'Sweet Oblivion' - Rhiana Ramsey

Scandinavian novelists have, without a doubt, dominated the crime genre in recent years. The UK has lapped them up with an eager thirst for the macabre, with Jo Nesbo in particular topping the bestseller list with every release, his Harry Hole series selling over 20 million copies worldwide. It is certainly time for UK novelists to step up and claim the genre for themselves (Peter James can't do it alone!).

Enter Rhiana Ramsey, a serving police detective who has just published her debut novel, Sweet Oblivion. Not only is the author from the UK, currently residing in West Sussex, but she is also a talented female, taking on a typically male genre, and she does it well.

Louise Jackson is a successful, newly promoted editor-in-chief of a B2B magazine in London. When the magazine that she works for starts to have financial problems, her life starts to spiral out of control, and she begins to question her own sanity. At the same time, a series of harrowing murders are being committed, where the victims are left tied up naked and mutilated, all male and all with a passion for bondage. Though the main character is Louise, the detective team investigating the murders evidently play a crucial role, and DC Elizabeth Lane arguably takes the spotlight. Throughout the narrative, there are interruptions of flashbacks of a young child who is clearly being abused, and we're left to figure out who this could be and it's relevance to the main story.

It's worth bearing in mind whilst reading Sweet Oblivion that this is a debut novel, and there are a few areas that need work - the occasional cliched phrase or stereotypical character, and the storyline is unfortunately quite predictable (and whatever happened to Steve?). I had hoped for a twist towards the end of the novel, and was left disappointed. This would normally put me off a book, but the storyline, despite it's predictability, is actually really enticing. It kept me hooked for hours, perhaps not with suspense, but with genuine intrigue, and any fan of crime novels will agree when I say that the more gruesome the death, the better - and these deaths are nauseatingly so.

I'm also usually opposed to crime novels having too many romantic interruptions, and Ramsey was almost in danger of this, but thankfully her character Elizabeth is likeable as well as relatable and you find yourself wanting her to have a romantic encounter (though I would perhaps suggest leaving out the hot chocolate in future). The main character Louise is certainly not as relatable, nor likeable, which I'm assuming is intentional - her actions are irrational, which is to be expected, and most of the time the chapters featuring her were simply irritating.

This is definitely a debut novel worth getting stuck in to, especially during the winter months where many people crave a dark, sinister read, and I definitely look forward to reading her a second novel, supposedly in the pipeline as I write this review. Sweet Oblivion is simply the first taster of what I'm sure will be a series of enticing novels.

'The Taxidermist's Daughter' - Kate Mosse

With the days getting colder and the darkness encroaching earlier, there are two genres that dominate; crime and horror. Halloween is less than a week away and I thought it was time to start giving myself the creeps in a way that only a good novael can. Out came Kate Mosse's The Taxidermist's Daughter. I am a little ashamed to admit that I have never read a Kate Mosse novel before, not only because I have heard nothing but good reviews about her writing, but also because she is from Chichester, a regular haunt of mine (if you'll excuse the pun). She was born and continues to live in the historical city, known for its Roman heritage, and her new novel, The Taxidermist's Daughter, takes place as well as in the nearby village of Fishbourne.

The plot is eery from the start, when the daughter of an alcoholic taxidermist follows her father to the churchyard late at night where he meets with other men for a reason known only to them. When a woman's body is found close to her house, Connie Gifford worries that her father has a part to play in it, especially when he disappears. Harry Woolston is also concerned when his father fails to come home, and when he coincidentally meets Connie, the two instantly feel a connection and when they find out that their fathers knew each other, they join together to find out exactly what has happened to them and who is sending mysterious letters.

Mosse keeps her readers constantly in the dark, dangling them as Connie conveniently had an accident as a child and has no memory of her former life. She knows that it is relevant to the mysterious events around her, and as her memories starts to return, the story all starts to come together. The final pieces of the puzzle begin to become obvious by this point, but this is towards the end of the book not long before it is revealed to you by Mosse anyway; and though it might be easy to guess the man involved as well as the person behind the murders, you could not be prepared for how brutal the murders actually are. You're left asking yourself if it is justice or revenge gone too far.

The novel really enters into the deep macabre, but Mosse uses romance to break this up. I personally never appreciate a cliched relationship in a book, and love at first sight would certainly fall into this category, but Connie and Harry's relationship seems necessary. I also tend to prefer an unhappy end to a crime/horror novel (what I call a 'Stephen King' ending), but this story has to finish with a little bit of hope for its characters, and is also not entirely without devastation so I can let that one slide.

This is a great novel to start the season with, and is just one of many horror novels to be reviewed on the blog in the upcoming months.

'And the Mountains Echoed' - Khaled Hosseini

Kabul can appear a desolate place. The largest city in Afghanistan, the media can at times depict it as simply a warzone, damaged by the Taliban and crippled by insurgents. However, Kabul is rich with history and culture that, despite the literal and metaphorical holes in it, is still largely prominent and remains to be important to its inhabitants. I reviewed Deborah Rodriguez's The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul in the past, admiring it for the way it brings Kabul to life and makes it a little more relatable; Khaled Hosseini has a similar gift. Born in the city itself, Hosseini now lives in California but he set up the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, clearly still feeling a connection to his birthplace through this and through his books.

Hosseini first won me over with The Kite Runner, an emotional story about two young boys in Afghanistan, one of whom is a Hazara which is considered by some to be an inferior race, and the other a wealthy Pashtun boy. The two best friends are confronted with the divide between them, and the Pashtun boy feels he has to choose between his father's affection or protecting his friend from bullies. The story follows the guilt that takes decades to put right. I continued to love Hosseini with his next novel A Thousand Splendid Sons, but then had to wait six years before his third book, And the Mountains Echoed,  which appeared on the shelves in 2013. Finally, two years later, I settled down to read it, with high expectations that I had already been warned might not be fulfilled.

The way Hosseini follows a story through a character's lifetime is the same technique he adopts for in And the Mountains Echoed. This book also causes heartbreak before the story has barely begun. Abdullah and his little sister Pari share an extremely close bond. They both live with their father and step-mother in a mud hut in Shadbagh until the father feels he has no choice but to sell his daughter to a wealthy family so that they all might live. Hosseini uses different voices from there to tell the story of how the separation affected both of them as well as chronicling Kabul's tragic recent history and its effect on both their lives. 

As usual, Hosseini has a way of reminding you when reading his books what real problems are, particularly the choice between life or death and how common this choice is in a country like Afghanistan. It certainly puts things into perspective. And the Mountains Echoed is also beautifully written, almost poetic, emphasising the strength and the lasting effect of memories, no matter how small they are. He tends to avoid fairytales in his books, perhaps to make them more realistic,  but he still leaves you satisfied if not a little sad.

