I’m sure the wonderful Amanda Prowse features on Linda’s Book Bag more often than I do, but there’s a very good reason for that – I love her writing! Consequently, I broke my own NetGalley ban to access an ebook version of The Things I Know even though my sight makes them tricky to read. When a signed and dedicated hard copy arrived I simply had to get reading as soon as I could. My thanks to the team at ED Public Relations for sending me a copy of The Things I Know in return for an honest review.

The Things I Know was published by Lake Union on 13th June 2019 and is available for purchase here.

Here are a few links to other times Amanda Prowse has featured on the blog:

My review of The Coordinates of Loss is here.

My review of Anna is here.

My review of Another Love is here.

My review of My Husband’s Wife is here.

My review of The Food of Love is here.

My review of The Idea of You is here.

As well as meeting her in real life, I have also been privileged to interview Amanda here.

The Things I Know

From bestselling author Amanda Prowse comes a heartwarming tale of first impressions and lasting love.

Thomasina ‘Hitch’ Waycott loves living and working on the remote family farm and B&B. But she also wants more. To see the world. To own her own home. To fall madly in love.

But those are fairy tales, and if her life is a fairy tale, then she’s the ugly duckling. Her deformed lip, her crooked limbs and her weak heart have kept her from taking chances. But that’s about to change.

When Grayson Potts comes to stay, he’s unlike anyone Thomasina has ever met. He’s aloof, eccentric and exceptionally kind. He’s also totally unconcerned with the physical flaws that have always defined Thomasina.

The two form a bond that neither has had before. It’s possible that it could become something more, but Thomasina also wonders if it’s too good to be true. By putting her heart on the line, Thomasina may open herself to heartbreak. But she may also open herself to so much more.

My Review of The Things I know

Life is hard for Thomasina ‘Hitch’ Waycott as she farms with her over-protective parents.

Amanda Prowse is a truly remarkable writer. She delves into the very soul of humanity and lays it bare for her readers but she does so with such sensitivity and love that even a book like The Things I Know, which has the physically disabled Thomasina and the somewhat autistic Grayson Potts, never feels exploitative. Rather, the reader is shown just how much an individual can achieve in spite of perceived difficulties as long as they have their self-respect and some love and support. The Things I Know gives a powerful and effective message about how our flippant attitudes can harm others either intentionally or unwittingly and how bullies of any kind must not be tolerated. As usual when I read Amanda Prowse I found the occasional tear escaping because she manages to imbue every moment with emotion.

Indeed, the themes of The Things I Know are quite awe-inspiring and frequently touching. Love, identity, duty, responsibility, family, work, friendships and relationships permeate every aspect so that there is something here every reader can relate to. I loved the way in which Thomasina dropped her nickname Hitch in favour of her full name as she began to unhitch herself from the well meaning chains of family and responsibility. Thomasina may have physical disabilities and constraints, but she is a woman to be reckoned with. I felt she had become a real-life friend by the end of the book and The Things I Know celebrates difference wonderfully.

I’ve read several of Amanda Proswe’s books and feel that her quality of writing has achieved an even greater depth and resonance through the descriptions and dialogue in The Things I Know. Speech is so natural and her attention to detail brings each scene alive in the mind’s eye making for a very visual and auditory read. I loved this aspect because it placed me so close to Thomasina in every scene. I had been transported to the farm just as much as those guests staying for bed and breakfast. The plotting is perfect too so that I ended the book feeling uplifted, soothed and totally satisfied, not least because the things Thomasina knows which pepper the book are vivid, moving and frequently the hopes and fears so many of us experience in our own lives.

The things I know about The Things I Know are:

It’s a fabulous story

It is written with love, humanity and care

It is emotional and satisfying

I loved every word.

There’s a danger that a prolific and favourite author will become stale or repetitive. However, Amanda Prowse writes with such freshness, authenticity and skill in The Things I Know that I feel honoured to have read the book. I adored it and cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Amanda Prowse

Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author who has published 28 novels and novellas sold in 22 countries and translated into 12 languages. She has sold millions of copies around the world.

Chart topping titles include What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter, My Husband’s Wife and The Girl in the Corner.

A Mother’s Story won the coveted Sainsbury’s eBook of the Year Award and Perfect Daughter that was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016. Amanda’s book The Food of Love went straight to No.1 in Literary Fiction when it was launched in the USA and she has been described by the Daily Mail as ‘The Queen of Drama’ for her ability to make the reader feel as if they were actually in the story.

You can follow Amanda Prowse on Twitter and visit her website here. You will also find her on Facebook.

All of Amanda Prowse’s wonderful writing is available here .

I so enjoyed other of Gill Sims’ books that, although I have banned myself from Netgalley,  I couldn’t resist accepting my lovely auto approval for Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****!. I’d like to thank Jasmine Gordon at Harper Collins very much indeed for sending it to me.

You can read my review of Gill Sims’ Why Mummy Drinks here, and of Why Mummy Swears here.

Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****! will be published by Harper Collins on 27th June 2019 and is available for pre-order through the links here.

Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****!

Family begins with a capital eff.

I’m wondering how many more f*cking ‘phases’ I have to endure before my children become civilised and functioning members of society? It seems like people have been telling me ‘it’s just a phase!’ for the last fifteen bloody years. Not sleeping through the night is ‘just a phase.’ Potty training and the associated accidents ‘is just a phase’. The tantrums of the terrible twos are ‘just a phase’. The picky eating, the back chat, the obsessions. The toddler refusals to nap, the teenage inability to leave their beds before 1pm without a rocket being put up their arse. The endless singing of Frozen songs, the dabbing, the weeks where apparently making them wear pants was akin to child torture. All ‘just phases!’ When do the ‘phases’ end though? WHEN?

Mummy dreams of a quirky rural cottage with roses around the door and chatty chickens in the garden. Life, as ever, is not going quite as she planned. Paxo, Oxo and Bisto turn out to be highly rambunctious, rather than merely chatty, and the roses have jaggy thorns. Her precious moppets are now giant teenagers, and instead of wittering at her about who would win in a fight – a dragon badger or a ninja horse – they are Snapchatting the night away, stropping around the tiny cottage and communicating mainly in grunts – except when they are demanding Ellen provides taxi services in the small hours. And there is never, but never, any milk in the house. At least the one thing they can all agree on is that rescued Barry the Wolfdog may indeed be The Ugliest Dog in the World, but he is also the loveliest.

My Review of Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****!

Although I usually find Gill Sims’ writing hysterically funny, this time, in Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****! there were fewer belly laughs but a more sophisticated and mature contemplation of Ellen’s life and the hazards of bringing up two recalcitrant teenagers whilst estranged from her husband Simon. Consequently, the themes felt more poignant so that I was increasingly emotionally connected to the narrative rather than simply giggling along to Ellen’s ‘FML’ comments.

The portraits of ‘moppets’ Peter and Jane are incredibly well drawn as they begin to stretch their adolescent wings. I was reminded of many of the youngsters I’ve taught in the past because their attitudes felt so real. On a more personal level, Jane’s acerbic comments to her mother still frequently go through my own mind at times, although thankfully I’ve learnt to keep them silent! I’m sure many a mother has wondered just how their son can eat quite so much as does Peter… What works so well is the fine line between wanting to be a grown up yet still remaining a child that Gill Sims presents so astutely in Jane and Peter.

I have always been dubious about Simon and I was actually pleased that he and Ellen had parted company as the main plot device in Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****!

However, it was Ellen who still appealed to me the most and I found her predicament of dealing with single motherhood, (along with another couple of stressful life altering events that I can’t say too much about for fear of spoiling the read), actually quite moving at times so that I shed the occasional tear. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her more mature and contemplative persona and consequently she became a much more rounded and believable figure in my mind.

With the same effortless and conversational writing style, the plot of Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****! had greater depth than the other books in the series. I thought I’d guessed the resolution fairly early on, but Gill Sim kept me guessing with elements I really enjoyed and not everything worked out as I had imagined. There’s also less about extraneous characters and a more profound exploration of Ellen’s feelings and emotions so that I felt a greater affinity to the people this time.

With the same yearly plot structure, Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****! feels an artful and appropriate continuation of the other books and whilst Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****! may be less funny and light-hearted, it’s no less engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

About Gill Simms

Gill Sims is the author and illustrator of the hugely successful parenting blog and Facebook site ‘Peter and Jane’. She lives in Scotland with her husband, two children and a recalcitrant rescue Border Terrier, who rules the house. Gill’s interests include drinking wine, wasting time on social media, trying and failing to recapture her lost youth and looking for the dog when he decides to go on one of his regular jaunts.

You’ll find Gill on Twitter @whymummydrinks, and can visit Gill’s Peter and Jane Facebook page or read her blog.

Now, I’ve tried to stick to my blog tour sabbatical as much as possible this year, but when Alainna at Orion got in touch to see if I’d like to take part in Fanny Blake’s tour for A Summer Reunion all resolve flew out of the window. I’ve long loved Fanny Blake’s writing from way before I began blogging and having met the author last year (see here) when I had a complete fan-girl moment I am thrilled to be part of the launch celebrations for this latest book: A Summer Reunion.

It’s far too long since I reviewed a Fanny Blake novel, the last being Our Summer Together in a post you can read here.

A Summer Reunion was published on 13th June 2019 by Orion and is available for purchase through these links.

A Summer Reunion

One perfect villa, four old friends, and a holiday that will change everything…

Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. Now, years later, they have grown apart. When Amy discovers her husband has been stealing from her successful interiors business, and with a milestone birthday looming, she decides it is the time to reach out to her old friends once again.

So, she decides to invite the other three to her beautiful villa in Mallorca for a reunion weekend. As the four friends gather, secrets are unearthed, old scores settled and new friendships forged. Will this holiday bring them together or tear them apart? And will each of them grasp their second chance for happiness…?

