Review: The Birdcage by Eve Chase

Eve Chase has been one of my favourite authors since I read and adored Black Rabbit Hall, so I was thrilled to receive an early copy of The Birdcage - and look at that beautiful cover!

Twenty years after their last visit, half-sisters Lauren, Kat and Flora are summoned to Rock Point: the beautiful and windswept Cornish cliff house where they sat for their father's most famous painting, Girls and Birdcage. The last time they were all together, in 1999 for the Eclipse, something terrible happened. Now they're back, no one mentions it - which Lauren finds unsettling and confusing, because there's a bit of a gap in her memory...

The Birdcage is a dual timeline story, switching between 1999 and 2019, and told from each daughter's viewpoint.  'Dysfunctional' hardly covers the Finch family. Famous artist Charlie Finch, now in his 60s, has slept with practically every woman he's ever painted. He has three daughters by three different women. Beautiful Flora; cool, clever Kat; and shy Lauren. While Flora and Kat were born six months apart and have had regular contact, Lauren is a new addition to the family and her sisters resent her.

In 2019, Flora, once the most confident of the sisters, is unhappily married with a young son. Kat eschews relationships for work but her business is in trouble; Lauren has withdrawn further into herself but is determined to find out what happened on the day of the Eclipse. Will spending time at Rock Point finally bring them together as a proper family? Hmm...

The Birdcage will appeal to anyone who loves stories about big old houses, family secrets, old mysteries and larger-than-life characters. (I loved Charlie, even though he was a terrible parent. Kat's imitation: "Don't ever smoke girls. Disgusting habit. Right, where are my Camels?") There's a domineering grandmother, a prospective step-mother everyone loves to hate, mysterious men looming out of the mist, lovable Labradors and a parrot called Bertha, who loves to repeat overheard phrases. Beautifully written, with a heart-warming ending that brought a tear to my eye, The Birdcage is utterly fabulous and one of my favourite reads this year.

Thank you to Eve Chase and Michael Joseph for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related Posts:

Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase

The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase

The Glass House by Eve Chase

Review: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Emily Henry is one of my favourite authors. She has a real gift for creating wonderful, relatable characters and fabulously funny stories. Book Lovers is her best novel yet.

Nora is a literary agent often compared to a shark. Charlie is an editor with a publishing house and is Nora's Nemesis after he turned down one of Nora's authors who went on to become a bestseller. The bestselling book in question was a feel-good story set in a small town called Sunshine Falls. For a treat, Nora's sister suggests they take a holiday there but it soon becomes apparent that the Sunshine Falls in real life is not remotely like the one in the book. To make matters worse, everywhere Nora goes she bumps into Charlie. What on earth is HE doing in Sunshine Falls? And is Nora's sister being entirely honest about the reason that they're here too...?

In Book Lovers, Emily Henry takes the popular 'Small Town Romance' trope and pays affectionate homage to it. If you've ever watched one of those Hallmark/Netflix movies where the heroine, a confirmed city girl, ends up in a rural town where she meets a handsome farmer/vet/carpenter, you will have fun spotting the references and enjoying the in-jokes. Book Lovers also has an enemies-to-lovers trope (which I love), so there is lots of fabulously funny dialogue between the lead characters. I adored Nora, who is such a refreshing heroine, much misunderstood by everyone, including her own sister, but I LOVED Charlie, who is a complete sweetheart.

Book Lovers is clever, romantic and brilliantly funny. It would suit fans of modern romantic comedy and authors such as Mhairi McFarlane and Beth O'Leary. One of my favourite reads this year. I absolutely loved it!

Thank you to Emily Henry and Viking (Penguin) for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related Posts:

Beach Read by Emily Henry 
You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry

Review: A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

I chose this book because I adore Joanna Cannon's style of writing and her brilliant, true-to-life characters never disappoint!

A Tidy Ending is about Linda, who lives an ordinary life on an ordinary estate, spending her days clearing up after her messy husband Terry and working in a charity shop. When brochures and catalogues addressed to the previous occupant begin to drop through the letter box,  Linda wonders if she's 'settled' for this dull, boring life of cooking and cleaning, married to the first man who asked her. If her mother had been more supportive, instead of constantly running her down, could Linda have followed her dream to be a hairdresser? Could she have become someone completely different, more glamorous, like the mysterious Rebecca, who lived in the house before her? 

A Tidy Ending puts the lives of 'ordinary' people under a microscope and reproduces their quirky foibles mercilessly. We all know people like this, with their supposedly perfect lives, completely wrapped up in themselves to the detriment of others, keeping secrets, the events that happened in their past still affecting their decisions in the present.

Running alongside the story of Linda and her dissatisfaction with her uneventful life is a murder mystery that has her neighbours completely agog. A succession of women have been killed close to where she lives and the police already suspect Linda's mild-mannered husband. But Linda has more important things to think about!

A Tidy Ending is a story of under-estimating people at your peril, with shades of Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier, and written with deadpan humour. Linda becomes completely obsessed with tracking down the mysterious Rebecca, oblivious to the way her own 'ordinary' life is collapsing around her. Brilliantly written with several jaw-dropping twists, A Tidy Ending is thoroughly recommended!

Thank you to Joanna Cannon and The Borough Press (HarperCollins UK) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Stone Chamber (#25 DI Wesley Peterson) by Kate Ellis

I've loved Kate Ellis's Wesley Peterson series, right from the very first book (The Merchant's House). I think it is the mix of a classic murder mystery with a historical backstory that does it for me.  This one, the 25th in the series (25th!) is perhaps her best yet.

One summer evening, Robert and Greta Gerdner are shot dead at their home in the Devon countryside. DI Wesley Peterson suspects the execution-style murders might be linked to Robert's past police career, until Robert's name is found on a list of people who've been sent tickets anonymously for a tour of Darkhole Grange - a former asylum on Dartmoor. Others on this list have also died in mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson finds the skeleton of a woman buried in a sealed chamber dating back to the fifteenth century at a nearby dig. Is there a connection between the ancient cell and the chilling history of Darkhole Grange?

As always, Kate Ellis has written a brilliantly twisty, cleverly plotted story that is impossible to put down. Multiple characters and multiple threads somehow manage to all connect at the end (I don't know how she does it!), with a reoccurring motif of incarceration. I particularly loved all the spooky houses!

Although this story is the 25th in the series, it is possible to read it as a stand alone. However, there are a lot characters, both regular and new, and it might be easier to at least read the first book to help understand who everyone is.

On of my favourite reads this year, The Stone Chamber would suit anyone who loves classic murder mysteries and authors such as Elly Griffiths.

Thank you to Kate Ellis and Piatkus (Little, Brown Book Group) for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related Posts:

The House of the Hanged Woman (Albert Lincoln #3) by Kate Ellis

The Burial Circle (Wesley Peterson #24) by Kate Ellis

Dead Man's Lane (Wesley Peterson #23) by Kate Ellis

The Boy Who Lived with the Dead (Albert Lincoln #2) by Kate Ellis

The Mechanical Devil (Wesley Peterson #22) by Kate Ellis

The Mermaid's Scream (Wesley Peterson #21) by Kate Ellis

The Death Season (Wesley Peterson #19) by Kate Ellis

The Shroud Maker (Wesley Peterson #18) by Kate Ellis

The Shadow Collector (Wesley Peterson #17) by Kate Ellis

The Cadaver Game (Wesley Peterson #16) by Kate Ellis