300 Days of Sun audiobook

Debaixo do SolCrimes e escapadelas sob um sol que brilha, incansavelmente, cerca de 300 dias por ano, e que por feliz acaso até é bem nosso!Aposto que, tal como eu, desconheciam que o nosso querido e amado sol era tão diligente assim?!A continuar com esta cadência, ainda nos tomba em cima com algum esgotamento!!! 😜 Aprender é sempre louvável, mas… invade-nos uma sensação algo incómoda, sempre que são estrangeiros a ensinar-nos sobre a nossa própria pátria. Quando assim é, sentimo-nos, impreterivelmente, culpados — acaso não estaremos nós a negligenciar o nosso "jardim à beira mar plantado"?!😉😜

(Review originally published on my blog, April 2016)Something I have found about holidaying alone is that I tend to develop more intimate relationships to the places I visit. When I've stayed somewhere on my own, I often feel as though I've lived there for a short period - even if the duration of my holiday was just a few days - and find I can recall features of the area, such as the layout of streets, in far more more detail than seems usual. I'm mentioning this because the main setting of 300 Days of Sun is Faro, Portugal, which I visited on a solo trip last year, and there's no doubt that this added to my enjoyment of Deborah Lawrenson's latest novel. Specific places I visited - such as Ilha Deserta and the Chapel of Bones - are key to the story. There's always something a little bit thrilling about that, and though Lawrenson's description is sharp and vivid, being able to picture these places from memory definitely added to the effect. There are two stories here, told in alternating parts. In 2014, Jo, a journalist who has fled to Faro to escape a persistent ex-boyfriend, meets Nathan at a Portuguese language class. He tells her he's there to seek the truth about his real parents, and suspects there may be links between his past and two resorts close to Faro, where a number of child abductions have taken place. Jo finds a contact with possible connections to the resorts; he gives her a book which, he says, contains information that will help her get answers. The book is a 1954 novel named The Alliance, with its roots in the real life story of its American author, Esta Hartford. Extracts from Esta's novel, set during the Second World War in Lisbon and Faro, make up the second plot strand.I have a real weakness for the type of story in which a character investigates a mystery at a fairly slow place, by following a trail of clues - exploring locations related to the crime, looking up old newspaper articles at the local library, and arranging meetings with people who might know something, who then pass them on to other people who might know something (view spoiler)[(or make a cryptic comment and then get murdered before they can reveal any more) (hide spoiler)]. It's all well-trodden ground, but I absolutely love it, and Jo and Nathan's story is a perfect example. Their sections were my favourites, and I could quite happily have read a whole book about these two characters. I even loved the quiet scenes of Jo's everyday life: attending classes, pottering around her rented flat, going out for a walk and a coffee - they're so real and ordinary, and really brought Jo to life for me.By contrast, the Esta sections take quite a while to really get going. Jo's bits are in first person and Esta's in third, which perhaps makes Esta - or rather, her avatar, Alva - harder to get close to. The content also initially seems somewhat drier, as Alva and her husband Michael (another journalist) struggle to adjust to wartime life when they find themselves stranded in Portugal. But as more is revealed, the Esta/Alva narrative becomes just as fascinating as the modern-day story; perhaps even more so, as it spans years and involves a richer sense of history.300 Days of Sun doesn't break any new ground, but it's a lovely, gentle, feelgood read complete with gorgeous locations, an interesting mystery and a pinch of romance. It's the perfect book for anyone craving a little bit of relaxing escapism.I received an advance review copy of 300 Days of Sun from the publisher through Edelweiss.

