Review ~ Little Bones by Sam Blake

Twenty7
February 2017

What's it all about it...

Twenty-four-year-old Garda Cathy Connolly might be a fearless kick-boxing champion but when she discovers a baby's bones concealed in the hem of a wedding dress, the case becomes personal.

For artist Zoe Grant, the bones are another mysterious twist in her mother's disappearance. Then her grandmother, head of the Grant Valentine department store empire is found dead, and a trail of secrets is uncovered that threatens to shake a dynasty.

In a story that moves from London's East End to the Las Vegas mafia, one thing is certain - for Cat, life will never be the same again.

What did I think about it...

This is the start of a new psychological crime series which introduces us to the world of Garda Cathy Connolly and, in this first novel, to the discovery of a set of baby's bones which opens up a complicated police investigation, not just into the reason why the bones had been hidden in the hemof a wedding dress, but also of the repercussions which affect those who are drawn into the investigation.

From the start I really liked Cathy Connolly, she's tough and feisty and yet, the predicament in which she finds herself in adds a very human edge to her involvement in the story. There is much to take in as the police investigation is complex and flits between people and places. However, the overall effect is that of a tightly knitted psychological drama with lots of twists and turns and, by the conclusion, all the pieces of the puzzle come together in a really exciting way.

As with any new series there is an element of getting to know the major characters and I am sure that as the series progresses we will come to know more about their individual personalities and discover their quirky traits.

Best Read With...Salty chips and a can of diet coke...

About the Author

Sam Blake is a pseudonym for Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin,the founder of The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and the hugely popular national writing resource website Writing.ie. She is Ireland's leading literary scout who has assisted many award winning and bestselling authors to publication. 

Find out more about the author on her website by clicking here 

Follow on Twitter @samblakebooks  #LittleBones

Thanks to Emma at Twenty7 (Bonnier Zaffre) for my copy of this book



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Review ~ The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir by Lesley Allen

Twenty7
2016

The Blurb..

Abandoned by her mother as a baby, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time watching the birds - until Alison Fleming joins her school.

Popular and beautiful, but with a dangerous, malevolent streak, Alison quickly secures the admiration of her fellow students. All except one. And Alison doesn't take kindly to people who don't fit her mould . . .

A story of abuse and survival, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman's battle to learn to love herself for who she is, The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is Lesley Allen’s startlingly honest debut novel, perfect for fans of Rowan Coleman and Julie Cohen.

My thoughts..

Reading as many books as I do, invariably I get a feeling that some books are going to be rather more special than others, and that was entirely the case with The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir.

Being caught up in the story of how Biddy Weir was cast aside and ostracised by her peers gives a whole new meaning to the phrase being 'immersed' in a story. There is no other way but to read this in one sitting, and that's just what I did, setting aside a quiet afternoon, I rolled with the story, completely at one with Biddy, and more than a little bothered by just how the story was opening up.

To say more would be to do this book a grave injustice, as it should be read with no preconceived notions, but I absolutely guarantee that by the end of the first chapter you too will be immersed and, if you are anything like me, you won't let up until Biddy's sad and sorrowful story is told.

It's a very clever author who can get so immersed in the psyche of a character that it becomes so totally believable that as the story progresses it becomes more and more difficult to read without a whopping big lump in your throat. Biddy's story broke my heart into a million pieces, I wanted to wrap her is one of my home made blankets, I wanted to cherish and protect her and keep her safe from harm and more than anything else I wanted to stop the bullies saying that she was a weirdo.

There are a few select books in my arsenal of books that everyone should read and Lesley Allen's debut novel , The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is one of them.

Best read with... a man size box of tissues and comforting packet of Kimberley biscuits..

About the author

Lesley Allen lives in Bangor, County Down. She is a freelance copywriter and the press officer and assistant programme developer for Open House Festival. Lesley is previous recipient of the James Kilfedder Memorial Bursary, and two Support for the Individual Artist Art’s Council Awards. She was named as one of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s 2016 Artist Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES) recipients for literature. She will be using the award to complete her second book.

