Year Published: 2011
My Rating: 5 stars
320 pages
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.
Tamara is a teenager who is used to getting whatever she wants, born into wealth and living in a mansion in addition to being whiny and bitchy. Now she tragically loses her dad, which also means losing everything her life was revolving around it seems in addition to her mother's sanity as well.
So, they are forced to move to the country with her uncle and his wife, who seems to try too hard to please them, or is she?!
Now her mother is acting strangely and sleeping more and more, very seldom leaving her room, and Tamara is told that she is grieving and should be left alone to relax and find her peace.
She finds out that the country is so different that the life she is used to, life now is more basic and simple. She tries to make friends with the librarian of the travelling library Marcus, a guy on the grounds called Weasley and an old Nun.
But things don't seem as they appear to be and soon Tamara starts to uncover deep dark secrets concerning all those around her, with the help of a weird book that seems to know things before they happen!
Then when things start to reveal itself in the end and the secrets are no more, it gets so fast paced and exciting it's so hard to not fly through the pages. I kept guessing and guessing till the end!
The ending was very satisfying and makes the puzzle pieces fit together perfectly, so no loose ends!
This book blew me away!! Utterly AMAZING!!!
It was literally so hard for me to put down, I didn't want anyone or anything to take me away from this wonderful story!
It is one of my favorite books for this year!! And probably one of my favorites, period!
I also loved the cover art, it is superb! So cute and dreamy!
This is the second book I read for this author and she amazed me both times, the first book I read was P.S. I Love You and it's still an all-time favorite for me.
I'm sure I'll get her other books as soon as I can!
Quotes I enjoyed from the book:
What a luxury it must be to disappear as she has, leaving everyone else to sweep up the mess and salvage whatever fragments of life are left.
I could see that if the bluebottle just moved up a few inches, he'd be free. He wasn't really trapped at all, he was just looking in the wrong place.
I stood shivering in the avocado-colored bath as the hot water trickled down with all the power of baby drool, and I longed for my pink iridescent mosaic-tiled wet room with six power-shower jets and a plasma TV in the wall.
Rosaleen, the busy domestic bee, immediately jumped into action and came at me with giant oven gloves on her hands.
I lightly boxed each of her hands. She didn't get the joke. But without a word, or a twitch, or a movement of any kind in Arthur's face I sensed he got it.
I couldn't help but smile, watching that. It should have been weird, her treating him like a child going off to school, but it wasn't. It was nice.
"Hi, Mum, it's me. I'm outside the house in a bus full of books and a cute guy is going to drive me to the town. I'll be back in a few hours. In case I don't come back, his name is Marcus Sandhurst, he's five foot ten, has black hair, blue eyes ... Any tattoos?" I asked.
He lifted his top. Ooh, he was ripped.
"He's got a Celtic cross on his lower abdomen, no chest hair, and a silly smile. He likes Scarface, Coldplay and Pizza, and is hoping to get into books in a big way. See you later."
I hung up and Marcus burst out laughing. "You know me better than most people."
"What the hell ... " he said, trying to pull at the lock, making a series of grimaces. "Trust you to choose the only book in here that doesn't have an author or a title and is padlocked."
I don't doubt that Dad loved Mum. He adored her. He was always looking at her, touching her, opening doors for her, bringing her flowers, shoes, handbags, constant surprises to show her he was thinking of her on the most ridiculous things, which annoyed me to no end.
But you can't lose a daughter, can you? A child of yours will always be your child, whether you see them or care for them or not. A wife, now, she can easily be lost.
Dad was a stand-at-the-front-door-and-wave-until-you-can't-see-the-car-anymore kind of person.
4 comments:
I've read 2 of Ahern's books and loved them. This one sounds great too. I didn't know it was out there, so thanks for the review!
I am glad you had such a great reading experience.
So you also get review books via NetGalley? A friend recommended them a few weeks ago so I have also received my first few Kindle books from them.
Sharon, it was a pleasure to write :)
What other books you read for Ahern?
Dorte, yes what an experience :)
I just subscribed a couple of weeks ago and this is the first book I read and review. I have others waiting but don't know when I'll start them :)
If you haven't already subscribed I recommend that you do, it's really fun :)
The two I've read are P.S. I Love You and Thanks For the Memories. They were both wonderful.
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