Book Review · Books

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl [BOOK REVIEW]

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl [BOOK REVIEW]

Nineteen Steps is a beautiful and emotional story about a girl that navigates growing up, finding love and living through tragedy in the midst of World War II.

Synopsis:

It’s 1942, and London remains under constant threat of enemy attack as the second world war rages on. In the Bethnal Green neighborhood, Nellie Morris counts every day lucky that she emerges from the underground shelters unharmed, her loving family still surrounding her.

Three years into the war, she’s grateful to hold onto remnants of normalcy—her job as assisting the mayor and nights spent at the local pub with her best friend. But after a chance encounter with Ray, an American airman stationed nearby, Nellie becomes enchanted with the idea of a broader world.

Just when Nellie begins to embrace an exciting new life with Ray, a terrible incident occurs during an air raid one evening, and the consequences are catastrophic. As the truth about that night is revealed, Nellie’s world is torn apart. When it seems all hope is lost, Nellie finds that, against all odds, love and happiness can triumph.

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 372

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Collins , HQ Stories

Format I read it in: Hardcover

Rating: ★★★★★

Thoughts:

The story is inspired by Millie Bobby Brown’s family history and based on true events about the Bethnal Green tragedy. In all honesty, I wasn’t aware of this tragedy, and it was quite insightful, albeit sad, to learn something new about what people went through during the war.

I also want to give credit to the amazing Kathleen McGurl for ghost writing this book and collaborating with Millie. I haven’t read any of her books yet, but I will definitely be checking them out.

Nineteen Steps follows the life of a young girl, Nellie Morris, who lives with her mum, dad, brother and sister. She works at the town hall, assisting the mayor, and dreams of someday travelling the world, once the war is done.

“But she wanted more from life than to marry the boy next door, the boy who’d said he’d never leave the East End. She wanted to travel, to see the world. When the war was over, she intended to do just that.”

She will very soon experience tragedy and try to continue living with a huge sadness and loss in her heart.

One scene in particular, where a running for a bus is involved, made me cry for hours. For personal reasons, I connected to this scene and it really touched and broke my heart. We get to see Nellie living her day-to-day life, in a very uncertain environment, dealing with things a young woman shouldn’t be dealing with. Her support network through this tragedy is incredible – her family, her friend Babs and of course, Billy, are an incredible help when she is at her lowest. 

We get to see her fall in love, a beautiful romance starts, promising light at the end of the tunnel. Nellie’s first kiss and her thoughts are written so beautifully!

“It felt as though her whole soul was melting into his, as though time had stopped, the world was no longer turning, the war was a distant memory. If ever she had to pick a moment she’d want to last for eternity, she thought, this would be the one she’d choose.”

And then, when everything seems to be going okay, despite the terrible war, Nellie, her family and friends, and the people of Bethnal Green will experience a tragedy that will change their lives forever. Nineteen steps is an emotional rollercoaster. It’s a story full of emotions, from the beginning to the end. There is romance, but it’s not the main part of the book. There is sadness and grief, but it’s a story about looking forward. A story about coming-of-age and being brave when it seems impossible. A story where in times when you cannot be brave, there will be people ready to be brave for you. As a historical romance, it’s not the best in its genre, but it’s a story that will certainly touch a person’s heart.

I recommend it warmly, tissues included!

About The Authors:

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl [BOOK REVIEW]

Millie Bobby Brown is a British Emmy Award–winning actress. She has been featured in the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people and is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Nineteen Steps is her first book.

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl [BOOK REVIEW]

Kathleen McGurl lives in Bournemouth with her husband and cat. She has two grown-up sons who have now left home. She always wanted to write, and for many years was waiting until she had the time. Eventually she came to the bitter realisation that no one would pay her for a year off work to write a book, so she sat down and started to write one anyway. Since then she has sold dozens of short stories to women’s magazines and written three books for writers. These days she is concentrating on longer fiction and has published several dual timeline novels with CarinaUK and HQ. She works full time in the IT industry and when she’s not writing, she’s often out running, slowly.

