Blog tour review: The Mother I Could Have Been by Kerry Fisher

The book.... Why would you walk away from the one person you can’t live without?

As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half-siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of twenty-one, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.

When Vicky meets William and falls pregnant in Greece that summer, it isn’t planned. But the two of them believe they can make it work, showering their child with the love which they believe should be enough.

But when her son Theo is two, Vicky leaves him in the care of her mother-in-law, walks out of her front door and drives to a hotel where she takes a room for the night. She doesn’t return.

It’s unthinkable.

What kind of mother does that?

The kind who is hiding a story you can never imagine.

The Mother I Could Have Been is a heartbreaking story of impossible decisions and second chances, from the bestselling author of The Silent Wife and The Woman I Was Before. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain. The review... I've loved all the Kerry Fisher books I've read - she's really good at shining a light on family relationships - and in The Mother I Could Have Been, she seems to be going from strength to strength. It's a story which takes a piercing look at the mother/child relationship - from various angles - and the all too easy ways in which apparently unbridgeable rifts can develop. The reality of how the same events within a family can perceived in devastatingly different ways, unintended hurts festering for years, is portrayed to great effect.

The story focuses on two characters - Vicky and Caro, and I loved both of them - at least, once Vicky had grown into herself a bit. Some of her earlier decisions were hard to stomach, yet it was possible to understand how as a young person she'd taken actions which she would later come to profoundly regret. I was rooting for both of them - and for young Theo perhaps most of all - in their fractured family situations, although it was clear there could be no easy answers. And there aren't, but nevertheless the story is satisfying and ultimately hopeful. And just a cracking good read too. Loved it. The author...

Kerry Fisher is the bestselling author of five novels, including The Silent Wife and The Secret Child. She was born in Peterborough, studied French and Italian at the University of Bath and spent several years living in Spain, Italy and Corsica. After returning to England to work as a journalist, she eventually abandoned real life stories for the secrets of fictional families. She now lives in Surrey with her husband, two teenage children and a naughty Lab/Schnauzer called Poppy. 

  http://www.kerryfisherauthor.com/ 

  https://twitter.com/KerryFSwayne  

The Dark and Cloudy Skies by Jenny Maxwell: Review

I first read this a number of years ago, and it made quite an impression on me, to the point where I spent some years trying unsuccessfully to remember the title and author. (The closest I got for a while was "It was a dark and stormy night", which was obviously incorrect.) Anyway I finally figured it out, found it was on Kindle (hurrah!) and settled down for a re-read. Turned out I didn't remember much about it at all, but I enjoyed it just as much second time round.

It was published in 2001, apparently, but feels a bit earlier, perhaps only because the main character and her sister are called Joan and Sheila - not names I would usually associate with young women in 2001. Even in the 80s and 90s when I grew up, I didn't know anyone of my own age called Joan and Sheila, although no doubt some existed.

Joan Ferguson, known to her supermarket workmates as “Dozey Joan”, isn’t too good at reading and writing, or at standing up for herself. She’s good at thinking, though, and trying to make sense of the often confusing world around her.

When Joan is kidnapped at knifepoint by a mentally ill young man, who has incorporated her into his delusion of the “Dark Universe”, the experience is hugely and lastingly traumatic, but the world created by Nicholas Parry is also strangely compelling. In his disordered mind, Joan is not Dozey Joan, but the Empress of the Dark Universe, a figure to be worshipped. (Unfortunately, he wanted to kill her to get her back there.)

Joan’s ordeal is awful, but it’s a small part of the book. The really important part is what happens in her life afterwards.

We see everything through Joan’s eyes and it’s enthralling. Her voice is distinctive, engaging and believable. Joan doesn’t understand some things - sometimes that makes her angry - but other things she understands very well indeed. Joan’s always been told, and believed, that she’s stupid. As a result, people have written her off. But it becomes apparent that there’s much more to Joan than meets the eye.

An excellent read with an unusual and likeable protagonist. A book which deserves a wider readership than it has probably had.

Blog tour review! The Dead Wife by Sue Fortin

The book....

SINCLAIR WIFE DEAD!  HUSBAND CLEARED! 

Police have ruled out suspicious circumstances in the investigation into the death of Elizabeth Sinclair, wife of charismatic entrepreneur Harry Sinclair, found drowned in the lake of the family’s holiday park.

