REVIEWS NON-FICTION THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN LENNON

FICTION THIS TIME NEXT YEAR

by Sophie Cousens, Arrow, £7.99, ebook 99p ★★★ ★★

MINNIE and Quinn were born in the same hospital on New Year’s Eve, one minute apart. While their births are almost identical, Quinn was given a £50,000 cash prize for being the first baby born in London in 1990 – and the name Minnie was meant to have. After 30 years of missed connections, they finally meet again on New Year’s Eve.

A beautiful read, perfect for fans of One Day by David Nicholls and The Versions Of Us by Laura Barnett, with likeable and believable characters. An absorbing tale about fate, love and making your own luck.

ONE MORE FOR CHRISTMAS

by Sarah Morgan, HQ, £7.99, ebook £2.99 ★★★ ★★

FOR pure, unadulterated Christmas schmaltz, look no further than One More For Christmas. Sarah Morgan has

written more than

80 romance novels, with a handful Christmas-themed, like A Wedding In December and The Christmas Sisters.

One More For Christmas has a classic setup: an estranged family is thrown back together and spend the holidays in a remote Scottish castle. The setting couldn’t be

more picturesque, and the drama feels relatively low stakes as the two adult daughters feel their way back into a relationship with their strict mother, who they haven’t spoken to in five years. This is interspersed with the prospect of romance with the owner of the Scottish castle.

Many readers will find the book too fluffy for words, but if romcoms are your bag, you’re in luck. by James Patterson, with Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge, Century, £20, ebook £9.99 ★★★ ★★ THE ubiquitous James Patterson returns with this novelised biography of former Beatle

John Lennon and his murderer, Mark Chapman, 40 years after Lennon’s murder.

Lennon’s story is familiar, spanning Beatlemania, activism, and his last album, Double Fantasy. The book is informed by copious interviews – including with Paul McCartney – and carefully-cited secondary sources. It’s interspersed with scenes from Chapman’s viewpoint, which are reconstructed from available evidence, and attempt to get into the killer’s head. These parts don’t feel entirely convincing, and lend the narrative an odd asymmetry.

While this is no hagiography, it reads almost like an authorised biography – and there was surely nothing ‘authorised’ about John Lennon.