Summer Book Review: The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are the best masseuse the Massage Industry(??) could ever get. Except lately, you’ve been so tired. It’s really not easy relieving people of the toughest kinks that ever existed. As if that is all, you are running all over London because of financial problems massaging in rented rooms all over the place. You really have no time for yourself.

Your friends keep telling you, you need a boyfriend, you need to get laid, what has it been like thirty-years since you ever had sex? Pressure is mounted on you at every angle. And you really could do with some massage yourself.

Then a Knight In Shining Armour walks into your life. (Only he’s not in real Armour, but I’ve always hated when people exchange a classic phrase for one that has ‘Armani’ in it!)

Anyway, he’s the guy of your dreams. He’s all you’ve ever dreamt of and more. He’s rich, he’s changing every part of your professional life. You two have the best chemistry, he’s making all those thirty years of waiting worth it.

But of late, you are worrying he’s been cheating. And let’s face it, you are a tad too possessive thanks to a childhood event that marred your life. What’s more annoying, your friends find something iffy about him too.

You need help! You need real help! But your one best friend has disappeared from the face of the earth? Where is Kate? And why isn’t she here to help you out of this dilemma?

Except Kate has a secret too. And she’s running away.

Annie Mulholland’s mysterious, romantic love-life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Oh, no! Do not read this book! Do not read this book if you cannot stand the MOTHER of OMG MOMENTS! I’d say this outright before I start this review! You would never see the twist and hits you like, um, a punch! Boom! And you are so surprised an author could ever have that effect on you. Obviously this title is finding its way into my Greatest Chick-Lit OMG Moments list! Fantastic! A star to OMG-moments.── ★

I loved, loved the storyline. Kate is running away! But what from? Annie is running away! But why can’t she make up her mind and just leave already! So beautiful. Kate’s storyline laden with secrets is so fascinating than Annie’s I must admit. Plus the fast-developing romantic interests in Annie’s life than Katie’s make this book all-so-worth reading! Fabulous storyline. A star!── ★★

You would love the two main characters. This book is told in first-person perspective of two different characters. Kate and Annie. You would love Annie for being… a great masseuse, for being, um, other things I am not sure I can admire of her: soft, needing guidance. But you’d definitely fall for her for following her heart! And the amazing OMG moment she pulls at the end which would get you rooting for more for her than you would Kate. OK, so let’s face it, it’s really hard not to take sides in this book. So Kate is my favourite! She’s funny, she’s daring, she’s IRISH!!! What’s not to love? And escaping to an eventing farm where she has no idea about horses? It’s just plain lovable and room for lots of comic scenes! A star!── ★★★

You would also adore other characters! There’s Becca, the bullshit-talking groom (of horses) in Kate’s life who’s teaching her to get the grips of horse-life in order to keep her job and stay in hiding at the farm. There’s Joe, the man-ho groom (also of horses) who’s just so funny and horny you can’t help but adore! There’s Mark, the brooding owner of the eventing company and Olympic star who is so good at pushing everyone away… but not so with the (persistent) Kate. There’s Claudine a friend of Anna’s who’s French, and well, hard. There’s Lizzie, the sister juggling loads of boyfriends. There’s Tim, the shrink who’s rumoured to secretly have the hots for Annie. There’s also Stephen the boyfriend who would be really much adored. So much other characters I loved I cannot make the review lengthy by mentioning. But really, you would find none of them redundant. A star!── ★★★★

There’s really lots of humour in this book. You’d laugh a lot. Suspense as well. Hell, suspense for most part of it. I really still cannot get the whole reason this author would just make me lose grips on my power to predict how a novel would turn out. God, the writing is so light and airy, you do not see the OMG-moment really coming at all! I still have nightmares of this author forcefully pulling the rag from under my feet and making me second-guess my ability to tell a book to the end after reading the first fifty pages (sometimes ten, sometimes five or just by reading the blurb). This shows if you are a reader who wants to put a finger on this book from the start, you’d be badly misled by your (poor) prediction ability.── ★★★★★

MY rating is definitely a six out of five stars! (6/5 stars!)

