Book Review: The Girl Below by Bianca Zander

After ten years in New Zealand, Suki returns to London, to a city that won't let her in. However, a chance visit with Peggy, an old family friend who still lives in the building where she grew up, convinces Suki that there is a way to reconnect with the life she left behind a decade earlier.
But the more she becomes involved with Peggy's dysfunctional family , including Peggy's wayward sixteen-year-old grandson, the more Suki finds herself mysteriously slipping back in time- to the night of a party her parents threw in their garden more than twenty years ago, when something happened in an old, long-unused air raid shelter...

If I had to sum up this book in one word then I would choose dysfunctional. Everything about it is dysfunctional, the characters, events, settings and emotions. Suki has returned to London after living in New Zealand for ten years. She has no family in the UK but she soon becomes embroiled in Peggy's family. Peggy used to live in the apartment above her when she was growing up. Suki has very vivid memories of her childhood and one night in particular. Her parents threw a party and then something happened in the old air raid shelter in their garden. Something that is still haunting Suki in the present.
I don't want to give the plot away but Suki spends a lot of time with Peggy's family and she comes to realise that she must exorcise the past as her memories are preventing her from having a future.
Bianca Znder writes quite a haunting tale. As a reader, I wasn't sure at times what was real and what was imagined by Suki. The book just oozes mystery, I was intrigued by Suki's past and seriously concerned for her future.
I would recommend this book, it gave me a lot to think about and the story really draws you in.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5

Many thanks to Alma Books for sending me a copy to review, The Girl Below is published on February 24th.

Book Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie Mcguire

Abby Abernathy doesn't drink or swear and she works hard. Abby believes she has buried her dark past, but when she arrives at college, her dreams of a new beginning are quickly challenged by the university's walking one-night stand.
Travis Maddox, sexy, built and covered in tattoos is exactly what Abby needs and wants to avoid. he spends his nights winning money in a floating fight club and his days as the notorious college Lothario.
Intrigued by Abby's resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain celibate for a month, if Abby loses, she must live in Travis's apartment for the same amount of time.
Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match. Or that this is the start of an obsessive, intense relationship that will lead them both into unimaginable territory...

I have such mixed feelings about this book and I shall do my best to explain them. Initially I was absolutely hooked and I couldn't put the book down. But then as I got to know the characters more, I began to dislike them; and whilst I wanted to know what happened, I didn't enjoy it as much. Travis and Abby are both pretty dysfunctional so you know that sparks will fly when they get together. However, I found them a little selfish as they each did several things that they knew would wind each other up. I understand that they are consumed by their intense, passionate relationship, but they showed little regard for the others around them.
Jamie McGuire has created two very interesting characters, just because I didn't like them doesn't mean that they were badly written. Both are trying to escape from their pasts and they must decide if they can do that together or whether their relationship will ruin their future.
Beautiful Disaster is just that, two people in love with disastrous consequences. It was an intense read and I was left wondering how I felt about the characters and the decisions they made.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 3.75/5

Many thanks to the kind people at Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book to review, Beautiful Disaster is out now.

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.