Book Review - Where Rainbows End (Cecelia Ahern)

Plot Summary

Rosie and Alex meet on their first day of primary school when they are forced to sit together.

The story starts when Alex invited Rosie to his seventh birthday party via a note in class. The school years are told through the passing of notes during lessons, letters home from the teacher, Miss Big Nose Smelly Breath Casey, e-mails and IM.

In the final few years of school, Alex's dad takes up a job in Boston, and so the family move out there. Alex and Rosie don't want to be separated, so Alex and Rosie beg their parents for Alex to be allowed to stay with Rosie and her family. But Alex's parents want him to move to Boston with them. Rosie plans to go to university in Boston with Alex; Rosie to study hotel management and Alex to study medicine.

Alex promises to make it home for her end of school dance, but, after a delay at the airport, he doesn't make it, and Rosie ends up going with Brian, a kid they both hated in school.

Rosie's plans must change, for she discovers she is pregnant, and is unable to take up her place studying in Boston.

Rosie has a baby daughter, Katie, and she struggles to look after her. She feels she is too young to be a mum. All her friends are off out having a good time, and she is at home with her baby.

Alex becomes the god-father to Katie, and comes home for the christening.

Rosie gets a job working in a paperclip factory, where she meets Ruby. She and Ruby become good friends. They start learning salsa together, and, eventually, Ruby and her son Gary start entering salsa competitions. Ruby's boyfriend, a beer drinking man of few words, thinks this makes Gary a bit feminine.

Rosie later leaves the job and starts working in a hotel, which is her dream job.

Eventually, Alex marries a girl in his class. Rosie and Katie attend the wedding, and Rosie is Alex's best man, Katie is the bridesmaid.

Rosie meets and marries a bank manager. Alex attends the wedding. Meanwhile, he has divorced his wife, left Rosie a love letter which she doesn't receive, and later meets a girl he used to fancy, and they marry.

Rosies' bosses, the two Mr Lakes, offer her a promotion, but she would have to move to another area of Ireland. She wants to accept it, but neither her husband nor Katie do. Katie and her best friend, Toby, don't want to be split up, and on discovering Rosie will not let Katie move in with Toby and his family, the pair of them decided to run away together.

Rosie's husband cheats on her. Kevin (her brother - she got him a job in the kitchen of one of the other Two Lakes Hotels in ireland) informs her that he has booked them in for a weekend. But he discovers that her husband is actually there with another woman. Kevin punches him on the nose.

Rosie goes to a pub to drown her sorrows, and ends up telling these two very nice men with a very distinguishable tattoo on their forearm, about her bank manager husband who is cheating on her. They drop her home. Later, she reads in the papers about two men with a very distinguishable tattoo on their forearm who have beaten her husband up and robbed some of the money. She discovers some wrapped in an envelope on her kitchen table and decides to go visit Alex.

Katie's father turns up during her early teens, and he becomes involved in her life once more.

Rosie takes on a new job, working for Miss Big Nose Smelly Breath Casey, whilst finally studying hotel management. Just before her final exams, her father has a heart attack and dies, and Rosie is about to give up her course (she will have to repeat the entire course, not just the final year). But between Miss Big Nose Smelly Breath Casey (who is now actually friends with Rosie and delays her retirement to actually see Rosie achieve her ambition) threatening to fire her if she doesn't go back, and a letter she receives from her father which he wrote the day before he suffered his heart attack saying how pleased he was with both Rosie and Katie, she decides to complete her course.

Rosie gets a job as a hotel manager, but the hotel is shut down.

Alex gets divorced yet again.

Katie follows her ambition to become a DJ in the club her dad runs in Ibiza. Toby trains as a dentist (he was obsessed with going to the dentist with Katie when she had braces).

When Rosie mum dies, she inherits the house and decides to run it as a B&B.

In the final chapter of the book, when Rosie is about 50, she is sitting on the floor of one of the rooms, reading through all the letters, e-mails and notes she has received throughout her life.

And then Alex turns up at the door.

Book Review

This is not a book I have read recently, but it is my absolute favourite book of all time, and I have read it many times. It always makes me cry, from about half way through the book (about when Rosie dad dies), right up until the end (I'm even typing this now with tears streaming down my cheeks).

