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Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead by Christiana Miller

This is a Toad Witch Mystery. 

Mara is about to be evicted from her apartment and has nowhere to go.  She has been reading her tarot cards and the future does not bode well.  Mara, and her friend Gus, do some crafting to try to get her some money and a place to live.  Mara receives a parcel holding information that her Aunt has died and she is named as her sole heir and is now the owner of her Aunt's cottage.  

Mara packs up her belongings and moves to her Aunt's cottage.  Unfortunately, although dead, Aunt Tillie has not moved out of the cottage and she is very angry that Mara's meddling could well have resulted in her death.  

There are other demons and spirits in the cottage too.  Tillie insists that Mara is not safe there and must leave, she even resorts to quite a lot of violence to encourage Mara to go.  

Saturday, 2 June 2018

Vets in Love by Cathy Woodman

This is the next book in the Talyton St George series.  

Nicci Chieveley is the new GP.  She had grown up in the area and after qualifying as a doctor decided to return to be in the place she loved and near to her mother.  Nicci is a keen horse rider and, along with her horse Willow, she is hoping to qualify for the next Badminton Horse Trails.  

Nicci meets Matt Warren, a local horse vet, and they are soon attracted to each other.  Although Matt works with horses, he does not ride and is not happy about Nicci putting herself at risk each time she competes in a competition.  Nicci's sister and young children turn up unexpectedly and move in with her.  Matt's ex-girlfriend is still around and seems intent on causing problems so the new romance does not start off very smoothly.  If they wish to be together they have a lot of obstacles to overcome.  

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor is nearly 30 years old.  She has had the same job since she was 21.  She does exactly the same things every day, eats the same food, wears the same clothes and does everything in her life to a very exact timetable.  She leads a very isolated life without any friends or family.  

As a child Eleanor had been involved in a house fire which had left one side of her face with a number of scars.  She doesn't remember exactly what had happened to her and she does not wish to know.  From the age of 10, until she went to university, she lived in foster care and children's homes.  

When at work Eleanor does not inter-act well with her colleagues, she never gets involved in conversations with them or understands the gossip she occasionally overhears.  To her everything in life is completely black or white.  One day she meets Raymond Gibbons, the new IT technician, when he comes to help out with a computer problem.  At the end of the day they leave the building at the same time and whilst walking in the same direction see an old man collapse in the street.  Raymond dashes over to help him and gets Eleanor involved too.  This takes her out of her usual routine.  Raymond keeps in touch with Eleanor and encourages her to visit the hospital to see how the old man is doing.  Slowly her usual routines are eroded and her life turned upside down. 

This is a very unusual story which highlights how isolated and lonely some people can be.  It is also very funny in places.