Book Club Book Review: A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird

A Lifetime of Impossible Days

by

Tabitha Bird

Publisher: Penguin Books
Imprint: Viking
Publication date: 4th June 2019
Pages: 395
Format Read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace book club

On one impossible day in 1965, eight-year-old Willa Waters receives a mysterious box containing a jar of water and the instruction: 'One ocean: plant in the backyard.' So she does - and somehow creates an extraordinary time-slip that allows her to visit her future selves.

On one impossible day in 1990, Willa is 33 and a mother-of-two when her childhood self magically appears in her backyard. But she's also a woman haunted by memories of her dark past - and is on the brink of a decision that will have tragic repercussions . . .

On one impossible day in 2050, Willa is a silver-haired, gumboot-loving 93-year-old whose memory is fading fast. Yet she knows there's something she has to remember, a warning she must give her past selves about a terrible event in 1990 . . . If only she could recall what it was.

Can the three Willas come together, to heal their past and save their future . . . before it's too late? 

Willa age 8 is a gumboot wearing, storytelling ball of energy. She is also the protector of her little sister Lottie

Willa age 33 is broken, a mother of two small boys, she scrubs and cleans until her home is spotless but still she feels worthless, a failure.

Willa age 93 is a gumboot wearing old lady full of sass and cheek. She is in the throes of dementia and keeps a notebook listing all the important things she must remember; like staying out of the nursing home.

A Lifetime of Impossible Days is the most heart-wrenching emotional read I have read in a long time. If you loved The Lost Girls (Review here) by Jennifer Spence or Before I Let You Go (Review here) by Kelly Rimmer this book will resonate with you.

Super Gumboots Willa is a young girl who has spent her life feeling responsible for her sister and all her mistakes. Silver Willa is an old lady who is starting to lose her memory but she knows that there are things in her past that must be mended and only Middle Willa can do that.

This book is filled with heart-breaking moments and magical realism as the three Willas meet via a time shifting garden that is planted in their backyard. They come together to try desperately to heal the past and mend what is irreparably damaged.

Willa is 93 she needs to go back in time and stop herself from doing something that will change her life forever the only problem is she has dementia and she can’t remember what that thing is.

The story isn’t all heavy there are lots of laugh out loud moments with Willa’s dementia causing funny situations, she has quite some sass and is very cheeky.

Willa’s husband, Sam, and grandmother, Grammy, are the most wonderful supporting characters giving Willa unconditional love and support.

Allusions to child abuse, domestic violence and drug use.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My rating   5/5

This review first appeared on the Beauty & Lace book club.

and is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge.

and book #26 in the Australian Women Writers challenge.

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

In a bayside suburb of Queensland, Australia, Tabitha Bird grew up in a garden. It wasn’t much of a garden, but she told stories to ferns and weeds alike and gave herself something to hope in that was bigger than she was. 

Eventually, she had to leave the garden and do responsible things like grow up. When her own children came along she read stories with gumption and wild joy and got to thinking that perhaps she had some of her own to tell. 

The first whispering of story she heard was from a forgotten child that lived in that long-ago garden. Together with her family she moved to Boonah, Australia, where her novel is set. 

Her Chihuahua, husband and three sons are all the reason she needs to believe there is still magic in this world. A LIFETIME OF IMPOSSIBLE DAYS is her first novel.

 

Book Review: The Ex by Nicola Moriarty

The Ex

by 

Nicola Moriarty

Publisher: Harper Collins 
Publication date: 17th June 2019
Pages: 400
Format read: Paperback
Source: Own purchase

She wants him back. She wants you gone.

Luke is The One. After everything she's been through, Georgia knows she deserves someone like him, to make her feel loved. Safe.
The only problem is his ex-girlfriend. Luke says Cadence is having trouble moving on. She texts Luke all the time and leaves aggressive notes on Georgia's car.
Georgia starts to feel afraid. But she decides to confront Cadence ... and that's when things get interesting.

