Hobbies and Crafts

2 books as usual please

That Girl from Nowhere by Dorothy Koomson

Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.

As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay...

Out of Focus by Muriel Bolger

When Sandra, the teenage daughter of two respectable country teachers, becomes pregnant, she is sent away from home. Alone in the world except for her baby son, Sandra's world falls apart when he is taken from her. Nearly forty years later, having rebuilt her life in Dublin with a loving husband and two grown-up children, Sandra still struggles with the secrets of her past. She never stops thinking about the son she held for the first few weeks of his life. When, out of the blue, her son contacts her, Sandra thinks she is being given a second chance. But he has his own reasons for seeking her out, and now she has a choice to make ... As her past and present collide, Sandra has to come to terms with the decision her family made all those years ago ... but maybe now there's a chance for her to finally find some peace?

The Truth about you by susan Lewis

Lainey Hollingsworth has spent her whole life on the outside of a secret. Her mother would never discuss the reasons she abandoned Italy when Lainey was a new born, nor has she ever stayed in touch with the family she left behind.

Now Lainey’s mother is dead, taking the secret with her, and leaving Lainey free to find out about her roots.

Her husband, Tom, appears supportive, until he hits her with a bombshell that shatters the very foundations of their marriage. Another secret Lainey never knew anything about.

Shaken, but more determined than ever to find out who she really is, Lainey takes her children to Umbria in search of answers.

What she finds in the sleepy, sunbaked village of her birth turns her world inside out.

Life Saving for Beginners by Ciara Geraghty

Kat Kavanagh is not in love. She has lots of friends, an ordinary job, and she never ever thinks about her past.
This is Kat's story. None of it is true.

Milo McIntyre loves his mam, the peanut-butter-and-banana muffins at the Funky Banana café, and the lifesaving class he does after school. He never thinks about his future, until the day it changes forever.
This is Milo's story. All of it is true.

And then there is the other story. The one with a twist of fate which somehow brings together a boy from Brighton and a woman in Dublin, and uncovers the truth once and for all.

This is the story that's just about to begin . . .

A Gown of Thorns - Natalie Meg Evans

A bittersweet romantic novella set in the rolling valleys of the French Dordogne wine-making region. Perfect for fans of Lucinda Riley, Amy Snow by Tracy Rees and Dinah Jefferies' The Tea Planter's Wife.

Shauna Vincent, a graduate from the north of England, has just learned that the job she set her heart on has gone to a socially well-connected rival. Devastated, she accepts an offer in France from an old family friend - to be au pair to the woman's grandchildren. Within a week, Shauna is deep in the Dordogne. With little to do other than organise her two charges' busy social diaries, she has endless hours in which to explore the magical landscape that surrounds her. Her new home is the ancient Chateau de Chemignac with its vineyards and hidden secrets, including a locked tower room where she unearths a trove of vintage gowns, one of which feels unsettlingly familiar. Then Shauna falls asleep one afternoon in a valley full of birdsong, and has a strange dream of a vintage aircraft circling threateningly overhead. So when she suddenly awakes to find charming local landowner Laurent de Chemignac standing over her - Shauna wonders if the dashing aristocrat might be just the person to help her untangle this unexpected message from the past.

While I was Waiting - Georgia Hill

June 1963, Clematis Cottage, Stoke St. Mary, Herefordshire

I am really not sure why I am writing this. A foolish whim by a foolish old lady and it will probably sit in a box unread and decay much like its writer when Death makes his careless decision.

But perhaps someone will find it. Someone will care enough to read and somehow I know that will happen.

April 2000, Clematis Cottage, Stoke St. Mary, Herefordshire

Tired of her life in London, freelance illustrator Rachel buys the beautiful but dilapidated Clematis Cottage and sets about creating the home of her dreams. But tucked away behind the water tank in the attic and left to gather dust for decades is an old biscuit tin containing letters, postcards and a diary. So much more than old scraps of paper, these are precious memories that tell the story of Henrietta Trenchard-Lewis, the love she lost in the Great War and the girl who was left behind

Mother of Pearl , by Maureen Lee.
The beginning of the war and young Amy meets and falls in love with a young man.
They have a child , but after the war when he comes home things are very different.
A wonderful story of a brave mother who only ever wanted to protect her daughter and all the tragedy that caused.

Survivor, by Lesley Pearse:
first book i have read of hers and i will certainly be reading more.Young Mari leaves a loving family in New Zealand after disgracing herself .The story of a self centered and reckless young woman and her journey at the end of which she becomes a strong, caring and selfless person. Her journey takes her through the war and the life she had to adapt to in the East End of London, then just when she thought all danger had passed she is called upon to risk her life in a dangerous mission.
i love this book, best i have read in ages it has kept up for several nights because i didn't want to put it away.

Sorry, checked yesterday but didn't see this thread. Just got round to checking again.
Here are my suggestions -

A Bespoke Murder by Edward Marston.
(from The Home Front Detective Series)

May 1915. While thousands of Britons fight in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the home front safe. In London, the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German attacks across the city. Amoung the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop.

Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Needy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer - a hunt which carries them from the crime-ridden streets of wartime London to the chaos of the front line. But is the murder simply the result of a tragic excess of wartime hysteria, or perhaps a more premeditated crime?

Sorry, checked yesterday but didn't see this thread. Just got round to checking again.
Here are my suggestions -

A Bespoke Murder by Edward Marston.
(from The Home Front Detective Series)

May 1915. While thousands of Britons fight in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the home front safe. In London, the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German attacks across the city. Amoung the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop.

Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Needy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer - a hunt which carries them from the crime-ridden streets of wartime London to the chaos of the front line. But is the murder simply the result of a tragic excess of wartime hysteria, or perhaps a more premeditated crime?

Waiting for Pammy now, and I have contacted Tess re if she is going to add a second book.

Botheration!!

Now noticed that my first suggestion has posted twice and my second has gone to vapour land!

Here is my second suggestion. (again).


Sorry it's so late.

The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon's Fairfax. by. Christopher Shevlin.

Jonathon's Fairfax was astonished. This was nothing new. His first memory of being astonished dated from the age of three, when his mother casually suggested that, instead of wearing a pair of comfy watertight pants, he should spend the rest of his life holding in his wee and poo.
Now, seventeen years later, he was astonished because a huge terrifying man in a smart dark-red balaclava was asking directions.

The man in the balaclava is on his way to a murder, sparking a series of events that send Jonathon's astonishment to previously unimagined heights. Before long, he is being astonished by secret government documents (lightly buttered), a strikingly cool private detective/loss-adjustor, a low-speed car chase, and a woundingly beautiful girl called Rachel.

thanks Tess, no problem, we don't have Pammy yet. I wondered if that was what had happened.

I have to go out so will be out for the day and back when you are asleep. Will look in when I get back and will not be able to vote though until your 29th am.

Sorry, I'm here at last :-S

Follow You Home by Mark Edwards

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a final adventure before settling down. But after a perfect start, an encounter with a young couple on a night train forces Daniel and Laura to cut their dream trip short and flee home.
Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what happened that night. But as they try to fit into their old lives again, they realise they are in terrible danger—and that their nightmare is just beginning…

Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott

When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn’t the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced. Now, two years later, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is called in to investigate this family again, but this time it’s Olivia who has disappeared. All the evidence suggests that she was here, in the family home, that morning.

But her car is in the garage, and her purse is in her handbag – on the kitchen table. The police want to issue an appeal, but for some reason every single picture of this family has been removed from albums, from phones, from computers.

And then they find the blood…

Has the past caught up with Olivia?