Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 

 

 

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This is a compelling crime novel that I just could not put down.  The first part tells Nick's side from the first day of Amy's disappearance and Amy's by way of a diary that she has been writing for the past seven years.  It is really interesting how you form impressions quickly just because the Author wants to take you down a certain route.  I don't want to give anything away as the plot has more twists and turns than a roller-coaster but suffice it to say that first impressions are not all they seem.

 

I love the way that the whole book is told by just these two voices and the fact that you don't really see the twists and turns coming. It is full of suspense and really good writing and I am really sorry this isn't a longer review but you can't really say too much without giving the plot away.

 

I would highly recommend this as I finished it within 2 days!!!





Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell

 

 

Azincourt, fought on October 25th 1415, St Crispin's Day, is one of England’s best-known battles, in part through the brilliant depiction of it in Shakespeare's Henry V, in part because it was a brilliant and unexpected English victory and in part because it was the first battle won by the use of the longbow - a weapon developed by the English which enabled them to dominate the European battlefields for the rest of the century.

The book centres around Nick Hook who is an expert with the longbow.  It follows his journey from Southern England to across the Channel and one of the most famous battles in history.  Nick is not the most likeable character when we first meet him but he does grow on you and you will him to survive all his battles.

I have to say that the battle scenes are very graphic and sometimes you did need to take a breath but Bernard Cornwell has the amazing ability to make you feel like you are there amongst the soldiers.  You literally fight each step alongside Nick and the men and see each gruesome death but I think this is what makes it such an interesting read.

I do love an historical novel but this is the first one by Bernard Cornwell that I have read and I must say that I don't know why I have waited for so long.  It may be graphic but the story also captures your heart and imagination.  I love the story between Nick and Melisande as this shows a different side to the soldier we come to know in Nick but it also shows just how brutal a place a battlefield can be for a women.

As I said this is my first Bernard Cornwell novel but it won't be my last.





By Any Other Name by Laura Jarratt

“New girl, new school, new home, new life – everything about Holly is new. That's the point of witness protection; nobody knows the truth. But one wrong move will put her whole family in danger..."

 

This is a great premise for a book and I somewhat naively thought it was going to be set in the States as you don't really hear much about witness protection over here but how wrong I was. It is set in a typical English village along with very typical English attitudes to strangers. Holly and her family move into a house she doesn't like and she has to start a school that she knows she won't like. It won't be the same as her old life where she had cool friends and a cool boyfriend.

Holly is a very complex character as she tries to battle her past identity, Louise, with her new one. She tries to think how Holly would act instead of being herself and she falls in with the kind of crowd she wouldn't have looked at twice in her past life. I love the way Laura Jarratt keeps the suspense of what happened to Laura throughout the book, just drip feeding us when she has a nightmare or something reminds her of what happened. I enjoyed reading it this way round as it made you want to see what happened to Louise and you don't really find out the whole story until right near the end.

This book makes you think how you would react if you were in witness protection. You are cut off from everyone you know and love and most of the time you cannot even say goodbye. Imagine not being able to have a facebook or twitter account and not being able to look at your old ones as someone may be watching you trying to find out where you are. Imagine being a teenager going through this and you get exactly what Holly goes through. This book is really well written and the characters are easy to like so much so that you race to the end to find out what happens. I won't give anything away as the journey on getting to the end has to be savoured and not rushed.

 

Many thanks to the wonderful Emma for the book - http://www.bookangelbooktopia.com/