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Book Bites: 14 June 2015

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I'll Give You the SunI’ll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson (Walker Books)
****
Book monster
The author can take a story and smash it into a million shards, then drive you to obsess about putting it all back together. Noah and Jude are twins whose lives are beset by personal tragedy. Love is the cause of the heartbreak, and also the cure. It ebbs to and fro like the tide in this book, and the interlacing connections that crisscross the twins’ lives, dazzlingly executed, add a magical depth. Be prepared to have your heart broken.
- Sally Partridge @sapartridge

Second LifeSecond Life
SJ Watson (Random House Struik)
***
Book thrill
This slow-building domestic thriller had me hooked from the start, despite unfavourable comparisons to the author’s debut, Before I Go to Sleep. Recovering addict Julia has a comfortable life: her loyal husband is a senior surgeon, her adopted son Conner is a typical teen, and she makes pin money from her photographs. Everything changes when her sister is murdered. Julia, determined to find the killer, is drawn into a “second life” of online liaisons and an illicit affair which consumes her as entirely. The ambiguous denouement was a disappointment.
- Aubrey Paton

SummertimeSummertime
Vanessa Lafaye (Orion)
*****
Book buff
The humidity of a steamy Florida summer drips from the pages of this remarkable debut novel, based on actual events. Racial tensions run deep in the poor coastal community of Heron Key in 1935, confirmed by segregationist laws. Into this poisonous mix arrives a large group of World War I veterans on a public works project, and when a white woman is found savagely beaten, suspicions turn towards the outsiders. Meanwhile, a tropical storm gathers strength, building into the most ferocious hurricane ever to strike the US. A poignant story of love lost and found, and a dramatic account of human survival.
- David Lea

Not Quite NiceNot Quite Nice
Celia Imrie (Bloomsbury)
***
Book fling
Theresa is tired of selflessly giving to her ungrateful children, grandchildren and boss. Tossing off her stagnant life, she moves to France to begin anew. But no fresh start is without a few hitches, or many, as the case is here. But 60 is the new 40, in this modern age. Readers will be charmed by Theresa and her new friends’ zest and spirit. The large cast of characters join classes, start new business and encounter naked men dropping into their gardens. A comic and entertaining romp for women, who may dye their hair, yet still have much living to do.
- Tiah Beautement @ms_tiahmarie

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