It's a mixture of the sadness and the time wasted (Alex only much later tells Rosie that the reason she banged her head when out for her sixteenth birthday was because she was leaning over on her bar stool to kiss him), for they have both loved each other for many years, but something, whether it be moving to Boston, finding out she is pregnant with Brian the Whine's baby, or being married to people that they don't truly love, that always keeps them apart. It is the fact that they have always been best friends, they have always been there for one another and they know that the other's partner is not right for them.

Their love is obvious to everyone (both Alex's ex-wives, Rosie's ex-husband, their parents and their siblings), but neither of them can see it.

The fact that the whole book is written through letters, emails, texts etc means that you grow with the characters, from the really badly written notes of a six year old, to the proper letters and emails of the adults, and this allows a great bond to form between the characters and the reader.

The only part of the book not written in this form is the very, very end, the last few pages, which makes Alex and Rosie's meeting here seem extra special.

Cecelia Ahern is a wonderful author. I love all her books and am looking forward to the release of the next one, whenever that shall be.

Book Review - Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother (Claudia Carroll)

Plot Summary

Jessie Woods lives in a wonderful house, a perfect job and a very rich boyfriend.

And then, one tiny little slip, and she loses the lot.

Her job is over before they've even finished filming that live episode. Unable to keep up the rent, her house is re-let to another couple. And her boyfriend, not wanting the negative media, decides it's best if they stop seeing each other.

So Jessie has nbo choice to move back home with her step-mother and two (ugly) step-sisters. With no job, she is unable to contribute financially to the household. So, in a Cinderella fashion, she is forced to do all the housework.

Slowly, though, she starts to get back on her feet. Her one step-sister, Sharon, even gets her a job at the fast-food restaurant where she works. Her former best friend's brother (who actually fancies Jessie) then offers her a job presenting on his radio station. The TV station want her back, and then so does her boyfriend. She helps Sharon get a boyfriend. She encourage her other step-sister to try out her chances as a stand-up comedian.

Book Review

The novel is very 21st century Cinderella. Her mother died when she was young, her father re-married, moved the step-family in, and then died, leaving Jessie with her step-mother and step-sisters. Jessie even loses a shoe at the end of the book!

The book is an updated version of the old fairy tale that I am sure every little girl wanted to be part of. Jessie has her Prince Charming, her dream job, and even lives in a pink masion. It is interesting to see her slowly change though, from the woman she thought she should be, wearing designer clothes and drinking champagne, to the woman she was born to be, returning to the house she grew up in, drinking in her local pub, and becoming friends again with her childhood friends.

There are some funny moments, too, like when she is caught breaking and entering in to her ex-boyfriend's house. 

The story is predictable, though. It is obvious that Jessie's luck will return, that she will get the house back. And when she has two men wanting her, it is obviosu who she will choose.

It is a good novel though. A grown up fairy tale for the 21st century.

Book Review Blood, Sweat and Tea, and More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea (Tom Reynolds)

Plot Summary

Both books are composed from Tom Reynolds's blog. He is an Emergency Medical Technician working for the London Ambulance Service, and keeps a blog of his daily working life.

The both books are made up of many chapters, each one dealing with a particular patient. There are many patients throughout the book, each presenting with a range of different conditions. He discusses these, both in the treatment he and his colleagues provided and the problems they had to overcome.

Book Review

Being a nurse myself on an admissions ward, I can fully understand where he is coming from. In the second book (More Tears, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea) he is sometimes sarcastic about the patients he discusses, the regulars who attend for no reason in particular, and I, although quietly moaning about it amongst my colleagues, and not on a blog or in a book, often share his thoughts.

I am able, also, too agree with his opinions regarding some of the professionals he describes. I work on a medical admission unit, and we receive a large proportion of the type of patients he describes from the GP, very often (particularly out of hours) without any form of past medical history; no fax or letter with the patient.

I, too, have received the patient on my ward who could quite easily have been brought in by family, but who expect all the staff to run around for them. I have also admitted the patient who has had a stroke two days ago, but didn't want to bother any one over the weekend.

