Tag: NetGalley

Book Review: The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker by Jenni Keer

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The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy BakerAbout the Book

Meet Lucy, aged 25, and Brenda, aged 79. Neighbours, and unlikely friends.

Lucy Baker is not your usual 25-year-old. She is more at home reading and knitting in her cluttered little flat than going out partying and socialising.  79-year-old Brenda is full of wise and wonderful advice, but when she’s diagnosed with dementia her life begins to change. Before her memories slip away forever, Brenda is desperate to fulfil one last wish – to see Lucy happy.

Gifting Lucy the locket that helped Brenda find her own true love, she hopes to push her reticent neighbour in the right direction. But is Lucy Baker ready for the opportunities and heartbreaks of the real world? It’s about time she put her knitting needles aside and found out…

Format: ebook (309 pp.)    Publisher: Avon Books UK
Published: 10th January 2019        Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Kobo ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker on Goodreads

My Review

I confess The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker is a little lighter than my usual choice of reading.  However, it certainly fits the bill for those occasions when you fancy something undemanding (in a good way) but still well-written and that will leave you with a warm glow.

Lucy makes an engaging heroine who it’s easy to root for.  She’s kind, thoughtful but, initially at least, inclined to underestimate herself and her abilities, and to think the best of others, even when they don’t necessarily deserve it.  Because of this, she’s a little easily manipulated and only gradually learns to assert herself and listen to those who genuinely have her best interests at heart.   Chief among these is her elderly neighbour Brenda who, having been a great support to Lucy in the past, now finds it is her turn to need help.  Brenda always knew she could count on Lucy but finds she has another more unlikely source of assistance as well.

In the scenes set in Lucy’s workplace (Tompkins Toy Workshop), the author captures the atmosphere of office life with its banter, gossip and cast of familiar characters: the practical joker, the mother figure and the Jack-the-Lad with his non-PC comments (who perhaps has hidden depths).    Okay, there are no real surprises and it didn’t take a genius to work out the way things were heading when Lucy and her best friend, Jess, undertake to win over Lucy’s new next door neighbour, George.

Nevertheless The Hopes of Dreams of Lucy Baker is a heart-warming story about the nature of true friendship, finding the courage to fulfil your dreams and how the path of true love sometimes needs a little help from forces you can’t explain.   If you don’t find yourself giving a little contented sigh of satisfaction on closing the book, I’ll be surprised.  And, if at the end, you have no desire to own a hand-knitted Poldark, then you’re probably beyond my help.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Elke at Avon Books UK, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Charming, tender, feel-good

Try something similar…The Secrets of Primrose Square by Claudia Carroll (read my review here)

jennikeerAbout the Author

After gaining a history degree, Jenni Keer embarked on a career in contract flooring before settling in the middle of the Suffolk countryside with her husband, an antique-restorer. She valiantly attempted to master the ancient art of housework but with four teenage boys in the house, it remains a mystery. Instead, she spends her time at the keyboard writing women’s fiction to combat the testosterone-fuelled atmosphere with #blindcat Seymour by her side.  She adores any excuse for fancy dress, and is part of a disco formation dance team.  The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker is her debut. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

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Book Review: Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton

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Blackberry & Wild RoseAbout the Book

When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse.

Inside the Thorels’ tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship. The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause.

It is silk that has Esther so distracted. For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality. When he laughs at her ambition, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole Thorel household and set the scene for a devastating day of reckoning between her and Sara.

The price of a piece of silk may prove more than either is able to pay.

Format: Hardcover, ebook (416 pp.)    Publisher: Quercus Books
Published: 10th January 2019      Genre: Historical Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Blackberry and Wild Rose on Goodreads

My Review

Tricked into prostitution as an innocent newcomer to London, Sara Kemp’s rescue by Esther Thorel from the clutches of the awful Mrs. Swann offers her the possibility of gaining control over her life.  However, Sara soon finds that it seems she may have swapped one form of dependence for another, constantly at the beck and call of her new mistress.   Furthermore, the possibility that the shameful details of her previous life may be revealed is a constant fear, especially since not everyone in the Thorel household welcomes her arrival.

Esther’s desire and determination to use her artistic talent to  produce designs for silk is a search for her own form of emancipation, an escape from what she describes at one point as ‘her gilded cage’.  It also becomes an act of defiance in response to her husband Elias’s hypocrisy and deceit – ‘He was not the man I had thought he was and I no longer took his word for granted’ – and his dismissal of her role as nothing more than social status symbol, bed-mate or organiser of their household.  ‘There was no mistress of silk in this house, only a master.’

The stories of Esther and Sara are revealed to the reader in alternating points of view.  Alongside learning their stories, I also enjoyed discovering fascinating detail about the silk weaving process and its place in the Huguenot community of the time.  In an early example of the affects of globalisation, it was interesting to witness how the pressures on the industry as a result of imports from abroad and competition from cheaper material create unrest between the journeymen silk weavers and those who control the Guild system and the silk weavers’ livelihoods.

At the end of the book, Esther and Sara both find themselves facing difficult personal and moral choices that may affect others, some with tragic consequences.  Might their experiences leave both women stronger and open up the possibility of them forging different, more fulfilling paths in the future?

Blackberry and Wild Rose is an impressive, assured debut that will be a treat for fans of historical fiction that feature skilfully crafted female characters and an interesting historical setting.  I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Quercus, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Well-crafted, richly textured, engaging

Try something similar…The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau or A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan (follow links from titles to read my reviews)

sonia veltonAbout the Author

Sonia Velton has been a solicitor in Hong Kong, a Robert Schuman Scholar in Luxembourg and spent eight years being a full-time Mum of three in Dubai. She now lives in Kent. Her first novel, Blackberry and Wild Rose, tells the story of a fictional household of master silk weavers living in eighteenth century Spitalfields. The protagonist is loosely inspired by Anna Maria Garthwaite who was the foremost silk designer of the mid-eighteenth century and the title takes its name from an actual silk design. The novel was shortlisted as a work in progress for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2015 and longlisted for the Myslexia Novel Competition. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

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