It’s such a pleasure today to share my review of Cressida McLaughlin’s new book The Happy Hour as I love her writing. My huge thanks to Susanna Peden at Harper Collins for sending me a copy of The Happy Hour in return for an honest review.

You can also find my review of Cressida’s The Staycation here and of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop, which was one of my books of the year in 2022, here.

Published by Harper Collins on 9th May 2024, The Happy Hour is available for purchase through the links here.

The Happy Hour

Jess is happy working in Greenwich market selling trinkets to well-heeled locals and excitable tourists.

Then one Sunday, Jess is thrown together with handsome, funny Ash, as they chase a pickpocket through the market, and before long they are making a habit of running into each other at the same time each week.

Jess starts to realize that their hour together is the brightest part of her life. But Ash isn’t telling her everything – can she discover the truth before it’s too late?

My Review of The Happy Hour

Jess and Ash have just met.

Oh my word. The Happy Hour is absolutely lovely. With an initial touch of mystery about where Ash has to be each Sunday, Cressida McLaughlin draws in the reader to this wonderfully romantic story from the very first page in a story that I found totally captivating. 

I loved the market setting with its cast of quirky people who feel like a microcosm of society. There’s a real sense of community and Cressida McLaughlin’s descriptions of the stalls, the aromas, the items for sale, all make for a very vivid picture. My only complaint is that the descriptions of the muffins made me ravenous the whole time I was reading! 

Those market characters are so warmly created. Even the ones like Roger who play relatively minor roles feel true to life and realistic. I adored Felicity as, through her own vulnerabilities and strengths, she illuminates the other characters, bringing them into sharp focus. She also exemplifies how appearances can be deceptive and that we never quite know what is happening in another person’s life or behind their front door. I’d love there to be future books following on from The Happy Hour, developing the stories of the people at the market. 

It is, of course, Jess and Ash who steal the show, partly because they are both equally stubborn and misguided as well as equally vivacious, friendly, caring and attractive so that they are well rounded and convincing. I cared so much about them, feeling their emotions with them and I admit to shedding a tear or two over them as well as laughing with them. In Jess and Ash, Cressida McLaughlin has created something very special indeed because, as they work through their own demons, they are hugely relatable. They show how we are affected by our past and our upbringing, but that we cannot allow it to dominate our future. They also show how, whilst we might not be able to control what happens in our present life, we can decide how to respond. The Happy Hour is a wise and uplifting book as well as being entertaining and absorbing to read.

Indeed, whilst Cressida McLaughlin creates a gorgeous romance, The Happy Hour is steeped in psychological understanding. Grief and loneliness, self-preservation, identity and independence, are threads of the story that make it so wonderful as well as gloriously escapist. 

I truly adored The Happy Hour. Not only is it emotional and beguiling, it’s warm and encouraging too. Reading The Happy Hour took me away from the cares of the real world and left me feeling uplifted and content – feelings we could all do with from time to time…

About Cressida McLaughlin

Cressida McLaughlin is a bestselling author of contemporary romance who has sold over a million copies of her books. Her feel-good, escapist fiction, featuring unforgettable characters who find their happy place, has established her as a firm favourite among readers and fellow authors alike. She is most well known for her eight book Cornish Cream Tea series, and The Happy Hour is her fifteenth novel. Cressida lives in Norwich with her husband David and when not writing her bestsellers, spends her spare time reading, returning to London or exploring the beautiful Norfolk coastline.

You can find out more information on Cressy’s website or you can follow her on Twitter/X @cressmclaughlin, Instagram and Facebook.

I was delighted to meet author Heidi Amsinck at a bookish event a few months ago as I love her books. Consequently, when I realised book three in her Jensen thriller series, Back From The Dead, was about to be released I simply had to be part of the tour. My thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me to take part and to Muswell Press for sending me a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

You will find my review of Heidi’s My Name is Jensen here, and of The Girl in the Photo here.

Published by Muswell Press on 18th April 2024, Back From The Dead is available for purchase here.

Back From The Dead

A Missing person … a headless corpse … Jensen is on the case.

June, and as Copenhagen swelters under record temperatures, a headless corpse surfaces in the murky harbour, landing a new case on the desk of DI Henrik Jungersen, just as his holiday is about to start.

Elsewhere in the city, Syrian refugee Aziz Almasi, driver to Esben Nørregaard MP has vanished. Fearing a link to shady contacts from his past, Nørregaard appeals to crime reporter Jensen to investigate.

