JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks

There are times when destiny and love collide. This story is one of them.

From the number one bestselling author of The Notebook and Two by Two comes an unforgettable tale of enduring love . . . Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. After six years with her boyfriend, she is no longer sure what she wants, and when her father becomes ill she heads to her family’s cottage at Sunset Beach in North Carolina to make some difficult decisions.

Tru Walls has been summoned across an ocean from where he was born and raised in Zimbabwe by a letter from a man claiming to be his father. In journeying to Sunset Beach, Tru hopes to unravel the mystery surrounding his mother’s life, but the letter will lead him in an unexpected direction.

When these two strangers’ paths cross, their chance encounter sets in motion a heart-breaking story – one that will transcend decades, continents and the workings of fate.

Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks is a romantic novel spanning decades and generations of family. It’s about meeting the right person at the wrong time, and the impossibility of love.

Hope Anderson is thirty-six years old and her relationship with her boyfriend is something that I think a lot of readers will be able to recognise. They’ve been together for six years and it seems like they’re still together because it’s been so long; they’re not together because they’re actually still in love. The relationship has grown stale, and neither of them can see it.

It’s only when Hope meets Tru Walls that she comes to realise that things could be better for her.

Tru has spent most of his adult life as a safari guide in Zimbabwe. He’s split from his ex and they share custody of their child. He’s travelled to America to track down the father he’s never known, and find out why he left his mother.

There is a fair bit of info dumping at the beginning of this novel, but setting and tension are a couple of the Nicholas’ strengths. You can feel the beautiful, waterfront setting and the cool breeze and you can picture in your mind the wonderful letterbox where all of these notes are being deposited and then read by strangers.

“But what would happen when his father did show up? The man was a stranger; a single meeting wasn’t going to change that. Nonetheless, Tru hoped he’d be able to answer some questions, which was the only reason Tru had decided to come in the first place.”

Every Breath explores many things. It’s about love and the importance of timing. It’s also about family, bonds, relationships and expectations. It’s about purpose in life, and meeting your own expectations.

It’s also about tragedy and the heartbreak that can be present in so many lives, and the importance of acceptance and forgiveness.

“She interested him. That she was beautiful there was no doubt, but it wasn’t simply that. There was an air of vulnerability and loneliness behind her smile, as if she was wrestling with something troubling. Maybe even a few somethings.”

My biggest gripe with the development of the story was the lack of chemistry between Hope and Tru, mostly because their ‘connection’ and ‘love’ developed at a rapid pace, too fast to be believable. They fall in love rather quickly, and I think it’s a bit too much for the reader to really invest in.

The ending of the book, and Hope’s decision surrounding children, seems a little farfetched. Nicholas initially crafted Hope to seem courageous, brave, independent, career-driven. And then at the end of the novel, she seems to drop all that and deliberately enter into a relationship she knows to be doomed just so she can have babies. To be honest, I hated the ending. And the Author’s Note at the end was equally frustrating.

Fans of Nicholas Sparks will be able to suspend belief long enough to enjoy this book. Readers who don’t spend much time inside the pages of a romance novel will probably dislike this book.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Every Breath
Nicholas Sparks
October 2018
Hachette Publishers

Man Out Of Time by Stephanie Bishop

When Stella’s father, Leon, disappears in September 2001, the police knock at her door. She baulks at their questions, not sure how to answer. ‘What if I just write it down for you.’

One summer, a long time ago, Stella sat watching her father cry while the sky clouded over. He had tried to make amends: for his failures, for forgetting to buy the doll she once hoped for, for the terrible things he had done.

The first time Stella sensed that something was wrong was on her ninth birthday. There was an accident, and when she opened her eyes there was the tang of blood in her mouth. Leon was beside her. But not quite there. In the winter, when her father finally came home from hospital, he looked different. Looked at her differently.

Now he was missing, and Stella held the key to his discovery. But did he want to be found? And after all that has passed, could Stella bring herself to help him?

Stella’s whole life has been stained by her father’s very struggle to exist. Would this be her inheritance too? Could she choose the steady minutes of an ordinary day? Or would she follow the path of a man out of time?

Man Out of Time is Stephanie Bishop’s third novel, a moving tale of inheritance and self-destruction.

The ‘man out of time’ is Stella’s father. He’s mentally unstable and his health deteriorates as Stella grows older. He is sectioned in a psychiatric hospital, and Stephanie uses flashbacks to show the reader how Leon’s battles with mental illness effect not only him but Stella and his wife Frances. In present-day, Frances and Stella work to locate Leon. He’s been missing for a fortnight.

This novel feels very literary — mature even. The themes of family, love, legacy and relationships are complex, and Stephanie tackles the story with a very topsy-turvy kind of storytelling structure. From reading the blurb, you think this will be a very linear type of book, but it’s rather scattered. And intentionally so.

