📖 Book Review ~ Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

Tinder Press
March 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Florence Darrow is a small-town striver who believes that she's destined to become a celebrated writer. When she stumbles into the opportunity to become the assistant to "Maud Dixon," a celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think: Elena Ferrante), she believes that the universe is finally providing her big chance. The arrangement feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom on both writing and living. She even invites Florence along on a research trip to Morocco, where her new novel is set. Florence has never been out of the country before; maybe, she imagines, she'll finally have something exciting to write about herself.

But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she begins to imagine what it might be like to 'upgrade' into not only Helen's life, but also that of Helen's bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon.

📖 My Review

Florence Darrow desperately wants to be a writer however, when we first meet her Florence's career seems to have plateaued and her job as an assistant editor in a New York publishing house isn't as exciting as she hoped it would be. All is set to change, however, when she grasps the opportunity to work for the eponymous 'Maud Dixon' a celebrated writer who wishes to remain anonymous. Working with this talented author opens up new opportunities for Florence, and it must be said rather more than she anticipated.

The author writes well and and after a bit of a low start, there's a good solid plot to the story with enough twists and turns. I wasn't terribly fond of Florence at the start but, as the story progressed, I warmed to her character and enjoyed following her complicated progression. This is one of those stories where it's easy to give too much away so I won't say where the story ends up but I thought it was a great ending to an entertaining story.

Who is Maud Dixon? is a good debut novel by an accomplished new writer. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

🍶 Best Read with... a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

About the Author

Alexandra Andrews has written for ProPublica, New York Magazine and Huffington Post, been a commercial copy writer, and even interned at The Paris Review. She lives in New York with her family.

Twitter #WhoIsMaudDixon

@TinderPress

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid

 

Headline
21 July 2022

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

When Anna and David receive a phone call late one evening, their lives are upturned. Within minutes, they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, preparing to care for two young sisters, tragically and suddenly orphaned.

It's a beautiful place, the heather is in bloom, the birds wheel above the waves, the deer graze peacefully in the distance. But the large granite house is no longer a home for the girls, and Anna knows she can never take the place of their mother. Then David invites his friend to stay, to 'ease them through' and Anna finds herself increasingly isolated, with everything she - and the girls - once knew of life discarded and overruled by a man of whom she is deeply suspicious.

📖 My Review..

Any phone call that comes late at night invariably heralds bad news, and for Anna and David, at home in London,  the call informing them of a devastating accident will change their ordered lives forever. 

Hurrying up to a remote island in Western Scotland to be with the now orphaned children of David's brother and his wife, and with two grieving teenage girls to look after,  life for all of them is never going to be easy especially as Anna and David, now in their sixties with a grown up family of their own, have had to put their own lives on hold. Into this complicated mix comes Brendan, a rather odd friend of Anna and David's, who wants to help out with the situation but who merely makes things much more difficult for everyone.

The Wilderness is a starkly forbidding tale, and whilst beautifully descriptive of a bleak and sullen land it is brightened by the imaginative description of the coast where this odd mix of people are all living together. The sisters, Isabella and Sasha are themselves a study in grief, volatile, mercurial, lost and alone. They are in desperate need of love and understanding but what comes across is the story of fractured and disturbing relationships.

Accomplished, thought provoking and with a dark and sinister edginess, The Wilderness is a story which will stay with me for a long time.

🍬Best Read with ...a bag of lemon sherbets

About the Author

Sarah Duguid grew up on  a farm in Lincolnshire and now lives in London. Her stunning debut Look at Me came out in 2016. The Wilderness is her second novel.

Twitter @SarahDuguid4 #TheWilderness

@TinderPress

@RandomTTours

📖 Blog Tour ~ Blue Hour by Sarah Schmidt

 

Tinder Press
7 July 2022

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

She thinks of blue mountain, her favourite place. 'We're going somewhere where we can be safe. We never have to come back here.' As the rest of the world lies sleeping, Eleanor straps her infant daughter, Amy, into the back of her car. This is the moment she knew must come, when they will walk out on her husband Leon and a marriage in ruins since his return from Vietnam. Together, she and Amy will journey to blue mountain, a place of enchantment and refuge that lit up Eleanor's childhood. As the car eats up the miles, so Eleanor's mind dives back into her fractured relationship with her mother, Kitty. Kitty who asked for so much from life, from love, from family. Kitty who had battled so hard to prise her husband George out of the grip of war. Kitty, whose disapproving voice rings so loud in Eleanor's head.

📖 My Review..