Find her on Facebook

Follow on Twitter @Lesley_Allen_


Read an interview with the author by clicking here 

Huge thanks to Emily at Bonnier Zaffre for sending out a copy of this book to me

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Blog Tour ~ The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir by Lesley Allen

It is National Anti-Bullying Month from the 31st Oct - 30th Nov 2016 

The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir examines the long-term effects that bullying can have

Twenty7
2016

Biddy Weir is a shy young loner. Abandoned by her mother as a baby, and with a father who's not quite equipped for the challenges of modern parenting, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time painting by the sea and watching the birds go by.

With no friends, no schoolbag, and, worst of all, no mother, Biddy is branded a ‘Bloody Weirdo’ by the most popular girl in her primary school.

What follows is a heart-breaking tale of bullying and redemption, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman's battle to learn to love herself for who she is.

Set in a fictional seaside town in Northern Ireland, the novel is a stark illustration of the extent to which bullying can affect us all, beyond just the victim and perpetrator.

Spare, dark and often unrelenting, The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is a story with universal appeal, which ultimately affirms the value of being different.

 Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of this Blog Tour and welcomes the author Lesley Allen to the blog

Lesley , thank you so much for sharing with us your perspective on the subject of bullying

Can fictional bullies help us deal with the real ones?

From Chris Hargensen (Carrie) to Regina George (Mean Girls) and Nancy Olsen (Little House on the Prairie) to Veda Pierce (Mildred Pierce), we’ve all watched or read about a female bully we love to hate. Nurse Ratchett, Delores Umbridge, Miss Trunchball, Veronica from Heathers, V from Orange is the New Black… there are oodles of them. But what happens when they pop up in real life? When ‘the bitch’ isn’t someone acting a part in your favourite TV drama, or a character in the book you’re reading – but a real person: a young girl, a teenager, a grown woman, someone you actually know? Maybe you are their target. Or perhaps their victim is a friend, a colleague, an acquaintance? Maybe you don’t even know them, not really, but you see it anyway, the damage that is being done. What do you do? Who do you turn to? How do you react, respond, retaliate?

I didn’t necessarily plan on writing a book about bullying. The subject matter wasn’t the thing that came first for me, it was the character. Biddy Weir, this shy, socially awkward, unconventional little girl arrived in my life, fully formed and vividly clear, demanding to tell me her story. I really wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to her at first, but I knew from the get-go that she was being bullied; not just teased a little, but chronically, relentlessly persecuted. And as Biddy was talking, this other character emerged, just as fully formed, just as vivid. Her name was Alison Flemming, and she was a total horror. There were many times throughout the writing process that I wanted to slap her on the face. I couldn’t quite believe how inherently bad she was, but at the same time, I knew she was utterly real.

Many people have asked if Biddy is me, and if Alison is someone I know. She isn’t, and she isn’t. There’s maybe a pinch of me in Biddy (we both have curly hair, and I was teased about it as a child), but she is essentially a hybrid of several people I’ve encountered over the years, both male and female. Alison too is a fusion of real life characters I’ve known, some from my early childhood, some from my teenage years, and some from my adult life. As my daughter progressed through school, other ‘Alisons’ appeared. We all know at least one, don’t we? (Just to be clear, all ‘Alisons’ aren’t called Alison! One of my dearest friends is an Alison, and she’s adorable!)

I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir isn’t an easy read at times. There were times when it wasn’t easy to write; times when I found myself roaring with rage at Alison’s behaviour, or weeping at Biddy’s pain. The bulk of the story is set in the 1980s, when the world wide web was still in its infancy, and social media was the stuff of Tomorrow’s World. But if they had existed, or if Biddy’s story had been set today, she simply wouldn’t have survived. She, at least, had some respite from her tormentors; after school, weekends and holidays. As we hear too often, there is no such escape today, as the recent tragic case of teenager, Felix Alexander, highlighted.

