A Storm in a Teacup by Lucy Cavendish

3.5 Star 

Another hilarious chronicle about not-so-super-mom Samantha Smythe and her naughty children on a "family adventure"—the British beach holiday. With six demanding mouths to feed in her household Samantha Smythe doesn't even have time for a bath. Can all their problems be solved with some sea air at Beachcomber Bay?

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Kathryn - 3.5 Star 

I am dreading saying it but this last novel in the series about Samantha Smythe wasn’t as fabulous for me as the first two. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy A Storm in a Teacup but I felt a bit let down when I realised we were going to be pursuing more of a plot in this story and less being entertained by Samantha’s quirky comments about life and her brood of children.

I know that eventually Cavendish was going to have to move the plot along but I lost poor Samantha in A Storm in a Teacup.  She was thoroughly engulfed by her mission to restore not only her mother-in-law’s garden in Devon but also to try and save the local historical home.  I thought that the children and their problems took a little bit of a backseat to the restoration mission and I missed the focused relations between mother and children.  I also missed her husband John who was absent for most of the novel too - one of the things I’d loved about the prequels was the reality of being a mother while also trying to be a wife.  John and Samantha were very real to me and this didn’t come across in the third installment as much, I was getting a bit worried actually but it seemed to work out in the end!

I did like the introduction of Jamie’s cross-dressing habit as well as Edward becoming a teenager and while I think it was absolutely necessary to introduce some new challenges I felt like they were given huge importance and then dropped and picked up again between the home saving plans.  I also wished we’d been given more time with Baby Sparkle as she’d been such a focus of the last novel.

Having said all this and done my complaining I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the book - I wanted to know more about the family and I got it.  I still love all the characters created by Cavendish and would leap on another installment like a life boat in a flood!

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Reviews of the first two novels in the Samantha Smythe series:

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Walter's Muse by Jean Davies Okimoto

2.5 Star

It’s the first summer of her retirement and librarian Maggie Lewis is relishing the unfolding of sweet summer days on Vashon Island: walking on the beach, reading the classics, and kayaking. But in June when a sudden storm hits the island, Maggie’s summer becomes about as peaceful as navigating whitewater. Not only does her wealthy sister arrive uninvited with a startling announcement; but Maggie finds herself entangled with her new Baker’s Beach neighbor, Walter Hathaway. A famous children’s author and recovering alcoholic, Walter has a history with Maggie they would each like to forget.

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Lydia - 2.5 Star

I’m not sure I was the right demographic to read Walter's Muse. It’s always so difficult when I don’t enjoy a book to write a negative review, but sadly, this one didn’t capture me as much as I’d hoped. Walter’s Muse provided some thought provoking insights and reflections on retiring and having watched my parents go through this life change recently, it interested me to a point, but overall I couldn’t really connect with this one.

 

A romantic at heart, I enjoyed seeing love blooming at any age – and the worries that go with it, as well as the possibility that change and happiness are never out of reach if you’re willing to let it in. I loved Martha Jane’s sense of curiosity and zest for life even in her 90’s.  All in all though, I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters and there wasn’t enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, even though there are plenty of positive reviews for this novel.

I felt Walter’s Muse could have benefited from a few more hours in the editing room. There was repetition to be smoothed over, including Maggie using her librarian’s voice multiple times, descriptions of her sister, Mary Jane’s memory issues being reiterated many times over as well as Maggie having to learn about technology as a librarian. Even worse were a couple of flips between the past tense to the present which completely threw me. I also found the novel clichéd at times, especially some of the novel writing aspects, the metaphors, and even the characters.

There were also some things didn’t necessarily jive for me such as how Maggie forgot her sister’s husband’s name when she was characterized as such a people pleaser and how Mary Jane remembered each time she was forgetting something when in many of my experiences with the elderly whose memories are in decline, I’ve found they tend not to always recall that they’ve forgotten something.

 

Walter’s Muse also needed many more scenes with people for me rather than how Maggie wandered around alone most of the time (particularly the first half of the novel) in her head with long paragraphs describing her every move which I started to skim. I wanted to see an actual Skype conversation with her granddaughter which I think it could have spoken volumes about Maggie’s personality, instead of always being told how she felt about her granddaughter. Also maybe some scenes or phone calls with her daughter? They seemed to be on good terms according to Maggie’s internal dialogue about her. Maybe a phone call to her to complain about her sister’s impending arrival could have helped show her angst more than relaying it in thoughts.