Eleanor's marriage is in ruins and over the space of this sparsely furnished novel we get to know why she is leaving her husband in order to get far away to the Blue Mountain, her favourite place in the world. With her infant daughter Amy in the car Eleanor sets off on an emotional journey recalling the events in her life which have led to this moment. Eleanor’s challenging relationship with her mother is pretty much at the core of the story as is her fractured relationship with her husband, Leon, who has recently returned from the conflict in Vietnam.

Blue Hour took me by surprise, not just because the story is so powerful but also in the way the author uses her words so sparingly and yet delivers such a thought provoking and intensely personal story of trauma and abuse. Covering such an array of topics from toxic motherhood, to PTSD and every level of emotional discontent, the story should be difficult to read and yet it flows so beautifully that I had difficulty putting the book down. Right from the start I felt a brooding respect for Eleanor, unlike her mother, Kitty, who made my skin crawl.

Clever writing by this talented author makes Blue Hour such powerful and emotional roller coaster of a read and the connection, made between author and reader, is a very personal one. Throughout the story there is a sad intensity as we witness fractured lives spiralling out of control. 

🥛Best read with... a glass of Milo

About the Author

Sarah Schmidt is the acclaimed author of See What I Have Done, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and won the AIBA Literary Fiction of the Year 2018. She lives in Melbourne where she works as a librarian. 

Website

Twitter @ikillnovel #BlueHour

@TinderPress

@RandomTTours

📖 Book Review ~ The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach

 

Tinder 
July 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Pru's husband has walked out, leaving her alone to contemplate her future. She's missing not so much him, but the life they once had - picnicking on the beach with small children, laughing together, nestling up like spoons in the cutlery drawer as they sleep. Now there's just a dip on one side of the bed and no-one to fill it.

In a daze, Pru goes off to a friend's funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy but...it doesn't sound like the friend Pru knew. And it isn't. She's gone to the wrong service. Everyone was very welcoming, it was - oddly - a laugh, and more excitement than she's had for ages. So she buys a little black dress in a charity shop and thinks, now I'm all set, why not go to another? I mean, people don't want to make a scene at a funeral, do they? No-one will challenge her - and what harm can it do?

📖 My thoughts..

When Pru's husband leaves her so he can start a new life, her comfortable world falls apart. Rattling around in the family home in Muswell Hill, in a house which is far to big for her, and with her children living their own lives in far off places, Pru feels as if her life has ended. With her mind in a daze Pru inadvertently attends a wrong funeral but she receives such a warm welcome from people she doesn’t know that she is comforted by their grief. With the fickleness of fate very much on her side, Pru then finds the most perfect black dress in a charity shop and the seed of an idea is sown.

Pru is absolutely fabulous at seventy, and although we see her through some pretty dark and dreary times, we also get a glimpse of her glorious personality beneath the sadness of her life. When she embraces life, Pru does so with a sharp determination which had me cheering at some of her escapades. Her romantic adventures had me giggling but under the irreverent look at dating there is also an undercurrent of real loneliness and a deep sadness that life is racing away with her.

Beautifully observed, with a wry look at life, and several twists I didn't see coming, The Black Dress is a refreshing story. There is a nod to the early days of the pandemic which very firmly places the story in the here and now, but which doesn’t intrude on the overall detail of this wonderful story.

About the Author

Deborah Moggach, OBE, is a British novelist and an award winning screenwriter.She has written twenty novels, including Tulip Fever and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Her most novel, The Carer, was a Sunday Times best seller. She live in London.

Twitter  #TheBlackDress #DeborahMoggach

@TinderPress

📖 Book Review ~ Will This House Last Forever? by Xanthi Barker

 

Tinder Press
24 June 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

When Xanthi Barker's father died when she was in her mid twenties, she could make no sense of her grief for a man who had been absent for most of her life. Her father, poet Sebastian Barker, had left Xanthi, her mother and her brother to pursue writing and a new relationship, when Xanthi was a baby. Growing up she had always struggled to reconcile his extravagant affection - a rocking horse crafted from scavenged wood, the endless stream of poems and drawings and letters, conversations that spiralled from the structure of starlight to philosophy to Bruce Springsteen - with the fact that he could not be depended upon for more everyday things. Though theirs was a relationship defined by departures, he always returned, so why should this farewell be any different, or more final?

Will This House Last Forever? is a heartfelt and wholly original memoir about the pain of having to come to terms with a parent's mortality, the way grief so utterly defies logic, and about learning to see the flaws in those that we love, and let them go.

