I Remember You by Harriet Evans

Main character Tessa Tennant has left the hectic life of London to return to her home town of Langford, home of her life-long best friend Adam and an abundance of other colourful characters. Langford is facing its own crisis, the must despised Leonora Mortmain is selling some of her land, the beloved Water Meadows, to build a new and huge shopping complex much to the villagers horror. In between all this fuss Tess travels on a teaching holiday with her adult class to Rome where she begins to uncover secrets about Leonora and also embarks on a holiday romance.

Back in Langford after an eventful trip Tessa questions not only those around her but her own decisions in coming back to Langford. Friendship, past mistakes and conservation all rolled into one rather boring book.

Not my favourite read. The characters from main to extras we not believable to me. If grown women in their 30's still call their male friends "Bruv" then I despair!

I bought this book because I liked the front cover....my mistake you know what they say.....

3/10

The Return by Victoria Hislop

When Sonia visits Granada to take dancing lessons with her friend she meets and begins a friendship with an elderly cafe owner who begins telling her or Granada's shocking past. As the story unfolds, he begins to tell her of a family who owned the cafe and how they were devastated by the Spanish Civil war.

The second part of the story goes back in time and delves into each character with such depth that I shed more than a few tears while reading the book. Mother, Father, three brothers and a sister all changed forever by the devastating affects of the war.

Sonia listens enraptured, but there is so much more to the story as she is set to find out.

Brilliant, atmospheric and engrossing, I couldn't stop reading it. It was like looking at a colourful painting while reading. As Hislop describes the dancing, or the smells or the bull fighting you can practically touch the images they are so vivid. She describes things so well without boring the reader. I finished the book with a desperate urge to visit all the places she wrote about.

Another clear 10/10

Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella

I simply can't get enough of Becky Bloomwood and her crazy escapades! In this, the third of the shopaholic series, Becky is engaged to be married and working in Barneys department store in Manhatten, as a personal shopper.

In true Becky style she finds herself stuck in a tug of war that she is personally responsible for. Both her own mum and Luke's mum are both planning a wedding for her on the same date! Her own mum is planning a beautiful family orientated day set at their family home in England, while Luke's mother is throwing a lavish wedding at the Plaza, no expense spared.

Hilariously addictive to read and I was laughing all the way though. More of the same wit and craziness from Becky. Which wedding will go ahead...I'm not going to spoil the ending for you!

9/10

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

A fantastic story of 3 women who despite the odds against them become friends. One of the best books I have read in a long time. Skeeter, Abileen and Minny all live in the same town but live very different lives. As an educated, white young woman Skeeter is under pressure to keep up appearances with her peers and under constant pressure from her mother to get married and look the part she begins to explore the world around her with increasing discomfort. Abileen and Minny are both coloured maid to the white inhabitants of their town. The story unfolds as Skeeter, an aspiring writer decides to log the maid's struggles in bringing up white children and the subsequent degradation they suffer daily at the hands of their employers. At great risk, the women begin meeting in secret and recording their experiences. Shocking, devastating and truly revolting stories emerge and Skeeter begins to see the world she has always accepted begin to peel away before her eyes.

To read this story is an uncomfortable experience, having to accept these things and worse happened to fellow human beings is beyond our comprehension, but without bias but with an abundance of eloquence Stockett tells a tale that I hope people will read in their millions.

This gritty story had my heart thumping with the injustice that the maids had to endure.

A fantastic, fast page-turning read. Brilliant.

10/10