Unfortunately, the forewarning I had been given was right; it did not live up to his previous works. It lacked the same intensity, the same magnetism. It started similar to his others, but I felt as though it lost its way, and by the time I had reached the halfway point it felt as though Hosseini had missed the opportunity to make it right. The emotion that was first so prevalent had dissipated and the last few pages that would usually have made me teary-eyed actually left me feeling a little disappointed. I suppose it is Khaled Hosseini's realism and fairytale aversion, but for me, it was just an anti-climax. I will still read his next novel, if there is one, if only to give Hosseini another chance to draw me back in to life in Kabul.

'The Girl in the Spider's Web' - David Lagercrantz

Another book with a story behind it, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz is shrouded in controversy. It is a continuation of the hugely popular Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larrson, a man who was not unfamiliar with controversy himself. Born in Västerbotten, Sweden, he was raised by his grandparents. His writing career is said to have started when he was given a typewriter for his twelfth birthday, and after his grandfather was imprisoned in a work camp for his anti-fascism, Stieg became determined to fight against censorship and inequalities, becoming one of the founders of Expo, an anti-fascism magazine. His life and that of his long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson was constantly threatened by right-wing violence, and they were forced to take extreme measures to keep themselves safe,  never being seen together outside the house. Despite these measures, he died suddenly at the age of 50 from natural causes, though there continue to be conspiracy theories about murder surrounding his death.

Fortunately for his now innumerable fans, Larrson had already sent all three books of the Millennium series to the publisher; in fact, he finished two of them and had started the third before even contacting a publisher. Unfortunately for him, he died before any of them were released and he never got to see the global success of his novels and the hype that they created. All three were turned into Swedish films, and the first of the book trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), has also been turned into a Hollywood film. Larsson's The Girl who Played with Fire (2006) was released in the UK in 2009 and shot straight to number one in the hardback chart, the first translated novel to do so at the time. The third and final book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2007), had a similar reception, and the trilogy has won numerous awards.

It is no surprise that another author would want to continue on this success. David Lagercrantz, a Swedish journalist and author, is known predominantly for his biographies. A crime writer until 1993, he published his first book in 1997, a biography on Swedish adventurer Göran Kropp. In 2000, he followed this with a biography on Håkan Lans, before turning his attentions to fiction with a novel about British mathematician Alan Turing entitled Fall of Man in Wilmslow. Perhaps his most popular book before his most recent is I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, an autobiography of the footballer which Lagercrantz was the ghostwriter of. 

The Girl in the Spider's Web, released this year, is his first of its kind. In my opinion, it should be taken as a separate book, and therefore a separate story, entirely. I have read many a synopsis of the novel before engaging in it, reading along the lines of 'crime fighting duo reunited', but Mikael and Lisbeth are no Batman and Robin - far from it! The Millennium trilogy had me hooked from the start, and I devoted every spare second I had to reading it. The story was admirably intelligent and complex, and reading the last was overwhelmingly disappointing in that you knew there would never be another. At the time, there were rumours of half-finished manuscripts that Gabrielsson would complete, but nothing ever came from them. Lagercrantz has made the fourth book a reality, but he had a lot to live up to. 

The fourth book in the series sees advanced computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist embroiled in the same murder mystery. Blomkvist is in a career rut, bored of the breaking news stories that he used to thrive on. Out of the blue, he is contacted by Frans Balder, a renowned scientist making advanced developments in Artificial Intelligence. Coincidentally, Balder had also been in touch with Salander to find out how his previous work had been stolen and sold on to a video game developer. He is informed by Säpo, the Swedish security police, that his life is in danger, and in the hope of protecting his autistic son, Balder wants to tell his story to Blomkvist so that it will be published in Millennium magazine. However, a tragedy occurs that leaves his savant son August's life in danger, along with Blomkvists's and Salander's, who is also attempting to track down a gang of hackers calling themselves the Spiders whom she believes to have connections to her monstrous late father and she wants her revenge.

Lagercrantz has actually surpassed my expectations with this novel. I held Stieg Larrson in such high regard that I didn't believe anyone could take over from him, but this latest addition to the series is a pleasant surprise, and I was just as addicted to this novel as the first three. I know I said that I would treat this is as a separate novel entirely, but I couldn't help but make comparisons throughout; there were not many that I noticed where Lagercrantz failed to follow Larrson's style and talent. He gives things away a little earlier than Larrson perhaps would have, and he clearly admires the characters Larrson created; both Blomkvist and Salander both seem to have less flaws and make less mistakes, but they are still essentially the same characters with just as much depth. 

The actual plot of The Girl in the Spider's Web also follows the same complexity as its prequels. It is just as intricate in detail, with every ounce of intelligence to match. I really wanted to hate this novel, out of respect for Larrson's partner who is rumoured to be against the continuation, but Lagercrantz has left no room for that. Rather than seeing the book as a chance to make money off a successful series, I see it as a dedication to Stieg Larrson and the fans he left behind but never knew. There is no doubt in my mind that this is not the last of the Millennium series, and I can't help but smile at that.

'The Land Where Lemons Grow' - Helena Attlee

When I first saw Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow lying on a table in a book shop it was the middle of summer and I fell in love simply with the cover. On reading the blurb and realising it was about Italy I only fell further, having been to Rome last year and remembering well how captivating Italy can be. However, the book ended up sitting in the middle of a pile of unread books, where it may have spent years being considered as a 'reference' book, until I happened to finish a book on a surprisingly sunny day, after what seemed like weeks of rain. This book just seemed to stand out; the perfect conditions, you could say, just as it takes the perfect conditions to grow lemons, I found out.

I am fully aware that I might have to work hard to sell this book to you. It is, after all, non-fiction; the first non-fiction book I have written a review about so far. I had to convince myself, when reading the first page, to continue. However, by page five I had laughed out loud at a quip about a Seville orange, and realised Helena Attlee already had me hooked. Her passion for the citrus industry is strikingly obvious and incredibly addictive to read. It came as no surprise when I found out that Attlee specialises in writing about the cultural history of Italian gardens, contributing to numerous magazines. She has managed to capture the various aspects of the citrus industry (who knew there were so many?) making lemons seem more like works of art than simply fruit to be eaten, She delves into the history of the citrus fruits grown in the many diverse regions of Italy; the science behind the countless varieties and hybrids, including the affect just a few degrees in temperature can have; the art and literature produced by those in admiration of the fruits; and the brutal business side behind the beauty. Attlee's personal anecdotes are what really bring the book together, turning what could have been a dull book of facts into a vivid story of travel and experiences. 

Her travels through Italy begin when Attlee first experiences the land where lemons grow, travelling on a sleeper train through the Italian Riviera thirty-five years ago: 

"...there were lemons growing beside the station platform, their dark leaves and bright fruit set against a backdrop of nothing but sea. I never forgot those trees..." She goes on to introduce the Medici's citrus collection in Florence, once the finest in Europe, where she begins her search for casts of various citrus fruit of all shapes and sizes before travelling to the Amalfi Coast. Attlee continues from here to Sicily, starting in Palermo where she describes how the citrus industry grew here and the mafia's violent influence on this expanding market. In Catania in Sicily she explores the growth of blood oranges, a fruit proven to prevent obesity and improve health, the best of which can only be grown at the base of Mount Etna, making it more expensive than other more widely available 'blond' oranges.

Moving away from Sicily to a more regulated industry where the mafia have little influence, Attlee introduces chinotti, which is grown in Liguria. She defends the fruit from being called the "runt of the citrus litter", and describes her conversion to candied chinotti, after tasting some fresh from the factory. She moves further up the country to Northern Italy, starting in Lake Garda which used to be known for its multitude of lemon houses before disease, floods, and the First World War left the Garda citrus industry in tatters. From here, she travels west to Ivrea, where oranges are thrown rather than grown. It is home to the Battle of the Oranges, a festival which marks the end of the carnival season, in which oranges are pelted as weapons in a lighthearted war on the street. In direct contrast, Attlee goes on the deep south of the country where the most valuable citrus fruit is grown. In Calabria, a place inflicted with natural disaster and rough terrain, the bergamot is produced and its essential oils extracted to be used by the perfume industry, a process that has been taking place for decades. The same location is home to the Diamante citron, a citrus fruit that in its most perfect form becomes not only expensive but also plays a part in religion, as Jews use it during the celebration of Sukkoth.

There are not nearly enough adjectives in the English dictionary to describe how much I love Helena Attlee's journey of Italy through citrus fruit. Before reading the book, my vision of Italy had been that of a tourist; busy with foreigners, queues for the sites, beggars on the streets and the air so hot it engulfed you. Attlee has opened my eyes to a more authentic Italy, her own unique experience after working there for nearly thirty years, away from stereotypes and tourism. It is bursting full of adjectives, so much so you can almost smell the lemon groves she writes so passionately about. There is no denying Atlee has a gift for story telling; if she wrote a book about pencils, I'd be inclined to read it. There is even a recipe for homemade limoncello using more alcohol than tourists would be accustomed to. Enjoy!

'The Good Girl' - Fiona Neill

The Good Girl started off with a lot of promise before I even turned to the first page: a tantalising, almost sinister, blurb; a title that suggests intriguing irony; and the author being Fiona Neill. A writer with many achievements to be proud of, Neill started her career in journalism, spending her third year of university in Latin America before residing in Central America for six years. On returning to the UK, she began working for Marie Claire, followed by The Times Magazine as an editorial assistant. Inspired by her own weekly column in The Times, Neill wrote her first novel in 2007, The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy. Only two years later she had released her second, Friends, Lovers and Other Indiscretions, followed by What the Nanny Saw in 2012. With all this experience, both in life and in writing, as well as glowing reviews, I was expecting a masterpiece. Enter disappointment.

***SPOILERS***Aisla and Harry decide to move their family from the busy streets of London to the more quiet Norfolk.Their daughter Romy has always been their pride and joy, never disappointing them and always achieving high grades. However, the arrival of new neighbours Wolf and Loveday seems to be the reason Romy stops being 'the good girl' and becomes more of a mystery to her parents. This is nowhere near as captivating as it sounds. Romy falls for one of the neighbours's sons, Jay, who struggles with an addiction to porn and she hopes to be the one to change this, making a pornographic video with him that goes viral. She herself is struggling with the real reason her parents moved away from London, after overhearing a conversation implying that her father, who she has always been closest to, had an affair. Neill alternates the chapters between Romy's point of view and Ailsa's, who it turns out is hiding secrets of her own, including who her son, Luke's, real father is.

Neill wants to you be enticed by the secrets that the family are keeping, to make you want to read on, but the secrets are dull and predictable, and most of them clichéd. I was expecting a  stronger storyline, with a more explosive ending, but the climax lasted only a few pages and seemed more like a desperate attempt to save the novel. There were simply too many ideas squeezed into one book, with waffling taking up far too much space and not enough time given to character development. Romy seems to have inherited her father's intelligence and love of neuroscience, and small explanations are slotted in throughout the book on what causes addiction and can help to cure it, along with various other scientific explanations that can seem out of place and unnecessary. Her mother being a teacher and her father a professor of neuroscience are not enough to provide a reason for this, and Ailsa's pedantic corrections of grammar annoy even a prescriptivist such as myself.  On the other side of the scale is Wolf and Loveday, both well-travelled and interested in sexual healing, with a completely different, more relaxed parental style to Harry and Ailsa. This seems a little typical and obvious from the start that the two couples will clash over their children, as well as being incredibly dull.

I could be being a little harsh on Fiona Neill. The book did not meet expectations - no dark revelations and gasps of shock - but Neill does tackle a modern problem of the powers of the internet; how a video made in the privacy of your own home can be seen on the other side of the world with just a few clicks of a button. It is an interesting subject to tackle, and a real shame Neill could not pull it off. The Daily Mail called it a "coming-of-age tale", which would put it alongside The Perks of being a Wallflower, an insult to a truly great piece of literature and a flippant use of a phrase. Perhaps a more appropriate description would have been a 'cautionary tale', for teenagers who are experiencing technology and the internet being everywhere and easily accessible at a young age. The novel might not have impressed, but it has a good message and is not a bad read for those looking for something light to pass the time.

Recipe Books' Rejuvenation

It's obvious to any collector such as myself - recipe books have changed, and you would be in denial if you didn't think it was for the better. Traditional recipe books in England were undoubtedly for women looking after their families. They were basic, with block paragraphs of traditional English meals and traditional methods. Pictures were rare, if present at all, and the font size suitable only for those with a magnifying glass.The past couple of years in particular, however, have seen  a huge change in the way recipe books appear. They have become vibrant and colourful, with images playing a huge part in their popularity. People no longer simply pick up a recipe book to use it; they pick it up simply to read it. 

