I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

This is a captivating read, which is written so beautifully.
The pacing was off in places
The plot was slow but the quality of the writing kept me engaged

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Thought I’d enjoy the family dynamics of this but unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of how everyone was introduced and couldn’t connect to them.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Corvus for providing the advance review copy of this novel by Rachel Donohue.

Like most of the books I am able to get advance review copies of, this is not my usual fare. I do like to try new things, which is why I signed up with NetGalley.co.uk, and this is one of those books that is something new to me that I found enjoyable. Although I used to read lots of fantasy and still play some fantasy games (tabletop and computer games), however these days I’m kind of ‘past it’ so I never got into the recent trend of urban fantasy and all that stuff. Add in the fact this is kind of a ‘coming of age’ sort of story and it’s one I’d probably leave behind at the bookshop.

However, this one stands out as one I’d recommend to someone who doesn’t want a heavy fantasy story but just a bit, sort of… All this sounds like it’s a big fantasy epic, but it’s not, there’s elements of fantasy mystery and plenty is left unexplained (I think that adds to the story, not having every tiny detail explained) and the teen angst plot isn’t overbearing, either. Overall, I enjoyed this one.

This review has been posted to Amazon.co.uk, Netgalley.co.uk and Goodreads, as well as my own site Frankthewriter.wordpress.com

I found this to be quite a hard read, and found myself getting distracted. It was an interesting story but I felt it didn’t hold my interest the way I had hoped.

I was intrigued by the storyline of this and the pretty cover but the contents were a bit of a let down for me. Finished a little while ago but nothing memorable sticking with me now.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

The Beauty of Impossible Things

I really tried. I really wanted to like this book but I just didn’t seem to be able to fully engage with it.
I didn’t like any of the characters. Natasha is precocious and self-centred. Her mother is too floaty and self centred. Dr Black is too pompous and self centred.
The main premise - the mysterious lights on the Ridge and Natasha as an empath just dragged on for far too long without being enough of a hook to keep me interested.
Sadly, just not for me.

Thanks to Atlantic Books, Corvus and Netgalley for the ARC.

The Beauty of Impossible Things is not easy to classify. It relates events from a single scorching summer thirty years ago, when Natasha was fifteen and living with her beautiful, bohemian and unworldly mother in a ramshackle old house above an Irish seaside town. In this regard it might be called a coming-of-age story but it covers a range of themes beyond that. The mother-daughter relationship is the pivot around which Rachel Donohue explores the angst which accompanies the transition from child to young adult. The notion of identity is considered and how we deal with our sense of ourselves alongside the pain of otherness and how far we will go in our desire to belong. This is a gentle, slow-moving, character-driven book; haunting and melancholic, elegiac. At times the book takes on a summer gothic quality. The sense of place is strong and emotions are finely drawn.

The structure of the book is refreshingly simple. It is not all introspection. There is a story involving a mystery, a disappearance and jealousy. Natasha recalls the summer as a middle-aged woman, bringing back the memories at the suggestion of her therapist. This provides an additional layer as older Natasha observes and remarks on those long-ago events and reflects on her own behaviour as an unusual child at a difficult moment in her life. This is a book of longing and regret.

Understated and beautifully written, this is a quiet novel. It still lingers with me and will do so for a while. I would happily read more from Rachel Donohue and will seek out her earlier book. My thanks to Net Galley and Atlantic Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an independent and unbiased review.

Dark and atmospheric, I could feel the heavy heat and feel the tension in the air. Thank you for the ARC.

I enjoyed reading this book. Well-written and evocative with an all-pervading sense of mystery which is not completely dispelled at the end. This is not a criticism - the book leaves one with the feeling that there are things in life which cannot be explained.

A haunting story of events in a young girls life narrated by her thirty years later. This is the haunting tale of Natasha, born with the gift of foresight, living in a world where her strange dreams will become the stuff of nightmares. A fairy tale existence with her bohemian mother becomes fractured when a lodger enters into the family. The uncomplicated residents of the seaside resort she calls home struggle to understand and accept this strange child with supposedly supernatural powers. A retelling of a life full of sadness and regrets. A gentle retelling from a middle aged women of a period of her life when as a teenager she lost control of her thoughts and actions which hugely impacted on those around her. Many thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

The Beauty of Impossible Things is Rachel Donohue's second novel. It follows Natasha, talking through the events of a summer, 30 years previously, when she was 15 years old with her therapist. That summer strange lights appeared in the sky above her small coastal town and Natasha interpreted them as a warning of impending doom. Natasha's fears are realized when a local teenager goes missing and she is called on to help.

I loved Donohue's first novel, Temple House Vanishing and like that this novel has haunting writing and tone unlike other authors I've read from. The Beauty of Impossible things sits perfectly in the Venn diagram of speculative fiction and coming of age story, atmospheric and melancholic, slow in pace and beautifully written. Although at points I wasn't engaged as I anticipated I would be, not that that will stop me from picking up future novels from Donohue!

Thanks Corvus for providing my copy!

Fifteen year old Natasha lives with her mother in a decaying house just outside a seaside resort. The relationships between the locals and the summer visitors are tense and when Mr Bowen arrives to lodge with them, Natasha senses that her life is about to change. Natasha has a gift of prediction and she sees events that change the entire town.
I loved most of this book. the supernatural is played down and the details of what Natasha sees are secondary to the fact that she does see things. It is really a tale about first love and adolescent angst but is beautifully written and memorable

This book is beautiful narrated by the main character Natasha who lives with her mother and she is Fey she sees things that are going to happen and it is both disturbing and sad as it makes her different from other people. It doesn't have any twists or plots that make you want to keep reading it's just one pace but it was quite Interesting near the end .

You will read many reviews that tell you that this tells you a story of a girl gifted with precognition or prescience, that it follow the events of a past summer. In fact this book fails to create a narrative of any sort. For me it is the flattest book i have read in a while. I have no feeling for the characters who are almost ephemeral in whatever can be constructed as a narrative. This is the second book that i have read from this author, like the first this has failed to capture my imagination - I imagine it will be my last from Ms Donohue who fails to create any sort of pace or tension in her meandering narratives

A mysterious, haunting storyline from Rachel Donohue. A coastal village, appears almost ethereal though I believe it’s set in Ireland, seasonal trade and visitors and the locals trying to get by. An imposing house on the edge of the village where our protagonist lives with her beautiful bohemian mother. Natasha now a teenager rebels against home life and her mother’s new lover and takes to the hills and cliffs around the bay, a strange child on the edge of her peer groups, she appears to have the ability to foresee the future and can predict tragedy to a certain extent. When blue flashing lights appear over the bay she’s endeavours to convey their meaning to the local community and the inevitable press that descend on the village.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers Corvus for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

What a mysterious book. One where strange things take place. Great sense of setting, and wonderful characters and personalities. A very easy, straightforward read, but with twists and turns too. Well-balanced between the enchanting writing and gripping plot. I enjoyed this book. Thank you.

The Beauty of Impossible Things almost feels like a ghost story rather than a coming of age tale. The summer that Natasha turns fifteen changes everything, she has the ‘gift’ of foresight and begins to see lights in the sky in her small town. Her mother, beautiful and somewhat of a mystery, is unable to truly accept who Natasha is and avoidable tragedy falls upon the town.
The writing is extremely haunting and hazy, It perfectly sets the scenes of the summer and what is to come.

I rather enjoyed this mystery with a mixture of fantastical, human nature and people's beliefs. It was sad at times and mysterious at others. Another quick read to add to the list.