 

Overall, Walter’s Muse picked up about half way through and I was grateful there were more scenes from that point on to grab on to. If you’re a romantic, enjoy novels are about an older generation and bob along gently and can overlook a few editing glitches, you should enjoy this one.

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The Truth About Us by Dalene Flannigan

3 Star

What happens when the past catches up to the present and the truth surfaces? Three women, roommates back in college, find their lives forever altered when one of them feels compelled to confess the secret sin of their past. 

And whose secret is it?

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 Lydia - 3 Star

Should every secret be told?  Does the truth always come out?  Does it set you free?  What if its not your secret to tell? Can we ever really know everything about someone else? The Truth About Us is a fast paced and thought provoking read that raises many questions. It tackles a heavier and controversial subject matter and I was immediately intrigued by the mystery surrounding the three women and their pasts and how it impacts their futures.

Flannigan’s strength is clearly with tense and tender scenes and I quickly began to find myself wanting more of them. The Truth About Us is told via alternating viewpoints and eventually too many memories unfold as the characters wander around doing something without any significant scene taking place. I think actual flashbacks, as much as I’m not a huge fan, might have strengthened this story for me. It probably also explains why my favourite character was Erica. She had the most interactive scenes.

The friendship between these women troubled me. Grace’s depiction of her budding relationship with Erica’s felt real to me and I would have loved a couple more scenes to solidify it, but Jude?  I never completely understood it, especially as she simply responded to an ad for a room for rent and the other two ended up feeling sorry for her and that was pretty much the extent of it. I wanted more details of how they became such ‘close friends’ and they required some serious bonding in my opinion to help and trust one another with the secret like they did. But it never happened. For the most part they just seemed like three women who were thrown together in a house for college. Because of this, it was a stretch for me to believe the events that unfolded, both past and present.

 

Further character development would have definitely strengthened this story. The characters didn’t have much warmth to them and were mostly one sided. Grace was cold and hardened. Jude was lost and her path to redemption damning and Erica was living her life waiting for disaster.  Erica was the only character I really cared about in the end and I loved reading about her relationship troubles with her husband.  Their scenes were tender and heart wrenching.  I loved them.  More of this with other characters would have been beneficial as we never see Grace with anyone else until the end and Jude is only ever seen interacting with her pastor. I understand that they were both more tortured souls, and understandably so, and maybe their distance and detachment was Flannigan’s point, but I needed more from them to grow attached and root for them. I’ve read other novels with tortured souls and grew attached, so something was definitely lacking in this respect.

 

Overall, this was a good read, I just think it could have been much stronger. The plot was interesting, although possibly a bit too heavy on the portrayal of all men as evil, the angst of Erica and her husband came through perfectly and the questions the novel raises were intriguing.

Thank you to Dalene Flannigan for our review copy!

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Anne of Hollywood by Carol Wolper

4 Star

Wily, intelligent, and seductive, with a dark beauty that stands out among the curvy California beach blondes, Anne attracts the attention of Henry Tudor, the handsome corporate mogul who reigns in Hollywood. Every starlet, socialite, and shark wants a piece of Henry, but he only wants Anne. The question is: can she keep him? 

Welcome to a privileged world where hidden motives abound, everyone has something to sell, and safe havens don’t exist. With her older sister Mary, a pathetic example of a royal has-been, Anne schemes to marry her beloved Henry and even more challenging, stay married to this man who has more options than most and less guilt than is good for either of them. Success will mean contending with backstabbing “friends,” Henry’s furious ex-wife, and the machinations of her own ambitious family, and staying married to a man who has more options than most and less guilt than is good for either of them will take all her skill. Anne will do anything to hold on to the man—and the lifestyle—she adores, however, even if sticking your neck out in Hollywood means risking far worse than a broken heart. With Henry’s closest confidante scheming against her, and another beautiful contender waiting in the wings, Anne is fighting for her life. Can she muster the charm and wit to pull off her very own Hollywood ending?
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Kathryn - 4 Star

Anne of Hollywoodmight not be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Let me first say that I am not an expert on the life of Anne Boleyn (although according to my mother I was picking out portraits of Henry VIII in stately homes across England at the age of two!) but I know a little bit about the time period and the story between the king and his second wife- I did several projects in grade school and read a lot of books even before the popularity of the period really came about with the television series The Tudors. 