Even the great Mary Berry has modernised her books to be just as much about how it looks as about the recipes, with her latest Mary Berry's Absolute Favourites containing beautiful imagery to accompany her delicious recipes. The BBC television series The Great British Bake-Off, which Berry is a judge on alongside Paul Hollywood, has sparked numerous recipe books designed to make baking more fun and adventurous. Runner-up contestant Ruby Tandoh's Crumb is my ultimate favourite from the selection. She talks about the traditional aspects of baking, giving her own unique advice on the methods and techniques, injecting into the book her own vitality and passion for baking. Tandoh also rejuvenates some traditional recipes with current trends, such as the use of semolina in baking. Her delicious lemon semolina cake recipe is a serious rival to Mary Berry's lime polenta cake.

Christine Taylor's Choccywoccydoodah: Chocolate, Cake & Curses is another modern recipe book,  decorated elaborately with Brightonian fairytales and stories in between recipes. It includes an introduction of how the shop, Choccywoccydoodah, and later the cafe were founded and expanded. They are not the only shop to release a recipe book, though. Hotel Chocolat brought out Hotel Chocolat: A New Way of Cooking with Chocolate, which even includes a recipe of chocolate with salmon; The Hummingbird Bakery regularly release books with recipes of their famous products; and restaurants Wagamama and Yo! Sushi have also released books featuring recipes of the dishes they serve. This is the start of an era when recipe books are becoming pieces of literature as well as cooking guides.

 Instagram and the hashtag #instafood or #instaporn probably has a lot to do with this change, with users constantly looking at new and refreshing ways to make pictures of food look attractive for more likes. One person in particular is Ella Woodward, author of the recipe book Deliciously Ella and the blog of the same name. Woodward uses instagram to promote her healthy lifestyle as well as her blog posts. The images accompanying her recipes are bright and beautiful, making healthy eating seem just as tempting as a big slice of cake. Her beautiful instagram shots carry on through to her recipe book, which also talks about how a diagnosis of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome led her to start being more concerned about what she ate. Her journey is inspirational, and to help others enjoy the same lifestyle she has taken on, she provides a guide on getting started, with all her kitchen and therefore recipe essentials. Throughout the book, she discusses the benefits of certain ingredients, justifying their use and how they are great alternatives to salty or sugary products. This is a book even my chocolate-obsessed self is loving.

Ella Woodward is just one of a few who have started a trend in healthy eating and therefore healthy cooking. Following the release of her book in January, we have also seen the release of Get the Glow by Madeleine Shaw, who also happens to be a friend of Woodward, and Eat. Nourish. Glow. by Amelia Freer. More interestingly, however, we have seen Italian food become more fresh and nourishing in Gino D'Acampo's Veg Italia. There's still cream, pasta and pizza dough, but D'Acampo has banished meat from the traditional Italian recipes; lasagne made with aubergines, cannelloni filled with courgettes and ricotta, meatballs minus the meat made with lentils and mushrooms, a sweet potato mash with garlic butter and mascarpone. It is refreshing to see the nation's favourite Italian dishes transformed and vegetables given a new lease of life.

Italian cuisine is only the start of foreign cuisine's growing popularity in England. My most recent visit to Waterstones saw a whole display of new recipe books from various countries, my favourite of which being The New Nordic by Simon Bajada. Bajada has included some amazing Scandinavian recipes, as well as beautiful photographs of the landscape, restaurants and cuisine. He says Nordic cuisine is ever evolving and is becoming ever more popular in Michelin starred restaurants in the UK. The ingredients they use reflect the landscape they are used upon. This is a great coffee table book.

Another favourite is Raymond Blanc's Kew on a Plate which follows on from the television series in which Blanc along with Kate Humble spends a year at Kew Gardens in London focusing on growing produce. This is another recipe book that mixes healthy heating and foreign cuisine. The book, like the series, gives information and tips for growing fruit and vegetables, with Blanc introducing French recipes using the produce. This is a beautiful mix of English and French heritage, with Raymond Blanc himself being a keen gardener, having his own vegetable gardens and orchards at his Michelin-starred restaurant Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. Meat is still used in many of the recipes but makes them no less healthy and balanced, with a delicious recipe for balsamic glazed-garlic, summer tomatoes and roast chicken legs.

These are just a few examples of the various types of recipe books that now sit in our English bookshops, influencing the way we eat. From vibrant vegetables to breathtaking baking, recipe books have most certainly been rejuvenated into attractive and colourful additions to coffee tables, rather than gathering dust on a kitchen shelf. The beautiful photographs and imaginative cooks' notes in between recipes prove presentation of food is just as important outside of restaurants. They have made me start to love cooking; instead of pouring boiling water over instant noodles, I am now making salmon en croute and beef wellington from scratch. From the girl who sets pancakes on fire to the girl who yearns to make her own ravioli; perhaps for that perfect shot with the caption #instaporn.

'Go Set a Watchman' - Harper Lee

The release of Go Set a Watchman has caused one hell of a stir in the literary world. The controversy surrounding its release is  never ending and hard to accept. A second novel by Harper Lee, after the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, has been hotly anticipated for decades, but slowly people started to believe that Lee's first novel would stand alone. The announcement in February of this year that a second manuscript had been found, one written before To Kill a Mockingbird, caused a tidal wave of excitement globally. Fans of Harper Lee, including myself, were marvelling at how this manuscript had finally been discovered and we could again enjoy the immense talent of a woman not afraid to talk politics and morals.

However, people began to question how the discovery came about. It is said to be the novel Lee first sent to publishers, but was rejected with demands for changes to be made. From this rejection came To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel narrated by a six year old girl, Scout, living in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. She tells the story of her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer defending Tom Robinson, a black man who has been falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white girl. Despite evidence to the contrary, Robinson is convicted of the rape by twelve white men who fail to see past the colour of his skin. Atticus still reveals the truth, of how Mayella's father, Bob, found out that she had made sexual advances towards Robinson and beat her out of anger and disgrace. Furious at their father for revealing this truth, Bob attacks Scout and her older brother Jem, only for them to be saved by a town recluse Boo Radley, who has been attempting to befriend Scout throughout the novel.

To Kill a Mockingbird changed Lee's life, though arguably not for the better. Born Nelle Harper Lee in 1926, she grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, a place that bears a strong resemblance to the Maycomb she writes about. Atticus Finch is believed to be based on her own father, lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee, and the surname Fitch is her mother Frances' maiden name, though there is no character directly based on her mother in the book. Lee attempted to follow in her father's footsteps, like her sister Miss Alice, and attended law school. However, before completing the course, she went to live in New York where she was given an incredible opportunity by friends Michael and Joy Brown. They funded her whilst she achieved her dream of writing a novel. To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 with huge success, going on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. There were claims years later by fellow author and supposed friend Truman Capote that he was the real author of Mockingbird, but the discovery of the latest manuscript seems to put these claims to rest.

