contemporary · romance

Here is the Beehive – Sarah Crossan ★★★★

Blurb; A brilliantly original debut about a love affair cut short, and how lonely it is to live inside a secret — for fans of Sally Rooney, Sheila Heti, and Ottessa Moshfegh.

Ana Kelly can deal with death. As an estate lawyer, an unfortunate part of her day-to-day is phone calls from the next of kin informing her that one of her clients has died. But nothing could have prepared Ana for the call from Rebecca Taylor, explaining in a strangely calm tone that her husband Connor was killed in an accident.

Ana had been having an affair with Connor for three years, keeping their love secret in hotel rooms, weekends away, and swiftly deleted text messages. Though consuming, they hide their love well, and nobody knows of their relationship except Mark, Connor’s best friend.

Alone and undone, Ana seeks friendship with the person who she once thought of as her adversary and opposite, but who is now the only one who shares her pain — Rebecca. As Ana becomes closer to her lover’s widow, she is forced to reconcile painful truths about the affair, and the fickleness of love and desire.

Funny, frank, and strange, Sarah Crossan’s moving novel is wholly original and deeply resonant.

My Review; I have read a lot of books by this author so this was a must read for me. I love her unique writing style of poetry format which tells the story making her books easy reads but enjoyable ones too. This is a story about an affair, death, betrayal and love.

Beautifully written and a gorgeous cover. I loved it! Devoured it in a day. Have to feel for the main character and her loss as she can’t acknowledge as noone knew about their affair or love, she’s angry, upset and mourning herself while having to work with his wife after his death. She’s his solicitor. Would highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me.

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romance · Young adult

We Come Apart – Sarah Crossan & Brian Conaghan ★★★★

Blurb; From two acclaimed authors comes an emotional story told in verse about friendship, love, and overcoming unbeatable odds.

Authors Brian Conaghan and Sarah Crossan have joined forces to tell the story of Nicu and Jess, two troubled teens whose paths cross in the unlikeliest of places.

Nicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess’s home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship grows into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and hopeful futures. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves?
For fans of Una LaMarche’s Like No Other, this illuminating story told in dual points of view through vibrant verse will stay with readers long after they’ve turned the last page.

My Review; I thought I had read all of Sarah Crossans books but alas I saw this one I hadn’t read on Amazon the other day. Woo hoo. I got it yesterday and started it straight away, three hours later… FINISHED. It was so good. This is co written with Brian Conaghan. What I think they’ve done is Brian has written the boys part (Nicu) and Sarah has written the girls part (Jess).

The story flicks between Jess and Nicu two troubled teens both dealing with some difficult things. Nicu is in the UK but is from Romania and is being forced into a marragie. While Jess is dealing with domestic abuse in her home. Both end up in the same place doing community service. Nicu is faced with bullying daily. Nicu and Jess soon become friends and a little romance may be involved too. They plan to run away from their problems together but not everything goes to plan.

I loved both Jess and Nicu but they should have gone about things differently and done things the proper way. The ending had me tearing up. A beautitul story. Amazing. I literally devoured it. The writing style Sarah uses makes her stories so easy and unique to read, set in a verse format. Highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me.

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chick-lit · Emotional · Young adult

One – Sarah Crossan ★★★★★

Blurb; Grace and Tippi. Tippi and Grace. Two sisters. Two hearts. Two dreams. Two lives. But one body.

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, joined at the waist, defying the odds of survival for sixteen years. They share everything, and they are everything to each other. They would never imagine being apart. For them, that would be the real tragedy.

But something is happening to them. Something they hoped would never happen. And Grace doesn’t want to admit it. Not even to Tippi.

How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?

My Review; I have loved every single book by this author so far and this was no exception. That was another outstanding, unique story. Two girls. Joined. One body. But is it the happy ending we hoped for?

This broke my heart and tore it out. Very emotional, heartbreaking and upsetting especially towards the end. Brilliantly written. Easy read. It makes you think, thought provoking. We would be lying if we said we wouldn’t have had a look at them but this story is from the girls point of view and oh my days. It’s upsetting. They’ve always been different. Classed as freaks and monsters.

They take a plunge into a public school and they find some utterly perfect friends, but it was never going to be easy was it? What these girls did for their family and themselves was brave. Strong. Admiring.

A well deserved five stars from me. Highly recommend.

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