I’m a huge fan of Sue Moorcroft’s writing and as I’m part of her ‘street team’ she is a regular here on Linda’s Book Bag so it gives me enormous pleasure to help reveal the cover for her summer 2020 book, Summer on a Sunny Island.

Summer on a Sunny Island will be published by Harper Collins imprint Avon on 30th April 2020 and is available for pre-order through the publisher links here. Let’s find out more:

Summer on a Sunny Island

This summer, sparks are flying on the island of Malta…

When Rosa Hammond splits up from her partner Marcus, her Mum Dora suggests a summer in Malta. Not one to sit back and watch her daughter be unhappy, Dora introduces Rosa to Zach, in the hope that romance will bloom under the summer sun. But Rosa’s determined not to be swayed by a handsome man – she’s in Malta to work, after all.

Zach, meanwhile, is a magnet for trouble and is dealing with a fair few problems of his own. Neither Rosa or Zach are ready for love – but does fate have other ideas? And after a summer in paradise, will Rosa ever want to leave?

Doesn’t that sound the perfect summer read?

You’ll find other Linda’s Book Bag posts featuring Sue in the following links:

My review of Let It Snow

Discussing One Summer in Italy

An interview with Sue Moorcroft

A guest post from Sue on over-sharing and my review of The Christmas Promise

A guest post from Sue on her fantasy holiday companions

My review of Just For The Holidays

A guest post from Sue on loving a village book

My review of The Little Village Christmas

My review of A Christmas Gift

About Sue Moorcroft

Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is This Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies.

The Christmas Promise was a Kindle No.1 Best Seller and held the No.1 slot at Christmas!

Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a creative writing tutor.

You can follow Sue on Twitter @SueMoorcroft, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

If you’re a regular visitor to Linda’s Book Bag it will come as no surprise that I am thrilled to welcome Isabelle Broom, author of Hello, again to the blog in interview today.

To find out why I’m so excited I suggest you read my review of Isabelle’s book One Winter Morning here, my review of My Map of You here, A Year and a Day here and The Place We Met here. Sadly I haven’t yet managed to get to One Thousand Stars and You, but I do have a lovely personally signed copy on my shelf!

The RNA (Romantic Novelists Association) celebrates its 60th birthday this year and as we’re almost the same age (eek – am I REALLY almost 60?) I thought it would be wonderful to interview Isabelle as part of the celebrations. My grateful thanks to RNA Press Officer, and friend, Annette Hannah for arranging this.

An Interview with Isabelle Broom

I’m thrilled you’ve agreed to be interviewed for Linda’s Book Bag as part of the #RNA60 celebrations Isabelle. I think you know how much I love your writing.

Firstly, would you mind telling blog readers a little bit about yourself please?

I certainly can. I’m an author of escapist romantic fiction novels – six, so far, with the seventh due to be published this coming July – all of which are set in various locations around the world. I spend my time travelling to do research, writing, and I also work as a freelance sub editor, reviewer and panel host. I live in Suffolk with my two dogs, Max and Julius, who are both extremely fluffy and utterly bonkers, and love nothing more than a long walk, a long bath and an even longer glass of red wine.

They are utterly adorable!

How would you describe your writing?

I write commercial fiction, so I guess my style is (hopefully) mass-consumer friendly. I love the challenge of bringing a place to life on the page, and try to avoid clichés wherever possible, opting instead for something less obvious. People have called my writing style evocative in the past, which is a huge compliment, but I also adore dialogue and would love to try scriptwriting one day.

That sounds like a really interesting direction for your writing to take. In the mean time, tell us about your latest book.

Hello, again (which is out in July) follows Pepper, whose dreams of becoming a world-renowned artist have been scuppered by a childhood tragedy that still haunts her today. Never having left the small coastal town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, where she grew up, Pepper finds her world rocked when her 71-year-old friend Josephine asks her accompany her on a trip abroad. The older woman wants to retrace the steps of an illicit love affair she had many years before, and the romantic in Pepper is entranced. The last thing she expects, however, is to stumble across her very own love story in the process…

Hello, again sounds just as fabulous as all your other books. I can’t wait to read it.

What are your writing routines?

Oh gosh, well, that really depends on the stage I’m at with a novel. If I’m editing, then I’ll be at my laptop for ten-plus hours a day, tweaking and rewriting and hair-tearing, but if I’m drafting, it tends to be more like five or six. I enjoy writing in my local library, but I also have a home office and often write on the train to London and back. One of my most favourite places to write is at Book Camp, which takes place twice a year down in Somerset. Nothing inspires me more than being surrounded by my fellow authors in a beautiful place – many a novel has been saved this way!

Which aspects of writing do you find easiest and which most challenging and why?

I wouldn’t say that writing ever feels easy; I would describe it as feeling magical. Those moments when you sit down to write and feel as if the story is telling itself, when the characters take over and dictate their own actions and words, and it feels as if you’re a mere portal through which they travel – those are incredible. And fun – so much fun. I would say the most challenging stage for me comes around the first big structural edit. I said to my author friend recently that editing is like doing a blank jigsaw, in the dark, on the edge of a cliff, with a strong wind blowing. Very tricky indeed! But it is always so worthwhile. Once that stage is over, I find the line and copy edits a breeze by comparison.

I love that analogy – and I think it helps those who don’t know your writing to get a feel for how wonderful it is!

I know you travel for your research into settings and I always find your descriptions so vivid. How do you record what you see and do in order to use it in your writing?

Thank you! It’s a tough job, etc. But no, it can come with its own set of problems. Sometimes the plots don’t work within the locations, or vice versa, and geography can be a pain. I had to create a completely made-up nature reserve in my fifth novel in order for the elephant scene to happen at the right time. In terms of recording data, I take gazillions of photos and videos, I do voice recordings as I stroll around, so I don’t forget how places smell and what sounds I can hear. I also carry a notebook with me and jot down first impressions – it gives me the perfect excuse to stop for numerous cups of coffee (or vin brulé, if I happen to be in Lake Como at Christmas time). I’m very fortunate in that I have a photographic memory, so when I’m back home in my office, I can put myself back into the locations pretty easily, simply by closing my eyes. Then I just describe what I can see.

