Welcome back to the bi-monthly book posts, hope you are enjoying! This was a great reading (two) months, in that I thoroughly enjoyed each of the books I read. Grab a cuppa and settle in for some reviews (don't forget to click the title of each review if you want to buy the book!)

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

TW - assault/attack, alcoholism

This is such a gorgeous story about a young girl, Francie Nolan, growing up in poverty in 1940s Brooklyn, New York along with her parents and her younger brother. The story is split into 5 "books" within the one novel, each covering a different period in the family's life.

When a heart-breaking event lands into her childhood, Francie is forced to grow up more quickly than other girls her age, and to be a good role model for her brother, Neeley. Francie uses her love of reading and her vast imagination as an escape from the daily experience of living in poverty and turbulence.

We are taken through the years with Francie and Neeley and their parents as they manoeuvre - financially and emotionally - life in New York city during the formative years of the children's lives and education. At times it is so uplifting, at others incredibly sad and moving - quite the rollercoaster but so worth it, it's an amazing read.

2. The House Uptown - Melissa Ginsburg

I loved this book, it is emotional and heart-warming at times, with unexpected turns at others that keeps you turning the pages.

The story follows 14-year-old Ava who, after the sudden death of her mother, must move across the country to New Orleans, to live with her only living relative - her estranged, eccentric grandmother, Lane, whom she has never met - while still attempting to process her mother's death. 

Lane is a talented artist in New Orleans and spends most of her time stoned and painting murals in her home, her main vice. Ava arriving puts Lane on edge, not least because she reminds her so closely of her late daughter, bringing up painful memories of how and why they were estranged before her death. 

Oliver, Lane's assistant in work and life, is thrown into the middle of this turbulence, attempting to keep the peace between the two, while also dealing with his own problems. As Ava settles in to the best of her ability to her new life in New Orleans, she begins to get a sense that something is wrong. Her grandmother's strange behaviour and periods of forgetfulness lead Ava to look deeper into what may be going on and why they have been estranged from her grandmother all these years. 

3. Fify Fifty - Steve Cavanagh

TW - brutal murder

This book. is. SO. GOOD. The definition of a page turner, I read this so fast because I was dying to know what happened next. 

The story starts with two 911 calls, moments apart, from sisters Alexandra and Sofia Avellino, both hysterical and accusing the other of brutally murdering their father in their home. One of them is lying and is the murderer, and as they prepare to go into a joint trial in front of one jury, we read their stories and try to figure out who is telling the truth, through the eyes of their defense teams.

This book has more twists and turns than you could possibly imagine, some which made me audibly gasp, and your mind changes repeatedly about who you think is the murderer. An excellent read, I have already found another two of his novels, Twisted and Thirteen, in a charity shop and I can't wait to read them.

4. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

TW - racism, sexual assualt, rape, murder

By the same author as The Nickel Boys in my recent blog post, this book is just as amazing and heart-wrenching as I expected it to be.

The story starts as we meet Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is horrendous for all slaves on the plantation, but even more so for Cora when she is seen as an outcast even among her fellow slaves, after her mother Mabel flees the plantation, leaving her behind. Caesar, another slave who recently arrives on the plantation from Virginia, meets her and tells her about the Underground Railroad - an escape route for slaves escaping these horrific plantations - and wills Cora to come with him in his attempt to flee.

Their escape attempt does not go smoothly, and as they try to outrun slave catchers and maintain the secrecy of the white people who help them and operate the secret railroad for fugitives beneath the soil of the south. Each stop catapults them into a different world, sometimes luring them into a false sense of safety and freedom - although this doesn't last.

The story of their flight is harrowing, terrifying, heart-wrenching, disturbing and frightening as they fight with everything they have to be free and escape the horrors of the plantations that lie in their wake.

As I mentioned, I LOVED all of these books and am excited to get stuck into some more by the same authors, my pile of books to be read is growing everyday (I have put myself on a book buying ban, unless they are from charity shops - you find the most amazing books in there, particularly post-Christmas).

Let me know any suggestions you have that I need to add to my pile and what you are reading and loving or loathing at the moment. Also sending my love to anyone who is affected in any way by the atrocities taking place in Ukraine at the moment, and wishing for your safety.

Lots of love always,

S ✗

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