☼ Summer Reading Blog Tour ~ Love on the Island by Jessica Gilmore

 

Destination ... GREECE ☼

Orion
3 August 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book and the invitation to the blog tour

One week.

Two couples.

A holiday they'll never forget...

Indi Drewe is turning thirty and is exactly where she wants to she's on the cusp of a promotion, lives in her gorgeous London flat and is sure her perfect-on-paper boyfriend, Will, is about to propose...

Only, on the night she'd hoped Will would present her with a sparkling diamond ring, she finds out that her younger sister Jade is getting married to a man she's known only for a few weeks!

Worried her sister is about to make a terrible mistake, she immediately flies out to visit her sister in Greece - and is shocked to discover she's sharing her villa with a far-too-handsome (and perpetually shirtless) stranger, Mikhos.

Indi and Mikhos might be each other's worst nightmare, but together, they only have days to stop the wedding before it's too late! Yet with so much love in the air on this paradise island, will they be able to resist falling for each other, too?

📖 My Review..

Indi Drewe is at a crossroads in her life and with her thirtieth birthday looming she decides, on the spur of the moment, to visit her younger sister, Jade, who is working on a privately owned Greek island. Worried that Jade is about to make a huge mistake by becoming engaged to her Greek boyfriend, Indi goes into 'big sister' mode in the hope of saving Jade from rushing into marriage. However, on Agios Iohannis, with its postcard perfect setting and with the warm Greek sunshine and gently lapping sea, Indi discovers that this idyllic Greek island, with its peace and tranquility, may be about to lead her own life in a whole new direction.

Love on the Island is a wonderful staycation read so that even if you’re not travelling to an idyllic Greek island this summer you can still experience all the sights, sounds and summery tastes of this wonderfully romantic story. The Greek setting is just so beautifully described that it makes you feel like you are there, sipping mocktails, with Indi and Jade in the beautiful island bar. The author has done a great job of bringing the story to life and I especially enjoyed the alternate chapters from both Indi and Jade’s perspective but it is in the burgeoning relationship between Indi and, island owner, Mikhos, where the hot summer romance really starts to sizzle.

Love on the Island is the perfect pick me up for a rainy British summer or better still on a Greek island soaking up the sunshine.

About the Author

After several very happy years as a bookseller, Jessica Gilmore moved into the charity sector and now works in the Arts, living out her Noel Streatfeild dreams by walking through the Stage Door every morning. Married with one daughter, two dogs and two dog-loathing cats, she lives in the beautiful Chilterns where she can usually be found with her nose in a book. A lover of a happy-ever-after, Jessica loves to write emotional romance with a hint of humour and a splash of sunshine.

Twitter @yrosered #LoveOnTheIsland

Website

@orionbooks

📖 Book Review ~ The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola

 

Orion 
2 March 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Paris, 1750.

In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city's celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter.

Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.

For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker's intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem.

And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles...

A intoxicating story of obsession, illusion and the price of freedom.

📖 My Review...

Into the festering world of eighteenth century Paris we move from the debauched atmosphere of the brothel where Madeleine Chastel lives with her mother, sister and young nephew, into the sinister world of Dr Maximilian Reinhart, an expert clock maker, with an interest in creating automaton. Reinhart employs Madeleine, not only as a chambrière, in his house where shadows lurk in every dark corner, but also as a femme de chambre to his seventeen year old daughter, Véronique. 

The story moves seamlessly between the mean and moody streets of Paris where children seem to be vanishing into the ether, to the decadent luxury of the French court of Louis XIV, where the King wiles away his time ensconced with Madame de Pompador, his maîtresse-en-titre, whose own obsession in the macabre is never far from the surface. The sinister atmosphere allows a fascinating glimpse into this shadowy world and through it all Madeleine and Véronique try to keep one step ahead of a deadly game.

Beautifully written, The Clockwork Girl is this author writing at her absolute best in a story which takes you whirling back to a long ago era where the streets were dark and the Parisian gutters reeked of sewage and bitter despair. 

