Review ~ The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley

Macmillan
November 2015

Ever since I finished, The Seven Sisters, I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of The Storm Sister, which is book number two in this epic series of novels about the D'Aplièse sisters.

Cleverly, the story of the second sister, Alcyone, starts, as did the first book, with the devastating loss of the sisters' adopted father, Pa Salt. But this time round, we get to follow Ally's reaction to her father's death and of the tantalising trail she must follow in order to find out more about her heritage. The trail will take her far from her home in Geneva, will encompass metaphorical storms in her personal life, and will ultimately lead her towards a destiny she could never have imagined.

As always, the story draws you in from the very beginning; there is much to take in, not just from the point of view of the story but also of how it's all going to fit together in the overall scheme of the entire series. It's like a very sophisticated literary jigsaw puzzle and as you piece together all the complicated clues, you become immersed in a dual time story which flits backwards and forwards with comparative ease. I thought that both strands of the story were compelling for different reasons. The Norwegian thread of the story in the nineteenth century takes on a life of its own with a real sense of history; it weaves together a beautiful story of music and musicality, and speaks of lives that have been irreparably changed by circumstance. The current story that of Ally’s quest to find her true identity, is beautifully written, with a poignancy which at times leaves you feeling quite bereft. 

The story is huge, coming in at a whopping 683 pages but I read the bulk of it quite comfortably over the space of a few days. Overall, I thought that this was a more thoughtful story. In many ways it’s quietly reflective, quite gentle in places, but with an underlying strength, which as always, makes for utterly compelling reading.

Best read with a glass of crisp white wine and a goat’s cheese salad.

About the Author

Find Lucinda Riley on her website
Follow her on Twitter @lucindariley
Find her on Facebook

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Sunday War Poet...

The theme for this months poetry

 is


Remembrance

Dulce et Decorum

by

Elinor Jenkins

We buried of our dead the dearest one-

Said to each other, ‘Here then let him lie,

And they may find their place, when all is done,

From the old may tree standing guard near by.’

Strong limbs whereon the wasted life blood dries,

And soft cheeks that a girl might wish her own,

A scholar’s brow, o’ershadowing valiant eyes,

Henceforth shall pleasure charnel-worms alone.

For we, that loved him, covered up his face,

And laid him in the sodden earth away,

And left him lying in that lonely place

To rot and moulder with the mouldering clay.

The hawthorn that above his grave head grew

Like an old crone toward the raw earth bowed,

Wept softly over him, the whole night through,

And made him of tears a glimmering shroud.

Oh Lord of Hosts, no hallowed prayer we bring,

Here for Thy Grace is no importuning,

No room for those that will not strive nor cry

When loving kindness with our dead lay slain:

Give us our fathers’ heathen hearts again,

Valour to dare, and fortitude to die.

Review ~ I Let You Go by Clare Mackinstosh

Sphere
2014

Twisty, turny, full of surprises, I Let You Go grabs you by the hand and takes you on such an adventure that you are left gasping in more than one place.

When the book was first published, I remember reading the hype about it and people's reactions to it were, in the main, very favourable, and of course, everyone mentioned that 'gasp out loud' moment....which I did my best to avoid reading about as I didn't want to see any spoilers.  Now, call me an old cynic but I thought no ..I've seen it all before , nothing truly surprises me ....well...I have to say ..hands up, I was wrong,  this one did surprise me, and wow, did it work...

For no good reason , I had initially put this book on one side, I've  had my copy for ages. You know how it is, there always seemed to be something before it which looked more interesting! And then, on a cold and rather rain swept afternoon I started I Let You Go and believe me , I didn't let it go, until I had read the entire book in the space of a few hours.

So, rather beguilingly, I'm not going to say anything more about the plot, subplot, malice ,mayhem and all the deceit that takes place in this novel, as you really need to read it, without any plot spoilers from me...

I'll just say one thing, it's really very, very good...

Best read with creamy smooth, soya lattes and spicy teacakes....

