Title: The Internet is a Playground

Author: David Thorne

Publisher: Fontaine Press

Published:  2009

The complete collection of articles and emails from 27bslash6 such as Overdue Account, Party in Apartment 3 and Strata Agreement plus articles too litigious to be on the website. Look for yourself.

Never before have I been occasioned by the inner conflict to give a book either a rating of one or five. Common sense would dictate that I rate it a 3, but a 3 states 'it's okay' which does not, sufficiently, depict the juxtaposing feelings this book aroused.

I am going to start with the negatives: I feel like I have been scammed out of the £5/6 I spent on the digital edition of the book. Usually, I will not spend more than around £3 on a Kindle book so just that I was willing to pay the price speaks volumes.I would argue that a great majority of the content is available on the website; admittedly, it does not make a secret of that: some content may be familiar. But, to the extent it is? I wouldn't have thought it. I would, quite literally, spend hours upon hours reading and rereading the contents on the website. 

I did not need to read them again. All is not lost, however. 

The reason why I decided to brand this book with a rating of 5 is because I believe David Thorne is, irritatingly, genius. The way he lines e-mails with faux anecdotes has me howling, and I can just feel how annoyed the recipients of the emails must be. A particular favourite of mine is the one concerning a party and a disgruntled resident of the same apartment complex (I think that is what you call them - over the pond, that is). If I had not known about the website prior to reading the book it would be a rating of 5 without any further deliberation.

Title: Thursdays in the Park
Author: Hilary Boyd
Publisher: Quercus
Published: August 4, 2011

Jeanie has been a loving wife to George for over thirty years, a devoted mother to their daughter and, recently, an adoring grandmother – all this despite the fact that several years ago, George withdrew from their marital bed with no reason given. At first Jeanie was determined to confront him, but days rolled into weeks, then years, and still she has no idea why it happened. Did she do something wrong? Is he in love with someone else? George won’t talk about it. Every Thursday, Jeanie takes her granddaughter to the park, and there she meets Ray, who performs the same weekly duty for his grandson. Ray seems to be everything George isn’t – a listener, easy to talk to, open-minded – and sexy. Suddenly Jeanie feels attractive again and, against her will, finds herself falling in love with him. She knows all too well that her new passion threatens everything she holds dear. She must make a choice. Family ties, dramas, secrets and lies all weave their way though this beautiful and insightful first novel written by an author who has the perfect experience to write it

Last week I was down in no-so-sunny Cornwall and I purchased a Kindle Fire so I thought that a reasonable excuse to go on a book buying splurge - that and the elation derived from the pasties and the gale force coastal winds.This just happened to be on the Kindle top list and the cover looked cute so I thought 'why not?' It may or may not have been due to the fact it was 77p, also.

I was so shocked that this book has been branded as 'granny-porn.' 'Shocked' does not suffice: 'mortified' is more apt. It makes the novel sound cheap and it is anything but. I, generally, am not a fan of the crude or of the inappropriate and even I did not find 'Thursdays in the Park' uncomfortable to read at any point. It's nice, I like it.

What Hilary Boyd does so well is the classic 'will they, won't they?' scenario. If not handled correctly, it can become uninteresting but with the constant twists and turns it kept me reading and reading.The ending did not disappoint nor leave me feeling like I have wasted my time but left me feeling warm and cosy.

The cover depicts a book that is quite jolly, a bit sunshiney but I assure you that there is a lot to overcome before that is the case. It is not straightforward, there are a lot of ups and a lot of downs - I would probably say more downs. At times I was sad, angry, irritated, even disappointed.

Even as I am trying to recall the book critically there is not a single major issue I can summon to mind, at times some characters could irritate me slightly (Alex)from time to time and her husband constantly throughout but Boyd does what many authors do not: adds explanation, a reasoning behind their behavior, and adds depth.

Hosted by The Story Siren/ Stacking the Shelves at Tynga's Review

The Last Time I Saw You

The Life of Riley

MILA 2.0

Doll Bones

This Northern Sky

Title: My Ex From Hell

Author: Tellulah Darling

Publisher: Te Da Media

Published: Expected release: April 1, 2013

a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.Literally.This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.

I have only recently become acquainted with the wonder that is Tellulah Darling through her Sam's Guide...; if you are a consistent reader on my blog you will know that I did not, wholly, get on with it an had to abandon said read about 2/3s the way in. In that review, I expressed my love for the execution of the book but the plot was it's one fault. It seems that Tellulah Darling has addressed my woes directly and produced My Ex From Hell. To which I graciously thank thee.

I have never been one that professes an interest in Greek mythology - all the knowledge I have on the topic has been attained by Jospehine Angelini's Starcrossed and who knows if that is accurate (I am going to hedge my bets and guess it is not). As matter of fact, quite the opposite: I have little interest in it myself, unfortunately as I do quite fancy myself  being one of those people of whom recall Greek Myths as if they were there.It's the simple things in life. Failing that, I will remain the same, uncultured Holly.

However, once I started to get into the book - I confess, it did take me a while - I actually quite enjoyed it; I enjoyed it to the point that I found myself researching Persephone (or Kore, as I prefer to call her).A sign of a great is author is making a subject that you would normally find uninteresting and molding in into a story that is both enjoyable and interesting.