My Review of A Summer Reunion

Gathering old school friends for a Mallorcan reunion may not be plain sailing.

What a joy to return to Fanny Blake’s writing, not least when one of the characters has the same first name as me so that I felt instantly engaged (even if I wasn’t terribly sympathetic towards Linda to start with)! In A Summer Reunion, Fanny Blake demonstrates again just how perceptive she is about more mature women and their lives, hopes and dreams making A Summer Reunion such a satisfying read.

Although all four women, Amy, Jane, Kate and Linda, are equally well represented and defined, I thought it was inspired to contrast Amy’s narrative through the first person with the third person for the others because she is the initial catalyst for all the action. I also thought Dan’s presence added depth and balance to the women when the other male characters are mainly off scene.

Baldly, the plot sounds quite prosaic as four women spend a few days together and reminisce about the past but my goodness that doesn’t do justice to the events, themes and personalities that shimmer through the narrative. There are lies and deception, love and passion, menace and memory so that I never quite knew how the events from the past might be resolved. I thoroughly enjoyed the level of mystery and I really wanted Jane to have a terrible comeuppance, but you’ll need to read the book to see why I had that reaction and if it worked out as I’d hoped.

However, aside from the plot which I so enjoyed, it’s the glorious quality of Fanny Blake’s writing that is so appealing. The use of the senses to evoke Mallorca, the naturalistic dialogue that conveys friends chatting, the small details that bring a scene alive, all blend to make a smooth and pleasurable reading experience. Reading A Summer Reunion felt a little bit like a homecoming. I empathised with the characters. I could see traits of myself in their personalities. I wanted to be beside the pool with them in Amy’s villa and I had my own ideas about a certain artist, but I won’t spoil the plot by saying more…

A Summer Reunion is a smashing book. I loved the underlying message that, although our past may have shaped who we are in the present, it doesn’t have to define our future and I finished reading feeling uplifted and content. A Summer Reunion is the perfect holiday read. I can only hope there will be more about all four women in the future!

About Fanny Blake

Fanny Blake was a publisher for many years, editing both fiction and non-fiction before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She has written various non-fiction titles, acted as ghost writer for a number of celebrities, and is also Books Editor of Woman & Home magazine. She has written seven novels, including House of Dreams and Our Summer Together.

You can follow Fanny on Twitter @FannyBlake1, find her on Facebook or visit her website.

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I love Rosanna Ley’s books so when I was invited to be part of the paperback launch celebrations for her latest book, The Lemon Tree Hotel, I couldn’t resist. I’d like to thank Milly Reid at Quercus for asking me to participate. I’d first heard about The Lemon Tree Hotel when I was privileged to have afternoon tea with Rosanna Ley at the Covent Garden Hotel last year when Her Mother’s Secret was released. You can see what happened that afternoon in this blog post. and read my review of Her Mother’s Secret here. When I returned to the same venue to find out all about Quercus’ 2019 fiction I was delighted to come away with an early copy of the The Lemon Tree Hotel. I wrote about that fabulous event here.

Rosanna Ley’s Last Dance in Havana was one of my books of the year in 2016 and you can find out all about that here and read my review here.

It was also my huge pleasure to host Rosanna on Linda’s Book Bag when The Little Theatre By The Sea was released and she wrote a glorious guest piece about her travel and research in this post.

Published in paperback today, 13th June 2019, by Quercus, The Lemon Tree Hotel is available for purchase in all formats through the publisher links.

The Lemon Tree Hotel

A story about love, family secrets, and a little piece of heaven . . .

In the beautiful village of Vernazza, the Mazzone family have transformed an old convent overlooking the glamorous Italian Riviera into the elegant Lemon Tree Hotel. For Chiara, her daughter Elene and her granddaughter Isabella, the running of their hotel is the driving force in their lives.

One day, two unexpected guests check in. The first, Dante, is a face from Chiara’s past, but what exactly happened between them all those years ago, Elene wonders. Meanwhile, Isabella is preoccupied with the second guest, a mysterious young man who seems to know a lot about the history of the old convent and the people who live there. Isabella is determined to find out his true intentions and discover the secret past of the Lemon Tree Hotel.

My Review of The Lemon Tree Hotel

The Lemon Tree Hotel has been in the family for years, but life may be about to change.

I am such a fan of Rosanna Ley’s books that I approached The Lemon Tree Hotel with some anxiety in case it didn’t quite match up to the fantastic writing I’ve come to expect, but I needn’t have worried; The Lemon Tree Hotel is absolutely wonderful. My only issue is that I’m not sure how to do it justice in my review.

Rosanna Ley’s meticulous prose evokes such an intense feeling of place, of people and of emotion that I didn’t feel as if I were reading a book so much as experiencing the events for myself. I found myself in the dilemma of not wanting the book to end but equally desperate to know what happened next. The plot is divine and positively sizzles with longing, self deception and family ties. Revolving predominantly around the mother Chiara, daughter Elena and granddaughter Isabella, there is a natural flow that interlocks their stories into a gorgeously satisfying narrative and there are some wonderful surprises along the way. I found the story completely compelling and transfixing and I loved the touches of Italian language and history that gave added depth and colour.

