📖 Book Review ~ The Last Mrs Sinclair by T J Emerson

Boldwood Books
26 March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book 

Leah Williams knows exactly what she wants from life – comfort, luxury and security. All the things she would have had if her childhood hadn’t been derailed by her father’s bad decisions. And then she meets Miles Sinclair. After the death of his wife last year, Miles is ready to start living his life again, and Leah knows just how to help him… what could be so wrong with that?

When Miles takes Leah to his chateau in the French countryside, she's excited to get a taste of the life she deserves, even if it means enduring the presence of Miles’ cousin Vivienne, who seems determined to insert the memory of his dead wife into every conversation.

But the Chateau Clairvallon has a history, not least as the place where the last Mrs Sinclair died. And as Leah discovers more about the accident that took her predecessor's life, she begins to realise that the family she's set her sights on isn't quite what it seems.

📖My Review..

Oh my word, what a tangled web of lies this turned out to be. Quite delicious in the way it manipulated both the characters and the reader so that you’re left with a wry smile at the end.

Leah Williams is a beautiful young woman, who knows what she wants and once she is approached by Miles Sinclair in swanky London bar, she wants what he has to offer. He’s rich, a grieving widower, and seems to be so beguiled by Leah that their thirty year age gap is no barrier to lust.  Once at Miles’ chateau in France, their relationship strengthens and the only down side of this idyllic setting is the domineering presence of Miles’ cousin, Vivienne, who acts as chatelaine of the chateau, and who is a constant reminder of the past.

All is not what it seems at the chateau, there’s a definite sinister edginess and some deadly secrets about what happened to the last Mrs Sinclair and with some clever twists I didn’t see coming The Last Mrs Sinclair is a definite page turner.

About the Author 

T.J. Emerson’s debut psychological thriller was published by Legend Press and received brilliant reviews. Her short stories and features have been widely published in anthologies and magazines, and she works as a literary consultant and writing tutor. She lives in Scotland.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ The Lavender Bride by Alexandra Weston

Boldwood Books
28 March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book 
And to Rachel’s RandomResources forthe invitation to the blog tour

 

An English rose with American dreams

Audrey Wade longs to escape her domineering father and the bleak streets of post-war Yorkshire. Hollywood glitters with glamour, freedom, and the promise of a life with her best friend Freddie. But when Freddie abandons her, Audrey is left to chase her dreams alone.

A Heartthrob with secrets

Rex Trent is more than Hollywood’s leading man. Charismatic and dangerously handsome, he’s adored by millions and watched by powerful enemies in a paranoid 1950s America. One wrong move could destroy him.

A romance born of ambition and betrayal

When Rex proposes, Audrey is swept into Hollywood’s glamour and high-stakes secrets. But she soon discovers Rex’s dark side and faces a choice: cling to a man who may never love her, or risk everything to forge her own path?

📖 My Review..

Set during the golden age of Hollywood when swoonworthy leading men made hearts flutter all across the globe but some were hiding secret lives which if discovered would inevitably bring their Hollywood dream to a close. Yorkshire born Audrey Wade has escaped her dismal life in post war Sheffield determined to live her best life but the reality of tinsel town is hardly the stuff of her school girls dreams, that is, until she meets Rex Trent at the talent agency where she is a lowly secretary and he a high flying cinema star.

This is a fascinating look at the cinema industry’s grubby hidden side and as we get taken deeper into Audrey’s relationship with Rex so we begin to understand the depth of deception. The Hollywood of the 1950s comes alive, the costumes, the films and the people all succeed in making it feel authentically real. I have enjoyed getting to know Audrey, her initial naivety is refreshing but later she had such strength of character that I couldn’t help but want her to succeed in a world which was tarnished from the start. I was less keen Rex but he was a product of his time, and his story succeeded in laying out a few Hollywood home truths. I wasn’t aware of the meaning of a lavender bride but I had my suspicions from the start which made the outcome of the story all the more compelling.

The Lavender Bride is a beautifully written glimpse into the glitzy world of Hollywood glamour which gradually reveals that all that glitters isn’t always gold.

