Reading is Ice Cream for the Soul

Do you agree? I find reading a great consolation or distraction for tough times (when I choose something easy so I can escape); at the other end of the scale, to reading enhances a good time/mood e.g. on holiday as I am now, so somehow that good book becomes woven into the fabric of the pleasant memories, making it vitally important to select quality reading matter!  So chickens, here are some suggestions for your holiday reading matter.

You & Me Always : Jill Mansell

Feelgood plot (Tick)

Laugh out loud moments (Tick)

Believable / Likable characters (Tick)

Drama / Plot twists (Tick)

Summery setting (Tick) this one's a bit personal, but I don't really like reading christmassy books or those with a cold backdrop when I am lazing in the sun!

The plot of this book is told from 6 different viewpoints – the main players in the story – so it is easy to understand their 'motivation' for actions they take, whilst being able to feel like an on-looker when there are misunderstandings, as there often are. The setting is a close knit village, where any new arrival is a 'big deal' and can change the dynamic.

A motherless girl looks for her real father, whilst hoping to find love; A hairdresser whose biological clock is ticking so loudly that she endures a horrible string of Internet dates; A widow and successful businesswoman thinks her life is complete – but is it? A local playboy nurses a potentially explosive secret; An A-list actor needs to keep a low profile while a property developer finds his past catching up with him.

If you have read 'The One You Really Want' also by JM, or watched Notting Hill (starring Hugh Grant) you might see some similarities, but you will enjoy this novel nonetheless. Jill Mansell is a solid writer of very enjoyable chick lit. Pick any one from her list of books, you wont be disappointed.

Paper Aeroplanes : Dawn O'Porter

This is a completely different style of book, it follows 2 teenage girls living on Guernsey Island in the 90s. Both girls struggle to survive in the dog eat dog world of school (in the lead up to their exams) and dating, despite both coming from 'broken' home backgrounds which offer their own challenges.

Renee is being brought up by her grandparents, her mother has recently died of cancer and her father escaped to live in Spain – nobody in her family can talk about their feelings surrounding the bereavement so Renee hides behind the persona of class clown who loves to break rules. She has burgeoning sex appeal which she struggles to understand, while her younger sister is filled with anger and may be developing an eating disorder.

Flo lives at home with her mother, brother and pre-schooler sister – for whom she provides primary care while her mother works. Flo's brother is the local Lothario and her father lives in squalor, having become depressed after the separation. Flo's troubles are increased by the very controlling Sally – who maintains she is her best friend –but uses Flo as a tool to make herself look cleverer, prettier, richer while taking every opportunity to attract the attention of Flo's brother.

What these girls need is understanding, support and most of all a 'guide' to help them through the shark-infested waters of growing up, understanding their bodies, their emotions and how to deal with boys and the pressures of life. Is it possible they could help each other? Or are they too broken?

This book is very well observed and grounded, there are real shots of humour and D O'P definitely writes from the heart – I would happily read other books she has written.

If you like this - you may also find this enjoyable : Hurry Up and Wait (recognise the Blondie lyrics?)  Isabel Ashdown's story unfolds around three 15 year old girls who are similarly blind-sided by exams, dysfunctional families and their sexual awakening, but this one is set in the 80s and the truth comes back in flashes at a school reunion.

Holiday Reading - what's going in your luggage?

Lots of  people like Jilly Cooper for beach/poolside reading, I know I do!  One of my happiest 'holiday' memories is the time I took The Man who Made Husbands Jealous on holiday, and once I finished it (having laughed & cried and felt hot under the collar)  I lent it to Husby, who also read most of it and we then spent the rest of our holiday 'spotting' people (fellow holiday makers) who reminded us of characters in the book!  We so wanted to see a 'Rannaldini' but I guess he doesn't do package holidays!!

If you like JC then you will probably also enjoy Fiona Walker.  I have read several by her and they are lovely and gossipy, with likeable heroines and slightly exaggerated characters who surround her as she stumbles about through a particularly chaotic episode in her life until things turn out for the best : the end.  I am not making light of this genre, because it is a very successful formula, and it's what lots of us want to read on holiday - nothing too angsty or angry or dangerous, and I particularly love the way she analyses the 'psyche' of several key players along the way.  If I lived in a village, I would definitely want to live in a village imagined by FW or JC - the local pub is always friendly and people know you, there's usually intrigue and bed hopping going on, there are lots of lovely dogs and horses and the inhabitants look out for each other.

The FW novel I have just finished was The Love Letter which follows Allegra (Legs) North from her high powered city job, where she's having a torrid affair with her publisher boss, back to her Devon roots, where her hippy-ish mother is staying in a cottage on a naked painting holiday whilst involved in a 'tryst' with a rich neighbour.  The complications increase because Legs' best friend has become married to her ex-brother in law (Legs lives with her sister, who is very bitter about being made a single parent) and her mother's new 'amor' is the father of Leg's fiance - who she ditched in order to start the affair with her boss.

If that isn't intrigue enough for you, Legs has also been entrusted to keep her publishing house's top selling author sweet - he seems an eccentric, obsessive chap whose books feature a magical soothsayer (did I hear anyone say Harry Potter?)  Legs is suitably 'Bridget Jones' to be entertaining (her first weekend in Devon she has nothing to wear but her nephew's football strip because their bags have become muddled, on another occasion Legs attends a party wearing a turban, a 'flapper' gown and toe curling satin shoes - she's certainly no femme fatale, and yet the men swarm round her like moths to a flame! if only it were so easy!







To change the pace a little, how about a detective novel where the heroine is also an exotic dancer?  Diva Las Vegas by Stephanie Caffrey is just that, and it is a fun, fast paced mystery that really delivered humour and tension.  The gambling world provides plenty of real danger and people who our feisty heroine Raven should not get on the wrong side of, as well as beautiful women, charming men and seedy locations.  There are more books in the Raven McShane series, and I shall definitely be investigating them (pardon the pun!)

If this is still not 'dangerous' enough for you, because you love a gripping thriller and you like the body count high - then let me recommend Closer than You Think by Karen Rose.  The heroine of this book is Dr Faith Corcoran, who works with victims of assault - until she becomes one herself. On the run, she has changed her identity and returned to the house left empty when her Grandmother died, what Faith doesn't suspect is that the house has become the HQ for a very depraved killer, and he doesn't want his spree interrupted.

 Also newly arrived in Cincinnati is Deacon Novak - an FBI agent who has made a name for himself investigating some very high profile cases, but has returned home to a lot of 'baggage' - a tearaway brother who needs guidance & support, his old fashioned Aunt and Uncle to whom he is beholden for keeping the family 'glued' together and now the intriguing, but furtive, redhead he meets on his first case - injured by the roadside but not behaving at all like a victim.  Does this whet your appetite?

And remember - if you use a Kindle or other e-reader (because hey, they are ideal for packing light, and very user friendly in bright sunlight) don't forget your charger, and don't worry - your device does not need to be switched off during take-off (my brother-in-law who's a pilot has assured me of this!)