The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan

Laura has just started a new job looking after a beautiful house and it's delightful but mysterious owner.

Eunice has just started a new job at a publishing company, with a boss who she will fall madly in unrequited love with.

The book follows the separate but intertwining stories of Laura and Eunice, focusing mostly on Laura. It shows the similarites and paralells between the 2 strangers, even though their stories are separated by a period of time.

Laura loves everything about the house and Anthony, it's owner. Though she has never been allowed in one particular room, his study. Apart from the study, Laura has free rein, lovingly keeping the house in perfect shape and making sure Anthony is also well looked after. At the same time it seems the house looks after her, helping to heal her past hurts and giving her hope.

When Anthony leaves Laura the house, she finally finds out what was in the locked room. It is full of lost things he has found and collected over the years. The task of trying to return the contents to as many of the original owners as possible is left to Laura and it seems extremely daunting. Luckily she finds support in unexpected places and with the help of new friends Freddy and Sushine it no longer seems as impossible as before. However, not everyone is as helpful and they find that a curious presence seems to be hindering their efforts.

By the end, one of the peculiar findings in the study leads to the Laura and Eunice finally meeting and they both get back the most important things they've been searching for.

Interspersed in the book are little stories to go with the objects, though I was never really sure if the stories were just Anthony's inventions of if they were actually true. I think maybe the reader is supposed to be unsure, as the lines are slightly blurred later on in the book.

I'm recommending this to everyone, it's a wonderful book with some hints of the possibility of magic.

I decided to call my cocktail The Lovely Tea martini (Sunshine is always making the lovely cup of tea!). A lot of tea cocktails use Earl Grey or green tea but my favourite is English breakfast and this is what I imagine they would be drinking in the book. I do love Jasmine tea as well and you can substitute any kind of tea you prefer for different flavours.

I used tea in 2 ways to really get the flavour but you can skip the gin infusion if you prefer. If you do decide to do it, it will need to be prepared in advance. Put some gin in a jar with a tea bag and leave to infuse for at least an hour. Longer will give a stronger flavour.

The tea also needs to be made early but this is just so it has enough time to cool. I used a tea bag in just a small amount of hot water so it could get really strong. When everything is ready, put 1 & 1/2 shots of the tea infused gin, a shot of tea, 1/2 shot of lemon juice and a squeeze of sugar syrup into a shaker with some ice. Shake well and strain into your glass.

I must admit that while the colour is not the most beautiful cocktail I've ever made, it does actually resemble tea and tastes delicious. Obviously I wouldn't advise making a whole mug of this but I just couldn't resist serving it in this very appropriate Christmas present I received last year!

Disrepute

This post is a bit of a departure from my usual. I recently had the chance to try out Disrepute, a new cocktail bar in Soho. I know this is a bit of a stretch but the menu is made up of stories so I've decided that technically this is a good enough excuse to count it as a book review!

Instead of a typical menu, there are 3 pages of short stories to read. As the waitress explained to us, reading the stories can give you a clue to the type of drink and you can choose the one you're most drawn to. Will you go for the story of the Welder's Apprentice, the King of Carnaby, or do you want to find out what happened to the English Rose?

While some descriptions gave us a strong idea of possible ingredients, others left us quite confused. Luckily the answers are in the back of the book, in the form of a list of ingredients next to the initials of the cocktail. We found it fun to choose from the stories but then had a quick check at the back to see whether our guesses were anywhere near the truth. Generally they were not!

The bar is hidden away under Kingly court and is absolutely beautiful. Elegant with dark wood and plush, luxurious seating. Drinks cabinets are dotted around but unfortunately our key didn't fit the lock to open them up. We felt very chilled in our little corner, I think we definitely had the best seats in the place. The staff were very helpful and made us feel like the most important customers.

The cocktails we tried were delicious, with the Vintage Sour as my personal favourite. We definitely felt pretty cheerful after trying a couple and as my dear friend Gemma Chan so eloquently put it at the end of the night - 'The strongs are drink and the drink in the ice didn't help.'

Seven Black Diamonds - Melissa Marr

As with anything written by Melissa Marr, I couldn't wait to read this. Unfortunately there were some problems with my preorder and it took a bit longer than I would have liked but eventually it arrived and finally I got to read it! 

Seven Black Diamonds takes us back to Faerie, but this time it feels more grown up and much more dangerous than in the Wicked Lovely series (by the way, if you haven't read these yet, what on Earth are you waiting for???). Despite being teenagers, these characters are much more mature and much darker. This is probably due to the lives they have had to lead up until this point. As one of the Queen's sleeper cells in the human world, they have been forced to follow orders in her plan to destroy humankind for the damage they cause the Earth. 

However, it actually all started a long time ago and the real motivation is revenge. Many years ago the Queen was pregnant with her heir, the heir to the joint Seelie and Unseelie Kingdoms, but her baby drowned and the Queen killed all those she held responsible. This was not enough for her and she will not rest until all the humans are destroyed. 

Lily is the newest member of the Black Diamonds. Until now her criminal boss father has sheltered and protected her from her true fate, but when she is sent to a new school, she meets the others like her and finds out how much there is that she did not know about her life, her past and her family.

I am already very much looking forward to One Blood Ruby, the finale to this story. I liked that there was a conclusion of sorts at the end of this book, though there is definitely plenty more to come in the second book. In a way it's the best of both worlds, when I love a book I never want it to end and always look forward to sequels, but at the same time I hate being left hanging at the end!

For some reason Fairy books make me want purple drinks so I had to choose something containing creme de violette. The Stratosphere cocktail also incorporates Champagne which is one of my favourite things to drink.

Another very simple cocktail to make, pour one quarter shot of creme de violette into a flute glass and top up with Champagne. Finish by twisting some lemon peel over the drink for the zest, then discard the twist.

The colour of the cocktail I made was so subtle that I had to try and find the lightest background in my flat, but unfortunately is still barely shows in the photo. It probably depends on the brand of violette that you use, mine happens to be fairly pale. You will just have to trust me that in real life it's a very pretty colour!