The Overbooked Bibliophile

  Rating: 4.5⭐ Having read and enjoyed the author’s previous works of WWII fiction,  A Song of Silence  and  To Dream Of Shadows , I was eager to read  Steve N. Lee ’s latest offering and I’m glad to say the author does not disappoint. Set in WWII Warsaw and inspired by true events,  The Ruins in Which We Bleed  follows thirteen-year-old Helena Sliwicka in the years following the Nazi invasion of Poland. Though the novel begins in 1943 Poland where we meet sixteen-year-old Helena, the narrative moves back and forth between 1939 and 1943 slowly shedding light on the events that impact the lives of Helena and those around her. The vividly described setting and the author’s meticulous attention to detail transport you to WWII Warsaw and life in the Ghetto with Helena and her family. The descriptions of the living conditions within the Ghetto, the hardships faced by those struggling to survive and the violence inflicted upon them by the Nazis, render this ...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Miss Pauline thinks about the meaning of land. She knows it’s not eternal. If it can be owned, it can be stolen or sold and new owners can do as they please with it, excavate it down to bedrock and deeper, lay it to waste. Even weather wages war against land, land can shake and rend and tear itself apart. And once people arrive, land ceases to be itself. It becomes the place where human events unfolded, it becomes its memories, ghosts and tragedies.” Ninety-nine-year-old Miss Pauline Evadne Sinclair, a resident of the small village of Mason Hall, St. Mary parish, Jamaica, takes the noises she hears at night—whispers she believes are coming from the shifting stones her house is made of—stones extracted from the ruins of a white slaveholder's home—as an omen signaling that her time on earth will soon come to an end. Miss Pauline has led an eventful life and has braved many storms, but she has held her own and lived life on her own terms. Though she lives alone, she has a...

  Rating:3.75⭐ Forty-seven-year-old Evander “Vandy” Myrick returns to her hometown of Queenstown, New Jersey, after her career in law enforcement ends after a personal tragedy. Now a private investigator, she has a lot on her plate - concerned for the well-being of her ailing father, a retired police officer suffering from dementia and now in a care facility, dealing with her own trauma and trying to do the best for her clients. Her latest client is Leo Hannah, the Mayor’s nephew, who engages her services to track his wife’s movements. What appears to be a routine surveillance assignment soon evolves into a racially charged murder case. Vandy is convinced that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Complicating matters further is the influential Hannah family’s connection to the case - powerful people with secrets they would do anything to protect. Vandy is determined to get to the truth, even if that means ruffling more than a few feathers and risking her own life in the p...

Rating: 3.5⭐ “Now she knew, without a doubt, that she did not command the world, but was at the mercy of it.” In 1885, Paris, nine-year-old Aubrey Tourvel finds a wooden puzzle ball on the side of a road - an incident that changes her life forever. Her discovery and inability to dispose of this “magical” puzzle ball will lead her down a fantastical dream-like journey that will last decades -- a journey that Aubrey is compelled to embark upon on account of the life-threatening affliction that strikes after she stays in the same place more than just a few days. I found the premise of  A Short Walk Through a Wide World  by  Douglas Westerbeke  fascinating and was drawn to it because of its comparisons with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and  Life of Pi  , both of which I’ve enjoyed. I enjoyed Audrey’s journey as she explored the world in its wonder and beauty, facing precarious situations while learning valuable life lessons from her experiences along the ...

  My Rating:  3.75⭐ If you think this going to be a cute cozy mystery set in a bookshop ( I’m partial to stories set in libraries and bookshops), just take a look at that cover (which I love, by the way)! “I love serial killers.” Brogan Roach is a bookseller, employed for the last eight years with the Walthamstow branch of chain bookstore Spines, and an avid (read obsessive) true crime enthusiast. Unlike “normies” who have a superficial interest in the subject, Roach (as she is referred to) is a passionate true-crime follower – books, podcasts, documentaries – there is no crime too gruesome nor any criminal too heinous that she flinches from researching in her free time. When Laura Bunting, a fellow bookseller transfers to her branch as a part of a team headed by a new manager, Roach discovers a copy of a true crime book in her bag ( which she unashamedly rifles through in Laura’s absence) she feels she has found a kindred spirit. Laura’s interest in true crime has its roots i...

