My grateful thanks to the author C. P. Wilson for a copy of Ice Cold Alice in return for an honest review.

Published by Bloodhound today, 20th April 2017, Ice Cold Alice is available for purchase here.

I’m absolutely thrilled that C.P. Wilson has kindly provided an e-copy of Ice Cold Alice to give away internationally and a paperback in the UK. To enter, see the bottom of this blog post.

Ice Cold Alice

They thought that they had all the power, until she took it from them.

A killer hunts abusive spouses, blogging about their sins post-kill. Soon the murders and the brazen journaling draws the attention of Police Scotland’s CID. This killer works with surgical preparation, precision and skill, using a unique weapon of her own and never leaves a trace of evidence behind.

Edinburgh’s DI Kathy McGuire, nearing the end of her career, begins the hunt for the murderer as a media frenzy erupts.

But McGuire might have met her match…What has led this killer to take the law into her own hands? Is the woman accountable really a cold-hearted killer or a desperate vigilante?

My Review of Ice Cold Alice

Highly successful and wealthy writer Alice Connolly is definitely not all she seems and the bodies mount up!

Ice Cold Alice opens in a violent and dramatic manner and maintains the pace throughout. However, that is not to say that there isn’t contrasting tenderness, especially between Bobby and Kathy, to provide light to the shade which only serves to make all the scenes more effective. Indeed, Bobby is essential to providing a balance in the depiction of men and I found him a wonderfully convincing individual.

There are so many elements to Ice Cold Alice that create a really good read. The attention to detail (while a bit too visceral for me at times) with appropriate vocabulary means that the reader believes completely in what is read. The word play of Alice’s blogger alias Tequila Mockingbird with its literary connection is clever and the quotation from To Kill a Mockingbird, ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it‘, kept going through my head as I read. The book title is also so cleverly chosen as Alice uses ice blades in her attacks but is also as detached and ‘ice cold’ as she can be in her approach to ridding the world of abusive men.

And it is the theme of abuse that is so well explored. Whilst Alice tracks down, researches and kills men who are abusing their partners, there are other levels of abuse too, such as the sexist treatment Kathy receives from fellow male police officers at the start of her career and the violence meted out by the police when they themselves are attacked. Even Kathy abuses Bobby in a sense as she puts her career in front of her family. With these elements in mind, Ice Cold Alice asks the reader to consider what kind of punishment or retribution is acceptable. Reading Ice Cold Alice made me question what justice really means as Alice is a calculating and violent murderer, but I wanted her to succeed and get away with her crimes. That didn’t make for a very comfortable consideration of my own character!

Alice’s personality is at the heart of the book as C.P. Wilson gradually uncovers who she is and why she behaves quite as she does. I think I would have preferred a more linear plot line, but that is a matter of personal taste, and the ‘Then’ sections are compelling in their ability to help the reader understand Alice’s motivation.

Ice Cold Alice is a powerful and persuasive read that gets the pulse racing. I really enjoyed it.

About C. P. Wilson

C.P.Wilson is the Crime Thrillers pseudonym for Mark Wilson, the Amazon-bestselling author of eleven works of fiction and one non-fiction memoir. His short story Glass Ceiling won first prize in May, 2015 on Spinetingler’s Short story competition and will be included in Ryan Bracha’s Twelve Nights at Table Six. dEaDINBURGH reached the quarter finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2014 and is a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, 2015.

Mark currently teaches Biology in a Fife secondary school and is founder of Paddy’s Daddy Publishing, a company he set up to assist Indie-authors. He writes in his spare time, in lieu of sleep.

You can visit Mark’s blog and find him on Facebook . You can also follow Mark on Twitter.

Giveaway

For your chance to win an e-copy (open internationally) or a paperback (UK only) of Ice Cold Alice, click here. Giveaway closes at UK midnight on Wednesday 26th April 2017.

Almost a year ago I went to a blogger and author meet up in Edinburgh organised by fellow blogger Joanne of Portobello Book Blog where I met lovely Toni Jenkins, author of The Sender. Toni kindly sent me a copy of The Sender along with an envelope bearing a question mark with instructions not to open it until I’d read the book.

As many of you know, life got the better of me last year (see here) and I’ve been taking off April from my usual blogging in order to catch up with books that have been sitting on my TBR for ages. Although Toni wrote a fabulous guest post in a letter to her younger self all about writing for Linda’s Book Bag that you can read here, I’m ashamed to say that it is only now that I have got round to reading The Sender.

