Book Review: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Welcome to Walls of Water, North Carolina, where secrets are thicker than the town's famous fog.
Once upon a time, Willa Jackson's family owned the beautiful house on top of the ridge. Now it symbolises her family's ruin and a legacy Willa longs to escape from.
Paxton Osgood also yearns to break free, especially from her parents' expectations and the heartbreak of unrequited love. Desperate for a distraction, she decides to restore the empty mansion to its former glory. But the discovery of a long buried secret, a friendship that defies time, and a touch of magic, will transform both women's lives in ways they could ever have expected.

I haven't read anything by Sarah Addison Allen before but I found The Peach Keeper really interesting. The book is set in North Carolina and centres around the characters of Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood, two females with very different characters. Paxton has been restoring The Blue Ridge Madam, the big house overlooking the town, she wants to use it's grand re-opening as a hotel to celebrate the town's womens' society of which her grandmother and Willa's were founding members. For Willa, the old house represents the troubles in her family's past. The Jacksons used to own the house and it is something that Willa would rather not be reminded of. However, a human skull is discovered under the old peach tree in the grounds of the house and Willa and Paxton's surviving grandmother's suddenly have a lot of questions to answer.
I did find this book really interesting, I think it was the mysterious events of the past that kept me reading rather than what was happening in the present. For some reason I didn't really take to either Paxton or Willa as characters  but I still enjoyed the strong theme of friendship that the author explored through these two women.
The Peach Keeper is  extremely well written and Sarah Addison Allen is very good at presenting dysfunctional people and relationships. I wish I had taken to the main characters a little more but this won't put me off trying the author's other books.

Dot Scribbles rating: 3.5/5

Many thanks to Hodder for sending me a copy of the book to review, The Peach Keeper is published on Thursday 17th January.

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

They say that the cure for love will  make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live hundreds of years suffocated by a lie.
There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. Even kill for it. Then at last they found the cure. 

Wow is the only word I could think of when reading this book. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get round to reading it but it is a book that will be staying on my shelves forever.
Our protagonist is Lena Haloway and she in ninety-five days from the cure. The cure for Amor Deliria Nervosa, otherwise known as love. Lena lives in a quite similar looking world to our own but in this world love is a disease that people are routinely cured of by their eighteenth birthdays. Lena's older sister has had the operation which removes part of the brain and is now living her life as one of the cured. Lena's mother is not spoken about; she received the procedure three times but again and again it failed. She took her own life, Lena is counting down the days until her own procedure as then she will be safe.
However, Lena does not bargain on meeting Alex. She does not plan on becoming sick with the Deliria but suddenly she is no longer counting down the days to her procedure with excitement but with abject horror instead. How will she live forever without this feeling, without Alex and all he has come to mean to her?
This book just blew me away. It is a fantastic concept and expertly delivered by Lauren Oliver. Although officially young adult fiction, this book is definitely one that is capable of crossing over. Oliver's writing is truly beautiful and I felt that she conveyed love in so many different ways. It is not just about love for another person but a love of life, beauty, music, literature and so many other things that we take for granted every single day.
Lena is an extremely interesting character, her reaction to Alex is fascinating; she has had so much fear instilled in her about falling in love that she is almost frightened of him at first. But in some ways love really is like a disease as when it truly happens, you are powerless to stop it. Alex is also a great character and entirely believable. I liked the fact that Lauren Oliver did not try to over sell him as some YA authors seem to do with their male characters. Alex is very ordinary, he loves Lena even though he is aware of the danger that places them both in.
I can't really say much more about this book without giving the plot away. I do urge you to read it though. It has made me think so much since I finished it and i don't think that a book that has the ability to do that should be missed.

Dot Scribbles Rating 5/5

Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

You can live your whole life not realising what you're looking for is right in front of you.
15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

There has been so much hype about this book, I eventually gave in an bought a copy and I believe it is one of the best decisions that I have made so far in 2011!

Emma and Dexter meet the night of their graduation in 1988, they have a one-night stand but decide to keep in touch when they go off to pursue their new lives post university. So we meet Emma and Dexter on 15th July every year, covering their twenties, thirties, right through to the present day. Dexter follows a career in the media, he is hungry for fame and recognition. Meanwhile Emma wants to be a writer but begins her twenties working in a tacky Mexican restaurant, highly depressed and wondering where it all went wrong.
It was so good to see this relationship develop over the years. Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go; there are times when they are disappointed in each other and times when they are bursting with pride. Whatever happens, it always comes back to these two people, Emma and Dexter. David Nicholls has written quite a simple but totally absorbing story. There were so many times when I completely identified with Emma and Dexter. this book really does make you pause and have a good think about everything.
One Day by David Nicholls gives the reader so many emotions; I laughed, I cried, I was frustrated, happy. It seriously does deserve all  of the hype it is getting, I highly, highly recommend that you give it a go.

New to Dot Scribble's Shelves...

