Because I’ve read quite a lot this month and I haven’t got a huge amount to say about these novels, I’ve decided to do a joint post for three of them. Of the others, I’ve reviewed “Systemic” separately already, you will read reviews of “We Could be Heroes” and “In All Weathers” in the fullness of time, and I didn’t fully read “The Lonely Hearts Quiz League” as I wasn’t keen on the characters.

Rachel Barnett – “Escape to the French Chateau”

(09 May 2024, NetGalley)

Fran is a secret shopper for a big brand hotel chain, set up in that role after a mysterious event after her mum dies, but when she arrives at the chateau and is mistaken for a new staff member she runs with it. Johnny is there on holiday with his brother Noel and two of their staff members: they run a wine company but Johnny’s getting sick of Noel’s ways as he struggles through the end of his marriage. Of course they meet and make friends, and then Johnny finds a crumbling chateau he falls in love with and Fran finds a stray cat SHE falls in love with and suddenly things get more complicated (there is much peril for the cat but he is OK and that is a spoiler but I know you’ll want to know that). A nice holiday read with the usual amount of frustrating non-communication but nice, positive characters with mostly believable back-stories and reactions.

Thank you to Embla Books for offering me a review copy of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Escape to the French Chateau” was published on 12 June 2024.

Tawseef Khan – “Determination”

(19 April 2024, NetGalley)

I spotted this one in a NetGalley email, I think, and was intrigued by the premise of a book set in the offices of an immigration lawyer in Manchester. The second generation to run the company, Jamila Shah is exhausted but keeps on working, her ramshackle office and appearance testament to the thankless task she has. We meet her staff and clients, switching viewpoints to read their stories, returning to Jamila as she tries to carve out some kind of life and even date a bit. The details of the increased Hostile Environment and the struggles of the clients to get a determination on their case (hence the title) is fascinating, the writing unfortunately letting the book down slightly, with some clunky metaphors and a not hugely believable female central character. Khan is a qualified immigration solicitor with a doctorate on the British asylum system, and I personally would have preferred a non-fiction collective biography or memoir rather than a novelisation that didn’t always work. Worth reading for the portrayal of the situation in the UK, though.

Thank you to Footnote Press for selecting me to read this book in return for an honest review. “Determination” was published on 13 June 2024.

Iqbal Hussain – “Northern Boy”

(25 March 2024, NetGalley)

“You’ve done well, mate. You were right to ignore me. We just didn’t know how it would work out. No one from our background did what you did, so we had nothing to go on. We didn’t want you wasting your time. Anyway, you proved us wrong. We’re all dead proud of you. Even me”. He gets me in a headlock and pretends to wrestle me.

Rather frustratingly, this book showed a publication date of June on NetGalley when I downloaded it, this then changed when I was setting up my TBR and now it’s changed again to January 2025 … but I’m pretty sure the book is out and I’ve read it so here we go.

We meet Rafi, successful in his musical theatre career and settled with his long-term boyfriend, setting off from Australia to return to Blackburn for his best friend Shazia’s wedding. He hasn’t been back since his father’s funeral five years previously, and it was another five years back that he left the restrictive atmosphere of the UK after university. He comes across in the modern-day sections as not that likeable (but he gets to grow and change) and in flashbacks to his childhood as alternately smothered and pampered and encouraged to express his dramatic and artistic personality by his equally dramatic and artisitic mum and berated for being his true self, bullied at school and by the local aunties and his own brother. The two narratives converge and then we jump forward in time again for the resolution, nicely done and affecting.

I loved all the little details, creating costumes with Shazia, the women’s changing roles, especially his bete-noir at primary school, changing attitudes to gay people while the community becomes more visibly Muslim, the tapes his mum sends back to Pakistan with all the family news. Very excitingly, the text mentions the Three Investigators Mysteries when talking about Rafi and Shazia’s walkie-talkies! I also loved that Hussain mentions his association with Megaphone in the acknowledgements, a local community organisation that gives mentorship to writers of colour.

Thank you to Unbound for selecting me to read this book on NetGalley in return for an honest review.