Tag Archives: siblings

Review: Walking Home by Clare Balding

Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles by Clare Balding
My rating: ★★★★★
[Audiobook]

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook, and having Clare Balding narrating herself was great. It’s a warm, engaging and charming memoir which intersperses anecdotes from her broadcasting career and personal life with the story of the slightly chaotic attempt at a family walk along the Wayfarer’s Walk near the family home.

The stories about the Ramblings radio programme are lovely, as are the anecdotes from her coverage of the Olympics, with lots of behind-the-scenes commentary. It made me grin to hear about Chad’s Dad! I remember watching that during the 2012 Olympics, and it was fun to be reminded of that, and hear Clare’s perspective.

Unusually for me, I think I might actually listen to this again. I was in a bit of a hurry to finish it before my library loan expired, so I didn’t skip back to re-listen to any bits that I was distracted from. I enjoyed this enough that I’d be happy hear it all again without getting bored.

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Review: Lady Sparrow by Barbara Metzger

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Lady Sparrow by Barbara Metzger
My rating: ★★★★★

This was a fun read. It has plenty of those little tongue-in-cheek moments and wry asides that I like about Barbara Metzger’s books. It’s not all fluffy braincandy, but even the more serious subjects are kept fairly light. Not so much that it glosses over them, though.
Will probably read again one day.

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Review: In the Bed of a Duke

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In the Bed of a Duke by Cathy Maxwell
My rating: ★★★★★

I quite enjoyed that – I’m in the mood for undemanding braincandy, and that’s pretty much what I got. It wasn’t the longest book, and I think I’d have liked to see some more interaction between the twins, and a longer build up to the romance (!) but the chemistry between the characters was pretty good. I suppose there’s more of the twins getting to know each other in the rest of the series, but I’m not so interested that I’ll track them down.

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Review: Working Stiff

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Working Stiff by Rachel Caine
My rating: ★★★★★

This might sound a bit odd considering the subject matter, but one of my favourite things about this book was the feeling of realism. Yes, I know. But after all, that’s what makes the best sci-fi: that it could just be plausible. More than anything else, though, it was the characters who sold it for me.

Bryn is an excellent heroine, competent and mentally tough, but not unbelievably so, and despite her army training she isn’t a kick-ass superwoman who can take down any physically stronger opponent. Yes, she’s had hand-to-hand training and knows how to use a gun, but she’s as human (hah) as the rest of us and her reactions aren’t faster than a speeding bullet. She’s a dab hand at logistics from the sounds of it, and can think on her feet, but she’s an ordinary girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances. It’s how she then deals with that that makes her awesome.

The villain is nicely creepy (and I never was quite sure if he or the other boogeyman was responsible for a couple of things that happened to Bryn – could have gone either way) and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book with all the competing elements.

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Review: The Human Thing

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The Human Thing by Kathleen H. Nelson
My rating: ★★★★★

This was a real pleasant surprise – I thought it looked quite good, but it definitely exceeded expectations. Although we only saw Jilly quite briefly before the accident, I felt that I got a good sense of who she was… and how she changed (and didn’t) afterwards. I loved the relationship between her and RK, which is almost entirely unspoken but clearly strong. Plus there are lots of interesting characters populating the rest of the cast.

The plot had plenty going on to keep me interested, too: who caused the shuttle accident, and why, what was causing Jilly’s headache and personality swings, and was it related to her memory loss? Then on Tolq, more strands are added, but there’s never too much happening at once. And although I thought several times that I could see where the ending was going, it wasn’t as predictable as that. I did enjoy the way it all tied together, though. A good, satisfactory ending without absolutely everything being tied up in a perfect bow. I just wish there was more to read – I’d love to see a sequel, or something else in this universe.

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