I so wanted each of the three women, even the prickly Elena, to have a happy outcome because I was made to care about them. Chiara in particular resonated with me, possibly as she is my age, and she almost broke my heart as she let the greatest love of her life slip by. And that is what is so emotional in The Lemon Tree Hotel. Rosanna Ley writes with a maturity of understanding of what it is to be a woman, to make personal sacrifices and to create a marriage and a business. There’s depth, warmth and all consuming storytelling that held me captivated so that I felt immersed in life at the Lemon Tree hotel. That isn’t to say that the men in the story are incidental. All of them from the vile Alonzo, through the enigmatic Ferdinand to the divine Dante add texture as they support or undermine the women in the story.

Equally enchanting a character is the Lemon Tree hotel itself. I wanted to be there every moment I was reading because I was fully transported to the Vernazza area by the author’s evocative use of the senses. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has made me as hungry as the luscious descriptions of Elena’s food did here. The Lemon Tree Hotel is not just a story to entertain, but it is a travelogue, a cookery book and a beautifully written sensory experience. Rosanna Ley’s descriptive prose is just gorgeous.

The Lemon Tree Hotel has everything I want in a book and more. It touched me, it involved me emotionally and it entertained me so that I feel enriched by the experience of reading it. Far from not living up to my expectations of her writing, Rosanna Ley has managed to surpass them. I absolutely adored The Lemon Tree Hotel and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Rosanna Ley

Rosanna Ley is the bestselling author of novels including Return to Mandalay and The Villa, which sold over 310,000 copies. In February 2015 Return to Mandalay was shortlisted for the RNA Award for the Epic Romantic Novel. She has written numerous articles and short stories for magazines, and her novels have been published in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Norway, Hungary, Portugal, Lithuania, Turkey and the Czech Republic. The Villa is also published by Quercus in the US.

Rosanna has also worked as a creative writing tutor for over 20 years. She has led courses for colleges and universities in England, and runs her own writing retreats in the UK and abroad in Italy and Spain. She has worked with community groups in therapeutic settings and completed an MA in Creative Writing for Personal Development in order to support this. She also runs a manuscript appraisal service to appraise and mentor the work of new writers.  She is married with children and lives in Dorset.

You’ll find out more about Rosanna Ley on Facebook and you can follow her on Twitter @rosannaley. You can also visit her website.

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My enormous thanks to Lucy Chamberlain at Legend Press for sending me a copy of Asylum by Marcus Low in return for an honest review.

Published by Legend Press on 15th April 2019, Asylum is available for purchase here.

Asylum

Barry James is detained in a quarantine facility in the blistering heat of the Great Karoo. Here he exists in two worlds: the unforgiving reality of his incarceration and the lyrical landscapes of his dreams. He has cut all ties with his previous life, his health is failing, and he has given up all hope. All he has to cling to are the meanderings of his restless mind, the daily round of pills and the journals he reluctantly keeps as testimony to a life once lived.

And then there’s an opportunity to escape.

My Review of Asylum

Barry James is in quarantine in a secure unit isolated from the rest of society.

Now, I usually eschew dystopian fiction because it’s not my preferred genre, but Asylum has persuaded me that I am missing a thought-provoking and somewhat disturbing area of fiction. I can’t say I enjoyed Asylum as that would be the wrong description, because I found it perturbing and unsettling, but I loved the vivid and disquieting quality of Marcus Low’s writing. Indeed, although this is a slim book, I think it would reward several readings to uncover its layers of meaning more fully. I found it fascinating.

There’s a bleak beauty and frequently lyrical quality in Asylum, particularly to the descriptions of Barry’s dreams. The landscape is vivid and stark which adds to the menacing aspect of the read. The frequent references to the white sheets and white pill Barry is given made me wonder if I were meant to think of him as an innocent because he is associated with a colour that frequently represents purity.

What is really interesting however, is that, although the reader is ostensibly reading Barry’s own writing in Asylum, he’s never fully knowable. This aspect forced me to consider the way in which society isolates and judges others, in this case those with an infection, and behaves toward them without fully considering an individual. I cared about Barry but I didn’t know if I could trust him.

I found myself almost voyeuristically engaged with the story. I felt uncomfortable reading what are presented as the journals of Barry James with some editorial marginalia so that it made me feel complicit in the treatment and incarceration of Barry and his fellow inmates. Asylum confronts the reader with realities and potential near futures that they may not wish to consider. There’s a devastating bleakness and ultimate futility underpinning the narrative that I found profoundly sad.

I finished Asylum feeling I had read a novel written with sensitivity and ingenuity. Asylum make me think. It forced me to look at the nature of identity, death and of society. It didn’t always make for comfortable reading but I am glad I have had the opportunity to immerse myself into its pages.