I thought that Wolper did a good job of getting the story and characters out into a new time period without straying too far from the original relationships which was certainly a tricky task. I was a bit confused about a couple of things so I did do some digging for example about Theresa Cromwell’s character who was the only one I thought veered off somewhat from her base of Thomas Cromwell. I found Theresa’s role as advisor to the “king” authentic but her personality didn’t really fit with Thomas’. Theresa was certainly interesting but I was a bit confused about her desire to be with Henry herself- certainly not something we know about Thomas Cromwell- however there of course has to be some fiction allowed!

The most difficult part about creating an alternate universe for historical characters is getting a perfect balance of real and fiction.  You don’t want to offend the experts but also want to keep enthralled those who only know a little.  For me the balance was there and very well executed but having finished the novel I wonder if there would be an appeal for someone who knew nothing about the period.  I fear that the novel would be a bit unreachable and even strange if you didn’t know a thing about Anne Boleyn of history- that the characters would not be so reachable.

I only have one true complaint and that was Wolper was occasionally a bit vulgar with the language which turned me off at the beginning. That’s perhaps just me being a prude and all in all I finished Anne of Hollywood very impressed and wondering who I could recommend it to next.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for our review copy! 

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Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

3 Star

Paris, 1940.  A brilliant jazz musician, Hiero, is arrested by the Nazis and never heard from again.  He is twenty years old.  He is a German citizen.  And he is black.

Fifty years later, his friend and fellow musician, Sid, must relive that unforgettable time, revealing the friendships, love affairs and treacheries that sealed Hiero’s fate.  From the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of  Paris – where the legendary Louis Armstrong makes an appearance – Sid, with his distinctive and rhythmic German-American slang, leads the reader through a fascinating world alive with passion, music and the spirit of resistance.

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Lydia - 3 Star

Unfortunately Half-Blood Blues, the 2011 Giller Prize winner, didn’t live up to the hype. The novel appealed to me on several levels, but I found it was mostly whiny men struggling over a woman rather than struggling with racial and war time issues and that of their music and it all seemed a bit *gasp* boring and anti-climactic to me.

 

There were lyrical, poignant and thought provoking descriptions in this novel and some of the sentences invoked wonder as I stopped and went ‘wow’.  But as much as these existed, I never really felt the characters connection to their passion, to the music. It never seemed well described to me which was a surprise considering some of the prose. There were even times that through the slang the narrative slipped into some more elaborate language which brought my reading to an abrupt halt. Would Sid have used those words to describe something? They didn’t seem to fit with his character at all and thankfully this only occurred a couple of times, but it didn’t seem right for a prize winning novel to hold such odd inconsistencies.

 

I almost wish we didn’t have the ending up front which would have made the novel much more suspenseful. Their escape from Berlin would have been nail biting if I didn’t already know they made it out. It made several key scenes anti-climactic. We were even told early on who survived which left little mystery to this novel.  I struggled to continue at times and the only reason I kept reading was the bit of intrigue surrounding how Sid and Hiero parted ways, which was left to the end – so maybe it was needed at the beginning after all to keep me flipping pages.

 

Part of the problem might have been that I didn’t like any of the characters. In fact, they grew more irritating as the novel progressed. We are introduced with a mystery and then catch up with Sid and Chip late in life. Chip has been successful, but is still an egomaniac and compulsive liar while Sid remains a bitter old man - and the story is told from his perspective. Lovely. Rewind back to Berlin and Paris during World War II where they began.  And they are exactly the same. No change or evolution occurred. Add a few other characters in the past storyline – Hiero, whose quiet character was never really developed and Delilah who remains elusive and distant and they are equally not entirely likeable.

 

There wasn’t much emotion in this novel.  Maybe that was missing for me too. It all seemed a bit slow and the only interesting thing I really liked was the introduction of Louis Armstrong which I found liked reading about as I've always loved his music.  