Bullying has been around since the dawn of time, but is has now become a plague, a social epidemic. And it seems there is no cure. But there must be, mustn’t there? And maybe fiction can play a part. Perhaps reading about or watching the antics of those fictional bullies and the anguish of the people they victimised, can help? How did we feel, for example, when we witnessed Chris Hargensen plot the bloody humiliation of Carrie, or watched Veda Pierce yet again destroy her mother’s new-found happiness? What did we want to say to them? Perhaps more importantly, what did we want to say to Carrie and Mildred? ‘Be strong’; ‘walk away’; ‘you are better than she is’; ‘her soul is ugly – yours is beautiful, see it’; ‘do not let this, let her, define you’.  Perhaps our instinctive, raw, impassioned reactions to the abhorrent actions of fictional bullies can provide the courage and the creativity to confront the real ones. Biddy’s story is just making its way into the world, but already I’ve been moved to tears by some of the responses from readers. People have told me about their Alisons, about the Biddys they know. Some have thanked me for ‘telling their story’, some have said reading the book was a cathartic experience, others have said they will no longer stand silently on the side-lines and watch as someone is bullied, fearful of intervening. I have had mental health practitioners share the book with co-workers and clients, and teachers recommend it to year 12+ pupils and their parents.

This has all been an unexpected twist in Biddy’s tale. As I was writing the book, I never imagined it would help people, never anticipated such a visceral reaction. But in this National Anti-Bullying month, I hope that her story helps many more people confront the bullies in their own lives, and that maybe, just maybe, it might be responsible for stopping just one ‘Alison Flemming’ in her tracks.

About the author

Lesley Allen lives in Bangor, County Down. She is a freelance copywriter and the press officer and assistant programme developer for Open House Festival. Lesley is previous recipient of the James Kilfedder Memorial Bursary, and two Support for the Individual Artist Art’s Council Awards. She was named as one of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s 2016 Artist Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES) recipients for literature. She will be using the award to complete her second book.

Find her on Facebook

Follow on Twitter @Lesley_Allen_

Huge thanks to Lesley for this emotive guest post and also to Emily  at Bonnier Zaffre for her invitation to be part of this blog tour.

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Review ~ The Last Thing I Remember ~ Deborah Bee

Twenty7
28th July 2016

A bit of blurb...

Sarah is in a coma. She was mugged. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t deserve any of it. She’s a nice girl from a nice family. She’s a victim. That’s what they say.

Kelly is in the waiting room. She’s just a kid. A typical schoolgirl. Bullied a bit, probably. She doesn’t know anything. That’s what they say. So why is she there? Why does she keep turning up?

Can Sarah remember what happened to her, and work out who is it that keeps coming into her room at night?

My thoughts about the book...

Two very different narrators take us by the hand and lead us through this refreshingly different psychological suspense story. Sarah has been the victim of a severe assault and lies comatose in the critical care unit of the local hospital where she is, to all intents and purposes, brain dead. However, Sarah can listen and think, the only trouble is she can't make anyone hear her. Kelly is Sarah's fourteen year old neighbour and in the months leading up to Sarah's attack these two unlikely companions have become friends. They both have a story to tell and each story is compelling in its own way.

Sarah trapped in locked-in syndrome can communicate to the reader only by her thoughts, but with emotional depth she shares her reactions to her dream like state and reveals much about her life, her childhood and her marriage, whilst Kelly, on the other hand, is feisty, fierce and determined to help Sarah and, at the same time, tell her own side of the story.

This is a well put together psychological suspense story which looks at the repercussions of a devastating crime from diverse perspectives and, in doing so, allows two completely different narrators to tell their unique version of events. The author writes a good story and has created characters which stay with you. I especially enjoyed reading Sarah’s thought processes and feel that the locked in process was described really well. I would have liked less profanities coming out of Kelly’s mouth, but I realise that was necessary to emphasise the social differences between Kelly and Sarah’s life experiences.

