One of the ways I got in to blogging was by reading and reviewing middle grade books for one of the big publishing houses with a view to see whether they might be good as classroom readers, so when a new middle grade book comes along I’m always interested, especially if it takes me off on some travels too. Today I’m delighted to be featuring an author of middle grade books, Sherry Ellis, as she stays in with me to chat about one of her books.

Staying in with Sherry Ellis

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

Thanks for having me as a guest. I’m so excited to be here!

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I brought Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China because I’m in the mood for an exotic ghost story.

(I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to ghost stories Sherry, but I think I can manage a middle grade book!)

What can we expect from an evening in with Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China? 

This is a book for young middle grade readers. It’s about two kids having the adventure of their lives: traveling through the Earth to China, encountering a ghost, and embarking on a treasure hunt.   And if that isn’t enough, they’re going to learn something about the language, history, and culture of China. Did I say, “learn?” Oh my!

(This sounds brilliant. I haven’t been to China on my travels yet so I could go vicariously with the children!)

What else have you brought along and why?

I have a whole bag of goodies which will enhance the reading experience. We’ll need to string up these red Chinese lanterns and hang them around the room. Then we’ll dim the lights. Adding to the ambience will be this music of the mournful erhu. (You’ll find out what that is when you read the book.) Once the stage is set, it’s time to read.

Afterward, we can have a snack of Jiaozi–Chinese dumplings. I brought all the ingredients. We can follow the recipe that’s in the book. Then we’ll wash it down with some yummy boba tea.

(Oh, you’re definitely my kind of guest Sherry. Reading, food and tea. What could be better?)

Thanks so much for staying in with me to tell me all about Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China. I’ve really enjoyed our evening.

Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China

You can’t dig a hole to China!

Squirt doesn’t believe Bubba can dig a hole to China. But when the hole swallows them, the kids find themselves in Xi’an, China, surrounded by Terracotta Warriors.

It gets worse when the ghost of the first emperor of China appears. He tells them they can’t go home until they find his missing pi. The kids don’t know where to begin until they meet a girl and her grandmother who promise to help find the pendant.

Soon they realize they are being followed. And they are no closer to finding the missing pi. Will Bubba and Squirt ever make it back home?

Published by Dancing Lemur Press on 4th September 2018 Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China is available for purchase on ITunes, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and BAM.

About Sherry Ellis

Sherry Ellis is an award-winner author and professional musician who plays and teaches the violin, viola, and piano. When she is not writing or engaged in musical activities, she can be found doing household chores, hiking, or exploring the world. Ellis, her husband, and their two children live in Atlanta, Georgia.

You can find out more about Sherry on her blog and website, by following her on Twitter @513sherrye and by finding her on Facebook.

Having just returned home from a trip to Bali, Indonesia and what should have been Hong Kong but typhoon Mangkuk stopped that bit of the holiday, what could be better than to head off again, albeit vicariously, and travel to Michigan as I stay in with Barbara Stark-Nemon today?

Staying in with Barbara Stark-Nemon

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Barbara. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me this evening. Which of your books have you brought along?

Thank you for the invite, Linda, and I’ve brought my new novel, Hard Cider, which came out on September 18.  Here in Michigan, where I live, we are just rolling into apple harvest season— the days are noticeably shorter, the nights beginning to cool, so it seemed like a great time to bring you a book about a woman’s dream to create hard cider along the shores and dunes of Lake Michigan that she loves.

(It’s certainly heading toward autumn isn’t it? A slightly belated Happy Hard Cider Publication day Barbara.)

What can we expect from an evening in with Hard Cider?

Hard Cider’s main character, Abbie Rose, has reckoned with infertility, a complicated family, a career, a long marriage, and now wants to pursue her cider-making dream.  The appearance of a young woman with a shocking secret threatens to derail Abbie’s plan, along with her sense of who her family really is.  Along the way of Abbie’s attempt to overcome a number of obstacles, the reader will learn much about growing cider apples and making the hard stuff!  I like to say this is a “what if” book— what if some of the circumstances that actually happened to me had turned out very differently..

(Sounds great Barbara! I think life is filled with ‘what if’ moments.)

I recently received this review of Hard Cider that spoke to me as much about this new genre I’ve written in, as it did about my book. (My previous novel, Even in Darkness is historical fiction) I loved this!