About the Author

Find the author on her website

Follow her on Twitter @claremackinst0sh

Find her on Facebook

Amazon UK

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My guest author today is ....Liza Perrat ....( and giveaway)

I am delighted to welcome back to Jaffareadstoo

Liza Perrat

Liza grew up in Wollongong, Australia, where she worked as a general nurse and midwife for fifteen years.

When she met her French husband on a Bangkok bus, she moved to France, where she has been living with her husband and three children for twenty years. She works part-time as a French-English medical translator, and as a novelist.

Since completing a creative writing course twelve years ago, several of her short stories have won awards, notably the Writers Bureau annual competition of 2004 and her stories have been published widely in anthologies and small press magazines. Her articles on French culture and tradition have been published in international magazines such as France Magazine, France Today and The Good Life France.

Spirit of Lost Angels is the first in her French historical trilogy, The Bone Angel Series. The second – Wolfsangel – was published in October, 2013, and the third, Blood Rose Angel, will be published in November, 2015.

She is a founding member of the author collective, Triskele Books and reviews books for BookMuse.

***

I am really thrilled that to get us in the mood for her new novel, Liza is very kindly sharing a tantalizing extract from  Blood Rose Angel.

Blood Rose Angel

November 2015

The outlaw looked on the birth scene with obvious surprise. A scowl darkened his grimy, sweat-slick face. ‘Christ drowning in merde. What the …?’ He stepped inside, a stench of smoked fish and old ale filling the room, the horsewhip he brandished in one shovel-like hand making unearthly cracks. 

Despite the fearsome display, and the sword in his scabbard, a reckless courage flared inside me. 

‘Get out,’ I ordered, jabbing a finger at the door. ‘Can’t you see this is a birthing room … a sacred place for women only?’ 

The outlaw glowered down at me. ‘Bit bold for a woman, aren’t you? Who might you be?’

‘I’m the midwife, and I order you out of this cot now!’ A drop of sweat rolled down my nose.

The room remained silent, save the outlaw’s bellows-like panting, and the ragged breaths of the women and Nica’s boys. The man’s gaze flickered sideways, locked on the newborn. He stepped towards Alix and her baby. ‘What’s wrong with its head?’ 

‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘He’s a perfect child.’

‘Yes, perfect,’ Poppa affirmed.

‘Looks like the head of the Devil itself.’ The outlaw laid his whip over the baby’s brow, stroking the tender skin with the tip, as if caressing a kitten. ‘Such a monstrous thing don’t deserve to live.’ His scarred face puckered into a grin that could have melted stone. 

The new mother shrank away, whimpering and clutching her son to her breast. 

‘Don’t hurt that newborn,’ I said, ‘or God will see you straight to Hell.’

The outlaw turned his crooked stare on me. In a movement more deft than a slaughterer’s knife, he wrenched the babe from Alix’s grasp. Jerking the newborn free of his swaddling, he held the bawling child upside down by the ankles. 

As the infant screamed, writhing like a trout snagged fresh from the Vionne, the outlaw eyed the cot wall beside him. My insides seized with sudden terror.

Oh Lord no! Blessed Virgin save him. 

‘Stop,’ I said. ‘Give me that child.’ I began rocking my angel pendant back and forth before the brigand, stepping towards him until I was level with the black hairs unfurling from his tunic. His eyes widened, fixed on the talisman’s glowing blue and green ones.

I knew the newborn’s life––probably all our lives––depended on not showing him fear. As a woman who’d lived without a man at her hearth for almost two years, I’d learned that terror only fuelled such lawless beasts.

With the soft, low voice I’d used to sing my daughter to sleep, I said, ‘If you don’t hand me the baby, and leave this cottage right now, a pack of wolves will pounce on you as you sit around the fire with your friends, boasting the spoils of Lucie. They’ll rip out your black heart and feed it to the Devil.’

Still gripping the bawling child, the outlaw’s eyes didn’t flicker from the swinging pendant. 

‘Give me the child,’ I went on, in my lullaby voice. ‘Pass him to me now.’ The pendant swung back and forth, back and forth.