📖 Best read with...a steadying cup of wine and a hot house orange

About the Author

Anna Mazzola is an award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist. Her debut novel, THE UNSEEING, won an Edgar Award in the US and was nominated for the Historical Writers’ Association’s Debut Crown in the UK. Her second novel, The Story Keeper, was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize.

Twitter @anna_mazz #TheClockworkGirl

@orionbooks

🎄 Festive Read ~ The 12 Days of Christmas by Poppy Alexander

 

🎄Festive Reads 2021🎄

Orion
11 November 2021

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book

The most magical time of the year...

For the first time in ten years, Freya is back in the little village of Middlemass for Christmas. The streets might be twinkling with fairy lights, but after the recent loss of her mother, she's never felt less festive.

Forced to sleep under the same roof as her handsome neighbour Finn, Freya realises she's going to need a distraction - fast! So she sets herself a challenge: to cook the '12 Days of Christmas'. Her delicious food soon brings the villagers together, and as each day passes, old friendships are renewed, memories stirred and there's even the flickering of romance...

She was only meant to stay for the holidays, but could Middlemass - and Finn - steal her heart forever?

🎄My thoughts..

After devastating news, Freya arrives back in Middlemass on Christmas Eve and is feeling a little bit lost and forlorn until she is rescued by Finn, who she remembers from the time when, as a teenager, she once had a bit of a crush on him. However, when her job with a top chef took her to the dizzy heights of Paris, Freya lost touch with all those people in Middlemass who had once meant so much to her. With nowhere else to go Freya agrees to stay with Finn for Christmas on the agreement that she cooks for him her unique version of the 12 days of Christmas.

What then follows is a lovely story which looks at the bonds of friendship and the importance of valuing those people around us. Whilst there is an undeniably festive feel to the story especially when Freya starts to cook her 12 days of Christmas meals, there is also the tender story of how Freya learns  to cope with her tragic loss and shows that with friends around she can overcome anything The sumptuous descriptions of Freya's wonderful meals quite made my mouth water especially her meringue swans which were so lovingly described that they quite literally leapt off the page and onto my plate. For those so inclined, the author has provided the recipes to make your own 12 days of Christmas culinary delights.

With a pinch of sorrow, a cup of friendship, and a dash of romance all mixed together, The 12 Days of Christmas is a beautifully written festive story.

About the Author

Poppy Alexander wrote her first book when she was five. There was a long gap in her writing career while she was at school, and after studying classical music at university, she decided the world of music was better off without her and took up public relations, campaigning, political lobbying and a bit of journalism instead. She takes an anthropological interest in family, friends and life in her West Sussex village (think, The Archers crossed with Twin Peaks) where she lives with her husband, children and various other pets.

Twitter @SarahWaights #12DaysofChristmas

@orionbooks

Blog Tour ~ The Puritan Princess by Miranda Malins ☼

☼ On Hist Fic Saturday ☼ 

Let's go back to ...1659

Jaffareadstoo is excited to host today's stop on this blog tour 

Orion
April 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour.

London, 1657

The youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, eighteen-year-old Frances is finding her place at England's new centre of power.

Following the turmoil of Civil War, a fragile sense of stability has returned to the country. Her father has risen to the unprecedented position of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and Frances has found herself transported from her humble childhood home to the sumptuous palaces of Hampton Court and Whitehall, where she dreams of a love match that must surely be found at court.

But after an assassination attempt on the Cromwell family, Frances realises the precarious danger of her position - and when her father is officially offered the crown, Frances's fate suddenly assumes diplomatic and dynastic importance.

Will she become a political pawn, or can Frances use her new status to seize control and further her own ambitions?

What did I think about it..

I've a vague notion of Oliver Cromwell as a stern and rather bluff figure who accepted his role as Protectorate with a rather grumpy sort of grace and who, with Puritanical zeal, cancelled Christmas, closed down theatres and forced everyone to wear monochrome.  