About Marcus Low

Marcus Low is a Cape Town-based writer and public health specialist. He completed an MA in creative writing at the University of Cape Town in 2009 – for which he wrote an early draft of Asylum. Marcus previously worked as Policy Director at the Treatment Action Campaign, an influencial South African civil society organisation that advocates for the rights and interests of people living with and affected by tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. He remains involved in public health policy both in South Africa and internationally. His novel Asylum was in part inspired by the incarceration of patients with drug-resistant forms of TB in South Africa circa 2008 – something he directly encountered in his work. He was born in Vryburg, South Africa in 1979.

You can follow Marcus on Twitter @MarcusLowX

Although I was heavily involved in many of the events at the recent Deepings Literary Festival, one that I couldn’t attend was a free ‘read dating’ held in the library on the Saturday afternoon.

We were trying to showcase local authors, and luckily for us, best-selling author, Jane E James agreed to participate in this popular event. The event was well attended and coincided with the launch of Jane’s latest novel, The Butcher’s Daughter, which is currently climbing the US charts. As Jane’s publisher, Bloodhound Books was one of our generous sponsors for the festival, I thought it time to feature Jane on Linda’s Book Bag.

The Butcher’s Daughter

Trust no one. Not even yourself.

When Natalie Powers returns home for the first time in thirteen years, she must convince everyone she has fully recovered from the mental illness which has seen her institutionalised for most of her young life.

But instead of being welcomed back, Natalie enters a baffling world of deception.She must fight her way through the lies in order to discover the truth about her mother’s sudden disappearance sixteen years earlier. To do this, Natalie must also try to remember hazy memories from the past that continue to haunt her.

In the village of Little Downey, everybody appears to harbour a mysterious secret, including her father, Frank, the village butcher, who refuses to discuss the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s mother’s disappearance. But who can Natalie trust if not her own father? Especially when it becomes clear her protector and confidante, Dr Moses, is not all he appears.

Meanwhile a spate of unexplained clifftop suicides has seen the seaside resort go into decline. Are the villagers somehow involved or is something more sinister at work?

Determined to find out what happened to her mother, Natalie must make sure her own frailty and self-doubt does not catapult her back to the mental institution before she can uncover the truth.

The Butcher’s Daughter is available for purchase on Amazon.

I’m delighted to be able to share some exciting news about The Butcher’s Daughter in today’s blog post that illustrates just how being local to the Deepings and taking part in the biennial festival might be a very good thing indeed. Here’s what Jane told me:

From The Deepings to Downtown New York…

At the time of writing The Butcher’s Daughter is sitting at number 22 in the Amazon US best seller chart for psychological fiction and ranked 5^th in hot new releases, sitting next to S E Lynes and Sue Watson’s latest offerings. With Amazon selling close to 1.8 million books at any one time, Jane is rather chuffed with this achievement.

Part of this success has earned Jane an invitation to New York, to visit the aptly-named The Butcher’s Daughter, to talk about her book. Surprisingly, or perhaps because of the content of her book, Jane is a vegetarian. In the acknowledgement section of her book she describes how visiting slaughterhouses and butcher shops as research for her writing changed her mind set about eating meat.

The Butcher’s Daughter was originally written by Jane as a screenplay and very nearly made it to the big screen. Having recently been in touch again with the same producer (making sure he has a copy of her book) she is hoping that may still happen!

In the meantime, Jane is keeping it real. As we speak, she is camping in Cornwall with her lovely hubby hoping that the rain will eventually stop.

(I hope so too Jane! Although I’m sure you could make some notes about the weather for your next book!)

About Jane E James

Jane likes to create chilling reads that appeal to fans of psychological thrillers, mysteries and dark fiction. She loves to weave tense and haunting tales that stay in the reader’s mind. All her books are standalone novels.

Jane signed a two-book publishing deal with Bloodhound Books after her second novel, The Crying Boy (a compelling suspense thriller inspired by actual events) became an overnight best seller on Amazon, knocking both Stephen King and Dean Koontz off the top suspense spot.

When she isn’t writing (or reading) Jane enjoys living ‘the good life’ in the Cambridgeshire countryside with her ‘all-action-super-hero’ hubby. Rebecca, Carrie, The Woman in Black and Wuthering Heights are among some of Jane’s favourite reads.

To find out more, follow Jane on Twitter @jane_e_james, or visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I’m absolutely delighted to be closing the blog tour for lovely Heidi Swain and her new novel Poppy’s Recipe for Life and I’d like to thank Harriett Collins at Simon and Schuster for inviting me to take part. Heidi is such a smashing person whom it’s my pleasure to know in real life and she has featured on Linda’s Book Bag many times before.

Today, not only do I have my review of Poppy’s Recipe for Life to share, but if you live in the UK you have the chance to win a fabulous Poppy’s Recipe for Life prize. I have received one of these glorious parcels and let me tell you, this is something you’re really going to want to win. You can find out how to enter at the bottom of this blog post.

