1. I don't care about elaborate backstories for minor characters.
2. What Indian family is going to reject someone who is a renowned surgeon by the age of 32? Come to that, how do you get to be that good/renowned by that age.
3. You can't arrive in the USA and establish a viable business within a month, however many helpful friends you have.
4. (This was the one that made me - metaphorically -  throw the book across the room.) You don't make a character British by making them say "bloody", "arse" or "wanker" every third page. Especially if you then make them use American terms like "sweater vest".

I enjoyed this but felt it was aiming at a mark it didn't quite reach. The creepy house atmosphere was there, but not scary enough. The heroine was, frankly, a bit wet. I felt I wanted to shake her and tell her to pull herself together and take some action. I kept reading because I wanted to know how it ended, but I felt the whole thing was lacking somehow.

I feel I might have given this a higher rating if I understood it better! It's definitely a book I will re-read, because I know I missed a lot, both in the structure and in the many literary references.

I enjoy books with interesting structures, and this definitely fitted the bill, with each chapter being completely different from the others. A fun touch was that each chapter began with the last words of the previous one. The translator did an amazing job in keeping the structure and the verbal tricks faithful to the original.

I did find the plot, such as it was, quite hard to keep track of, and the characters on the whole felt quite two-dimensional. Perhaps because of the structure, it felt more like a factual account than a fiction book.

Still a fascinating read and one I will return to.

A beautiful book dealing with the life of a young girl who escapes the coup in Afghanistan in 1978 and comes to live in America. Many years later, now working as a surgeon, she meets the man who saved her - but who may also have killed her family.
This book deals with some big themes and big emotions, and there are numerous interwoven storylines. The characterisations are three-dimensional and real, and Sitara/Aryana's emotions throughout are believable and well-portrayed. Beautiful poetic language.

An interesting overview of personality types and different ways of assessing them, and of how understanding them can help you work on yourself and your relationships. To me, it was academically interesting: not something I want to go deeply into.

This is a fun YA novel based around the lists the heroine Quinn writes in her journal. When the jornal goes public, Quinn learns the value of honesty and friendship, and the excitement of living life to the full rather than confining it to paper. The hero was rather too good to be true, but on the whole the characters were likeable and believable.

This was a happy fun read. As well as Polly and Huck (and now their twins!), Rueben and Karensa and other islanders, we are introduced to Marisa and Alexei, both unhappy and both having escaped to the island. Of course, you can see where it's going from the start, but it's no less enjoyable for that.

My only disappointment with this book was that it didn't quite live up to "Red, White and Royal Blue". I found the beginning a little slow, but once I got into it, it was hard to put down. A glorious riot of queer romance, time travel, found family and mystery. Full of great characters and a real sense of place. Wonderful.

A time-slip love story with a wonderful sense of place and time (1930s and '40s). It made we want to go to Grand central Station and look out for Joe and Nora, The characterisation and the dilemmas the couple faced were spot-on. I did find it a little slow-going in the middle, but I'm glad I persisted with it.

This was a beautiful book with wonderful descriptions and a tragic compelling storyline. It made me both angry and sad for poor Esme, locked away for sixty years for not conforming. I loved the multiple points of view and the to- and fro-ing in time.