Fall River

Author: Meredith Miller

Publisher: Honno Press

Available: 21^st March 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Honno Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

A mesmerising small-town drama packed with intrigue

One young woman disappears and another returns home from London. Alice has turned to the river looking to drown the voices in her head. Khadija has come home to uncover the terrible history hidden under its surface. The London train screeches through while the rest of the town is still asleep along the banks of the Tamar. They’ll wake up that morning to find that everything, and nothing, has changed. Sooner or later, the river pulls them all. Sooner or later, someone falls.

 In this small-town drama, past and present relationships collide, weaving multiple narratives packed with intrigue and authenticity. Meredith Miller skilfully crafts a dark and unfolding psychological mystery, blending lyrical storytelling, a cast of strong female characters and a fresh perspective on contemporary society.

My Thoughts:

Every year of my book blogging journey, I come across novels that I don’t know that I would have discovered during my own forays into bookshops looking for books to engage my literary sweet spot, this was certainly the case with Fall River by Meredith Miller. From the moment, I read the book’s description, those little sparks of anticipation and roiling coils of expectation ignited my book desire synapses.

When I finally held Fall River in my hands and read the first pages of the book, I fell in love with Meredith’s fluid, beguiling and atmospheric words and I knew I was on the cusp of an exceptional reading experience.  As I sat down to write my review of her book, I was perplexed, that I didn’t or don’t, have the skill to convey to you, my fellow bookophiles, how stirringly sublime and superbly sentient Meredith’s novel is. The little book devil on my shoulder is getting progressively louder in his entreaties… that I should type, for goodness’s sake…BUY THIS BOOK NOW…so I have, and I mean it!

Meredith’s book is unequivocally one of my favourite reads of 2024!

Now unusually, I have decided not to go into much detail about the plot of this book, where it starts or from whose perspective, simply because, it will speak to you directly, when you start reading and that first impression, is not mine to share, but yours to experience and I wouldn’t wish to spoil that moment in any way!

But I will share, why I feel this novel has made such a powerful impact on me.   Meredith has the uncommon skill of being able to weave a story, that transports her readers environmentally and psychologically into the diverse world of her characters and allows us to tangibly see their secrets and their scars. Set, in the implacable bubble of the small Cornish town, Saltash, a place divided by the unpredictable flow of the wild Tamar River, a place dominated and distracted by dock yards, and their unsparing imposing impact, with echoes of empire, whispering around their concrete and steel skeletons. A town, where the fingertips of death, has carved rivulets of grief in its inhabitants, its presence may have faded over time but whose inexorable footprint can never be erased. This element of the novel cannot fail to have a potent impact on any reader, as well as providing an educational edge about the true reality of Asbestos use in buildings, with its interminable ramifications and its devastating human cost!

The focus within this novel, that I found so enticing, was Meredith’s cast of arresting women Nora, Jo, Alice, Tina, Khadija, Carol and Tina, whose ages range from old to young and whose life and emotional experiences, combined with their reactions to each other and to the unfolding circumstances that engulf them, can seem irreconcilably different, yet as I read on, I began to see their correlating similarities and the ultimate power of the feminine, be it psychic or something else. I have a considerable soft spot for Nora who is darkly hilarious and sees things others cannot and Jo whose strength of self is invigorating. Each character is eloquently crafted and has her own distinct voice and as a reader it is easy to relate to them and their narratives and I admired how their parts of the story are quilted together, to create the whole picture for us and illustrate, the ties that bind a community together in both the past and the present.

Fall River is truly an outstanding novel, it is observant, ominous, opulent, and original. I could not put it down and its content and context are firmly etched in my heart and mind. Meredith, I applaud your immense imagination, resolute research, clever characterisation, and melodic moving writing. This is a novel not to be missed, so please heed my pleas and get your hands on a copy, ASAP!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Meredith Miller was born and raised on Long Island, in New York. Before moving to the UK in 1997, she lived on the beach in Oregon for a little while, and in New Orleans for a longer while. She has published two previous novels, Little Wrecks (2017) and How We Learned to Lie (2018). She lives in mid Wales in a tiny house with a chapel attached. A Welsh learner, Meredith is currently restoring the chapel as a literary and cultural space for the Welsh language.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

Old Romantics

Author: Maggie Armstrong

Publisher: Tramp Press

Available: 18^th April 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Helen Richardson PR and Tramp Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Slippery, flawed, and acute, Old Romantics is a collection of alternative romances told from a netherworld of love and disenchantment by an astonishing new talent. The linked stories follow the interior biography of an indistinct Dublin woman, from early adulthood into motherhood and the trials of young family life right up to pandemic times.

Whether a catastrophic road trip, an ill-advised career move or a sinister encounter on the beach, these stories dig at the heart of what it is to be alone and alienated in your world. The heroes of these escapades are thickly masked and often unreliable as they pursue each other. Love is sometimes obsessive and often delusional.

Motivations are slippery, expectations are shattered, and self-knowledge is hard-won yet inevitable. This collection opens the under-seam of what it is to fall in love and back out again. Romance has a rotten heart, but love is real and infinite. From bad dates that call to mind an Irish ‘Cat Person’ by Kristen Roupenian, to comically observed workplace absurdity, Maggie Armstrong is a powerful new voice in Irish fiction.

My Thoughts:

It is my pleasure today, to share my thoughts with you on Maggie Armstrong’s book Old Romantics. Which is a collection of linked stories, now ordinarily I am not the biggest fan of short stories, mainly because I prefer a story, I can sink my teeth into. However, in the case of Maggie’s book, I am completely prepared to overturn my preference, as she has utterly turned the concepts of perceived romance on its head! This book, is darkly incendiary, exceptionally intelligent, and perpetually intriguing and it kept me, intellectually speaking on my toes, which was unexpected and deliciously entertaining! As far as I’m concerned this book is a reading experience not to be missed, you are of course free to ignore my suggestion (but you would be wrong to do so!!!)

Initially my assumptions about the title of this novel focused far too much on my internal preconceived notions of romance but a few pages into the book, I found myself grinning as I had, as possibly intended by Maggie, got the wrong end of the stick. These are indeed stories about love, but not the ones we readers are already familiar with, these stories are about the flaws, the imperfections, the unexplainable drives of love, its awkwardness, its insanity, its incomprehensibility! Maggie’s stories, are not written to provide any reader with a happy ending (not that there is anything wrong with those) but here, is an extrapolation and examination of the notions of love and our comprehension of it.

From the moment I started to read, I found myself confronted by differing notions of love  and very quickly, I was made to assess the variety of situations unfolding before me, the choices, the behaviours, the mind sets of the characters, all clamouring for a new level of understanding, and emotional exploration! Maggie’s book completely defrocks all notions of traditional romance, it creatively deconstructs the concept of flawless love.

Despite this book being relatively short in terms of pages (220 to be exact) it is fathoms deep in terms of emotional intelligence and delicious liberal amounts of dark snark, which will prompt inappropriate barking laughter from you at inopportune moments (I was in the waiting room of the Physio, when this happened to me!) I really had to take time after each story to consider what I had read, my impressions of each character’s circumstances and my utter incomprehension of some of their decisions…I found myself muttering, what the f**k are you doing and why haven’t you murdered him and hidden the body and that was only after reading the first story Number One!

For the rest my time reading this outstanding book,  I oscillated between being incandescent with fury or being darkly amused but irregardless of my reactions, I was totally immersed, omnipotently in the stories playing out before me. I confess, the toxicity of some of relationships is breath taking! This is a book, that you should read slowly because it will undoubtedly touch a nerve or ten and my goodness, will it put your little grey cells to work, which personally I adore!

I loved Maggie’s smart and sharp feminine perspective on love and relationships, it is not always about hearts and flowers but most of the time, it’s just crumbs and chaos! It has been a long while since I’ve read a book, that has really made me collate my own comprehension of a basic human emotion and I admire Maggie’s prose and panache captured on the pages of her book.

Maggie’s collection of short stories is authentic, astute, adroit, and addictive reading, if this book isn’t on your bookshelves to be read, then may I enthusiastically insist, that you buy a copy, as soon as possible! This is quite simply a book every woman should own and whatever Maggie writes next, I will be at the front of the queue to get hold of a copy!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Maggie Armstrong’s work has appeared in the Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Belfield Literary Review and elsewhere. She was nominated for a 2023 Irish Book Award. She lives in Dublin.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

Looking for Lucie

Author: Amanda Addison

Publisher: Neem Tree Press

Available: April 2024 in paperback & eBook

Thank you to The Write Reads & Neem Tree Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

Looking for Lucie is a contemporary YA novel that explores identity, self-discovery, and newfound friendship as an 18-year-old girl sets out to uncover her ethnic heritage and family history.

“Where are you really from?”

It’s a question every brown girl in a white-washed town is familiar with, and one that Lucie has never been able to answer. All she knows is that her mother is white, she’s never met her father, and she looks nothing like the rest of her family. She can’t even talk about it because everyone says it shouldn’t matter!

Well, it matters to Lucie and-with her new friend Nav, who knows exactly who he is-she’s determined to find some answers.

What do you do when your entire existence is a question with no answer?

You do a DNA test

My Thoughts:

Today, I am sharing my thoughts with you on Amanda Addison’s book Looking for Lucie, which is a novel aimed at YA readers. Which is not a genre, I visit very often these days. However, the details of Amanda’s novel struck a chord with me, because I have a niece, who has recently reached the grand old age of 6 and as she reliably informs me, is a big girl now and just like Lucie is of mixed race but unlike our protagonist, she has always been immersed the in the wonders of both her English and her Indian cultures and traditions and is aware of the stories of both sides of her family but I have no doubt in a few more years, she too will have questions about her identity and ethnicity and I saw Amanda’s book as an engaging and vibrant means of gently exploring this area and the salient questions, that having a different heritage from all around you could bring.

Lucie is 18 and experiencing the highs and lows of her emerging of adulthood and as most of us will remember, she is trying to establish where she fits in this modern world. Lucie is aware that she doesn’t look like the rest of her family and from the little information she can gather about her dad, she is having a hard time figuring out where he might have come from and is constantly comparing the way she looks to those of other people she meets. So, she decides the best course of action is to do a DNA test, as this might point her in the right direction.

Until an unfortunate encounter, brings Nav into her life, with a bump and a broken phone at the worst possible moment! Nav in contrast to Lucie has a clear sense of self and thinks he knows who he is, well at least for the most part. One of the joys of this novel is the friendship that grows between Lucie and Nav, that despite their differences, she’s an artist, he’s a scientist, they constantly find points of correlation and their differences to each other, don’t divide them at all but draw them together as they find it easy to appreciate each other’s perspectives despite their diverging viewpoints and together, they work on establishing answers to Lucie’s desire to learn, who she is and there are some secrets revealed by their questing but if you want to know more, then you’ll have to read the book and find out for yourselves.

Looking for Lucie is a pertinent, perceptive, and potent read, engagingly exploring themes of identity, heritage, family and culture and the very human emotion that we all have, of needing to know, who we are, as knowing this allows us to form a stable platform to discover, who we might become. Amanda’s book is a gem, creatively crafted, sensitive, stimulating and an excellent introduction to any reader’s voyage of self-discovery. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Amanda Addison is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her writing has been translated into German, Greek, Italian and Ukrainian. Her picture book, Boundless Sky, was nominated for The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal, and her YA novel, Looking for Lucie, was listed for the Searchlight Writing Novel Opening Award. A graduate of Chelsea school of Art, her writing and artwork are inspired by travel, textiles, and the natural world. Amanda holds an MA in Writing the Visual and lectures in Art & Design and has also led workshops in Creative Writing at the National Centre for Writing. Amanda lives in Norfolk, UK, with her family.

Her writing includes flash fiction, short stories, picture books and novels. She explores themes of home and belonging and enjoys using the juxtaposition of rural and city life. Her characters are often artists or scientists, as their curiosity about the world around them are two sides to the same coin, and the exploration of art and science can give us meaning and purpose in life with its infinite avenues of discovery. Amanda’s debut YA novel, Looking for Lucie, Neem Tree Press 2024, explores the above. It is a contemporary story of identity, self-discovery, and newfound friendship. Lucie, an 18-year-old art student sets out to uncover her ethnic heritage and family history with her new scientist friend Nav. Together they unravel family secrets.

Amanda believes in the power of stories as a window on the world, and a mirror to better see ourselves and is passionate about stories which are empowering and inclusive. When not writing she can be found swimming in the North Sea or running in the countryside, and that is when she gets some of her best ideas!

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Doctor of Hiroshima

Author: Dr Michihiko Hachiya

Publisher: Octopus Publishing

Available: 14^th March 2024 available in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Octopus Publishing for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

 Book Details:

 With what this poor woman had been through the sight of her crying tore at my heartstrings. What if something should happen to her; who would care for her little baby? To conceal the fear and terror in my heart I left her, trying to put up a cheerful front. But no one could conceal from her the ominous import of the dark spots that had appeared on her chest.

The Doctor of Hiroshima is the extraordinary true story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya, whose hospital was less than a mile from the centre of the atomic bomb that hit on that warm August day. Somehow, in immense shock and pain and extremely weak, the doctor and his wife manage to drag themselves to the hospital, where their horrific wounds are treated, and they slowly begin to recover. Tentatively, the doctor starts to reckon with the utter devastation of the bomb, and to investigate the strange symptoms afflicting his patients.

Told simply and poignantly through Dr Hachiya’s daily diary entries, The Doctor of Hiroshima is the inspiring story of how a doctor and his patients fought to survive and rebuild their lives in the face of unimaginable loss.

My Thoughts:

I was born 30 years after the end of WWII, I had grandfathers who served as Merchant Navel Seamen on wolf pack infested seas, neither of them spoke much about their wartime experiences but what they saw, what they lived through as young men was etched upon their hearts and minds and even though time passed, the spector of war, never left them.

My grandad Walker was a great reader and always had his nose in a book, I remember pestering him regularly by repeatedly asking, what was he reading, because the covers of his book choices, never seemed particularly appealing to me. Especially not in comparison to the sherbet pastel colours of my grandmother’s Mills & Boon stack, with their kissing couples on every cover. When I was 11 years old, he gifted me, a copy of Anne Frank’s Diary. I confess at the time, I wasn’t overly impressed by this choice, as to be honest I was hoping for a couple of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books! But I remember, he said at the time, other people’s perspectives provide us with real insight into the happenings in our world. His words have never left me and set me on a reading path starting with Anne Frank, that I could have easily missed out on, if his influence and wisdom hadn’t directed me to their pages. So, I have to credit him today as one of my reasons for choosing to read The Doctor of Hiroshima by Dr Michihiko Hachiya.

Another reason for my choosing to read this book and to my share my thoughts with you on what I’ve read, is because and this maybe a generational observation, when I studied the history of WWII at school or subsequently as an adult have chosen to read books of others accounts/experiences of the war. They tend to come from the Allies perspective, nurses from Australia, survivors of the Holocaust, Land girls ploughing fields. Rarely have I found or read books, whose authors came from the Axis perspective, with the exception of Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s last Secretary – Traudl Junge.

Certainly, until now that is, I have never read anything from a Japanese point of view, so I saw reading this book as a step to re-dressing the balance of my knowledge and because and I am going to make a large assumption here, most of us, when the we hear the names Hiroshima or Nagasaki; we believe, we know about it; how in order to end the war and to punish Japan for their attack on Pearl Harbour, the US unleashed a weapon of such devastating magnitude, that it changed the face of our world…forever! But in reality…we mostly have no idea, what happened next…the aftermath of such actions, have left indelible footprints on these cities and their populations, and the generations that followed.

There are plenty of books and films, that convince us of our understanding of the history, including the most recent Oscar winning film Oppenheimer, which depicts the trajectory and invention of the atomic bomb, the minds behind it and how it came into being but it doesn’t examine the situation any further…unlike this book, which depicts how on an ordinary summer’s day, ordinary people’s lives were obliterated and how one Doctor, put one foot in front of the other and tried to help pick up the pieces of what was left!

The Doctor of Hiroshima is a book, that provides another side to this story, a different perspective but a very human one. This book is not for the faint-hearted, it is both beautiful and breathtakingly brutal. It offers a very personal account of the circumstances Dr Hachiya found himself living through, it provides in unequivocal terms the incomprehensible horror and tragedy of the event and aftermath. Nothing can truly prepare you for reading about it, this book once read, is unforgettable emotionally, historically, and societally!

For me this detailed, harrowing account, in terms of written history, does help re-dresses the balance of our perspectives of ‘the other side’, it has been very easy to dismiss the Japanese as not having suffered in any way during the war, because of our emotional viewpoints regarding their well-documented negative behaviour towards their allied prisoners. This book brings front and centre the all consuming cost of WWII on every aspect of humanity involved.

For me reading this book was a truly unique experience and a profound one. As time marches on, those who lived through this time of war, are diminishing and there will come a point, in the not to distant future, when accounts like Dr Hachiya’s will be lost forever, taking personal truth and a variety of valid but different perspectives with them, in terms of the history of WWII.

I cannot recommend more highly that you read this book, it won’t be an easy journey for any reader, but it is an important one, be brave and read it.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Dr Michihiko Hachiya was Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital when the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. After the bomb, he continued as Director there for several years before taking on a teaching role at Okayama University Medical School.

He retired in Okayama and passed away in the 1980s.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Milestones

Author: Heather Peck

Publisher: Ormesby Publishing

Available: 7^th March 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours, Heather Peck & Ormesby Publishing for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

 In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, there have been a number of significant milestones: dates when millions of people around the world can say ‘I know where I was when…’

Aelfwyth, born on the day Elizabeth II was crowned Queen, finds her life has shared many pivotal moments with such milestones, from the childhood moment when she heard of the death of Kennedy and met The Five Towns Flasher, through wars and the Chernobyl disaster to the culmination of her ex-husband’s persecution coinciding with 9/11.

 Milestones follows a life through joys and disasters, from first love to last, through miscarriage and abuse to survival and the realisation, at the end, that what really matters is love and hope.

My Thoughts:

With the Easter Bank Holiday weekend fast approaching, like me you maybe stockpiling possible reading options, so it is my great pleasure today to share with you, my thoughts on Heather Peck’s novel Milestones. Which I believe should certainly be a book, you consider reading sooner, rather than later! Heather is a new author for me but one, whose other books, I will be exploring further, as her DCI Greg Geldard Norfolk Mysteries series sounds right up my street.

What struck me initially, when I read the details of Milestones, was the unusual combination of mixing a memoir with a mystery. I confess, I wasn’t quite sure how that combination of genres would work, but I was nevertheless intrigued by the concept and Heather’s considerable creative writing skill and vast historical knowledge, won out and proved to me within a chapter or two that I had nothing to be concerned about and instead, I was completely absorbed in the story she has constructed, to the point I read past my bedtime and on into the early hours, a decision I only marginally regretted the next day! It was too good to put down in my defence!

So let me now, share a little of the novel with you, the book is constructed like a literary photograph album, each chapter captures a snapshot or a milestone in Aelfwyth life while in conjunction with pivotal moments in history; from the day Elf (her nickname) was born on Queen Elizabeth II Coronation day (2^nd June 1953) spoiling her mother’s celebration plans or to Kennedy’s shocking assassination and Elf’s incident with a flasher and a school satchel, to Churchill’s burial and Elf’s internal proclamation, that she too wants to be ‘History’s Child’ (a reference to Lyndon B Johnson’s words at the time of Churchill’s death) and not be just someone ordinary, not someone forgotten and it is why she remembers “the day they buried history’s child, it was the day I became a witch and acquired magic” but trust me, to find out exactly what she means, you will have to read the book and these examples, I’ve just shared are just the tip of the very clever iceberg and I am so excited for you to find out more, as you have such a treat in store (ok, yes that last sentence did rhyme, just put it down to my enthusiasm for the book!)

Like a literary kaleidoscope, in every chapter you read, the world changes and the patterns of Elf’s life, dissolve and transform and we experience all her highs and lows, her transitions in and out of relationships; her array of emotional experiences, from the euphoria of love, to the decimation of loss and at the heart of this novel, is importance of the enduring nature of hope and the perspicacity of the human essence.

Milestones is an astute, authentic, amusing, and awesome read, a true gem and I can only express how much I admired Heather’s perceptive, pithy storytelling and I really encourage you to get hold of a copy ASAP. I mean how can you resist a book, that has this line in it ‘ What is the point of having a hot man, if you can’t warm your feet on him’…it makes me grin broadly every time I read it and this is just a taste of Heather’s endlessly witty style that you have instore, when you read her book. Another element of this wonderful novel, that I found irresistible, was Helen’s delightfully devious, shock elements and all I will say about these, is to expect, the unexpected but to say anything more would constitute a spoiler in my book…so I shall leave you to discover, exactly what I am referring to for yourselves.

If this extraordinary and exceptional book wasn’t on your radar before now, I hope my little taste into its delicious cleverness, will encourage you to add it to your bookshelves, trust me, this novel is not to be missed.

Happy Reading Bookophiles….

About the Author:

Award-winning author Heather Peck has had a varied life. As featured in the ‘Norfolk’ magazine and the Eastern Daily Press, “Norfolk farm disaster expert turns to crime writing” she has been both farmer and agricultural policy adviser. She bred sheep and alpacas, reared calves, broke ploughs, represented the UK in international negotiations, specialised in emergency response from Chernobyl to bird flu, managed controls over pesticides and GM crops, saw legislation through Parliament and got paid to eat Kit Kats while on secondment to Rowntree.

She has also chaired an NHS Trust, worked on animal welfare, sailed a boat on the Broads, volunteered in Citizens Advice and the Witness Service and vaccinated humans against Covid. Two golden threads have run through everything; her fascination with words and her Gran’s wise advice: ‘You can do anything if you try hard enough’.

www.heatherpeckauthor.com

Member of the Crime Writers Association

Member of the Society of Authors

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

A Bookshop of One’s Own

Author: Jane Cholmeley

Publisher: Mudlark

Available: 29^th February 2024 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Mudlark for my beautiful, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

What was it like to start a feminist bookshop, in an industry dominated by men? How could a lesbian thrive in Thatcher’s Britain, with the government legislating to restrict her rights? How do you run a business when your real aim is to change the world? The captivating true story of an underdog business and a woman at the very heart of the women‘s liberation movement.

Silver Moon was the dream of three women – a bookshop with the mission to promote the work of female writers and create a much-needed safe space for any woman. Founded in 1980s London against a backdrop of homophobia and misogyny, it was a testament to the power of community, growing into Europe’s biggest women’s bookshop and hosting a constellation of literary stars from Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to Angela Carter. While contending with day-to-day struggles common to other booksellers, plus the additional burdens of misogyny and the occasional hate crime, Jane Cholmeley and her booksellers created a thriving business. But they also played a crucial and relatively unsung part in one the biggest social movements of our time.

A Bookshop of One’s Own is a fascinating slice of social history from a true feminist and lesbian icon.

Written with heart and humour, it reveals the struggle and joy that comes with starting an underdog business, while being a celebration of the power women have to change the narrative when they are the ones holding the pen.

My Thoughts:

As a woman, I found this is one of the most important books I have ever read, is that dramatic statement? Possibly, but it doesn’t make it any less true! As women we have always been accused by the patriarchy of being emotional as if being so, is a limiting flaw within  our universal female characteristics. As far as I’m concerned, there is no part of being female or identifying as such that makes us in anyway less than, our male counterparts! It is this belief, that I have come to, because of the endless resilience, resistance, and rebellion of inspiring women like Jane Cholmeley, whose book A Bookshop of One’s Own, I have the honour of sharing my thoughts on, and my only hope, is that, I do it justice!

From the moment, I liberated this book from its cardboard packaging and held it in my hands, I sighed and fell in love, as visually it is a thing of beauty, with a blue cover accented in silver, etching out the front of Jane’s bookshop Silver Moon formally at 68 Charing Cross Road (and for those that don’t know the significance of that address, it is where some of the most iconic bookshops in the UK found their home and their feet). But as elegant and beautiful as it looks on the outside, its true magnificence is to be found amongst its pages. It is an intimate, personal memoir of Jane’s journey and that of her wife/partner Sue, who is sadly no longer with us, but her essence is very much a part of this book!

I found myself, wondering down my own memory lane, while reading, I remember Silver Moon, as I only discovered its location by accident on an enforced walk to the train station, due to one of my endless experiences of public transport failure during the 1990s, when I lived, worked, and commuted in London. Sadly, my own neurodiversity, stopped me from perusing its shelves and by the time, I had a better sense of self and put my brave pants on, the shop was gone…an opportunity missed and I will always regret it!

 At the heart of this wonderful book, is the power of sisterhood and importance of championing women, our rights and our needs and Jane and Sue’s shop with its feminist ethos has a become a pathway for us all, manifested physically by the influence and impact that their bookshop Silver Moon, had for female authors, their staff, and the myriad of visitors over the years to their well-stocked shelves. All, who heard and responded to their clarion call for the empowerment of women. Silver Moon became a haven for all who needed it, including the proprietors themselves, it became a, place to be seen, heard, and accepted as you are/were, no judgment ever! It was truly a place of communion and community, quite a rarity even now!

I could not help but be fascinated by the wealth of social and political context this book contained, as Jane elucidates the literary and literal political landscape of the decades past, most notably, the 1980s, including the infamous Local Government Act, Section 28 policy, ‘prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities’, and the endless arduous parlays with the GLC (Great London Council). While also navigating Silver Moon’s place amongst other female centric bookshops, which occasionally resulted in some unpleasantness but mostly fostered, the spirit of sisterhood and without a shadow of doubt changed the narrative as far as the women’s movement is concerned, but I’m sure this is still a debatable issue!

For me, one of the standout features of this book, are the marvellous multitude of Jane’s pithy, pertinent recollections; starting with her childhood (a tree climbing, vicar’s daughter – snap, me too but a few years later), where Jane wrote off for some free books, to help out at her father’s youth club and in response, received multiple copies of Chairman Mao’s little red book…recalling this, still has me shaking with mirth, especially given, her father’s less than enthusiastic response to her assistance! Or the stories of Biff ‘the ugly pixie’ who was a hopeless guard dog but was a Houdini when it came to escaping her collar/lead…just ask Iris, who returned one day from taking bookshop parcels to the post and walking Biff, empty post bag – check, collar & lead – check….dog, oops no dog!!! Or to the wonderful stories of authors signing events, the image of Jennette Winterton, signing books and then donning a motorbike helmet and being whisked away or a then unpublished Malorie Blackman asking Alice Walker to sign her book with ‘Don’t Give Up’ to inspire her, in the face of many rejections of her work…and these tip bits, that I am briefly sharing here, are the mere hint of the anecdotal iceberg contained within Jane’s book. I cannot wait for you to explore it for yourselves, and I hope I’ve not given any spoilers away here!

As far as I’m concerned, this incredible book belongs on every bookshelf in the land, no woman be they gay, straight, transgender or purple with white spots should be without it, so buy it! Buy it today and buy copies for all the women in your life…it is, undoubtedly a seminal literary work, fun and funny in many parts,  fierce with feminism and feminist reflection, all wrapped in the mystique of bookselling and Jane’s lifelong love of literature. It is a truly an inspiring, illuminating, and imaginative read, and a reading experience, that I will never forget! I cannot recommend this book more highly nor sing its praises loudly enough, so I hope this will encourage you to read it too.

And finally, thank you, Jane, for all you have done and all you continue to do, to make this chaotic world a fairer place for all of us ,women!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Jane Cholmeley is a key figure in the history of British feminism. Sandi Toksvig nominated Jane as a Gay Icon in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of that name in 2009 and Jacqueline Wilson named Jane her feminist icon in Stylist, 2018.

Please do read some of the other excellent reviews on this blog tour.

The Vanitas and Other Tales of Art and Obsession

Author: Jake Kendall

Publisher: Neem Tree Press

Available: 22^nd February 2024 in Paperback

Thank you to The WriteReads Blog Tour and Neem Tree Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details

Spanning three hundred years of art history, The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession tells the stories of those with an insatiable hunger for creation – those who may sacrifice friendships, careers, romance, and even their own happiness in pursuit of a vision.

Weaving art styles such as Cubism, Surrealism, and the Baroque into his prose, Jake Kendall has crafted a vivid and inventive collection. Each story is complemented by a black and white illustration, drawing out the visually evocative nature of the writing and offering readers a unique artistic delight.

My Thoughts:

It’s my great pleasure today, to share my thoughts on Jake Kendall’s debut book The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession. As some of my regular bookophiles may know, my undergrad degree was in Art History. I have always been and continue to be fascinated by the myriad of art that is out in our world. I have been fortunate to study, various periods of Art history that produced some of the most recognised images we know today from Giotto to Da Vinci, to Fried Kahlo to John Singer Sargent to Damien Hirst and onwards. Seeing art, studying art is still a passion for me and I get the clear impression from his book, it is for Jake too.

When I received the blub for Jake’s book, I was intensely curious to read it and was delightfully surprised by the 8 intelligent, intense interlocking vignettes he has created. Allowing readers, a delicious, exploration behind the frames of some famous artists and their work. The best way to describe this book, is an artistic literary puzzle, where you are given the pieces and connections, and you have to put them together intellectually to create a whole. It is a challenging, engaging and broadly esoteric read and one, I am unlikely to forget, as once you read it, elements of this book, adhere themselves to your brain.

I believe it was Aristotle who said, ‘There is no genius without having a touch of madness’ or Oscar Levant who said, ‘There’s a fine line between genius and insanity’. Both acknowledge that great creativity often comes at a cost on an intimate and personal level to the artist and to those in their sphere. Each of the stories Jake has crafted, provokes a response from you as a reader as they touch upon the strongest of elements of human emotional intelligence and how great art, cannot really be created without a level of provocation, a depth of obsession and can be brilliant and devastating all at the same time.

Art is a passion, unruly, uncontrollable, unbridled, great works can seduce and obsess all those who see them. Art calls to the most divine and most debased instincts in us all.

Jake’s book, has a fantastic construction, each story has an image presented to the reader and the story behind that image, unfolds for us to digest, each one is beautifully written but the content is most certainly brutal in its emotional toll, for example in Medusa, which is based on the image of Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of Medusa, depicting a captured moment after the wreak of  the French navel frigate Medusa, where over a hundred people clung together on a raft and only 15 of them survived 13 days adrift off the coast of Mauritania in 1816. This experience stretches the human comprehension of survival, as those tortured souls faced starvation, dehydration and cannibalism (not uncommon for those stranded at sea)…in Jake’s story, we follow the artist’s determination to depict the reality (although somewhat romanticised given the finished result) of men bundled together on a wooden raft, riven by the elements, by filling his studio with wood and bodies in order for him to visually recreate the turbulence and turmoil of this historic scandal and we readers are given first hand accounts of this unimaginable experience.

The 8th story Vanitas is the longest and depicts Sandro’s story, a painter from Rome, who until now had garnered success with the type of work he produced but is desperately struggling to sell his latest work. Because of unforeseen competition in the form of Michelangelo, who has stolen his limelight. We follow Sandro’s internal torment as he attempts to improve his work, teach an apprentice and provide a sufficient living to support his family. My impression, is that behind this story is the idea, that Vanitas art is allegorical art, created to represent a higher ideal and the Latin translation of the phrase, means vanity and links to the concept that human actions are temporary, and faith is forever, and given the period of this story. Religion was as the heart of everything, money, power, patronage, politics and nothing can constrain it not even artistic vanity, this of course is only my takeaway from the story and I’m sure, other readers will see something different in it.

Jake’s book is as far as I’m concerned, is an astoundingly brilliant read and I keep going it back to it and every time I do, I feel I glean something new from one or more of the stories. This is not an easy read, but it is a worthy one, providing an intelligent and intricate exploration into a world, that won’t be commonplace for most readers. I can’t recommend it more highly, so if you are looking to expand your horizons in terms of reading and/or art…this is a book to add to your collection.

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Jake Kendall was born in Oxford and studied an MSc in Creative Writing with the University of Edinburgh. He takes inspiration from the visual arts, a theme that formed his debut collection. The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession (Neem Tree Press) refracts contemporary issues and anxieties through timeless imagery and artistic movements. Jake lives and works in Edinburgh and spends his free time visiting bookshops, exhibitions, theatre, and independent cinemas.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Hidden Years

Author: Rachel Yore

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Available: 15^th February 2024 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours, Simon & Schuster for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

 Sunday Times bestseller Rachel Hore’s captivating new novel of secrets, loss and betrayal – set on the beautiful Cornish coast during World War Two and the heady days of the 1960s.

When talented musician Gray Robinson persuades Belle to abandon her university studies and follow him to Silverwood, home to an artistic community on the Cornish coast, Belle happily agrees even though they’ve only just met. She knows she is falling in love, and the thought of spending a carefree summer with Gray is all she can think about.

But being with Gray isn’t the only reason Belle agrees to accompany him to Silverwood.

Why does the name Silverwood sound so familiar?

What is its connection to a photo of her as a baby, taken on a nearby beach?