📖 My thoughts..

In this expressive memoir, Xanthi Barker explores her thoughts and feelings after the death of her father, Sebastian Barker, in 2014. That her poet father was such an important figure in her life is obvious and though she never doubted his love for her there's also a sense of disappointment as by her own admission he was something of an absent father. 

From the beginning of the book, Xanthi is filled with a longing for father not to be dead and yet it is very much about the effect that his death has had on her, not only in coming to terms with the complexity of the grieving process, but also in the rawness and immediacy of her loss. 

Will this House Last Forever? is a very personal account of the author's search for meaning, her yearning to understand more about the complex nature of her relationship with her father, and of her devastation when he was no longer present in her life. 

I found Will This House Last Forever? to be a poignant, and very honest look at a complex father-daughter relationship especially when that relationship has been flawed by disappointments and indifference. However, for all its strong message that loss endures, by the end of the book, there is also a sense of love, and the life-affirming hope that Xanthi's future, without her father, and regardless of his faults and failings, is undeniably intact.

About the Author

Xanthi Barker was born in London where she lives, and works in education. Her stories have been published in magazines including Litro and Mslexia, have been performed at Liar’s League, and have been shortlisted for the Fish Prize. She won the 2017 The Short Story Prize and her piece ‘Paradoxical’ was highly commended in the 2018 Spread the Word Life Writing Prize. Her novelette One Thing was published by Open Pen.

Twitter @xanthibarker #WillThisHouse

@tinderpress

Publication Day Review ~ The Book of Longing by Sue Monk Kidd

🌠🌠 Happy Publication Day 🌠🌠

Tinder Press
21 April 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

In her mesmerizing new novel, Sue Monk Kidd brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman called Ana.

Ana is a rebellious young woman, a gifted writer with a curious, brilliant mind, who writes secret narratives about the neglected and silenced women around her. Raised in a wealthy family in Galilee, she is sheltered from the brutality of Rome's occupation of Israel. Ana is expected to marry an elderly widower to further her father's ambitions, a prospect that horrifies her. A chance encounter with the eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything: his ideas and his passion are intoxicating.

Taking Ana on a journey she could never have imagined, The Book of Longings is a glorious evocation of a time and a place where astounding events unfolded, and of one woman's fate when she fights to make her voice heard.

What did I think about it..

When I discovered that one of my favourite author's had taken an altogether different turn in her latest novel, I must admit that I was filled with more than a little trepidation, whilst at the same time eagerly waiting until I could read the Book of Longings for myself.

Imaging the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth is never going to be easy, or without contention, influenced as we are by the bible stories we have come to accept as the definitive version, but who's to say that Jesus didn't meet a young woman and decide to make her his wife? Brought up in a wealthy family in Galilee, Ana, is a rather interesting young woman who refuses to conform to what society expects of her.  Whether this is how young noble Galilean women would have behaved is an interesting conundrum as Ana's feisty personality certainly makes for lively reading. Ana's arranged marriage to a much older man horrifies her but then an opportunistic meeting in the market place with a charismatic young man, called Jesus, steers Ana's life in a very different direction.

The logistics of living though a time of political upheaval is captured in stern detail which contrasts beautifully against the daily domesticity of life in Nazareth with Jesus and his family. And whilst the character of Jesus is fairly central, he is not the focus of this novel, this is, most definitely, Ana's story, her determined bravery, her undisputed strength of will are all so pivotal to the way in which her imagined role in the drama eventually unfolds.

I think what's so captivating about this story is the utter believability of it. The historical setting feels authentic to the point of making you feel feel like you are actually there alongside the characters as they go about their lives, feeling the heat, brushing away the dust, and experiencing the sheer unpredictability of living in a time, which we feel we know well, and yet, really, we know nothing at all of the intimacy of daily life in Nazareth in 17-27 AD.

Beautifully written historical fiction takes us into a past that we can only imagine in our dreams. The Book of Longings has an intimacy and a delicate strength which I found quite captivating.

The Book of Longings is published in hardback by Tinder Press on the 21 April 2020

About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, spent 2.5 years on the New York Times bestseller list, and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. THE MERMAID CHAIR and THE INVENTION OF WINGS each went to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and stayed on the list for many months. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES was long-listed for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction), and was turned into an award-winning film. Sue is also the author of several acclaimed non-fiction books including the New York Times bestseller TRAVELLING WITH POMEGRANATES, co-written with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. Sue lives in North Carolina with her husband Sandy.

