Talking to Calippa Cumberland - Chick Yuill

Book Cover with Girl's Face and Christmas Tree

It’s half past four on Christmas Eve, 1976. Lori Bloom, aged three and three-quarters, is leaving a busy department store with her mother when the tannoy announces that a child in reception is lost and crying for her parents.

The impact on Lori is immediate. ‘Calippa Cumberland’, the mysterious girl with blonde hair and a curious name, becomes her imaginary friend and a constant presence into adulthood. For as one Christmas follows another, Lori finds herself confronting painful questions and in need of a companion in whom she can confide.

But will there ever be someone Lori can completely trust? And will Christmas Eve ever be about finding and being found, rather than losing and being lost?

* * *

I've read and reviewed Chick's books before and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to reading his latest, Talking to Calippa Cumberland, and I wasn't disappointed.

Chick is never afraid to address tough issues in his books. In this case the challenges started from the very beginning, as this book is written in the first person from a female point of view. Kudos must be given to his daughters who apparently answered some of the kinds of questions not often asked of daughters by their Dads, although they warned him they would only answer them once! Chick's research approach proved effective, because Lori is both believable and relatable as a character at the various points in her life. 

I enjoyed her connection with her invisible friend Calippa, and the journalling/letters worked really well. I love letters in stories! Chick has done well to make Lori the child as engaging as Lori the adult, and the views of the world through her eyes are beautifully told.  I also love the description of 17 Morley Close, when Lori walks on the wall and talks to Calippa, for example. There's lots of detail which helps make the story feel immersive, but the detail doesn't overtake the storytelling. There's humour here and there too, such as Lori's wry observation on Christmas Eve 1996 that 'There are even some compliments on my cooking which, since we're only on the first glass of wine, actually seem to me to be genuine.'

The story manages to weave the traditional, in the form of the Christmas Eve carol services, and the secular, partly in the form of Lori's very sceptical view of religion, which stems in no small part from the tough situations she had to face from a young age. There are some gems of peripheral characters too, of whom my favourite is definitely Madge, whose friendship with Lori starts as an annual meeting on the church steps on Christmas Eve, but who will be influential in no small way in Lori's life.

Setting the story on a series of Christmas Eves is a different approach which works well. There are some twists in Lori's story, some of which were WAY bigger than expected, and some very sad, but overall this is a novel of hope. Of faith rebuilding trust. Of overcoming loss and letting go of the fears it brings. Plus a large helping of the importance of being aware that what may seem to be someone's perfect life can easily be anything but away from the public's eye. 

And the end is awesome (but no spoilers here! 😉).

An engrossing read, recommended as a fresh approach to the 'Christmas Novel/Novella' genre.

Note: For more conservative readers, be aware that the book does include some sexual content.

Chick Yuill is a speaker, writer and broadcaster with a passion to bring matters of faith out of the narrow confines of a religious ghetto and into the wider arena of public life and discourse. He writes fiction because of his lifelong love of words and out of his growing conviction that nothing reaches truth or touches people’s hearts better than a well-told story. 

Talking to Calippa Cumberland is his sixth novel published with Instant Apostle.

He has been married to Margaret for more than 50 years and has her name tattooed on his arm for the sheer joy of it.

9781912726486, Instant Apostle, October 2021

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.

Year 0033 - J M Evans

This novel, set in a dystopian future, is a gripping read.  Chella is a young woman who lives in ‘Area IF208’.  Religion is banned, but Chella is a member of one of the thriving underground churches.  Her life seems settled, but people are disappearing – and one of them is a close friend.  Rumours are circulating of people living Outside and worshipping in freedom.  Then Chella’s fiancé Jedan is arrested and Chella is questioned.  Before long they are on the run, trying to navigate their way through the Outside, looking for the Christians they believe they’ll find in a place called Anderley.

This is a multi-layered book. The beginning reminded me strongly of the early church, and the threat of danger and persecution reminded me of more modern situations too.  The characters are living their faith in a real, down to earth and practical way, and have to make hard decisions.  Not least leaving everything they’ve known, to set out with a grandmother and young baby on a very uncertain journey with little but faith and an old map to guide them. 

Elements of trust, hope, faith and truth run through the whole book.  There are also secrets and lies and some of these are BIG, such as the Elite’s ‘staff’. There is plenty of tension, and a nice big twist in the tale which I really enjoyed.  An excellent and challenging story for teenage or adult readers with some interesting and useful Reading Group Questions at the back.

9781912457441  Dernier Publishing, paperback

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.

Tacos for Two - Betsy St Amant

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can't cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red - and an upcoming contest during Modest's annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she's been talking to via an anonymous online dating site.

Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father's law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he's back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option.

Complications arise when Rory's chef gets mono and she realises she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he's been falling for online the past month.

Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the name of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?

Rory Perez owns a food truck specialising in her late aunt’s tacos, but she relies on chef Grady and hides the fact that she can’t cook and her business is in financial trouble.  Jude Strong is at odds with his scheming father and brother, loves cooking and hates working at the family law firm.  When Jude buys a food truck of his own, his father gives him an ultimatum: If he wins the town’s Food Truck Festival contest he can leave the firm.  But the odds are stacked against him – and he doesn’t realise that the woman he’s been falling for online is the same woman he’s in competition with for the Festival prize!  And her need to win is at least as desperate as his.

 

This is a brilliantly written twist on the plot of You’ve Got Mail, and the references and quotes pop up throughout the book.  It’s an energetic and funny read with some mystery elements which add spice to the mix.  I really enjoyed it, which says something about the way the author writes, since Rory is decidedly unlikeable on a number quite a few occasions.  She’s often self-obsessed and quick to make negative assumptions about Jude, such as accusing him multiple times of using her, or her young cousin Hannah.  She’s not so quick to realise that she’s often guilty of the very thing she’s accusing Jude – usually incorrectly – of.  And she makes an astonishingly racist comment to him.  Anyone who likes You’ve Got Mail will be entertained by this one.  Quite honestly though, if I were Jude I think I’d’ve dropped Rory like a hot potato, but he’s much nicer than me!

9780800738907, Revell, UK release November 2021