Carole Johnstone: Mirrorland

Stephen King has highly praised Carole Johnstone's psychological thriller Mirrorland, and it's not any wonder, because his book is featured in such a large part of it. That is, King's book that tells the story of Shawshank Redemption, and whose Finnish title reveals the entire plot. The film that was made from it is, according to Imdb's list, the best film in the world.

Mirrorland is about a woman named Cat who, after the disappearance of her identical twin sister El, returns to her childhood landscape in Scotland. Another unreliable narrator who conveniently doesn't remember anything about her past.

At one point I misunderstood and thought that a certain plot twist happened in Mirrorland. Well, it didn't, and that was a big disappointment for me. Because the plot twists that actually happened in the book were boring and predictable.

At the end of the book, I kept thinking that this was the end. Well, it just didn't end, not at all. The unnecessary chatter just went on and on.

So, once again, this is a book where you can safely skip most of the text. There was very little actual plot.

 

Nora Roberts: The Heart of Devin MacKade

I don't think I've ever read a book from Nora Roberts before. It wasn't until I borrowed The Heart of Devin MacKade that I found out that this book is part of a series, and of course not the first one.

This book series is supposedly about brothers who cause trouble in their hometown by being violent idiots. But of course, all these brothers are really handsome, and that's why all the women fall in love with them.

For some reason, one of the brothers, Devin, has become a sheriff. He's been in love with Cassie since he was a teenager. Will love finally find its object?

I just didn't like this book and its narrative style. Of course, part of the problem is probably that I haven't read the previous books in the series. And the violent heroes don't strike a chord. "I'm a quick-tempered violent piece of shit, but you're the one I'd never hurt." Yeah, no.

The genre is probably romantic nonsense, and the publisher was Harlequin, if I remember correctly. As a teenager I liked reading Harlequins, but they don't really appeal to me anymore. Why did I add this book to my reading list? I don't remember, and the same goes for almost all the books on my list.

Pierre Lemaitre: Three Days and a Life

Something terrible happens to 12-year-old Antoine while he's playing in the forest. A long ordeal begins. And yes, the official description of the book reveals way too much. That's why I usually skip reading them these days.

Pierre Lemaitre's book Three Days and a Life (Trois jours et une vie) can be read quickly, in a couple of hours. Not much actually happens in the story, but enough nonetheless.

 

I've read one book by Pierre Lemaitre (Blood Wedding) before, and I had trouble getting started with it, but in the end I really liked it.

Jeffrey Archer: The Prodigal Daughter

It's been decades since I last read Jeffrey Archer's The Prodigal Daughter. It's a sequel to Archer's Kane & Abel, and I'm not sure I ever read the first part. Anyway, I heard only now that the first half of The Prodigal Daughter tells the events of Kane & Abel from a different perspective, and many people have criticized this.

The Prodigal Daughter tells the story of Florentyna, the daughter of Abel Rosnovski. Florentyna is brainwashed from childhood to achieve great things. Of course, she was born with a golden spoon in her mouth. But everything changes when Florentyna falls in love with what her father thinks is the wrong man.

And as is all too often the case, the back cover of the book reveals too much of the plot.

I really liked Archer's books when I was younger, and The Prodigal Daughter could very well be my favorite of them. But when Florentyna went into politics, the book became more boring in my opinion. 

I did cry twice while reading this book. When a certain character died, and also at the end of the book.

 

And it was only decades later that I discovered that there was a sequel to The Prodigal Daughter, Shall We Tell the President? Do I really want to know the rest of Florentyna's story?