It’s a real honour to be part of the blog tour for The Other You by J.S. Monroe on publication day and I’d like to thank Vicky Joss at Head of Zeus for inviting me to participate and for sending me a copy of The Other You in return for an honest review.

Published by Head of Zeus today, 9th January 2020, The Other You is available for purchase here.

The Other You

Is he who you think he is?

Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.

At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health in his high-tech modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she’s with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.

Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew – and knows, with absolute certainty, that he has been replaced by an impostor. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?

This intricate, original and emotionally charged psychological thriller is perfect for fans of J.P. Delaney and Louise Candlish.

My Review of The Other You

Kate’s seemingly idyllic life as she recuperates after a car accident might not be what it first appears.

The Other You is a dynamic and thrilling narrative that held me spellbound. I loved the gradual reveals and plot details that J. S. Monroe teases and intrigues the reader with as the story progresses because they wrong-footed me at every turn. I got to a point where I didn’t trust anyone and couldn’t wait to see how The Other You might resolve itself.

Short, snappy chapters with cliff hanger endings in The Other You ensure a fast paced and captivating read and the continuous present tense makes it all feel immediate and dynamic so that events seem to unfold in real time. I certainly experienced an elevated heart rate as I read because this is such suspenseful writing from J. S. Monroe. I loved the overall quality of the writing too; with vivid descriptions, naturalistic dialogue and a perfect variety of sentence and paragraph length I found The Other You a masterclass in thriller writing.

I thought the themes were excellent as they explore the fine lines between good and evil, the positive and negative outcomes of technological advances, and they make the reader question their own perception of morality, especially when considering Silas’s relationship with his son Connor. Add in the convincing and meticulously researched details about county lines, drug culture and brain injury and recovery, and The Other You is a potent thought-provoking read.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Other You. It’s a heart-thumpingly good read and I recommend it most highly.

About J. S. Monroe

J.S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. His psychological thriller Find Me became a bestseller in 2017, and, under the name Jon Stock, he is also the author of five spy thrillers. He lives in Wiltshire, with his wife and children.

You can follow J.S. Monroe on Twitter @JSThrillers and visit his website for more information. You’ll also find him on Facebook and there’s more with these other bloggers:

It’s always so exciting being in at the start of a book’s life and I’m thrilled to be helping reveal the cover of Never Saw You Coming by Hayley Doyle today, as it looks a gloriously uplifting read. Let me tell you all about it:

Never Saw You Coming will be published by Harper Collins imprint Avon on 2nd April 2020 and is available for pre-order through the links here.

Never Saw You Coming

Some people go looking for love. Others crash right into it. 

Zara Khoury believes in love – so much so that she flies from Dubai to Liverpool to be with a man she barely knows. It’s a risk, but she’s certain that uprooting her life for Nick is the new start she needs.

Jim Glover is stuck. Since his Dad died, he’s put his dreams aside and stayed at home in Liverpool to care for his mum. Trapped in a dead-end job, he’s going nowhere – that is, until he gets a phone call that just might change his life..

Zara and Jim aren’t supposed to meet. But then fate steps in, and when their worlds – and cars! – collide, the real journey begins…

A gorgeous tale about taking risks and living life to the full – perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Josie Silver.

Now doesn’t that sound just wonderful? I can’t wait to read it.

About Hayley Doyle

Hayley Doyle is an actress and writer from Liverpool. She gained a BA (Hon) in Acting from LIPA and made her West End debut playing Ali in ‘Mamma Mia!’ at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Hayley also appeared in Peter Pan alongside Brian Blessed and enjoyed touring regionally with new writing projects that all went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Her passion for new writing turned into novel writing and she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Brunel University. Using her experience on the stage and writing skills, Hayley started teaching musical theatre to children that landed her a job in Dubai. It was during her time living in the Emirates that she set up her own company, Hayley’s Comet, training children and teenagers in all aspects of theatre including writing their own shows. Hayley also became a regular voice presenting on Dubai Eye 103.8.

