Being Unique Being Me Eve: beach read

Showing posts with label beach read. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 March 2020

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

Charlotte loses best friend Minnie to old age and feels life is slipping her by after a rocky childhood and marriage empty of love and ending tragically suddenly.

Charlotte's son Cord is an alcoholic as he deals with being a closeted gay though happily engaged to his love, Giovanni but fearful of his family judging him.

Charlotte's daughter's, Lee a failed actress heading home with a huge life changing secret and failed relationship and Regan a mother wanting to break free of her marriage by setting it up to fail and allow her to break free to be happy.

All they want is to get away but not necessarily together however in coming together their lives come apart and their jigsaw pieces of their lives might just fix into more positive futures with any luck...

This was a great summer read whilst we await the heat to arrive and we can't travel either right now! Referred plenty of drama though I did find the odd chapter ending left roots planted for scenes ahead which didn't materialise so I may have just thought too deeply into those but it doesn't matter as plenty else happens! I liked the aspect of a broken family falling apart to them come back together eventually and try to get on better for the future after realising a few home truths!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Sunday, 10 June 2018

A Summer Scandal by Kat French

Violet inherits a pier located at Swallow Beach thanks to her Grandpa where she meets Calvin her new neighbour, as she reopens the newly designed pier for adults with partisan shops.

Violet's mum reveals secrets to her about her grandma she didn't know and the events which took place at Swallow Beach and why they originally moved away.

Violet upped and left the safety net of a husband to hopefully be though he was darn keener than her and she stuck up for herself wanting to spend summer in Swallow Beach instead. Where she meets Cal, a new love interest her flat is neighbour to and he's a leatherworker like she's a costume maker. The only trouble is his mum whom is mayoress and wants to see the pier remain shut.

Violet makes friends with Barry and his granddaughter Keris, whom remember her grandmother. However as she discovers her grandmother's affair with T, she sets about discovering who T is just as Calvin's wife Ursula randomly shows up after years of being gone...

I love the mystery and rediscovering her family past, I especially loved the fact that the flat she moves into is a frozen in time historical haven making her closer to her now gone grandparents too. The love blossomed and the character of Calvin's mum loved to be outlandish assuming the pier was becoming a sex den/hide out. Violet is a vibrant character all round and comes so well with all the events which happen to her a true headstrong main protagonist. Kat writes great beach reads which never disappoint and I also love the vibrancy of the cover alive with summer sunset colours.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

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Goodreads Quotes

Eve beinguniquebeingme’s quotes

"You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."— Rosemarie Urquico

Goodreads Quotes

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