My enormous thanks to Natasha Finn At DK Books for sending me a copy of the children’s book Make Art With Nature by Pippa Pixley in return for an honest review. What better way to celebrate World Book Day than by sharing my review?

Published by DK Books today, 7th March 2024, Make Art With Nature is available for purchase through the links here.

Make Art With Nature

Artist Pippa Pixley shows children how to make amazing art with materials found in nature in this hands-on book.

Get creative and make incredible pieces of art using rocks, wood, berries, flowers, and leaves in this nature craft book for children ages 7-9.

Find out how the very earth beneath your feet can be used to make paints and pastels, and how flowers can be repurposed to create inks. Children can learn how to pour paint onto a canvas, how to put pencil to paper and draw, how bits of old paper can make a beautiful collage, and how different mediums can come together to create incredible prints through nature.

Inside this hands-on craft book for children, you’ll find:

– Plenty of tips and techniques on how to draw, paint, print and collage, through easy-to-follow instructions.
– Art through nature encourages children to explore outside and find natural materials to make art.
– A clear layout divided into different art forms; drawing, collaging, painting and printing, so you can easily find the section you’re looking for.

Become inspired in Make Art with Nature, as Pippa takes you into the outdoors and shows you a wide range of artistic techniques, from understanding basic colour theory, to creating texture, movement, and fluidity in your own work. Kids will love learning how to master different art forms, but also how to make their own art supplies whilst getting outside and exploring nature.

My Review of Make Art With Nature

A children’s art book based on the natural world.

Wow. What a stunning book.

In common with all the DK children’s books I’ve encountered this one is produced to an exceptionally high standard with a very robust cover making Make Art With Nature durable in settings where it will get a lot of use. The endpapers are bright and colourful with a leaf motif that reflects the natural element of the book and throughout there are vibrant, engaging and colourful illustrations that work in fantastic tandem with the writing. I thought the inclusion of occasional photographs of the author, Pippa Pixley gave Make Art With Nature an intimate flavour when coupled with the font style and the final author letter, as if the book had been written especially for the young reader personally, making it a wonderful gift book.

Make Art With Nature would be fantastic to use in educational settings because, as well as the physical attributes I’ve mentioned, it has a clear table of contents and an index that can support literacy work. It would be perfect for Forest School activities too. I liked the historical and geographical aspects such as cave art too, as I think they would make brilliant further research projects. There’s also clear health and safety advice with red bordered advice panels and warning triangles so that children know when to ask an adult to assist such as when wielding scissors.

However, one of its greatest successes is that Make Art With Nature is inclusive for children who don’t necessarily have access to outside space. Whilst some activities like Japanese dorodango (and no, I hadn’t heard of it either) would require outdoor access, other things like using red cabbage to make colours for artwork can be achieved in any home or setting. Next time I burn my toast, I won’t be throwing the scrapings away!

I thought Make Art With Nature was absolutely wonderful. It is interesting, inspiring and inclusive. Although the stated target age range is 7-9 year olds, I can imagine children of all ages and adults alike being motivated to make their own art as a result of this fabulous book.

About Pippa Pixley

Pippa Pixley loves to combine her skills as an author and artist to create beautiful picture books.  She also loves to share her experience with children and their teachers, and with art groups and organisations.

For further information, visit Pippa’s website, follow her on Twitter/X @PippaPixley1 and find Pippa on Instagram and Facebook.

My grateful thanks to Sophie Goodfellow of FMcM for sending me a copy of This Could Be Us by Claire McGowan in return for an honest review. I’m delighted to share my review today.

Already available in other formats, This Could Be Us is released in paperback by Corsair on 7th March 2024 and is available for purchase through the links here.

This Could Be Us

Fifteen years ago, Kate walked out on her family. Moving across the world, from the suburbs of England to glamorous LA, she cut all ties to her former existence and started afresh. Her ex-husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces, caring for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. But Kate’s past has finally caught up with her. Now, she must return to the life she abandoned and reckon with what she did.

Following a fractured family over a period of twenty years, This Could Be Us is an extraordinarily moving story of family, guilt, love and hope.

My Review of This Could Be Us

Kate’s life is imploding.

This Could Be Us is an uncomfortable, powerful and affecting story about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances who behave deplorably badly and bravely heroically in a messy, wonderful, exploration of what it is to try to live your life. At times there’s an almost dystopian feel to the narrative and yet terrifyingly, it is so firmly rooted in our present world. 