Could the body in the harbour be Aziz? Jensen turns to former lover Henrik for help. As events spiral dangerously out of control, they are thrown together once more in the pursuit of evil, in a case more twisted and, more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

My Review of Back From The Dead

Jensen is about to become embroiled in another case.

My goodness, Back From The Dead is an exciting and fast paced novel and I thought it was excellent. Whilst I appreciated having read the first two excellent books in the series better to appreciate the nuances here, Heidi Amsinck ensures readers are not disadvantaged if they are new to the series and haven’t encountered the characters before. I found the subtle weaving of back story very skilled indeed.

The plot of Back From The Dead is complex, brilliantly plotted and breath-taking. With timed and dated chapters that are short, snappy and exciting, there’s a fabulous sense of pace. It is hard to say too much for fear of spoiling the story for others, but there are twists and turns, with surprising events and reveals that make the story totally compelling and engaging. I loved it. As I read I kept thinking of stones dropping into a barrel of water (or in this case bodies dropping into water) with all the ripples intersecting in a plot that is quite masterful.

I loved too the seething, simmering heat of Copenhagen with that sense of over-heating tempers, bodies and minds that so perfectly reflected the febrile tension between Jensen and Henrik. Their toxic attraction for one another is one of the best relationships in crime fiction around. What I found so interesting in Back From The Dead was the increased vulnerability displayed by Jensen. She is developing so realistically and convincingly. Gustav too feels as if he is maturing so that the potential for him in future books is massive.

The challenges facing the police in Henrik’s investigation not only heighten the tension of the story, but add an understanding of how the police are often unrealistically expected to produce near miraculous results in very short time scales. Heidi Amsinck has a mature and compassionate skill in incorporating societal attitudes, immigration, the way marriages work, and the bonds and frustrations of intimate and frequently challenging professional relationships, so that they become layers of interest beyond the already compelling thriller.

I so enjoyed Back From The Dead. It’s everything I want in a police procedural thriller and a real triumph as the plot is gripping and the characters multi-layered and believable. I can’t wait for book four!

About Heidi Amsinck

Heidi Amsinck won the Danish Criminal Academy’s Debut Award for My Name is Jensen (2021), the first book in a new series featuring Copenhagen reporter sleuth Jensen and her motley crew of helpers. She published her second Jensen novel, The Girl in Photo, in July 2022, with the third Back From The Dead out now. A journalist by background, Heidi spent many years covering Britain for the Danish press, including a spell as London Correspondent for the broadsheet daily Jyllands-Posten. She has written numerous short stories for BBC Radio 4, such as the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk and featuring in her collection Last Train to Helsingør (2018). Heidi’s work has been translated from the original English into Danish, German and Czech.

For more information, follow Heidi on Twitter/X @HeidiAmsinck1. You can also find Heidi on Instagram and Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I really haven’t featured the writing of Helen Fields enough here on Linda’s Book Bag, so it gives me enormous pleasure that my latest online review for My Weekly magazine is of Helen’s brand new Profile K. My apologies to Helen and My Weekly for not sharing this sooner as it went out on 25th April, but I was away on holiday!

Published by Harper Collins’ imprint Avon Books on 25th April 2024, Profile K is available for purchase through the links here.

Profile K

He’s going to kill you. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Midnight Jones is an analyst trained to understand the human mind. But everything changes when, in the course of her work, she discovers Profile K’s file – because K stands for killer, and she knows that someone more dangerous than she could have ever imagined walks among them.

Midnight knows what Profile K is capable of before he even commits his first crime. But as the news rolls with the brutal murder of a local woman, no one believes what she tells them: that he is capable of so much worse.

Profile K will kill again – and, terrifyingly, Midnight realises that the moment she found his file was the moment she became his next target. Because Profile K is coming for Midnight – and the only way to escape with her life is to find him before he finds her…

The million-copy bestseller is back with a dark, terrifying journey into the mind of a psychopath that will keep you riveted until the very last page.

My Review of Profile K

My full review of Profile K can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that Profile K is a disturbing, brilliantly crafted insight into the mind of a killer – and into big business. It is terrifying, prescient and convincing. I thought it was brilliant.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Helen Fields

Helen Fields’ first love was drama and music. From a very young age she spent all her free time acting and singing until law captured her attention as a career path. She studied law at the University of East Anglia, then went on to the Inns of Court School of Law in London.

After completing her pupillage, she joined chambers in Middle Temple where she practised criminal and family law for thirteen years. Undertaking cases that ranged from Children Act proceedings and domestic violence injunctions, to large scale drug importation and murder, Helen spent years working with the police, CPS, Social Services, expert witnesses and in Courts Martials.