 And who is Imogen Lockhart, a wartime nurse who lived at Silverwood many years ago? As the summer months unfold, Belle begins to learn the truth – about secrets from the past that have been kept hidden, but also about the person she wants to be.

My Thoughts:

Welcome bookophiles to my blog tour review of Rachel Hore’s latest novel The Hidden Years. I have long been a fan of her sumptuous historical novels and her new book has completely surpassed my expectation. Rachel has created and crafted an evocative, engaging and eloquent story linking two women across time. It is the perfect book, to curl up on the sofa with and fall into the lives of others, escaping the pressures of our own modern lives. Be warned, that once you start reading this book, you aren’t going to want to put it down!

In the first instance, I found myself transported to 1966, where we meet Belle, a young woman on the cusp of life, having successfully attained a place at university, despite the restrictions placed on women in academia at this time, never mind the societal restraints! University for Belle held great expectations, she had worked hard and saw this new environment, as her route to a new life, a way to establish her place in the world and yet the experience has fallen short of what she had desired! So almost subconsciously, she is seeking a new way to establish herself and when she meets musician Grey and has a peep behind the curtain of the expected norm, she cannot resist the pull towards him and jumps at the chance to accompany him to Silverwood House in Cornwall, where the mere name of the place, fills her with a sense of expectation and enchantment, at what might come next.

Personally at this point in the story, I confess to being perturbed by Belle’s rash decision making, her seemly casual way of throwing aside her place at University and basically running off to the coast with a boy…I confess, it went through my head, that there was no way that I would have given up my university experiences for a boy, then I remembered that I had indeed done something similar (I absconded to Portugal for 6 weeks with my then boyfriend and a couple of his friends, in a VW camper) and no I didn’t tell my parents (I was 22 at the time) I sent them a post card from Lisbon instead, luckily for me and Belle, mobile phone technology was not what it is now!!! So it quickly dawned on me, that Belle wasn’t quite as frivolous with her decision making as I had assumed. Yes, she is seeking adventure, love and the opportunity for a fulfilling life but her involvement with Grey is more than a potentially ill-fated love affair. Meeting him and going to Silverwood and find a new community, is the catalyst for change, for her and one that might provide answers to some of the life questions she has and maybe some bittersweet answers will follow!

But Belle’s story isn’t the only one contained in this novel, we also have Imogen, our introduction to her begins in 1939, when the agency she works for, appoints her the job of delivering two boys to Silverwood House in Cornwall, where they are being evacuated to a boarding school which has been relocated itself, far away (supposedly) for the storm clouds of war. Imogen quickly becomes entranced with Silverwood and its beautiful, peaceful environs. So, when she is offered the opportunity of standing in for the School’s Matron (who has fallen ill) she jumps at the chance and a new door is opened to her, as she soon realises how much she enjoys caring for the boys in her sick bay. She also makes fast friends, with Ned one of the teachers and together on their days off, they explore the wild untamed beauty of Cornwall. But despite the relative seclusion of being at Silverwood, the impact of being at war, starts to encroach on her life but not quite in the negative way, you might assume. Like thousands of women at this time, Imogen strongly feels the need to play her part in this war, she wants to serve her country and makes the monumental decision to train as a nurse, in the local hospital in Truro.

The nursing skills she acquires are put to the test, when a bomb nearly lands on the school! But her nursing training is not the only test she faces! Imogen finds herself with a romantic dilemma, there is Ned whose company she loves, with him she is at her ease, they have the same interests, humour and outlook on life. On the other hand is the inscrutable Oliver Dalton, also teaching at Silverwood, she doesn’t know him well but to use modern parlance, there is chemistry between them and Imogen is drawn to him and when circumstances throw them together, she is left wondering if there could be so much more between them, maybe even a future?! What a conundrum she faces, the potential of passionate love with Oliver or the comfortable predictable joy of life with Ned…who will she choose?

So you might be wondering at this point, what connects Belle to Imogen, well, all I will reveal is that during Belle’s time at Silverwood, she befriends an older woman, the lovely Mrs Kitto, who lives in a cottage on the estate and when she meets, Belle, she is visibly shocked, as this young woman reminds her so much of someone from her past! As Belle and Mrs Kitto spend time together, Mrs Kitto shares her own story and that of the woman, Belle resembles! But of course, if you want to know more, then you will have to read the book and find out for yourself, no spoilers here!

Throughout this book, Rachel provides her readers, a clear sense of time and place, she encapsulates tangibly the new world and new ideas of post war period, via Belle’s eyes and experiences. From Imogen’s viewpoint, we cannot fail to relive the turbulent atmosphere of the war period. Both these women face life changing moments in both their personal history as well as the political one. Their circumstances sensitively illustrate the concept that we are all products of the times we live in, the highs and lows of life, sculpt us into the people we become and often trials and tribulations the like of which Imogen and Belle experience, reside in a generational psychology and have ramifications into the future…I realise as I write this sentence, I am being a bit cryptic but I promise when you read Rachel’s book, you’ll see exactly what I am alluding too!

The Hidden Years is a cornucopia of historical and emotional richness, revealed through the eyes of two remarkable, resilient women, who though separated by decades, face their own journeys of love and loss, that Rachel has woven together in her usual elegant style. I hope you enjoy reading this beautifully crafted, intriguing and emotionally stimulating book as much as I have!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Rachel Hore worked in London publishing for many years before moving with her family to Norwich, where she taught publishing and creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a full-time writer. She is married to the writer D. J. Taylor and they have three sons. Rachel Hore is the author of twelve previous novels, many of them Sunday Times bestsellers.

www.rachelhore.com  │Twitter: @RachelHore │Instagram: @Rachel.Hore

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Knowing

Author: Emma Hinds

Publisher: ‎ Bedford Square Publishers

Available: 18^th January 2024 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The SquadPod Collective, ed PR and Bedford Square Publishers for my gifted copies. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details In the slums of 19th-century New York.

A tattooed mystic fights for her life.

Her survival hangs on the turn of a tarot card.

Powerful, intoxicating, and full of suspense. The Knowing is a darkly spellbinding novel about a girl fighting for her survival in the decaying criminal underworlds.

Whilst working as a living canvas for an abusive tattoo artist, Flora meets Minnie, an enigmatic circus performer who offers her love and refuge in an opulent townhouse, home to the menacing Mr Chester Merton. Flora earns her keep reading tarot cards for his guests whilst struggling to harness her gift, the Knowing – an ability to summon the dead. Caught in a dark love triangle between Minnie and Chester, Flora begins to unravel the secrets inside their house.

The Knowing is a stunning debut inspired by real historical characters including Maud Wagner, one of the first known female tattoo artists, New York gang the Dead Rabbits, and characters from PT Barnum’s circus.

My Thoughts:

As January 2024 draws to a close, I am sharing my thoughts with you today, on The SquadPod Collective’s book of the month, Emma Hind’s debut, The Knowing. This book is not for the faint hearted, it is unequivocally a marvellous, monstrously mesmerizing recalibration of fact and fiction, seemlessly wrought by Emma, whose powerful prose engulfs you as a reader and holds you tight in her thrall and refuses to release you until emotionally and intellectually you are spent and you’ve finished reading this book!

Something Powerful is Coming…could not be a more apt tag line for this novel. As you tumble into Flora’s world, the violent, visceral Five Points in New York in 1860s, a place wholly unfamiliar and almost unimaginable to the us, the readers, as it is so far removed from our own modern reality. Flora’s environs are awash with the mysterious, the mercurial, the macabre and from the outset are imbued with an unrelenting sense of menace, so much so I found myself with physical chills, as I read.

When we first meet Flora, she is trapped in a toxic relationship with gang tattooist Jordan, who subjects her to every physical and mental abhorrent abuse you can imagine and some you just don’t want to; including using her body as a canvas to show case his tattoo work! But this is the only life she knows and enduring Jordan, she believes is better than nothing…although from this modern woman’s perspective, cutting bits off him, slowly! Would be the best option as far as I’m concerned! But in this time and place, it’s a patriarchal world and women irregardless of their status or rank, are perceived merely as chattels, to be bartered or bread…they have no social or legal redress…so all that is left to women like Flora is acceptance and survival.

Until she meets the inscrutable Minnie a circus artiste and the enigmatic Abernathy, who offer her refuge with them in the home of their benefactor, the indolent, malevolent, louche Chester Merton! It seems to me that for Flora, this decision is, to use the cliché, out of fire and into the frying pan! As Chester, will have his ‘pound of flesh’ as he becomes aware of Flora’s unique abilities…her ability to know or see/commune with the dead…to know what they do and attempt to resist their endless clamour for what they perceive as justice for the wrongs done to them in life!

Flora is now coerced into making her living ‘reading’ tarot cards and to make full use of her ‘knowing’! But of course, trying to control such a ‘gift’ is beyond problematic and when during Flora’s first public séance, she communes with the spirit of child prostitute and reveals his murderer….she jeopardizes herself and her friends….but as to what ensues…I think you know me well enough to know by now, that I have no intention of revealing what happens next…as it’s for me to know and you to find out when you read the book.

Emma has created a darkly, sumptuous, sensationally seedy, and stunning novel, filled with rich evocative details and substantial historical research and references. The story is powerful, perturbing and emotionally perplexing. Her ability to address via her fictional cast, the social imperatives, and deprivations, that women of this period endured is often emotionally enraging but wholly necessary and beautifully and brutally articulated. Bravo, Emma, Bravo…as far as I’m concerned, your novel is a fiercely feminist and tautly triumphal read and I will be recommending it far and wide. If my fellow bookophiles are pondering on, what to read next, the answer is simple…read this book, it’s payday…treat yourself….you know you want to. This novel is not to be missed!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Emma is a queer playwright living in Manchester with a focus on telling untold feminist narratives. Her latest play, PURE, was featured in Turn On festival at Hope Mill Theatre Manchester in 2021 and she was the recipient of the Artist Development grant 2021 at Hope Mill Theatre.

She has written a few previous non-fiction books in her capacity as an academic with an essay published in Tarantino and Theology with Gray Matter Books and her book Ineffable Love: Christian Themes in Good Omens published by Darton Longman & Todd.

Love Letters on Hazel Lane

Author: Jennifer Page

Publisher: Aria/Head of Zeus

Available: 4^th January 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective & Aria/Head of Zeus for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

 Scrabble fan Jo always seems to pick the wrong guys. Now she’s moved to the Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick and decided to give dating one last chance. This time, there’s a catch: she will only date men whose names would score highly in her beloved word game.

After Tarquin (16 points) proves just as disappointing as the rest, she meets low-scoring local doctor Ras (3 points). Her rules mean she can’t date him – but when he asks her to organise a Scrabble festival with him, she can’t say no.

As the event draws nearer and Jo and Ras grow closer, will Jo ignore her rule and let true love blossom over the triple letter scores?

My Thoughts:

It is my unmeasurable pleasure today as part of the SquadPod collective, to share my thoughts with you on Jennifer Pages latest book Love Letters on Hazel Lane. This is the second book in the Little Board Games series and I think my favourite so far (but only by the slimmest margin). One of my reasons for loving Jennifer’s books so much, is that her characters and the circumstances they find themselves in are reassuringly relatable. Life for most of us is unendingly complex, filled with joy and laughter one moment and the next unenviable calamity! Jennifer has the innate skill in articulating and reflecting this aggregation in her stories, which personally makes me feel less fallible or isolated when experiencing life’s face plants!

So my lovely bookophiles, put your game faces on and prepare to immerse yourself in Jo’s world and savour this sentimentally salient, scrabblious, secret filled story! Now I have to confess, especially as this wonderful book is delightfully awash with Scrabble references that I can’t play the game itself ,no matter how much I want to or how much of a prodigious vocabulary I possess. My dyslexia stymie’s my ability to process vowel sounds or sequence spellings successfully and I am pretty certain, you can’t use a spell checker when playing…sadly. Now if someone would invent a phonetic scrabble…I might stand a chance…so the closest that I will get to a triple word score, is through the pages Jennifer’s book and I adored my vicarious Scrabble experiences and what ever your abilities, I hope you do too! Plus if anyone knows where to source scrabble bunting from, please do point me in the right direction!

Now let me give you a taste of the novel; Jo is an administrative dynamo and scrabble addicted divorcee, recently her bestie, Gemma has moved down south and in with her boyfriend. Leaving Jo without a flat mate, resulting her moving to the village of Hebbleswick and in to a small and seen better days little house on Hazel Lane. Jo is slowly adjusting to her ‘new life’ and beginning to explore her local area, but the Gemma size hole in her social life is taking some getting used to! Plus her situation at work, is becoming more unpleasant by the day! Ever since the arrival of Leanora at Pop Productions, she has for some unfathomable reason, seems to have taken an instant dislike to Jo and in series of snide little increments and incidents has subsequently gone out of her way to be unpleasant and encourage others to do so as well, leaving Jo feeling undermined and out in the cold socially!

Unsurprisingly, Jo is feeling more than a little lost and lonely, her emotions are further exacerbated by her looking back at her marriage to Slimy Si (my nick name for him and that’s putting it politely!) from the supposedly sublime romancing to the sinister corralling and controlling and all the other behaviours that transpired! Now Jo is putting her best foot forward in the romance department but with some fairly diabolical dates….let me just say Tarquin to you…no matter how many Scrabble points you might get for his name (you’ll see what I am referring to here, when you read the book) in terms of being a decent human being he gets zilch in fact -zilch and quite honestly, tasering him in the manly parts would be too kind!!!

Eugh…poor Jo and even when she finally has a date with local GP Ras and organiser of the local scrabble club (although she doesn’t know that when she meets him) her perspective is so off kilter, that she can’t see what is right in front of her but then again neither can he…there is almost a comedy of errors scenario here, where we readers can see each of the character’s thoughts/hopes about the other but they fail to communicate them to each other, which is both humorous and poignant! They do however spark up a friendship in lieu of any romantic advancements…especially when they work together to put on a Scrabble Festival…but of course I don’t do spoilers…so if you want to know more, then you will have to read the book, won’t you!

Another reason, I am a huge supporter of Jennifer’s books, is because both of her novels, in their own way highlight topical societal issues, that impact readers in their daily lives. In this book, at the core are the issues bullying, coercive control and loneliness…three experiences that often have a lasting and traumatic effect physically and emotionally on those who suffer such circumstances. I speak from personal experience here in terms of bullying and coercive control; twice in the workplace and once in a relationship – the effects have never left me, they certain effected my perspective of self but in terms of the workplace situations, the first experience allowed me to face and tackle the second with success! Jennifer through Jo’s experiences, sheds light on what it is like when a work colleague or partner, whose insecurities about themselves cause them to wrongly project these feelings via some offensive actions on to someone else, in this case Jo and how cruel the experience can be! I have to admire, how sensitively and positively Jennifer has addressed these circumstances in her book!

Love Letters on Hazel Lane is a sublime sonata to Scrabble lovers everywhere and I relished every triple word score reference. This is the perfect book, to encourage, enlighten and engage all who fall into its pages, as Jennifer highlights the importance of love, laughter and friendship in all our lives and maybe too, the importance of courage, to face those who seek to bring us down, you aren’t alone and don’t let the b**t*rds win! If you’ll pardon the sweary bit! I hope you love reading this book as much as I have and I can’t wait to read book 3 Second Chances at the Board Game Café out in June 2024…

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Jennifer Page lives near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire with her husband Hermi and his very – no, make that extremely – large collection of board games. Her debut novel, The Little Board Game Cafe will be published on 13th April 2022. Jennifer writes light-hearted, cosy romantic fiction which was initially inspired by her own dating adventures. Before she met Hermi, she was single for 13 years and had pretty much given up on meeting The One.

When she isn’t writing, Jennifer can usually be found playing board games; since she met Hermi, she’s become even more obsessed with them than he is! She also loves cooking (though she’d never claim to be any good at it!), caravan holidays and walking in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

Where the F**k is Blönduós?

Driving and surviving a winter in Iceland

Author: Emma Strandberg

Publisher: New Generation Publishing

Available: Now in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Palamedes PR & Emma Strandberg for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

Having survived a terrifying burglary, Emma had reached a point in life where she feared being awake and dreaded falling asleep. She grabbed her late mother’s notebooks, packed her car with warm clothes, a swimsuit that had seen better days, a set of winter tyres and a brand new tent, and caught a ferry to Iceland.

 Surtsey was an unexpected eruption – just as my own birth was unplanned and something of an interruption. So captivated by the magic of Iceland, our mother returned home with a bar of Toblerone for each of us. There were no hugs or questions as to our welfare. My sisters and I had been alone for three weeks.

 I was almost 5 years old. Inspired by a six-month journey to Iceland in wintertime, “Where the f**k is Blönduós?” is moving, honest, and entertaining. Why would a middle-aged woman choose to spend a winter alone in the far north of Iceland? It’s a fair question, though the answer isn’t quite so straightforward.

 I dreamed of lying on a blanket gazing up into the night sky, holding my breath in anticipation of the colourful aurora that may soon dance overhead, without being asked, “Will you be long?” By battling the elements, conquering her fears, and learning to knit, all under the watchful gaze of the small community, Emma made sense of the past, found peace with the present, and felt strong enough to deal with the future.

My Thoughts:

Welcome to my first review of 2024 and to anyone who follows me on social media, you will know that the end of 2023 and the start of this new year…has not all been plain sailing for me on personal level. So it is oddly pertinent and great pleasure to  be sharing my thoughts with you on Emma Strandberg’s magnificent book Where the F**k is Blönduós?. Which recounts Emma’s own reaction to life throwing her a traumatic curve ball or three and how it shaped the journey she under took to recollect herself.

I admit having devoured this book  I am completely filled with awe and admiration for Emma’s unfailing gumption but as a similar middle aged women, I will not be considering camping, alone in sub-arctic weather, in the remote wilds of Iceland, as my path to emotional catharsis! I am satisfied by experiencing her often perilous adventures, vicariously through the pages of her book; while drinking vast quantities of frothy coffee, situated on my sofa buried under a heated throw! Nevertheless, Emma’s book certainly for me at least, is a source of motivation and inspiration to be a little bit braver in the decisions I choose to make regarding my own circumstances.

‘ Where the F**k is Blönduós?’ is Emma’s profoundly personal and emotionally intimate travelogue memoir of her Icelandic odyssey, filled with her numerous escapades filled with copious amounts of courage, calamity, comedy, and clarity. The book is structured almost like a short story collection and although it is relatively diminutive in length at only 216 pages, the size of the book, belies the greatness within its pages!

For Emma, series of life changing events; the demise of her marriage, the potential loss of her home and income and surviving a night-time home invasion. Undermined her sense of self and understandably very nearly broke her but instead of hiding under her duvet for the foreseeable future (which is quite frankly what I might have done faced with all of these circumstances). She instead took inspiration from her mother’s Iceland interlude 50 years previously, Emma a seasoned traveller chooses to embark on a testing journey as her pathway to recovery and reconnection.

Packing her car  and driving from her home in Sweden to Denmark and taking a ferry to Iceland, she heads off to Blönduós an remote artistic community, situated a hairs breadth from the artic circle. I loved her enthusiasm about the potential of taking knitting classes on arrival (I’m a knitter, so I can fully relate) but Blönduós is not quite (massive understatement) the holistic mecca that Emma was hoping for/expecting. The town is desolate, dilapidated and dismal. With the pungent scent of death in the air (the main industry is an abattoir!) I think most of us readers, at this stage would have gotten back in the car and made for the sanctity of an urban conurbation but not Emma. Emma stays and establishes herself, makes friends and begins to examine her life to date, while at the same time as delving deeper into her mother’s life via her journals. For most of us, get this far, would probably be sufficient for some level of closure.

But not for Emma, despite a reasonable amount of trepidation, she is determined to engage with the land around her and pursue her goal of camping solo out in the wild…I confess, in my head, I was saying why…why do anymore than she has already but, the tipping point is her friend Maas. It was his support, advice and encouragement that got her here, how could she not follow through with her plans…especially now! And if you want to know, what I am alluding to here, all I’m going to say, is that you’ll have to read the book to find out!!!

One of truly captivating and striking elements in this book, is the beautiful way Emma writes, especially her lyrical descriptions of Iceland in combination with her own experiences; of its brutal beauty, from violent seas to visceral volcanos, to  viewing the magic of Northern Lights and Humpback Whales, to her survival of near fatal cliff climbing escapade! I cannot recommend more highly that you read this book and follow Emma along stark icy roads and paddling in turbulent seas. Emma’s book cannot help but spark an element of the wanderlust in all her readers…although, most of us might choose a warmer more sedate trip!!!

This is a book that by reading it, lifts both body and soul, it is motivational and inspiring, despite some mind-blowingly scary moments, it is often deeply humorous too. This book deserves a spot on your library shelves as it is truly a rewarding reading experience. Clearly middle aged women are a force to be reckoned with indeed!

Happy Reading Bookophiles….

About the Author:

Travel has been an integral part of my life. From the Amazon to Alexandria, Burma to Brunei, Cambodia to Kashmir, Greenland to Zimbabwe. My curiosity to travel together with my passion for nature and the great outdoors inspires much of my work.

My debut novel Fully Booked, first published in April 2016, tells of my personal journey of renovating an old property on the west coast of Sweden in the middle of a winter where temperatures dipped to minus 22, and how I went on to live my dream of owning and running a bed and breakfast. The second edition was published in September2023.

My latest title, Where the f**k is Blönduós? Driving and Surviving a Winter in Iceland, is now available. For more information on the author visit: emmastrandbergbooks.com

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Wolf

Author: Samuel Bjork

Translated by: Charlotte Barslund

Publisher: Transworld Books/Bantam Press

Available: 2^nd November 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Transworld Books/ Bantam Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details

A Munch and Krüger detective story, following the first case that bought together the brilliant, young police cadet Mia Krüger and old-timer police chief Munch, as a new case helps solve a cold one. This is a prequel to the first three in the series and can be read as a standalone.

In Sweden two young boys are murdered, their corpses left in an almost brutally artistic arrangement, and the case remains unsolved.

Years later, two more young boys are murdered in Norway in similar circumstances.

Mia Krüger, a young trainee at the Police Academy is drafted in to help solve the case due to her uncanny ability to piece together these horrific stories. Teamed up with Munch, her skills and his experience start to show that the two cases may be connected.

My Thoughts:

It is my absolute joy today, to be sharing my thoughts with you on Samuel Bjork’s latest book The Wolf, in his Munch & Krüger series. If like me, you are fan of Scandi Noir and you’ve not yet discovered Samuel’s books, this new book could be the start of your descent into the deliciously dark depths of a new crime series! Or if you’ve already read the previous 3 books (I’m Travelling Alone, The Owl Always Hunts at Night and The Boy in the Headlights) in the series, like I have, then this instalment will shed new light on the backstories of two of my favourite fictional detectives. As The Wolf, takes readers right back to the beginning of their relationship both personal and professional! So if you’ve not read Samuel’s books, it will set you up beautifully for the previous books or if you have, it will certainly bring clarity to all the elements, you have previously wondered about!

The Wolf returns us to their first case together; Mia a trainee officer, laser focused, determined, and isolated. She is truly unique and her outlook on all situations, is wholly unlike anyone else’s! The peripheral luxuries of life are almost an irrelevance; her only preoccupation is in finding her sister, who has been missing for some time without trace! Mia spends her days, focused on her professional aspirations but her nights, take her into the dark under belly of the city, trying to trace her sibling. In contrast is family man Holger, whose career is finally on an upward trajectory, he is finally in charge and is putting an team together to deal with the most horrifying and complex cases. He does still have to deal with the endless interferences of bureaucracy and senior management, whose only concerns are image and budgets and really have no clue, what is involved in solving crime! This is a constant source of frustration for him but for the most part he handles it well, as he does most things, including his addition of Mia to his team.

Holger brings Mia into the team, despite the fact she’s not yet completed her training because, within the pictures and information of his latest crime scene. Mia can filter out the extraneous and irrelevant material and see with pinpoint clarity, details, implications, and clues, that escape everyone else. Enabling her to bring crystal clarity and eerie insight to the situation and point the team towards the killer! Which nobody has been able to do until now! I love the pairing of Munch & Krüger and I was engrossed in the development of their characters and this story answered some long held questions I had about their individual pasts, which had only been touch upon in Samuel’s previous books. As to how this story, resolves…well, you know by now, I don’t do spoilers, so you will have to buy the book and find out, won’t you!

There are many elements, I admire and relish about Samuel’s books; but what stands out for me particularly, is his exceptional talent at constructing clever, elegant, and multifaceted plot lines, that are exquisitely woven together to create unfailingly dark and complex, mesmerising mysteries. Containing concepts that will simultaneously intrigue, thrill, and terrify you all at the same time. I completely admit, Samuel’s books are not for the faint hearted, the ideas and images he creates permeate deep into your subconscious and on more than one occasion while reading his books alone in my little house at night. I’ve had to turn on all my lights to banish any monsters that might be lurking and restore my common sense, as the menacing and macabre atmosphere of this book and it’s predecessors has provoked my imagination to such an extent, that I am jumping at shadows!

Another element that I am completely drawn to especially in The Wolf, is Samuel’s atmospheric and astute observations on the broader perceptions of culture, community, environment and the social-political context of the country and the time, shared with us from the viewpoint of his characters and this understanding of the wider environment provides fascinating situational context for the potential reasoning for aspects of human behaviour and why people behave the way they do, especially when their outlook deviates from the supposed and accepted normal! I find this perspective a truly inspired addition to a fictional crime novel.

Reading The Wolf, for me, was an incredible, intense, intriguing, and irrepressible experience and one I hope to repeat soon with Samuel’s next book. This novel melds together seamlessly all the elements that make a genius crime novel for me, cunning plotlines, a brooding atmosphere, a cast of pithy, flawed, and fantastic characters and an outrageous and nefarious villain/s who is/are utterly devious but subtly so, although his/her/their crimes are not! So if you like your Scandi Noir, sinister, scintillating and stimulating…this is certainly book for you, it is certainly a firm favourite of mine and if this is your first foray into Scandi Noir, I can’t think of a better novel to start with!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Samuel Bjork is the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright, and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. The Munch and Krüger series features, three books: the Richard & Judy Bookclub bestseller I’m Travelling Alone, The Owl Always Hunts At Night and The Boy in the Headlights

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Christmas Appeal

Author: Janice Hallett

Publisher: Viper Books

Available: 26^th October 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours, and Viper for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

One dead Santa. A town full of suspects. Will you discover the truth? Christmas in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, to raise money for the church roof appeal.

 But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking amongst the amateur dramatics enthusiasts. Sarah-Jane is fending off threats to her new position as Chair, the fibreglass beanstalk might be full of asbestos, and a someone is intent on ruining the panto even before the curtain goes up.

Of course there’s also the matter of the dead body. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they read the round robins, examine the emails and pore over the police transcripts. Will the show go on?

My Thoughts:

It is my complete pleasure today, to share my thoughts with you on Janice Hallett’s latest book The Christmas Appeal, where once again we find ourselves embroiled in the machiavellian machinations of the Fairway players…Welcome back to Lockwood Bookophiles!

This year, I have read all of Janice’s exceptional, enticing, and excellent books and I have avidly consumed every twisty, tantalising page, of each of them but unusually for this creature of habit, not in the order of publication (boo!)

On discovering this latest novel was a sequel of sorts to The Appeal (Janice’s first book). My own internal compulsion to read books in order kicked in and I had my introduction to Lockwood and it’s now infamous amdram society and I quickly found myself utterly addicted to its sublime, cleverly constructed story, which ensured that I simply couldn’t put it down and to be honest, I am not sure anyone could! It did also, perfectly set the scene for my reading experience and enjoyment of The Christmas Appeal, which though significantly shorter, is no less masterfully brilliant than its predecessor! Personally, I would recommend reading them this way, as being engrossed in The Appeal, led to my easy comprehension of the festive shenanigans about to unfold on the pages of The Christmas Appeal, some readers may feel…’oh no it doesn’t’…but my response (in time honoured pantomime tradition is) Oh yes it does!…sorry couldn’t help myself there!

One of the many elements of this deliciously devious read, that I absolute adored and could relate to, is that all the drama/dramatics take place within the production of a Christmas Pantomime ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Amdram is an arena I am very familiar with, rather like our esteemed author Janice, because in my former years I to belonged to an amateur dramatics company…yes…I was a junior WODS (Woodmansterne Operatic Drama Society) treading the boards annually of a local village hall. Dressed over the years as everything from a cockerel to a pithy shocking pink lycra and tutu clad fairy (named Fancy Free) …thank goodness, this all occurred before the advent of camera phones!

My own amdram experiences, with hindsight, have given me (an albeit innocent taste) of the type of complexities found with the micro hierarchies that manifest with in such groups and which Janice has constructed in her book with amusing, astute accuracy. The constant power plays for leadership and status, that are vividly and viciously contested, behind the gossima veneer of community spirit and charitable work and often result in, shall I say, unintended consequences (and that’s putting it mildly)….I will just say ‘gender neutral’ gift bags and ‘Sweeties’ at this point…if you want to know, what these seemingly innocuous clues refer to, well you’ll have to read the book to find out and I can’t help but giggle to myself as I type this sentence!

The novel itself opens with erstwhile lawyers Charlotte and Femi receiving a series of messages on ‘WhatsUp’ from their now retired former mentor R Tanner, KC but who is a bit of techno dinosaur (hence the confusion with WhatsApp). He has a new case for them to investigate! And just as in The Appeal, they are sent a deluge of paperwork, emails, police reports, round robins to sift through, in order to get to the bottom of the matter and it is via this information, we readers are re-introduced to some familiar characters along with some new voices and via their exchanges, we, along with Femi and Charlotte embark on a journey of discovery from a variety of perspectives, that provide, insight, hilarity and clarity into the plot and who could be the perpetrator?

Sara-Jane (SJ) and her beleaguered husband Kevin are now co-chairs of the Lockwood players, however ‘Bloody’ Cecilia and her family have designs on their status and position and will do pretty much anything to stage a coup and take control, with Cecilia making promises to potential supporters of better roles in future productions under their tenure! While SJ is trying to coerce and control everyone in to doing their part, while losing her grip daily in hilarious increments, she is bombarded with messages from the Vicar about his wooden panel, trying to organise enough of the ‘right people’ to join the society and they can’t be from the new estates! Re-organising cast lists…after all it is vital to have ‘an ugly idiot on standby’!

SJ tenuous grip on the situation is lost completely when during the performance, which despite being the director of, she misses because she is trying to extract her husband from his entombment in a wheelie bin, how he ends up there, I shall leave you to uncover! The monolithic and potentially toxic beanstalk is rendered asunder and instead of revealing a sweet bearing fairy to delight and entertain, deposits a mummified Santa on snowy blanket of polystyrene quavers centre stage! Who he is and how he got there, is for me to know and for you to read the book and find out…no spoilers here and the enfolding drama is yours to enjoy!

The Christmas Appeal is a compelling, clever, calamitous, Christmas crime conundrum overflowing with literary panache and liberal measures of sharp humour and allows the reader, to utilise their little grey cells to decipher between the power of implication and intension and decide for themselves, if what is said is truly intended! This is a novel that will appeal to all who read it and as the festive season approaches, if you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift for your (hopefully) book addicted friends and family.  I can’t think of a better present this year than treating them to copies of both The Appeal and The Christmas Appeal; which are without question a perfectly addictive and appealing bundle of books and if nothing else…reading these will keep them occupied for hours!

Happy Festive Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Janice Hallett is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Appeal (a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, the Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year and winner of the CWA Debut Dagger award) and the Sunday Times bestsellers The Twyford Code and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. She lives in West London.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Sisters Under The Rising Sun

Author: Heather Morris

Publisher: Zaffre/Bonnier Books

Available: 28^th September 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Zaffre/Bonnier Books for my lovely, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

Sisters under the Rising Sun tells the story of a group of women from Australia, England, the Netherlands and beyond, who were captured by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942 and held in brutal conditions in a camp in the Indonesian jungle.

Mainly based upon the real-life experiences of Australian nurse Sister Nesta James and English musician Norah Chambers, who, after surviving a brutal 24 hours in the sea, reached the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured by the Japanese and held in one of their notorious POW camps – places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant. Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta fight side by side every day, discovering in themselves and each other extraordinary reserves of courage, resourcefulness, and determination.

Sisters under the Rising Sun is a story of women in war, exploring the powerful bonds of sisterhood of over 500 hundred women who struggled and survived together for nearly four years in the darkest of circumstances.

My Thoughts:

Today, I have the immense pleasure at sharing my thoughts on Heather Morris’s latest novel Sisters Under the Rising Sun. I am unreservedly a huge fan of Heather’s books. I feel that Heather brings the human touch to history, she is inspired and influenced by the stories and experiences of the unremembered, because as she puts it, how can you remember someone whose story is not known to you. Through her considerate, cohesive, and creative skill in merging real life experiences with artistic license, she endeavours, eloquently to shed light in history’s dark corners, where the passing of time, is slowly erasing all who survived such difficult times and taking with them, their memories and stories of courage, fortitude, humour, and survival.

