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.

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.

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.

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.