Website: kathleenmcgurl.com

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Book Review · Books

His Runaway Marchioness Returns by Marguerite Kaye [BOOK REVIEW]

His Runaway Marchioness Returns by Marguerite Kaye [BOOK REVIEW]

On the lookout for historical romance, one particularly set in the Victorian era? Read “His Runaway Marchioness Returns” by Marguerite Kaye.

I am extremely grateful to have received a signed copy of this book by the author herself. Not only that, but she also included a gift made by her own fair hands and I love keeping all my pens and pencils there. If you’re not familiar with Marguerite Kaye, she has written a lot of historical romances and her most recent book aside this one is her collaboration with Sarah Ferguson for the Buccleuch Family series, with “Her Heart for a Compass” and “A Most Intriguing Lady”, a book I still need to read myself.

Synopsis:

From convenient marriage…

To inconvenient attraction!

Industrialist Oliver—the new Marquess of Rashfield—has become Society’s most eligible bachelor. The problem is he’s already married! Honourable Oliver conveniently wed his best friend’s sister Lily years ago, but since then they’ve built separate, fulfilling lives. Now Lily has returned for a long-overdue divorce, but Oliver needs his Marchioness until he secures his inheritance. They’ve never shared a house… sparks are sure to fly!

His Runaway Marchioness Returns by Marguerite Kaye [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 368

Genre: Romance, Historical Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Historical

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★

Thoughts:

The story of Oliver and Lily is very tranquil and unproblematic. They have their past of already having an arranged marriage and Oliver’s situation regarding his inheritance is proving difficult, so they’ve come under the conclusion to marry again. With the new marriage comes a lot of introductions and parties, something I greatly enjoyed while reading the book. Lily’s life in Paris was an interesting change in scenery. I loved her love for theatre and fighting for the performers’ rights.

It was very well flagged, how taboo it is for a woman to be in such an industry and profession and how ill perceived it was at the time – almost always associated with a bad reputation. I liked that Oliver’s views were modern regarding this topic as well as his views on his farms and how business should be run to benefit the workers. What I fear is that this wasn’t really the case. Usually at this time workers had to protest to get their say and it wasn’t always down to a good Marquess that changed the status quo.

I enjoyed Lily and Oliver’s romance. It was a slow burner at first, and then a case of not letting their true feelings show. Both tropes that I quite enjoy in a romance. It’s certainly one of those books you take with you to escape reality for a moment. My only reason for marking it a bit lower is that it’s not as memorable as other similar books I’ve read and I fear it will soon get lost with the other historical romances.

About The Author:

His Runaway Marchioness Returns by Marguerite Kaye [BOOK REVIEW]

Marguerite Kaye is a prolific historical romance author hailing from Argyll’s West Coast. She is a voracious consumer of books, Scotland’s world-class larder, and the occasional cocktail.

Find out more on her website at www.margueritekaye.com

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Book Review · Books

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak [BOOK REVIEW]

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak [BOOK REVIEW] Reading The Forty Rules of Love was like enduring a spiritual journey myself!

Reading The Forty Rules of Love was like enduring a spiritual journey myself! What made this experience even more incredible was that I read this book whilst I was on a road trip across Europe last summer.

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak [BOOK REVIEW] Reading The Forty Rules of Love was like enduring a spiritual journey myself!

Pages: 358

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Penguin

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

Discover the forty rules of love…

Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella’s life – an emptiness once filled by love.

So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.

It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored…

Thoughts:

Even though there is the usual synopsis – this book is so much more than that. Through the lives of Ella, Rumi, Shams of Tabriz, Aziz and many more characters, we were transported to Turkey! And through their stories, we experience love, faith, poetry, freedom and self-fulfilment. Diving into these pages not only made me feel all kinds of ways, but it amplified these feelings.

The culture, the places, the people and the raw emotions spoke to me in a way I haven’t felt in a long time from a book. Perhaps it has to do with the fact I was born in Macedonia. Perhaps with the fact I’ve been to Turkey a couple of times, especially to Konya – a town that features in this book very often. But I think regardless of my biases and experiences, this book would have had the exact same effect on me. It’s so beautifully written and once it was all over, I wanted so much more. I cannot recommend it enough! Below I have listed a lot of my favourite quotes from the book. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did!

