Review Time: This Summer’s Secrets by Emily Barr

Review: This Summer’s Secrets by Emily Barr
Pages:432

Published: 08/06/2023

Published by: Penguin Books

Available from: Waterstones, WHSmiths, Independent bookshops, etc.

ONE HOT SUMMER, FIRST LOVE AND SO MANY BURIED SECRETS . . .

Senara has never been in love before. She’s not done anything exciting before. Always the sidekick . . . Until the summer that changes everything.

Cliff House is closed off for most of the year until its rich Londoner owners come down to Cornwall for the summer. This year, despite herself, Senara finds herself pulled into this world of wealth and ease, sunbathing and beautiful people. She even finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But Cliff House and its owners are hiding things. They’ve been hiding things for too long and now, despite all their efforts, their secrets are coming out . . . Secrets that involve Senara’s friends and her family in a way she could never have imagined.

The minute I heard that Emily Barr’s new YA book was releasing in the summer of 2023 I was very excited!  Back in 2022, when attending the book event for her book Ghosted, it was mentioned that she was writing a mystery book then, based in Cornwall.  I had been waiting for this book! 

In June this year I attended the release event for this book, and it sounded like it was going to be a fab read, as is always the case with Emily’s books. 

As with all my reviews, I don’t like to say too much, and give the story away, I often feel with books, you just need a little feel for it, otherwise the whole air of surprise and wonderment is destroyed.

So, this book is based in Cornwall, in the area of Penzance.  If you know Cornwall at all, Penzance is a beautiful place, with gorgeous beaches, and views of the ocean, so when you discover our main setting is at a place called Cliff House, you understand this is going to be a stunning place, surrounded by the gorgeous blue backdrop-though perhaps a little rainy and drizzly!

This story consists of several characters, we have a group of friends, and then we also have their parents and connected family members as well.  As the story progresses, we have a handful of separate people introduced as well.  The book also explores three different timelines. Initially you think this is going to be a lot to keep up with, but the author does a great seamless job at delivering this, and it does not distract from the story what so ever.  You soon get into a wonderful flow.  The characters are very interesting.  I particularly loved one character, she was a lot of fun, and a major part of the storyline. I really enjoyed the timeline which was based during the second world war, something you wouldn’t really expect to be in this book.

I devoured this book in a couple of days, I loved the pacing, and writing style.  I loved the mystery that you are trying to discover throughout-why is this happening, why did they find this, why is this person acting this way? Etc.  There are a lot of secrets to uncover!  And a lot of characters to learn about along the way, with their hidden secrets.

Although this is a YA book, it can easily be enjoyed by adults, one hundred percent!

I gave this book 4.5 stars/5.

Read this book if:

• Read and enjoyed We Were Liars & Family Of Liars.
• Looking for something with mystery, and secrets.
• Have enjoyed other books by Emily Barr.
• Like books with multiple timelines.

Emily Barr, has written a lot of books, and although I haven’t had the privilege of reading them all yet, I have enjoyed all four of the books I have read so far. Each has been reviewed here on my blog, so do be sure to check those out, they are all fantastic, and highly recommended!  Emily Barr quickly became a favourite author of mine last year, and I have been very lucky to have met and chatted with her twice now. I look forward to her next exciting novel, but in the meantime I have plenty of her other books to read. Look out for the reviews!

Thanks for reading!  See you all soon. 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Review: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Pages:160

Published: 4/07/23

Published by: Bonnier Books Ltd

Available from: Waterstones, WHSmiths, independent bookshops, etc.

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.When Takako’s boyfriend reveals he’s marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle’s offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.

I was first intrigued by the book when I heard the title, surely a book about a bookshop has to be good doesn’t it?  I have loved a lot of translated fiction so again, I was very interested.  Then, the icing on the cake, one of the staff in Waterstones recommended this me, saying have you read ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold?’ Have I read that book??? Of course, it is one of my favourites, and apparently if I loved that, this book was the next thing to read!

I bought the book, and within the next few minutes, I found myself in their cafe, enjoying a dragon fruit and papaya lemonade, and starting my new book. By the second page, I was mesmerised, and gobsmacked by what was happening.  I knew I was going to love this book already.

As with all my reviews, I don’t like to say too much, and give the story away, I often feel with books, you just need a little feel for it, otherwise the whole air of surprise and wonderment is destroyed.

The whole story revolves a couple of main characters, Takako and her uncle.  Her uncle owns a secondhand bookshop,  and his place of book heaven is there for her when she most needs it.  The book looks at families, and also the importance of friendship, and how it can surprise us at times. 

It is a short, quick read, but I love it, along with other books I have read which are similar such as She and her cat, and The Travelling Cat Chronicles.  If you love translated fiction, definitely pick this one up!

Read this book if:

• You like translated fiction
• Looking for something cosy
• You like books about books
• You enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold etc.

Five stars…and a new one for the favourite list.

Thank you so much for stopping, see you again soon!

A Year of Reading Brandon Sanderson: August.

A year of reading Brandon Sanderson!

August: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving  Medieval England 

I have no idea where the time goes!  Even though I am currently on a six week holiday from college, I still never get the time to do all the wonderful things I plan to do.  I start these holidays with fantastic intentions of what I am going to complete, but only seem to get half of them done! One of those tasks was to set up several fab posts for my blog, but unfortunately, I have yet had the time to do this!  I have however, managed to devote some more time to reading, and I am happy to say I have just finished Brandon Sanderson’s newest release The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England. This is the second of the kickstarter secret projects, which I was very excited to read as I absolutely adored Tress of the Emerald Sea-if you would like to read all about my experiences with that book, please see the link below.

A Year of Reading Brandon Sanderson. April:Tress of the Emerald Sea

A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

Another reason I was keen to read this book was the reviews that kept popping up, it seemed, from what I was finding, that this book could perhaps be described as marmite!  People seem to either be loving towards this book, or not enjoying it.  I am wondering, once more people read it, if the actual consensus on this book will change.

I enjoyed this book, and gave it four stars on goodreads.  It was incredibly well written, and thought out.  The ideas laid out in this book, were exceptionally clever-it’s steeped in history, and the way he paints a world, that was based on something from a very long time ago, was brilliantly done.  Our main character told the story, and I loved this very much. There are a lot of fantastic illustrations throughout the book, which really added to it. 

Although I loved the idea of it, at the end of each chapter we have an extra segment to read, which gives us more information.  This is told in what in what I call ‘Leaflet Language’-I must admit for some reason I struggled with these segments, flipping from the story, to these extra bits broke the flow for me, and I did find them incredibly difficult to understand.  Just over half way I did begin to skim through these, only reading the bits I thought I might enjoy.

A lot of people described this as a sci-fi book, I can see that, but it also has a lot of fantasy elements as well.

Read this book if you like:

• Books about history-especially medieval England
• Fantasy/Sci-Fi books
• Something a little different from Brandon Sanderson

I don’t know which Brandon Sanderson book I will read next.  I now have quite a few here to read, as I was very lucky to find a whole bundle of mistborne books in a local charity shop-though it would be great to complete the Reckoners series in 2023.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to speaking with you all again soon.