I have a rather odd confession now, when I hear that Heather has a new book on its way. I always experience contrasting reactions; a sort of curious dread descends! On one hand I really want to read the book, but at the same time, I am also reluctant to actually start reading it! Not because I will find it lacking in anyway but because I know deep down inside of myself that once I start reading, I worry about processing the emotional turmoil that may arise. Heather’s powers of engagement are simply irresistible despite the complex context of the stories, she chooses to share with her readers. Having read her previous books, I know that for good reason, they often come with a weighty emotional burden for us readers to digest. Because of this, I feel I need to mentally prepare myself for the emotional draw to come, hence my reticence to start reading. Reading Norah, Nesta, and Margaret’s story. I had the heartfelt sense of being overtaken by a vortex of emotions from compassion to rage and back again, as Heather transports us to the wilds of the Sumatran jungle and into the footprints of her cast of characters, who are struggling and surviving. Women from all walks of life and of all ages from nurses and nuns to wives, mothers and daughters, who suffer deprivations, loss, starvation, illness and ill treatment, the likes of which, I can hardly imagine (especially from the comfort of my sofa) being anyone’s reality, never mind having the mental stamina to live through it!

This is a story of how a diverse group of women survived being Japanese prisoners of war in the remote, scorching, inhospitable jungles of Sumatra. Even before their internment, many of them escaped the boat they were on being bombed and sinking, leaving them adrift on the ocean or being able to swim to land (though many couldn’t) and finding no rescue! Through the eyes and experiences of the characters, as readers we are shown the failings of humanity, regarding how the Japanese during the war period dealt with civilians and military prisoners, it is unfailingly brutal! The dehumanisation, the unnecessary cruelty, the withholding of basics necessities, food, water, medical supplies. The vile insistence, that those in their charge, kowtow to their victorious whims, the full extent of which, you will discover for yourself, when you read this book.

I can’t wait for you to meet Norah, Nesta, Margaret and Inchy, Ena, Betty, and discover their back stories and then to follow their testing and often harrowing experiences during the war. Yet despite all the hardships they endure, these determined, remarkable women find a way to hope and bring humour and connection to all around them including their captors, through music. As both Nora and Margaret are both gifted musicians and between them create a voice orchestra and write (on any scrap of paper they can beg, borrow or steal) and re-imagine hymns and music for the women to sing and put on concerts with. The Captives’ Hymn and Ravel’s Bolero brought me to my knees literally! More so because I didn’t just read about them! I was so immersed in this book, that I literally couldn’t put it down, even when I had a supermarket shop and household chores on my to do list. So I treated myself to the audiobook, in order to keep reading and had the great privilege to hear these pieces of music, sung and I sat in my car in the supermarket car park, with the tears just pouring down my face, I was so moved by the intent, the words and music!

From the moment you open this book, you cannot fail to appreciate Heather’s ability to weave visual magic in her story telling, you can feel, hear, and see the pandemonium of civilians trying to flee the arena of war. The roar of plane engines, the destructive whine of bombs dropping, the innate tension of the characters, their fear, sadness, and desperate hope that all will be well. Even now days after finishing this book, the image of group of singing Australian Nurses standing together, saying farewell to each other collectively on a dock, without really knowing whether they will make it home or when, is etched in my head and as I write this thinking of them, it brings tears to my eyes, a lump in my throat and a smile of pride and admiration to my lips as I think of these women and their extraordinary strength in adversity.

At core of this novel is the importance of sisterhood, friendship, music and survival. It is truly a brilliant, beautiful, and brutal read, that is personal, powerful, poignant and plucky, I challenge anyone to not admire and love it. I read the entire book in one day and the ethos and essence of the women and their circumstances, shared with the novel does not leave you even when you’ve turned the last page. But the end of this book does not finish with the novel. As Heather has shared with us readers, what happened next in the lives of Norah, Nesta and few of the others, culminating in the wonderful statements from their families. For me this is a book, that will never leave my heart and mind and now that I know Norah and Nesta’s stories, I will never forget them and I really hope, you buy a copy and see exactly what I mean for yourselves.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Born in New Zealand, Heather Morris is an international number one bestselling author, who is passionate about stories of survival, resilience, and hope. In 2003, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Lale’s story formed the basis for The Tattooist of Auschwitz and the follow-up novel, Cilka’s Journey.

In 2021 she published the phenomenal conclusion to the Tattooist trilogy, Three Sisters, after being asked to tell the story of three Holocaust survivors who knew Lale from their time in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Together, her novels have sold more than 16 million copies worldwide. In 2020 she published Stories of Hope, her account of her journey to writing the story of Lale Sokolov’s life.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Zebra and Lord Jones

Author: Anna Vaught

Publisher: Renard Press

Available: 27^th September 2023 in Paperback

Thank you to Will and Renard Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

A listless aristocrat, Lord Jones, finds himself in London during the Blitz, attending to insurance matters. A zebra and her foal, having escaped from the London Zoo during a bombing, cross his path, and he decides to take them back to his estate in Pembrokeshire. Little loved by his fascist-sympathiser parents, something in Lord Jones softens, and he realises he is lost, just like these zebras.

The arrival of the zebras sparks a new lease of life on the Pembrokeshire estate, and it is not only Lord Jones but the families his dynasty has displaced that benefit from the transformation. Full of heart and mischief, The Zebra and Lord Jones is a hopeful exploration of class, wealth and privilege, grief, colonialism, the landscape, the wars that men make, the families we find for ourselves, and why one lonely man stole a zebra in September 1940 – or perhaps why she stole him.

My Thoughts:

It is my great pleasure today, to share my thoughts on Anna Vaught latest novel The Zebra and Lord Jones a truly tremendous novel, that is tantalising, transforming and transformative in every way. Anna has a talent for focusing on weaving stories from documented fact. In this book, the escape of two zebras from London Zoo during the Blitz, this is their story and the man who stole them or rescued them or rather how they rescued him! What I absolutely relished about this book, was the underlying essence of hope, that despite the darkness enveloping the world and the lives of the characters, this interlude in their lives, was the candle in the dark! If you’ve never experienced one of Anna’s books, now is the time, you simply must add this book to your library!

Having previously read and loved Anna’s novel Saving Lucia on the very strong recommendation of my fellow blogger @ellspells. I fell in love with Anna’s style of writing, she is poetical, poignant and puckish and her books are imbued with an ethereal lightness of being, despite the content often dealing with some dramatic and dark events. I utterly admire, Anna’s skill at condensing and making vast swaths of historic research in to such cohesive, evocative, engaging stories and in blending the cohorts of fact and fiction together seamlessly. I would also like to draw your attention to Anna’s splendidly detailed foot notes and the fascinating additions at the end of the book and I suspect only the likes of David Attenborough, may know more about Zebras, than Anna does but I certainly wouldn’t bet on that!

The beating heart of this novel are the cast of diverting characters, whose lives and presence cannot fail to win your heart. From Lord Jones, with his hard shell which protects such a wounded soul and whose metamorphosis, from lost to found is such a magnificent progression. To the scene stealing Ernest, who you break your heart over, to the machinations of Talbot the Zookeeper, whose honest resolution is admirable.

My favourite character is our narrator, whose voice is always in the readers ear, directing our attention, presenting snippets of information, and engaging us in this journey. A voice that is enthusiastic and endearing that conveys a continuous sense of joy and awe in sharing anecdotes and influencing our reading experience with pervading sense of childlike curiosity, a trait that many of us readers may have lost, to some extent, over the course of our lives. Here, in this wonderful novel, is a timely reminder of its importance in our lives, whatever the circumstances. A truly delightful way to articulate a story! But the absolute stars of this show are of the 4 legged variety, Mother and Sweetie our Zebras (I say our because they become as much the readers as they do, the rest of the cast) and they are entrancing and humorous and I adore them!

Anna’s novel is delicious, a feast of historic delights, overflowing with sublime details, I mean how can you resist blasted owls or vengeful ghosts, I mean you simply can’t, can you?! This book is a literary masterpiece in my humble opinion it is unquestionably, fluid, fragrant, fixating, and unforgettable. You simply must have a copy and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Reading Bookophiles… 

About the Author:

Anna Vaught is an English teacher, Creative Writing teacher, mentor, editor and author of several books, including Saving Lucia, Famished, Ravished and These Envoys of Beauty. Her short creative works and features have been widely published, and she has written for the national press and has had a column with The Bookseller and Mslexia.

 In 2022 Anna launched The Curae, a new literary prize for carers. Anna is also a guest university lecturer, a tutor for Jericho Writers, and volunteers with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. She is the mother of three sons, comes from a large Welsh family and lives in Wiltshire. The Zebra and Lord Jones is her third novel and seventh book.

Please do read some of the other lovely reviews on this blog tour.

Life and Otter Miracles

Author: Hazel Prior

Publisher: Penguin

Available: 14^th September 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Penguin for my lovely, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

A gorgeous feel-good novel about a young woman finding the courage to step into her new community and make friends, with the help of some very cute otters – from the bestselling author of Away with the Penguins.

Nineteen-year-old Phoebe and her widower father Al have recently moved to Devon, to a small cottage with a river at the end of the garden.

Struggling with her own closely guarded issues, Phoebe doesn’t go out much. Instead, she spends her time at home, watching detective dramas and playing detective herself – trying to deduce from Al’s deliveries as a courier what kind of lives her neighbours lead.

But when they find an abandoned baby otter on the riverbank, it’s just the push Phoebe needs to finally step into her new community. Taking the little one to the local otter sanctuary and witnessing the uncomplicated joy of its fellow creatures, she feels a burgeoning sense of happiness that she has not experienced in a very long time.

However, Phoebe soon starts to suspect that something is amiss at the sanctuary – and she will need to put all her sleuthing skills to good use if she wants to save the otters . . .

From the Number One bestselling author of Away with the Penguins comes this ‘otterly’ delightful, warm-hearted, and uplifting story about the healing power of nature.

My Thoughts:   

My dear bookophiles, today I am beyond thrilled, to be able to introduce you all to ‘The Otter Effect’ a wonderful element that imbues its ethos in every page of, Hazel Prior’s fourth novel Life and Otter Miracles. It is the sensation that engages your emotional core, from the moment you meet an Otter, a warm glow inside, that slowly spreads throughout your body and gives you a sense that all is right with the world! You cannot fail to feel it, as Otters with their warm curious expressions, big brown eyes that you can get lost in and their cheeky, playful antics, just make you joyful. And it is their zestful presence, that impacts all the fantastic characters in Hazel’s latest book and illustrates the importance of having an emotional respect and recognition in our lives for the natural world, and the vitality of having such an intimate comprehension and connection to such remarkable creatures, that rolls off the pages of this outstanding, original, and ‘otterly’ wonderous book.

Let me share a little about this story with you; despite moving from the urban bustle of Birmingham to the wonderful wilds of Devon and Highermead cottage with her father Al a retired maths teacher and widower.  Phoebe is still trapped, with a body that refuses to cooperate or function like everyone else’s. Every day for her, is an invisible battle with chronic, debilitating pain and exhaustion, even the smallest task is a huge uncomfortable effort! The sheer magnitude of her psychological and physical burden, she bears alone and silently, covering her unrelenting symptoms with a smile, believing this positive attitude to be her armour against, both the pity and suspicions of friends and family! Because if the medical fraternity can’t put a label on her condition; it must be all in her head or she must be faking it…right!

Fortunately Al doesn’t view Phoebe this way, he is endlessly supportive of his youngest daughter, despite still carrying the weight of grief at his wife’s death on his shoulders as well. Al is focused on his new job as a courier, delivering parcels far and wide. As Phoebe and Al settle into their new life in the country, they retain their familiar routines involving coffee and crime dramas, with Sherlock Holmes being Phoebe’s favourite and inspiring her own innocent forays in detecting, after all it is in the her honing of her Sherlock skills that leads to her discovery of the missing moggy Meow!

Life for Al and Phoebe continues much as it always has, until they find an abandoned otter cub, on the river side near their cottage. Seeking to provide the otter with the best care, introduces them to the brusque, slightly brisling and practical Carol, who runs a local Otter Sanctuary. But better still, Phoebe comes to know ‘the otter effect’ and it motivates her to be part of her new community and provides the best distraction from her constant pain.

As the story continues, the plots thicken and the flood water rises, we readers get to meet; the fabulous otters (Quercus, Rowan, Paddy and Coco) and their cheeky antics and find out more about the rest of Hazel’s fantastic cast of characters; like Christina in her purple Peugeot with a penchant for picking Mr Wrong, Mr Crocker a retired policeman with his girls (chickens) for company and who likes a chat, or Rev Lucy with the dodgy husband and Dan Hollis and Ellie (from Hazel’s first book) that enliven and enrich, Al and Phoebe’s life at Highermead cottage. But of course if you want to know, what happens next, then you will have to buy the book and read it for yourselves, because I have no intention of revealing any of the drama to come and I promise, there is a great deal to come!

One of the many reasons I love Hazel’s books so much is her championship and sentient sensitivity in focusing her stories around extraordinary protagonists whose age, neurological disorders or invisible chronic conditions are frequently marginalised within our society (either intentionally or unintentionally) such as in Away with the Penguins is 85 year old Veronica McCreedy who is always alone (simply because she’s old and there is nobody left, who values or understands her viewpoints) until she embarks on an Antarctic adventure and finds a new lease on life. Or Dan Hollis in Ellie and the Harp Maker, who requires quiet, order, and symmetrical sandwiches to function but has the magical ability to breathe life into wood. And now in Life and Otter Miracles, Phoebe, who some days can’t get out of bed, or write a note or take a bath but has an astute, perceptive mind and a talent for drawing and reading other people.

For me, at the core of each of Hazel’s books is unequivocal request, for us all to value diversity and encourages us to accept differences in others and subtly warns us not to judge another person merely by their looks, age, disability, or our own perceptions of such. But through her stories, Hazel instils in us readers, that we need to see the person within and celebrate each individual’s uniqueness irregardless of their circumstances. I admire Hazel’s humour and candour in imaging and illustrating this powerful, poignant, and progressive message in such an engaging manner.

Life and Otter Miracles is the otterly pawfect read for these darkening autumn evenings, where snuggling up with a good book, is sheer bliss. But don’t just take my word for it, I think it is high time you experience ‘the otter effect’ for yourselves, so put your best paw forward and treat yourself, to the most charming, charismatic, cheerful, and otterly compelling book of 2023.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Hazel Prior lives on Exmoor with her husband and a huge ginger cat. As well as writing, she works as a freelance harpist. Hazel is the author of Ellie and the Harp-Maker, the #1 ebook and audiobook bestseller Away with the Penguins and its follow-up, Call of the Penguins. Life and Otter Miracles is her fourth novel.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

More Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up

Author: Alexandra Potter

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Available: 17^th August 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Chloe Davies and Pan Macmillan for my gorgeous, gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

There is no magical land you finally arrive at where everything is figured out, fixed, and sorted. Life, like us, is a sum of moving parts, and if we’re lucky, we get to keep f**king up, figuring it out and laughing in the face of it all.

Nell’s back. Her life still isn’t going to plan. And she’s still asking the big questions and getting none of the answers. Like, for example:

1. Why is falling in love so easy, but staying in love so hard?

2. What do you do when your friendships are put to the ultimate test?

3. Can we ever really live in the moment and leave the past behind?

4. When everything goes tits up, do you fall apart or jump on a plane to LA with Cricket (an eighty-something widow and your BFF)?

5. And when all else fails, will celebrity-scented candles, smashed avocados and Instagram filters save us?

In this hilarious, un-put-downable follow-up to the bestselling Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up, now the basis for the major TV series, Not Dead Yet, there are laugh-out-loud lessons to be learned, truths to be told, adventures to go on and joys to discover.

But first, Nell has some more confessions . . .

My Thoughts:

If like me, you are over 40, well over in fact, OK, I am holding on to my 40s by my fingertips! And your life isn’t or hasn’t followed the expected trajectory! You know the one, meeting Mr Right or Mr Will Do Fine in your late 20s or early 30s, followed by marriage and a sproglett or two, the comfy home and a reasonably successfully career either in the home or out of it! Not achieving these hallowed or quite frankly harrowing life goals. Then you need to meet Nell because just many of us, her life hasn’t met societal or parental expectations either…. thank goodness!

In Alex’s first book in this series Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up, I was introduced to Nell, flying back to the UK after her carefully curated life in the US has imploded. She is unemployed, unengaged, and mildly unhinged and in all fairness given what she’s experienced, who wouldn’t be! Nell tries to begin again, which I can confirm from personal experience is emotionally exhausting, especially when all about you (friends and family) have a pathological need to pity you or her!

Now I speak here with expert knowledge as Nell’s story uncannily echoes my own, granted there are a few differences, but it was the relatability of this book that I loved along with Alex’s ability to create Nell’s life catastrophises in a heartfelt, humorous manner and most of the time I was reading, I forget that Nell was entirely fictional!

Being unencumbered in your 40s or Nell’s 40s comes with a kind of intrinsic aloneness, independence and mental acuity not possessed by her married friends or her mother. But along with these positive characteristics there is also an ingrained sense of endless failure at not having achieved the life everyone else seems to have accomplished! An experience that has become endemic for many women in these modern times!

Nell ends up in a house share with Edward, who ticks all the politically correct social trends, he does yoga, cycles/runs everywhere, eats organic and has an insane obsession with keeping the thermostat low! As I write this, I can see Nell’s eyes rolling in her head and I know this, because mine are too! Honestly, Edward is the sort of chap, that I would go out of my way to provoke! Given Nell’s behaviour…I’m not alone in this!!!

Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up was initially a book I couldn’t bring myself to read, this had nothing what so ever to do with Alex or the book but everything to do with my own circumstances at the time rendering me incapable of coping (with what I had quite wrongly, as it turns out) a book, that I assumed would be about; a down on her luck woman finally getting all her ducks in a row; meeting Mr Right, buying their dream house in the country and living happily ever after in their picture perfect life!… Given I was 41 and living in my parent’s spare room, I just couldn’t cope with that content, it was too depressingly far from my reality! Luckily I was so wrong!

Nell’s story isn’t this dreamy perfection and neither was mine, reading this novel, I discovered that despite less than ideal or prefect circumstances. Both Nell and I found success and satisfaction in the lives we’ve created for ourselves. Nell with her podcast all about her perspectives on her Forty something f**ked up life! And me winning the war of fear regarding my inability to write anything because of my dyslexia and that fact it takes me a while to write a cohesive sentence, which I believed would stymie my ability to be a book blogger, who needs to write to a deadline!

Instead I found and I know plenty of other readers did too, that Alex’s first book became a guide or handbook, to accepting and celebrating the imperfections of my Forty Something Life, where messy, merry, and managing one day at a time, were enough…in fact…are enough!

This summer Alex has brought Nell back to us, in her new book More Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up. Nell is back and she (and we) are in a post pandemic world, she is ensconced in her tiny cosy flat, it may be small, but it is all hers! Nell is pondering on her experiences during the various lockdowns and counting down the days/hours to ‘Freedom Day’ the day when all the Covid-19 restrictions would finally be lifted.

I loved Nell’s Covid-19 retrospective, returning me to the weeks, months, and years of the pandemic, staying home, staying safe, avoiding friends and family, wearing masks (no fun at all when you are peri-menopausal and having sweat soaking hot flushes, seemingly every 30 minutes) not being able to move about freely and visit coffee shops, book shops etc. Although if I am candid here, unlike Nell (and many others IRL) I honestly didn’t mind my new normal at all! Despite living alone (bar two demanding fur beasts) I wasn’t lonely, and I wasn’t bored! Yes, I missed my partner, who I didn’t see in person for 35 weeks in 2020. Yes, I missed breakfasts and coffees out with my aged parents.

But actually having spent most of my life on my own, the restrictions didn’t bother or phase me, nor did I develop agoraphobia or an addiction to banana bread, not sure the same can be said for Nell! Although I did make a lot of Victoria sponges & Lemon and Raisin traybakes for friends and family! Instead, for me, being able to work from home changed my life for the better, as the pandemic also changed Nell’s life! Life is resuming but as Nell discovers, it is not returning to how it used to be and though it doesn’t seem like it at the time, maybe this is not a bad thing despite all the initial turbulence it causes her!

For me, revisiting Nell and all her crazy, be it DIY coffin making, a Hen Do in Yurts with a full complement of mindfulness sessions, without caffeine – the very idea of which made me swear out loud! Plus the damned Annabel is back and so is the sublime Cricket, who is one of my favourite characters ever! Reading this book transported me to my happy place!

Alex has such a talent for imbuing her novels with such a sense of tangible familiarity and fun and her words have the ability to warm your soul. In her creation of Nell, she allows all of us readers who have lived life in our own way to feel, seen, heard, and understood and brings us the knowledge, that nothing in life is perfect, yet it is in its imperfections! I have certainly taken Cricket’s mantra to heart, which is ‘You’re not too old, it’s not too late and Yes you can’. These are the best words to live by as far as I’m concerned and I think Nell agrees with me!

In More Confessions Nell’s life once more faces upheaval and issues from her past, overshadow her present, with some fairly explosive outcomes! I loved how her career path took a fantastic turn and that Cricket becomes very much a part of that and the scene with Cricket and a young stylist is still making me laugh, as I write this review…especially her reference to ‘old lady hair’ (you know, the short curly perms) which Cricket calls ‘cauliflower heads’…how can this description not fail to amuse you!

The themes of live, love, friendship and awareness of self are at the forefront of this sequel and the important message for us readers, that whatever you are feeling, you’re not alone, it is likely that someone else out there is feeling the same, is key! One of the most insightful elements of this book, I think is around Nell’s comparison of life’s breaking moments to a Kintsugi repair. Which is when a cherished vessel, that has been damaged by accident or use, the cracks or breaks are repaired with Japanese lacquer and the breaks are then painted with gold, which renders the vessel whole again, but different and ultimately more valuable. And that there are moments in Nell’s life (I’m not detailing them because I don’t want to spoil anything) that have caused fractures, but by sharing her experiences and emotions and being bravely honest with herself and those her around her. These cracks have been repaired, making her whole again, but forever changed and possibly improved too!

As you can tell from my epically long review (sorry about that). I love these books of Alex’s and I can whole heartedly confirm, that More Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up, is just as, insightful, illuminating and incandescently funny as its predecessor and if you haven’t read either book yet, then what are you waiting for…they are on a bookshop shelf now, waiting for you…go get it/them! I insist!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Alexandra Potter is the bestselling author of numerous bestselling novels, including CONFESSIONS OF A FORTY-SOMETHING F**K UP which is now the basis of a major TV series. These titles have sold in twenty-five territories and achieved worldwide sales of more than one million copies, making the bestseller charts across the world.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, Alexandra lived for several years in LA before settling back in the UK. She currently lives in London with her Californian husband and their Bosnian rescue dog.

The Turnglass

The Turnglass

Author: Gareth Rubin

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Available: 31^st August 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours, and Simon & Schuster for my stunning gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts. 

Book Details:

Imagine you’re holding a book in your hands. It’s not just any book though. It’s a tete-beche novel, beloved of nineteenth-century bookmakers. It’s a book that is two books; two intertwined stories printed back-to-back.

Open the book and the first novella begins. It ends at the middle of the book. Then flip the book over, head to tail, and read the second story in the opposite direction.  Both covers are front covers, and it can be read in either direction, or in both directions at once, alternating chapters, to fully immerse the reader in it.

1880s England.

On the bleak island of Ray, off the Essex coast, an idealistic young doctor, Simeon Lee, is called from London to treat his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes, who is dying. Parson Hawes, who lives in the only house on the island – Turnglass House – believes he is being poisoned. And he points the finger at his sister-in-law, Florence. Florence was declared insane after killing Oliver’s brother in a jealous rage and is now kept in a glass-walled apartment in Oliver’s library. And the secret to how she came to be there is found in Oliver’s tête-bêche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.

1930s California.

Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the son of the state governor, is found dead in his writing hut off the coast of the family residence, Turnglass House. His friend Ken Kourian doesn’t believe that Oliver would take his own life. His investigations lead him to the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver’s brother when they were children, and the subsequent secret incarceration of his mother, Florence, in an asylum. But to discover the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tête-bêche novel – which is about a young doctor called Simeon Lee . . .

My Thoughts:

From the instant I spied this book on social media, I wanted it with an all consuming force, it was almost painful how ardently I wanted to read it and to caress its bewitching beauty in my blogger’s paws. However, as any prolific reader will attest, it is very easy these days to be seduced by a sublime book cover with sexy spredges as once more, collecting beautiful books, is as much of a hobby as reading them. But it doesn’t always follow that because a book, looks luxurious that its content will be equally as lavish! Rest assured dear bookophiles, that in the case of The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin, this is most certainly not the case. Gareth’s book is the epitome of a beguiling captivating crime novel. It is unequivocally, sumptuous, secretive, scintillating and scrumptiously sinister and quite frankly there can’t be enough hype in my opinion to encourage you to buy it…so I insist that you do! If Daphne du Maurier and Henry Millar, had a literary love child, then Gareth has written it!

One of the features of this novel, that makes it so striking aside from Gareth’s exquisitely eloquent writing. Is its literal construction, by which I refer to the novel’s assembly, which is known as tête-bêche (or head to foot but let’s be honest, it sounds more exotic in French!) So you have two novellas that can be read in any way the reader chooses, you can read each part individually, which is how I initially thought, I would read this book. However, after a chapter or two of the (blue side) my curiosity took hold, so I flipped the book and read a couple of chapters of the (red side) and then flipped back again and I continued in this way reading 2 chapters from each book. As I found it stoked both my imagination, insight and intrigue into both stories and their secrets! But it is absolutely your choice, how you approach reading this resplendent book, so long as you do read it!

Let me share a little of what the novel/s are about. Off the Essex coast, is an island on which Turnglass House is situated. In 1881 it is the home of the Hawes Family (blue side). Off the Californian coast, not to far from Los Angeles is Turnglass House. In 1939 it is home to the Tookes (red side) Perplexing isn’t it! I had to re-read the first chapter of each book/side to make sure I hadn’t confused myself! I hadn’t!

In the 1880s, Dr Simon Lee travels to the wilds of Essex to provide medical assistance to his fatally ill cousin Oliver Hawes, a local parson, who is convinced that someone is poisoning him! On his arrival, Dr Lee discovers that Oliver is not alone, his sister-in-law Florence is incarcerated in what I can only describe as a glass box, off the library. Imprisoned for the supposed murder of her husband and her own mental infirmities! And Oliver is adamant, that she is trying to kill him too! Which would be quite an accomplishment for a woman, locked away and you can’t help the sense, that Florence really shouldn’t be imprisoned at all! Then again, maybe she should!!!

In the 1930s/40s is the rather dishy actor Ken Kourian, whose has struck up a friendship with author Oliver Tooke, whose family has pedigree and renown as his father is the State Governor and of course, they have more than one skeleton in their closet! Tragedy strikes, when is Oliver is found dead in his writing hut, suicide is assumed but Ken is convinced something more nefarious is in play and that Oliver wouldn’t take his own life! Oliver’s latest novel, The Turnglass is a tête-bêche and his protagonist is Simon Lee…. Could the clues to the truth be hidden in plain sight? Can you see them? What mysteries are afoot, well you’ll have to read the book to find out!! Absolutely NO SPOILERS here!!!

Gareth’s novel is a cacophony of cleverness, awash with shadows of the past and present illuminating the undying essences of brutishness, bigotry, and avarice. With meanings hidden upon meanings, like the gossamer wings of a dragonfly, hovering in the periphery of your intellect and on the pages, you read, the very sinister truths are simmering!

I absolutely adored this novel and I confess, that I am just a little bit in love with Gareth’s delightfully dark intellect and imagination! The Turnglass is magnificent read; it is adroit, atmospheric, and astounding in every way, plot, cast, concepts. You simply can’t put it down mentally, although physically, I did frequently put it down but only, so I could flip it to change stories! Gareth’s book is one that you cancel plans for, in order to keep reading and without hesitation one of my favourite reads of 2023. You will not have read anything like it…ever! Go buy it NOW!!

Happy Reading Bookophiles!

About the Author:

Gareth Rubin writes about social affairs, travel, and the arts for British newspapers. In 2013 he directed a documentary about the therapeutic art at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London (Bedlam). His books include The Great Cat Massacre, which details how the course of British history has been changed by people making mistakes; Liberation Square, a thriller set in Soviet-occupied London; and The Winter Agent, a thriller set in Paris in1944.

He read English Literature at the University of St Andrews and trained at East 15 Acting School.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

The Sentence

Author: Christina Dalcher

Publisher: Harper Collins (HQ)

Available: 17^th August 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Harper Collins for my beautiful, gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

 The one decision you can’t take back!

Prosecutor, Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case.

In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death.

Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty.

Until now.

Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does.

Her life depends on it.

My Thoughts:

Like most bookophiles, I have a cohort of writers whose books I simply cannot resist and when I get the news, they are about to publish a new book, my feelings of anticipation and expectation, grow to fever pitch until I finally have a copy in my bookish paws. This is most certainly the case for Christina Dalcher’s books, and I have the greatest pleasure in sharing my thoughts with you today, on her latest book The Sentence. I only hope I do it justice!

As far as I’m concerned, Christina writes the most outstanding, outrageous, and intellectually ornate novels that I have ever read. She has the tremendous ability to illuminate, illustrate and elucidate on some of the most complex social topics of our time, always with a female centric perspective. There was no respite for my mind when I was engrossed in her latest novel, The Sentence, nor in fact when I read her previous books, specifically VOX (which I have never recovered from reading, yes, it is that brilliant) nor Q (which I have never forgotten either). From the moment, I turn the first pages of any of her books, my brain is in full action mode and so it was with her latest novel.

The novel is recounted from different perspectives, but most prominently those of; Jake Milford, convicted felon on death row for murdering a child and Justine Boucher, prosecutor of his case, widow, and mother! And their life experiences from the past, provide complex context for the present and no I’m not sharing the details here because, I think doing so would or could be a spoiler and with this novel, you need to comprehend the backstories for yourself! You will be able to surmise, how Jake ends up in the position he does! And then there is Justine, whose backstory, leads her to having a level of responsibility for the legislative quirk, known as the Remedies act, now in force. An act, brought into being to re-balance the perceived arbitrary decision making of prosecutors within states who retain the right to impose the death penalty.

 The Remedies Act requires that the prosecuting attorney be certain, that the defendant in their case is truly guilty of the crime they are accused of, because if the sentence of death is imposed and carried out. And subsequent evidence comes to light and exonerates the executed felon, then in recompense for this error, the prosecuting attorney will pay the ultimate price and also be executed! Which of course sounds utterly insane but when considered logically and dispassionately, its ultimate aim, is to stop, prosecutors from arbitrarily because of their own personal preference or circumstance colour their decision in requesting the death penalty without truly being absolutely certain of a defendant’s guilt. If they get it wrong, they will pay the price!

Since the law changed, Justine has only asked for the death penalty in one case, in the killing of Caleb Church by Jake Milford and now his wife Emily, has found a piece of paper in the attic of their former family home, that could prove that Justine has made the wrong decision! What is the truth and what will it cost! Well if you want to know, you’ll have to read the book and find out because my lips are sealed!

The premise of The Sentence focuses on the validity of using the death penalty as a suitable form of punishment for offenders, who commit unspeakable crimes (or those which society deem such and of course, this can vary depending on where in the US the case is committed and heard). Should killers be put to death? Should death be the price for murder? Can we (Justine) ever be truly certain of guilt!

  Is the request for the death penalty really the ultimate restitution? Can it actually be an arbitrary issue, when it is down to the respective prosecutor, to ask for such an option to be applied and what if you had a crime, case, judge and jury that were all identical the only difference in both situations were different prosecutors, one who favours using the death penalty and one who doesn’t, would the outcome be just or fair? As a student of law, Justine makes this explanation in her argument against the use of the death penalty! So what prompts her, to eventually to request it, in Jake Milford’s case??

As I read this novel, I couldn’t help but consider, if you’ve ever watched a true crime series or read true crime novels, you are fully aware of the unadulterated evil that stalks our world and by watching or reading such material. You begin to comprehend that some people kill others because they enjoy it (granted this is a massive oversimplification of the psychopathy of serial killers or your more garden variety killers).

By which I mean; Some kill, because they believe their actions are justified repercussions or retribution for a perceived wrongdoing (and the reasoning here is completely subjective and often warped!) Some kill in error, a set of circumstances occur, that result in someone else’s death; like a child who kills because they have gotten hold of a parent’s weapon or like the actor Alex Baldwin, who shot a weapon on a film set and killed someone! Some kill, because the disturbed balance of their mind demands it, be it voices in their heads or inflated paranoia. Some people kill to hide the tracks and traces of other wrongdoing. There are endless unfathomable reasons, why one person will kill another.