“If a stone hits a river, the river will treat it as yet another commotion in its steady tumultuous course. Nothing unusual. Nothing unmanageable. If a stone hits a lake, however, the lake will never be the same again.”

“Love came to Ella as suddenly and brusquely as if a stone had been hurled from out of nowhere into the tranquil pond of her life.”

“For despite what some people say, love is not only a sweet feeling bound to come and quickly go away.”

“The Path to the Truth is a labor of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge, and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart.”

“Intellect and love are made of different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advises. ‘Beware too much ecstasy,’ whereas love says, ‘Oh, never mind! Take the plunge!’ Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden among ruins. A broken heart hides treasures.”

“Most of the problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstandings. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.”

“Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn to see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome.”

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”

“Personally, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with sadness. Just the opposite – hypocrisy made people happy, and truth made them sad.”

“The whole universe is contained within a single human being – you. Everything that you see around, including the things you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees. Therefore, do not look for Sheitan outside yourself either. The devil is not an extraordinary force that attacks from without. It is an ordinary voice within. If you get to know yourself fully, facing with honesty and hardness both your dark and bright sides, you will arrive at a supreme form of consciousness.”

“Did you know that in mystic thought forty symbolises the ascent from one level to a higher one and spiritual awakening? When we mourn we mourn for forty days. When a baby is born it takes forty days for him to get ready to start life on earth. And when we are in love we need to wait forty days to be sure of our feelings.”

“If you want to change the way others treat you, you should first change the way you treat yourself. Unless you learn to love yourself, fully and sincerely, there is no way you can be loved. Once you achieve this stage, however, be thankful for every thorn that others might throw at you. It is a sign that you will soon be showered in roses.”

“While pretty flowers are instantly plucked, few people pay attention to plants and thorns and prickles. But the truth is, great medicines are often made from these.”

“How can love be worthy of its name if one selects solely the pretty things and leaves out the hardships? It is easy to enjoy the good and dislike the bad. Anybody can do that. The real challenge is to love the good and the bad together, not because you need to take the rough with the smooth, but because you need to go beyond such descriptions and accept love in its entirety.”

“Language, he said, did more to hide than reveal the Truth, and as a result people constantly misunderstand and misjudge one another. In a world beset with mistranslations, there was no use in being resolute about any topic, because it might as well be that even our strongest convictions were caused by a simple misunderstanding.”

“In this world take pity on three kinds of people. The rich man who has lost his fortune, the well-respected man who has lost his respectability, and the wise man who is surrounded by ignorants.”

About The Author:

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak [BOOK REVIEW] Reading The Forty Rules of Love was like enduring a spiritual journey myself!

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels. Her work has been translated into fifty languages.

An advocate for women’s rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice a TED Global speaker, each time receiving a standing ovation. Shafak contributes to major publications around the world and she has been awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better. She has judged numerous literary prizes and is chairing the Wellcome Prize 2019.

www.elifshafak.com

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Book Review · Books

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley [BOOK REVIEW]

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley [BOOK REVIEW]

The Seven Sisters is one of those books that whilst you read it, you know you’re reading something special. And once you’re finished, you wish you could read it again for the very first time.

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 622

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

Thoughts:

“Well, as a true artist knows, every rule is there to be broken, every barrier to be pulled down. We have one life, mademoiselle, and we must live it as we choose.”

The book holds so many stories, each of them beautiful and intriguing in their own way. First, we dive into Atlantis, in Pa Salt’s world – and meet his six adoptive daughters. Pa’s death gathers all sisters together and we get the glimpse of their personalities.

But this book’s focus is on Maya, the oldest sister. From Switzerland, her destiny brings her to sunny Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and through the streets of Paris, France. Through Maya, we go a few decades back and witness another love story, also shared between Brazil and France, with the connection of how the Cristol got built and the many secrets that structure holds. Every page kept me glued to the book and I couldn’t put it down in the evenings.