With that level of attention to detail no wonder your settings are so evocative. So, which of the countries you’ve visited have you enjoyed the most and why?

Oh, I love all of them. They all have their different merits. Zakynthos in Greece is like a second home to me; Prague is pure magic, Mojacar in Spain holds so many memories from my teenage years and Lake Como is spectacular. Sri Lanka remains one of the most amazing countries I have ever visited, and the people there are so wonderful, as is the scenery. I will never forget the moment I watched the sunrise from the top of Adam’s Peak – a true life highlight. New Zealand, where I set my sixth novel, is probably my current favourite, and I’m heading back there in March for a second look. I knew before I went that I would love it, but I wasn’t prepared for how moved I would be by the stunning landscape, or how welcoming the locals would be. The country’s Maori heritage lends it an almost mystical quality – it feels like a place where anything could happen, and the adventurer in me is enthralled by that.

I love Sri Lanka too and Prague. I have still got my signed copy of One Thousand Stars and You to read but I adored A Year and A Day where you capture Prague perfectly.

To what extent do you think studying journalism has helped or hindered your writing?

It certainly gave me a good grounding in terms of story – ie the what, who, where, when, why? – and also got me very used to a brutal edit. I worked as a sub editor (and still do, on a freelance basis) for a number of magazines, and I am definitely not scared of cutting, cutting and cutting some more. I’m not precious about my words, which I hope makes my edits far less painful. Of course, I was also lucky enough to be a Book Reviews Editor for a number of years, and through that I met so many incredible people in the publishing industry – including you! There truly are no better people in the world than book people.

It’s been my pleasure to meet you several times too!

Every time I read one of your books I’m reduced to tears. How does your writing affect you as a person and as you write?

Writing is such a personal thing – at least it is for me. I have never shied away from sharing the experiences I’ve been through, and along with those come a whole heap of complicated emotions. Creating novels can often feel like therapy, because you start with something you know to be true, and often learn a new lesson along the way. Romantic fiction is all about exploring people and their relationships with themselves and each other, so I suppose it is inevitable that lots will come to surface as you go along. Every novel I have written has taught me something new, and every single one contains so much of who I am in its pages. I do hear from readers who have been a similar journey to that of my characters, and to know that those stories are finding connection means the absolute world to me. There are a lot of miraculous things about being an author, but that one is right up at the top.

I’m a member of the RNA NWS (Romantic Novelist Association New Writers Scheme) and have finally finished my first draft of a romantic novel. What advice would you give me as an emergent writer?

Congratulations! Getting to The End is such an achievement, and you should feel very proud. This is the really exciting bit. I would start by urging you to connect with other writers and industry figures, but you are way ahead of me on that score! In order to get published in the traditional way and have the best chance of your novel finding its way to the right publisher, you need to start by sourcing an agent. As well as working on your draft with you, they will also submit, negotiate and take care of selling into other territories. I could not do what I do without my agent. It’s also a good idea to have a think about how you want your career to look; ask yourself if you’re in it for a few books, or the long haul? Are you set on one genre, or keen to explore multiple subjects? Where do you envisage your book sitting in Waterstones? What are your dream five-year goals? The more you prepare, the more you will impress an agent.

My goodness, that’s plenty to think about…

Frequently, romantic fiction finds itself vilified and I know that in its 60^th year The RNA is keen to dispel the negativity. What would you say about romantic fiction?

Oh, this just makes me feel so sad and SO frustrated. Love is what makes us human, and humans are what make stories interesting, and relatable, and important. People don’t turn pages simply for words, but for the characters saying them, and for the relationships those characters are having. Whether it’s a scandalous bonkbuster, a tragic tale of unrequited passion, a meet-cute will they/won’t they or a sweeping historical epic (complete with bodice ripping), they all have an element of wonderful romance, and it’s FUN to read about. Anyone who poo-poos romantic fiction deserves to be flushed – grrrr!

I couldn’t agree more!

What can we expect next from you?

First up is Hello, again my seventh novel (see answer above), which will be out in July, and after that it’s back to the laptop for book number 8. I can’t give away too many secrets about that one yet except to say that readers should expect a bit of a mystery this time… I’m coming along to Romance In The Court at Goldsboro Books in London on 14 May, so if anyone wants to bring their books to be signed, I will be there, Sharpie in hand! Hopefully, there will be some bookshop panel events coming up through the summer, too – keep an eye out on Twitter @Isabelle_Broom for all my announcements. And if you want to follow my trips abroad, Instagram is your best bet. Find me @isabelle_broom

I’m really looking forward to catching up with you again in person at Romance in the Court Isabelle. Thank so much for your time in answering my questions. You’ve been so generous with your answers and good luck with Hello, again. I can’t wait to read it and I think I’d better tell readers all about it.

Thank YOU for having me! xx

Hello, again

Philippa Taylor (Pepper to her friends) has big dreams. When she closes her eyes, she can picture exactly who she ought to be. The problem is, it’s about as far away from her real life in a small coastal town in Suffolk as she can imagine.

So when her elderly friend Josephine persuades Pepper to accompany her on a trip to Europe, she jumps at the chance to change her routine. And when Pepper bumps (literally) into the handsome Finn in Lisbon, it seems as though she might have finally found what she’s been looking for.

But Pepper know all too well things are rarely as they seem. Her own quiet life hides a dark secret from the past. And even though she and Finn may have been destined to find each other, Pepper suspects life may have other plans as to how the story should end.

A romantic and sweeping story about friendship, love and realising that sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Hello, again will be published by Hodder on 9th July 2020 and is available for pre-order here.