Reading The Puritan Princess, fiction based on fact, brought the Cromwells into sharp focus and showed a family who were taken out of their rural comfort zone and transplanted into the opulent trappings of, to all intents and purposes, undeniable monarchy, even to being addressed by their Whitehall courtiers as 'your highness'. I discovered such a lot about life at the Cromwellian Court and not just that Cromwell wasn't really grumpy but rather that he was a considered and pragmatic statesman, who, regardless of his grisly fate, left England in a better state than when he found it. 

However, whilst Cromwell as a ruler is fascinating, this interesting historical account focuses on eighteen-year old Frances Cromwell, the youngest of Cromwell's brood of children. Frances, the eponymous puritan princess, is an interesting character and watching how she progresses, from ingénue to accomplished young woman, is made all the more interesting by the author's skill in bringing both Frances and court life alive in the imagination. Throughout the story there is both danger and intrigue, in fact, everything you would expect from living life at court and yet, there is also an aching vulnerability, as Frances and the family learn to cope with complicated politics and the ever present threat of danger.

It's been such a treat to read this story about the Cromwells and whilst there's an inevitability about what happens, as we know the outcome for the country after Cromwell's death, it has been really lovely to find out more about the family, and in particular Frances and Mary, two siblings who had such a strong bond. The author writes well and using her extensive knowledge of this period brings together a novel which is both authentic and beautifully researched. A little bit slow at the beginning but once the place, people and history start to become settled in the imagination so the whole story starts to comes alive.

The Puritan Princess is a fascinating fictional account of court and family life during one of the more turbulent periods in our history. I look forward to seeing what this talented author does next.

About the Author

Miranda is a writer and historian specialising in the history of Oliver Cromwell, his family and the politics of the Interregnum period following the Civil Wars. She studied at Cambridge University, leaving with a PhD, and continues to speak at conferences and publish journal articles and book reviews. She is also a Trustee of the Cromwell Association. Alongside this, Miranda works as a commercial solicitor in the City and began writing historical novels on maternity leave. She lives in Hampshire with her husband, young son and cat, Keats. The Puritan Princess is her debut novel.

Website

Twitter@mirandamalins #ThePuritanPrincess

@OrionBooks @midaspr

Amazon UK

Review ~ Scorpions in Corinth by J M Alvey

Orion
5 September

Philocles #2

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Popular playwright Philocles and his actors are hired to take his latest play to Corinth, to promote goodwill between the two cities. But on arrival, their guide and fixer Eumelos drops dead - a victim of poison.

Philocles is convinced someone is out to sabotage the play, and to find out who - and why - he must first uncover the murderer.

But in Corinth the ruling oligarchs seem more interested in commerce than justice. And with the city's religious brotherhoods pursuing their own vicious rivalries, asking the wrong questions could get an outsider like Philocles killed.

What did I think about it...

At the beginning of 2019 I enjoyed reading Shadows of Athens, which is this authors first historical mystery, so I was delighted to read this second thriller in the series, which, once again focuses the attention on playwright, Philocles, and his troop of actors, who always seem to get drawn into a particularly challenging murder/mystery. Travelling from Athens to perform their latest production in Corinth should be straightforward but then their guide, Eumelos, drops dead, seemingly as a result of poisoning.

What then follows is a classic whodunnit in which Philocles, and his disparate group of actors, get drawn into trying to discover just who responsible for the death of Eumelos whilst at the same time trying to keep the peace in a different sort of setting and with a culture that is unlike what they are used to in Athens.

The author writes this type of historical mystery with a good eye for detail and brings the ancient classical world to life in a meaningful way. There are twists and turns aplenty and the plot travelled along quite nicely with more than enough going on to keep me guessing. Scorpions in Corinth is an interesting murder/ mystery which I am sure will appeal to those who enjoy reading about the classical world of ancient Greece and whilst book #2 can be read as an enjoyable standalone it would be better to get to know the idiosyncrasies of Philocles, and his actors, by reading Shadows of Athens first.

About the Author

J M Alvey studied Classics at Oxford in the 1980s. As an undergraduate, notable achievements in startling tutors included citing the comedic principles of Benny Hill in a paper on Aristophanes and using military war-gaming rules to analyse and explain apparent contradictions in historic accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae. Crime fiction was always relaxation reading and that love of mysteries and thrillers continued through a subsequent, varied career, alongside an abiding fascination with history and the ancient world. These interests have all now come together in the first adventure of Philocles Hestaiou, comic playwright and pen for hire in classical Athens.

