meets the students, priest and lecturers. One in particular shapes her life and future direction and the romance and tragedy of their relationship frames the plot.

The main drawback I felt was that the author was trying to show off her knowledge of famous characters who lived in Paris during the early 20th century: Chanel, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scot Fitzgerald, Matisse and many more pass fleetingly across the story without really moving it on. Other historical figures are key: Maud Gonne in particular, and these add to the flavour and plot.

If you like big sagas grounded in history this is the book for you!

I received this copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

War of Flowers

War of Flowers by Jane Thynne

This is the third title in the series with Clara Vine, the actress come spy living in pre-war Nazi Germany.

I really enjoy this series of books which offers a fascinating insight in to the day-to-day life of those living in Germany just before the outbreak of WW2, as the Nazi regime was strengthening its grip on the daily life of its citizens.

The book opens with the murder of a young woman on a cruise ship but then quickly moves to Paris and then wends its way back to Berlin, on to Munich and then on to the Bergdorf, Hitler's mountain retreat. It is now 1938, the Anschluss with Austria , the so-called War of Flowers, has just taken place and the world is trying to understand Hitler and his sabre -rattling. The plot revolves around the lead-up to the annexation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and the appeasement politics of the rest of Europe and Britain.

The murder is actually an unnecessary element to the story - Clara does not really get involved in solving the crime and this thread re-appears occasionally at opportune moments and then comes back to tie the plot of the novel about the resistance and failed Oster coup together in an untidy bow. The actual premise of the novel - life in Nazi Germany, the German film industry and the famous real-life cast of characters does not need this plot device to tell a good story or to create suspense. It is all their in the real-life events.

Clara is a fascinating character, constantly walking a fine line of balancing her increasing fame as an actress with the secret life of feeding information on the Nazi elite back to her spymasters. The real-life events of the Oster plot which highlights the resistance movement that existed in Germany offer an interesting view of Germany and its people at this time.

At the end of the novel Clara is left in an increasingly precarious situation and the reader is left to wonder where Thynne will take her next, especially as war is now looming on the horizon. The major figures from the Nazi elite and their wives all make appearances in this series - but the main character of  Hitler himself is never seen, only spoken about. You are left to wonder if and when Clara will meet Hitler himself and what will happen when they do.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who likes their historical novels well grounded in fact. This series casts a light on a little known aspect of Nazi Germany - the impact on the people themselves. I would say though that the murder element is not needed to move the story forward and would ask the author to only include this device if the plot really needs it!

I received a copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Plenty of tears and laughs

The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin

I have to admit that I'm one of those people who reads the end of the book before I start it - though reading an an e-reader now makes that more difficult. As I read this on my e-reader, technically I didn't know the ending but in this case you do know as soon as you read the opening pages but that doesn't detract from the fact that I really enjoyed this story. Just because we know the ending does not mean that there aren't a few surprises along the way.

 Anna McPartlin makes you laugh and cry - sometimes at the same time as you follow Mia aka Rabbit Hayes through her final days. She is in the final stages of cancer, which makes this sound like a really depressing story but it isn't! As Rabbit relives her memories of her life with her lively Irish family, best friend Marjorie and her first love Johnny we get drawn in to her story, her life and her choices.  We also experience the pain her family and friends feel as they watch her slip away and the ways in which they try to cope with the pain and grief.


I really enjoyed this book and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes a good laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time) in their reading. I thought it was a great story about enjoying life, whatever it throws at us. Recommended to fans of Jojo Moyes!

It's not me its you by Mhari McFarlane

 Delia's life seems perfect - long term boyfriend, lovely home and a job she can coast along in. However, as in all the classic rom-coms in a short space of time she goes from being in  a long-term relationship, to finding out her boyfriend has been cheating on her  - on the night she proposes,  having problems at work, deciding to quit her job and move from Newcastle to London to take stock of her life and decide where she wants to go next. Where she goes next lands her a job with a dodgy boss, a run-in with a good-looking journalist and the resurrection of the comic strip she started in college.