The Sender

Can an inspirational card from a secret sender really help change your life? For Abby, Kat, Patti and Tessa, it seems to hold that extraordinary quality. The card instructs each woman to hold it in their possession for six months before sending it on, with an invitation to meet the sender two years from the date of its inception.

From Edinburgh to Glasgow, York to Cambridge, the card is sent on a journey to impart its magic.

But who is the sender and what was their motive? And why were they the chosen ones?

My Review of The Sender

When the sender realises that Abby is in dire need of support, they send her an anonymous card with a four leaf clover attached and instructions to hold on to the card for six months before sending in it to someone else.

What a lovely concept for a novel. Recipients receive an anonymous card containing a good luck symbol, a four leaf clover, that they retain for six months and then send on so that there is love, hope and support weaving around the world just when those receiving the card need a boost most in their lives. I thought this was such a smashing idea.

In effect The Sender is a series of novellas that are connected through the women sending on the card. Each would stand as a highly entertaining story in its own right but Toni Jenkins cleverly weaves the strands of their stories together until the point the main characters all meet and have a ready made friendship and support group.

There is an eclectic cast of characters so that there is someone for every reader to relate to. I especially liked Rina and Flo, who, whilst at opposite ends of the age range, were women I felt I’d have liked to know in real life.

The themes encompassed are those that we will all have encountered at some point. Those themes of grief and friendship resonated particularly for me and I really felt that The Sender was a book I should have read sooner so that I could have had benefit from its hope and optimism. Other concepts explored include adoption, infidelity, divorce, business, success, illness, childbirth, travel and so on, so that what Toni Jenkins has done is create in microcosm an entire world where readers can identify with something that affects them. The Sender provides a positive experience through an engaging narrative where characters have real-life struggles. I liked too the sense of mystery at wondering who had sent the original card.

The Sender reminds readers that, in an increasingly hostile and violent world, there is still the power of love, hope and friendship. I’m so glad I’ve read it.

About Toni Jenkins

Toni’s passion for writing began when she was 9 years old and bored on a long car trip. With a notebook and pen in hand, she began writing comedic poems to pass the time and discovered a great love of playing with language and personifying objects, creating Walter Wall who yearned to travel and Debbie Drawing Pin who feared being typecast!

Over the years she ventured into short stories and began collecting and writing quotes, amassing hundreds of them since her childhood. Finally, in her early thirties, she took the plunge and wrote her first novel, cementing her desire to write contemporary fiction.

She lives in the city she fell instantly in love with in the mid-nineties, and is proud to call Edinburgh and the UK her home.

You can find out more about Toni and read an extract from The Sender on her website. You can follow Toni on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

Sending on The Sender!

In the spirit of The Sender, I would like to pass on my signed copy to someone recommended by a reader of Linda’s Book Bag. If you feel someone you know (and you can email me their address) deserves to receive The Sender please comment below. I’ll put the names in a hat on 30th April and draw out the winner. Once I have the recipient’s address I’ll send them The Sender along with a lovely handmade card that Toni sent to me. They won’t know where the book has come from.

Regular Linda’s Book Bag followers will know that I’m AWOL from blog tours, guest posts and interviews this month whilst I try to read some of the books that have been sitting on my TBR for ages.

The American Girl, by Rachael English is a relatively new addition but as Rachael has been kind enough to send me a couple of her books in the past I thought I’d begin with her latest novel. I cannot thank her enough for sending me a copy in return for an honest review.

The American Girl is available now in e-book and for paperback pre-order here.

The American Girl

Boston 1968. Rose Moroney is seventeen, smart, spirited – and pregnant. She wants to marry her boyfriend. Her ambitious parents have other plans. She is sent to Ireland, their birthplace, to deliver her daughter in a Mother and Baby home – and part with her against her will.

Dublin 2013. Martha Sheeran’s life has come undone. Her marriage is over, and her husband has moved on with unsettling speed. Under pressure from her teenage daughter, she starts looking for the woman who gave her up for adoption more than forty years before.

As her search leads her to the heart of long-buried family secrets, old flame Paudie Carmody – now a well-known broadcaster – re-enters the frame.

From Boston to rural Ireland; from Dublin back to Boston, The American Girl is a heart-warming and enthralling story of mothers and daughters, love and cruelty and, ultimately, the embrace of new horizons.

