A. Rose

Good Concept But Lacks Depth, 17 May 2013

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

I'm really intrigued by `afterlife' stories and read as many as I can find but I do like the theories of them to be believable - if that's possible with something that none of us can know about. Many other reviewers have given a good outline of the story so I won't repeat it. The book was mostly great, a fantastic concept and very readable but, once the statue of Jesus came to life in the Church then I started to treat the book as a joke. It is very `American' and, yes, it does have some similarities with the film Ghost. With the combination of being fairly fast paced and written from only James' (the ghost) perspective, it feels quite superficial with not much depth to it. Those are… Read more

A Great Debut Novel, 15 May 2013

Every now and then I read a book that touches something inside, feels bigger than just emotion and leaves a long lasting impression - this is one of those books. From the very first chapters it was obvious that Chris Blamires is an intelligent writer using a wide vocabulary (some words I'd almost forgotten about) but is also very sensitive and poetic.

The book is sectioned into five sub-books over two main time periods, 1969 and 1986 and set in Greece, Soho and the Woodstock Music Festival. It mainly centres around four/five main characters - Nathan, Jack, Maddie, Jo and to a lesser degree Abbie -who we meet separately in 1986 travelling to Woodstock and all come together at… Read more

Derek's Growing Up !, 12 May 2013

In this second book of the `Derek' series we love and cringe for the hapless Derek/Sweaty just as much, if not more, than the first book - Please... Call Me Derek.

Derek is now married to the lovely Sally who he met in `Please . . .' and right from the first few chapters she leaves him because of his unacceptable behaviour. After letting him stew for a while she returns home just as Derek is having an `innocent' chat with a semi-naked young lady in their downstairs shower room - all innocent from Derek's point of view but not Sally's. It's all an uphill struggle for Derek from thereon. All the same loveable… Read more