Blog tour: 6 to 19 January 2020

Synopsis

Five women meet at their local antenatal group. The only thing they really have in common is that they are all pregnant and live within the Chelsea area. Beyond that they all lead very different lives.

Five secrets. Three years later, they are all good friends and often meet up as a group, nicknamed ‘The Mothers Club’. They get along well enough. Don’t they?

One missing husband. When Bella’s husband goes missing the same night as one of their mothers club get togethers, the police come knocking. Each of the women clearly have secrets they’d like to hide. But the trouble with secrets is that someone always tells …

Meet the mothers

Bella Stay at home mum of Teddy. She’s happily married to caring husband Ewan, who only wants what’s best for her. Doesn’t he?

When Ewan goes missing, Bella is left questioning what went wrong. She feels like she can’t trust anyone, especially not her friends.

Because one of the mothers knows something. And the trouble with secrets is someone always tells.

Electra Mother of twins. She’s struggling with her son’s behaviour and thinks it’s her fault.

Chrissy A divorce lawyer who’s having marital problems … If only they could sort out their sex life.

Skye She had her baby through IVF with her best friend. But now he’s asked something of her she’s not sure she can give.

Jen She doesn’t know whether she can call herself a mother. Things haven’t quite turned out like she expected …

My review

The Mothers Club, consisting of Bella, Chrissy, Electra, Jen and Skye, first met at their local antenatal group three years ago. They’re an unusual bunch and probably wouldn’t have become friends if not for them all being pregnant at the same time and living in the same area of Chelsea. At one point in the book, they’re described as ‘The chav. The media-twat. The hippy. The Sloane. The frump. Nothing in common whatsoever. Nothing but the only thing in the world that could ever matter or have meaning. Life and love. Forever. Whatever.’

The day after one of their Mothers Club gatherings, Bella Upton reports her husband, 42-year-old banker, Ewan, missing after he doesn’t turn up for work and the police are called in to investigate his disappearance. Detective Inspector Iona Chatwin and Detective Sergeant Yannis Mohamud discover that Ewan seems to have planned to leave – his passport is missing and he’s taken a suitcase. It appears to be a straightforward case of a husband abandoning his wife and child, especially when they find out things about Ewan that could explain his sudden departure.

In chapters set in the past and the present day, we get to know the women and the dynamics of their relationships with each other, their partners and children and all the important events that have happened over the last three years or so. We also hear from the viewpoint of DI Iona Chatwin, who is in charge of the police investigation and has a difficult past and traumas to deal with.

As we hear from each of the women, we learn that they all have their own secrets and battles and I really felt for them. Each of them is hiding stuff from the others and their lives are far more complicated and upsetting than they seem. They’re all rather damaged, battling to hold things together in their own way and trying to keep up appearances and not let on how much they’re struggling. The women are all a bit judging and competitive with each other and want to save face and pretend that everything is OK, even when it’s not. The women are friends but, at times, it’s a tense relationship as they don’t have much in common and have just been thrown together due to their circumstances.

This was a twisty, gripping story and, right up until the end, I really wasn’t sure how things were going to be resolved. It was well written, cleverly plotted and rather sinister, and I particularly enjoyed the ending; very thrilling and not what I was expecting! There was lots of deception and suspense as we discovered the truth about what had happened to the horrible Ewan.

Overall, I really enjoyed this compelling, intriguing, dark thriller and will definitely be checking out the author’s other books: Tattletale and The Other Couple.

Buy the book

The Mothers by Sarah J. Naughton can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 30 April, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Sarah J. Naughton grew up in Dorset and is the bestselling author of The Other Couple and Tattletale. Her debut children’s thriller, The Hanged Man Rises was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Award. The Mothers is her third novel for adults. Sarah now lives with her family in Belgravia.

Twitter: @SarahJNaughton
Facebook: @sarahjnaughtonauthor
Instagram: @sarahnaughtonauthor
Website: https://sarahjnaughton.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my digital copy of The Mothers and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 12 to 16 January 2020

Synopsis

It meant nothing to her and everything to him …

Caroline had everything – the gorgeous beach house built for holidays and parties, a seemingly happy marriage …

But when she discover her husband has been lying to her, she turns to a handsome stranger for comfort and revenge, a brief, reckless affair that was meant to be fun but soon becomes something much more sinister.

As Caroline’s marriage and wealthy lifestyle begin to crumble, so her lover’s obsession grows. He’s in her life, in her house and among her family, and his infatuation is growing more destructive.

And when Caroline’s husband goes missing, Caroline finds herself accused of murder. But what is she hiding …?

