Wednesday, 13 October 2021

Book Review: "A Secret Gift" by Amanda James


⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5


Every book I read and review starts off with the full five stars and I'm always hopeful that they will still be firmly in place at the end of the book too.

I found out about this book from the publisher, Harper Collins, after I got an email via One More Chapter and downloaded an ARC for free from Net Galley... I hope that means it's a good book!

My Kindle is dead, so I'll charge it up a bit then start reading after our groceries have been delivered.

Just read the first chapter, and I appear to have caught Hope's cough lol

I enjoyed the second chapter too, and it's got me wondering what will happen with the stones - they must be central to the story to be brought into it so early, right?

Oh dear.  The author has used a brand name, I'm guessing without prior written permission, so the first star is starting to wobble after 7%.  Second brand name at 8%... one more and unfortunately the first star is coming off - it had been going so well too!

Chapter 4 was amazing!  I was right a couple of paragraphs ago in that the stones will be central to the story and the first stone was handled amazingly well!

At the start of chapter 6, the first star is reluctantly coming off 'cos of using a well-known book/TV character name, so at 15% we're now down to 4 stars.

Up to chapter 7 now and it's very nearly time for bed so I'm gonna leave it there for tonight and keep on reading and reviewing tomorrow... haven't got any plans so hopefully a full day of reading ahead of me.  Nite nite for now, all.

Morning all.  Time to carry on with the reading now... I wonder what today's reading session will give me?

Wowsers!  I really wasn't expecting it to happen twice in a chapter, but I'm glad it has.. WTG, Joy!

Chapter 8 was good... yesterday's four stars are still very firmly solid and I hope Joy gets what she's hoping for - the tuna and her idea would have made her human instead of stuck-up in my eyes, if I was the interviewer!

I'm gonna leave off a chapter-by-chapter commentry... I just think that you should definitely read this book though!

OMG!  Someone else calls it squirty cream! lol  It's got me wanting a hot choccy with squirty cream and mini marshmallows now, which can't happen because of real life... doesn't stop me drooling at the thought though!  lol  I'm off to make one for me and my hubby right now, and hope that it doesn't get too cold before I've gulped it all down!

I decided against the hot choccy, but I'll be dreaming of gorgeous choccy flavours tonight.  I've stopped reading for the day 'cos it's almost time for my last pills of the day again, but if it hadn't been for those early brand name mentions then this would have been a very solid 5 stars from me, but my sense of fairness over-rode my enjoyment yesterday 'cos I've removed a star from other books for the exact same reason so I felt it was only right that I did it with this book too... if you can overlook that though, then this is a definite must-read book IMNSHO!

Morning again.  I'm rattling through this wonderful book at a rate of knots and things are looking hopeful for a positive/happy ending, which I'm always grateful for.  I'm currently at 79% so I'm hopeful that it'll be finished by early this afternoon, depending on what we have for lunch and if I'm too full/sleepy to appreciate the last quarter lol

OMG!  I really wasn't expecting what happened in chapter 26 at all!  Helen's lost the plot through alcohol!

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  What a perfect end to an almost perfect book.  

The one and only reason for my not giving it the full 5 stars has been the use of the brand names... if the author had either just used "supermarket" and "health food shop" or got written permission from the named brands or, even better, used a totally fictitious brand instead of the brand names at the start and end of the book, it would have been a very solid 5 stars, but my sense of fairness held firm 'cos I've done that with other books in the past, so I wanted to do that with this one too.  If you can look beyond that though, it's a totally steadfast 5 stars that everyone should read.

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