Tag: i

The Name I Call Myself: Book Review (Blog Tour)

the name I call

Today is the last day of The Name I Call Myself book blog tour and I am honoured to be today’s host.
I would like to thank Rhoda Hardie for giving me this opportunity.

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About the book:

All Faith Harp wants is a quiet life–to take care of her troubled brother, Sam, earn enough money to stop the poverty wolves snapping at her heels, and to keep her past buried as deep as possible. And after years of upheaval, she might have just about managed it: Sam’s latest treatment seems to actually be working, Faith is holding down a job, and she’s engaged to the gorgeous and successful Perry. But, for Faith, things never seem to stay simple for long. Her domineering mother-in-law-to-be is planning a nightmare wedding, including the wedding dress from hell. And the man who killed her mother is released from prison, sending her brother tumbling back into mental illness.

When secretly planning the wedding she really wants, Faith stumbles across a church choir that challenges far more than her ability to hold a tune. She ends up joining the choir, led by the fierce choir-mistress Hester, who is determined to do whatever it takes to turn the group of ragtag women into something spectacular. She also meets Dylan, the church’s vicar, who is different than any man she has ever met before . . .

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My Review:

Don’t let the cover of The Name I Call Myself fool you. It screams qirky and funny chick lit in all it’s glory.
And yes, it was quirky, it was fun at times and you could say it is a chick lit (even though it is a true piece of women’s fiction in my opinion), but it is also so much more.

The story follows Faith, 25 years old girl who is engaged to Perry, who’s family come from the old money.
Faith has some trouble preparing for the wedding as her mother-in-law likes to have everything under control, from Faith’s wedding dress to wedding invitations, every possible aspect of Faith’s big day.
While trying to arrange what church the wedding should be in, Faith and her best friend Marilyn stumble upon a choir and decide to join.
What hurt can some choir practice bring, right? Especially where there’s a cute church vicar involved…
But Faith also has so much more on her plate. The life she lived before, her unreliable brother she’s taking care of and some ghosts from her past will shake her everyday life and make her question her decisions in a search for herself.

This book took me by surprise. I enjoyed reading it as much as I expected, but what I didn’t expect was the seriousness that the story took.
At first, it started as a typical chick lit, with a clumsy protagonist and humoristic scenes that even made me roll my eyes.
But as the story progressed, it took another turn and it became more serious, covering some pretty important issues like addiction, violence and abuse.

Characters we met in this novel had more dimensions and I liked how they seemed real.
Faith was a great protagonist. The writer made her relatableand at some points, even though I didn’t agree with her, I saw where she was coming from.

I only wish we got to see more scenes with Perry. In that case, we’d got a chance to meet him better so he wouldn’t be so mysterious. I can’t even tell if his absence came as a planned part of the story or if his character was just neglected in the process of writing.
Whatever it is, I think it would be better if there was more of him.

The writing style was really good. From pacing to describing, everything is well managed and the book reads pretty quickly.

This was my first time reading the work of Beth Moran.
I am glad I had a chance to read The Name I Call Myself because now I’d like to try Moran’s other work.

If you are a women’s fiction lover, I highly recommend you to put The Name I call Myself on your to-be-read list.
In my opinion, it is worth giving a try.

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About the author:

Beth Moran has a background as a research scientist and adult educator. She now concentrates on church work and is part of the national leadership team of the UK women’s network Free Range Chicks. She is married with three children and lives in Nottingham, England.

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Visit other blogs that were part of this tour:

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Movie Monday: The Dressmaker and Before I Go to Sleep

Movie Monday is a weekly feature here on my blog, in which I’m rambling about movies I’ve watched lately.

This week I watched two movies, both based on novels.

The Dressmaker

the dressmaker

The Dressmaker is a movie based on Rosalie Ham’s novel. I never read the book, but after seeing this movie, I can imagine it is an interesting read that would be fun to try.

The movie follows a woman called Tilly who comes back in Dungatar, Australia, after being absent for years.
She doesn’t know if she’s the one to blame for the death of a boy who died when she was a little girl. Somehow, she can’t remember.

After coming back to her hometown she brings a lot  of changes to the same. This movie show us on satirical way how big people’s cruelty can be, and that sometimes there’s nothing we can do to change other people’s minds.

I think that the more I talk the furher I get from this movie, and that somehow I just can’t do it justice, so I’m going to stop now and say that both me and my aunt, with who I went and watched this film, found it to be pretty good and although we had fun while watching, we also got emotional at certain parts.

 

Before I Go to Sleep

before i go

Before I Go To Sleep is another movie I watched with my aunt. It is also another one we both liked, and for the matter of fact, we liked this one more then The Dressmaker.
They are totally different movies and shouldn’t be compared, but I feel like I have the right to say that Before I Go To Sleep was more intense and kept us on the edge of our seets the whole time.

It is based on novel by S.J. Watson and it follows a woman called Christine who suffers from amnesia. Every morning she wakes up thinking she is 20 years old when in reality she is 40. Every day she has to learn who she is, who her husband is and what happened to her, but every night when she sleeps, what she have learned ereases and she wakes up thinking she’s 20 years old girl.

This movie was so good! It kept me guessing who’s who, analising characters, their words and actions.
Even though I figured out all those thing before the end, I still think it was a really good movie and can imagine how appealing the book must be. I probably won’t read it now when I know everything from the movie, though.

 

Note: Pictures in this post are not my property but taken from IMDb site and are property of 20th Universal Pictures and Millennium Films.

Bullet Short Stoy Review: The Summer I Met You by Victoria Walters

the summer

Title: The Summer I Met You
Author: Victoria Walters
Publisher: Headline Review
Date: February 11th, 2016
Pages: 65
Format: ebook
Source: Purchased

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Escape to Cornwall and meet the characters of Talting in this wonderful digital short story and prequel to Victoria Walters’ captivating debut novel, THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE.

This is a summer romance that will last a lifetime…

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Review:

„In that moment he made me as if we had lifted off from the ground and were dancing amongst the stars.“

What you need to know about this short story:

  • It is a prequel to Victoria Walter’s debut novel The Second Love of My Life, that comes out this April.
  • It is written in first person, from the perspective of a young girl called Emma.
  • Emma is telling the story in two different time periods: now and then, which are separated by the three months period.
  • The Summer I Met You is a story of falling in love.
  • Although Emma and her love interest, John, are main characters in this story, they are not main characters in the full-leight novel that follows this story.
  • Main character in The Secon Love of My Life is Rose, Emma’s best friend, and we get to meet her in this prequel.

What you should be warned about:the second love

  • It contains insta-love (which is not a bad thing, from my perspective).
  • Not all 65 pages of this ebook are an actual story, some of them are a part of an exclusive extract from The Second Love of My Life.

What I liked about this book:

  • The writing style is worth to be commended
  • The way the writer describes places is just so realistic and beautiful at the same time. I could’t help but imagine Emma’s room, the view to the sea and the smell of pigs and cows in the air, it was like being there partly.
  • Both setting were just amazing.
  • Characters were likeable, especially Rose and her husband Lucas.

What I’d like to change in this piece of work:

  • I only wish it was a bit longer so we could watch how Emma and John’s love was developing and how they spent time that Summer.

Overall, the purpose of this short story is to introduce us to characters from The Second Love of my Life. In that purpose, it succeeded.
When I say I can’t wait to read Walter’s debut novel, I mean it wholeheartedly. I really enjoyed this story and find the writing style so beautiful and appealing that I just can’t wait to see what the writer is going to present us in her full-leight book.

Even though this is a prequel, it can be read on it’s own and I think if you decide to give it a try, you will probably enjoy it. I know I did.

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