Blog tour: 13 to 20 July 2020

Synopsis

Best friends for ever.

That’s the pact you made.

You’d do anything for her.

And you have.

But she’s always had it all.

If you could take it for yourself … would you?

My review

Betray Her tells the story of Jo and Kate, who met at a boarding school called St Luke’s when they were eight years old. Joanna Wragg is from Barnsley and the daughter of Joyce and Stan, a former butcher, who has built up his own business, Wragg’s Construction, which has enabled him to send his three children away to private school. Jo has two older brothers called Nigel and Ben.

Catherine (Kate) Bayden-Jones is from Barton in the Beans in Leicestershire. She has two older sisters, Clare and Annabelle, and they all have a pony each! Her family are a lot richer (the established wealth) than Jo’s nouveau riche family but the two girls become firm friends after being put in the same dormitory together.

The girls had a rather torrid time at school and were both bullied for different reasons: Kate for being chubby and Jo for being common. The ‘ragamuffin from Barnsley’ learns to adapt and transforms herself. Jo is tough and clever and knows she has to change to survive the harsh school life. The girls’ friendship is rather one sided in some ways and they were more like rivals at times; competitive and jealous of each other.

The novel is set in 1988–89, when the girls first met, and in the present day, 30 years later, when Kate is married to Tom Heath, with a six-year-old daughter, Alice, and they live in a converted farm called Petersfield in the village of Hope in the Peak District. Jo is widowed after her husband, Richard, died suddenly two years ago. She lives in a flat in central Manchester.

Kate and Tom’s relationship seems perfect to the outside world – the ‘golden couple’ – but when Jo goes to visit them one weekend, she discovers that things aren’t all they seem. Kate is drinking heavily and Tom seems distracted. He owns a construction business and has moved on from doing up houses to running several wine bars in the local area.

Jo, a popular-science writer, is still grieving her husband and she is desperate for a baby despite her situation. The couple hadn’t been able to conceive and Jo is afraid that there is something wrong with her. She’s quite a tough character – she always tries to have a stiff upper lip at all times and never shows her feelings or any weaknesses or even cry in front of anyone.

Jo and Kate are rather complex, flawed characters, who have both been shaped by their pasts. As the story progresses, little by little, we learn more about their time at school and some of the awful things they experienced. Their friendship is more fraught than it first appears – there are lots of niggles and things happened that have shaped how they behave towards each other in the present day.

Tom also holds a lot of anger and resentment; he’s upset by the way the women treated him when they first met 20 years ago when he was helping to build a garage extension for Jo’s dad. His relationship with Kate isn’t very healthy and the couple and Jo have lots of unresolved emotions and history from the past.

I was never really quite sure who to trust, if anyone! Both Kate and Jo seemed to have a dark side and Tom was rather menacing at times too. It all created a rather toxic mix with lots of secrets and, as things came to a head, I wasn’t sure which way it would go but I couldn’t see things ending well!

I liked the mention of Ladybower Reservoir and the village beneath the water – I read about this in another novel recently and it sounds fascinating! I also enjoyed the sections with Jo’s brothers, Ben and Nigel, which were eye opening and touching, respectively!

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-plotted, dark and intense read. The main characters were rather unpleasant and all felt envious of the others. There were several twists and turns and illicit affairs and this gripping book built well to a rather surprising ending!

I will have to read the author’s other books, The Wife’s Secret and My Husband’s Lies, soon!

Buy the book

Betray Her by Caroline England can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 16 July, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Caroline England was born and brought up in Yorkshire and studied Law at the University of Manchester. She was a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer before leaving the law to bring up her three daughters and turning her hand to writing. Caroline is the author of The Wife’s Secret, previously called Beneath the Skin, and the top-10 eBook bestseller, My Husband’s Lies. Betray Her is her third novel. She lives in Manchester with her family.

Twitter: @CazEngland
Facebook: @CazEngland1
Instagram: @cazengland1
Website: http://carolineenglandauthor.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Beth Wright at Little, Brown for my digital and proof copies of Betray Her and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 1 to 5 July 2020

Synopsis

When Michael informs his wife, Juliet, that he is leaving his job and buying a sailboat, she is taken aback. And when he proposes they and their two young children take a year-long voyage, she is deeply apprehensive. But Michael is persuasive, and eventually she agrees to his plan. The family set off for Panama, where their sailboat awaits them – a boat that Michael has named the Juliet.

Initially, the experience is transformative: their marriage is given a gust of energy, and each of them is affected by the beauty and wildness of the sea. But slowly, the voyage begins to unravel.

Juliet’s account of the life-changing events at sea is spliced with Michael’s captain’s log, which provides a riveting, slow-motion narration of those same inexorable events.

Sea Wife is a gripping novel about marriage, family and love in a time of unprecedented turmoil. It is unforgettable in its power and astonishingly perceptive in its portrayal of optimism, disillusionment and survival.

My review

Sea Wife tells the story of the Partlow family who decide to take a year out, buy a 44-foot sailboat and go on a sailing trip round the Caribbean. They plan a route from Panama to Cartagena in Colombia and then on to Caracas in Venezuela. In a hint of things to come, we learn that Michael has renamed the boat from Windy Monday to Juliet.

The couple met in their senior year at Kenyon College in Ohio. They now live in Connecticut. Juliet is studying for a PhD in American literature at Boston College and is a poet with no experience of sailing. Michael works for an insurance company. He has fond memories of sailing Lake Erie in North America on a boat with his father. Their daughter, Sybil, is seven years old and their son, George (Doodle), is two and a half.

The story is told from Julie’s viewpoint after they’ve returned home from the trip, interspersed with extracts from Michael’s captain’s log, which he wrote on their voyage.

They head to Panama in September, in the middle of the rainy season, to collect the yacht and it takes them several months before she is repaired and repainted, and they’re organised and ready to set sail. On their route across the ocean, they plan to hug the coast of Central and South America but also visit several small islands in the San Blas archipelago in Panama.

Their marriage is struggling but the trip breathes new life into it and the children are also much happier, especially when they make friends with the children of other sailors.

Throughout the novel, there’s a sense of foreboding and fear – being on a boat in the middle of the ocean sounds rather frightening, like you’re only one swell or storm away from things ending in disaster. Life at sea is carefree and beautiful but also filled with unexpected dangers. The solitude is lovely but the isolation and remoteness can also cause problems.

The novel includes the themes of depression, abuse and marriage: Juliet suffers from postnatal depression, which is triggered by thoughts of the sexual abuse from her childhood. Her marriage to Michael suffers at times as she struggles to overcome her ‘ugly angels’.

Sea Wife is a thoughtful and reflective novel, and also very emotional and poignant. It was an intense read at times – the nature of living on a boat is very claustrophobic and intimate, with no escape from each other.

It contained some nautical terms and it was interesting to search online and discover their meanings. I’m not normally a fan of maps but, in this case, I would have loved to have seen a map of the places they visited so that I could picture their route!

Overall, I really enjoyed this cleverly layered book; it’s written in an usual style, which builds up the story and what happened, a piece at a time. It’s beautifully descriptive and is a fascinating analysis of a marriage and ruminating about life, while sailing the harsh seas. There were also other elements like Michael’s acquaintance, Harry Borawski, and Juliet’s background, which helped to add a bit of intrigue and mystery to the storyline. I’m tempted to read it again at some point, just to pick out all the subtle hints to the future that I missed first time round. I’m also keen to read another of the author’s books – I’ll definitely be checking one out soon!

Buy the book

Sea Wife by Amity Gaige can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in hardback on 2 July, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Amity Gaige is the author of three novels, O My Darling, The Folded World and Schroder, which was shortlisted for the Folio Prize in 2014. Gaige is the recipient of many awards for her previous novels, including Foreword Book of the Year Award for 2007; and in 2006, she was named one of the ‘5 Under 35’ outstanding emerging writers by the National Book Foundation. She has a Fulbright and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Literary Review, The Yale Review and One Story. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

Facebook: @AmityGaige
Instagram: @amity_gaige
Website: http://www.amitygaige.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Grace Vincent at Little, Brown Book Group and Fleet for my lovely hardback copy of Sea Wife and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 28 June to 4 July 2020

Synopsis

Pretty … or pretty twisted?

Almost two years ago, Faith and Grace Tiddle arrived home from their Saturday morning dance class to find both of their parents face down in pools of blood.

Five days later, the twins – only nine years old at the time – were arrested for the double homicide.

And now, 20 months on, the entire country awaits with bated breath as the jury are dismissed to deliberate their verdict on a case that has become a national phenomenon.

But if Lead Detective Denis Quayle – the man who knows the case better than anybody else – isn’t fully convinced of the twins’ guilt …

Can a 12-person jury be?

My review

Set in Dublin, The Curious Case of Faith and Grace tells the story of nine-year-old twins, Faith and Grace Tiddle, who are accused of the murder of their parents, Clive and Dorothy.

The twins were at their usual Saturday morning ballet and tap class and, when they returned home, were horrified to find their mother and father lying dead, from multiple stab wounds, in the kitchen of the family bungalow at the foothills of the Dublin mountains.

Clive, aged 52, and Dorothy, aged 50, run the church at the local community centre after the original St Benedict’s Church closed. The couple are old fashioned, very religious and rather strict with their girls, who were conceived via IVF after 17 years of trying. They said prayers over the girls’ cribs when they were born and, as they grew older, made them chant Hail Marys and Our Fathers and pray for forgiveness if they were naughty.

The story is told from several viewpoints. The first is from Detective Inspector Denis Quayle, the lead investigator on the case, who is based at Rathcoole Garda station, and is from the days immediately after the killings. The second is from Alice Sheridan, one of the 12 jurors from the trial, which takes place nearly two years later and is coming to a close after nearly two weeks, with deliberations due to start shortly. Interspersed with these viewpoints are descriptive sections that tell us more about the background of the rather strange Tiddle family. These are fascinating and rather eye opening and give us an interesting alternative view of the well-thought-of family!

Quayle is rather incompetent and out of his depth, struggling to keep hold of his investigation while the two detectives from Tallaght, Tunstead and Lowe, try to take control. He believed the girls were not guilty and battled hard to convince his colleagues that the case needed more investigating and they should look at other local people as suspects, rather than just the twins. Rathcoole station is only small with four police staff: Quayle, uniformed officers, Johnny Gibbons and Olivia Sully, and Detective Superintendent Brigit Fairweather, who is nearing retirement and spends all her time on the golf course rather than doing any work.

Juror Alice Sheridan is married to Noel and they have two children, Zoe (23) and Alfie (14). They also suffered from problems with conceiving and their youngest was born after IVF and four miscarriages. Alice tries not to get too close to the other jurors and has nicknames for them like Obese Guy, Red Head, Quiff Boy, Scarhead, etc!

We learn early on that a member of the jury is being blackmailed and must encourage the other jurors to vote not guilty to avoid their darkest secret being revealed to their family. It was really interesting to see the thought processes of the jury and how they deliberated everything. There were a lot of arguments and strong opinions as the group tried to remain objective and decide whether the girls (now 11 years old) were guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The evidence certainly seemed lacking in parts.

This was a cleverly plotted and well-paced courtroom thriller; it was engaging and compelling and I felt like I was there with DI Quayle as he tried to get to the bottom of the dreadful killings. Later on, I imagined being in the jury rooms in Dublin’s Criminal Courts as the jury are deliberating and considering their verdict.

It was an absorbing, tense and thought-provoking read with some good twists and turns throughout – there was a lot more going on in the lives of the Tiddle family than the police realised and they definitely overlooked various clues and revealing events! The twins were rather creepy and disturbing and rather shocked me out with some of their actions and discussions but I still swayed between thinking they were guilty and not guilty as the story progressed. A really entertaining novel!

I’ve already read and enjoyed She Said, Three Said and I’m looking forward to the final book in the trial trilogy and will be checking out the author’s other books, Midday and Whatever Happened to Betsy Blake?, which I already have on my Kindle, and The Suicide Pact.

Buy the book

The Curious Case of Faith and Grace by David B. Lyons can be preordered from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback and is published on 3 July, and is available now as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

David B. Lyons is an international bestselling author – a writer of psychological thrillers. He has reached number one in charts in Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia.

David grew up in Dublin – the city in which his novels are set – but currently spends his time between Birmingham in the UK and the Irish capital. David is married to a Brummie, Kerry, and they have one daughter, Lola.

He has lectured in creative writing in colleges and universities in both Ireland and in the UK and coaches people how to write with free tutorials at TheOpenAuthor.com.

Twitter: @TheOpenAuthor
Facebook: @AuthorDavidBLyons
Instagram: @theopenauthor
Website: http://theopenauthor.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for my digital copy of The Curious Case of Faith and Grace and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 19 to 24 June 2020

Synopsis

A beautiful young social-media star goes missing.
But who took her?

When controversial internet celebrity Violet Armstrong vanishes in the middle of a scorching Peak District summer, the case sparks a media frenzy.

The clock is ticking for DI Meg Dalton and her team to find Violet before online threats explode into real-life violence. And then the blood and hair of a young woman are found in an empty pig trough at the local abattoir …

The more Meg finds out about this unnerving case, the more she becomes convinced that something very, very bad has happened to Violet. With temperatures rising and the press demanding answers, the case is about to take a terrifying turn …

My review

Cut to the Bone is the third book in the Detective Inspector (DI) Meg Dalton series but is fine to be read as a standalone.

The story is set in the village of Gritton in the Peak District, which is rather creepy and unwelcoming and no one seems to want to either visit or leave the place. The Derbyshire village has railings and cameras everywhere to keep the locals in check and sinister child-shaped bollards and painted fake sinkholes to scare off visitors!

When nearby Ladybower Reservoir was created in the 1940s, several villages were submerged by it and the residents were forced to move to Gritton. Over the last 30 years, there have been sightings of a mysterious girl, the Pale Child, who is rumoured to be the ghost of a murdered child who lived in the manor house in the former village.

Social media star, Violet Armstrong, aged 18, who barbecues burgers in a bikini, has gone missing from her summer job at Gritton Abattoir, where she works night shifts doing cleaning. DI Meg Dalton and Detective Sergeant (DS) Jai Sanghera are sent to investigate Violet’s disappearance and they speak to the owner of the abattoir, Anna Finchley, and her brother, Gary, and a man called Daniel Twigg, who also both work there.

With the help of Violet, Anna set up a website called The Great Meat Debate, with videos and posts on ethical meat producing and this has made them the target of an animal rights group called the Animal Vigilantes. The group wear horrible meat-patterned clothing and have made threats against Violet and the others involved in the website, including Kirsty Nightingale, who owns a pig farm. Her father, Tony, is also a pig farmer.

Set in two time periods, the book switches from Violet’s disappearance in the present day to August–October 1999, where we meet Bex who is visiting her dad, Tony Nightingale, and sister, Kirsty, in Gritton for a month. Their mum, Nina, left when Bex was three and headed back to her home country of Ukraine and Bex was sent to live with her Aunt Janet in Southampton.

Violet’s parents are on holiday in New Zealand and we learn that she was adopted and has headed to Gritton to find out more about her biological parents, who she believes have connections to the village.

When traces of human blood and hair are discovered in a pig trough at the abattoir, it appears that the worst has happened and Violet has been murdered and fed to the pigs.