My Rating: 3.5 ⭐️ Eighteen year old Maeve Murray has her future planned out. Waiting for her A-level results to be published, she decides to take a summer job in a shirt factory with her closest friends Aoife and Caroline to earn some money before she moves to London to pursue higher education with the intention of embarking on a career in journalism. She can’t wait to get out of her Northern Ireland town and start a new life. Her first step towards independence is getting a summer job (despite the fact that she has to deal with an unpleasant boss whose treatment of his female employees is disrespectful to say the least) and renting a flat with her friend Caroline near her (temporary) workplace. Over the next few months, we follow Maeve as she adjusts to life as a factory worker, meets new people and makes new friends all the while hoping for a better future. Michelle Gallen’s Factory Girls  is an entertaining novel. Maeve is spirited (a bit brash at times) and resourceful. She obs...

My Rating: 4.5⭐ “I had come to Hillview looking for a hero and instead I'd found a villain.” Joe Talbert is a student at the University of Minnesota working on an assignment for his English class. He visits Hillview Manor, a nursing home for the elderly, intending to make acquaintance with an elderly person on whom he could base his assignment - a biographical account of a person’s life highlighting all its significant moments. Once there, initially discouraged on account of most of the residents being in poor health or unable to converse much, he is pointed in the direction of Carl Iverson, convicted rapist and murderer incarcerated for thirty years and recently paroled to the nursing home, terminally ill with cancer and with not much time left to live.

My Rating:⭐⭐ Spent my day listening to the audio narration by Stephanie Racine. The narration was impressive, the build-up engaging, the child abuse, animal cruelty and spousal abuse disturbing and the twist left me nauseated and ruined the book for me! Needless to say, my least favorite Feeney novel to date!

My Rating:  4.5⭐ In January 1958, a young Jamaican by the name of Hubert Bird sails to Southampton in search of a bright future like many others of the Windrush Generation. He finds employment and has to endure blatant racism and discrimination both in the workplace and in society in general, but remains hopeful. Hubert meets his future wife Joyce, falls in love and marries her - an inter-racial marriage that is not accepted by Joyce’s family. A hardworking and honest man, loving husband and devoted father to two children, Hubert settles down in Bromley with his wife and family.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “There are at least two sides to every story: Yours and mine. Ours and theirs. His and hers. Which means someone is always lying.” Anna Andrews loves her job as BBC Anchorwoman responsible for presenting the One O’Clock News bulletin. She has held this position for almost two years ever since the previous presenter Cat Jones went on maternity leave. Much to her disappointment Cat returns and resumes her position and Anna is relegated to the role of Correspondent and assigned to cover a case in Blackdown where the body of a local woman has been discovered in the woods. She is reluctant to travel to Blackdown which is revealed to be her hometown and a place she does not want to return to.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jennifer Saint’s beautiful debut novel is the reimagining of the Greek mythological story of Ariadne, Princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos and his queen Pasiphae. As a young girl, she is fond of dance, loves her younger sister Phaedra and even helps to take care of her brother Asterion (the Minotaur) when he was a baby, but unable to bear his bestiality as he grows. She grows up listening to her nursemaid’s stories about the gods, goddesses and mortal heroes whose lives have become legends. She is particularly moved by the story of Perseus and Medusa and the story behind how Medusa became a Gorgon. She is witness to her mother’s suffering brought upon by the birth of the Minotaur conceived as an act of revenge exacted by the gods against her father. She ponders over her own fate in a world where gods and men rule and women have no say in the decisions crucial to their lives and are but pawns in the hands of the men who control their fate.