Knitting Unicorns

There is rather a niche market at the moment for anything to do with Unicorns – the list of unicorn related items to purchase is probably endless. I fell into this trap when I spotted a pattern for said knitted unicorn whilst I was at the Knitting and Stitching show back in October. I think I loved the colours and the wool more than the unicorn.

It was a really quick knit and took shape well and whilst the pattern actually has a tail, I did not include it as it just didn’t look right compared to the rest of it.

Then I foolishly thought I would make another two for Christmas presents, roughly four weeks before the big day! I got the two recipients to choose the colours they wanted – although they had no idea what they were choosing the colours for and off I knitted.

I must have been mad, the four weeks up to Christmas is one of the busiest times at work and adding that sort of pressure onto myself despite the fact that they knit up quickly was perhaps a tad risky. However the last one was knitted, stuffed and stitched together on the 23rd December and they then went on their way to await their new owners. A close friend’s daughter and daughter in law, both unicorn mad.

Luckily they remembered the colours they chose and the unicorns are now being well looked and well-loved. It does bring me such joy that something so simple as a knitted gift can mean more than a flashy one.

And whilst I am still finding bits of fluff off the wool, I have gone and done it to myself again – to knit some socks before the 15th February – luckily I have given myself about six weeks for this as the socks have a pattern and I have never knitted patterned socks before – I am onto sock two – more about that in another post.

For those that are interested in the pattern and wool it was Sirdar Touch Wool and everything about it can be found here.

A Good Heart is Hard to Find – Trisha Ashley

This is one of Trisha Ashley’s earlier novels previously published as Singled Out but given a bit of a brush up and a lovely cover and re-released and it is also one of her books that I have yet to read. (I don’t think there are many left now, apart from the ones that she hasn’t written yet!)

Cass is a horror writer and quite a successful one at that. To keep the money coming in she occasionally dresses up as a vampire to take part in surprising people in a ‘singing telegram’ type of way and spends a lot of time at night in the local graveyard finding her ‘muse’.

It seems that Cass perhaps has it all, apart from one thing – a good heart to love her. She has Max but Max belongs to someone else and is perhaps not all that he seems. Her friend Jason seems to have taken a shine to her, but that might be something to do with her vampire outfit and her parents have disowned her because she as the only dark haired and dark eyed child out of six she clearly must be a throwback to a more evil time.

But whilst taking part in a bit of ghost hunting in an alleged haunted house, Cass falls in a number of ways into Dante’s arms. Trouble is she is not quite sure what happened that night, it is all a bit of a blurr and the only noise she can hear at the moment is that of her ovaries knocking!

Along the way there are plenty of complications, comic situations, jealous wives, bizarrely behaved siblings and a rather dubious diet.

This is a fun escapist read from this author, the horror stuff weaved through, is really bad but it a wonderfully good way and I think perhaps it maybe a reminder that there is so much literature out there is something for everyone whatever your taste.

I don’t think this a true reflection of the work that Trisha Ashley can produce, her later novels are much stronger in plot, setting and characters but if you are looking for some reading which is escapist good fun then this is the book for you.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

A Good Heart is Hard to Find is published on 25 Jan 2018 in paperback. 

Remember this was previously published as Singled Out

By my reckoning I only have two of her novels previously published that I have not read – Happy Endings and Lord Rayven’s Revenge both also feature authors as their main characters – I can see a themer!

Of course I have yet to get my hands on the new release in March of this year – The House of Hopes and Dreams. 

 

Million Love Songs – Carole Matthews

Whilst I have many of this author’s back catalogue to catch up on, I am always delighted to be able to read her latest novel.

And if you have just broken into a bit of Take That when you read the title, then trust me the book is for you! But even if you are ambivalent over Gary Barlow, et al this is still a wonderful story which tugs at the heart-strings and in fact made me cry!

Ruby is single again, divorced, new job, new place to live and she wants to embrace everything, she does not want to get involved with anyone and certainly not seriously.

Mason Soames is the boss where Ruby works and has a nickname worthy of any lothario. Ruby has been warned but there is something about him, which excites Ruby, which means she throws all caution and reason to the wind. Trouble is he seems to be missing something

Joe Edwards, is Ruby’s initial scuba diving instructor (you have to read the book to see how she manages to get into that situation!) and he is everything that Mason is not, especially as he comes with two teenage children and an ex-wife.

Charlie is Ruby’s friend and she is determined to make sure that Ruby makes the right choices for her future and that if all else fails there is always Gary Barlow to fall back on. The dream is always best, the reality no doubt would be disappointing.

Looking back now I have finished the book, a lot is packed into Ruby’s life in these pages. She is trying to make her way as a new woman and she tries many things. Some not necessarily are her thing, but she embraces most of them with enthusiasm even if they are not to be repeated. Through all her ups and downs she relies on Charlie as her friend and Carole Matthews has a way of showing wonderfully strong female friendships within her novels.

Of course there is plenty of romance thrown in along with the laughs but as I approached the end of the book which I did not want to end, I was worried about Ruby and the choice she was going to make. I had a little cry at the one she did make, but I am not telling you if that was tears of joy or sorrow, you will have to read the book yourself to see. Whether she made the right one, no one knows as the characters can only live on in our imaginations unless the author decides to pick them up again.

A great book, which might have overdone the Take That/Gary Barlow obsession a bit too far for my liking, but was probably well researched and there is no doubt many fans out there who experience what Carole Matthews was showing us. Carole has an ability to tap into the moment, the time, the world which we see around us and present it in a such a lovely way, you can forget all the bad things out there as you lose yourself in this book.

I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Million Love Songs is out now in Hardback/Kindle and in paperback in March.