My Review of The American Girl

When Rose finds herself pregnant at the age of 17 in 1968, society will not accept the situation and her parents send her away. These actions will reverberate through the decades.

Oh my goodness I loved this book. Everything about The American Girl made it just the kind of read I adore. I’m sure there’s something in the water in Ireland that makes for natural storytellers as Rachael English certainly knows how to create a plot that holds the reader completely enthralled. I genuinely felt devastated when I’d finished as I didn’t want the story to end. The American Girl was one of those books that made me resent normal life when it prevented me from reading it.

Firstly, the plot of The American Girl is brilliantly constructed with shocks and surprises along the way and a devastating insight into the mind set of the 1960s. Although I could understand the actions of Grace and Ed I simply couldn’t forgive them and this set up my emotional engagement with the whole of the story so that I felt completely invested in what happened to Martha.

The quality of Rachael English’s writing is just gorgeous. She balances a lightness of touch with humour through absolutely pitch perfect dialogue so that the emotional elements are heightened further. The variety of paragraph and sentence length gives a naturalness that I found utterly beautiful and absorbing. The deftness of description added depth to make the characters and settings so realistic that I could hardly bear to tear myself away from them.

It is the characters that make The American Girl such a wonderful book. These are not two dimensional sketches on a page, but real and warm people who engendered a whole range of emotions in me as a reader. Cat gave me hope and entertainment. I loathed Rose’s parents without mercy and found myself far less forgiving and accepting of them than she is. I loved Martha without reservation, even when I felt she didn’t always behave perfectly as in her desire to run her daughter, Evanne’s, life. I was so angry with the treatment of the girls in the convent that I almost felt murderous towards the nuns. Indeed, it was the exploration of the roles of women that drew me in to The American Girl so unfailingly. I could see my own flaws, hopes, desires and needs reflected even though I have no experience of similar situations. Rachael English has held up a mirror to the souls of women that I found held me in thrall. I was completely captivated.

I genuinely loved The American Girl. Part love story, part tragedy, part social history, it is a book that will remain in my heart for a very long time.

About Rachael English

Rachael English is the author of three novels: Going Back which was shortlisted for the most-promising newcomer award at the 2013 Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards, Each and Every One which like Going Back was a top five bestseller in Ireland, and, The American Girl.

Like many authors, Rachael also has a day job and is a presenter on Ireland’s most popular radio programme, Morning Ireland.

You can follow Rachael on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

Earlier this year I was invited to a fabulous event by Books and the City TeamBATC where I met Juliet Ashton (and other authors) and received a sample of The Woman at Number 24 in my goody bag. You can read all about that event here.

I am thrilled that since then the lovely team at Simon and Schuster have kindly sent me the finished book in return for an honest review. The Woman at Number 24 will be published on April 20th 2017 and is available for pre-order in paperback and e-book here.

The Woman at Number 24

When your marriage falls apart, the last place you’d want your husband to move to is downstairs. Unfortunately for Sarah, up in the eaves at number 24, her ex-husband now lives one floor beneath her with his new wife. Their happiness floats up through the floorboards, taunting her.

A child psychologist, Sarah has picked up great sadness from the little girl, Una, who lives with her careworn mother three floors below, but is Sarah emotionally equipped to reach out?

The Spring brings a new couple to the house. Jane and Tom’s zest for life revives the flagging spirits, and Sarah can’t deny the instant attraction to handsome Tom. Having seen at first hand what infidelity does to people, she’ll never act on it … but the air fizzes with potential.

The sunshine doesn’t reach every corner of number 24, however. Elderly Mavis, tucked away in the basement, has kept the world at bay for decades. She’s about to find out that she can’t hide forever.

Juliet Ashton weaves a story of love, friendship and community that will move you to laughter and to tears.

My Review of The Woman at Number 24

Divided into flats, number 24 has some interesting characters including Sarah, whose ex-husband Leo lives with his new wife Helena in the flat below.

I think one word will suffice for my review of the Woman at Number 24  – wonderful. Or maybe fantastic. Or possibly outstanding. Hmm. As you can tell, I utterly adored this read.

What I loved was the sense of traditional unities so that there was a wonderful coherence to the story. I loved the fact that there was a straightforward time scale that flowed effortlessly because of the quality of the writing. The unity of place at Number 24 gives a fabulous structure with most of the action taking place there so that the house almost becomes a character in its own right.

