Tampa by Alissa Nutting

This was my book club's choice, and a very difficult book to review.  Celeste is a beautiful high school teacher with an insatiable sexual obsession with adolescent boys. The subject matter was always going to make this a disturbing read but Celeste is a lot more perverse than I was expecting and this novel is truly difficult to read in places. There are some great similes in this novel but it is very difficult to get past the perverseness of some of the events which are described in the book. This is not a book which can ever be enjoyable to read but it is controversial and that makes it very thought provoking. Worth reading but two qualifications - firstly, this is deviant so be warned and secondly, buy on the kindle - the front cover attracts unwanted interest when on public transport.

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari

I really wanted to love this book but I didn't. I did enjoy it, but it was a lot lighter and more 'feel good' than I was expecting given the subject matter. It is about a young Afgan girl, Rukhsana, who tries to bring the truth of the Taliban regime to the public through journalism but who is thwarted by the brutality of the regime's laws.  When the local Taliban leader announces a PR cricket competition, the winners given the opportunity to leave for Pakistan, Rukhsana coaches a team of her cousins in the hope of winning and escaping the violence of Kabul. The plot is unrealistic and fundamentally a love story rather than an observation on life in a totalitarian state. This is not a bad book - the writing is good and the plot full of suspense - but it is not a heavy weight novel and will not teach you much about the Taliban.

The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke

The plot is ridiculously predictable, the characters unrealistic and unlikeable and the writing average. Don't even take on holiday. Cheers for the recommendation Amazon.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

Always good fun this novel follows PC Grant as he continues his wizarding apprenticeship and fights supernatural crime in London. With most series, each book's plot is a little bit more tired and threadbare than the preceding one and that is certainly the case here, but even so this remains reliable holiday reading.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Another readable holiday thriller. Amelia, a young high school student, dies in an apparent suicide. Her mother doesn't believe her daughter killed herself and embarks on an investigation to discover what really happened, learning surprising things about Amelia's life. Easy to read with a fairly gripping plot, this is a good holiday choice.

The Humans by Matt Haig

An excellent book which I really enjoyed. Professor Andrew Martin is taken over by an alien life form seeking to destroy the evidence of a mathematical breakthrough which the Professor has discovered. The plot gives a platform for a wonderfully humorous, well observed and thought provoking book about the behaviour and social conventions of humans. The writing is good and easy to read, but it is the delicate observational dialogue and plot twists which I really enjoyed.  A great book.

The Back Road by Rachel Abbott

A readable holiday thriller about a seemingly perfectly happy family who start to keep secrets from each other, dragging them down a dangerous and uncertain path. The writing is fine and the characters believable enough to allow the reader to suspend disbelief. This book will never win any awards but it is definitely a fun holiday read.