Lucy Robison’s amazing latest is available on amazon! Go grab it!

I recommend this book for anyone who loves their chick-lit romantic! Anyone who loves their chick-lit suspenseful! Anyone who wants something that would make them stay glued to the sun-lounger for hours! Anyone who simply loves Lucy Robinson should go get this book as she really never disappoints in this title as well!

My work not done here! Off to post my review on Goodreads as well as (shitty) 

Amazon (who would make me cut a chunk of this review!)

Summer Book Review: The Vintage Guide To Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwoood

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your life has been teetering from one party to another, one tequila shot to another. And off late, you are finding it hard to show up at work in clean clothes and without a hangover. This means, not even your boss can yell at you.

So when you are given the boot by your friend-boss for being ‘less serious in life’, you have nowhere and no one to turn to except for your long-enstranged grandmother.

Your grandmother was quite a famous personality in the mid-twentieth century, charming the whole of London and New York bachelors and being the toast of all functions with her Good Woman Guides that teach women ways to hook a Good Bloke. But these days, your grandmother is kinda broke, even though she’d die before she admits it, and she is relying on reprinting her Good Woman Guides to be able to fend off the bailiffs.

Except the publishers have other plans. They think your gran’s Good Woman Guides happened in the fifties and should stay in the fifties as there’s no modern woman who would hook a man using the ways suggested in her guides.

But your grandmother is resilient, and using you, a modern girl at heart who’s anything but a Good Woman as an experiment to prove whoever uses her guides would end up hooking the bachelor of their dreams.

And your grandmother isn’t helping picking the man of a lot of girls’ dreams and your nightmares, as target of this project.

Jessica Beam’s adventure to prove her grandmother’s Good Woman Guides should be stacked in a corner gathering dust, summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

This book was good.

I loved the storyline. It was downright funky. Something you except a classic chick-lit title to entail. Girl loses the best thing in life, her mum, and numbs her pain with parties and casual one-night stands—fab! Girl gets sacked out of her job and bounces back to her grandmother who’s suddenly on a mission to groom her into being the Good Woman—fab! A star to the storyline.── ★

You would love the main character, Jess. Very juvenile at the beginning, if you’d ask me. But her change throughout the novel and her maturity is stunning. She develops from a character you’d wrinkle your nose at from the start, to a character that you could understand and—if not relate to—enjoy reading about. A star to her.── ★★

Other characters make this read lovely as well. There is the Granny, who begins every chapter dropping quotes from her Good Woman Guide you’d mostly always nod in agreement to. There’s Peach, the housekeeper for granny who’s shy and hasn’t ever had sex despite pushing towards thirty. There’s Summer, the jealous bitchy friend you’d hate so much. There’s Leo Frost, the demigod every female seems to have the hots for except our lead who finds him too much of a man-ho and arrogant. There’s one doctor down Granny’s apartment building who functions as a shoulder to cry on, and a shoulder to throw your leg over for a good fuck. A star to all these characters!── ★★★

There’s so much humour in this book you can’t help but keep rubbing your hind head in pain for throwing it back against the wooden head rest of your chair for a good laugh!── ★★★★

I really wished I loved, loved, this book. I wish it wasn’t that predictable. But either way, it was a good read. Not the kind you’d throw out your window and regret buying because it is too predictable you couldn’t take it anymore.

My rating: Four/Five stars (4/5 stars).

Kirsty Greenwood’s The Vintage Guide To Love and Romance is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something light and quick and enjoying this summer. Anyone who loves their chick-lit laden with character makeovers should pick this. Any woman who wants something that could be a modern-take on a fairytale should rush for it. And anyone who wants a book to keep them laughing and smiling all through.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Book View Plus INT. Giveaway: The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

Monday, you all saw my review of Lucy Atkins' debut, The Missing One, Here's a fun feature where I ask the lovely author questions concerning her debut's characters, scenes and everything her debut. READ to the end there might be a gift for you to unveil.

