My (semi) regular Bookends post is based on an idea from Simon at Stuck in a Book . If you’ve not read his Weekend Miscellany posts take a look at the most recent one.

This week I’m featuring  a new novel from an author in Wales and a blog post addressing a dilemma faced by many bloggers who receive advance copies from publishers: what do you do if you don’t care for the book you’ve committed to review? We end the week with an article about self-help books

Book: Saltwater by Jessica Andrews

This is a debut novel that I saw highlighted as a book to watch out for in May by Susan at A Life in Books. It’s a coming of age novel written from the perspective of a working class girl who hopes university will be her passage to a different kind of life. It sounded so promising I ordered it via the library (amazed to find they had bought it). I didn’t realise at the time it’s told in a series of numbered fragments. I’m really hoping that device works and isn’t just style over substance.

Blogpost:  I never promised you 5 stars

This was the intriguing heading on a recent blog post by Rachel at RachelRead. What do you do when you’re sent a book, asked to review it  and then the book turns out to be “a stinker.” Do you, asks Rachel:

• A) Shoot yourself in the foot by being honest with your review?
• B) Get yourself blacklisted by blog tours/publicists/publishing houses?
• C) LIE?!

Find out what she thinks are the pros and cons of each approach in her post here 

Article: self help books “offer a false promise, like a lotto ticket or an ad for diet pills” 

There are so many self-help books around I’m surprised there isn’t a whole section devoted to them in bookshops. Some are just plain daft; others peddle the same stuff you can easily find via the Internet. Some exist just because the topic is the latest craze (do we really need instructions on how to hygge our homes??). But still people buy them.

Can they help or are they holding out false promises asks Maddie Crum in this article for LitHub.