As for the characters, they are so brilliantly wrought. Leo brought out the worst aspects of my own personality and I really did feel quite violent towards him so that slapping his face would have given me considerable pleasure. I did have to remind myself that these are actually characters and not people I really know. Mavis is a triumph, but you need to read the book to find out exactly why as to explain would spoil the read. I so wanted Sarah to be happy, and in common with the other characters, she seemed totally plausible and real. The letter from her father broke my heart. Juliet Ashton writes so well that even Mikey the hedgehog and Peck the parrot were vibrant and real.

However, it is the plotting that is the triumph here. Yes, The Woman at Number 24 fits the genre of women’s fiction perfectly, but it exceeds it too. Juliet Ashton’s plot is sublime and so clever. Of course there are predictable outcomes for some in the house but for others she uses a masterstroke of surprise. I really want to explain why but I mustn’t spoil the story for other readers.

The themes presented are mature, thoughtful and totally, totally absorbing. Our relationships with others and how we impact on one another are elements that are written about seamlessly in the context of the narrative and yet seem to transcend the confines of the story so that I couldn’t stop thinking about them when I wasn’t actually reading The Woman at Number 24.

I’ve found it quite hard to review The Woman at Number 24 because I loved it so much. Basically I just want to move in to number 24 too so that I can meet these wonderful people in person! I thought The Woman at Number 24 was amazing.

About Juliet Ashton

Juliet Ashton is just one of the nom de plumes of writer Bernadette Strachan who also co-writes musicals with her composer husband Matthew Strachan. Juliet has a daughter and dogs!

You can follow Juliet Ashton on Twitter and visit her website.

My grateful thanks to Helen Upton at Little Brown for a copy of Cambridge Black by Alison Bruce in return for an honest review and to help me prepare for interviewing Alison at the first ever Deepings Literary Festival, more details of which can be found here.

Cambridge Black is the latest in Alison Bruce’s DC Goodhew series and was published by Constable, an imprint of Little Brown, on 23rd February 2017. Cambridge Black is available for purchase in e-book and hardback (and paperback pre-order) here.

Cambridge Black

A cold case waits to be solved . . . and a killer waits in the wings.

Amy was seven years old when her father was arrested for murder. His subsequent trial and conviction scarred her childhood and cast a shadow over her life until, twenty-two years later, new evidence suggests he was innocent and Amy sets out to clear his name.

But Amy is not the only person troubled by the past. DC Gary Goodhew is haunted by the day his grandfather was murdered and is still searching for answers, determined to uncover the truth about his grandfather’s death and find his killer.

But, right now, someone is about to die. Someone who has secrets and who once kept quiet but is now living on borrowed time. Someone who will be murdered because disturbing the past has woken a killer.

My Review of Cambridge Black

An arson attack in 1991 forms the basis of secrets and lies that reverberate for more than the next two decades.

I haven’t read any of the previous DC Goodhew books and I have to say that didn’t affect my enjoyment at all as Cambridge Black works perfectly as a stand alone, although I would now like to go back and read them all because I enjoyed it so much and I would like to find out more about what brought DC Goodhew to his present position and relationships.

Cambridge Black has an incredibly well crafted plot so that I was kept guessing right to the end and making the connections between three seemingly disparate plots was hugely entertaining. I thought the way in which all the strands came together leading to what appears to be the final book in the series was extremely clever. The ending is so fast paced I had to make a conscious effort to slow down my reading to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Characters are varied and complex and I had to work quite hard to keep tabs on all the relationships which was an element I really enjoyed.  Alison Bruce doesn’t patronise her readers, but has a sophisticated style that gradually reveals layers of deceit and untruth so that readers find out what is happening in tune with those in the narrative. I also thoroughly enjoyed the naturalistic quality of the direct speech and the small details that brought the text alive. I could picture the Cambridge settings so vividly.

Characters show the full range of human emotion, but in Cambridge Black it is revenge, deceit and anger that are so well defined. Whilst I found some actions totally reprehensible I could understand exactly why those involved behaved the way they did.

I felt Cambridge Black was a sophisticated, intelligent, well written and entertaining thriller that held my attention from the first word to the last. I only wish I had encountered DC Goodhew sooner and I’m looking forward to asking Alison more about him soon!