But does it then follow that a state or country should legislate for court appointed murder by issuing a death penalty sentence. Is taking a life for a life, ever really justified regardless of the moral outrage of the situation? Is the application of the death penalty morally, socially or spiritually, right? Or does it exacerbate the human flaw of requiring vengeance to right a wrong! And just as importantly, can the legal and judicial powers imposing this sentence be certain, they have the right man or women to impose it upon! What if they get it wrong? What are the ramifications? In reality, not a great deal, a pardon maybe, some financial restitution possibly! In this novel, well you’ll see!

This clever, cohesive, cogent novel has occupied my thoughts endlessly in recent days and weeks and in the middle of writing this review, I stopped and discussed the story with my partner (who is American born but moved back to Scotland in his late teens, and has a great deal more knowledge of the reality of the death penalty) to ascertain his thoughts and to expand my knowledge of the issue, which really only extends to its eradication from UK law in 1964 subsequent to several defendants including Ruth Ellis being potentially wrongfully executed and all of this occurred over a decade before I was born! When reading this novel and writing this review, I have completely forgotten most of the time, I was considering a fictional premise because its essence is based so firmly in a factual issue!

The way Christina has created and curated her book just made my brain fizz with the relentless dichotomy of the topic and perspectives of the characters. The story has had me arguing both sides (for and against the use of the death penalty) and I still cannot adhere one way or the other and as I am usually effortlessly decisive, the issue of the need for certainty, has and still is, at the forefront of my mind.

Via the medium of this book and her characters, Christina has led me to conclude. The death penalty is certainly final. Its use despite all considerations is a quick salve, providing a visceral, instantaneous satisfaction that ‘justice’ has been done. An act of warning to those who kill, that by making that choice, they have negated their right to the sanctity of life. For those who have had their loved ones stolen from their arms, there is no release from grief, the emotional cost of such a loss is infinite and enduring and ending the life of the perpetrator, will only provide a small measure of closure. I cannot help but think, that actually death for some killers is an easy escape from decades of solitary incarceration, which may just be a better punishment to fit their crimes.

The Sentence is a provocative, powerful, poignant, pugnacious, persistent, and pertinent novel. I applaud and admire Christina for such imaging such a taut, thrilling, and tenacious story, that I cannot stop thinking about (as you can see from my rather long review) and I have no doubt you will feel the same and I hope you add it to your bookshelves very soon, as everyone really needs to read this book and it is certainly one of my favourite books of 2023.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Christina Dalcher is a linguist, novelist, and flash fiction writer living in the American South. She has over 100 publishing credits in the UK, US, and Australia. Recognitions include first prize in the Bath Flash Fiction Award (February 2019), second prize in the 2016 Bartleby Snopes Dialogue-Only Contest, and nominations for The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Her debut novel VOX was a Sunday Times Bestseller.

Her flash fiction appears in The Molotov Cocktail Prize Winners’ anthology, Whiskey Paper, Split Lip Magazine, (b)OINK, Five2One Magazine, and several others.

Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency represents three of Christina’s novels: VOX, Q (Master Class in the US), and FEMLANDIA. For other works, please contact Cicely Aspinall at HQ Stories/HarperCollinsUK for literary sub rights.

Jasmine Lake of United Talent Agency is the contact for any film inquiries.

Christina lives with her husband and the ghosts of several dogs and cats.

To read more about her, or see samples of her work, please visit www.christinadalcher.com

The Good Daughter

Author: Laure Van Rensburg

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

Available: 3^rd August 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to the SquadPod Collective & Penguin Michael Joseph for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world.

She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community.

So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family’s home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident.

Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in.

Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat – or did danger lurk within the community’s walls?

My Thoughts:

It is my immense pleasure to be sharing my thoughts on Laure van Rensburg’s second novel The Good Daughter with you today. Laure’s latest novel is The Squadpod Collectives book club choice for August and what a phenomenal choice it is, if this book isn’t already in your hands, go get a copy immediately as this book is a potent, pernicious, page turning pleasure, Bravo Laure, bravo!

 From the moment Laure shared with us last year, that her second novel would be centred around a young woman in a cult. I was beyond desperate to read it, as one of my favourite reading tropes are novels that delve in to the dark, destructive, and devious, environments of religious cults, whose leaders twist religious/ biblical teaching to their own malevolent will and succeed in preying on people, whose physical and emotional needs are weakened by difficult life experiences. Drawing such people into their sphere of influence by making vacuous promises to transport them to a new life. But the life they find is one that on the surface, promote ideals of redemption, rejuvenation, and resolution but when you dip beneath their shiny, happy, propaganda ridden surfaces, what you find is a rotting malignant core, both in fiction and in reality and Laure’s novel doesn’t disappoint in this respect!

Cults as a topic for a novel provides this reader with an insistent, intense curiosity to find out the truth of the matter and Laure has an uncanny knack for utilizing my natural compunction and curiosity (and probably yours as well) to delve deeper into the unknown, unexplained and often unfathomable to expediate the daedalian trajectory of her plotlines and elevate the ever increasing toxicity of the atmosphere of her story and uncover the truly poisonous personalities of some of her cast!

All that our protagonist Abigail knows, is how to be a good daughter, to devotedly follow the creed instilled into her; to be submissive, obedient, earnest, and modest, these prescribed attributes are the key to her salvation. All she knows, is she is safe and secure within the confines of her family and church at New Haven, where her daddy is the pastor. An egregious man, who vehemently guides their flock on the righteous path but subtly and secretly harbours his own noxious proclivities. According to his word, the world outside New Haven is awash with sin, sinners, and corruption, which will subsume those who venture there!

Feminism is at the core of this fallen world. Women need to know their place as wives and mothers, to submit to their husbands and focus only on their families and not take the rightful jobs of men, or question decisions made for them or about them, the will of God is that they obey, as God is the head of the church, man is the head of his wife and children! Abigail sees no reason to dispute this manifesto, until despite her dutiful behaviour, she is repeatedly maltreated and sanctioned without justification and she begins to question all that she thought she knew, with truly perilous repercussion!

One of the many elements of this novel that I admire, and relish is Laure’s ability to motivate me into having such vivid emotional reactions to her stories and giving me the opportunity to consider why I am reacting in this way! There are frequent points in this novel, that as a woman, made me so incandescent with rage and frustration, mostly towards the behaviours of nefarious men; who menace, manipulate, and maim physically and psychologically the women in this book. My only recourse was that I just screamed a plethora of swear words out loud, much to the disapproving displeasure of my cats!

Now, I fully expect you might think I’m nutty lala at this point but I’m not (well mostly not) because you may assume its madness that I am reacting so viscerally to fictional characters and in a fictitious environment but here’s the thing. My reactions are a little more long ranging and born out of knowledge gleaned in my previous extensive reading of cult related books and because these repugnant behaviours Laure has imagined in The Good Daughter, have their roots planted, in well documented reality. Prime examples being the reprehensible Warren Jeffs and FLDS with his mania of control, mantra of Keeping Sweet and penchant for polygamous marriages to pre-teen girls and don’t’ get me started on the repellent hair and dresses mandate. To the less talked about primordial attitudes of the Plymouth Brethren (as recounted by Rebecca Stott – In the Days of Rain) and ultimately I believe my expressive reaction is to the never ending attempts at subjugating women and Laure’s book/s just gave me the focus to articulate this!

Now, I’ll pop down off my soap box and tell you a little more about the book. When we initially meet Abigail, it is during the aftermath of a fire, which supposedly claimed the lives of her parents! She is naturally traumatised by this turn of events but has no discernible memory of the time leading up to the fire or the event itself and Laure subtly leads us towards, possible options for this memory loss! The book itself is structured to lead us readers to the potential outcomes of the plotlines. So some of the chapters are in the present (post fire) and some are weeks/days/hours before the fire and like pieces in a jigsaw, slot in the missing holes of Abigail’s memory, similarly the partial recordings that pop up also, provide illumination on the situation until inevitably the past and present collide in a volatile conclusion but of course, what that might be, is for me to know and you to read the book and find out!

The best way I can think of describing this novel to you, is that it is a literary iceberg, you can see the surface, the sense of place, the suggestion, that New Haven is just a benign, religious community, who are private and keep themselves away from modern society. Yet, Laure skilfully and incrementally plants seeds of doubt about this picture perfect life, right from the outset; like the small suggestions about the actual nature of the relationship between Abigail and each of her parents. Or Abigail’s navigation from indoctrinated acceptance to ever increasing awareness of self and her struggle to disengage with her accepted and established norms. 

Leading to her desperately seeking answers to her ever increasing questions about her past and her present and bit by bit, as a reader you find yourself, sliding into the murky, depths beneath the iceberg, which is far larger in scope than what is on the surface. Abigail’s involvement with Summer; a visitor to the nearby local town, who is making a podcast and wants to interview Abigail about her life at New Haven. Or Abigail’s confused relationship with Tom, or the concept that everything that happens to Abigail after the fire or come to that, before the fire is really ‘for her own good’…the most damning phrase ever, trust me, you’ll find out what I’m alluding to here! But of course, I don’t do spoilers…so if you want to find out the truth and believe me you will! I shall leave it down to you to discover for yourselves what really happened at New Haven and I shall leave you wondering if Abigail will ever find ‘Freedom from the bondage of a braid’!

In case it isn’t obvious by now, I absolute love, love, love this book, it is dark, dastardly, devious, and divinely complex and breathtakingly captivating in everyway. It is a novel, that you can’t put down but want to at the same time because you almost can’t bare to read on, as you are unsure, if any satisfactory resolution will occur! This novel is unquestionably one of my favourite books of 2023 and Laure is indubitably one of my must buy authors.  If this book isn’t on your shelves already, then it needs to be, prepare to purchase and then cancel all plans!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Laure Van Rensburg is a French writer living in the UK and an Ink Academy alumna. Her stories have appeared in online magazines and anthologies such as Litro Magazine, Storgy Magazine, The Real Jazz Baby (2020 Best Anthology, Saboteur Awards 2020), and FIVE:2:ONE. She has also placed in competitions including 2018 & 2019 Bath Short Story Award.

Her debut novel, Nobody But Us, follows Ellie and Steven who take their first trip away together, but what starts as an idyllic weekend soon takes a darker turn, as it quickly becomes apparent that each of them harbour secrets – and that one of those secrets is deadly.

Nobody But Us (originally titled The Downfall) was shortlisted for the 2019 First Novel Prize, 2019 Novel London Competition and 2019 Flash 500 Novel Opening. It will be published by Michael Joseph in April 2022 and has sold in fourteen territories, including Germany, Italy, Norway and the United States.

Laure’s latest novel. The Good Daughter, was longlisted in 2019 Exeter Novel Prize and more recently shortlisted in the 2020 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. It publishes in August 2023.

You can learn more about Laure and her writing on her website at: www.laurevanrensburg.com.

Maidens of the Cave

Author: Lloyd Devereux Richards

Publisher: HQ Stories/Harper Collins

Available: 1^st August 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to HQ Stories/Harper Collins for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

From Lloyd Devereux Richards comes the next pulse-pounding thriller in which FBI agent Christine Prusik races to track down a serial killer who leaves a peculiar mark on his victims.

Forensic anthropologist Christine Prusik has a knack for solving the most unusual cases – and for bending the rules in the process.

When the bodies of young women start appearing in the caves of Indiana and Illinois, Christine immediately jumps into action. But her Chicago field office is undergoing a reorganization, and the boys’ club at the top seem more interested in getting all the paperwork in order than solving the murders.

Christine isn’t going to let a little red tape stop her, and when she discovers that all the bodies contain the same mysterious pin-sized bruise on the back of their necks, she realizes she’ll have to confront her own inner demons to find the killer.

My Thoughts:

I am huge fan of crime fiction, so you can imagine my enthusiasm at discovering Lloyd Devereux Richards books. Today I am sharing my thoughts with you on Lloyd’s novel Maidens of the Cave, his second book in the Christine Prusik series. Which, I confess that I devoured in a day as it is an enticing, exciting and engaging read and now I can’t wait for book three! If you enjoy crime novels as much as I do, then you definitely should add Lloyd’s books to your collection, they more than deserve their place in your crime collections.

Let me give you a taste of the story; Christine Prusik is a dedicated, diligent, demanding and determined woman, she is self-contained and ultra focused on her work as an FBI special agent and Forensic anthropologist. She sees details and patterns in evidence that others around her miss when involved in case, her one deviation from work is her swimming, which is where she does her best thinking.

I love the character of Christine, she is very serious and professional in many ways but these character traits are really just the hard shell that she has developed, due to the constant, dismissal of her abilities starting with her father’s behaviour towards her swimming competitively as a child/teenager. Her shell strengthening further over the years, with her having to deal with constant challenging behaviour of sub-par men, whose ego and professional insecurity make her a target, especially as their abilities don’t come close to matching hers! I also admire her gumption, when she knows she’s right about an issue, she doesn’t back down, even when her job is under threat and all around her can’t see the wood for the trees. There is also a softer core to Christine, she suffers with debilitating panic attacks, brought on by a near fatal incident that occurred when she was a young student undertaking research and left significant psychological scars but also provides her with remarkable insight and instinct, when hunting down serial killers!

This novel begins a year on from Christine’s successful resolution of the Stone Maidens case (that’s book one in the series) there has been changes in the management hierarchy of the FBI Bureau office in Chicago, the new Director is obsessive about her profile admin project, demanding that Christine and her team, complete detailed descriptions of their roles. Her lead henchman is Christine’s new boss, he is obedient, obliging and laser focused on bringing Christine to heel, trying to tie her up in endless utterly pointless meetings about the Director’s pet project (although unbeknownst to Christine) there is another reason for this project, but you’ll find out what this is, when you read the novel, no spoilers here!

Christine meanwhile has turned her attention to the discovery of the body of a young woman in a cave, with seemingly no significant injuries. Christine ignores all orders that she should remain in the office and heads out on the road to investigate and then another young woman’s body is discovered in another cave and pieces of a forensic puzzle come to light, both women have the same tiny mark on their neck and what with a Pharma giant and a University battling for funding and both using the toxicology of a rare golden skinned frog, how do these elements fit together? That’s for me to know and you to find out!

Once again Christine is hot on the heels of what she believes is a serial killer, her investigations, lead her back into the company of Sheriff Joe, who she met in her last case and formed a loose romantic attachment with but their liaison got put on a back burner with her return to Chicago. However, the flames of attraction are still just smouldering and in this book, we get a taste there could be more to come for the pair and we see, Christine’s realisation that Joe, isn’t like any of the other men she’s been involved with previously, as they say his actions speak louder than words and I confess I have more than a little soft spot for him as well!

I have been fully immersed in the multi-faceted plotline that Lloyd has created and developed, and I admire the bravery that he brings to Christine’s character, when like a blood hound on a scent, she refuses to stop investigating, just because management try to force her back into what they perceive as her place/role. The inclusion of the killer’s perspective is an element that adds to this book, as it brings such taut atmosphere to the novel, their sinister presence, has a voice and as a reader, you have an inkling what might happen before Christine does but of course you can’t do anything about it, which certainly makes for compelling reading in my book!

I love this series and as I said at the beginning, I can’t wait to see what Christine tackles next, there is so much potential in what might occur for her personally and professionally. Lloyd’s books are immersive, intelligent, and imaginative and if you love crime novels, especially series then you certainly should read them. Personally, I think these books are better read in order, as there are elements in the first book, that cross over into this one but ultimately how you choose to read them is entirely yours, as long as you do read them. As in my opinion they are the perfect way to spend a Saturday at home!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Born in New York City, Richards worked as an attorney in Vermont and raised three children. Previously, he served as a Senior Law Clerk for an Indiana Court of Appeals judge, researching and writing drafts for dozens of published opinions, including the appeal of a serial killer sentenced to death and subsequently electrocuted.

Before practicing law, Richards travelled extensively through Europe, Africa, and Central America, journal writing and bird watching. He enjoys hiking, writing poetry and sketching pen and ink drawings. He lives with his wife Cameron O’Connor and their two dogs in Montpelier, Vermont.

73 Dove Street

Author: Julie Owen Moylan

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

Available: 20^th July 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The SquadPod Collective and Penguin Michael Joseph for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

When Edie Budd arrives at a shabby West London boarding house in October 1958, carrying nothing except a broken suitcase and an envelope full of cash, it’s clear she’s hiding a terrible secret. And she’s not the only one; the other women of 73 Dove Street have secrets of their own.  

Tommie, who lives on the second floor, waits on the eccentric Mrs Vee by day. After dark, she harbours an addiction to seedy Soho nightlife – and a man she can’t quit.

Phyllis, 73 Dove Street’s formidable landlady, has set fire to her husband’s belongings after discovering a heart-breaking betrayal – yet her fierce bravado hides a past she doesn’t want to talk about.

At first, the three women keep to themselves.

But as Edie’s past catches up with her, Tommie becomes caught in her web of lies – forcing her to make a decision that will change everything.

My Thoughts:

Today I have the pleasure of sharing my thoughts with you on Julie Owen Moylan’s second novel 73 Dove Street that I have been enjoying along with my fellow SquadPod members in July. Julie’s novel is evocative, enticing, emotional and expressive, transporting readers into the post war chaos of the late 1950s in London. What I love about Julie’s book, is her keen attention to historic detail and her ability to immerse her readers in the gritty environment her characters inhabit. This is a female centric story, that explores the physical and psychological complexities of three women’s lives, that have a foot hold in the past but the issues they face are just as germane today.

Edie, Tommie, and Phyllis are these three women, each of whom is a survivor in her own way, each struggling to recover and move on from various traumatic elements that intersected their lives.  When happenstance brings them together, it takes time for their friendship to build and for them to develop trust in each other, which isn’t easy for any of them, given their previous experiences.

One of the many facets of this novel that drew my attention, was the link between property and people. Having lived most of my life in various cities and studied art and architecture for my undergrad degree. I have always been curious about the people who have lived in the properties or areas I have, so I enjoyed 73 Dove Street being the hub of the novel and I admire Julie’s skill at conjuring redolent images of the people and place with her fluid and stirring writing.

At the heart of this novel, is the supportive and restorative nature of friendship and learning to trust again, when Edie, Tommie, and Phyllis, have endured such trials and their trust in their own judgment has been decimated and trust in those they loved has been betrayed. I am skirting the details of what precisely has happened and continues to impact them, because Julie’s story progression does it beautifully and I don’t want to spoil the impact of this, by giving anything away here!

I will say that some of the issues that they face are driven by the societal environs of the period and as a woman, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated, angry, and deeply saddened that they had to navigate such situations. But it also occurred to me, that decades later, women today are still facing these types of situations and still battling outdated social morays, which seek, ultimately to hinder our equality and our expectation of choice across a wide range of areas. I have to applaud Julie for making her historic novel so emotionally intelligent and socially savvy, while conveying such gritty brutality. It was this confluence of elements that made this novel sing to my soul and made putting the book down impossible.

This is a powerful, poignant, and pertinent novel, that cohesively mixes historic ambience, with wonderful characterisation, I have a very soft spot for Phyllis, as her attitude reminds me of someone very dear, who is no longer with me. This novel is not focused on the black and white of situations but in the grey areas, so as I read, I found myself, trying to ascertain, what I would do if I were Edie or Tommie and the truth of the matter, is I honestly don’t know and I’m still thinking on this even now and I have to congratulate Julie on writing a story that so successful insinuated itself so deeply in my head and heart. This is a book; I think everyone needs on their bookshelves, so I hope you get hold of a copy ASAP!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Julie Owen Moylan is a writer whose short stories and articles have appeared in New Welsh Review, The Independent, Sunday Express, and My Weekly.

She has also written and directed several short films as part of her MA in Film. Her graduation short film called ‘BabyCakes’ scooped Best Film awards at the Swansea Film Festival, Ffresh, and the Celtic Media Awards. She also has an MA in Creative Writing and is an alumna of the Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel course.

Julie has written two novels, THAT GREEN EYED GIRL (May 2022) and 73 DOVE STREET (July 2023) Both novels are published by Penguin Michael Joseph. She is currently working on her third novel.

A Stranger In Baghdad

Author: Elizabeth Loudon

Publisher: HOOPOE / The American University Press in Cairo Press

Available: 16^th May 2023 in Paperback & eBook.

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Hoopoe for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

In beautifully rendered prose, a mother, and a daughter struggle as outsiders in Baghdad and London in this intergenerational drama set against a background of political tension and intrigue “Who would be charmed by tales of life in the beautiful old house on the banks of the Tigris—looted now no doubt, its shutters torn, and the courtyard strewn with mattresses?”

One night in 2003, Anglo-Iraqi psychiatrist Mona Haddad has a surprise visitor to her London office, an old acquaintance Duncan Claybourne. But why has he come? Will his confession finally lay bare what happened to her family before they escaped Iraq?

Their stories begin in 1937, when Mona’s mother Diane, a lively Englishwoman newly married to Ibrahim, an ambitious Iraqi doctor, meets Duncan by chance. Diane is working as a nanny for the Iraqi royal family. Duncan is a young British Embassy officer in Baghdad. When the king dies in a mysterious accident, Ibrahim, and his family suspect Diane of colluding with Duncan and the British.

Summoning up the vanished world of mid-twentieth-century Baghdad, Elizabeth Loudon’s richly evocative story of one family calls into question British attitudes and policies in Iraq and offers up a penetrating reflection on cross-cultural marriage and the lives of women caught between different worlds.

My Thoughts:

Reading throughout my life, has been partly for entertainment but also for education of sorts. I have always found that books, be they fiction or factual, have always been my route to broadening my horizons, my knowledge and understanding of people, places and things, that in my daily life, I wouldn’t have anything more than a passing knowledge of. When I saw the details for Elizabeth’s debut book A Stranger in Baghdad. I was instantly drawn to it because it offered me the opportunity to discover more about a country, a time and place, that I have no personal experience of. As my only knowledge of Iraq and Baghdad would be what the BBC news has imparted over the decades, and shall we say the connotations have never been overly positive (and that’s putting it mildly).

Elizabeth’s novel, certainly put all I knew before into context, she has crafted an immersive, intelligent, intense, and insightful novel, that is filled with subtle sense of foreboding and is incredibly atmospheric from the moment you start reading. This is a novel seeped in history and heritage and is impeccably researched and the evocative details of Baghdad decades past engulfs you as you read. The story delves in the complexities of cross-cultural marriage, immigration and extrapolates on the intricate issues of colonial and political perspectives in Iraq.

The story begins in 2003, a subtly deliberate but pertinent date, as the Iraq invasion began at this time! In the office of Dr Mona Haddad, a psychologist who is just planning on leaving her office for the evening, when a spector from her family’s past, re-appears, Duncan Claybourne, this maybe his first visit but it won’t be his last and it tumbles Mona into a spiral of introspection about her family and their former life in Iraq before circumstances prompted them to flee!

At the heart of this exceptional novel is Diane Cutler, who we meet as a vibrant young nurse in the late 1930s, who catches the attention of the respected but lonely Dr Ibrahim Haddad, his innate ‘foreignness’ has left him isolated, and he is longing to return to warmth, acceptance, and familiarity of home. As they spend time together, Ibrahim appreciates Diane’s companionship and quick humour, and Diane admires Ibrahim’s calm solidness and I suspect his (in her eyes) exotic heritage. Their relationship and subsequent marriage, certainly baffles both sides of the aisle, you might say. Diane’s family react in predictable perplexity over her choosing to bind herself to ‘her foreigner’ and naturally can’t resist rancorous comments on race, religion, and their potential offspring! Equally, after their marriage and move to Iraq, Ibrahim’s family are suspicious of Diane and her innate Britishness and view her as an encroacher on their lives and in their country!

I found it both intriguing, irritating, and sad, that despite Diane living in Iraq, having 3 children, and becoming familiar with the culture and customs, the family’s antagonism towards her, never really dies down. Initially, I thought, how unfair their reaction seemed but on reflection, I suspect that their responses were born of a wider resentment to the interference in their country by foreign entities (especially the UK) and as much as I admired Diane in many ways, she does maintain an engrained attitude of colonial superiority towards them, and everyone (who forgive my bluntness) isn’t white, which obviously has a negative impact on her relationship with Ibrahim’s family and vice versa.

What also, I think fuels their attitude towards Diane and is the core plotline in Elizabeth’s book, is that in the first year of Diane’s marriage and move to Iraq, she is employed as a nanny by the Iraqi Royal family to look after their 3 year old son, Prince Faisal. During this period, she meets and befriends British Embassy Officer, Duncan Claybourne (who you might remember, I mentioned at the beginning of this review!) Ibrahim is deeply suspicious of Duncan and of the relationship between Diane and Duncan but not because he suspects his wife of infidelity, but he believes there to be a more political interest at the heart of their supposed friendship. When the King of Iraq dies in car crash, rumours suggest, this was no mere accident, but an act of political malice and it was in fact an assignation! Worse still is the implication that Duncan and Diane are in fact British spies who have colluded to bring these circumstances into play, to further British control in Iraq!

This incident and the reverberating insinuations taints Diane for the rest of her life, furthermore it has a significant impact on her marriage and the lives of her children all the way to adulthood! The complexities of this situation are eloquently dramatized and gave me as a reader, a great deal to consider and think about as I read. But as to what might be the truth…ah well, that’s for you to read the book and uncover for yourselves!

Elizabeth’s book for me is a triumph, it is informed and informing, intellectually challenging regarding our comprehension of historical, cultural, socio/political, psychological, philosophical, and personal circumstances within the boundaries of fiction but all while based on a keen knowledge of Iraq and the internal complexities of this country and its external foreign relations. It is an elegantly written and subtly mysterious novel that I have been utterly mesmerised by and I dearly hope you will be too. This is story not to missed and I strongly encourage you to added it to your bookshelves.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Elizabeth Loudon is a former college lecturer and charity development consultant. She has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MA in English from Cambridge University, and has taught at Smith, Amherst, and Williams Colleges. She’s published fiction and memoir in the Denver Quarterly, INTRO, North American Review, and Gettysburg Review, among others, and received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. She drew on her experiences traveling in Iraq and Lebanon in the 1970s when writing A Stranger in Baghdad, her first novel. It was longlisted for the Bridport Novel Award and won the Stroud Book Festival Fiction Competition. She lives in London.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Air Raid Book Club

Author: Annie Lyons

Publisher: Headline Review

Available: 11^th July 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours, & Headline Review for my lovely, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

As the bombs began to fall, the book club kept their hopes alive…

The most emotional, uplifting, and captivating story of wartime London and the extraordinary power of books to shine a light and draw people together in the darkest of days, inspired by true events.

London, 1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany.

Gertie is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl. But when the German bombers come and the lights go out over London, Gertie and Hedy realise that joining forces will make them stronger, and that books have the power to bring young and old together and unite a community in need in its darkest hour…

My Thoughts:

There are some books, that from the moment you read their details, you simply fall in love with. Annie Lyon’s The Air Raid Book Club was just such a book for me and today I am sharing why this is!  This is a novel that is evocative, emotional, and exuberant and it cannot fail to touch your heart and as many of my friends will attest (they used to call me black heart, due to my perceived hard heartedness) this is not a state I am overly familiar with, unless it relates to animals, then I’m a bucket of goo!

Annie’s wonderful story is one of reluctance, resilience, rejuvenation, and rejoicing, told through the voices of a stella cast of characters, who you will consider friends by the time you’ve finished reading the book. If this novel is not on your reading radar, then it needs to be! It is a book that once you turn the last page, you grieve finishing it! I know this because that is exactly how I still feel as I write this review and recall the engaging essence of this novel.

Let me tell you a little about what you can expect, when you read this book; Gertie Bingham is the proprietor of Bingham’s Books and a widow. Her beloved husband Harry died 2 years previously, now there is just her and Hemmingway (the dog, who you will love). Gertie’s sense of loss is palpable and despite her love of books and her shop, she almost can’t bear to be there anymore without her husband’s presence and is considering selling up and retiring to the coast. War is looming and when Charles (a close friend) discusses his work, transporting Jewish children to the UK and asks her if she would consider taking one of these children into her home. Gertie is torn, she and Harry had tried to have a family, but sadly had been unable to do so and had eventually turned their love and attention to each other and their bookshop. Gertie is convinced she is not equipped to be in loco parentis to a traumatised child and she likes her quiet life and isn’t sure she wants the disruption or the emotional upheaval that sharing her home will bring.

Gertie’s sense of kindness and duty along with Charles’ encouragement, prompts her to agree and Hedy Fisher comes into the life. Hedy is a German Jew and a teenager, taken away from all she knows, her family and friends. Although still young, Hedy is deeply aware that being a Jew in Germany was becoming increasingly perilous, but the reasons for why, is unclear to her but it will not be to us readers! On arrival on Gertie’s doorstep, she is distant and emotionally overwhelmed, clearly resentful of being separated from her family and having unending cups of tea foisted on her, as if that will help anything and don’t get her started on kippers! Hedy wants more than anything to be reunited with her family, and after a rocky start in her new home, she reluctantly allows Gertie help her and this focus, allows the two women to form an uneasy bond, although Hemmingway and a mutual love of books and music, also plays a part in connecting them.

Then on one ordinary day in September 1939, comes the spine chilling (even now decades later) moment when Chamberlain via a wireless broadcast, declares the country at war with Germany! Hedy and Gertie’s plans to reunite Hedy with her family, are destroyed in an instant and the implied enormity of the situation is palpable and heart-breaking for both the reader and characters alike! We follow Gertie and Hedy and their cohort of book loving friends through the years of the war, where books are their light in the dark times, stories that bring comfort, escape and connection, when it is needed most. I can’t wait for you to read this section of the novel as it is truly uplifting, despite desolating effect of the Blitz, the darkly escalating news of the situation in Europe and cost of war on those fighting and living through it. But I shall leave you to discover all the book’s subsequent plot twists for yourselves, as I’m not a fan of giving the game away, as they say!

Annie’s captivating story is one of love, loss, literature, liberation and living life. Annie is inordinately sensitive and skilled in capturing and articulating the emotional nuances of her characters experiences. You feel what Gertie, Hedy and all the others feel, whether it’s a love of books and stories, or the desperation of being separated from family or the tangibility of losing someone you love. Annie’s writing and her story, has the divine ability to make you, cry one minute and snort with laughter the next and it’s a heady mix indeed, although not particularly elegant when you do both at the same time, I speak from experience here! One of my favourite moments in the book, is Gertie visiting her delightfully obstreperous uncle in his bookshop, which is filled with a plethora of classic and antique books, and she discovers him and his assistant lining the roof of their shop with copies of Mein Kampf, to protect it from the German bombs, plus they couldn’t think of a better use for them, such wonderful irony!

Another element of this story, that I fell in love with, and I suspect any other book lovers will too, is the development of the book club and the numerous references to books, you may or may not have read and I loved the various characters discussing the book choices, their likes and their complete incomprehension of various novels, which is both charming and amusing. I loved how important books and reading becomes in the main characters’ lives and those on the periphery via the inclusion of books in Red Cross boxes sent to prisoners of war. How books inform and uplift the characters, regardless of what trying circumstances they face and how stories educate and entertain readers, throughout time, whether past or present.

If like me you are a fan of AJ Pearce’s Emmy Lake Chronicles or the television series Foyles War then Annie’s book, will be the perfect read for you, as it has a similar warmth and drama infused through its atmosphere, essence, and focus on life changing events, experienced through the lives of some truly wonderful characters. I absolutely adored this book and I want everyone to buy it and be swept away by its contents as I have been. Be warned when you do read it, you will require tissues and possibly a port and lemon or two!

Heartfelt Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

After a career in bookselling and publishing, Annie Lyons became an author. When notworking on her novels, she teaches creative writing. She lives in south-east London with her husband and two children and puppy, Nelson.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Housekeepers

Author: Alex Hay

Publisher: Headline Review

Available: 6^th July 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Headline Review for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

When Mrs King, housekeeper to the most illustrious home in Mayfair, is suddenly dismissed after years of loyal service, she knows just who to recruit to help her take revenge.

A black-market queen out to settle her scores. An actress desperate for a magnificent part. A seamstress dreaming of a better life. And Mrs King’s predecessor, who has been keeping the dark secrets of Park Lane far too long.

Mrs King has an audacious plan in mind, one that will reunite her women in the depths of the house on the night of a magnificent ball – and play out right under the noses of her former employers…

THEY COME FROM NOTHING. BUT THEY’LL LEAVE WITH EVERYTHING.

My Thoughts:

As a book blogger, on occasion, I am exceedingly lucky to have the opportunity to read and review books, that garner a lot of media attention prior to and at publication. Alex Hay’s debut The Housekeepers is one such book and let me stop any speculation at this point…Alex’s book deserves every accolade you may have seen on social media and all the gushing that may follow in my review. This novel, I believe surpasses the hype. It is a book, you should absolutely buy, right now! It is a glorious, gleeful read, awash with history, heists and housekeepers and it has been a consummate joy to read. This is an edifying, exhilarating and exquisite story of female fraternity, familial fractures, and audacious revenge. If the films, The Kitchen/Widows/Oceans 8 had a love child with Downton Abbey then The Housekeepers, would be their prodigious first born!