As the police investigate further, it seems that there is more to the case than meets the eye and they discover that the whole village seems to be keeping secrets. DI Meg Dalton and DS Jai Sanghera struggle to crack the case and can’t get a break. Things take an even more sinister turn when the Justice for Violet group is formed and causes trouble and the police have to do battle with both activist groups which attack Meg online and in person.

Poor Meg is still struggling after the recent death of her gran and she has a lot to deal with, including a visit from her estranged father who seems to be acting suspiciously and being far too friendly. She has a good relationship and banter with her colleague, Jai, and I liked the way they work together, and I loved her cat, Hamlet!

This was a dark and engaging police procedural and I raced through it trying to work out who Violet’s killer was. There were several untrustworthy suspects but the plot actually turned out to be a lot more layered and complex than I expected and I hadn’t guessed how things were going to turn out at all! A gripping read and rather chilling, despite the intense, claustrophobic heat!

Overall, I really enjoyed this twisty and disturbing tale, which had a cleverly written storyline and kept me entertained throughout. There was lots of tension and some shocking moments.

I haven’t read the other books in the series, The Devil’s Dice and Dead Man’s Daughter, and although there were a few mentions of past events, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage. I have both books on my Kindle so will be checking them out to find out more about DI Meg Dalton’s history and discover what happened to her family members.

Buy the book

Cut to the Bone by Roz Watkins can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback on 25 June, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Roz Watkins is the author of the DI Meg Dalton crime series. She lives on the edge of the Peak District, where the series is set. (Meg lives just down the road in Belper, and the fictional town Eldercliffe was inspired by nearby Wirksworth.)

Her first book, The Devil’s Dice, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award. It was The Times crime book of the month and has been optioned for TV. Her second book, Dead Man’s Daughter, was also a top pick in The Times.

Roz studied engineering at Cambridge University, before training in patent law. She was a partner in a firm of patent attorneys in Derby, but this has absolutely nothing to do with there being a dead one in her first novel.

In her spare time, Roz likes to walk in the Peak District, scouting out murder locations.

Twitter: @RozWatkins
Facebook: @RozWatkinsAuthor
Website: https://www.rozwatkins.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Isabel Smith at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Cut to the Bone and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 18 June to 2 July 2020

Synopsis

What if you knew the truth but couldn’t remember?

Over a decade ago, Heidi was the victim of a brutal attack that left her hospitalised, her younger sister missing, and her best friend dead. But Heidi doesn’t remember any of that. She’s lived her life since then with little memory of her friends and family and no recollection of the crime.

Now, it’s all starting to come back.

As Heidi begins retracing the events that lead to the assault, she is forced to confront the pain and guilt she’s long kept buried. But Heidi isn’t the only one digging up the past, and the closer she gets to remembering the truth, the more danger she’s in.

When the truth is worse than fiction, is the past worth reliving?

My review

In 2001, when Heidi Bevan was 13, she was assaulted with a brick, her sister, Anna, aged 7, went missing and her best friend and next-door neighbour, Nina Carpenter, was murdered. The three girls had been playing in their den, a bunker in the park at the top of the hill, one summer evening and were late home. The police looked for them and the two older girls were eventually discovered lying side by side outside the entrance to the bunker. A fire had been started to try and destroy any evidence.

Due to her injuries, Heidi suffered from amnesia and was unable to tell police what happened and although they had suspicions about who the murderer was, no one was charged and no trace of Anna was ever found. Afterwards, the girls’ mum, Lynn, took an overdose and ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where she still remains. Heidi’s dad was killed in a motorbike accident when she was a baby.

In 2016, now a young woman, Heidi is beginning to remember things and have flashbacks about those dreadful childhood events – she sees Anna being taken and her new red shoes with straps. The family’s stuff is kept in a storage area at a warehouse and, for years, Heidi has been going to look at their things in the hope that something will come back to her. It has meant very little until recently, when she experienced a new connection to her past.

Heidi also looks at her suitcase from her time in residential care, which contains old photos of her mum, dad and sister, as well as her friend, Nina, and Danielle, who was Nina’s little sister and Anna’s best friend. She can’t really remember or visualise these memories but she begins to remember things; she knows that Nina was deeply unhappy but can’t remember why.

The awful events have drastically affected Heidi’s life and, as well as suffering from memory problems, she says, ‘I’m aware of my profound loneliness – I’m not just a stranger to myself, but to others, too. Getting too close is a risk.’

Set in the two time periods, the book switches between the build up to the awful events of 2001 and the current day, 2016, when Heidi starts to piece things together with the help of Detective Inspector Denise Gilzeen, who was part of the original investigating team, and the case is reopened. The original case was high profile with a massive police search but was unable to get any definitive results for some reason, despite what seemed like overwhelming evidence in various areas.

The book is a difficult read at times; chilling and disturbing. The girls are caught up in something awful but they feel helpless and on their own; they don’t know who to turn to and aren’t sure who they can trust or who will believe them. There seems to be no easy way out.

Heidi and Nina have a close, but slightly volatile at times, relationship and it seems typical of an early teenage friendship with all the fun, laughs and dramatic angst involved. As events get out of control, Heidi feels powerless to help her friend and unable to tell her mum what’s going on. Her family is quite close knit, despite the loss of her dad, but Nina’s family is more chaotic with her heavily-drinking mum, Carol, sinister stepfather, Ken Finch, younger sister, Danielle, and two older brothers, Scott and Jason.

The novel was gripping, absorbing and well layered, and I was frantically turning the pages when the pace ramped up and Heidi seemed to be in increasing danger as the past came back to haunt her. There were lots of secrets plus various shady and evil characters and everybody seemed to be doing their hardest to ensure that the past remained hidden.

It’s a raw and emotional read, without resorting to graphic descriptions. Poor Heidi feels such guilt about how things turned out and wishes she had been able to save her younger self as well as her friend and sister.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-plotted and cleverly written police procedural/thriller. It was an engaging and gripping read with some rather dark and tense moments and surprising twists and turns. An excellent debut and I looked forward to reading more from the author. I’m hoping we’ll meet DI Denise Gilzeen again soon!

Buy the book

Monstrous Souls by Rebecca Kelly can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle on 25 June and in paperback on 23 July.

About the author

Rebecca Kelly was brought up with books but denied the pleasure of a television. Although she hated this at the time, she now considers it to have contributed to a life-long passion for reading and writing.

After a misspent education, Rebecca had a variety of jobs. She’s spent the last years raising her children but has lately returned to her first love – writing.

Rebecca lives in the UK with her husband and youngest son and an over-enthusiastic black Labrador, who gives her writing tips.

Facebook: @RKellyAuthor1
Instagram: @RebeccaKellyAuthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Peyton Stableford at Agora Books for my digital copy of Monstrous Souls and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 15 to 20 June 2020

Synopsis

Two weeks, 1,500 miles, three opportunities for her husband to save his own life. It seems only fair. Besides, it isn’t about his survival – it’s about hers.

Shattered by the discovery of her husband’s affair, Liv knows they need to leave the chaos of New York to try and save their marriage. Maybe the road trip they’d always planned, exploring America’s national parks – just the two of them – would help heal the wounds.

What Liv hasn’t told her husband, though, is that she has set him three challenges – three opportunities to prove he’s really sorry and worthy of her forgiveness.

If he fails? Well, it’s dangerous out there. There are so many ways to die in the wilderness – accidents happen all the time. And if it’s easy to die, then it’s also easy to kill.

And if their marriage can’t survive, maybe he can’t either.

