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Book Bites: 27 September 2015

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Desire for ChocolateDesire for Chocolate
Care Santos (Bloomsbury)
***
Book Fling
To anyone who loves chocolate, historical fiction and bone china, the premise of this novel is irresistible: the stories of three women in different centuries, linked by the porcelain chocolate pot that passes through their hands, set in sumptuous Barcelona. A modern day love-triangle, the crucible of 19-century scandal and the intrigues of imperialist rivalries drive the plot. I learned a great deal, yet felt unconscionably short-changed at the close. Perhaps some chocolate will help me determine why.
- Ayesha Kajee @ayeshakajee

Friday on My MindFriday on My Mind
Nicci French (Penguin Random House)
****
Book thrill
A corpse is floating down the Thames, its throat cut and wearing a name tag on its wrist: that of Dr F Klein. Except psychotherapist Frieda Klein is alive, and quickly becomes the main suspect in the murder, especially after she goes on the run. In this fifth psycho-thriller in the series, we find Klein a fugitive, thrown outside of her comfortable life. She refuses to implicate her fiercely loyal circle of friends, although they are clamouring to help. Set against the evocative backdrop of London’s streets and riverside haunts, Friday on My Mind is a thrilling page-turner.
- Gabriella Bekes @Gabrikwa

The Last Act of LoveThe Last Act of Love
Cathy Rentzenbrink (Pan Macmillan)
Book buff
***
When Cathy’s beloved brother, Matty, is left severely brain damaged after being hit by a car, his family, glad that he is alive, cares for him in the best way possible. But eventually they come to the conclusion that sometimes there is a fate worse than death. Together they make a heartbreaking, almost unimaginable decision. The book spares nothing in its unflinching look at what it’s really like to go through such a terrible ordeal. It reads like a cathartic love letter to a long-lost brother, but this memoir is ultimately about the process of moving through grief to healing.
- Nikki Temkin @NikkiTemkin

The Wild Oats ProjectThe Wild Oats Project: One Woman’s Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost
Robin Rinaldi (Hodder&Stoughton)
****
Book buff
When the author realises her husband will never agree to having a baby with her, she knows it is time for a change. According to Rinaldi, a woman’s life must follow one of two archetypical paths – motherhood or sirenhood – in order to be whole. She cannot go to her grave childless and having slept with only four men, so convinces her husband to agree to a year-long open marriage and places an ad to find herself a lover. What follows is so much more than an unbridled bonkfest: it’s a sobering, disturbing and melancholy story that offers no neat solutions or tidy endings.
- Fiona Snyckers @FionaSnyckers

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