After her second child was born, Helen left the Bar. Together with her husband David, she went on to run Wailing Banshee Ltd, a film production company, acting as script writer and producer.

Helen self-published two fantasy books as a way of testing herself and her writing abilities. She enjoyed the creative process so much that she began writing in a much more disciplined way, and decided to move into the traditional publishing arena through an agent.

Perfect Remains is set in Scotland, where Helen feels most at one with the world. Edinburgh and San Francisco are her two favourite cities, and she travels whenever she can.

Beyond writing, she has a passion for theatre and cinema, often boring friends and family with lengthy reviews and critiques. Taking her cue from her children, she has recently taken up karate and indoor sky diving. Helen and her husband now live in Hampshire with their three children and two dogs.

Visit Helen’s website for further information and find her on Instagram and Facebook. You can also follow Helen on Twitter/X @Helen_Fields.

I’m a huge fan of Marian Keyes and yet, since I began blogging, I really haven’t read her enough. I’m delighted to rectify that error by sharing details of my latest My Weekly magazine online review which is Marian’s latest book My Favourite Mistake.

Published by Penguin’s imprint Michael Joseph on 11th April 2024 My Favourite Mistake is available for purchase through the links here.

My Favourite Mistake

Anna has just lost her taste for the Big Apple…

She has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that?

Anna, it turns out.

Trading a minor midlife crisis for a major life event, she switches the skyscrapers of Manhattan for the tiny Irish town of Maumtully (population 1,217), helping old friends Brigit and Colm set up a luxury coastal retreat.

Tougher than it sounds. Newflash: the locals hate the idea. So much so, there have been threats – and violence.

Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over.

There’s just one fly in the ointment – old flame Joey Armstrong.

He’s going to be her wingman.

Never mind their chequered history. Never mind what might have been.

Because no matter how far you go, your mistakes will still be waiting for you . . .

My Review of My Favourite Mistake

My full review of My Favourite Mistake can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that My Favourite Mistake is Marian Keyes at the top of her game, being filled with warmth, wit and a wise insight into humanity that made me laugh and cry – often at the same time. I absolutely loved it. It might be my favourite Marian Keyes book. As Marian herself might say, it’s fabliss!

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes is a phenomenon. The multimillion copy, internationally bestselling author of some of the most widely loved, genre-defying novels of the past thirty years – including Rachel’s Holiday, Anybody Out There and Grown Ups– has millions of devoted readers around the world.

In addition to her fifteen previous novels, Marian has also written three collections of journalism, upon which hit BBC Radio 4 show Between Ourselves was based. Marian co-hosts the popular show Now You’re Asking with actress Tara Flynn for BBC Radio 4. In 2022, she was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year.

Marian lives in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin. My Favourite Mistake is her sixteenth novel.

You can find Marian on Facebook and Instagram and follow her on Twitter/X @MarianKeyes. Marian Keyes also has a wonderful website.

Having adored One Moment, the debut novel by Becky Hunter that I reviewed here, I simply couldn’t resist being part of the blog tour for Becky’s latest book, Meet Me When My Heart Stops. My huge thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate.

Meet Me When My Heart Stops was published by Atlantic imprint Corvus on 21st March 2024 and is available for purchase through the links here.

Meet Me When My Heart Stops

What if your soulmate could only ever be the love of your afterlife?

The first time Emery’s heart stops, she is only five years old…

Emery is born with a heart condition that means her heart could quite literally stop at any moment. The people around her know what to do – if they act quickly enough there will be no lasting damage, and Emery’s heart can be restarted. But when this happens, she is briefly technically dead.

Each time Emery’s heart stops, she meets Nick. His purpose is to help people adjust to the fact that they are dead, to help them say goodbye, before they move on entirely. He does not usually meet people more than once – but with Emery, he is able to make a connection, and he finds himself drawn to her.

As Emery’s life progresses, and she goes through ups and downs, she finds that a part of her is longing for those moments when her heart will stop – so that she can see Nick again.

This is the story of two fated lovers who long for each other, but are destined never to share more than a few fleeting moments – because if they were to be together, it would mean the end of Emery’s life.

My Review of Meet Me When My Heart Stops

Emery has a rare heart condition.

Goodness. What can I say about Meet Me When My Heart Stops? Achingly gorgeous, this is romantic writing of the most perfect kind and I absolutely loved it.

