Review- Three Sisters by Helen Smith

Three Sisters on Goodreads

 BOOK SUMMARY:

Three Sisters introduces twenty-six-year-old amateur sleuth Emily Castles in this popular new British mystery series.

Emily receives an invitation to a party in a large house at the end of her street, hosted by a mysterious troupe of circus performers. She accepts, despite her misgivings, because her dog has died and she needs cheering up. But when she witnesses a murder in the midst of the surreal entertainment, no one will believe what she has seen. Is Emily befuddled with grief at the loss of her pet? Or has something wicked happened in plain sight of all the party-goers? Emily and her eccentric neighbours attempt to discover the truth in a charming story that will have you giggling at every funny line.

Readers of M C Beaton or Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy discovering a new mystery author.

Chosen as a “Favorite Book of the Year” by Elizabeth at The Frugal Ereader.

This short mystery is a standalone story set in London. The Emily Castles mysteries can be read in any order, but if you’d like to read them in the order they were written and published, this is the chronology:

#1 Three Sisters (Emily Castles Short Mysteries)
#2 Showstoppers (Emily Castles Short Mysteries)
#3 Invitation to Die (Emily Castles Mysteries)
#4 Beyond Belief (Emily Castles Mysteries)



Release date: February 5th 2011
Published by: Tyger Books
Page numbers: 104

REVIEW: 

Previously, I have read a couple of short stories by Helen Smith, and they ended up being very interesting. Same goes for Three Sisters as well. It was a very interesting read that had a mysterious aura surrounding it since the first page and went on till the end of the story. Being a novella, the story was very well thought of and put down in a minimum number of pages. 

Three Sisters is a novella in the Emily Castles Mystery series. In this one, Emily has recently lost her dog. As she is still accepting the permanent absence of her feline half, she is invited to a communal party for which she makes a rather passable dish of potatoes. At this gathering, there is food, music, performances and art in all forms. 

Amongst these performers are twin sisters ZiZi and Zsa-Zsa who play with knifes and come from a Hungarian family that specialises in the same. There is also Emily's friend Midori who goes by the name Hana-bi as the DJ for the night. Just as Emily is cleaning up her plate after having food with a handsome guy named Joe, she sees Midori collapse. A series of unexpected and freaky events later, Emily is determined to find out the mystery behind all acts with the help of another neighbour, Dr. Muriel and Chirs, another bloke. 

Not the biggest fan of the novella, I still felt it was quite entertaining as it kept me wanting to know more in the tiny amount of time it took me to finish the story, which was very decent. The writing was nice as well, and the mysterious, almost alarming aura made it fun but gave me goosebumps as well. This is a really great novella for the occasional short length mystery read for when one is in the mood for that. 

Buy the book: AMAZON

Review- Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Summary-

What do you do when your girlfriend’s sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend’s thirtieth?

Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you’re so wrinkly?

Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating?

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Is it normal to be too vain to put on your reading glasses when checking your toy boy for head lice?

Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant?

Is it normal to get fewer followers the more you tweet?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

If you put lip plumper on your hands do you get plump hands?

Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen’s day?

Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in—Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching!—middle age.

Review-

I had been hearing about Bridget Jones since I was a kid and I always wanted to read and know what the hype was behind them. So when I got a chance to read Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy I jumped at it. I haven't read the previous books so I don't know the exact story behind but I figured it out. It was a good if not an exceptional read.

Bridget is in her fifties now. She has to take care of her two adorable kids, Billy and Mabel and take care of herself. I liked Bridget. She was a unique character with her share of insecurities and she did goof up quite a few times but still she always managed to keep her priorities right with the kids. There was a charm in her personality.

When Bridget tries to be tech savvy she joins twitter and meets the thirty year old Roxter. I understood how all Bridget wanted to do was have some fun with Roxter and forget her worries for awhile. Roxter was sweet and understanding and sexy and even though it wasn't love you could see that they cared for each other.

I loved watching Bridget go through all the dilemmas of modern life. Trying to cope with love, loss is not easy when you're alone with two kids in tow. I also loved Briget's friends. They were all hilarious and had their own opinions. On everything. But they truly loved Bridget and wanted the best for her.

I can see how the Bridget Jones books have their charm. The writing style was really good. It made the reading really interesting and funny. But I wasn't blown away by it like I expected to be. Maybe I should've read the previous books before starting this one or maybe I couldn't fully relate to the situation Bridget was in. But all is well that ends well, I guess.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Random House India in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.