My review

In A Stranger on the Beach, 42-year-old Caroline Stark, an interior designer, has a lovely life with her husband of 20 years, handsome investment banker, Jason, and daughter, Hannah, who has just headed off to college. They’ve got an apartment in New York and have recently bought a new beach house, which they’ve done up, and Caroline invites all their friends and work colleagues round to celebrate. Jason phones to say he won’t be able to make the party as he’s stuck in a meeting out of town and, suspicious when his lies don’t match, Caroline checks on her iPad to see where he is and discovers he’s hundreds of miles away in a Manhattan hotel.

On the night of the party, Jason arrives really late and is followed in by a woman called Galina, who he claims is just a work colleague, and says they’re in the middle of a crisis situation that needs sorting. Rather hard to believe! Caroline is embarrassed as all her guests look on, enjoying the scene.

Caroline first meets Aidan Callahan when she spots him on the beach outside her home then, by coincidence, he’s serving drinks at her housewarming party and working as a bartender at the Red Anchor. At first, he seems lovely – handsome, attentive, complimentary – just what she needs to cheer her up after learning about Jason’s affair. Then there are hints that he’s not who he seems and multiple red flags over his behaviour and actions.

In alternating chapters, Caroline and Aidan share their version of events but, intriguingly, their accounts don’t seem to match and the reader is left wondering which of them (both, perhaps?) is the unreliable narrator! They both sound as unpleasant and obsessive as each other and I wasn’t sure that either protagonist could be trusted to tell the truth.

In the final third of the book, ‘After the storm’, things take a different turn and an investigation takes place and I was left speedily turning the pages to see how it was all resolved!

With twist and turns galore, I really wasn’t sure how this intriguing, tense story was going to pan out and what the truth actually was! It was a complex, well-layered, fast-paced tale and I enjoyed how the story unravelled. This is a terrifying story about how quickly your life can fall apart when things go wrong and you make some bad choices!

Overall, I really enjoyed this cleverly written, suspense-filled story and will be checking out Michele Campbell’s other two books, It’s Always the Husband and She Was the Quiet One.

Buy the book

A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Michele Campbell is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor in New York City who specialized in international narcotics and gang cases.

A while back, she said goodbye to her big-city legal career and moved with her husband and two children to an idyllic New England college town a lot like Belle River in It’s Always the Husband. Since then, she has spent her time teaching criminal and constitutional law and writing novels. She has had many close female friends, a few frenemies, and only one husband, who – to the best of her knowledge – has never tried to kill her.

Twitter: @MCampbellBooks
Facebook: @MicheleCampbellBooks
Website: https://www.michelecampbellbooks.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee at HQ Stories for my copy of A Stranger on the Beach and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 13 to 26 January 2020

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 …

Because what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come?

My review

Mix Tape tells the story of Alison Connor and Daniel Lawrence, who met in Sheffield late in 1978 when they were 16 and 18 respectively. Sharing an avid interest in music, they got on really well and Alison was soon spending lots of time with Daniel and his family, especially his pigeon-fancying dad, to try and get away from a difficult home life with her mother, Catherine, and her brother, Peter, as well as Martin Baxter, Catherine’s horrible on/off boyfriend.

Alison and Daniel’s romance blossomed and he wooed her with mix tapes of his favourite songs and took her to watch his beloved Sheffield Wednesday play.

Being a rather private person, Alison hid the truth from Daniel about her difficult relationship with her alcoholic mother and, after things came to a head, with a few shocking incidents, she decided to flee, leaving everyone behind, and devastating Daniel, who took several years to recover from her disappearance.

Over 30 years later, Ali is a bestselling author, now living in Adelaide with husband, Michael McCormack, and they have two daughters, Thea and Stella. Dan is a freelance music journalist who lives in Edinburgh with partner, Katelin, and they have a son called Alex. Dan also owns a canal boat in London called Crazy Diamond.

After a chance encounter on Twitter, Ali and Dan get back in touch and start exchanging songs and, before long, things happen that they are powerless to resist. They’re drawn together and it all starts to get really complicated and fraught!

Told in two timelines and alternating between Ali and Dan’s stories, we piece together everything that has happened to the pair over the years in the build up to current events and it was interesting to see things from each of their perspectives and learn how the past had shaped their lives, and discover more about their partners, children and extended families.

I was emotionally involved in the story and really hoping that things would work out satisfactorily for both Ali and Dan, with as little heartache as possible to all concerned. I really felt for Ali and her brother after all the traumas that they had experienced in their childhood.

I loved all the characters in this book; such an interesting mix of people and experiences and all really well described and written about. Each had their part to play in the story and there was an interesting contrast between life in Adelaide and in Sheffield, Edinburgh and London.

Though I didn’t always agree with Ali and Dan’s actions, it was a touching story and I was in tears a few times by the end! Such a difficult situation to be in and hard to know what to do for the best, especially with other family members to consider.

I’m not an expert music fan but I really liked all the references to the different songs and how important music was to both protagonists. I read the book in paperback and hadn’t listened to the Mix Tape playlist but I’m currently my writing my blog post with it playing in the background. I’m keen to research all the music mentioned in the book too!