Website

Twitter @suemonkkidd #TheBookofLongingg

@TinderPress

Amazon UK

Book Review ~ American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Tinder Press
21 January 2010

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy—two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia—trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

What did I think about it..

After a catastrophic event involving her family, Lydia Quixano Pérez and her eight year old son, Luca, are forced to flee their Acapulco home in search of a safer life in the United States. However, this exodus is fair from straightforward and Lydia and Luca face atrocious danger as they become two of many others who are leaving Mexico in search of a better, and safer, life.

This book took me by surprise, not because the story was disappointing, far from it, the story telling is really very good indeed. It was more my reaction to the events of the story which surprised me as, perhaps naively, I had no idea that  immigrants leaving Mexico for the United States faced such a perilous journey. The author brings the situation alive in a meaningful and thought-provoking way and I must admit to having my heart in my mouth on more than one occasion as Lydia does what she needs to do in order to keep both her and Luca safe. The pace is fast and the

American Dirt is cautionary story of our time and is an absolute testament to the bravery and fortitude of the many thousands of immigrants who have made a similar journey a country teeming with danger in the same horrific and perilous circumstances.

Recommended Read -  Absolutely ✔

About the Author

Jeanine Cummins is the author of four books: the bestselling memoir A Rip in Heaven, and the novels The Outside Boy, The Crooked Branch, and American Dirt. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Twitter @jeaninecummins

@TinderPress

Publication Day Review ~ Stay Up with Hugo Best by Erin Summers

Tinder Press
23 January 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

June Bloom is a broke, cynical twenty-nine-year-old writer's assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best. Hugo Best is in his sixties, a beloved icon of TV and humor, and a notorious womanizer. After he unexpectedly retires and a party is held for his now unemployed staff, June ends up at a dive bar for an open-mic night and prepares for the sad return to the anonymous comedian lifestyle. What she’s not prepared for is a run-in with Hugo at that dive bar. Nor for the invitation that swiftly follows: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. “No funny business,” he insists.

June, in need of a job and money, confident she can handle herself, but secretly harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, accepts. The exact terms of the visit are never spelled out, but June is realistic and clear-eyed enough to guess. Even so, as the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals himself, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than she expected.

At once hilarious and poignant, brilliantly incisive and terrifically propulsive, Stay Up with Hugo Best is an incredibly timely exploration of sexual politics in the #MeToo age, and the unforgettable story of one young woman’s poignant stumbling into adulthood.

What did I think about it..

Hugo Best is retiring from his late night network TV talk show after a life time in front of the cameras. Following Hugo’s retirement celebration, on the spur of the moment he invites his young assistant, June Bloom, to spend the Memorial Day weekend with him at his home in Connecticut, and promises "no funny business"...

What then follows is an unusual tale about Hugo and June’s connection with each other. Hugo, no longer the late night TV comedian, and June, an aspiring comedienne, now unemployed, strangely have much in common, as both of them are having coming to terms with some difficult changes in their lives. I always find comedians incredibly sad it's almost as if they use up all their fun and hilarity in their professional lives so that when they have the chance to ‘be themselves’ it all goes sadly wrong. 

Staying up with Hugo Best is a thought-provoking story about the peculiarities of life whether you’re at the brink of a career, like June Bloom, or facing a gloomy and despondent retirement, like Hugo Best. The author writes well, and all credit to her for giving us an interesting story about a couple of not terribly likeable protagonists who seems to be struggling to find their own specific niche, and yet, despite the best efforts of both lead characters, for me, there was a definite undercurrent of something akin to despair between them.

Staying up with Hugo Best  is published today by Tinder Press..

About the Author

Stay Up With Hugo Best is the author's debut novel. 

@SomersErin

@headlinepg

Review ~ The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

Tinder Press

26th July 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

What's it all about..

Audrey Hart is on Skye to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people around her. The crofters, facing dire poverty after the clearances, are suspicious and hostile to a stranger, claiming they no longer know their fireside stories. But then the body of a young girl is washed up on the beach, and the crofters reveal it is only a matter of weeks since another girl disappeared. They are sure the girls are the victims of the restless dead: spirits who take the form of birds.

My thoughts about it..

The folklore of our British Isles is in the fabric of our bones and in the call of the wind. And clustered around our firesides we hear, in the crackle of the wood, the whisper of the old folk and of the customs and traditions which shape our past, and which, if not for the teller of tales would have been lost a long time ago.

