Mo is a child psychologist but cannot understand her own two children. Dora is full of hormones while her brother Peter is embracing a Victorian persona. Can the family survive the dreaded teenage years?
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is a family comedy novel which made me laugh but I also found it emotional as the family try to negotiate their relationships and feelings.
Mo’s work centres around understanding children and teens but her own offspring are a mystery! I enjoyed this book as both a mum and daughter myself, remembering my hideous teen years and being shocked that my parents put up with me. Also dreading what my own kids will put me through (well, Anya mostly, attitiude and sass at 11, eek!)
There were some real laugh out loud moments in this book. Little dramas become hugely inflated catastrophes. Dawn French has such a turn of phrase and I loved her different narration styles for the three perspectives of Mo, Dora and Peter. The characters are all completely over the top but I loved them!
However, there is also a depth to the characters with their emotions and vulnerabilities. Mo is feeling middle aged and a bit lost now that her children are more independent. Meanwhile Dora and Peter are attempting to create themselves as individuals, making mistakes along the way. All of them want to have a sense of security and belonging as well as be accepted for their true selves.
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is just that: a tiny bit marvellous!
Book blurb
The hilarious number one best seller by comedian and author of Because of You and According to Yes, Dawn French.
Everyone hates the perfect family – so you’ll love the Battles.
Meet Mo Battle, about to turn 50 and mum to two helpless, hormonal teenagers. There’s 17-year-old daughter Dora who blames Mo for, like, EVERYTHING and Peter who believes he’s quite simply as darling and marvellous as his hero Oscar Wilde. Somewhere, keeping quiet, is Dad, who’s just, well…Dad.
However, Mo is having a crisis. She’s about to do something unusually wild and selfish, which will leave the entire family teetering on the edge of a precipice.
Will the family fall?
Or will they, when it really matters, be there for each other?
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the number one best-selling novel from one of Britain’s favourite comic writers.
TRIGGER WANING : Nazi brutality
1942, Paris. Clarisse is an American photographer living secretly in France under Nazi occupation. She wants to document the horrors she witnesses but she also wants to leave her toxic husband. Both aims are dangerous…
The Secret Photograph is a dual timeline historical novel set in the 1940s and 1980s.
Clarisse is distraught at the terrible sights of children rounded up and separated from their families, violence against Jews, and the terror on the streets of her beloved Paris. She is living under a false identity so is in constant fear of being discovered with forged papers. A chance encounter with the flamboyant ‘peacock’ Louis shows her that she may be able to put her photography skills to good use for the resistance.
I really liked Clarisse’s character. She is passionate and determined about her photography but is being smothered by the tyranny of her husband and the Nazi occupiers. Her false identity means that she is in danger but her humanity means she cannot stand by when she sees the oppression in the streets. Her skill at photography gives her a unique platform for spreading knowledge and awareness of the Nazi atrocities whilst placing her in even greater danger.
The author has researched the experiences of Paris under occupation and the historical and geographical setting bring the characters to life. Clarisse’s first meeting with Louis is really special and I loved his subversion of the enforced wearing of the yellow star. I hadn’t heard of the Zazou subculture before so I enjoyed the inclusion and sympathetic depiction in this book.
The Secret Photograph is an emotional and inspiring historical novel.
Book Description:
Nazi-occupied Paris, 1942. Clarisse clutches her camera as hundreds of police swarm the streets. Through her lens she spots a terrified brown-eyed little girl being carried screaming into a truck, her yellow star hanging crooked from her threadbare coat. Clarisse rushes forward to help, but the truck pulls away…
With a fake name written on the papers in her pocket, American photographer Clarisse Alarie knows the dangers of Paris better than most. Haunted by the sight of children being dragged away and carrying a photograph of the brown-eyed little girl everywhere she goes, Clarisse is desperate to make a difference. Meeting handsome resistance fighter Louis is her chance…
Louis introduces Clarisse to Café Capoulade and his underground network of brave men and women fighting tirelessly to end the occupation. Soon, Clarisse is risking her life every day. Taking photographs of the terror that has overcome the beautiful city, Clarisse follows members of the Gestapo and hides in plain sight in order to gather evidence of their terrible crimes.
But Clarisse soon learns of the over-crowded cattle cars leaving Paris carrying even the smallest children, bound for an unspeakably terrible place… Is she already too late to rescue the little girl with the brown eyes? And when Louis himself is arrested, will Clarisse risk everything the network has worked so hard for to save them both?
Set around true historical events that shook the world, The Secret Photograph is a sweeping and utterly gripping wartime tale of courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable terror. Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and Soraya M. Lane will be totally hooked.
Author Bio:
Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.
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You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you’ll love at: http://ow.ly/Fkiz30lnzdo
Two dead police officers with a connection to the royal family. Lady Bea, the king’s granddaughter, and her nemesis DCI Fitzwilliam believe that there is a murderer on the loose but can they find out the truth?
I Spy With My Little Die is the fifth book in the Right Royal cosy murder mystery series. I have previously reviewed the earlier books in the series: Spruced Up For Murder, For Richer For Deader, Not Mushroom For Death, and A Dead Herring.
One police officer is shot in the line of duty but seems to be recovering before dying of an unexpected heat attack. Another officer dies alone in his office, again a sudden heart attack is suspected. But both men have links to the death of a royal so DCI Richard Fitwilliam is called upon to investigate. There is a strong link to events in the past so I think it would be beneficial to have read the previous books in order to better understand the back story about Bea’s husband.