Heidi always tries to attend the blogger and author meet ups we have locally and I wrote about meeting Heidi with other authors in 2018 at the Simon and Schuster Spring Blogger Evening here and again in 2019 here. I reviewed Heidi’s Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market here and was thrilled to ‘stay in’ with her to chat all about Sunshine and Sweet Peas In Nightingale Square here. Finally (for now anyway) Heidi provided a smashing guest post when Snowflakes and Cinnamon Swirls at the Winter Wonderland was published, explaining exactly what Christmas means to her and you can find that post here.

Heidi’s latest book, Poppy’s Recipe for Life, was published on 30th May 2019 by Simon and Schuster and is available for purchase through these links.

Poppy’s Recipe for Life

Things haven’t always been straightforward in Poppy’s life but her dreams are finally within her reach.

She’s moving into a cottage in beautiful Nightingale Square, close to the local community garden, where she can indulge her passion for making preserves and pickles. She may not have the best relationship with her family but she is surrounded by loving friends, and feels sure that even her grumpy new neighbour, Jacob, has more to him than his steely exterior belies.

But the unexpected arrival of Poppy’s troubled younger brother soon threatens her new-found happiness and as the garden team works together to win community space of the year, Poppy must decide where her priorities lie and what she is prepared to fight for …

My Review of Poppy’s Recipe for Life

Poppy may finally be getting her wish to move into Nightingale Square.

Poppy’s Recipe for Life is absolutely glorious. Heidi Swain has written the most wonderful, uplifting and captivating story that warms the heart and soul and brings joy to the reader. I finished the book feeling my life had been enriched by the read. There are so many fabulous elements that it’s tricky to know quite where to start in a review to convey the delights of reading this book.

However, having said that Poppy’s Recipe for Life is joyful and heart-warming, that doesn’t mean Heidi Swain shies away from difficult topics that will resonate with many readers. She considers the nature and importance of family and friends and understands that these relationships can be harmful as well as comforting so that I’m sure some readers will feel she is writing about them and not just characters in a book. There’s a sensitive and moving portrayal of grief and its effect on mental health through Ryan that I found touching and affecting. I loved the imagery of cooking and gardening too because those activities illustrate so thoughtfully how practical work and nature can lead to improved well-being. Poppy’s Recipe for Life certainly entertains but it supports and educates the reader too in a subtle and caring manner.

The community spirit in Nightingale Square is so beautifully conveyed. What I found fascinating about the author’s writing is that although there are several characters living and working around the square, Heidi Swain makes each one so distinct and real that I had no issue keeping track of them and their relationships. I felt I had come to know each person intimately and clearly – and my goodness I cared about them. The manner in which their personalities are developed, and their emotions and relationships are explored, elevate Poppy’s Recipe for Life into something more than the genre might suggest because there is depth to ponder as well as a superb narrative to enjoy.  I adored every one of the people here, but Poppy is a complete triumph.

Poppy is the kind of woman I’d aspire to be. She always tries to be positive and caring but is also so fabulously human and real that she doesn’t always achieve her goals. She sometimes doesn’t manage Ryan well and has a difficult relationship with her mother. It is her flaws that make her all the more compelling. I was desperate for her to have a happy ending but you will need to read Poppy’s Recipe for Life to find out whether that happens.

Poppy’s Recipe for Life genuinely put a smile on my face as I was read and the warm feelings of contentment, fulfilment and pleasure I had whilst reading it come flooding back when I think about it. I think that Heidi Swain has written the perfect example of this kind of fiction. I believe Poppy’s Recipe for Life is an outstanding example of its genre and cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s fabulous!

About Heidi Swain

Heidi Swain is the Sunday Times bestselling author of five novels: The Cherry Tree Cafe, Summer at Skylark Farm, Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market, Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage and most recently, Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and two teenage children.

You can follow Heidi on Twitter @Heidi_Swain and visit her blog or website. You’ll also find Heidi on Facebook and there’s more with these other bloggers:

Giveaway

A Fabulous Poppy’s Recipe For Life Hamper

For your chance to win this glorious Poppy’s Recipe for Life hamper containing chocolates, a recipe card, Belvoir Elderflower and Rose Presse and a paperback copy of Poppy’s Recipe for Life by Heidi Swain, please click here.

Please note that, as this prize will be delivered by courier, this giveaway is only open to UK entrants who must be prepared to provide an address and telephone number which will not be retained after the prize has been delivered. Simon and Schuster will be sending the prize to the lucky winner!

Giveaway closes at UK midnight on Friday 7th June 2019.

With my own local Deepings Literary Festival now successfully completed it’s time to share some information about another festival coming up in September.

Capital Crime has announced several exciting names for its inaugural festival taking place this September at the Connaught Rooms in London. Mark Billingham, Martina Cole, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Don Winslow, Robert Glenister, Leye Adenle, Denise Mina, Catherine Steadman and Abir Mukherjee are among the guests already announced.

