Hearts' Home by Jeanette Greaves

 

This is the third in Jeanette Greaves ‘Ransomed Hearts’ series.

In this one both pace and tension increase. The pack grows as do problems about security and privacy. The hearts are high profile enough as a rock band. But their alternative life makes it even more difficult to manage home and work; now Mark and Andrew each have two families to worry about.     

Jeanette Greaves continues to give attention detail.  She presents a carefully considered world. She knows exactly what the world does but only gives us the amount of information we need at each point.

We are mainly in the point of view of Mark, though we get glimpses of the others too.

Greaves’ writing style tends towards the literary. The pace and tension are such that we want to keep on reading. So altogether a very satisfying read.  Beautiful prose and a good plot.  

The ending is dramatic and clearly paves the way for the fourth book.

I find this book suitable both for the higher end of young adults – 16+ - and for adults.  

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The Love of My Life by Louise Douglas

This is definitely one of the books I just did not want to put down. I started reading it as we waited to board a high-speed ferry from Dublin to Holyhead.  I carried on reading it during the crossing and finished it just a couple of days later. It’s the type of book that stays with you until you’ve finished it.

I’d bought it as a young adult book and many of the scenes do depict protagonist Olivia – Liv – as a young adult. However, it’s arguably more “new adult”.

The story starts at the funeral of her husband Luca. He has been tragically killed in a nasty car accident.  She has been widowed at a very young age. The framework for the story is that the hurt has become very bad and she is now staying with her sister who, now that the time is right, has given her a laptop on which to write her story.     

The story soon settles into a rhythm of a scene from the past, taking us to the time of the accident and a scene after the funeral, bringing us forward to the present crisis.

I admire this book for its richly drawn characters and though Liv is no angel and her in-laws do some despicable things it isn’t hard to feel empathy for all of them.

Louise Douglas has also created an effective plot. It is all very believable but totally unpredictable. This, and the conveniently short chapters, make you keep on reading.   

Go, on treat yourself. It’s that time of the year when we need a lot of stories.