When I read a book that I'm going to review I don't deliberately look for criticisms. I want to forget that I'm supposed to write a review and just get swept away by the story. If I write no notes at all whilst reading it, I know I'm onto a winner. Whilst reading The Summer of Secrets my notebook page remained blank.
Martina's All I Want is You was one of the first books I reviewed for Trashionista. I remember being impressed with it, calling it a "gem of a book" and giving it 4 out of 5. With this one, she has seriously gone up a gear.
Hope, an Irish girl living in London has constantly drifted from one job to another. When she gets fired from her latest job she plans a trip to Boston in a bid to see the world and take control of her life. Her friends and house mates, Adam and Julie, see her off at the airport, and that is where it all goes wrong... I had to stop reading here. I found it very upsetting and was unprepared for it. Instead I put the book on my bedroom floor and let it sit there for about three weeks.
When I finally picked it up again, I couldn't put it down. After the accident Hope travels to Ireland, back to her home town with Adam and Julie. There she goes for counseling for post traumatic stress disorder and lots of secrets come to the surface. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a gloomy book. It is all about Hope's recovery, what happened to her in the past and what is happening to her in the present, which will affect her future. The plot is great, the dialogue extremely funny and sharp at times and the characters identifiable and likable.
When I had finished the book, about one o clock in the morning, I wrote on the back of a postcard the following notes. "[I had] big, snotty, gulping tears then [once they'd subsided] a few pages later she goes and does it to me again." I can't give a book much higher praise. This may be my favourite book, so far, this year.
Rating: 5/5
Like this? Try The Half Life of Stars by Louise Wener
