After the Death of Alice Bennett by Rowland Moloy
After the death of Alice Bennett is about how a family copes when their mother dies suddenly from cancer. It focuses specifically on a young boy called Sam, and how his life changes. Sam cannot grasp why he can no longer speak to his mother, when she told him she would always be with him before she died. Then when his older sister Becky receives a text saying, ‘Thinking about you. x’, Sam becomes convinced that the text is from their mother, beyond the grave.
When he finds his mums old mobile phone he uses it to try and text her back using a mysterious phone number he finds written in his mothers hand writing, on the family notice board. Before you know it he is receiving texts back. But from who? ….
I thought this was a good book on the whole. However I found it difficult to get into at first, as it was a little slow initially. I would also have liked the characters of Sam’s friends to be a bit more three-dimensional, as I felt they would have had more of an impact on Sams life and his grief. Refreshingly this was not sickly sweet story with a happy ending. It merely seeked to emphasise the fact that life goes on regardless of when we loose someone, and we all find different ways to cope with our grief.
Between two seas by Marie-Louise Jensen
This book is a classic historical adventure book. The heroine is Marianne who on her dying mothers wish leaves Grimsby to travel to Skagen in Denmark to find her father – Lars Christensen, the golden haired fisherman her mother fell in love with many years ago. The journey is perilous, but Marianne hopes to find a better life and fore fill her mothers dieing wish. The question is will she find a better life and the acceptance she long craves from a father who does not even know she exists? … I guess you will have to read it to find out.
I loved every minute of this book. It really was a breath of fresh air. A rich plot is interwoven with believable characters, beautiful descriptions of the area and a gripping and intriguing plot which explains Marianne’s quest to find her true identity. Definitely one to curl up with next to the fire during these dark winter nights…
