I haven’t posted as many reviews this month, only eight, but I have read eleven, as I have been getting ahead of December’s reads so I can have a few weeks off. However, all eight books have been really good and it has not made my job of choosing the best three any easier. My top three are all very different in genre but all fabulous reads.
The Christmas Lights by Karen Swan. It isn’t Christmas for me without a festive read from Karen Swan and this year the setting is the beautiful Norweigan Ffjords and mountains. It ‘s very topical as it follows Bo and Zac, Instagram influencers, as they spend Christmas in the mountains photographing their seemingly perfect life. But what happens behind the camera is not so perfect and cracks begin to appear. Love, loss, secrets, lies and a snowy setting make this the perfect Christmas read.
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness is the second book in the All Souls Trilogy. Following directly on from A Discovery of Witches we catch up with Matthew and Diana as they ‘time walk’ to 1590 to escape the Congregation and to search for Ashmole 782. What makes this book stand out is the historical detail and research. In 1590 Matthew goes by the surname Roydon and with poet Christopher Marlowe, Walter Raleigh, Henry Percy and George Chapman make up The School of Night. What makes this remarkable is that Mathew Roydon was a real person and part of the School of Night ands wife was called Diana; this detail shows the skill of Deborah Harkness as an historian and writer. This a fabulous read, gripping, plenty of thrills and surprises along the way and lots of historical detail.
The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd. This is a very topical read as we all seem to have an interest in true crime and documentaries like Netflix’s The Making of a Murderer, and this is the premise for Amy Lloyd’s debut novel. Dennis Danson has spent eighteen years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Samantha starts off as his penpal, she believes in his innocence, but their relationship develops and she leaves her home in England to move to America and begin a romantic relationship with Dennis. After he is released, they are thrown together and have to get to know each other as Dennis adjusts to life out of prison. All the characters are flawed, tension builds and their is an underlying menace and suspense throughout this book. A brilliant concept that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.
I look forward to sharing my thoughts on many more books in December with you all, and of course I will be posting my Top Ten Reads of 2018 with you before Christmas. Thank you for reading my reviews, all my follows and for sharing my reviews with others.
