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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

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Blog Tours book reviews

Firewatching by Russ Thomas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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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

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Guest Post: Lucie Whitehouse, author of Critical Incidents

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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.

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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. 

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Blog Tours book reviews

The Other You by J. S. Monroe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle.
Genre: Psychological thriller, suspense, medical fiction.

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this fantastic thriller. Thank you to Amber at Midas PR for the invitation to take part and to Head of Zeus my gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

The Other You follows Kate, a former Super Recogniser for the police, who suffers a brain injury from a devastating car crash and loses her memory. 

Kate meets Rob just after her accident, and he nurses her back to health, in his high-tech, modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she’s with him, the nightmares of the accident fade. 

Until, one day, Kate looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor.  A doppelgänger. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?

MY REVIEW: 

“We’ve all got a double out there somewhere, watching, waiting. Shadowless.”

Would you know if the person closest to you was replaced by a doppelgänger? That’s the question posed by this clever, original, sinister and twisty psychological thriller. It had me on the edge of your seat, my heart pounding so hard I felt like your chest was going burst from the excitement. 

Kate is still recovering after a car accident that left her with severe brain injuries. She is no longer able to do her job as a super recogniser for the police and wonders if she’ll ever be her full self again. The only good thing to come out of it is her relationship with Rob, who she met while in hospital. But then one day he seems different, and Kate is struck by the feeling that she’s never seen this man before; that an imposter has taken over her boyfriend and stolen his life, just as he always feared. But she doesn’t know if she can trust her damaged brain and must figure out a way to discover the truth. 

This complex thriller was a  mind-boggling read. I was quickly addicted and fully immersed in the story, disappointed that at the half-way point I had to put it down to go out for date night as all I wanted to do was keep reading (sorry Chris). I was desperate to find out where this was going and if the theories swimming in my head were right. But I couldn’t have foreseen how twisted, intense and jaw-dropping things were about to get. 

The author has created wonderfully unreliable characters which means the reader never knows what to believe and is kept guessing throughout. I liked Kate and felt for her as she struggled to feel like herself again after the accident. She was a likeable character and I liked how she grew in strength over the course of the book, becoming more like who she was before the accident. I went back and forth with my thoughts on her sanity and if something so far fetched could be really happening. The author magnificently portrayed Kate’s own anguish over the whole dilemma and it jumped from the pages making me feel it along with her. Rob is a mysterious character from the very start and I liked the decision to not make him one of the narrators as it added to that air about him and made the reader consider the possibility he had been taken over by an imposter. I thought he was well written and I would vacillate between seeing him as a loving, protective boyfriend and a malevolent villain she should be running from.

The Other You is a phenomenal psychological thriller that will leave you breathless. Well plotted, pacy and crackling with a tense, ominous atmosphere, you don’t know who to trust or what will happen next as you’re hit with twist after twist. I was left with a huge book hangover after reading and would recommend this as a must-read for any thriller lover. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J. S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. Monroe is the author of six novels, including international bestseller Find Me.

BUY LINKS:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2B5lxA9
iBooks: https://apple.co/3286CkM
Kobo: https://bit.ly/35nDd8h
GooglePlay: https://bit.ly/35nDd8h

FOLLOW J. S. MONROE:
Twitter: @JSThrillers
Facebook: @JSMonroeFindMe

FOLLOW HEAD OF ZEUS:
Twitter: @HoZ_Books
Facebook: @headofzeus
Instagram: @headofzeus
Website: http://www.headofzeus.com

 

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The Lady of the Ravens by Joanna Hickson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle

Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part in the blog tour and to Harper Collins UK for the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

Elizabeth of York, her life already tainted by dishonour and tragedy, now queen to the first Tudor king, Henry the VII.

Joan Vaux, servant of the court, straining against marriage and motherhood and privy to the deepest and darkest secrets of her queen. Like the ravens, Joan must use her eyes and senses, as conspiracy whispers through the dark corridors of the Tower.

