Tag: Blog Tour

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Books On Tour (Review): The Leaving Party by Lesley Sanderson

I am a fan of claustrophobic movies (The Shining and Misery are two of my favorites). I have always found books a little bit more challenging to get into (the irony is not lost on me that the two movies above were books first). It is difficult to maintain interest when the action all has to take place in one location. The author needs to be very creative with the atmosphere.

I am happy to report that The Leaving Party does an excellent job of this. Not only is the claustrophobic feeling achieved (everything takes place in a house), but the author goes a step further and juxtaposes the tension of the story with a going-away party.

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I liked how the author started with a murky prologue. Was it an event in the past, or something yet to come? How does it tie into the story? I had to go back and re-read the prologue a few times during the book to try to figure it out.

The story is told from alternating points of view between Ava and Lena, with the events of a past party interspersed. The action flows smoothly, and the switches are always natural; I never felt jolted out of the narrative.

I thought that the author’s exploration of friendship and the lengths people will go to for each other was especially fascinating. How can a person tell when a friendship crosses the line? Can friends always be trusted, even to the detriment of family relations?

What I appreciated most, however, was how the author threw in a few red herrings. I take notes when I read, and in looking over them to write this review, I noticed that I had at least four different solutions to a plot point affecting Ava. I changed my mind at least that many times depending on the details the author provided. I liked that I was kept off-balance.

I do think that there were a few things that could have used more depth, but overall it was a tightly written novel with tension and a few “that did NOT just happen” moments. I would certainly recommend it.

AUTHOR BIO

Lesley spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and also works as a librarian in a multicultural school. She has lived and worked in Paris and speaks four languages. She attended the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course in 2015/6, and in 2017 was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish fiction prize. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has since been hooked on psychological thrillers. She is particularly interested in the psychology of female relationships.

www.lesleysanderson.com
https://www.facebook.com/lsandersonbooks/
https://www.instagram.com/lesleysandersonauthor/
https://twitter.com/lsandersonbooks
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Books On Tour (Review)-The Nowhere Girl by Nicole Trope

One of the most cleverly-crafted stories I have read in a while, The Nowhere Girl lives up to its tag line of a “gripping and emotional page-turner.”

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Apple Books: https://apple.co/36dNS5M
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2Wy1uV1
Googleplay: http://bit.ly/2N5oKa5

From the very first chapter, it is apparent that there are going to bad things that occur during the story, and this is undoubtedly the case. One of the strengths of this book is the author’s unflinching look at domestic abuse and its long-lasting effects.

(While the emotional impact is strong, and I felt that even as an observer, it should probably be mentioned that the descriptions of physical and child abuse are graphic and sometimes detailed. They may be extremely disturbing to some readers).

The author made a bold choice in being so descriptive, but the detail catalyzes the story. Some events can occur only because of the detailed memories that arise for both Alice and Molly.

I do not want to belabor this point, because I do not want to give anything away. The plot is tightly woven, and to mention anything more would lessen the impact of the story. The author deftly switches between Alice and Molly in the present and Margaret (their mother) in the past.

There are moments of heartbreaking sadness and deep-seated anger, despair, sacrifice, and hopefulness – honestly, the full gamut of emotions are touched upon throughout the plot. I thought that the author did an incredible job of accurately portraying the feelings of all of the characters.

I felt sympathy for all of the female characters at one point or another, although Molly’s attitude after she received certain news rubbed me the wrong way. I understand her feelings, but there were a few thoughts that I found to be troubling.

 I did think that the book ended a tad abruptly. The build-up and uncovering of the family secrets were done well, but it all seemed accelerated at the end and then it just…wrapped up. I would have liked it to be a little more even at the end, but I was still satisfied with it.

I would highly recommend this book, with a warning that the subject matter is disturbing, but treated with dignity and respect.

AUTHOR BIO

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


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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NicoleTrope/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicoletrope

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Books On Tour (Review): The Forgotten Wife by Emma Robinson

I am an active reader. Whenever I pick up a book, I hope to find something that I can grasp onto that will give me a more profound understanding of character motivations or (at the very least) I hope to learn something new. A character might go through an experience that I can relate to, or have a familiar attitude. In the case of historical fiction novels, it might be details about a little-known event.

Sometimes, however, I learn something more profound about myself that I did not expect. That was the case as I read The Forgotten Wife.