I really love this series so I was a little disappointed that Lady Bea, Perry and Simon do not feature too much in this book. The focus is upon the police dimension and characters which creates a great tension and mystery. However, I wanted more of the personal touch especially between Bea and Fitzwilliam.
The whodunnit element was full of twists and Fitzwilliam’s investigation makes him reconsider and make discoveries about Bea’s late husband and his death. I did guess who the killer was but this did not spoil my enjoyment of watching events play out and I had no idea of the motive.
I Spy With My Little Die is a solid addition to the series but I hope for more of Lady Bea next time.
Book blurb: I Spy With My Little Die
Uncovering a web of conspiracy that intertwines past and present, can Lady Beatrice and DCI Richard Fitzwilliam catch a killer and unveil the truth of her husband’s death at long last?
BREAKING NEWS Second Senior Police Officer Dies Within a Week
A senior officer from the Protection and Investigations (Royal) Services died unexpectedly yesterday. His death comes hot on the heels of Detective Inspector Ethan Preece (43) from City Police, who died of a suspected heart attack last week. Although he’s not yet been named, the dead officer was a greatly respected public figure, who had served in policing for over thirty years. A PaIRS spokesperson has confirmed that ‘neither men’s death is being treated as suspicious at this time’.
With the senior PaIRS officer dead, so is any hope of reopening the inquiry into Lady Beatrice’s husband’s accident fifteen years ago. Unless, of course, there is something that links the two men to the earl’s fatal car crash?
Can she and Fitzwilliam, along with their friends, work together to unravel the mystery and catch a killer before the truth is buried forever?
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Author Bio –
Hello. I’m Helen Golden and I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.
I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.
It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes
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TRIGGER WARNING: racism
1942, Suffolk. Irene is desperate to earn enough money to leave her small village and is determined that she will not marry local farmer Norman. She falls in love with a black American GI but the pair face opposition from everyone. 2022, Ruby returns to Suffolk to sort through her late grandmother Irene’s house and discovers a set of diaries from the war years.
The Locket is a dual timeline book set during WW2 and the present day.
I was instantly swept up in the lives of Irene and Ruby. It is immediately clear that Irene didn’t get her happy ending with Theo as she ended up married to Norman who is Ruby’s grandfather. Ruby’s journey of discovery is therefore ours as well as we wait to find out what happened to the love story of Irene and Theo.
Ruby has her own emotional issues and healing to do as she has split from her boyfriend and also lost her job. She has huge guilt that she wasn’t able to see her grandmother at the end of her life due to covid and I liked this modern reference.
I had mixed feelings about Norman’s sister Philippa in both the past and present: in some ways I was so sad for her as she is always unwanted and seen as a burden. However, her behaviour is spoilt and selfish with a mean streak.
The racism that Theo faces is awful. The author does not use the worst derogatory words but they are implied. It seems incredible that segregation still existed yet it was fine for ethnic minorities to risk their lives for the war effort. Theo endures hardship from every angle and it is relentless. I think the author has researched the era well and addresses the stigma that used to be associated with mixed race relationships.
The Locket is a warm and emotional historical novel.
Book blurb:
England, 1942. ‘It has to stay secret,’ he whispers, placing the locket around her neck. ‘If they find it, they’ll send me away.’ As she holds the locket, glinting in the moonlight, she can’t hold back the tears. ‘I just wish we didn’t have to hide…’
When farmer’s daughter Irene meets Theodore at a village dance, sparks fly instantly. The war has brought him all the way from Louisiana to build a US airbase just across her father’s fields, but as they sway together, there is nothing else in the world. Only his gentle touch and his deep brown eyes.
But being together comes at a price. As Theodore is Black, the might of the US Air Force is against them, and all the members of the little village community disapprove of their relationship. And they will all go to terrible lengths to tear the two young lovers apart…
Decades later, heartbroken Ruby is back at her family’s crumbling farmhouse for the first time in years, after the loss of her beloved grandmother Irene. The roof has fallen in, family photographs are damaged – and her grandmother’s jewellery is nowhere to be found.
When Ruby uncovers her grandmother’s waterlogged diaries, she discovers that Irene treasured one piece of lost jewellery above all. A locket from a man called Theodore. And the missing locket holds the key to unravelling a heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother’s life…
Is someone in the village hiding the locket to keep the truth about Irene and Theodore buried? And can Ruby find a way to honour her grandmother’s memory – or in digging up the pain of the war, will she tear her family apart?
An absolutely breathtaking World War Two story about the power of love in the face of adversity, and how the tragic consequences of war can echo through generations. Fans of Fiona Valpy, The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See will be addicted to this incredible read.
Author Bio:
Natalie is a RITA nominated, USA Today Bestselling author of six novels: The Dress Thief, The Milliner’s Secret (re-titled “The Girl who Dreamed of Paris”), The Wardrobe Mistress, Summer in the Vineyards, The Secret Vow and The Paris Girl that feature sisters, Katya and Tatiana. Since then, Natalie has released Into the Burning Dawn and The Italian Girl’s Secret, books set in the lucious Bay of Naples during the second world war. Now, the latest novel is available and it is called The Girl with the Yellow Star. The story takes place in Cornwall on the glorious north coast, and is a heart-wrenching story of loss, love and challenging choices.