About Alison Bruce

Alison Bruce is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her previous DC Gary Goodhew novels are published by Constable & Robinson. A fan of vintage clothes and the rockabilly music scene, for two years she wrote and presented a monthly 1950s music feature on BBC Wiltshire Sound.

Alison Bruce has also written two non-fiction books, Cambridgeshire Murders and Billington, Victorian Executioner, both published by the History Press.

You can follow Alison on Twitter and visit her website.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to a fantastic event Oceans of Words at Waterstones in Nottingham and you can read about that here. When I was there I met Ruth Dugdall and invited her on to Linda’s Book Bag. I’m delighted that Ruth agreed to be interviewed and she will be joining me on 1st May 2017 when her latest novel My Sister and Other Liars will be published. Ruth very kindly gave me a copy of My Sister and Other Liars for review.

My Sister and Other Liars is published on 1st May 2017 by Thomas and Mercer and is available for pre-order here.

My Sister and Other Liars

Sam is seventeen, starving herself and longing for oblivion. Her sister, Jena, is mentally scarred and desperate to remember. Between them, they share secrets too terrible to recall.

Eighteen months earlier, Sam was still full of hope: hope that she could piece together Jena’s fragmented memory after the vicious attack that changed their family forever. But digging into the past unearthed long-hidden lies and betrayals, and left Sam feeling helpless and alone in a world designed to deceive her.

Now, in a last bid to save her from self-imposed shutdown, Sam’s therapist is helping her confront her memories. But the road to recovery is a dangerous one. Because Sam has not only been lying to her doctors: she’s been hiding dark secrets from herself.

My Review of My Sister and Other Liars

On the Ana ward, anorexic Sam has no real reason to live, but as she slips toward the point of no return, memories come to the surface that can change her life.

Ooh, My Sister and Other Liars is a cracking read. It took me a while to appreciate just why the setting of a ward for anorexic girls had been chosen, but that is all part of the intelligent way the plot is constructed. Ruth Dugdall is forcing the reader to confront uncomfortable truths along with those, both girls and staff, on the ward. She explores so effectively how and why the girls there have made the decision to starve and it doesn’t always make for comfortable reading. In fact, it was the uncovering of this world about which I knew very little that made My Sister and Other Liars such a compelling read for me. I think Ruth Dugdall must have been meticulous in her research. I can’t really mention all the themes without spoiling the read but they build to create a read that goes beyond being merely an entertaining narrative into providing intelligent considerations.

I thought the plot was extremely good.  I did work out the denouement, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all because the writing builds tension and there is no guarantee that Sam will uncover the truth she so craves and which is destroying her physically and emotionally. I found the atmosphere created was often claustrophobic and frequently brutal and I kept wanting to read just one more chapter so see what happened.

At the beginning I found Sam an unlikable character and she didn’t gain my empathy even though she had my sympathy. It took me a while to warm to her, but again it was the quality of the writing that drew me in and altered my perceptions until I was completely on her side.

A further aspect that deserves mention is the skilful way in which Ruth Dugdall creates a sense of place. I could picture the town, the ward, the Pleasure Park so clearly and yet the effect was subtle too so that it never felt contrived. I thought that aspect of the writing was so good.

I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoyed reading My Sister and Other Liars, because of the disturbing nature of some of the themes and events, but I found it irresistible. It’s a really good thriller that I can recommend completely.

About Ruth Dugdall

Ruth studied English at university and then took an MA is Social Work. Following this she worked in the Criminal Justice System as a social worker then as a probation officer. Part of this time was spent seconded to a prison housing serious offenders. She continues to work within the Criminal Justice System, most recently in Luxembourg.
Ruth’s novels are informed by her experience and are “authentic and credible”.

You can follow Ruth on Twitter, visit her website and find all her books here.

My grateful thanks to the author Theresa Talbot for a copy of Penance in return for an honest review and an ENORMOUS apology that she has waited over 18 months for me to get round to reading it! Some of my excuses for the delay are documented here.

Penance was published by Strident in October 2015 and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

Penance

Oonagh O’Neil has a challenge on her hands – and her head over a toilet bowl.

TV journalist and media darling Oonagh O’Neil faces danger and chaos when an elderly priest dies on the altar of his Glasgow church. His death comes as she is about to expose the shocking truth behind the closure of a Magdalene Institution. The Church has already tried to suppress the story. Is someone also covering their tracks?