About Isabelle Broom

Isabelle Broom was born in Cambridge nine days before the 1980s began and studied Media Arts in London before a 12-year stint at Heat magazine. Always happiest when she’s off on an adventure, Isabelle now travels all over the world seeking out settings for her escapist fiction novels, as well as making the annual pilgrimage to her second home – the Greek island of Zakynthos.

Currently based in Suffolk, where she shares a cottage with her two dogs and approximately 467 spiders, Isabelle fits her writing around a busy freelance career and tries her best not to be crushed to oblivion under her ever-growing pile of to-be-read books.

For more information, visit Isabelle’s website. You can also follow her on Twitter @Isabelle_Broom and find her on Facebook.

I’m absolutely thrilled to have a copy of Recipe For A Perfect Wife on my TBR and to have Karma Brown staying in with me today to tell me all about it. My enormous thanks to Lucy Chamberlain at Legend Press for inviting me to help celebrate today’s publication of Recipe For A Perfect Wife.

Staying in with Karma Brown

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Karma. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thank you for inviting me to stay in with you!

As it’s publication day for Recipe For A Perfect Wife I think I can guess the answer, but tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along Recipe For A Perfect Wife, which is my fifth novel and newly released in North America.

And a happy UK publication day Karma! Tell me a bit more about it.

It’s a domestic drama with a touch of mystery about two women—a 1950s quintessential housewife and a modern wife who has reluctantly moved from Manhattan to the suburbs—who live in the same house, 60 years apart, and how a dark secret buried in an old cookbook connects them. It’s a story with feminist themes, as it explores gender roles within marriage—both past and present—and encourages dialogue about how women may not have come as far as we’d like to believe, despite our more progressive times.

It sounds wonderful and that cover image would appear to fit it perfectly. So, what can we expect from an evening in with Recipe For A Perfect Wife?

The book is dual narrative, flipping between 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch and modern day (house)wife Alice Hale, and it features both vintage recipes and epigraphs that offer depressingly comical advice for wives of the past. It’s an exploration of the role of ‘wife’ and ‘woman’ across the decades, and is—I hope—both entertaining and thought provoking! It has been heralded by reviewers as an excellent choice for book clubs, sure to generate stimulating discussions.

Oo. I’m in an all female book group and I think we’d enjoy chatting about the role of women in the home.

What else have you brought along this evening and why?

I’ve also brought along my quite old and food splattered copy of the Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, which is from 1956 and has been passed down to me from my mum.

It certainly looks well used Karma.

It’s one of the vintage cookbooks I own that inspired Recipe For A Perfect Wife, and it’s a charming and revealing glimpse into the sorts of foods and meals that ended up on dinner plates in the 1950s. I view cookbooks as a legacy of the women who owned and used them, and love to run my fingers over the spills and notations on the pages. This particular cookbook also has heaps of advice for tired housewives, which was useful to inform Nellie’s character when I was drafting the book. I’ve had many of the recipes over the years, thanks to my mother and her wonderful cooking, but thankfully none of the (awful sounding) jelly salads ever made it to our dinner table!

I think it would be perfect to end our evening deciding something to cook from Betty’s book whilst I tell blog readers a bit more about Recipe For A Perfect Wife. Thanks for staying in with me to chat about it Karma.

Thanks for having me Linda.

Recipe For A Perfect Wife

When Alice Hale leaves a career to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in the basement, she becomes captivated by its previous owner: 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the pages Nellie left clues about her life.

Soon Alice learns that while a Baked Alaska may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister, even dangerous, side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.

Recipe For A Perfect Wife is out today, 4th February 2020, from Legend Press and is available for purchase here.

About Karma Brown

Image courtesy of Jenna Davis

Karma Brown is the bestselling author of four novels and is a National Magazine Award winning journalist.

Karma lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter, and a labradoodle named Fred.

You can find out more by following Karma on Twitter @KarmaKBrown, visiting her website or finding her on Instagram, Facebook and Goodreads.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

There are a few authors whom I’ve come to love through their books and by meeting them several times in real life and T.A. Williams is one of those authors so when Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources invited me to participate in the blog tour for Dreaming of Verona I couldn’t resist.

T.A. or Trevor, has featured many times on Linda’s Book Bag, having written about how much of himself goes into his books here, and why he writes books for women here.

I have also reviewed Trevor’s Chasing Shadows here, Dreaming of Venice here and To Provence, With Love here and Dreaming of Christmas here.There’s also an extract from Dreaming of St Tropez that you can read here.

Published by Canelo today, 3rd February 2020, Dreaming of Verona is available for purchase on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Dreaming of Verona

Verona is the City of Love. But will Suzie find romance there or, like Romeo and Juliet, will it all end in tears?

When Suzie is hired to accompany spoiled, abrasive Lady Alexandra Tedburn on an all-expenses paid holiday to Italy, she fears the trip will be a disaster.

But she soon discovers there’s more to Alex than shopping and tantrums, and she’s determined to help her realise her potential – against Alex’s authoritarian father’s wishes.

As they settle in Verona, Suzie can’t stop thinking about local artist Michael, who is still mourning the tragic death of his wife. With Suzie’s future uncertain, and Michael’s past
holding him back, it seems there’s no hope for romance in the city of
star-crossed lovers… or is there?

A gorgeously uplifting and moving story, Dreaming of Verona is the perfect read for fans of Holly Martin, Tilly Tennant and Jenny Oliver.

My Review of Dreaming of Verona

Suzie’s new job will bring more than she thought.

It was such a pleasure to read another T.A. Williams book because I knew I would be transported to another place comprehensively, that somewhere I’d find a black Labrador and there would be challenge and romance along the way. I wasn’t disappointed. In Dreaming of Verona there’s the flowing, engaging style I’ve come to enjoy from this author so that I felt relaxed and confident that my expectations would be met.