The novel opens in a very intriguing fashion with one of the leading protagonists of this story; Mrs King being dismissed from her esteemed position as housekeeper in the De Vries household in the opulent and ostentatious house on Park Lane, where in reality nothing is as it seems! I confess I was very concerned with this turn of events, because a woman without references could find herself in a very perilous position, leaving her without status, finances, or options, at least not one that is countenance-able!

As I read on, Mrs King calmly dances around the pompous sanctimonious butler Mr Shepherd (who is an unctuous creep, for whom tasering is far to good) who is trying to remove her from the house. I was instantly given the impression that this turn of events, was entirely planned! But why, was my next thought and as it transpires, this incident is merely the tip of a very cleverly constructed iceberg, where decadence, deception and deceit are the true decorations of this household!

It become quickly apparent that Mrs King’s time working for Wilhelm De Vries and his daughter, has actually been part of ruse, as she has been hatching a plan to wreak retribution on her former employers for some time and now after Wilhelm’s sudden demise, it is the time to put all the players into action, in the words of Alice in Wonderland… curiouser and curiouser! Let’s just say that Wilhelm and his wealth are forged in falsehood, and as to Miss De Vries, she’s got some serious issues!

 Mrs King gathers her ‘crew’ a clandestine, cohort of clever, colourful women, each with her own skill set to bring to the table and quite frankly they make any mafia don, look like fluffy bunny. Led by the calm and calculating Mrs King, they are about to pull off the most audacious robbery, the effects of which, will have the highest echelons of society rocking on their banqueting chairs and not because they are worried that someone might steal the family silver but because their moral decrepitude, could be exposed for all to see!

However there is more to this plot than you might surmise, it is so much more than merely undertaking larceny or a case of extreme avarice, nor is this a quest for social revolution with the below stairs staff seeking recompense for their poor treatment. Instead, I believe, it can be described by my favourite quote (from Hamlet) that ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ meaning that Mrs King and Mrs Bone have waiting to enact retribution upon the De Vries, who as you will discover, have done great wrong and though this approach may be considered a little sadistic, it is much more gratifying to meticulously formulate a plan that can inflict the harshest payment, well it is in my book! But if you want to know precisely why Mrs King would go to such lengths or what the De Vries have done, well of course…you’ll have to read the book and find out for yourselves because I don’t do spoilers and trust me, you will want to know, all the whys and wayfores!

From petticoats containing instructions to impersonating Countesses, this novel has it all, it is a female centric litany of criminal thrills and spills, and I absolutely adored it, from the ostentatious ambiance to the magnificent cast of characters from the unequivocal, devious Mrs Bone to the unembellished and unrelenting two Janes to name but a few. This book is clever, cunning, and perfectly caustic and Alex is to be praised for his imaginative and creative writing, genius plotting skills and having a deliciously dark and twisty sense of fun. You absolute need to get hold of this book, it is one of my favourite reads of 2023…go get it, right now!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Alex Hay grew up in Cambridge and Cardiff and has been writing as long as he can remember. He studied History at the University of York and wrote his dissertation on female power at royal courts, combing the archives for every scrap of drama and skulduggery he could find. He has worked in magazine publishing and the charity sector and is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Write Your Novel course. The Housekeepers is his debut novel and won the Caledonia Novel Award 2022. Alex lives with his husband in South East London

A note from the author… I love books full of big houses, broken families, loyal friendships, and wild ambitions – textured with all the glorious sights, scents and sounds of the past. When I started The Housekeepers, I was itching to write a novel set in the early 1900s, to revel in the era’s extraordinary opulence, scrappy characters, remarkable flashes of modernity, and layers of corruption that exist just underneath the polished exterior. I’d also always adored the slick engineering of a juicy heist plot and was longing to try and write one of my own.

 I was washing the dishes – apt, in hindsight – when it occurred to me that the marbled drawing rooms and glittering saloons of Edwardian London had all the gumption and gloss of a Las Vegas casino and could make the perfect backdrop for a high-stakes heist. My mind’s eye turned slowly to a green baize door, and a cast of servants began sidling out of the shadows, each with their own desire for revenge… I’ve been asked why I turned to an alliance of women to lead the cast of The Housekeepers, and it’s a good question, and one I’ve considered myself too. The truthful answer is that I never really saw this tale any other way; the decision was instinctive. I love Mrs King and her gang – they feel a bone deep desire to imprint themselves on the world and the systems that marginalise them, as I think many of us do.

The Housekeepers is, of course, a work of fiction, but the glittering Park Lane mansion at the heart of this story is inspired by extraordinary houses that once stood all around the wealthiest parts of West London. Stand outside the present-day Dorchester Hotel and you can still glimpse Stanhope House, turreted and gargoyled, commissioned for soap manufacturer Robert William Hudson in 1899. It faced 25 Park Lane, a luxury townhouse built for Barney Barnato, a music-hall actor who made an eyewatering fortune in diamond-mining before dying mysteriously at sea. These were homes built for rich and powerful men, containing the most decadent and costly treasures, attended to by a seemingly endless supply of obedient servants. But just imagine what might have happened if some of those working below stairs had decided to claim a little of that power for themselves.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Salt And Skin

Author: Eliza Henry-Jones

Publisher: September Publishing

Available: 6^th July 2023 in paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & September Publishing for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Grief-stricken and on the verge of a breakdown, photographer Luda Managan leaves Australia for a commission, bringing her two teenage children to a remote, weather-ravaged but beautiful Scottish island.

 Luda, isolated from her two resentful teenagers, turns her attention to the records from the 17th century island witch hunts and the fragmented life stories of the executed women. Min, her daughter, restless and strong, tries to fill up the space in their family left by her father. She soon finds comfort in both the sea and an unlikely friendship. But the only thing that beautiful and gifted Darcy cares about is getting marks high enough for entry into university – one very, very far away from his mother. Until he meets the wild foundling, Theo, who slowly self-destructing in a community that is both protective and violent towards him.

But when a tragic accident unleashes ghosts and the echoes of long-ago violence and betrayal into their lives, the Managans must confront their unspoken histories in order to survive.

My Thoughts:

Today I am sharing my thoughts on Eliza Henry-Jones latest novel Salt And Skin. This is my first experience of reading one of her books and I can confidently say, it won’t be my last. Eliza has lyrical style of prose, and it certainly compliments, the more ethereal elements of this novel. This is a book, that is perceptive, poetic, and pertinent and marries, the harsh realities of life and psychological impact of loss, with an Arthur Rackham style depiction of folklore, the mystical and magical, where the lines between the tangible and intangible are delightfully smudged.

At the core of the novel is the fractured Managan family; Luda, Darcy, and Min. Tragedy has seen them leave the familiar barmy shores of Australia for the weather scarred tidal island of Seannay in Scotland for a ‘new start’. Eliza’s passion for the environment and nature, shines through her arresting descriptions of land, sky, and sea. She ties her love of the natural world to the underlying thread in her novel regarding the ongoing hazards of climate change and the impact that individuals or the wider collective of society can have, this issue is of potent significance for the writer, and she utilizes its controverses convincingly to bring drama to the plot.

Luda moves her family into The Ghost House, which as you can imagine merely by hearing its name, has a heritage, seeped in island superstition. Centuries before four women were held in this house, facing charges of witchcraft, which ultimately would cost their lives and you get the distinct impression that Luda, feels a level of kinship with them and their plight, as her own actions since her arrival on the island, have certainly caused a divide of distrust, distaste and distance between herself and the other island residents!  In contrast her children seemed to have settled in well, despite their intense reticence about being on Seannay.

For me one of the strongest elements of this novel, is Eliza’s detailed character creation and development, we have Luda, who is struggling to hold her life together, to parent and to survive the heavy burden of grief she is carrying regarding the death of her husband. Then, there’s Darcy at 16, intellectually astute, emotionally engaged and prefers to keep everyone at a distance. Min is 14 exuberant, engaged and closely bonded to islander Cassandra, who I think might just be my favourite character, she refuses to acknowledge her age and prefers to channelling spirits in the pub rather than church! And then there Theofin, who island rumours say is a Selkie, due to his rather unusual arrival on the island, I love his curiosity and the friendship he develops with both Min and Darcy.

Skin and Salt is a story awash with secrets, punctuated by an atmosphere and pace that ebbs and flows with the tide of the plot, sometimes it picks up speed and becomes dark and dramatic as the revelations come but at other points, it’s calm and almost introspective, letting the daily life of the island colour the pages. I love how Eliza has woven together a tapestry of fact, fantasy, history, and folklore in her story and overall it slightly reminds me of reading Grimm’s fairy tales, as this book is indeed a modern moral tale tempered by light and darkness. Eliza is a gifted wordsmith and this book of her’s is atmospheric, attentive, and authentic. It is certainly nothing like, any story I have read before and I hope you add it to your bookshelves, as I think you may enjoy it as much as I have.

 Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Eliza Henry-Jones is a writer and academic based on a little flower farm in Victoria, Australia. Her previous novels have been listed for multiple literary awards including the ABIA, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and QLD Literary Awards. Her work has also been published widely, appearing in places such as the Guardian, Country Style, The Big Issue and The Age. Eliza has qualifications in psychology as well as grief, loss and trauma counselling. @elizahenryjones

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Ghost Ship

Author: Kate Mosse

Publisher: Mantle/Pan MacMillan

Available: 6^th July in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Mantle for my stunning gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel silently rides the swell. She is known only as the Ghost Ship. For these past months, her crew has fought to liberate those enslaved by corsairs. But the two bravest mariners on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher: if captured, they will be hanged for their alleged crimes…

But now the Ghost Ship is under attack – its hull splintered, its sails tattered and burnt, and the crew at risk of capture. But the bravest among them are not who they seem. Louise is fleeing a miscarriage of justice; her lover, Gilles Barenton, is at risk of being exposed – she is forced to masquerade as her brother. The stakes could not be higher: if arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?

A sweeping and epic queer love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes, and hidden secrets on the High Seas. Most of all, it is a tale of defiant women in a man’s world.

Kate Mosse’s new novel is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a man’s world, of vengeance and breathtaking peril on the High Seas, of long-buried family secrets and a love story spanning three generations.  

My Thoughts:

I am a HUGE fan of Kate Mosse’s books, as far as I’m concerned, she is the reigning Queen of superb sweeping historic family sagas.  My introduction to her exquisite storytelling started with her exceptional debut Labyrinth, which is still a book, I regularly recommend to non-bookish friends.  In the past year, I have introduced Kate’s books to my dad, who is responsible for my love of historic fiction in the first place and now as we both approach milestone ages next year.  We decided to embark on a year long Daddy/Daughter buddy read and chose the Joubert family chronicles to start off with and we have already devoured: The Burning Chambers and City of Tears and now I have the great privilege in reviewing book three in the series The Ghost Ship and my dad has just run off with my copy of the book, trust me he’s nearly 80 and I’ve never seen him move so fast, that’s how much we love Kate’s books!

In this third instalment, I was transported back into the torrid, tempestuous turbulence of 16^th century and its endless raging vicious religious wars, which decimated people and places and I found myself reunited briefly with Minou Joubert (latterly Reydon-Joubert) heroine of the previous two books and having immersed myself in Minou story, through, if you’ll pardon the cliché, hell and high water. There was a distinct poignancy to saying farewell to her now, as her granddaughter Louise is focal point of this book and takes their family story forward.

I have always been fascinated, by how one moment in time, can change the course of history by trigging a series of impactful events. In The Ghost Ship, the assignation/murder of Henri of Navarre (Henri IV a protestant King) is the catalyst that alters the direction of our characters’ lives. For Louise, who has been in Paris, with Minou ostensibly to claim her inheritance, it sees her retreat to Carcassonne, La Rochelle and ultimately on to the port of Amsterdam (with all the upheaval you can imagine such a journey entails) but it is her voyage from there that will bring drama, danger and the greatest changes to the life she knows.

Louise, just like her grandmother before her is an engaging heroine, she is very much her own woman (despite the restrictions of her sex) I loved her gumption and desire to be independent, to seek adventure, to be the captain of her own ship (literally) and the fact, that she resolutely has no interest in love and marriage as they will just curtail her plans. Until that is, she crosses paths with Gilles Barenton, who fascinates, and I think infuriates her as well, he definitely plays his cards close to his chest (and you can’t help but wonder why?) but there is definitely a spark between them. I admired Louise’s aspirations to Captain her own vessel, despite this want being a seemingly fantastical desire. As the nautical world at this time, is one fraught with danger and brutality and very few women of this period would seek such a daunting challenge, nor could they cope with privations such a role would inflict. Yet a vicious storm and a death, provides Louise with an opportunity and she grasps with both hands! But of course if you want to know more, then you will have to read the book and find out what happens for yourself as I have no intention of spoiler what happens next!

The Ghost Ship and Kate’s sublime storytelling had me hooked from the first page, actually I think the stunning cover of this book, got me first and then when I started reading, I was completely absorbed and addicted to this story. And of the three books I’ve read so far, this is by far, my favourite. Kate has such a talent for merging fiction and history together, in such a vivid and visceral way and for putting remarkable, redoubtable woman front in centre in the stories she imagines. I felt I was on board ship with Louise for most of the time I was reading (not curled up on my sofa in Yorkshire) and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her adventures either, even though I finished reading this book a week ago.

Kate’s latest book has it all, it is a swashbuckling, scintillating, and sensational read and one that I am truly sorry to have finished. Although, having read the epilogue, it seems we may be treated to further adventures of the Joubert women, this time in South Africa…I confess I am unreservedly ecstatic about the potential for more in this series. If you’ve not read this series yet, then you simply must…it is far too brilliant for any historic fiction fans, to miss out on. I suggest you place an order online or nip out and visit your nearest independent bookshop and treat yourself, I promise you won’t regret it. I meanwhile, will have to pretend to be patient and hope Kate is typing madly away creating book 4!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

‘I’m delighted that Mantle will be publishing my gender-swapping story of love and adventure at sea, inspired in part by the real-life stories of 18th century pirate duo Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The Ghost Ship has been a delight to work on from start to finish, and I hope readers will have as much fun reading it as I’ve had writing the novel.’

The Ghost Ship is the third novel in the Number One bestselling series The Joubert Family Chronicles, following The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears, which have together sold more than 400,000 copies. The Founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and recently launched Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist, and non-fiction writer. Her most recent feminist non-fiction book, Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World (October 2022), is now the basis for a one-woman theatre show, touring UK venues from 28 February-12 April 2023, in which Mosse will celebrate the lives of extraordinary, brilliant, trail-blazing and heroic women from throughout history whose names deserve to be better known.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Lowbridge

Author: Lucy Campbell

Publisher: Ultimo Press

Available: 6^th July 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Ultimo Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Where everybody knows everyone, how can somebody just disappear?

1987: It’s late summer and a time of change when a 17-year-old girl leaves the local shopping centre in the sleepy town of Lowbridge and is never seen again. Her unsolved disappearance is never far from the town’s memory. There’s those who grew up in the shadow of her loss whose own lives were altered forever, and those who know more than they’re saying.

2018: Katherine Ashworth, shattered by the death of her daughter, moves to her husband’s hometown. Searching for a way to pick up the pieces of her life, she joins the local historical society and becomes obsessed with the three-decades-old mystery. As Katherine digs into that summer of 1987, she stumbles upon the trail of a second girl who vanished and was never missed because no one cared enough to see what was happening in plain sight.

In a town simmering with divisions and a cast of unforgettable characters, Lowbridge is a heart-wrenching mystery about the girls who are lost, the ones who are mourned and those who are forgotten.

My Thoughts:

Today I am excited to share my thoughts with you on Lucy Campbell’s debut novel Lowbridge. In the past year, I’ve become obsessively addicted to the genre of Outback Noir. In case you don’t know, what that is; it is, in a nutshell, a blanket term for crime novels of all varieties but especially the dark and twisty types set a world away in the realms of Australia or New Zealand. I have in the past 10 months, binge read all of Chris Hammer, Jane Harper, Vanda Symonds, SR White and Patricia Wolf’s books and have made a serious dent into Garry Disher’s series and now we have Lucy’s book to add to this exciting and esteemed crime collective.

I have been trying to articulate what it is about books like Lucy’s that has drawn me to them, and I have concluded, that it is the unfamiliar atmosphere and the unique and distinct sense place and of environment these novels imbue. Lucy’s novel (like a number of the others I have mentioned) is set within a very typical small town/rural community, where the same families have lived, loved, and died for decades past, they have survived, all that nature has thrown at them and have endure a variety of privations, prosperity and poverty and this heritage has shaped the people and their perspectives, their actions, their intent.

Then when you add in the brutal beauty of the bush and the endless, remote landscapes, where you can drive for days, without seeing another car and the oppressive, potentially lethal heat and arid dryness, and the toxic uniqueness of both flora and fauna, there is already an essence of danger of the unknown, lurking to greet readers like me, for whom all of this is a completely fascinating anathema, to be explored from the safety of my sofa in verdant Yorkshire!

Lucy’s book gripped me from the opening chapter set in the mid-80s, where I watched as schoolgirl Tess, literally vanishes before my eyes, with the only trace of her left, is just her school badge fluttering to the ground. The immediate sense of foreboding is tangible in this attention grabbing opening! In fact, I had to read the first chapter, twice to make sure I hadn’t missed anything at this point! As the next chapter, winged me straight back to the present and as a reader, I was left with the impression, of ooooh so many questions and an unquenchable desire to find out what happened, which is a brilliant way start a book in my opinion!

One of the standout elements of this novel, is the dual timeline and the manner in which the story is revealed; the past is all about Tess in 80s with life and love at her fingertips, her close female friendships, a budding romance, she’s about to finish school and is surrounded by a loving slightly chaotic family and the world is her oyster but a series of innocuous events unfold and coalesces into her eventual disappearance! I loved how Lucy has us dip into Tess’s life and her typical teenage drama and the traces of subtle menacing undertones, starting to build and expand! I was fascinated by depth of Tess’s perspective and hearing her voice and thoughts and being able to comprehend, what decisions she makes and why, and how the naivety of youth, potentially costs her.

Our other protagonist is in the present, the wounded, flawed Katherine, married to Jamie and once mother to Marie…she is almost prostrate with grief, barely functioning and no amount of wine, is going to help, other than to render her unconscious, as this is her way to numb such pain. If I’m honest, when I first met Katherine, I really didn’t like her, and it wasn’t because grief of such magnitude makes everyone selfish, and she is selfish, self-pitting and wracked with guilt over her failings as a parent. I suspect it was more personal, I initially couldn’t relate to the type of woman she was because, I’m not a parent. I have never wanted to be one and the idea of being a mother has literally filled me with a sense of dread. So, I struggled to comprehend her emotions and behaviour. But as I read the book, I began to see her in a different light, her unswerving determination, her battling spirit, her single mindedness, is born out of her own experiences and her understanding of being a mother and a daughter, these traits makes her the perfect character to uncover the long hidden truth behind a young woman’s seemingly unexplainable disappearance, in a town, where everyone, seems to know everything about each other…or do they?

It is Katherine’s perspective that drives the story, having reached rock bottom, she strikes a deal with her husband, who believes some form of professional intervention is needed to ‘cure’ her of her misery and drinking. In response to this threat, Katherine has curated a list of tasks to perform, a couple every day and no drinking. This list is full of normal actions and interactions, and it will perhaps distract her for a short while at least from the insistent, relentless pull of grief.

It is during the undertaking of one of these self-imposed tasks, that Katherine, makes a new friend and discovers the Lowbridge Historical Society and their voluminous archive boxes, documenting the history of the town and its inhabitants and when Katherine, unearths old press articles relating to Tess’s disappearance 30 years ago and that learns that no trace of her has been found. Katherine’s own intimate understanding of the power of loss, drives her to insist almost obsessively on investigating this cold case and naturally leads to her digging up some long buried secrets! But of course, you’ll have to read the book to find out more and trust me, there is so much more for you to unearth!

Lucy’s novel cleverly exposes the reality of women’s lives in a seemingly somnolent outback town across decades, exploring the power and unity of their friendships, to examining prevalent social issues and variations of familial circumstances. And how various combinations of these elements will direct, dictate, destruct, and potentially destroy the women involved. How in an instant, an innocent choice or a casual conversation can have unimaginable catastrophic consequences and the trajectory of this novel, is one any reader can relate to and anticipate to some extent but cannot change, no matter how much they wish to. It is an imaginative, insightful, intriguing, and intensely intimate read and I relished the sublimely subtle way the story unfolds. The plotline will also make you grit your teeth in seething rage, at the violent, self-absorbed, entitlement of the perpetrator and establishes how the twin powers of fear and greed, can turn even the seemingly rational person feral!

Now that I’ve given you a small taste of what you have in store, when you read this book. I think you can see why, I literally couldn’t put Lowbridge down. This novel possess the power to provoke your brain into a need to know frenzy and those sensations won’t relent until the myriad of question you have, are finally satisfied. I’m pretty sure once you get hold of a copy, you will see exactly what I mean. Now all I have to do is wait patiently to find out, what Lucy will write next? As, I am in no doubt that her next book will be top of my wantie list!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Lucy Campbell has worked as a writer and sub-editor across magazines, newspapers, and non-fiction books. Lowbridge is her first novel. She lives in Canberra with her husband and three children.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Birdcage Library

Author: Freya Berry

Publisher: Headline Review

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective and Headline Review for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

1932. Emily Blackwood, adventuress, and plant hunter, travels north for a curious new commission. A gentleman has written to request she catalogue his vast collection of taxidermied creatures before sale.

On arrival, Emily finds a ruined castle, its owner haunted by a woman who vanished five decades before. And when she discovers the ripped pages of a diary, crammed into the walls, she realises dark secrets lie here, waiting to entrap her too…

The Birdcage Library will hold you in its spell until the final page.

My Thoughts:

As part of the Squadpod Collectives June Book Club, we chose to read Freya Berry’s second novel ‘The Birdcage Library’. This time I was on the ball, as previously, I inadvertently missed out on reading Freya’s first book, The Dictators Wife but fear not bookophiles, I have a beautiful copy now awaiting my attention. I didn’t hesitate to get hold of a copy of Freya’s new book and now that I have, let me tell you, that you will want it desperately, you will not be able to do anything other than relish and revel in its mystery, macabre and menace.

From the moment, you open the first page of The Birdcage Library, you are pulled into another world, one of investigation, intrigue, intent, imagination, and illumination and you do not wish to be anywhere else, even when the plotlines reach fever pitch! If like me you love a mixture of mystery with your history or history with your mystery, then this tantalising, taut and tremendous read, is certainly the one for you! Freya is a master storyteller, whose imagination and creativity, deserves every accolade, I can provide, and I know that you will love this novel as much as I have!

Let me share with you a little of the story. Protagonist, Emily Blackwood is not a typical woman of her time; she refuses to be caged by the social strictures placed on her sex. She has no interest in the marriage mart, taking tea or purchasing diverting trifles. Emily Blackwood is an academic, an adventureress, a learned botanist, who is dedicated to exploring far flung places, where men fear to tread! She prefers to spend her time in the wild places of the world, collecting specimens, researching, cataloguing, and writing papers about species she has uncovered, she is a perverse enigma to the sniffing, stifling, patriarchy, they can’t quite dismiss her, but they do not accept her abilities, insight, knowledge, nor is there any equality of recognition for her work, in this she can only aspire to attain the seemingly unassailable.

Emily’s future expeditions are abruptly curtailed by the loss of her family fortune, and she has no option but to seek mundane but suitable employment, starting with cataloguing the Rothchild’s Lepidoptery collection. Her skills however catch the attention of Henry Vogel cloistered in his isolated Scottish Castle, once a famous collector of creatures for a renowned animal emporium in New York, during a time, when it was fashionable for the wealthy to collect exotic animals and show off their menageries. Now he wishes Ms Blackwood to assist in the cataloguing of his extensive taxidermy collection, potentially for its sale.

Unable to dismiss the financial security this job offers her; Emily agrees to the unusual restrictions of the post. She soon discovers that Henry Vogel has an ulterior motive for requiring her presence and her unusual skill set and from the ashes of her former adventures, Emily begins a very different voyage of discovery. Starting by exploring the decaying corners of Castle Parras, when she uncovers some old papers including a book, titled The Birdcage Library and the torn journal of Hester Vogel, Henry’s sister-in-law, who infamously killed herself, by jumping from Brooklyn Bridge!

Emily is intrigued by the contents Hester’s journal and finds herself compelled to uncover the truth, behind the veil of ominous secrets that consumes the Vogel family. All is not what it seems, but Emily knows this better than anyone and if you are expecting me to elucidate further on this point, then you are sadly mistaken, it is a far too clever, creative, and complex story for me to spoil with any further revelation!

I loved how this novel was constructed over two timelines, from the perspective of two fascinating women, who initially seem so different from each other, yet as we are discover, their experiences are not. Freya’s imagination is second to none, her ability to conjure and construct the rich essence and atmosphere of the historic periods, is sublime, scintillating and succulently sinister. I was completely absorbed with her approach to the women in this book and the underlying concept of imprisonment, from the exotic animals, captured, and kept for show, irregardless of their requirements for space and freedom. They were merely playthings of the rich, to be admired and eventually discarded.

The bars of a cage, whether gilded or of social construct, still curtail freedom be it, of movement, of expression, of life, whether those incarcerated are or animal or not! The idea, that women like Hester and Emily despite living decades apart are imprisoned either literally or figuratively by the expectations of self or society is both monstrous and mesmerising and certainly provide readers with a great deal to consider.

This novel is irresistible, intriguing, and irrepressibly clever, you cannot fail to be transported from Gilded Age to dusty golden cage nor can you resist, the creeping darkness that influences and taints the plotlines, trust me it will give you goose bumps!  I loved the brilliance of Emily’s intelligence especially as she is figuring out Hester’s enigmatic clues and Hester’s genius in creating them and I spent considerable time, contemplating, what fate had in store for them both. I admired, Freya’s twin abilities to illustrate and illuminate, the rich historical context of her novel and you cannot fail to be transfixed by the treasure hunting element of the story either. I literally fell into the pages of this book and quite honestly I didn’t want to leave, and I have no doubt, when you read it, you will feel the same! Bravo Freya, bravo!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Freya Berry always loved stories, but it took several years as a journalist to realise she loves the kind of truth that lies in fiction, not reality. (Or, to put it another way, making stuff up is more fun.)

Her second novel, The Birdcage Library, is published June 22nd: think books within books and a literary treasure hunt packed with twists. A 1930s adventuress discovers an old book containing clues about the disappearance of a woman who vanished 50 years before. Set between a Scottish castle in the 1930s and an exotic animal emporium in Gilded Age New York, it’s a gothic tale of secrets, obsession, and murder. Oh, and taxidermy.

Her first novel The Dictator’s Wife, a high-stakes exploration of power, glamour, and complicity, was published in 2022. It was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, a pick for the BBC’s flagship book show Between The Covers, and The New European’s novel of the year.

Freya lives in London and graduated with a double first in English from Cambridge. She spends more time reading smutty fantasy novels than she likes to admit.

The Wedding Dress Repair Shop

Author: Trisha Ashley

Publisher: Bantam Press/Transworld Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Emma Fairey, Bantam Books and Transworld Book for my lovely gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Can her heart be mended too?

After losing her fiancé and her dream job in the same week, Garland Fairford’s life is turned upside down.

Having recently met a long-lost relative – Honey Fairford – through her work as a historical costumier, Garland is intrigued when Honey reveals she is opening a Wedding Dress museum in Lancashire. With nothing to lose, Garland accepts the offer of a job there.

What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with a ghost from her past – her old friend, Thom, who mysteriously disappeared years ago.

As Garland begins reading the stories behind each of the beautiful wedding dresses, and sets about repairing both them and her relationship with Thom, could this finally be the chance for her own happy-ever-after?

My Thoughts:

I have been a book blogger for a few years now and most of the time, I still can’t believe that it is my pleasure and privilege to read and review the works of some wonderful authors. When I embarked on my book blogging adventure, I was deeply concerned that I would not be up to the task, because as a dyslexic, writing has been my bet noir, my stumbling block and herculean task to date. Since I was at school, the act of putting pen to paper (yes, I am that old) …filled me with unutterable fear, I just couldn’t get down in a cohesive manner, what I wanted to say…everything I wrote seemed confused and jumbled and because of it I was never able to attain the full scope of academic success, that I might have had without it but I have gained success in a different way instead

I like a challenge, so when the pandemic took hold, I decided that after decades of fearing writing anything, I was going to start book blogging, as books have always been my greatest love (sorry fur beasts and the Big Man) and I wanted to share my love of books and reading on a wider scale than I had been doing. I remember thinking to myself, that I would know that I was truly a book blogger when I got sent a proof of a Trisha Ashely book to review and here, we are today, for I did indeed get a copy of Trisha’s latest book to read and review.

I am truly honoured to be sharing my thoughts on Trisha’s latest book The Wedding Dress Repair Shop with you today, as Trisha’s writing has engaged, encouraged, enlightened, and egged me on, through some very dark moments and you cannot fail to love and relate to any of her characters, but in this book Garland is probably my favourite character, after all she’s a petite, fierce, red head who is determined and dedicated to her chosen profession, which sounds rather like me, bar the fact I am considerably rounder than her!

Let me share a little about the story; Garland Fairford is talented costumer, working at a prestigious London firm Beng & Briggs and responsible for making detailed replicas of historic clothing/costumes for the theatre and films. She is in-line for promotion to head of her department and in her spare time and there isn’t much of that, she creates exquisite, scaled down replicas of dresses, which are sold at the V&A. Garland is engaged to Marco, a playwright and producer, it all sounds like a script for success, doesn’t it?

Until a series of both fortunate and unfortunate circumstances change the trajectory of Garland’s life. On her afternoon off, Garland is at the V&A, studying the exhibition of dresses/costumes once owned and worn by the actress Rosa-May Garland. When she is introduced by her lovely friend George (Museum curator) to the renowned crime writer Honey Fairford who lent Rosa-May’s costumes to the museum and as it transpires, is related to Garland but the how’s, whys and wherefores of this connection are yours to discover and not mine to reveal but I did enjoy their getting to know each other at Claridge’s (because their high teas are so delicious and who can resist a spot of bubbly) and it was lovely to watch their developing familial relationship grow and you can’t help but be intrigued by Honey’s Wedding Dress Museum plans, Garland certainly is!

But Garland is happy in her work, life and comfortably at home in her cosy flat, until she accidently overhears a conversation, when delivering a costume to the theatre where Marco’s play Mid-Summer Madness is about to be performed and let’s just say, that the costume she was delivering wasn’t the only thing left in tatters!!!

And so, Garland, relocates to a small market town in Lancashire, to join Honey and take over the reins at the museum and once again can focus on the restoration, repair and rejuvenation of vintage clothes or rather Wedding Dresses with stories of their own. Garland falls in love with her new surroundings but not before she experiences a shocking discovery and her past resurfaces but of course, I am not telling you the specifics, because those are for me to know and you to find out! One of the many elements, I love so much about Trisha’s books, is the way she writes such a delightfully detailed and tangible atmosphere of a place, be it Garland’s new home or Pearl’s bookshop or the pink Elephant Café, as a reader you feel as if you are part of this fictional world and walking in the character’s footsteps.

Another element, that makes Trisha’s novels such favourites of mine, are her characters, the supporting characters all have stories and quirks of their own and the heroines are completely relatable, and the villains are completely hateable! Making for an irresistible combination, you live through all Garland experiences and cheer her on, when she succeeds and finds happiness and I found myself grinning smugly when Marco got all he deserved! Trisha’s cast of characters also have a few twisty little surprises to throw your way as well!

One of the absolute stars of this novel is feline protagonist, Go Lightly, who is the yowling, howling master of all he surveys, and he has taken on Garland as his human missive, but she’s not fully aware of her impending life of servitude, until they make the move to Lancashire when Garland believes she now has ownership of this grumpy, gurning feline, but as all cat owner’s will confirm, this is never the case!

This intriguing, imaginative and ultimately uplifting story is one of fierce felines who protect you from your exs; of friendships, new and old; of family, those you are born into and those you make for yourselves and the stories behind the misadventures of wedding dresses! Plus, the historic element, that ties together Garland and Honey, their relative, Rosa-May…what did actually happen to her all that time ago? Well, if you want to know more, you’ll have to read the book and find out because I don’t do spoilers!

I am a huge fan of Trisha’s books, as they make the world into happier place with their humour, joy and realistic optimism that they bring to everyone who reads them. I completely devoured this latest novel; I just adored it and simply couldn’t put it down and I hope you love it as much as I have and in the words of another of my favourite author’s the delightful Heidi Swain, this novel is ‘Trademark Trisha’ and I couldn’t agree more.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling novelist Trisha Ashley writes romantic comedies and her latest book, The Wedding Dress Repair Shop, will be published in 2023 by Transworld.