Blood Rose Angel is published 14 November 2015

Paperback

Amazon Ebook

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Blood Rose Angel has been longlisted in the MsLexia Novel Competition, 2015

You can find more about Liza on her website 

Follow her on Twitter @LizaPerrat

You can sign up for her email newsletter where you can find a fabulous free copy of  

Ill fated Rose  a short story that inspired The Bone Angel series, 

***

Thanks to Liza's generosity 

Here is an amazing giveaway opportunity for up to 3 lucky winners. 

Open internationally

 1 Paperback copy of Blood Rose Angel and 2 e-copies available.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huge thanks to Liza for giving so generously of her time and for providing this fabulous giveaway.


Don't forget to use the Rafflecopter widget for your entries to the giveaway and DO leave a comment on the blog indicating e-copy or paperback



Thank you




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Review ~ There Must be an Angel by Sharon Booth

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
2015

From the moment I first met Eliza Jarvis, I knew that I would like her, you see, she's a fan of Jane Eyre, but realises, that unlike romantic fiction, real life is never going to be that easy. When Eliza realises that her philandering husband, Harry, has been dallying, rather too closely, with Melody Bird, the amply endowed co-star of his TV programme, Eliza does the one thing she knows will hurt him the most, she takes his beloved Aston Martin Rapide and disappears with their daughter, Amy.

Taking refuge in the North Yorkshire seaside resort of Kearton Bay, Eliza and Amy start to piece together their lives and with the help of a few colourful characters, they soon discover that there is more to life than celebrity status, and the simple joy of living life amongst friends is something that Eliza comes to cherish. I really enjoyed getting to know Eliza, she's feisty and funny and oh, so vulnerable you want to wrap her up in a blanket, but there's also a central core of steel, which is evident in the way she looks after her little daughter and the way that she protects those people she really cares about.

There Must Be An Angel is one of those delightful stories that grabs you by the hand on page one and with a wonderfully light touch takes you into a world of quirky characters, who very quickly become as familiar as friends. And as you start to feel the emotional pull of a good story, you begin care about the people who inhabit the pages. You completely understand Eliza’s initial misgivings about staying at the uniquely named Hare and Moon pub, well, who wouldn’t feel slightly uneasy in the company of Rhiannon, the Wiccan landlady, who knows tantalising snippets of village secrets. Then, there’s the darkly mysterious Gabriel, who has more than enough mysteries of his own for us to discover!  And of course, who could forget lovely Rose and Lexi, Joe and Mrs Travers and the wonderful Hannah. There are just so many delightful people to enjoy getting to know, that I was quite sad when the story ended!

However, it's good to know that the series will continue to grow and there will be more secrets to share about the people of Kearton Bay in future novels. 

I can't wait !

Best enjoyed with mugs of builders tea and slabs of Yorkshire Parkin, thick with butter…

You can read an interview with the author

Here...

Amazon UK

My thanks to the author for sharing her book with me.

~***~

The Author in my spotlight is...Sharon Booth

I am delighted to introduce 

Sharon Booth

Author 

of 

The Kearton Bay series

 

CreateSpace Independent Publishing -2015

Hi Sharon ~ Welcome to Jaffareadstoo !

Where did the idea for There Must Be An Angel come from?

Truthfully, what eventually became There Must Be An Angel started with the character's name, Gabriel. I don't know why he ended up being called that – it just popped into my head and stuck. Nothing else seemed right for him, so I had this man, a father, who I knew had a really troubled past but had the name of an angel, and it all started from there. I knew he would find someone who believed in him, even when he doubted himself, and I wanted her to come into his life when he least expected it. That gave me the idea of a woman arriving in his home town for some reason, and that's when I came up with Eliza and the story of her broken marriage and broken heart. Even with that, however, I needed a reason why she would come to that particular place specifically, and decided that she was looking for someone. As the theme of fathers and daughters was already strong in the book, it seemed obvious that she was looking for her father. Gradually, the whole angel link evolved.