In Dreaming of Verona T.A. Williams has created the perfect setting. I’ve never had any desire to visit the area before reading this book and now I’m desperate to go. His attention to detail and the use of the senses is exemplary so that I was completely immersed in Italian culture and geography. My only complaint is that I was desperately hungry throughout my reading. The descriptions of food are wonderful and actually made me salivate.

The plot is engaging and interesting, but especially enhanced by the Shakespearean themes and references. However, a reader doesn’t need to be able to make the links in Dreaming of Verona, to enjoy this story completely. Universal themes of parental dominance and control, friendship, education, grief, love, ambition, a sense of personal identity and self-worth give layers to Dreaming of Verona that elevate it above a simple love story, although it can be read in that way too.  I also loved the wind surfing element of the book. It felt vivid and real giving added depth to the action and also to Suzie’s character.

And I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Suzie, Alex and the others. I felt every single person in this story developed and changed so that it was as if I were reading about real people who have to learn to deal with what life throws at them. The concept that money cannot buy happiness and that you have to be your own person and shape your own future in spite of your past, that Alex learns in particular, resonated with me profoundly.

Dreaming of Verona is a lovely book. It’s romantic with dynamic action and vivid characters. It draws in the reader and entertains them royally. I really recommend it.

About T.A.Williams

T.A. Williams lives in Devon with his Italian wife. He was born in England of a Scottish mother and Welsh father. After a degree in modern languages at Nottingham University, he lived and worked in Switzerland, France and Italy, before returning to run one of the best-known language schools in the UK. He’s taught Arab princes, Brazilian beauty queens and Italian billionaires. He speaks a number of languages and has travelled extensively. He has eaten snake, still-alive fish, and alligator. A Spanish dog, a Russian bug and a Korean parasite have done their best to eat him in return. His hobby is long-distance cycling, but his passion is writing.

But let’s see what Trevor has to say about himself:

I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I did languages at university a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to Italy for seven years as a teacher of English. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire. I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only seven years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.

The fact that I am now writing romantic comedy is something I still find hard to explain. My early books were thrillers and historical novels. Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations and, as a writer, I obviously have to go there in person and check them out first. I love my job…

You can find Trevor on Facebook, Goodreads and Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter @TAWilliamsBooks and visit his website.

It gives me very great pleasure to welcome Lorna Cook to Linda’s Book Bag today. Both Lorna and I belong to The RNA (Romantic Novelists Association) albeit at very different levels as I’m a member of the NWS (New Writers Scheme) and Lorna won the Joan Hessayon Award  last year. With the RNA celebrating 60 years and February being designated Romance Reading Month what better way to begin the month than by staying in to chat to Lorna today?

If you’d like to find out more about the RNA celebrations, follow the #RNA60.

Staying in with Lorna Cook

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Lorna and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me as we celebrate #RNA60.

Any excuse to stay in is a winner so I’m especially pleased to be staying in here!

Speaking of being a winner – congratulations on your RNA Joan Hessayon award. How did it feel to win?

Fantastic, after I’d let the fact sink in. Alison May, the chair, announced my name and swivelled to look at me and I think I just stared blankly at her for far too long before clapping my hand over my mouth. Still I sat there. Eventually I got up and lumbered forward gracelessly and took the award and said thanks and then I lumbered away again, still in disbelief. I didn’t do a speech, I didn’t have one ready. Instead…I just cried. Yes, I am that girl.

Now it’s sunk in and I have the beautiful, shiny, polished winner’s cup to keep safe until I hand it to the next lucky winner later in the year. It sits on my mantle and I see it daily as a great reminder of what I managed to achieve. And all those recognisable names engraved before me. Such inspiration.

That must have been a wonderful experience. So, tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought my new novel The Forbidden Promise, which is out this March.

Oh yes! 19th March isn’t it? I was so disappointed not be part of the blog tour but I shall be touring India then.  Tell us, what can we expect from an evening in with The Forbidden Promise?

Readers can expect to curl up with a dual-narrative set in WW2 and present day in the beautiful Scottish Highlands, a mystery with a twist, romance, and a promise made in the midst of war.

That sounds so lovely. 

What else have you brought along and why?

I’ve brought along the few things I need to have the perfect reading experience. I’ve brought along a babysitter, who will whisk away any small people you may have for a few hours.

Thankfully I don’t have children – or, at my age, grand children! I’m really not keen on anyone under 16 or so!

I’ve brought a good bottle of chilled white wine, a cozy pair of new pajamas and a Super King size bed with memory foam mattress and a nice thick duvet. I know…rock and roll right? Tuck yourself in. Happy reading!

That sounds perfect. Thanks Lorna! And thanks for staying in with me. You pour a glass of wine and I’ll tell people a little bit more about The Forbidden Promise.

The Forbidden Promise

The Forbidden Promise will be published by Harper Collins imprint Avon on 19th March 2020 and is available for pre-order through these links.

Can one promise change the fate of two women decades apart?

Scotland, 1940

War rages across Europe, but Invermoray House is at peace – until the night of Constance’s 21st birthday, when she’s the only person to see a Spitfire crash into the loch. Rescuing the pilot and vowing to keep him hidden, Constance finds herself torn between duty to her family and keeping a promise that could cost her everything.

2020

Kate arrives in the Highlands to turn Invermoray into a luxury B&B, only to find that the estate is more troubled than she’d imagined. But when Kate discovers the house has a dark history, with Constance’s name struck from its records, she knows she can’t leave until the mystery is solved . . .

About Lorna Cook

Lorna Cook is the author of the Kindle Number 1 Bestseller ‘The Forgotten Village’, which was her debut novel. It sat in the Kindle Top 100 for four months, has sold over 150,000 copies, has ten overseas/foreign language editions and won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers.

