wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

Rose Janko's family haven't heard from her in seven years. Ray Lovell, a private detective, is hired by Rose's father to look into her disappearance and is trusted because he is half-Gypsy, like Rose and the Jankos. As Ray digs into what happened to Rose, more questions and secrets come to light.

I listened to most of this on audiobook and it was narrated by Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey) and I really loved it. It was my first experience of trying out an audiobook and I was totally hooked which surprised me. I'm not sure if I would have liked the book as much if i didn't listen to it, there could be parts where it seemed like not that much happened but I got into the mystery and it really kept me guessing. I really liked JJ, the 14-year-old gypsy boy, and his side of the story and a look into his life as a gypsy and going to a normal school and being a bit torn between the two lives.

The end did surprise me a bit but in a good way.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to get up and go as it makes you believe that you can really do something.

I watched the movie adaption of Wild this time last year as I was just about to do a week of the Camino de Santiago. My experience was certainly not half as hard as Cheryl's on the PCT but so much of this book made sense to me. How all your thoughts just focus on walking and how much you need to walk, the constant ache in your feet and your joints, the camaraderie you instantly have with other people on the path because everyone is feeling the same pains and aches and even though you're on your own, you're still in it together. After reading this book, I'm already planning my next Camino trip in my head because I feel like I can do it.

I really enjoyed Cheryl's stories about the trail and her descriptions of the places, the people and the feelings. I really felt her grief, pain, joy and relief throughout the book and it just sounds like such an amazing experience and part of me would really really love to do it. It might take a few (100) years to build up the courage.

A powerful story about a woman living her broken self behind and rebuilding on the trail of the PCT. Amazing.

So this book should be renamed to 'Judith Summers' Dating Life and Some Stories About Her Dog George'.

When you go into a book based around a dog, you definitely expect a lot more stories about the dog and not massive chunks about the author's dating life. I really didn't care. I didn't like Judith Summers voice at all in this book and she across as a posh, selfish dog owner who is happy to overfeed her pet till he's obese and not bother about training so that both his life and hers is fretful and tense.

When she bought George from the breeder, she didn't have any kind of dog things at home to care for him, thought locking him in a bathroom where there were numerous things he could eat was a good idea on his first night, lay down rules and never followed them which ended up being disastrous in the long run and basically was someone who thought they were a dog whisperer and really weren't.

I almost DNF'd this book when she told the story about the first man she dated after her husband died and this man thought a suitable dinner time conversation was telling the story of how he hated his wife and daughter's cats so much that one day he put one of them in a box, drove miles down a road to a random park and dumped the cat on the side of the road. LIKE WTF? Not only was this apparently an acceptable story to tell, he thought it was funny and laughed about it and so did Summers. Just because the cat found her way back and was no doubt traumatised, scared, hungry and cold along the way doesn't mean the story is funny or at all right.

I also hated Summers lackadaisical attitude towards overfeeding George and not bothering to train him. He ended up being a needy and clingy dog because she couldn't bother to give him some space as a puppy and teach him he was alright without her.

I also hated EVERYTHING about her dating life. Not only did she break up with the one man that was right for her (Alex), she insisted on going out with a horrible man who openly despised her dog and didn't totally care about her son. This man couldn't even say the word 'fart' without gagging. Who wants to be with a person like that? He also didn't bother to try and look for George when he got lost, saying, "he's only a dog". Yeah he would have been dumped then and there if it was me.

There were just huge chunks of this that didn't need to be in it - the history about where she lived, the whole speel about her book and who she was writing about when she first met Zac, the several chapters just about her dating which seemed to just be there so she could prove to the reader that she was still desirable even though she was a middle-aged widow and not to mention the cringey and unnecessary bit about the man who 'looked into her soul' on the train. WHO CARES!

2.5 Stars

It's been a long time since I read The Smiler's Fair which follows several characters including a boy called Krish who is apparently the 'Moon God reborn'. The Hunter's Kind follows on after a terrible fire had ripped through Smiler's Fair, Krish is on the run with his warrior friend Dao Hyo and a mage Olufemi looking for somewhere safe to stay while his enemies rally to take him down.

I thought I would be really lost going into this as the story of The Smiler's Fair was really, really faint in my memory by surprisingly, most things floated back to me. I enjoyed the story at the start but I actually preferred Cwen, Alfreda and Sang Ki's storylines better than Krish's, who I ended up disliking. I felt like things kind of flipped in this book compared to the first book and I was suddenly left not knowing who was bad and who was good and who I should be rooting for (I feel like with fantasy, you normally know who the baddies are) and I didn't like that feeling.

I felt disappointed with the ending, it was rather flat and I also hated the terrible waste of human life just so there could be a bit of family bonding. Personally, I actually though Dao Hyo was going to slit Krish's throat and I was actually okay with that. I'm not sure if there's going to be a next book as anothr isn't showing up on Goodreads so if there's not the epilogue was a bit crappy and it definitely wasn't any kind of conclusion I wanted.

Amani lives in a desert world where everything she owns actually belongs to the man in charge of her, be it father, uncle, brother or husband. Fearing being trapped in a terrible life, Amani puts her fate into her own hands when she enters a gun shooting contest dressed a boy. Before too long, Amani finds herself on the run with a stranger and in the middle of the rebellion against the Sultan of her country.

It took me a while to get into this story but once I did I really enjoyed it. I think the sense of the dry, hot desert land was told really well and the world and its history was explained in a way that made a lot of sense. I really felt all of Amani's struggles as a woman in a world where she could hardly even breathe in the wrong direction and I think it's also good to highlight that there are women in the world today who are living in such circumstances. People's treatment towards Amani when she was a boy versus when she was a girl was fascinating.

I loved the introduction of the Demdjii. It's just the kind of stuff I love when it comes to fantasy and it reminds me a little bit of the gracelings in Kristin Cashore's Graceling series.

I also didn't mind the relationship between Amani and Jin. I heard mention of the six week time jump but I didn't mind that at all. It made sense not to focus on all the boring points of the caravan journey and i guess it's pretty realistic that a journey would take that long too. I would have loved mention of Amani dealing with women problems like trying to deal with her period at some point in the 6-8 weeks she was on the run dressed like a man but that's me being pernickety.

I think this was a great, strong book to start off a series that looks to be very exciting indeed. I'll definitely be reading the next book.

The ill-fated tale of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard told by a woman who served them both -Jane Parker, Anne Boleyn's sister in law and a woman who turned her over to her killers.

This was an interesting take on the tale of Anne Boleyn. Once you're read one story about the Boleyn's, they all start to blend in to each other and it probably takes a lot for one to stand out. This didn't stand out and it took me a while to get into (maybe just the bitterness of each word being told by Parker. The hate and disgust was very evident throughout, which I guess meant it was written well). I enjoyed this book for what it was though and I would recommend anyone who likes some Tudor novels to pick it up.