She relocated to the UK in 2016 and lives in London with her husband and their two children.

You can follow Hayley on Twitter @HayleyDWrites for more information.

I can’t believe it’s almost four years since Emma Cooper last featured on Linda’s Book Bag (in an excruciating post here that shows just how the blog has evolved – sorry Emma for the awful quality of that early blog post – I’ve improved now!). However, I’m delighted to rectify the situation with a review of Emma’s latest release The First Time I Saw You and I’d like to thank the lovely folk at Team Bookends for sending me a surprise copy.

Published by Headline Review in paperback on 9th January 2020, The First Time I Saw You is available for purchase through the links here.

The First Time I Saw You

Lost:
Six-foot-two Irish man who answers to the name Samuel McLaughlin.
Has weak shins and enjoys show tunes.
If found, please return to Sophie Williams.

Before Sophie met Samuel she saw the world in grey.
Before Samuel met Sophie, he never believed in love at first sight.

When they first meet, something tells them they are meant to be.
But fate has other ideas.

Now they have lost each other and can’t see a way back.
But they’ve already changed each other’s lives in more ways than they ever expected…

My Review of The First Time I Saw You

Sophie and Samuel find that mixing business with pleasure can be tricky!

I have absolutely no idea where to start in a review of Emma Cooper’s The First Time I Saw You. It’s a book that took hold of my heart, shredded it into tiny pieces and left me wrung out emotionally. In other words, I absolutely adored it!

Emma Cooper writes so emotively. Her descriptions are poetic so that they become vivid three dimensional images in the mind’s eye, giving place and setting an authenticity that transports the reader to Washington, Wales and Samuel’s family home in Ireland. The direct speech resonates with realism and warmth, bringing the characters in The First Time I Saw You alive and making them utterly human.

Indeed, there wasn’t an extraneous character, or moment with them, in this book. They elicited my empathy, my sympathy and, very often, a physical response so that I wanted to climb into the pages of The First Time I Saw You and hold them, shake them and intervene in their messy, glorious, lives.

And yet… there’s something more than skilled writing, great settings and believable characters here. Emma Cooper imbues her words with a magic that transcends competent and emotive writing so that the reader is spellbound and captivated by the love, the fear, the grief, the despair and happiness woven throughout the story. I found the iterative image of Alice in Wonderland hugely effective, and affecting, too.

The narrative itself is just fabulous. The plot is so completely believable, partly because not everything works out quite as I had expected or indeed wanted, making it much more realistic and compelling as a result. I want to say so much more about the tiny hints and details that almost go unnoticed but I can’t spoil the story for others. Let me just say that the plot of The First Time I Saw You took me through every emotion until I had no free will but had to carry on reading until I had gulped the last word through messy, sobbing tears.

This is a book I won’t forget in a hurry. It’ll be going straight on my books of the year list for 2020. I loved every single moment with The First Time I Saw You. It is wonderful and I urge you to read it for yourself.

About Emma Cooper

Emma Cooper is a former teaching assistant, who lives in Shropshire with her partner and four children. She spends her spare time writing novels, drinking wine and watching box-sets with her partner of twenty-four years, who still makes her smile every day. Emma has always wanted to be a writer – ever since childhood, she’s been inventing characters (her favourite being her imaginary friend ‘Boot’) and is thrilled that she now gets to use this imagination to bring to life all of her creations.

You can find out more by following Emma on Twitter @ItsEmmacooper and finding her on Facebook.

As a new year gets underway I’m already looking ahead to more books and travel, so what could be better than combining the two and reviewing a children’s book that features both elements. My enormous thanks to Lefki at Cicada Books for sending me a copy of Underground: Subway Systems Around the World by Uijung Kim in return for an honest review.

Underground: Subway Systems Around the World is available in all good bookshops and online from major retailers, including here.