About the Author

Alexandra Weston writes historical fiction. She has a MA in Creative Writing from York St John University. She has a lifelong passion for history and loves visiting stately homes, museums and old churches. She also writes fantasy as Alys West. She lives with her partner and a ginger cat called Wilf in East Yorkshire. She sings with her local community choir and loves live music, hanging out in bookshops and eating cake.

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📖 Book of My Month ~ Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths

Random House
Transworld 

27 March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book

 

Who will cast the first stone?

1915, the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire. An isolated Scottish community is disturbed by a strange discovery : a body in a peat bog, perfectly preserved. Two people haul the body from the ground Lizzie : the wife of a wealthy local landowner, and Johnny, a nomadic singer and farm hand. At hearthside and inn, people whisper : what have we unearthed?

One unveiling brings others. For Lizzie, tenacious but trapped, the discovery reveals unanswered questions about her past while for Johnny, it threatens to uncover a history he’s trying to outrun.

As their stories entwine, a series of unsettling events befalls the isolated ruinous weather, a damaged soldier, strange occurrences that cannot be explained. Against the echoes of distant war, and with the boundaries blurring between right and wrong, everyone is looking for someone to blame…

📖 My Review..

An isolated Scottish community, a place filled with secrets, a bad harvest and the call to war, all combine to make local feelings run high, add into the mix a preserved body found in an ancient peat bog and you have all the right ingredients for a story which is rich in folklore, strong on superstition and thick with jealousy. 

It is 1915 when the bulk of the story takes place and though everything seems to run smoothly, it is a place of secrets. Johnny is a charmer, likes a dram or two of whisky, ekes out a living from the land and takes work wherever he finds it, whilst Lizzie Calder lives in the big house, she is married to William, a wealthy local man who signs up as soon as war is declared. On the surface, Johnny and Lizzie have little in common other than a desire to discover more about the peat woman, despite locals thinking that she was once a witch and is therefore the cause of all the misfortune which has recently befallen the village.

Beautifully written, with a sparseness which mimics the bleakness of its setting, this imaginative novel reveals its secrets ever so slowly. Harsh complexities sit alongside hidden nuances so that it becomes impossible to know where the truth lies. Johnny is an unlikely hero and Lizzie an unlikely heroine but their combined stories work so well that days after finishing the novel I’m still blown away both by the story and the characters, and so for that reason I’m delighted to make it the Book of My Month for April.

About the Author

Gabrielle Griffiths grew up in Aberdeenshire and now lives in Brighton. She was a Madeleine Milburn Agency mentee in 2021 and is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ The English Wife by Anna Stuart

Bookouture
26 March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to be part of the blog tour

1940, England: Clementine Churchill is standing alone on a rooftop in London as bombs rain down on the city when a nearby explosion almost knocks her off her feet. Shaking, she rushes homewards to 10 Downing Street and breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the famous building is still there. It means the Prime Minister – her husband – is still alive.

Stepping into Winston’s reassuring arms, she hears his steady heartbeat. She knew from the day they married thirty years ago that he wanted to lead the country. Since then, they’ve been a partnership in love and in politics. Tragedy once almost tore them apart… but now, Winston is Prime Minister, just as he always dreamed. Except, with the war against Hitler, it’s a much bigger responsibility than either of them ever expected: The world needs Winston, and Winston needs her.

While Winston co-ordinates battles across Europe, Clementine finds herself in the spotlight for the first time. Her husband’s name may be on the lips of every soldier and politician but she knows as she visits hospitals and campaigns for better conditions in air raid shelters, that the ordinary people speak her name just as much. She realises she has the potential to make a difference – not as Winston’s shadow in the background but as Clementine Churchill.

One evening, as she looks into Winston’s dear face, Clementine can tell his bravery comes at a cost. But can she overcome the heartbreaking loss in her past to help the man she loves succeed? And, together, can they finish the fight for freedom?

📖 My Review..