My review

Olivia, 32, and Will Taylor have been together for nearly 14 years and married for 8 years. They are both from South Wales (Cardiff and Monmouth) originally, then moved to Kensington in London. The couple head to New York after Will gets a new job at the Lowbeck Hotel as an events and client manager for a company called Piper-Dewey and they live in a company apartment in SoHo. Liv can’t work under the terms of Will’s visa and is taking a career break; writing a travel book and exploring the city.

After discovering Will is having an affair with a 26-year-old work colleague, their holiday of a lifetime road trip round the national parks of North America – from Phoenix, Arizona to Monument Valley, Utah to the Grand Canyon and then Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Grove and Death Valley in California – takes on a new meaning. Liv decides that they need to get away from New York and the 1500-mile trip across four states is the perfect chance to focus on each other, get their relationship back on track and for Will to make amends. She also plans to use it as a test for her husband and, although she doesn’t tell Will about them, he has to follow three rules: 1) Surprise her with a thoughtful romantic gesture; 2) Be spontaneous and seize a sense of occasion; and 3) Stay calm if things go wrong and look after her.

As we learn more about the circumstances behind the affair, why their marriage deteriorated and discover more about Liv’s past, we’re left wondering what the outcome is going to be. And also what form Liv’s revenge is going to take, especially as she’s researched how easily people die in national parks and all the common causes of accidental death (drowning, motor vehicle crashes, falls and slips, in case you’re interested!). She’s obviously not going to let her husband off the hook easily!

She’s distraught and angry about Will’s affair and tortures herself by thinking about him and the other woman regularly, and imagining all the times when Will was lying about where he was. She is obsessed and, as she admits herself, the affair contaminates her thoughts like a virus. She thinks about how he’s wrecked their lives and ruined memories.

Liv is a complicated and flawed character with a rather dark and dangerous past – there are more than a few skeletons in her cupboard! She’s the classic unreliable narrator and there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye, certainly more than her husband realises! She knows more about his affair than he realises too. She’s rather intense and unpredictable but also good at plotting and planning, which comes in very handy at times!

Will is rather a weak man and easily led. He had his head turned by his colleague and she made him feel special and needed, unlike the rather independent Liv. He thinks that he’s off the hook and that Liv has forgiven him as she’s agreed to go on their dream road trip. Neither of them realise what is in store!

The book contains great descriptions of the intense, dangerous wilderness of the various national park locations in contrast to the hectic, claustrophobic feel of the city of New York.

Most of the characters in the story are rather unpleasant and seem to be hiding something. I didn’t trust any of them to tell the truth or be honest. They all help to create a fascinating storyline though.

This was a fast-paced and action-packed read, full of suspense, with some good misdirection and red herrings. I was never really quite sure what was going to happen or which way this twisted and gripping story was going to go – it was tense at times and I was waiting with bated breath for the next twist or shock!

Overall, I really enjoyed this twisty and well-plotted thriller. It was an entertaining and sinister read, as well as compelling and engaging, and, after an initial slow start, I raced through the book desperate to see how everything would be resolved. I wasn’t disappointed! Who needs a holiday when you can have a staycation? This is an amazing armchair adventure!

A great touch is the addition of the ultimate road trip playlist at the end of the book, which the author recommends you listen to at various points while reading! She listened to the songs on US road trips with her husband and while writing Wilderness.

This is the first of Beverley Jones’ books that I’ve read but I’ve got Where She Went on my Kindle and I’m looking forward to checking out her other novels too.

Buy the book

Wilderness by B.E. Jones can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Beverley Jones was born in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and started her ‘life of crime’ as a reporter on The Western Mail before moving into TV news with BBC Wales Today.

She covered all aspects of crime reporting before switching sides as a press officer for South Wales police, dealing with the media in criminal investigations, security operations and emergency planning.

Now a freelance writer, she channels these experiences of ‘true crime,’ and the murkier side of human nature, into her dark, psychological thrillers set in and around South Wales.

Wilderness, her sixth crime novel follows the release of Halfway by Little Brown in 2018.

