Sticky Fingers 2: Another 12 Short Stories – JT Lawrence

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I thoroughly enjoyed the first collection of short stories, craving more the whole time. When I heard that there is a new collection I placed my order and kept willing Lawrence to finish quickly. 

I was not disappointed.

It is fully loaded with stories that are beautifully written and even some that left me thirsting for a full novel.

There is a little of everything, stories that will creep you out, that will make you laugh and even some that will make you doubt your reality.

Of course, no reader can say that when reading these collections, that they can’t pick a favourite. There are some of these stories that will stay with me and I will reread them. 

If you read the previous collection of short stories there is even an old favourite that will make a reappearance and leave you with a stitch in your side from laughing.  

84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff

♥♥♥♥ Those who know me well, know that I love letters, and was introduced to the magic that is books published telling stories through letters.  This charming classic love story, first published in 1970, brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, at the time, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London at 84, Charing Cross Road. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that has touched the hearts of thousands of readers around the world This does not disappoint, you get to know the people through their correspondence with each other. It started off as a woman, Helene Hanff, buying books from a bookshop in London, gradually you get to know all the people who work in the shop and she tells more about her life as a writer in New York. This is a great compilation of letters and I’m glad I also got the audiobook. That was narrated by Juliet Stevenson and John Nettles. The two narrators brought a different dimension to these letters, they blew life back into them

Bridge to Haven - Francine Rivers

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What can you say, it’s a Francine Rivers book. As expected the characters go through hell, to come together in perfect unison. Rivers has a way of describing situations that pull you in and make you fall in love with the characters. 

To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she’s paid to finally feel like she’s somebody. To Pastor Ezekiel Freeman, Abra will always be the little girl who stole his heart the night he found her, a wailing newborn abandoned under a bridge on the outskirts of Haven.

The characters are well written, with personal growth throughout the book. Abra and Joshua are some of those characters that crawl into your heart and stays with you long after you have closed the book.

I even love it when an author can write the “bad guy” in such a way that when he is a part of the story it makes your hackles rise.

The cover design is also gorgeous and I bought it before I even looked at the summary at the back

In perfect Francine Rivers style, knows how to take a Bible story and turn it into this perfectly recreated scenario that both makes you look at it in a different light and also teaches you a valuable lesson.