Author: emmasbibliotreasures

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Forgotten Wife by Emma Robinson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

aed44837

I’m thrilled to be sharing my review for this beautiful novel on publication day. Thank you to Bookouture for the invitation to take part and for the gifted ARC of the novel.

Publisher: Bookouture
Published: January 27th, 2020
Format: Kindle
Genre: Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction.

SYNOPSIS

It was a wooden box, white with yellow and green flowers. Shelley ran a finger over the  embossed lettering – Memories – pressed her lips tightly together, feeling her heart pounding in her chest… and opened it.

When Shelley first met Greg, her life had been full of possibility. A whirlwind romance, a dream wedding, moving into their first house together, thinking about starting a family…

But now it’s ten years since their wedding. Greg has gone. And there’s room in the house where Shelley has shut a baby blanket away. In a box, under a bed, in a spare room, behind a door she never opens. If it’s there, she can forget about it. Just like everything else in that room. Just like her other memories. Of a marriage that perhaps hadn’t been perfect. Of a life that hadn’t gone the way she’d expected.

She’s been managing to hide from her past. Every day she acts like everything is normal. Going to work and following a routine helps her pretend the bad stuff never happened.

Until one day, everything changes. She sees the couple moving in next door, giggling as they walk up the path to their new home. The woman is pregnant. It’s like she has everything that Shelley has lost. But when Shelley properly meets Lara, she soon discovers she’s carrying a heartache to match Shelley’s own.

As her friendship with Lara deepens, Shelley starts to wonder what might happen if she opens the box she’s hidden away. Will the secrets from her past – about what was lost, what she’s hiding from and what she has been doing her best to forget – destroy her?

A heartbreaking, emotional drama about the power of friendship that will  make readers laugh and cry.

51omBOQYzPL._SY346_

MY REIVEW:

The Forgotten Wife is a poignant, soulful and uplifting story about tragedy, heartache, rediscovering yourself and the power of friendship. I devoured this book in just a few hours, the beautiful writing and addictive story making it impossible to tear myself away until the end.

The story is narrated by Shelley and Lara and begins the day Lara and her husband Matt move into the house next door to Shelley. They start to get to know each other, each secretly wishing they could just be alone as they are both nursing secret pain that is crippling their lives. As they get closer the two very different women learn they are more alike than they realised and that the other could be just what they need to help them heal their broken hearts.

Shelley and Lara were wonderful characters. Shelley has isolated herself since her life imploded when her husband, Greg, left her a year ago. She’s angry, bitter and finding it hard to move on like she knows she should. She’s put up a wall to prevent any further pain from people leaving so she’s not exactly warm and welcoming when Lara moves next door and seems to want to get to know her. Lara and her husband Matt are expecting their first child and have a blissful, perfect life that Shelley envies. But Matt fusses over Lara and won’t let her do anything, and Lara is avoiding her friends so she doesn’t have to face what she calls the worst time in her life. They are very different – Shelley is introverted, quiet and indecisive, while Lara is confident, outgoing and focused. At least that is how it seems. A they grow closer their full selves are revealed as they feel able to share the truth about themselves and their pain. I connected to both women and things they went through and loved the warm and tender friendship they shared. 

I am a big believer in some books coming to you when they’re supposed to, and this one came at exactly the right time for me. Though there was a lot in this book that should have made it a painful and difficult read for me I actually found it a therapeutic experience and I know a part of that is the talent of the author. Robinson has a knack for getting into your soul and breaking your heart while uplifting you and giving hope at the same time. She is an exquisite storyteller whose prose is tender, beautiful, clever and addictive. One of the twists was so surprising it had my jaw on the floor and turned everything I thought I knew upside down.

The Forgotten Wife is an emotional, powerful and wondrous novel that I can’t recommend highly enough. Just be warned that you’ll need tissues at the ready as it pulls on your heartstrings again and again. My love for Robinson’s writing is now solidified and her books are now on my auto-buy list. I just need to get myself emotionally prepared in time for the next one. 

I will leave you with this quote from Make Way For Joy by Marie Kondo, a book that features throughout the story and sums up my big takeaway from this novel – “In order to heal, you have to feel.”

C1xTvKZtbNS._US230_

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Emma Robinson is the author of five novels about motherhood and female friendship including The Undercover Mother.

Her fifth novel – The Forgotten Wife – will be out in January 2020.

When she is not writing, Emma is an English teacher and lives in Essex with a patient husband and two children who are an endless source of material.

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon
Kobo
Apple Books
Google Play

The Forgotten Wife - Blog Tour

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

20200123_210644

Publisher: Orion
Published: January 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: General Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this delightful novel. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Tours for the invitation to take part, and to Orion and NetGalley for the eBook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

SYNOPSIS:

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lido comes a story of friendship, belonging and never giving up your dreams.

Welcome to the café that never sleeps.

Day and night, Stella’s café opens its doors to the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It’s a place where everyone is always welcome, where life can wait at the door.

Meet Hannah and Mona, best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They love working at Stella’s – the different people they meet, the small kindnesses exchanged. But is it time to step outside and make their own way in life?

Come inside and spend 24 hours in Stella’s café, where one day might just be enough to change your life…

MY REVIEW: 

Have you ever had that feeling where you just want to climb inside a book and live there? That’s how I felt about The 24-Hour Café, a delightful, heartwarming story that warmed my insides like hot chocolate on a cold day. 

The story takes place over twenty-four hours at Stella’s, a London café that has a style all of its own, sharing glimpses of the lives of two of its waitresses, best friends Hannah and Mona, and some of its customers. Over the course of the day we get to know these people, see what they’re going through, what matters to them and how their interactions with each other affect their lives, some in ways they don’t expect. It is a story about life, love, friendships, dreams and heartache. We see people at their best and their worst, when they are at their happiest and when their life is falling apart.

At the centre of the story is Hannah and Mona. The friends both live and work together, the café providing them with flexible conditions perfect for continuing to chase their dream careers – Hannah of being a singer, Mona of being a dancer. They’ve always been more like sisters than friends but this past year, things have changed and they’ve grown apart. Can they fix their problems or are things broken forever? That question is underlying over the course of the book and I was so invested in these characters that I was rooting for things to be fixed.

I devoured this book in under twenty-four hours and just couldn’t put it down. It was an easy but immersive read, with interesting characters that felt real and relatable. I immediately cared about Hannah, our first narrator, and felt the same about each character as they were introduced. I loved the different stories the author created for each narrator and how she made me genuinely care about them individually. The writing was uplifting and alluring, transporting me to this world that felt real, the vivid descriptions of Stella’s making me want to hop on a train to London and go there. 

The 24-Hour Café snuck in at the very end of the year to take a place in my top books of 2019. It is a book that manages to be quietly understated and dazzling at the same time and I predict this will be on everyone’s must-read list in 2020. If you’re looking for a delicious, captivating and touching read, this is the book for you.