So, overall,The Last Thing I Remember is a good debut by a talented author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength in future novels.

Best Read With... Cheese and bacon grilled baguettes and a frothy chocolate milk shake...

About the Author

Deborah Bee studied fashion journalism at Central St Martins. She has worked at various magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Times and the Guardian as a writer, a fashion editor and later an editor. Currently, she is a Creative Director at Harrods.

Follow on Twitter @BeeDeborahBee1

Amazon UK - Paperback release date 28th July 2016

Read a guest post by the Author here

Thanks to the publishers for my review copy of The Last Thing I Remember

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Blog Tour ~ Learning to Speak American by Colette Dartford

I am delighted to host a stop on the

Learning to Speak American Blog Tour with this lovely guest post from author

Colette Dartford

How I Found The Courage To Start Writing

I wrote my debut novel, Learning To Speak American, while I was living in California’s idyllic Napa Valley. Up until then writing had been a hobby, something I did for my own pleasure and rarely allowed anyone else to read. But creative writing is like most things – the more you practice, the better you get. Because my American visa prevented me from working, I had time to write, and gradually my confidence grew to the point where I began to enter competitions. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was shortlisted for a poetry prize,  runner-up in a short story competition and published in an anthology.

It’s amazing how a taste of success, however small, can really give your courage a boost. I wanted to improve the quality of my writing but since I had no formal training on which to build, (my career was in policy research), I found a mentor and worked closely with her until I moved back to the UK. This one-to-one relationship suited my style and personality, but I know other writers who prefer the support of a writing group, or the structure of an evening class at their local college.

Getting impartial, constructive feedback on your work is essential if you want to submit it to agents and publishers. They are inundated with aspiring authors and you need to be prepared for rejection. It can easily crush your confidence but remember than even bestselling authors like Stephen King and JK Rowling were rejected many times before they found success. And when, at last, you get that call from an agent, saying he loves your novel and would like to represent you, it’s absolutely worth all the ups and downs along the way.

Colette Dartford

July 2016

Learning to Speak American 

Published 14th July (Twenty7, £7.99)

A bit of blurb..

Having suffered in silence since the tragic death of their young daughter, Lola and Duncan Drummond's last chance to rediscover their love for one another lies in an anniversary holiday to the gorgeous Napa Valley.

Unable to talk about what happened, Duncan reaches out to his wife the only way he knows how - he buys her a derelict house, the restoration of which might just restore their relationship. 

As Lola works on the house she begins to realise the liberating power of letting go. But just as she begins to open up, Duncan's life begins to fall apart. 

After all the heartbreak, can Lola and Duncan learn to love again

My thoughts..

The loss of their beloved daughter, Clarissa, has devastated Lola and Duncan Drummond. In a desperate attempt to pull together the pieces of their marriage, a last ditch holiday to California's beautiful Napa Valley offers, just maybe, a semblance of hope. Amidst the glory of vineyards and lush, green countryside, Lola finds an element of peace and the idea of restoring a derelict cottage, aptly named The Treehouse, shakes her out of a lonely, grief-ridden apathy. What then follows shows Lola blossoming alongside The Treehouse, which in an unexpected way, helps to set her on the road to recovery, but at what cost to her relationship with Duncan?

The story opens up from the very start and I had enormous sympathy for both Duncan and Lola, although as the story progressed, I felt my allegiance, simply because of Duncan’s behaviour, focused more sympathetically on Lola.  There are some perceptive observations into the grieving process, with a real sense of two damaged souls trying desperately to make sense of their grief ,but who never really communicate properly with each other.