The success of To Kill a Mockingbird was an incredible achievement for Lee, but it also led her into the public eye, something that she was not entirely comfortable with. It has been suggested that fame is what prevented Lee from writing another novel after Mockingbird, in case it changed the way that she wrote or the truth that she spoke. She turned into a recluse, refusing to give interviews, instead leaving statements to her sister and lawyer, Miss Alice. This is where the mystery over the manuscript begins to set it. Following the death of Miss Alice last year at the age of 103, Tonja Carter took over as Lee's lawyer. Carter is the one who claims to have discovered the manuscript and sent it for publication, saying that Harper Lee had given her approval. There are some, however, who doubt this. At the age of 89, Lee is partially blind as well as partially deaf, and according to a few of those in Monroeville, not of sound mind. A recent article in The Sunday Times Magazine by Tanya Gold reports that Lee is thought by the town to be "the puppet of an interloper called Tonja Carter". To add to the controversy, it is alleged that the manuscript was actually discovered three years ago, before the death of Miss Alice, who would probably have never allowed the manuscript to be published.

Despite the conflict over its release, Go Set a Watchman was released on the 14th July. The question is no longer about its discovery, but wondering whether it will live up to the hype of Lee's first success. The day of its release saw hundreds of people queuing up at bookshops throughout the night across the globe, with 7,000 copies alone being delivered for sale at the local bookshops in Lee's hometown. The media began printing its reviews of the much anticipated book, the novel Lee herself calls the "parent' of Mockingbird, and the critics have not been kind. If I am being honest, they have been most unfair. Go Set a Watchman is the novel that was never meant to be released. Harper Lee's editor managed to help Harper Lee transform this original reject into the masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird, with the original becoming nothing but a draft. However, the critics are treating Go Set a Watchman as a brand new work by Lee, and are crushing it with two-star reviews and tales of disappointment. I wholeheartedly disagree.

Go Set a Watchman is set after Mockingbird, when Jean Louise is twenty-six-years-old and is no longer known by her childhood, and infamous, name Scout, and her brother Jem has died from a heart attack. Now living in New York City, she returns to Maycomb to visit her father, Atticus and her oldest childhood friend and potential suitor Henry. However, rather than her standard visit home, she finds herself forced to grow up as she discovers her father  and Henry are part of a Citizen's Council with the intent of keeping negroes unequal and inferior. Her world comes crashing down as her father, the man she held in such high regard as being as close to perfect as a man could be suddenly becomes human, and her eyes are opened to the real world. Jean Louise has always been colour blind to a person's race, believing in inequality for all, something she believed Atticus had taught her. She finds herself failing to understand her father's reasons, and questioning whether Henry is really the man for her.

The critics are claiming Harper Lee has destroyed the Atticus Finch we first met in To Kill a Mockingbird, but I argue the opposite. He is no bigot; he is a reasonable man who understands the world far better than his daughter, and he has his reasons for being involved in such a council. It is an incredibly insightful novel, and confirms Lee as an Alabama woman ahead of her time. It includes anecdotes from Jean Louise's childhood, reminding the reader why they loved her, and it is easy to see why Lee's editor chose to use Scout's voice for To Kill a Mockingbird. The story and the dialogue remain to be strong and I found it an incredible easy book to read, if not at times an emotional one. Go Set a Watchman is the reality behind To Kill a Mockingbird, the honesty Harper Lee first wanted to express about Alabama but was denied the chance. It is the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts.

'The Bone Clocks' - David Mitchell

David Mitchell has lived an enviable life. Born in Merseyside, raised in Worcestershire, and graduating from the University of Kent, Mitchell had already started moving from place to place. He went on to live in Sicily, Italy before moving to Hiroshima, Japan where he apparently found his niche as a writer. He has since written six successful novels and has been listed by TIME magazine in 2007 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The latest of these novels to appear in paperback is The Bone Clocks. Long listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2014, it has already made its mark, adding to Mitchell's reputation as a respectable and admirable author.

The plot is rather like Mitchell's life in that it goes from place to place, following the life of Holly Sykes. Starting in 1984 when Holly is only fifteen years old, it begins from her point of view as she storms out of her home to live with her boyfriend, only to find out that he is cheating on her. Refusing to admit that her mother was right, she decides to stay away from home for at least a few days, with devastating consequences. Her little brother Jacko goes missing, with everyone believing he went in search of his sister, including Holly who blames herself for his disappearance. However, there is more that lies beneath the surface; Holly begins to have visions of another world in which a promise to an old woman could come back to haunt her and there are hints that Jacko could be involved.

 The story then skips seven years ahead to what appears to be a whole new story. We meet Hugo Lamb, an intelligent but pretentious student at the University of Cambridge. He is devious and repugnant, deceiving even his friends whilst thinking only of himself. During a skiing holiday to the French Alps, he meets Holly Sykes, and he falls in love, something he has never felt before. It would seem it starts to change him for the better, until he is given a life-changing decision that is impossible to refuse, a decision possibly linked to the other world Holly herself has glimpsed. Following this, there is yet another jump in time to 2004, in which Ed Brubeck becomes the focus of Mitchell's writing. Ed has a little girl with Holly but is struggling to accept his responsibility as a father, being a self-confessed "war-zone junkie" since his role as a war reporter.He finds himself having to choose between returning to Baghdad where his life will be in constant danger or staying with his family. We can only assume his decision before the narrative switches AGAIN to Crispin Hershey, an author who at first appears more detestable than Hugo Lamb but who becomes one of Holly's closest friends, meeting her in Australia before travelling to Shanghai and Iceland with her to book events as she herself as become a famous author.

The next switch in narrative is where the story truly continues from where Holly's narrative left off. We finally learn about the other world and the war that is occurring between the Horologists and the Anchorites. This is in 2025, when the final battle takes place, in which Holly joins the Horologists on their quest against the evil Anchorites. I will not reveal the outcome of this battle, partly because I still do not know the whole of it despite finishing the book, and the final section of the book comes full circle back to Holly. She is now an old woman living in Ireland in 2043, in a world that has become damaged by global warming and the lack of oil. It feels as though David Mitchell is using the end of this book as a lecture to those who take unlimited electricity, food, water and internet for granted. It is a lecture to those who are not attempting to cut back on their luxuries to save the planet, and it is a warning of what could happen if we choose not to; a possibility of the world our grandchildren will live in. 