Twitter @AlveyAuthor  #ScorpionsInCorinth

@OrionBooks

Amazon UK

A very Happy Publication Day to Scorpions in Corinth by J M Alvey..

✨✨Happy Publication Day✨✨

Published by Orion on 5th September 2019, paperback original, £8.99. Also available in eBook. 

Orion
5th September

My thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to share this information

Popular playwright Philocles and his actors are hired to take his latest play to Corinth, to promote goodwill between the two cities. But on arrival, their guide and fixer Eumelos drops dead - a victim of poison. 

Philocles is convinced someone is out to sabotage the play, and to find out who - and why - he must first uncover the murderer. 

But in Corinth the ruling oligarchs seem more interested in commerce than justice. And with the city's religious brotherhoods pursuing their own vicious rivalries, asking the wrong questions could get an outsider like Philocles killed . . .

About the Author

J M Alvey studied Classics at Oxford in the 1980s. As an undergraduate, notable achievements in startling tutors included citing the comedic principles of Benny Hill in a paper on Aristophanes and using military war-gaming rules to analyse and explain apparent contradictions in historic accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae. Crime fiction was always relaxation reading and that love of mysteries and thrillers continued through a subsequent, varied career, alongside an abiding fascination with history and the ancient world. These interests have all now come together in the first adventure of Philocles Hestaiou, comic playwright and pen for hire in classical Athens.

Twitter @AlveyAuthor

@Orionbooks

Blog Tour ~ My Mother's Daughter by Ann O'Loughlin

Delighted to be sharing my book review on the last day of this blog tour 

Orion
16 May 2019

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book and the invitation to the blog tour

County Wicklow, Ireland. Margo has just lost her husband Conor and is grieving his passing, unsure how she and her daughter Elsa will survive without him. Then she receives a letter that turns everything she thought she knew on its head. Not only has she lost her husband, but now Margo fears she could lose her daughter as well. 

Ohio, United States. Cassie has just split from her husband acrimoniously. Upset and alone she does not know how to move forward. Then her ex-husband demands a paternity test for their daughter Tilly and sorrow turns to anger as Cassie faces the frightening possibility of losing her daughter.

My thoughts...

So many emotions run through this book that it's really difficult to say much about the plot without giving far too much away. However, it's safe to say that I was completely engrossed in the combined story of Margot and Elsa in Ireland, and Cassie and Tilly in the US. Both women have had their fair share of heartache as each is grieving the loss of their marriages, albeit for very different reasons. Not content with the trauma of coping as a single parent both women are devastated to learn that the daughter they each cherish could by some dreadful quirk of fate not be their biological child.

Getting right into the emotional heart of a story is what this author does best and My Mother's Daughter certainly shares some really tough emotional issues which, at times, threaten to engulf both Margot and Cassie. Throughout this emotional story there are some wonderful mother/daughter moments to cherish but equally there's also some really heart-breaking decisions to be made which the author handles with thoughtfulness, compassion and a real sense of empathy.

My Mother's Daughter covers some really sensitive issues around love and loss, and with some really sad stuff towards the end of the book which had me reaching for the tissue box, and yet, it's also a really uplifting story about the powerful bonds of both motherhood and friendship. 

Throughout this excellent story I was reminded of the lengths that mother's will go to to protect their children and that sometimes the strongest emotional bonds are not forged by blood but by unconditional love.

About the Author

As a leading journalist in Ireland for nearly thirty years, Ann O'Loughlin has covered all major news events of the last three decades. Ann spent most of her career with independent newspapers where she was Security Correspondent at the height of The Troubles, and was a senior journalist on the Irish Independent and Evening Herald. She is currently a senior journalist with the Irish Examiner newspaper covering legal issues. Ann has also lived and worked in India. Originally from the west of Ireland she now lives on the east coast with her husband and two children

Twitter @annolwriter #MyMothersDaughter

@orionbooks

Amazon UK

Blog Tour ~ Shadows of Athens by J M Alvey

On Hist Fic Saturday

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the Shadows of Athens Blog Tour

Orion
7 March 2019

My thanks to the publishers for the invitation to be part of this blog tour

443 BC, and, after decades of war with Persia, peace has finally come to Athens. The city is being rebuilt, and commerce and culture are flourishing.