1.    1  Susannah was one of my favourite characters despite being the most deranged (and also oh-so-well-developed). Did you have any inspirations for her creating her character? (real-life or fictional).

She’s one of my favourite characters too. I have no idea where she  came from – there is no real life inspiration. I think that most of us have, at some point or other in our lives, come across difficult, complicated, dangerous women with powerful personalities. She’s a kind of essence of all that!

2.      2. Kali’s sense of motherhood was a striking feature in the novel. How she fought with the arch-villian to prevent the demise of her child was described so vividly. How did you manage to pull off this scene so well? Perhaps you put yourself your character’s shoes or you just watch too much Angelina Jolie flicks?

I am really interested in the power of maternal feelings. I was inspired in fact by a story I read in an American newspaper about a 19 year old singe mother of a baby who had fought off two big guys who broke into her house. The police officer in charge said ‘There’s nothing more dangerous than a mother protecting her child’ and that stuck with me. The lengths we’ll go to to protect our children can be almost superhuman (you hear stories of small women lifting trucks off a child who has been knocked down etc). That’s what I wanted to write about.

3.      3/ Still on motherhood, I find this title would be well-loved by all mothers (new or old). What type of mummy would you characterize your lead as? Is she a manic mummy who spends so much time noting details other mothers would otherwise have ignored? Or would you characterize her as an ignorant mummy. (Whatever your answer is, I’m hoping Susannah would agree).

When it comes to Kali, I think she is a fairly typical, stressed out mum of an active toddler – but her stress of course is made much worse by the fact that her life has collapsed, and she is in this alien place, with a dangerous person. And this is what drives her to make questionable decisions. When it comes to Kali’s mother, Elena, her mothering has been complicated and warped by her own history. She loves her daughter, but the complexity of her history, means she has a hard time showing it.

4.       4. What one tip do you think Kali would give to all mothers?

“Trust your instinct!”

5.     5.  Elena and Kali didn’t have the best mother-daughter relationship. What’s the best tip you would give to all daughters who have the same riotous relationships with their mothers?

Kali is determined not to make the mistakes her own mother made, and not to let the past influence how she mothers her own son. I think this is the strength in her (and also, in a sense, the weakness). She is determined to be a better mother, but of course, she can’t really escape her past, and the way she was mothered. So, where she gets to in the end is a deeper understanding of how her own mother shaped her. This will ultimately enable her to be a better mother to Finn, her son.  I think that’s what we all have to do in a way. By the way, my own mother – I’m very happy to say – was the best and most loving mother I could have wished for!

6.     6 I described your novel as very well-researched in my review. The information about killer whales was lovely to read about. What do you think humans could learn from Killer Whales?

Killer whales are matriarchal for a start!  They are also extremely loyal, with very strong family bonds (and they stay with their mothers for life). They have rituals and traditions and share ‘childcare’. There are numerous ways in which they seem extremely sensibly organized!

7.       7. Which character in your novel are you more likely to be?

I actually don’t feel as if I am any of the characters  - or maybe I am all of them. Even Kali is very different to me. 

8.      8.  Are you working on something new? Could you tell us what it’s about?

I have just finished my second novel, The Other Child, which is set in a suburb of Boston, USA, and is about the devastating secrets inside a marriage.

9.     

 9.  Is there any question you would have wanted me to ask?

Your questions were perfect! Really interesting – thank you so much for having me on your wonderful blog, and for supporting my writing. I hope you enjoy The Other Child as much as you liked The Missing One.

For further information, my website is www.lucyatkins.com. 

People can also follow me on twitter: @lucyatkins or  Facebook: Lucy Atkins Writer.

All the best

Lucy.