The first international crime and thriller festival in London, Capital Crime offers fans unprecedented access to their favourite crime and thriller creatives. Capital Crime is a celebration of books, films and TV and the line-up is an unrivalled mix of world class talent, rising stars and newcomers. Capital Crime is a must for fans of all things crime and thriller.

Among the stellar list of speakers are Kate Atkinson, David Baldacci, Ann Cleeves, Robert Harris, Peter James, Lynda La Plante, Simon Mayo, and Kate Mosse. The list of confirmed guests can be found here. If you follow Capital Crime on Twitter @CapitalCrime1 you’ll find new authors are being added regularly.

The crime and thriller community is excited about Capital Crime.

Martina Cole (No Mercy – Headline – Autumn) said: ‘We have all been waiting for a London based festival like Capital Crime.  It’s fantastic to see such a diverse line up of crime and thriller writers taking part.  David Headley and Adam Hamdy have put together an amazing programme of events for the first crime festival in London and I’m thrilled to be part of it.’

Ann Cleeves (The Long Call – Pan Macmillan – September)  ‘I’m delighted to be taking part in the very first Capital Crime and can’t wait to meet readers and writers in London in September.’

Best-selling London based author Abir Mukherjee (Smoke and Ashes – Vintage – June) said: ‘London is one of the world’s great cities, the setting, and often the inspiration, for some most infamous true crimes and some of the world’s best loved fictional detectives. It’s the home of Scotland Yard, Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes and a natural location for a festival bringing together international fans and authors in a celebration of the very best and latest that crime fiction has to offer. It’s long overdue and I hope Capital Crime becomes a regular fixture in the crime fiction calendar.’

Panels of note include: The Interrogation of Mark Billingham: The bestselling author is put through his paces by Graham Bartlett, an experienced police interrogator; Ian Rankin discusses The Human Cost of Crime with Don Winslow. Also there is a quiz panel Whose Crime is it Anyway? pitting debut crime and thriller authors against each other with Paul Clayton hosting; The Forensic Mind: Denise Mina and Ann Cleeves discuss what makes a great detective, moderated by Chris Ewan;  Plus Are We Living in An Espionage Thriller: Tom Bradby, Charles Cumming, Frank Gardner and Stella Rimington offer their unique insights into events that concern us all.

Capital Crime is a diverse, inclusive and socially responsible festival, running initiatives including social outreach to support students exploring a literary career, an innovative digital festival and the launch of their New Voices Award. The festival is the brainchild of British screenwriter Adam Hamdy and Managing Director of Goldsboro Books, David Headley.

Tickets for the festival are now on sale at https://www.capitalcrime.org/

About David Headley

David Headley studied theology in London and Durham before co-founding and becoming the Managing Director of Goldsboro Books, a much admired, leading independent bookseller, based in central London.

He has gained a reputation for championing debut authors and he created the UK’s largest collectors’ book club. David has won awards for bookselling and in 2015 he was included in the Top 100 most influential people in publishing by The Bookseller.

David is also the MD of The Dome Press, a small, independent publisher based in London, and co-founder of Capital Crime.

David says: ‘It is thrilling to announce more fantastic authors and creatives who are attending our first Capital Crime festival. The support and enthusiasm we have received is wonderfully encouraging and we are looking forward to an amazing inaugural event.’

About Adam Hamdy

Adam Hamdy is a London-born, British screenwriter and author. Adam recently signed a three-book deal with Pan Macmillan. Black Thirteen,  the first book in the new thriller series, will be published in autumn 2019. As a screenwriter, Adam is currently adapting a multi-million copy New York Times bestselling novel for a US studio. In the past year he has written screenplays for four Academy Award-winning production companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Adam has a degree in Law from Oxford University and a degree in Philosophy from the University of London. He is a seasoned skier, rock climber, and marksman.

Adam says: ‘We’re excited to be able to reveal more of the Capital Crime line-up. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve had from authors and the publishing community and can’t wait to bring our exciting new festival to London.’

About New Voices Award

Capital Crime will be launching an exciting competition to help undiscovered crime and thriller authors further their writing careers. Writers are invited to upload the first three chapters of their novel to the Capital Crime website and festival attendees will be able to vote for their top choice. The ten entrants with the most votes will be invited to the Opening Night Cocktail Party and the winner of the New Voices Award will be selected from that shortlist and announced on the night. 

About the Capital Crime Digital Festival

 Capital Crime is launching a Digital Festival in conjunction with the live event. This will provide an opportunity to reach crime and thriller writers and readers all year round. The Capital Crime Digital Festival will showcase interviews, profiles and features with over 70 authors on multiple platforms after the inaugural festival. It will be regularly updated throughout the year with new and engaging content.

Find out more here.

Although I’ve been really busy with the Deepings Literary Festival recently, I have had time to catch a few glimpses of a wonderful new literary Tube map of London underground from In the Book. It so intrigued me I had to find out a bit more so I asked Tom Matthews from In The Book to tell me a bit more about it.

The Literary Tube Map of London can be found here where it’s so much easier to see and navigate than on the blog!