Overall, I really enjoyed this nostalgic, thought-provoking contemporary romance, which made me reminisce about songs before my era, as well as remember those I was around to hear at the time. It’s really intriguing to think about the different paths your life can take, depending on how things work out and what you choose to do. Fascinating!

Buy the book

Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback on 23 January, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

Listen as you read!

Dan and Ali’s mix tape playlist is on Spotify: bit.ly/MixTapePlaylist

(This book is not affliated with, authorised or endorsed by Spotify AB or any Spotify group companies.)

About the author

Jane Sanderson is a former BBC Radio 4 producer, whose first novel, Netherwood, was published in 2011. She drew on much of her family’s background for this historical novel, which is set in a fictional mining town in the coalfields of Yorkshire.

Ravenscliffe and Eden Falls followed in the two subsequent years, then in the early summer of 2017, This Much Is True was published, marking a change in direction for the author. It is a contemporary tale of dog walks and dark secrets and the lengths a mother will go to protect her family.

Jane has poured much of her own story into Mix Tape; 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.

Jane lives in Herefordshire with her husband, the journalist and author Brian Viner. They have three children.

Twitter: @SandersonJane
Website: https://www.jane-sanderson.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my proof copy of Mix Tape and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 9 to 24 January 2020

Synopsis

Seven guests. One killer. A holiday to remember …

Not all the guests will survive their stay …

You use an app, called Cloud BNB, to book a room online. And on a cold and windy afternoon you arrive at The Guesthouse, a dramatic old building on a remote stretch of hillside in Ireland.

You are expecting a relaxing break, but you find something very different. Something unimaginable. Because a killer has lured you and six other guests here and now you can’t escape.

One thing’s for certain: not all of you will come back from this holiday alive …

Q&A with Abbie Frost

Today on my blog, I’m bringing you a Q&A with Abbie Frost. It’s a really informative read and gives an interesting insight into the book and Abbie herself!

1. Can you tell us a bit about The Guesthouse and what inspired it?
When a mansion in an isolated area of Ireland is turned into a guest house, with a tempting opening offer, the first rooms are booked by a random mix of people. There’s Hannah, who needs to be alone to come to terms with her boyfriend’s death. Mo, treating his elderly father to a short break. A family of three using the place as temporary accommodation until they move house. And Lucy, a musician hoping for peace and quiet to write some new songs. When the weather closes in, however, their relaxing visit turns terrifying.

The novel was inspired by the closed circle mysteries, which were so popular during the golden age of crime fiction. Last year, I was incredibly lucky to be asked to lecture on the history of English whodunnits aboard the Queen Mary 2. To prepare, I had to reread many of my favourite authors: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Francis Isles, etc. When I was talking (make that boasting!) about the trip to my editor, he suggested I try writing a contemporary take on the classic format – the country house mystery – but set firmly in the 21st century.

So, The Guesthouse may be a remote mansion, but the characters are not the privileged folk at the centre of most golden age mysteries. Instead, they are a mix of ordinary people who have used an online site to book a short holiday. However, as the hours and days pass, all the guests are revealed to have dark secrets as well as some surprising links to The Guesthouse itself. It turns out that neither they, nor the house, are quite what they seem.

2. Which writers and books have most influenced your writing and why?
Like most authors, I have always been a voracious reader and I’m sure the writers I loved when I was very young, like C.S. Lewis, Phillipa Pearce and Alan Garner, who all created atmospheric worlds with mysterious elements, continue to have an influence. As an adult, it’s probably been Wilkie Collins, Daphne Du Maurier, Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith – creators of complex and conflicted characters caught up in crime almost by accident. But I’m sure I gain something from every book that makes an impact on me.

3. What triggered your desire to start writing thriller fiction and what do you enjoy the most and the least about it?
I write the kind of fiction that I most enjoy reading.

The best moment is when the essence of a compelling story seems to have become fully formed. In my mind, at least!

The worst times usually come about halfway through the writing, when I have to accept that some of my brilliant ideas won’t actually work and I must force myself to give up on them.

4. Why did you choose to set The Guesthouse in Ireland?
Ireland is a beautiful place with a history that is fascinating, mystical and also tragic. There are still areas that feel incredibly isolated and the unpredictable weather adds to the sense that mysterious things could happen at any moment.

I have Irish ancestry on both sides and have always felt a great affinity for the place. Like so many others, my ancestors left because of the terrible potato famine and the memory of that nightmare time remains potent.

5. The Guesthouse is quite the dramatic holiday experience. What is the most memorable holiday you’ve been on?
It has to be last year, when I crossed the North Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2. Although it was a working holiday, I loved every minute. The ship was even more glamorous than I had imagined – very art deco with a definite Poirot vibe. Dressing for dinner every night, breakfast in bed each morning, sitting on my stateroom balcony with a glass of bubbly as I watched the Statue of Liberty vanish from view: totally magical.

