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 them for Rest Less.
This month’s round-up features Always You and Me, Getting Away with Murder, Whole Life Sentence, Mixed, Burn After Reading, and The Stolen Child.
Note: Prices can change often, so you may notice some variations on the providers’ websites. Prices and availability are accurate as of the 29th of April, 2025.
I’m completely exhausted. After an urgent-ish appointment with our GP, my husband was immediately blue-lighted to our local hospital, having had a potential heart attack. Poor Rollo was distraught – he couldn’t understand where his Daddy had gone, and came home with me to sit in his basket and mope. Yes, he went for a walk, and yes, he ate his food, but he wasn’t his normal playful self.
With me rushing out of the house every day to visit my husband in the hospital, housework, crochet – and even eating – went by the board as I spent most of the next nine days to-ing and fro-ing to Harlow. To make matters worse, I hadn’t properly driven for a year since my broken ankle had been in plaster most of the time.
And so we now have a cleaner! Hooray! And she’s brilliant. Don’t ask me how she gets everything so gleaming: I’m just grateful she does. And I’m back reading – another Hooray.
Always You and Me by Dani Atkins (Kindle £2.99, Amazon £6.99)
The lovely Dani lives near me in a little village just outside Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, and this is her latest book. Her first novel, Fractured, has now been translated into over twenty languages, and she’s a worldwide bestselling novelist. Always You and Me is going to be yet another massive success.
And here’s a trigger warning for you: you’ll need tissues! The first chapter of this novel is a tear-jerker. It’s such a heart-rending read, and so emotionally draining that I couldn’t stop blubbing. Speaking to Dani later, she told me she cried her eyes out writing it! I have no idea how she manages such tear-inducing chapters – I only know she does.
After a calming cuppa, I felt ready to read on. Main character, Lily, as a child, always climbed the sycamore tree in the garden of the house next door, only to discover that Josh, a foster child who had just moved in, had already claimed it as his and was happily sitting amongst the leaves on a big branch. After some chippy back-and-forth banter, the pair became inseparable best friends, talking incessantly whilst hiding amongst the branches until one day Josh disappeared. Too old to be fostered, he was turfed out into the world. “I’ll write”, he said, but what young man ever does?
Lily was unable to stop thinking about Josh until, sitting at the side of the road after a puncture and frantically trying to see off a group of youths, Adam sees what’s happening. Stopping his car, he hails Lily as his girlfriend with a quiet confidence and changes the tyre, meaning the louts drove off. It was instant love for both of them. But then, tragedy strikes.
And then you’re going to need those tissues again.
This is going to be yet another well-deserved best-seller for Dani – and yet another contender for a Romantic Novelist prize. It’s beautifully written and, with so much emotion, tenderness, and empathy, it’ll stay with you.
Getting Away with Murder (Kindle £5.99, Amazon £9.95) and Whole Life Sentence (Kindle £4.75, Amazon £5.00) both by Lynda La Plante
Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren as Detective Jane Tennyson, is one of the best-selling television shows of all time. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen at least one series? But what do we know about Lynda La Plante, the author behind this phenomenon? Nothing. Well, I didn’t, at least.
Lynda originally studied at RADA at the same time as such illustrious names as John Hurt and Ian McShane, and was set for a career on the boards – apart from the fact that she simply couldn’t keep a straight face, and so chaos followed her every appearance.
Lynda began writing her first novel and the Prime Suspect scripts with no prior experience – spending months researching both. She is just a real powerhouse!
Also out now is Whole Life Sentence, the latest book in Jane Tennyson’s career. Remember, this is the 70s – with all the sexism, snide remarks, and misogyny that was a trademark of the decade. Having edited a trade magazine for the London cab trade in the late 70s, I can attest to that.
So, thank goodness for writers like Lynda La Plante who are happy to tell it exactly how it was.
Mixed by Tamar Hodes (Kindle £3.99, Amazon £9.19, Legend Press £9.99)
As a secular Jew, I always say that I’m “Jewish by food”. I make chicken soup, gefilte fish and salt beef – sometimes I make a plava (plain cake), too. But, apart from the major holidays (Chanukah, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur), I don’t do much for the others.
In Mixed, Elder sister, Ruth, married a fellow Jew, keeps a kosher household and follows a traditional Orthodox Jewish life.
Younger sister Miriam, however, went to university in the Midlands, met Chris and fell in love. Torn with guilt over the fact that he wasn’t Jewish, she married him anyway.
The book opens with Miriam decorating the Chanukah Bush and their Christmas Tree, as both Festivals often fall near one another.
However, Miriam’s children want to celebrate Christmas like their school friends – singing carols and sharing Christmas presents.
This is a truly modern dilemma for families, which Hodes tells well. We cope with Miriam’s angst as her Jewish heritage collides with the children singing hymns at school and Ruth’s more-or-less hidden antipathy towards Miriam’s lifestyle. Can the two sort out their differences? Or is the rift too hard to handle?
This is a true moral tale for today, told with great humour and pathos.
Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard (Kindle £2.99, Amazon £13.39, Penguin £16.99)
Having read some of Howard’s books previously, I know she always writes a scary read. In Burn After Reading, the main character, Emily, wrote a bestselling thriller many years ago after receiving a huge advance in a book deal.
She finds herself forced to ghostwrite an ‘autobiography’ for Jack, a world-famous cyclist facing accusations of murdering his wife in a suspicious fire. Emily flies to a secluded beach house in the US and quickly becomes convinced she is being followed.
This is one twisty turny read – so much so, I had no idea who or what had done it! But it’s a real can’t-put-down book. I read late into the night, with husband and Rollo Dog lying in bed snoring (yes, both of them), and was very grateful I wasn’t alone in the house!
The Stolen Child by Carmel Harrington (Kindle £7.99, Amazon £9.99, Hachette £22.00)
I’ve never been on a cruise and, if I were to book one, I certainly wouldn’t take a small child with me. But that’s exactly what Kimberley did. And when she woke up a day into the cruise, to discover that her two-year-old son Robert had vanished from their cabin, she and her husband Jason wouldn’t rest until their son returned. Only, he didn’t.
40 years later, Kimberley’s daughter Lily – now a relationship therapist – takes on a new client who, after a few weeks, confesses that he is long-lost Robert. Lily’s world is completely shattered. Robert surely must be the missing child, but Kimberley doesn’t want to know. But why? Wouldn’t she be delighted to have her missing son returned home?
My goodness, this is packed with unexpected sideways moves. There are so many twists and turns, it’s impossible to figure out whether Robert is telling the truth or not.
For more reading inspiration, head over to our books, literature, and writing section. Or, for further book and literature discussions, you might be interested in joining the thriving book club over on Rest Less Events.
Have you read any of these books? Or have you added any of them to your reading list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!