Reading between the Wines - aristocats book

[aristocat]

I had just finished reading this book the same day that I saw arti's message about starting a book circle. It is an interesting, page turner of a book.

I seek out debut novels and this is one is worth a read. It's not the best book I have ever read but I was gripped from beginning to end. I was expecting a simple storyline and there is much more than that.

Looking forward to your thoughts

This isn't a book I'd ever choose myself but that's why I wanted to do something like this. I actually really enjoyed it. As you said it's not the greatest book ever written but it is compelling and kept me hooked. Most of the time I saw a step ahead of what was happening but I still enjoyed reading it.

I quite liked the ending as even though I knew the outcome, the way it flicked between past and present made a bit worried that she wouldn't manage to do it!

I appreciated that the author didn't try to over-write it. The main reason I stay away from these kind of books is that often the writer tries too hard and you can't enjoy the storyline because of the writing style but the author has kept her style quite stripped back which let the story shine.

I liked how she wrote Jack for the most part - the psychological elements of his torture, however I think I was a bit unconvinced by some elements. The storyline about his mother seemed OTT. I can buy his father abusing her and that affecting him, and him being co-opted in to her punishment even but the killing of her seemed too far, the author just went to the extreme. Also I feel like somebody like Jack probably would use sexual violence so I don't buy the asexual thing, it just felt like the author didn't want to go that heavy which I can appreciate (and I don't think I'd want to read harrowing sexual violence scenes!) but it just jarred with the type of character she'd created.

I think others will enjoy the book overall

Well I read this book in a few hours as I couldn't put it down. My first thought was that it was an easy read, but the subject matter was very harrowing. I thought Millie was not well written, but the main character had a strong character although I don't understand her choices. The ending was the right one, if a little contrived !

I did see this in the shop and considered buying it

I agree with the others ...its not the best book in the world but it was a page turner and i really wanted her to suceeed

I agree with insufficiently regarding Jacks character but i am glad it wasnt sex heavy

I have read similar books, one in particular comes to mind with the villain cutting the heroine off from family and friends and very DV based. I didn't think this book was quite as good at setting that premise up because it seemed a bit over the top, I dont think that Graces family and friends would be dismissive and i also don't think that the police would automatically believe Jack without looking into it in more detail

I coukd be wrong though

So overall a good, fast page turner. I enjoyed it thank you

It took me all month to read this because I read the first few pages, didn't fancy it and put it down but I came back to it last week and I'm glad I did.

It's not the kind of book I choose at all, too scary in places for my taste (I'm a wimp with storylines generally) but the story was fast-paced and interesting so I stuck with it even through the uncomfortable bits and got to the end feeling satisfied with the outcome.