6. What are you reading at the moment?
Over Christmas, I read books by lots of my favourite writers, including Philip Pullman’s latest, The Secret Commonwealth. Masterful writing and a huge imagination at work. I’ve recently finished Jill Dawson’s The Language of Birds, which is a fictionalisation of the Lord Lucan mystery. Dawson puts the murdered nanny – Sandra Rivett, re-imagined as Mandy – at the centre of the story, where she should be, and brings her to vibrant life. Before that, it was S.K. Tremayne’s The Assistant, a tense and terrifying combination of psychological suspense and science fiction. And I was lucky enough to obtain an advanced copy of Sheila Bugler’s new one, I Could Be You, an enthralling mystery set on the south coast of England, close to where I live. I’m just starting Emma Donoghue’s Akin and am interested to see how she will manage the point of view of an old man after her brilliant take on that of a little boy in Room.

7. Do you remember the first story you ever wrote and what was it about?
I was always writing stories, so I’m not sure what would qualify as the first, but it was likely to be a very bad knock-off of one of Enid Blyton’s tales of a group of daring youngsters foiling the schemes of some dastardly criminals.

8. Is there a particular place you like to write?
I usually stand to write – as apparently did Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway. Straight onto a laptop, which sits on a shelf just above waist height in our dining room. When my legs get tired, or I want to read back what I’ve written, I curl up in a rocking chair beside a gas fire that looks and feels like a real one. So it’s quite cosy.

9. You’ve worked as a teacher, actor and scriptwriter and now author of fiction. Can you give us four top lines of advice for anyone wanting to get into these professions?
Teacher – treat children with the same respect you would give to adults.
Actor – have another job to fall back on. You will need it.
Scriptwriter – act everything out yourself before you submit a script.
Author – read, read, read, write, write, write and never give up.

10. If you had to go on holiday with six characters from fiction, who would you go with?
Du Maurier’s Rebecca, she’d organise some brilliant parties and I could quiz her about what really happened with the deplorable/adorable Maxim.
Elizabeth Bennet, to put down Rebecca if she gets too much.
Mrs Ariadne Oliver, my favourite Christie detective, who I’m sure is Agatha in disguise.
Beatrice Stubbs, J.J. Marsh’s retired police inspector: wherever the holiday takes place she would source the best food and drink.
C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake – I just love him.
And the late and lamented Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther: witty, conflicted and devilishly attractive.

Buy the book

The Guesthouse by Abbie Frost can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback now, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Abbie Frost (the pen name of author Chris Curran) was born in London but now lives in St Leonards-on-Sea near Hastings, on the south coast of England, in a house groaning with books.

She left school at 16 to work in the local library – her dream job then and now – and spent an idyllic few months reading her way around the shelves. Reluctantly returning to full-time education, she gained her degree from Sussex University.

Since then, she has worked as an actress, script writer, copy editor and teacher, all the time looking forward to the day when she would see her own books gracing those library shelves.

Twitter: @FrostyAbbie
Facebook: @ChrisCurran
Website: https://chriscurranauthor.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Rebecca Bryant at HarperFiction for my copy of The Guesthouse and for my place on the blog tour and thanks to Abbie Frost for answering questions for this blog post.

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

Blog tour: 7 to 17 January 2020

Synopsis

In the first of the Burrowhead Mysteries, an atmospheric murder investigation unearths the brutal history of a village where no one is innocent.

When psychotherapist Alexis Cosse is found murdered in the playground of the sleepy northern village of Burrowhead, DI Strachan and her team of local police investigate, exposing a maelstrom of racism, misogyny and homophobia simmering beneath the surface of the village.

Shaken by the revelations and beginning to doubt her relationship with her husband, DI Strachan discovers something lurking in the history of Burrowhead, while someone (or something) equally threatening is hiding in the strange and haunted cave beneath the cliffs …

My review

Set in the northern village of Burrowhead, When the Dead Come Calling tells the story of DI Georgie Strachan and her team, DC Trish Mackie and PC Simon Hunter, who are faced with investigating a murder when psychotherapist Dr Alexis Cosse is discovered dead in the local playground under the swings, stabbed multiple times.

PC Hunter was in a relationship with Alexis and one of the last people to see him alive and he struggles to make sense of what has happened, especially as he’s not allowed to take part in the police investigation.

There are also other horrible things happening in the village, including racist notes being left for people considered outsiders, as well as acts of vandalism and harassment against the local Spar shop, which is run by Pamali. DI Strachan and the others must try and pull all the clues and pieces of the puzzle together, and work out just what has brought things to a head, especially when a second body is found. What is going on? Who is responsible for these crimes? How is everything linked?

There’s a curious air to the village of underlying problems, discontent and unhappiness – the children are bored, there’s a feeling of resignation and almost hopelessness, people feel suffocated and they don’t like outsiders, especially those who are ‘not from these parts’.