You can follow Lorna on Twitter @LornaCookAuthor and visit her website for more information. You’ll also find Lorna on Instagram.

My enormous thanks to Catherine Sinow at Dzanc Books for sending me a copy of The Snow Collectors by Tina May Hall in return for an honest review.

The Snow Collectors is available directly from the publisher in the US here, or is available for pre-order here in the UK where it will be released on 27th February.

The Snow Collectors

Haunted by the loss of her parents and twin sister at sea, Henna cloisters herself in a Northeastern village where the snow never stops. When she discovers the body of a young woman at the edge of the forest, she’s plunged into the mystery of a centuries-old letter regarding one of the most famous stories of Arctic exploration—the Franklin expedition, which disappeared into the ice in 1845.

At the center of the mystery is Franklin’s wife, the indomitable Lady Jane. Henna’s investigation draws her into a gothic landscape of locked towers, dream-like nights of snow and ice, and a crumbling mansion rife with hidden passageways and carrion birds. But it soon becomes clear that someone is watching her—someone who is determined to prevent the truth from coming out.

 Suspenseful and atmospheric, The Snow Collectors sketches the ghosts of Victorian exploration against the eerie beauty of a world on the edge of environmental collapse.

My Review of The Snow Collectors

Finding a body in the snow is just the start for Henna.

It took me ages to read The Snow Collectors, despite it being a short book because it is so utterly beautifully written I had to savour every syllable, word and nuance of Tina May Hall’s fabulous writing. It’s almost impossible to describe the quality of the prose. It’s intricate and mystical, with an oxymoronic icy fire that simply thrums off the page. I adored every single moment of reading The Snow Collectors. It felt as if I were being treated to a kaleidoscope of metaphor, imagery and meaning that shifted and settled into a mesmerising pattern of poetic description even as it became Gothic and almost vampiric and cannibalistic at times.

The plot itself is fascinating. Based partly in historical fact with Jane Franklin’s attempts to discover the fate of her explorer husband, past and present mingle and blend, foreshadowing and echoing one another in an enchanting tale. There’s mysticism and menace, science and obsession swirling through the plot, and alongside all this is a murder mystery that fulfils the desires of any crime lover too so that The Snow Collectors is a book that defies genre but enthralls every reader. Harbingers of death like ravens and owls, echoes of Dickens, Shelley’s Frankenstein or Stoker’s Dracula and all manner of books from the literary canon swirl through the pages of The Snow Collectors without once being derivative or contrived, making the atmosphere tense and unsettling.

The characters are brilliantly portrayed. Henna couldn’t be more aptly named amongst the references to blood, death and flesh, even as she ripples with imagery of, and links to, water. As the narrative progresses, her connection to Jane Franklin is so convincingly and entertainingly conveyed that I found myself literally grinning with pleasure. I don’t want to spoil the read by saying too much more about character as it will expose the plot, but I loved meeting the people here.

Tina May Hall’s setting is a stroke of genius. Snow bound like the explorer Franklin, Henna finds herself in houses that groan like ships, eating foods that possibly echo Franklin’s diet and wearing clothes that link her to the past. The cold, snow and contrasting heat are described faultlessly, but it is the iterative image of water that is so captivating because if flows literally and metaphorically through the story. Every sense is catered for and the nightmarish, dreamlike descriptions create a landscape that is unparalleled.

I adored The Snow Collectors. It’s riddled with history and truth, fantasy and lies, obsession and compulsion until the reader is as ensnared as Henna in the action. The Snow Collectors is going straight on my list of books of the year!

About Tina May Hall

Tina May Hall lives and teaches in upstate New York. Her collection of stories, The Physics of Imaginary Objects, won the 2010 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. She is the recipient of an NEA grant, and her stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Collagist, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, Wigleaf, and other journals.

You can visit Tina’s website for more information. You’ll also find her on Instagram.

It was last November when I went to Harper Collins’ imprint 4th Estate evening and having so enjoyed that experience that you can read about here, I was thrilled to attend another event last night. Harper Collins’ imprint HQ New Voices Fiction Showcase. You can follow #HQNewVoices on Twitter see more about the evening.

As well as the opportunity to meet with other bloggers and friends, the evening was a wonderful opportunity to find out about new books as each of the authors gave a 60 second pitch about their upcoming novel, a description of the plot and what inspired them, followed by drinks, canapes and mingling.

There was a very exciting line-up of authors and I was lucky enough to come home with several of the books to read. We found out about the following books and if you click on the titles, where available, you’ll be taken to pre-order or buy links. Please be aware that not all the covers are final versions:

Little White Lies by Philippa East

She only looked away for a second…

Anne White only looked away for a second, but that’s all it took to lose sight of her young daughter.

But seven years later, Abigail is found.

And as Anne struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, she begins to question how much Abigail remembers about the day she disappeared…

The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain

Your roots can always lead you home…

Amjad cradles his baby daughter in the middle of the night. He has no time to mourn his wife’s death. Saahil and Zahra, his two small children, are relying on him. Amjad vows to love and protect them always.

Years later, Saahil and his best friend, Ehsan, have finished university and are celebrating with friends. But when the night turns dangerous, its devastating effects will ripple through the years to come.

Zahra’s world is alight with politics and activism. But she is now her father’s only source of comfort, and worries she’ll never have time for her own aspirations. Life has taken her small family in different directions – will they ever find their way back to each other?

The Family Tree is the moving story of a British Muslim family full of love, laughter and resilience as well as all the faults, mistakes and stubborn loyalties which make us human.

This Lovely City by Louise Hare

The drinks are flowing. The music is playing. But the party can’t last.

With the Blitz over and London reeling from war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Fresh off the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next door.

Touring Soho’s music halls by night, pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home – and it’s alive with possibility. Until, one morning, he makes a terrible discovery.

As the local community rallies, fingers of blame are pointed at those who had recently been welcomed with open arms. And, before long, the newest arrivals become the prime suspects in a tragedy which threatens to tear the city apart.