From Macsbooks…Women’s Contemporary Fiction is not a genre into which I often delve. The scenarios in the book either are so far from my wheelhouse that I cannot relate, or they mirror my own problems so closely that there is no escape or joy in the reading for me. However, because I absolutely adore hard cider, I had to give this book a try. What a wonderful surprise I had in store for me within the covers of this book! …… I was drawn into the story as I related more and more to Abbie and her life. I, too, began an “adventure” at mid-life, one that had no support from my immediate family. Watching as Abbie grew as a woman and as an entrepreneur helped me to see how I, too, could grow and change. It is, in essence, a “coming of age” story for women in the 21st century.

(This is such a lovely review. You must be so thrilled to receive it.)

Surprise at the unexpected but fulfilling way our lives turn out, despite hurdles, is an important theme in both my books.

(And an important theme in life I think!)

What else have you brought along and why?

There’s a lot of research that went into writing Hard Cider.  Who knew that the bottles hard cider comes in are called ‘growlers’.  Here’s a photo of my local cidery’s growler.  I love the name of my favorite of their brews— Smackintosh!   I fell in love with hard cider many years ago when I lived and worked in England.

(Hmm – I notice the one you’ve brought is empty!)

Thank you so much for staying in with me to tell me all about Hard Cider Barbara. I think it sounds like such a lovely read and I wish you every success with it.

Hard Cider

Abbie Rose Stone’s acquired wisdom runs deep, and so do her scars. She has successfully navigated the shoals of a long marriage, infertility, challenging children, and a career.

Now it’s her turn to realize her dream: producing hard apple cider along the northern shores of Lake Michigan that she loves.

She manages to resist new versions of the old pull of family dynamics that threaten to derail her plan–but nothing can protect her from the shock a lovely young stranger delivers when she exposes a long-held secret.

In the wake of this revelation, Abbie must overcome circumstances that severely test her self-determination, her loyalties, and her understanding of what constitutes true family.

Published by She Writes Press on 18th September 2018, Hard Cider is available for purchase here.

About Barbara Stark-Nemon

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of the award-winning novel Even in Darkness lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber art, and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. An undergraduate degree in English Literature and Art History and a Masters in Speech-language Pathology from the University of Michigan led to a teaching and clinical career working with deaf children. Barbara writes novels, short stories, and essays.

You can find out about Barbara by visiting her website and finding her on Facebook and Instagram. You can also follow Barbara on Twitter @bstarknemon.

I have been fortunate to meet Dani Atkins on several occasions but I have to confess to never having read one of her books so, having heard such wonderful things about them, I was determined to put that right.  My enormous thanks to the lovely folk at Simon and Schuster and Books and the City for my copy of Dani’s While I was Sleeping in return for an honest review.

Published by Simon and Schuster, While I Was Sleeping is available for purchase through these links.

While I Was Sleeping

What if someone else was living your happy ever after?

When Maddie wakes up in a hospital bed, she can’t remember anything about what happened to her or what has changed.

She just remembers she was about to be married and had everything to look forward to.

But it seems life has become a lot more complicated while she has been asleep …

My Review of While I was Sleeping

Maddie’s wedding plans are about to be altered.

Wow! Reading While I Was Sleeping made me feel as if my heart had been ripped out, torn into tiny pieces and jammed back into my chest irreparably changed.

This is going to be a book that is impossible to review accurately and effectively as I really don’t want to spoil the story for other readers . Consequently, I’m not going to focus too much about the plot except to say that While I Was Sleeping has some surprises along the way, much humour, searing honesty and a depth of emotion that is unparalleled. I was so fortunate that I was able to read it in one sitting on a long haul flight as Dani Atkins has crafted a tale that I couldn’t tear myself from. I was so entirely absorbed that I had no notion of what was happening around me.

The limited and beautifully defined cast of characters means that the reader becomes intimately involved with them, living alongside Maddie, Chloe and Ryan as their lives intersect with an intensity that is almost too much to bear at times. My own loyalties fluctuated between them all until I was as emotionally invested in the outcomes as they were themselves.

While I Was Sleeping is so skilfully written. Dani Atkins is fabulously clever in being an impartial persona behind Maddie and Chloe’s voices so that I found my loyalties vacillated frequently, perfectly mirroring what was happening in the book.

I thought the way the relationships were presented was utterly magnificent, as were all the themes of love, loyalty, nature, nurture, health and grief.