As a fellow health care professional, I fully understand where Tom Reynolds is coming from in each of his many chapters. It is interesting to hear about the treatment of the patient prior to coming in to hospital, where everything is to hand, emergency assistance is only a shout away, and there is room and equipment to manouevre the patients.

I downloaded these books on to my new phone (I wanted to try out a variety of the apps, and books was one of them). The chapters were short, the longest ones, and very few of them, being about 20 pages long. If these books are available in print, I would imagine they would be rather short - they didn't take me long to read on my phone. The short chapters are excellent, though, for when you've just got a few minutes to kill.

Book Review - Mini Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

Plot Summary

This is the latest instalment in the Shopaholic series - basically, Becky Bloomwood is addicted to shopping (as the title may suggest), despite the fact she used to write for a financial magazine. After various books in the Shopaholic series, Becky is now married, has a two year old daughter, Minnie, and is living with her parents.

She and her husband, Luke, ended up moving in with her parents at the end of the last novel, Shopaholic and Baby. Now, two years on, they are still living with her mum and dad.

The book is based at the start of the recession. Minnie's christening (which Luke isn't at as he is in London, at the Bank of England) is interrupted as the vicar runs out of the church to take his savings out of the bank. Later that day, back at the house where Becky and her mother have had a slight disagreement over the theme of the party, Becky decides to throw Luke a surprise birthday party (despite the fact he never celebrates his birthday) and to have Minnie's christening the same day using it as cover for the party preparations.

But the vicar has other ideas. He turns up, apologises, and christens Minnie there and then.

Becky decides to still throw Luke his surprise party. No-one thinks Becky will be able to pull it off though.

Becky falls out with her best friend during the plans. She secretly meets up with Luke's secretary and gets her in to trouble at work. She allows Luke's mother to meet Minnie and help with the party preparations (Luke has a difficult relationship with his mother and hasn't spoken to her since she made a comment about his late step-mother).

Becky and Luke decide that they will move out soon - they have had a lot of bad luck with their houses falling through, and decide to save as much as possible. So Becky promises not to go shopping until she has worn everything in her wardrobe. Luke thinks that she has been shopping again though, with all the secrecy and suspicious behaviour.

The couple also have to contend with Minnie's behaviour, from being banned from several Santa's grottos to ordering expensive designer coats on the internet - she truly is her mother's daughter! Becky is sensitive where her daughter is concerned, convinced others see Minnie as spoilt. Luke persuades her to allow a nanny to come evaluate Minnie's behaviour and they hire a nanny on best friend Suze's advice (who lasts less than a day).

Review

There is good continuity from previous novels. The characters, most of whom were present in the very first novel, continue to behave as themselves throughout the series.

Becky, as usual, ends up in many bizarre and unlikely situations which add only to the hilarity of the novel. She claims to be an art critic and then ends up meeting the woman she told this to when planning to enrol her daughter at an exclusive school. Minnie manages to order 17 Miu Miu coats over the internet despite being only 2! Becky is ostracised by the nannying community after the nanny spends less than a day with Becky and Minnie - no nanny agencies will deal with Becky after this, and the story becomes legendary. Sophie Kinsella manages to write, though, in a way that makes it sound that it is completely plausible for Becky's life to be like this.

The novel is definietly a feel-good book. Becky always manages to suceed somehow. The methods she goes to to achieve the outcome are often crazy, sometimes don't work, and make for a good giggle. But she is absolutely paranoid (not, of course, in a crazy way) and goes miles out of her way to hide her tracks.

The only problem with this book is that, as far as I can see, this must be the end of the Shopaholic series. Becky has found her dream job, almost lost her dream job, lived abroad, met and married the man she loves, found a half-sister she never knew she had, had a baby, tried to give up her shopping addiction, and now, well I won't give away the ending. But hopefully, Sophie Kinsella can be imaginative and come up with the next installment in Becky Bloomwood's life.

This is a fantastic book, part of a wonderful series, and I do highly recommend reading the complete series (The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Abroad, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic and Sister, Shopaholic and Baby, Mini Shopaholic).

