Author Archives: charismaticcritic

This is Marianne Cronin’s debut novel and what a debut it is! The Blurb Life is short. No-one knows that better than seventeen-year-old Lenni living on the terminal ward. But as she is about to learn, it’s not only what you make of life that matters, but who you share it with. Dodging doctor’s orders,Continue reading “#BookReview The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin”

It is World Book Day so I thought I would mark the day by posting some books for toddlers. As both a parent and a teacher, getting children into reading and encouraging reading for enjoyment is something I am extremely passionate about. Reading has to start from a very young age and so I amContinue reading “World Book Day 2021 – Books for toddlers”

The Blurb A rhino is put in a zoo in the middle of a grey city, where all he can do is pace back and forth. He misses his home, his mother, the smell of earth and rain. He fears he may be the last of his kind. Then one day, he is rescued andContinue reading “#BookReview Last: The Story of a White Rhino by Nicola Davies”

The Blurb Cathy is left open-mouthed when her husband hijacks the family’s New Year resolutions and throws in a midlife bombshell, so after years of school drop-offs and housework, Cathy decides it’s time to take control of life before it takes control of her. She makes a list of monthly goals that she hopes willContinue reading “#BookReview The Wife Who Got a Life by Tracy Bloom”

The Blurb Being Tommy’s mother is too much for Sonya. Too much love, too much fear, too much longing for the cool wine she gulps from the bottle each night. Because Sonya is burning the fish fingers, and driving too fast, and swimming too far from the shore, and Tommy’s life is in her hands.Continue reading “#BookReview Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding”

I was very excited to read this, as soon as I saw it was another book by Alan Gorevan I signed up for the tour immediately as I loved The Thriller Collection! The Blurb How far would you go for those you love? When Valentina López Vázquez vanishes from her home one morning, it’s obviousContinue reading “#BlogTour The Kindness of Psychopaths by Alan Gorevan”

The Blurb When teenage friends Lizzie and Alice decide to head off for a walk in the countryside, they are blissfully unaware that this will be their final day together – and that only Lizzie will come back alive. Lizzie has no memory of what happened in the moments before Alice died, she only knowsContinue reading “#BookReview – The Dare by Lesley Kara”

Gill Sims does it again, another hilarious and laugh out loud book to enjoy during this crazy time. The Blurb I just wanted them to stop wittering at me, eat vegetables without complaining, let me go to the loo in peace and learn to make a decent gin and tonic.  It genuinely never occurred to meContinue reading “#BookReview Why Mummy’s Sloshed by Gill Sims”

The Blurb A compact, funny, devastating novel about sibling rivalry and modern motherhood, from one of Norway’s rising stars Ida is a forty-year-old architect, single and struggling with the feeling of panic as she realises her chances of motherhood are rapidly falling away from her. She’s navigating Tinder and contemplating freezing her eggs – butContinue reading “#BookReview #Netgalley Grown Ups by Marie Aubert”

The Blurb Breanna DeLuca is a wise-cracking, streetwise woman whose mundane life of delivering groceries and dreaming of becoming an international DJ is interrupted when she’s asked to find her old childhood friend who mysteriously disappeared a few months before.What should be an easy payday turns out to be something more complicated than she hadContinue reading “#BookReview – DeLuca by Darren Arthurs”