To see my review of the amazing The Missing One by Lucy Atkins, click here.

To purchase the amazing The Missing One by Lucy Atkins, click here.

To stand a chance of winning a paperback of Lucy Atkins' debut, RT this on twitter and follow the blog account: @kobbyreviews

Book View+ INT. Giveaway: A Fifty-year Silence by Miranda Richmond Mouillot

                                                                         

              

I reviewed Miranda Richmond's amazing A Fifty-Year Silence. Read this post as I ask questions concerning characters, scenes and everything the book. You should also enter the giveaway below to stand a chance of winning a paperback copy to sun-bathe with this summer.


I wonder what part your parents played in the story, could you say a little about this?

I have an unconventional family. My mother and father divorced when I was a small child and both remarried, and I have always considered myself as having four parents – all of whom I watched pursuing their own unusual careers and passions as I grew up. With this book, I guess I’d say they were supportive from afar: they taught me to read and research and follow my dreams from a young age, and then they sat back and let me do it. Many people have asked me about my mother, Anna and Armand’s daughter, and what role she played in the story. She helped me puzzle out as much as she could, but one of the reasons I ended up writing A Fifty-Year Silence was my curiosity about the fog of mystery in which she had grown up. She never even knew what year her parents had married!

How did your research into your family’s past affect your family life? Did your husband help in the process, or did he leave you to undergo this personal journey alone?

It certainly coloured every aspect of my life. My husband was very supportive throughout the process. He was a real rock to me in caring for my grandfather. But this was very much my story, and he is totally respectful of my creative process. I never show him my work, which he leaves me alone to do in the privacy of the office he built for me beneath our house.

Your grandmother’s strength (taking yoga to her old age) was inspiring to me. What do you think readers would love most about her which would have an impact on their lives (or at least in their old age)?

Well, if I had to impart just one lesson my grandmother taught me (and it’s hard to pick!) I would choose, “You just have to talk to people.” I learned from my grandmother that reaching out to others, asking them questions, offering them your friendship – it can change the course of your life, and theirs, in ways you could never even imagine. My grandmother’s ability to do that gave her a network of lifelong friends who loved her, and love, in the end, is all that matters. Love, hard work on something you’re passionate about, and plenty of garlic.

If your grandmother were to be alive what would she have loved and what would she dislike about the world now?

The same things she always loved – compassion and creativity (and coffee); and the same things she always disliked – cruelty and injustice. She was very open to change, loved to follow current events, and always had an opinion to offer about everything. I think she’d be delighted by the advance of marriage equality across Europe, and very concerned about the political shift to the extreme right.

Are you writing again? I’m eager to find out what you are working on next?

I certainly am! I am working on a book about brilliance, femininity, and why it’s so unseemly for an intellectual to pursue true love. I am also translating The Kites, the last and greatest novel of one of France’s most beloved 20^th century writers, Romain Gary.

To Purchase A Fifty-Year Silence, click here.

To WIN A Paperback Copy of Miranda Richmond's A Fifty-Year Silence, in 48hrsRT and Follow on Twitter.

Here's a review of Miranda Richmond's amazing debut.

Summer Book Review: The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your relationship with your mother hasn’t been all braiding each other’s hair and slagging your father when he’s away for work (—normal daughters and mothers do this! Please review your relationships.). Growing up, both of you fought like crazy, made up like crazy, then within a few seconds were drawing battle lines again.

So when your mother dies, you are the least person to feel sorrow. You are the least person to rethink the happy moments with your mum. You are the last person to jet away to your mother’s past—which she has shut out to you all her life—to go find out why she was the woman you could never get on with. But you do.

Moments later, you are hightailing it to Canada in search of a best friend of your mum who’s been sending her cards a particular day every one of these thirty-eight years they split up without a reply. With your adorable toddler on your back, and a chance to ditch your husband who you’ve suddenly found out might be having extra-marital affairs, you get away from England.

