Beauty in Bloom – Natalie Bloom

Natalie Bloom is the force behind the renowned Bloom cosmetics brand which she started at just 22. This book is a beautiful introduction to beauty for young girls with tidbits on beauty tips, inspirations and the joys to be captured from nature and the everyday – as well as a chapter on what inspires Natalie herself.

From the joy of Makeup to developing your inner beauty, from nature to notebooks and from perfumes to Paris, Beauty in Bloom is an unconventional beauty book penned by Natalie Bloom.

Featuring striking illustrations, Beauty in Bloom is written from the heart and gives a personal insight into Natalie Bloom and the essence of her beauty brand.

Salvage – Jane F. Kotapish

Jane Kotapish has an amazing way with words – her poetic prose will have you oohing and ahhing over the lush descriptiveness of this book. With the touch of her ink roses on a fence "... linger like drunk women at the end of a party, voluptuous past repair, faded, sick with their own perfume."

The book tells the story of an anonymous narrator who leads readers down various paths of her mind, from her memories as a childhood where she would frequently converse to the ghost of her dead sister, Nancy, through to her adult relationship with her bizarre and unkind mother, Lois. The book is a sometimes tangible and sometimes completely intangible study of subconscious and surface, the past and the present – the reader will often be caught between the two! The result is at times fascinating and endearingly written and at other times a little frustrating. Challenging and thought provoking and well worth it if you are fan of words. 

In Bed With…

This collection of saucy stories and erotic bed-time tales is written by a range of award-winning and best-selling novelists such as; Adele Parks, Fay Weldon, Ali Smith, Daisy Waugh, Rachel Johnson, Jessica Adams, Emma Darwin, Jane Moore, Joanne Harris, Bella Pollen, Justine Picardie, Esther Freud, Louise Doughty, Joan Smith and more. This time they have gone under x-rated pseudonyms (a combination of the name of their first pet and their street). So who are Pom Pom Paradise and Minxy Malone? Tutty Monmouth or Sunset Proudfoot?
These stories are great to get you in the mood or to simply keep you entertained. Each has a unique style and are short, snappy reads for those short on time and patience for drawn out novels.
Enjoyable!

RRP: $37
Published by: Penguin Group

My Candlelight Novel – Joanne Horniman

Sophie is a 21-year-old single mother and this beautifully written novel explores her relationships in all their surprising complexities. My Candlelight Novel follows on from an earlier book, Secret Scribbled Notebooks - and although I would now love to read the earlier novel, it was not essential in order to understand My Candlelight Novel. The story encompasses all the important events that occur in ones lifetime - birth, death, love and sex - and the subjects are dealt with in a tender and gentle manner, and one can't help but be drawn into the story and become attached to the characters.
 
A beautiful story full of life experiences - everyone will find something in this story that will stir up past experiences and memories, and make you look at them in a new light.

RRP: $21.99
Published by: Allen and Unwin






Too Close To Home – Linwood Barclay

Synopsis: The book grips you from the get-go with the sad story of the deaths of Albert and Donna Langley and their teenage son, Adam, in their Promise Falls home. Bill Cutter, a neighbour who works as a gardener and his wife, Ellen find themselves wondering who would want to kill the Langleys and what part their sullen 17-year-old son and Adam's friend, Derek, may have played in the tragedy…

Canadian author Linwood Barclay's previous novel, No Time for Goodbye (2007), was a Thriller Award–finalist, and with this novel he continues to show off his talent for weaving an addictive and disturbing page-turner. He has a knack for concluding chapters with cliff hangers that make it very hard to put the book down.

RRP: $38.99
Published by: Hachette Livre

Death Wore White - Jim Kelly

"At 5.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped - stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road. At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow ...For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise..."

Set in Norfolk, England this crime thriller is unusually well crafted for its genre and Jim Kelly has an elegant writing style that is at times almost poetic.  The story is complex enough to keep you guessing through the length, without being completely over-the-top. A strong crime thriller that is initially a little slow but soon picks up the pace.










Twiggy – A Guide to Looking and Feeling Fabulous Over Forty

“When we reach our forties, something changes. Suddenly nothing – hair, skin, body shape – looks quite the way it used to. And it’s a myth to think that by using Botox, working out religiously and wearing skinny jeans you’re going to fool people into thinking you’re thirty… You can find a new kind of beauty and a new way of being confident – why shouldn’t forty, fifty or sixty be as beautiful as twenty or thirty in a different way?”

Twiggy is in her fifties and always looks pretty darn fabulous, so she is a logical person to pen a style guide for women. This book is certainly interesting as throughout she not only shares her style tips (albeit in a slightly waffly manner – she writes as though she is sending an email) but also recommends her favourite products and clothing stores. Sadly the book is not going to be as useful for us Kiwi women as most of Twiggy’s faves aren’t available here, but it still has some great tips for women wanting to age gracefully.

RRP: $55
Published by: Penguin

Who Do You Want to be Today?
Be Inspired to Dress Differently by Trinny and Susannah

Trinny and Susannah show you how to put together 12 completely different styles by analysing iconic photographs and using them to create an inspirational collage style board of styles, colours and wardrobe essentials as the basis for each look. This also includes covering the hair and makeup styles and the finishing touches to help you complete the look.

I like this book because contrary to their television show which talks about what ‘suits’ your body, this is all about what suits your mood and let’s face it fashion should be fun! There are occasions when we feel like looking like a bombshell and others where our mood is more rock chic – whatever takes your fancy there are gorgeous photos and inspirations in this book. The only downside is when Trinny and Susannah accidentally point out that if your styling doesn’t match your personality you fail miserably – seeing them try to pull off ‘Cutting Edge Cool’ with silver leggings and white wigs is laugh out loud funny. Other than that – a great read!

RRP: $47.99
Published by: Hachette Livre

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