JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Tell Me Lies by J.P Pomare

Psychologist Margot Scott has a picture-perfect life: a nice house in the suburbs, a husband, two children and a successful career.

On a warm spring morning Margot approaches one of her clients on a busy train platform. He is looking down at his phone, with his duffel bag in hand as the train approaches. That’s when she slams into his back and he falls in front of the train.

Margot’s clients all lie to her, but one lie cost her family and freedom.

J.P Pomare’s Tell Me Lies is a fast-paced, high-intensity psychological thriller about a seemingly perfect psychologist, her shameful secret, and the client determined to ruin her life and expose her.

The story begins when someone deliberately sets fire to Margot’s house — what ensues is a series of deliberate attempts to unravel her life. The prose and dialogue is sleek and enticing, drawing the reader in with flawed characters, delectable mysteries and cloaked pasts, all bubbling to the surface.

The real strength of the story is plot, as it should be when writing in this genre. Readers will find themselves ripping through the chapters with eagerness, desperate to find out more. What is Margot hiding? What are her client’s hiding? With each new clue and twist in the story, the stakes rise higher and higher, threatening everything Margot has worked so hard to build.

“We’re all on the curb, one officer is talking to me, another is talking to Gabe. The children are nearby but they’ve separated us to gather statements. The window to my home office was smashed and fire fighters, I’m certain, will confirm the blaze started there. Someone threw something through the window and it set the house on fire.”

Tell Me Lies plays with structure to engage the reader. In the prologue, Margot approaches one of her clients on a Melbourne train station platform — we don’t know which client — where she deliberately pushes him onto the track, instantly killing him. Then, we’re thrust back one month to the start of the story.

Interwoven throughout the novel are media reports and interview transcripts between an unnamed prosecutor and Detective Simms, the man investigating the fire that destroyed Margot’s home. These structural elements are commonly found in thrillers and crime novels, but are a useful tactic. We’re able to find out important events within a short space of time, and interview transcripts allow us to get a glimpse into the future — we get a brief moment to try and uncover where our protagonist might end up.

“A knot appeared at his jaw, I could see a decision being made. Sparks of metal on metal behind his eyes as two opposing ideas clashed: he knew he couldn’t just wait it out, but he also knew he couldn’t risk me or anyone else getting hurt.”

Margot is an unstable character, that much is easy to spot from the outset. She’s intelligent and determined, but she’s also easily deceived. She thinks she’s sly — like sitting in a coffee shop for hours and thinking the barista won’t notice her — but she’s actually a little hopeless. She pesters the detective with her theories, to the point where she comes across as paranoid (even if her theories are right).

When she crosses ethical lines in her job, which happens a few times throughout the novel, she comes across as unlikeable, which I think might taint some readers’ opinions of her. She does get lost a little in the novel — we’re thrust into such a heavy plot, I never really felt like I grew to understand Margot. She felt a little underdeveloped for me, which made the twist at the end of the novel less impactful than perhaps intended.

“I’m engrossed, his story has taken me away from my own problems. Childhood trauma shapes so much of our adult biases; it forms the people we become. Cormac is reckless but brilliant. He’s resentful of wealth and the powers that be. I’m seeing a pattern emerging.”

Recommended for fans of crime, thriller and mystery novels. A great gift for a relative, that person in your family who rarely reads, but perhaps will read on holiday. A safe bet.

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

Tell Me Lies
J.P Pomare
December 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

The Charleston Scandal by Pamela Hart

London, 1920s: Kit Scott, a privileged young Australian aiming to become a star, arrives in the city to find the Jazz Age in full swing. Cast in a West End play opposite another young hopeful, Canadian Zeke Gardiner, she dances blithely into the heady lifestyle of English high society and the London theatre set, from Noel Coward to Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele.

When Kit is photographed dancing the Charleston alongside the Prince of Wales, she finds herself at the centre of a major scandal, sending the Palace into damage control and Kit to her aristocratic English relatives – and into the arms of the hedonistic Lord Henry Carleton. Amid the excesses of the Roaring Twenties, both Zeke and Kit are faced with temptations – and make choices that will alter the course of their lives forever.

Pamela Hart’s The Charleston Scandal is a step away from the heartfelt war novels that her readers will be familiar with, and is instead an immersive story set during the roaring 1920s London after the war has ended and women are beginning to realise they can hold a place in this world.

Be transported to the glorious 1920s, where status is everything and parties are prevalent. It’s not what you know, but who you know.

The Charleston Scandal features an interesting array of characters, evocatively capturing the setting with fashion, culture, status and connections. Kit’s journey not only illustrates life in the 1920s, but it also highlights the difficulty for women – and actresses – to find work at the time. They weren’t taken seriously, and it took a strong, determined woman to defy society’s expectations and maintain that career path.

“He was – rather surprisingly – dressed in the most conservative suit Kit had ever seen. No tan with brown shoes here. Not even light grey. This was a proper navy pinstripe, complete with black shoes and a regimental tie. Surely that couldn’t be right?”

Written in third person and switching perspectives between a couple of different characters, The Charleston Scandal puts women at the centre of the narrative, exploring their struggles and triumphs in a time where women were not seen as equal to men.

While Kit is a little insipid at times, perhaps a little too forgettable, she is determined and she grows confident over the course of the novel. By the end, she knows exactly who and what she wants in life and she won’t let anyone’s opinions of her change that.

Themes explored in the novel include alcoholism, domestic abuse, women’s rights, equality and determination for a career that’s more than just socialising.

“She sailed off feeling momentarily on top of the world, until she recalled Lady Bridlingham’s curl of the lip. No matter who her escort or how nice her frock, that curl said she didn’t belong there and she never would.”

Admittedly, there doesn’t feel like there is a lot of tension in this novel. It just feels like party after party after party, and then some theatre/acting scenes thrown in. After a while, the plot felt a bit same-same. Zeke and Kit’s friendship felt like it was on the backburner for too long in the novel, so by the time anything significant happens between them, it almost doesn’t feel substantial enough? I think romance readers might be disappointed with this novel.

Very small thing, but Hitler is name-dropped towards the end of the novel. The book is set during the 1920s and my understanding is that Hitler didn’t really rise to ‘fame’ or power until at least 1933. It felt a little bit jarring – perhaps premature – to mention him in this story.

“He had more than one. She lost track; she had given herself a three-drink limit at the start of the night, although getting anything other than champagne from the waiter was a herculean effort.”

For fans of historical fiction.

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

The Charleston Scandal
Pamela Hart
December 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

Together by Christmas by Karen Swan

When Lee first came to Amsterdam, it was with a newborn baby and a secret. Five years later, her life is approaching normal: her career as a celebrity photographer is flourishing, her son Jasper is growing up, and they are enjoying the run-up to Christmas with their tight circle of close friends.

But all this changes one morning when Lee finds a book in the basket of her bicycle – and scrawled inside it, a desperate message. Who left it for her, and why? Lee feels compelled to help and tracks down the book’s author, Sam. With an instant, undeniable connection it seems they might have a shot at a real future together.

Until her past comes calling. As the snow falls and ice thickens on the city’s canals, the secret Lee has never told resurfaces. Suddenly everything she holds dear hangs in the balance. Christmas is a time for being together – but what if the truth means she ends up alone?

Together by Christmas is Karen Swan’s latest festive read, this time predominantly set in the brisk cold winter of Amsterdam, and following a guarded and reserved photographer with a hidden past.

Lee used to be a Pulitzer prize-winning war photographer, but now she photographs for magazines and editorial articles — her life is a far cry from what it used to be, and there’s a lot of pain she’s been hiding from.

Together by Christmas definitely deals with much heavier themes, compared with Karen’s recent novels. A female photographer working in Syria and Turkey means there’s heightened danger for that character, and Lee’s involvement in the Middle East certainly accounts for her inability to form relationships. She’s suffering from PTSD and is a bit of a loner, only spending time with her son and colleagues — she struggles to date, or form romantic connections with men. Slowly, over the course of the novel, we find out why.

“She might have expected many reactions to her behaviour yesterday, but tenderness hadn’t been one of them. The ground kept moving beneath their feet and she never quite knew where things were between them.”

