Review and #Giveaway ~ The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat

November 2018

My thanks to the author for my ecopy of this book

The thunderclap of sexual revolution collides with the black cloud of illegitimacy. 

Sixteen-year-old Lindsay Townsend is pretty and popular at school. At home, it’s a different story. Dad belts her and Mum’s either busy or battling a migraine. So when sexy school-teacher Jon Halliwell finds her irresistible, Lindsay believes life is about to change. 

She’s not wrong. 

Lindsay and Jon pursue their affair in secret, because if the school finds out, Jon will lose his job. If Lindsay’s dad finds out, there will be hell to pay. But when a dramatic accident turns her life upside down, Lindsay is separated from the man she loves. 

Events spiral beyond her control, emotions conflicting with doubt, loneliness and fear, and Lindsay becomes enmeshed in a shocking true-life Australian scandal. The schoolyard beauty will discover the dangerous games of the adult world. Games that destroy lives. 

Lindsay is forced into the toughest choice of her young life. The resulting trauma will forever burden her heart.

My thoughts about the book..

During a long, hot, Australian summer, Lindsay Townsend attracts the attention of the rather handsome surfer, Jon Halliwell. Lindsay thrives on his attention and before long their relationship develops into something rather more intimate, which complicates matters because Lindsay is only sixteen and Jon is her high school teacher.

The story that follows and Lindsay's journey from girlhood to womanhood embraces all that was wrong with the sexual revolution in the early 1970s. Forced to grow up way before her time, Lindsay realises that she is caught up in events which she really has no control over, and that's where the heart of the story lies and where the writing becomes really compelling.

The author describes what happens to Lindsay, and I'm not about to spoil the story by giving the plot away, but safe to say that a great deal of research has gone into describing a situation which happened to so many girls. and as the story progresses it really makes you stop and consider just how lucky we are that times have changed.

The Swooping Magpie is an emotional story, with some sections so realistic that it's quite hard to read without feeling enormous sympathy for Lindsay and what she endured. Time and place come alive so beautifully that I felt like I walked every step of Lindsay's emotional journey alongside her. The hedonistic days of a 1970s summer which seemed to go on forever, combined with the pain and passion of first love, and the evocative scent of sea and salt which lingers in the air will remain with me for a long time.

The Swooping Magpie is the second book in the Australian series which is set in the 1970s and the author has, once again, delivered an emotional and thought-provoking story, which is both compelling and desperately sad in equal measure.

I'm really excited to have the chance to offer 5 copies of The Swooping Magpie in this giveaway.Do enter 😊

About The Author

Liza grew up in Australia, working as a general nurse and midwife. She has now been living in France for over twenty years, where she works as a part-time medical translator and a novelist. She is the author of the historical The Bone Angel series. The first, Spirit of Lost Angels, is set in 18th century revolutionary France. The second, Wolfsangel, is set during the WW2 Nazi Occupation and the French Resistance, and the third novel – Blood Rose Angel –– is set during the 14th century Black Plague years.

Website

Twitter @LizaPerrat

Amazon UK

By clicking here : You can read an interview with the author into the background to The Swooping Magpie and here's the chance to win an ecopy of the book 😊

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