Without spoiling the story can you tell us a little about the characters?

The main characters are Eliza and Gabriel. Eliza has had what she thought was a happy marriage to Harry, a television presenter. She never knew her father, and her mother died when she was quite young. She was brought up by her uncle, Joe Hollingsworth, who is a famous chat show host. On the surface, she has a rich, comfortable life. In reality, all is not what it seems. Eliza has a chronic lack of self-esteem. She heads to Kearton Bay looking for her father, but really she's looking for herself, to make sense of who she actually is. Gabriel, meanwhile, is struggling. He's been through a traumatic time, has suffered a huge loss of income, is practically homeless, and is trying to do his best for his teenage daughter but feels he is failing her. He has little faith in himself and has resigned himself to a life without love. 

When you first started writing There Must Be An Angel – did you always intend it to be part of a series? And if so, did you know at the start where the story will eventually finish?

When I started to write the first book, I had three characters in my head – Joe, Will and Lexi. They had popped into my head when we were on our way to Somerset for a holiday. As my husband drove, I was busy daydreaming about a funny, kind, loyal chat show host, a feisty young woman who had no time for romance, and a rich, sweet, awkward man who adored her from afar. My intention was to write about Lexi, but as her background developed and I met her father, he began to interest me, too. Eventually, I knew that I needed to write his story first, and I knew that Lexi's and Will's romance would be a slow-burning thing that would develop in the background. I thought it would be two books, but then Rose pushed her way in and demanded a book of her own. Rose was only intended to be a minor character in There Must Be An Angel, but she had such a strong voice that she more or less shoved Lexi to the back of the queue. I wrote A Kiss from a Rose, and, as I was writing it, I realised there was another character who deserved further exploration, too. I'm writing Lexi's story next, and the other character will feature in the fourth and final book in the series. 

Where do you get your inspiration for a story – are you inspired by people, places, or do you draw purely from your imagination?

It really does vary. With this series, the first characters just popped into my head and started the whole thing. I didn't really have a story mapped out for them, but I knew they were strong and I would have to do something with them. Setting is very important, though. Kearton Bay was inspired by Robin Hood's Bay on the North Yorkshire coast. It's very atmospheric, and as I was walking round, I could really picture my characters living out their lives there. A building, a view, the name of a pub…they can all inspire storylines, as can song titles, a painting, a story in a newspaper. My work colleague was telling us all about her naughty boxer dog one day, and that made me wonder…could a naughty dog bring a couple together? The result was All Because of Baxter, which was recently published by D C Thompson as a People's Friend Pocket Novel. Inspiration can strike any time, any place!

Have you always wanted to write and how did you get started?

I've written stories and poems since I was about six or seven. I've always loved reading, and as I eagerly devoured books like Enid Blyton's Malory Towers or Famous Five series, or children's comics like Tammy, I soon realised that I wanted to write my own stories. Of course, they were shameless rip-offs of the stories I was reading, but I had to start somewhere! My first "novel" was a hundred pages long and fully illustrated. It was about a boarding school that specialised in ballet. It started quite strongly, but since I didn't know a thing about ballet and had never been to a boarding school, I ran out of ideas pretty quickly. I can't imagine how many notebooks I bought throughout my childhood, or how many times I wrote "Chapter One". There were very few Chapter Twos, unfortunately. When I got married and started a family, I stopped writing. It was taking an Open University course in writing fiction that got me interested again, and when I had the idea for the Kearton Bay books, I didn't want to let it fizzle out. Determined to finally finish at least one novel, I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and during that month I completed a first draft of a hundred and twenty thousand words. Hardly any of that first draft made it to the final version of There Must Be An Angel, but by persevering with NaNoWriMo, I had raw material to work with. So much more comforting than a blank page!

Do you write the type of books you like to read and which authors influence you?