Her novels have twice been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Romantic Comedy, and Every Woman for Herself was nominated by magazine readers as one of the top three romantic novels of the last fifty years.

She is from St Helens in West Lancashire and believes that her typically dark Lancashire sense of humour in adversity, crossed with a good dose of Celtic creativity from her Welsh grandmother, has made her what she is today… whatever that is.

Several of her novels are set in rural West Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and Wales. They frequently explore aspects of the three F’s that are a constant in her own life: Food, Flowers, and Friendship, and include delicious recipes at the back.

Nowadays she lives in North Wales and is the founder member of Novelistas Ink, a group of novelists, several of whom are bestselling, who meet regularly in North Wales.

She is a long-term member of the Society of Authors.

Trisha has a Penguin webpage at http://www.trishaashley.com where you can sign up for her newsletters and find all the latest book news.

And on this official fan site at www.trishaworld.com you can find out more about her, check her forthcoming events, or see a complete list of her books.

You will also find her on twitter as @trishaashley.

Good Girls Die Last

Author: Natali Simmonds

Publisher: Headline Review

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback, ebook & audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective and Headline Review for my gifted copy . My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

Today, nothing is going right for Em. And it’s about to get much worse.

Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men – the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée’s back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister’s wedding and see her dying mother.

With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em’s life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the scorched city teems with them standing between her and home. As Em’s troubled past returns to haunt her, she refuses to let them win. Her defiance leads to shocking consequences that soon spiral wildly out of control.

In a world where men don’t listen, and girls have no voice, one woman can change everything.

Today, no one will be staying silent.

My Thoughts:

Today I am sharing my thoughts with you on Good Girls Die Last by Natali Simmonds, firstly Happy Publication Day!

Honestly, this book blew my mind because is just so…MAGNIFICENT, MONSTROUS and MONUMENTAL! Yes, I know I’m shouting…I can’t help it…praise for this novel, should be shouted.

And while I wished at this point to elucidate why, I feel this way, the most astute adjective, I can find at this very moment and for all of this past week since I finished reading it is…WOW…oh my goodness….WOW x 1000….yes books are for everyone, or whoever chooses to read them…but if you are female and want to read a novel that could relate to your own life experiences (bar any murders), then this book is IT!

Natali’s novel is punchy, powerful, pertinent, prophetic, and poignant read. She is a writer, who has her finger on the hammering pulse of socio/political observations, experiences and captures the essences and nuances of what it can be to a woman, living and working in the world today. I have no doubt, many will label it a feminist read, which it is because it is by a woman, about a woman but it is so much more than just a label. Natali has imagined a woman who has to face circumstances, that the #MeToo movement finally brought in the public conscious and this book, will absolutely make you want to raise your fist in solidarity with all women or prompt you into acting out of character and go on a taser welding rampage, zapping every man you come across, in the groin …personally, I think both options could work for me!

When I started reading Good Girls Die Last, I thought, it looks like a perceptive crime thriller with feminist edge but in reality, it’s not, it is a Russian Doll of a book! By this, I mean as you start to read it and the shock revelations occur in increasing enormity, with every chapter, you begin to comprehend the complexity of its message and Em’s role and feel the gut wrenching familiarity of a young woman attempting to deal with beastly morons, the blight of inequality, endless sexual harassment and the being subjected to a myriad of seemingly harmless but utterly inappropriate, physical and verbal utterances that come her way (and more than likely have come your way too). It is those small things, the supposedly ‘funny’ comments, that we women brush off but when you put them all together, their never ending re-occurrences in your life or Em’s…just thinking about the smarmy….’Go on Smile love, it may never happen’ type of comment, makes you grit your teeth and start to seethe! Ladies, this book is going to make you rage, roar and grind your teeth because though it is fictional, you cannot fail to see how based in reality it is, specifically of the social environment and work atmospheres, where most of us will have experienced or are experiencing now, similar issues (and that is putting it mildly and politely) possibly for the last time in this review!

Let me give you a little taste of what to expect when you read this novel; Em could be any of us, She’s approaching 30, she is half English, half Spanish and an attractive, creative, intelligent woman, with a zest for living life to full, finding love and making a success of her career. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. But like most of us, Em’s formative years have shaped her perspective and emotions, enduring the irrational rages of drunk father and the ineffectual passive responses to this unstable and unsavoury environment from her mother. Whose entreaties to stay quiet and not make a fuss in the face of abuse, have etched themselves into Em’s conscious and hold a level of responsibility for how Em reacts to her spiralling circumstances in this story.

At the start of the book, it is a relatively normal day in London, bar the fact the city is grip in the worse heat wave ever with temperatures hitting over 40* (quite frankly, if I ever experienced that I would just die, I would lie down on the street and wait for death, as I can barely function when the weather hits 26*!) But this stifling, restrictive, oppressive heat, is the perfect foil for Em’s story to unfold in! Her day starts with her sneaking out of her male flat mate’s bed and you become instantly aware that as fabulous as Em is, she doesn’t always make wise choices…she has been sleeping (well that is my euphemism for bonking like bunnies) with him (but as you’ll find out) it’s more a case of her accepting and tolerating his attentions, because she’s got an itch that needs scratching, her relationship has failed, she’s feeling sad and sex like this, take the edge off a little.

But Matt (the flatmate) – is the epitome of a gormless, philandering, entitled cockwomble (sorry but he is, and I’ve slept with a few myself…so I can see him clearly…ugh) he’s the male equivalent of an evening bag; pretty, might coordinate with your shoes, useful for about 30 minutes and then the moment’s over and you just need to change bags and shoes! Now before you think, I am being harsh, I promise you, I’m not…but his actions and behaviours towards Em…will confirm, what I’ve said, when you read the book! Yes, I am doing my level best not to give anything away here, so no details!

Em, gets ready to leave for work and she’s packed a suitcase, because she is off back to Spain for her sister’s wedding and it is the first time she will be reunited with her mother and sister in a long time (and there is a whole other plotline here, that explains why Em is the way she is and a whole batch of secrets as well) but they will unfold before you as you read and there will be more than one light bulb moment for you to experience!

 Today is an important day for Em’s career as graphic designer, she has worked hard to be a success and hopefully today, will cement her efforts. But of course, today does not go to plan in any way imaginable – huge understatement!

Instead of securing her job, she is fired,  all because her male boss is hacked off that she rejected his slimy, intrusive, coercive sexual advances and compounds his utter vileness by telling HR that Em’s behaviour towards him made him uncomfortable, as though she’s the one trapping him in toilets and trying to feel him up! Honestly, you want to make this turd in a t-shirt, pay for his lechery and lies…. turning his testicles into earrings, would be too good for him!!! I’m on a ranting roll now, this I blame on Natali, because her characterisations are just exceptional. You cannot fail to react to the circumstances, the plot, the dialogue…all of it showed me, what a work of genius this book is, that it prods and provokes you so much and that as a reader your mind is a blur of eviscerating resentment about the unfolding story, and you can’t help but put yourself in Em’s shoes! As you can see, I may have forgotten Em was fictional, so involved in the plot had I become!

As if the Em’s situation isn’t complicated enough, the heat wave has stymied public transport and there is a serial killer, strangling women in parks across London, take note of this  fact as it will play a part in Em’s downward spiral!  Em has no way of getting the airport except to walk there and we are talking 14 miles here folks! If she is going to catch her plane and reunite with her family! At this stage of the story,  I am once more back to lying on the floor, waiting for death here as the mere idea of walking in heels, in 40 degrees…with your period…just no, no, no, no…I simply couldn’t do it…but Em does and we follow along her travails and her meeting up with Rose…who I just loved as a character and the fact, that Natali uses their coincidental meeting to show the varying degrees of friendship, solidarity and support that can develop quickly between two vastly different women is glorious and is a redemptive element of this tremendous tale.

Now if you want to find out, if Em makes it to the airport, what happens if/when she does, what ends up happening in another park on this hot London night, the impact of social media and how all that has transpired up to this point leads to utter carnage and calamity, and the liberation and destruction of a life or several lives…then get yourself to a bookshop or click online and get this book as fast as you can, as there is so much more to come. I have only skimmed the surface of this novel!

Quite frankly bookophiles, I may never recover from reading this book! EVER…it is just that phenomenal! I am quite sure; I haven’t done it justice in my review. I will say, Natali’s book, is one I will never forget, it will be top of my list of gifts to friends and family this year and for several years to come. Please, Please, just go and get a copy, pour yourself a HUGE G&T, ignore your phone and just read it and then I hope you will see exactly why I am so enthusiastic, enraged, and excited about this book. Natali you have blown me away with this novel, I applaud your imagination and sublime writing skills…whatever you create next, I will be at the front of the queue to buy it.

Happy Reading Bookophiles!

About the Author:

Natali Simmonds began her career in glossy magazines, then went on to manage marketing campaigns for big brands. She’s now a creative brand consultant, freelance writer, and fiction author, writing gritty and unflinching stories full of complex women and page-turning suspense (and sometimes a little magic).

Simmonds’ dark, feminist thriller debut, Good Girls Die Last, has been optioned for a television series by STV. As N J Simmonds, Natali penned the fantasy trilogy The Path Keeper and Son of Secrets, and in 2022 was shortlisted for the RNA Fantasy Award for the last book in the series, Children of Shadows. She’s one half of paranormal romance author duo, Caedis Knight, and has also written for manga.

When she’s not writing or consulting, she’s a columnist for Kings College London’s ‘Inspire The Mind’ magazine, and lectures for Raindance Film School. Originally from London, Natali now divides her time between Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands where she can be found drawing, reading in her hammock, or complaining about cycling in the rain.

The Fascination

Author: Essie Fox

Publisher: Orenda Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Orenda Books for my lovely gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the humankind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks, and outcasts. But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a dark web of deceits, exposing unthinkable secrets and threatening everything they know…

My Thoughts:

I am beyond delighted to be sharing my thoughts with you today on Essie Fox’s book, The Fascination. If there was ever a book to judge by its cover, Essie’s book would definitely be a front runner, it is as glorious on the inside as it looks on the outside. This is a sumptuous, scintillating, and stunning read. Rich with historic details and atmosphere, which envelops and compliments the sublime story Essie has crafted. If you don’t get hold of a copy of this book, any FOMO (fear of missing out) you may possess will indeed be realised!

In this novel, we are not transported to into a whirl of ballrooms, ladies at tea or the pristine echelons of Victorian polite society. Instead, we are dropped into the underbelly of the beast, with all its riotous, raucous, raw, rambunctious reality, where survival by any means is the common trait. Where physical difference can lead to cruelty and exploitation and a life unlike any we readers can truly comprehend, as it is so far removed from the world we now inhabit. Yet, despite the privations of birth, social status and disability our protagonists, persevere.

What I loved about this book, is how Essie brought the extraordinary lives of her characters to life so exquisitely, her love and knowledge of the Victorian age, leaps off the pages of her book and completely ensnares her readers, right from the first line of this book. You literally become an omnipotent element to the novel, you are drawn into the dark murky, mysterious corners of this Victorian drama.

So let me give you a small taste of the book; Keziah and Tilly are identical twin sisters, they are mirror images of each other except for the one difference, Tilly has not grown in height since they were 5 years old! Their nefarious father has sought to exploit their uniqueness for his own profit by forcing them to promote his fraudulent ‘miracle cure’. On the move constantly, they have never had a place to call home! Until their obnoxious father, sells them (I know just writing this sentence makes me quiver with rage, that anyone should be sold as a commodity, is beyond modern comprehension but this was not the case during this historic period!)  I had to hold my indignant horses at this point and read on…the girls are sold to the enigmatic ‘Captain’ and find themselves part of a ‘family’ of human curios, collected by the Captain for their physical differences to the accepted societal norms, to be put on show, as exotics or wonders because such performances were accepted and expected forms of entertainment. I was in a bit of intellectual quandary at this point, had the twins gone from the proverbial frying pan to the fire here or could their circumstances be somewhat improved despite being sold…all I have to say now, is wait and see!

Our other protagonist in this intriguing story, is Theo, who aspires to be a doctor. His life has been in complete contrast to that of the twins, stable and moderately comfortable. Raised by his grandfather Lord Seabrook, a man of contradictions, with his virulent dislike of all things medical but also is obsessed with physical anomalies! I confess, he was a truly vile character in my eyes! Even more so, when he re-marries and gets his new wife with child as soon as possible. And once the new heir is in place, poor Theo is surplus to requirements and is effectively abandoned but instead of focusing on this loss.

Theo turns his attention on finding a way to become a doctor, by answering an advertisement placed by Dr Eugene Summerwell (definitely a case of creepy by name and by nature!), who requires a ‘gentleman anatomist’…this very job title did indeed give me the shivers, as it sounds very macabre! But it is through Summerwell’s ‘Museum of Anatomy’ that Theo crosses paths with Tilly and Keziah, as it is also the home to the Captain and his troop of physical outcasts. However, all is not what it seems…beneath the veneer of their new homes/family, something sinister lies and they become enmeshed in others dark deceptions but of course, if you want to know more then you will have to buy the book and find out, what precisely I am referring to as I have no intention of spoiling the trajectory of the plot!

Essie Fox’s The Fascination is really the most aptly named novel, as every element provokes fascination from its readers. From her ability to vividly conjure a world of dark performances, filled with mystery and the macabre from show grounds to anatomist theatre, the atmosphere is tangible and tainted, yet you cannot look away or stop reading! Essie’s ability to write authentic and engaging characters is superb, from the intrepid, innocent, and vulnerable to the downright dastardly. Essie does not pull her punches, as she leads us on the journey of her novel, the characters endure the complexities of society at the time, where disability, domestic abuse, coercion, exploitation to name but few, were not recognised or accommodated in any way and yes, they are horrendous, unacceptable behaviours for anyone to endure but they are historically accurate and dealt with as sympathetically as possible. I admired the unflinching and yet careful way these elements have been included in this story. Essie’s knowledge and research of this period is outstanding and I applaud her talent for mixing fact and fiction together so seamlessly, I quite forgot I was reading a novel!

 For me, The Fascination is a masterful, magical, menacing, and magnificent novel and one I have completely adored reading, it is beautifully written and has eloquently educated me in elements of the Victorian period, that I was only marginally aware of. If you, like me, love mystery mixed with your history, then this book, needs to be on your bookshelves, it is as far as I’m concern literary gold…so I enthusiastically suggest, you get hold of a copy ASAP, you will not regret it!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.

Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Coming To Find You

Author: Jane Corry

Publisher: Penguin/Viking Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Ellie Hudson and Penguin/Viking Books for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

You can run away from your life.

But you can’t run away from murder.

When her family tragedy is splashed across the newspapers, Nancy decides to disappear. Her grandmother’s beautiful Regency house in a quiet seaside village seems like the safest place to hide. But the old house has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy . . .

Now someone knows the truth about the night Nancy’s mother and stepfather were murdered. Someone knows where to find her. And they have nothing to lose . . .

So, what really happened that night? And how far will she go to keep it hidden?

My Thoughts:

Today is my turn on the blog tour for Jane Corry’s latest domestic noir, Coming to Find You. Now I have to confess it has been a while since I’ve read one of Jane’s books and more fool me, I have clearly been missing out! I had completely forgotten how thrilling, twisty and taut they are! The premise of this book, really jumped out at me and the confluences of murder, history, mystery, and emotional mayhem roll off the pages of this absorbing, atmospheric and addictive thriller and reading it, certainly sated my crime/thriller addiction!

The novel opens in dramatic style; when a birthday celebration leads to a violent altercation in a farmhouse and results in death and these events completely changes the trajectory of our protagonist Nancy’s life; her family decimated and her stepbrother Martin, convicted of killing her mother and stepfather! But the truth of what really happened that night…. only those involved know what actually occurred!

Left alone, facing a monstrous onslaught of intrusive public and press attention. With no escape from this pernicious and horrified fascination with her family, their lives, and their deaths. Nancy has no respite from the situation, from their hounding of her and no time or space to grieve her losses or even to begin process all that has occurred.  Leading to her decision to flee, to go somewhere familiar, somewhere safe…her grandmother Adeline’s former home Tall Chimneys, set in the rural idle of Sidmouth, Devon…far, far away from all the urban clamour and nosy Exes!

One of the elements of this novel that peaked my attention so much, was Jane’s clever focus on the convergence of complexities that arise from the circumstances of murder. The focus of everyone’s attention and sympathy, is towards the victim/s and their relatives, who have had loved ones snatched from them for seemingly no reason or at least not one they can comprehend. And yet there are the invisible victims of such a crime as murder, those who purely by circumstances of familial relationship to the perpetrator are persecuted for that connection. Who suffer furiously subjective public speculation and negative perceptions about them, despite their innocence of any crime in reality, a truly fascinating area for contemplation and an interesting point of view within this novel.

The other element of this book, that I thoroughly enjoyed, was its dual timeline; Nancy in the present day attempting to live through death and social destruction and then the story dips back to her Grandmother and Tall Chimneys with its war time (1940s) residents and who is also trying to survive a similar but different situation to her granddaughter. Experiences of life changing events, the turbulence of being an evacuee, the overwhelming impact of the loss of loved ones killed in battle or by falling bombs, this book is awash with multiple plot threads that cover everything from spies to sex and back again. Every aspect of these highly dramatic and emotional elements evolves naturally and gives the book very tangible human aspect, that every reader can relate to.

The turn of events both in the past and in the present cannot fail to prompt you as a reader to ask questions about the ethics of choice; of right and wrong decisions, the wrong decision for the right reason or the right decision for the wrong reason and how when we as people are faced with such adversity and in dreadful situations, the heart overrules the head and reacts and not always with the best result!

Coming to Find you is a sensational story of scandalous and sinister secrets, of family drama, dilemmas, and dynamics; of heartbreak and healing woven in this tale. The perfect book to tuck in your beach bag, if you are heading on holiday or if you are whiling away the hours tucked in the shade of your garden, this is book that will keep you enthralled and entertained…so top up the ice trays, hide your phone and enjoy it…I did immensely.

Happy Reading Bookophiles. 

About the Author:

Jane Corry is a former magazine journalist who spent three years working as the writer-in-residence of a high security prison for men. This often hair-raising experience helped inspire her Sunday Times-bestselling psychological dramas, My Husband’s Wife, Blood Sisters, The Dead Ex, I Looked Away, I Made A Mistake, The Lies We Tell, and We All Have Our Secrets, which have been translated into over 16 languages and sold over a million copies worldwide. Jane was a tutor in creative writing at Oxford University; an RLF Fellow at Exeter University; and is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and My Weekly magazine. Her eighth novel is set for publication in summer 2023.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

Mrs Porter Calling

Author: AJ Pearce

Publisher: Picador

Available: 25^th May 2023 available in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective, Ed.PR & Picador for my gifted copy and for having me on the publication day blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

THE FEEL-GOOD NOVEL OF THE SUMMER

A heart-warming, heart-wrenching wartime story from The Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird, AJ Pearce.

Emmy Lake is the much-loved agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, relied upon by readers across the country as they face the challenges of life on the Home Front. With the problem page thriving and a team of fantastic women behind her, Emmy finally feels she is Doing Her Bit.

But when a glamorous new owner arrives, everything changes. As the Honourable Mrs Porter tries to charm her way around the rest of the team, Emmy realizes that she plans to destroy everything readers love about the magazine.

With happiness quickly turning to heartbreak and war still raging in Europe, will Emmy and her friends find the inner strength they need to keep keeping on – and save the magazine they love?

My Thoughts:

This is the Fallen Librarian calling…. or rather reviewing and probably waving excitedly too about the treat of a book I have to share with you today. Firstly, Happy Publication Day to AJ Pearce and her third book in the Emmy Lake Chronicles…. Mrs Porter Calling, my fellow Squadettes and I, as well as many fans of this series, have been watching and waiting with exuberant anticipation for this book’s arrival. Like the best things in life, this novel was absolutely worth the wait and is just the ticket to brighten the day of any reader who loves humour, history, and high jinks…this latest instalment has it by the bucket load. Time to break out the Gin Fizzes and read!

Once more we return to Emmy, Bunty and their vivacious cohort of friends, colleagues and family all linked to the Women’s Friend magazine. As I read the opening chapter, I was once again transported to another place and time (war torn London of 1943) as well as being re-united with these wonderful characters. I had to admire, Amanda’s rather nifty little re-cap of all that has happened to them up to this point…as they gather together celebrate Emmy’s 25^th birthday, complete with cake, an absolute luxury at the time. All told, everything in their lives, despite the deprivations of War time is relatively tickety-boo.

Changes are on the horizon; some good, with Thelma and her children moving in with Emmy and Bunty and there might even be a guinea pig if a certain young man has his way! Others, not so much, following the death of their eminent publisher Lord Overton, their beloved Women’s Friend has passed into the hands of the Honourable Mrs Cressida ‘Egg’ Porter. Who on first meeting, charms the staff at the magazine, she’s ostentatious, glamourous, and appealing while disarmingly obtuse and oblivious to the fact there is a War on! The staff’s initial hope that she will be a benign presence, is quickly dispelled, with her constant list of requirements; a lavish new office and worse her ‘vision’ for the magazine and what articles should be in it to attract a socially high end audience. And which bears no concept of reality for their current readers concerns or circumstances! Emmy and Guy (Editor in chief and her brother-in-law) are faced with an ever increasing dichotomy…how to appease the Honourable Mrs Porter, is she a rotten egg or just merely scrambled and all the while trying to retain their loyal readers, who can’t figure out what is happening to their favourite magazine…the cat is certainly amongst the pigeons!

One of the particular joys of this book and its predecessors, is the prevailing concept of camaraderie, come what may, be it celebration or commiseration. The female friendships stand firm, they are wholly supportive of each other, even when they don’t always see eye to eye on an issue. And even in the toughest circumstances, be it being parted from loved ones, war time privations or troublesome colleagues. Together, they face the situation, head on and with bags of wit and exuberance, you cannot fail to admire their courage, spirit and pluck and I think it is a lesson we modern women should aspire to, as accepting others as they are and putting others first, is a status quo that has waned significantly since the war era!

Another element of this book, that I just adore are the letters that punctuate and accent the story; the loving, touching and pithy exchanges between Charles and Emmy, exploring the difficulties of starting a marriage and being separated for so long. The plethora of befuddled and bewildered questions and reaction letters, that readers submit; Can I steal my mother’s finance because I was in love with him first; Don’t feed your cute dog in a hat cake, it’s not good for him; Who is Harvey Nicks and are his frocks made of gold…these wonderful vignettes capture the essence and absurdities of both what is happening at the Women’s Friend but also the wider social complexities of the time and quite frankly, they just make me laugh until I cry!

This book is truly an evocative, emotional, effervescent cornucopia of historical fiction, a book capable of nourishing and replenishing heart and mind. Amanda writes with such exceptional historical knowledge and emotional intelligence, weaving facts and insights together seamlessly to create characters and a story that joyfully resonates with us all. I am once more bereft that I couldn’t control myself and consumed this instalment greedily in one day! If you’ve not yet read the Emmy Lake Chronicles, then you simply must…they are top notch and they are the perfect series to treat yourself to this bank holiday. I say, hang the expense, buy all 3 books and you now have the best excuse to cancel all plans for dreadful BBQs (sorry I hate chargrilled/burnt food…yuk) and recline on your sofa and indulge yourself…Chin, chin bookophiles!

Happy Reading…

About the Author:

AJ Pearce is the author of the Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller DEAR MRS BIRD, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and shortlisted for Debut of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. It has been translated into fifteen languages and optioned for development for TV.

Born in Hampshire, her favourite subjects at school were English and History, which now (finally!) seems to be making some sense. Follow AJ on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @ajpearcewrites

Seahurst

Author: SA Harris

Publisher: Salt Publishing

Available: 15^th May 2023 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Helen Richardson of Helen Richardson PR for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

‘Seahurst is set on the Suffolk coast. The area is famous for its folklore. I was born in the county and spent my childhood on the beaches, running along narrow, sandy paths that thread through the dunes. The vast empty skies, mudflats and whispering reed beds have inspired writers over centuries. What better setting could there be for a contemporary haunted house ghost story?’ – S.A. HARRIS

S.A. Harris returns with a gripping contemporary ghost story set on the Suffolk coast. Evie Meyer and her son Alfie flee from her abusive partner Seth in Toronto to spend New Year with her half-brother Luke at their late father’s summer home on the Suffolk Coast, only to find Seahurst abandoned and Luke missing. As Evie searches for her brother, she is filled with a deepening dread that something is very wrong at Seahurst and that their father’s death may not have been suicide after all. Can Evie uncover Seahurst’s sinister secrets and keep Alfie safe before the souls of the dead claim yet another terrible revenge?

My Thoughts:

Today I have the great privilege of sharing my thoughts with you on Sally Harris’s new book Seahurst, which is a truly sinister, shadowy, scintillating, and scarily sublime modern gothicesque read…that will thrill and terrify you all at once. Quite early on I realised that I couldn’t read this novel late at night, all alone in my little house! Because the of insistent power of Sally’s words, their escalating tension, and her subtle power of suggestion, gripped me completely and also made me want to hide under my duvet and trust me, you really can’t read through a 15 tog barrier of protection, I know this because I tried to!

I have to applaud Sally and exclaim, what a sensational opening she has written to this book, it certainly galvanises your attention, right from the outset. Within a couple of pages, I was completely submerged in the situation, my heart was pounding, and the tangibility of fear was hideously real as it rolled off the pages…I actually had to stop reading for 5 minutes to calm myself down, as my heart was beating so fast! Now in my opinion, creating this reaction in a reader, is a fantastic way to start a book. As the reader, I was instantly invested in the story and the characters and I most desperately wanted to know what happens next but simultaneously I was petrified of what might actually happen next and trust me when you find out, it won’t be any less terrifying…I say to you now…bone rattles!

So let me give you a little taste of what you can expect when reading this book, without giving too much away…hopefully! Evie Matthews and her son Alfie are visiting Suffolk and her half-brother Luke all the way from Canada, to spend New Year together. However, you soon realise that Evie and Alfie are really trying to escape the clutches of her odious partner Seth! Evie is using this trip to seek time and space to gain perspective on her life and to figure out what the future could hold for herself and her son.

Their arrival at Seahurst, a modern architectural monstrosity (my impression not Sally’s description), perched on a cliff top, ostensibly this house was intended to be her father’s summertime retreat. Returning here, was supposed to bring Evie and Alfie, some level of solace and sanctuary while potentially offering Evie the opportunity to reconnect with friends from her past. Instead, they find Seahurst deserted, and Luke has seemingly vanished! Leaving us readers, with a whole host of unanswered perplexing questions of the Why, Where, What variety and a mounting sense of trepidation!

As Evie tries to make the best of the situation because that’s what she does, she attempts constantly to make the best of a bad situation! Evie becomes increasingly concerned about her brother, as she uncovers his unhealthy addiction to their father’s research into the history of Seahurst and his escalating belief that their father’s suicide was nothing of the sort! As Evie delves deeper, her sense of unease increases (as did mine), and she becomes concerned for her safety and sanity. Could it really be possible, that spectors from the past are responsible for the menacing miasma that hangs over Seahurst, have the whispered curses of local folklore manifested into reality! Well of course, that’s for me to know and you to find out!

What I loved so much about this book, is Sally’s masterful atmospheric environmental rendering, such as the sense of isolation and wildness of the coastline and its bitter, moaning winds in brilliant combination with her love and knowledge of Suffolk and its ancient histories and mysteries, that builds an eerie and evolving backdrop to the plot and the circumstances and complexities of the characters and it evokes the prevailing sense of insidious intent, that intensifies immeasurably with every page you read.

The house of Seahurst, its secrets and spooky spirit of the past, remind me so much of Du Maurier’s Mandalay in Rebecca and the inevitable suggestion that; nothing good this way comes! Sally is the unrivalled Mistress of Menace and despite my absolute terror experienced while reading…I still couldn’t put this book down, well not during daylight hours at least. As I was plagued with a need to know, what happened at Seahurst; why is Luke missing and what will happen to Evie? If spectres, secrets, skeletal scenery, and scary sensations sing to you as a reader then you will revel in this book’s pages, as I have done. With the bank holiday weekend approaching, this is the prefect sinistrous treat for you.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Sally Harris writes ghost stories and gothic fiction as S. A. Harris. Her first novel, Haverscroft was long listed for Not The Booker Prize, was one of Den Of Geek’s best books of 2019, a semi-finalist in the Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Award 2020, and a Halloween recommended read in Prima Magazine. Sally is a family law solicitor living with her husband and children in Norwich. For more information visit https://saharrisauthor.com/ Follow Sally on Twitter @salharris1

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

Pomegranates & Artichokes

Recipes and memories of a journey from Iran to Italy

Author: Saghar Setareh

Publisher: Murdoch Books

Available: 4^th May 2023 in Hardback

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Murdoch Books for my stunning gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone

Book Details:

Iranian writer and food photographer Saghar Setareh’s stunning cookbook tells the story of her own culinary journey from Iran to Italy and explores the parallels that link Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food cultures.

When Saghar Setareh moved to Italy at the age of 22, she was enchanted by the rich food culture of her adopted country, and this inspired a curiosity in the cuisine of her homeland and the surrounding countries of the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean.

Pomegranates & Artichokes is the story of Saghar’s own culinary journey from Iran to Italy, in which she describes the many parallels that link Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food cultures and shows how ingredients and recipes – unconstrained by borders – are shared and transformed through the immigrant experience.

Divided into three sections representing stops on Saghar’s culinary ‘road trip’ – Iran, In Between and Italy – this book features more than 80 recipes celebrating the foods of these regions. Among the highlights are a simple Iranian breakfast platter, a celebratory Persian feast, Sicilian-style stuffed artichokes, guinea hen braised with pomegranate, sweet-sour meatballs from Aleppo, a Roman ricotta and wild cherry pie and a velvety Middle Eastern milk pudding.

Illustrated with Saghar’s own beautiful photography, and peppered with personal insights and experiences, Pomegranates & Artichokes tells the story of two food cultures, and the delicious space in between.

My Thoughts:

A decade ago (gosh, how time flies) in 2013, I was made redundant from my job, which had commanded my life for 18hrs out of 24, 5 days a week for 6 years. Suddenly, I had time on my hands, and I wondered what I was going to do with all this ‘free’ time (aside from looking for a new job) I decided, I wasn’t going to let this unfortunate change in circumstances drag me into a pit of despair…Instead, I would finally put my wall of cookery books into action and set myself the challenge of learning 100 new cake/dessert recipes in a year. This personal project of mine, also resulted in becoming an even more unashamed collector of cookbooks; I began to scour bookshops and charity shops for books containing recipes that are just a little different from food I am most familiar with, especially if it is cake related.

With this history of mine, in mind, I think you can see why I couldn’t resist reviewing this exquisite, eclectic, and extraordinary cookbook by Saghar Setareh…oh my goodness this book is stunning in every way. It is delicious mixture of beautiful photographs, taken by Saghar and vignettes of her travels, an exploration of her wide and varied interest in food and ingredients from Iran to Italy and back again. This is a book to tease your taste buds and tantalise your sense of adventure and whet your appetite to explore food and places you many not yet have experienced.

I loved the passionate and vivid visual nature of this cookbook; it provided me with the vibrant essence and atmosphere of Iran (which I have limited knowledge of) and of Italy (which I know quite well from various family holidays). I truly appreciated the construction of this book, with recipes for any level of cook from beginner to expert and from cookies to cocktails, there is something for everyone on its pages . There are myriad of tips and suggestions throughout the book from what staples I could add to my pantry/store cupboard; to the best way to prepare the recipes for an optimum result.  I was completely absorbed by the memoir style snippets providing wonderful insight into the history and provenance of the recipes…trust me, you do get rather hungry while reading, as there are so many tempting options to try, which look, and sound utterly mouth-watering!

As I said at the beginning of my review, I am probably more of a baker than a cook. So I opted to remain in my happy safe place and make the Simple Cake with date frosting on P.107…I confess, I am not a great lover of icing, so may have slightly amended my production and incorporated the dates and walnuts into the cake itself and trust me, when eaten warm from the oven, served with a little vanilla yoghurt…it was utter heaven…I’ve made it twice more since and my father is obsessed with this cake as it contains two of his favourite ingredients (the dates/walnut combination)…to the point I now have enough of both of these to make 10 cakes! Here’s my cake direct from the oven…

Another recipe, that I may have become slight obsessed with is the Beloved Aubergine Bake on P.245/6…. I adore aubergines but many people don’t…so it was lovely to finally have a recipe that is so easy to get the hang of and with the current cost of living crisis, it is also economical to make and uses lots of fresh vegetables. It is totally divine to eat, plus there are leftovers too. Below is my first attempt at this recipe and it is now a firm favourite of mine…

Next week, I am going to be trying the feta parcels and the tiny coconut cookies. Spending time with this book, my love of baking has been re-born and I haven’t been inspired to bake for quite sometime and Saghar’s delicious recipes, have certainly lit a fire in my oven once more…This incredible book, draws you to into it and I have found myself sitting for hours, leafing through the pages, lost in Saghar’s recollections, and studying wide variety of potential meals to create, it is truly gourmet treasure trove. If you only buy one cookbook this year or this lifetime, this is the one you should choose, in my opinion every household in the country should have this book in its kitchen!

