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Monthly Wrap Up – January 2020

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I can’t believe we’re into 2020 and the first month is already over. I’ve seen a lot of people post saying they feel like it’s gone on forever, but for me it’s gone pretty quick. I’ve had a great start to the year in terms of books – I’ve read thirteen books this month that have mostly been 4 stars or more, I’ve discovered some fabulous new authors and some exciting new series.

So here’s what I’ve read this month:

The Other You ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Lady of the Ravens ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Unforgetting ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Mothers ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Three Hours⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Firewatching ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pine ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The Foundling ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Wreckage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Leaving Party  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Forgotten Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Nowhere Girl ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Little White Lies ⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can find the synopsis and my reviews by clicking on the links in the titles. My reviews for The Leaving Party, Little White Lies, The Wreckage and The Foundling will all be posted in the coming weeks. 

So with so many great books that I loved it was hard to choose a favourite. Three Hours, Firewatching, The Wreckage and The Forgotten Wife were all ones that could have taken the top spot, but ultimately it was The Foundling that stole my heart more than any other book I read this month. My review will be posted on February 13th as part of the blog tour. 

What did you read this month? Did it include any of these books or are they on your tbr? Let me know in the comments below. 

*Thank you to Bookouture, Orion, HQ, Bonnier Zaffre, Head of Zeus, Harper Collins UK, Simon and Schuster UK and Doubleday for the gifted copies of these books.

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The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Raven
Published: October 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
Genre: Gothic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Ghost Story, Horror

I read this book at the start of 2019 and I have not got around to posting it until now as it took a long time to do the book justice and then have the space in my calendar to post this.

The Silent Companions was one of my favourite books of not just 2019, but the decade too.

SYNOPSIS:

When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband’s crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting…

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure — a silent companion — that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition — that is until she notices the figures eyes following her.

A Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, this is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect — much like the silent companions themselves.

MY REVIEW:

“There is something about these things. Something wrong.” 

Eerie, atmospheric, terrifying and astounding, this magnificent debut instantly became one of my favourite books ever. But despite how amazing as this book was, I have been at a loss as to how to write this review, and it’s taken months for me to find the words. So I’m thrilled to finally be sharing it.

This book more than lived up to the hype. I was so transfixed that I devoured it, my head full of questions that I needed the answer to. Laura Purcell is a masterful storyteller and exceptional talent. It’s a little unnerving the kind of horror that lies inside her mind. 

I loved the characters in this book such as vacant and naive Sarah, impertinent Mabel, haughty Edna, kind and well-meaning Dr Shepherd, and self-conscious, tempered and scared Elsie. Both Sarah and Elsie grow whilst at The Bridge but it is Elsie in particular who we see the biggest changes in over the course of the book. When we meet the youngest version of Elsie she is newly widowed in a strange house so she’s unsure of herself and feeling lost. But as time goes on she finds more confidence and we see a strong and determined woman emerge. In the asylum she is terrified and simply surviving each day any way she can. It was a heartbreaking decline of a character I became particularly fond of. It also meant never knew what to believe – was Elsie was imagining things or were they actually happening? It seemed the further I got into the story, the more questions and uncertainty I had. 

I did not expect this book to be so chilling and have never been so unnerved by a book. I would vacillate between being so captivated I didn’t want to sleep and then being so terrified that I didn’t dare try. There was an eerie atmosphere at The Bridge in particular. It was like there was a sinister infestation that lingered, echoed in the night, and played tricks on those who lived there. There were numerous times I felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest and I had to take a break. As for the companions, they may have been wooden, but they felt anything but lifeless and there was a sinister malevolence to them that sent shivers down my spine. While I had my theories about who or what the companions were and how it might end, I could never have guessed the breathtaking finale and shocking surprises the author had in store. 

The Silent Companions is an unforgettable and deliciously creepy novel about family, secrets, suspicion, tragedy and terror. If you love well-written books, gothic fiction, and don’t mind being scared witless, then you should read this book. Just make sure you read it with the lights on.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs.