Book Review - The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)

Plot Summary

Clare Abshire and Henry DeTamble meet aged 20 and 28 respectively at the Chicago library in which Henry works. This is the first time Henry meets Clare and doesn't know who she is when she excitedly realises who she is. She has known Henry since age six.

Henry is a timetraveller, and his older self has visited a young Clare at her childhood home since she was six years old. Clare has been in love with Henry most of her life and lost her virginity to Henry aged 18 in the meadow at her childhood home. This is the first time since then that she has seen Henry.

Clare knows that she will marry Henry. He doesn't tell her much about her future life, he believes his time travel is a curse and doesn't believe others should know their future; he won't even give Clare any personal details about himself; he knows she has to find him on her own, and not go in search of him. He does however tell her that they will be married.

The book is written in the first person, from the perspective of both Clare and Henry.

The normal trials of a relationship are detailed; meeting friends, meeting the parents, the wedding. Clare and Henry struggle to have a baby. But for Henry and Clare, there is the extra stress that Henry does not know when he will disappear on another time travel journey. He also doesn't know when he will reappear, and as he cannot take anything with him, he always appears completely naked.

Review

The Time Traveller's Wife is an emotional story about Clare's search for her future husband, her despair at not having him around during her childhood, and the difficulty of being left alone for long periods. For Henry, who doesn't know Clare when they fisrt meet, he must get to know the woman who has known him for 14 years.

It is comical that Clare knows so much about Henry's future life, and discusses things with him that he may know, but for him, these memories have not yet happened.

Henry and Clare's despair at not knowing when he is going to disappear, of the stress that even simple events like going to church with Clare's family for midnight mass, is conveyed well. Henry's fear, at dropping in naked at a variety of places; work, an old family friend's house, the middle of the street is well written, enabling the reader to empathise with Henry and Clare.

Clare and Henry appear to have come to terms with the fact that their future is all ready planned. That what they do now, will only lead to the future which, in parts, Henry has all ready experienced. There is difficulty, though, when they try to convey this to their friends and colleagues. It suggests that our future is pre-determined, and our choices now will inly take us down the path we were meant to take anyway.

It is difficult to get your head around the fact that, at points in the book, there are two Henry's and that there is more than one time period running simutaneously. For example, Henry from the present day can go back and visit a past Clare, but the present continues. It is a difficult concept to grasp.

The only negative comment I can make about the book is that there are a lot of characters in it, and sometimes, it is difficult to keep up with whose who, particualry when minor characters (the doctor's wife and children, for instance) are named.

Overall, the book is well written and emotional. The characters are 3 dimensional and this makes it easy to empathise with their story, despite the fact it deals with a situation with which the reader (and author) are unfamiliar. Definitely a book to read.

Like many good books, this has been made in to a movie. Whilst the movie is excellent, I made the mistake of watching that first and therefore of knowing the ending. The movie is definitely worth watching, though.

Welcome

Welcome to my brand new blog.

Let me tell you a little about myself.

My name is Kaitlyn Edwards, I'm 23 years old and I live in the UK. I'm a nurse working on a very busy admissions unit in an NHS hospital. It's crazy busy but I love it. I hope to join the military as a nursing officer in the next couple of years, or, if that's unsuccessful, I think I might return to uni and do my midwifery training. I loved my maternity placement when I was a student - it was absolutely fantastic.

I volunteer a couple of evenings a week in a cadet organisation. I've been involved for about 9 years and it's great.

I love reading. I've just finished the Time Traveller's Wife. It's an absolutely fantastic book, and I cried for the last 100 or so pages. I'd already seen the movie, so unfortunately knew the ending, but it still had me in floods of tears.

A few days ago, I finished the most current installment of the Shopaholic series - Mini Shopaholic. It's a really funny book, totally unbelieveable, but absolutely hilarious. I hope there are more installments to come, but I'm not sure where Sophie Kinsella can take this series now.

I really enjoy the outdoors; camping, the countryside, the beach. We spend a good deal of time outside with the cadet organisation, doing fieldcraft, adventure training, camp craft and sport among many other activities.

I enjoy sports. Swimming is my favourite. I quite enjoy netball and rounders too, not that I have had many opportunities to play rounders since leaving school.