I am aware that this review is slightly vague, but I truly feel that more detail might spoil for others a tear jerking, heart rending story that hit me like a sledge hammer and left me emotionally wrung out. What I will say is that I thought While I Was Sleeping was completely fantastic and you should read it for yourself to find out why.

About Dani Atkins

Dani Atkins was born in London, and grew up in Cockfosters, Hertfordshire. She moved to a small village in 1984, where she has lived ever since in a 350-year-old cottage with her husband, two (now grown-up) children, one Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie.

Dani has been writing for fun all her life, but following the 2013 publication of her novel Fractured (published as Then and Always in the US), has made writing her full-time career. Her other novels include The Story of Us (2014); Our Song (2016); Perfect Strangers (a standalone eBook novella published in December 2016) and This Love (2017). In 2018 This Love won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award at the RoNAs ceremony in London. Her new novel, While I Was Sleeping, was published in August 2018.

You can find Dani on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @AtkinsDani.

My enormous thanks to the lovely Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books for sending me a copy of L V Hay’s Do No Harm in return for an honest review.

Do No Harm is available for purchase through the links here.

Do No Harm

Till death do us part…

After leaving her marriage to jealous, possessive oncologist Maxwell, Lily and her six-year-old son have a second chance at happiness with headteacher Sebastian. Kind but vulnerable, Sebastian is the polar opposite of Maxwell, and the perfect match for Lily. After a whirlwind romance, they marry, and that’s when things start to go wrong…

Maxwell returns to the scene, determined to win back his family, and events soon spiral out of control. Lily and Sebastian find themselves not only fighting for their relationship, but also their lives…

Chilling, dark and terrifying, Do No Harm is a taut psychological thriller and a study of obsession, from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.

My Review of Do No Harm

Maxwell is determined to upstage his ex-wife Lily’s marriage to Sebastian but this will only be the start of their problems.

Oh my word. What a super study of obsession and control from L V Hay in Do No Harm. I so enjoyed this read.

Perfectly and competently plotted, Do No Harm is fluidly and smoothly written so that it feels like a top class read. I guessed who had done what straight away – and then, of course, with such clever writing, had to keep changing my mind as L V Hay wrong footed me at every turn. This is a genuinely twisty story with surprises and shocks coming thick and fast. I thought the short chapters added a breathless pace too.

I loved the characterisation and because the focus is on Lily, Denny, Sebastian, Maxwell and Fran with few extraneous people, there’s a smashing level of intensity that enhances the obsessive theme of Do No Harm. At times I wanted to shake Lily even whilst I understood the reasons for her actions.

I also felt horribly fascinated by the way L V Hay shows how obsession can take over a person’s life and how easy it is to control and manipulate those around us. She illustrates perfectly the injustice of life and the ease with which we can be taken over by others.

Do No Harm is a brilliantly entertaining read, and I found its impact lasted well after I had turned the final page. It left my belief in human nature shaken and disturbed. I thoroughly recommend it.

About L V Hay

Lucy V. Hay is a novelist, script editor and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy. She is the associate producer of Brit Thrillers Deviation (2012) and Assassin (2015), both starring Danny Dyer. Lucy is also head reader for the London Screenwriters’ Festival and has written two non-fiction books, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays, and its follow-up Drama Screenplays.

Lucy lives in Devon with her husband, three children, six cats and five African Land Snails.

You can find out more by following L V Hay on Twitter @LucyVHayAuthor, visiting her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

My grateful thanks to Millie Seaward at Little Brown for a surprise copy of The Ruin by Dervla Mc Tiernan in return for an honest review.

Published by Sphere, an imprint of Little Brown, The Ruin is available for purchase here.

The Ruin

February 1993

On his first week on the job, Garda Cormac Reilly responds to a call at a decrepit country house to find two silent, neglected children waiting for him – fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lies dead upstairs.

March 2013

Twenty years later, Cormac has left his high-flying career as a detective in Dublin and returned to Galway. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him.

What ties a recent suicide to the woman’s death so long ago? And who among his new colleagues can Cormac really trust?

My Review of The Ruin

Rookie police officer Cormac Reilly little realises how far into the future his first case will reverberate.

I really enjoyed The Ruin and feel the explanation of the title given by the author fits the smashing contents of this book perfectly, but I don’t want to spoil the story by saying too much about why!