Quando peguei no 300 dias de sol, pensei que ia ler um romance parvo na praia e acabei envolvida num policial onde há mistério, crimes, uma pitada de romance e é um livro passado em Portugal, mais precisamente em Faro. Entretanto fui pesquisar pela autora e percebi que é bastante conhecida lá fora e totalmente anónima no nosso país, o que é irónico porque a sua investigação sobre Faro, Lisboa, Cascais, Estoril e partes da nossa história é absolutamente fabulosa.O enredo base do livro é o rapto de uma criança - remete logo imediatamente para o caso Maddie mas é apenas uma coincidência - e, a partir daí, entramos no universo das duas personagens principais e das investigações que dão corpo a este mistério intrigante. E quando pensamos que o livro se vai ficar por um policial cheio de espionagem e duas personagens principais apaixonadas no meio de um crime, Deborah faz uma coisa extremamente interessante: cria um novo livro dentro do livro ao colocar-nos a ler o que a personagem está a ler. E deixamos de nos focar no desvendar do mistério do rapto, para entrarmos num livro (ficcional) sobre a II Guerra Mundial em Lisboa, a espionagem, os crimes de guerra, o jornalismo falso e o romance entre uma americana e um nazi, num labirinto de relações entre personagens que nos deixa sem fôlego e em ânsias para resolver o crime. Ao longo do livro vamos saltando entre estes dois períodos temporais que aparentemente podem não estar relacionados mas, afinal, são uma parte-chave de todo o mistério, o que torna esta leitura uma festa.Uma das coisas que mais me fascinou é que a personagem principal, Joanna Millard, é uma jornalista acabada de ser despedida e que viaja para Faro para fugir de todos os problemas da sua vida. E quando viajamos sozinhos, tendemos a absorver muito mais o ambiente que nos rodeia e a criar relações muito mais próximas com as cidades. E é exactamente o caso: o envolvimento da personagem com Faro é intenso ao ponto de darmos por nós a ler pormenores sobre o nosso país aos quais, provavelmente, nunca prestámos atenção mas que a autora de alguma forma os achou relevantes para os colocar no seu livro. E faz um trabalho fantástico ao conseguir enviar-nos mentalmente para todos os cenários com descrições absolutamente fenomenais, sobretudo das nossas tradições, que estão irrepreensíveis. Parece que a autora viveu cá, mas não. Apenas passou duas semanas em Faro com a filha, apaixonou-se pela nossa cultura e conseguiu transmitir a nossa história de uma forma comovente.Porque é que o livro se chama 300 dias de sol? Porque, numa das partes, é referido que é impossível ser-se infeliz num país que tem 300 dias de sol ao ano - o nosso. O que me deixa a pensar que isto é capaz de ser verdade e que só nós, que cá vivemos, é que não lhe damos o devido valor.

"Nothing is what it should be." " We cannot go back to what we once were". Both quotes are very appropriate for the theme of this novel. 300 Days of Sun is a well written novel by Deborah Lawrenson. It is an intriguing story within a story which takes place in Portugal decades apart ( present day and WWII). There are numerous elements to this novel; romance, complex relationships, historical events, espionage, mystery, to name a few. I personally enjoyed the detailed descriptions of historical sights in Lisbon.

Pela capa parece um bom romance light de verão. Mas não é. Acaba por se tornar um thriller com contornos de romance histórico. Divide-se em duas narrativas, uma no presente que se passa em 2014 e outra durante a segunda guerra mundial. No entanto, são histórias diferentes e acaba quase por ser uma história dentro da história. Gostei muito deste facto de existirem duas histórias diferentes ao longo do livro. No entanto, não fiz grande clique com o livro ou com as personagens. Lê-se bem, é relativamente fácil, tem muita informação histórica, mas não me arrebatou.

This story was told in two separate time periods and initially I longed to return to the current day, to spend time with Nathan & Jo in their search for the truth about his heritage.   And if I'm honest I was hoping for a romantic liaison to develop between them.    As the book progressed and we spent more time with Alva during the pre and post WW11 years, I became more invested in that story.    The writing was on the wall for Alva's marriage and I became caught up in the emeging relationship between Alva and Klaus.I enjoyed both the setting and the mystery that was woven into each of the separate stories.   I'd read some 70% of the book before the two began to converge, but despite this I loved the feeling of unpredictability about where the story might (and eventually did) take me.This was my first title by Deborah Lawrence any was excited to see she has written a number of other successful novels which I'll endeavour to get my hands upon.   Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this free electronic copy.

Dois períodos, uma história incrível.Penso que não há melhor forma de descrever este livro de Deborah Lawrenson com Portugal como cenário.Li sem pesquisar do que se tratava e até sem ler a sua contra-capa, foi uma sugestão que vi no @hmbookgang e arrisquei. Decisão acertada!Joanna viaja até Faro para fugir dos dramas da sua vida e Nathan é um jovem que procura resolução para um mistério. Um livro une-os numa história que entre idas e vindas promete ser a maior das suas vidas.Conseguimos sentir a tensão a cada página e este romance/thriller salta entre ambos os géneros de uma forma frenética.É uma história de guerra, com acções passadas na Segunda Guerra Mundial e ao mesmo tempo um romance moderno que de confuso nada tem, ambas as épocas conseguem obter um resultado perfeito.Um livro dentro do livro com uma escrita inteligente e descrições do nosso país que são rigorosas mas ao mesmo tempo puras.

Surpreendente bom! Mistério no rescaldo da 2a guerra mundial.99% da acção é passada em Portugal, a maioria dos lugares são conhecidos só alguns são ficcionados. À medida que a leitura vai avançando vem-nos à memória uma sensação de dejá vu ! Gostei e recomendo!