The Ex is a suspense filled story of love and revenge.

Georgia is finally getting her life back on track. She has a nursing job that she loves and is looking forward to a date she has arranged through a dating app. When her date stands her up she is about to head home when she is harassed by two men that have had a little too much to drink. Luke comes to her aid and moves the men along. Georgia is enchanted. He is not only good looking, he is charming and attentive. They start to date and Luke explains that his ex-girlfriend is in denial, she will not let him go. Georgia starts to get threatening texts and notes left on her car. She feels like she is being followed.

Georgia had finally found the perfect guy and she wasn’t going to let a clingy, psycho ex spoil it for her.

If you like suspense, if you like books about weird-ass stalkers, this book is for you!

I did think I knew where this story was going but I never guessed just how crazy and out of control it would become.

Moriarty includes themes of mental illness, self harm, depression, suicide and vulnerability.

There is also a heart-felt side story of Georgia’s job as a nurse and her attachment to one elderly patient.

Highly recommended for thriller fans!

                             🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating:     5/5

*this review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

and book #24 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

 

Nicola Moriarty lives in Sydney's north west with her husband and two small daughters. She is the younger sister of bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Jaclyn Moriarty.

In between various career changes, becoming a mum and studying teaching at Macquarie University, she began to write. Now, she can't seem to stop.

 

 

Book Review: The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley

The Butterfly Room

by 

Lucinda Riley

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 
Publication date: 23rd April 2019
Pages: 624
RRP: $29.99
Format Read: Uncorrected proof paperback 
Source: Courtesy of the publisher 

 

Posy Montague is approaching her seventieth birthday. Still living in her beautiful family home, Admiral House, set in the glorious Suffolk countryside where she spent her own idyllic childhood catching butterflies with her beloved father, and raised her own children, Posy knows she must make an agonising decision. Despite the memories the house holds, and the exquisite garden she has spent twenty-five years creating, the house is crumbling around her, and Posy knows the time has come to sell it.

Then a face appears from the past - Freddie, her first love, who abandoned her and left her heartbroken fifty years ago. Already struggling to cope with her son Sam’s inept business dealings, and the sudden reappearance of her younger son Nick after ten years in Australia, Posy is reluctant to trust in Freddie’s renewed affection. And unbeknown to Posy, Freddie - and Admiral House - have a devastating secret to reveal . . .

 

The Butterfly Room is a sweeping multi-generational saga of long held secrets, devastating despair and second chances. Riley’s writing is rich and engrossing. Her characters are convincing.

I love stories told in dual time lines as the mysteries and secrets of the past unfold and crash into the present day.

Posy is almost 70 and her family estate is becoming too large and costly for her to handle. If she sells she can help her son Sam with his new property development company and downsize at the same time. But everything Sam has touched has failed. Will this new venture go the same way? Youngest son Nick returns home after 10 years in Australia and the arrival of an old flame in Southwold has Posy filled with indecision and confusion.

The story is filled with burgeoning romances but nothing goes smoothly as secret liaisons are made and shocking secrets are revealed as the past explodes into the present.

Each character had their own distinct personality and we get a very good insight into their lives and their different occupations. I really enjoyed the information on Nick’s antique business and Tammy’s work starting her antique dress shop.

The Butterfly Room is a big book, over 600 pages, however the mysteries are captivating and Riley feeds out snippets of information which had me guessing my own conclusions only to find I was wrong every time.

Riley evokes empathy for her characters but there is also plenty of anger, despair and heart-wrenching emotion, confirming that Riley can elicit a full spectrum of emotions from one book.

Despite its lengthy size The Butterfly Room is a totally engrossing and fast read. I was completely enthralled by the Montagues’ lives.

My rating: 5/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

content: domestic violence. 

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland, and after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into over thirty five languages and sold fifteen million copies worldwide. She is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller.