Her first novel for Raven Books The Silent Companions won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include The Corset (US title The Poison Thread), Bone China and The Shape of Darkness (2020),

 
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The Nowhere Girl by Nicole Trope ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Bookouture
Published: January 28th, 2020
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Genre: Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Trigger Warnings: Childhood and sexual abuse, neglect, addiction, miscarriage.

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Nowhere Girl. Thank you to Bookouture for the invitation to take part and my gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

‘Please,’ she whispers, too quietly for anyone to hear. ‘Please help.’ But there is no one. Where is everyone? Help should be racing up the road, screeching to a stop. Help should be here but it’s not. It’s as far away as it’s ever been.

If you passed Alice on the street, you couldn’t help but smile. At how she holds hand with her husband, Jack, who she has been with since university. At the way she admires her three beloved boys, the centre of her universe.

But if you looked very closely, you’d see how tightly she holds Jack’s hand, afraid to let go. You’d see how carefully she watches her boys, scared to look away. You’d see her smile fading in a matter of seconds, and the secret she hides behind her chestnut-brown eyes.

She has told Jack that she ran away from home when she was younger – but she didn’t tell him the whole story. Her husband doesn’t know about the guilt she bears about the little sister she failed to save, the secret that torments her.

Now, after a lifetime of fresh starts, Alice receives a message spelling out her past. Everything she cherishes, the world she has lovingly built, threatens to collapse in on her. Without her family, she is nothing – and Alice will stop at nothing to save them.

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MY REVIEW:

This wasn’t an easy book to read. With themes of abuse, addiction and neglect it is a heartbreaking story that told of the evil that lurks inside some people and the lasting repercussions their terrible actions have on their victims. But it was also a story about courage, survival and strength. The story moves seamlessly between the dual timelines to tell the stories of three women and how tragic events that occurred thirty years ago changed their lives forever. 

The three narrators were complex, fractured and tragically real. I liked Alice and admired her strength, how she’d managed to build a happy family instead of repeating her mother’s mistakes. Reading what she went through as a child was devastating and I admired her for still visiting her ailing mother despite the agony it caused her and felt a deep sense of injustice for the fact she would never get the acknowledgement or apology she deserved. Molly was a likeable character and the one I related to most of all, having suffered a similar pain in trying to have children myself. It seemed immediately obvious who Molly was, and my heart hurt for what was to come when she ultimately learned the truth of her birth and dreadful past. I found myself on edge when reading her chapters because I was anticipating it happening and scared she would face another tragedy with this pregnancy. Margaret was certainly not a likeable character but I liked the author’s decision to give her a voice. It meant that instead of simply being an evil villain we see the nuance to her character, see the broken and weak woman inside and learn why she ended up the way she did. Her story is tragic and I definitely had mixed feelings about her. While there was some empathy for what she’d gone through as a child and the devastating loss of her husband, I couldn’t shake my anger at what she allowed to happen to her own children: her nonchalance at their existence and focus on her own pain being eased. I wanted to scream at her to stop being so bloody weak and protect her children. Her story highlighted how addiction ravages more than just the person addicted. I think she was let down by the system as well as her children, as if the authorities had noticed what was happening to the kids, they would have seen what was happening to her too. With help all of them could have had a very different life. 

This was the first time I have read a book by this author and I will definitely be reading more. She wrote about a multitude of tragic and difficult subjects and every one was written with skillful sensitivity. She portrayed the character’s pain vividly and made them all so real it was easy to forget I was reading a work of fiction rather than a harrowing true story. The story started slowly, steadily picking up pace until it was so tense and compelling that I couldn’t tear myself away. 

The Nowhere Girl is a deftly told, stark and poignant novel. Despite its bleak themes it is also a hopeful story of forgiveness and the healing power of love. It is a powerful and emotional story that I would recommend. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.

The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story. Her second novel, Three Hours Late, was voted one of Fifty Books you can’t put down in 2013 and her third novel, The Secrets in Silence, was The Australian Woman’s Weekly Book of the month for June 2014.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.

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The Forgotten Wife by Emma Robinson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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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. 

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

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Pine by Francine Toon ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

Categories
book reviews

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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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
book reviews

The Truants by Kate Weinberg ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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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. 

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