Thoughts 
The Radleys by Matt Haig, Free Press 2010, 285 pages, eBook/Kindle
“Irresistible… Full of clever turns… darkly hilarious spins… Even if you’re suffering from vampire fatigue, you’ll find The Radleys is a fun, fresh contribution to the genre.” — Associated Press
Nancy the BookFool told me about this one. She tells me about a lot of great books but sometimes the stars align and I immediately get a book in my hands and read it before I really even know what its about. I obviously missed something here. Or my memory got wiped clean along the way. I think I downloaded because I recognized the author name from Twitter. I had ZERO idea this was about vampires until I was a page or two into it.
Guess that doesn’t say much about my discernment skills but might say a whole bunch about the persuasion powers of the Fool. (OK, I will tell you what happened. I saw her review, read the title of it and that Matt Haig wrote it and so I immediately went to goodreads or maybe even Amazon and bought it. I never read Nancy’s thoughts until just before writing this post. Though, I must have seen that she didn’t hate it? Hmmm. Anyway…)
A family drama, a romance or two. Bad choices (on the part of the adults) and lots of well-done teenage angst about deciding “who am I?” I loved the thoughts of the kids but not so much the mother. I didn’t ‘get’ her and her motivations. I did like the dad. Full of humor and fast-paced plotting. I recommend for a fun quick read.
BUT THE KICKER!??! I swear this is set in the very same spot in England that Georgette Heyer’s Venetia was set! So that was just… ODD. And somewhat disorienting. And cool – I love the coincidences that pop up between book choices.
Do you like the cover? I do. Which I never really looked at until I finished because it was an eBook. Another quibble I have about eBooks – they hide the copyright page.
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HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine
Care's Books and Pie 
I had no idea this was a vampire book either but are those bats on the cover? That should have been a big hint! LOL.
Hey Ti! It’s about VAMPIRES! Actually, it’s a book about family crisis and what you do to protect the ones you love. Just happens to be a family of vampires. But yea, it’s a lovely vampire book with bats on the cover which I didn’t notice.
Yeah, I’m not so sure I’m up for a vampire book.
It was the best vampire book I’ve ever read. (Am trying to think how many I’ve read… Rice’s Interview (think Tom Cruise with fangs), Twilight, and… that might be all of them? huh.)
I, personally, love it when a book I start is completely different from what I was expecting. Wait, except for that one and that one and that one, okay so it’s a crapshoot as to whether or not I like it…
Darn those exceptions to the rules!
I have this one on my shelf but I like your cover better! I love bookish coincidences!
I get such a kick out of the coincidences, I do.
I like the cover you’ve posted here, and I like the other cover I’ve seen (and own) with the white picket fence where the fenceposts are stakes. I’m glad you liked it — I bought it at a book fair recently in a book-fair-induced book-buying madness, and I was worried I would end up regretting it.
I hope you like it. I think I will read more Matt Haig. Loved the video – makes me really want to be a writer. I suppose I should go to a class some day.
I didn’t hate it. 😉 Matt Haig has actually become one of my auto-buy authors although I checked The Radleys out from the library. Love his writing. Cute video, too.
Love the cover. So much more interesting than the picket fence copy, in my humble opinion.
Thanks for the shout-out!
I really like Mr. Haig, too. LOVE the video. I have all the tendencies of being a writer — except the writing part. ha! Ya know… I am feeling bad about not not yet reading Mr. Alex George’s The Good American – gotta fix that soon.
Vampires? I saw the title in your post and assumed it was a spin off from To Kill A Mockingbird!
Um, just last week visited the rainforest at the zoo and was able to view very active bats up close and personal. Shiver. Even that cover scares me now.