All in all, I really don't believe this was deserving of the Giller, I've read other more powerful novels that have won the same prize and Half Blood Blues doesn't even begin to compare.

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Lost and Found by Lucy Cavendish

5 Star

An honest, hilarious and poignant account of the ups and downs of modern family life

Samantha Smythe has her hands full with three active young sons and an absent husband who’s drinking champagne for breakfast in London. And she’s tying herself in knots trying for a longed-for baby girl … And then out of the blue Samantha’s old friend Naomi turns up and deposits her daughter with her.
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Kathryn - 5 Star

Lost And Found is the sequel to Samantha Smythe’s Modern Family Journal  and is a tug-at-your-heart-strings but still laugh-out-loud hilariously funny novel that I would recommend to anyone who has kids or thinks they might want them in the future or even can appreciate that motherhood is a bit of a crazy ride sometimes.

Cavendish has a wonderful writing style and her Samantha Smythe series comes across as a natural and honest account of one mother’s thoughts. This novel focuses less on the day to day and more on a segment of the family’s lives when Samantha is trying to come to terms with wanting a daughter (maybe!) and then ending up with an old friend’s daughter being left to live with her temporarily.  I think this relationship with little Lexie and her realisation that her old friend Naomi is not what she wants her to be, really helped to grow Samantha’s character for the reader.  I absolutely love the children in these novels- I read in the back of the book that it was important to Cavendish that the children and the husband were real people and she certainly accomplished that.  They are the best!

There’s nothing about this sequel that I didn’t like- one of the funniest things about the first novel are the lists throughout the story of the things her kids won’t eat/will eat, won’t wear/will wear etc.  This book doesn’t have the same lists but there are asides of Samantha’s own thoughts which are just as funny. 

Although I’m not exactly like Samantha (I’m definitely not as patient for a start) I’d like to think that she’s inspired me to be a bit more relaxed about what my kids eat in a week as well as a few other things... I have to admit that I feel a little bit attached to Samantha and I have had to persuade myself that she’s not really someone I can pick up the phone and talk to- it’s always a bit disappointing actually to realise she isn’t real. 

I think I’m going to have a hard time leaving a gap between this book and the last in the series (which is sitting on my shelf calling to me already)!

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Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder

5 Star

Imagine finding yourself divorced and penniless, with no skills and a teenage daughter to support. What if the only way to survive was to do things you never thought possible?

These are questions Sally Benedict has never thought about. Married to a successful businessman, she’s always been a bit of a dreamer. Until now.

Her sister, Zoë, is a detective in the city of Bath. She is fiercely independent, loves her job, and oozes self-confidence in spite of a crippling secret that dates back twenty years and which—if exposed—may destroy her.

The two women haven’t seen each other for almost twenty years, but the horrific murder of a teenage girl is about to change that. Then Sally’s daughter gets into trouble, and Sally suddenly needs cash—lots of it—fast. With no one to help her, she is forced into a criminal world of extreme pornography and illegal drugs; a world in which teenage girls go missing.

Two sisters intent on survival find themselves confronting situations they never expected to face . . . until one of the sisters does something so horrific and desperate that there’s no way back.
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Sabrina-Kate - 5 Star

I'd never heard of this author before and I'd hesitated about starting this book for a few days but as soon as I picked it up, I was hooked. One very big plus for me is the chapters are fairly short and keep the action moving between all of the characters at a quick pace so you're never wondering for long what is going on in the entire picture.

I'd hate to live in the small village where this book is set since it seems like there are quite a few devious characters but it definitely wasn't a book where I could figure out the ending and I appreciated that very much. There were new twists and turns that kept me on my toes and had me racing through pages to get to the next revelation.

This author definitely has a firm grasp on the psyche of humans and the different ways we can close ourselves off, hurt others and generally just be human. Some of the characters are neurotic, some are a bit OCD, some are controlling but all are definitely very believable. The plot is a bit dark, a bit twisted but with momentum that just keeps going and that sucks you in.

Hanging Hill brought up some pretty interesting questions in my mind - how far would you go to protect your family? What would you do if you felt you had no other choice? Definitely food for thought and definitely a book worth picking up (as long as you're prepared to not want to put it down)!

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for our review copy!

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