Through Joan’s eyes, The Lady of the Ravens inhabits the squalid streets of Tudor London, the imposing walls of its most fearsome fortress and the most glamorous court of a kingdom in crisis.

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MY REVIEW:

This decadent and delightful novel transported me back in time to Tudor England. Henry VII has just taken the throne and his reign is still tenuous, under threat from Yorkists who see him as a usurper. The story takes us through the next sixteen years of his reign as they navigate conspiracies and try to establish the Tudor dynasty. It is narrated by Joan Vaux, an intelligent, independent young woman who is also the closest servant and friend of Elizabeth of York, Henry’s queen. Ravens are immediately very present and important to the story with Joan feeling an affiliation to them and talks of the suspicion that they guard the tower and if the ravens disappear then the king will fall. These themes are woven throughout the story as the ravens become almost a character themselves.

I absolutely adored Joan. She was a fascinating character who was all the more compelling to me because she was a real person. I admired her attempts to fly in the face of tradition and how she stood up for what she thought and believed in, even when it wasn’t advisable or would work against her. I felt immensely sad for her when talked about her wish to remain unmarried and her overwhelming fear of childbirth as it was expected that women would marry and become mothers at that time. Unless you became a nun there wasn’t the choice to remain single, especially when you lived at court. Marriages were a political power play, and women had no autonomy over themselves or their bodies, something Joan clearly loathed and found unfair.. It was hard to read the battle that would rage inside her when she was forced to yield to things because it what was expected and I desperately wished she and the other women could live in progressive societies today and experience more choice in their lives.

Elizabeth may have been the Queen of England, but she was a character I felt desperately sorry for. She is in a precarious position from the start of the story – needing to marry Henry to secure her place as part of royalty and securing her family’s position in society. After their marriage it is all about her royal duty to have children, particularly heirs and spares, reminding us of the thinking at the time that males were superior and that fertility and a baby’s sex were in the woman’s hands and the danger posed if she doesn’t fulfill her duties. Elizabeth is a doting mother but not only is she forced to be separated from her children shortly after their births, she suffers the tragic loss of two of them to illness, as well as multiple miscarriages. My heart broke for what she went through. I loved the sweet friendship between her and Joan. It was clear that Elizabeth relied on her as her support and confident, more than in a practical sense as time went on. She had a true friend she could trust, something needed when you have to use clandestine methods to go about things your husband wouldn’t agree with.

I’ve become a huge lover of historical fiction over the past few years and this novel had everything you could want from that genre. It is wonderfully written and well developed. The author knows how to draw in and captivate her audience, quickly having me fully immersed in the era. It felt like I was Joan, seeing everything through her eyes and feeling everything she did. I was in Tudor England, bearing witness to moments in history that shaped our country, and could almost smell the squalor. The author vividly portrayed not only the imagery of that time, but the emotions too. Life at court was a tightrope that had to be walked very carefully and a game that had to be delicately played – making the right move at the right time to advance further. We saw how both men and women were subject to rigid expectations and had to yield in order to not only maintain their position, but sometimes to save their lives. She also didn’t shy away from the darkest truths of that time and we witnessed some tragic moments that linger in my mind.

The Lady of the Ravens is a beautifully crafted novel that I couldn’t put down. Though it is based hundreds of years ago, the humanity of the story makes it relatable, affecting and uplifting. I enjoyed learning more about the era and plan on learning more about Joan after my interest has been sparked by this novel. I am thrilled that this is just the start of a new series and can’t wait for the next installment.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joanna Hickson spent twenty five years presenting and producing News and Arts programmes for the BBC. Her first published book was a children’s historical novel Rebellion at Orford Castle but more recently she has turned to adult fiction, concentrating on bringing fifteenth century English history and some of its fascinating principal characters to life.

She is married with a large family and gets inspiration from her Wiltshire farmhouse home, which dates back to her chosen period.

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Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Unforgetting by Rose Black ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Orion
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: Historical Fiction

It’s Publication Day and my stop on the blog tour for this xx novel. Thank you to Anne at Random Things tours for the invitation to take part, and to Orion Books for the gifted copy of the novel.

SYNOPSIS:

Her fate was decided. Her death foretold. Her past about to be unforgotten.

When Lily Bell is sold by her father to a ‘Professor of Ghosts’ to settle a bad debt, she dreams of finding fame on the London stage. But Erasmus Salt wants Lily not as an actress, but his very own ghost – the heart of his elaborate illusion for those desperate for a glimpse of the spirit world…

Obsessed with perfection, Erasmus goes to extreme lengths to ensure his illusion is realistic. When Lily comes across her own obituary in the paper, and then her headstone in the cemetery, she realises she is trapped, her own parents think she is dead, and that her fate is soon to become even darker…

A spellbinding story of obsession, the lure of fame, and the power of illusion.

The Unforgetting Cover

MY REVIEW:

Lily Bell feels trapped. Sold by her step-father as payment for bad debt she is now the property of Erasmus Salt, a self-proclaimed Professor of Ghosts. Thinking she was being sold to be an actress, Lily thought at least her dire situation might lead to her following her dream of fame on the London stage, but instead she is hidden away and must perform each night as a ghost summoned from the dead. Growing increasingly frustrated and unsettled, Lily finally discovers the macabre lengths Erasmus has gone to for his illusion; the world thinks she is really dead. Knowing she’s in more danger than she thought, she starts to plot her escape. But as things become increasingly complex and grim, she fears she might never be free of the Professor’s clutches. 

The Unforgetting started slowly but I was soon drawn into the strange, ominous, claustrophobic and bleak world Lily inhabits with siblings Erasmus and Faye Salt. Lily is an easy character to like. She’s sweet, naive, hopeful and has big dreams. She has concerns about Erasmus and things he expects of her from the start, but with the help of his sister Faye she brushes them aside as him knowing what is best for the performance. I liked that she also showed an assertive side and wasn’t afraid to make her voice heard. As her situation darkened, I felt scared for Lily and was worried she was going to meet a tragic end and was on tenterhooks until the last page.

Erasmus Salt is an arrogant, angry, ominous and devious man. I got bad vibes from him straight away but never imagined how vile and evil he and his plans could be. Stemming from a bizarre obsession with his deceased mother, he is consumed with the idea of actually returning a spirit to human form, and will stop at nothing to achieve it. Faye Salt, his sister, comes across initially as a mousy servant but it soon becomes clear she is terrified of her brother and, as her backstory is gradually told, we learn it has origins in their childhood, particularly after the deaths of their parents when they were still young. She starts as a background character but slowly becomes a vital part of the story and the character I found most interesting. I felt sad for her and understood why she did some of the more questionable things she did, and was willing her through the pages to find the strength she needed and to find happiness after all she’s been through. She and Lily have a relationship that is very close in proximity, but quite distant in emotion, which was interesting to read. Though I can’t help but think that if they had just confided in each other things could have turned out very differently for both of them.

The Unforgetting is a story about obsession, desire, love, loss, death, illusions and dreams. It is a story of smoke and mirrors where so often things aren’t what they seem and characters are misled or misunderstood. It started out quite simple but becomes a multilayered story that had some surprising twists and kept me captivated. There were a few unanswered questions but I liked the direction the author took the story and the way she ended it. This is the perfect read for lovers of historical fiction who like their stories a little bit eerie, strange and sinister.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rose Black has written stories all her life. Her long-standing fascination with the Victorians and 19th century England underlies this novel. An award-winning freelance writer, she’s covered health, overseas development and education. Married, with two children, she lives partly in London and at other times by the sea. In her spare time she enjoys wild swimming and growing food and flowers on her allotment.

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Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Home by Sarah Stovell ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: November 28th, 2019 on Kindle. January 23rd, 2020 in Paperback
Genre: Mystery, thriller, suspense, coming of age fiction.