Initially I wasn’t keen on the the plot structure as Kate’s past is interwoven with her present day timeline and with dated parts relating to Andrew, because I had to concentrate on what was happening when. That was until I realised that the fragmented, disjointed pattern was in fact highly skilled in conveying how Kate feels shattered and broken by Kirsty’s birth and rare disability and how our lives are not simply linear, but ebb and flow with different experiences and emotions that are not always easy to contemplate or deal with. In fact, the structure of This Could Be Us is absolutely right for the story.

The characters are complex, humane and layered. I can see how those with a strong maternal instinct might find Kate’s relationship with her children hard to accept, but I thought she conveyed a raw honesty in her anger and grief that was eminently understandable. Her flaws are huge but she is so intelligently portrayed that she engenders true compassion. Her actions afford redemption as well as sanction so that reading about Kate leads the reader to question their own acceptance of morality.

I found Olivia equally fascinating because her role in Andrew, Kirsty and Adam’s life is almost unsettling. With an awkward relationship with her own daughter because of Olivia’s mental health, she simultaneously has a dynamism and strength that illustrates how we all function on different levels with sometimes conflicting personas depending on our situations. Olivia is stoic, unstable, weak and courageous.

What Claire McGowan does in This Could Be Us is to strip back each individual – even the seemingly impermeable Connor – and lay them raw and vulnerable in front of the reader in a powerful, visceral and emotive way. 

The themes of the novel are equally powerful. There’s an exploration of the practicalities of raising a child with profound challenges that is so vivid it made me appreciate my own life all the more. Elements of parenthood, mental health, addiction, insecurity, the need to belong and be appreciated are just some of the aspects to be found here, but above all else there is an exploration of family and how that is a fluid, amorphous definition. I didn’t find This Could Be Us an easy read, and although it’s quite brief it took me a long time because it is so intense, but I found it a compelling and important one. 

This Could Be Us is a story that could, in a twist of fate, belong to any one of us and shows to perfection that we should never judge others until we have walked in their shoes. It is a book to make you rage, weep and storm and I found it both searing and unforgettable.  

About Claire McGowan

Claire McGowan was born in 1981 in a small Irish village where the most exciting thing that ever happened was some cows getting loose on the road. She published her first novel in 2012 and followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre, as well as in women’s fiction, writing as Eva Woods.

She has had three radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and her thrillers, What You Did and The Other Wife both went to number one on Kindle in the US and UK.

She ran the UK’s first MA in crime writing for five years, and regularly teaches and talks about writing. Her first non-fiction project, the true-crime book The Vanishing Triangle, was released in 2022.

For further information, follow Claire on Twitter/X @inkstainsclaire or visit her website. You’ll also find Claire on Instagram and Facebook.

T.M. Logan is one of my favourite authors of thrillers so I am delighted to participate in the blog tour for his latest book The Dream Home by sharing my review today. My enormous thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to participate in the blog tour.

You’ll find my reviews of T.M. Logan’s The Mother, The Curfew and 29 Seconds here.

The Dream Home was published by Zaffre on 29th February 2024 and is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

The Dream Home

Adam and Jess move into a new house with their three young children: a rambling Victorian villa in a nice neighbourhood right at the very top of their price range. Before long Adam discovers a door hidden behind a fitted wardrobe, concealing a secret room . . .

Inside Adam discovers a collection of forgotten items: a wallet, an expensive watch and an old mobile phone. Jess thinks they should simply throw them away. But Adam resists. He is fascinated by these items and how they came to be inside the hidden room.

But like the house, Adam has his secrets too. And soon he will find himself setting in motion a series of events that will place his family in terrible danger . . .

My Review of The Dream Home

Jess and Adam are moving into a new home.

Captivating from the very first sentence, The Dream Home is T.M. Logan at his very best. This is a story thrumming with menace and skilfully plotted so that it’s a really exciting and engrossing read that is impossible to predict. It’s also hugely entertaining. 

I loved the way the named, italicised passages are dropped into the narrative as extra hooks that compel the reader on. They are highly effective because they give the reader an insight that isn’t immediately obvious to Adam and this increases the tension. The pace is rapid and compelling and the closer to the end the reader gets, the faster their heart rate becomes. Throughout the story threatening occurrences feel only too plausible so that The Dream Home is taut and unsettling. Adding in the more prosaic, contrasting, aspects of Adam’s life in dealing with his young children, getting meals and doing the school run, for example, only adds to the sense of threat and peril when their life in their new home begins to unravel because they make the reader realise this level of danger and drama might be waiting for any one of us. 

Adam is an interesting character. He infuriated me because he withholds information from Jess, and because he sometimes behaves rashly, and yet I admired him too in his attempt to resolve the mysteries of the house, to find the links between the eclectic collection of items he discovers, and his desperation to protect his family. In fact, my conflicting feelings about Adam served to increase the impact of the book because I found my response to him somewhat conflicted and unbalanced – rather like the way he behaves at times.

Other characters are equally engaging and interesting. With T.M. Logan’s skilful writing, it’s impossible to know who can be trusted and who might be behind the threatening, terrifying events that occur when the Wylie family move into their dream home. I even wondered whether Jess herself might be the perpetrator, but you’ll need to read The Dream Home yourself to see how close to the truth I was! I also loved the sense of place. Having studied post-grad at Nottingham University I felt the way T.M. Logan described the city, and the area Jess and Adam are living in particularly, was so vivid it made the setting a character in its own right.

But The Dream Home is so much more than a cracking thriller. Themes within the story give it depth and layers. The overworked police, the sense of family and what a person might do to protect their loved ones, the role of employment in identity, our modern dependence on technology, the way in which those who are missing are often seen as unimportant or expendable, for example, all mean that the reader thinks about the story long after it is finished.

The Dream Home is an addictive, fast paced thriller that simply has to be consumed in as few sessions as possible because it’s impossible not to want to know what happens next. I absolutely loved it, but be warned. Your life won’t be your own if you choose to read The Dream Home. It’s too good to set aside for a moment! 

About T.M. Logan

TM Logan’s thrillers have sold more than a million copies in the UK and been translated into 22 other languages for publication around the world.

His thriller, Trust Me, begins when a woman is asked to look after a stranger’s baby on a train – only for the mother to vanish. When she looks in the baby’s things, she finds a note that says: ‘Please protect Mia. Don’t trust the police. Don’t trust anyone.’

The Curfew, coming March 2022, follows the events of a hot midsummer’s night, when five teenagers go up to the woods to celebrate the end of exams, and only four come out…

Tim’s thriller The Holiday was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and spent ten weeks in the Sunday Times paperback top ten. It has since won a Nielsen Bestseller Award and been made into a four-part TV drama with Jill Halfpenny for Channel 5. The Catch recently aired on Channel 5 too.

A former national newspaper journalist, Tim has recently moved house!

For further information, exclusive writing, new releases and a FREE deleted scene from Tim, sign up to the Readers’ Club on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @TMLoganAuthor, or find him on Facebook and on Instagram.

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I cannot thank Becky Hunter enough for sending me a copy of Clare Mackintosh’s latest book I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This in return for an honest review. I adore Clare’s fiction (and you’ll find my reviews of other Clare Mackintosh books here), so I was intrigued to discover I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is non-fiction. I’m delighted to share my review of I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This today.

Published by Little Brown imprint Sphere on 7th March 2024, I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is available for pre-order through the publisher links here.

As many of you know, I am part of the organising committee for the Deepings Literary Festival, and I’m beside myself with excitement as I’ll be interviewing Clare Mackintosh about her writing on Saturday 4th of May, so do head to the website and book a ticket to join us or to see other authors as they are selling fast!

I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This

Grief is universal, but it’s also as unique to each of us as the person we’ve lost. It can be overwhelming, exhausting, lonely, unreasonable, there when we least expect it and seemingly never-ending. Wherever you are with your grief and whoever you’re grieving for, I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is here to support you. To tell you, until you believe it, that things will get easier.

When bestselling writer Clare Mackintosh lost her five-week-old son, she searched for help in books. All of them wanted to tell her what she should be feeling and when she should be feeling it, but the truth – as she soon found out – is that there are no neat, labelled stages for grief, or crash grief-diets to relieve us of our pain. What we need when we’re grieving is time and understanding. With 18 short assurances that are full of compassion – drawn from Clare’s experiences of losing her son and her father – I Promise it Won’t Always Hurt Like This is the book she needed then.

My Review of I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This

A book offering 18 assurances about dealing with grief.

If I say that I had tears in my eyes simply reading the introduction to I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This, you’ll understand what an important, impactful and inspirational book it is. I simply could not have adored, or needed, it more. 

I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is divided into 18 chapters, or rather, promises that can be read as I did in the order they are presented, or dipped into. Even reading the chapter headings, presented as they are like a poem, is like finding a life raft when you’ve been adrift in a sea of grief. 

There’s enormous impact in Clare Mackintosh’s honest, raw and self aware writing. She does not spare herself her emotions of grief, rage and joy even when they feel at odds with how the world might view her. Because she addresses the reader directly using the pronoun ‘you’ and because she has lived the very depths of personal grief, I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is utterly convincing, sensitively written and intimate. I can genuinely envisage it providing such strength and understanding to a grieving person that it might actually save their life.

Through sharing her grief about her son Alex, Clare Mackintosh gives the reader permission to claim their own grief in whatever way that manifests itself and for whatever length of time it takes. This might be a book about grief, but it is equally a magnificent book about humanity, hope and kindness and one that I feel privileged to have read. Again, I couldn’t have loved it more. 

I found I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This relatable, cathartic and terribly, terribly moving. I cried for Clare, for Alex, and not just for those I’ve lost, but for the state of the world, identifying a grief I hadn’t realised I was harbouring. Through Clare’s honesty and pain I have come to a greater understanding of myself as well as those around me – especially my niece and her husband whose daughter Emma Faith died just 90 minutes before birth at full term and who would have been celebrating her 8th birthday this month. I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This feels like a tribute to them all and I thank Clare Mackintosh for it. 

Don’t buy a copy of this book. Buy several and press them into the hands of those you love and into the hands of complete strangers. Leave copies in places they will be found by people you’ll never meet. They may not need its wisdom, its humanity and its kindness right now, but someday I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This WILL be the very thing they need at that very moment. Make sure it’s waiting for them when they are ready to read it. It’s a wonderful, wonderful book.

About Clare Mackintosh

Clare Mackintosh is a police officer turned crime writer, and the multi-award-winning author of six Sunday Times bestselling novels. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide and have spent a combined total of sixty-eight weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart. Clare lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

For further information visit Clare’s website, follow Clare on Twitter/X @ClareMackint0sh or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

I rarely read autobiography or memoir, but when the lovely folk at ed. Public Relations sent me a surprise copy of Lesley Pearse’s autobiography The Long and Winding Road it went straight to the top of my TBR. It’s my pleasure to share my review of The Long and Winding Road today.

I’ve been a fan of Lesley Pearse for a very long time – way before I started blogging – and have even had the privilege of asking questions of her in an online interview a few years ago. Lesley has featured on Linda’s Book Bag several times in posts you will find here.

Published in hardback by Penguin Michael Joseph yesterday, 29th February 2024, The Long and Winding Road is available for purchase through the links here.

The Long and Winding Road

One of the world’s bestselling storytellers, Lesley Pearse writes brilliantly about survivors. Why? Because she is one herself . . .

Born during the Second World War, Lesley’s innocence came to an abrupt end when a neighbour found her, aged 3, coatless in the snow. The mother she’d been unable to wake had been dead for days. Sent to an orphanage, Lesley soon learned adults couldn’t always be trusted.

As a teenager in the swinging sixties, she took herself to London. Here, the second great tragedy of her life occurred. Falling pregnant, she was sent to a mother and baby home, and watched helplessly as her newborn was taken from her.

But like so many of her generation, Lesley had to carry on. She was, after all, a true survivor. Marriage and children followed – and all the while she nurtured a dream: to be a writer. Yet it wasn’t until at the age of 48 that her stories – of women struggling in a difficult world – found a publisher, and the bestseller lists beckoned.

As heartbreaking as it is heartwarming, Lesley’s story really is A Long and Winding Road with surprises and uplifting hope around every corner . . .

My Review of The Long and Winding Road

Truth is stranger than fiction.

For someone who isn’t really interested in autobiography, I found The Long and Winding Road an absolute belter of a read! Lesley Pearse might be known for writing riveting domestic dramas, but her own life outstrips them all.

What works so well here is the conversational style Lesley Pearse uses. It is as if she is speaking directly and confidentially to the reader alone, making them feel special in the process. Her style is so engaging and The Long and Winding Road opens every bit as dramatically as any of the author’s fiction. It’s one of those books the reader consumes with wide eyes and jaw dropped because the events that befell Lesley were incredible. It seems fitting that her father was once in the navy as the structure of this memoir is very much like being on a stormy sea with great peaks and troughs to the waves of writing and experience.

In amongst the most revealing, honest and heartfelt prose are some fabulous throw away lines that simply stop the reader in their tracks and bring not only Lesley’s existence, but the eras she’s writing about, into sharp focus. Societal attitudes have played a huge part in Lesley Pearse’s life and reading The Long and Winding Road left me with huge admiration for her as a person as well as an author. Indeed, the passages relating to her pregnancy when she was nineteen and what has happened since reduced me to tears.

I loved the references to her fiction titles and how she has drawn on some of her own experiences to create character and plot. I’d like to say more about this aspect, but The Long and Winding Road is every bit as twisty, exciting and imbued with humanity and themes of feminism, poverty, self-resilience and grit as any of Lesley Pearse’s books and I really don’t want to spoil the read for others. What we have here is a person who presents herself with all her flaws and strengths and who makes her reader fall in love with her.

Reading The Long and Winding Road only served to confirm what I already knew – Lesley Pearse is a consummate story teller. However, it also proved that she is the most amazing woman too. As someone not a huge fan of autobiography I’d have to say that this is one simply not to be missed. It’s fabulous – even if it might put you off trifle!

About Lesley Pearse

International bestselling author Lesley Pearse has lived a life as rich with incidents, setbacks and joys as any found in her novels.

Resourceful, determined and willing to have a go at almost anything, Lesley left home at sixteen. By the mid sixties she was living in London, sharing flats, partying hard and married to a trumpet player in a jazz-rock band. She has also worked as a nanny and a Playboy bunny, and designed and made clothes to sell to boutiques.

It was only after having three daughters that Lesley began to write. The hardships, traumas, close friends and lovers from those early years were inspiration for her beloved novels. She published her first book at forty-nine and has not looked back since.

Lesley is still a party girl.

You can follow Lesley on Twitter/X @LesleyPearse, and find her on Facebook.

My huge thanks to Sophie Ransom and Poppy Delingpole for inviting me to participate in the launch celebrations for The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins.

I’m very excited to stay in with the fabulous Dani Atkins today to chat all about The Memory of Us because it’s already one of my books of the year! If you’re a regular visitor to Linda’s Book Bag you’ll be aware that I review online for My Weekly magazine and it was my privilege to review The Memory of Us a couple of weeks ago. You’ll find my review here.

Let’s see what Dani has to say about The Memory of Us:

Staying in with Dani Atkins

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

Thank you so much for inviting me. It’s quite nice to have an evening out away from our young puppy, Bo, who is quite a handful.

I imagine so. Bo must be distracting when you’re trying to write!

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

 

I have brought along my latest book The Memory of Us which came out on 15^thFebruary and would make a perfect gift if you forgot to buy your other half a card, flowers, or chocolates on Valentine’s Day.

Actually, Dani, I would say it would make a perfect gift for anyone at any time. I adored it.

For those who haven’t yet read it, what can we expect from an evening in with The Memory Of Us?

The Memory of Us is my tenth book, and like the ones that have come before it, you can expect to find a story where love, friendship, family, drama and perhaps even tragedy all feature. It’s strange, because I never set out with the intention of making readers cry. But looking back through my reviews – not just from early readers of this book, but also from my other titles – that seems to be something I hear quite a lot. I take it as an enormous compliment when someone tells me they’ve been in floods of tears when reading my book and that the story has affected them deeply. I also love hearing that people were reading into the early hours of the morning because they couldn’t bear to put the book down.

I think you might have just summed up my own reaction to The Memory of Us. Does your writing affect you too?

Lexi and Amelia – the two sisters who are the main characters in The Memory Of Us frequently kept me company in the small hours of the night while I was plotting their story and they also made me cry – a lot. So I feel very connected to readers who tell me Lexi and Amelia weren’t just characters on a page, but actually felt like people they knew as friends– because that is exactly how I feel about them.

I think anyone reading The Memory of Us can appreciate the heart and soul you poured into the writing Dani.

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

I would normally bring a bottle of Prosecco (my favourite tipple), but I know wine doesn’t agree with you, so I’ve gone a little rogue and have subbed it out with a bottle of Baileys. This drink is Christmas in a bottle as far as I am concerned. I absolutely adore it, but for some reason I never drink it once the holiday season is over. Which is crazy when it tastes so good. So I thought tonight we could make it a February drink and not just a December one.

Ha! It’s ordinary wine that doesn’t agree with me, so Prosecco (or champagne next time if you feel so inclined) would be fine, but Bailey’s is my favourite of all so I’m rather glad you brought it along!

I’ve also brought along some family photo albums (which will make sense to anyone who reads The Memory Of Us). My albums are from my family’s favourite holiday destination – Disneyworld. We have been there more times than I care to admit. And for a woman who is too scared to go on roller coasters, that tells you just how much I love it. It’s the one holiday destination that our entire family enjoy and while I might have thought it was one we’d only visit when our children were little, we are talking about going again – and my kids are now both in their thirties!

I look forward to seeing those, as Disneyworld is one place I’ve never been. Shall I put on some music too?

If we’re playing a little background music while we sip on our Baileys and look at photos of Mickey Mouse, then can it please be country music? It is all I currently listen to – we even have a country music station playing through the night for the dog! I think the reason why I love this genre so much is that virtually every song tells a story. Some of my books have even been inspired by the words from country songs – so it’s almost like research that you can sing along to.

How fascinating! I quite like country music but I’d prefer Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music myself. However, as you brought the Baileys and The Memory of Us is already on my list of favourite reads of 2024 I think we should go with the country. You never know, there might be a new Dani Atkins book coming as a result of this evening.

Thanks so much for chatting with me about The Memory of Us Dani. I adore it and will give readers a few more details whilst you pour the Baileys!

The Memory of Us

If you can’t trust your head, can you trust your heart?

If she had been found moments later, Amelia’s heart would have stopped and never recovered. Instead she was taken from the desolate beach to the nearest hospital just in time to save her life. When her sister Lexi arrives from New York, Amelia’s heart is beating, but the accident has implanted a series of false memories. These memories revolve around a man named Sam, and a perfect love story that never existed.

Determined to help her sister, Lexi enlists the help of Nick, a local vet who bears a striking resemblance to Sam. Together, Lexi and Nick recreate and photograph Amelia’s dream dates in the hopes of triggering her true memories.

But as love starts to stir between Lexi and Nick, they must navigate a complex web of emotions. How can Lexi fall for Amelia’s dream man without hurting her sister?

Filled with breathtaking romance, heart-wrenching emotion, the magic of destiny and the power of sisterhood, The Memory of Us is a must-read for fans of Holly Miller and Colleen Hoover.

Published by Head of Zeus (Aria) on 15th February 2024, The Memory of Us is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

About Dani Atkins

Dani Atkins is an award-winning novelist. Her 2013 debut Fractured (published as Then and Always in North America) has been translated into over twenty languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK.

Dani is the author of eight other bestselling novels (The Story of Us, Our Song, This Love, While I Was Sleeping, A Million Dreams, A Sky Full of Stars, The Wedding Dress, Six Days) and Perfect Strangers, a standalone eBook novella. In 2018 This Love won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award at the RNA awards in London and in 2022 A Sky Full of Stars won the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year at the RNA awards.

Dani lives in a small village in Hertfordshire with her husband, a Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie.

For further information, you can find Dani on Instagram and Facebook and follow her on Twitter/X @AtkinsDani.

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My enormous thanks to the lovely folk at Harper Collins for sending me a copy of Out of the Woods by Betsy Griffin in return for an honest review all those months ago. With the paperback release imminent I am delighted to share my review today.

Out of the Woods is released in paperback tomorrow, 29th February 2024, by HQ and is available for purchase through the links here.

Out of the Woods

As she finds her way home out of the woods, Betsy Griffin takes us on a journey through the darkest of forests to find the light.

With wise advice from woodland creatures along the way, Betsy takes it upon herself to change her outlook on the world.

In this deeply moving and inspirational fable, she teaches us how to face our struggles with courage and determination, and shares powerful lessons about positivity, kindness and hope.

Despite her young age, Betsy’s wisdom will inspire readers of all ages.

Above all, she shows us that anything is possible.

My Review of Out of the Woods

Betsy gets lost.

What an utterly charming book. Out of the Woods may have been written by a child, Betsy Griffin, for children, but her adventures have such resonance for all regardless of age that this is a very special book indeed. Once the reader appreciates that this young author is blind and lives with a brain tumour, the incredible positivity in the story becomes even more fully appreciated. 

Assisted by Sue Belfrage and with charming and attractive illustrations by Emanuel Santos, Betsy Griffin tells a story that will entrance young readers. Betsy’s adventures as she gets lost in the woods, discovering the puppy Clementine and meeting various birds and animals on the way are an encouraging metaphor for life. Through her adventures she enables the reader to experience a wide range of emotions from fear and sadness to love and joy in a safe and sensitive way. 

The chapter titles become a brilliant set of guidelines to live by and once you’ve read Out of the Woods, you’re going to want to inject as much ‘spandandall’ into your life as you possibly can. Read the book to find out what that is! 

Alongside a story just perfect for young readers are messages in Out of the Woods that the world really needs. Knowing that you have to be afraid before you can be brave and face your fears, realising that a hug and a little kindness can transform another person’s feelings, understanding that if you meet a new creature different to you or a situation you haven’t previously encountered, that it doesn’t automatically mean they are a threat, is so relevant to all. When Betsy realises that she can choose how to respond to what life throws at her, she learns a very special lesson indeed. 

I thought Out of the Woods was not only entertaining, but hugely important. I’d urge older readers to read the introduction by Fearne Cotton and the acknowledgements from Betsy in order to appreciate fully the true inspiration of the courageous Betsy Griffin and the beauty of her book Out of the Woods. Don’t miss it.

About Betsy Griffin

Betsy Griffin was diagnosed with a rare and inoperable brain tumour at two years old that left her blind. Undeterred, Betsy wanted to inspire others to be more positive in their lives.

For further information, find Betsy on Instagram or visit her YouTube channel.

I’m trying so hard not to take on new blog tours at the moment as life is so busy, but given how much I love children’s books, I simply couldn’t resist Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster by Michael Foreman. My grateful thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in the blog tour. It’s my pleasure to share my review today.

Published by Thames & Hudson children’s books on 11th January 2024 Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster

Home Alone meets Jurassic Park in this endearing story about a brave little mammal.

Internationally renowned children’s book illustrator Michael Foreman lends his compelling storytelling style to the tale of the world’s first mammal: Little Mo.

Little Mo lives with his father and mother in a cave during prehistoric times. Everything is new to him ― snow, ice, and most frightening of all, dinosaurs! When a pack of triceratops decide to make Little Mo’s cave their home, Mo has to muster all his courage to scare them away.

With an endearing central character whose gumption saves the day and stunning original watercolour illustrations throughout, Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster is the perfect prehistoric adventure for young readers.

My Review of Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster

Little Mo meets monsters!

Before my review proper of Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster I have to comment on the physical properties of the hardback book. It’s quite wonderful. It’s the perfect size for sharing at bedtime in the home or in story-time in places where there are groups of young children. It has high quality, robust covers with lovely endpapers relating to the snow of the story. Indeed, the illustrations are fantastic. There’s an ethereal wateriness to them that is just right for a story featuring snow, a frozen lake and water.

The story in Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster is smashing. Little Mo discovers snow for the first time and deals with a scary situation when the great snow monsters take over the family cave whilst his parents are out getting food. There’s excitement, peril and adventure, as well as a happy resolution that will appeal to all young readers. I loved the balance of text to image too as it allows more confident young readers to enjoy the story independently, but is not daunting to less advanced readers. The vocabulary is accessible, and for emergent writers there are super examples of the use of properly punctuated speech, ellipsis and upper case letters for effect and emphasis, with a wonderful resume at the end of the book about how we came to be in existence today that will capture the imagination.

That might all sound rather ‘educational’ but the real strength in Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster is the sheer delight of the story. Little Mo has adventures, is faced with scary monsters and yet is able to overcome his fears and scare away those monsters. This is a lovely element for children to understand. When Mo becomes encased in the giant snowball so that he scares off the monsters, it allows young children to realise that not everything is quite what it seems and our fears might be what we think is happening rather than what is actually there.

I thought Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster was absolutely glorious. It’s beautifully written and illustrated so that it would make a wonderful gift for any child. Just lovely!