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On the surface, it is the story of two women who find strength in each other as they transition from being new neighbors to good friends. I liked how each of the women, Shelley and Lara, were fully realized characters with distinct personalities. I appreciated how the author crafted their introductions so that the reader got to know the women gradually (as they did with each other). It made me feel like I was a third party to their friendship, not just an outside observer.

I also thought the author did a fantastic job of keeping the realism in the women’s stories, again, rolled out naturally as one would divulge in a new friend. Both women had revelations and realizations about each other and themselves as they opened up to each other. But this is where it got interesting for me.

I have been fortunate never to have experienced either of the events that affected these women, which allowed me to read their stories without becoming emotionally involved. That’s not to say that I didn’t empathize with them, because I absolutely did. But I did not have the background that would have hit me on a deeper level. I have read comments on this book where people were bawling their eyes out or so emotional that they had to stop reading for a time.

I found that this stopped me in my tracks. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I was one of the people who Shelley and Lara both knew. The person who was aware of what happened to them, but didn’t have a personal connection to the event itself.

This struck me as strange because I still felt for them. I enjoyed being a part of their bonding (loved the clothing scenes) and experiencing their joy  (see what I did there?) and sadness.

I’m not doing a good job of describing this. Let me see if I can summarize it better.

The author made me feel like I was experiencing the growth of their friendship right along with them, but with a bit of detachment from the deep emotions they both went through.

I find that to be an exciting talent of the author. It is difficult to make people care about characters they have little in common with, but this author succeeded. I was rooting for both women, even as I had no real affinity for either one.

Still not sure I did a great job of explaining my thoughts. But I did thoroughly enjoy this book and loved seeing both women overcome their hurdles and (hopefully) move on to happier times. I also found out something about myself: that a personal connection to a book doesn’t always happen in the same manner and doesn’t have to be deep and meaningful to lead to the enjoyment of said book.

Author Bio

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

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

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

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Books On Tour (Review): The Perfect Sister by Sheryl Browne

Talk about a page-turner! This book was full of several twists and turns, right up to literally the last page. Trust me; you don’t want to miss this one.

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The author tells the story from alternating points of view of multiple characters. In spite of the constantly changing focus, the narrative runs smoothly. The shifts always make sense in the story and the changing perspectives give the reader more insight.

I thought the author did a fantastic job of keeping multiple balls in the air, illustrating how much Claire (the main character) had to juggle to maintain some semblance of normality. Not only was she dealing with her father whose dementia symptoms were increasing, but her husband also was non-supportive (to say the least)…and she still had a four-year-old daughter to keep safe.

The action took off almost right from the beginning, with important people and events rolled out gradually in the course of the story. There were no “gotcha!” moments that came out of left field; everything had a purpose. However, the twists were good ones and always occurred at just the right moment.

I will admit, some passages were difficult for me to read, but that is only because the author treated dementia with such care and detail. My father went through a similar decline, so a lot of memories were dredged up. As hard as that was at times, it also caused me to have more sympathy for Claire as I remember the strain that caring for Dad put on both my mom and me.

Claire’s vulnerability (borne from sheer exhaustion) makes it difficult for her to tell up from down and her emotional responses to events felt real and raw. The sudden appearance of someone with a shared past doesn’t help matters, especially when that person’s motives are questionable at best.

Without giving too much away (I hope), the author tackled the current hot topic of “believe every victim” with a deft hand in a way that fit the narrative. The blind trust we tend to put on one person’s retelling of events was on stark display, and how easy it is to manipulate people in this manner should make people think carefully.

I thought it was an excellent book with a timely perspective and lots of good psychological twists. You won’t be disappointed.

AUTHOR BIO

Sheryl Browne writes psychological thriller and edgy contemporary fiction. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’ Association and awarded a Red Ribbon by The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, Sheryl has several books published and two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing.

www.sherylbrowne.com
https://www.facebook.com/SherylBrowne.Author/
Twitter: @SherylBrowne
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Books On Tour (Review): Her Daughter's Cry by M.M. Chouinard

I read a lot, as those of you who have followed me for a while can tell.  Many of the series are crime or psychological thrillers. Over time, I have found a few favorite characters, and I get more excited when a new book in the series is released. M.M. Chouinard’s Detective Jo Fournier is one of those. Even though it’s only the third book, there are several reasons I like her so much.  

