The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

Pages: 304 

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 

Released: 16th of February 2023 

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

TW: blood, violence, gore, animal death, paedophilia, harassment, child abuse, death, forced starvation, forced self-harm

What I Have to Say 

I enjoyed this book for the most part, but do not go into it without reading the trigger warnings. This is not a book to go into with preparing yourself for what you have to face. 

As usual, I loved the fairy tale aspect of the book. I loved the Azure chapters and I loved the constant metaphors that the main character made between the mythology and fairy tales he knew and the events of the stories. It was perfect. It led to a general vibe of the mysterious and fantastical. 

However this vibe was not always there and when it wasn't, the book kind of fell flat. Before the Azure chapters started, I was honestly a bit bored. I hadn't warmed to the story yet and I was impatient for the story to start. I also found it went away at the end when the characters had to return to reality as it were. 

It was only really the first half an hour of reading and the last half an hour though, other than that the book was fantastic. 

(4 stars) 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Evacuee Christmas by Katie King

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: HQ

Released: 19th of October 2017 

Autumn 1939 and London prepares to evacuate its young. In No 5 Jubilee Street, Bermondsey, ten-year-old Connie is determined to show her parents that she’s a brave girl and can look after her twin brother, Jessie. She won’t cry, not while anyone’s watching.

In the crisp Yorkshire Dales, Connie and Jessie are billeted to a rambling vicarage. Kindly but chaotic, Reverend Braithwaite is determined to keep his London charges on the straight and narrow, but the twins soon find adventures of their own. As autumn turns to winter, Connie’s dearest wish is that war will end and they will be home for Christmas. But this Christmas Eve there will be an unexpected arrival…

What I Have to Say 

I must say I expected more Christmas from a book with Christmas in the title. I expected a lot of war time spirit, scraping together a fun and joyous celebration with whatever they can because they don't have much. There was a bit of war time spirit, but there wasn't really that much Christmas. There were preparations for Christmas but Christmas day was a paragraph on the last page and the preparations only started in the last fifteen percent of the book. It left me a bit disappointed, because I was hoping for a cosy holiday read. 

I also didn't get on much with the writing style. The author explained a lot of the character's thoughts in very great detail, often stopping in the middle of a conversation to think things through and work out the best way to respond for paragraph after paragraph. It gave the feeling that the characters were just standing awkwardly staring at each other until they were ready to continue. There was just too much exposition and the characters always seemed to be doing what was best for the situation, when real people aren't like that, because in real life, people don't think things through like that, they just act. 

I liked the characters well enough, but that's really all I can say for this book. I wanted to like it more, but I just didn't get along with it. 

My thanks go to HQ and Netgalley for providing me this copy for review. 

The Burning Girl by Claire Messud

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 304

Publisher: Little Brown Book Group (Fleet)

Released: 7th of September 2017 

Julia Robinson and Cassie Burnes have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge: while Julia comes from a stable, happy, middle-class family, Cassie never knew her father, who died when she was an infant, and has an increasingly tempestuous relationship with her single mother, Bev. When Bev becomes involved with the mysterious Anders Shute, Cassie feels cruelly abandoned. Disturbed, angry and desperate for answers, she sets out on a journey that will put her own life in danger, and shatter her oldest friendship. 

What I Have to Say

I hate to be so harsh, but this book bored me a lot. I don't know if I'd have gotten through it if it hadn't been for review. Just so much of the book was just exposition and setting up the relationship between the two girls. It felt like nothing was really happening at all. 

And even when things were happening, the plot was kind of obvious. I guessed easily where Cassie had gone. It was just predictable and there wasn't much at all to keep me reading. 

I did like Cassie as a character though. Julia was a little bland, but Cassie was quite well written, at least at first. She became a bit of a cliché when she was trying to be cool and out at parties all the time, though it was made less so by Julia's insights into Cassie's life, such as the fact that Cassie wouldn't drink. 

I dunno. I just like books with a strong plot and this was more based around Cassie as a character. It wasn't for me. 

My thanks go to Little Brown Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Cows by Dawn O'Porter

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 464

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Released: 6th of April 2017 

COW [n.]

/kaʊ/

A piece of meat; born to breed; past its sell-by-date; one of the herd.

Women don’t have to fall into a stereotype.

THE COWS is a powerful novel about three women. In all the noise of modern life, each needs to find their own voice.

It’s about friendship and being female.

It’s bold and brilliant.

It’s searingly perceptive.

It's about never following the herd.

And everyone is going to be talking about it.

What I Have to Say 

This book really wasn't my thing. I just don't like too much sex in books. I get that the book was all about encouraging women to speak up about sex and everything, but for me, male or female, I'm just not interested in that much sex. I prefer different kind of stories. 

I also don't think the whole video going viral subplot was that realistic. I think that a video of that kind of content would get flagged as sensitive pretty quickly and removed. Even if people kept reposting it, I just don't think that a video of that nature would get the kind of traction needed to become a viral sensation like that. A thing that I think would have made this part of the plot better would be if more had been made about the fact that she'd been filmed without her consent. I would have been far more interested had Tara tried to get legal action taken against the boy who filmed her. 

Another thing I did like was the question of whether the father has the right to know about a pregnancy. It was interesting the way both sides were shown and it honestly has me questioning my opinion on the subject. The whole controversy over Annie's father and the way that Tara found out what he thought on the matter really has me thinking that sometimes keeping a child's father from knowing is the kinder thing to do. 

I'm sad because I really like Dawn O'Porter's writing, but like I said, this book just really wasn't my kind of think. 

My thanks go to Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.