Atmospheric, poignant and compelling, Louise Hare’s debut shows that new arrivals have always been the prime suspects. But, also, that there is always hope.

The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside

Dawn Elisabeth Brightside has been running from her past for twenty-two years and two months, precisely.

So when she is offered a bed in St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless, it means so much more than just a roof over her head.

But with St Jude’s threatened with closure, Dawn worries that everything is about to crumble around her all over again.

Perhaps, with a little help from her new friends, she can find a way to save this light in the darkness?

And maybe, just maybe, Dawn will finally have a place to call home….

Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar

Trusting you was my first mistake…

At first Katherine dismisses her early-twenties intern as a millennial ‘snowflake’: soft, entitled, moralistic. But Lily’s youth and beauty remind Katherine of everything she once was, and she soon finds herself obsessively drawn to her new colleague.

But is Katherine simply jealous of Lily’s potential – or does she sense that her intern has a dark hidden agenda? A disturbing picture begins to emerge of two women who are not what they seem – and who are desperate enough to do anything to come out on top.

As their rivalry deepens and with their backs against the wall, the consequences are about to turn deadly…

Explosive and provocative, with shocking twists at every turn, Precious You is an addictive, revenge-fuelled thriller for our age.

The Cancer Ladies Running Club by Josie Lloyd

Sometimes we find friendship in the most unexpected of places…

When Keira receives her breast cancer diagnosis she doesn’t want to have to tell her children or her husband Tom, and she doesn’t want to step back from work. She doesn’t want to sit in a hospital and stare mortality in the face, nor be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.

But, as she is forced to accept everything must change and her health becomes something she can’t rely on, Keira finds herself embracing running. Hot, sweaty running in the company of a group of brilliant, funny women each going through treatment.

One step at a time Keira is going to reclaim something. Her family, her business, her life.

Moving and uplifting, this is a novel about love, family and the power of finding your tribe.

The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby

Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past – but she knows that she is loved.

When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV, and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain clues leading to a precious prize.

But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of the outside world until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear altogether. With no-one else to help, Romilly turns to the secrets her father has hidden in his illustrated books – realising that his treasure hunt doesn’t lead to gold, but to something far more precious…

The truth.

The Illustrated Child is the unforgettable, beguiling debut from Polly Crosby.

The Life We Almost Had by Amelia Henley

What if you had a second chance at first love?

Anna and Adam meet when they are both recovering from heartbreaks of their own. Their connection is almost instant and they fall into the most passionate love affair of their lives.

Years later, the passion has faded and they have lost each other. Anna is beginning to wonder if they are meant to be forever after all when something happens that changes everything. Now, Anna is determined to find a way back to Adam, but the price she’ll have to pay is considerable. So she must decide: is a second chance at first love is worth the sacrifice?

A beautiful and emotional love story that asks, what if you had the chance for a ‘do over’ with your first love?

We Just Clicked by Anna Bell

A fabulously funny, feel-good novel that will make you laugh until you cry, for anyone who’s ever presented a perfectly-filtered life online to hide the unglamorous reality.

Izzy Brown has always dreamed of being an Instagram influencer. So when her colleague and fellow Instagrammer Luke suggests they ‘fake date’ to boost their profiles, Izzy says yes – against her better judgement.

Now Izzy’s profile tells the story of a confident, glamorous thirty-something with the perfect boyfriend, and her follower numbers are shooting upwards. So what if Izzy can’t stop bickering with Luke, his habit of checking his quiff in every single mirror is driving her insane, and behind the scenes she’s hiding a secret heartache? Everyone tells a few fibs on social media, right?

But when Izzy runs into Aidan, the mysterious stranger who saved her the day her world fell apart two years ago, major sparks start to fly between them. Izzy’s sure she can have the online success she’s always dreamed of, whilst continuing to fall in love – and heal her heart – in real life. After all, Aidan doesn’t use social media… what could possibly go wrong?

No Regrets by Tabitha Webb

You only regret the things you don’t do, right?

Stella is having a bad week. A bad year, maybe. She loves her young boys, really she does, but her glittering career feels like a lifetime ago and she can’t even remember the last time she had sex…

Ana has already had sex three times today. It was good enough. Better than most. Not the best though – he was long gone, and probably bad news anyway. She just can’t help thinking, what if?

Dixie knows her dating life needs a spring clean. She’s reset her age (again), uploaded some new pictures, but certainly isn’t looking for Mr Right – nothing good ever comes from getting attached!

Maybe it’s time the three friends shake things up a little, before it’s too late…

Fresh, fearless and hilariously honest, don’t miss the debut novel from Tabitha Webb – coming soon!

All About Us by Tom Ellen

One moment in time can change your life forever…

Ben’s always loved the month of December, but with his marriage to Daphne on the rocks, this year it’s missing its usual magic. So when his old flame Alice gets back in touch, Ben can’t help wonder: did he make the right choice all those years ago?

Yet everything changes one night when a twinkly-eyed stranger sells Ben a mysterious watch, the hands frozen at one minute to midnight. Opening his eyes the next morning, Ben is astonished to find that he has been catapulted back to 5th December 2005: the day he first kissed Daphne, leaving Alice behind.

Now Ben must make the biggest decision of his life, all over again. But this time around, will he finally find the courage to follow his heart?

All About Us is a deeply moving novel about love, loss and heartbreak – and how, with the help of a little magic, it’s never too late to find the one you’ve been searching for.

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

So new, and not out until 2021 I only have the details from the evening’s brochure!

Asking For A Friend by Andi Osho

Again, so new, and not out until 2021 I only have the details from the evening’s brochure!

The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson

Once again, I’d like to thank the team at HQ for the invitation and the opportunity to find out about all these fabulous sounding books, as well as the copies I was able to bring home with me. I think I’m in for a real reading treat.