Aspiring playwright Philocles has come home to find a man with his throat cut slumped against his front gate. Is it just a robbery gone wrong? But, if so, why didn't the thieves take the dead man's valuables? With the play that could make his name just days away, he must find out who this man is, why he has been murdered - and why the corpse was left in his doorway.

But Philocles soon realises he has been caught up in something far bigger, and there are those who don't want him looking any further,

My thoughts..

Shadows of Athens is an interesting historical murder mystery which is set in ancient Greece and involves an aspiring playwright, called Philocles, who, as the story opens, is really excited that one of his plays is at last being seen by the pleasure loving public. However, when he discovers a body lying dead across the entrance to his home, and with no sign of a robbery, it opens up a whole set of circumstances that Philocles, right on the eve of his success, could really have done without.

I must admit that I don't know too much about ancient Greek history so it took me a little while to be comfortable with the story, however, I found that this didn't really matter as the author does a good job of explaining things. The Greek setting is nicely done and well described for someone like me who isn't familiar with time and place. I enjoyed observing life in 443 BC through the eyes of Philocles as he goes about trying to discover why this murder/mystery should involve him, and of the complicated process of  discovery, as he goes about getting to the heart of the mystery.

The author writes well and clearly knows this ancient historical time as this comes across in the attention paid to detail and to the way in which the characters spring into life. The complex politics and the intricate social strata of the time comes across, and  it was interesting to see just how the mystery sat against the historical background to the story. There are more than enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing, however, for me, I think it was the recreation of the historical setting which really captured my attention and brought the story to life.

Shadows of Athens is an interesting historical whodunit with a nice combination of both history and mystery.

Twitter @AlveyAuthor  #ShadowsOfAthens

@OrionBooks

Amazon UK

Review ~ The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

✨ Happy Publication Day ✨

Orion
7 February 2019

My thanks to the publishers and also to PoppyStimpson for my copy of this book

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...

My thoughts..

There's been such an excited buzz around this book for the last few months that I was almost afraid to read it in case it didn't live up to expectations but from the moment I started The Silent Patient and came into contact with both Alicia Berenson, and her psychotherapist, Theo Fenton, I knew that I was reading something that was a little bit special.

There's a distinct creepiness to the story, and in light of Alicia's incarceration following her husband's death, for which she is held responsible, her silence is made all the more eloquent by her refusal to communicate on any level. Theo Fenton, takes employment at the secure psychiatric unit where Alicia is being held, and with a profound sense of bravado, Theo attempts to unravel the reasons for the silence of the silent patient. And, as we discover, over the length of the novel, there are so many valid reasons for Alicia's silence but the game is on to find out just who is telling the truth, as once the truth is out there, there is never going to be any way back. 

For me, the novel works well because it's a cleverly layered dissection of a life which has been traumatised and shows just what happens when the brain tries to protect itself from catastrophic loss. And yet the story is also about so much more than a psychiatric analysis, it's about love, betrayal and obsession on a grand scale, and it's about those secrets and lies which are so huge they threaten to overwhelm everything.

There's so much about The Silent Patient which is better left unsaid, as that way the denouement will be every bit as shocking to you as it was for me. I usually have a good idea of where a thriller is heading, but I really didn't anticipate the ending, which blew me away. Some  books leave you feeling a little bit empty when they finish, but not so with this one which was absolutely unputdownable and which had me completely hooked from first page to last.

About the Author

Alex Michaelides was born in Cyrprus in 1977. He wrote the film The Devil You Know and co-wrote The Brits are Coming. The Silent Patient is his first novel which he was inspired to write after doing a post-graduate course in psychotherapy and working part tine in a secure psychiatric unit for two years. The film of The  Silent patient is being developed by Brad Pitt's Plan B company.