It’s been two years since the Sinclair case closed but when reporter Steph Durham receives a tipoff that could give her the scoop of the year, she’s drawn deeper and deeper into the secretive Sinclair family.

Elizabeth’s death wasn’t a tragic accident. And the truth will come at a deadly price…

The review...

I've read and enjoyed previous books by Sue Fortin (The Birthday Girl stands out as one I particularly relished), so I jumped at the chance to read and review her latest.

In The Dead Wife (the title does feel a bit blunt), main protagonist Steph writes for a travel company but hankers after a more exciting and challenging kind of journalism. Sent by her employer to cover the reopening of a Lake District resort, she certainly doesn't expect to be approached beforehand by the mother of a woman who tragically drowned there two years earlier. Sonia Lomas is convinced her daughter Elizabeth, the wife of one of the brothers who run the resort, was murdered..... but nobody believes her, the police included. And she wants Steph to investigate.

At the resort we're swiftly introduced to Harry, Elizabeth's grieving widower; eldest brother Dominic, quickly established as the sort of person who kicks dogs; and Owen, the alcoholic youngest brother. Then there's Pru, the matriarch.

The story is told largely from Steph's perspective, but also follows the brothers and incorporates flashbacks to events leading up to Elizabeth's death two years earlier. Elizabeth, it seems, had something of a talent for trouble...

Although I did have a good idea who the "baddie" was prior to the reveal, it was a very enjoyable read, with a likeable heroine in Steph and an evocative setting in the Lakes... and a sense of genuine jeopardy at times. 

Many thanks to the author and Rachel's Random Resources for the opportunity to participate in the blog tour!

Buy it here

The author...

Sue Fortin is an award-winning USA Today and an Amazon best-selling author, an international bestseller and has reached #1 in the Amazon UK Kindle chart. Sue writes mystery, suspense and romance, sometimes combining all three. 

Sue was born in Hertfordshire but had a nomadic childhood, moving often with her family, before eventually settling in West Sussex where she now lives with her husband, children and grandchildren.

Social Media Links...

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Blog tour! Book review: Birdie and Jude by Phyllis H. Moore

The book...

A moving novel of loss, regret, denial, and discovery on Galveston Island, from the author of Opal’s Story and The Ember Months.

Birdie has lived to regret many of her decisions, but she doesn’t regret offering a stranger, Jude, shelter from an approaching hurricane. Their serendipitous meeting will form a bond that will change their lives forever.

In a character driven story with memories of the protests and inequality plaguing the 1960's, Birdie’s reached middle age and questions her life. Jude is striking out on her own, but has been derailed by a fatal accident claiming her only friend. Although their backgrounds and lives are vastly different, they recognize something in the other that forges a friendship.

As their relationship solidifies, they share glimpses of their pasts. Birdie is a product of the '60's, an aging hippie, with a series of resentments. She had a sheltered childhood in an upper class family. Her parents longed to see her make the Texas Dip at the Mardi Gras ball. Jude, however, entered foster care as an infant. Her parents, victims of a murder/suicide, left her and her siblings orphaned and separated.

There is something about their connection that strikes Birdie as familiar. Can souls know each other in different lives? Birdie struggles with the awareness that she has had regrets and hasn't lived an authentic life, while Jude faces an uncomfortable truth about her own. It has all the feels.

The review...

The unusual dedication at the beginning immediately both intrigued and stirred the emotions, and I wanted to know its connection to the story - which was not immediately apparent.

When Birdie Barnes finds Jude - a young woman in crisis - on the beach while walking her dog, it's the beginning of an unusual cross-generational friendship, one which will have profound effects for both women. Birdie has always rebelled against the expectations placed on her by her parents and society; Jude's life has been hard from the start and it's safe to say, hasn't got easier. Both women have secrets they're not telling. But why, when they clearly haven't met before, does Jude seem so strangely familiar?

While I enjoyed the beginning of the book, it took a bit longer for the story to really grab me. By the second half, though, I was totally engaged, by Birdie's story in particular, aspects of which I could definitely relate to.

The story is set in a place I knew nothing of: Galveston Island off the coast of Texas. (Well, only the Glen Campbell song...) I felt I knew it a bit better by the end, though, and definitely got a strong sense of place arising from the narrative.