 Underground: Subway Systems Around the World

This is a playful search-and-find book of underground systems around the world. Die cut pages introduce the subways of 10 different cities. On the first page we see the exterior of the train, and are presented with fascinating facts and figures about the transport system. On the following die cut page, we find the inside of the train and the platform, bustling with activity.

On this busy page, young readers are invited to spot key items that are unique to the city in question; a pretzel, an I ♥ NY t-shirt and a Statue of Liberty headband on the New York subway, for example. Perfect for train-obsessed children, but also for a wider audience, this book teaches young readers about transport and also about cultural signifiers of different cities around the world. Uijung Kim’s busy, colourful illustrations have a manga-like sensibility that feels joyously contemporary.

The cities included are: London, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Moscow, Beijing, Mexico City, Paris, Madrid and Sydney.

My Review of Underground: Subway Systems Around the World

A visual exploration of 10 subway systems from around the world.

Now, I know this is a book primarily for children, but I really liked it because I’ve been on the subway systems of London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo and looking at Uijung Kim’s artwork in Underground brought memories flooding back, enabling me to relive some incredible trips. With Beijing coming up this year and Moscow on my bucket list of places to visit, I found Underground was great fun for adults as well as children!

I like the way Underground is structured so that the subway is shown first and then a part page reveals travellers inside the train. The illustrations are bright, busy and hugely visual with a naive style children would love.

Underground appeals to children of many ages because the facts and figures are themselves interesting, and there’s enormous potential for research into geography and culture through the places included. Similarly, the glossary affords language development and international appreciation. I had no idea, for example, that carved Mandarin ducks are given as wedding presents in Korea.

I found it quite tricky to spot some of the hidden items to be found and I think this is an excellent feature. It teaches children patience and observation whilst being fun. There are opportunities for numeracy development too, perhaps counting the people in the train, or for younger children the number of dogs featured, or maybe people with glasses.

Underground is a book with a simple premise but considerable potential beyond its initial intention. I was impressed.

About Uijung Kim

Uijung Kim, originally from South Korea now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Uijung studied Art and Design in Gunsan University, South Korea and illustration at the College for creative studies in Detroit, MI, USA. Inspired by her childhood experiences and the family and friends she grew up with her work is strongly rooted in Korean culture through color, tone and narrative. Uijung likes making people happy and wants her work to speak to kids of all ages.

For more information about Uijung Kim, follow her on Twitter @UijungKim, visit her website and or find her on Facebook. Uijung is also on Instagram.

It’s a great privilege to start off a blog tour and I am delighted to do so by sharing my review of The Choice by Claire Wade today. My enormous thanks to Alainna at Orion for inviting me to participate and for sending me a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Published by Orion on 26th December 2019, The Choice is available for purchase through these links.

The Choice

Imagine a world where…

Everything you ate was monitored by the government.
Every step you took was counted.
Your children were weighed every day at school.
Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement.
Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime.

Imagine if that world was here…

What would you do?

Toe the line or fight for your freedom…

My Review of The Choice

A dystopian future may not be far away…

Before I begin my review properly, I must acknowledge the cover to The Choice. With food and healthy eating so important to the plot, and women in charge of the country, the illusion images of inversion/subversion, an apple and a female head could not be more fitting. Superb.

On my goodness! I felt most uncomfortable reading The Choice as I was tense and unnerved from beginning to end by Claire Wade’s writing. I think it says something about the quality of this book that I felt enraged and helpless in equal measure – exactly like Olivia. There’s a genuine Orwellian undercurrent to the prose and narrative that gets under the reader’s skin until they feel complicit in the action. Even worse, I had the horrible sensation as I read, that this is no distant Orwellian future or allegorical farm, but a situation that might be happening very soon in our present lives. I think it’s the Norwich setting that adds so much to the sense of unease. Norfolk is seen as such a gentle, rural county and yet here in The Choice we see the potential for evil, for mass control and for man’s (and, especially, woman’s) inhumanity so that there is even greater impact.

I abhor unfairness, and reading The Choice made me rage, but also made me feel ashamed. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have simply capitulated under Mother Mason’s regime if it meant protecting my family and yet Claire Wade makes it clear what the morally correct decision is so that she entirely got inside my head with her writing.

The plot is cleverly constructed; every element is so utterly plausible and resonates with histories we have already witnessed or futures that could so easily happen. As the story unfolded I struggled with the level of reference to food, not because it wasn’t crucial to the plot, but because the descriptions of taste and aroma are so convincing that I was permanently hungry as I read. I’d love to see The Choice as a television series. I think it would have audiences gripped.

I’m not sure how far it was the intention of Claire Wade to affect her readers so directly in writing The Choice, but she has led me to reevaluate my life, my view of morality and choice, and my attitude to food and my weight. I’m trying hard to be less of a slave to my Fitbit now! There are clear messages about what is valuable in life and how family, friendship and love are the most powerful catalysts for change. That said, there is also a horribly realistic presentation of the concept that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely so that The Choice is a book to disturb, to make you think and to make you realise you’d better beware what you wish for. I found it fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed it.

About Claire Wade

Claire Wade is the winner of the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition 2018. She was bed bound for six years with severe ME, trapped in a body that wouldn’t do what she wanted; her only escape was through her imagination. She now writes about women who want to break free from the constraints of their lives, a subject she’s deeply familiar with.

Her favourite things are books, baking and the WI. She’s the founding president of a modern WI (Women’s Institute) and runs a baking club for other cake lovers.

You’ll find her in her writing room, nicknamed Narnia because it’s also home to a wardrobe and is the place where she escapes to other worlds. She’s happiest if she’s got a slice of chocolate cake, a cup of tea and a good book.

You can follow Claire on Twitter @clairerwade and visit her website for more information. You’ll also find Claire on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I can’t believe it’s just over three years since Beth Miller appeared on Linda’s Book Bag when I reviewed her non-fiction book For the Love of Shakespeare in a post you can read here. Today, thanks to the lovely folk at Bookouture, I’m delighted to review Beth’s latest novel, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright will be released by Bookouture on 9th January 2020 and is available for pre-order here.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright

Sometimes it takes losing something to see where you truly belong.

For the past twenty-nine years, Kay Bright’s days have had a familiar rhythm: she works in her husband’s stationery shop hoping to finally sell the legendary gold pen, cooks for her family, tries to remember to practice yoga, and every other month she writes to her best friend, Ursula. Kay could set her calendar by their letters: her heart lifts when the blue airmail envelope, addressed in Ursula’s slanting handwriting, falls gently onto the mat.

But now Ursula has stopped writing and everything is a little bit worse.

Ursula is the only one who knows Kay’s deepest secret, something that happened decades ago that could tear Kay’s life apart today. She has always been the person Kay relies on.

Worried, Kay gets out her shoebox of Ursula’s letters and as she reads, her unease starts to grow. And then at ten o’clock in the morning, Kay walks out of her yellow front door with just a rucksack, leaving her wedding ring on the table…

My Review of The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright

When Kay leaves her husband for adventure it isn’t quite what she expected.

What a refreshing change to read a book with a slightly older protagonist. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversational tone in the first person parts that focus on Kay because it felt like we were chatting together, with an old friend taking me into their confidence. It took me longer to warm to Kay’s daughter Stella, but she gained my sympathy by the end of the narrative and I thought she worked extremely well as a counterpoint and balance to Kay and brought considerable humour to lighten the tone. I loved the concept presented by Beth Miller that age is no barrier to errors, adventure, success and chance. I also found Bear (or Ursula) hugely engaging and her inclusion with Alice and Rose meant that Beth Miller has woven her story around women representative of so many of her readers so that there is a character for them all to identify with.

The plot of The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is very engaging, and I can envisage many women of Kay’s age metaphorically nodding their heads in agreement with her right the way through the story.  There’s a wonderful irony that, in order to find herself, Kay has to travel to the other side of the world. And, speaking of destinations, I found the descriptions of Venice especially evocative. The sights, sounds and wonderful food create a vivid atmosphere.

