The Pact by S. E. Lynes: Review

Toni has been a single mother to fifteen-year-old Rosie since the death, years earlier, of their beloved husband and father. Toni’s a little - OK, a lot - overprotective of her daughter. But when you learn what she’s been through in her life, it’s not surprising. Equally unsurprisingly, Rosie is starting to kick against the restrictions her mother, with the best of motives, imposes.

Auntie Bridget lives there too, the third point in their triangular family. It’s different, but it works. Whatever’s going on, there are always two people to support the third.

Toni and Bridget went through hell in their youth and made a promise to always be there for each other - and not to involve outsiders.

Toni is determined to protect her daughter at all costs from the risks she experienced. But the most protective parent is no match for a teenager set on deceit, and the heart-wrenchingly vulnerable Rosie’s secrets lead her unknowingly into terrible danger.

As the mother of a not quite (but definitely heading in that direction) teenage girl, this made harrowing reading. I was entirely gripped as the story unfolded, both afraid to read on and unable to look away, almost shouting at the characters at times for their naivety or iniquity (“Noooo, don’t do that!” “Oh, you utter bastard!” etc). At other times I was in tears. And by the end I was emotionally wrung out.

The characters are so brilliantly drawn, especially auntie Bridget who I would love to have as a friend. (She’s awesome.) As a parent I could relate to Toni too - although her behaviour was excessive and misguided at times it was also somewhat understandable in the circumstances. 

I loved this book -  beautifully written, incredibly compelling and with several twists in the tale. But parents of daughters: be warned, it’s an emotional rollercoaster.

 Out now.

The Girl in the Green Dress by Cath Staincliffe: Review

Eighteen-year-old Allie Kennaway and her friends are off to their school prom, all dressed up in their finery and excited at the prospect of an evening of fun and dancing. But the evening ends in tragedy when Allie’s body is found in a street near the venue, the victim of a brutal attack. Allie happens to be transgender - is she the victim of a hate crime?

DI Donna Bell and her keen young DC Jade Bradshaw are charged to investigate the murder and begin to close in on their suspects. But someone very near at hand has powerful reasons for not wanting them to get to the truth...

Will justice be done for Allie and her grieving family? 

This was a brilliant read which packed a heavy emotional punch. I constantly moved between sadness, anger and hope. I thought Allie’s trans identity was handled very well - she has had her issues to contend with of course, but with a loving and supportive family and friends, her future seemed bright. The tragedy of her senseless death and the effect on those left behind is never glossed over. As Allie’s death occurs right at the start it would perhaps have been good to have another, not-dead trans character to mitigate the risk of a “trans = tragic victim” message. But I think Cath Staincliffe has tried hard to avoid any such message anyway.

All the characters were very well drawn. I could definitely relate to Donna, balancing work and family but with her partner acting as the main carer (I’m also in this position and it’s not often reflected in fiction). Jade was a particularly unusual and interesting character, who clearly has a significant back story which is only hinted at here. She has huge potential as a police officer but is volatile and sometimes acts in ways which can only lead to trouble. I’d definitely like to read and learn more about Jade.

Allie’s family, father Steve and little sister Teagan, are also really well depicted (as are the extended family) and their feelings and reactions as the investigation progresses are very believable.

There is not a huge amount of mystery here - the perpetrators and their motivations are established relatively early on. The story, and the tension and doubt, mainly comes from the fight to bring those responsible to justice, when there is a real threat of the investigation being seriously derailed. 

The Girl in the Green Dress is an excellent police procedural with its heart firmly in the right place. I loved it.

Home by Amanda Berriman: Review

Four-year-old Jesika, the narrator of Home, lives with her mummy Tina and little brother, Toby, in a flat which her mother calls, accurately, a “dump”. It’s the only life Jesika knows, though, and she’s mostly happy, even though Mummy gets cross when she touches the black spots on the walls or goes near a discarded needle in the stairwell.

Things change when Jesika makes a new friend, Paige, at her preschool, whose mother Lorna happens to be an old friend of Tina, though they’ve been out of touch for years. But Paige has a big secret, and it’s not a good one. When Jesika’s mummy and Toby are admitted to hospital, life becomes alarmingly more dangerous for Jesika.

