Wednesday 27 January 2021

The Little Swiss Ski Chalet - Julie Caplin (Blog Tour & Review)

Date of Reading: 25/1/2021
Author: Julie Caplin
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication Date: January 22, 2021
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3.5/5

(This review is part of the blog tour organised by Rachel's Random Resources)

About the book:

It’s time to pack your bags and head to the breathtaking, snow-covered peaks of the Swiss Alps for velvety hot chocolates, delicious cheeses and a gorgeous love story…
Food technician Mina has always believed that chocolate will solve everything – and it’s just what she needs when her latest relationship mishap goes viral!

So with her bags packed and a new determination to sort her life out, Minna decides to drown her sorrows with the best hot chocolate in the world at her godmother’s cosy Swiss chalet. Chocolate: yes. Romance: no. Until she has a run-in on an Alpine train with a mysterious but oh-so-gorgeous stranger…

Review:

        I do love Julie Caplin's books since each of them takes us on a journey to a different part of the world. And this time it is the snow-laden Swiss countryside. The story had me itching to pack my travel bags (since I am not as impulsive as Mina, that didn't happen).
        Chocolate, cake, skiing and chocolate again. Yup! Consider yourself warned and stock your fridge before planning to take this book. Even the memory of it is making me hungry. Caplin has worked her magic again. Within no time, we are pulled into the beauty and serenity of Switzerland, a country known for its rich heritage and hospitality. And the chocolates of course. In other words, heaven for a foodie buff like Mina.
        As you might have already guessed, this literal journey also provides a turning point in the life of our heroine, both in career and in love. Well, I didn't really buy the romance part; even with all the serendipity ideas, I don't think it was that unique and the ending had me muddled. Giving up your dreams for love, is that really worth it? Hmm . . . not for me to judge.
        Still, it proved to be the perfect comfort read for the weekend (I will have to consider the few pounds added to my weight though). Ever wished to be inside a book while you read it? Well, fairy godmother, I would like to use that gift on this book.

Meet the author:


Julie Caplin is addicted to travel and good food. She’s on a constant hunt for the perfect gin and is obsessively picky about glasses, tonic and garnishes. Between regular gin tastings, she’s been writing her debut novel which is set in just one of the many cities she’s explored over the years.

Formerly a PR director, for many years she swanned around Europe taking top food and drink writers on press trips (junkets) sampling the gastronomic delights of various cities in Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Copenhagen and Switzerland. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. These trips have provided the inspiration and settings for the trilogy, The Little Cafe in Copenhagen, The Little Brooklyn Bakery and The Little Paris Patisserie.

Julie also writes contemporary romance as Jules Wake.

Monday 18 January 2021

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig (Review & Summary)

Date of Reading: 14/1/2021
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
Rating: 4/5

About the book:

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Review:

    This is not my first Matt Haig book. Though I can't say I love his works, he is not really on the hate zone either. And with all the hype surrounding it, how can I not select this one? Did I love it? Hmm . . . sort of, I guess.
    If you are into Paulo Coelho, then you will definitely love this book. There is a whole lot of philosophical stuff (in layman's terms) to wrap your head around, but many can identify with the story. After all, is there anyone without regrets, wishing for the road not taken? Some may dwell their remaining lives on it and Nora Seed apparently, is one of them. 
    She is constantly haunted by the failures of others which they attribute to her poor choices. Now finally she gets an opportunity to try out all of her options and learn from them. But is there really a perfect life where you can satisfy everyone? I think you know the answer, my fellow bookworms, even if you haven't read this story. Well, the book really puts it in an elegant way.

Summary:

    Twenty-seven hours before she decides to die, Nora Seed finds her cat dead on the road. The next day she loses her job as a salesperson in String Theory, a musical instruments store. With this comes the realisation that no one needs her anymore. She was good at swimming in school but didn't pursue it further for the great disappointment of her father. She joined her brother's band and wrote songs for them but the frequent panic attacks made her drop out of it. Her brother and his friend Ravi still blame her for the band's failure. Even her old neighbour doesn't need her anymore to bring his medicines. So she decides to die.
    But it looks like she cannot even do that properly. Instead of dying, she reaches the midnight library, a place between life and death. Someone who looks exactly like Mrs. Elm, her old school librarian is in charge here. The library, as she explains, offers Nora an opportunity to live the lives she might have lived with different choices in her root life. If she finds one life agreeable, she can choose to live as the Nora there or she can return to try another one.
Source: https://www.concrete-online.co.uk
    Her Book of Regrets is heavy since there are so many decisions that she regretted later on her life. She tried to undo it one by one. In one life she has married her ex-boyfriend and in others, she is an Olympics winner (in swimming), a famous musician, winemaker, animal shelter employee etc. When she takes the life of a glaciologist, she meets Hugo, who is also sliding through lives like her. In his case, it was a video store instead of a library. He has lived so many lives but cannot find happiness in any.
    Nora also plans to live sliding through the indefinite lives available to her. But when she chooses the life where she lives with Ash, the doctor with whom she should have gone for a coffee date, she finds herself liking it. But there are other things that have changed. People she used to lend a hand in her root suffers from the lack of her care. Still she tries to remain there, but in spite of all her efforts to fit in, she is taken back to the midnight library which has begun to fall apart since Nora wants to live now.
    She manages to reach back her root life and gets timely medical help. The message she leaves behind before her suicide attempt brings back her brother to her side. Nora realises that she is capable of doing all the things that she has done in her other lives and decides to live this life instead of running away.

Meet the author:



Matt Haig was born in Sheffield, England in1975. He writes books for both adults and children, often blending the worlds of domestic reality and outright fantasy, with a quirky twist. His bestselling novels are translated into 28 languages. The Guardian has described his writing as 'delightfully weird' and the New York Times has called him 'a novelist of great talent' whose writing is 'funny, riveting and heartbreaking'.

Favourite quotes:

"The only way to learn is to live" - 105

"Because too often our view of success is about some external bullshit idea of achievement - an Olympic medal, the ideal husband, a good salary. And we have all these metrics that we try and reach. When really success isn't something you measure, and life isn't a race you can win." - 106

"To be a human was to continually dumb the world down into an understandable story that keeps things simple" - 136

"Minds can't see what they can't handle" - 136

"I think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths . . . but maybe there are no easy paths. There are just paths" - 163

". . .  a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting" - 171

Source: inews.co.uk

". . . where there are books, there was the temptation to open them" -177

"Fear was when you wandered into a cellar and worried that the door would close shut. Despair was when the door closed and locked behind you" - 194

"What sometimes feel like a trap is actually just a trick of the mind" - 241

"But it is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy" - 246

Thursday 7 January 2021

The Dead Zone - Stephen King


Date of reading: 06/01/2021
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1979
Rating: 4.5/5

About the book:

Johnny, the small boy who skated at breakneck speed into an accident that for one horrifying moment plunged him into The Dead Zone.

Johnny Smith, the small-town schoolteacher who spun the wheel of fortune and won a four-and-a-half-year trip into The Dead Zone.

John Smith, who awakened from an interminable coma with an accursed power—the power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankind in The Dead Zone.

Review:

    Will you have a panic attack if I confess this is my first Stephen King book? Yes, yes, I know I should be ashamed but what can I do? I have always known him to be a horror author, a genre I prefer to set aside (do have enough demons haunting my living world, thank you so much). But the guilt finally caught on and so here I am finally finishing one of King's book which doesn't have ghosts or zombies or whatever other creepy things out there.
    Johnny Smith is a small-time school teacher who slipped into a coma after a car crash. He wakes up after four and a half years with psychic abilities to know about  a person through touch. He could have been famous, but what Johnny needed was some normalcy in his life. But is it possible to run away from his powers? Especially when he also gains the ability to predict the future?
    Admitting that Stephen King is one hell of a writer would be an understatement. It might be a 1980s book, but it still took my breath away. The narration, character development and the plot twists had made me realised that this is a book that was waiting for me. 
    Well, that doesn't mean I agree with everything though, especially the last part. If you know someone is going to be killer (or start a nuclear war) in future, what will you do? Kill him yourself? It raises another question. If your future is predetermined, then can a killer be judged for following his destiny? Predicting a natural disaster is fine, but seeing someone's future years ahead didn't really agree with me.What is the use of human will then, if everything is preordained?
    Yup, the story for sure had made an impression. Could I be counted as one of the fans now? Let's wait and see.

Meet the author:

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. King has published 61 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and five non-fiction books.[3] He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections.