'Taming the Beast' by Emily Maguire

I thought this book was going to simply and clearly explore the topic of teachers taking sexual advantage of children, and how this can affect children/young teenagers later in life. So it interested me. However, I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it did address these issues, but in a way that I really found very distasteful. After rampant sex and declarations of love, Mr Carr, the English teacher, goes abroad with his wife, and abandons the 14 year old school girl, Sarah Clark. Sarah was a very intelligent girl and they had lots of discussions about English literature together. This bit of the book was good, and there even some interesting quotes in it from English Literature But this was no way to treat a young, vulnerable girl, even though she claimed that she knew what she was doing. When he leaves her she becomes a nymphomaniac, having sex with anyone and everyone; she becomes completely obsessed by it all. She also smokes pot, and lives a hedonistic life in general (although does also continue with her studying). Finally, he returns having divorced his wife, and they get together again. But their love is always on the verge of destroying them, especially when the abusing, violent side starts to take a hold, and they draw blood from each other. There are some very positive reviews of the book on amazon, and on the front cover there is a quote from Matt Thorne, of the Independent saying that it was 'The best novel I've read all year.' It is well-written, it has to be said, and it kept me engaged to the end, but I also thought it really was a very sickening book and I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to continue reading it (even though I did). It is not a book I would recommend, but I decided to blog it - don't always have to be writing good reviews!

'Laceys of Liverpool' by Maureen Lee

This was an enjoyable read. It centred around 2 sister-in-laws - Alice Lacey and Cora Lacey. They both give birth to sons, on a chaotic night in the height of the war, in Liverpool in 1940. Alice was married to John Lacey and Cora was married to Billy Lacey. Alice's son was called Cormac and Cora's was called Maurice.

But for some reason, Cora was always jealous of Alice; Alice had indeed lived a better, more honourable life than Cora. But Cora seemed to have her hang-ups. Cora wanted John rather than Billy, and thought she'd got lumbered with second best. But then John is seriously disfigured in the war; he felt ashamed and did not see how Alice could ever still be attracted to him, with his face looking like that. She tried and tried to convince him otherwise, telling him that she still loved him, but he wouldn't/couldn't believe her. He became very jealous and possessive. She reacted by wanting to manage a hairdressers. Cora lent her some money to help her, but Alice did not realise when she signed the agreement (she was very uneducated and not very literate) that this would mean that Cora would have a share of the profits for ever more. Cora had deceived her.

Meanwhile, John ends up going off with a one-time, prostitute called Clare who had a harelip -he somehow thought they would be well-matched. She ended up having his children, and he lived a double-life. When Alice finally found out she was obviously devastated, and John moved out permanently. John then encouraged Clare to have an operation; she looked so much better after that, but then he became insecure and jealous, just as he had done with Alice. The whole thing was beginning to seem impossible. In the end, Clare walks out on him. She didn't want him doing the same thing to her that he did to Alice.

He goes back to Alice, but she won't have him. He goes to see Cora; she is delighted. She thought that she had finally hooked him; they have sex (although he was too drunk to know what he was doing). He is very down; he accidentally sets fire to the house, and dies. Cora is devastated; having finally got him, so she thought and then lost him in such a short space of time. She also at the same time confided in him that she had, kind of, murdered two of her aunts.

Cora is later in trouble and Alice offers her a cleaning job in one of her 3 hairdressing salons -yes, the business thrived and grew. Alice is always trying to do right by Cora, even though Cora always seems to want to do harm to Alice.

Alice has 4 children; in the end, the 4 children are fed-up with Cora's antics, and manage to find a way to stop Alice from having to pay all this money to Cora. One of Alice's children manage to get hold of the agreement, and tear it up in front of Cora's face.

As for Cormac and Maurice, Cormac is becoming very successful - wins scholarships and studies at Cambridge. Meanwhile, Maurice, tragically, on the other hand, ends up in prison. His mother used to beat him with a cane, and then love and cuddle him - he grew up very confused.

Cora seeing Cormac doing so well, is jealous once again. She tells him that she swapped the babies at birth, and that Cormac is actually her son, and Maurice is Alice's. Cormac is devastated. He doesn't want Cora to be his mother; he doesn't want it at all. He loves Alice, but can no longer call her 'mum'. He drops out of university; forms a music group and is on the road, making music and smoking pot etc. Then, it later seems that Cora was lying about this all along anyway.

Meanwhile, Cormac comes home after a while, with a pregnant girl. Maurice falls in love with her, and takes her from Cormac. Cormac doesn't mind; he thinks that's fair enough, as he got the better woman to bring him up. He eventually marries someone else.

Alice's children have children; the Lacey family grows. Towards the end of the book, 4 members of the family are pregnant. And in the closing pages, both Alice and Cora find some peace. Cora seems to realise that she has not treated Alice right over the years (as opposed to thinking that she was always the one that was hard done by, that kept coming out worse off), and Neil, the man that Alice loved after it went wrong with John, returns.

'Going Dutch' by Katie Fforde

'Going Dutch' by Katie Fforde proved to be quite an interesting read, although I did not enjoy it as much as other books of Katie Fforde that I have read recently. This novel is set around life on a barge. When Jo Edwards husband trades her in for a younger model, she decides to go and live on a barge. Meanwhile, Dora Hamilton decides that she cannot go through with her wedding (to her childhoold sweetheart). So she takes up the offer and suggestion of her friend Kate and goes to live on the Three Sisters barge with Jo (Kate's mother). They then find they go travelling around on the barge quite a lot (which was not something that they had originally intended to do) and get to know various people. At one point, a man goes overboard, for example, and has to be rescued. The novel spends some time exploring all this barge life, so the book will particularly appeal to those that are thinking of starting up a barge life, I think. Then, two men come to feature in their lives - Marcus for Jo and Tom for Dora.

'Wedding Season' by Katie Fforde

This was an enjoyable read. So, looks like I've found another author that I really like - Katie Fforde. The story is around the theme of wedding planning - not traditionally my area, but anyway... Sarah Stratford is a wedding planner - and a very competent one at that. That's how she earns her living. But she suddenly finds herself having to organise 2 weddings on the same day - her sister Lily's (who is also pregnant) and the famous Carrie Candy's. She can't possibly turn either of them down. And so the fun begins. Sarah is helped by Elsa, an accomplised dress designer and Bron, an excellent hairdresser. And then they have their own relationships going on in the background as well. Sarah finally gets together with Hugo, the photographer, who she had the hots for from the very beginning. And the two weddings go off successfully. A very cheerful read.

'Forgotten Dreams' by Katie Flynn

Well, I decided, after all, to give another Katie Flynn book a chance, this time reading 'Forgotten Dreams'. I found the style very similar to the other book of hers that I read ('In Time for Christmas'). The stories are interesting, and one feels that one wants to carry on, but they are not exactly gripping, not 'can't put downable books'. I suspect, now, that this is Katie Flynn's general writing style.

This story is about a mother (Louella) and her daughter (Lottie Lacey) , who are theatre performers, singing and dancing at the Gaiety Theatre. Louella also acts as Max Magic's assistant. Max is also her boyfriend and has a son, Baz. Yet, Lottie is not very happy, and her mother does not seem to be treating her very well in many ways. For one thing, she keeps making Lottie dye her hair blonde, because she thinks it is good for their stage performances, but this is not good for Lottie's hair, and Lottie just isn't too keen on it all. Then, Merle joins the act, and the women perform as a trio, but Lottie feels rather left out in some ways, and Merle does not always treat Lottie very well. She complains, for example, about having to share a room with Lottie. To complicate matters further, Merle then gets pregnant.

Meanwhile, Lottie keeps having these recurring dreams, which she cannot make sense of. Then, she meets a boy with golden-eyes who calls her Sassy and he accuses her of running away from them. Lottie is confused; she asks her mother some questions, but does not get very satisfactory responses. She is told though, that she had an accident when she was 6 years old, and lost her memory. The dreams continue, and become more powerful. Then, gradually, Lottie/Sassy realises/remembers that she was bought up by someone she called 'Gran' for the first 6 years of her life, and she lived with both Gran and Troy (Gran's grandson) during this period. She is upset about her mother lying to her and is determined to find out the truth. It then materialises that her mother wanted/needed to go back and work on the stage after giving birth to Sassy/Lottie, so she gave her over to 'Gran' to bring her up (who was not her real grandmother). Louella found herself another young girl to sing and dance with, but this girl then left her. She then decided to go and get Sassy/Lottie and to train her for the stage, to sing and dance with her. And so she took her away from Gran. Sassy/Lottie felt that her mother had used and exploited her, and did not really love her.

Finally, Lottie decides to go back and live with Gran and Troy and to work on the barge with them, and to forget all about the theatre work. She loves working on the barge, as opposed to appearing on the stage. She feels bad that she left Gran, who missed her so much (even though it was not Sassy's fault). One is left with the impression that Sassy and Troy will eventually marry. Meanwhile, Louella marries Jack Russell (not Max, who goes off with someone else). Jack is another stage performer, and Jack and Louella then perform together, so all ends up well and everyone seems pleased about the decisions they have made.

'Flora's Lot' by Katie Fforde

I really loved reading this book. Two cousins, Flora and Charles inherit the family antique business. But Flora's percentage is slightly larger than Charles, even though Charles has been running the business over the years, and not Flora. Flora decides to leave London and move to the countryside, where the business is, for a while. There she gets to know Annabelle, Charles's fiance, who wants to buy some of Flora's share of the business. She said that Flora was not interested in the business, so it would all be for the best.

However, Flora decides to get more involved in the business; in particular, she argues that it is important that they have a website. She starts to work quite hard and finds it all quite interesting. At the same time, she starts going out with good-looking Henry, but realises after a while, that he isn't really doing a lot for her. Meanwhile, she helps Annabelle to improve her dress-sense and takes her shopping. She also keeps telling people that her cousin Charles is dull , uninspiring and ploddy. Then, she suddenly realises that she is saying all this to cover up something else; that actually, rather than finding him being dull and ploddy, she really fancies him and thinks he is really something. How on earth can she cope with these mixed emotions, especially as she discovers that Annabelle's father has also paid for the rewiring of the antiques business - so Charles is indebted to her even more.

Then, suddenly Charles realises that he feels just the same about Flora. He leaves Annabelle, and rushes over to see Flora. They end up going off to a hotel together and having a night of passion.

Some read!

'Mother of Pearl' by Maureen Lee

I very much enjoyed reading this book the other day. The book begins with the reader discovering that Pearl's mother Amy is about to come out of prison, having been convicted many years ago of having killed her husband, Barney. Pearl was brought up by her aunt and uncle. It all sounds really quite shocking, and yet, when Amy is released she seems to be quite a nice sort of person.

Then, gradually the truth unfolds. Barney's mother, who is mentally unbalanced, says to Barney that Amy and Barney's father have been having an affair (prior to this Barney had volunteered to fight in the war). It is all absolute nonsense about the affair, but Barney comes home in a rage and accuses her of this, and much else besides. Pearl, a little girl of only 5 years old, gets a knife out, trying to protect and defend her mother, but doesn't realise that she puts the knife into Barney by mistake and kills him. Amy cannot bear the idea of her daughter taking the blame for this, and having such an awful thing hanging over her for the rest of her life. So she puts her own fingerprints on the knife, and let's people conclude that it was her that killed Barney. And so she goes to prison. A very interesting and gripping story.