Twitter @ AlexMichaelides #TheSilentPatient #BreakTheSilence


@OrionBooks

Review ~ Master of Shadows by Neil Oliver

Orion
September 2015

The Blurb :

In fifteenth-century Constantinople, Prince Constantine saves the life of a broken-hearted girl. But the price of his valour is high.

John Grant is a young man on the edge of the world. His unique abilities carry him from his home in Scotland to the heart of the Byzantine Empire in search of a girl and the chance to fulfil a death-bed promise.

Lena has remained hidden from the men who have been searching for her for many years. When she's hunted down, at last she knows what she must do.

With an army amassing beyond the city's ancient walls, the fates of these three will intertwine. As the Siege of Constantinople reaches its climax, each must make a choice between head and heart, duty and destiny

When I first picked up this book, I of course, imaged the narrative spoken in the wonderfully rich Scottish voice of its author, Neil Oliver, and, I wasn't disappointed by that, although there were times when the written narrative appeared a little more clumsy. There's no doubting the author's passion for his subject matter, and there is a nice realism to the story which comes from someone who clearly knows and understands history very well. It's more the overall effect of the story that left me feeling rather let down, and for once, I'm struggling to say why I was so underwhelmed. But somehow, the timeline of the plot lost me at times, and I found myself doing the unspeakable and skipping chunks of story to get through it.

The fall of Constantinople is not a subject that I am familiar with, and so, maybe the overall problem with the story lies with me, rather than the author, who on this occasion, failed to inspire me. I must, however, conclude on a positive note, to say that the cover is sumptuous and portrays the book very well.

I'm not despondent, as I am sure that my still, small voice will barely make a speck in the many reviews from readers who feel that they engaged better with the story and found more to enjoy than I did.

About the Author

Amazon UK

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group andNetGalley for my copy of this book.

Review ~The Daughter's Secret by Eva Holland

Orion
27 August 2015

The Simms’s live in affluent middle class suburbia, they  have a good lifestyle, a steady income and settled family life, but this is all turned upside down when Stephanie, Rosalind and Dan’s, fifteen year old daughter, absconds with Nathan Temperley, her geography teacher. With their lives held up to scrutiny, and at the centre of a major police investigation, the Simms’s lives are about to change forever.

When the story opens, we meet the family, some six years later, when the phone call comes through that Rosalind has dreaded, that in eleven days’ time, Temperley will be released, early, from serving his prison sentence for his abduction of Stephanie. What then follows is a slow burner of a story which takes the story forward day by day, counting down to Temperley’s release date, whilst at the same time recounting the family’s back story in a series of cleverly constructed flashbacks.

What I enjoyed most about the book was that it didn’t over sensationalise the relationship between Temperley and Stephanie, and yet, you understand deep in your bones, that it was fundamentally abhorrent, and that the horror of what happened is present in every hidden nuance. And as the story is revealed piecemeal, we get a real sense of the damage done to vulnerable individuals and of how, years later, the family are still struggling to come to terms with what happened. Like all domestic noir stories, this one bites deep into the very heart of family life, it dissects values and scrutinises the minutiae of behaviour, and reveals chinks and cracks and hidden secrets which only serve to obstruct the family’s mental and physical long term recovery. Like all mothers, Rosalind, is determined to try to protect Stephanie at all cost,  but at what price?

The Daughter’s Secret takes a devastating family incident, and infuses the story with a heightened sense of that of a runaway train out of control. It is a really accomplished debut novel and was, quite rightly, chosen as the 2014 Good Housekeeping winner of the novel writing competition.

 About the Author

Eva Holland is a free lance copywriter and public relations consultant with a life long love of words and stories. She grew up in Gloucestershire and studied in Leeds before moving to London where she lives with her husband. The Daughter's Secret is her first novel.