“When Leon came home, Frances was waiting for him, the dress in a crumpled heap on the table. Where have you been? she asked. He tipped his hat in mockery of the question and replied: Why, I’ve been to London to visit the queen. Then he said, Busking. In the subway.”

Leon and Stella share a complex relationship — she loves him and he loves her, but his mental health threatens his ability to make wise choices and as Stella grows older, she witnesses Leon’s deteriorated mind and she grows very self-aware.

Stephanie Bishop has captured mental illness sympathetically and realistically. She illustrates all the complexities of mental illness, and the ripple effect it has on surrounding loved ones.

The strength of this novel lies within the writing — the poetic sentences and flowing prose and the brilliant use of vocabulary and subsequent sentence structure. Stephanie has a real way with words.

“Once there, she swung a leg over and spread out along the branch, her belly and face pressed to the smooth bark, her legs hanging down on either side, kicking the late summery air that smelled of decaying fruit — the dark and soggy worm-eaten plums lying on the grass below, a haze of fruit flies hovering over the rot.”

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. I wanted to read it and be inspired by Stephanie’s manipulation of time and story-telling, but more often than not, I was left confused and I felt like I’d missed something in the preceding pages. Whilst I admire the grand story within the pages, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed with its execution.

This is an emotional novel about the bond between a father and son, and the plot is in constant motion, flicking back and forth between different periods and time. This novel isn’t my favourite, but readers who love a complex family story will find comfort in Man Out Of Time.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Man Out of Time
Stephanie Bishop
September 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Greenlight by Benjamin Stevenson

Four years ago, in the small town of Birravale, Eliza Daley was murdered. Within hours, her killer was caught. Wasn’t he?

So reads the opening titles of Jack Quick’s new true-crime documentary. A skilled producer, Jack knows that the bigger the conspiracy, the higher the ratings – and he claims Curtis Wade was convicted on flimsy evidence and shoddy police work. Millions of viewers agree.

Just before the final episode, Jack uncovers a minor detail that may prove Curtis guilty after all. Convinced it will ruin his show, Jack disposes of the evidence and delivers the finale unedited, leading to Curtis’s eventual release.

Then a new victim is found bearing horrifying similarities to the original murder. Has Jack just helped a killer walk free?

Determined to set things right, Jack returns to Birravale looking for answers. But with his own secrets lurking just beneath the surface, Jack knows more than anyone what a fine line it is between fact and fiction. Between life and death.

Now there’s only one option left. The truth.

Greenlight by Benjamin Stevenson is a rural crime thriller about the long-solved murder of backpacker Eliza Daley.

It’s an interesting premise — a well-known television producer and presenter helps cast enough doubt on a convicted killer that he is released from prison. But perhaps this man was indeed the killer after all?

Benjamin’s writing is polished. The dialogue realistic, the characters are three dimensional and well-developed, and the mysteries of this rural town are enticing enough to keep the reader turning the page. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, and churned through the pages of this book.

“The shoe grew heavier in his mind every day. Jack knew what it was like to make a decision that you can’t take back, even if you want to. Some small, inconsequential choice that grows and grows into something monstrous when everyone is watching. Why had he been fine with hiding the shoe?”

Jack Quick is flawed, but he’s also determined and compassionate and desperate to find out the truth. He puts himself in dangerous situations and is able to see things that others probably wouldn’t be able to see.

He starts to piece together what happened to Eliza Daley, and also the second victim who is murdered after Curtis Wade is released from prison.

Greenlight does follow a bit of a stereotypical trope found in rural fiction — someone arrives in a small town and they are neither a policeman or a detective, and yet they’re able to solve a crime that the cops couldn’t? I’ve read quite a few crimes novel lately that feature a protagonist like this.

“Jack scanned the paper. The front page had a close-up picture of Curtis, red letters splashed diagonally across him. Of course, the sub-editor had added the question mark — The Nailbiter Killer? — to protect from defamation.”

The prologue of this book is completely unnecessary. It’s from the point of view of Eliza, shortly before being murdered and it gives away too much. It makes it very clear that she’s being kept underground, which allowed me to guess one of the twists in the novel long before it was revealed.

Despite that, this is one of my favourite crime novels from this year. There are many different mysteries to solve, not just the murder of Eliza Daley, and tension builds slowly until the reader grows very anxious about what’s going to happen.

Greenlight is utterly compelling and engrossing — an absorbing mystery with more surprises than I thought possible.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Green Light
Benjamin Stevenson
September 2018
Penguin Random House

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn’t she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she’s right. Ambition: it’s in the blood…

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott is a psychological thriller about two women and the power of a secret.

The novel explores female friendship and how two women can toe the line between friends and enemies. Diane Fleming and Kit Owens haven’t seen each other for over ten years, until Diane shows up at Kit’s work and the two women are forced to co-exist together. But no one can know the real reason why they stopped speaking after high school.