Stylistically, this novel is much like Karen’s previous works. Written in third person, Karen always includes a lot of exposition and internal monologue within her chapters — this may not be for everyone, but I always enjoy it. I feel it gives the characters more depth, and the reader gets more insight into their characterisation.

Except for the novel being set at Christmas time, it’s doesn’t really feel like a Christmas read. Although there are some messages in the novel that resonate with this time of year — being with family is more important than being alone, Christmas is more than just gifts, it’s important to reach out to those who are alone or struggling, and the importance of making amends and processing trauma is also a key takeaway in the book.

“She sat there for several moments more, trying to still her wildly beating heart, knowing she couldn’t stay out here, knowing she had to go back in there and eat with all those guests.”

I love Karen’s novels, but this was the first time where I felt like the elements in the story didn’t really gel together — Lee and Harry’s backstory in Syria, Lee’s job in present day Amsterdam, Sam, his family’s particular sporting obsession, Harry’s new wife, the mysterious couple that lives next door, the note in the basket. Truthfully, it took me quite a while to make my way through this book.

I’m normally drawn in by the romance in these novels but the story of Lee and Sam seemed drowned out by an array of other plot points. Was there too much happening? Perhaps. Karen talks in the author’s note about how she struggled with this book in particular, and the plot, and I felt like that was quite evident when I was making my way through the story.

I wonder if the sub-plot about Sam’s family — which I think was put in there to create some tension between them, and the need for a fight and subsequent reconciliation — could’ve been removed to allow for a more streamlined story. And also the storyline about the neighbours felt a bit crammed in, only really relevant right at the end of the book. I’m not sure it was as seamless as it could’ve been

“For several long seconds, they stood there, eyes locked, feeling the energy flow between them. Then she stood on tiptoe and kissed him again, once, twice, feeling his lips respond, his barriers weakening, chivalry collapsing…”

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

Together by Christmas
Karen Swan
November 2020
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Ickabog by J.K Rowling

The Ickabog is coming… A mythical monster, a kingdom in peril, an adventure that will test two children’s bravery to the limit. Discover a brilliantly original fairy tale about the power of hope and friendship to triumph against all odds, from one of the world’s best storytellers.

The kingdom of Cornucopia was once the happiest in the world. It had plenty of gold, a king with the finest moustaches you could possibly imagine, and butchers, bakers and cheesemongers whose exquisite foods made a person dance with delight when they ate them.

Everything was perfect – except for the misty Marshlands to the north which, according to legend, were home to the monstrous Ickabog. Anyone sensible knew that the Ickabog was just a myth, to scare children into behaving. But the funny thing about myths is that sometimes they take on a life of their own.

Could a myth unseat a beloved king? Could a myth bring a once happy country to its knees? Could a myth thrust two children into an adventure they didn’t ask for and never expected?

If you’re feeling brave, step into the pages of this book to find out…

An instant classic, J.K Rowling’s The Ickabog is a magical fairytale that will seduce young readers and keep them entertained this holiday period. The book is packaged beautifully — a gorgeous dust jacket hardcover and gold embossing, with vibrant, vivid illustrations and thick sleek paper inside. This is a cherished item for all readers’ bookshelves.

Admittedly, the story does delve into dark themes and plot points. It may start off light and easy — a foolish king, a mythical and fearsome creature that is rumoured to eat humans — but soon there’s betrayal, evil plots, countless murders and imprisonment. This shouldn’t deter young readers though. The story is fun and witty, enticing. The characters are all unique and readers young and old will be curious to follow the journey.

“Nobody would ever again say that he was selfish, vain, and cruel! For the sake of a smelly, simple old shepherd and his worthless old mongrel, he, King Fred the Fearless, was going to hunt the Ickabog!”

It wouldn’t be a children’s novel without some important messages woven into the story — lies can spiral out of control and are not worth the pain they inflict, lost loved ones are never truly gone and will always hold a place in your heart, and it’s important to trust your own instincts. It’s also a story about the importance of standing up against cruelty, greed and dictatorship, an conquering your fears.

Stylistically, J.K Rowling employs a couple of techniques to really invite the reader into the story. Firstly, she trickles in foresight about the future — she gives us an indication into whether the current events will have disastrous consequences, or perhaps fate is on a character’s side and things are about to improve.