I have been good this week and only bought one book but my wish list has got considerably longer!

I bought:
The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)- Sally is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she ought not to recognise: Mark Bretherick.
Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was cancelled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from her busy life juggling her career and a young family, Sally didn't tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she booked a week off and treated herself to a secret holiday. All she wanted was a bit of peace- some time to herself- but it didn't work out that way. Because Sally met a man- Mark Bretherick.
All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the man on the news is someone Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead...

These two were sent to me by lovely, lovely publishers for review:
The Named by Marianne Curley (Bloomsbury)- Imagine you were able to change the past. By altering one tiny thing, you could start a chain of catastrophic events...
Ethan is Named- he has the ability to travel back in time, where he must use his special skills to try to intercept the dark forces intent on unravelling history. But Ethan is also a normal schoolboy, and leading a single life with a double identity is becoming just too much to handle, especially when even the normal part is getting more and more complicated.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (Penguin)- Alice wakes up on the floor of the gym with a nasty bump on her head, thinking she's still a fun-loving twenty-nine year old starting life with her gorgeous husband and pregnant with her first baby.
To her disbelief, it soon transpires the fall has knocked ten years from her memory and she is actually an uptight thirty-nine year old whose idea of a good time is a three-hour workout followed by committee meetings with the kind of women she used to despise. How on earth did her life come to this? And more disturbingly, how can she not remember giving birth to three children? Why does her husband suddenly hate her? And what can Alice possibly have done that means her beloved sister will barely speak to her?
Seeing herself through fresh eyes, Alice barely recognizes or even likes the person she has become. Can she ever find her way back to the woman she used to be?

So there you go, let me know if you have read any of these or heard anything good/bad about them. Hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, hopefully there will be some sunshine!

Book Review: Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah

Three years ago, something terrible happened to Naomi Jenkins- so terrible she never told anyone.
Now Naomi has another secret- her lover, unhappily married Robert Haworth. When Robert vanishes, Naoimi knows he must have come to harm. But the police are less convinced, particularly when Robert's wife insists he is not missing.
Naomi is desperate. If she can't persuade the police that Robert is in danger, she'll convince them that he is a danger to others. Then they'll have to look for him- urgently.
Naomi knows how to describe in detail the actions of a psychopath. All she needs to do is dig up her own traumatic past...

I thought that Little Face by Sophie Hannah was brilliant so I was a bit nervous about reading the next in the series. I shouldn't have worried though as Hurting Distance was just as good and has made me determined to read the others.
Naomi Jenkins is a rape victim which is the difficult subject that Hurting Distance explores. We do not know immediately what exactly or when it happened by Naomi is an extremely complex character and it is clear to see the devastating affect the rape has had on her life. Her relationship with Robert Haworth is equally as complex; they meet every Thursday at a motorway hotel for three hours, Robert goes home afterwards and Naomi spends the night alone in the same hotel room every week. When Robert doesn't arrive one Thursday she knows that something has happened to him. This takes her on a terrifying journey where she has to lie and manipulate those around her in order to find her missing lover. Naomi, however is not prepared for the fact that Robert's disappearance will cause her to visit the awful and devastating events of her past.
Sophie Hannah reintroduces us to the characters of Detective Sergeant Charlie Zailer and Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse. In Hurting Distance, the focus is more on Charlie, we see how her feelings towards Waterhouse are affecting her personal life and professional judgement. We see much more of Charlie and Simon's boss in this book, Detective Chief Inspector Proust. He is your classic, grumpy policeman but he adds a welcome touch of humour to the book.
I think that Sophie Hannah is an extremely clever writer, she litters the story with clues for the reader to pick up on, you feel as though you are part of the ongoing investigation. I worked some of the plot out but there were many twists and turns that I did not see coming.
I have already ordered the third book in the series and I am looking forward to the next story that Sophie Hannah has in store.

Book Review: Little Face by Sophie Hannah

Little Face by Sophie Hannah is a pure psychological thriller. Alice Fancourt leaves Florence, her two week old daughter in the care of her husband David and goes out for the afternoon. On returning, Alice is distraught and insists that the baby in the nursery is not Florence and that someone must have swapped her child. Alice's situation becomes more desperate when the police are called as David is sure that the baby is Florence and that his wife is either lying or has literally gone mad.
Sophie Hannah has created brilliant characters in this book, she presents all of their flaws, making them particularly believable. My thoughts on Alice Fancourt twisted and turned as I read as did Simon Waterhouse's. He is the detective working on the case but Sophie Hannah shrouds him in mystery too so that the reader becomes highly suspicious of nearly all the characters.
The concept of the book is great and it is a far cry from your average whodunnit. I have the second Sophie Hannah book, The Other Half Lives which I am pleased about as I know that it has some of the same characters. The author ties up most of the loose ends but there are still a few tantalising questions left unanswered, leaving you thinking about the book long after you have finished it.