Now your mother’s best friend is rather peculiar, never revealing much, withholding things about your mother’s past from you. Of course, you could consider the journey here all to be a waste and leave, but you feel this woman is hiding something about your mother’s past she doesn’t want to pass on, you have so many unanswered questions you want to see if you could use your skills as an interviewer to goad her into revealing.

Before you realize it’s really a waste to have come, and when you make a decision to leave, this woman has become preoccupied with your little son and has shocking extraordinary plans for him. Plans that would flare up all the maternal instincts in you such that you would do anything to protect your son from this bitch. Even if nothing helps.

Kali’s life-treacherous, suspenseful journey towards uncovering the secrets of her mother’s past summarised for your delight.

My REVIEW

This book is great. One that would consume your time this summer and totally-worth losing the hours for. So well-researched, so well-written, so highly thrilling!

First of all, I loved the storyline. I love the whole mother riding shotgun with her adorable infant to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past. Absolutely fab! You would never underestimate the lengths a mother would go to protect her own child after reading this. And you would adore the weaving of info about captured Killer Whales in parks that would struck an emotional nerve. A star to the storyline.

The main character, Kali, is damn right superb. I loved her to bits. You would also love Kali for worrying about essential details about parenting and mothering that most parents and mothers ignore, her constant eyes on her son, the little mistakes she berates herself daily for like feeding him with fries or not washing a sippy-cup before pouring warm milk in it. She’s the embodiment of a mother constantly looking out for her child even though she admits sometimes she does a shitty job at it. Plus her constant curiosity, making speculations and conclusions with the little info she has about the purpose of her ‘adventure’ makes this title suspenseful.── ★

Speaking on the element of suspense, mystery and the fear of the unknown, I can vouch that this book has all the above. Laden with so much suspense even when the main issue of the plot hasn’t kicked in yet (that is, mother’s best friend endangering her son) you would still find yourself sitting at the edge of your seat and mumbling to yourself, “What the hell.”── ★★

Other characters also make this book a plus as well. There’s Elena, the mother whose backstory is presented in third-person narrative during intervals of Kali’s first-person narrative. There’s Susannah, the once best friend of Elena who’s highly secretive and not giving much away… should I mention deranged too? Alice, the sister who always has a firm perspective of things with her job as a lawyer. There’s also Graham, Kali’s dad who’s also secretive as hell and hiding a chunk of his wife’s past from her daughter—a man who’s (in)actions gutted me so much. A star to these characters.── ★★★

There’s no denying I loved this book. But I found some back-story on Elena’s part unnecessary detail that slowed the pace of this book—some parts were intriguing and important to understand the psyche of a mother who never really showed that much love to her oldest daughter, others were just dragging the story and made me want to quickly get over with it so I could get into the current day life of Kali. Of course, if this book was less suspenseful, I’m not sure I would have been feeling this way, because there would be no eagerness to get on with Kali’s present.── ★★★★

So my rating is a four-point-five stars out of five (4.5 stars).

Lucy Atkins’ highly suspenseful debut (—yes! You heard right!—) which would keep you awake late in the night and wondering when sleep would ever claim you is available on amazon. I totally wouldn’t recommend this book if it didn’t give me headaches for lack of sleep.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something laden with suspense, anyone who wants something to steal away the hours on a lounger and make tanning for hours seem endurable should get this. It’s the perfect summer read for anyone who wants to feel chilly in these burning hot temperatures.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Watch out for giveaway and questions and answers on this book with the author.

Summer Book Review: Summer at the Shell Cottage by Lucy Diamond

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: The summer holidays are approaching again. But this time around, things are not looking up like they were last year.

Your husband of twenty years is dead. There’s nothing you could do to keep the sorrows away. And not even a much-needed vacation at the Shell Cottage would help since all your most cherished memories with your husband and your two kids live in that house.

