Tuesday 21 October 2008

Sophie Kinsella: Remember Me?

What a fantastic story and cute chick-lit. Obviously, things are pretty predictable, but that doesn't make it boring at all. There are things that are not predictable and the story overall, even the bits that you can guess, is heart-warming and moving and funny....

Lexi wakes up in a hospital bed after a car accident, thinking it's 2004 and she's a twenty-five-year old with crooked teeth and a disastrous love life. But, to her disbelief, she learns it's actually 2007 - she's twenty-eight, her teeth are straight, she's the boss of her department - and she's married! To a good-looking millionaire! How on earth did she land the dream life??! She can't believe her luck - especially when she sees her stunning new home. She's sure she'll have a fantastic marriage once she gets to know her husband again. He's drawn up a 'manual of our marriage', which should help. But as she learns more about her new self, chinks start to appear in the perfect life. All her old colleagues hate her. A rival is after her job. Then a dishevelled, sexy guy turns up...and lands a new bombshell. What happened to her? Will she ever remember? And what will happen if she does?

Saturday 18 October 2008

Jodi Picoult: The Tenth Circle

A fantastic read! There are constant twists and turns making the reader sympathise with the different characters and taking sides with the victims and the offenders. Interestingly, some parts of the novel are graphic, too!

Trixie Stone comes home from a party claiming she was raped. But, she had actually tried to get him back after he'd broken up with her. Does that mean he did rape her or not?? Trixie's father and mother are going through their own circles of hell due to Trixie's experience, but also due to Trixie's mother's love affair with one of her students.Can the family be saved?!? Or is the family damned to hell?!?

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Diane Setterfield: The Thirteenth Tale

This is a truly fantastic read. I don't want to give anything away here, but the story is full of twists and turns, magic and mystery. I enjoyed "The Thirteenth Tale" right from the first page. Only in the end it was a bit too much. Certain things should not have been written. I love it when I end a book and it still leaves room for imagination. Here, the last two chapters give everything away and nothing is left to ponder about.Having said that I'll probably re-read the story again one time as I want to see if the story reads coherently knowing the end of it...

Vida Winter, a bestselling yet reclusive novelist, has created many outlandish life histories for herself, all of them invention. Now old and ailing, at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to biographer Margaret Lea - a woman with secrets of her own - is a summons. Vida's tale is one of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family: the beautiful and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling, but as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction and she doesn't trust Vida's account. Margaret starts to investigate, and two parallel stories unfold, as she begins a journey to discover the truth - her own, as well as Vida's...