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Googleplay: http://bit.ly/2s7LSfW

I appreciate that Jo is a fully-realized character, and the author does a fantastic job of balancing Jo’s work and personal life. Everything about her seems real. In the last book, she had to deal with her dad’s cancer. The curveball she gets thrown in this book is a real doozy. The thoughts she ponders and some of her concerns made her more relatable in this book (at least to me) because we are of a similar age, and I could understand her thought process.

In spite of the complications, she still gives total focus to the case at hand, which is realistic as well. And this case is a good one. It starts as a simple memory loss/Jane Doe (even though she is covered in blood – so maybe not so simple). But it quickly becomes apparent that there is more depth to the case than there initially appears to be.

I liked the structure and varying points of view the author used. There were no indicators on the individual chapters to tell whose perspective it is from, but it was always evident. I think the narrative flowed smoothly without the abrupt changes from person to person.

Another reason this worked is that the book is divided into sections. Part One is mostly establishing the case and is from Jo’s point of view. Part Two switches to the Jane Doe – and this is where it gets interesting. We learn a lot more background since she focuses on trying to track down her memories. There are a few interspersed chapters from another perspective, but I’m not going to give that one away.

The second half of the book picks up speed as clues are followed (both by the Jane Doe and by Jo and her squad). It turned into a page-turner, especially since I was waffling about who the culprit actually was. That’s another strength of the author: giving just enough information that I questioned what I already knew.

Her Daughter’s Cry was a great read, and I would recommend the whole series (just to get caught up).

Author Bio

M.M. Chouinard’s first fiction story was published in her local paper when she was eight, and she fell in love with Agatha Christie novels not long after. While pursuing a Ph.D in psychology and helping to found the first U.S. research university of the new millennium, the stories kept rattling around inside her skull, demanding to come out. For sanity’s sake, she released them. She’s currently at work on her seventh novel.

Website: www.mmchouinard.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mmchouinardauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_m_chouinard
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Blog Tour w/Review: Watch Over Me

What a page-turner this one was. There was so much going on that it has taken me some time to process it and unpack it all. I’ll do my best to share my thoughts here, but there was a lot to take in.

On the surface, it’s a simple tale of a couple who adopts a two-year-old who had been “rescued” from an abusive home. But is it as abusive as the social worker makes it appear? That’s just one of many questions that arise throughout the book.

What secret is the adoptive mom hiding? Who is the mysterious neighbor who insinuates herself into the family’s life? Are the members of the birth family as awful as they appear to be? Who is the real brain of that family?

These (and many more) are answered in their own time. The author does not rush anything in this book and the drawn-out nature builds the tension. I appreciated this, even as it kept me reading into the night.

Another thing that caught my eye right away was the Table of Contents. When I saw that there was a “Glossary of Scottish Slang” (and saw how long it was), I got excited. I figured that nobody would go to that much trouble for just a few words here and there…and I was right.

I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters from the Johnson family point of view. The author chose to write those passages in the full dialect (hence the need for the glossary). I liked this for two main reasons. One, I enjoy “hearing” accents when I read. I am the type of person who will hear a British accent if a book takes place in London, or a Southern accent if the characters live in South Carolina.

Having the accent right there as I read made it so much easier to “hear,” not to mention the detail that went into writing in that manner. I appreciate the time it must have taken to portray the dialect accurately.

Writing those chapters in that manner also illustrated the difference between the two families vying for Bekki/Beckie. The “proper English,” as opposed to the rougher Scottish slang, was stark in the differences, which added to the gaps between the families.  

I’m not going to give anything away, because this is definitely one that you will want to read on your own to get the full impact of the twists the author cleverly puts in the story, and there are more than a few of them. This is one book that you will not want to miss!

About Jane Renshaw

As a child, Jane spent a lot of time in elaborate Lego worlds populated by tiny plastic animals and people. Crime levels were high, especially after the Dragon brothers set themselves up as vets and started murdering the animals in their ‘care’. (They got away with it by propping the victims up with Plasticine and pretending they were still alive…)

As an adult, she is still playing in imaginary worlds and putting her characters through hell – but now she can call it ‘writing’ and convince herself that she is doing something sensible. In real life, she has a PhD in genetics and copy-edits scientific and medical journals.Jane is the author of The Sweetest Poison, a crime thriller. WATCH OVER ME will be her first novel published with Inkubator Books.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaneRenshaw10
Website: https://www.janerenshaw.co.uk/
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Books On Tour (Review): The Outcast Girls by Shirley Dickson

Being on the historical fiction kick I have been on lately, I was looking forward to reading this book. I thought the premise of two girls from disparate backgrounds meeting and forming in a friendship amidst the horrors of WWII sounded intriguing.

