Don't sit under the apple tree .. unless you want to fall in love

When I was in my teens, I went through a phase of reading Mills and Boon books, and have happy memories of doing so. Why then, am I struggling to enjoy the "romance" books of today? I have just finished The Apple Tree, by Lynette Sofras on my ebook and found it to be lacking in the major ingredient to these books - some actual romance! Our heroine (whose name I've already forgotten - which shows you how memorable I found her!) is an irritating, moany, woman who can't decide if she really wants to be a surgeon or not (I would have thought that the business of her fainting while observing operations would have been some kind of a clue here). She has split from her husband and is trying to "find herself" back at the place where she grew up. Along comes Nicholas, who she thinks is a gardener, but who is, it turns out, an incredibly wealthy chap. She falls for him big style and he seems to feel the same way, but when he finds out she is married (she doesn't tell him), he calls it off. There ensues much weeping and wailing and then, to cap it all, the husband reappears. Will Nicholas and ... no, really can't remember her name and can't be bothered to look it up ... find their way back to happiness? Well, we all know the answer to that but I have to admit, I didn't really care - but at least the book is fairly short. Maybe I need to go for something a little bit more sophisticated in the romance department ... Jane Austen is a hard act to follow!

My STAR rating: TWO

Length: 188 pages.
Price I paid: FREE (although it no longer is)
Formats available: print; ebook.

Perfect People ... with a few flaws!

Having just finished Perfect People, by Peter James as an ebook, I have mixed feelings. It is a thriller with a chilling premise, but it just didn't quite hit the high notes that it had the potential to. The action starts with Naomi and John arriving aboard a ship in order to met Dr Leo Detorre - who is offering them the chance to tweak the genetic make up of their child to avoid a repeat of the devastating loss of their son from a rare genetic disorder. All they want is a healthy baby to help rebuild their lives as a family. They decide to go ahead with the procedure and are overjoyed when Naomi is confirmed as pregnant. However, when they discover she is expecting twins, they fear that the pushy and confident Dr Dettore may have got things a little wrong. Into the frame comes a sinister threat from a previously unheard of religious cult who are hunting down any couple who have been to see the infamous doctor. Soon the twins are born, and they are not like any children Naomi and John have come across before. The action builds up until a climax with an ending that you will not see coming. The lesson is, DON'T MESS WITH GENETICS! I may try other Peter James - he is more famous for his crime novels featuring DI Roy Grace - but I just didn't feel that this particular novel gripped me enough and that the characters were not quite 3-dimensional.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 460 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Oliver Twist - not nearly as jolly as the musical!

Continuing my foray into Dickens this year, I have been reading Oliver Twist on my Kindle. I thought I knew this story pretty well - after all, I've seen Oliver! the musical a few times (Consider yourself, at home!) and I even studied it in English literature for one year at school. But how wrong I was. The main events and characters are all there - the orphan (Oliver), his life at the workhouse, then the undertaker's, followed by his escape to London and falling into the company of the Artful Dodger and Fagin - petty thieves and pickpockets. However, we also have a range of other characters and events that I had absolutely no recollection of at all. I was not displeased by this turn of events as it meant that I was surprised by a book I thought I knew pretty well! You can't help but root for Oliver who is definitely not suited to a life of crime. The looming threat of one of London's most notorious criminals - Bill Sikes - who decides to find a use for Oliver - is balanced by the tenderness of his girlfriend Nancy, who knows Oliver could have a better life and wants to help him get it. I have to say that Mr Dickens has redeemed himself with this book. The characterisations are excellent and the story bowls along. Not completely bereft of the descriptive passages of the previous stories I've read, the balance between action and atmosphere is almost perfect. Particular highlights are the relationship between Bill Sikes and Nancy, which is spiky to say the least, and violence never seems far away. I was a bit shocked at how dark a character Fagin is, with apparently no redeeming features (maybe this was a sign of the attitudes of the times - hard for me to say - but there were repeated references to his ethnicity). When he gets it right, Dickens does transport you to a different time and place where the sights and smells really come alive. Highly recommended.

My START rating: FOUR

Length: 400 print pages.
Price I paid: free.
Format available: print; audio CD; audio download; ebook.

David Attenborough - a life worth listening to!

I have just spent over 20 hours in the company of one of the best broadcasters I know - Sir David Attenborough, who is probably best known for his natural history series - Life on Earth, Life of Mammals, Life in Cold Blood and the list goes on. His autobiography, A Life on Air, is packed with anecdotes about the trials and tribulations he has undergone during the five decades he has worked to bring the wonders of the natural world to our TV screens. Narrated by the great man himself (I read this on audio format), this book is a wonderful way to relive his memories and some of your own - unless, of course, you've never watched any of his programmes! You get behind the scenes of the very early days of television, when David got his first break as a trainee producer after realising that a life in a publishing house was not for him. But his great love and knowledge about the world we live in and the life which inhabits it could not be ignored, and when he pitched an idea about filming the capture of animals for London Zoo, it set him on the road to the types of stunning films we know today. Always instructive without being patronising, it's a joy to follow David through his life - who I can only imagine must be one hell of a dinner guest. I can highly recommend this book - who would have thought that the technicalities of filming in a jungle would be so interesting.

My STAR rating: FIVE

Length: 416 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download.

On a bit of a go slow!

Just in case you thought I had gone away ... I haven't! However, I seem to be stuck in the slow lane of the bookworld. Am in the middle of two books - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (ebook), and A Life on Air, the autobiography of Sir David Attenborough (audio). I'm enjoying them both, but have been a busy, busy beaver over the last few weeks and haven't had as much time as I usually have for reading. Hopefully I'll be back on track with a review of one of these two books before too long!