For some reason, I expected the novel to be a lighter read and was surprised at just how much depth the author’s reveals about loss and the different ways that people come to terms with hurt and despair. There’s a lovely, lyrical quality to the writing with a real sense of time and place, which helps to bring the beautiful Napa Valley to life, and although I have never visited California, I could, from the author’s descriptions visualise the beautiful countryside around The Treehouse quite clearly.

In many ways Learning to Speak American is a difficult novel to enjoy per se as it touches on a really heart breaking situation, and yet, as the novel progresses a lightness comes across the narrative and you can’t help but wish that everything is going to work out for Lola and Duncan.  And does it...well, you’ll need to read this lovely story for yourself to find out ..

Learning to Speak American is a very good debut novel from a talented new author in contemporary fiction.

 Best Read With ...…freshly grilled steaks and a delicious bottle of Opus One from the Napa Valley..

About the Author

Learning to Speak American is Colette Dartford's debut novel and is based on her experience of renovating a derelict house in California's Napa Valley. Having bought and renovated the house, Colette lived there with her husband for many years before moving back to the UK. Colette wrote the book in California where it was a quarter finalist in Amazon's first novel award. Before becoming a writer, Colette worked as a Political Research Consultant in public policy for many years and has a MPhil in Political Science, her second novel, The Sinners, will be published by Bonnier in 2017.

You can find more about Colette on her website

Visit on Facebook

Follow on Twitter @ColetteDartford

My thanks to Colette for this guest post and to the publisher for my review copy of 

Learning to Speak American.

Big thanks to Alice at Midas for her invitation to be part of this blog tour.

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Blog Tour ~ The Last Thing I Remember by Deborah Bee

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to be  hosting today's stop on the 

The Last Thing I Remember 

Blog Tour

Twenty7
Part of the Bonnier Publishing Group

Imagine waking up and being unable to move, unable to see, unable to communicate. Your past is a blank piece of paper and you don’t even know your own name. But you can hear. And the only way to piece together your life is to listen to the people around you…

Hi Deborah ~ thank you for inviting us to be part of your blog tour and for sharing your inspiration for 

The Last Thing I Remember...

I think it all started with Betrayal, by Harold Pinter that I saw in Covent Garden. The story is told backwards. The play begins with a couple who are separating. They’ve been having an affair for years. The next scene is earlier; they look younger and are still in the throes of the relationship. Each scene goes backwards until in the final scene, we see how they met. It’s a great twist at the end. Not what I was expecting at all.

My story starts with a coma victim, Sarah, with Locked In syndrome. She is brought into hospital after an apparent mugging. She has no memory. She can’t move, see, blink, breathe on her own. But she can hear. So she is piecing her life together through what her family and the medical team are saying. As she begins to remember her childhood, the reader is taken back in time to discover who Sarah is and how her experiences have shaped her personality and brought her to this point.

The other thing I love about Betrayal is how Pinter plays with our sympathy. Each scene casts a different character as the baddy and the victim. By the end of the play you’ve felt alternately sorry for/angry with the couple having the affair, and their spouses. I tried to bring some of that idea to The Last Thing I Remember. I wanted to misdirect the readers through the unreliable evidence presented by Sarah, through lack of memory or understanding and Kelly, her fourteen year old next door neighbour.

Nora Ephron’s Heartburn is always by my bed for a quick dose of inspiration. The group therapy I stole from her. In her version her heroine, Rachel, gets followed to her group by a thief who steals the diamond ring that she had been given by her husband. When she gets the ring back and takes it to the jewelers to get it mended, she discovers her husband has bought a diamond necklace for someone else, the woman he is having an affair with. It is so brilliantly funny while being heartbreakingly sad.

My heroine, Sarah, is in a heartbreakingly sad situation. Her doctors are doubtful. Her family is desperate. So I introduced an antidote to Sarah, Kelly – a second protagonist who is loud and funny, foul-mouthed (very) and sassy. I alternated the narration chapter by chapter. That dual narrative structure allowed Sarah to reveal things about Kelly that Kelly would never say. And vice versa. And it relieved the tension that Sarah’s situation created.