Cormac Reilly is a fabulously well developed and interesting character whom the reader warms to instantly. Dervla McTiernan has such a sophisticated and easy style to read and I loved the way Cormac’s back story is drip fed into The Ruin but isn’t entirely revealed so that there will be so much to enjoy in any future book with him at the centre. I felt I was meeting someone who will become a firm friend and I already care about what happens to him because he didn’t feel like a character in a book, but rather someone I knew personally.

Both plot and sub plot in The Ruin are elegantly constructed and weave together in a beautifully orchestrated dance. The themes of abuse and corruption, sadly only too familiar in recent history, provide a depth that adds extra dimensions that elevate The Ruin above just another police procedural story into a satisfying and layered read that really attracts the reader’s attention. I frequently felt an emotional response as I read. I love it when a book makes me exclaim ‘No! Don’t do that’ as I become so engrossed in what is happening. Dervla Mc Tiernan has the ability to do that to her readers in spades. The variety of sentence construction and the overall quality of the writing makes for spell binding reading. Again, I’m not going to spoil the plot for other readers by saying much about it. Just believe me when I say it’s a cracker!

The Ruin may be a debut novel, but it is so assured, so interesting and so entertaining that I may just have found a new favourite author in Dervla McTiernan. I urge you to discover her too!

About Dervla McTiernan

Dervla McTiernan was born in County Cork, Ireland to a family of seven. She studied corporate law at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Law Society of Ireland, and practiced as a lawyer for twelve years. Following the global financial crisis she moved with her family to Western Australia, where she now works for the Mental Health Commission. She lives in Perth with her husband and two children.

Find out more about Dervla by following her on Twitter @DervlaMcTiernan and visiting her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I’d like to thank Jaime Frost at Harper Collins for sending me a surprise copy of The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp by Sarra Manning in return for an honest review.

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp is published by Harper Collins and is available for purchase through the links here.

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

An hilarious contemporary retelling of the classic society novel, Vanity Fair, featuring the irrepressible Becky Sharp

Beautiful, brilliant, ruthless – nothing can stop Becky Sharp.

Becky Sharp has big dreams and no connections. Determined to swap the gutters of Soho for the glamorous, exclusive world behind the velvet rope, Becky will do anything to achieve fame, riches and status.

Whether it’s seducing society’s most eligible bachelors, or befriending silly debutantes and rich old ladies, Becky Sharp is destined for great things. Because it might be tough at the top but it’s worse at the bottom.

From London to Paris and beyond, Becky Sharp is going places – so get the hell out of her way…

My Review of The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

The final of Big Brother is coming to an end and life is about to change dramatically for Becky Sharp.

I have a couple of confessions. Firstly, I have never been able to read Vanity Fair as I found Becky Sharp so intensely irritating I never finished it so that I am unable to make any comparisons with Thackery’s narrative and secondly I thought the first chapter to The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp was going to lead to a contrived retelling of someone else’s ideas. I was wrong. I think I got off on the wrong reader foot because I loathe Big Brother but as soon as that episode was completed I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s vicious, witty and very very clever.

Becky Sharp is an absolute triumph. Sarra Manning made me hate her and admire her in equal measure. I completely understood her driving force and empathised with it whilst abhorring her methodology so that I found her utterly fascinating. Becky Sharp epitomises all that is wrong in modern society in a glorious, vituperative package that I couldn’t help but admire.

All the characters work so well together. And it is the brilliant manipulation by Becky that orchestrates the entire novel incredibly effectively. I felt sorry for those in her thrall and quite gratified if any of them managed to outwit her, however briefly.

I loved the modern setting of this story. Our reliance on the superficiality of social media and branding is brilliantly handled and woven throughout, making the events absolutely believable.

So, having begun The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp with sceptical trepidation, I found I was enormously entertained by Sarra Manning’s faultless, effervescent style and lively writing so that I thoroughly enjoyed Becky’s adventures. I’d love to know what she gets up to next in any sequel as I’m sure she hasn’t finished her adventures yet!

About Sarra Manning

Sarra Manning is an author and journalist. Her novels include Unsticky, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me and The House Of Secrets.

Sarra has written both adult and YA novels and has contributed to The Guardian, ELLE, Grazia, Stylist, Fabulous, Stella, You Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and is currently the Literary Editor of Red magazine.

Sarra lives in London.

You can find Sarra on Instagram or Facebook and follow her on Twitter @sarramanning for more information.

When One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis was published I was lucky enough to interview Emma here all about it.  Today I’m thrilled to share the second of my holiday reads and to review When I Find You, Emma’s latest book. My grateful thanks both to the author and to Hannah Bright at Penguin Random House for sending me a copy in return for an honest review.

Published by Black Swan, an imprint of Penguin Random House, When I Find You is available for purchase through these links.

When I Find You

What do you do when someone takes advantage of your greatest weakness?

When Laura wakes up after her office Christmas party and sees a man’s shirt on the floor, she is horrified. But this is no ordinary one-night-stand regret.

Laura suffers from severe face-blindness, a condition that means she is completely unable to identify and remember faces. So the man she spent all night dancing with and kissing – the man she thought she’d brought home – was ‘Pink Shirt’.

But the shirt on her floor is blue.

And now Laura must go to work every day, and face the man who took advantage of her condition. The man she has no way of recognising.

She doesn’t know who he is . . . but when she finds him she’ll make him pay.

My Review of When I Find You

Suffering from face blindness, prosopagnosia, Laura finds it difficult to navigate life.

What an interesting and absorbing read When I Find You is. I confess it took me a while to rid myself of the simple question of why Laura didn’t simply tell everyone about her condition so that she didn’t need to struggle to identify them so much. Once I had finished reading this complex, well researched and totally twisty narrative, I understood perfectly. What a devastating condition! I loved the way Emma Curtis educated me as well as entertained me.

But not only did When I Find You educate and entertain me, it perplexed me and made me think too. I had to change my mind about the perpetrator of the crime several times over, and more importantly I think, I had to consider what constitutes consensual sexual intercourse and how far Laura could be said to be to blame for what happens to her. I’ve finished When I Find You feeling rather unsettled and that is no bad thing at all.

I really enjoyed the writer’s style as Emma Curtis balances Laura, Rebecca and David so perfectly. None is perfect and the reader is made to see how easy it is to commit an untruth at best and a serious crime at worst as our lives are so often at the mercy of others. I thoroughly enjoyed the insight into corporate and family life too as Emma Curtis touches on love and loyalty, secrets and lies, honesty and the concept of belonging and feeling alienated regardless of the effect of Laura’s condition. This may be a thriller but it is also a book about humanity.

However, all the well researched medical conditions and fascinating themes aside, what the reader actually has here in Emma Curtis’s When I Find You is a fantastic, manipulative and heart- thumpingly good story. As the story raced to its conclusion I had no idea how it might actually resolve itself as my guesses along the way had been wrong.

I took When I Find You on a trip and it was perfect holiday reading, making me look at those around me in a whole new light! I really recommend it.

About Emma Curtis

Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to write her acclaimed debut novel, One Little Mistake. When I Find You is her second thriller.

You can follow Emma on Twitter @emmacurtisbooks and find her on Facebook.

I’ve been meaning to read The Truth About You, Me and Us by Kate Field for simply ages and on my recent (curtailed early because of Typhoon Mangkhut) holiday I finally got to it. I’m so glad I did and am delighted to share my review today – especially as it is publication week for Kate’s latest book The Winter That Made Us and I hadn’t been able to participate in that tour as I was expecting to be away.

Published by Accent Press, The Truth About You, Me and Us is available for purchase through these links.

The Truth About You, Me and Us

Five years ago Helen Walters walked out on her ‘perfect’ life with the ‘perfect’ man. Wealthy, glamorous and bored, she longed for something more.

Now a talented artist with a small business, Helen creates crazy patchwork crafts to support her young daughter, Megan. Penniless, content and single, she is almost unrecognisable.

But when her past unexpectedly collides with her new life, Helen finds herself torn. She knows what the easiest choice is, but is it what she wants?

My Review of The Truth About You, Me and Us

When Helen thinks she sees Daniel, her perfect man from five years previously, little does she realise what life has in store.

Oh, I just loved The Truth About You, Me and Us. I kept asking myself why I hadn’t read Kate Field before and wondering why she hasn’t yet reached the stellar heights of huge household names because if The Truth About You, Me and Us is anything to go by she deserves her place amongst the very best. I thought this story was utterly delightful and a perfect example of truly romantic women’s fiction. There’s such an ease in Kate Field’s style that reading her work is like touching silk or satin. It’s smooth, high quality and oh so satisfying.