 

Books in 2017

So I did it – 100 books. Looking back over the previous years of this challenge on GoodReads I have been reading fewer books, as I have to confess that I sort of only just made it to 100 books in 2017 – I was still reading my 100th book as the clock struck 12 and the calendar went back to 1. So I have stretched the rules and snuck it into the 2017 list!

But with all reading and list keeping, it is all about what YOU want and not to be judged by anyone else!

GoodReads do a wonderful thing and you can look back at your year with some good old-fashioned statistics and all the lovely book covers – the statistics first:

The shortest book was 35 pages.

The longest book was  665 pages.

A total of 31,215 pages! I cannot possibly imagine how many words that translates to!

I did a quick count up of my own – and in terms of books read on kindle as opposed to the ‘real’ thing then I am somewhat shocked. 75 on kindle, 25 ‘real’. I know the main reason for this – netgalley. It has given me the opportunity to read lots of books, well before publication date and I have utilised it very much in 2017 and have plenty on there to read, but whilst I really need to make a dent in the amount I have requested I need to make a dent in my actual books, and remember why I enjoy reading – that physical act of holding a book, turning pages, referring back and becoming lost in a story.

I cannot promise that the statistics at the end of this year will be any different but I will give it a good go!

As for my books of the year? Oh that is a tough one but these are a few that just simply stood out for me, along with a snapshot of the review.

The use of letters, diary entries and public notices, forms a very rounded picture of the village and characters within. It is almost like experiencing the Mass Observation movement. Here was how others felt about what was going on around them in a small snapshot of the Second World War. An d whilst you may think perhaps it would be insular in its outlook, the book actually touches on problems far away from the village green and choir.

A really unique way of telling a story, and one that worked so beautifully, you could actually pick it up and read it again. An excellent debut novel. This is certainly going to be up there as one of my favourite books of 2017.

As with any Trisha Ashley novel, this is well written, the characters fully formed and developed and there is always more than one plot line weaving its way through the book.

There is so much packed into the pages.

No one knows the truth about Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance in 1926. We can all surmise from what we do know, but what we don’t know we can perhaps weave a story around. This is exactly what Andrew Wilson has done in this exciting novel, a must for all Christie fans.

Windward, 1945 – The marquee is out there on the lawn waiting for the wedding guests. Adele watches on and wonders how she has got to this point.

Windward, 2015 – The wedding marquee is out on the lawn waiting for the guests. Elle watches on and wonders how she ended up here.

It is in fact not the intervening years which complete the story it is that which has passed before.

I was transported to Elba, to the beautiful hotel, the intense heat and warmth of the sun. The sea as it was calm in the morning as Kit went to break the surface, to wake herself up, to find what she was looking for.

Star is going to have to step out of the shadow of her younger sister CeCe who since the beginning of the series I have found oppressive and claustrophobic, I was cheering Star on right from the start.

…Star has an address of a book shop in London and the name Flora MacNichol, a small black figurine and the translated quote ” The oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow”.

the skill of Lucinda Riley as a creator of wonderful dual narrative stories comes into its own. We are transported back to Cumbria, to the turn of the century where the Victorian Era had been only over for about 8 years and to a young lady who is determined not to marry, to not become anything of note in society but to enjoy her artistic talents and her small animals that have become her pets and to live near her idol, Beatrix Potter.

I have never been a fan of self-help books, but if they were all like this then I would be reading far more!

If you are not a fan of Sarah Millican then this probably isn’t your cup of tea. But if you are then, grab a large slab of cake, a mug of tea and find out how to be champion or in my case more champion than I already am!

 

Dee Blackthorn is ruthless when it comes to the corporate business world and she strives for one hundred percent success. She works hard and that is all she does, there is no stop, there is no pause. Dee lives for her work.

That is until one day she finds herself without a job and back living with her brother, JP. Suddenly working all the time is not the priority.

So there you go, a selection of some of my favourites. I think looking back on the year I have stuck to favourite genres – contemporary women’s fiction and good old fashioned sagas. I have simply been reading for pure enjoyment and I intend to do the same for this coming year.

I hope you will continue to read with me in 2018.

Happy New Year.

 

The Murderess – Jennifer Wells

1931 – Kate witnesses her mother, Millicent push a woman in front of a train. Kate is fifteen. She doesn’t know who the woman was or why her mother did it.

1940 – Kate’s mother will possibly be out on parole within a year. She was spared her life despite taking another’s.

Kate has to face up to what her mother has done.

On the ninth anniversary of the tragic events, Kate sees a man on the station holding flowers, her memory is jogged and she is determined to find out the truth behind the event which has shaped her life, that of her father and family ever since.

The book is told from the point of view of both mother and daughter. Kate’s tale is told during the 1940 and Millicent’s in 1915 and up to the conclusion of events on that tragic day in 1931. Two women who are caught in world wars with very different experiences and lives but bound by the fact that they are mother and daughter.

It took awhile for me to get into the two ‘voices’ of the story initially but once I had found them, I let myself be swept along by the story. As I read there is one more story to tell that of the woman who was sadly pushed in front of the train. What part did she play and was I going to get her side of the story.

I was not expecting what I got from this book. Initially I thought it was going to be of the wartime saga variety which I love to read but this was much richer and deeper and had more realism. Starting the book with someone being pushed in front of a train is certainly going to get your attention.

As I read the pieces all started to come together, but whilst some may say it was obvious what was going to happen, I let it all unfold as I read and took each twist as it came and when I reached the end of the book – I was shocked. Inevitable perhaps but my experience of historical sagas has never been like this book – and I am hooked.

I am going to go and read this authors first novel, she clearly has the storytelling gene and it encompasses history within a saga setting and a bit of crime – a perfect combination for me.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

The Murderess is out now.