Lucinda is currently writing The Seven Sisters series, which tells the story of adopted sisters and is based allegorically on the mythology of the famous star constellation. The first five books, The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister, The Shadow Sister, The Pearl Sister and The Moon Sister have all been No.1 bestsellers across the world, and the rights to a multi-season TV series have already been optioned by a Hollywood production company.

 

 

 

Book Review: Home Fires (Contemporary Fiction)

Home Fires

by

Fiona Lowe

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

Imprint: HQ Fiction

Publication Date: 18th February 2019

Pages: 487

RRP:$32.99

Format Read: Paperback

Source: courtesy of the publisher via AM Publicity 

 

From the bestselling Australian author of Daughter of Mine and Birthright. When a lethal bushfire tore through Myrtle, nestled in Victoria's breathtaking Otway Ranges, the town's buildings - and the lives of its residents - were left as smouldering ash. For three women in particular, the fire fractured their lives and their relationships.

Eighteen months later, with the flurry of national attention long past, Myrtle stands restored, shiny and new. But is the outside polish just a veneer? Community stalwart Julie thinks tourism could bring back some financial stability to their little corner of the world and soon prods Claire, Bec and Sophie into joining her group. But the scar tissue of trauma runs deep, and as each woman exposes her secrets and faces the damage that day wrought, a shocking truth will emerge that will shake the town to its newly rebuilt foundations...

With her sharp eye for human foibles, bestselling author Fiona Lowe writes an evocative tale of everyday people fighting for themselves, their families and their town - as only this distinctively Australian storyteller can

The residents of Myrtle, a small country town cocooned by the forest of Victoria’s Otway Ranges, are still feeling the effects of a fire that destroyed the town almost two years earlier.

A group of women that had formed a craft group decide to take action to put Myrtle back on the map and attract tourists to the town.

Claire is back home after living in large cities and has been with Matt for 3 years.

Sophie, married to Josh, moved to the country for a better lifestyle.

Rebecca is married to Adam through an arrangement instigated by her mother they have two children and a third on the way. They appear to be the perfect couple.

The story follows the three women before and after the fire. How their lives had changed, their dreams shattered. The hardships not only financially but mentally and physically when the rest of the world has moved on but the town is still struggling to rise above the ashes and forge a new life.

Over the months of meetings and planning they had changed from a random group of women to become friends, working through their differences and supporting each other. Even minor characters in the group, Julie, the stalwart of the town, Layla and Erica, play integral roles in the bringing together of the community.

This small town weathers it all; a deadly bushfire, a cancer scare, domestic abuse, PTSD, teenagers using alcohol and drugs, but through sweat, determination and hard work they come through it all.

Lowe highlights how the impact of a fire goes far beyond the buildings that were destroyed. It affects different people in different ways and quite often this effect is not clearly visible on the surface.

Home Fires is a timely tale with a quintessential Australian feel. Lowe brings the country town of Myrtle, and its residents, into our homes and opens our eyes to the hardships and heartbreaking aftermath of a devastating bushfire.

Recommended reading.

My rating  5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Content: domestic violence

                 drugs

                 post traumatic stress

*This review is: 
Part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge
& Book #6 in the Australian Women Writers Challenge

Letter H in the 2019 AtoZ Challenge  
 

Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor and a family support worker; an ideal career for an author who writes novels about family and relationships. She spent her early years in Papua New Guinea where, without television, reading was the entertainment and it set up a lifelong love of books. Although she often re-wrote the endings of books in her head, it was the birth of her  first child that prompted her to write her first novel. A recipient of the prestigious USA RITA award and the Australian RuBY award. Fiona writes books that are set in small country towns. They feature real people facing difficult choices and explore how family ties and relationships impact on their decisions.

When she is not writing stories, she's a distracted wife, mother of two 'ginger' sons, a volunteer in her community, guardian of eighty rose bushes, a slave to a cat, and is often found collapsed on the couch with wine.