I thought the plot was deftly constructed and completely tantalising. I was desperate for Helen to find happiness and I certainly had a personal preference between the two male protagonists as possible partners for her. I really appreciated the way in which Kate Field wove themes of relationships, trust, secrets and loyalty into her narrative so that she kept me guessing how the story could be resolved. I also adored the way the narrative was constructed so that Helen’s past was gradually revealed without recourse to time slip in an incredibly skilled way.

I have mentioned before that I’m not keen on children and frequently find their depiction contrived in fiction, but Megan was perfectly created. The catalyst for so much of the action, she felt realistic and important without dominating. Helen too felt real, warm and vivid so that I was on her side from the very first sentence to the final full stop. But for me it was Daniel and Joel who really took centre stage and I actually forgot that they are not real men so that I thought about them when I wasn’t reading The Truth About You, Me and Us and I had several things I wanted to say to both of them to help life along for Helen. I think it takes a highly skilled writer to convince a reader they are witnessing real life.

The Truth About You, Me and Us is completely wonderful. It’s difficult not to sound clichéd but I found it heart warming, romantic, and, cleverly, equally realistic and escapist so that it is perfectly balanced and the kind of novel I want to return to time after time. The Truth About You, Me and Us made me happy and gladdened my heart and what could be better than that? It’s a gorgeous read and I recommend you add it to your reading pile immediately!

About Kate Field

Kate Field lives in Lancashire with her husband, daughter and cat. Her debut novel, The Magic of Ramblings, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award for new writers.

You can follow Kate Twitter @katehaswords and find her on Facebook.

My enormous thanks to Alainna Hadjigeorgiou at Orion for sending me a copy of The After Wife in return for an honest review and to her and Tracy Fenton for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

Published by Trapeze, an imprint of Orion, The After Wife is available for purchase here.

The After Wife

“I saw you, and I knew instantly that I could grow old with you. We’d be future-proof.”

When Rachel and Aidan fell in love, they thought it was forever.
She was a brilliant, high-flying scientist. He was her loving and supportive husband.
Now she’s gone, and Aidan must carry on and raise their daughter alone.
But Rachel has left behind her life’s work, a gift of love to see them through the dark days after her death.

A gift called iRachel.

The After Wife is an emotional story about love, loss, longing and belonging. For readers who loved The Time Traveller’s Wife, Me Before You and The Lovely Bones.

My Review of The After Wife

When Rachel dies, she hasn’t quite finished with husband Aiden and daughter Chloe.

My goodness me. What a book! Now, I must admit, The After Wife wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought I’d be reading very successful ‘women’s fiction’ and I was, but there are so many more layers to this story and so many ways in which it can be appreciated and enjoyed that I think it is quite brilliant. I hadn’t quite reckoned on the potent power of the artificial intelligence side of the writing so that I felt Cass Hunter has produced a modern, humane and totally convincing tale worthy of being compared with the very best of Isaac Asimov or Margaret Atwood, for example. I was entertained by the narrative, and highly emotionally invested in the characters, but I didn’t realise The After Wife would make me think quite so much too. As a result of reading this book I really had to question what it is that makes us human and gives us our unique identity.

And the identities of the characters are so well drawn. Cass Hunter knows exactly how grief can manifest itself and paints a compelling and affecting picture as Aiden and Chloe come to grips with Rachel’s death. I believed in every aspect of them as people and every action they carried out. Even the more peripheral characters like Jess are clear and realistic, but it is iRachel who is the most hypnotic. I couldn’t quite believe how Cass Hunter was able to manipulate my feelings towards what is, in effect, a pre-programmed robot. I wanted iRachel to succeed as she became as real to me as any character I have ever read about.

The After Wife has a hugely entertaining and interesting plot. Cynically I was expecting it to be somewhat unrealistic. It was, instead, completely convincing.  However, I feel the plot is almost incidental to the exploration of the themes of love, identity and humanity. The writing is poignant and beautifully crafted so that I felt as if I were part of the story too because my emotions were so invested in the people and outcomes. I confess I cried and had iRachel had a wrist band to monitor my heart rate she’d have had a very wide range of data to process!