For me, The Bone Clocks is too many different things. Mitchell could have written at least five books from all the stories that are happening throughout each section. Unfortunately, most of them seem to play no major part in the actual story The Bone Clocks is about. The Horologists and the Anchorites barely appear at all until you are two-thirds through the book, and it is all thrown at you at once. This particular part reminds me of Intruders, a BBC drama last year starring John Simm, a programme I found genuinely interesting, and if Mitchell had stuck to the war between the two kinds I would be praising this book for its imaginative plot and viewing it almost as an adult version of Harry Potter. Instead, I am dismissing it as an excuse for Mitchell to show off his vast knowledge on a variety of subjects, and to perhaps share his views on conservationism. There lies politics amongst the fantasy Mitchell is writing, and it seems to ruin what could have been an addictive novel. Too much of the book seems pointless and most of it could have been cut entirely. It is incredibly disappointing. There were so many times that Mitchell enticed me in, only to change the subject in the next section.

For those looking to read The Bone Clocks simply because it is a bestseller at the moment or in the Waterstones Book Club, think twice. Reading this novel requires patience, and I was glad when I reached the last page, a rarity for me as I usually miss the characters and the story. However, rather than being intrigued by the unanswered questions, I was annoyed and felt as though my time had been wasted. Do not waste yours.

'The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair' - Joël Dicker

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair has been a huge success. Originally in French, it has been translated into over thirty different languages, one of which is thankfully English. La Vérité sur l’Affaire Harry Quebert won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Academie Francaise 2012, an incredible achievement for 29 year-old Joël Dicker. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, his native tongue is French, but the inspiration for his novel is New Hampshire, a place he spent most summer holidays as a child. It is said that, when looking to write a book, you should always write about what you know, and it is clear when reading Dicker's book why he chose to write about New Hampshire rather than Geneva; his passion for and knowledge of his holiday home is obvious throughout, as well as clearly being a place of natural beauty. It could also be said that the main character in the book might be a little of writing about what you know, but that may well be just coincidence.

Young author Marcus Goldman struggles with writer's block following the huge success of his first published novel. In an effort to conquer it, he turns to Harry Quebert, his former college professor and close friend, for inspiration. Whilst staying at Quebert's home in Somerset, New Hampshire, Goldman discovers a love affair Quebert had when he was 33-years-old with a 15-year-old girl, Nola Kellergan. Harry reveals that the girl went missing that summer of 1975, and has not been found since; that is until a few weeks later. At the same time Goldman is facing a lawsuit by his publisher if he does not have a second novel finished by the deadline, Quebert is arrested after Nola's body is found buried in his back garden with a copy of the manuscript of his most successful novel. The solution for both of these comes to Goldman; write a novel about the case whilst solving it and proving Harry's innocence.

This novel could technically be called crime, but there's something about the way it's written that makes it feel wrong to call it that. It's so far from the dark streets of Oslo portrayed by Jo Nesbo or a deep psychological thriller such as Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Its setting is beautiful, despite its subject matter being the death of a fifteen-year-old girl. It seems more like an episode of Murder, She Wrote, with the writer detective, the quaint little seaside town and a mystery to be solved with the help of the local detective. Maybe this is a little of what made me love this book so much, and wonder if I will read a better one this year. Usually it takes me the first chapter to really get into a book, or at least the first few pages, but this book really did have me from the start; I'm not sure how or why, but it did. And I just love a good murder mystery!

Like with any good murder mystery, The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair keeps you guessing, with red herrings making the puzzle even more difficult to place together, but it's enjoyable. Dicker clearly has a real skill for weaving this puzzle, giving you the pieces bit by bit. The ending could be said to be a little rushed, with a lot of information being thrown at you at once, but it's information that you lap up greedily as Dicker has kept you in suspense for so long. The twists he throws in are mostly unexpected, with the last one being the biggest (I think) and the most unexpected of all - and it's not even about the murderer! Dicker wrote about a young author with a best selling novel and in doing so became a young author with a best selling novel. Some people have it all, and in this case, I couldn't be happier for him - as long as he writes another novel like this and doesn't suffer from the writer's disease!

'How to Build a Girl' - Caitlin Moran

How to Build a Girl is not what I expected at all. It appeared, from the blurb, to be very much a coming-of-age novel, like The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky or The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. However, Caitlin Moran has written a book with a character who is a far cry from Charlie and Holden Caulfield, and who has many resemblances to Moran herself, though she is clear to state before the story begins that "...Johanna is not me." Moran grew up in Wolverhampton on a council estate with her seven siblings, with an aspiring rock star for a father who suffered from osteoarthritis. She has been winning awards and making waves with her writing since she was thirteen years old, becoming a journalist for a music magazine at sixteen and now being a popular columnist at The Times. As well as winning awards, she is also accountable for unprecedented sales of a feminist tea towel, being a proud feminist and civil rights activist, something which is apparent to anyone who follows her on Twitter. All proceeds from her merchandise sales go to Refuge, a domestic abuse charity that provides a safe house for women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

How to Build a Girl is supposed to be the first of a trilogy of semi-autobiographical books from Moran. The beginning is bold, brash, and entirely fresh. It introduces Johanna Morrigan, a fourteen-year-old girl desperate to grow up and be somebody, but who feels she cannot achieve this by being herself; she has to rebuild herself. Like Moran at that age, Johanna lives on a council estate in Wolverhampton, with her parents and four siblings. Her mother is suffering from post-natal depression and her father is predominantly sofa-bound after an accident at work. She decides that she wants to write to make money for her family, and begins writing reviews and sending them to a music magazine when she is sixteen, taking on a goth persona called Dolly Wilde and mixing with rock stars. Her father plans to use Dolly's job at D&ME magazine to kick start his failed music career, trying to achieve his own dreams through his daughters whilst living in an alcoholic stupor. Caitlin Moran stresses that her parents are nothing like Johanna's parents in the story, even dedicating the book to them as proof. 

There's no avoiding it; the book talks A LOT about sex. This is a big chunk of the book and, unfortunately, it gets a little boring. It's not Fifty Shades of Grey (thankfully!), but it does seem to be the only thing that Johanna thinks about, with it being one of her goals to sleep with as many people as possible.This is one of the bricks in the construction of her new self, but it's DIY SOS as her sexual prowess ends in disaster after disaster. I thought that I was hating this, as I cringed and blushed, but once I had finished the book I realised that I had found every opportunity to read it. With similarities to Moran's own life, the book is very raw and Johanna very honest.

Whether you enjoy the book or not, it is a representation of a certain way of life. Regardless of your class (a topic that seems prevalent throughout), most girls can relate to at least a small part of Johanna Morrigan. Everyone has a Dolly Wilde, a persona used when you need confidence that you don't have. Johanna uses the same line as my old journalism tutor; "Fake it 'til you make it." It's a line that, for me, led from fake confidence to real confidence, and it does the same for Johanna. Moran writes successfully as a fourteen year old girl desperate to grow up, slipping perfectly into the character and maintaining it throughout the entire book, detailing Johanna's growing up in a way that not many experienced authors could. It's an incredibly strong and exuberant story, with something to prove perhaps; it does not avoid the stereotypes of a council estate but instead uses them to show how they can still lead to talent and success, the best example of this being the author herself!