*thank you to @head_in_a_book_18 for allowing me to use her lovely picture in this post.

libbypage

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Libby Page is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lido. Her second book The 24-Hour Café launches in January 2020.

Before writing The Lido Libby worked as a campaigner for fairer internships, a journalist at the Guardian and a Brand Executive at a retailer and then a charity. 

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR:

Twitter
Instagram
Website

Libby also shares her swimming adventures with her sister Alex on Instagram

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon
Book Depository
Waterstones

Categories
Uncategorised

Emma’s Anticipated Treasures – February 2020

f22413f6

February is even busier than January for books and it was much harder to slim down the ones I’m most excited about. This long list is the smallest I could make it and there were easily at least another six books I could have included. At the time of writing, I have read two of the books on this list – The Foundling and Firewatching – and they more than deserve their places here. 

BEHIND EVERY LIE by Christina McDonald

81odmYF2XUL._AC_UL436_

Published: February 4th, 2020
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
SYNOPSIS:
If you can’t remember it, how do you prove you didn’t do it?

Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her.

Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London–Kat’s former home–for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.

Told in alternating perspectives from Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, Christina McDonald has crafted another “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) domestic thriller. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell’s I Found You and Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.

THE FOUNDING by Stacey Halls

7187TGCvq6L

Published: February 6th, 2020|
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
Genre: Gothic Fiction, Historical Fiction.
SYNOPSIS:
Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .

London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London’s Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, she is astonished when she is told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl – and why.

Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend – an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital – persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

From the bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds . . .

SAVING MISSY by Beth Morley

cover173029-medium

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Genre: Humourous Fiction.
SYNOPSIS:
Prickly. Stubborn. Terribly lonely.

But everyone deserves a second chance…

A dazzling debut for 2020 – are you ready to meet Missy Carmichael?

Missy Carmichael’s life has become small.

Grieving for a family she has lost or lost touch with, she’s haunted by the echoes of her footsteps in her empty home; the sound of the radio in the dark; the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock.

Spiky and defensive, Missy knows that her loneliness is all her own fault. She deserves no more than this; not after what she’s done. But a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new.

Another life beckons for Missy, if only she can be brave enough to grasp the opportunity. But seventy-nine is too late for a second chance. Isn’t it?

THE MERCIES by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

cover172574-medium (1)

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Picador
Genre: Historical Fiction.
SYNOPSIS:
On Christmas Eve, 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a reckless storm. As Maren Magnusdatter watches, forty fishermen, including her father and brother, are lost to the waves – the menfolk of Vardø wiped out in an instant.

Vardø is now a place of women.

Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of Vardø to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa finds something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs.

Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, and a love that may prove as dangerous as it is powerful.

THE SISTER’S GRIMM by Menna van Praag

9781787631663

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Bantam Press
Genre: Fantasy
SYNOPSIS:
There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of sisters Grimm on Earth.

You may well be one of them, though you might never know it.

This is the story of four sisters Grimm – daughters born to different mothers on the same day, each born out of bright-white wishing and black-edged desire.

They found each other at eight years-old, were separated at thirteen and now, at nearly eighteen, it is imperative that they find each other once again.

In thirty-three days they will meet their father in Everwhere. Only then will they discover who they truly are, and what they can truly do. Then they must fight to save their lives and the lives of the ones they love. Three will live, one will die.

You’ll have to read on to find out who and why . . .

THE ALIBI GIRL by C. J. Skuse

cover174692-medium

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: HQ
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Dark Comedy, Coming-of-Age Fiction.
SYNOPSIS:
JOANNE HAYNES HAS A SECRET.

THAT IS NOT HER REAL NAME.

And there’s more. Her flat isn’t hers. Her cats aren’t hers. Even her hair isn’t really hers.

 Nor is she any of the other women she pretends to be. Not the bestselling romance novelist who gets her morning snack from the doughnut van on the seafront. Nor the pregnant woman in the dental surgery. Nor the chemo patient in the supermarket for whom the cashier feels ever so sorry. They’re all just alibis. 

In fact, the only thing that’s real about Joanne is that nobody can know who she really is.

But someone has got too close. It looks like her alibis have begun to run out….

PERFECT KILL  (DI Callanach Book 6) by Helen Fields

cover170254-medium

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Avon Books
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural.
SYNOPSIS:
He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.

Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.

Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…

DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland.

With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…

GROWN UPS by Marian Keyes

71sUPaebH2L

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Genre: Humourous Fiction.
SYNOPSIS:
They’re a glamorous family, the Caseys.

Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together – birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie – who has the most money – insists on it.

Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .

Everything stays under control until Ed’s wife Cara, gets concussion and can’t keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets.

In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?

THE HOUSE OF TRELAWNEY by Hannah Rothschild

919HumIST-L

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: Domestic Fiction, Saga, Satire
SYNOPSIS:
The seat of the Trelawney family for over 800 years, Trelawney Castle was once the jewel of the Cornish coast. Each successive Earl spent with abandon, turning the house and grounds into a sprawling, extravagant palimpsest of wings, turrets and follies.

But recent generations have been better at spending than making money. Now living in isolated penury, unable to communicate with each other or the rest of the world, the family are running out of options. Three unexpected events will hasten their demise: the sudden appearance of a new relation, an illegitimate, headstrong, beautiful girl; an unscrupulous American hedge fund manager determined to exact revenge; and the crash of 2008.

A love story and social satire set in the parallel and seemingly unconnected worlds of the British aristocracy and high finance, House of Trelawney is also the story of lost and found friendships between three women. One of them will die; another will discover her vocation; and the third will find love.

BEAST (Six Stories Book 4) – Matt Wesolowski

41GdniUwF0L

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Orenda Books
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Horror, Crime Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction.  SYNOPSIS:
Elusive online journalist Scott King examines the chilling case of a young vlogger found frozen to death in the legendary local ‘vampire tower’, in another explosive episode of Six Stories… In the wake of the ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old Vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as ‘The Vampire Tower’, where she was later found frozen to death. Three young men, part of an alleged ‘cult’, were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a ‘prank gone wrong.’ However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton’s death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible. Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses people who knew both the victim and the three killers to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, the tragic and chilling legend of the ‘Ergarth Vampire’… Both a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and a bleak and distressing look at modern society’s desperation for attention, Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return…

WRECKAGE by Robin Morgan-Bentley

cover174396-medium

Published: February 6th 2020
Publisher: Trapeze
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
SYNOPSIS:
Things will never be the same again…

Ben is driving on the motorway, on his usual commute to the school where he works.

A day like any other, except for Adam, who in a last despairing act jumps in front of Ben’s car, and in killing himself, turns the teacher’s world upside down.

Wracked with guilt and desperate to clear his conscience, Ben develops a friendship with Alice, Adam’s widow, and her 7-year-old son Max.

But as he tries to escape the trauma of the wreckage, could Ben go too far in trying to make amends?

Gripping and sinister, The Wreckage is guaranteed to keep you up all night…

STRANGE HOTEL by Eimear McBride

31uqDvyBDsL

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Genre: Literary Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
At the mid-point of her life a woman enters an Avignon hotel room. She’s been here once before – but while the room hasn’t changed, she is a different person now.

Forever caught between check-in and check-out, she will go on to occupy other hotel rooms, from Prague to Oslo, Auckland to Austin, each as anonymous as the last, but bound by rules of her choosing. There, amid the detritus of her travels, the matchbooks, cigarettes, keys and room-service wine, she will negotiate with memory, with the men she sometimes meets, and with what it might mean to return home.

THE FORGOTTEN LETTERS OF ESTHER DURRANT by Kayte Nunn

43605526

Published: February 6th, 2020
Publisher: Orion
Genre: Gothic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
A forgotten woman…

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison but soon becomes her refuge.

A cache of unsent love letters…

2018. When free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker is forced to take shelter on a far-flung island off the Cornish Coast during a research posting, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel is determined to find the intended recipient.

A dangerous secret…

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.

THE ANTIDOTE FOR EVERYTHING – Kimmery Martin

517NwDn7RIL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Berkley US
Genre: Medical Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Urologist Georgia Brown’s sense of self-preservation is kicked into high gear after she’s sexually harassed by a male surgeon at her medical clinic, but her outrage grows when her best doctor friend, Jonah, is dismissed for treating transgender patients. After traveling to Amsterdam to attend a medical conference, Georgia concocts a plan to persuade the board to reverse their decision about Jonah. But when her scheme to teach the hospital administration an important lesson begins to spiral out of control, Georgia worries she’s caused more harm than good. After a medical crisis involving one of her friends, she learns that love and friendship are the antidotes for all the ills in her life.

THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley

71vxLTfkLcL

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. 

Old friends.
Past grudges.

Happy families.
Hidden jealousies.

Thirteen guests.
One body. 

The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.

All have a secret. All have a motive.

One guest won’t leave this wedding alive . . .

THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore

48670779._SY475_

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Orion
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Legal Thriller, Mystery
SYNOPSIS:
One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?

‘Ten years ago we made a decision together…’
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It’s an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.

Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.

The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

GRACE IS GONE by Emily Elgar

42647723._SY475_

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Meg and her daughter Grace are the most beloved family in Ashford, the lynchpin that holds the community together.

So when Meg is found brutally murdered and her daughter missing, the town is rocked by the crime. Not least because Grace has been sick for years – and may only have days to live.

Who would murder a mother who sacrificed everything, and take a teenager away from the medication that could save her life? Everyone is searching for an answer, but sometimes the truth can kill you . . .

DEAR EDWARD by Ann Napolitano

45837015._SY475_

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Viking
Genre: Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
A luminous, life-affirming novel about a 12-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a deadly plane crash

One summer morning, a flight takes off from New York to Los Angeles. There are 192 passengers aboard: among them a young woman taking a pregnancy test in the airplane toilet; a Wall Street millionaire flirting with the air hostess; an injured soldier returning from Afghanistan; and two beleaguered parents moving across the country with their adolescent sons, bickering over who gets the window seat. When the plane suddenly crashes in a field in Colorado, the younger of these boys, 12-year-old Edward Adler, is the sole survivor.

Dear Edward depicts Edward’s life in the crash’s aftermath as he struggles to make sense of the meaning of his survival, the strangeness of his sudden fame, and find his place in the world without his family. In his new home with his aunt and uncle, the only solace comes from his friendship with the girl next door, Shay. Together Edward and Shay make a startling discovery: hidden in his uncle’s garage are sacks of letters from the relatives of the other passengers, addressed to Edward.

As Edward comes of age against the backdrop of sudden tragedy, he must confront some of life’s most profound questions: how do we make the most of the time we are given? And what does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

FIREWATCHING – Russ Thomas

Firewatching Cover

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Police Procedural
SYNOPSIS:
ONE WRONG MOVE

A body is found bricked into the walls of a house. From the state of the hands, it’s clear the dead man was buried alive. Soon, the victim is linked to an old missing person’s case and DS Adam Tyler is called.

WILL IGNITE

As the sole representative of South Yorkshire’s Cold Case Review Unit, Tyler recognises his role for what it is – a means of keeping him out of the way following an ‘incident’. When this case falls in his lap, he grabs the opportunity to fix his stagnating career.

THE CITY

And then Tyler discovers he has a connection to the case that hopelessly compromises him. He makes the snap decision not to tell his superiors, certain that he and only he can solve the crime. But now Tyler must move carefully to find out the truth, without destroying the case or himself.

Meanwhile, someone in the city knows exactly what happened to the body. Someone who is watching Adam closely. Someone with an unhealthy affinity with fire. . .

A taut investigative thriller bursting with character and tension, introducing an enigmatic, fresh lead detective unlike any you have met before – Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler – for fans of Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Steve Cavanagh and Sharon Bolton. 

THE MEMORY WOOD by Sam Lloyd

The Memory Wood Cover

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Bantam Press
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known.

Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape.

When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave.

Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood.

As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood . . .

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MIND by Kerry Daynes

41D2y76jkmL

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Cassell
Genre: Autobiography, True Crime
SYNOPSIS:
Welcome to the world of the forensic psychologist, where the people you meet are wildly unpredictable and often frightening.

The job: to delve into the psyche of convicted men and women to try to understand what lies behind their often brutal actions.

Following the footsteps of Kerry Daynes, one of the most sought-after forensic psychologists in the business and consultant on major police investigations.

Kerry’s job has taken her to the cells of maximum-security prisons, police interview rooms, the wards of secure hospitals and the witness box of the court room.

Her work has helped solve a cold case, convict the guilty and prevent a vicious attack.

Spending every moment of your life staring into the darker side of life comes with a price. Kerry’s frank memoir gives an unforgettable insight into the personal and professional dangers in store for a female psychologist working with some of the most disturbing men and women.

THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St James

45885644

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Berkley US
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Horror
SYNOPSIS:
Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden there. Upstate NY, 2017. Carly Kirk has always been fascinated by her aunt Viv who disappeared from the Sun Down before Carly was born. Using a small inheritance from when her mom dies, Carly leaves college to go to Fell to figure out what happened to her aunt thirty-five years ago. Soon, Carly is mirroring her aunt’s life, working as the night clerk at the motel, which hasn’t changed since 1982. The guest book is still handwritten, the rooms still have actual keys, and a haunting presence still lingers. Carly discovers that Viv had been trying to unravel mysteries of her own – including a possible serial killer working in Fell. If Carly can find the answers Viv was searching for, she might be able to solve the mystery that has haunted her family for years.

THE TEMPLE HOUSE VANISHING by Rachel Donohue

cover172811-medium (1)

Published: February 20th, 2020
Publisher: Corvus
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Power. Jealousy. Desire.

Twenty-five years ago, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher disappeared without trace…

When Louisa arrives at Temple House, an elite catholic boarding school, she quickly finds herself drawn to sophisticated fellow pupil Victoria and their young bohemian art teacher, Mr Lavelle. The three of them form a bond that seems to offer an escape from the repressive regime of the nuns who run the cloistered school. Until Louisa and Mr Lavelle suddenly vanish.

Years later, a journalist with a childhood connection to Louisa determines to resolve the mystery. Her search for the truth will uncover a tragic, mercurial tale of suppressed desire and long-buried secrets. It will shatter lives and lay a lost soul to rest.

The Temple House Vanishing is a stunning, intensely atmospheric novel of unrequited longing, dark obsession and unintended consequences.

DEAD RINGER by Nicola Martin

48672039._UY2339_SS2339_

Published: February 27th, 2020
Publisher: Contraband
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
A pair of doppelgängers. A pack of lies.

The idea is simple, vain, exciting. Tap the app, upload a picture of yourself, find your lookalike. Set up a meeting to see whether you have anything else in common. When Ella and Jem meet, the physical resemblance is uncanny, but their lives couldn’t be more different. One is from a tiny island in a deprived Northern community – pretty much the back of beyond – where she has no job, no boyfriend, limited prospects. The other is a London socialite, an aspiring actress living in a multimillion-pound mansion. By all appearances, she’s living a charmed life, but she’s got some serious sh*t to run away from. Both of them have. Can either hide in her double’s skin? And at what cost? Will it solve any of the problems, or merely compound them? This is an all-too-believable, twisty, compelling story that will leave you reeling.

 

 

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

Pine by Francine Toon ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

59dc31ff

Publisher: Doubleday
Published: January 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: Ghost story, Horror

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this alluring debut. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours and to Doubleday for my gifted copy of the novel. 

SYNOPSIS:

They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.

Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she’s gone.

In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago.

Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust.

In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the world, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.

00140006-324x400

MY REVIEW:

Ghostly, atmospheric and bewitching, Pine is an unsettling and beautifully written debut. The plot almost feels secondary to the rich, original, nuanced, disjointed prose that haunts you, giving you chills as you read. Unusually, I made very few notes while reading this as I was so deeply immersed in Lauren’s story that I just wanted to soak up every word and enjoy the experience. 

Set in a small and secluded Highland village on the edge of the forest, Pine is told from the point of view of 10-year-old Lauren, who lives there with her father Niall. A decade ago Lauren’s mother, Christine disappeared leaving behind whispers of suspicion and cautious looks that have followed them ever since. NialL won’t talk about her mother or what happened so young Lauren is left longing for answers, trying to find a way to learn more and feeling like she wasn’t enough for her mother to stay. 

The author wastes no time and throws us straight into the eerie mystery that is at the heart of the book. On Halloween night, while Lauren and her father are driving home, a strange, dishevelled woman emerges from the woods. The woman is seen in different locations in the village, interacting with people in different ways, but those who see her forget her as soon as she is out of sight. Except for Lauren who remembers every time. The situation becomes increasingly bizarre as odd things start to happen around Lauren, leaving her both fearful and in desperate need of answers. 

This book is garnering a lot of hype already and I predict that there will be a lot more to come. Original, understated, moving and chilling, Pine has a sense of small-town claustrophobia that contrasts with the mystery at the core of the story; how is it possible no one knows what happened in a place where everybody knows your business? The author also uses the harsh, bleak, setting to add to the eerie, foreboding atmosphere that permeates the book. 

Lauren made the perfect narrator for this story. The author expertly captured the essence of being 10 years old – wanting to fit in, feeling like an outsider, beginning to notice boys, yearning for the mother she’s never had and being on the cusp of adolescence where she still enjoys childish things but wants to experiment and be seen as grown up. Toon also expertly uses Lauren’s child-like innocence to add to the mystery and fear that the reader feels and to move us as she yearns for her mother and tries to feel close to her by wearing her lipstick or reading her book. Niall is not a particularly likeable character; he’s an alcoholic who has never got over his wife’s disappearance and isn’t there for his child. But the skill of Toon’s writing is such that by the end I felt some sympathy for him. 

It’s hard to believe that this is Toon’s debut novel. Her writing is exquisite and I found myself  lost in her words, mesmerised by her imagery, and unable to tear myself away from this book for a moment longer than necessary. She has a talent for making you believe what you’re reading, even the things that seem fanciful, through her authentic characters and their interactions. 

Pine is a sensational debut novel. This gothic tale uses witchcraft, the supernatural and Scottish folklore to tell a story of love, loss and discovery through the eyes of a young girl. You don’t want to miss this book.

Francine Toon Author Picture

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Francine Toon grew up in Sutherland and Fife, Scotland. Her poetry, written as Francine Elena, has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Best British Poetry 2013 and 2015 anthologies (Salt) and Poetry London, among other places. Pine was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award.

Twitter
Instagram

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon
Book Depository
Waterstones

Pine BT Poster

Categories
Blog Tours

Extract – Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an extract from Mix Tape as part of the blog tour, which is one of my #EmmasAnticipatedReads for January 2020.

Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Jane Sanderson and Bantam Press for providing the extract.

MixTape3Published: January 23rd, 2020
Publisher: Bantam Press.
Format: Hardcover, Kindle.
Genre: Romance, Contemporary.

SYNOPSIS:

You never forget the one that got away. But what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come?

Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape.

But that was years ago and Ali hasn’t thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him ‘the one that got away’; after all, she’d been the one to run.

Then Dan’s name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past.

For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind.

And so begins a new mix tape.

Ali and Dan exchange songs – some new, some old – across oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything…

Mix Tape Cover

EXTRACT:

Sheffield,
23 December 1978

There they go, at the beginning of it all, their younger selves, walking through the dark, winter streets of Sheffield: Daniel Lawrence and Alison Connor. He’s eighteen, she’s sixteen, it’s Saturday night and they’re heading together to Kev Carter’s Christmas party, and nothing much has been said since he met her from the bus, but each is achingly conscious of the other. Her hand in his feels too good to be only a hand, and his presence, by her side, makes her mouth feel dry, and her heart beat too quickly, too close to the skin. They walk in step with each other along the pavement, and there isn’t far to go from the bus stop to Kev’s house, so it’s not long before a throb of music fills the silence between them, and he glances down, just as she looks up, and they smile, and he feels that pulse of pure longing he gets when Alison’s eyes alight upon him, and she  . . . well, she can’t think when she’s ever felt this happy. 

Kev’s front door was wide open to the night, and light and music spilled out on to the weeds and cracked flags of the garden path. Kev was Daniel’s friend, not Alison’s – they were at different schools – and she hung back a little as he walked in, so that Daniel seemed to be pulling her into the room after him. She enjoyed that feeling, of being led into the room by this boy, so that everyone could see she was his, he was hers. There was Blondie on the tape deck, ‘Picture This’, playing too loud so that the bass distorted, vibrated. Alison liked this one, wanted to shed her coat, get a drink, have a dance. But then almost at once Daniel let go of her hand to hail Kev across the room, shouting over the music, laughing at something that Kev shouted back. He nodded and said, ‘All right?’ to Rob Marsden, and nodded and smiled at Tracey Clarke, who grinned back knowingly. She was leaning on the wall, on her own, by the kitchen door, as if she was waiting for a bus. Fag in one hand, a can of Strongbow in the other, dirty blonde hair with Farrah Fawcett flicks, plum lipstick, and kohl-lined eyes that cut a cool, considering gaze at Alison. Tracey took a long drag on her cigarette and sent the smoke out sideways.

‘You going out wi’ him?’ she said, tossing her head in Daniel’s direction. Tracey, older and wiser, no longer a virgin schoolgirl, money in her purse and a boyfriend with a car. Alison didn’t know this girl and she blushed – couldn’t help herself – and said yes, she was. Daniel was just out of reach now, so Alison just stared hard at the back of his dark head and willed him to turn around. Tracey raised one eyebrow and smirked. Smoke hung in the air between them. Alison’s shoes were killing her.

‘You want to watch him,’ Tracey said. ‘He’s in demand.’ There was a beat of silence when Alison didn’t reply, then Tracey shrugged and said, ‘Drinks in there.’

She meant the kitchen behind her, and through the open door ahead Alison saw a great crush of people around a green Formica table, and a mess of bottles and crisps and plastic cups. She slid away from the vaguely malevolent attentions of Tracey and pushed her way in, thinking Daniel could’ve got her a drink. Should’ve got her a drink. But, look, he’d been commandeered by all these people that he knew, and she didn’t. Now Jilted John was on the mix tape, so suddenly people were singing but nobody was dancing, and behind Alison there were even more people pressing into the tiny room. She didn’t recognise a soul, although there must be somebody she knew here, because the place was packed out. She edged through to the table of booze, aware of a strong smell of cigarettes and cider, and, suddenly, Old Spice.
‘All right, Alison?’
She looked round and saw Stu Watson, all cockiness and swagger in his denim jacket with an upturned collar and Joe Strummer’s scowling face on his T-shirt. Pound to a penny he couldn’t name a single song by The Clash, but anyway she was glad to see a familiar face. Stu’s quick, narrow eyes swept over her with bold appreciation.
‘You look all right, anyway,’ he said.
‘Right, well, you look pissed, Stu.’
‘Just got here?’
‘Obviously,’ she said, pointing at her coat. ‘But you’ve been here a while by the look of you.’
‘Early bird, me,’ Stu said. ‘What you drinking?’
‘Nothing yet. Martini, I suppose.’
Stu grimaced. ‘How can you drink that shit? It tastes like fucking medicine.’

Alison ignored him. She was too hot but she didn’t know what to do with her coat in this unfamiliar house, so she let it drop a little way down her back and Stu’s eyes wandered down to the newly exposed skin of her neck and throat. Alison looked behind her for Daniel and she could see him, still in the living room, not looking for her, but talking to another girl. Mandy Phillips. Alison knew her from the school bus. Tiny like a child, henna curls, pixie nose, tipping her face up towards Daniel’s and all bathed in light by his attention. His arms were folded and there was a space between him and Mandy, but from what Alison could see, his eyes were all over her. As Alison watched them, Mandy reached up and pulled Daniel by the shoulder towards her, cupped her sweet hand, said something into his ear. Daniel gave her his trademark smile: hesitant, a half-smile really. His hair was dark and longish, falling into his eyes, and Alison wanted to touch it.

Stu was looking in the same direction. ‘I’m Mandy, fly me,’ he said. ‘Fuck me, more like.’
‘Oh, piss off, Stu,’ Alison said. She spun away from him and lifted a bottle of Martini Rosso from the table, sloshed a generous measure into a cup and took a deep drink. He was right, it was kind of disgusting, bitter, but also very familiar, so she took another swig, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, ditched the cup on the table and took her coat off, slinging it on to a chair. She was wearing Wranglers that she’d worn in a hot bath to shrink them down to a second skin, and a new shirt that looked good, looked bloody great; she should know, she’d spent long enough staring at herself in the bedroom mirror. It was white, looked and felt like slippery satin, and she’d opened one more button since leaving home. Stu couldn’t take his eyes off her but she didn’t even glance at him as she took back the Martini, had another swig and edged her way through the bodies, out of the kitchen.

Alison was talking to Stu Watson, a fucking wily ferret, a creep with hungry eyes, arms like wandering tentacles. Daniel could see them both in the kitchen, and he was stuck here with Mandy Phillips, whose own manipulative eyes were filling with tears as she told him Kev Carter had finished with her, tonight, at his own party, the bastard. This was what happened to Daniel.
Girls cleaved to him and spilled their souls. He didn’t have to encourage them; they just sensed something about him, even he didn’t know what it was, and they talked and talked. Only . . . Alison Connor didn’t. He’d asked her to go out with him and she’d said yes, but in the day or two since then she’d hardly spoken to him in the brief times they’d been together, and yet he wanted her by his side, knew it was right, knew there was something about her. But she’d already said more in the kitchen to Stu sodding Watson than she ever had to him. Meanwhile Mandy was on the second telling of the same sad story and he knew it was all leading to a come-on, a why-not, a kiss and a promise. Kev was busy clowning around, catching his eye, giving him the thumbs up, as if Daniel might need his cast-offs. Life was just a big game to Kev Carter; of course he’d dumped Mandy tonight  – he liked a bit of drama, and where was the fun in knowing whose knickers you’d be getting into later?

Now ‘Night Fever’ was blasting out through the speakers and Mandy was starting to move her shoulders in time to the music. There was a line of girls in the middle of the room working their Travolta moves, a line of boys watching them and arsing around, trying to copy. Mandy tugged on Daniel’s shoulder and he leaned into her so she could cup a small hand round his ear.

‘Do you wanna dance?’ she whispered, her breath warm.
He didn’t hear, pulled back and smiled at her. ‘What?’ he said.
‘Do you wanna . . . ?’ She paused and smiled. ‘Y’know . . . dance?’
She cocked her head and said ‘dance’ in a way that suggested much, much more. No tears now. Kev was ancient history.
‘No,’ Daniel said, and stepped back. He looked towards the kitchen for Alison, but he couldn’t see her now, or Stu. He should’ve stayed with her, taken her coat, fetched her a drink, and he cursed himself for being drawn into Mandy’s crisis.
‘What?’ Mandy said, loud enough now to be heard over the music without breathing in his ear.
Daniel was distracted by Alison’s absence and he cast his eyes round the room, but at the same time he said, ‘No, Mandy, course I don’t want to bloody dance with you.’ He was panicking, wondering if Alison was even still here, at the party. She might have bolted. He wished he knew her better, knew how her mind worked.

‘You’re a bastard, Daniel Lawrence,’ Mandy shouted, and she slapped him across the cheek, ineffectually because she was drunk, but still, her nails grazed his skin.
‘Fuck’s sake, Mandy,’ he said, looking down at her in disbelief.
She burst into easy, meaningless tears and turned away, looking for another shoulder, and Daniel touched his cheek where it stung. Christ Almighty. And he hadn’t even had a beer yet. Some fucking party. He moved towards the kitchen and, as he did, the Bee Gees came to a brutal halt because Kev ripped the tape out of the deck and put another one in, so suddenly the room filled with the insistent drum and bass opening of ‘Pump It Up’, and Daniel was rooted to the floor, waiting reverentially for Elvis Costello’s voice to weave its way into his head.

And oh God, Alison, there she was. She was dancing, alone, in the crowd. She’d kicked off her shoes so she was barefoot, and she was dancing with her eyes closed, and she didn’t move her feet at all, although the rest of her body was caught up in the music, and her arms made wild, wonderful shapes above her head. She danced like nobody else. She danced in a way that the others tried to copy, but each time they almost got it she changed, shifted, did something different, but her feet didn’t leave the floor. Daniel watched her, completely transfixed. He’d never seen anything so beautiful, so uninhibited, so fucking sexy, in all his life.

Jane Sanderson Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jane Sanderson is a writer and journalist. She has worked as a producer for BBC Radio 4, first on the World at One, and then on Woman’s Hour. She lives with her husband and children in rural Herefordshire.

Jane has poured much of her own story into this book; from the boyfriend who gifted her a mix tape introducing her to the likes of Van Morrison, to the carefully curated playlist (featured in the book) which includes songs that have helped to shape her life and pay homage to her own youth.

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR:

Twitter

Instagram

Mix Tape BT Poster 2 weeks

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

Firewatching by Russ Thomas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

b24c8af7

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: February 20th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: Mystery, psychological thriller, suspense, police procedural.

 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this debut thriller. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part, and to Simon & Schuster UK for the gifted copy of the novel.

SYNOPSIS:

ONE WRONG MOVE

A body is found bricked into the walls of a house. From the state of the hands, it’s clear they were buried alive and had tried to claw their way out before they died.  Soon, the victim is linked to a missing person’s case and DS Adam Tyler is called.

WILL IGNITE

As the sole representative of South Yorkshire’s Cold Case Review Unit, Tyler recognises his role for what it is – a means of keeping him out of the way following an ‘incident’. When this case falls in his lap, he grabs the opportunity to fix his stagnating career.

THE CITY

When he discovers he has a connection to the case that that hopelessly compromises him, he makes the snap decision not to tell his superiors. With such a brutal and sadistic murder to unpick, Tyler must move carefully to find out the truth without destroying the case or himself.

Meanwhile, someone in the city knows exactly what happened to the body. Someone who is watching Adam closely. Someone with an unhealthy affinity with fire…

A taut investigative thriller bursting with character and tension, introducing an enigmatic, fresh lead detective unlike any you have met before – Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler.

Firewatching Cover

MY REVIEW:

Whoa-oh-oh. This book is on fire. Like what I did there? I’m still trying to catch my breath after finishing this heart-pounding debut. I love a good crime series, and Firewatching is the first in what I have no doubt will become one of my favourites. I’ll admit that I was enamoured by the fact it’s set in my hometown of Sheffield, but that isn’t why I loved it so much. The author had me hooked from the first page, his magnificent writing making me putty in the palm of his hands. I couldn’t put it down, read every spare minute possible as I tried in vain to predict what would happen next.

DS Adam Tyler is called to the discovery of a body that was buried alive by being bricked into the wall of a house. The house’s owner, Graham Cartwright, had vanished six years ago amid high-profile scandals. Solving this case could be Adam’s way to salvage his career so he’s determined to be on the case. But he doesn’t work well with others, so this also becomes his chance to prove to his boss that he can be a team player. As he works the case with old-school copper DI Jim Doggett, the original investigator in the disappearance, and Amina Rabbani, a young police officer who sees the case as her chance to finally make it into CID, it soon becomes clear that there are people who’ve been keeping secrets that they want to remain hidden and that this will be a more complex case than they initially imagined. As his professional and private life seep together, Adam finds himself in a fight not only for his career, but for his life. 

Part of the genius of this book is that everyone is a suspect. I literally had all but about three characters on my suspect list at one point or another, including the protagonist. You don’t know what to think, who to trust and where it is going next, leaving you on the edge of your seat as your mind fizzes with questions and suspicion. The author has created a vast array of characters who all feel fleshed out and vivid, each illuminating the story in their own unique way. I liked that Tyler wasn’t beloved by everyone or a team player. His battle to be treated like the other male officers because of his sexuality and the trauma of his father’s suicide gives him not only the spikiness that was fun to read, but also made me feel warmth towards him for those struggles . I enjoyed the banter between him and the other officers and how reluctantly they worked together to solve the case. Real life means having to work with people you can’t stand sometimes and the author certainly used it to his advantage in this book. The antagonist hides in the shadows until the tense finale and I loved being in the dark as much as the investigating officers. I honestly couldn’t pinpoint a clear suspect and was completely blindsided when they were revealed.

I loved the inclusion of the blog posts by the arsonist. They were mysterious, bizarre, creepy and fascinating. You got a real sense of how twisted and traumatised this person was and they increased the foreboding atmosphere that hung in the air. In the beginning they read like stories but slowly the readers see that there is more to them and realise how sick and twisted the writer is. But their identity remains a mystery, known only by the name The Firewatcher.

Firewatching is an outstanding, atmospheric, claustrophobic and surprising debut. It has everything you want in a great thriller and leaves you wanting more, just as a good series should. It is a must-read for anyone who enjoys this genre. I can’t wait for the next installment.Russ Thomas Author Pic

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. He grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get from the library, writing stories, watching large amounts of television, playing videogames, and largely avoiding the great outdoors. He spent five years trying to master playing the electronic organ and another five years trying to learn Spanish. It didn’t take him too long to realise that he’d be better off sticking to writing.

After a few ‘proper’ jobs (among them pot-washer, optician’s receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist and storage salesman) he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to other people about books all day.

His debut novel Firewatching is the first book in the DS Adam Tyler series.

Firewatching BT Poster

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Mothers by Sarah J. Naughton ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

cover173930-medium

Publisher: Orion
Published: January 9th, 2020 (Kindle)
April 30th, 2020 (Paperback)
Genre: Mystery, thriller.
Trigger Warnings: Mental health issues, postnatal depression 

Today is my stop on the blog tour for this brilliant thriller. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Tours for the invitation to take part, and Orion and NetGalley for the eBook ARC of this novel.

SYNOPSIS:

Five Women.

They meet at their NCT Group. The only thing they have in common is that they’re all pregnant.

Five Secrets.

Three years later they’re all good friends. Aren’t they?

One Missing Husband.

Now the police have come knocking. Someone knows something.

And the trouble with secrets is that someone always tells.

20200114_174256

MY REVIEW:

Wow! What an exhilarating read this turned out to be! Sizzling with tension, this had me on the edge of my seat and up until the wee hours as I couldn’t put it down. The author threw some clever curveballs to throw us off track and I found myself unable to guess where it was going or who I should suspect. A heady mix that made this a delight to read.

When banker Ewan Upton is reported missing Iona and her partner are called in to investigate. His wife Bella is a mess. She has no idea where he could be and his missing passport indicates he planned to disappear. But there’s something niggling at Iona and she thinks there is more to the case. The night before Ewan vanished Bella had been out with a group of friends known as the Mother’s Club. The five women have been meeting regularly since having their babies three years ago but seem to not like each other or have much in common. Though they all have a framed copy of the same photo, taken the night of their first meeting, on display in their homes. Does Bella know what happened to her husband? And do the other mothers, who don’t seem to like each other, know the secret too? 

The story is told in dual timelines; in the present day the police are investigating the disappearance of Ewan Upton, and in flashbacks we get to know Bella and the other mothers. They are an eclectic mix of people. All very different and not who you’d put together without the commonality of having babies at the same time. Though Ewan’s disappearance is the mystery that needs to be solved, it was in the flashbacks that the best storytelling occurs and we see the raw, no-holds-barred life of each of the women as they struggle with new motherhood, the changes to their relationships, to their bodies, and the fact that their life is now completely different. Their struggles are different and unique but they are all very relatable and true to life. I found these parts of the story emotional at times as they discuss some often brushed-over or hidden parts of parenthood. They were also my favourite parts as get to know each woman on a deeper level, which helped when the tension soared in the present day as we could understand their actions. 

Bella is a mousy, downtrodden wife who’s let herself go since her son, Teddy was born. She suffers from postnatal depression which included hallucination when he was very young and lives in fear of it returning and maybe losing her precious boy. She is lacking in confidence, something that isn’t helped by her controlling, douchebag of a husband, Ewan. God I hated him! My spidey senses told me something was off about him from the start and he turned out to be an awful husband, father and human being who treated everyone like dirt and was only out for himself. I felt increasingly sad for Bella and angry at Ewan, hoping he didn’t return home so that she could have some chance of a happy life once she’d come to terms with his leaving.

This was the first time I’ve read a book by this author and I was blown away by the intricate, clever, riveting and twisty plot. She kept the reader in the dark about so much for most of the book and I loved that I was in the same position as Iona and her colleagues, trying to figure out if the Mothers Club were telling the truth and what had happened to Ewan. I was stumped. While I had some faint suspicions I was mostly clueless which made it all the more amazing when revelations and twists came and things began to fall into place. I was thrilled when Bella’s inner tigress awakened and things begin to turn in the story. The tension soared and it felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride I didn’t want to get off, unable to put the book down until I reached the end and discovered the truth at last. 

If you like well-written and surprising psychological thrillers then read this book.

ruth-ware-3-500x500

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Naughton’s debut novel, The Hanged Man Rises, was shortlisted for the Costa children’s award. It was followed by a second young adult thriller, The Blood List. Her thrillers for adults, Tattletale and The Other Couple (Orion) are Amazon bestsellers. Sarah lives in London with her husband and sons. 

The Mothers Blog Asset

Categories
book reviews

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

IMG_20200114_160700.jpg

Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle.
Genre: Psychological thriller, suspense.

SYNOPSIS:

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.

It is a morning’s lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.

It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.

It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.

In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Told from the point of view of the people at the heart of it, from the wounded headmaster in the library, unable to help his trapped pupils and staff, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the parents gathering desperate for news, to the 16 year old Syrian refugee trying to rescue his little brother, to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen, to the students taking refuge in the school theatre, all experience the most intense hours of their lives, where evil and terror are met by courage, love and redemption

MY REVIEW:

Ms. Lupton, you’ve broken me. This has got to be one of, if not the most, emotionally fraught books I’ve ever read. It has seeped into my soul. 

From the first page we jump into the action as headteacher Matthew Marr is shot by a masked gunman stalking the halls of his school. The story then follows the stories of staff, students, parents and police, that play out simultaneously over the 108 minutes that the school is at their mercy. The writing is evocative, alluring, and almost lyrical; barely a word is wasted as you’re drawn into the living nightmare so vividly that I found myself actually holding my breath.  

As a mother, this story is one of my worst nightmares; I can not begin to imagine the terror of having one of my children held hostage by gunmen, and pray I never have to. The author pulled me in, immersing me in the story and making me feel the characters’ terror. I saw myself in the frightened mother and the police woman, saw those who’ve taught my children in the teachers, and, most gut-wrenching of all, I saw my children in the students.

While at first glance this is a book about a school shooting, it is actually so much more. It is a multilayered novel that is also a statement on our political landscape and the hate culture being fostered by racists and extremists on both sides. The author also explores what drives the to commit such atrocities. How are they driven to violence, destruction and revenge?  And how do they mask that hatred so the people around them never see it? She shows the harsh truths of these incidents, such as some people immediately pointing the finger of suspicion at the two refugee Muslim students and how, when the identities of the gunmen are revealed, they are seen as less than human and blame is put upon their parents for not doing their job right. She helps break down these stigmas and shows the beating heart behind those who some can be so quick to dehumanise. She also reminds us it is not only “bad” parents whose children commit evil acts and they are usually as shocked and distraught by what their child has done as everybody else.

But this isn’t a maudlin book, it is also incredibly uplifting at times as we are shown examples of astounding bravery, selflessness and sacrifice despite their fear. The very best of humanity versus the very worst. A reminder that there is more good in the world than bad, and what extraordinary things we can do when pushed to our limits and those we love are in danger. 

I was left with a major book hangover after finishing this powerful masterpiece and cannot recommend it highly enough. YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. It is a breathtaking, intense, harrowing, moving and exceptional novel. I included Three Hours in #EmmasAnticipatedTreasure for January and it more than deserves not only it’s place there, but every bit of the hype it’s generating right now. Don’t miss what I think will be one of the best books of the year.

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for the eBook of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Categories
Blog Tours

Guest Post: Lucie Whitehouse, author of Critical Incidents

e76531e3

Today I’m excited to share something a little different: my first guest post. Critical Incidents, Lucie Whitehoue’s latest novel, was released on December 26th, 2019. As part of the blog tour, Ms Whitehouse talks today about what it is that stands out to her when reading crime fiction and how it influenced her when writing this novel. Reading it has made me even more excited about reading Critical Incidents, which was my first book purchase of 2020.

criticalincidents.jpg

For Emma’s Biblio Treasures                                                                 January 2020

Lucie Whitehouse

With my favourite crime series, it’s the characters I remember, rarely the plots. I come back to a writer not for devilish twists or shocking endings (I like those, too) but because I want to spend more time with a protagonist and their regular crew, to see what mess they’re in now or how certain relationships will develop. I read Ian Rankin not just because he’s a great writer but because I’ve got a bit of a crush on Rebus, frankly, and I love his dynamic with Siobhan. Having seen Susie Steiner’s hilarious Manon Bradshaw pushing forty and ‘staring down the barrel of childlessness’ in Missing, Presumed, I had to see where she went next. I want to be Chief Inspector Gill Murray of Scott & Bailey.

So when I came to creating DCI Robin Lyons, the protagonist of Critical Incidents, my new novel and the first in a series, she had to be someone worth following. She needed a rich, three-dimensional personality, a big sense of humour, chutzpah. And of course, she also needed a deep backstory, issues of her own beyond the cases she solves.

When we meet her in Critical Incidents, she’s 35 and just fired from Homicide Command at the Met. Broke (she’s never been a saver) and newly single, she has to crawl back to her parents’ house in Birmingham, which she fled at nineteen. She’s going to share bunkbeds with her teenage daughter Lennie, whom she’s brought up as a single mother, and work for her mum’s friend Maggie, a middle-aged goth PI who investigates benefit fraudsters. How the mighty have fallen, sneers her brother, Luke, delighted by it all.

Robin thinks she’s hit rock-bottom but within twenty-four hours, her best friend Corinna, the person she trusts most in the world, is found dead in her burned-out house, her husband, Josh, wanted for the murder. Of course Robin can’t stay out of it but getting involved means coming face-to-face with Samir Jafferi, Head of Homicide at West Midlands Police – and the boyfriend who loved her then dumped her savagely at nineteen, casting a shadow over her life ever since.

How Robin deals with her new situation and whether or not she can reconcile her past with her future and find a way forward is the backbone of what I think of as my Second City series. I hope readers will enjoy finding out how she gets on as much as I am.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS by Lucie Whitehouse is published by 4th Estate (PB | £7.99)

Thank you to Lucie Whitehouse for the guest post and to Midas PR for the invitation to take part in the blog tour. 

IMG_20200114_110207

Categories
book reviews

The Truants by Kate Weinberg ⭐⭐⭐⭐

EBceHsAXUAA8cjG

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: (UK) August 8th, 2019
(US) January 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle.
Genre: Suspense, psychological fiction, coming of age fiction.

 SYNOPSIS:

People disappear when they most want to be seen. During the first year of university, a group of friends discover the true cost of an extraordinary life in this captivating debut novel about obsession, rivalry and coming of age. 

Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey East Anglican skies, her world flares with colour. 

Drawn into a tightly-knit group of rule breakers – headed up by their maverick teacher Lorna Clay – Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy. Jess is thrown up against the question she fears most: what is the true cost of the extraordinary?

MY REVIEW:

“A tiny, insignificant crime. It’s only now, looking back at all the choices I was about to make, that I detect the faintest of watermarks, the first of many lines I was about to cross.”

Jess Walker had always yearned for the extraordinary. After she reads a novel that changes her life she applies to the University where the author, Lorna Clay, is a tutor. When she’s accepted she thinks this could be the beginning of the life she’s longed for. But Jess’s dream is about to descend into a nightmare in this coming of age story of friendship, love, obsession and tragedy. 

The atmosphere is thick with foreboding from the start, like the wheels have been set in motion and they’re powerless to prevent disaster. Truths are slowly revealed, tragedy strikes and the lives of those involved will never be the same again. It is a stark reminder of the consequences of even the seemingly small, insignificant decisions we make in our lives, and how quickly life can change into something unrecognisable that can’t be put back together like it was before.

“Amazing how, with three little words, she’d relieved me if the mantle of my ordinariness, made me believe that I had done something brave and true.”

I liked Jess and found her to be a relatable protagonist. I think we can all recognise that feeling of wanting more out of life, longing for adventure and wanting to be seen. We’ve all been that young person who’s trying to figure out who they are and what their place is in the world. And we all remember the first time we fell in love. I understood her desire to reinvent herself after an unhappy life and why she was drawn to the outgoing, rule-breakers who are the centre of attention of any room rather than fading quietly into the shadows as she has always done. But she doesn’t see the darker side of these people, what they’re masking with  their extrovert personalities and lifestyle, how adept some of them are at manipulation and deceit.

Though Jess is our main character, Dr Lorna Clay feels like she’s at the centre of this book from the start. Her book has become a kind of manifesto for life for Jess and after meeting her, Jess’ reverence only increases and she truly thinks Lorna will change her life. I was increasingly worried she was heading to have her heart broken by this woman she had put on such a high pedestal and could do nothing to stop it. The friendship between Jess, Georgie, Alec and Nick is integral to the plot and it is the immediate, strong and loyal friendship between Jess and Georgie that starts it all. They are opposites, the yin to each other’s yang, but complement each other wonderfully. The exotic, alluring, charming, Alec someone I felt sure had another level to him, a deeper mystery shrouded between the life he chose to share. He seems to be the ringleader, the one who first suggests they play truant, the one suggesting taking shrooms and smoke by the riverbank, and the one who is dating Georgie but seeming to fan the sparks sizzling between him and Jess, who is dating Nick. I didn’t trust him but couldn’t put my finger on why. I liked the different elements each of the characters brought to the story through their different personalities.

The English Literature course Jess takes focuses on the work of Agatha Christie and both her work and the novel by Lorna Clay, also called The Truants, are referenced throughout. As the story progresses, we see parallels with Christie’s novel and what’s happening to Jess and her friends. I enjoyed this aspect and how literature and reading were such a big part of the storyline. I read The Truants as part of a buddy read and the author shared with us the reading list for Lorna’s course, which I now have added to my own tbr. 

The Truants is a well-written, intriguing and multilayered debut. The author combines rich, beautiful prose with dense, cloying apprehension to create a beguiling read that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

20200111_162532