Everything is seen through Jesika’s eyes and because she’s only four, she doesn’t understand most of it. As readers, though, we understand all too well and it makes for very difficult reading at times.

Home is an incredible emotional rollercoaster which had me in tears on several occasions , and on one occasion I had to actually put the book aside because I just couldn’t cope with the tension. Jesika’s voice is powerfully compelling, loveable and heartbreaking - her vulnerability is terrifying. The end was both tear-jerking and satisfying.

Reading Home, I was initially reminded of Sara Gethin’s (also excellent) Not Thomas, which is also written from the perspective of a young child - Tomos - in very difficult circumstances. But Jesika’s mummy is very different from Tomos’s and as a result, Jesika’s situation is far more hopeful, because we can trust Tina to at least try her hardest to do the right thing. My heart went out to Tina who has endured a lot of adversity and is under tremendous stress, but continues determinedly doing her best for her children and actually does a pretty amazing job, even if she needs to learn to sometimes accept help when it’s offered. 

There are some great supporting characters too - Nandini and Emma from the launderette, Ade from the corner shop, Jesika’s teachers from preschool and more.

A powerful story which will stay in my mind for a long time. I loved it.

BLOG TOUR! Unconvicted by Olly Jarvis

The book...

Junior barrister Jack Kowalski is crushed. His client Timothy Smart appears to have committed a monstrous crime while on bail – a bail application Jack fought hard to win.

When a high-profile Polish footballer is charged with rape and demands a fellow countryman represent him, Jack must overcome his guilt and get back to work. Before long he takes on a second case, a GBH for instructing solicitor Lara Panassai, who Jack remains desperate to impress. But neither case is what it seems, and Jack will face an extraordinary uphill battle to see that justice is done…

The second Jack Kowalski novel, Unconvicted is a gripping courtroom drama written with the expert insight of a practicing criminal barrister, perfect for fans of William L. Myers, Deborah Hawkins, and Scott Turow.

The review...

I hadn’t heard of Olly Jarvis before being asked on the blog tour, but I do love a good legal drama, and was delighted to find Unconvicted definitely lived up to my hopes!

It’s Olly's third book, and the second in a series featuring Jack Kowalski, a young Manchester-based barrister of Polish origin. You don’t have to have read the previous book to enjoy this newest instalment, but it’s probably better to read them in order - while it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the plot, I probably missed some nuances in the relationships between the characters.

Jack is a likeable and sensitive young man who often struggles with the harsh realities of his role as a defence barrister, not to mention his undeclared love for solicitor Lara Panassai. When Jack succeeds against the odds in winning bail for a client, what happens subsequently hits him very hard  - but Timothy Smart’s story doesn’t end there.

In another plot strand Jack is hired to defend Gustaw Nowak, a high-profile young Polish footballer accused of rape, who wants a fellow Pole to represent him. There’s clearly more to the case than meets the eye, but is Gustaw really guilty... or has he been set up? At the other end of the social spectrum, Gary Dixon, a teenager with a history of petty crime, is accused of attacking an elderly man during the course of a burglary. It looks like an open and shut case. But of course it’s not that simple either.

There are a few different storylines running concurrently here but Olly Jarvis manages them deftly and the story never becomes confusing.

I’ll admit, I was a little concerned to learn that the plot involved a possibly false allegation of rape, with the main character defending the alleged rapist. This subject could have been fraught with difficulty in the wrong hands, but thankfully, Olly Jarvis deals with it very well.

The book is a very fast and easy read, courtesy of what are often very short chapters - perhaps a little too short at times (some are only a page long).

All in all I found Unconvicted to be a really engaging and enjoyable read, and will definitely seek out Olly's previous and future books

Thanks to Canelo and Olly Jarvis for the opportunity to read, review and participate in the blog tour!

The author...

Olly Jarvis is a writer and criminal defence barrister, originally from London but now working in Manchester. Drawing on his experiences, he writes both fiction and non-fiction with a particular understanding of the pressures and excitement of life in the courtroom. He wrote the highly acclaimed Radio 4 drama Judgement, and wrote and presented the BBC documentary Mum Knows Best. He is also the author of Death by Dangerous. Olly has two children and lives in Cheshire

Follow Olly on Twitter @ollyjarviso.

Links to Book:

Amazon (UK)

Google Books (UK)

Apple Books (UK)