wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

When Belle and Sign decide to turn their back on the busy, city lifestyle of their peers, the two find a mountainside cottage to turn in a home, along with their two dogs. Seven Steeples follows the couple over the course of seven years as they settle in their home, into their relationship and slowly move away from modern society to become a community of just two.

This is a very quiet novel that exudes a real sense of peace and contentment within solitude that I appreciated. I did like the style of writing and story-telling that Sara Baume was going for with this novel but I have to admit that overall, I feel disappointed in the book as it was one I was really convinced I was going to love - running away to a country cottage with my dogs is my dream.

However, there were just some elements of Belle and Sigh's life that repulsed me a bit, and I think this is a nod to the writing as I believe Sara wanted the reader to feel a bit like I did. I didn't understand the urge to move away but then not really do anything with their life - there are some half-hearted attempts at gardening, and small bits of DIY but really they just seem happy to let their home crumble around them. I don't think I'm someone who can warm to two able-bodied people of sound and healthy mind who decide to never work again and take handouts from the government. I just can't really respect that when they had the time, health and energy to do something - even if it was a small business. They did absolutely nothing and it kind of infuriated me.

The descriptions of what is more or less just everyday dirt that most people live with had me feeling a bit sick in this book too but again, I think this showed a skill in the writing. There was a particular mention of an uncovered butter dish gathering all sorts of dirt from human skin flakes to dog hair, and a mouse nibble that had me gagging, as did the descriptions of the spiders who lived on the bedroom walls and ceiling and how bits of fly wing would float down onto the sleeping couple's faces YUCK but also great writing.

One of my main gripes with this book as the lack of dialogue. Not once do we get any kind of conversation between Belle and Sigh, or even any conversation or words to their dogs. While I understand this was a style choice, I think it made the book slightly dull to read at times, and I found it was hard sometimes to keep my attention on the story and I realised I had read the same paragraph a number of times without taking anything in.

There was a sense of loveliness about the type of life Belle and Sigh live, but it's not the idyllic country life I would envision for myself (more books, more cleaning and less locking oneself away from the world). 

In 1921, author Edith Somerville is trying to enjoying her later years in life, while attempting to turn her novels into a stage play - all the while regularly communicating with her deceased writing partner Martin Ross from beyond the veil. But Edith's pleasurable existence is being interrupted by the Irish War of Independence, and unfortunately as part of the wealthy upperclass with ties to England, Edith's ancestral home is often a target for IRA raids.

This was a pleasant and interesting reading experience for me. I knew next to nothing about Edith Somerville or her writing so it was nice to read about her, in a novel with her own POV, and she was a striking, independent woman who did feel very ahead of her time. There were of course times that Edith showed her class when it came to snobbery and a certain 'looking down her nose' at different types of people but overall I found her a fun character to spend some time with and I say she was a force to be reckoned with in real life.

I also appreciated seeing the Irish War of Independence from the other side of things, as I - probably like many other Irish people with a foot in the past - often tend to romanticise the fight for Irish freedom and the boys who followed the Big Fella Mick Collins when of course, like in any other kind of fighting, there is always good and bad people on both sides (except the Black and Tans, I'm convinced they were all bad) and we see the IRA men say and do some vicious things in this book and act very cruelly towards older people in their home.

This is a book full of literary people and playwrights and I also enjoyed the characterisation of George Bernard Shaw, and all his eccentricities (the scenes in which he insists on driving his own motor car, and flattening a flower bed while reversing are very funny indeed).

This is a very well told novel which I would like to think did a great justice to the powerful figure of Edith Somerville, as she was very big for me and felt like she could step off the page very much like her own character Flurry does for her during the course of the novel. I also love that I have a new list of books to try out from an Irish classic writer I knew little about before. 

Sally Diamond's father always told her that when he died, he should put her out with the bins. So when one day, he doesn't wake up, that's exactly what she does. This eventually leads to trouble for Sally and brings the guards and media to her doorstep where she finds out some hidden secrets about her childhood and her family.

Another fantastic, character-focused book from Liz Nugent. I really enjoyed this story that follows Sally as she discovers the truth of who she really is, and starts making steps to improve her life before it's too late. There were some really endearing moments in this as Sally starts to try and become a part of the community she had hidden herself away from for so long, and her struggle to make true friends. There were also some funny moments as well as Sally's 'social deficiency' comes to play now and again, and she says something wrong. However, typical for Liz Nugent, there was a dark current swimming under every bit of this story and now and again it would peak its head up with a flash of Sally's uncontrollable anger or a creepy teddy bear in the post.

The flash back scenes with another character were also riveting and creeping in another way - two stories that shadowed each other in different ways, were very similar but also different.

This was fast-paced and hooked me well and truly. Liz Nugent has a way of writing characters that is so unique, she really peels them back and as a reader we get to see all these dark and terrible bits of them as well as any of the good. 

A non fiction book looking at the dark time in Irish history when mother and baby homes run by the Catholic Church were rampant, and women who were unmarried and fell pregnant were hidden away from society and their babies taken from them. This book examines Bessborough, an infamous mother and baby institute in County Cork and three brave women tell their story of their stays there in the 60s,70s and 80s and how the stay affected them, and their years long battle to be reunited with their lost children.

This was a fantastic book that is well paced, conversational in tone and I feel like it would be an easy and accessible read for every kind of reader. This is a really good introduction to the topic of mother and baby homes in Ireland, and while this does focus on Bessborough - the main theme of the book is telling the women's stories - women who have been silenced and made to feel guilty at every turn they've taken to take a hold of their own story. I think the author Deirdre Finnerty treated the women with such respect and kindness, something they hadn't experienced a whole lot of in their lives.