Visit Eva on her website

Find her on Goodreads

Follow her on Twitter @HollandEva

Amazon UK

Review ~ Going Back by Rachael English

It's never too late for a second chance

Orion
2014

The concept of going back is an interesting one and begs the question whether it’s ever a good idea to allow oneself the luxury of remembering times that are over and gone. For Elizabeth Kelly, her daughter, Janey’s, decision to spend a summer in the Brighton area of Boston in the United States, brings back memories of her own time of living and working in the city as a twenty-one year old in the 1980s. At home in Dublin, Elizabeth recalls this time with mixed emotion, as not only was it the first time she had lived away from home, but it was also the summer she fell in love. What then follows is the story of Elizabeth’s American love affair with the handsome and charismatic Danny Esposito, of the life experiences she shared with her group of friends and of the need they all had to escape from the realities of life for just one idyllic summer.

I was captivated by the story from the beginning and warmed immediately to Elizabeth’s character. I loved both her naivety and her insecurities and completely understood that for one perfect moment in time, away from her home and family, and the seriousness of her relationship with her Irish boyfriend, Liam, she was able to experience all that life had to offer without any of the responsibilities. By comparison, Danny is a complete charmer, his attractiveness and uncomplicated joie de vivre, is in direct contrast to Elizabeth’s more considered attitude to life.

The author writes with warmth and sensitivity and injects just the right amount of nostalgia and humour into the story. She paints a realistic picture of living life in the 1980s and then brings it bang up to date with Janey’s own personal story in Boston in 2011. The interweaving of past and present is done in a sympathetic way and there is a realistic drawing together of all the loose strands, until in the end the story comes together just the way you would want it to.

This is an impressive debut novel by an author who clearly loves writing stories. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

My thanks to the author for sharing her novel with me. Come back tomorrow to read an interview with Rachael English and for a chance to win a copy of Going Back.

*~*~*

Review ~ Written in my own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Orion Books UK

10 June 2014

"In the light of eternity, time casts no shadow"

 Written in my Own Heart’s Blood continues where An Echo in the Bone left off. It’s 1778, and as the British army withdraws from Philadelphia, Washington’s army is in active pursuit. Newly returned from the dead, Jamie Fraser finds that life as a rebel General is not for the faint hearted, nor does he take his wife, Claire’s, reactionary marriage to Lord John Grey lightly. For the rest of the extended Fraser family and also for those characters left on the periphery, the vagaries of life continue to perplex, and as always there is much going on and many threads to pick up.

There are moments of high drama as both Jamie and Claire find that life is never going to be peaceful nor across the centuries is life any less stressful for Roger and Brianna, but what is important to remember is that all the pieces of this gigantic jigsaw puzzle seem to be finally coming together. There feels to be almost a sense of resolution as inevitably the story must finally face a conclusion. In fact, it’s almost akin to a homecoming as the younger generation are given the chance to take centre stage and believe me their stories are no less valiant. The past meets the present as we go backwards, or is it forwards in time to meet up with characters who together make up the sum of the book’s parts. Everyone has a role to play, and the minutiae of relationships is examined and perfected so beautifully, and each seamless transition is done with such confidence, that there is never a moment when the action doesn't totally absorb, from the inner workings of a rebel army, through to the finer points of using Roquefort cheese as an anti bacterial antibiotic.

As always the author delivers a whopping good read, as contained within the book’s 800 or so pages are plots, counter plots, ruinations, machinations, scenes to make you weep, scenes that will have you stamping your feet in irritation at the folly of men, and whole sections that will have you reading and then re-reading in order to clarify just what hidden meaning is concealed within each tantalising chapter, and with over 141 chapters, there is sometimes a lot of re-reading needed !

With brilliant observation the Outlander series continues to weave its magic and as the finer points of the twenty-first century blend into the background, I am enthralled, beguiled and totally absorbed, so much so, that when I am reading time simply ceases to exist, and I move effortlessly back to a place that I know well and with characters who are as precious to me as family. Of course, there is still much left unsaid and the book’s entirely appropriate finale lends itself to the continuation of the story.

And for the legions of Diana Gabaldon fans worldwide, book 9 can’t come quick enough.

And out of interest ~ The symbolic use of the eight sided Octothorpe on the book cover pays homage to the eight major characters in the book.

More about Diana Gabaldon on her website here and find her on Facebook and Twitter