The village is rather unwelcoming and suspicious of newcomers, even those like Georgie and her husband, Fergus, who have lived there for several years but aren’t considered to be true locals yet. Fergus is ginger and from Scotland and Georgie is brown skinned with tight dark curls and an accent that no one can place.

There’s an other worldy, supernatural, ethereal feel to the book – it’s really spookily written and there’s such a sense of the past and darkness and evil. It was rather spine chilling at times and very disconcerting. And there’s also a sense of foreboding and dread running throughout the book of the horrors that lurk in this ‘closed little bit of the world’.

From the start, I knew this was a book that I could really savour – the writing is beautifully descriptive and really absorbing. It’s unlike any other police procedural or crime fiction book that I’ve read – it’s very layered and enthralling, with a dark, threatening undercurrent running throughout the story. We slowly learn about the community and the elements that make up its historical, endemic tapestry of racism, misogyny and homophobia, as well as the village’s bleakness and rotten core. Burrowhead sounds a rather unpleasant place to live! There’s such a sense of the past and evilness, which seeps into everything, and my trepidation and fears grew as I got further into the book. Very vivid writing, which really helped me picture things.

I really liked DI Georgie Strachan – she’s intelligent and sensible and her character was measured and calm. Interestingly, the author, herself, describes Georgie as ‘a good detective in a broken world’ rather than a ‘broken or angry or dark’ person.

There are some strange characters too: Trish’s uncle Walt is prone to wandering and talks of the Others and Georgie’s husband, Fergus, used to be an engineer and also worked as a project manager at the BAE site several years ago but now he’s unemployed and rather floating around, lacking motivation and not sure what to do next. He’s too absorbed and focused on his hobbies, like cycling, photography and archaeology, discovering the ancient rocks and stones (menhirs) of the local area. His behaviour is rather bizarre and he’s distracted; a complete contrast to Georgie who seems so focused. She is starting to have doubts about their relationship after recent events.

Overall, I really enjoyed this atmospheric and intriguing book. It’s not always an easy read and is quite slow burning but it’s certainly absorbing and compelling, with a great sense of tension and anticipation. This is the first book in the Burrowhead mysteries series and I look forward to reading future books. I’m also keen to read Helen Sedgwick’s The Growing Season, which sounds fascinating and an unusual concept!

Buy the book

When the Dead Come Calling by Helen Sedgwick can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback now, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Helen Sedgwick is the author of The Comet Seekers, selected as a best book of 2016 by The Herald, and The Growing Season, shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year in 2018.

She has an MLitt in Creative Writing from Glasgow University and won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award.

Before she became an author, she was a research physicist with a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University. She now lives and writes in the Scottish Highlands.

Twitter: @helensedgwick
Facebook: @HelenSedgwickAuthor
Website: http://www.helensedgwick.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my hardback copy of When the Dead Come Calling and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 4 to 8 January 2020

Synopsis

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

One day that will change a family forever.

My review

Livia has been planning her 40th birthday party for the past 20 years, after she was denied the wedding of her dreams when she fell pregnant at 17 with her oldest son, Josh, and was forced to have a quick ceremony in the local registry office with a few guests. Her parents disowned her and they haven’t ever met Josh, now 22, or his younger sister, Marnie, aged 19.

Livia is desperate to have the perfect party and her husband, Adam, knows how important it is for everything to go well. The build-up has been so prolonged and now it’s time for the main event and everything must be flawless. Livia is excited and happy but there is so much riding on the party and she feels guilty about the amount of money it has cost and the fact that they could have had a 25th wedding anniversary party in a few years time instead.

Despite all this, we learn that Livia is hiding a secret about Marnie from Adam and he is also hiding a devastating secret from her. While all the guests are having fun and enjoying the party, Livia and Adam are mingling but trying not to crack under the strain of keeping their explosive secrets to themselves. It is torture to watch the pair of them wrestling with their secrets, each afraid to tell the other as they want things to be perfect for the party and for everything still to be normal.

In an effort to protect each other, both Livia and Adam made some rather bizarre decisions but I think the run-up to the party had been so long and involved and Adam knew how much it meant to Livia that he didn’t want to do anything to ruin the momentous occasion. At the heart of it, they love each other and want to delay the upset as long as they can, but I think it would have been better for them just to be honest from the start, forget the party and support each other through things.

Poor Adam was going through such emotional turmoil and I almost felt like I was living his discomfort, fears, indecision and sheer terror over what he should do for the best. He did well to hold it together as much as he did!

Livia has been keeping her secret about Marnie for longer and she’s still trying to piece together all the parts of the jigsaw and work out what has been going on. Marnie is Adam’s favourite, as he has a rather tense and awkward relationship with Josh, and Livia doesn’t want to destroy their special bond.