Welcome to my first blog tour of 2020. I am thrilled to be taking part in the tour for this wonderful book. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to Karen at Orenda Books for the gifted copy of this novel.

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SYNOPSIS:

When the body of pregnant fifteen-year-old Hope Lacey is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The Home, the residence of three young girls, who’s violent and disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away…

As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara and Annie are examined, and staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations…and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

A gritty, dark and devastating psychological thriller, The Home is also an emotive drama and piercing look at the underbelly of society, where children learn what they live…if they are allowed to live at all.

 

MY REVIEW:

“Because we were young, it was true. We were fragile too. But we weren’t fragile like flowers. We were fragile like bombs.”

A mesmerising, soulful and haunting novel, The Home is a sorrowful love story, a tragedy and a tale of redemption. I was instantly captivated as the story opened with a young girl’s murder, talk of betrayal and the promise of revenge….

This beautifully written novel tells the story of three young girls – Annie, Hope and Lara – who have been forgotten, abused and neglected. They live together at an underfunded children’s home that is dreary and unwelcoming. Lara is so scarred by her past she doesn’t speak, but Annie and Hope bond over their shared hardships in life, and soon embark on a passionate but forbidden love affair that turns into obsession. But something goes wrong and on Christmas morning, one of them is found dead. The police suspect the other girl killed her but the staff don’t believe she is capable of it. Instead, they suspect that someone from the dead girl’s past has come for payback. The subsequent investigators leads to shocking and heartbreaking revelations.

Firstly, I will admit that I was initially drawn to this book because it is published by Orenda. I’ve become a big fan of the dark, bold, original and compelling books they publish. When I saw the haunting cover and read the synopsis I knew I had to read this book. The Home is all the things I’ve come to expect from Orenda and more. It is a bleak, fierce, powerful and intriguing story that reached into my soul.

“The thing about us was we weren’t afraid of the darkness. It was part of who we were. It was normal.”

The girls were fractured, broken characters who came to the home because they had seen and experienced things no one should have to. They had been forced to become hardened survivors and learned to trust only themselves. Their pasts are a mystery and the details of the abuse and neglect they’ve suffered is slowly unveiled over the course of the book. As we get to know them we find that inside that hardened shell they’re just kids who want to be safe and loved. They’re suffocating, drowning, and looking for a life raft to hold on to, only to have one they thought they’d found snatched away from them. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of maternal instinct towards each of them, wishing they could have had a family that treated them better and a life free from the trauma they have witnessed. I wondered how much they could possibly take, if they can overcome this latest tragedy or it will be the incident that leads to them spiraling out of reach forever.

This was the first time I had read a book by this author and I can’t wait to read more. Her subdued style was beautiful and haunting. She moved smoothly between the narrators and timelines, keeping the reader guessing about the truth of Hope’s death right until the final pages. I know I vacillated between a couple theories over the course of the book. I was under Ms Stovell’s spell from the opening lines until the final sentence and can’t wait to read more so she can do it again.

The Home is an eerie, heart-rending and alluring novel. I went through all the colours of my emotions as I read this fateful tale. As I approached the finale, it felt like I was on a train hurtling towards tragedy at breakneck speed and I was powerless to stop it. I couldn’t stop reading, finally feeling sure of my suspicions and with just one niggling unanswered question. But I was blindsided as the jaw-dropping truth was revealed, leaving me wrecked. A phenomenal novel that I can’t recommend highly enough.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Stovell was born in 1977 and spent most of her life in the Home Counties before a season working in a remote North Yorkshire youth hostel made her realise she was a northerner at heart. She now lives in Northumberland with her partner and two children and is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lincoln University. Her debut psychological thriller, Exquisite, was called ‘the book of the summer ’ by Sunday Times.

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Categories
Blog Tours

The Move by Felicity Everett ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Welcome to my final blog tour of 2019. Thank you to HQ Stories for the invitation to take part in the blog tour and for the gifted copy of this book.

SYNOPSIS:

Can you paint over the cracks in a marriage?

Karen has packed up her life and is making The Move. She’s on her way to the idyllic country cottage which her husband has painstakingly renovated for her. They’re escaping the London bustle and daily grind. And they’re escaping their past.

A fresh start in a beautiful, peaceful village. It will be different here, right?

But something is awry. The landscape, breathtaking by day, is eerie by night. The longed-for peace and solitude is stifling. And the house, so artfully put together by her husband, has a strange vibe. Now that Karen is cut off from her old friends and family, she can’t help wondering if her husband has plans of his own, and that history might be repeating itself.    

From the author of The People at Number 9 comes a dark and redemptive tale of a rural dream gone wrong…

MY REVIEW: 

Karen is recovering from a breakdown and is still struggling with her mental health when she and her husband Nick move from London to an idyllic country cottage. He has done the place up, including building her a studio for her pottery, to try and aid her recovery. Despite this, Karen is still walking on eggshells around Nick and struggling to trust him after his betrayal that led to her mental breakdown. She is also missing her best friend Jude and the familiarity of life back in London. But she is determined to give this a chance as Nick has made a real effort to change and help her in her recovery, so she tries to push aside the nagging doubts and mistrust.

Using her pottery as catharsis, she begins to create again and finds a new style that fits her new life and begins to make friends in the village, bonding in particular to their neighbour Cath. At the same time, sinister things begin to happen – their car tyre is punctured, the kiln doesn’t switch off and all her pots are ruined – and Karen thinks that someone is out to get her, that maybe Nick is up to his old tricks and his lover is lashing out. But Nick tells her she’s imagining things, that it’s her medication side effects making her forgetful. At first she believes him, but she begins to notice things that make her question what he says, and she is increasingly sure that Nick isn’t the perfect husband he is making himself out to be.

This readable and enjoyable book took me by surprise. Though there was an air of foreboding and some sinister occurrences, it wasn’t the dramatic and intense domestic thriller I was expecting, and was instead a mysterious and fascinating character study and domestic drama. All the characters were well developed, three dimensional and believable, which made it hard to read at times as my heart broke for Karen and I seethed at Nick.

I related to Karen as we’ve been through similar things and I had a lot of empathy for her. I know how it feels to doubt your sanity because an abusive spouse tells you you’re crazy and how much harder it is to recover from real mental illness when in that toxic environment. I wanted to go into the book and tell her my story, help her see she isn’t alone or imagining all the things she’s experiencing, and help her find the strength to see she deserves so much more. I was glad to see her friendship with Cathy develop as she was a no-nonsense character who wasn’t afraid to tell Karen what she saw behind the mask while also allowing Karen to arrive at things in her own time while she was there for support. Karen was able to open up to Cath in a way she hadn’t with anyone else before and starts to see the truth of her situation and her real feelings, instead of the things she’s been conditioned to believe. I loved seeing Karen find herself as the story went on and think her new friendship played a vital role in that.

Nick was a well-written example of subtle control and abuse. He had the charm thing down to a fine art with everyone else while chipping away at Karen’s self esteem and breaking her down. It was hard to read how she believed what he said and that she deserved the way he treated her, especially when he turned her breakdown into something that was her fault rather than the result of his affair. I was rooting for her to see the truth and break free from the toxicity of their relationship.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I will definitely read more. I loved her writing style, the complexities of the plot, and how she was able to use imagery to make the landscape seem more beautiful or ominous to the reader. She also had a talent for putting me in Karen’s shoes and making me feel whatever she did, which made me fully immersed in the story and invested in the outcome. The only complaint I have about this book is that I felt like the story ended too abruptly. There were a lot of unanswered questions and I would have liked to see what happened next for Karen and some of the other characters.

The Move is a steadily paced, character-driven novel that explores the intricacies of mental illness and abusive relationships. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy general fiction.