Joanna Millard meets Nathan Emberlin in a Portuguese language class in Faro, Portugal, after breaking up with her boyfriend and losing her job as a journalist. Nathan approaches her to help him investigate an old family friend with connections to shady dealings involving holiday resorts and even some missing children. Jo and Nathan's present-day story is interspersed with excerpts from The Alliance, a novel that tells the story of journalist Michael Barton and his wife Alva, who flee from Paris to Portugal just after the World War II begins. The book is, in fact, an autobiographical account by Esta Hartford of events that have a direct bearing on Nathan's investigation.Set on the Algarve coast of southern Portugal, a land which experiences three hundred days of sun, this is a story of romance, mystery, suspense, and international intrigue. Fictional elements are expertly blended with real-life details, such as the storm of 1941, the presence of expats during the war, the Portuguese government's dealings with the Nazis, and the disappearance of young children from holiday resorts. The author has a real talent for describing the oppressive atmosphere of the place, both in the past and the present. You will be kept in suspense, trying to work out how the two stories are connected.An intriguing blend of contemporary and historical genres.I received this book in return for an honest review.Full blog post (22 June): https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.co...

When you pick up a novel by Deborah Lawrenson you can be sure of one thing, that you are going to be transported to a fascinating place that will come alive as you turn the pages. In 300 Days of Sun, that location is Portugal, and you not only feel that you are there during the read, you will be checking travel sites to see how you can get there in real life.Journalist Joanna Millard washes up in Faro, on the southern Algarve coast, to take a Portuguese language course. It’s high summer yet the town seems downbeat, a long way from the luxury resort hotels out along the shore. At the language school, she meets charismatic Nathan, a younger guy who just wants to have a good time. Only, as she gets to know him better, she discovers this good-time persona is about as far from the truth as could be.When he asks Joanna for her help in researching dubious dealings and criminal activities in the region, including instances of child disappearances, she only reluctantly agrees. Using her journalist’s know-how, she makes contact with a retired British ex-pat, Ian Rylands, who suggests that she might find answers in a novel written and quickly forgotten in 1954, The Alliance by Esta Hartford. He gives her a copy, but she only starts to read it after Nathan makes a startling admission.At first, it seems like the two stories can’t possibly be connected. Esta Hartford was an American woman who spent the years of the second world war in Lisbon with her foreign correspondent husband, but Rylands insists her novel The Alliance is a true story based on her experiences. But the more Joanna pulls the threads together, the more credible a link seems to be – and the implications are frightening.Esta’s autobiographical story of Alva and Mike Barton is a novel-within-a-novel, and I have to say I started the first extract of The Alliance with a sinking heart. I’d got involved with Jo and Nathan, and I didn’t want to be pulled out of that. But bear with it. You soon get equally caught up in what happens to the Bartons as they escape France as Hitler’s army invades, and end up in Lisbon, from where there seems so escape. Lawrenson gives a brilliant picture of Lisbon, the espionage capital where no-one is quite what they seem. In neutral Portugal, the Nazis and the Allies walk the same streets, eat at the same restaurants and gamble against each other at the casino.Alva wants to leave, expects that they will soon be leaving, but her husband has other ideas. He seems more interested in his job than in her happiness, and the marriage starts to come apart. It’s a familiar story, but here, set against the sea mists and intrigues of a dangerous city, it’s really unsettling. Alva is a strong woman, who becomes braver and braver as the book goes on, and I really enjoyed her part of the story and really wanted to find out how everything connected. Actually, there are only three Alliance sections and the last one is short.The historical aspects of this book are extremely well done. I learned quite a bit about Portugal and what went on there during the war but it was all completely relevant to the story. I thought this book was a great read, a clever combination of a thriller-type story, fast-paced in places, with psychological overtones and beautiful writing. Lawrenson’s writing is so intelligent and smooth with fabulous lyrical insights that sometimes I had to stop and just read what I’d just read again. When she writes of terrible things, the knife goes in so smoothly that it gives you a shiver that it could be that easy.

