Minnie's Fiction Addiction
Because one more chapter is never enough
Category: Book Review
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👀 First impressions:The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland opens in Berlin in 1943 with an apparently civilised tea party that masks extraordinary danger. Around the table sit aristocrats, intellectuals and social leaders, united by their hatred of Nazism and their quiet acts of resistance. What they do not realise is that one of them is about to betray the…
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👀 First impressions:The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett plunges the reader into the volatile heart of seventeenth century England through the life of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Favourite and lover to King James I and later closest companion and mentor to Charles I, Buckingham rose with astonishing speed from relative obscurity to immense wealth and political power. Hughes Hallett…
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👀 First impressions:Beloved, written by Toni Morrison, is one of those books that carries its reputation heavily and deservedly. Inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, the novel is set after the American Civil War and follows Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman living in Ohio with her daughter. When a mysterious young woman calling herself Beloved…
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👀 First impressions:Room for Rent wastes no time establishing its central fear. Nya is broke, exhausted, and counting down the days until she can escape her living situation. The rent is cheap, the house is rundown, and her roommate Sidney is unsettling in ways that are hard to articulate until small incidents begin to stack up. Food…
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👀 First impressions:The Lake is set at Creaglie Castle, a secluded luxury retreat on a remote Scottish loch. Guests arrive expecting indulgence, discretion and a touch of gothic charm, complete with rumours of ghosts and sweeping views. When a violent storm cuts the castle off from the mainland, the isolation turns deadly. What follows is a tense…
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👀 First impressions:The Stolen Crown opens in March 1603, with Queen Elizabeth I dying at Richmond Palace and the future of England hanging in the balance. Popular history has long insisted that Elizabeth named James VI of Scotland as her successor with her final breath, smoothing the transition from Tudor to Stuart rule. Tracy Borman challenges this…
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👀 First impressions:Finding Hildasay is a memoir born out of loss, grief and the need to keep moving when standing still feels impossible. After the sudden death of his best friend, Christian Lewis sets out to walk the length of the British coastline with his dog Jet. What begins as an act of survival slowly becomes a…
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👀 First impressions:The Kiss of Deception opens with a strong hook. Princess Lia flees an arranged marriage on the morning of her wedding, determined to claim a life of her own away from duty and expectation. Settling in a quiet coastal village, she believes she has escaped court politics, unaware that two men have followed her. One…
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👀 First impressions:First published in 1946, The King’s General is a historical novel set during the English Civil War, rooted firmly in Cornwall and shaped by shifting loyalties and personal sacrifice. The story is told through the voice of Honor Harris, a woman whose life is irrevocably altered after a riding accident leaves her disabled. As war breaks…
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👀 First impressions:Run Away opens with every parent’s worst fear. Simon Greene’s teenage daughter Paige has vanished into a life of addiction and danger, cutting herself off from her family entirely. When Simon finally spots her busking in a park, her reaction makes it clear that something far darker is at play. What follows is a desperate…
Minnie's Fiction Addiction 