Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

This the story of Henry and Claire, who meet when Claire is aged six and Henry in his 30s. They were married when Claire was 20 and Henry 28, which is possible because Henry can time travel. This is not science fiction, but a love story with a difference - a wonderful, strange and original novel which is both moving and funny...

I've had this book for a long time and started reading it a few times. Every time though I found it difficult to get into. But I persevered this time and I was rewarded! What a great read... Although sometimes it is strange as things are happening in the present that were already in the past for one of the couple, but in the future for the other.

Guillermo Martínez: The Book of Murder

Art imitates life. Or does it? One sleepy Sunday morning in Buenos Aires, the protagonist of Martinez's brilliant new mystery finds himself unexpectedly tangled up in the story of Luciana, a former authors' assistant whom he has not seen for at least ten years, and Kloster, a rival writer - only far more successful; bestselling, in fact. What he discovers will make him question everything he had always believed - taken for granted - about chance and calculation, cause and effect. Luciana is desperate. In the decade since she last had anything to do with either of the writers, nearly all her close family have died, in highly unusual circumstances. And Luciana or her sister could be next. Luciana's convinced that her one-time employer Kloster is behind the deaths, punishing her for her part in the break-up of his marriage in a murderous frenzy of revenge worthy of one of his own prodigiously successful crime novels. But which comes first, murder or novel? Clever and gripping, THE BOOK OF MURDER is a chilling crime story in which the line between fact and fiction suddenly seems blurred.

The pace in this book was rather slow and the story was disappointing. Although the novel is well written, I had expected more mystery and thrill.

Joanne Harris: The Evil Seed

It is never easy to face the fact that a man you once loved passionately has found the girl of his dreams as Alice discovers when Joe introduces her to his new girlfriend Ginny. Jealous, Alice is repelled by Giny - an ethereal beauty with a sinister group of friends. Then Alice finds an old diary hidden away in Ginny's room and reads about Daniel Holmes and his friend Robert and the mysterious woman who bewitched them both - Rosemary Virgina Ashley, buried in Grantchester churchyard half a century ago - buried but far from forgotten. As the stories intertwine, past and present are merged into one; Alice comes to realize that her instinctive hatred of Joes' new girlfriend may not just be due to jealousy as she's plunged into a nightmare world of obsession, revenge, seduction and blood.

I have now finished reading this book and I have very mixed feelings about this book and I had nearly given up on it. At the beginning I found the story captivating, but then somehow the pace slowed down and there were too many descriptions of hallucinations in my opinion. I was taken by the references to Dante's Pre-Raphaelites and to vampirism. However, for me, the ending was particularly disappointing, as it leaves the reader with the feeling that Alice is haunted, obsessed and somewhat disturbed...