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There were indeed several engaging moments throughout the novel, but overall I felt that the author just skimmed the surface and could have gone a lot deeper into the girls’ experiences. The concept of their meeting as Land Girls is interesting, as I didn’t know much about the program.

Getting to that point, however, was a little rough. The first chapter addresses the need to spirit Jewish children out of Berlin in the wake of Kristallnacht, and the trip made by Frieda and her brother Kurt to escape. That grabbed me right away. But then the author left them to introduce Sandra five years later (1943).

By the time we get back to Frieda in chapter six, it is also 1943, and her experiences of the previous five years are narrative, not action. I found this to be jarring because there were three chapters of Sandra and only one of Frieda to set everything up. It seemed unbalanced as if the author didn’t know where the heft of the story was.

This was my thought throughout the rest of the book as well. I did think it evened out some once the girls “met” in the program, and I was interested as their friendship grew, but the rest of the novel felt like a basic war story of love and loss. I do think the author did convey the dread and then agony felt by families when they received telegrams, and I liked how the girls bonded over their shared experiences.

All in all, this was a decent book but didn’t have as much depth as I would have liked, and I think that could have come at the beginning to set up the dire need to get children to safety out of Germany. It might have set a different tone. That being said, I did learn more about the Land Girls, though, and if I learn something new from a book, it’s a win for me!

AUTHOR BIO

Shirley Dickson was born and grew up in the seaside town of South Shields. She left school at fifteen and can’t remember a time when she didn’t write. She entered her first short story competition in ‘School Friend’ when she was eleven. After Shirley retired from auxiliary nursing, she was able to devote her time to writing. After living in various locations, she settled under the big skies of Northumberland and has lived with her husband in the same house for over forty years. Shirley has three daughters and four grandchildren and likes nothing better than family gatherings.

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Books On Tour (Review): Burning Island by Suzanne Goldring

I have been on somewhat of a historical fiction kick lately, and this book is the second in a week I have read that has a unique perspective on WWII.

I am a student of history and have long been interested in this period. As mentioned in other reviews, I have been to Dachau and studied the politics of the time. But in all of my studies, I never once gave thought to the full extent of the reach the Nazis had across Europe.

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That is just one reason that the new release from Suzanne Goldring had me fascinated from the very start. Set on the island of Corfu, Burning Island is two stories in one. The first takes place in contemporary times between 2006-2009, as Amber and James move from London to Corfu to start a new life together.

The second and more telling part of the story revolves around the removal of Jews on the island in 1944. This is an event that is seldom (if ever) relayed in history books and the part I found most interesting. It tracks a family who makes the ultimate sacrifice as Nazis take over the island and start rounding them up for shipment to the camps.

The author does a masterful job of weaving these two narratives together. I found myself getting wound up in both as the chapters switch points of view between James, Amber, and Rebekka, the oldest daughter of the Jewish family. The transitions were seamless; even over time and differing perspectives, the story flowed smoothly.

I thought that the chapters detailing Rebekka’s story were exceptionally well-done. The author conveyed the dismay and disbelief the townspeople had while also illuminating the sheer evil of the Nazi goals. Balancing the hope of the people in the face of the callousness of the Nazis is tricky, but the author succeeds. It still remains that the tragedy is overwhelming.

As always, I will not give away the plot points, as everything develops naturally, and I think it is essential for readers to discover the parallels on their own. I will say, however, that I did love how the person who embraced the history of the island and took the time to understand it is the person who got the most out of the life they chose. I know that’s cryptic, but honestly, you have to read it to understand it.

Once again, as with The Fortunate Ones by Catherine Hokin, this author also brings up an interesting perspective on the Nazi period. This time it’s how the younger generation of Germans felt when they realized what their parents and grandparents and been a part of (whether willingly or not); this point of view could have used some more elaboration, but I liked how the author addressed it.