DI Alec Davies is appointed to investigate the priest’s death. He and Oonagh go way back. But their friendship counts for nothing when Davies suspicions falls on Oonagh’s married lover. Oonagh now faces the biggest decision of her life. But will it be hers to make? What secrets lie behind the derelict Institution’s doors? What sparked the infamous three-day riot that closed it? And what happened to the three Maggies who vowed to stay friends forever?

From Ireland to Scotland.

From life to death.

My Review of Penance

When Father Kennedy drops dead in the middle of mass, there are repercussions that echo back decades.

I thoroughly enjoyed Penance. What I loved about it was the quality of the plotting. I really appreciated the way in which all the strands were drawn together to a highly satisfactory conclusion and I was especially impressed by the way I thought I had it all worked out but had only managed partially to guess what was really going on. The events set in the 1950s made for very uncomfortable reading and gave me a real insight into the lives of unmarried mothers at the mercy of society and the institution of the church at the time. I was so drawn in to the story that I simply put life on hold and read the whole book in one sitting. Without spoiling the plot, there is one incident that made me feel we haven’t moved on much since Thomas Hardy wrote Tess of the d’Urbervilles and I felt there were echoes of his writing in Penance.

I thought the characterisation was excellent. Whilst Oonagh belongs to an environment with which Theresa Talbot is familiar so that there is credibility to her, Oonagh is not an idealised version of the author. Oonagh has flaws, deviousness and a stubborn streak that means she doesn’t always behave well or even rationally, but every one of her actions is absolutely believable and the writing draws in the reader so comprehensively that I went from from finding Oonagh an unattractive character at the start to one for whom I had the highest regard at the end as if she were real.

Whilst both character and plot deserve high praise, what most appealed to me about Penance was the range of themes, and moral and social issues, raised by the narrative. The story is highly entertaining but it also made me think. Our desperate need to belong and be loved as individuals is there, as is the right to life and abortion debate. Theresa Talbot explores what is morally justified and how history can be manipulated and distorted so that sometimes we can lose sight of what makes a crime and what is forgivable. Other themes include adultery, homosexuality, the media, religion and prostitution so that there is much to ponder whilst enjoying a cracking story.

As a result of the easy and flowing style, Penance is a thoroughly entertaining read and I heartily recommend it – I just wish I’d read it sooner.

About Theresa Talbot

Theresa Talbot is a freelance writer, journalist and radio presenter, perhaps best known as the voice of Traffic and Travel on BBC Radio Scotland and as the host of The Beechgrove Potting Shed. Prior to working with the BBC she was with Radio Clyde and the AA Roadwatch team. Theresa worked in various roles before entering the media as an assistant in children’s homes, a Pepsi Challenge girl and a library assistant. She ended up at the BBC because of an eavesdropped conversation on a no.66 bus in Glasgow. Her passions include rescuing chickens, gardening, music and yoga.

You can follow Theresa on Twitter and visit her website.

Today’s review is for a book chosen for my U3A reading group, The Dandelion Years by Erica James. I’m delighted that, because I’ve given up blog tours and author features for April in my AWOL in April month I’ve actually had time to read the book in advance of the group meeting – I don’t always manage that!

I’m thrilled that I’ll be having lunch with Erica James in the near future at the first ever Deepings Literary Festival that I previously blogged about here.

The Dandelion Years is published by Orion and is available for purchase here.

The Dandelion Years

‘Someone had made a perfect job of creating a place in which to hide a notebook . . . there was no address, only a date: September 1943 . . .’

Ashcombe was the most beautiful house Saskia had ever seen as a little girl. A rambling cottage on the edge of a Suffolk village, it provided a perfect sanctuary to hide from the tragedy which shattered her childhood.

Now an adult, Saskia is still living at Ashcombe and as a book restorer devotes her days tending to broken and battered books, daydreaming about the people who had once turned their pages. When she discovers a hidden notebook – and realises someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to hide a story of their own – Saskia finds herself drawn into a heart-rending tale of wartime love.

My Review of The Dandelion Years

32 year old Saskia lives with her father and two grand fathers following the death of her mother and grandmothers in  a car crash ten years previously.

Initially I didn’t warm to The Dandelion Years as it felt slightly slow in comparison with other books I’ve read recently, but the more I read, the more I enjoyed it, until I was completely absorbed in the story and really entertained by it.

I laughed aloud at one point when Bill Nighy is mentioned because the reading group for which I was reading The Dandelion Years always tries to find a role for Bill Nighy as one of the characters in a fantasy film version of the book. This time he matched Ralph perfectly.

