My book list for July

 I actually started this book on holiday in June!

Twenty years ago, nine friends made predictions for each other with the agreement that they would meet again in twenty years time to see just how accurate they were.  We meet them all at Ivo's family home on Dartmoor where they have arranged a weekend together to reveal the predictions.  Not all of them are still alive.  Some are remarkably successful in their careers. Some are living ordinary lives. One of them is a murderer.

I liked the idea of this storyline and the story keeps you guessing up to the end. I did feel that it dragged a little in places however and the characters are a little stereotyped but nevertheless I did enjoy it.

Next - something completely different!

Now there was a point that I nearly gave up on this book!  But it has good reviews and it is certainly something unlike any other books I have read.  

Imagine if you could erase any bad memories or bad behaviour, wipe your conscience or your memory clean and start again with a fresh slate.  Imagine how many secrets would be hidden.  This is where the Binders come into their own.  Books are not as we think of them nowadays; books are where your confessions or bad experiences are written down, bound into a book and locked in a vault for safekeeping.  

Emmett Farmer is summoned to become a Binder's apprentice and although he, and his parents, are reluctant to let him go, he has no choice in the matter.  He starts to learn how to prepare the books for their contents and gradually learns how to complete a book.  Then one day he comes upon a book with his own name on the cover.  In a past time that he can no longer remember, he must have visited a Binder to have this memories erased and the details hidden away forever.

The two central characters have both met before, despite a huge gulf between their lives, but neither can remember how or when.  It's hard to pinpoint the era in which this is set.  There are no real clues other than it was a time where witchcraft was feared and in my imagination, the town of Castleford resembles the era of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

This was a cleverly written novel and each part gives us a little more information as to how Emmett and Lucien met in a former, forgotten life.  It's not the kind of book I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed, but it is a very clever concept and well written.

The next book was the one chosen by our online book club

The book begins in 1961 when Mari arrives at Martha's Vineyard to supposedly research the paintings of Elizabeth Devereux.  While going through her mother's possessions after she died, she has found the name of the artist and is intrigued to learn more about the connection.

We then go back in time to 1942 and meet sisters Briar and Cadence Smith who are trying to maintain a sense of normality as the war in Europe is escalating and US soldiers are training to go off to war.  Their brother Tom is called up and leaves the two girls and their grandmother to keep the farm going in his absence.

They are trying to adapt to their new 'normal' with troops training around the area of their farm and beach when a soldier is found, washed up onto the beach.  The girls rescue him and allow him to recover in their boathouse, their sympathy drawn from thinking of their brother and how they would hope that he would be treated if it were to happen to him.  But the man is German, having tried to escape from the U boat where he was working as a medic.  His family are all living in America and he just wants to be reunited with them and not drawn into the fighting in the war.  Is he telling the truth?  As they did not report finding him straight away, the family has put themselves into danger as harbouring the enemy is a serious offence. 

He insists there is a spy on the island and a U boat is waiting to pick them up, his story seems convincing but who is about to betray their country? More to the point, how is Mari associated with the family? 

I enjoyed this book, I've never been to Martha's Vineyard, but the author makes me feel like I can imagine how it looks and the people that would have been there in the war years.  All in all, I enjoyed this book, it's not your typical WW2 story and I would recommend it.