As might be expected with a book where a fifty-something woman, Kay, is at its heart, the themes of The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright are pertinent and thought-provoking, because Kay has the maturity to look upon them from a position of experience. Friendship and family, love and relationships, living and dying all feature exactly as they might in real life so that I found the overall message of carpe diem strongly and effectively illustrated.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is entertaining and ultimately uplifting. It made me realise that this is not a practice run at life, but the real thing and that I should grasp it in both hands and live every moment to the full – and my fullest potential.

About Beth Miller

Beth Miller’s varied career has included roles as a sexual health trainer, journalist, psychology lecturer, PhD student and inept audio-typist. She is the author of three novels, When We Were Sisters, The Good Neighbour and The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom, as well as two non-fiction books: For the Love of Shakespeare and For the Love of the Archers.

You can follow Beth on Twitter @drbethmiller and visit her website for more information.

It’s almost two years since lovely Clare Flynn last stayed in with me to chat about The Alien Corn in a post you can see here. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Clare in real life and so I couldn’t resist asking her back to Linda’s Book Bag once again.

Clare also featured on the blog when she wrote a fabulous guest post about the North South divide when The Green Ribbons was published. You can see that post here.

Today Clare is back to tell me all about her latest release. Not only that, Clare has generously offered to run a giveaway for her latest book. You can enter at the bottom of this blog post.

Staying in with Clare Flynn

Welcome back to Linda’s Book Bag, Clare.  Thank you for agreeing to return and stay in with me again. I so enjoyed meeting you at the RNA winter party.

It’s an absolute pleasure, Linda, particularly as I’ve now met you in real life too. I’ll feel more relaxed about putting my feet up and not having to get dressed up!

Ha! I’m not sure if you feel comfortable in my company or you just think I’m scruffy! Either way, tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along The Pearl of Penang, my tenth novel and just out! Apart from it being hot off the press, I’m super excited as it’s garnering some great reviews. It’s the book I’ve most enjoyed writing. I visited Penang earlier this year – just a brief stop on a round-the-world cruise and I would have liked to stay longer. Writing the book was like going back and exploring parts of the island I didn’t get to see. One reviewer said, ‘the wonderful descriptions of Penang have made me want to visit; indeed I feel I already have!’ I hesitate to confess that writing it was a bit of a vicarious journey for me too. I supplemented my memories of a my all-too-short visit with reading, YouTube videos, explorations on Google Earth and image searches.

I think many authors do the same Clare. I certainly used Google when writing my own novel!  I visited Penang last year too on a cruise.

My main character, Evie, finds Malaya a hard place to fit in, despite its beauty. Her new husband is quixotic – at times hostile and then more conciliatory, so Evie is in a constant state of insecurity about where she stands. Nothing is quite what it seems and, as the outsider, it takes Evie time to find her feet and her sense of self.

The book begins in 1939 – not long before the outbreak of war in Europe. Malaya is home to numerous British expats, enjoying a carefree life in the sun, surrounded by servants and believing themselves to be immune from the trials of the coming war in Europe. Noel Coward once described British Malaya as ‘a first-rate country, for second-rate people’ and a visiting wartime army officer apparently said, ‘England shakes and you sit in the sun, tanning your hides, dicing with drinks and sucking Eskimo Pies.’

That all sounds fabulous. You’ve really intrigued me. What else can we expect from an evening in with The Pearl of Penang?

Plenty of atmosphere – steamy tropical heat, rich lush vegetation, balmy blue seas. A lot of trouble for Evie – nothing is ever as it seems and just as things appear to right themselves, there are more setbacks. I enjoyed spending time with her as a character – she may have seemed a bit unsure of herself in the beginning but she takes whatever gets thrown at her and battles on! She’s supported by a cast of characters – her new husband Douglas – handsome enigma or complete bastard? Veronica and Arthur Leighton – she presents as a first-class bitch with a tongue that drips acid, and he as a calm and steady presence. But again, nothing is quite as it seems.