'Mr Mercedes' - Stephen King

Before I start talking about Mr Mercedes, I want to make it clear that this is not a normal review; it's more like a dedication. Firstly, I have absolutely no right to review Stephen King.  With over 50 novels under his belt, many of which have been turned into films and television series, as well as too many awards to count, there's no denying his talent. He even challenges his skill by writing under pseudonyms, most famously Richard Bachman. I have been reading his books since I was in my early teens (basically, when my mum said it was okay) and have always admired him, not just as an author, but as a fellow grammarian. As weird as it sounds, King's novels are always the ones that I turn to as my 'breather novels', the ones that give me a break from reading about the gruesome elements of real life, from aspects of war to life-threatening illnesses. 

Secondly, Mr Mercedes is nothing like any other Stephen King novel. Usually, I'm met with possessed cars, rabid dogs, vampire towns and electricity that can wake the dead; extreme situations that you can convince yourself could never happen in real life (though seem really vivid when you dream about them later!). Mr Mercedes, on the other hand, is a crime novel. A crime novel like no other, of course, but a crime novel nonetheless. Though not fitting into King's typical horror genre, the novel is still frightening, and unfortunately, could definitely happen. Retired detective Bill Hodges is finding life dull and pointless since leaving the force, until a letter arrives that gives him a meaning to live. The letter is from a killer he failed to catch, a man nicknamed Mr Mercedes, who taunts Hodges in the hope that he will commit suicide. The opposite occurs, as Hodges decides to investigate the case again unofficially, putting his life and the lives of others potentially in danger. Though Mr Mercedes, aka Brady Hartsfield, writes that he has no intention to repeat his crime, could he be lying? If he is, can Hodges catch him in time?

There's no denying it; not content with being the king of horror (excuse the pun), Stephen King dominates yet another genre with this novel. Where Joyland was a crime novel with a supernatural twist, Mr Mercedes is pure crime, and it's brilliant. It remains to have King's signature traits; the shameless plugging of fellow authors (which I can't help but appreciate and admire), the subliminally inserted hatred of mobile phones, the numerous mentions of his own various works (which help to bring them to life outside of their pages), and the use of music taste for character building, as well as his own (perhaps slightly twisted) sense of humour creeping in. It is quite obviously a Stephen King novel. 

Despite all of these resemblances to other works by the author, Mr Mercedes is something fresh and altogether different at the same time. Stephen King is known for playing around with various styles of writing, toying with different voices, tenses and experimenting with everybody's worst nightmares. Mr Mercedes is a different sort of nightmare, though; instead of vampires, ghosts and zombies (when the infection is, of course, caused by mobile phones), the nightmare is one that comes particularly as a result of the 9/11 tragedy, one that is far too believable and therefore as equally chilling as any of his horrors. He has taken the mass fear of a person without a conscience killing multiple people in one incident, someone who does not care of the consequences, even if it results in their own death. After all, the common saying goes 'it's not the dead you should fear, it's the living'.

Does Stephen King get away with it? Of course he does. We know who the killer is from the start, but the suspense of catching him is still present, because with King, you never know which will prevail; good or evil. The ending is always a surprise (unless you have gone out and bought the sequel released this week, Finders Keepers) and the characters are always pushed to their limits. It is through King appearing to know his characters as though they are close friends that makes this work so perfectly and I look forward to reading the next instalment. If you love Stephen King, you'll love this.

'Disclaimer' - Renée Knight

Disclaimer became one those great books that becomes impossible to put down and makes you feel a little bereaved when you finish it. It is very hard to believe that it is Renée Knight's debut novel; the narrative is addictively intriguing. Holding you its hostage from the very first page, it is a thriller to the very end.

Married documentary maker Catherine Ravenscroft finds a book in her new home that she does not remember buying, a book that turns out to reveal her deepest secret. Tormented by The Perfect Stranger, she strives to cover up her twenty-year old mistakes, but the author will not stop at just the book. Widower Stephen Brigstocke is determined to take his revenge after finding a manuscript written by his late wife. He is intent on destroying Catherine's relationships with the people she loves the most and the seemingly idealistic life she has created, but not everything is as straightforward as it seems. It is a complicated story of loss and pain, in which both love and trust are put to the test. 

It could be said that the secret is slightly disappointing and not as sinister as you originally expect from the beginning, but you can forgive Knight for this as the rest of the book makes up for it entirely. And don't get me wrong, the twist is still a surprise and the ending far less dark than I anticipated (you can choose whether this is a good thing or not). The writing standard never wavers, and in this way, Disclaimer stops any disappointment from seeping in and ruining what is otherwise a remarkable novel.

Knight has a real talent for making the simple discovery of a book's existence seem like a death threat. She keeps you wondering what Catherine's secret is for most of the book, never losing your interest and without the waffling that can occur from a debut novel. Disclaimer is full of twists and turns that keep you switching your allegiance back and forth between characters; Knight has you wrapped around her little finger and you barely notice, let alone care. And the cherry on the cake? Renée Knight is English, and an author we should be incredibly proud of.

'We Are Called to Rise' - Laura McBride

Every person has probably wondered at least once, out loud or to themselves, whether their lives and their actions make a difference in the bigger picture. The greatest thing about We Are Called to Rise is that in some way, this is answered. It delves into how people who have never even met can have an impact on each other, sometimes with consequences because of the decisions an individual makes. This might make the book sound heavy and philosophical, but Laura McBride presents this information to you in a story that entices you in from the start.

The voices of four different people are written, seemingly with completely separate lives apart from living in Las Vegas until a tragedy occurs combining their stories and leaving them all wondering how much little tragedies matter; '...so little matters so much, and so much matters so little.' The most heartbreaking voice of the four is Bashkim, an eight-year-old boy of an immigrant family, who is so innocent and good. Through his school, he writes letters to a 21-year-old soldier, the second voice, who is in hospital having been flown back from Iraq and whose memories of the war haunt him endlessly. The third voice is a woman whose marriage has just fallen apart, and whose son is also struggling to cope having returned from his third tour in Iraq, with devastating consequences. The final voice is a female volunteer for CASA, though I won't say anymore about her than this; I wouldn't want to ruin the story for you!

