Bokelskere.no

A quick and easy read which is perfect when you want to take a break from your Christmas preparations.
Lady Vespasia and Victor Narraway are invited to spend Christmas at a beautiful country estate in Kent. What seems on the outside to be a pleasant holiday with Vespasia’s society acquaintances ends up being a rather less pleasant affair. There is a secret backdrop to the house party which pans out in a in a rather sinister and dangerous way with Victor and Vespasia in the centre of the whole ordeal.
Main characters Lady Vespasia’s and Victor Narraway’s relationship is vividly described, taking ample time to describe the fact that they are newlyweds. I feel Vespasia’s experience helping with solving previous murder cases shines through in the confident way she deals with events throughout the story.
When choosing to read Anne Perry’s work, I am not expecting the plot to be simple, sweet and uncomplicated. On the contrary, I expect twists and turns throughout, and that is exactly what I got in this story. Must say I would have enjoyed a little bit more Christmas feel, especially in the beginning, but no major issue. It is after all a crime story, which has the murder in the center of it.
A Christmas Gathering is highly recommend for readers of Anne Perry’s other works and for fans of historical crime fiction in general.
My rating: 4,5 stars /5
(All opinions in this review are my own)

The focus is on Christmas celebrations in the rich Lee family where complicated relationships go back years and where certain surprises are thrown into the mix. Hercule Poirot is asked to assist the police when head of the family, Simeon Lee, is murdered on Christmas Eve.
This story was originally published in 1938. The writing itself and the way the characters express themselves and is quite formal and adds to the old fashioned feel of the story. I find the writing fabulous. As I enjoy historical fiction so much, I very much enjoyed how this trait sets Agatha Christie’s writing apart from the more contemporary fiction. She does thorough and believable character creations and descriptions. I feel invested in the life of this rather large and wealthy family in the nineteen thirties Midlands.
I felt Simeon Lee was a believable yet Agatha Christie makes him out to be a very unsympathetic character. In spite of his ailing health, he enjoyed controlling his adult children by threatening to take their funding away. Because of the way he acted towards his children, the number of people suspected of having murdered him seemed to increase by every page I read. That kept the story alive until Poirot made his appearance.
The plot of this story builds quite slowly considering it’s just 200 pages long. Must say I worried along the way that some parts would feel rushed, but Christie managed to tie it up nice and evenly. Poirot turned up quite late. Felt I kept waiting for him throughout the first 30, or so, pages. I have seen quite a few of the tv episodes of Poirot, including this one, and I found that the book gave much more depth to the story. Exactly what I expected as it has always been the case when I have read a story and seen a film version.
Even though the story is called Poirot’s Christmas, there is not a lot of of Christmassy vibe to it. The murder takes place on Christmas Eve. Other than that it’s business as usual for Poirot and the police. This is a crime story, so it makes sense that solving the case takes center stage. The murder on Christmas Eve put celebrations on hold before they could even start.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is a great story and would be recommended for Agatha Christie fans and for readers of crime fiction.
(All opinions in this review are my own)

Herlig samtidskomedie med feel-good-snert. Trenger du litt latter i mørketiden er dette et godt tips. Les gjerne mer her

En herlig lesefest av en roman , les gjerne mer her

En velskrevet og god bok fra Lykke men for meg ble det for monotomt og kjedelig til at den nådde helt opp.

Les gjerne omtalen min her.