Gone Girl came at a good time for me. I was really unsure of the dual narrative structure because everyone advises against it. It was so successful in Gone Girl that I had the confidence to keep going. 

Amazon UK

About the Author

Deborah Bee studied fashion journalism at Central St Martins. She has worked at various magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Times and the Guardian as a writer, a fashion editor and later an editor. Currently, she is a Creative Director in luxury retail.

Do visit the other stops on the blog tour which runs between February 25th and March 5th 2016.

Huge thanks to the author for sharing her inspiration for The Last Thing I Remember and also to Hannah at Midas PR for her invitation to join this blog tour.

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*Blog Tour* ~ The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton

Jaffa and I are delighted to be hosting today's stop

on 

The Exclusives Blog Tour

The Exclusives is out on December 10^th in ebook and in paperback on the 7^th April 2016

Published by Twenty7

And here's the author


Rebecca Thornton

Hi Jo and Jaffa – thanks so much for having me at Jaffa Reads Too. My debut novel, The Exclusives, is set in an English boarding school. Here are my top five fictional boarding schools:

WILD CHILD: Poppy Moore, rich Californian girl gets sent to Abbey Mount boarding school in England, to try and keep her in check. 

My best mate asked me the other day why we were ‘still stuck in teen-land.’ Given that I’m 36, I didn’t really have much of an answer but Wild Child satisfies every single one of my teen cravings. I know this film is probably made for sixteen-year-olds, but I love it. I love it for its feel-good factor, the focus of teen friendship, the finding love part (oh and Alex Pettyfer, or Alex PettyPhwooar as the aforementioned friend calls him), the clothes - everything. And of course, Emma Roberts who plays Poppy Moore, would have been the coolest mate ever.

BACK HOME by Michelle Magorian:

This has to be one of my top books of all time. I nearly sob just thinking about it. Set in 1945, Rusty, or Virginia, gets sent back home to England after being evacuated to the Omsk family home in Connecticut. She gets sent to an English boarding school, which she hates. The book captures that awful loneliness that can happen in a boarding school and how even a hint of kindness and friendship can be a life-raft.

PREP by Curtis Sittenfeld: Lee Fiora gets a scholarship to an elite Massachusetts boarding school and has to navigate the unspoken rules and rituals imposed on her.

I loved this book, mainly because I love Curtis Sittenfeld. Wow, can she tell a story. So seamlessly. So beautifully. She’s genius at it and you find yourself remembering and recognising all the awkward bits – all the pressure and social stigmas and accepted ways to behave at school.

 TREBIZON by Anne Digby

I started reading Trebizon when I was younger than the protagonist, Rebecca Mason. Set in the eponymous fictional boarding school, Rebecca was like a worldly older sister to me. And of course, we had the same name, so I could almost pretend that I was her. Except obviously I was not a tennis champion. Oh, and she was rubbish at maths, like me.  The school always seemed so exciting – even when the girls went home for holidays, they looked forward to going back. There’s something reassuring about reading books that are familiar to you. I read them over and over, every summer and even when I became older than Rebecca Mason, I still loved them.

NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishigaro

“The woods were at the top of the hill that rose behind Hailsham House. All we could see really was a dark fringe of trees, but I certainly wasn't the only one of my age to feel their presence day and night.”

Hailsham boarding school is the setting for Ishigaro’s novel. The writing appears to be so effortless it’s hard to believe there’s something sinister going on behind the four walls. As the students get older, the school also grows in character. You can see how it’s acted as the framework for the main characters, shaping their choices and beliefs. 

Huge thanks to Rebecca for sharing her top five fictional Boarding School stories with us today and  also to Becky at  Midas PR for inviting me to be part of this Blog Tour.

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Blog Tour runs from 10th December - 16th December so do visit the other stops on the tour for more exciting news from Rebecca about The Exclusives.

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