About Michael Foreman

Michael Foreman is an internationally renowned, multi-award-winning children’s book illustrator and author. He has twice won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for British children’s book illustration and in 2022 was awarded an OBE for services to literature in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours. Long-time collaborator Michael Morpurgo has described him as ‘the greatest illustrator-storyteller of
his time’. His previous books include the Kate Greenaway Medal winning War Boy (1989).

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Although Eva Glyn has appeared here on Linda’s Book Bag under her other writing persona of Jane Cable, The Dubrovnik Book Club is the first time I’ve featured her as Eva Glyn. I’m delighted to share my review of Eva’s latest book today.

Published by Harper Collins imprint One More Chapter on 14th March 2024, The Dubrovnik Book Club is available for purchase through the links here.

The Dubrovnik Book Club

In a tiny bookshop in Dubrovnik’s historic Old Town, a book club begins…

Newly arrived on the sun-drenched shores of Croatia, Claire Thomson’s life is about to change forever when she starts working at a local bookshop. With her cousin Vedran, employee Luna and Karmela, a professor, they form an unlikely book club.

But when their first book club pick – an engrossing cosy crime – inspires them to embark upon an investigation that is close to the group’s heart, they quickly learn the value of keeping their new-found friends close as lives and stories begin to entwine…

My Review of The Dubrovnik Book Club

Claire has a new job.

The Dubrovnik Book Club was a total surprise. I’d anticipated a light, entertaining story about developing friendships through a love of reading – and certainly that is one of the aspects of the narrative – but there is so much more besides, making this a book perfect for any reader. 

With a book club as a pivot, Eva Glyn creates a story that moves around this central feature like a literary orrery. Her themes are deep and universal, from Vedran’s trial by media when Didi goes missing and his relationship with her, through Luna’s sexuality, to Claire’s psychological state following severe illness caused by Covid. These aspects add considerably to the reader’s engagement with the story, giving much to ponder. There are other motifs that add further interest to The Dubrovnik Book Club too, from family and friendship through the impact of societal and religious expectations, to feminism and the patriarchy. 

I think what works so well is the fact that, although Eva Glyn encompasses so many threads in her narrative from PTSD to addiction, none of them feels forced. Rather, the characters dealing with the themes of the story are flawed and believable and their experiences seem to arise naturally even in the most dramatic aspects. These are real people whose struggles are identifiable and realistic. The author displays considerable humanity and sensitivity in her excellent storytelling. All of that said, there’s a real sense of hope and optimism that leaves the reader totally satisfied at the end of the story as both characters and reader alike learn that life is for living and it’s up to us to grasp opportunities in both hands rather than dwell too much in the past. And of course – there are books too!

Consequently, there’s a little bit of everything in The Dubrovnik Book club to appeal to everyone. I loved the mystery as Luna and Claire try to clear Vedran’s name. I loved the developing romances between several of the characters, and I loved the sense of place and history.

Indeed, Dubrovnik is incredibly well depicted. Eva Glyn creates beautifully described settings with a real eye for detail so that it is as if the reader is standing in Dubrovnik’s streets. There’s meticulously researched history that adds colour and authenticity, and the smatterings of indigenous language (supported by a glossary at the end of the book) give a vivid sense of place. It really does feel as if you’re there in the old town. Dubrovnik is every bit as much a character as any of the people.

The Dubrovnik Book Club is a multi-faceted story that is thoroughly entertaining and completely engaging. It’s also far more layered and interesting than might be expected from the title alone and I really, really enjoyed it. 

About Eva Glyn

Eva Glyn fell in love with Croatia during her first holiday there in 2019; the incredible scenery, the delicious food, the country’s dramatic twentieth century history all played their part, but most of all it was the friendliness of the people.

One of these was tour director Darko Barisic, who told an incredible story about growing up in underground shelters during the war in the 1990s, and she knew she had to write a book around his experiences. This became her first Croatian novel, The Olive Grove, and she and Darko have become good friends and he continues to advise her on all aspects of Croatia.

Eva delves into Croatian history and everyday life for her inspiration, and visits the country as often as she can, having uncovered so many stories by talking to local people. Travel in general is her passion, followed closely by food and wine, which also find their way between her pages.

Although Welsh by birth she now lives in Cornwall with the man she met and fell in love with almost thirty years ago. She also writes as Jane Cable.

You can follow Eva on Twitter/X @JaneCable, visit her website and find her on Facebook and Instagram.