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#Project52 2024 week 17
Back to school and work for me and the kids. Enjoying the UK weather of April showers and HAIL! Yep it’s been cold and random this week! Some gorgeous sunshine and the guinea pigs have enjoyed being outdoors and the cherry tree blossomed overnight.
New start at the weekend as we enrolled all 3 kids in swimming lessons at the last minute! Panic search for swimming costumes but it was all smiles in the end! Note to self: buy proper waterproof bags asap… Hello shadow Chris 🙂
The Millennium Affair, by Lucy Lyons
It is December 1999 and the world waits with trepidation for the new year and millennium bug. Alex can’t help using the Finding Machine to help save the life of a teen one icy night. But it has serious consequences for her job and relationship…
The Millennium Affair is the sequel to The Finding Machine. There are mentions of events in the previous book and the relationship development between the characters but no major spoilers (read the first book: it’s fab!)
Alex is keen to use the Finding Machine for good but is fearful that the machine will be taken away from her so can only use it in secret. However the Millennium Bug may cause the machine to glitch and some of the ageing parts need replacing. She needs to decide who she can trust as scientists insist she hand over the machine to them. Her father entrusted the machine to her but, now she has fulfilled his mission, she wants to use it for good.
Alex loses her job for breaking protocol over the missing person rescue. However, she gets an opportunity to join DC Henry Longhurst as he investigates cold cases. Her involvement and use of the machine locates a body and the pair are soon searching for a killer who has struck again in the intervening years. Alex needs to reassess her romantic relationship. Antony is acting oddly and she doesn’t feel supported. She is attracted to Henry and he believes in her but she can’t be totally honest with him about the machine.
I was totally invested in this story, transported back to those fearful yet exciting days as we approached the year 2000. The murder mystery element of the book as well as the personal life of Alex were both engaging. There are lots of twists as the plot progresses and I had no idea which way things would lead. Alex has huge dilemmas to contend with and I enjoyed her thought processes as she tries to stay true to herself and her father’s legacy.
The Millennium Affair is a delightful book, and I loved the plot and characters as well as the ‘historical’ setting (!) of 25 years ago. I am privileged to know the author (who is lovely!) and this book is even better than the first, so congratulations Lucy!
Book blurb:
TWO LOVE RIVALS… A GLITCH IN THE FINDING MACHINE… AND A KILLER COLD CASE
December 1999.
Alex Martin has put the Finding Machine into storage. All she wants is a quiet life. But when a panicked teen phones for help on the coldest night of the year, Alex dusts off the machine and breaks every rule in the book to save him. In an instant, her life is thrown into chaos, she’s fired from the job she loves, and her relationship with Antony is stretched to breaking point.
The rescue attracts the attention of Detective Henry Longhurst, who is intrigued by Alex’s method of finding people. He wants her help to catch an elusive murderer who keeps changing his identity. But there’s a problem—the finding machine is glitching and could stop working any moment. With the new Millennium around the corner, Alex must race against the clock to fix her heart and find the faceless villain before he strikes again. Tick Tock.
Escape to the Rome Apartment, by Kerry Fisher
Sara and Lainey always planned to take another trip together but life and then death gets in the way. Lainey dies and leaves money and her ashes to Sara with specific instructions to scatter them in Italy. Can Sara enjoy her freedom or will reality drag her down…?
Escape to the Rome Apartment is the third book in the series and I have previously read and reviewed the first book, The Rome Apartment. Some of the characters feature in this book but there are no major plot spoilers.
Ooh I was annoyed! Poor Sara has a job she hates and a family who take her for granted. She has split up from her husband but they still live together and she skivvies around after him and her grown up sons. Of course, I fully believe that people will only treat you badly if you let them and this is a theme that threads through the book as Sara realises she should have more power and freedom in her relationships.
Most of the book is set in the present to show Sara’s experience in Italy (she doesn’t move to Rome or the apartment until halfway so I was starting to think the title didn’t fit!) There are some chapters to show Sara’s past relationship with an Italian man and this helps us to understand how she ended up stuck with Declan, accepting second best.
Ronnie and Marina remain a force to be reckoned with from the earlier books. Their insight and determination reinforces how essential it is to grab every second of life, be true to yourself and value what is important. I felt so sorry for Sara that it takes the death of her friend for her to truly live herself.
Escape to the Rome Apartment is a light hearted but deeply profound book about making the most of life’s opportunities.
Book Description:
Sara’s eyes fill with tears as she reads the letter, her last words from her dearest friend: ‘I’m buying you your freedom. You don’t need to ask your husband’s permission and you have to put yourself first for once. Have an incredible adventure before it’s too late for both of us…’
Sara has lost her zest for life. Trapped sharing a house with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, with grown-up children who still need her but take her for granted, working in a job where her boss bullies her, the final straw is the heartbreak of losing her beloved best friend Lainey.
But Lainey’s death could be the beginning of Sara’s new life… as the last gift Lainey gives to her friend is a sum of money and a request: that Sara travels to Italy, the scene of the pair’s youthful adventures, and scatters Lainey’s ashes on the beach at Portofino.
For once, Sara decides to be brave. She quits her job, tells her family they can manage without her, and sets off on the trip of a lifetime. Swept up by new friends and relishing the freedom of being away from home in beautiful Florence, Sara finds herself drawn to Carlo. Handsome and charming, he is everything Sara finds it so hard to be: carefree, impulsive, living in the moment without worrying about the future.
And then Sara sees something she shouldn’t… and discovers a secret about Carlo that makes her question everything she thought she knew. Stuck at a crossroads in her life and her travels, she can’t face returning home yet, but nor is she brave enough to continue the challenge that Lainey set her. And then she meets an English woman who tells her about an apartment in Rome, that could just be the answer to everything…
Return to the sunny streets of beautiful Rome with this heart-warming and romantic story about discovering your true path in life. Perfect for fans of Jill Mansell, Elin Hilderbrand and Sheila O’Flanagan.
Author Bio:
Kerry Fisher is a million-copy bestselling author. She writes women’s contemporary fiction, is a USA Today bestseller and her books have been translated into twelve languages. She was born in Peterborough, studied French and Italian at the University of Bath and spent several years living in Spain, Italy and Corsica. After returning to England to work as a journalist, she eventually abandoned real life stories for the secrets of fictional families. She lives in Surrey with her husband, and a naughty Lab/Schnauzer called Poppy, who joins in the huge dances of joy when her young adult children come home.
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