I did feel the story took time to get going, but the strength of the book lies in the complex and subtle characterisation of the main characters, especially Birdie.... not always likeable, but never less than interesting.

Thanks to the author and Rachel's Random Resources for the opportunity to read and review!

Purchase Links... 

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BLMR63Y

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BLMR63Y

Author Bio… 

Phyllis H. Moore wants to live life experiences more than once: doing it, writing about it, and reading about it. The atmosphere of the south draws her in and repels her. The characters are rich with dysfunction and redemption, real. She’s had two careers and two retirements. Both careers gave her inspiration for her novels: The Sabine Series, Sabine, Billy’s Story,  Josephine’s Journals and Secrets of Dunn House, Opal’s Story, Tangled, a Southern Gothic Yarn, and The Bright Shawl, Colors of Tender Whispers, The Ember Months, Birdie & Jude, and an anthology of spooky short stories inspired by real places and events, The Bridge on Jackson Road. In 2018 she also released a new genre for her, A Dickens of a Crime, a Meg Miller Cozy Mystery. She has authored one nonfiction book, Retirement, Now What? Phyllis has been published by Caffeinated Press in the anthology, Brewed Awakenings 2, Fifteen Tales to Jolt Your Mind Awake. She blogs on her web site http://www.phyllishmoore.com. Follow her on Pinterest and Facebook.

Phyllis is a retired social worker and former owner/operator of a small bed and breakfast. She’s lived in the rural areas and cities of south Texas. She currently lives on Galveston Island with her husband, Richard.

Social Media Links...

 https://www.facebook.com/phyllishmooreAuthor/

https://www.pinterest.com/corazone/

http://www.phyllishmoore.com

@phyllishmoore

Book review: Stanley and Elsie by Nicola Upson

I love Nicola Upson’s “Josephine Tey” novels, in which a fictionalised version of the Golden Age crime writer investigates mysteries. Here, though, Nicola has turned her attention to other real-life people, and I suspect stuck much closer to reality than in the Josephine stories. Indeed, the extraordinary true story of the Spencers and those around them needs little embroidery, and must have proved an almost irresistible subject for a novel.

The artist Stanley Spencer, his wife Hilda Carline, also an artist, and the remarkable sagas which surrounded them, neighbour Patricia Preece, and her lover Dorothy Hepworth, are seen here largely through the eyes of their long-standing (and often long-suffering) maid - and subject of two paintings - Elsie Munday. The perceptive, vibrant and down to earth Elsie is, with the possible exception of Stanley and Hilda’s daughters Shirin and Unity, by far the most likeable character and the first half of the book is entirely from her perspective. Later, we also begin to see the viewpoints of other characters. The lifelong relationship of Preece and Hepworth would surely make a fascinating book in itself.

I loved this story, about people of whom I previously knew little, though I now feel considerably better informed. I love it when a book teaches me something, and Stanley and Elsie had me frequently looking up more information, particularly about the distinctive art of Stanley Spencer and Hilda Carline. My researches led me to clips of the recent documentary “Stanley and his Daughters” - if anyone knows where I can watch the whole thing, please tell!

Nicola Upson is a wonderful writer and has excelled here in creating the world of Stanley and Elsie, evoking a real sense of the artworks and the rural locations of Burghclere and Cookham. I now really want to visit the chapel, though unfortunately it’s a bit far away from my home in Scotland.

An excellent read.

Review: The First Time Lauren Pailing Died by Alyson Rudd

Since early childhood, Lauren Pailing has experienced glimpses of other lives she might have lived - homes and mothers recognisably her own, yet slightly different. When Lauren dies for the first time, in an accident aged thirteen, she is able to somehow slip sideways into one of those other lives, into a world where Lauren Pailing is still alive. But that’s not the only time Lauren Pailing dies.

This book was so far up my street it might have been written just for me. The “other worlds” concept is endlessly fascinating and while there is an element of speculative fiction here, the main focus is on the people - on Lauren herself (themselves?) and the effects of her (their) death(s) on those around her, branching off into further possible worlds. Despite the narrative slipping in and out of different worlds, it somehow manages never to be confusing.

The other worlds differ in subtle or not so subtle ways. In one, Britain has never had a woman prime minister (though the USA does have a ferocious female president). Another, intriguingly, has no cats. Other differences are less remarkable - names differ slightly, kettles take longer to boil.