I knew, of course, of Winston Churchill, that charismatic prime minister who kept the country buoyant in the face of a German invasion during the dark days of WW2 but I knew very little of his wife, Clementine, who really was the woman very much standing shoulder to shoulder with her more famous husband. We follow Clementine during the momentous years of the war as she takes on a more practical role, her pragmatic approach to getting the job done is impressive, as is her unquestioning support of her husband and the burden he carries. Alongside, is the story of American journalist, Jenny Miller, who together with her husband, Ned, is based in London. Their updates on American radio relay the consequences of this devastating war on the ordinary man and woman in the street. After the attack on Pearl Harbour, in December 1941, the American involvement in the war adds whole different dimension to the story.

I thought this was a fascinating story, beautifully written and authentic in its description of London life during the Blitz. The compelling description of Clemmies’s life, her commitment to duty and public service and also of the strong, loving and resolute relationship between herself and Churchill comes vividly to life. All too often we hear about the lives of the men of WW2, so it’s been a real delight to read about the women, those stalwart women who calmly went about their lives doing whatever they could to make life just a little more bearable. This comes across wonderfully well, and I raced through the story eager to know more about both Clementine and Jenny, both strong woman with really interesting stories to tell.

About the Author

Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge university, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels. Anna loves the way that writing lets her ‘try on’ so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers.

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📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Weather from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press 
March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of this pamphlet 

The weather is always a good topic of conversation, especially if we don’t know the other person very well. Wherever we are on the planet we can’t help noticing when it’s too hot or too cold or something in between.

In these ten poems we encounter everything from drought to a hurricane, taking in fog, snow and spring sunshine on the way. It goes without saying that there is also more than enough rain. The poems don’t merely describe weather; they also capture how it can induce in us particular feelings and states of mind. In one poem, rain creates a very particular atmosphere:


“I love the privacy of rain,
the way it makes things happen
on verandahs, under canopies
or in the shelter of trees…”

from ‘Privacy of rain’ by Helen Dunmore

The poems are as varied as weather itself, taking us through the changing seasons and relishing the inevitable surprises that come along the way.

Edited by poet Graham Mort who takes pleasure in the ever-changing skies of England’s North-West.

Poems by Emily Brontë, John Clare, Gillian Clarke, Helen Dunmore, Norman MacCaig, Graham Mort, GracecNicholls, Sheenagh Pugh, Neil Rollinson and Annette Volfing.

Cover illustration by Melissa Lhoirit.

📖 My Review ..

Weather is always a favourite topic of conversation. We seem to delight in the perverse nature of our British climate and have learned to be thankful that we don’t get the violent extremes so often seen in other parts of the world. However, with global climate changes, our own weather is becoming increasingly more unpredictable, with hotter summers and wetter winters, and with erratic unseasonal highs and lows of temperature.

This fine collection of ten poems about weather is a diverse and entertaining look at the vagaries of climate and our different perspectives on all forms of weather. They conjure warm days, cold days, being caught in the rain days, buffeted by wind, closed off by fog or despairing in drought. We have snow and thaw and the cottonwool fluffiness of clouds. 

There is  something quite special about being in the rain :

From Privacy of rain by Helen Dunmore

“ I love the privacy of rain

The way it makes things happen

on verandas, under canopies

or in the shelter of trees..”

Emily Brontë keeps us Spellbound in this beautiful verse :

 “ The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go..”

 

Beautifully produced to a high standard and perfectly capturing all our thoughts, feelings and the myriad emotions which we express collectively about the weather, this lovely pamphlet is an ideal gift instead of a card for anyone who looks out of the window muttering, not rain....again ! 

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ A Gentleman’s Offer by Emma Orchard

Boldwood Books
22 March 2025


Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book
And to Rachel’s random resources for the invitation to the tour

June, 1817

Sir Dominic De Lacy – one of the season’s most eligible gentlemen – has recently proposed marriage… to a woman he scarcely knows. But his father’s choice for him, Miss Maria Nightingale, seems amiable, and at 29, Dominic cannot live the life of a bachelor forever. He hopes he can provide a happy future for her as they learn to care for each other.