I am going up to 5 stars for this one! Highly unusual for me ;-) but I feel it's closer to a 5 than a 4 and my favorite of Lawrenson's books so far. There are things that I expect from a Deborah Lawrenson book after discovering her through TLC Book Tours of her first two books, The Lantern (set in Provence) and The Sea Garden, (set on a Mediterranean Island off the French Coast). When describing her writing, I always fall back on the word "lush." There are the beautiful and lush locations she writes about and the lush way she describes them that makes a reader feel as though there is a touch of sun on their face and they are smelling the sea air, hearing the cries of the birds, seeing the local flowers and foliage, and tasting the delicious food. There is also that Gothic literature feeling that her writing evokes--knowing that beneath all that beauty, especially in the crumbling corners of old buildings and ruins, there lurk secrets, mystery and menace. 300 Days of Sun does not disappoint, in fact I found it to be more of a pulse pounder than the first two books and it had me turning the pages with a sense of anticipation and dread to learn the secrets of tiny seaside Faro, Portugal--both in World War II and those carried on to present day and find out just how it was all woven together. The story goes back and forth from present day Faro, where recently-unemployed journalist Joanna is staying while completing a Portuguese language course and meets Nathan, a younger man with a mystery that he seeks her help in solving. As she begins to investigate, a British expat she meets suggests that she read a novel written by an American woman about her experiences in Faro and nearby Lisbon during World War II. At first Joanna doesn't see a connection between the book and Nathan's mystery, but the probing that she and Nathan do into the past seems to be digging up trouble, danger and even murder. The back and forth and the story within a story work well here as it kept me guessing and wondering throughout the book. I am a fan of wartime fiction, particularly World War II, and as in The Sea Garden, Lawrenson has taken a country where I didn't know much about the effects of the war on the citizens and expats that lived there and given an interesting perspective with her detailed research of the political issues, spying, and intrigue that occurred. But, even if you are not typically a fan of historical fiction don't shy away from 300 Days of Sun as it is a excellent mix of mystery and romance, modern day and history, and she tosses in some travel writing to wrap it all in a setting that will make you carry it outside to your lanai, just to feel the sun on your face and to warm any goosebumps that might pop up as the tension builds. You can see my review and a couple of delicious recipes inspired by the book on my Kahakai Kitchen blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...Note: A review copy of "300 Days of Sun" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received an ARC copy of 300 Days of Sun from the publisher. It did not disappoint. Lawrenson is a master at setting a scene, and I quickly found myself absorbed in the stifling heat and beauty of the Portuguese coast, which perfectly fit this story of conspiracy, murder, love, and the search for truth. I especially loved the characters of Joanna and Alva, two distinctly different women living seven decades apart. One knows her mind – pretty much, and the other has to discover who she really is against a culture that does not foster female independence. Yet, each woman has the courage to stand against the secrets and danger that have reached across 70 years to threaten them both. 300 Days of Sun is a great combination of beautiful writing that is a pleasure to read, a tense plot, and characters that make you care. I will definitely recommend it to my friends.

I wish more fiction readers knew about Deborah Lawrenson, she really is a great novelist. Her books always have great detail of place and time, revealing the amount of research Lawrenson must do. I enjoyed this one for various reasons: a unique locale (Portugal), a believable &relatable narrator, WWII historical fiction backstory woven into contemporary tale, true crime suspense, and an interesting ending. Jo's story and Alva's story were both so compelling, I didn't want to put the book down!

Journalist Joanna Millard, having just lost her job and needing separation from her boyfriend Marc, travels from Brussels to Faro, Portugal. She spends her days taking language lessons and lazily exploring the history and natural beauty of this seaside town. She soon befriends fellow classmate Nathan Emberlin, who enlists Joanna to investigate a number of child kidnappings that have occurred in the area. As Joanna reaches out to the locals, she uncovers 'The Alliance', a novel written by Esta Hartford, which recounts an American couple's experiences in Portugal during WWII. Although written as fiction, Joanna begins to suspect that the story of 'The Alliance' and the mysterious kidnappings are somehow connected. So, I have to admit that when I first started reading this back in 2016, I gave up on it after only 100 pages. At the time I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, and honestly found the writing to be slow and dry, and I just couldn't get interested in the premise of the story. Fast forward to present day, I decided to give 300 Days of Sun a second chance when I found it would fit one of the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge tasks.I'm so happy to have restarted it again. While the writing is still slow, and I didn't really find it very thrilling, the descriptions of Faro, and the Algarve coast are so wonderfully vivid. I found myself engaged with the characters, almost imagining myself following in their footsteps, lazily enjoying the sun's heat or exploring the historical beauty of Portugal. The use of the two timelines, with Joanna and Nathan in present day Faro and the Faro of WWII depicted in 'The Alliance', works really well and adds a certain historical depth to the mystery. Both stories eventually converge, providing a satisfying tying up of loose ends.300 Days of Sun has almost all you could hope for; mystery, espionage, history and romance and is really the perfect read for the lazy days of summer ahead of us.Thank you to NetGalley and Lawsome Books for providing a digital advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I listened to the audio version of this story and the performers knew their stuff! I was engrossed in the kid-napping mystery and although a bit confused at times, really enjoyed the story. It was quite expressive and visual, so much so that at times I couldn't listen during my commute due to distractability. I don't often have great luck with a random selection from the public library's picked-over options, but was pleasantly surprised by this one. A couple curse words scattered throughout didn't dissuade me- maybe because they aren't as offensive in a foreign accent. (Except now I'm mulling those very words over in my head with my classy depiction of the queen's English🙄). I digress. This story had it all: mystery, romance, suspense, war, peace, family, travel,... although now that I think of it- the last sentence left me a bit confused 🤷🏻‍♀️. That may be because I don't read too deeply into fiction. Anyway. Enjoy!