McBride takes on a serious challenge switching between these voices, with the differences in age and gender, but she copes perfectly. In fact, she seems to excel with the most difficult one, Bashkim, really bringing his character to life through the pages. Where some books leave you struggling to hop from character to character, she makes it easy and uncomfortable, never leaving it too long between voices, never allowing you to lose the thread. McBride also, through these four different people, presents unique perceptions of Las Vegas, defending it as a home and not just a Strip, perhaps because McBride herself has lived there for two decades. She also seems to have another underlying message, one about war and its potential consequences away from the warzone for the soldiers, how their actions can be affected by their experiences.

The ending should be a disappointment, with some of the loose ends left untied with no neat little bow; you're still left wondering when you run out of pages how all of the characters actually end up, whether they end up happy. But where there should be disappointment, you feel content, perhaps because a fairytale ending would have been too unrealistic for this particular story. Anymore would have been too much, and perhaps would not have been as compelling as it was at its peak. Despite being her debut novel, Laura McBride has clearly mastered many of the techniques experienced authors still struggle with, particularly when to stop whilst you're ahead!

'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' - Richard Flanagan

Not for the fainthearted, The Narrow Road to the Deep North tackles a subject I was yet to read about in fiction, and it's truly heartbreaking. Tasmanian born Richard Flanagan's father was a survivor of the Burma-Siam Railway, also known as the Death Railway, and despite being filed under fiction, most of the events are likely to be based on fact. The starvation, the struggle, the strain of the workload for the prisoners of war all come to life in this novel; despite it being hard to imagine and impossible to understand, Flanagan tries his hardest to make you, and it's easy to see why this book won the Man Booker Prize 2014.

The story mainly focuses on Dorrigo Evans, a surgeon who becomes a POW by the Japanese Imperial Army, forced to build the railway with hundreds of others under his command, just a small group compared to the 13,000 Australians who were captured and used for this purpose. He is struggling to cope with the growing number of deaths, and finding it ever harder to save those who have fallen sick from the horrendous conditions the prisoners are forced to work in. He knows he has to stay strong for his men to keep up morale, as well as to make up for the guilt that he feels for the affair he had with his uncle's wife, even as her face slowly fades from his memory.

The beginning is difficult at first, switching consistently from past to present day, as the memories of war stay with the Dorrigo Evans even after he is freed. Though this starts off as trying, it soon becomes second nature and reading it becomes effortless as the story begins to build. Flanagan writes viewpoints from other prisoners, as well as members of the Japanese Imperial Army who guarded those working on the line, providing perhaps a little insight into both sides of the story. The sympathy remains with the Australians but it's refreshing to attempt to understand what the Japanese were trying to do and why they felt that they had to do it. 

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is at times a chilling novel, standing as a reminder of what war can cause humans to be capable of doing to each other. It is also, through the imagination of Flanagan as well as the construction of the prose, a reminder that war does not end when the countries are at peace; it lives in those who survive it. It is an incredibly powerful and emotional story, that would remain in my thoughts hours after I'd put it down, to the point that I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it with the same strength of anger and sadness inside me. Definitely a recommended read, though be prepared for its effect.

'The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul' - Deborah Rodriguez

It drew me in with the name, looking and sounding like a great story to start my summer reads. I use the word 'story' but it's more than that for Deborah Rodriguez. Her first release, Kabul Beauty Shop: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, is actually a memoir of when she first started a life in Afghanistan teaching at the Kabul Beauty School. Whilst The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul is her debut novel, it still holds remnants of a memoir for Rodriguez, from when she co-owned the Cabul Coffee House. However, her latest release, The House on Carnaval Street, has a change of scenery in her new home of Mexico, where she moved having had to flee Afghanistan. It caught my eye recently with another bright cover and made me feel a little behind in her series, real and imagined. So The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul found its way into my handbag.

It's more than just a story, not just for Rodriguez, but for the reader. It is a novel that is invigorating for women, with the story set around five female protagonists, as well as being an insight into Afghanistan. Through the five women, different aspects of Afghanistan are brought together, both the good and the bad. Rodriguez brings into the story the terrorism and the poverty we already see in the media, but she also brings in the beauty it is hard to imagine exists there. She writes an almost unbiased account of the country, with some criticism to the West's involvement as well as criticism of some Afghan traditions, laying no blame other than that on the terrorists for the poverty and destruction. Rodriguez delves into certain parts of the country's poverty, particularly through two of the women. Candace, who left her wealthy husband behind in America for a new just as wealthy life with an Afghan, is constantly looking for new causes to help and make her feel worthy. She begins working with Isabel, a journalist for the BBC she meets at the coffeehouse who is in Afghanistan to investigate the drug lords who own the poppy fields used to produce and distribute opium. However, she finds another cause along the way. Her and Candace begin a mission to rescue women unjustly imprisoned, with various obstacles along the way. The treatment of female prisoners is heartbreaking to read about, and you know it is fiction about fact.

The horrendous way that women can be treated in Afghanistan is reinforced by Yasmina, a woman whose husband died before the novel began but left her pregnant. She is taken from her home by men her uncle owes money to but abandoned on the streets of Kabul when her pregnancy is discovered and she is deemed useless by the men who can no longer sell her. With her husband unknown by those in Kabul, she will be viewed as a prostitute, and would end up most likely in the prisons Isabel and Candace are trying to put a stop to. This is until Sunny sees her and brings her back to the coffeehouse she runs, a business that is a touch of the West in Kabul, where mainly foreigners can come and grab a great cappuccino. The building the coffeeshop is run from is owned by Halajan, a sexagenarian who has experienced various degrees of freedom in her home country. Even with the Taliban not in control, she is still forced to hide love letters from the man she wants to be with, despite her husband being dead as well as the sender's wife. If the letters are discovered, it will bring shame on her family, unless Halajan's son arranges a marriage between them. But Ahmet is a traditional Afghan man, with strict values, who does not believe in marrying for love, until he meets Yasmina.

All five women come together at Sunny's coffeehouse to create a magnificent narrative of life in Kabul; of the determination of women, of the strength of love, as clichéd as it sounds, and of the beauty of a country not just its natives should appreciate. Rodriguez has captured so much of Kabul in these pages that she has made it possible to look past the minority of terrorists that exist there and see the lives of those who are having to live with constant bombings destroying their homes and taking their loved ones. The ending is probably the most unrealistic part of the book, being a fairytale ending typical of a western novel. But if Hollywood can do it, why not Rodriguez? It is hard to fault this narrative, and hard not to be touched by it, whether it is to laugh or cry. However, it still remains light enough, despite all the issues that it tackled, to be a great novel to read whilst sitting out in the sun with a glass (or a jug) of Pimms! I would strongly recommend letting The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul fall into your own handbags this summer.