I wonder which books appeal most to you?

I can’t believe it’s almost two years since I stayed in with K.T. Lee to chat all about her book Calculated Deception in a post you can see here. With K.T.’s latest book Calculated Reaction, now available, I simply had to ask her all about how she writes such strong female characters and luckily she agreed to do so!

Calculated Reaction is available for purchase here.

Calculated Reaction

Special Agent Alexis Thompson is eager to get back to work after getting shot on her last FBI assignment. When she discovers that the man who ordered the hit has sent one of his spies to an energy research facility, Alexis convinces the CIA to send her to take him down. This time, Alexis is bringing along her new partner, Waffle, a highly-trained explosives detection dog.

Matt Brown is a former Navy SEAL who is now working as an engineering professor. He also helps his friend, CIA Operations Officer Cam Mitchell, whenever his skills are needed. When Alexis goes undercover, Cam sends Matt along to try to keep Alexis from coming home in a body bag.

Matt and Alexis soon discover that their enemy’s plans go far beyond good old-fashioned espionage. With the clock ticking, Alexis and Matt must figure out how to stop a dangerous explosion before they become collateral damage.

Calculated Reaction is Book 4 in The Calculated Series. All books in The Calculated Series may be enjoyed as standalone novels or as a series.

Writing Strong Women

A Guest Post by K.T. Lee

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it’s the quiet voice that says ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher

Strength is, at its core, the ability to remain determined and courageous when faced with adversity. In some cases, the strength displayed by the characters in the Calculated books is the more obvious sort of strength, such as their ability to defend themselves or utilize their weapons skills to neutralize a criminal. Equally compelling to me, however, is their strength of character – the years of dedication and internal motivation required to achieve their physical strength or their courage in the face of unimaginable circumstances.

In each Calculated book, the notion of strength is explored through characters of all genders. While there are plenty of examples in literature of a damsel in distress, the heroines in my books join a legion of books turning this trope on its head. That’s not to say that the men in my series are pushovers by any means – they too bring skills to the table, forming an integral part of a compelling and interesting team. The teams that result demonstrate collaboration and confidence, and a fair amount of good-natured teasing that is possible when partners respect one another enough to have a little fun, even while chasing down villains.

In Calculated Deception (Book 1), engineering professor Ree Ryland used tough personal experiences as fuel to sharpen her self-defense skills. While these skills help her best a formidable opponent, it is her refusal to put her students and others at the university in danger to maintain her own personal safety that gives the FBI their big break…and results in strong and independent FBI Agent Parker falling for the professor.

This book kicks off a series that features imperfect heroines triumphing over their own challenges and external villains. Vaccine scientist Dani begins to overcome a traumatic experience with the help of her CIA allies and the courage she must find in order to stop a plot to release a bioweapon in Calculated Contagion (Book 2).

In Calculated Sabotage (Book 3), Quinn‘s fierce skills and love for her friend allow her to realize that strength isn’t all physical – by accepting help from other experts, she learns how to build a team. The physically formidable Cam Mitchell is a strong and compassionate partner to Quinn once they begin to trust one another.

In the newest release in the series, Calculated Reaction (Book 4), Special Agent Alexis Thompson’s strength comes from not giving up after being shot by an enemy in the prior books. Yes, she must meet the FBI’s stringent physical requirements to get back out in the field, but she does this by overcoming grueling physical therapy and reinventing herself to keep both her mind and her body strong. And when former Navy SEAL Matt Brown meets the charming and quick-witted agent (and her canine companion, Waffle), it is her strength at recognizing the value their collaboration brings to the table that ultimately leads to them saving the day together.

That’s fascinating K.T. Thank you so much. I love the way you show that strength comes from all aspects, not just the physical part of a person.

About K.T.Lee

K.T. Lee is a writer, mom and engineer who grew up on a steady diet of books from a wide variety of genres. When K.T. began to write the kind of books she wanted to read, she mixed clever women and the sciences with elements from thrillers (and a dash of romance) to create The Calculated Series.

Find out more about K.T.’s books at her website or find her talking about writing, science, and cute animals on Instagram and Facebook. You can follow K.T.Lee on Twitter @KTLeeWrites.

It’s just over three years ago that I sat with my sister in the palliative room at a small local hospital, stroking my Dad’s head and reassuring him as died. The grief I felt then remains as raw and eviscerating now, so when Little Brown’s Emily Moran asked me if I would like a copy of Rachel Clarke’s Dear Life in return for an honest review, I honestly wasn’t sure. I’m so glad I accepted.

Dear Life will be published by Little Brown on 30th January 2020 and is available for pre-order through the links here.

Dear Life

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable.

Rachel’s training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing – even the best palliative care – can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love.

And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life – more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion – than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world.

Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter – to a father, to a profession, to life itself.

My Review of Dear Life

A doctor’s personal view of life and death.

What a book. I had reservations about reading Dear Life by Rachel Clarke as I thought I might find its subject matter too personal and difficult or the author too introspective, patronising or condescending. I’m not a great lover of memoir writing either. So when I consider the negative approach I had to beginning this read I’m slightly embarrassed by just how far from the truth I was. Dear Life is a wonderful, wonderful book that any person facing death (and yes I do mean ALL of us) should read. It is magnificent and has been an absolute privilege to read.

In a world frequently filled with negativity, Dear Life is an oasis of hope and joy. Rachel Clarke has restored my faith in myself and in humanity, for which I cannot thank her enough. She demystifies death and presents in a beautifully written way, the manner in which we can live life to the full even as our own mortality and that of those we love is a stark, and often close, reality. Her style is honest, straightforward, poetic and completely captivating. I simply could not stop reading even when my vision was blurred by the tears her words brought me to. With sensitivity, knowledge and skill in Dear Life Rachel Clarke has made me glad for all the moments of my life; not just those positive, happy memories, but also the times when I have suffered physical and emotional pain, been stressed or unhappy, because she exemplifies how every single experience is part of a life lived and that, even as we die, we can still do so with dignity and love.