I raced through this gripping, intense book in a matter of hours; frantically turning the pages to see what happened and hoping that everything would be resolved without too much heartbreak for all concerned. It was such a tense read at times and there was a sense of impending doom and apprehension running throughout the book, as well as some really awkward and uncomfortable moments for several of the characters!

I really enjoyed this book – it was so nerve wracking and gripping and I could feel my heart racing as the story progressed and things were revealed, and it made me feel very emotional, being a parent myself. The story was well paced and it flowed well, with just enough revealed over the course of the book/party to keep me hooked. It was very thought provoking and I was still mulling over it hours later, just wondering what I would have done if I’d been in either Livia or Adam’s position.

Overall, a great read; really absorbing, touching and fascinating! Would definitely recommend. I’m pleased that I’ve got a couple of B.A. Paris’ books still to read and I’m already looking forward to her next one!

Buy the book

The Dilemma by B.A. Paris can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in hardback on 9 January, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

B.A. Paris is the internationally bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown and Bring Me Back. Having sold over one million copies in the UK alone, she is a New York Times bestseller as well as a number one bestseller on Amazon and iBooks. Her books have sold in 38 territories around the world.

She was brought up in England and moved to France where she spent some years working as a trader in an international bank before retraining as a teacher and setting up a language school with her husband. They have five daughters and have recently moved back to the UK. 

Twitter: @BAParisAuthor
Facebook: @BAParisAuthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee and Isabel Smith at HQ Stories for my proof copy of The Dilemma and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 2 to 6 January 2020

Synopsis

Jordan Radcliffe is found stabbed to death. Her boyfriend’s fingerprints are on the knife and his clothes are covered in her blood.
Case closed … Or is it?

When Jake learns of his troubled daughter’s death, he is determined to find out what really happened on that fateful night. But Jake hasn’t seen Jordan for over three years and, with secrets of her own, there was a lot he didn’t know about his only daughter.

Jake’s ex-wife Jules is reluctant to let him waltz back into her life. But when Jake makes a shocking discovery, he is convinced that there is more to her murder than they are being told.

Grief stricken and full of regret, he is desperate to protect his daughter’s memory – to understand her final hours …

With a question mark hanging over the case, will Jake be able to piece together the fragments of evidence, uncover the truth behind Jordan’s death – and make amends for the time he has lost?

My review

Jake Radcliffe’s daughter, Jordan, has been murdered, stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Robert ‘Bobby’ Bannister. It seems like an open and shut case – all the evidence points to Bobby being Jordan’s killer – but Jake feels something is off and decides to investigate and find out the truth. Despite being warned off on several occasions, he refuses to give up and looks into the events surrounding his daughter’s death with help from old friend and policeman, DC Mathew ‘Matt’ Newcomb.

Jake hasn’t seen his daughter for nearly three years. They’re estranged after the pair fell out and she told him she never wanted to see him again. When she was 15, Jordan got in with the wrong crowd and her personality changed and she began sleeping with lots of boys, smoking, possibly taking drugs, staying out late, disappearing for days on end and causing her parents worry and stress. Jake didn’t handle things well and gave up too easily on his daughter when the going got tough and just walked away and it resulted in the breakdown of his relationship with Jordan, as well as the end of his marriage to Julie.

A lot has happened since Jake left Redmarket and got a job with a local TV company and Julie has now remarried to widower Greg Allaway, who has a son called William. When Jake returns to town after Jordan’s death, he struggles to cope with what has happened and blames Julie for not protecting her and keeping her safe. They’re both distraught and have lots of regrets.

Jake and Julie go back a long way – they first met at school and were the Three Musketeers with Matt – and he still has lots of mixed-up feelings for her, which he struggles with. He also has a few jealous run ins with Greg as the men butt heads and rub each other up the wrong way. Greg can’t handle what has happened and drinks heavily and nearly self-destructs again but he manages to bring himself back from the brink with the help of Sam Ferrara, a lawyer who was hired to defend his daughter’s suspected killer.

After letting his daughter down in the past, Jake is now trying to do right by Jordan and be a better father and solve her murder, even though it’s, sadly, far too late to mend their relationship. He feels so guilty and tormented about the past and is full of remorse for everything that has happened that led to him walking out on Julie and Jordan.

Poor Jake was really tortured by the past and his actions and, even though he rather brought it all upon himself, I had sympathy for this poor grieving father who has lots of regrets and guilt and was unable to protect his little girl when it counted most and save her from being murdered.

This was an entertaining, well-written book and I really liked the way the plot developed and we got to know more about Jake and Jordan. The story was a bit slow paced at first but it was good to build up a picture of events and see things from Julie and Jordan’s viewpoints. Then things ramped up as Jake got nearer the truth and found himself in some dark and dangerous situations. There were lots of interesting twists and turns and a surprising back story is revealed that I wasn’t expecting! Overall, an enjoyable, quick read and I’ll be looking out for more of P.L. Kane’s books in the future.

