Tag: five stars

The most beautiful book about love and loss: The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silber (BookReview) #BookLovers #WomensFiction #LoveStory

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver book cover, UK edition, penguin

GIFTED / Today I want to talk about the book the I read in 2019, the one that has stolen my heart. When I read it in November it was my absolutely favourite read of 2019 and I hope my words will make you give this beautiful novel a try.
The Two Lives of Lydia Brid should be published as an e-book today, on January 30th 2020, and the paperback comes out on March 5th 2020. It is published by Penguin and it has 432 pages.
I want to say thank you to lovely people from Penguin for sending me an invitation to read this book via Netgalley.

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About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’ve been together for almost a decade, and Lydia thinks their love is indestructible.

But she’s wrong. Because on her 27th birthday, Freddie dies in a car accident.

So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob ’til her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to live her life well. So, enlisting the help of his best friend and her sister Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world and starts to live – perhaps even to love – again.

But then something inexplicable happens, which gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened. But what if there’s someone in in her new life who wants her to stay?

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Review:

Perfection. That is the one word I would use to describe The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.

This novel has stolen my heart with it’s beautiful storyline, with the intensity of emotions it awoke in me.
I honestly can’t even remember when was the last time I fell in love with the book so hard…

If I’m not mistaken, it was back in 2018 when I read One Day in December, that was one of my favourite reads that year.

If nothing (but it’s not nothing, it’s everything) this book showed just how amazing Josie Silver of a writer is.
She wrote two novels, and they both were stunningly written with emotional, heart shaking but beautiful plots, and characters one can’t help but get attached to.
I now am sure I don’t want to ever miss a piece of work written by this incredible author! I want to support her as long as my eyes can see, as long as my brain can recognize the sentences…

I loved the magical element that is the foundation of the story, but also how it affected the main character and the way the story developed.

The story is written in first person, with Lydia as a narrator.
It is beautifully written and even though the book has more than 400 pages it didn’t feel like it.
I wished it was longer, so I could spend more time in this world, with these wonderful characters.

I rarely cry while reading, but this book made me shed some tears.
That one scene, with lighting up candles, was especially emotional. It was my favourite scene in the whole story.

The story wrapped up in the most satisfying way. I hoped it would end up that way, and when it did, I was overwhelmed in a good way. I approve it 100%.

I will mention only one more thing: I want to praise Josie Silver for mentioning my county, Croatia. I was in Makarska many times in my life and I loved reading about it in one of the most beautiful books.

In the end, if I could make you want to read one book from my recommendations list, I would chose this one, because I am sure it will touch many hearts and I hope it will move yours too.
I am so thankful I had an opportunity to read this wonderful novel and I truly believe I will carry it in that part of my heart reserved only for favourite stories, for the rest of my life.

5 hearts rating

Book Review: The Glittering Art of Falling Apart by Ilana Fox

Title: The Glittering Art of Falling Apart
Author: Ilana Fox
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Date: February 4th, 2016
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 1980s Soho is electric. For Eliza, the heady pull of its nightclubs and free-spirited people leads her into the life she has craved – all glamour, late nights and excitement. But it comes at a heavy cost.

Cassie is fascinated by her family’s history and the abandoned Beaufont Hall. Why won’t her mother talk about it? Offered the chance to restore Beaufont to its former glory, Cassie jumps at the opportunity to learn more about her past.

Separated by a generation, but linked by a forgotten diary, these two women have more in common than they know . . .

Review:

Do you know what I usually do when I’m about to review a perfect book? I postpone it, and pospone it, and pospone it…
Because, sometimes it is hard to find the words to describe how much, and why, I liked the book so much.
There’s sometimes that self-doubt that I just wouldn’t do it justice.

This is what happened in this case. I started writing my review 6 days ago, and here I am now, still not sure if I’m going to finish it this time around.

I guess you can already guess that I loved this book. I did, I loved it so much! It is the best book I have read this year so far, and it was my first 5 stars read of 2018.

I heard about this book two years ago when it appeared in many women’s fiction bloggers lists of favorite books.
The story sounded promising and let’s face it: The cover is really appealing (and I always judge books by their covers, I can’t help it!).

The story follows two women in two different times: Cassie in nowadays and Eliza in 1980s.

Cassie was always fascinated with Beaufont Hall, a house that belonged to her family for years and years.
Unfortunately, because of  poor financial situation, Cassie’s family can’t afford to have Beaufond Hall anymore, and they are about to sell it.
For the last time, Cassie goes to Beaufond House to sort things out, say her last goodbye to the home she always wanted to live in and spends some time going through all the belongings in a hope she’ll find something valuable and figure out how to save the house.

There, in Beaufond Hall, she finds diaries of a forgotten family member called Eliza. Forgotten is maybe a wrong word in this case, because Eliza and her mother were subjects no one ever talked about, a tabu-theme of the family.

Eliza is a young girl who’s story is placed in 1980s in Soho. She was bored with her every day life so she moved there to work and have fun. We follow her around and see her dreams being shattered, her friends falling apart and herself trying her best but still chasing the tail of the creature called better life.

Both stories are told in third person, and intertwined into a whole.
I assumed how the story might have ended, and to be honest, I can’t tell you if the reason for that was it’s predictability, of the writer in me recognized the way she would have wrapped this novel.
It doesn’t really matter, because one thing I can tell you: I wouldn’t want it any other way.
In my opinion, the completion of the story was perfect.

If I had to choose, I’d say I liked Eliza’s story better. It was more interesting, more emotional and more lush.
At some points, I could have imagine scenes from her parts so well, it was like watching a movie in my mind.

Overall, I would highly recommend this novel.
Even if it belongs to women’s fiction genre, I think men would also enjoy reading it.
After all, it doesn’t talk about women’s problems, but about life in general, and all it’s obstacles, highs and lows.

 

IMPORTANT: 

If you haven’t, you can still ented a giveaway I’m hosting on Twitter, in which you can win this book and some croatian chocolate: ENTER HERE