Whilst Rachel Clarke explores her own life and the death of her father, Dear Life isn’t simply a memoir. It references history, geography and literature. There are world events and real people scattered through its pages. I loved the quotations that head up each chapter, and found comfort in them as much as the delight in the mentions of my favourite poet John Donne. There’s a practical Postscript of links and advice where readers can research more about how to prepare for their own future, including their own death. As a result, Dear Life transcends the sum of its parts to be something much much greater and more important.

Having mentioned death so many times when reviewing a book called Dear Life, let me say there is nothing mawkish or sensationalised here, but rather a compassionate love song to humanity, to love and friendship and to living our best lives whatever our circumstances. I think Rachel Clarke is a genius because Dear Life is a superlative book. It moved me, it helped me and it made me glad to be alive. I cannot recommend Dear Life highly enough. It is both life affirming and life changing. Just buy it. Dear Life may be the most important book you ever read.

About Rachel Clarke

Rachel Clarke is a current NHS doctor and former television journalist who cares passionately about standing up for her patients and the NHS. She originally read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before making current affairs documentaries about subjects as diverse as the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Al Qaeda and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She retrained as a doctor in her late twenties, graduating in 2009. She now works in palliative medicine, believing that helping patients at the end of life experience the best quality life possible is priceless.

Rachel lives in Oxford with her husband and two children.

To find out more about Rachel, visit her website, follow her on Twitter @doctor_oxford or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s always a joy being in at the start of an author’s writing journey and I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for Chris McDonald’s A Wash of Black. My enormous thanks to Dylan at Red Dog Press for inviting me to participate in this blog tour. I’m thrilled that Chris is staying in with me to chat about A Wash of Black.

Not only am I staying in with Chris today, but there’s a fabulous giveaway for you (and me) to enter too at the bottom of this blog post. One lucky person will win a signed hardback edition of A Wash of Black, along with a Go Away I’m Reading tote bag and a luxury bookmark.

Staying in with Chris McDonald

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

Thank you for having me! I’ve been hankering for an invite!

Well you’re most welcome. We have a pretty good idea but tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

I’ve brought A Wash of Black, my debut novel. I have chosen it as I am very proud of it. Also, it’s the only one I’ve got!

Congratulations on your debut Chris. Let’s hope A Wash of Black is the first of many as I’ve been hearing fabulous things about it. Tell me, what can we expect from an evening in with A Wash of Black?

I’m really bad at blowing my own trumpet, I find it uncomfortable! Soooo I’m going to let other people blow the trumpet for me. The early reviews from authors I really like have been so lovely. Here is a selection!

TM Logan, author of the Richard and Judy book club pick The Holiday, called it a ‘pacy murder mystery full of deceit, suspicion and revenge.’

Rob Parker, author of the Ben Bracken series, called it ‘a superb tale deftly told with a human touch and a real eye for detail, with a true ‘just one more chapter’ moreishness.’

Noelle Holten, author of Dead Inside and the forthcoming Dead Wrong, called it ‘a clever, chilling and absolutely addictive debut novel.’

I hope this trio of delightful quotes have sold it to you!! There is also a humorous homeless Scot, a gritty Manchester setting and a range of likeable and nefarious characters to get to know!

You must be totally delighted with those comments. I’ve heard excellent things from my fellow bloggers too so I think I’m going to have to add A Wash of Black to my TBR pile immediately!

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it? 

Emily Blunt is here, as she would be who I cast as DI Erika Piper in the film adaptation.

Oh. If I knew we were having acting greats I’d have dressed up a bit more.

I listened to a lot of instrumental music whilst writing, so Explosions in the Sky would soundtrack our evening in. If you’ve never listened to them, start with Your Hand in Mine and go from there. I’ll expect some tweets thanking me for making your life that little bit more beautiful!

Er. I think I might be showing both my age and ignorance here Chris as I’ve never heard of them, so this evening is a great time to discover more.

And, as well as talking about the book, we’ll watch Fargo, as all that snow and beautiful cinematography may have been the initial spark for the opening scene. Visually at least.

Oh. I love Fargo. So quirky. I think I’m going to enjoy that. Thanks for staying in with me Chris. You’ve really whetted my appetite for A Wash of Black so you stick the video on and I’ll give Linda’s Book Bag readers a little bit more information about your debut:

A Wash of Black

IT’S NOT LIFE THAT IMITATES ART. IT’S DEATH.

Anna Symons. Famous. Talented. Dead.

When the body of a famous actress is found mutilated on an ice rink in Manchester, recreating a scene from a blockbuster film she starred in years ago, DI Erika Piper must find the culprit; the media-dubbed ‘Blood Ice Killer.’

Having recently returned to work after suffering a near fatal attack herself, she must once again prove her worth. But when another body is found, and the killer issues a personal threat, Erika must put her demons aside and crack the case, or suffer the deadly consequences.

Published by Red Dog Books on 4th February, A Wash of Black is available for pre-order here and directly from the publisher here.

About Chris McDonald

Originally hailing from the north coast of Northern Ireland and now residing in South Manchester, Chris McDonald has always been a reader. At primary school, The Hardy Boys inspired his love of adventure, before his reading world was opened up by Chuck Palahniuk and the gritty world of crime.

He’s a fan of 5-a-side football, has an eclectic taste in music ranging from Damien Rice to Slayer and loves dogs.

Find out more by following Chris on Twitter @cmacwritescrime and Instagram and there’s more with these other bloggers too:

Giveaway

For your chance to win a signed hardback edition of A Wash of Black, along with a Go Away I’m Reading tote bag and a luxury bookmark, click here.

Please note that this giveaway is run independently of Linda’s Book Bag.