As Good As It Gets? by Fiona Gibson

review by Maryom
16 years ago, pregnant Charlotte was abandoned by her boyfriend Fraser and left to bring up their daughter Rosie alone. Since then she hasn't seen Fraser once, but found love and happiness in a new relationship with Will to whom she's now been married nearly 15 years. Recently though things have hit a dull patch, companionship has replaced romance, and recently redundant Will seems to be having a mid-life crisis. All fun seems to be reserved for the younger generation, particularly Rosie who's just landed a modelling contract with a top agency. Charlotte feels that somewhere, somehow, she's missing out and life is passing her by. Is this as good as it gets? When Fraser suddenly turns back up on the scene, Charlotte begins to wonder if life with him would have worked out better ....

I first discovered Fiona Gibson last year with Take Mum Out a laugh out loud look at dating for the slightly more mature, and although I didn't find as many laughs in As Good As It Gets? this is still a light-hearted chick lit style tale for the mid-life crisis age group. After all the romance and happy-ever-afters of romantic fiction come the long years of juggling housework, jobs, childcare, with no time any more for romantic dinners for two - and this is where Charlotte and Will find themselves. With a husband who is alternately moody and secretive or trying to live it up by partying all hours with the new neighbours, it's not surprising that Charlotte might start to wonder about the choices she's made in life! Poor Will certainly comes in for some prat-fall moments - 'dirty dancing' at the neighbours' party, dusting down his leather trousers to appear young and hip - and then having them eaten, in strategic places, by an escaped rabbit. How can he hope to compete with Fraser who, by his absence has remained forever young in Charlotte's imagination?


Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Harper Collins (Avon)
Genre - adult, romcom/chick lit, humour

The Reaper by Steven Dunne

review by Maryom

DI Damen Brook thought that by leaving the Met and moving to Derby he could put his past behind him ...but he's about to be proved wrong. When a Derby family are brutally murdered in their own home, Brook can feel a familiar hand behind it - that of the Reaper, a killer Brook hunted for so long without bringing to justice. After so many years, why would the Reaper move his attention to Derby? The only answer is that he's out to deliberately provoke Brook ....

Although this is the first outing for DI Brook, I've already encountered him in later books in the series ( Deity and The Unquiet Grave ) so I vaguely knew the turn events would take, but even so The Reaper proved to be a really compelling read.
A psychological thriller that delves into the minds of both ruthless killer and the detective hunting him down, it's dark, brutal and shocking in a variety of ways. I don't want to risk giving the plot away, or the chilling twist of events, but on one hand there's the despondency of police officers who see so many outrages that they become numb to the horror yet are powerless to prevent it, and on the other, the complacency of a killer who believes himself to be above the law - all very grim disturbing stuff and not for anyone who likes their crime to be 'cosy'. 
As I say, I'd met Brook before and wondered how he'd turned into the scarred lonely individual of the later books - well, even the younger Brook is a strange man, obsessed by a series of killings, abandoning his family to stalk the man he believes committed them, who in his turn, manipulates Brook and turns him to suit his own ends. I'm just surprised Brook hasn't turned out even more twisted!

If you're intrigued by Brook and his pursuit of the Reaper, you can read more in this interview  with author Steven Dunne.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Harper Collins (Avon)
Genre - adult, psychological thriller

Betrayed by Jacqui Rose

Review by The Mole

Bunny Barker has dark secrets - secrets she won't share even with Del, the man she loves, and outside of Claudia, her protector and helper, she trusts no-one - not even Del.

In the criminal underworld Del is king but the Russians and Teddy, a corrupt police officer, want to dethrone him. He needs the trust and support of those he loves.

When I read this book it brought to mind Black Widow by Jessie Keane but only as far as genre - that's where the similarity ends.

