Words on pages... a few of my favourite books 
published this year (2017)
part two - adult fiction 

So, here is part two ( part one found here ) of the books that "Swallowed me up, heart and soul" 

                               

The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman 

Luna and her sister Pia have lost their mother. Along with their grief they have to grapple with a heartbreaking secret she revealed after her death. When they visit Brooklyn, their mother's birthplace, to settle her affairs, they realise that the past may hold more questions than answers. Suddenly, Luna finds herself pulled into the past, literally. She travels through time and finds herself back in the summer of 1977, at the time the tragedy that destroyed her mother is about to happen. Can Luna change the past and if she does, what will it cost her? 

What would be your moment? The one moment in your past, in your history that you would want to go back and change? What price would you be willing to pay, what would you be willing to lose? 

I love Luna. I love everything about her. I love her mind, her determination, her incredible spirit. She stole my heart. 

This is a beautiful, clever, special book. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet, then please, please do! 


                                                          

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

Matt Haig is one of my favourite authors. I read The Humans, which is utterly brilliant, a couple of years ago and that my friends, was the beginning of a love affair with each ad every one of his incredible, beautiful books. 

I am old. That is the first thing to tell you. The thing you are least likely to believe. If you saw me you would probably think I was about forty, but you would be very wrong.

How to Stop Time is Tom Hazard's story. It's the story of a man who has lived for centuries. He may look like a 41 year old, but he is much, much older and has had to change identities throughout the years to keep himself safe. Now he is living in London, he's a history teacher and he is trying to live by his one rule, he mustn't fall in love. He's done that before and his heart has never recovered. 

This is one of those books that stays with you forever. It takes up residence inside your heart and before you know it, it's part of you. No words I write will ever do How to Stop Time justice, it is a masterpiece. Please don't take my word for it, grab a copy and find out for yourself. 


                                                          

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 

When I heard about this book I knew I NEEDED to read it. It is utterly brilliant and I have bought copies for so many people, every household needs a copy. 

Eleanor is completely fine. She goes to work. She has her own apartment. Her life is exactly the way she wants it to be... or is it? When she meets Raymond and together they save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has had a fall, her entire life is turned upside down. As the story progresses we start to see glimpses into her life that she wouldn't want us to see, and we realise that completely fine is the lie we tell others, and ourselves when things are falling apart. 

This book will make you think, it will conjure every emotion and make you feel it. It's fascinating and heartbreaking. Eleanor is such a relatable character, she is quirky, she is different and she is hurting more than she will even admit to herself. As the story progresses so we see the full extent of her psychosis and our heart breaks for her. I don't have the words to describe just how ingenious and powerful this truly is. 

                                         Spare & Found Parts                                                                                            by Sarah Maria Griffin 

What did I love about Spare & Found Parts? Let me count the ways...

Nell 
Nell is an incredible protagonist. She is beautiful, she is strong and in the face of fear and ignorance she shines so brightly. From the first page her emotions became my emotions. She grabbed me by the hand and didn't just pull me into her story but made my heart beat in time with hers. I saw Black Water City through her eyes and it was honest and terrifying. She made me care. 

Nell may seem lost, she is an outsider, she is in her mother's shadow, terrified of her father and grandmother's reactions to her choices, eclipsed by her vivacious best friend Ruby, tentative in rebuffing Oliver's advances but... BUT she is in truth an incredibly strong young woman. Despite the world she lives in, despite the expectations of the people around her, despite the constant onslaught of assumption and demands from Oliver, she rises above it all and shows herself and everyone around her that she is Nell, and being her amazing, unique self is all that she needs to be.

The writing
This story is so beautifully written. It's lyrical. The words dance across the page and into your heart. It's honest. Nell isn't perfect and sometimes reacted in ways that made me flinch, but that's the truth of humanity. We aren't perfect. We make mistakes. We hurt and lash out. We simply are. None of the ugliness is hidden, but is instead a piece of the puzzle, a fragment of what makes us who we are. The writing is enchanting and undeniably brilliant.

The setting
Nell's world is a post apocalyptic one. The city she lives in, Black Water City, has been devastated by an epidemic. Survivors are all missing parts. Her father creates biomechanical limbs that everyone uses. The stark, brutal picture painted of a society living in fear of the past, where everyone has to prove their worth, where suspicion and foreboding are rife is harrowing and yet the perfect backdrop for this story.

Character development
Nell took me through every range of emotions as she went from lost to soaring.
Oliver, oh Oliver, despite my loathing for his obsession with Nell, he remained a constant throughout. Even when he was terrified by Nell's choices, he remained on her side, on the city's side, on the side of truth... and maybe, slightly redeemed himself in the end??? 
Ruby, the confident, vivacious best friend who struggled to see Nell's true self, but undoubtedly loved her throughout. 
Her grandmother, lost in the past, in tradition, in the done thing, but who is formidable and true. 
The parents, Julian and Cora, obsessed, lost in their own glory... 
Io, a mechanical man, a computer brought to life, with emotions, the capacity to think for himself and the ability to make the reader love him. 
All the characters have their part to play, their piece of the puzzle that fits into Nell's life and their performances are perfect. 

Spare & Found Parts is an unusual story, but one that I fell in love with straight away.  A wonderful, terrifying, exciting, captivating book whose main character will stay with me forever. My words cannot possible do this story justice, please read it for yourself

Thank you to Titan Books for sending me this glorious book.