Buy the book

Her Last Secret by P.L. Kane can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle on 8 January and in paperback on 19 March, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

P.L. Kane has been writing professionally for almost 20 years. He is the award-winning, bestselling author/editor of over 90 books in the fields of dark fantasy, science fiction and young adult, including the sellout Hooded Man omnibus and Lunar (soon to be a feature film).

Kane is also the author of the serial killer chiller, The Gemini Factor, the #1 Amazon bestseller Pain Cages, The PI’s Tale and he has a collection of crime/psychological stories out called Nailbiters. His most recent co-edited anthologies are Beyond Rue Morgue, all new stories revolving around Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin, and Exit Wounds – which features tales from the likes of Lee Child, Dean Koontz, Alex Gray and Dennis Lehane. 

He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife (author Marie O’Regan), his family and a black cat called Mina.

Twitter: @PLKane1
Facebook: @PLKane
Website: http://plkane.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Her Last Secret and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 1 to 31 January 2020

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, whose 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 the staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations … and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

A dark and devastating psychological thriller, The Home is also a heartbreaking and insightful portrayal of the underbelly of society, where children learn what they live … if they are allowed to live at all.

My review

The Home tells the heartbreaking story of three troubled girls, Annie, Hope and Lara, who live in a children’s home called Hillfoot House, which is near the Langdale Pikes in the Lake District. When Hope is found dead in a churchyard in far-off Meddleswater on Christmas morning with a traumatised, devastated Annie wailing over her body, the police have to question Annie and all the staff from the home and piece together the events that led up to her death.

Annie and Hope are 15 and Lara is only 12 years old and they’ve all suffered such awful trauma and abuse at the hands of their own parents. They’ve been let down by the people who should have cared for them most and, as a result, they’re all deeply disturbed and affected by what has happened to them.

The girls are unable to leave normal lives, so badly are they damaged by the past, and they react by being destructive and hitting out and behaving difficultly, as that’s all they know. Lara suffers from selective mutism and refuses to speak to anyone and just watches all that goes on around her showing no emotion.

This is such an absorbing and intense read as we slowly unravel what has happened and learn about Annie, Hope and Lara’s shocking pasts. The girls are so unhappy and lonely, despite all the efforts of the staff to create some normality and affection, and Hope and Lara, especially, seem like they’re just waiting to die to end their suffering.

Annie and Hope met at the home six months before and quickly grew close, sharing their stories and experiences, and becoming more than friends; starting a turbulent, obsessive, difficult relationship together, which is forbidden due to their vulnerability and fragility.

I felt sorry for the staff at the home, manager Helen, Claire, Danny and Gillian, who are doing their best in trying circumstances with no funding and at threat of closure, on paltry salaries for the hours and effort they put in to looking after the girls.

The Home is such a dark, poignant and tragic book and it’s so awful to think that there are actually children who’ve suffered such neglect, abuse, violence and tragedy in their lives. Children who’ve got nowhere to go and no one to help them and rely on poorly funded institutions to look after them.

The book includes so many issues: poverty, starvation (food banks), child abuse, drugs, prostitution, grooming, paedophilia, self-harm, toxic relationships, murder and neglect, among others. The author has written about these issues in such a sensitive but insightful way and I certainly had my eyes opened at several points in the story; naively not realising so many of these awful things can all happen to one person.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written, hard-hitting book; such a sad story of a trio of young girls who have been let down by those they should have been able to trust. It’s a heartbreaking and unforgettable read that will stay with me a long time.

I’ve already got Sarah Stovell’s other book, Exquisite, on my Kindle and will definitely be reading it soon.

Buy the book

The Home by Sarah Stovell can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 22 January, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

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, is set in the Lake District and was called ‘the book of the summer’ by The Sunday Times.

Twitter: @sarahlovescrime

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my digital copy of The Home and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 1 to 22 January 2020

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. 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

A school in rural Somerset is under siege by at least two masked gunmen. The headmaster, Matthew Marr, has been shot and is badly injured and the school is in lockdown as their emergency action plan is carried out. As the blizzard worsens and time ticks by, there are many tense moments and heroic acts from teachers and pupils before a final dramatic conclusion to events.

Set over a period of three hours, the story is told from the viewpoints of various staff and junior and secondary school pupils, who are hidden in locations around the Old and New School sites: drama theatre, library, several classrooms and the pottery room in the woods.

The gunmen have a plan that keeps everyone in limbo – with terrified staff and students waiting anxiously for their next move – and the situation is very tense. The men paced up and down the corridors, which was very intimidating and designed to create as much fear and intrepidation as possible. The police have to try and second guess how to handle the situation for the best to avoid antagonising the masked intruders.