Published on January 23rd, 2020 – Kindle

Published on August 20th, 2020 – Paperback

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Felicity Everett grew up in Manchester, lived, worked and raised her family of four in London and returned from a four year spell in Melbourne, Australia to live in Gloucestershire in 2014. After an early career in children’s publishing and freelance writing, she published her debut adult novel The Story of Us in 2011. Her second novel, The People at Number 9 was published in 2017.

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Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Today is my stop on the blog tour to celebrate the paperback release of this intoxicating thriller. Thank you to Amber at Midas PR for the invitation to take part and to Orion for the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

I love him so totally, completely, sometimes it threatens to overwhelm me.

Sometimes I think –

No. I won’t write about that.

ALICIA

Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet – and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine.  She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.

Until, late one evening. Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

THEO

Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced that he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed.  Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes far deeper than he first thought.

And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

 

MY REVIEW:

On a scorching summer night, 33-year-old painter Alicia Beresford is discovered covered in blood, standing rigid and frozen in her living room, while the body of Gabriel, her husband of seven years, sits tied to a chair.  She had shot him five times in the head with his rifle and then slit her wrists to attempt suicide. She is taken to hospital but doesn’t make any statements of guilt or innocence, in fact Alicia doesn’t speak at all. Her only “statement” was a painting she did after she was under house arrest while awaiting trial. It is self portrait named Alcestis, after the greek heroine, and its meaning remains a mystery.  Six years later psychotherapist Theo Faber, who has been obsessed with the case since it occurred, applies for a job at the hospital she’s being treated. He is sure he can reach her, get her to speak again and discover the truth about what happened that night.

I was so excited to read this book. From the middle of 2018 there was a lot of buzz on Bookstagram and it immediately caught my eye. I was fully immersed in this book from the first page and flew through it, unable to put it down or stop thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. 

The story is told in the past tense by Alicia’s psychotherapist, Theo. It also contains extracts from the diary her husband Gabriel had encouraged her to write in the weeks leading up to his death. These pages give us an insight into who she is, or was, why she remains silent, and enables the reader to learn things such as lies being told by some of those closest to Alicia. But this book is as much a story about Theo as it is about Alicia and Gabriel. He feels an affinity with her that is his motivation and conviction that he alone can help her find her voice again. But he keeps breaking the rules and seems increasingly obsessed with his patient. Is he using the case as a distraction from the difficulties in his private life or is there more going on?

I loved how well-written and researched this novel was. I found the information about psychology and trauma both fascinating and informative and loved how the author could convey so much from the little things such as a description of Alicia’s facial expressions or her hands shaking. It is a book filled with flawed, twisted, damaged and broken the character, which are always great fun to read. Alicia was an alluring enigma who puzzled me; I could never quite work out if she was a malevolent calculating killer or a tragic victim of an as-yet-unknown horror. I liked Theo from the start and was rooting for him to be able to break Alicia’s silence and discover the truth of what happened. There were two characters I was suspicious about and that I thought might be involved in Gabriel’s death, perhaps even framing Alicia in some way. I was convinced I knew where the story was going and what would happen but I couldn’t have been more wrong….

The novel is ingeniously written as with one chapter, a paragraph and finally a short sentence, the writer mercilessly takes your breath away. He transforms this novel from a great book into a mind-blowing and sensational book with a twist you truly couldn’t have foreseen. THIS is the book I would call the crime debut of 2019.  What a magnificent and electrifying debut. Everyone will be talking about this book and that twist. Whatever genre you enjoy, you need to read this book. 

Out now.

Alex Michaelides (c) Andrew Hayes-Watkins

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alex Michaelides is an author and screenwriter born in Cyprus to a Greek-Cypriot father and English mother. After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in English, he received an MA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He wrote the film The Devil You Know, starring Rosamund Pike, and co-wrote The Brits Are Coming, starring Uma Thurman and Tim Roth. The Silent Patient has sold in 44 territories so far – a record for a debut novel – the film rights for which were recently acquired by Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B.

The Silent Patient PB blog tour