Described as the new Audrey Niffenegger, I was intrigued by the title of the book ‘The Guardian Angel’s Journal’. The ladies who I work with have been raving about this book for about a week when it turned up on my desk.
I’m fascinated by the idea of angels, so you’d think I would be biased in my praise for this book – no? The idea that someone can return as their own guardian angel seemed like such an alien concept to me, I almost felt affronted for unknown reasons when reading the blurb. Put simply, I couldn’t get my head around it.
I read the introductory chapter and could not go any further that evening, however, I picked up this book again the following morning and had finished it by mid-afternoon. I’m so glad I persevered. The story is about the guardian angel Ruth who returns to watch over her own life again as Margot. Entrancing, beautifully written, the book compels you to see how Ruth, tasked with protecting and loving her former self, sometimes easily, sometimes not.
It’s always a good sign when you set a book down to ponder the morals of the story. What would you do if you had a chance to influence the way you lived your life? To change the choices you made? Would you? This book questions where you should. One also hopes that it will be made into the film.
★★★★★★
The Guardian Angel’s Journal
Newly trained aromatherapist, Sukie Ambrose unwittingly finds out that her cottage garden is full of earth magic that can be used to make her aromatherapy potions, saving her money while offering a superb way of relaxation for her client. But soon she realises that her improved potions are having a magical loved-up effect on all of those she massages. And should she use her love potions on her house-mate’s scrummy boyfriend Derry? Have a read as Sukie battles with the village’s affairs of the heart and her own.
A sweet read, with plenty of laugh out loud moments to warm the heart. Perfect for cuddling up on the sofa on a Saturday with a cup of tea, chocolate biscuits and Radio 2.
Rating: ★★★★★
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Publisher: Orion
ISBN-13: 978-1409103066
Post apocolyptic view of the fallout from the oil crash – riveting, read in 24 hours and is not for the faint-hearted.
Jenny Sutherland and her children runs a safe community on a decaying offshore oil rigs with a few other hundred people to survive the now dead human world. As the community look outwards, they learn that not every survivor has the same vision of bettering their future and will quite willing destroy everything the community has worked hard to create.
If you are looking for a happy ending to Scarrow’s Last Light, After Light is not it. Though the events and story are absorbingly horrifying , you cannot help keep you rooting for the good guys. But no one is immune to this cruel new world, where the survival of the fittest reigns supreme. Well-written and paced, this provides a bleak prediction of the world to come if we do not make changes to our lifestyles, society and economic policies without delay.
Rating: ★★★★★★
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While reading a novel about a bride-to-be dying before she gets to walk down the aisle might not be a good idea when I’m about to do just that in a few month, Heaven Can Wait is a heart-warming story of life after death.
When Lucy Brown dies from a freak accident the night before her wedding, she is presented with two options, to go straight to heaven or return to earth in limbo to do a good deed for another human before being able to turn into a ghost and still be with her soulmate and hubby-to-be Dan, on earth.
After discovering limbo is sharing a flat with a train spotter, Brian and grumpy emo-kid Claire, Lucy has double the amount of work cut out for her as she helps her flatmates complete their tasks, as well as her own of finding IT geek Archie a girlfriend within 21 days if she’s going to stay as a ghost with Dan.
A page-turner of a book, with some lovely insights and understandings of what it is that makes us human and the moral of, can we love someone enough to let them go? I won’t give too much away, but there’s a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, though it did feel like the right ending for this story.
Perfect summer’s day read on the beach or beside the pool.
Rating: ★★★★★
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