Audrey Hart takes up employment on the Isle of Skye, with Miss Buchanan, an enigmatic woman who is collecting the ancient folklore before the island stories are forgotten and in her search for the old tales, Audrey discovers that the islanders, whilst bound by their own sense of superstition, also hide dark secrets.

Imaginatively written, and so beautifully descriptive of nineteenth century life on the island, that the shrieking of the birds, and the drift of the copper brown dulse that litters the shoreline, comes gloriously to life. There's also a deliciously, creeping menace to the story which really draws you into this rather dark and dour place, and there is also a very strong impression that times are changing for these remote islanders. Over the 18th and 19th centuries the Scottish clearances decimated isolated communities, making the islanders who have remained on Skye, cautious and distrustful of strangers and averse to giving up their secrets easily.

The Story Keeper is a real tribute to the power of storytelling. It’s a generous nod towards the old keepers of our tales and customs who have for generations passed on cautionary tales of little men who wait in the woods and of fairies and spirits who seek retribution for our misdeeds.

Hauntingly beautiful from start to finish, The Story Keeper stays with you long after the last page of this story is turned and the book, with its beautiful cover, is gently placed down.

About the Author

Credit: Lou Abercrombie

Anna Mazzola's first novel, THE UNSEEING, was published to critical acclaim in 2016. She is a criminal justice solicitor and lives in London with her husband and two children.

Website

Twitter @Anna_Mazz #TheStoryKeeper

@TinderPress

Review ~ The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola

Tinder Press
2016

...A Good Lie always comes back to haunt you...

The Blurb..

Set in London in 1837, this is the story of Sarah Gale, a seamstress and mother, sentenced to hang for her role in the murder of Hannah Brown on the eve of her wedding. 

After Sarah petitions for mercy, Edmund Fleetwood is appointed to investigate and consider whether justice has been done. Idealistic, but struggling with his own demons, Edmund is determined to seek out the truth.

Yet Sarah, despite protesting her innocence, refuses to add anything to the evidence given in court: the evidence which convicted her.

My thoughts..

At this time in the year I had thought that I had compiled my list of favourite books only to have another come at me right out of the blue. It must be said that this book conjures up the dark and rather dismal world of the Victorian penal system like no other book I've read in  a long, long time.

The opening to The Unseeing is quite vivid and you immediately feel immense sorrow for a woman who you suspect is a victim, as yet unknown who, it must be said, starts the book off in a particularly macabre sort of way. The story, as it then develops, has a distinct Dickensian feel to it as both the plot and the content of the story are suitably dark. However, there is a thoughtfulness to the narrative which lulls you into a sense of security, only to have that safeness ripped away as snippets of clues are revealed tantalisingly slowly. From the start of the story I found that my allegiances slipped sideways and as I was taken further and further into a deep web of lies I became engrossed in trying to determine just who, if anyone, was telling me the truth.

The sights and sounds of Victorian London come alive in glorious detail and I think what makes the story so fascinating is that it is based on a true story and the author has obviously done considerable research in order to bring Sarah Gale's story alive, The snippets of information revealed at the start of each chapter come from actual journalistic writings of the time and there are authentic details of Sarah trial and subsequent punishment, which I won't reveal as that would spoil things !

This really is a commendable debut novel from an author who I am sure will only continue to go from strength to strength. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Best Read with ...A meat pudding and a pint of London ale...

About the Author

Anna Mazzola is a criminal justice solicitor, based in London. Whilst THE UNSEEING is her debut, it has won awards including the Brixton Bookjam Debut Novel competition and she came runner up in the 2014 Grazia First Chapter competition judged by Sarah Waters.

For more information visit the author's website by clicking here 

My thanks to Tinder Press for my review copy of The Unseeing.

~***~

Review ~ This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell

Tinder Press
17 May 2016

This is one of those books which sits quietly, but confidently, on your book shelf and even after you have read it, and believe me this one is a keeper, you would still be able to pick up the book, open it at random and read something which is just so beautifully contrived that it makes your heart sing. I've long been a fan of this talented author's writing and never once have I picked up one of her stories and been disappointed, my only low point, like all fans, is the wait between books.

Linguist specialist, Daniel Sullivan is a complex character, made up of a myriad of emotions and with enough emotional baggage to sink a battleship and yet, the story of his life and that of his relationships, both with past and present lovers, and a disparate assortment of children, forms the basis of an acutely observed and intelligent look at Dan's life. Also, flitting through the story is that of Claudette, a gifted and talented actress who turns her back on the glitz and glamour of fame and fortune, and hides away in rural Ireland. Chasing away her demons and a failed relationship take up much of her energy, that is until she meets Dan Sullivan, who brings a glimmer of light into the darker recesses of her life.

