After You - Jojo Moyes

Much like Harry Potter, there are some stories that should just end on their original brilliance and Me Before You was, personally, i think, one of them. The image of Lou Clark strolling through Paris, just living was enough for me. I didn't need to know happened next, but Moyes wrote it so i read it, and depressingly i didn't love it anywhere near as much.

When we remeet Lou, she has traveled a bit and finally settled herself in London, distanced from her family, with no friends and a job in an airport bar she hates, she is back to the rut Will tried desperately to pull her from, however, she seems like a very different Lou, shes lost some of her sparkle and her warmth, it felt a little bit like a new character had stepped into an old story. 

When she falls off the balcony of her flat and meets Lily, the daughter Will didn't know he had, Lou is dragged back into the past and forced to visit ghosts she had left behind, like Wills (now divorced) parents. 

Basically everything is different, her own family seem to have completely changed (how old is Thom now?) Nathan pops in (via Email) Lily is a violent whirlwind that i was torn on whether I actually liked for at least half of the book,

I gave it a 2 and a half stars, I finished it quickly because i wanted to know if Lou would ever get her happily ever after, i liked some of the new characters, but i missed the old brilliance that the previous ones had lost, above all i think, it missed Will, a character hole Lily could never fill. 

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes

This is one of those books that everybody is reading, everybody is talking about, everyone knows about. I didn't, at least not until i watched the film (huge no no for me there, usually, i read the book first!) however once i watched and loved the film i decided i absolutely wanted to read the book.
The book follows Lou Clark, your normal, everyday girl, with a fabulous wardrobe, a life that's not moving anywhere fast, a reliable boyfriend and within the first chapter, she has been sacked from her job of six years.
Desperate to find work in order to help her already stretched family, Lou takes on the role of carer/companion to Will Traynor, a young quadriplegic, with a dark sense of humor who does not want cheerful Lou around.

It's lovely, it is, until the end nothing "big" really happens, things are in the making yes, but there aren't any huge events, but there doesn't need to be, because as we follow Lou and Will you just fall more and more in love with the book itself. Lou is like sunshine, warm, funny, charming, grounded, completely relate-able, Will is deep, complex, some points an arsehole, some points incredibly charming, the supporting characters are all as well weaved and developed, in particular Treena, Lous big sister and Nathan, Wills other Carer.
It is heartbreakingly beautiful, sad but happy, a whirlwind of emotions played out on each page as it slowly burns to the end but one of the best "chick" novels without a doubt and easy to see why it was chosen to be adapted for a film.
I gave it 5 stars because i absolutely adored it from start to finish and intend to read more by Moyes in future!

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child - Jack Thorne & JK Rowling

I love Harry Potter, i've read the books a million times, seen the films, brought the t shirts but i was a little on the fence about the idea of the play. I'm of the opinion that sometimes things should just be left alone in their original brilliance, but i bought it and gave it a go anyway.

Its been a while since i've read anything in the form of a script, which took about ten minutes to adjust too however because Harry Potter and his world are so well known and crafted, its easy to imagine the world around the characters without the description that a book would normally have. 

The story itself was interesting, nothing like the original books obviously, but the fact is that its taken a leap this time, instead of following Harry, Ron and Hermione we now follow Albus Potter and his sidekick and best-friend, Scorpious Malfoy, (very predictable).

My main and only gripe would probably be this, the Ron, Harry and Hermione (and even Draco) that we knew and loved have completely changed, Harry is angry and dark, he lacks compassion. Hermione has lost her spark and Ron has been dumbed down to his film counterpart, completely worthless. It is disappointing to read well loved and fleshed out characters so far removed from their original brilliance. 

That is my only criticism however, it is obvious it would never match the books and to be honest, i think its probably much better on stage, its difficult to gage a script, however it was nice to get another taste of the world of Potter, even if it wasn't necessarily needed. 

4 out of 5 stars for me, i didn't love it the same way i loved JK Rowling's original stories and i would much rather see a prequel. but its an interesting read and i didn't want to stop. 

While My Eyes Were Closed - Linda Green

So I picked this up purely because i was mid house move and every other book i owned was packed away and it was actually a pleasant surprise. There seems to be a lot books around at the minute about parents losing a child either through kidnap/murder, this is one of them, but its good.

Lisa Dale is overworked, she has two children, a husband, her dad and brother have reputations, one day when she has five minutes in the park with daughter Ella, she shuts her eyes while they play hide and seek and when she opens them Ella has done more than just hide, she has vanished. 

The book follows Lisa as she assumes the worst, as the case into her daughters disappearance leads to fingers being pointed at everybody she knows and as she slowly loses hope that Ella will ever be found. 

The narrative also follows Ella's kidnapper, who believes Lisa to be an incompetent, useless mother who doesn't deserve Ella and she intends to keep Ella as long as it takes to expose Ella for the fraud she really is. 

There's a lot of layers, a lot of twists and red herrings and Ella's kidnapper has a deeply complex personality. The book itself is a page-turner, it hooks you in, you want to know whether Ella will ever make it home.

4 stars, sharp, brilliant, well written with an excellent finishing twist. 

The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

Yet another Jodi Picoult, though probably the last for a while. This one was easily my favorite and her best by far but only for the middle. The Storyteller follows Sage, a twenty five year old whose with facial scars from a car accident that killed her mother, she works as a baker by night, has few friends and is in a relationship with a married man that her best friend is deeply against. 

Sage identifies as an atheist, though comes from a Jewish background and her grandmother, Minka is a holocaust survivor, 

Sage meets Josef Weber, first through her grief group and then later, at the bakery she works at and once they establish a friendship Josef divulges a dark secret and asks Sage to do something massive for him. 

If you don't want to know Josefs secret, stop here and skip ahead to the rating if you don't mind, carry on. Josef as it turns out, is a former Nazi who has been hiding in plain sight since the war ended and he wants Sage to forgive him and then kill him. 

This part of the story is mildly intriguing and to be honest, Josef is relatively likable until its revealed that he is a former Nazi however when Picoult switches narrative and we hear the tale of Minka, Sages grandmother, this was a part of the novel i literally couldn't put down, reading until the middle of the night, wanting to hear what happened to her. Its awful, heartbreaking and even though Minka and her story is fiction the fact is that the holocaust happened, the horrors happened and so it is a harrowing read, but one that Picoult has weaved expertly, Minkas voice is beautiful, at times she soars, sometimes she falls, but she is always brave. She is without a doubt the standout of this entire novel and easily, the best character that Picoult has ever created.

I lost myself so entirely in the middle of the novel, in Minka, that when it reverted back to Sage i had actually forgotten she was apart of the story, but I did like the way the story ended eventually, not the sappy romance that was thrown in but the real grit of Sage, Minka, Leo and Josef and the moral questions of the past and the future. 

5 stars for me, purely based on Minkas excerpts. Which could have been a novel itself.