Bev’s previous releases, Where She Went, The Lies You Tell, Make Him Pay and Fear the Dark are also available from Little, Brown as eBooks.

Twitter: @bevjoneswriting
Facebook: @bevjones
Instagram: @bevjoneswriting
Website: http://www.bevjoneswriting.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for my paperback copy of Wilderness and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Blog tour: 1 to 18 June 2020

Synopsis

Two writers, one holiday. A romcom waiting to happen …

January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she’s the lead in a blockbuster movie.
Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.

But January and Gus have more in common than you’d think:
They’re both broke.
They’ve got crippling writer’s block.
And they need to write bestsellers before summer ends.

The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first.
The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely …

My review

January Andrews, 29, is a romance novel writer and moves from New York to North Bear Shores in Michigan after the death of her father and subsequent discovery that he’d been having affair with a woman called Sonya for years. January’s mum was aware of the affair but refuses to talk about it with her.

Her father leaves her a house on Lake Michigan and she decides to use it to write her next romance novel, which has a rapidly approaching deadline, while sorting out the lakeside cottage and eventually selling it. January feels lonely as she’s not really speaking to her mum and her best friend, Shadi, lives in Chicago.

On her first night there, her next-door neighbour plays loud music till late and she’s shocked discover that it’s a man called Augustus (Gus) Everett, 32, who was her college rival on the creative writing course at the University of Michigan. They didn’t like each other and he was quite condescending and patronising towards her at college. He’s now a writer too but his books are more serious literary novels than January’s ‘happily ever afters’ books.

In town, she meets a woman called Pete (Posy) who runs the local cafe and bookshop. When Pete hosts a book club one evening, January is horrified to discover that not only is Sonya there but Gus turns up too! 

As they can’t really avoid each other being neighbours, January and Gus begin a rather self-deprecating friendship and tease each other about their differing writing genres and styles. They challenge each other to swap genres, with January writing bleak literary fiction and Gus writing a happily ever after. They decide to write during the week then do his research on Fridays and hers on Saturdays.

As the couple grow closer, we learn more about January’s past: how her mum battled cancer twice and how, as an only child, she felt that she had to be strong and happy when she was terrified her mum was going to die. She gave up grad school so that she could spend more time with her parents. Discovering that her dad had an affair shocked her beliefs to their foundations.

We also learn about Gus’ difficult past: his parents’ relationship, his split with his partner, and we also meet his aunt, who lives locally.

As the couple open up to each other, their friendship grows and they get closer, though both are still rather wary and reluctant to share too much. At one point, January says: ‘The bits of life he shared with me were building their framework as we went. I got a clearer picture of him every day …’. There are a few misunderstandings as they suss each other out and their shared past is also brought up a few times.

This novel had an intelligent, thoughtful storyline with some great one-liners and banter between January and Gus. They’d both had a hard time in their lives and were hurting from the past, especially January who feels that the strong unit she built up with her parents was all a lie after her father’s betrayal of the family.

The couple’s friendship and relationship developed slowly, despite a lot of chemistry. They got to know each other again after years apart and sussed each other out, breaking down the barriers. It was good to see them bonding over their shared writer’s block and frantically rushing to finish their novels, setting each other challenges as their deadlines rapidly approached. An interesting and rather brave concept to swap genres!

With a well-plotted and multi-layered storyline, this was an engaging read and I was keen to find out whether January would have her happily ever after. It was an emotional read at times and several difficult themes were discussed in the book.

Overall, I rather enjoyed Beach Read. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting from the cover – I assumed it would be a more lighter read – but I was pleasantly surprised and it was certainly a bit different. Slightly more poignant, darker and thought provoking than I thought it would be. Definitely a story to go away and contemplate, I think!

Buy the book

Beach Read by Emily Henry can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 20 August, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.

Twitter: @EmilyHenryWrite
Facebook: @EmilyHenryWrite

Blog tour

Thanks to Georgia Taylor at Penguin Books UK for my proof copy of Beach Read and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.