I am definitely going to add The Pearl of Penang to my TBR!

Here’s what some reviewers have said–

‘Above all, a deeply romantic novel – I returned to it each evening with a sense of keen anticipation.’

‘If I were to say that I lived and breathed this book it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.’

‘The character of Veronica Leighton is particularly complex and poignant, and Evie’s struggles and her efforts to make sense of her new life are captivating.’

‘Like a bar of my favourite chocolate, I couldn’t resist The Pearl of Penang.’

You must be utterly thrilled with those responses!

So, in summary, sun, sea, sumptuous cocktails, scandals and sex – and chocolate! What more do you want?

Absolutely nothing. I can’t think of anything better…

Whilst I calm down a bit Clare, tell me what else have you brought along and why?

I’ve brought some absolutely delicious Malayan food – straight from the street food sellers in George Town. Here’s Evie’s first experience of the heady smells of the streets:

Passing the Chinese shop houses, the smell of food cooking pervaded the air, as meat was stirred into smoking hot coconut oil or mingled with sesame and soy. Evie marvelled at how the cooks were able to stand beside steaming vats of noodles and rice, rapidly stirring the food in their woks, in this oppressive heat.

I’m also going to make our evening a sensory feast by bringing some of the aromas of George Town – again here’s Evie’s first exposure to these –

It was impossible not to be intoxicated by the sweet fragrance of hibiscus, frangipani, sandalwood and ylang-ylang, the whiff of salt from the sea mingling with the smell of fish, the heady scent of incense which caught the back of her throat as she walked past the many small temples, the aroma of nutmeg and cardamon and the unspeakably foul stench of durian fruit.

And I thought I’d bring this photo to show you some of the exotic spices grown on the island.

As for drinks, it’s going to be colonial cocktails all the way, dahling! – you can choose between a stengah – basically whisky and soda, or a pahit – gin and bitters – 1½ oz    oz gin and ½ oz of angostura bitters. But if you prefer, you can have a plain old G&T or a bottle of Tiger beer. And I’ll be bringing Doug’s manservant, Benny, to pour them. I know it’s so hard to get the staff these days, dahling!

I’m very partial to Tiger beer, and I’m rather glad you brought Benny along. Put up your feet and relax with your drink Clare whilst I tell everyone more about The Pearl of Penang.

The Pearl of Penang

“Following the death of my wife, I am in need of support and companionship. I am prepared to make you an offer of marriage.”

Evie Fraser, paid companion to a crotchety spinster, seems destined for a lonely life. Then out of the blue, a marriage proposal arrives by post. She met the handsome Douglas Barrington just once – at his wedding – but never forgot him. Now widowed, plantation-owner Douglas offers her a new life on the lush, exotic island of Penang. How can Evie resist?

But what are Barrington’s motives in marrying Evie when he barely knows her, and why is he so hostile and moody?

Evie soon finds herself pitched against Douglas on the one hand and the shallow, often spiteful world of the expatriate British on the other. Has she made the biggest mistake of her life?

Flynn’s tenth novel explores love, marriage, the impact of war and the challenges of displacement – this time in a tropical paradise as the threat of the Japanese empire looms closer.

The Pearl of Penang is available for purchase through the retailer links here. You’ll also find it on Amazon.

About Clare Flynn

Clare Flynn is the best-selling author of ten historical novels and a collection of short stories (you can download the latter free when you sign up for her newsletter on her website). Her books deal with complex characters facing challenging circumstances – often because of displacement to another part of the world.

Clare loves to travel whenever she has the time. She has also plenty of experience of displacement herself – having coped with a different school and home every two years as she was growing up, and having lived and worked in Newcastle, London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Sydney. Now she lives on the beautiful Sussex coast where where she can see the sea from her windows.