Moving, thought-provoking and beautifully written. I loved it.

Book review: Slayer by Kiersten White

Being chosen is easy.

Making choices is hard...

“I hate Slayers. What they are. What they do.

And I hate none of them as much as I hate Buffy.”

I was excited to read a new novel - the first in a series! - set in the Buffyverse, and Slayer definitely didn’t disappoint.

What’s left of the Watchers’ Council - just a handful of people - occupy a castle in the Irish countryside. The remnants of old families - Zabuto, Post, Wyndam-Pryce and others - and the teenagers and children who will take up the mantle in the future - whatever future that may be.   

Protagonist Athena (known as Nina) and her twin sister Artemis are the daughters of the late Merrick Jamison-Smythe (Buffy’s first watcher, before Giles) and his wife Helen, a prominent Council member. Artemis - their mother’s favourite, it seems - is training as a Watcher, but Nina, who nobody ever seems to take very seriously, is repelled by violence and more inclined towards healing than killing - she’s the castle’s medic.

The last thing Nina ever expected was to be called as a Slayer...

The stage is set for a story of danger, death, love, loyalty, a mysterious prophecy and a Coldplay-loving demon named Doug. 

I’ve been rewatching Buffy with my daughter recently (we’re up to season 5) and it was hugely enjoyable to read this story in the same world, though much later. While the original characters appear only via dreams there are many references to spot (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is, by the way, considered a disgrace to his heritage).

Excellent read and I can’t wait for the next!

Book review: The Twelfth Juror by B.M. Gill

I read this, along with a few other novels by the same author (now, it seems, largely forgotten) a long time ago and recently came across it while clearing out (rather unsuccessfully) boxes of books in my loft. Unsuccessfully because, rather than throwing them out as intended, I keep going “ooh, forgot all about that one” and sticking them back on my bookshelves to reread. Anyway I knew I’d read The Twelfth Juror away back in ye olden times, but although I had a feeling I’d enjoyed it at the time, I couldn’t remember anything else about it. A quick reread seemed appropriate.

Published in 1984, it won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for that year (beating, incidentally, The Tree of Hands by the mighty Ruth Rendell). So, that seemed promising. And anything courtroomy appeals to me.

Former newsreader, now distinguished TV presenter, Edward Carne stands in the dock, accused of murdering his wife, Jocelyn. His fate will be decided by a jury of twelve supposedly unbiased men and women. But one of those people, at least, has a closer connection to Carne than he is willing to disclose...

The story is interesting and well written but some things made me glad the book is now out of print. The characterisation of Blossom - “the Chinese girl” as Quinn describes her - feels uncomfortable and more than a bit racist. (Apparently, she glides about in green silk exuding “oriental calm” and dispensing sexual favours.) And the references (no spoilers) to “sexual deviancy” are horribly jarring. I know it was 35 years ago but it was 1984, not 1954, for goodness sake.

I did guess - more or less - the truth, though I can’t congratulate myself too much on that as I have read it before and though I didn’t consciously remember it, it was no doubt lodged in my subconscious somewhere. That said, I suspect I may have guessed anyway.

As courtroom dramas go it isn’t the best I’ve ever read (there are few surprises in court and I would perhaps have liked more  of the interplay between the jurors) but it is an enjoyable read and, as I said, well written. The ending is quite powerful. However some things really don’t sit well with me (and I’m sure didn’t in 1984, either) so on that basis I can’t necessarily recommend it - but it’s definitely an interesting curiosity.

B. M. Gill - real name Barbara Trimble - wrote over 20 crime, thriller and romance novels under the various names of B. M. Gill, Margaret Blake and Barbara Gilmour. She died in 1995.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne: Review

In 1945 in the closing days of the war, a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl, Catherine Goggin, is cruelly denounced from the pulpit by her local priest and literally thrown out of her small Irish village. Fortunately Catherine is a force to be reckoned with and despite boarding the bus to Dublin with hardly any money and nowhere to go, getting the heck out of Goleen and away from its small minded inhabitants isn’t all bad. With little other choice to be had, her baby boy, Cyril, is adopted at birth by the wealthy Avery family, and it is he who tells the story.