The story starts feeling very disjointed in a few harrowing scenes of murder and child abuse - scenes that may anger the reader or horrify - but sadly these things do happen - but the author manages to stop early enough without giving the detail to titillate the perverted and cause the rest to put the book in the incinerator but the reader knows how those scenes will end. The story then jumps and becomes what the book is about. There is an element of farce involved... this is no story of well organised gangs controlling everything day-to-day - it's a story of taking each day as it comes without planning and without really thinking about tomorrow and what the consequences might be.

The farcical element really makes this book something very special with almost EVERY character at one point or another wanting to 'put the hit' on one or more of the other characters and no-one is exempt from it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and might even describe Rose as the 'Janet Evanovich of the bad guy world'.

The reader does become involved and appalled, not only at the beginning but by other scenes too, and let's also include 'page turner' as it's well deserving of that one too - but overall it's a great fun read with bad guys bumping into each other all over the place.

Oh, there's boats, helicopters and bullet proof cars too!

Publisher - Avon Books
Genre - Adult Crime, Thriller

Buy BETRAYED from Amazon

The Accident by C L Taylor

review by Maryom

When 15 year old Charlotte is knocked down by a bus and ends up in hospital in a coma, her mother Sue is convinced it cannot have been the tragic accident that everyone else claims. Reading through her daughter's diary, Sue finds an entry that she's sure supports this. She feels that if she can find out WHY Charlotte took the dreadful action she did, she can be convinced that everything is safe now and come out of her coma. She discovers that she really had very little idea about her daughter's life - what she was doing when out in the evening or who her friends were - but also that Sue's own past, in the shape of an abusive, manipulative boyfriend, is catching up with her with devastating consequences.

The story is told in two alternating parts - the present day with Charlotte lying in a coma and Sue's diary from 20 years ago, so Sue's struggle to convince others that Charlotte is not a random accident victim is interleaved with her own story of a love affair rapidly turning sour. For a while there seems to be no connection between the two but gradually all is revealed...

While I found this a quick read, that I whizzed through to find out who did what and why, sadly it didn't really grab me. The characters all seemed a little too over the top to feel real and therefore for me to care about. Although there's a general consensus of opinion that parents have no idea what their teenagers are getting up to, this too seemed taken to extremes - both Sue and her husband Brian seemed  to have been wilfully blind to their daughter's behaviour, letting her come and go at all hours without questioning where she'd been.
As the narrator, Sue seemed full of contradictions - maybe these were in part down to her PTSD and paranoia, but she just didn't ring true. I never felt in any doubt that Sue was right - although she goes off at odd tangents, leaping to wrong conclusions on the slightest of evidence, her overall premise that something had caused Charlotte to step in front of the bus never seemed in doubt.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Harper Collins (Avon)
Genre - adult, psychological thriller

Buy THE ACCIDENT from Amazon

Take Mum Out by Fiona Gibson

review by Maryom

Alice is happy enough as a single mum - she has two teenage boys to run around after and share pizza or watch dvds with, a job to pay the rent and a just-starting out meringue business. Why would she need the added complication of trying to find a new man? Her three best friends think they know best and decide to set her up with three blind dates - all to be eligible, attractive men. All Alice needs to do is pick Mr Right....
Who would you prefer? - 
- Giles, a 27 year old with a liking for older women,
- Stephen, dentist and caring father to 8 year old Molly,
or maybe
- Charlie, freelance journalist who whisks Alice off to Paris?
Alice meanwhile has her eye on a fourth option - handsome Frenchman Pascal from her local deli.

Follow Alice's hilarious attempts to balance having a social life with being a single mum. She's suddenly discovering that she's not too old to have first date nerves, or worry about what to wear but might look old enough to be confused for her date's (Giles') mother! She also has to cope with her two teenage boys, who can't see why she needs a boyfriend, and an elderly mother who's ready to jump at the first chance to pair Alice up.
Take Mum Out is my first Fiona Gibson book and I really enjoyed it. An excellent read if you're looking for something light and fun.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Harper Collins (Avon)
Genre - adult, romcom/chick lit, humour