Between three different timelines and two love stories, I thought I’ll have a hard time remembering everything. But the story is so well written that not once did I have an issue. Firstly, I loved getting to know all the sisters. The family dynamic reminded me a bit of the Umbrella Academy. I also loved getting to know Maya and through her -Bel. Bel’s story was heart-wrenching. Her sacrificing her own happiness just to please her family was truly heartbreaking. I loved watching her blossom in Paris and I also enjoyed that the statue of Cristo was part of the love story and the book.

Lucinda combined history and fiction and created a masterpiece. I will cherish this book so much and cannot wait until I get my hands on the next one. Five amazing stars from me.

“I think we often don’t deserve what we get. But then, maybe in the future we get what we deserve.”

About The Author:

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley [BOOK REVIEW]

AKA: Lucinda Edmonds
Lucinda Riley was born in Northern Ireland. After an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four. Her books are translated into thirty-seven languages and sold thirty million copies worldwide. She is a No.1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller.

Lucinda’s The Seven Sisters series, which tells the story of adopted sisters. It is inspired by the mythology of the famous star cluster, has become a global phenomenon. The series is a No.1 bestseller across the world with total sales of over fifteen million copies.

Lucinda and her family divided their time between the UK and a farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, where she wrote her books.

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Book Review · Books

No Life For A Lady by Hannah Dolby [BOOK REVIEW]

No Life For A Lady by Hannah Dolby [BOOK REVIEW]

No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby transported me into the 1890’s, and our strong heroine Violet made that journey quite memorable!

No Life For A Lady by Hannah Dolby [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 400

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Format I read it in: Special Edition Uncorrected Proof

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis:

Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind. Which, in 1896, can make things a little complicated…

At 28, Violet’s father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing.

Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world. But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier.

Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.

Can Violet solve the mystery of Lily Hamilton’s vanishing before it’s too late?

Thoughts:

I am beyond thankful to Tandem Collective, Head of Zeus and Hannah Dolby, for letting me join this special readalong. I was lucky to receive an exclusive interactive readalong edition copy, full with QR codes, challenges and topics to discuss whilst reading the book. The format of the book was very interactive and although it distracted me a bit, I enjoyed finding out about this period in history. What people wore, what was popular at the time, how the streets and towns used to look like, what were people’s main professions, and most importantly, what were the women’s roles in society at this point in time.

First of all, Violet is an amazing character. She knows exactly what she wants(to find her mum) and also what she doesn’t want (to marry). She hires a detective to search for her mum, and she’s also quite busy rejecting men left, right and centre – much to the annoyance of her father. 

The more clues are being discovered, the more unsure Violet is about the investigation and the detective. She starts interacting with Mr. Blackthorn in the hopes that he would be a better detective for this case, but Mr. Blackthorn is set to give up that career path. 

The book highlights the era so well, the way women are treated in society and the audacity that men have.

No respect towards women (with exceptions), yet all they seem to care about is reputation. The part that hurt and angered me the most is the lack of freedom, and no freedom of choice. To be rejected for books in a library, to be denied education and a career, if you so wish to have… Yet they are able to get away with murder. In an environment like this, where all the odds are stacked against her, Violet was a breath of fresh air. I loved that she would stop at nothing to achieve the things she wants.Her determination, dedication and sense of humour made this book so enjoyable. The pace of the book started slowly at first, but then it picked up, and by the end I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

About The Author:

No Life For A Lady by Hannah Dolby [BOOK REVIEW]

Hannah’s first job was in the circus and she has aimed to keep life as interesting since. She trained as a journalist in Hastings and has worked in PR for many years, promoting museums, galleries, palaces, gardens and even Dolly the sheep.

Hannah completed the Curtis Brown selective three-month novel writing course, and she won runner-up in the Comedy Women in Print Awards for this novel with the prize of a place on an MA in Comedy Writing at the University of Falmouth.

She lives in London and her debut novel, No Life for a Lady, will be published in Spring 2023.

Twitter – @LadyDolby

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