Maria, however, has other ideas. Midway through their engagement celebrations, she confesses to Dominic that she is not Maria at all, but her identical twin sister, Margaret. Maria has disappeared, and Margaret’s been persuaded to take her place until she’s found – and for that she needs Dominic’s help. The pair quickly find they make a formidable team, but with just three weeks to avoid the biggest scandal of the season, time is against them.

But even if they find Maria, can they really hope the wedding will happen? Because, as they are starting to realise, chemistry can’t be arranged – and Sir Dominic might just be engaged to the wrong Miss Nightingale...

📖 My Review..

Dominic De Lacy is indifferent to marriage however, at the age of twenty-nine, it is his duty to take a wife and his late father’s wish is that he marries Miss Maria Nightingale, a young woman he doesn’t know well but who accepts his proposal with no resistance and little enthusiasm. With the marriage only weeks away Dominic is astonished to discover that his fiancé is actually not his fiancé at all but is in fact her identical twin sister, Margaret. The reason for this subterfuge becomes evident as the story progresses and as we become more involved in the consequences of this masquerade so we get to learn more about both Dominic and Margaret (Meg).

The door opens into this regency world with all the lovely attention to detail we have come to expect from this author’s historical novels. It’s a delightful romp, beautifully imagined, with sparkling dialogue and all the wit you would associate with a classic Regency romance, and if you have to suspend belief a little, isn’t that what good fiction is all about? Stepping into this world which the author brings so vividly to life is a real delight, her characters leap fully formed from the page, taking you into their confidence and all the while tender little snippets of romance start to twirl around, making the sizzle of sexual attraction between Dominic and Meg all the more tantalising.

A Gentleman’s Offer is pure historical escapism from start to finish, I enjoyed trying to work out how all the threads would come together and I finished this lovely story with a satisfied smile.

About The Author

Emma Orchard grew up in Salford and was given tickets to the grown-up library at the age of 11 because she’d read all the children’s books and the librarians were sick of the sight of her. She became obsessed with Georgette Heyer and hasn’t stopped reading her novels since. She studied English Literature at university and went on to work at Mills & Boon and behind the scenes in television and in publishing.

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📖 Book Review ~ The Honeymoon by Gemma Rogers

Boldwood
October 2024

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book 

 

In a split second, your whole world crashes around you…

My wedding was the perfect whirlwind of a day. The happiest I’d ever been. That was until I discovered my beloved husband, Ryan, tucked away in a compromising summer house clinch with Liza, his best friend’s wife.

Reeling with this ultimate betrayal, my world in freefall, with nowhere to turn, I flee my own wedding unable to face anyone, not even my family. I just want to escape this nightmare.

With our flight, to our luxury honeymoon leaving in a matter of hours, could ten blissful days of Cretan Island life, minus my cheating husband help me figure out my future? It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

After a few blissful days of sunshine, my peace is shattered with the arrival of my husband, denying everything.

It seems he’s got secrets. Big secrets. More than I could ever have imagined.

With my marriage all but dead I just need to get through the honeymoon and then it'll all be over... won't it?

📖 My Review..

When newlywed Kelly finds her husband in a compromising clinch with his best friend’s wife she is distraught and abandons her wedding reception and leaves for her honeymoon, alone.  With her marriage over before it’s begun, Kelly decides to use the honeymoon to decide what to do next but is horrified when her cheating husband arrives along with two other surprise guests.

This is definitely one of those stories which is better off read in one sitting or at least within a few days because once started you can’t stop but wonder what on earth is going to happen next to Kelly. Even her idyllic honeymoon retreat is filled with one crisis after another, it was hard to imagine how so much misfortune could befall someone in the space of just a few days. Cleverly written, with twists and turns galore The Honeymoon is really a story of two halves, one of the honeymoon period in Crete and the other when Kelly and her cheating husband, Ryan, arrive back home, that’s when the story takes a decidedly sinister turn which had me on the edge of my seat.

The Honeymoon is fast paced domestic thriller which kept me entertained from start to finish.

About the Author

Gemma Rogers was inspired to write gritty thrillers by a traumatic event in her own life nearly twenty years ago. Her debut novel Stalker was published in September 2019 and marked the beginning of a new writing career. Gemma lives in West Sussex with her husband and two daughters.

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