Rachel´s Random Resources: Audiobook tour Butterfly Summer by Toni de Palma

I am very grateful for audiobooks, although my relationship with them wasn´t always a smooth one. After being very much reluctant because of my very limited attention span, which may affect my understanding of a book, I educated my attention learning to properly focus and keep a track of the information. Now, I am practically listening at least to one book per week, being able to deeply delve into the topics and complexities of the plot. 

My latest ´read´ was a novel that suits very well the time of the year, with a character that just gets under your literary skin. Anna, the main character of Butterfly Summer by Toni de Palma is a successful Hollywood producer whose advice about romance and love are very much appreciated. In reality though, she is a mess romantically and soon her professional life may be labeled likewise. 

As she is back to Italy, the setting of a bride-related show, she s curious to investigate a bit more the secrets of an aunt with whom she spent some idyllic time in her youth. But her wish to find out more may turn around her; her life and her professional success.

The story is well paced and also well told - exceptionally read by Teresa Mastrobuono - for the audio version and I enjoyed to get to know the characters and their challenges. 

A recommended read if your heart is already longing for a summer time in Italy, while being guided by Anna´s own (mis)adventures. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Random Things Tours: The Night Lagoon by Jo Morey

An atmospheric and well-crafted debut novel set in the exotic Carribean destination, the debut novel by Jo Morey, The Night Lagoon is a complex story of secrets and deceive. 

Laelia is happy to start a new life with her partner and her children in what for many may look like a paradise: a jungle with luxurious vegetation promising a peace of mind many may envy her for. But in life, no gift comes easily, and sooner, she may realize that she is trapped in a web of lies and deception from where she has to get out of. 

Uniquely, Laelia is a character with a hear impairment, and with tinnitus, which makes her account and understanding of the episodes she is experiencing even more interesting. The ways in which she relates to the story plot are different and may sound confusing sometimes, but nevertheless it creates an authentic difference in telling and interpreting the story. 

The pace is intense and I also enjoyed the extended descriptions of the nature paradise - and I appreciated the presence of the orchids -, and with a real story construction. The nature seems to resonate with the psychological ambiance of the book, and such a coordination is usually very delicate to build in a credible, crime/thriller-related way. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Relentless Lady by Eva Harris

I simply cannot have enough of books featuring bold women; women who against all odds are stronger than their destiny. Women who are not intimidated by the impossibility of their dreams.

Francesca Silva, the character of Eva Harris´ The Relentless Lady, is one of those exceptional people. She left her traditional world in Brazil, following her dream of freedom and personal and professional achievements. Based on true events, it is set in the 2000s, it is a story of defying the promise of a life of survival in exchange of a search for oneself. 

Personally I got very much invested in the character´s decisions and journey, who is far from being idealized and polished to a perfect image. In fact, Francesca is making mistakes, sometimes put her heart in the wrong place, but she is very much like anyone of us, on the road to writing one´s story. 

The book is the first in a series dedicated to featuring exceptional destinies, and personally I cannot wait to read another storie(s) of women resilience. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Children Spanish Books for Beginners

Almost half through the year, I am seriously keeping my promise of improving my Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, at a level allowing me to pass the European B2 - with an aim at C1 - certification tests. Plus, started learning a new language, but this for another time.

For my Spanish warming up, I´ve read recently two children books, in bilingual version, with an interesting neurodivergent take. It is very important for neurodivergent children to relate to characters sharing their own issues, and for me it was a first time encountering such characters in children books. A plus for the bilingual aspect.

The author of both books, Eleni Tassopoulos Wehner is herself a ´neurodivergent mother´, and this probably helped to properly represent such situations. Both books were colourfully illustrated by Danamarie Hosler. The main characters, Roscoe&Ivy are faced with dealing with daily chores, like cleaning the room, or organising the shoes, or finding/trying the best house shoes.