From Dublin to Amsterdam to New York and back to Dublin, we follow Cyril Avery’s life at seven-year intervals as it unfolds, through childhood, his unrequited love for his friend Julian, adulthood and the near-impossibility of living as a gay man in Ireland, love, relationships, loss and change, all set against the sweeping social and political backdrop of postwar Ireland and the wider world.

It’s hilarious, tender, bawdy and heartbreaking, often all at the same time. Laugh out loud moments abound (the “one of them” conversation with a former colleague and then conversation with Laura’s parents in the hospital were particular highlights, but there are many more). Cyril’s childhood is handled with a light and humorous touch, which does not obscure the awfulness of being constantly reminded by his eccentric and remote adoptive parents that he’s not their real son and therefore doesn’t count; notwithstanding his own observation that his childhood was “reasonably happy”.  Tragedy is never far away though and right from the start John Boyne pulls no punches in depicting the discrimination, hatred and outright violence which Cyril and others all too often experience.

Throughout, his real mother Catherine - an amazing woman in so many ways - intersects occasionally with his life, their true relationship known to us the readers but not to them. I was hoping so hard for a moment when they would learn the truth, because Cyril needed Catherine in his life so badly (well, who wouldn’t?). 

Cyril, an everyman in some respects, does some undoubtedly awful things as he slowly flounders towards being able to live his life honestly, but retains his fundamental decency and goodness. 

I adored this epic story which had me in laughter and tears on numerous occasions. Read it! 

Proud (edited by Juno Dawson): Book Review

I was so excited to read this book (just look at that cover!) and I’m happy to report that Proud more than lived up to expectations. It is an inspiring and hugely enjoyable collection of short stories, poetry and artwork which I believe will mean a great deal to many young (and not so young) people. 

Editor Juno Dawson’s pulls-no-punches introduction recalls the dark days of Section 28, which today’s young people will thankfully know, if at all, only as a historical disgrace. We’ve come a long way since then, which is not to say we don’t still have a long way to go.

From a lottery-winning teenage couple hiding out in a Travelodge (On the Run) to a queer football team (The Other Team) to a modern high school version of Pride and Prejudice (I Hate Darcy Pemberley), there’s a huge amount packed into this book. Relationships blossom and comings-out are accomplished, sometimes with a little help from penguins or phoenixes. (Phoenices?) There’s humour, sadness, gallons of compassion and creativity. I would hesitate to pick favourites, but I did find Tanya Byrne and Moira Fowley-Doyle’s stories to be very moving; I also loved Cynthia So’s delightful The Phoenix’s Fault which has the feel of a folk tale. The artwork which accompanies every piece also adds a fabulous extra dimension (I loved those by Frank Duffy, Kate Alizadeh and Leo Greenfield especially.)

There are lots of authors here I haven’t heard of - some are appearing in print for the very first time - but the standard is uniformly high. Brief information is provided at the end on all the authors and illustrators (from which I learned that Karen Lawler has a dog named Buffy).

Although I’m not in the YA age range (not by a long chalk), I found this book to be an absolute joy to read and I’m sure I will be returning to read it again.... now, how about a follow up including some more of the brilliant writers Juno mentions in her introduction??

The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith: Book review

Scandinavian crime, à la Alexander McCall Smith, is - as you might expect - an altogether much nicer, gentler affair than the Scandi noir of recent times. 

Ulf Varg - both his names mean “wolf” - possibly the kindest man in the Swedish police force, works in the eponymous Department of Sensitive Crimes, where anything a bit odd seems to end up. Ulf loves Nordic art and his dog, Martin, who he has taught to lip read . He’s also rather too fond of his colleague Anna, though that is unfortunately fraught with complication...

There are of course no gruesome murders to be investigated; the most violent thing that happens here is a market trader being stabbed in the back of the knee. There’s also the mysterious disappearance of a young woman’s imaginary boyfriend, and some mysterious, even wolfish, goings-on at a spa. Plenty for the thoughtful, reflective Ulf and his colleagues - Anna, the conscientious Carl, fishing-obsessed clerical assistant Erik and annoyingly loquacious Blomquist - to be getting on with. As is usual for this author, none of the mysteries or solutions are especially mind-blowing, but that’s not really the point. 

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith (I would count myself as one, although I haven’t read everything he’s written... there’s a lot of it) will delight in the gently meandering style and philosophical musings. The Department of Sensitive Crimes is the first in a series featuring Ulf Varg - I look forward to future instalments.