Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffry Archer

Be Careful What You Wish For

by Jeffry Archer

This is the 4th book in the Clifton Chronicles  series and it certainly helps if you have read the previous books that deals with the saga of the Clifton and Barrington families during the period of the late 19th century and the early and mid 20th century in Britain.

This book open on a dramatic incident when parents, Emma and Harry Clifton are rushing to the bedside of their son Sebastian who has been involved in a car accident. Later it is found out the accident has been caused by their past enemy, Don Pedro  Martinez who appeared in the book 3.

The plot line throughout the book continues on a similar theme; Don Pedro is out to avenge the wrong done to him by the Barringtons and nothing will stop him.

He arranges for the new liner being built by the Barrington shipping line to be high jacked during its building by a gang of IRA thugs and almost bankrupts the shipping line.He is finally outed but not before a plan is set up to bomb the maiden cruise of the new liner. This book ends just as the bomb is set and the reader is left wondering and now waiting until the author pens the next book in the series to find out just what happened.

Was this the end of the Clifton and Barrington families?

Is this the last we shall hear of Don Pedro Martinez.

A soap opera in book form but very readable.

"Clouds" - challenge painting

"Clouds" - challenge painting

'Clouds" acrylic  20"x13"

This was the challenge for the  February Monthly Challenge Painting  on Face book and I looked forward to this  subject as I have always like looking at clouds . 
We usually don't get many clouds in the area I live as the skies are often just blue with very whispy type clouds if any at all. Sometimes like today, so many low lying clouds they have all joined together and blanket the sky in grey.Not pretty to look at!

Just once in a while we do get a big storm rolling through with even the possibility of a tornado and then the clouds tend to be of the spectacular variety especially if you can catch them just immediately before or after the storm passes.That's when those wonderful photos of storms are taken.

I was wanting to paint  billowing storm clouds and I soon found out his was a hard job to capture . I checked out many photos to see if I could get into the feeling and felt that I just didn't get enough lightness in the painting.

Clouds  watercolor 13"x9"

So I tried again with another painting this time in watercolor as I thought it would be easier to get the light shining through using this medium.  I remembered the cloud in Oregon and remembered how overall grey the scene was so that's how I painted it with blowing clouds and grey skies. 

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates

Carthage is the name of the town  in New York where this book takes place. It tells the story of a  well respected, loving couple and their two daughters Juliet ( the pretty one) and Cressida ( the odd and unusual one). It is a loving family but within the family are misunderstanding between the sisters and sibling rivalry. Into the family comes a young man Brett, who falls in love with Juliet , becomes engaged to her and then become a soldier who goes off to fight in the Iraq war. He comes back as a very disturbed and disabled man.The wedding is called off.

Soon after , the younger now 19. rather  odd daughter Cressida  goes missing and Brett is   thought to have had something to do with this . He is suspected of  murdering her. Under pressure he confesses. But why would he do this?

This could have been the end of the story but it is really just the start and continues with the telling of an intriguing story  with great writing and character description. By the end of the book you feel that you know this family.and  the justice and jail system . You can also understand a great deal about how a bad incident can change family dynamics and lead to many conclusions.Some wrong.

A very detailed book with good emotional understanding of people and their actions.