Happy Cooking Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Saghar Setareh was born in Tehran and moved to Rome in 2007 to study at the Fine Art Academy. She has been running her food and photography blog, Lab Noon, since 2014, and has contributed to Food52, Conde Nast Traveller UK, and National Geographic. Alongside working as a professional photographer, Saghar runs Persian and Italian cooking classes in cities across Italy. She was among Corriere della Sera’s selection of ’50 Women of Food’ in 2020.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Misadventures of Margaret Finch

Author: Claire McGlasson

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Available: 6^th April 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Faber for my lovely, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Miss Margaret Finch – The perfect 1930s heroine and a young woman who will carve a space in your heart alongside Mrs Hemmingway and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Blackpool, 1938 Miss Margaret Finch – a rather demure young woman – has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation. Then her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson), who is the subject of a national scandal.

Margaret is determined to discover the truth behind the headlines: is Davidson a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret’s fear that history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover the truth urgently.

The deeply evocative novel ripples with the tension of a country not yet able to countenance the devastation of another war. Margaret walks us along the promenade, peeks into the baths and even dares a trip on the love boat in this, her first seaside summer season, on a path more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

My Thoughts:

From the moment I realised Claire McGlasson’s new book The Misadventures of Margaret Finch was set in Blackpool I was drawn to it and instinctively knew I had to read it, because my own family has connections to the town, via my great aunt. Who ran a prosperous hotel in Cleveleys (the posh end) of wider Blackpool in the 50s/60s and 70s and I believe from family stories, some rather famous guests stayed with her, and my father has clear and fond memories of her glamorous apartment within the hotel. And of course, we regularly visited Blackpool to see the illuminations and my grandparents took my sister and I to the amusement arcades and armed us with copious 2ps and kept us liberally supplied with rock dummies and ice lollies…So, to re-visit Blackpool several decades before my own memories begin, filled me with much splendid anticipation.

My high expectations of this novel were fully realised when I started the book, the opening pages, fill you with a deep seated sense of curiosity, I was trying to ascertain, exactly what our heroine, Miss Margaret Finch is up to? As we follow her in various places around the town of Blackpool; the lido, pubs, tea rooms, surreptitiously keeping herself to herself and attempting to blend in with her subjects and all while, listening and looking and making copious, detailed notes about the people, places, conversations, clothes, and actions all around her. These behaviours do make her seem a bit suspicious initially and I thought…she a SPY and how exciting, but at the same time, I thought, what an odd collection of daily ephemera she is collating. As I read on it was obvious that Margaret is not a spy…she in effect is a people watcher, employed by the Mass Observation Project to document the actions and activities of people (ostensibly working class people) who are on their annual Wake week at the seaside…don’t worry if you don’t know what this is…Claire, has done an excellent job of researching the social history of this era and her book, is deliciously awash with period detail, evocative atmosphere and replete with subtle explanations of the societal happenstance and nuances of the time and with all these components, there is also a slowly building tension, tucked within the story, as the country heads inevitable towards WWII.

I absolutely loved Margaret Finch, she is a magnificent mixture of characteristics; inquisitive, innocence, intellect, and insistence. She is definitely skilled in the over thinking department (and the insight into her thoughts will make you laugh) and despite the restrictions of her sex and class, she has a strong and clear idea of herself and what she wants to achieve in life and ‘romance, mating and procreating’ are not top of her list despite the toxic insistence of her dreadful stepmother…who is truly a frightful woman! Margaret has taken this odd job of hers to avoid, inflicting herself (her words not mine) on a husband, you get the distinct impression, that the job she really wants is one of an academic, within the hallowed halls of Cambridge, where she studied Mathematics but merely being female precluded her from this pathway. One of the brilliant elements of this novel, is the graceful way, that Claire sprinkles elements of Margaret’s background and experiences into the main plot line, so we can see the whole of Margaret and why she is the way she is and does what she does…I know, I am being a little cryptic here, that’s because I don’t want to spoil any element of this book for you, as what occurs, needs to be experienced by you as you read.

Claire, has crafted an intriguing, intelligent and insightful novel, blending, expanding and re-imagining factual historical people and occurrences, such as the case of the infamous Rev Davidson and his inappropriate and eccentric dealing with young women, which led to a public scandal. The facts of which, Claire enmeshes with her fictional character of Margaret, who befriends the fallen vicar and veers from her task of Mass Observation data collection and her rather quirky boss James (you are going to love him) to investigating this perplexing case which given the nature of it, well I am sure you can imagine, leads to some very interesting revelations and Margaret certainly has her eyes well and truly opened on the matter of life’s complications (and that’s an understatement) and naturally she gets herself in a pickle more than once but ultimately, her entertaining experiences, forge the way for a very different life for her, more so than she could possibly anticipate!

This novel is such a joy to read and once you start it, you will find it nearly impossible to put down, I know I couldn’t. This book is astute, amusing, atmospheric and awesome, I adored it and I hope you will too…it is a book, that needs a home on your bookshelves or pride of place on your towering ‘to be read’ pile…so I insist you get hold of a copy…ASAP!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Claire McGlasson is a journalist who works for ITV News and enjoys the variety of life on the road with a TV camera. She lives in Cambridge. The Rapture was her debut novel.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

The Forgotten Garden

Author: Sharon Gosling

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Available: 27^th April 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Simon & Schuster for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

A novel of second chances and blossoming communities from the author of The Lighthouse Bookshop.

Budding landscape architect Luisa MacGregor is stuck in a rut – she hates her boss, she lives with her sister, and she is still morning the loss of her fiancé many years ago. So, when she is given the opportunity to take on a parcel of land in a deprived area, she sees the chance to build a garden that can make the area bloom.

Arriving in the rundown seaside town of Collaton on the north-west coast of Cumbria, she realises that her work is going to be cut out for her. But, along with Cas, a local PE teacher, and Harper, a teen whose life has taken a wrong turn, she is determined to get the garden up and running.

So, when the community comes together and the garden starts to grow, she feels her luck might have changed. Can she grow good things on this rocky ground? And might love blossom along the way…

 My Thoughts:

If you’ve not had the chance yet, to read one of Sharon Gosling’s books then may I enthusiastically suggest that you do. Like most readers, I have a list of authors whose books, whose publication dates I wait for with feverish anticipation and in the past few years Sharon has become one of those writers for me. Because she takes a slice of lives we imagine, we would love to live and gives them a twist or two, her books are not, despite their beautiful covers, all hearts and flowers. They feature women who just like most of us, face life’s mole hills. Those life occurrences, that trip you up and put you flat on your face, but like in real life Sharon’s characters, pick themselves up and carry on, trying to make the best of often tricky situations. These aspects of life are I think familiar to us all and its these constantly evolving elements that makes Sharon’s books, wholly relatable, satisfyingly reassuring and emotionally edifying. I wholly heartedly recommend you read one or all of them! They are the literary version of the perfect frothy coffee, strong, satisfying and stimulating!

Today, I get to share my thoughts with you on Sharon’s latest book The Forgotten Garden. A story of rejuvenation of place and people. Set in Collaton, in Cumbria…a once lively and busy town but decades of socio-economic dereliction has left it a shell of its former self, with decaying buildings and a fractured community, with drugs and vandalism leaving a heavy taint.

Our main protagonist is Luisa, who is as emotionally downtrodden as the town of Collaton, having experienced the loss of her husband and is understandably still mired in the grief of such a loss and has become stuck working for a seriously toxic boss and is not fulfilling her dreams of being a landscape designer. Until she given the opportunity to build a community garden on a dilapidated factory site, which she initially refuses believing she is not capable of taking on such a huge task…and if she’s honest doesn’t have the heart for such a project, as this type of work, was her husband’s dream and without his dynamism and driving force. Luisa is not convinced she has the enthusiasm, energy, or ability to do the job but as her working situation changes dramatically and encouragement for her to take on this challenge, comes thick and fast from friends and family.

Luisa own desire to make a difference and to use her dusty skills, fuel intrigue in the project and she decides to look at the site…and fate intervenes and she ends up with a flat tire, resulting in her rescue by Cal (Mr P as he becomes known to us) and a reluctant and reticent Harper…a 17 year old, that has had to grow up far too soon and if I am honest, she’s my favourite character in this book. She’s quick witted, smart, loyal, with a bit of biting edge to her and her struggle to survive parental neglect and her assumption of the care of her baby brother (who has undiagnosed Autism) is inspiring but her complex circumstances, have led to some bad decision making on her part, born mainly out of need and desperation to provide for herself and her brother. Fortunately, Cal aka Mr P, has always been able to see the real Harper, behind her mask of snark and he does his best to support her pastorally, however he can or however much she will let him! Cal is a teacher and has been running a boxing club for local kids, trying to give them focus and a place of safety to hang out but it’s not easy and is taking a toll on his finance and life!

Luisa does embark on the garden project and this decision, helps Cal out and Luisa ends up with Harper as her reluctant assistant, let’s just say, this is Harper’s consequence for some ill conceived actions! Cal also becomes a stalwart presence for Luisa and yes there is a hint of there being potentially more between them. As well as great deal more to discover as you read…but I’m not giving any spoilers here…so you will have to dig into the book and find out for yourselves, exactly what I referring to.

At the core of this book, is the ethos of community and its importance in our lives and the belief, that if we work together, nearly anything is possible, regardless of background, race, sex or age. Also, the variety and value of friendship, that transcends ages and that in allowing others to nurture and support us, how vital this component in life, whoever we are and where ever we are at and the ways these elements occur in Sharon’s book is wonderful, authentic, heart-breaking and heart mending and ultimately uplifting.

I love Sharon’s books, because they don’t focus on the happily ever after but on the now, the complexities of human nature and the realities of life and all its tribulations and triumphs. This is a book, that will have you reaching for the tissues while laughing at the same time. It is truly a glorious read and I won’t be forgetting this story anytime soon. I hope you revel in reading this book, as much as I have.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Sharon started her career as an entertainment journalist, writing non-fiction books about film and television. She is also the author of multiple children’s books. Sharon and her husband live in a small village in northern Cumbria where they run a second-hand bookshop, Withnail Books in Penrith. She can be found on Twitter @sharongosling

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

The Power of Trees

How Ancient Forests Can Save Us If We Let Them

Author: Peter Wohlleben

Translated by Jane Billinghurst

Publisher: Greystone Books

Available: 2^nd May 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Graystone Books for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

In the follow up to his Sunday Times bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben compares tree planting to battery farming

‘In clear, vivid prose with impeccable reasoning, Peter Wohlleben makes a compelling case that almost everything we do in modern forestry management may be dead wrong. What should we do instead? Let the wisdom of the trees quell our human arrogance, heal the forest and restore our sweet, green world’

Sy Montgomery, author of How to be a Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus

TREES CAN SURVIVE without humans, but we can’t live without trees. Even if human-caused climate change devastates our planet, trees will return—as they do, always and everywhere, even after ice ages, catastrophic fires, destructive storms, and deforestation. It would just be nice if we were around to see them flourish.

The Power of Trees is forester Peter Wohlleben’s follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees, a Sunday Times bestseller that sold millions of copies worldwide. In his latest book, he is dismissive of token gestures in terms of tree planting. Just as he compared forest trees to ‘families’ and urban trees to ‘street urchins’ in his first book, in The Power of Trees he uses equally powerful metaphors to compare tree planting to battery farming (‘Switching to fast-growing species and breeding trees for desired traits brought results like those achieved by factory farming: individuals ready for harvest at a young age, all with a relatively uniform carcass weight.’).  However, he also joyfully describes trees determination to survive, describing seedlings breaking through the earth where you least expect them, as ‘stalwart tree children’.

This latest work is as fascinating and eye-opening as it is trenchant in its critique: on the one hand, Wohlleben describes astonishing discoveries about how trees pass knowledge down to succeeding generations and their ability to survive climate change; on the other, he is unsparing in his criticism of those who wield economic and political power—who plant trees exclusively for the sake of logging and virtue signalling—even as they ruthlessly exploit nature. The Power of Trees is a love letter to the forest and a passionate argument for protecting nature’s boundless diversity, not only for the sake of trees, but also for us.

My Thoughts:

It’s my great pleasure today, to be sharing my thoughts with you on Peter Wohlleben’s latest book, The Power of Trees. As a life longer reader, most of my spare time has involved me in a comfortable spot with my nose in a book. As I have aged, not much has changed, but what I choose to read has certainly developed over time. In the past 5 or so years, I have become fascinated by elements of our natural world and I have bought books by a variety of people, who have put their experiences and love of facets of this unique world of ours down on paper, seeking to engage, enlighten and educate readers. I have found books like Peter’s to be a treasure trove of information, opening my eyes and mind to new perspectives, political, social, and environmental issues, and celebrating life choices very different from my own and ones, which I relish and admire greatly and gratefully.

Peter’s latest book is a symphony to the Forest, and each chapter in the book, like sections of symphony, each chapter tells part of the wider story, which he believes important for us to understand and consider. His book is a poetic, political, and passionate manifesto about the important role trees and forests play in our world and lives. It extolls his personal admiration for trees, while simultaneously, explaining and extrapolating the complexities and controversies of modern forestry, exploring how detrimental and selfish, decision making is when motivated by avarice. Rather than taking time to see the bigger picture and follow profitable, practical, and protective doctrines to forest management.

I confess, as intrigued as I was by the content of this book, I was also initially intimidated by the wealth of unfamiliar knowledge and information it contained, but at the same time I found it was extremely satisfying to read because of Peter’s easy and eloquent manner of writing. I read two chapters each day, to allow myself time to absorb this odyssey and its complex and contrasting perspectives. I was surprised at how absorbed and addicted to reading it I became, despite it being my maiden voyage of discovery into the subject and I can’t wait until you get find out more about the involvement of wolves and delve into the issue of whether running out of toilet paper is more important than running out of trees! But those are elements, you need to uncover for yourselves.

I loved the idea, that trees are our protectors, and their actions are for our good and how vital it is for humanity to have or to establish a more symbiotic relationship with them. Peter’s book seeks to inspire and inform, he wishes to encourage us to protect our trees and forests for the future to come, as they have protected our environment for centuries past.

This book is a work of educational artistry, filled with the importance of advocacy, adaption, and adoption of more sentient environmental and conservational options for our foliaged friends. This is a book I believe everyone should own and read, it has truly inspired my mind and heart and I hope it does the same for you.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Peter Wohlleben is one of the world’s most notable foresters and a passionate advocate for tree conservation. Wohlleben lives in Germany, where he manages an ecologically conscious forest and runs an academy for education and advocacy. His books are bestsellers around the world. He speaks fluent English and will be In the UK 22-24 April 2023 to launch the book at the Cambridge Literary Festival and at The Linnean Society in London and available for further Interviews.

Please do read some of the other reviews available for this blog tour.

Atalanta

Author: Jennifer Saint

Publisher: Wildfire Books

Available: 13^th April 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Wildlife Books for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Spurned by a king. Raised by bears. Blessed by a goddess. The only female Argonaut.

Exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside her cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.

Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place of legend in a world made for men?

My Thoughts:

Whenever I hear that Jennifer Saint, has a new book on its way into the world, I suspect I am not alone, in clapping my hands in glee. I am therefore honoured today to be sharing my thoughts on her new book Atalanta. The reasons, I am hopelessly devoted to Jennifer’s books is really quite obvious, I love that she delves in the classical past and brings to light, incredible woman, whose adventures, courage, and power has been locked away from the world’s consciousness for far too long. In her previous books Adriane and Elektra, she has re-imagined these women back into the forefront of their own stories, where previously they are mentioned, it is as merely trophies, to be traded for male advantage. I appreciate and admire, Jennifer’s knowledge and creativity in providing us, with new perspectives for the roles of women in classical history, long may it continue.

In the case of Atalanta, Princess of Arcadia, Huntress and Warrior, her story seems even more deeply buried, my awareness of her, was a name referenced in the painting Hippomenes and Atalanta by Noël Hallé, housed in the Louvre Museum. But thanks to Jennifer, my lack of knowledge has been repaired and we are taken on a great adventure with the only female Argonaut.

Atalanta really has a story of incredible greatness, and her feats are equal in magnitude to those of her contemporary and well documented male heroes. As an infant, her father’s disgust at her birth (as he, in the usual fashion, only wanted a son and heir) led him to abandon her on a mountain side to die! Charming parenting skills but in true mythical style, a she-bear rescues and provides sucker to the infant Atalanta, until hunters find her and raise her, with some influence from the Goddess Artemis (who naturally has her part to play in this novel). I do relish the compelling mixture of fact and fantasy in classical stories and Jennifer elucidates this element so elegantly here.

As you read Atalanta’s story, you can’t help by admire her, she’s fierce, fiery, and fearless with the skills of an expert huntress and the heart of a warrior. Like all great mythical heroes, her fame is tied in with an epic quest; one we are all familiar with, that of Jason and the Argonauts and their ambitious, treacherous search for the Golden Fleece, but until now, not many of us, realised how involved she was in this adventure but rest assured, Jennifer details magnificently her feats in this book.

One of the many elements, I savoured when enjoying this book, was Jennifer’s ability, to bring Atalanta to life, the complexities of her personality, the evolution of her emotions, the essence of her aspirations, and the myriad of trials and tribulations she has to face. Ironically one of the greatest tasks, she encounters is to overcome the reluctance of her male companions, who are woefully insecure about her skills, their acceptance of her equality is a hard won battle, despite she more than proves her competence, time and time again! For me Jennifer brings classical history to life, with just the whisper of modernity added. This book is rich in depth and detail. Imaginative in creating Atalanta’s presence, personality and power and addictive reading for those of us wishing to go on exhilarating adventures, without leaving the comfort of our sofas. I hope you are as enthralled, educated and entertained as I have been reading it. As it’s pay day and a bank holiday, I think this would be the prefect book, to treat yourself to!

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Thanks to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. Since September 2022, she has been a Visiting Research Fellow in the Classics Department there. In between, she spent thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students. Ariadne is her first novel, Elektra is her second, and Atalanta is her latest mesmerising mythological retelling. @jennysaint http://www.jennifersaint.com

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Death Of A Bookseller

Author: Alice Slater

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Available: 27^th April 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective & Hodder & Stoughton for my gifted copy and other gloriously green goodies and for having me as part of the spotlight for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Roach – bookseller, loner, and true crime fanatic- is not interested in making friends. She has all the company she needs in her serial killer books, murder podcasts and her pet snail, Bleep.

That is, until Laura joins the bookshop.

With her cute literary tote bags and sunny smile, she’s everyone’s favourite bookseller. But beneath the shiny veneer, Roach senses a darkness within Laura, the same darkness Roach possesses.

And as curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, Roach becomes determined to be a part of Laura’s story – whether Laura wants her in it or not.

My Thoughts: 🐌

It is with epic and rather smug pleasure, that today I am part of The Squadpod Collective’s spotlight for Alice Slater’s debut novel Death of a Bookseller. The most horrible little book of 2023 is finally on bookshop shelves, hopefully everywhere. Happy Publication Day Alice! Up to this point in my life, I have always regretted not being able to secure a role as a bookseller, now having read Alice’s book, I count myself lucky, that I haven’t!

🐌What a magnificently monstrous book this is, how do I convince you of its dark, devious brilliance, that is as luminous as its neon green & pink book covers. This glorious, gritty, gripping read, will grab you by the throat and make you lose all sense of time and place. You will need to cancel all your plans, buy huge piles of snacks, and curl up on the sofa and immerse yourself in Roach and Laura’s stories. It is the book, you must buy this bank holiday weekend, forget the DIY…just read it and if like me and Roach you despise Pumpkin Spiced Lattes this could be the read for you. I should say, PSL are truly revolting but if you love them then more power to you. I should clarify, I don’t hate anyone for their unfathomable coffee choices, unlike Roach and any one actually ‘hating’ those who do enjoy them, quite honestly, who knew this was a thing…I didn’t, until I poked about online. Hopefully I’ve cleared that point of view up. Regardless, I’ve digressed, however you like your coffee or books …this horribly brilliant book is the one for you…or at least the dark side of you, that most of us, keep firmly to ourselves!

It is time for you to meet Roach and Laura; are they two sides of the same coin or as different as oil and water… their story is told to us in alternating chapters, giving us… perspective from each character’s point of view. Initially it seems, an easy decision to pick whose side your on #TeamLaura/#TeamRoach but part of the genius of Alice’s book (aside from her superior book knowledge, you’ll need a pen and paper handy to jot down all the book titles, you might not have read yet that occur as you read) is that she has masterfully created two characters, that you want to relate to or think you do, but you soon realise, that they are both deliciously and horribly flawed and yet you are compelled to understand them, even when their behaviours are dark, destructive, deviant and disconcerting!🐌

Set in the Walthamstow branch of Spines (a fictional bookshop chain) and haunt of bookseller, Roach (real name Brogan) who is beyond social awkward, reclusive, reticent, a loner…with a deeply unsettling, obsessive addiction to serial killers (well who isn’t…might just be me and Roach then) and all things True Crime related. She spends her time, engrossed in Podcasts by The Murder Girls, and commandeers all the books on the subject she can lay her hands on. Anything else going on in the bookshop or the wider world, she has zero interest or tolerance for, with the noted exception of Bleep her African Land snail! At this point, I freaked myself out, because she does sound a bit like me! In fairness to Roach, her home life has been one of abject neglect, so it might go someway to explaining why she is the way she is…. then again…maybe not!🐌

When a change of management at her bookshop occurs, the arrival of new quirky normies, who takeover and upset the status quo, Roach is less than impressed, part of this triumvirate is Laura Bunting.

Laura seems to be the antithesis of Roach, she is charming, witty, blond with a penchant for 1950s dresses and sublimely colour co-ordinated accessories (Isn’t everyone…ok just me and Laura then). She is always prepared, just wait until you read what she carries in her bag, she loves stationary, writing poetry and is mostly content with her place in the world, her flat and her plants! I firmly believed at this point, I was #TeamLaura until, my lovely bookophiles, I must prepare you, Laura’s behaviour towards books especially proofs…may be trigging! Be warned, she dogears them, folds them, bends their corners, spills tea, wine et al on them, has no qualms about smearing them with chocolate and other foodstuffs! I am still traumatised from reading this, despite what occurs later!

🐌Initially Roach can’t bare her, given what she does to books, I can see why! Until the evening, when Roach is coerced along with the rest of the bookshop staff, into attending a poetry evening and Laura shares her poems, which are based upon the victims of serial killers…this Roach believes strikes a connection between her and Laura. She is convinced they are kindred spirits and is determined to befriend Laura (irregardless of whether Laura wishes it or not) but Roach doesn’t have the people skills to do so, nor it seems does she have the ability to comprehend that Laura’s interests are not the same as hers!…and in failing to do so,  she becomes Laura’s shadow…or stalker is probably more accurate, and her unorthodox behaviour is decidedly chilling, utterly desperate and discomforting!  Laura in contrast, thinks Roach is a freaky, menacing, oddball (and that’s putting it mildly) and she endeavours to stay as far away from her as possible and you’ll have to discover for yourself, why she finds Roach’s serial killer fixation so perturbing, I will say she does have good reason! I’d like to say more at this point, however I risk falling down the endless rabbit hole of spoilers…so I recommend, you get hold of a copy and see what I am talking about for yourselves.

I loved everything about this book, the pertinent social observations, the true crime addiction, the masterfully wrought characters and all their quirks be they fair or foul. Alice’s vast and varied experiences of being a bookseller shine through and certainly dispels any idealistic notions I might have harboured about selling books. Then again, I spent 20 years as commercial Librarian, and I can completely relate to the complexities of customer service (and that is put it conservatively). I admired, the complexity of the plot and how exquisitely, the tension is layered and the manner in which this story creeps and crawls to its incendiary crescendo. Alice, I bow down to your creative brilliance and I can’t wait to read, whatever you write next.

🐌Time now, I think to leave you all to follow the snail slime trails for yourselves, you’ll see what I’m referring to when you read this book…look for the page illustrations. Everything about this novel is a dark, deviant delight and you NEED to read it!  I am in no doubt it will be one of my favourite books of 2023.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Alice Slater is a writer, podcaster, and ex-bookseller from London. She studied creative writing at MMU and UEA. She lives in London with her husband and a lot of books. Death of a Bookseller is her first novel.

Queens Of The Underworld

Author: Caitlin Davies

Publisher: The History Press

Available: 20^th April 2023 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & The History Press for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays … All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are all the female crooks? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, bank robbers and gold smugglers?

Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of professional female criminals from the 17th century to today. From Moll Cutpurse who ruled the Jacobean underworld, to Victorian jewel thief Emily Lawrence and 1960s burglar Zoe Progl, these were charismatic women at the top of their game.

But female criminals have long been dismissed as either not ‘real women’ or not ‘real criminals’, and in the process their stories have been lost. Caitlin Davies unravels the myths, confronts the lies, and tracks down modern-day descendants in order to tell the truth about their lives.

My Thoughts:

It is my great pleasure today to be sharing my thoughts on Queens of the Underworld by Caitlin Davies. This is the first of her books, I have had the pleasure to read, and I can confidently confirm, it won’t be the last. I have already been adding her back catalogue to my need to read list.

 I am great fan of all sorts of fiction, but I also relish reading, non-fiction especially when it re-addresses the balance of our patriarchal historical perspective. Which is what I believe Caitlin has done, in writing her, impressive, insightful, and illuminating book on female criminals. When I first saw the title for this book, it slightly reminded me of a Sarah J Maas fantasy title, suggesting adventure and some seriously kick ass women. As it turns out, that is not far from the reality of the contents! And some of the women she investigates, could certainly inspire any writer to re-imagine their colourful lives!

Caitlin’s book is a feminist approach to criminal history, that unearths women whose delinquent exploits have largely been consigned to the foot note of time. Despite these fearsome, fearless, and fiercely wicked, clever women often surpassing their contemporary male counterparts in their acts of villainy. They are often only remembered for their superficial physical diversity rather than for the genius of their rapscallion acts. What I admired greatly about this book, was the personal approach that Caitlin took. It doesn’t read like a standard history book…which as we all know from previous experiences, can occasionally be dry in digestion, shall I say! In contrast, this book is a voyage of discovery and Caitlin, shares with us readers, how she came about this project, what influenced and inspired her quest for knowledge and her epic research into these women and a great deal of this recounting, made me laugh but ultimately was completely absorbing and fascinating to read.

Each chapter in the book, documents the life; times and escapades of an individual, providing social, political, historic, and religious context for their acts and actions. And instead of these women playing bit parts in acts of crime or being stereotyped into the familiar role of being merely a bystander, assuming the societally acceptable positions of being paramours, wives, mothers, or prostitutes, who could not possibly have the education, intellect, or capacity to plan acts of villainy, never mind actually accomplish them! Caitlin puts them front and centre, exploring what they did, how they did it and when or if, they did get caught, what were the consequences! The volume and depth of the material explored and extrapolated by Caitlin, will make any reader with a passion for history, dizzy with excitement, there is so much to learn and absorb within this book’s pages, even now, factual elements seem to pop back into my head, as I go about my day!

Another element of this book, that I found truly compelling and validating, was Caitlin’s exceptional interviews, with contemporary descendants of some of these women and being able to read their personal perspectives and revelations about what was the real truth was/is relating to their ancestors, despite the patriarchal echelons, distorting the facts at the time and currently was an inspired addition, to this remarkable read.

For me, this book was an engaging and enlightening read, it is clever, considered, and cogent. It provides a refreshing, imaginative and informing education for the reader, and brings a much needed balance and equality to the realms of criminal history, where the roles of women are concerned. I couldn’t put it down and I can’t wait for you to read it too.

Happy Reading Bookophiles.

About the Author:

Caitlin Davies is the author of six novels and eight non-fiction books, many of which have a criminal theme. The Ghost of Lily Painter was based on the true story of two Edwardian baby farmers, while Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison was the first comprehensive history of Europe’s most infamous female jail. It was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, 2019.

Caitlin is a trained teacher, who started her writing career as a human rights reporter in Botswana. She currently works as a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at NHS Kent & Medway.

Queens of the Underworld tells of her journey into the lives of female crooks from the 17th century to today. Her upcoming book, Private Inquiries: the secret history of female sleuths, to be published in October 2023, reveals the true tales of female private eyes from the 1850s to the present. Caitlin trained as a private investigator as part of her research but wasn’t nearly as observant as she hoped she’d be. https://www.caitlindavies.co.uk/ @CaitlinDavies2

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Go As A River

Author: Shelley Read

Publisher: DoubleDay

Available: 13^th April 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Double Day for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

In this soaring, compassionate novel, a breath-taking picture of our natural world – its trees and mountains and light – emerges. But more than this, it is the tale of female resilience and becoming that gives Go As A River its strength, its soul, and its possibility.

Nestled in the foothills of the Elk Mountains and surrounded by sprawling forests, wandering bears and porcupine, the Gunnison River rushes by the tiny town of Iola.

On a cool autumn morning, seventeen year old Torie Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches from her farm.  As she nears an intersection, a mysterious young drifter with eyes dark and shiny as a raven’s wing, grimy thumbs, and smudged cheeks, stops to ask her the way. She could have turned left or crossed over, but she did not.  She stayed.  ‘Go as a river,’ he whispers to her. 

So begins a mesmerising story that unfolds over a lifetime, as Torie attempts to absorb and follow his words.

Gathering all the pieces of her small, extraordinary life, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak, and betrayal, embracing, and challenged by the landscape she calls home, Torie arrives at a single rocky decision that changes her life forever. 

My Thoughts:

It’s my turn today on the blog tour for Shelley Read’s debut novel Go As A River. This is without question a tender, tantalising, tragic and triumphal book, that from the moment you turn the first pages; the words written there resonate with a melodic majesty as the prologue describes the silent watery entombed town of Iola, Colorado, and the farm where Victoria or Torie as she was then, once lived…the essence of the past, rises to embrace the reader and the route to becoming begins.

There is resolute, eerie enchantment to the opening of this novel which immediately pique’s your interest and insistently filled my mind, with a number of questions. I read on with the hopeful expectation my questions, might be answered along the way. I enjoyed the simple, sweeping elegant cadence of Shelley’s prose and the sense of familiarity she conjures with the context of her story of a young woman, meeting a handsome boy and that exciting, confusing anticipatory tingling connection. The story opens in post war rural Colorado, where societal nuances and expectations are followed unquestioned and there is a dark nonchalance to the community’s inherent racism/bigotry and the whispered distancing of its populace from those who do not fit the mould.

Torie is a dutiful farmer’s daughter, running the home, planting her kitchen garden, harvesting the produce, cooking, and cleaning, and helping with the peach harvest, serving at the family’s peach stand, this thankless domestic duty is her life…since the early death of her mother. She is a girl on the cusp of womanhood, labouring to secure the comfort of the negligent men in her household! Her own desires and dreams are nothing more than that…until she meets Wilson Moon and begins to view the world differently, much to the disgust of her brother…who is truly vile, but I leave you to discover why for yourselves!

We get to omnisciently follow the beautiful trajectory of their falling in love and budding relationship, culminating in adversity for them both, differently. Watching Torie, discover she is carrying Wil’s child and knowing, it will not be welcome at the farm. She courageously, makes a plan and alone heads for the mountains, to a remote, isolated cabin, which was once Wil’s hiding spot and their place of sanctuary. Here among the comfort and familiarity of the mountains and trees, Torie plans to wait out her pregnancy and alone, she gives birth to their son! And you begin to hope, that she and her baby Blue, could forge a life for themselves, in this beautiful wilderness but Mother Nature can be cruel and a snowstorm, decimates their food source and Torie is faced with starvation or returning to town! She then makes the hardest decision any woman can face, but she does it anyway and the in next part of the book, we continue with the aftermath. Torie survival of her physical and emotional trauma; as she builds a life for herself, and leaves the girl she was as Torie behind and becomes the woman, Victoria she is now; a successful peach farmer, keeping alive her family legacy despite social political turbulence and the grasping avarice of her brother Seth! Victoria in the face of everything, continues on, making further tough life altering decisions and her endurance and power comes into its own but the scars of her turbulent past remain vivid despite the passing of time and she keeps her life before, to herself, like ‘a locked diary‘.

The pivotal moment in this story, also introduces us to another remarkable woman, Inga Tate. Whose life and plans have also been up ended by a man, romance and a pregnancy but having no other option but to adhere to acceptable societal didacts, she marries and has her child and coincidental circumstances, place her in the right place at the right time. I think the only way to describe it (without giving anything away, I hope) is that Inga and Torie, reach one of life’s crossroads precisely when they need to, although they do not meet! When you read this book, I think you’ll see what I mean! You will also find out what the connection between them is and she, the progression of life and time from Inga’s point of view and that story line is not for me to reveal here!