This Must Be The Place looks at the minutiae of family life, and not in an over-exaggerated way which would suggest that this family is made up of anything but ordinary people, but what is extraordinary about their story, is their connection to each other, and of the way their lives overlap and coalesce with effortless ease. There are some beautifully observed moments which can make you laugh out loud one minute and then fill with tears another, and such is the emotional pull of the characters that, even though at times you want to scream at them, well, at one in particular, to get his act together, you know that in the final analysis, everyone, flawed though they are, will tiptoe their way into your heart, until they are as familiar, and as dear to you as friends.

When first you start to read the book it will appear a little confusing and jumping as it does between, not just people, but also times frames, can take a little concentration, but do stick with it, as even before you realise you’ve stopped pondering over where you are in the time scale, you will have settled into the story, and then as you continue to read on, time, both literal and current, will cease to exist.

This Must Be The Place is an intelligent and sensitive portrayal of family life, there’s not a word wasted, not an emotion unexpressed and certainly no superfluous waffle. It’s just a truly excellent read from start to finish and unusually, I can’t think of anything else to say, except,  if you see this it displayed in a bookstore near you, then, please take a copy home and give this wonderful story a cherished place on your book shelf.

Best Read With… A sturdy sandwich , the bread, absolutely homemade, and a cup of Claudette’s hot chocolate, made with her special French chocolate beans. 

About the Author

Visit the author's website

Visit on Facebook

My thanks to BookBridgr and Georgina Moore at Headline for my review copy of this one.

~***~

Review ~ A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Headline
Tinder Press
2015

I'm a bit late to the party with this one, and it seems rather incongruous to be reading about a place called Winter in the middle of an English Summer, but that's where the incredulity stops, as before I'd even got to the end of the first few pages, I was completely hooked on this quietly confident novel which explores the concept of family and what that means in its broadest sense.

There is real authenticity to the narrative, from the golden age of Edwardian England, to the stark, unforgiving backdrop of the Canadian wilderness, the author does a commendable job in allowing the the novel to tell its own unique story. There are no unnecessary words, no superfluous descriptions and no altered imagery, just glorious storytelling. There is much to take in: the opening scenes are brutally graphic and at first, made me wonder where the story was taking me, and so, I was ill prepared for the actual beauty of the story, and the evocative way in which Harry Cane's story is told, piece by beautiful piece.

Other reviewers far more eloquent than I have said, that words don't do this book enough justice, and I absolutely agree with that premise. It really is  one of those books which should be read in glorious detail with no preconceptions, and whether you choose to read it in the heat of summer or during the frost of a bleak midwinter, just be prepared to lose track of time, because once started, you won't want it to stop until Harry's story is told.

My thanks to NetGalley and Headline / Tinder Press for my copy of A Place Called Winter.

About the Author

Amazon UK

Review ~ The Mountain Can Wait by Sarah Leipcigar

Tinder Press
2015

The story starts with an event which shapes the narrative so subtly, that at times, you almost forget just what tragedy started the story off. Such is the mesmeric quality of the novel that the pages pass silently, and almost without realising, you are drawn into a story about tangled relationships; namely, that of a father with his children, sons with their fathers, and lovers with lovers. It’s also the story of a Canadian mountain and its mercurial and beautiful landscape and the force that the environment plays in nurturing those souls who live within its harsh confines. The story is slow, almost meandering in style but this adds depth and even as an air of suspense pervades the narrative, its underlying message is one of lives being played out in the shadow of deep wrongdoing.

Beautifully written, the slow and measured writing style draws you in from the beginning, and rather than being a page turner with lots of action, the story is more of a slow burner, with subtle nuances and understated light and shade. To say more would be to spoil the effect of the story and do a complete disservice to the author, but what I will say is that days after finishing the novel, my thoughts return to this remote and beautiful place, and such is the emotional pull of the story, that I still stop and wonder just how everyone is doing and hope that they will be ok.

The Mountain Can Wait is a commendable debut novel by a talented new author. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

About the author

Sarah Leipcigar was born and raised in Canada and low lives in London where she teaches creative writing to prisoners. Her short fiction has been short-listed for the Asham Award, he Fish Prize and the Birdport Prize. The Mountain Can Wait is her first novel.

My thanks to Tinder Press and Bookbridger for my review copy of this book



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