Ultimately, the two stories do come around to each other in a satisfying way. I did think that the book ended rather abruptly. I think a reflection or two from a couple of characters would have been the emotional ending that the story warranted. But the events in the last third of the book do wrap up the plots (very satisfying) and leave the reader with many thoughts to ponder.

I loved My Name is Eva and was excited to read this second book from the author. I was not disappointed, and you won’t be either.

AUTHOR BIO

Following an eventful career as a public relations consultant, specialising in business and travel, Suzanne Goldring turned to writing the kind of novels she likes to read, about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Her debut novel MY NAME IS EVA draws on her experience of volunteering in a care home and was partially inspired by a cache of wartime love letters which were saved from the flames. Her second novel, BURNING ISLAND, is set in Corfu, a place of fun and beauty but also tremendous tragedy.
Suzanne writes in her thatched cottage in Hampshire and a seaside cottage in Cornwall. 

https://www.facebook.com/suzannegoldringauthor

https://twitter.com/suzannegoldring  

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Books On Tour (Review): Her Secret Past by Kerry Watts

I thought that the plot of this novel had a lot going for it. It starts with a graphic murder in the past and then skips ahead to a similar crime in the present. What follows is the investigation of the current case, with some interspersed flashbacks to the time after the first murder.

BUY LINK: https://geni.us/B0813N28BDSocial

Sound a little convoluted? Unfortunately, it is. The murder investigation is relatively straightforward; it’s all the extraneous plotlines that muddle things up. Detective Jessie Black has a budding romance and the reappearance of an abusive ex to deal with in addition to following the clues to find the killer.

Autism, domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, severe alcoholism…they all make appearances. Taken individually, they are important issues to tackle. In the course of this plot, however, it just seems like the author tried to do too much.  

I admire that the effort was made to make things interesting, and there were a few twists that worked well. I did appreciate that what was one of the bigger “reveals” occurred relatively early in the book, as it allowed other questions to arise. This did make a couple of points more interesting as well.

All in all, it was a good book that could have been made better by some editing and tightening. I would still recommend it as a decent crime procedural.

Author Bio

Kerry Watts was born and grew up in a small town in the East of Scotland where she still lives today. She is always writing and carries a little notebook and pen with her wherever she goes because at her age ideas need to be captured before they disappear. 
Kerry specialises in crime fiction because she enjoys pushing the boundaries of what it is to be human. The nature versus nurture debate.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/KerryWattsAuthor/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Denmanisfab
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Books On Tour (Review): Tell Me Lies by Ed James

I love a good story that makes me feel like I’m watching a tv show or movie, and this first book in a new crime thriller series is a perfect example.

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I thought the author did an exceptional job of introducing the characters gradually. The descriptions weren’t just info dumps or exposition. In other words, I liked being able to figure out the motivations and backgrounds rather than just being told what they were.

I also appreciated that the action moved along swiftly. There were no long periods of introspection or self-evaluation. Every event or comment had a purpose and added to the story.

While I’m on the action aspect, I particularly liked that the points of view changed between the FBI agent  (Carter), the Senator (Holliday), and the kidnapper (Mason). I thought it was easy to follow and gave me clues to the bigger picture.

The plot itself is also timely; a senator’s kids are kidnapped. The kidnappers’ are looking for some “truth” from the senator (who obviously has something to hide), and the FBI agent in question is trying to find the children while figuring out what the senator knows (but isn’t telling). It all makes for some “Oh wow!” moments.

If this first book is any indication, Carter is a hero I can get behind, and I look forward to reading more of his cases in the future.

Author Bio

Ed James is the author of multiple series of crime novels.

The bestselling DI Simon Fenchurch series is set in East London and published by Thomas & Mercer.

The self-published Scott Cullen series of Scottish police procedurals features a young Edinburgh Detective Constable investigating crimes from the bottom rung of the career ladder he’s desperate to climb. The first book, “Ghost in the Machine”, has been downloaded over 400,000 times, hitting both the Amazon UK & US top five.

The Craig Hunter books is a sister series to the Cullen novels, with a PTSD-suffering ex-squaddie now working as a cop investigating sexual abuse cases. With lots of slapstick and banter.

Ed lives in East Lothian, Scotland and writes full-time, but used to work in IT project management, where he filled his weekly commute to London by literally writing on planes, trains and automobiles.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Mailing list — http://bit.ly/EJMail
Email — ed@edjames.co.uk
Twitter — http://www.twitter.com/edjamesauthor
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