This was a frighteningly realistic nail-biting read and Lupton really gets inside the minds of those involved and gets across well their emotions, fears and thoughts, switching between viewpoints as the hours pass.

I really felt for the parents who were awaiting news about their children and whether they were safe and had been successfully evacuated or not. And the mum, Beth Alton, frantically trying to contact her son, Jamie, who seems to have disappeared after heading to the CDT room to get a cauldron. It must be so difficult to locate the whereabouts of everyone over several sites; they’re so vulnerable and unprotected when faced with such evil.

There were so many brave and selfless characters, both children and adults, who were prepared to put themselves on the line to protect others. Such courage and resilience from older students like 16-year-old Syrian refugee, Rafi Bukhari, who is desperate to find his younger brother, Basi, but still puts others first and helps them. Hannah bravely caring for the injured headmaster and trying to comfort him. And the teachers who stayed strong and showed such spirit; trying to keep things normal by continuing to rehearse the school play, Macbeth.

The story had a great structure and was really well layered – it built up a picture of everyone involved as we switched between characters and learnt more about them all. It made the reader question who was responsible for carrying out this awful event and why. Is it random or do the gunmen have connections to the school?

At times, the situation seems hopeless and there was such a feeling of foreboding and dread that I couldn’t see how everything was going to be resolved. I was frantically turning the pages, trying to figure out who was responsible and hoping and praying that there would be no casualties and that all the children and staff would be successfully rescued. There were some amazing twists and reveals as the book progressed; such jaw-dropping moments!

This was such an important book, really absorbing, terrifying and tense, and I read it over a couple of days. It was a powerful, intense book, with such a range of emotions, and really chilling and realistic; I could actually imagine these shocking events happening in real life.

I’m not usually a fan of maps but it would have been really handy in this instance as it would have been great to have something to refer to so that I could see how the school was laid out and where all the pupils and staff were located around the grounds!

Overall, I really enjoyed Three Hours and I’m tempted to pick it up again soon and reread it, now that I know what happens, to see if there were any clues that I missed. I’ll definitely be checking out Rosamund Lupton’s other books: Sister, Afterwards and The Quality of Silence.

Buy the book

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle on 6 January and in paperback on 9 January, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Rosamund Lupton is the author of Sister, a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book at Bedtime’, a The Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, winner of the Strand Magazine critics award and the Richard and Judy Bookclub Readers’ Choice Award. Her next two books, Afterwards and The Quality of Silence (also a Richard and Judy pick), were The Sunday Times bestsellers. Her books have been published in over 30 languages.

Twitter: @Rosamundlupton
Facebook: @RosemundLuptonAuthor
Website: rosamundlupton.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin Books for my proof copy and finished hardback copy of Three Hours and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 27 December 2019 to 1 January 2020

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 the 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.

My review

The Move tells the story of Karen, wife to Nick, mum to Ethan (19), step mum to Gabe (30) and potter, who starts afresh in a lovely country cottage in a small hamlet after a traumatic time in her life. Her husband, Nick, decides they need a new life away from the hustle and bustle of London and they buy the cottage and he spends time doing it up before Karen moves in.

The book was a descriptive, well-written snapshot of Karen’s life over the course of six months and I found it really intriguing. I had lots of questions about what had gone before and what Karen had experienced in her life. And was also left with questions about what was to follow in the future.

I was never really sure if Karen was a reliable narrator or not: she was rather delicate and obviously struggled with her mental health, for various reasons, and there were some strange occurrences at points throughout the book but it was unclear if she was imagining them or they actually happened. When she did mention any fears, Nick seemed to be rather dismissive of Karen and her emotions and was rather controlling and unpleasant.

The relationships in the book all seemed rather fraught and no one really seemed to be that happy with each other. Karen and Nick had had difficulties, part of the reason why they moved, Ethan was a typical teenager and seemed to annoy Nick whatever he did, and other characters experienced things like the death of loved ones. The villagers were an unusual mix of people and I enjoyed learning more about them as the story progressed, particularly Cath, who was an interesting character and became a good friend to Karen.

The book was an uneasy, dark read and I was waiting for something awful to happen at times! In the claustrophobic small village setting, there was a sinister undercurrent and tension running throughout the book, which was cleverly done and kept me interested. The whole book was rather mysterious and I wasn’t really sure who could be trusted; everyone seemed to be hiding something but we didn’t get to the bottom of everything by the end.

Overall, I enjoyed The Move, which was an intriguing drama rather than the psychological thriller I’d expected. I’ll be checking out another of Felicity’s novels, The People at Number 9, soon as I’ve got a copy on my bookshelf!

Buy the book

The Move by Felicity Everett can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback on 23 January 2020 and in paperback on 20 August 2020, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

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.

Twitter: @Ittymay
Facebook: @felicityeverettauthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee and Isabel Smith at HQ Stories for my copy of The Move and for my place on the blog tour.

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