For more information about Clare, visit her website, follow her on Twitter @clarefly and find her on Facebook.

Giveaway – An E-copy of The Pearl of Penang

I’m sure Clare will have whetted your appetite for The Pearl of Penang just as much as she has mine. If you’d like to enter to win an e-copy of the book, click here.

Open internationally, the giveaway closes to entries at UK midnight on Wednesday 8th January 2020.

Clare will ensure the winner, drawn at random, receives their copy of The Pearl of Penang and your details will not be retained beyond this giveaway closing date.

I was delighted to be given a copy of Rosamund Lupton’s Three Hours when I attended a Penguin New Releases blogger evening last September, that you can read about here. It gives me enormous pleasure to make Three Hours my first Linda’s Book Bag review of 2020.

Three Hours will be released by Penguin’s Viking imprint on 9th January 202 and is available for pre-order through these links.

Three Hours

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.

It is a morning’s lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.

It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.

It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.

In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. From the wounded headmaster in the library, unable to help his trapped pupils and staff, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the parents gathering desperate for news, to the 16 year old Syrian refugee trying to rescue his little brother, to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen, to the students taking refuge in the school theatre, all experience the most intense hours of their lives, where evil and terror are met by courage, love and redemption.

My Review of Three Hours

An armed siege at a school over three hours.

I am left reeling having read Three Hours. My heart rate remains elevated and I’m struggling to regain my composure. Although this is my first review of 2020 I have a feeling Three Hours will be hard to beat for my book of the year. It’s utterly astounding. Rosamund Lupton’s writing is intense, beautiful and terrifying. Three Hours took me to the extremes of my emotions in understanding love and fear and I feel physically altered by reading it. I hadn’t expected to feel quite so moved by what is, essentially, a thriller, but I wept as I finished the book.

The structure of the book is so intelligently and elegantly plotted. Timings at the start of each chapter underline how quickly and easily an ordinary day can morph into a horrifying one so that the pace never lets up. At times I found I could only read a few pages before I needed to allow myself a moment to breathe because I was holding my breath in nervous anticipation. I found events shocking, and the weaving in of real life occurrences and people, lent Three Hours a gravitas and horror that surpassed my expectations.

Rosamund Lupton’s attention to detail is exquisite; the cold of the snow emphasising the chill of terror that underpins every word, for example. The fabulous use of Macbeth as a disturbing motif that perturbed me throughout. The perfectly attuned examples of how social media breeds opinion, and so on, all create a claustrophobia and panic that is all too realistic.

Usually when I read a book with multiple characters I am irritated because they feel indistinct but in Three Hours I felt I knew everyone of the people between its pages intimately. My heart ached for Rafi particularly. But beyond the narrative, I feel as if Three Hours has helped me better understand humanity and its frailties too.

As well as being unnerved and awed by the plot, I found parts of Three Hours profoundly sad because of the links to real events and the pervasive intolerance and irrational hatred we so often witness in the world that Rosamund Lupton presents so starkly and so terrifyingly realistically. Her themes exploring radicalisation, education, loyalty, family and love vibrate with realism so that they have the most visceral impact on the reader. Although my heart ached for many of the characters, and although I was terrified and angered by the plot and the potential for this fiction to become very much a reality, I finished reading the book with a profound sense of love and optimism.

I feel I have done Rosamund Lupton’s Three Hours a complete disservice in my review. I lack the vocabulary and superlatives to express just how brilliant I thought it was. Perfectly plotted, beautifully written, terrifying and emotional, Three Hours is a complete tour de force. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Rosamund Lupton

Rosamund Lupton’s debut novel Sister, was a BBC Radio 4 “Book at Bedtime”, a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, winner of the Strand Magazine critics award and the Richard and Judy Bookclub Readers’ Choice Award. Her next two books Afterwards and The Quality of Silence were Sunday Times bestsellers. Her books have been published in over thirty languages.

You can follow Rosamund on Twitter @Rosamundlupton for more information, find her on Facebook or visit her website.