The Skylight by Louise Candlish, a #QuickReads2021 title #TheReadingAgency

Do you know what Quick Reads is? A ‘quick’ introduction:

One in six adults in the UK – approximately 9 million people – find reading difficult, and one in three people do not regularly read for pleasure.

Quick Reads – a programme by The Reading Agency, a national UK charity – plays a vital role in addressing these shocking statistics by inspiring emergent readers, as well as those with little time or who have fallen out of the reading habit, with entertaining and accessible writing from the very best contemporary authors.

This year Quick Reads is celebrating its 15th Anniversary, which means that over five million copies of Quick Reads titles have been distributed since the life-changing programme began in 2006. To celebrate this year there’s this amazing deal:

“Buy one, gift one:

Buy a Quick Read this summer and Quick Reads will gift a copy to help someone discover the joy of reading.”

And all of the Quick Reads are available in paperback for purchase at just £1.

There is something for everyone in the six 2021 titles:

• The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic);
• The Skylight by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster);
• Saving the Day by Katie Fforde (Arrow);
• Wish You Were Dead by Peter James (Macmillan);
• How to Be a Woman, abridged by Caitlin Moran (Ebury);
• The Motive by Khurrum Rahman (HQ).

I’m very grateful to the lovely publishing team of MIDAS PR for sending me the title of my choice, a copy of The Skylight by Louise Candlish.

Louise Candlish, author of The Skylight (Simon & Schuster) said: It’s an honour to be involved in this [next] year’s Quick Reads. Reading set me on the right path when I was young and adrift and it means such a lot to me to be a part of literacy campaign that really does change lives.”

They can’t see her, but she can see them… Simone has a secret. She likes to stand at her bathroom window and spy on the couple downstairs through their kitchen skylight. She knows what they eat for breakfast and who they’ve got over for dinner. She knows what mood they’re in before they even step out the door. There’s nothing wrong with looking, is there? Until one day Simone sees something through the skylight she is not expecting. Something that upsets her so much she begins to plot a terrible crime…

I haven’t read any of her novels yet but I wanted to get to know this author’s work after reading so many appraising reviews for The Other Passenger and hearing Our House is now in development for a major TV series, so this Quick Reads title seemed like a perfect introduction. I’m normally not a big fan of short stories so it did set the bar rather high. If Louise Candlish could convince me in only 89 pages then I’d definitely want to read more of her novels, if not, well then that would be too bad but at least I’d know. Well I can say that I read the book in one sitting (that’s also a first and I loved it that I didn’t have to put it down in between reading this) and really enjoyed it 🙂

Louise Candlish had no trouble convincing me of her writing, I liked Simone right away I was practically as shocked as she was when I read about her discovery. I don’t know if I’d follow the same course of action (well I don’t think so) but I was with her every step of the way and with such a limited number of pages it still managed to hold the necessary amount of menace and mounting tension that would happen in a full paged book of 300 pages. I could actually foresee the ending a little bit but I hadn’t actually anticipated the big twist. I didn’t actually mind the ending too much, it was ok as a wrap up and one I could live with. I certainly want to read more of her books now so I think that’s mission accomplished.

This Quick Reads title was a nice surprise. They’re not easy to find here in Belgium but if I’d came across them in a bookstore I’d certainly pick up a few more new authors who seem interesting to me.

I received a free copy of a QuickReads title from publisher MidasPR. This is still my honest opinion.

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