I can't imagine how you would write a book that you wouldn't enjoy reading. Writing is such hard work that I couldn't finish a book if I wasn't thoroughly enjoying the story myself – even if, at times, I despair of it and want to hurl my computer out of the window. I love contemporary romances with lots of humour in them, so that's what I tend to write. Having said that, I also love a cosy mystery such as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, or really spooky, supernatural crime books like those of Phil Rickman, or my fellow Write Romantic, Helen Phifer. If I'm being really honest, I think the authors that initially influenced me the most were Enid Blyton, the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Ruby Ferguson and Joanna Cannan. The books of my childhood inspired me to write my own stories, and I still think they were fantastic books and often re-read them, even today. I enjoy reading lots of contemporary authors' work, too, of course. I love Valerie-Anne Baglietto's twist on fairytales, and I'm a big fan of Carole Matthews, Milly Johnson, Trisha Ashley, Fiona Walker, Veronica Henry, Jilly Cooper and many more. As I'm connecting online with more writers, I'm discovering new ones all the time. There are some fabulous books out there. I just wish I had more time to read them all!

What do you hope readers will take away from your stories?

When I close a book, or switch off my Kindle, I like to do it with a big sigh of satisfaction, a lump in my throat, and a feeling that all's well with the world. I like a happy ending. I like to feel that I've been emotionally involved with the characters in the stories, that I've been on a real journey with them, and that they've got the resolution they deserve. I would love readers to feel that way when they finish my books.

What’s next?

I'm currently working on the second draft of my third full-length novel, which is separate from the Kearton Bay series. I'm hoping to release it some time in the spring of next year. Then I'm working on a novella and the third Kearton Bay book, so Will and Lexi will finally share their story. Then I'm putting out a Christmas collection before starting work on the final Kearton Bay story and beginning a whole new series. I have a lot to do!

A Kiss from a Rose available here

There Must Be an Angel available here






Find out more about Sharon on her website
Follow Sharon on Twitter as @Sharon_Booth1
Like Sharon's Facebook page



My review of There Must Be An Angel is here

Huge thanks to Sharon for giving so generously of her time and for sharing her thoughts about writing, There Must be an Angel and Kiss from a Rose.

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Review ~ The Winter Isles by Antonia Senior

Corvus

November 5 2015

Twelfth century Scotland is a place of brutal warfare, and for Somerled, the son of an ageing Scottish chieftain, life is harsh and often unpredictable. There is much to lose in the frequent battles and turmoil that command his attention, and yet his unfailing enthusiasm for his land and his people shine through in this story of ancient conflict, and of a young man's quest to reclaim what is his, by right of birth. To be Lord of the Isles in such a time of great uncertainty was tantamount to risking everything but the ties that bind him to this desolate country are strong and deep.

Twelfth century Scotland is vividly recreated and the storm tossed days of battle thunder and ruthless conflict is depicted in such glorious detail that I felt the earth tremor with excitement at the lyrical quality of such powerful storytelling. There are clever interpretations of light and shade with struggles and skirmishes sitting comfortably alongside tender moments between lovers, and an abiding love for home, land and people.

Not much is known about the character, Somerled, and I must admit that my own knowledge was woefully ignorant, shrouded as he is in mythology and buried in legend, there is little to really know about what actually happened during these early years in Scottish history. With that thought firmly placed in my mind, I must admit to reading the author’s historical notes at the end of the book before I had reached the end of the first chapter. That’s not to say that the rest of the story was spoiled by reading the notes out of sync with the book, far from it, in fact, it helped enormously to put time and place into context.

It is obvious that the author is extremely passionate about Somerled. Her enthusiasm shines through with every well written word and there is no doubt that her impeccable research and many, many visits to Scotland have paid off on abundance.

A perfect read for a wintry afternoon and best enjoyed with a glass of Bunnahabhain ,a smooth Islay single malt, and maybe a plate of oat biscuits.

About the Author

Antonia Senior is a former staff writer for The Times. She is now a freelance journalist, living in London with her family. She has travelled extensively through Scotland's Highlands and Islands.

Visit the author's website

Find the author on Twitter@Tonisenior

My thanks to Karen Duffy at Atlantic Books for my review copy of this book

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