Indeed, the characters felt warm and human, especially Saskia and Jacob. What I found appealing was the fact that these are not idealised individuals, but flawed and difficult people who do not always behave as they should. This made them feel much more realistic to me. I came away feeling Erica James has an incisive understanding of human nature.

I really enjoyed the literary references and in particular the conceit of a book within a book that the diary presents.  There’s also a smashing sense of place in both Bletchley and Suffolk so that I found the writing quite vivid. I thought the creation of 1940s England, with its war time deprivations, the class divide and sense of making the most of life was well depicted, particularly through the direct speech contained within those parts of the book.

Most of all, however, I found the themes in The Dandelion Years resonated thoroughly for me so that by the end of the story I felt quite emotional. Trust and relationships, and the need to make the most of life, are comprehensively explored, but it was the image of grief I found most affecting after similar experiences in my own life quite recently.

I went from feeling quite indifferent to The Dandelion Years to thoroughly enjoying it and being glad I had read it as it felt mature, well written and accomplished. It left me feeling positive and hopeful and I heartily recommend it.

About Erica James

With an insatiable appetite for other people’s business, Erica James will readily strike up conversation with strangers in the hope of unearthing a useful gem for her writing. She finds it the best way to write authentic characters for her novels, although her two grown-up sons claim they will never recover from a childhood spent in a perpetual state of embarrassment at their mother’s compulsion.

The author of many bestselling novels, including Gardens of Delight, which won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, and her Sunday Times top ten bestsellers, Summer At The Lake and The Dandelion Years, Erica now divides her time between Suffolk and Lake Como in Italy, where she strikes up conversation with unsuspecting Italians.

You can find Erica on Facebook, follow her on Twitter and visit her website.

My grateful thanks to Georgina Moore at Headline for a copy of How To Be A Grown Up by Daisy Buchanan in return for an honest review.

How To Be A Grown Up was published by Headline on 6th April 2017 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

How To Be A Grown Up

Have you ever felt lost, anxious, panicky about adulthood?

Have you ever spent a hungover Sunday crying into a bowl of cereal?

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and felt nothing but green-eyed jealousy and evil thoughts?

Award-winning journalist, Grazia agony aunt and real-life big sister to five smart, stylish, stunning twenty-something young women, Daisy Buchanan has been there, done that and got the vajazzle.

In How to be a Grown-Up, she dispenses all the emotional and practical advice you need to negotiate a difficult decade. Covering everything from how to become more successful and confident at work, how to feel pride in yourself without needing validation from others, how to turn rivals into mentors, and how to *really* enjoy spending time on your own, this is a warm, kind, funny voice in the dark saying “Honestly don’t worry, you’re doing your best and you’re amazing!”

My Review of How To Be A Grown Up

A handbook for 20-30 somethings to help steer their way through the digital age.

When I first began reading How To Be A Grown Up I have to confess to thinking ‘Oh good grief. More self-indulgent navel gazing!’ and setting it aside in a grumpy fashion. I didn’t like it at all.

And then I thought about it. I’m not a 20-30 something. In fact I was 56 yesterday! But I have been 20-30 (and I did have a university friend who was, like Rosie, allergic to alcohol). So I picked up the book again and had another go. And I got it! I think it was when Daisy revealed she’d stopped thinking of herself as a child in a grown-up’s world as she developed intergenerational friendships that I realised I had to stop reading How To Be A Grown Up as an adult in a child’s world!

How To Be A Grown Up has a lively and intelligent style that conveys an awful lot of good advice. I think that as I’ve never really had an issue with who I am or what people think of me I didn’t really appreciate just how hard it can be for those who do and what Daisy Buchanan does is provide realistic everyday advice for those struggling. I found the real life comments from others that exemplify her points quite touching at times. Although I appreciate that Daisy is a modern feminist, I would have liked some male views as a balance too so that readers could understand the issues are those of humans and not just women.

The topics covered are varied and relevant from money and mental health to masturbation so that there is something for all readers. The practical ‘Daisy Does This‘ sections dotted throughout give an insight into the author as well as good advice and I think there is real wisdom between these pages. I especially liked Daisy’s letter to herself and the chapter How To Make Mistakes.

