January's Recommended Reads!
I’ve started off the year with some seriously amazing reads!
Here are my top four!
1) THE WATER CURE by Sophie Mackintosh
"A gripping, sinister fable!"--MARGARET ATWOOD, via Twitter
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
A dystopic feminist revenge fantasy about three sisters on an isolated island, raised to fear men
King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. He has lain the barbed wire; he has anchored the buoys in the water; he has marked out a clear message: Do not enter. Or viewed from another angle: Not safe to leave. Here women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world.
But when their father, the only man they've ever seen, disappears, they retreat further inward until the day two men and a boy wash ashore. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. Can they survive the men?
A haunting, riveting debut about the capacity for violence and the potency of female desire, The Water Cure both devastates and astonishes as it reflects our own world back at us.
2) THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert
Welcome to Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood―the fiercely stunning New York Times bestseller everyone is raving about!
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”
Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.
3) FLAWED by Cecelia Ahern
In a breathtaking young adult debut, the bestselling author of P.S. I Love You depicts a society in which perfection is paramount and any misstep leads to punishment.
If you break the rules, you will be punished.
Celestine North lives a perfect life.
She’s a model daughter and sister and she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers. She’s also a girl of logic. To Celestine, every problem has a solution. Every action is either right, or wrong.
Celestine has always known about the Flawed, second-class citizens who are branded as punishment for their crimes. And she always thought they must deserve their punishment.
But everything changes when Celestine witnesses the mistreatment of a Flawed man, and steps up to help him. But in helping him, she reveals that she is imperfect. And in Celestine's society, imperfection is punished.
She is imprisoned. She is branded. She is flawed.
This riveting novel is the first installment of the Flawed series. Don't miss the continuation of Celestine's story in the second book, Perfect.
4) NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies
Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? In Liane Moriarty’s latest page-turner, nine perfect strangers are about to find out...
Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.
Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can?
It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.
Combining all of the hallmarks that have made her writing a go-to for anyone looking for wickedly smart, page-turning fiction that will make you laugh and gasp, Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers once again shows why she is a master of her craft.
So, there you have my top 4 favourite reads of January 2019! I hope you love these as much as i did!
Happy Reading,
Kristy Nicolle x