Becky Hunter’s premise of a heart condition that means Emery dies multiple times, feels innovative and completely convincing. Whilst it sets the scene for Emery and Nick’s emotional love story to unfold, it also adds layers of maturity and sophistication to the story because themes of guilt, choice, responsibility and family swirl beneath the surface. Emery’s Mum’s reaction to Emery’s illness, and the rift that occurs in the family, shows real insight into how not just one person is affected when they have a life-affecting or limiting condition. There’s such understanding here that Meet Me When My Heart Stops feels thoughtful, sensitive and compassionate.

The story of Emery’s life and multiple deaths is enthralling and I loved the structure of the plot with the dates as Emery ages and found the memories woven into the death scenes created both depth and character. Meet Me When My Heart Stops explores exactly what makes for a fulfilling life. It might be an existence without risk, such as the one Emery’s Dad tries to impose to keep her safe, or it might be one of Carpe Diem like Emery’s reckless thrill seeking to counterbalance the careful approach of those around her. However, what is so impactful here is the way Becky Hunter illustrates that a life well lived can easily be filled with quiet, ordinary moments that any of us might experience. Such a theme makes Meet Me When My Heart Stops uplifting, affecting and compelling.

All that said, what is so entrancing about Meet Me When My Heart Stops is the beautiful love story between Emery and Nick. It develops organically, is frequently frustrated by events and feels so convincing that I experienced every one of Emery’s emotions with her. Becky Hunter writes with such a natural style that it feels perfectly plausible that Emery is falling in love with a man who died before she was born.

And Emery herself is a wonderful creation. She develops throughout the story and although her heart condition could, with less skilled writers, make her a saccharine protagonist, instead she is a vivid, flawed and believable creation. She is, on occasion, selfish or foolhardy, discontented and unhappy as well as brave, selfless and filled with joy. She is, quite simply, human. 

It feels rather a privilege to have read Meet Me When My Heart Stops. It’s touching, captivating and poignant and a book that reverberates in the reader’s mind long after the final page is turned. I thought it was totally wonderful. 

About Becky Hunter

Becky Hunter lived and worked in London for several years before moving to Mozambique to volunteer with horses and try her hand at writing. A few years, a few destinations, and a few jobs later she had the idea that would become One Moment. Alongside writing, she now works as a freelance editor and publicist, splitting her time between Bristol and London, and constantly trying to plan the next adventure.

For more information, follow Becky on Twitter/X @Bookish_Becky or find her on Instagram.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I’m privileged to call the brilliant author Louise Jensen a friend and would like to thank Louise for a copy of her latest thriller The Intruders. Even better, I’m delighted to have the opportunity to review The Intruders for My Weekly magazine online.

I’d also like to thank Louise for popping over for lunch recently to cheer me up following a foot op!

Published by Harper Collins imprint Avon today, 11th April 2024, The Intruders is available for purchase through the links here.

The Intruders

They were told to leave. They should have listened.

The perfect opportunity…

A manor house available rent-free to house-sitters is an offer too good to miss for Cass and James, who have been saving for a deposit on their own home for so long.

Although it had been abandoned for almost thirty years, after a home invasion left almost all the inhabitants dead, it is an amazing chance for them to build their future.

But is it worth the price?

Shortly after moving in things take a sinister turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, the house is strangely oppressive and sometimes it feels like Cass and James are not alone.

Newington House may have bad energy, and a dark reputation. But surely there’s no reason for history to repeat itself, is there?

My Review of The Intruders

My full review of The Intruders can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that The Intruders is utterly terrifying and completely compelling. It’s so exciting I couldn’t put it down and think it might be Louise Jensen’s best thriller yet. Don’t miss this one – you’ll be taken by surprise!

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Louise Jensen

Louise Jensen has sold over a million English language copies of her International No. 1 psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift, The Surrogate, The Date, The Family, The Stolen Sisters and All For You. Her novels have also been translated into twenty-five languages, as well as featuring on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List. Her next thriller publishes in Spring 2023.

Louise has been nominated for multiple awards including Goodreads Debut Author Of The Year, The Guardians ‘Not The Booker Prize’, best polish thriller of 2018 and she has also been listed for two CWA Dagger awards. All of Louise’s thrillers are currently under option for TV & film. She has also written short stories for various publications including ‘My Weekly’, ‘Hello’, ‘Best’ and ‘The Sun’, as well as having stories featured in multiple anthologies.

Louise also has a penchant for exploring the intricacies of relationships through writing heart-breaking and uplifting stories under the pen name Amelia Henley. The Life We Almost Had and The Art of Loving You were international best sellers. From Now On published in autumn 2022.

Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire. She loves to hear from readers and writers.

You can find out more by visiting Louise’s website, finding her on Facebook or Instagram and following her on Twitter @Fab_fiction.

I love Harriet Tyce’s writing, so I’m thrilled that the latest of my My Weekly magazine online reviews is Harriet’s A Lesson in Cruelty.

I previously reviewed Harriet’s Blood Orange here, The Lies You Told here and It Ends at Midnight here.

Published by Headline Imprint Wildfire on 11th April 2024, A Lesson in Cruelty is available for purchase here.

A Lesson in Cruelty

They say you can’t always get what you want. But you can take it.

Anna wants a fresh start. She doesn’t believe she deserves it, but after three years behind bars she has finally paid her dues. Most of them, anyway.

Lucy craves the attention of the only man she can’t have, her alluring Oxford professor. He’s married – not for the first time. Maybe she should be next in line?

Marie the recluse has been locked up for too long. She’s not ready to be free, but some rules are meant to be broken.

Everyone wants a perfect life. But not everyone is prepared to take it.

Unless someone decides to teach them a lesson.

My Review of A Lesson in Cruelty

My full review of A Lesson in Cruelty can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that A Lesson in Cruelty is an amazing narrative of twists and turns, despicable and damaged characters and thrilling events. I loved it.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Harriet Tyce

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated from Oxford in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before gaining legal qualifications. She worked as a criminal barrister for ten years, leaving after having children. She completed an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at UEA where she wrote Blood Orange, the Sunday Times bestselling novel, winner of a gold Nielsen Bestseller Award in 2021. It was followed by The Lies You Told and It Ends At Midnight, both also Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives in north London with her family and two dogs.

You can follow Harriet on Twitter/X @harriet_tyce and visit her website for more details. You’ll also find her on Instagram and Facebook.

It’s my absolute pleasure to welcome Alison Stockham to Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate publication day for her brand new psychological thriller, The New Girl, published today.

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Alison Stockham

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Alison and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thank you for having me, it’s lovely to have a chat with you and especially on publication day!

Happy publication day. Tell me, (although I know) which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along my latest domestic thriller, The New Girl, which publishes today, 9^th April.

So exciting to share publication day with you. What can we expect from an evening in with The New Girl?

It’s about what happens when secrets are left to fester and when those closest to you are those who betray you. Readers so far have said that it’s full of twists and turns, with an ending they did not see coming. It’s a can’t put down til it’s done sort of book so I think an evening in would be a copy of The New Girl, your favourite drink/snacks, curled up on the sofa.

That sounds like the perfect evening to me.

This book has been a long time coming in that the baby scan being posted through a front door actually happened to one of my teachers when I was in secondary school! I must have squirreled it away for the “one day” that I would become a writer.

I think writers are magpies and squirrels. They are always collecting things and storing them up for their writing.

What else have you brought along to celebrate publication day and why have you brought it?

I have brought along coffee as it’s set in an office and Anna, the main character, is always tired.

Anna has my sympathy. I’m always tired too – though coffee doesn’t suit me!

Also, The New Girl was written during a very busy year in my life with my debut and follow up book publishing, and my job at Cambridge Literary Festival, as well as my two children and other family commitments. I needed a lot of coffee myself!!

I have also brought foam bananas which are my bribery treat when I don’t want to sit down and write or sit down to edit. I bribe myself with foam bananas when I hit certain points or word counts. A very random fact that I like about them too is that they don’t taste like bananas do because they are based on the old variety of bananas, the Gros Michel, before they were wiped out. The bananas we eat today are the Cavendish variety. Sweets with a hidden past! (I MAY be overthinking this!)

I’m not sure you can over think bananas! Fabulous fruit and fabulous sweets. 

Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about The New Girl Alison. It sounds like my kind of read. Have a wonderful publication day and whilst you grab a coffee, I’ll give readers a few more details:

The New Girl

BRAND NEW from Top Ten Bestseller Alison Stockham

The letterbox clatters and sitting on the mat is a piece of paper, in black and white, with everything needed to blow Anna’s perfect life apart.

A baby scan photo.

Anna and Jon have been trying for a baby with no success, so after years of disappointment, this feels like a kick in the teeth.

Who sent it? And why?

Anna’s thoughts fall on Grace – the keen young woman Jon hired at their printing business. Something about Grace isn’t quite right. She asks too many questions and makes Anna nervous but she can’t work out why.