Hi Tom. Thank you so much for agreeing to feature on Linda’s Book Bag. Please would you tell me a little bit about the map you’ve all come up with?

Thanks Linda. The map was designed to act as a definitive virtual book tour of London for both locals and tourists. Literature has the wonderful ability to colour a certain area like nothing else, and while everyone recognises Baker Street as Sherlock’s home and King’s Cross as the place Harry boards his train to Hogwarts, the lesser known works are what helps make London’s literary history so diverse: wonderfully named titles such as Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square and The Wimbledon Poisoner are prime examples of this.

Oh I agree. I love the concept of literary landscapes and I’m lucky enough to live in an area where the poet John Clare was a local man.

We also found it fascinating how certain genres and authors “owned” certain parts of the map: Dickens’ London dominates the Central Line, while gothic Victorian works Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray can be found haunting the Piccadilly Line. Zadie Smith takes the Jubilee Line to the northwest while Martin Amis is more prominent around West London.

How fascinating! Thanks so much Tom. I need to have a proper look at the map and visit the areas with new insight.  Seeing  Infernal Devices on the same line as The Da Vinci Code made me smile!

Could you tell me a bit about In The Book Too before you go?

In The Book publish personalised children’s books in the UK and US and hold a passion for getting kids to read. We recognise books as not only worlds where one can lose oneself but as a means to develop cultural understandings, social skills and help us affect positive changes in the world around us.

As an ex-literacy consultant and English teacher I couldn’t agree more Tom! Thanks so much for telling me more about the company. I wonder how many ‘stations’ on your Literary Tube Map Linda’s Book Bag readers have visited? 

You can find out more about In The Book by visiting their website, finding them on Facebook and following them on Twitter @inthebookwith.

It’s a very welcome return for Colette McCormick to Linda’s Book Bag today because I’ve been privileged to ‘stay in’ with Colette to chat all about her novel Ribbons in Her Hair in a post you can read here as well as host a smashing guest post here from Colette called What Happened Next when she explained all about her journey to publication for Things I Should Have Said And Done.

Today we are celebrating Colette’s brand new novel Not My Brother’s Keeper and I’m delighted that Colette has agreed to write a post all about how the title for her latest book came about.

Not My Brother’s Keeper is published today, 30th May 2019 by Accent Press and is available for purchase here.

My brother, not my responsibility

Robert and Tom are practically identical – same height, same hair, equally good looking – but Tom never had the same confidence as his older brother, and for that reason, he is in awe of him.

When Robert’s girlfriend, Michelle, tells him that she’s pregnant, Robert disappears leaving Tom to clean up his mess. As Tom spends time with Michelle, reassuring her that she is not alone in this, the both begin to fall in love.

But is Michelle settling for second best?

Is Tom losing himself in what should have been his brother’s life?

Sixteen years later, without warning, Robert comes home and Tom has to find the courage to stand against the brother he idolized.

What’s in a name?

A Guest Post by Colette McCormick

I clearly remember when the title Not my Brother’s Keeper came to me. It was years and years ago and I was in the cellar of the building that I worked in. The stockroom was in the cellar so I used to spend a lot of time there and it was a great ‘thinking place.’ I didn’t have a story in mind but the title popped int my head and stuck with me. It would be a long time before the story came.

When my eldest son left home, he loaded what he needed into the back of his car and left the rest.  I said that I was going into his room to tidy away what had been left in his wake but his brother stopped me and said that he would ‘clear up the mess,’ suggesting that I shouldn’t have to do it. He got no argument from me as I didn’t relish what I might have found under the bed.

But, as often happens my mind started to wander. What if his brother had left more than a room full of ‘stuff ‘that he had accumulated over the years? What if he had just disappeared rather than moved a few miles away? What would make someone just run away from everything that they had ever known? The more I thought about it, the more a story started to form. Then I remembered the title that had sat at the back on my brain for years. I put the two things together and Not My Brother’s Keeper is the result.

But as I was writing about two brothers and being the mother of two sons, I had to be careful that the lines between the real and the fictional didn’t become blurred. My sons are my sons and the fictional brothers are just that. Fictional. I was careful not to give Robert or Tom any of my sons’ characteristics. If by some miracle either of them reads it, I didn’t want them to recognize themselves. My sons aren’t great book readers although the eldest one did buy my first book. As yet he hasn’t felt the need to read it.

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(I think it’s hard to separate ourselves from our writing Colette. Congratulations on having done so and happy publication day for Not My Brother’s Keeper!)

About Colette McCormick

Originally a city girl, Colette has made her home in a one of the many former mining villages in County Durham. When not working as a retail manager for a large children’s charity she will more than likely be writing, even if it’s only a shopping list. She also enjoys cooking, gardening and taking the dog on long walks in the countryside near her home. She has been married for almost forty years and has two grown up sons.

To find out more, follow Colette on Twitter @colettemcauthor, or find her on Facebook and Instagram or visit her blog.

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