Mary Beckwith is trying to renovate Whitefriars castle, her childhood home. It’s a huge undertaking and she is trying to do it on her own with occasional advice and yearly allowance from American businessman Everett Wooten. The funding never seems to be enough and Mary plans to rent out rooms to earn extra money. She is working hard to get the rooms ready for the paying guests. Going through mail, she discovers that Mr Wooten is in York, an hour’s carriage ride from the castle, waiting to speak to her about a possible breach of contract with his luxury food supply company. He considers the taking in of paying guests to be destroying his company’s exclusive food label named Whitefriars.
In the running up to Christmas, Mary and her brother Colin Beckwith, goes to York to meet with Mr. Wooten. She finds it very challenging to go anywhere outside the castle grounds because of her anxiety disorder. Surprisingly she finds Mr. Wooten to be very understanding and supportive as she has an anxiety attack in the York hotel lobby. After the meeting, she invites him to Whitefriars to look at his investment and the state of the castle after nine years of renovation. He is unimpressed with his first impression of the castle and totally opposed to taking in paying guests.
Christmas is Mary’s favorite time of year because this is when her family comes from America for their once-a-year holiday. I am thrilled to be back in the Beckwith and Drake family universe which I got to know in The Empire State Series. I get to learn more about what has happened to them all since my last read. I enjoy the Christmas theme and the development of relationships, especially between Mary and Everett Wooten, but also between secondary characters.
Christmas at Whitefriars is highly recommended for fans of Elizabeth Camden’s works, especially for readers of The Empire State series. This story is also highly recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction.
(All opinions in this review are my own)

Gracie Phipps goes on a quest together with Minnie Maude Mudway to find the rag-and-bone donkey named Charlie which has vanished after its owner suffered a fatal incident. The children try to find the donky themselves, but eventually realize they need help from an adult.
I found it touching that Gracie decides to confide in her old neighbor, Mr. Wiggins, who gives her advice on who she can trust with her information.

There is, for me, a Dickensian feel to the story as the plot is set in the poorest areas of London where people are trying to scrape by on next to nothing. The general living conditions in London’s East End did not exactly seem comfortable, to put it mildly. Descriptions of how Christmas was celebrated I feel are similar to those in the Scrooge story written in 1843. There seemed to be a village feel in the local areas of the city. It makes sense as it consisted of villages already grown together.

8 year old Minnie Maude, whose uncle died, is touchingly innocent and vulnerable at the same time as she has to deal with the serious accident that happened to her uncle. She is lucky to meet Gracie who looks out for her in spite of her own tight schedule doing chores and errands every day, all day, which was the normal thing for children at the time. It brings me close to tears that Gracie’s dream is to learn how to read, which we all take for granted today.

I get a Christmas feel reading about the snow, sleet and wind the children have to deal with while they walk past the more well-to-do households who have Christmas decorations up. Trying to stay warm and dry in their thin clothing and bad shoes didn’t seem easy. The story has an interesting mix of serious issues and Christmas theme which Anne Perry does so well in these Christmas novellas. The constant tea-drinking lightens the mood of the story somewhat. Must say I quite enjoy that whenever I read stories set in Britain. Sometimes I found it an entertaining puzzle to work out the meaning of the written cockney dialect. I felt it added an authenticity to the story.
A Christmas Promise is recommended for fans of Anne Perry’s work and readers of Crime Fiction in general.

Becky's måte å være søster på er hysterisk morsom.

Det er ikke uten grunn at jeg lar meg fascinere gang på gang av ordene til Gerdur Kristny. Hun har en helt unik og særegen stemme som gir meg frysninger hver eneste gang jeg leser noe av henne. Hun mesterer på en helt fantastisk måte å blande eldre tider med samtiden, noe som gjør at det er moderne dikt som man kan kjenne seg igjen i samtidig som de har med seg eldre historie og gjerne norrøn mytologi. Dette er en av de aller beste bøkene jeg har lest i år! Anbefales på det aller sterkeste!

Les gjerne hele omtalen min her.

Denne boka anbefales for de som liker livshistorier som kan ramme de fleste av oss. Kjærlighet, vennskap, skuffelser og død. Viser forøvrig til forlagets beretning om innhold.

A quick and easy read which is perfect when you want to take a break from your Christmas preparations.
Lady Vespasia and Victor Narraway are invited to spend Christmas at a beautiful country estate in Kent.
What seems on the outside to be a pleasant holiday with society acquaintances of Vespasia ends up being rather a rather less pleasant affair. There is a secret backdrop to the house party which pans out in a in a rather sinister and dangerous way with Victor and Vespasia in the centre of the whole ordeal.