The books are part of the Roscoe&Ivy series, but can defintely read as standalone. The sentences are clean, unequivocal, using sentences and expressions useful for the daily communication. The text goes along nicely with the illustrations. 

I really loved the books, and even learned a word or two. They can be nicely used as good night stories for bilingual children, and it also creates topics to discuss afterwards, either commenting the characters or their actions.

Rachel´s Random Resources: Stikki the Squirrel: Tree Spirits by Jane H. Wood

 

Give me any time a children book and I will leave instantly anything I am doing to read it. Children books connect me to life in a straight forward way that cannnot exist in the world of books for adults.

Stikki the Squirrel: Tree Spirits by Jane H. Wood was my latest read from this genre, written exactly as I am expecting from a well written book: smart dialogues, an entertaining story, interesting characters. Add to this beautiful illustrations, that suit any respectable children book.

Fighting with an unbearable winter, Stikki and Rella are trying to survive in a world of adversities, surrounded by a magical ambiance. There is a sense of unity in the adversity, as the little or bigger creatures are struggling to survive, as generations from time immemorial did before them. 

Clearly, I´ve read the book as an adult, trying to connect - forcefully or not - various ideatic dots. A child though will simply enter into the book spirit and allow to being taken away by the story. No mattr the reading choice, in this book you will discover a trustworthy companion, leading the reader through the magic of a Welsh forest and its funny talking animals.

The book is aimed for children between 8 and 12 years.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

We Can´t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

´I´m no longer the girl who always says ´yes´ ´.

I am always interested in discovering books with a multicultural topic, therefore We Can´t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon, an author whose name often appeared on my bookish feed, sounded like a good recommendation.

To my shame, I´ve started the book five years ago, abandoned it - although was considering resuming the reading every few months, and was only able to finish it last week. I am a very compulsive reader and even though I am trying to keep my overactivity under control - including in its bookish manifestation, I often embrace my limitations.

Quinn, who is Jewish - her name isn´t though - is trying to part ways with her family´s wedding company, while finding out herself in playing harp and being tormented of the idea of comitting to a relationship with Tarek, the son of an Egyptian family owning a catering company. There are few, but not enough identity markers of the two main characters so for me it looked a bit make up. It sounds good to have inter-racial love, but it is not enough as long as the characters do not really belong. 

However, other details regarding the characters are more fulfilling rendering them and their stories more relatable. Quinn´s transformation and the acknowledgement of her interests and need to follow her own dreams, happening at the same time with her fully acceptance of her feelings for Tarek, are important story pivots. 

Better placed and developed than the inter-racial story, the struggle of the characters with mental health issues like OCD, chronical illnesses and family trauma do relate to topics of interests for the younger generation.

I think this book brings a lot of contemporary topics and I am very much glad of being able to finally finish it. In the meantime, would be more than happy to give more than one chance to this author in the coming months.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Random Things Tours: 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell

I love a good crime story, but I love even more a fantastic premise for creating a story. Each story has a start but some do have a greater spring priviledge.

138 Main Street by Glasgow-based Gavin Bell created such an unique reading encounter. An unknown killer is picking up his victims from the same address: 138 Main Street. And, not surprisingly, there are 7,000 such addreses in the US. As the corpses pile, the killer is issuing a manifesto of social justice to the media, warning of a continuation of the killing spree. 

Personally, I couldn´t stop reading this book, because it sounded both authentic and scary. I went thinking that although it is important catch the killer, but nevertheless sounded more intellectually challenging to guess if there will be any reasons why - except being killed - the crimes may stop.

The professional team assigned to find the killer - Ben Walker and Zoe Hill, especially Zoe Hill who is playing a terrific role in catching the killer - deserves a special place in the evolution of the plot - with an interesting dynamic, personalities and character threats. 

Both the original premise and the well-structured story itself - with mounting tension as the terror threat continues - were outstanding, and the ending was equally interesting. 

A recommended read if you are looking for a strong unexpected thriller.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own