Shelley wealds her pen to illustrate, the majestic Colorado landscape and its flora and fauna as magnificently as the Hudson School artists, Albert Bierstadt or Frederic Edwin Church painted their stunning pictures of wild American landscapes, with craggy mountains or torrential waterfalls, . Shelley paints images of Victoria and Inga’s lives with her words. She brings an evocative, elucidation of time and place, making informed topical observations on controversial issues of the time; from the treatment of indigenous Americans and their land to governmental policy that destroyed unique environments all the in the name of progress. To an inherent understanding of the roles, expectations, trials, and tribulations of women in society during the post war era.

Go As A River has already been compared favourably to Delia Owen’s novel Where the Crawdads Sing. And I can see why, Shelley’s book is equally as beautifully and gracefully written, with sublime tangible atmospheric detailing, which as a reader, makes you feel, as if you are walking in the wild, listening to chorus of the trees, feeling the stones and earth beneath your feet, alongside protagonist Victoria. However, I personally feel that this does both novels a small disservice, as for me, both writers have wholly unique voices and their novels in context and construction are subtly different. If there are comparisons to be made between them, then they are only in the positive, the novels similarities are really only that they have a quiet, dignified but remarkable female lead, who endures the dissention of family and community and that their stories, capture the essence of lives, so completely unlike most of our own.

Shelley’s book is eloquent storytelling at its finest, intelligently sophisticated in its powerful construction, sociality progressive and astute in its topical observations and if it isn’t obvious already, I absolutely loved it. This novel’s power and poignancy is potently blended and it has one of the best endings, I’ve enjoyed in a while and one that will certainly promote a level of debate for all who read it. This is most definitely a novel in my bookish opinion that you should want to add to your library, as soon as possible! 

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Shelley Read is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honours, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications.

Go As A River, her first novel, is inspired by the landscape she comes from and will be published in over thirty territories.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

So Close

Author: Sylvia Day

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

Available: 30^th March 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective, Ed PR & Penguin Michael Joseph for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Widower Kane Black has been hollowed by grief.

Until he sees a woman with his wife Lily’s inimitable beauty on Manhattan’s streets. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, nestling her in dark opulence. Aliyah, Kane’s mother, sees a threat. “Lily” has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on this throne. Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by betrayal. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.

Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife.

But Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way . . .

My Thoughts:

In conjunction with The Squadpod Collective and Ed PR, today, I am sharing my thoughts on Sylvia Day’s latest book, So Close. Now, I’ve not read any of Sylvia’s books before and what I discovered is that this book was an entertaining experience in sultry, suspenseful escapism, that transports readers away from the hum drum of everyday life and into the fictional arms of a rather brooding and delicious male protagonist! This novel, is a well-constructed, emotionally eloquent and tantalising read, with just the right balance of sexy suspense and certainly, the perfect way to while away a chilly Sunday afternoon.

The novel is based around widower Kane Black, who is stoically bereft after the supposed loss of his wife Lily. His life now is running his family empire, interspersed with the occasional passionate encounter of the one night only variety, he is not inclined to pursue anything more permanent. Despite, numerous women (including his sister-in-law, Amy) hoping to dissuade him of this notion!

The status quo is unchanged until, en-route to his office, he spots a woman, a woman who looks exactly like his former wife, he cannot contain himself and literally pursues her fleeing form into on coming traffic! Delightfully dramatic, I must say! Kane is convinced that this is his Lily and goes as far as to confirm this at the hospital, where ‘Lily’ is taken. Now he’s got her back, come the questions? How can it be Lily? She died in a sailing accident…or did she??? I rather enjoyed this ‘is she or isn’t she’ element of the story, it reminded me of that famous, 80s Dallas soap opera moment, when Bobby Ewing turned up all steamy in Pam’s shower after everyone thought he was dead for a year! And rather like the plots of Dallas, this novel, is filled with dramatic characters; themes of revenge, betrayal, shadowy secrets and the occasional racy romp, and the plot twists certainly keep you both intrigued and guessing. But if you want to find out more about Kane, Lily, Witte et al, then you will have buy the book and discover them for yourselves!

This novel certainly has it all, when it comes to Sex, Scandal and Secrets and I would like to say a satisfying conclusion, however I can’t! Because Sylvia has saved that element for the next book…so we shall all have to wait and see what happens next for Kane & Lily, when Book 2 – Too Far is published in October!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Sylvia Day is the #1 New York Times, No. 1 Sunday Times & internationally bestselling author of over twenty award-winning novels, including ten New York Times bestsellers and thirteen USA Today bestsellers. She is a number one bestselling author in twenty-nine countries, with translations in forty-one languages and over twenty million copies of her books in print.

Visit her at sylviaday.com

The Dead Are Gods

Author: Eirinie Carson

Publisher: Melville House

Available: 13^th April 2023 in Hardback & eBook

Thank you to Nikki Griffiths and Melville House for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

From an exciting new literary voice: a memoir that explores grief, Blackness, and recovery after the death of a dear friend.

After an unexpected phone call on an early morning in 2018, writer and model Eirinie Carson learned of her best friend Larissa’s death. In the wake of her shock, Eirinie attempts to make sense of the events leading up to Larissa’s death and uncovers startling secrets about her life in the process. THE DEAD ARE GODS is Eirinie’s striking, intimate, and profoundly moving depiction of life after a sudden loss. Amid navigating moments of intense grief, Eirinie is overwhelmed by her love for Larissa. She finds power in pulling moments of joy from the depths of her emotion. Eirinie’s portrayal of what love feels like after death bursts from the page alongside a timely, honest, and personal exploration of Black love and Black life. Perhaps, Eirinie proposes, ‘The only way out is through.’

My Thoughts:

Today, I have the honour of sharing my thoughts on Eirinie Carson’s debut The Dead Are Gods. This is not a work of fiction but an intimate and insightful memoir of loss and grief, it is emotionally pertinent, painfully poetic, and intensely profound and the book’s focus is not an easy one to digest, as it’s context cannot help but throw up the enduring, endless and exacting torrent of feelings experienced by anyone who has experienced and survived the loss of a loved one.

Reading this book is hard and cathartic, and from it I have taken this; the death of someone you love, is all consuming, it does not waver in its ability to overwhelm you, grief is a shadow, that harries, that allows no quarter, it pervades every inch of you, it colours your days and nights. And just when you find a moments relief from its persistent presence, perhaps in those moments when you are reading to your child or focused on the list of items you need to buy from the supermarket, or when you are walking down familiar streets in the area you live…the fingertips of memory flow over you and the dull pervading ache of grief returns!

Grief is an emotion that cannot be side lined to deal with later, it is a state of being and one that lingers after its first sting has struck, it carves a place in your heart, soul and mind and though you don’t believe it at the time, it does lessens, it does recede but never leaves, once experienced it is tattooed on your soul but with time, like a tattoo on your skin a fading but permeant reminder.

Eirinie has eloquently and effectively elucidated the essence of experiencing grief from a very personal point of view, in her book she shares with us her story, her relationship and friendship with Larissa, who at the age of 32, died. Eirinie had built a life in the US and remembers how on hearing the shocking, stunning news of her friend’s death and found herself caught in the maelstrom of tears, sadness and that violating numbness that accompanies such tragedy.

Eirinie shares with us, their history, how they met as teenagers, when she believed Larissa to be so grown up and so cosmopolitan and seemed to have an intrinsic comprehension of self. She was not cowed by others; she had the courage to be and believe in herself. Their bond and connection to each other grew swiftly and strongly and was seemingly unbreakable!

And yet after Larissa’s death, when Eirinie started to write this book, she unearths elements about her friend that she had no idea of and leads to the exposure of truths; that caused Larissa’s death! I confess, that this element of the book, took me by surprise especially as it occurs towards the end. Initially I wondered why, leave it until now to explain this element of Larissa. When it dawned on me, this was an act of loyalty and love. Eirinie doesn’t want us to assume anything about her friend, she wants to allow the reader time to discover the glory of her friend and not taint our opinion of her before, we have some understanding of who she was! Which Eirinie does so poignantly by sharing their joyous friendship and personal and often amusing revelations…like their potato passion, which became an emblem of their friendship and a demonstration of their care for each other. This is who Larissa was and who they were together. Larissa was so much more than the circumstances of her death.

I am in awe of this book, it is powerful, profound, personal, and perceptive and once you have read it, completely unforgettable. You cannot finish reading it and walk away without it having a heart felt impact on you. It is truly one of the most magnificent memoirs I have ever read, and I want to encourage you to add it to your bookshelves, it needs to be part of your reading experience, honestly it needs to be part of everyone’s reading experience, such is the perspicacious content of Eirinie’s writing.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer, born to a Jamaican father and Scottish-ish mother and raised in South East London. Her work is published in the Sonora Review, and she is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine. A member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto, Eirinie writes about motherhood, grief, and relationships. Eirinie lives in Northern California with her musician husband and their one dog and two daughters. The Dead are Gods is her first book.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

After Paris

Author: Nicole Kennedy

Publisher: Aria/Head of Zeus

Available: 6^th April 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective & Aria for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Three best friends. A weekend away. And a whole lot of baggage.

Alice, Nina, and Jules have been best friends for twenty years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the troubles of home behind, and indulge in each other’s friendship and warmth. But this year, aged thirty-nine, the cracks in their relationships are starting to show…

After their weekend together in Paris, the three women never speak again. Each claims the other two ghosted them. But is there more to the story?

My Thoughts:

Happy Paperback publication day Nicole, it’s my pleasure today along with my fellow Squadpod members to share my thoughts on After Paris. A delightful novel: the perfect escape from the everyday without the need to leave your sofa, it is filled with French patisserie, friendship, frolics, and fissions of friction. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have.

The novel follows the friendship of three women, who meet for the first time in 1999, in Paris, each one is there for different reasons but until their chance encounter in a bathroom just before a grand debutant ball, none of them are having the time of their lives! The story is told in the past, present, and future and we are party to their complicated lives and loves and I found Nicole is skilled in creating the varied nuanced elements of female friendships and their transitions over time from young expectant women, with hopes and dreams to middle age, where some of the bloom has worn off, especially after marriage, children and careers and the inevitable ups and downs of life have taken their toll.

Despite their close friendship over the years, Alice, Nina, and Jules, have kept some secrets to themselves and now each is facing a specific trial and ones that virtually any reader may have experienced themselves, which does make the women eminently relatable to. As the story progresses, you learn of each woman’s circumstances and that none of them are prepared to come clean and divulge to the others, what is really going on! Which of course is going to lead to a contretemps of epic proportions, as the truth will impact them all and the course of their friendship. The story see’s Jules, leaving Paris without even saying goodbye, Nina swiftly follows suit and poor Alice is left waiting for her friends in a café, without any clue of what is/has happened and when it dawns on her, they aren’t coming, she is left wondering what she could possibly have done to offend them! But of course, I am not revealing what happens next, that is for you to discover for yourselves, when you read the book.

Nicole has created an engaging and entertaining character driven novel, that both illustrates and examines the diverse and occasionally dramatic dynamics of female friendships in an authentic manner. She has also eloquently covered some of the more pertinent societal issues, that modern women face, such as IVF, addiction, motherhood, and adult neurodiversity. These elements certainly give you pause for thought as you read.

I confess one my favourite elements of this book, were all the sumptuous mentions of various mouth-watering French food, especially the patisserie, which transported me back in time to my many visits to Paris and the south of France and did make me decidedly peckish as I read! As the Easter weekend approaches, this book will be the perfect companion to your Easter Egg consumption.

Happy Reading Bookophiles

About the Author:

Nicole Kennedy grew up in Essex and studied Law at Bristol University. She has always loved to write but her efforts were waylaid by work as a corporate lawyer in London, Paris and Dubai. During Nicole’s second maternity leave she began writing poems on motherhood and family life. She completed her first novel during her third maternity leave (by then it was easier than leaving the house) and her second during the pandemic (by then she wasn’t allowed to leave the house).

Nicole lives in Kent with her husband and three sons. You can find her on Instagram (@nicole_k_kennedy) and Twitter (@nicolekkennedy).

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall

Author: Katie Lumsden

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

Available: 30^th March 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audio

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective @squadpod3 and Penguin Michael Joseph for my gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

1852.

Margaret Lennox is offered a position as governess at Hartwood Hall. She quickly accepts, hoping this isolated country house will allow her to leave her past behind.

But Margaret soon starts to feel there’s something odd about her new home, despite her growing fondness for her bright, affectionate pupil, Louis.

Strange figures move through the dark.

Tensions rise between the servants.

The east wing sits eerily abandoned . . .

Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs Eversham, Louis’s widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted by the nearby village.

Margaret is certain that everyone has something to hide.

But as her own past threatens to catch up with her, she must learn to trust her instincts before it’s too late . . .

My Thoughts:

Happy Publication Day Katie, today it’s my pleasure to share my thoughts on Katie Lumsden’s debut novel The Secrets of Hartwood Hall. This novel was the March book club choice for The Squadpod collective. A glorious gripping, gothic story that terrifies and satisfies you all at the same time and once you fall into its atmospheric dark mysteries, it is nearly impossible to stop reading. I couldn’t put it down and I am sure you won’t be able to either.

Katie has clearly put her love and knowledge of Victorian gothic stories to good use, as her debut is masterfully created, with gossamer layers of secrets, shadows, sinister implications, and supernatural sensations. She oh so delicately, sprinkles the story with suggestions of darkness as yet unrevealed and seeks to quieten your readers questioning mind with essences of romance and hope but goes on to plunge you into twisty traps of surprising proportions. As you tiptoe through the chapters, you become attuned to literally expecting the unexpected! I loved how Katie built the tension of the story in ethereal increments, I kept holding my breath as I read, waiting in quivering anticipation of what might occur next!

The secrets within Hartwood Hall are explored from the perspective of the main character Margaret Lennox, a widow, left destitute by her husband’s untimely death (although that might be debateable or a case of better the devil you know, than the one you don’t!) she seeks to support herself, in the only socially acceptable way, a woman of her time could, by seeking employment as a governess. Margaret accepts a post in the remote wilds of the west of England, to look after a small boy named Louis, who resides with his mother Mrs Eversham, also a widow at Hartwood Hall.

Almost as soon as Margaret sets foot in the Hall, her hopes for a quiet safe sanctuary from her life’s storms are dispelled and she is filled with disquiet, secrets of the past, taint the present. Figures in the dark, the discord of the servants, the forsaken East wing, and the unfathomable rules she must follow as Louis’s guardian! Sly speculations and rumours about the character of her employer and the hall also fan the flames of fear and mistrust and Margaret feels very much trapped and alone despite her starting a relationship with Paul the gardener, which did make me smile as it was a more emotional PG version of Mellor’s from Lady Chatterley…well that’s what popped into my head at least. But Paul is more invested in their union, than Margaret, as her past marital experience, casts a long shadow over her ability to trust! As the situation grows tauter with every page, Margaret considers that, she may have to flee this place and then circumstances change…yes, I’m being very cryptic, it would be no fun at all if I spoil any potential outcomes of this story! If you want to know, what the secrets of Hartwood Hall are and what happens to Margaret, then you will have to treat yourself to this marvellous mysterious read and as it’s payday tomorrow, this is the perfect gothic treat to gorge on.

 Katie’s book is evocative, eerie, and addictively engaging, with a compelling and occasionally creepy cast of characters to enjoy. The plot is sublime, sinister, and subtle to the point when you are completely surprised by the outcomes. This book deserves a place on your bookshelves!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Katie Lumsden read Jane Eyre at the age of thirteen and never looked back. She spent her teenage years devouring nineteenth century literature, reading every Dickens, Brontë, Gaskell, Austen, and Hardy novel she could find. She has a degree in English literature and history from the University of Durham and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize and the Bridport Prize and have been published in various literary magazines. Katie’s Youtube channel, Books and Things, has more than 25,000 subscribers. She lives in London and works in publishing.

The Ugly Truth

Author: L.C. North

Publisher: Bantam Press

Available: 16^th March 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Bantam Press, for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Everyone’s telling a different story. Who do you believe?

Melanie Lange has disappeared.

Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.

Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.

The media will say whichever gets them the most views.

But whose side are you on?

#SaveMelanie

#HelpPeter

Told exclusively through interviews, transcripts and diary entries, The Ugly Truth is a gripping, original and smart thriller. It explores the influence of the press and social media on public opinion and in private lives; from conservatorship to the lack of mental health support for reality TV stars, the news cycle is full of stories about the often tragic consequences of media attention. L.C. North cleverly weaves these themes into a tense and compulsive thriller, perfect for book clubs. This thought-provoking and conversation-starting novel reminds us of the people behind the headlines, and how difficult it can be to separate fact from fiction.

My Thoughts:

It’s my turn today to share my thoughts on LC North’s debut novel The Ugly Truth. This is a novel that will put your mind in a complete tizzy about who and what to believe and delves into the deep seated poison that taints the veins of the media, from a fictional perspective and the endless perils of being involved in the cult of celebrity. Lauren’s book in unique, unusual, and utterly outstanding. I simply couldn’t put it down and devoured it in only a few short hours but the echoes of its clever contents, continue to ricochet around my brain, even now a week after I finished reading it. This is a book, that you will want to share, so you can discuss and dissect its multitude of fine points and plus you will need someone else to say to…did you see that coming because I didn’t…because you may think, you know the who’s, where’s and what’s here but I assure you, that you won’t!

I very much admired how Lauren structured her novel; as I said it is unusual in that the story is revealed to us readers, not from the protagonists perspectives but instead through a variety of different media types; Instagram, Twitter, Interviews with friends and family, episodes of a Netflix documentary, which together provide a litany of ideas, opinions and commentary and develop the constantly fluctuating atmosphere and tone of the book…but also this flow of opinions, prods your brain incessantly, who should you believe, what should you believe and what on earth might be the truth of the matter!

I’m now going to give you a taste of what you have instore, when you read Lauren’s book. The book opens, with the fact, it has been months since the former media darling, Mellie Lange has been seen in public, with the necessary media speculations to as to why she is missing from action! The official line from her father, the famous business impresario Peter Lange, is that she is taking timeout at a private treatment centre to recover her mental health. Which sounds like a completely cogent explanation, for Mellie’s absence. Until that is, her best friend and ex husband contradict his version of events, extolling that the reality is Mellie has been kidnapped by her father, because he’s a control freak and can’t bear the effects of Mellie’s public persona causing damage to his business/fortune!

After all, ever since a photographer captured Mellie’s image when she was 15, attending the opening of her father’s flagship hotel in that little black dress and the picture hit every newspaper. Capitulating Mellie to the realms of celebrity and was responsible for her ensuing modelling career and then the torrent of media, that followed which, documented, reported and commented on her successes, her fall from grace, her relationships, her friends, her marriage, her face, her clothes, her figure, her business ventures, every echelon of her life was played out on a public stage…whether she wanted it too or not and with it, came the endless and often negative impact on those around her…and Peter Lange has grown tired of paying the cost…or has he?! And to further fan the flames of controversy, we have Mellie’s own, plaintive pleas via video message, from an unknown location, begging for rescue from her captivity and to reunite her with her sons!

Who is telling the truth? Who should we believe? It is such a delicious dichotomy…and we readers have an omnipotent role to the unfolding situation, we are shown the odious behaviour of the press and other media, but we can also view the cacophony of comments on social media about Mellie where joe public, feels free to unleash their vitriol and atrocious opinions on everything from her nail polish to her family relationships and beyond! It is truly horrifying in this fictional situation to consider the myriad of ways that media can influence, control, and sway the mind of the public but given Lauren’s background. I suspect she has a full understanding and appreciation for both the good and bad facets of the media in real life and that knowledge has certainly translated successfully in her book.

While reading The Ugly Truth, I have spent half my time being #SaveMellie and then changing my mind and being #HelpPeter and then changing it back again and that is what I consider the genius element in this novel; how the variety of contrasting, clashing viewpoints or opinions can convince you to change your mind about whether Mellie is a puppet or the puppeteer and whether Peter is an insidious controller or a protective father and for the first time in my life, I couldn’t pick a side straight away, it was quite an unnerving experience but a tiny bit thrilling too, and as to what indeed might be ‘the ugly truth’ of this story, well let’s just say there is certainly a sting or zing in the tail of this novel and of course, that’s for me to know and you to find out.

Lauren has imaginatively and insightfully created an exhilarating, exceptional and eruptive novel and one, that I can’t wait for you to read. As pay day approaches, this book needs to be in your shopping baskets, be they virtual or IRL and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

L.C. North studied psychology at university before pursuing a career in Public Relations. Her first book club thriller – The Ugly Truth – combines her love of psychology and her fascination with the celebrities in the public eye. L.C. North is currently working on her second novel, and when she’s not writing, she co-hosts the crime thriller podcast, In Suspense. L.C. North lives on the Suffolk borders with her family. L.C. North is the pen name of Lauren North.

Readers can follow her on Twitter @Lauren_C_North and Facebook @LaurenNorthAuthor.

Please do read some of the other fantastic reviews on this blog tour.

Forgotten Women

Author: Zing Tsjeng

Publisher: Octopus Books

Available: 9^th March 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Octopus Books for my fantastic, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone 

Book Details:

A compendium of women who shaped and were erased from our history.

Forgotten Women reaches around the world and its history to rediscover, retell and reinstate the lives of over 190 important and significant women.

From Neolithic times to modernity, Zing Tsjeng has traced the women who have shaped their age and revolutionised society. In this book lies the strength, lives and sacrifices of women who have refused to accept the hand they’ve been dealt and have changed the course of our futures accordingly

My Thoughts:

Well, what an absolute privilege it is to be sharing my thoughts on Zing Tsjeng’s book Forgotten Women with you today. As a woman, approaching 50 years on this planet (not quite there yet though). I have been aware of the imbalance in our society since childhood, when because of my gender, I was pushed sometimes forcibly towards appropriate toys, books, clothing, hobbies, career options deemed suitable or acceptable for me, as a girl/woman. It came as a shock to me in my teens, that my forthright behaviour, opinions, and attitude were criticized mainly because they were not expected from a girl! Zing’s book, for me is a physical correction of that incessant unbalance of society regarding women and their successes.

When I read the details for this book, what drew me to it, almost instantly. Was the sheer variety of women, Zing had included, investigated and researched, who were like me, ordinary on the face of things but they struck out into the world and changed it in various incredible ways and yet despite their brilliance, society does not know their names! This book is a truly an exciting, exceptional, and encyclopaedic read and one that needs a place on your bookshelves and its contents should never be forgotten again.

I confess when I first held this book in my hands, I was a little overwhelmed by its size (it’s a big book at over 500 pages) but when I first flicked through it, I was mesmerized by the sheer scope of the content within but rather than be intellectually intimidated by attempting to read it cover to cover.  I put a plan in place for myself and began to read a section a week and my slow read approach afforded me the time to digest and appreciate, the volume of historical and factual information, stored with in its pages and for weeks now I have had endless facts zipping about in my head and I may have bored my dad a little by my constant recounting of things I have learnt but that’s karma, because in my family, my dad has been regaling us with political and historical facts for decades!

Back to Forgotten Women, I loved how Zing has organised her book, by allocating the women into 7 key sections; Campaigners, the arbiters of change; Mavericks, those who brilliantly and brazenly flouted the prescribed conventions of their time; Revolutionaries, those who would not standby and accept the politics/law of society and sought to amend it. Trailblazers, geniuses, the shooting stars in their fields from art to science and all the areas in between. World changers, those whose beliefs, ideals and actions, aimed to make the world better for us all. Truth tellers, those who depict our world, by their words, by their art, by their opinions, by their stories and Visionaries, those who can see or act beyond the now and whose ideas garner great expectations for what is to come. I am now completely inspired by these women. I am so proud of their courage and resilience and their power, and I am also a bit emotional while analysing the potential impact of this book on the world and how that these women’s stories are no longer lying dormant, marginalised or unrecognised. Zing, thank you for this book, thank you for writing their stories and thank you for making them available to us all to read and relish.

This remarkable book will undoubtedly be labelled a feminist tome, which it is…and why shouldn’t it be, feminism is not a dirty word.  It is a movement to redress the balance of gender, for women, to be heard when society refuses to listen, it is a clarion call…it is a loud request from us women, that whatever our age, wherever we are in this world of ours. We wish to speak and be heard and be afforded the same egress and equality as men. Our roles, our accomplishments, our ideas, our efforts are just as valid and important as those of our male counterparts, in the past, in the present and in the future to come.

For me, this amazing book brings to the fore women, whose accomplishments, achievements, and ideas that have until now been consigned to being a foot note and sometimes not even that, in the singular and accepted patriarchal history of the world. If I say to you, who are Margaret Sanger, Grace O’Malley, Marjorie Cameron, Rashid Jahan, Lillian Ngoyi, Hertha Ayrton, Leona Woods Marshall Libby, Noor Inayat Khan, Jane Cook Wright, Shen Shanbao, Anna Akhmatova, Wei Shuo, Josephine Hopper, and Dorothy Todd…would you know, who these, individual, incredible, brilliant, women are or what they accomplished? I do now and forgive my bluntness, but you should want to know too? These women I have named are only a fraction of the 190 women documented and celebrated in Zing’s book…there is so many more for you to explore and I hope you do!

If I could, I would gift every woman I know, a copy of this book. I am sure, it will enlighten, educate, and inspire you, once you dive into its pages. It is a triumph of revelation, I am in awe of Zing’s epic voyage of research and discovery and so grateful, she shared what she uncovered with us, readers. This is a book; you simply must have, as soon as possible!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Zing Tsjeng is the editor in chief of VICE UK and the author of the Forgotten Women book series. She specialises in women’s and LGBTQ rights, politics, culture, and lifestyle. She is also a documentary host and podcaster, her recent podcast for the BBC was entitled Forgotten Zingdom and she interviews for publications such as Vogue, Dazed, and The Guardian.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.

Bellevue

Author: Alison Booth

Publisher: Red Door Books

Available: 16^th March 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Helen Richardson at Helen Richardson PR and Red Door Books for my lovely, gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

New South Wales, 1972. Following the death of her beloved Aunt Hilda, widow Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, an historic property in the Blue Mountains township of Numbulla, Australia. Giving up her teaching job to move to the mountains, Clare plans to restore the house to its original glory. She also hopes to track down a box of missing documents that may shed light on why husband Jack secretly second-mortgaged their former home.

Clare makes friends with the locals, including a young boy, Joe, and soon hears of plans to redevelop Numbulla and to exploit the land bordering the protected wilderness area. As she joins the protest against the rezoning, it’s clear someone doesn’t want her there and they’ll do anything to stop her…

Written from Clare’s and Joe’s perspectives, Bellevue highlights cross-generational bonds that grow between them as they struggle, individually and together, towards an acceptance of the losses each has sustained.

My Thoughts:

It’s my turn today on the blog tour for Alison Booth’s latest novel Bellevue, I have previously read, reviewed, and loved her book The Painting.  So, it will come as no surprise to you, that as soon as I read the details for this book, I knew that I simply had to get my hands on it. Actually, if I’m honest, I think it was the cover of the book that seduced me first, I do love a historic house and a brooding sky! These two facts, combined with my serious addiction to books set in Australia, meant I was powerless to resist it. But what is it about, Australia, that draws me, I don’t quite know but I suspect it’s because in terms of; environment, history, vicious heat, and the remote vastness of the land it is so viscerally different from the wet, chilly and often frozen Yorkshire, where I live. The powerful combination of isolation, beauty, and brutality, for me is the essence of Australia and Alison harnesses her knowledge of the country so well, when she crafts her novels. Alison’s latest book is irrepressible, intriguing, implicit and utterly irresistible, once you start reading, you simply can’t stop. This novel is the quintessential binge read!

The other defining aspect of Alison’s books that I admire, in Bellevue especially, is her masterful elucidation of everyday, domestic, if you like, intrigue. Where a situation or circumstances at face value are perceived to be merely an accidental or an incidental convergence of unfortunate or unlucky events, these things are merely part of the natural order of things or daily happenstance. Yet, with such divinely subtle clues, Alison, surreptitiously instils kernels of suspicion into your thoughts as you read, that actually things might not be as they seem!

Let me now provide you with a little taste of what you can expect, when you read Bellevue for yourselves! Clare Barclay is a retired primary school teacher, who has inherited from her aunt by marriage, the house of Bellevue, a beautiful if not slightly warn historic house. Regardless of its current state of disrepair, this house is home to her; for Clare, Bellevue is a place of solace and comfort. It a house that she called home for 6 months after her husband’s accidental death decades before, when she and her daughter Sophie literally lost everything; husband, father and the familiarity and comfort of their farm at Wombat Creek and when she was at her lowest point. Aunt Hilda reached out and offered them a home at Bellevue, until they were back on their feet.

Now Clare has returned to Bellevue, she has left her previous life and friends in Sydney and is embarking on a new adventure, in the beautiful blue mountains…sounds idyllic doesn’t it! But of course, all is not what it seems…Clare concentrates her mind and time on refurbishing the house and undertaking herculean efforts to restore the once beautiful garden. As she does, she begins to re-establish herself in the local area, and makes new friends in the enigmatic Iggy and the friendly and intelligent local librarian Fiona. I loved the part of the book, where Clare visit’s the local library for the first time and meets Fiona…it’s amusing, literary and charming and beautifully illustrates the vital role libraries play in rural communities.

And then of course there is Joe…a budding naturalist and artist, who has been sneaking into Clare’s garden and hayloft to paint and look at the birds. Joe’s home life is less than ideal, his mother sadly died of cancer and his father drinks, to cover his grief and doesn’t do a great job of parenting his boys. So, when Clare and Joe’s paths finally cross, it’s a little antagonistic at first, but their love of Clare’s garden and the bush, allows them to build a cross generational friendship and it is an element they both need in their lives, whether the recognise it at first or not. And I can’t forget about Mutt either, the rescue springer spaniel, who has his part to play. I loved how Alison seamlessly intertwined Clare and Joe’s stories, until the two parts became a whole.

Then some rather odd occurrences start happening at Bellevue, a local estate agent (and deeply unpleasant man Bill Bailey) makes Clare an offer on her new home, with some rather veiled threats or implications and things get more suspicious when Clare’s brother in law David, whose actions and attitude to Clare and her inheritance, seem merely patronising and mostly benign, also makes her a surprising offer to purchase Bellevue but Alison’s clever and careful plotting makes it very clear, that the David, Clare thinks she knows is only a façade and her brother in law, is not to be trusted! …and after Clare rejects both offers, she is subjected to some unpleasant phone calls and a series of intrusions but this it seems, is only the tip of the iceberg. Nefarious things are a foot…especially after Clare becomes part of the local Conservation Society and becomes aware of plans to re-zone the land around her new home and the destructive impact it will have!! But of course, how this all plays out, is for me to know and you to discover when you read the book. What I will say, is that the past is about to release some of its secrets; about why Clare lost her home at Wombat Creek, why her Aunt left her Bellevue and watch out for what exactly David and Bill are up to, if ever a pair deserved some quality tasering these two would be top of my list!

Alison’s latest story is about the true nature and value of community and importance of protecting and preserving the natural environment as legacy for the generations to come. It illustrates albeit fictionally, the power of standing together to fight greed and corruption and that when we do so, together we can make a difference, irregardless of age, sex, or race. This is a story about a community and individuals forging ahead, laying the spectors of the past to rest and moving forward, making a new life, regardless of age or circumstances and making friends and creating family, when your own, cannot fulfill that role. This is a story of making those, who disregard societies moral imperatives, who seek to profit from the natural environment that does not belong to them, pay a high price for their dishonesty and deceptive actions, both publicly and financially! They say crime doesn’t pay and Clare and her community ensure that’s the case and justice prevails!

For me, Alison is an imaginative and talented writer, who creates a cast of characters that are original and endearing, so much so, I completely forgot most of the time that they were fictional, I was so invested in their lives! I relished the undulating nature of the storylines and I found Bellevue to be a completely stimulating, satisfying and visually sumptuous read and it is definitely going on my list of favourite books of 2023. I adored every adeptly titled chapter, and I must insist that you read it too. Time to place a book order and build a sofa nest, cancel your plans, and transport yourself to Bellevue in the Blue Mountains.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Born in Australia, Alison Booth gained a degree in architecture before transferring to economics. She is Professor Emeritus of Economics with a PhD from the London School of Economics and spent over two decades living and working in the UK before returning to Australia. She wrote her first novel at the age of nine, before other distractions set in.

Alison’s seventh published novel, Bellevue, will be out in March 2023. Her previous novels were published by Penguin and RedDoor. Her fiction has been translated into French and her short stories have appeared in international publications including Antipodes and New Writing. Awards include a Varuna Longlines Fellowship from the Eleanor Dark Foundation and the Highly Commended Award in the 2011 ACT Book of the Year Award. Her novels are: Stillwater Creek, The Indigo Sky, A Distant Land, A Perfect Marriage, The Philosopher’s Daughters, and The Painting. For more information visit: https://www.alisonbooth.net/home

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.