Ad – Books marked * were gifted in return for a review. All opinions are my own.
Good morning and happy hump day! Today I have the latest selection of books I have read and reviewed for you – letting you know whether they are worth the read or not! Happy reading!
Geneva
by Richard Armitage
The Blurb
How far would you go for someone you love?
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has taken a step back from work to spend more time with her family. Movie nights with her husband Daniel and their daughter Maddie are a welcome respite from the scrutiny of the world’s press. As much as it hurts, it’s good to be able to see her father more too. He’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and needs special care.
Sarah has started to show tell-tale signs of the disease too. She’s been experiencing blackouts and memory loss. It’s early days but she must face the possibility that she won’t be there to see her daughter grow up. Daniel, a neuroscientist himself, is doing his best to be supportive but she already knows that she will have to be the strong one. For all of them.
So when Sarah is invited to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference in Geneva she declines, wanting to stay out of the public eye – that is until Daniel shows her the kind of work that the enigmatic Mauritz Schiller has been developing.
Flown first class to the spectacular alpine city and housed in a luxury hotel, Sarah and Daniel are thrust back into the spotlight. As they try to shut out the noise of the public media storm, in private Sarah is struggling with her escalating symptoms. And the true extent of what Schiller has achieved is a revelation. This is technology that could change medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.
But technology so valuable attracts all kinds of interest. Wealthy investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and someone close to Schiller seems bent on taking advantage of the situation for themselves. Sarah feels threatened and does not know who to trust – including herself. Far from being her lifeline Schiller’s technology may be her undoing.
As events spiral out of control Sarah and Daniel are faced with the ultimate question: how far would you go for someone you love?
An unamicable debut thriller written and narrated by Richard Armitage, co-narrated by Nicola Walker and Jane Perry.
What I Thought
Richard Armitage as an actor – great! Richard Armitage as an author? Also great!
I really enjoyed this listen on Audible. It was well performed by two of my favourite actors and their voices helped bring the story alive.
I really enjoy a thriller and this one had me gripped. Despite making a couple of predictions that turned out to be correct, there was plenty of suspense and I couldn’t stop listening. The plot was different and interesting and the author did a great job with it. I will be looking out for more by him for sure!
Buy ‘Geneva’
The Butterfly Room
by Lucinda Riley
The Blurb
Full of her trademark mix of unforgettable characters and heartbreaking secrets, The Butterfly Room is the new spellbinding, multi-generational story from Sunday Times best seller Lucinda Riley.
Posy Montague is approaching her 70th birthday. Still living in her beautiful family home, Admiral House, set in the glorious Suffolk countryside where she spent her own idyllic childhood catching butterflies with her beloved father, and raised her own children, Posy knows she must make an agonising decision.
The house is crumbling around her, and Posy knows the time has come to sell it. Then a face appears from the past – Freddie, her first love, who abandoned her and left her heartbroken 50 years ago.
Already struggling to cope with her son Sam’s inept business dealings and the sudden reappearance of her younger son, Nick, Posy is reluctant to trust in Freddie’s renewed affection. And unbeknownst to Posy, Freddie – and Admiral House – have a devastating secret to reveal….
What I Thought
This was another Lucinda Riley book that I listened to on Audible after loving the Seven Sisters series by her.
It was an easy listen which was still full of twists and turns. I loved the characters – well most of them, but they were well written ad definitely made you feel some kind of way about them all! The mix of romance, intrigue and history was right up my street and is what Lucinda does best.
Definitely going to keep on ploughing through her back catalogue – not a dull book by her so far!
Buy ‘The Butterfly Room’
When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic Shifts in School Behaviour
by Paul Dix
The Blurb
In this abridged audiobook version of his best-selling title, Paul Dix talks you through the book’s hugely influential behavior management approach – an approach whereby expectations and boundaries are exemplified by people, not by a thousand rules that nobody can recall. The testing, watch out for and nuggets sections have been removed for this audiobook, but the indispensable advice on how to involve all staff in developing a whole school ethos built on kindness, empathy, and understanding remains. Suitable for teachers and school leaders – in any setting – who are looking to upgrade their approach to school behavior.
Contents include:
- Visible consistency, visible kindness
- The counterintuitive classroom
- Deliberate botheredness
- Certainty in adult behaviour
- Keystone classroom routines
- Universal microscripts: flipping the script
- Punishment addiction, humiliation hangover
- Restore, redraw, repair
- Some children follow rules, some follow people
- Your behaviour policy sucks!
- The 30 day magic
What I Thought
Wow! An absolute must read for my fellow teachers and anyone interested in education and behaviour.
Really inspiring and presented in an easy to follow style, Dix really does help show that we can all do our bit to help manage behaviour expectations an d change the culture in schools for our children.
Lots of great ideas for both new and experienced teachers and I would highly recommend!
Buy ‘When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic Shifts in School Behaviour’
The Housemaid
by Freda McFadden
The Blurb
“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller and winner of a 2023 ITW Thriller Award. This unbelievably twisty read will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put down The Housemaid!
What I Thought
This was one of the books on my September TBR list after seeing it all over BookTok and wow! I blasted through it in 3 days as could not stop listening!
Millie is on parole and is desperate for a job and somewhere to live – so is pleased to get what seems like the perfect position as a housemaid for the Winchester family. However, all is not what it seems with this family. Millie seems to be a likeable protagonist, however, it isn’t clear why she is on parole for much of the book.
I did actually guess the big plot twist not long before it was revealed but this didn’t spoil the book for me at all. Freda McFadden is a brilliant writer, keeping the pace up and the suspense high throughout. It was a rollercoaster of emotions throughout. I wasn’t too sure of the narrator on this one, but it wasn’t so bad I had to turn off ( or switch to the print version as the story definitely wasn’t the problem).
An amazing thriller by an exciting author who I will look out for in the future. Highly recommend but make sure you have a free couple of days as you won’t wan tot put it down!
Buy ‘The Housemaid’
Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt: The epic conclusion to the Seven Sisters series
by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker
The Blurb
THE INSTANT #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Spanning a lifetime of love and loss, crossing borders and oceans, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, co-authored by her son Harry Whittaker, draws Lucinda Riley’s saga to its stunning, unforgettable conclusion.
1928, Paris. A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.
As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come when he must flee once more.
2008, the Aegean. The seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan, to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.
To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And even more shockingly: that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.
In this epic conclusion to the Seven Sisters series, everything will be revealed.
What I Thought
I finally got chance to listen to the concluding story of the amazing Seven Sisters series and was so pleased – it did not disappoint!!
Atlas is the story of the girls enigmatic, kind and secretive adoptive father. How did he find his girls, where did he make all his money and why so much secrecy surrounding his death – everything is revealed tying the saga up in a satisfying but exciting little bow!
It was great revisiting some of the characters we have come across throughout the series, as well as finding out more about Pa Salt’s early years. I love the nod to some of the big events in 20th century history from around the world. The book flits between Pa Salt’s reflections on his life and the girl’s reaction as the story unravels to them.
The Seven Sister’s series got 5 stars from me and this one definitely measured up – an epic ending to what really has been an amazing series to read.
Buy ‘Atlas – The Story of Pa Salt’
I hope you enjoy the recommendations this month. Have you read any of these? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your week,
The Spoonie Mummy 
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