Main characters Lady Vespasia’s and Victor Narraway’s relationship is vividly described, taking ample time to describe the fact that they are newlyweds. I feel Vespasia’s experience helping with previous cases shines through in the confident way she deals with events throughout the story.
When choosing to read Anne Perry, I am not expecting the plot to be simple, sweet and uncomplicated. On the contrary, I expect twists and turns throughout, and that is exactly what I got in this story. The Christmas theme was expertly mixed into the crime plot in a way I found very enjoyable, maybe even a little bit addictive. Must say I would even have enjoyed a little bit more Christmas feel, especially in the beginning, but no major issue.

A Christmas Gathering is highly recommend for readers of Anne Perry’s other works and for fans of historical crime fiction in general.
(All opinions are my own)

En absolutt klassiker som alle norske barn har hørt om og fått lest fra.

This is one of my favorites. Beautiful pictures. Easy to catch the principles. Recommended for anybody who would like to learn about feng shui from a beginners perspective.

When Rosie Hopkins moves to Lipton to take care of her great aunt, she expects to make a speedy return to London, her boyfriend Gerard and her job as an auxiliary nurse. She thinks what needs to happen is that she sells the sweetshop and finds a suitable care home for her great aunt. That is not exactly what happens.
I love the way Jenny Colgan writes about this tight knit community in Darbyshire and the characters who live there. It feels like I’m part of little Lipton myself, where everybody knows everybody else and where there doesn’t seem to be much going on unless you look really closely.
Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams is highly recommended for fans of Jenny Colgan’s other work as well as readers of the chick-lit genre.
(All opinions in this review are my own)

Klassisk norsk barnekultur på sitt beste.

I really love the way Becky approaches sisterhood. Hilarious!

Klassisk, norsk barnebok. Fine sanger. Gode illustrasjoner. Et spennende univers for barn. Handlingen er ca 1950-60, men aktuell også i dag. Kan anbefale både denne boken og andre av Thorbjørn Egner.

This is a very funny and entertaining read. Just what we come to expect when we pick up a book by Sophie Kinsella. I totally enjoyed the way workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting turnes her life around after she experiences a bit of a crisis at work. A break in the country seemed to be just the thing.

Waking up in hospital after a car accident, Lexi realizes everything has changed. She used to be this 25 year old happy-go-lucky girl with crooked teeth and a disastrous lovelife. Now she realizes it's 3 years later. She looks at herself in the mirror and sees a 28-year-old with a super-toned body, her teeth are straight and she wears designer clothes. The also discovers, she is the boss of the apartment and her friends hate her. On top of it all she is married to a good-looking millionaire and lives in a trendy new loft apartment. How could life possibly get any better than this?

I found it absolutely hilarious to follow Lexi along on her journey, as she gradually discovers what's important in life. Kinsella is my all time favorite chick-lit author and this release, for me, is impossible to put down.

I would highly recommend this, or any other of Sophie Kinsella's books, to chick-lit fans.
(All opinions in this review are my own)

Historien handler om Evie Flynn som arver sin tane’s kafe i Cornwall. Evie må finne ut hva hun egentlig vil. Skal hun flytte til Cornwall og drive kafè uten kjæresten Matthew eller fortsette som før i en jobb hun synes er meningsløs.

Handlingen tar oss med i prosessen med å finne ny retning og mening i livet. Hvordan Evie kjemper med seg selv i de store avgjørelsene hun trenger å ta. Hvordan det føles å bli en del av en landsby av mennesker i Cornwall som hadde et nært forhold til hennes tante.
Så dukker Ed opp som en super hjelp i kjøkkenet. Evie’s forhold til ham bidrar til et mysterie ettersom han ikke vil åpne opp om hvem han er, hvor han kommer fra eller hva hans plan er. Evie skjønner fra måten han lager mat på at han må ha god bakgrunn fra enten kafè eller restaurant, men hun får ham ikke til å snakke om det i første omgang.

Etter hvert som historien utvikler seg blir det mer klart hva Evie vil med kafèen og hvilke valg hun føler er riktig for fremtiden. Hun tilpasser seg nærmiljøet i Cornwall og ikke minst blir bedre kjent med Ed.

Standkafèen kan anbefales til alle som liker Lucy Diamond’s bøker og generelt til lesere som liker chick lit bøker.
(Omtalen inneholder kun mine egne meninger).