Janet Gordon is married, retired, obsessed with her Westlake Terrier, Rollo – and books are her passion. She reads multiple books a week across all genres and reviews books for Rest Less.
Janet’s latest review is of the novel, Eight Bright Lights by Sara Gibbs. Keep reading to get a taste of what it’s about and win one of three free copies!
Eight Bright Lights by Sara Gibbs (Headline £9.99)
As a secular Jew, I love both Christmas and Hannukah so it’s Christmas dinner on the 25th with a lovely Turkey crown and roasties, crackers, paper hats – and, of course, Christmas pudding with lashings of brandy cream and then the King’s Speech. Boxing Day is devoted to “Jewish stuff” as my grandchildren call it – home-cooked salt beef, more roasties, and gefilte fish for my veggie daughter-in-law.
And so Eight Bright Lights has given me the best of both worlds. Hannah’s Mum runs a dead-end pub in Devon with Hannah ostensibly supposed to be helping. Hannah hasn’t seen her father for years following his sudden disappearance until she receives a call that he’s died, and without thinking too much about it, she’s bundled onto a plane to Tel Aviv to attend the funeral.
Cousin Rachel is getting married on Christmas Day and has also secured an interview writing for her dream magazine. Ella, her wedding planner, is working for a tyrannical boss at a non-Jewish wedding company named Shidduch (which is Yiddish for ‘arranged marriage’ and so-called to fool her predominantly Jewish customers).
Said boss does nothing but swan around whilst Ella does all the work. So, when Ella, goaded beyond endurance, dramatically quits, she’s quite certain that she can start up on her own using Rachel’s wedding as a launching pad. However, her tyrannical boss has other ideas.
Meanwhile, over in Tel Aviv, Hannah discovers that her Dad, who she always knew took photographs, is world famous. And over in magazine land, Rachel lands a second interview for her dream job, putting thoughts of her wedding on the back burner.
I loved this – there are three crazy threads running alongside each other and, in the best Jewish tradition, the writing is interlaced with humour, pathos, shouting, screaming, and madcap coincidences, all of which combine to make a humdinger of a festive read. And the even better news is that Headline publishers have kindly provided Rest Less with three copies to give away…
To win a free copy of Eight Bright Lights, please email us at [email protected] with the answer to the following question…
How many days of Hannukah there are (there’s a big clue in the title)?
a) 9
b) 4
c) 8
Terms and conditions
The giveaway will close at 11.59pm on 17 December 2023 and the winners will be chosen at random in a prize draw on 18 December 2023. Winners will be connected with Headline publishers via email for the fulfilment of their prize.
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