You Never Told Me by Sarah Jasmon

Charlie is on the far side of the world, running away from a life she's found increasingly stifling, when she's told her mother is seriously ill. Before Charlie can return home, her mother has died, but the past in its various guises is there waiting to be faced up to - the boyfriend she left only a few months before their wedding, the dog she had to abandon, her sister left juggling the care of young children and elderly parents. Charlie's mother has also left unfinished business behind - unknown to her family, she'd bought a canal boat; a link to her own past, and secrets that had been hidden for years.

Having nowhere else to live, Charlie moves into the boat, and finds herself drawn irresistibly on a voyage of discovery - learning the practicalities of canal life alongside the story of her mother's unknown early life.

You Never Told Me is an enjoyable and intriguing tale of self-discovery and family secrets, set on the semi-hidden world of northern England's waterways. The various threads of the story -  twist round and complement each other well. As her confidence in handling the boat and coping with life on the canal increases, so does Charlie's faith in herself and her ability to make decisions rather than just run from them. At the same time, she uncovering aspects of her mother's life which have never been talked about. Most of us probably dismiss parents as just that - parents - with no life or feelings before they gained that status; most of them fortunately don't have such tremendous secrets from us.

I found the whole description of canal life fascinating. I've walked alongside them often (including Bugsworth Basin which gets a mention in the book), stood at locks and watched boats move up and down, but never actually tried my hand at doing any of it. I'm not sure I'd actually be much help on a canal boat - I'd probably fall in the water - but it's nice to dream  ...

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction,

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

review by Maryom

When Fixie Farr saves a stranger's laptop from certain destruction, he, Sebastian, is so grateful he scribbles her an IOU. Does he really intend her to take it up? Certainly, Fixie treats it as a joke, until former boyfriend Ryan re-enters her life down on his luck, and she decides she has the perfect way to help him by taking up Sebastian's offer. 
Fixie is known in her family for being able to solve any problem. Show her something wrong, and she can't help but try to put it right. The only thing she can't seem to fix is her own life.



This is another enjoyable rom-com from Sophie Kinsella. It's an easy, light read; comforting in its familiarity as the story-line progresses from meet-cute, through various troubles and misunderstandings, to happy-ever-after. 
Fixie is similar to many of Kinsella's heroines - naive, gullible, put-upon and manipulated by family and friends, and too easily taken in by a guy's handsome appearance - but one I quickly sided with. The guys seem to polarise between kind-hearted good guy and irritating manipulators, and none of them seem to really appreciate Fixie's charms or intelligence. All of this is, again, par for the course with rom-coms, but familiar and comforting were what I was looking for when I picked this up, and this soothing predictability worked its charm on me.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction, romcom, 

The Summer of Secrets by Sarah Jasmon

review by Maryom


Living an almost solitary life with her uncommunicative, heavy drinking father, Helen's life is quiet and lonely. With O level exams, and the stresses and unpleasantness of school behind, summer seems to stretch limitlessly before her; at first an appealing prospect, but soon boredom starts to creep in. Then the Dover family move in down the road - an unconventional, seemingly-carefree family with no fixed roots, they fill the canal-side house with music, children and laughter - and Helen falls under their spell. There are similarities in their circumstances - their father is absent - perhaps having just 'left' in the way Helen's mother has, perhaps having disappeared in more suspicious circumstances - and their mother keeps mainly to her own bedroom and is as silent and neglectful as Helen's father, leaving teenagers Seth and Victoria, and the younger twins, Pippa and Will, very much to their own devices, but whereas Helen's home is dull and empty, theirs seems over-flowing with life. Attracted  to them, both individually and collectively, Helen is soon a regular visitor, her day not complete without them, but as the endless hot days unwind something sinister works itself into the mix. Long hot summers can never last forever - but this one is heading for a disastrous ending

There's a certain sort of mid-teenage point in life when summer seems like it could last forever - a few years earlier you don't appreciate the spread of six weeks freedom ahead; a few years older, and autumn seems already visible at the end of July - and this is what Sarah Jasmon has captured so well - long, lazy, hot days of a summer that feels like it could never end. Atmosphere alone isn't enough to make a story and mixed in with it is a darker thread of hidden secrets. The author intersperses the events of 1983 with a first person narrative from the adult Helen's point of view, so the reader is aware that the summer came to a climatic end, but, as Helen has no memory of the events, how and why remains a mystery. Enough is revealed to tempt the reader, and keep them hooked, without giving the game away.
The friendship between Helen and Victoria is the hub around which events revolve - a slightly one-sided affair as Helen in her loneliness is more in need of Victoria than vice versa, it's intense in the way that only teenage friendships can be - but all the characterisation is superb; from the slightly prim and proper Helen, to the free and easy Dover family, fly-in-the-ointment Moira with her stroppy activism, and Helen's father with his despair and mood swings, they all feel like real people with lives of their own outside the pages of the book.