Secondly, she breaks the fourth wall at times and talks directly to the reader, taking us on a tangent storyline but letting us know she’ll return to the original plot in a mere moment. These techniques make the reader feel like they’ve been let in on a secret — they’ve been welcomed into this world.

“We now return to Chouxville, where some important things are about to happen…What Bert didn’t realise was that the arrival of that mail coach was going to have some very important consequences, which would send him on a dangerous adventure. Let’s allow Bert to walk on without us for a moment or two, so I can tell you about the coach.”

A rather sweet and unique addition to the book, J.K Rowling has selected drawings from children all over the world and included them intermittently throughout the novel to add a bit more light to the story.

One slight flaw I had with the book – there are a lot of characters, especially within the first few chapters. I found myself getting quite confused with who they all were, and perhaps children might? Some re-reading may be necessary to initially grasp the story and the setting.

“When King Fred woke next morning and was informed that his Chief Advisor had retired at this critical moment in the country’s history, he was furious. It came as a great relief to know that Lord Spittleworth would be taking over, because Fred knew that Spittleworth understood the grave danger facing the kingdom.”

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

The Ickabog
J.K Rowling
November 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgement on the residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her.

Pru giddily makes use of the power, flexing it on everyone from public vandals to karaoke hecklers. But there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-round mortal enemy.

Soon, Pru begins to uncover truths about Quint, her peers and even herself. She discovers how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate.

Marissa Meyer’s Instant Karma is a rom-com YA novel about the perception of others, how quick we are to cast judgement, and the importance of understanding how multi-layered justice is.

An outing with her friends results in Prudence developing supernatural powers, allowing her to wreak karma on those she thinks deserves it. It feels like the perfect punishment for her lazy, sloppy lab partner, Quint Erickson. Until she starts volunteering at the local sea animal rehabilitation centre and learns there’s more to Quint than she thought.

Teenage readers will enjoy this novel — the setting, characters, and direction. Admittedly, this book doesn’t really feel like it’s about karma at all. It’s actually quite an insignificant part of the story, feels a little like the author jammed it in post-first-draft. There certainly doesn’t feel like there’s a resolution to it.

However, readers will appreciate the lessons that uptight, goody-two-shoes Prudence learns along her journey. In the beginning, she’s borderline insufferable. By the end, she’s quite an engaging protagonist.

“It’s not that deep, but when she lands on her backside with a splash, the water comes nearly to her neck. She scrambles to her feet and bolts from the water, her dress coated in sand and clinging to her thighs.”

Setting feels like its own character in this novel. The Southern California beach is the perfect backdrop to this setting — it offers a light, fun, carefree story. This is the perfect summer read, an ideal book to take to the beach or by the pool. A real resort read.

There are some important issues and themes to digest in the book — nurturing animals, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, littering, the environment — but Marissa presents them in a manner that doesn’t feel overbearing or preachy. Ideally, the reader must possess some kind of interest or affection for animals, or they might find themselves a little bored. The opening of the book is certainly a little slow to start, because it’s dominated by a biology project that is a little snoozy.

“I start to read the text, and…my opinions begin to plummet. Typos. Misspellings. Run-on sentences. Rambling, almost incoherent statements. Criminy. How did this guy pass ninth-grade English?”

I loved that Pru was confident, dominant, sure of herself, but I also really appreciated it when Quint put her in her place — when he pointed out when she was being unreasonable. When her perfectionist tendencies were putting unrealistic pressure on those around her, it was important for that to be checked.

Despite Quint feeling a bit one-dimensional and not overly layered, he was relatable in those moments, and it was important for Prudence to be put in her place so she could learn from her mistakes and grow as a character.

“How is it that I can have such high expectations, for myself and those around me, while Quint can be so…so Quint. I’ve even spent the last year lowering my expectations for him, bit by bit, and still he manages to disappoint. I’ve truly asked so little of him.”

A little predictable, but highly recommended for teenage readers, perhaps even 10+ depending on the individual.

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

Instant Karma
Marissa Meyer
November 2020
Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia