Book review: The Life I Didn't Plan by Charlotte Butterfield

What happens when the life you planned has never even got started?

I've read two previous novels by Charlotte Butterfield - The Second Chance and The Sister Switch - and really enjoyed them both. So I was excited to read The Life I Didn't Plan.

Pregnant at seventeen (following a brief romance on a school trip to France), and having become a mother at eighteen, Beth has spent her life looking after others - daughter Maisie, and the terminally ill patients she cares for as a palliative carer. 

What Beth hasn't managed quite so well is forging any kind of life of her own. Forced to leave school due to her pregnancy, the career as a midwife that she dreamt of never got off the ground, and her love life has been an almost complete non-starter.

Now, with nineteen-year-old Maisie away at university, life is about to develop in unexpected ways. A New Year's Eve callout to a dying elderly man takes an extraordinary turn. And it looks like it's time to finally track down Maisie's father, the boy who never answered Beth's letters...

Can Beth finally make a life of her own - even if it's not the one she hoped for at seventeen? And would that life have been the right one for her, anyway?

Sometimes the future we plan isn't nearly as beautiful as the one we never saw coming.

 A great read with an engaging and relatable main character.

Book review: The Death of Us by Abigail Dean

It was you who finished us off. There are people who would say it was me, would say it was Edward. But it was you.

I had The Death of Us on my NetGalley shelf for ages and entirely forgot I had it, which is terrible, because I really liked Abigail Dean's first two books and I'm sure I was keen to read this. But somehow, I forgot. (Weirdly, my Kindle thought I'd read it, but I definitely hadn't.)

Anyway, I have now, and it was just as good as expected. The Death of Us is about the marriage of Isabel and Edward, and the damage wrought by one horrific night when their home was invaded by a serial offender - later, killer - who would not be caught for many years.

It's in many ways a love story. For writer Isabel and lawyer Edward, their love is both enduring and somehow fragile.

    'There would be other lovers, other girlfriends, many people with whom he might    be infinitely happy, but he would never care for anybody as he did for Isabel.'

The victims of the man dubbed, by the press, the South London Invader's reign of terror include the ones who lived - Isabel and Edward, Nina Bosko, Laura Bishop, Andrew Pearson - and the ones who didn't. Nina's parents. Andrew's wife. Others who we never learn the names of.

It's not a thriller - the crimes have happened, the perpetrator has, finally, been caught. Rather, it's a deeply considered study of the lasting effects of trauma - particularly on Isabel, Edward, and their relationship, but also on others. One survivor has turned her trauma into campaigning energy. Another is so deeply damaged as to be barely functioning. Isabel and Edward's surrogate daughter Nina, just four years old when her parents were killed in their home, has built a rewarding life, can now say: "Despite you, I have still been loved."

The story follows different time frames - before and after the attack, and the present day court case - and both Isabel's and Edward's perspective. (Isabel's narrative, addressed to her attacker, illustrates how present he still remains in her head - but also, in a sense, gives her control of the narrative. And ultimately, her decision not to give him her words in court feels significant.) The thread about Isabel's friend and police officer, Etta Eliogu, and her drive to find the attacker, is moving and distressing.

For me this was a deeply compelling, thoughtful read about trauma, love, and eventual survival. It's dark, but hugely engaging... and also hopeful, in its own way.

Reading Agatha Christie in Publication Order: full list and progress

I've had it in mind for years to do a full reread of all the Christies. I'm sure I've read them all at some point - mainly as a teenager in between PG Wodehouse and, later, Stephen King - but I don't remember much about most of them. Well, it was a long time ago, and I've read a lot of books since.

After finishing Laura Thompson's biography (my review here), I got the idea into my head to read the whole lot (i.e. the novels and main short story collections) in publication order. And blether about them on my blog, because why not. So...that's the plan. I'm not sure yet if I'll incorporate the Westmacotts in order or leave them to the end.... I'll see how it goes. (UPDATE: I'm going to leave them to the end, but I *am* definitely going to read them.)

I'm not promising there'll be no spoilers along the way, but I’ll try not to include any major ones.

Full list to date....

#1 The Mysterious Affair at Styles

#2: The Secret Adversary

#3 The Murder on the Links

#4 Poirot Investigates

#5 The Man in the Brown Suit

#6 The Secret of Chimneys

#7 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

#8 The Big Four

#9 The Mystery of the Blue Train

#10 The Seven Dials Mystery

#11 Partners in Crime

Book review: Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

 

"I see you..."

"Trad wife" influencer Mia Wright, of Black Swan Farm in rural Pennsylvania, has a fanatically devoted following - both locally, in Sylvan Village, and far beyond. Her videos showing life at the farm are hugely popular, even if they do often seem to involve some form of accident. Her husband is handsome, her children apparently well-behaved and thriving. Her adoring network of "ambassadors" for Black Swan cherry-scented products make money for her, if not for them. They love Mia, though - she makes them feel seen. Everyone loves Mia, it seems.

Journalist Jenny Kaplan is a completely different kind of woman  - career-oriented, her only family her sister Melissa, who she basically raised. Her long-term relationship has collapsed in madness and grief. When a piece Jenny writes about her life goes viral, its early success quickly sours. She's targeted by trolls, particularly a group who call themselves "The Brotherhood" - and far from supporting her, her employer finds it easier to yield to pressure, and fires her. Her only lifeline is the not-particularly-alluring offer to write a piece on trad wife Mia, a woman Jenny can't relate to in any way. Still, Mia is beautiful and welcoming, the farm charming, the children delightful, even if Jenny has already spotted some discrepancies in the image.

Somewhat against her better judgement, Jenny agrees to return to the farm for a week to write an in-depth piece, at the end of which she and Mia will "swap lives" for a day. But it soon becomes clear that things at the heart of Black Swan are far darker and stranger than she could ever have suspected, and there is no help to be found outside of it.

Animals are sick, buildings are rotting, the children - seven of them, from sixteen-year-old Victoria to baby Isaac - are troubled and strange. Pregnant Mia drinks strong alcohol, exercises frenetically, hints at something incomprehensible. Jenny's room smells of something horrible. The yellow wallpaper - clearly referencing the Charlotte Perkins Gilman story, which has parallels here - seems to contain messages she can't decipher.

And something, or someone, is slithering in the shadows....

It's not long before we're into all-out horror territory. 

Jenny and Mia's story left me with a lot of thoughts and questions. There's a theme about how women are controlled, coerced and fitted into rigid roles, both historically and in the present day - and not only externally but also internally - the repeated phrase "the call is coming from inside the house" is deeply significant. Systems that look voluntary and attractive can still be deeply controlling. Is it possible to break free? The ending is dark, but has elements of hope. 

While the story goes beyond the more familiar territory of the gap between (social media) performance and reality, it's still a strong depiction of how a carefully constructed illusion can mask control, exploitation, and deep emotional damage. What looks like choice may be shaped by invisible but powerful social, economic, and historical forces, represented here in various ways. Is Mr Yellow - the controller, the enforcer of rules - real? I don't know. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe he's the nightmare version of the trad wife ideal - what it's like, at its most extreme, from the inside.

A powerfully unsettling and thought-provoking read. Trad Wife is published on 14 May 2026 and can be pre-ordered here.

Book review: Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Casey

 

I love Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan books, but her standalone ones - into which category this falls - have also been an excellent read. 

First off - a gorgeous cover, and an intriguing title. Garda officers Ben Butler and Liam Farrell are called to a remote cottage in the Irish countryside (North Mayo), where a young woman has been found covered in blood - but it's not her blood, and the friend she lives with is missing. Is the vulnerable-seeming Ruth a witness, a victim, or could she just possibly be a killer? And where is her friend, Maura - does she even exist?

Meanwhile another woman, Lisa, with a past connection to Maura, is missing...

As Ruth tells her story, the police officers - and the readers - have to decide how far she can be believed. Ben feels powerfully drawn to her, but is always aware that she can't necessarily be trusted, and there are things that don't quite add up. I, too, wanted to believe in her, but was in constant expectation - rather like Ben - of having the rug pulled from under me.

Maura, a powerful presence, emerges through Ruth's account of how she entered and basically took over her life.

The Ben and Liam pairing is an interesting one - they're opposites in many ways, from very different backgrounds - Ben having grown up wealthy, Liam the complete opposite - and each makes not-necessarily-warranted assumptions about the other.  Ben, too, is still suffering the fallout from a mistake he made earlier in his career. Over the course of the case, though, the two men develop a bond.

This was a really intriguing and compelling read for me. Possibly, the ending was polished off a bit too quickly, and motivations emerged which we hadn't really had reason to suspect earlier. But overall it was an excellent read.

It's out on 16 July 2026, and can be pre-ordered here.