You have every right to pull back any plans for summer this year and sit at home and mope. Your daughter tells you a summer vacation would be ideal to help you recuperate, but you have a feeling they, your children, want to keep an eye on you as suicide could be one of the to-dos you’ve planned ahead for this summer.

Things with the other members of your family are not too good this year too. Besides grieving the loss of their hero, your daughter is facing problems juggling the kids and her stressful job as a GP, your son has a secret he cannot afford to disclose to you all.

Surely, summer 2015 at shell cottage wouldn’t be the best of family vacations. But chances are, if you do not pull yourself together and make this summer a memorable one, no one in the family would ever look up to summer at Shell Cottage ever again.

Olivia Tarrant’s story laden with drama, secrets and lots of reckless fun summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Christ it was hard to put up that synopsis without bringing the spoilers and the numerous omg moments right at the start of this title. So for starters, I’m giving the OMG moments in this title a star.── ★

I liked this book.

The storyline was nothing short of Lucy Diamond’s excellence. Telling the stories of one family’s summer after the death of a man they are not sure they could live without. All the characters face individual and joint challenges in making this summer one of the best summers of their lives in the memory of their father and husband. Nothing like an amazing family read full of drama.── ★★

I loved the main characters. Olivia Tarrant, the grieving wife who’s finding it hard to move on after her husband’s death, encounters a friend who will change the idea of a summer vacation for her forever. It’s all about being fun, reckless, and carefree even after sixty! Freya Tarrant, the daughter who’s finding it difficult juggling her three rowdy kids with her super-challenging job and a husband who’s never around would also be admired. Harriet Tarrant-Price, the single-mother who’s had enough of cheating men and is sure is living the dream this time around with a husband who’s landed a huge book deal.── ★★★

Other characters make reading this novel great as well. My very favourite, Gloria, a sixty-year old widow who’s not stopped grieving as well as skinny-dipping. Molly, the teenage daughter of Harriet who’s taking her chance on being a woman this summer. There’s also Libby, Teddy, and Dexter the annoying yet adorable children of Freya with their hilarious peculiar traits. A star to them.── ★★★★

I liked this book. But I wished I could have loved, loved it. I wished it was as fast-paced as Lucy Diamond’s previous, The Year of Taking Chances.

So my rating is a four out of five stars. (4/5 stars).

Lucy Diamond’s amazing latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this to anyone who wants a soothing family vacation read to cosy up to 

this summer. I recommend this to anyone who wants a book with laughing moments and very relatable moments too. I recommend this to anyone who’s a Lucy Diamond fan as she doesn’t disappoint in this title too. It’s all about being fun, reckless and creating a new you this summer!

My work not done. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Book Review: The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Life has been so good to you. With a lovely family, mother to your amazing precocious daughter and indulging in the heart-swelling romance of your life with the man who you never quite let go. Except the cancer is back, spread all through your body now, threatening to take away all the people you’ve loved your entire life.

But you would overcome! You know you would. You beat it the first time so, stage IV cancer can go screw with someone else who isn’t that strong enough!

Except when you are really determined to fight, a hospice isn’t the ideal not-giving-up solution, your dad thinks. He’s troubled, worried your mum, a born-fighter has given up on you. Worried he cannot do anything to take you out of this death prison.

Your daughter is quite unaware of this dire turning state of your health. Your sister relieves her tension by throwing mugs at her husband and making her children go on a diet. Your brother is contemplating on the what-happens-to-your-daughter-when-you-are-dead even though he’s scared to give much thought to this. Your closest friend has taken up shopping more frequently than ever. Everyone has a way of dealing with their pain towards your impending doom.

And you, through all the breakthrough pain, the bloating body parts, and the funny nurses who think they’d be better appreciated if they auditioned for the X-Factor, the only way to deal with this predicament is to sleep. Sleep and dream of the one very love in your big, dissipating heart.

You are not giving up yet, cancer!