The two women were close friends once, but now seem to be professionals rivals. And since Kit knows Diane’s biggest secret, Kit is worried that Diane feels threatened by that. And if so, what she’ll do to silence Kit. Much more than just their careers are at stake.

“You always wonder, when someone is trying so hard, what it’s really about…Maybe, for Diane, working really hard was a way of crouching low in her grief, of staying under the radar. Of hiding. But in other ways she was impossible to miss.”

Megan Abbott has captured setting incredibly well. Most of this novel takes place within the walls of a science lab, so everything feels very claustrophobic and tense. It’s the perfect setting for Diane and Kit’s reunion.

Kit is a postdoc researcher for Dr. Lena Severin, a well-respected, inspiring mentor. She’s strong and determined and confident. She’s everything Kit wants to be.

There’s an exciting opportunity at the lab — Dr. Severin is spearheading a study of PMDD, which stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Everyone wants a spot on that team, but there’s only room for two researchers and there are quite a few colleagues to choose from.

It’s a high-stakes environment and Diane wants this more than anything. But so do her colleagues. And as tensions rise and Diane and Kit’s working relationship starts to fracture, the people around them are starting to notice that something is amiss about the two of them.

“In the car, we don’t speak. She drives carefully. Stopping at all the yellow lights. Every time she turns a corner, her key chain smacks the ignition panel. One of those furry key chain kids used to have swinging from their backpacks.”

Something about this novel just doesn’t hit the mark. Not once did I feel like Diane was going to threaten everything Kit has accomplished. Diane is supposed to be seen as an unpredictable, unstable villain but really she seems like a complicated woman with a tragic secret and a dark mind. And Diane’s ‘secret’ — the author teases it for the first half of the book — is incredibly predictable.

If you’re a lover of crime, thriller or psychological fiction, then this story accomplishes enough to entertain you. You’ll be intrigued by Diane’s secret and the evolution of Kit and Diane’s friendship. Unfortunately, I felt like this novel fell short of what the blurb claimed, but others may enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Give Me Your Hand
Megan Abbott
August 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Your Second Life Begins When You Realise You Only Have One by Raphaelle Giordano

At thirty-eight and a quarter years old, Paris native Camille has everything she needs to be happy: a good job, a loving husband, a wonderful son. Why then does she feel as if happiness has slipped through her fingers? All she wants is to find the path to joy and fulfilment.

When Claude, a Sean Connery look-alike and routinologist, offers his unique advice to help get her there, she seizes the opportunity with both hands.

Camille’s journey is full of surprising escapades and richly meaningful lessons, as she sets out to transform her life and realize her dreams one step at a time. . .

Your Second Life Begins When You Realise You Only Have One by Raphaelle Giordano is a charming novel about a young woman who has everyone she needs, but isn’t as happy as she should be. Originally published in French, this is the first time it’s being released in English.

This is a really cute book — bright, fun colours and a gorgeous hardback package. It really shows what kind of story you’ll get between the pages, something uplifting and fun.

“You’re probably suffering from a type of acute routinitis.”
“A what?”
“Acute routinitis. Finding it hard to feel happy despite an abundance of material wealth, a feeling of disillusionment and lethargy, amongst other things.”
“But . . . How do you know all that?”
“I’m a routinologist.”
“A routino-what?”

Thirty-eight year old Parisian Camille overhauls her life with the help of an unconventional therapist. She meets Claude after a minor car accident during a storm, and what results is a series of tasks that she must undertake to find the happiness she feels like she’s missing.

Some of the tasks are small, such as cleaning her home. If the reader chooses, I imagine that they could attempt to follow along with Camille. So even though this is a fictional story, in many ways it could inspire readers to make changes in their own lives too.

Claude is wise and intuitive, without being overbearing. He inspires change in the character and also the reader, and his friendship with Camille is a joyous development in the book. He is both her mentor, and her conscience. He helps guide her when she’s feeling lost or unsure, and he’s a sounding board when she is starting to doubt the choices she’s made in her life.

“That’s perfect, Camille. Now you need to do all you can to focus your attention on your good points rather than on your tiny flaws, which no one really notices anyway. Never forget those women who weren’t particularly pretty and yet were hugely sought after..What’s most important — and I know you know this — is what comes from within.”

Whilst it’s a feel-good story, there’s not enough depth to Camille’s story. This story feels like it skims the surface of Camille’s mindset, and I didn’t feel satisfied by the quick pacing and ultimately fast resolution to her story. I would’ve liked the plot to be developed better, so that Camille’s progress felt more believable.

Whilst this is fiction, this book will appeal to fans of self help books, or those bestselling titles about how best to de-clutter your life. This is Raphaelle’s fiction debut — she’s published non-fiction before and is trained in communication and stress management techniques.

Readers looking for a joyous, fun read will also be pleased.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Your Second Life Begins When You Realise You Only Have One
Raphaelle Giordano
July 2018
Penguin Random House Australia

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