Mhari McFarlane's novel has plenty of the classic rom-com twists  but it is done with good humour and believable, likeable characters. The finished book will benefit from the comic-strip which was missing in the galley but will bring a new dimension to the story and make this one stand out from the other chic-lits on the shelf. I have to admit I had been getting a little bored with the chick-lit books and had started to avoid them but this one made me laugh!

A Greek tragedy for the 21st century

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond

This title updates the Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice to 21st Century Northumberland.

Ella & Claire have been best friends for a long as they can both remember. Now both studying for A levels they cannot imagine a life apart. Ella, who was adopted,  is under pressure from her parents to do well in her A levels, so when their gang suggests a  break away on the coast Ella decides she cannot go. Claire and the group set up camp on the beach and enjoy the freedom from school, family and work for a few days. The group is joined by a strange young man, Orpheus, who seems to have an unsettling effect on the group and Claire feels that Ella should be included in the experience, she is only a phone call away. So a chain of events is set in place which will end in tragedy for the trio.

David Almond has captured the wild beauty of the area and his lyrical recounting of this Greek tragedy for the a 21st century audience is wonderful.

I've just seen the hardback and reading it as a galley on a Kindle the story lost some of its impact. The hardback edition has wonderful illustrations and makes good use of light and dark to capture the highs and lows of a love that echoes down the centuries. This is not in the same vein as the YA novels doing the rounds at the moment involving reincarnation  and lost loves. It is more realistic than that and rooted in the landscape of the north.

A beautiful, lyrical story and will be worth promoting to those readers in schools who like their books with a bit of depth.


I was given this book for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

New York and Shoes

The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani

Valentine is back! In the 3rd book in the series following our favourite shoemaker, we pick up the story immediately after the events in Encore Valentine.
Valentine has finally found her Prince Charming and everything looks set for a lifetime of happiness but Valentine's stubborn nature, perfectionism and drive to be the best designer there is lead to many bumps in the road on the way to marriage and that happy ever after. Both Valentine & Gianluca have to overcome a lot to build up a strong and happy marriage.

The Roncalli family is still as bumptious and lively as ever and there are plenty of laughs but there are some sad moments in this book.  The author has captured the highs and lows of  family life and the shop that is the heart of the family and becomes even more so in this story, as Valentine's empire starts to expand.

The title refers to the factory Valentine starts to produce her own shoes but also to the twists and turns that life brings - we never know what is going to happen next in life, or in this book.

Trigiani's characters are wonderful from my favourites Aunt Feen and Gabriel, to the wider family, and she seems to really capture the atmosphere of New York in all its busy-ness. There are laugh out loud moments but also moments of great sadness.

I don't know if there will be a 4th book in this series but it will be interesting to see what happens next in Valentine's and her extended families lives.

The Secret Place by Tana French

This book was received as a pre-publication release from the Reading Agency.

The book group I belong to read it and this is their review on it:

With high expectations from the blurb, reviews on Amazon and the author recommendations, the group felt badly let down!

The group liked the alternating chapters of past and present but that was felt to be the only positive.

The book was poorly written and the language overly flowery, the school setting was unrealistic (all the book group members work in schools). The creation of the ‘secret place’ in a school to post concerns and worries was a scenario ripe for bullying and was felt to be unbelievable to them and merely a device to kick start the plot. 

There was a complete lack of suspense and the group did no not care ‘whodunnit’ – the majority had already identified the perpetrators of both the crime and the card early in the book! The depiction of both the police and the teenage girls was felt to be stereotypical and one dimensional and the two groups of girls were felt to be indistinguishable from one another. This lack of characterisation made feeling empathy for any of the characters difficult.

The supernatural element was ridiculous and pointless.

There was some poor editing – if the history of Holly’s mum’s relationship with the school and her friends, had been introduced earlier it would have made more sense about the theme of friendship which the author was trying to explore and to use to as a plot device.

Very disappointed!