I absolutely loved The After Wife. It’s such a compelling insight into who we are, what makes us human and how our lives need to be lived to the full. I’d defy anyone reading The After Wife not to look at themselves and their own relationships differently. It will resonate in my life for a very long time. I thought it was fabulous.

About Cass Hunter

Cass Hunter was born in South Africa and moved to the UK in 2000. She lives in North London with her husband and two sons. She is an avid lifelong learner, and works at a London university. Cass Hunter is the pen name of Rosie Fiore, whose novels include After Isabella, What She Left, Babies in Waiting and Wonder Women.

You can follow Cass on Twitter @C_HunterAuthor or as Rosie Fiore and visit her website for more details.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

My enormous thanks to Lynda Stacey for an advanced reader copy of The Fake Date, her new psychological thriller, in return for an honest review. I have been lucky enough to meet Lynda in person and to feature her on Linda’s Book Bag before so I was delighted to have the opportunity to read The Fake Date. Previously, Lynda wrote a fascinating guest post about her protagonist when House of Secrets was published that you can read here and I was privileged to interview Lynda here when she released House of Christmas Secrets.

Published by Ruby Fiction on 18th September 2018, The Fake Date is available for pre-order through the links here.

The Fake Date

Nine hours and eleven minutes …

That’s how long it’s been since Ella Hope was beaten to within an inch of life and left for dead.

She lies, unable to move and praying for somebody to find her, as she counts down the minutes and wonders who could have hated her so much to have hurt her so badly.

Was it the man she went on a date with the previous evening, the man linked to the deaths of two other women?

Or somebody else, somebody who wants her out of the picture so much they’re willing to kill?

Whoever it is, they will pay. All Ella has to do first is survive …

My Review of The Fake Date

Brutally beaten and almost dead, Ella is determined to survive.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Fake Date because, although it starts in the aftermath of considerable violence to Ella, it has a greater subtlety and menace throughout than just overt violence, especially through the first person italicised sections as we are kept guessing as to the identity of the person behind them. They contrast so well with the third person structure of the rest of the story. The atmospheric references to nature too, give a satisfying balance adding light and shade to the story.

The Fake Date has an exciting plot, particularly as it reaches its denouement and right to the end I wasn’t quite sure what might happen. There are several surprises along the way making for a really engaging read, but it’s difficult to say too much without spoiling the story for others. I also enjoyed the romantic elements that give an extra dimension to the thriller aspects so that there is something for all readers to enjoy in this story.

Lynda Stacey cleverly weaves in the psychological features so that the reasons for the way the characters behave are gradually uncovered. I liked the sensitivity with which she outlined how Ella’s experience created more than physical scars for her life and those around her. I got a clear picture of how crimes ripple and affect so many, not just their immediate victims and the perpetrators, so that reading The Fake Date gave me much to ponder as well as being very entertaining. Again, it’s difficult to say too much about the characters as they are so integral to the plot, but each person is an important element and together they lead to a very satisfying narrative.

What I most enjoyed about The Fake Date, however, was the exploration of the way society behaves, particularly through newspapers and reporters. I thoroughly appreciated the depiction of a character like Bobby, or the manipulative court room scene, or the dynamics between genders because I felt Lynda Stacey was shining a highly realistic and convincing spotlight on what, sadly, does happen in the real world.

The Fake Date is such an enjoyable and engaging read on so many levels that I’m sure every reader will find an aspect that grips them. I can recommend it!

About Lynda Stacey

Lynda, is a wife, step-mother and grandmother, she grew up in the mining village of Bentley, Doncaster, in South Yorkshire.

She is currently the Sales Director of a stationery, office supplies and office furniture company in Doncaster, where she has worked for the past 25 years. Prior to this she’d also been a nurse, a model, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor … and yes, she was crazy enough to dive in the sea with sharks, without a cage. Following a car accident in 2008, Lynda was left with limited mobility in her right arm. Unable to dive or teach anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby she’d followed avidly since being a teenager.

Her own life story, along with varied career choices helps Lynda to create stories of romantic suspense, with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances) very happy endings.

Lynda joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and in 2015, her debut novel House of Secrets won the Choc Lit & Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star competition.

She lives in a small rural hamlet near Doncaster, with her ‘hero at home husband’, Haydn, whom she’s been happily married to for over 20 years.

You can follow Lynda on Twitter @LyndaStacey, find her on Facebook and visit her website.