So, from initially not liking How To Be A Grown Up, I actually really enjoyed it. Maybe it made me confront my own grown-upness when I didn’t really want to believe I was a grown up at all! I may not have any of the issues dealt with in the book, but reading it made me appreciate the positives I have even more. I think those 20-30 somethings will love it!

About Daisy Buchanan

Daisy is Grazia UK’s resident agony aunt, starting her column Dear Daisy in October 2015 and sharing her wisdom with Grazia‘s 120,000 readers. She has been writing about twenty-something TV favourite Made in Chelsea for four years, with loyal readers following her from Sabotage Times to the Mirror to Bauer’s big 2014 launch The Debrief, racking up over a million page views along the way. Daisy is a frequent fixture in the Guardian‘s ‘most-read’ section, covering everything from trying out masturbation apps to hiring a tutor. She’s a Telegraph Women columnist, and writes regularly for titles including The Daily Mail, Esquire, Glamour, Look, Marie Claire, Stylist, The Pool and The Sunday Times.

Daisy was named in MHCP’s 30 To Watch list in 2015, she won the title Dating Writer of the Year at the 2015 Dating Awards and won the Lifestyle category at the first Words by Women awards. Her internet dating book Meeting Your Match was published in January 2015, and her first book, The Wickedly Unofficial Guide to Made in Chelsea was published as an eBook in Autumn 2013. She’s a regular broadcast contributor, appearing on The Today Show, Woman’s Hour, Last Word, BBC London, 5 Live Breakfast, London Live and This Morning.

You can follow Daisy on Twitter.

My grateful thanks to Samantha Gale at Harper Impulse for an advanced reader copy of The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square by Lilly Bartlett.

The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square is published today, 7th April 2017, and is available for purchase here.

The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square

When Emma’s boyfriend Daniel pops the question with a ring the size of a small country, she suddenly realises just how different they are. She’s the Eastenders to his Made in Chelsea. She wants a low-key wedding with close friends and family in Uncle Colin’s pub, while Daniel’s mother is expecting a society do that their high-brow guests won’t forget!

How on earth can Emma put together a celebration fit for Lords and Ladies on a shoestring budget? Not to mention the fact her cross-dressing Uncle Barbara wants to be a bridesmaid, her best mate Kelly can’t stand Daniel’s best friend Cressida, and her dad is too proud to accept any help from Daniel’s family towards the costs.

There’s three months to go until the big day. Will Emma’s happy-ever-after end in disaster?

My review of The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square

When poverty stricken Emma gets engaged to rich Daniel, the two families are seemingly from different planets, let alone different parts of London.

The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square is such an entertaining read. I don’t often read what might be termed chick-lit, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I thought the underlying message that a marriage isn’t the product of an expensive wedding but it based on love, friends and family was delivered perfectly, without preachiness or sentimentality.

Although the narrative revolves around the preparations for the wedding and Emma’s attempts to present a reception that will fool Daniel’s family into thinking she created it deliberately whilst saving as much money as possible, there are other well presented themes too. I liked the concept that we shouldn’t judge others before we know them properly. Uncle Barbara’s desire to wear dresses, Auntie Rose’s wanderings, Dad’s illness, are just some of the aspects that add depth to make The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square a satisfying read.

Humour comes through the differences between the two families and the direct speech enabled me to hear the different characters beautifully well. Although I didn’t warm to Kelly I understood her unhappiness at feeling supplanted in her best friend’s affections and I felt that Lilly Bartlett has created a cast of true-to-life people I really want to hear more about.

The Big Little Wedding at Carlton Square is a feel good read about characters I want to read more about. Great fun.

About Lilly Bartlett

Lilly sprang from the imagination of a romcom author whom you already know and love. Full of the author’s signature humour, Lilly Bartlett’s books are packed with extra-lovable characters, oodles of fun and guaranteed happily-ever-afters.

Can you guess who the real Lilly Bartlett is?

Yes, it’s Michelle Gorman!

About Michele Gorman

Michele writes books with heart and humour, full of best friends, girl power and, of course, love and romance. Call them beach books or summer reads, chick lit or romcom… readers and reviewers call them “feel good”, “relatable” and “thought-provoking”.

She is both a Sunday Times and a USA Today bestselling author, raised in the US and living in London. She is very fond of naps, ice cream and Richard Curtis films but objects to spiders and the word “portion”.

You can find Michele on Instagram and on Facebook . You can follow her on Twitter and visit Michele’s blog and her website.