The whole bohemian atmosphere instantly brought to mind two of my favourite novels of recent years - Emylia Hall's The Book of Summers  and Diamond Star Halo by Tiffany Murray. All three share that nostalgia for an idealised time in the past - a time which has its unacknowledged dark undercurrents just waiting to surface - and slightly off-beat larger-than-life families. If you've read one of these and loved it, I definitely recommend the others.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction, coming of age

The Road Between Us by Nigel Farndale

review by Maryom

June 1939 - two young men are arrested in a London hotel. Charles and Anselm are lovers - not a problem today but in 1939 it's illegal and, when they are discovered in compromising circumstances, there are penalties to be paid. Charles, a pilot in the RAF, is court-martialled for 'conduct unbecoming', and Anselm, an artist studying at the Slade, is deported back to Germany where he is sent to be 're-educated' in a labour camp. Separated by the war sweeping through Europe and by the prejudice of society, can their love survive?
In the present day - Charles's son, Edward, having been captured on a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan and held for eleven years in a cave is eventually freed. The timing and means of his release are puzzling - who, after all this time, has stepped in and paid the captors' ransom demands? Back home, Edward finds the world hard to adjust to. The everyday world has changed a lot in 11 years but there are more personally disturbing changes - his wife Frejya has died and Hannah, the daughter he remembers as a 9 year old, has grown into a carbon copy of her.


The Road Between Us is a compelling story wrapped around themes of discrimination, intolerance and the overwhelming power of love. The two story-lines unfold alternately, teasing the reader on to discover where and how they'll meet - for you know they will - uncovering deeply hidden family secrets on the way.
At its core The Road Between Us is a story about love - the strength that it gives, the power that it can hold over us and the sacrifices that have to be made for it - but it's not a cute hearts and flowers romance. It's dark, often distressing and disturbing in a variety of ways. Anselm's life in the labour camp is filled with casual cruelty - kept on the minimum rations, worked till exhaustion, experimented on in the name of rehabilitation, men are singled out for torture or summarily executed at the whim of the camp's commander - Edward's solitary imprisonment in the dark plays on all our fears of claustrophobia and abandonment, and the physical, sexual attraction between him and Hannah, particularly Hannah's willingness to give in to it is disquieting to say the least. Taken as a whole, it's a deeply affecting story, one well worth a re-read  but first I'll catch up on the author's previous novel.

Somehow this book passed me by when it was first published and I only came across it thanks to the #bookadayuk initiative on Twitter started by Borough Press and now continuing with Doubleday where it was mentioned as a book that hadn't received the attention it deserved. I'm so glad I found it - even if a little late.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction,

In The Summer Time by Judy Astley

review by Maryom

I first reviewed In the Summer Time last Summer when it came out in hardback - now it's being published in paperback by Black Swan just in time for this Summer.

"In the Summer Time is funny and smart and, despite the romance, avoids being too sickly sweet. It's a bit predictable at times but very readable. A lovely light-hearted summer read that's ideal for your own beach-side holiday." Read more of my original review here

Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde

review by Maryom

When their mother dies, 16 yr old Carly and 12 yr old Jen are left all alone in the world. Fearing that the authorities will take them into care and split them up, Carly decides that their best hope is to return to their step-father, Teddy. She feels that he is dependable and trustworthy. Jen has different ideas, but Carly is older, considers herself to be in charge and won't listen. So they set off, walking and hitch-hiking, from New Mexico through Arizona towards Cailfornia.

Walk Me Home is, in essence, a coming of age novel. Carly is a typical teenager who believes that she is always right- and anyone who disagrees with her must be, at best, mistaken. In the course of her journeying, she comes to see that this can't always be the case and that sometimes admitting that you don't know the answer to everything is the beginning of knowledge.

It's very readable and although there's a feeling that Carly WILL reach her destination, there's a lot of  doubt about what she'll find there, so I just had to keep turning the pages till I found out. Having said that, I didn't feel it had the depth of characterisation that I like in a novel and the ending was just a little too predictable - a good holiday read though. Although ostensibly an adults' novel, I feel this may appeal to older teens as well.

Maryom's review -  4 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction, road trip

Buy Walk Me Home from Amazon

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Review by The Mole

Harold receives a letter from Queenie, a work colleague of many years ago, to say that she is dying in a hospice over 500 miles away and to say thank you for his kindness twenty years ago. Harold feels unable to express adequately in a letter the reply he wants to give but sets out to post a letter in reply. He keeps giving himself excuses not to post it yet but to go to the next post box. After a conversation with an assistant in a garage he decides to carry on his walk and go to Berwick-on-Tweed to speak to Queenie directly. After phoning the hospice and his wife he continues walking with only what he is wearing and carrying.

This book is one of those books that no two people read the same story in. I know that the version Maryom told me was not what I read and having heard Rachel Joyce read from it twice, once at Lowdham and once in Waterstones, it is not the book she read to me. At Waterstones people talked about their experience with the story and yet again it was not the story I read.

From the off I didn't like Harold Fry. He was a mouse of a man with no opinion of his own. I tend to refer to such people as 'acquiescent man' - he is what others expect him to be. Maureen was very different, a rather unpleasant character from the off with a foreboding of evil about her. What we learned of Queenie at the outset was not very endearing either. Having said all that I found I just had to keep reading - I was enjoying it despite the characters. Perhaps it was the hope that he would leave the old Harold Fry somewhere by the roadside and return home reformed and be able to make something of his marriage to Maureen.

As he meets new characters along the way I started to find characters I actually liked, the oncologist and Martina, characters who seemed properly connected with the world and who showed true compassion. And let's not forget Dog please!

The end started to feel like a French farce at times as secrets between Harold, Maureen and Queenie tumbled across the page - even the garage girl shared secrets. As for the ending? It was not the ending I hoped for but perhaps it's the most we could expect for as readers.

I did enjoy this book but if you are not looking for a book that will try to tug at your emotions - even if it's not always successful - and a book that will get you thinking about people then this isn't the book for you.

Publisher - Black Swan
Genre - Adult Fiction

Buy The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry from Amazon