Audiobook Review: The Invitation by Lucy Foley

“That spring was the start of everything, for me. Before then, I might have been half-asleep, drifting through life.”

The Invitation by Lucy Foley is set in Rome, 1953, when Hal and Stella meet by chance, two outcasts in a city far from home. It’s a bright awakening for Hal. He believes he’s found the love of his life – his Stella, his star. To his dismay, the mysterious girl disappears as quickly as she swept in, and Hal’s life as a journalist falls back into its familiar routine. But when he’s asked by an Italian Contessa to assist on a trip of a lifetime – acting as the reporter on a tremendous yacht, skimming its way along the Italian Riviera towards Cannes film festival, Hal can’t believe his good fortune. Especially when a familiar beauty becomes a passenger.

Book Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

“Only you – and the killer – hold the key…”

Set to be published on 3rd March, The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley is set in No.12 Rue des Amants, a beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine. Here, n nothing goes unseen. And everyone has a story to unlock. Meet the watchful concierge, the scorned lover, the prying journalist, the naïve student, and the unwanted guest. Something terrible happened here last night. A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three. Only you – and the killer – hold the key…

My 2020 Reading Wrap-Up

Over the past couple of years, I have documented every film that I have watched and reviewed them all using Letterboxd. As a way to motivate myself to read more, I thought I would do the same for what books I have been reading, using Goodreads as a way to set myself a reading challenge every year.

I initially set my target as 25 books this year, but a few things happened that meant I reached this goal quite early on. Firstly, I had a baby, so this meant that I was awake at silly hours with plenty of time to read. Then, there was lockdown. Because of lockdown, I decided to join Bookstagram and NetGalley and get more serious about reviewing books. So now, instead of reading two books at most a month, I’ve been reading up to ten.

I upped my goal to 60 around halfway through the year, and still managed to pass that by reaching 74 books. This year has really rekindled my love of books, and I can’t wait to start 2021 with this new passion.

Here’s how my 2020 challenge went:

Book Review: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

“Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?”

Published in 2019, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley follows a group of thirty-something friends who take a trip to an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands to get away and celebrate entering into the New Year together. It’s been ten years since they went to Oxford together, but once the first bottle of champagne pops, it’s like nothing’s changed. That is until the reminiscences about the past in front of a crackling fire open up the weight of decade-old secrets and resentments. Just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world, the cord holding the group together snaps amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve. Now, one of them is dead, and another of them did it.

Book Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

“The sound of the scream rings in the air after it has finished, like a struck glass. The guests are frozen in its wake. They are looking, all of them, out of the marquee and into the roaring darkness from where it came. The lights flicker, threatening another blackout”

Written by Lucy Foley and published in 2020, The Guest List is set on a remote island off the Irish coast, the venue for the wedding of the year. But this is one guest list no one would want to be on. As family and friends assemble, the lives and secrets of the principal characters are unravelled to reveal that each has a reason to want one of the party members dead. When the lights go out and one of them is found murdered, which one of them has been pushed to their limit?