Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 5 days

Pages - 402

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Number One bestselling author Jodi Picoult returns with her compulsive new novel - about the lengths we go to for those who have left us behind; about the staying power of love; and about how three broken souls might have just the right pieces to mend each other.
Jenna Metcalf was with her mother the night she disappeared in tragic and mysterious circumstances, but she remembers nothing.

Over ten years have passed, and still Jenna reads and rereads her mother's journals, hoping to find some clue hidden there, in the meticulous recording of her scientific research with elephants.

Desperate for answers, Jenna uses all her savings to recruit the aid of a private detective - and a psychic.

Jenna knows her mother loved her. She knows she would not leave her. And she will not rest until she finds out what happened that night. In her most gripping mystery since House Rules, Jodi Picoult brings us a powerful story of a young girl's determination to uncover the truth, however shocking and life-changing it might be.


My Review

Another Jodi Picoult with an animal theme/focus, remember like with the wolves? But this time it is elephants and I know not everyone likes that but I do. So the book goes between present day, Jenna wants help to finally find out what happened to her mum Alice. Alice disappeared when Jenna was just a baby, now a teen she hires a psychic, Serenity and an ex cop now PI. Serenity was once famous before scandal reduced her to being the one thing she hated "a swamp with" charging to read peoples fortune by cold reading. The unlikely trio work together to try and find out what happened to Alice all those years ago.

The book flips between characters and when we hear from Alice, Jenna's mum that is where we meet the elephants. She studied them in the wild before meeting Jenna's dad and joining him at his elephant sanctuary.

I love anything with ghosts so the whole psychic thing I was absolutely YES and as the book goes on we find out what happened and why she is so disgraced. Same with the Cop turned PI. The elephants, oh the elephants. There is talk of death/harm and the things these beautiful beings go through and their behaviours, health and care. This won't be for everyone but I love learning about stuff and I love animals so it was a win win for me. At the end of the book she also adds links to check out, you can help out and learn more. There is even a live camera from a sanctuary, three free webcams you can watch elephants, support these fantastic causes and learn about the harm/Ivory trade and what you can do to help.

A few themes that some may find triggering and I can't cover them all without spoilers which we don't do. Elephants well fare and harm, loss, murder, mental health, love, lies, secrets, ghosts/medium, 4/5 for me. I do enjoy Picoults books so this is no surprise that I enjoyed this one but I think it could be a marmite for some.

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You'll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse

You'll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Penguin

Source - From a fellow bookworm

Blurb from Goodreads

Betty Wellows is running for her life . . .

Young Betty dreams of settling down to an ordinary life in Hallsands with her fisherman husband. But when he returns broken and haunted from the Great War, she finds herself persecuted by his distraught mother - and yearns to escape.

It is only when a storm devastates the village that Betty sees her chance. Fleeing to Bristol and changing her name to Mabel Brook, she seeks a new life - only to discover destiny has other plans.

Penniless and alone, Mabel suffers a brutal attack before being rescued by a psychic named Nora Nightingale. She gets her first taste of those who receive messages from the dead and realizes she may have this power herself.

But Mabel fears her gift may be a terrible curse as it becomes ever harder to hide from the truth about who she once was - and the tragic life she left behind.

Soon Mabel receives her own message and is forced back to the very place she has escaped. A place of heartbreak and perhaps even murder - but to secure her future Mabel must confront her past one last time.


My Review

Betty is living under the hateful eye o her mother in law. Her husband is a shadow of the man he used to be after coming home hurt from war. Betty has an opportunity to flee and become Mabel leaving everything behind. A new village, a job and an eye opening to life outside the one she knew as Betty, Mabel meets danger, friends and love before being "called" back to where it all began. You can run but you cannot hide from your past, this is Betty's story.

There is a lot going on in this wee book, the effects of war, working life, psychic's, love, friendship, love, loss! Pearse creates yet another world of characters that, like or hate, you get immersed in and want to know what is coming next. Some characters got me so riled, the way some people behave and others where a breath of fresh air.

The thing with Pearse is she always creates worlds that shines a light on human behaviour, good and bad which makes for compelling reading. 3.5/5 for me this time, I need to check my read pile and see which books I still have to read of hers.

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Grimalkin Manor by S Roit

Grimalkin Manor by Sherry Roit
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - Over 8 days

Pages - 288

Publisher - Snow books

Source - Pound shop

Blurb from Goodreads

The case seems simple enough: prove to a wealthy client that his mansion is not haunted. Five American ghost hunters and one English psychic converge on the old house to complete the routine task. One night, like so many others they've spent, to put to rest the frightening rumors. Apart from the clashing of personalities, nothing will happen. Or so they assume. It would seem Grimalkin Manor has other ideas… and she knows their secrets.


My Review

Hired to stay over night in a haunted house and disprove the rumours or get conclusive proof of ghost a team of five ghost hunters and an psychic from England team up. The man who hired them is nowhere to be seen but they have their equipment and set out to do their task. Tensions are running high, the team have their own issues and things quickly start to get out of hand.

I found this story quite hard to get into, there always seemed to be something I was missing. Everyone has their own secrets, James (the English psychic) is a sensitive, can read people and places so it puts the rest of the team on edge. There is a lot of in house bickering and I felt it took an age before anything really kicked off in the house.

When it started to get into it, the scenes in the house did get a bit eerie and I liked the tension and spooky aspects. You are constantly left in a state, or I was, of perplexity, I genuinely wasn't sure what was happening a lot of the time. I had to put it down and read a book or two inbetween as I found it hard going. Not because it was badly written but I didn't like how the characters interact with each other, their lingo, cutting sentences off half way through. I felt I was left with a lot of questions and had to go back and re read a few bits just in case it was me missing something. The chapters themselves aren't too long which is great for putting it down and dipping in and out as required.

Dark, intrigue, mystery and certainly spooky in places, I am sure many will love this wee book, sadly it just wasn't for me, 2/5 for me this time.

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The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn

The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - <20 minutes

Pages - 79

Publisher - Weidenfield & Nicholson

Blurb from Goodreads

'I watched the house. It watched me back through long, baleful windows so tall a child could stand in the sill. And one was. I could see the length of his thin body: gray trousers, black sweater, a maroon tie perfectly knotted at the neck. A thicket of dark hair covering his eyes...'

A young woman is making a living faking it as a cut-price psychic (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke.

Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year-old stepson Miles. They live in a modern Victorian house called Carterhook Manor. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home. The young woman doesn't believe in exorcism or the supernatural. However when she enters the house for the first time, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time...


My Review

The opening line refers to the main characters skill set which may offend some readers, she is a soft core sex worker as well as a "psychic". This is where she meets Susan, Susan doesn't believe in this stuff really but she must do something about her step son and home. What the main character doesn't realize is, there is a real threat at Susan's home and she herself may be in danger!

The protagonist gives us some insight into her life and how she came to be where she is however the main focus is on the here and now with Susan and her problem. The story really ends quite abruptly I felt and I suppose it is one of the reasons short stories is not my first port of call for reading choice. However the author does pack a punch with only 70+ pages, we have some twist and turns along the way considering how tiny the book is. I would have certainly liked more insight into both Miles and Susan, it would be good if Flynn revisited these characters. Overall a decent and surprising read as I thought it was about one thing but really went in a completly different direction, 3/5 for me this time, I have read this author before and I would read her again.

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