And she can’t deny she sees the way her husband looks at her.

All she knows is this baby scan might tear her marriage apart…

Published by Boldwood today, 9th April 2024, The New Girl is available for purchase here.

About Alison Stockham

Alison is the author of three psychological domestic thrillers, The Cuckoo Sister, The Silent Friend and The New Girl. Her debut The Cuckoo Sister, was longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2020 and was a top ten kindle bestseller in its first month. The Silent Friend, hit the UK and US Top 20 Crime chart. The New Girl publishes in April 2024.

Having spent 15 years working in film and television production, mostly for the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky, Alison turned her focus back to creative writing, working for Cambridge Literary Festival and working on her books. Alison’s short story, An Unexpected Visitor, was included in the charity anthology Everyday Kindness, in aid of Shelter, published by Dark Skies in November 2021 and then her novels, published by Boldwood Books, followed in 2023.

She lives in Cambridge with her husband, two daughters and a cat.

For further information, you can follow Alison on Twitter @AlisonStockam, or find her on Instagram and Facebook. @AlisonStockhamAuthor.

It’s always exciting to be part of a book’s early journey and it’s my enormous pleasure today to join in with the cover reveal for Baby Teeth by Celia Silvani. My huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to participate.

Baby Teeth will be published by Orion on 6th February 2025 and is available for pre-order here.

Baby Teeth

Claire is expecting a baby. It’s her dream but not everyone is as supportive as she’d like . . .

Isolated and vulnerable, she is drawn into an online group for ‘natural motherhood’ and is warmly embraced by the sisterhood.

As Claire withdraws further into their world and with her due date fast approaching, she is unsettled by the group’s conformity and the total shunning of medical intervention.

But blind loyalty can be catastrophic – and her silence could be fatal . . .

About Celia Silvani

Celia Silvani is a charity communications manager and freelance writer, who has written for Stylist, The Telegraph and BBC Future on topics ranging from weddings to hurricanes. She got the inspiration for Baby Teeth from an NBC article she couldn’t stop thinking about, and interviewed midwives and obstetricians to get a fuller picture of birthing stories – as well as spending a lot of time lurking in the dark corners of internet freebirthing groups…

For further information about Celia, visit her website, follow her on Twitter/X @celia_silvani and find Celia on Instgram.

Not only is it always a privilege to review for My Weekly magazine online, but it’s a real pleasure that my latest review is for Carol Atherton’s Reading Lessons as I’m absolutely thrilled to be interviewing Carol all about Reading Lessons at the Deepings Literary Festival on 2nd May. If you’d like to come along, you can find tickets here.

Published by Penguin imprint Figtree on 4th April 2024, Reading Lessons is available for purchase through the links here.

Reading Lessons

An English teacher’s love letter to reading and the many ways literature can make us, and our lives, better.

How can a Victorian poem help teenagers understand YouTube misogyny? Can Jane Eyre encourage us to speak out? What can Lady Macbeth teach us about empathy? Should our expectations for our future be any greater than Pip’s? And why is it so important to make space for these conversations in the first place?

In a career spanning almost three decades, English teacher Carol Atherton has taught generations of students texts that will be familiar to many of us from our own schooldays. But while the staples of exam syllabuses and reading lists remain largely unchanged, their significance – and their relevance – evolves with each class, as it encounters them for the first time.

Each chapter of Reading Lessons invites us to take a fresh look at these novels, plays and poems, revealing how they have shaped our beliefs, our values, and how we interact as a society. As she recalls her own development as a teacher, Atherton emphasizes the vital, undervalued role a teacher plays, illustrates how essential reading is for developing our empathy and makes a passionate case for the enduring power of literature.

My Review of Reading Lessons

My full review of Reading Lessons can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that I expected Reading Lessons to be good as Carol is my friend of 30 years and I know what a talent she is, but honestly, if you’ve ever read a single word of a book, if you’re a human being, you need to read Reading Lessons. It is stunning and I loved every moment of being between its pages.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Carol Atherton

Carol Atherton has taught English since 1996 and is currently Head of English at a secondary school in Lincolnshire. Originally from Merseyside, she read English at Oxford before doing a PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD at the University of Nottingham. She is a Fellow of the English Association and a member of the National Association for the Teaching of English. Atherton has written for a range of publications aimed at teachers and students, and she co-authored Teaching English Literature 16–19 (Routledge, 2013). Reading Lessons is her first trade publication.

For further information follow Carol on Twitter/X @CarolAtherton8.