MY REVIEW

OMG! Stop whatever you are doing and go get this book the moment you are done reading this line! (I’m not continuing if you don’t…).

The storyline isn’t fresh. Dying girl in her forties, battling cancer. Haven’t we heard of this so many times? Yawn. But no one said anything about the dying girl having the craziest family who are willing to stay by her side through thick and thin, no one said anything about the nurses who fancy themselves as Ireland’s biggest talents and actresses in a CBS-styled drama, no one said anything about a dreamy boy with the voice of [INSERT NAME OF KING OF ROCK AND ROLL AS MY VIEWS MAY CONFLICT WITH YOURS] who brought so much joy to Dying Girl’s life, no one also said anything about Dying Girl’s addiction to the principles of atheism. Lovely. A star to the storyline.── ★

You would adore Rabbit Hayes! OMG! Even strapped to a hospice bed, she could still gain your attention than heroines with all their boobs intact running around aimlessly (—this bring any heroine to mind?). You would love the way she tries to put humour in every situation, how she’d want to laugh her heart out at times despite dealing with bloated body parts (—but could you blame her when it’s hard to locate your ribs?), how she sometimes cusses at her doctors when she’s dealing with heart-wrenching pain. As if all the above is not enough, you would admire her life as a teen—when the only thing she could think about was her big, rock and roll sweetheart; her funny cancer column about when she was first diagnosed with mild breast cancer. Brilliant.── ★★

The presentation of this work is also one of its stunning features. The switch between the present and the past, the use of lots of flashbacks to provide engaging backstory throughout the whole novel. The story is told in third-person perspective of all the major characters in this title. And every character’s narration is distinct to their personalities as well as enjoyable. A star.── ★★★

The supporting cast… breathtaking! You would love Molly Hayes, the matriarch of the Hayes family who tries to hold it together even though she could do with learning to say the right things at the right time and not threatening to murder, kill or drown her family right at the presence of her dying daughter. You would love Jack Hayes, the father who relies so much on the strength of his wife he wouldn’t take an initiative if she doesn’t(——you know his type?) You would also love Davey Hayes, the superstar drummer who still lives in a tour bus despite approaching mid-forties. You would love Juliet, the charming daughter. You would love Grace Hayes, the sister who finds hospices more appealing than hospitals. The nurses, the priest, the band members of Kitchen Sink… Christ, I really do realize I could go on and on! Every single character delivered and there was no moment you would doubt the relevance of a character. Anna McPartlin demonstrates, in finding joy through life’s treacherous moments, you need a whole bunch of friends, family and health workers to help! A star to all the characters. Most of all, to Rabbit Haye’s one truest love, Johnny Faye.── ★★★★

It’s the thing with all cancer books——Oh, no, wait! The good, good cancer books. Too much suspense and sitting at the edge of your seat to find out what would happen to the main character in the end. Oh, and as if all that isn’t enough Anna McPartlin gives you so, so, so much to laugh at. Hell, you’d think a cancer book should be all about MRI scans, mastectomy, diagnoses after diagnoses! Throw that notion away when entering into Rabbit Hayes’ world!── ★★★★★

Something about Irish Chick-lit. The writing is raw. The plot is brilliant. The story is beautiful. Just as Anna McPartlin’s amazing debut!

My rating is definitely a six out of five stars—I’m not dumb, I know this is very possible in math, albeit in rare cases. (6/5stars)

Go buy the hell out of this book on amazon. And if you have any cancer relatives, friends, or even acquaintances—no offense, but you most probably do, go get this book for them all. Because, this is a story about laughing through life’s surprises and finding joy in every [treacherous] moment.

I recommend this book to anyone! Anyone battling cancer or not! Anyone looking for an uplifting book or not! Anyone looking for something to laugh their hearts out to or not! Anyone who wants something to render them all weepy because they have no use for their Kleenex or not! Anyone who wants a fantabuloustastic(——OMG! Did you hear that??) debut author to watch or not!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.