There are always moments in every story about this topic that shocks me even when I think I can no longer be shocked, that I've read it all. While there wasn't horrific details of abuse or mother and baby deaths in this book, the treatment of the girls was still so hard to read and the way the church and other systems in Ireland made it so hard for these women to find out what happened to their children. I was blind with fury reading Terri was escorted from her new home in England to Bessborough by priests and nuns - literally extradited because of her pregnancy. It was truly shocking.

I definitely recommend this for people to read. 

Aoileann is a solitary figure - ignored and shunned by the other inhabitants of the Irish island she lives on, she spends her days in a dark, lonely house with her grandmother - the two of them looking after the 'bed thing' that is Aoileann's mother. When a young mother arrives to the island, Aoileann develops a scary obsession with the woman and a growing resentment towards the child.

This book is fantastic in creepy setting and horrific situations, that are desperately sad and brutal all at the same time. The isolated island life, especially experienced through someone even further ostracised, was done so well and there were times I didn't know whether to hate the islanders for their ways or pity them.

Aoileann was honestly a scary character - she had been through so much, clearly she was deficient on the social front and had no idea how to interact with others or form normal attachment, and then she also had been the victim of assault from the island men. And then to live in a house that is more or less a prison on top of all of that. It's no wonder the beauty, simplicity and charm of Rachel obsessed her to the point of dangerous behaviour.

I do think this book may be a hard read for people who are family carers, and therefore I wouldn't recommend it to these people. There are some moments in this that made me so uncomfortable due to the way Aoileann and her grandmother treated her mother - they kept her as comfortable as possible, and cared for her in the way they knew how but there were moments that made you truly wonder if she was trapped in a terrible silent prison of her own self. And as Aoileann's obsession deepens, her behaviour towards her mother becomes more resentful and cruel.

I can't say I loved this novel as there were times I felt I had to look away due to those uncomfortable moments and the creepy feeling while reading the book as Aoileann became further out of reach from normality. But in terms of atmosphere it was top notch and for people who like literary horror, books with chilling senstions, this could be perfect. 

A beautiful memoir about an extraordinary woman who loved during a time of great fear and grief as the men she called her friends and family were struck down by a terrifying illness that had no cure. Author Jill Nalder is the inspiration behind the character of Jill in It's A Sin (a brilliant show if you haven't seen it), and that's how I found out about this book and knew I needed to read it.

This story is a mix of things - creativity, and artistic dreams as well as friendship and family (both born and found), strength, grief, and most of all love. The love that shines through on every page of this book as Jill describes her life growing up in London, working in the theatre and West End, with a bunch of beautiful boys who made her laugh and whom she cared about deeply, is immense.

I actually liked how Jill made some references to the Covid-19 pandemic in her book, as really it's one of the closest things we have now in modern memory to compare to the terrifying era that was the AIDS epidemic including the fear and vilifying of a particular group of people. From healthcare to people in the street, it was too long a time before suffering gay men were treated with the respect that they and any human being deserves as their bodies were slowly ravaged by an illness that takes no prisoners. Jill also makes sure to point out in her book as well how AIDs diagnoses also affected many women and how testing procedure failed women and children who may have contracted the disease whether it be through sexual relations, blood transfusions, or in utero.

This book will make you cry and as Jill took the time to educate the reader about the wonderful people who were Colin, Derek, Juan and Dursley - and the many, many others who lost their lives, I knew if I allowed it, I would just become a bawling mess. This book is an absolute eye opener about a time that people are still affected and traumatised by, and while we know now that a HIV diagnosis isn't the death sentence it once was, we still have a long way to go before we overcome the stigma and fear that still rings around such a diagnosis.

On a lighter note, I think anyone who likes theatre or anything West End/Broadway would really enjoy this as that is the industry Jill and her friends all work in and there's mentions of loads of different shows as well as some names that people may recognise. Juan and Jill performed in the earlier versions of Les Mis in Paris and London, and Cameron Mackintosh himself called Dursley when he was in hospital, and Dame Judi Dench spoke at his service!

I highly recommend this book - it's beautifully written, brings people who should be alive and performing today back to life in a lovely way, and educates the reader brilliantly about a scary time in the world. 

 I’ve read Romancing Mr Bridgerton 2 times now and it holds firm as my favorite Bridgerton novel (so far). 

 

RMB takes place over 10 years after the events of the first book and we follow Penelope Fetherington now a ‘spinster’ at the age of 28 and Colin Bridgerton, returned dashing and exotic, after many years of traveling the world. 

 

As the two become reacquainted with one another, Colin realizes he never truly saw Penelope for who she was - a truly intelligent and beautiful young woman, and in turn Penelope see the flaws and vulnerabilities of the man she’s loved since she was 14, which make her love him even more. But obviously there’s a big secret between them in the guise of the identity of the ton’s favorite author - Lady Whistledown. 

 

This book is sweet, romantic but also full of amazing sexy moments between Pen and Colin. I love the growth we see between them and how the two accept each other - flaws and all - and also admire each other for different talents and perseverance. I love that writing is a big thing for both Colin and Pen, and it’s this that draws them even closer together to make them an editor/author dream team! 

 

I’m normally an enemies to lovers over friends to lovers gal when it comes to tropes but this is the most perfect friends to lovers for me, and gets me gooey eyed every time. 

 

I also don’t need to say much about the carriage scene or the mirror scene because both were obviously fantastic.